It is terribly important for those of us who bask in the light of education, liberal thought and infinite curiosity, to remind ourselves from time to time , that members of our very own species, with whom we share nearly identical DNA, have Internet access and the ability to post ideas such as the following, in this case, found in the comment section of KSL.com
As posted, I present you the unedited comment of Kurt S.
I wish President Bush could have stayed in our great state forever, because he is the best president in the Universe. He will deliver our great country from the evil scourge of liberalism and from all those who subscribe to its blasphemies.He cleverly thwarts the sinister designs of those members of the heinous mainstream media who would have us question his abilities, intentions, honesty, and even his intelligence. These same traitors would also have us fear our all-wise and omnipotent leader’s decision to spy on Americans, as if he could not be trusted to spy on only those people who deserve it. And so what if he permits and condones the torture of our enemies? Wouldn’t Jesus do exactly the same thing?Terrorists shudder at the mere mention of our great leader’s name. Saddam Hussein, the mastermind and primary sponsor of the September 11 terrorist attacks (don’t let the liberal media try to fool you into believing it was some Osama dude), could elude the president’s long arm of justice for only so long; now he trembles in his cell as his dwindling tribe of al-Qaeda terrorists panic in the last throes of their insurgency. Our wise leader’s move to liberate and democratize Iraq will go down in history as the single most ethical (and beneficial) decision ever made. The resulting military mission was the most successful (and ethical) mission ever accomplished (and it WAS accomplished).When the benefits of the Bush tax cuts begin to gush and surge (not just trickle) down to all Americans within the next month or two even the godless liberals will worship their benefactor.God bless President Bush for getting us, our children, and our grandchildren into debt. That’s what I call vision, with a capital “V”. How else can young people learn about character unless they suffer hardship? And God bless Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the brave men of Fox News for teaching us the truth and freeing us from the onerous burden of having to actually think or study or analyze or question our ideology.You may disagree with me; after all, it is a free country; but if you do, you are wrong. You are either with us (the righteous and infallible conservatives) or against us (meaning with them - the evil, liberal, anti-American wackos).
May God get his/her ass back down her and save us from our own
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This entry was posted Thursday, August 31st, 2006 at 10:09 pm and is filed under Greatest Hits, Religion, Utah Politics.
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August 31st, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Satire, gotta be!
August 31st, 2006 at 11:26 pm
Just left KSL.com and I was right. SATIRE! Check Kurts other posts at 10:17 AND 10:59. A sensible lad, yes?
September 1st, 2006 at 7:05 am
Couldn’t have written it better myself.
September 1st, 2006 at 7:52 am
This is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time.
The sad thing is that there have to be lots on the right who read it like Cliff did thinking this was for real but instead of being rightfully horrified they LOVED it. I know several Utahns who have said nearly those same w0rds outside of a satirical context.
It isn’t surprising that satire is being taken for reality in Utah…the crazies on the right so often say so much of this kind of stuff that its often hard to tell!
September 1st, 2006 at 1:58 pm
I gotta agree with Aien and Jeremy. I’ve written this sort of thing myself in other forums where I felt such sarcasm and satire would be recognized and appreciated. But given the sort of sincere statements we often hear here in Utah, I can’t blame you at all for taking it seriously, Cliff.
September 1st, 2006 at 6:25 pm
we oughta invite Kurt over,,eh?
September 1st, 2006 at 8:42 pm
You are right. It WAS satire, designed to catch Ken.
This represents the giant chasm between faith and reason in our culture. My friend Ken, a self-professed religious conservative means it when he says “Couldn’t have written it better myself” several comments above this one. At the same time the other side recognized the sarcasm/satire. And herein lies the disconnect and the enigma.
Ken is the one telling us these “islamofacists” are serious, while we rational progressives can’t believe its possible. Ken should know. He understand fanaticism. His wife wakes up nest to one every morning.
And the result is two terms of Bush.
We are in big trouble.
September 2nd, 2006 at 2:39 am
Cliff, isn’t it possible that Ken is ‘pulling our leg’ a little? As there’s a fine line between compassion and nievete, those wacko screeds are just one flip from sanity. Thanks and best of luck to one and all,,, and keep up that debate.
September 2nd, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Cliff
I was not caught by the satire of Kurts peace, because it was quite obvious. You infact missed the satire in my response. I wrote “I could not have written it better myself” because I knew it would get a rise out of you. It worked he he. (c8
September 2nd, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Anyone else notice the irony of Ken’s use of the word “peace,” when he really meant to say “piece”? Must be all the anti-Bushing, war-protesting and generally unrestrained nutcaking this week has rubbed off on the poor neo-con. We can only hope!
September 2nd, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Oh no, I may need to stop hanging around here you are all corrupting me.
September 2nd, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Oh Ken, So where’s the satire for you? Which part of it do you find to be “a literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.”
September 2nd, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Ken, dont go! think of it as an education. I know I do.
September 2nd, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Cliff
Ok maybe mine wasn’t satire per se, but witty none the less.
September 2nd, 2006 at 7:07 pm
Ken, read this and tell me what ya think.
September 2nd, 2006 at 9:55 pm
Cliff
I read the editorial you referred me to. First of all it is an opinion piece that is full of hypocrisies. The writers said of those who believe that people are traitors who oppose the war by stating “This is a scurrilous lie, insulting and a disgusting slur on good Americans”. Then in the same article they launch ad homonym attacks on people who support the war and the administration. They use words like “peddler of nontruths”, “Bush’s vanity war”, “Anyone with half a brain can see”, “feeding lies”. By using these terms in a very immature and unprofessional manner they are using scurrilous lies, insulting and disgusting slurs on good Americans.
Also the writers show they understand nothing about fascism and why it is an accurate term to use against Islamists who seek to destroy western democracies and supplant them with Islamic states. It may not be the same type of fascism of Nazi Germany or Italy, but there are elements in Islam that resemble the rise of Nazism as far as a group of people organized to impose an ideology and a perceived superiority based on religion or in the Nazis case their ideology. Also fascism even in the early 20th century before it took a foothold in Germany, Italy, and other places did not encompass an entire nation and were not transnational like the writers of the article said are requirements for fascism: but it was a movement that sought to spread it’s ideology as far as possible. Nazism was not a religion per se, but it certainly was held by it’s adherence in a religion like fervor. Militant Islam seeks to spread its ideology in a very similar fashion. It is the greatest threat we face since WWII, and may even be worse because it is not bound to any particular boarder there is no one leader to capture or negotiate peace, and it is much harder to identify who the enemy is.
People like Neville Chamberlain failed to see the danger because they denied there was even a threat. They felt if they appeased Hitler and did not provoke him that he could be reasoned with or at best keep his Nazi ideology confined to his own borders, but as we have seen throughout history true believers will always try and spread their ideology as far as they can. Chamberlain was Naïve and did not see the threat until it was too late, very much like many in the peace movement do today. Negotiations were impossible with Hitler because he saw his role as a calling just like militant Islamists do, for Islamic extremists to truly negotiate with us would be in their view a negotiation with the devil, and that would never be tolerated.
In the short term we must keep militant Islam at bay any way we can, but in the long term for the West and Islam to co-exist the Islamic world is going to have to reform itself much like Christianity did after the dark ages. Much of the Islamic world is living in the dark ages now and wants to bring the world back to the 8th century. The last Dark Age lasted over a thousand years; the next one could even be longer if we don’t keep Militant Islam at bay.
September 2nd, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Cliff
Read this http://www.islamreview.com/articles/worldsituation.shtml
and tell me what you think. I reposted it on my blog as well.
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:54 am
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:57 am
Ken, Once again, I will provide you with the dictionary definition of “fascism”. I recommend you make it your home page. But first, let me remind you, Hitler was elected democratically. There is still a fascist party (rather large) in Italy today.
It is quite obvious, that many with a very shallow knowledge of history, simplistically equate fascism with Hitler.
This is a big problem in our political discourse. History is the study of everything that happened before now, and that is a long time. Tthus it takes a long time to learn history. Most people simply don’t have time, especially people who spend most of their free time studying scripture and starting families right out of high school. Who can blame them?
That doesn’t make them bad people, just necessarily ignorant of history. It’s best if people who do not know history, do not talk about it.
1. Fascism
a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.
Word History: It is fitting that the name of an authoritarian political movement like Fascism, founded in 1919 by Benito Mussolini, should come from the name of a symbol of authority. The Italian name of the movement, fascismo, is derived from fascio, “bundle, (political) group,†but also refers to the movement’s emblem, the fasces, a bundle of rods bound around a projecting axe-head that was carried before an ancient Roman magistrate by an attendant as a symbol of authority and power. The name of Mussolini’s group of revolutionaries was soon used for similar nationalistic movements in other countries that sought to gain power through violence and ruthlessness, such as National Socialism.
Fanatical Islam is a small radical sect of a mainstream religion, not a political party or government. (Can you think of any comparable examples of small radical sects of a mainstream religion with special schools for the children of its members which indoctrinates kids in it’s own radical interpretation of scripture?)
The terrorist who attacked us have never advocating for starting a political party of nationalistic government. They simply want to the US the hell out of the Middle East. Who can blame them?
To go on and on about how diverse, disconnected groups of terrorist, somehow represent a threat to out freedoms and democracy is absolute insanity and shameless fear mongering.
I also recommend Wikipedia for good quick reference.
Finally, your first paragraph merely uses equivocation to discount the argument. Name-calling neither supports nor disproves anything. It is entirely possible for one to be called names AND be wrong. Both situations are mutually exclusive. For the name calling, I am sorry.
People tend to get emotional when our political leaders use propaganda and lies to justify and perpetuate thier personal and political agendas.
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:13 am
Check this out:
The Project for an OLD American Century:
http://oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm
“14 Points of fascism”
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:56 am
Jeez’, I was running around thinkin, ‘the fascists are coming, the fascists are coming!’ But what to my mind should appear, this is it,,,we’re surronded by em! It’s right kind of em to let us eat nutcake.
September 3rd, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Cliff
This semester I am studying world history. It is interesting that you gave me dictionary.com and Wikipedia as references when those were the exact ones I used when writing my comment to you about fascism. It’s funny how liberals are now demanding a strict definition of fascism when applying to Islamists, but the word fascism has been a buzz word used against conservatives for a long time even though we hardly fit into the dictionary definition of a fascist. Could it be you don’t like your own buzz words turned against you?
There is a problem with strict dictionary definitions when dealing with people, because not everyone fits into that package. Doing that is considered stereotyping and used to be frowned upon by liberals. For instance I am LDS and I didn’t get married until I was 31 and only have one child. Even though I try to read my scriptures, in most cases I read news reports from many different sources including those that do not fit my world or religious views. I also love to read about science, physics, astronomy, and yes even history. The fact that I hang out and debate in this forum shows that I have no problem with reading other views and do not feel threatened by them. This does not quite fit into the stereotype of Latter-Day Saints that you painted in your last post “especially people who spend most of their free time studying scripture and starting families right out of high school”.