Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: politics

Adam - I call myself a conservative. Is THAT an insult ?

If I recall, it wasn't the term, but rather the context in which it was used.

I see.... I don't suppose we could get a definitive example of the context in which "liberal" was an insult ?

in the words of james earl jones in 'a field of dreams'...

"PEACE, LOVE, DOPE.. NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!"

i kinda find it funny that anyone is getting riled up at all.. ? my opinion is exactly that, MY opinion. ya'll have your own, and thats fine.. i cant help it if you are all wrong!!

bigjohn

Now THAT was funny...

With thanks to Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe:

In reply to:

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YASSER ARAFAT died at age 75, lying in bed surrounded by familiar faces. He left this world peacefully, unlike the thousands of victims he sent to early graves.
In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, hanged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. In a better world, the French president would not have paid a visit to the bedside of such a monster. In a better world, George Bush would not have said, on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless his soul."

God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools and pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied, cheated, and stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich?...

And what about those victims? Why were they scarcely remembered in this Arafat death watch?

How is it possible to reflect on Arafat's most enduring legacy -- the rise of modern terrorism -- without recalling the legions of men, women, and children whose lives he and his followers destroyed? If Osama bin Laden were on his deathbed, would we neglect to mention all those he murdered on 9/11?

It would take an encyclopedia to catalog all of the evil Arafat committed. But that is no excuse for not trying to recall at least some of it.

Perhaps his signal contribution to the practice of political terror was the introduction of warfare against children. On one black date in May 1974, three PLO terrorists slipped from Lebanon into the northern Israeli town of Ma'alot. They murdered two parents and a child whom they found at home, then seized a local school, taking more than 100 boys and girls hostage and threatening to kill them unless a number of imprisoned terrorists were released. When Israeli troops attempted a rescue, the terrorists exploded hand grenades and opened fire on the students. By the time the horror ended, 25 people were dead; 21 of them were children.

Thirty years later, no one speaks of Ma'alot anymore. The dead children have been forgotten. Everyone knows Arafat's name, but who ever recalls the names of his victims?

So let us recall them: Ilana Turgeman. Rachel Aputa. Yocheved Mazoz. Sarah Ben-Shim'on. Yona Sabag. Yafa Cohen. Shoshana Cohen. Michal Sitrok. Malka Amrosy. Aviva Saada. Yocheved Diyi. Yaakov Levi. Yaakov Kabla. Rina Cohen. Ilana Ne'eman. Sarah Madar. Tamar Dahan. Sarah Soper. Lili Morad. David Madar. Yehudit Madar. The 21 dead children of Ma'alot -- 21 of the thousands of who died at Arafat's command.

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OK, too hot to deal with, right?

So, let me ask the question ... Arafat, a murderer, not only of children, a leader who gave the order to dispatch Palestinian children to don explosive laden clothing and blow themselves up and kill Jews on busses, in pizza parlors, restaurants, Passover Seders ... Arafat, the man who ordered the murder of political contenders, Arafat who stole from the Palestinian people the blood money sent by the EU, Arafat, the man who controlled the Palestinian press, the man who attempted to kill Jordan's King Hussein, the man who left Lebanon in civil war for a decade, Arafat, mourned by Chirac as a man who died before his life's work was done (there are still Jews in Israel) do liberals look at this man as a freedom fighter or a murderer? a tyrant or a sympathetic figure? How about conservatives?

Jimmy Carter is on his way to the funeral. Anyway, now that Arafat is dead, maybe there will be peace. One can hope. You can't have peace when there is hate in the heart of a people.

HE was a murderer.

In reply to:

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I don't suppose we could get a definitive example of the context in which "liberal" was an insult ?

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With pleasure.

"As a liberal, I know you think the Constitution is an opinion piece..."

And with that I'm out of this thread. Have fun.

I'll bite.

Arafat was a pathetic little worm of a parasite that has finally decided to take the eternal dirt-nap that has been his due just reward for many years. Any world leader that honors his death is nothing more than a pandering shell of a man/woman. Many will rejoice in his honored leadership over the palestinean people and his efforts in the peace process. Every last one of them should be ashamed. He was nothing more than a spineless opportunistic terrorist that deserved nothing more than a high-powered round planted deep between his eyes.

Man...that felt good.

Not matter what the cause....TERRORISM IS TERRORISM. Sympathize w/ the Palestinean cause, but do not honor those who openly sponsored terrorism in the name of that cause.

Yes..I know that I'm breaking my earlier statement of intent not to post here again. After numerous vodka-tonics, I somehow lost that self-control thing.

While I'm here, you guys need to take a breather here and ratchet things down. We are all like-minded Axiom-lovers. We had a good civil dialog going which has recently gone south....not surprising w/ the election. Either take some time and decide to continue the dialog in a productive manner or perhaps this thing just needs to end. There's enough animosity over at the other forums to tide us over. Let's try to keep this one positive in nature.