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Thursday, November 03, 2005

Hateful Schill

Ranando Said . . .

{"Would I sacrifice my son to free Iraq? I’m somebody’s son, and I am willing to sacrifice myself."
Well, what are still doing here? Get with it, go sacrifice yourself.}

Okay. Out of everybody who has ever posted a comment on my blog this guy is the first to truly cross the line with me.

I have been called insane for my views on evolution.

I have been called a liar (on another blog) for stating what I know of American History.

I have been called misinformed in many ways by people who do not agree with me.

I don’t mind any of these things because they are borne of either a difference of opinion, or a difference of education. Even if some malice was contained it is negligible in my opinion and must be reasonably accepted by anyone engaged in active debate.

I have several liberal readers, and some libertarian readers. They actively debate with me on this, and on their own blogs (those that I visit). I respect their views even when I don’t agree with them, and rarely find cause to dismiss anything they say out of hand. The debate helps keep me sharp, informed, and allows me to keep my finger on the pulse of the other side of the aisle. While I am a staunch conservative, and am ideological on many points, I am also ideological on the free exchange of ideas. Such an exchange has a welcome place on my blog. All are welcome to participate be you conservative, liberal, moderate, or something else.

Ranando however crossed the line by telling me to go die. It is this kind of hateful, thoughtless spew that, for me at any rate, has come to characterize the leftists and their organizations. It is schills like this that are out there talking about how great a man Saddam Hussein is, and openly admire Castro, Stalin, and Mao. People who hate America and our way of life so much they wish all of the people fighting for what is right would just die and get out of their way.

It is people like this who scorn the noble, kind, and courageous among us. These are the Cyndi Sheehans of the world. So selfish they cannot see the nobility of sacrifice; so wrapped up in their own misery that they want the rest of us to be miserable as well. And so filled with hate I shudder to think that they have a legal right to vote, though I would not deny it to them. These are the Ted Kennedies of the world, people who will never build anything because they only know how to tear things, and people down. Who complain loudly about what they think others are doing wrong while being so blinded by their own wrongdoing that they cannot conceive of any way to actually make things better and are ultimately reduced to mouthpieces for the craziest among their constituency. It is these people that even the left must scorn for their basic lack of empathy and human dignity.

To all of these people I say this: Join the military and learn what it is to serve something bigger than your own ego. Believe you me; it will be a formative experience if you survive.

UPDATE: Renando has apologized and syas that what he said and what he meant didn't quite line up. This is is a good and honorable action on his part. I have offered to remove this posting, but he wants it to stay up. I fully apoligize for jumping the gun and blasting him personally without first seeking a mutual understanding.

It's a great thing when two people can take a problem and resolve it amicably.

16 Comments:

  • I agree that Ranando's comments were unkind in the extreme and not helpful or constructive at all. We need more constructive dialog and much less name-calling and being told to go die and I am sorry that someone from my side of the aisle would use this sort of rhetoric.

    Peace.

    Dan

    By Blogger Dan Trabue, at 5:14 AM  

  • Excuse me,

    All I said was "What are you still here ?'

    WOW, and now i hate America?

    Listen you complete idiot, I'm not a liberal, I've served 4 years in the Marines, you don't know me from Adam. I just don't care for Bush or the War in Iraq.

    Talk about name calling, Jesus Christ.

    By Blogger Ranando, at 6:31 AM  

  • Ranando,
    If you spent any time in the military you would have known that manpower requirements determine who goes to war and in what capacity, even among the volunteers. The ignorant staement you made about me not being willing to go unless I got some specific job would never have been uttered by you.

    Had you merely been asking why I am still here you should have said so rather than telling me to go get killed. This indicates either utter thoughtlessness on your part, or it completely validates everything I said in this posting.

    I suggest you put more thought into your comments before you make them. Remember what happened to former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott when he made a thoughtless remark. He lost his job. What you say determines a lot of how people percieve you.

    By Blogger Daniel Levesque, at 7:27 AM  

  • Ranando,
    One other thing. In the interest of fairness if you did just misspeak I will happily pull down this posting and replace it with a new one apologizing to you IF you post an apology for you thoughtless remarks in the comments section of "War Speech".

    By Blogger Daniel Levesque, at 7:36 AM  

  • You made a comment and I asked a question, I apologize if that crossed your line. I have to keep reminding myself not to question anything in this country again.

    Please don't remove your post, leave it and let people read it.

    By Blogger Ranando, at 8:37 AM  

  • Ranando, Mr. Levesque in no way misquoted you. I was very angry with what you said. I had let it go because of the lack of cerebral functioning it demonstrated. I nearly posted about it on my blog, but I let it go. You can rationalize all you want, but the record is there to go back and see. It was rooted in vitriol, not a sincere desire to understand Mr. Levesque's situation. I also question the validity of your claim to be a marine. Please learn to actually BE more civil, not just rationalize that your comments were taken out of context.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:49 AM  

  • If you are indeed a marine, then I sincerely thank you for your service. I forgot to add that.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:50 AM  

  • Ranando, apology accepted. The line wasn't questioning the country, it was telling me to go die.
    As per your request I will leave this posting up.

    By Blogger Daniel Levesque, at 9:18 AM  

  • It's interesting how you seem to trash nothing but those who are anti-Bush in the few postings on your blog that I've read.

    One can only assume, then, that you wholeheartedly endorse all of GWB's actions...?

    Heh. And I just LOVE being called an America-hater because I disagree with conservative thinking.

    By Blogger JimBob, at 6:21 PM  

  • Oops, gee, forgot to mention. This particular "America-hater" did 20+ years on active duty.

    And I am one of MANY retirees and current active duty military folk who disagree with this war.

    Just a little devil's advocate, if you will, for those that may read this blog and get the mistaken impression that the military is 100% supportive of GWB and his aggressive tactics in providing no-bid contracts for his buddies at Haliburton...

    Make no mistake about it. Military personnel are as divided about this war as the civilian population is. Check the recruitment numbers. They don't lie.

    By Blogger JimBob, at 6:27 PM  

  • Jimbob, as someone who is still in the srvice let me asure you that the military is nowhere near as divided on this war as the general population. The general population is split, and among the soldiers I know there is a 90% approval rating for the war.

    As an aside, bashing people who are anti-Bush is a poor description since everybody has something Bush is doing or has done that they disagree with. You can dislike Bush and not be an America hater, it how you act on it that defines a person this way. I will happily bash ANYONE who'se behavior is pro-our-enemies, anti-life, soft on crime, etc. It doesn't matter who the President is for this.

    Oh, and recruitment is new people joining, and yes this is struggling. The retention numbers (people who decide to stick around) are actually quite good.

    Finally, thanks for your long service to this country. It demonstartes true patriotism.

    By Blogger Daniel Levesque, at 6:56 PM  

  • No need to assure me "that the military is nowhere near as divided on this war as the general population", because I still work very closely with the military. And I know better.

    Maybe where you are in AK, there's 90% support for the war, but where I work - on a training post getting the recruits ready to go there - MANY are against it. Much more so than the minority 10% you would lead us to believe.

    The problem (that I've mentioned on many other blogs) is that the military only SEEMS to be supportive of this war, because they are bound by law (UCMJ) to NOT speak out against their Commander In Chief. And speaking out against the war could be construed as disrespect toward the President.

    I was still on active duty when GWB was elected and, although I had him pegged as a problem from the beginning, I kept my opinion to myself while on duty. The law, y'know. It's a VERY bad thing to speak out against the President whilst on active duty.

    So, what you get when you survey the active duty folks on their thoughts toward the war are skewed responses. Most say, "of course I'm for the war", for fear of repercussions. Many more, like me when I was on active duty, just refrain from answering the question out of integrity: can't legally speak my opinion, but won't lie, so won't answer.

    Last polls I saw had GWB's ratings pretty low among the civilian population. I'd really like to see what his ratings are among the active duty. Unfortunately, due to the reasons I've cited, I don't think we'll ever know the true numbers.

    Retention numbers are good because the administration has made it harder to get out. The back-door draft, or whatever term it's goiong by today, is definitely alive and well. I have two friends who are on active duty who have been told they CANNOT drop their retirement paperwork "just yet" because their particular skills are in short supply. Granted, they may be an exception due to their particular skillset, but when was the last time you saw ANYONE told they couldn't retire?

    Lastly, I appreciate the opportunity to post intelligently on your blog and not be responded to in an emotional manner. I've tried debating on other conservative blogs and this is the first time that I haven't immediately been responded to with name calling.

    Nice to see that there are some conservatives out there willing to DISCUSS as opposed to ARGUE.

    Think I might stop by every now and then.

    Good Saturday to all!

    By Blogger JimBob, at 5:42 AM  

  • Jimbob,
    I don't know about this whole "afraid to speak out against the President" thing you're taliking about. The few soldiers I know who are against the war are VERY open about it, the somewhat more people who don't like the President are VERY open about it (as I was when Bubba ran the show), and we all openly criticize decisions and policies the government makes that we don not agree with.

    Perhaps the new recruits are genuinely scared to speak out, but among us veterans we freely speak our minds about anything and anyone outside of our division.

    I myself once told the Sergeant Major of the Army how silly I thought the switch to black berets was in front of a large group of people when he was going around promoting the switch back in 2001. I suffered no repercussions even though he did tell my command about it.

    By Blogger Daniel Levesque, at 10:21 AM  

  • You must be in a different Army than I was in. Disrespect to a senior NCO, especially in public, isn't really something to be proud of.

    Sorry, can't condone it.

    Good luck with your political career.

    By Blogger JimBob, at 3:17 PM  

  • Jimbob, it was not disrespectful to him. He asked, and I told him that General Shinseki was stupid if he thought that changing the Army headgear to black berets would make us all think he was rangers and "change the Army mindsetand make us more professional". Jeez, what a tard. Wasting $160,000,000 dollars on new hats and breaking the law by buying from foreign vendors for the US miltary so he could make it happen on his timeline because he thought new hats would suddenly turn us all into rangers.

    Oh well, what do you expect? He was Bubba's man anyway.

    By Blogger Daniel Levesque, at 6:29 PM  

  • This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:15 PM  

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