Black and White, DAMMIT. BLACK AND WHITE!

[elfs]

Jonah Goldberg today on Bill Ayers: "It seems to me the liberal left needs to decide, was Ayers a horrible figure to be ashamed of, or a hero? If you don't like this choice, why?"

Because it's a black-and-white choice, Jonah. Ayers seems to have been, and still be, a jerk. He was a wanted criminal, and he got off on a technicality. In America, this is known as being "not guilty," a state of law; in spirit, Ayers acknowledged being "guilty as Hell." Nonetheless, in America, Ayers is free to continue to be whatever the Hell he wants to be, so long as he continues to live within the letter of the law. If he thrives, it's because other people perceive his continued contributions to be of value to them.

How about you and I stop giving him publicity and stop helping him sell more copies of his self-serving book?

It seems to me that the whole notion of shades-of-grey, of living in a society people you may not necessarily agree with 100% of the time, of nuance and acceptance (rather than "tolerance") and all the things that made America great, have been forgotten.

Comments

[codeamazon.livejournal.com]

How about "Ayers is uninteresting because I feel no real concern over Obama serving in the same charity organizations as him, years after his misdeeds. Heck *I* probably have ties to terrorists that are equally close if you were to go back and trace my college friends."

My answer to "Ayers" is "Keating", which is far more condemnatory since it actually reflects on poor choices during service.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

My answer to Ayers is " Joe Vogler."

[codeamazon.livejournal.com]

I thought you were staying away from Palin? ;-)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Can I get away with claiming that I'm making a point about McCain's poor judgment and the failure of his vetting process?

[codeamazon.livejournal.com]

HA! I respond...KEATING! :)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that the whole notion of shades-of-grey, of living in a society people you may not necessarily agree with 100% of the time, of nuance and acceptance (rather than "tolerance") and all the things that made America great, have been forgotten.

Game, set, match, and the championship. If only putting words around the problem could fix it... but you're so right.

Tempted to put that up for quote of the day.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

one further note: "liberal left".... wait, isn't that redundant? no... he's been around long enough to know better. Must be a different meaning. I'm guessing he's using "liberal" as a pejorative.... which means it really has no meaning atall to him other than, say, the negative connotation of "gaijin"... as in, you are not one of us, therefore you are less than us...

*sigh* Which just reinforces what you said. Us vs. Them doesn't work. It's gotta be *all* of us... or we shall surely hang separately.

Unrelated

[(Anonymous)]

I've been trying to get to your website, but keep getting "500 - Internal Server Error" messages. This was the only way I knew to reach you. Apologies for the hijack.

- Leo

[fallenpegasus]

There is no shade of grey on Ayers.

And my own experience with getting someone on his side of the aisle to talk about him, they called him a hero.

The R party threw out David Duke, and will have nothing to do with Rev Phelps. It drives me insane that their equally evil opposite numbers are accorded positions of honor, and trying to discuss their evil is parried with the word "nuance".

[mikstera.livejournal.com]

Who is condoning what Ayers did, much less according him a "position of honor"?

[fallenpegasus]

The D candidate for president announced his candidacy from Ayer's house. How's that?

[pieforeveryone.livejournal.com]

I am now confused.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/10/AR2007021001544.html

This article states that Barack Obama announced his formal candidacy from the Old State Capitol in Springfield, IL. I can only deduce that you are perhaps speaking rhetorically? If so, please elaborate. I apologize if I have missed the point entirely here.

[mikstera.livejournal.com]

Senator Obama announced his candidacy for the Illinois Senate in 1995, at Ayers’ house. The Senator announced his Presidential candidacy in Springfield.

Some people see this as damning of Senator Obama. I am not one of those people. Unless someone can actually produce evidence that Senator Obama approves of terrorism, or approved of Ayers' actions, I'll put this down as just another attempt at "guilt by association."

As for Palin's "palling around with terrorists" accusation, she should stick to speaking of things she is knowledgeable about... moose, perhaps?