We are left to guess just what it was about these positions that made them "extreme". I mean, does Krugman get to apply that "extreme" label without any exposition of WHY he thinks something is "extreme"? Yes. Yes, he does. Of course, he IS writing for and to an audience of utterly closed minds, who know the script by rote.
But Officer Krugman seems to only be looking in one direction (his right). Profiling much, Paul?
He seems to have missed some really good examples of gob-stopping EXTREME rhetoric happening closer to home.
Chris Mathews, on a nationally broadcast TV show that nobody sees, called for the nationalization of the U.S. oil industry. He seems to like the idea of summary executions for errant oil company executives, too, a la Red China. No need to bother with that pesky "due process" stuff we endlessly fret about for mass murdering Islamists! No, indeed! Oh, and there is NO REGULATION on oil exploration, doncha know.
Woody Allen seems to approve of Mathew's totalitarian impulse. He's all about having Barack Obama have a few years as dictator.
"It would be good...if (Obama) could be dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly," Allen is quoted as saying.
Well, sure, Woody! That's worked really well in the past, right? I mean, what could go wrong?
Ted Turner, Reverend Of The First Church Of I've Got Mine, soberly informed the world that the Gulf oil blow-out was God telling us something or other. Ditto the recent deaths of U.S. and Chinese coal miners. "Maybe we ought to just leave the coal in the ground and just use solar and wind power", opined Turner. Talk about your metaphysical miracles!
I dunno, Paul. Utah voters turning out a GOP squish just doesn't seem to compare on my Extreme-O-Meter. But Mathews, Turner, and Allen are your posse, so everything they said is good, right?
Krugman exemplifies for me John Kenneth Galbraith's observation; "Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists." Or perhaps GB Shaw; "If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion."
ReplyDeleteWoody Allen's opinions are interesting if you have an apartment overlooking Central Park. Note to Manhattan elites: It's not that we don't get it, it is that WE DON'T CARE.
Chris Matthews. Tingle/leg. 'nuff said.
Ted Turner; "Jane Fonda is still hot." Good night Ted.
I love what I call "The Turn-Around Test".
ReplyDeletePut the opposing descriptive...or someone representative of the opposite end of the political spectrum...into the equation, and see how it looks. What's the reaction?
Sometimes, even that fails. I can't imagine ANYBODY I think of as a conservative suggesting a dictatorship would be shiny.
It's amazing how the lack of an existential threat leads to stupidity. There was a time when everyone realized that collectivism was a bad idea in any of its incarnations.
ReplyDeleteFirst, really? When was that, because I can't think of a time in modern history?
ReplyDeleteSecond, I've felt existentially threatened forever; first by the Soviets, and now by Islamists.
That would be about 25-30 years ago when liberals wanted to be a little more European, but not Eastern European.
ReplyDeleteNow they're like those dreamy eyed Che fans. The problem is that they're in position to act now.
I dunno, John. Kennedy was around, Kerry was around, Gore was around, many of the current czars were around and actively writing and agitating. Ayres was out there, as were his comrades in the hard left. I remember differently.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but they dared not speak of their true intentions as they are now. I don't care if there's a handful of whackjobs that want communism. I do care when they are in positions of power with a complicit media and a populace that's more interested in how J-Lo shed 20 pounds than the fundamental change of our society.
ReplyDeleteThere's some great material that was smuggled out of the former Soviet Union. I've read some snips that show that many of our supposedly main-stream liberals were very active in undermining the U.S. during the era in question.
ReplyDeleteThey are, and have been, the anti-American pukes we see today in full plumage, and they've been hurting us for decades.