Another attack? 100% Certain, sez Intelligence. Discuss.

Great Debates
101

Poor Scylla. Perhaps you should say what you mean instead of saying other things instead. I find it works very well, wastes less time. Lots of upside to it.

  • Of all the people I can conceive of actually being elected, he’s the scariest * That’s what I said, that’s what I meant, and I’ve never denied it.

However, you insisted that I said he was worse that Hitler, Stalin and Osama. Perhaps you can conceive of these people being elected and that’s why you accused me of saying these things. But all of these people are dead or Saudi, either one of which immediately disqualifies one from being elected President of the US. Even if these handicaps could be overcome, the PR issues would certainly put the kibosh on any aspirations they might entertain. I understood this immediately, I just naturally assumed others would as well.

How lovely to see that you finally understand and have elected to apologize! I suppose it it is only sporting of me to accept your apology. I don’t suppose I could get one for the egregious disrespect and blatant rudeness you have shown me by aggressively ignoring the request I politely made at the top of this page when someone else had difficulty believing that was my real ** opinion, ** would you?

No?

Oh well.

Stoid

102

Scylla

Please enable humor-detection apparatus.

103

Stoid:

Well now you open a whole can of worms. What makes you think Blacksheepsmith was being literal when he said Bush was no Hitler, Stalin, or Osama? You’ll recall that I addressed this possibility a page or so ago in my initial post to you. Perhaps you didn’t pick up on it.

More importantly, I also addressed the possibility that Bush was the worst you could possibly concieve though I didn’t think anybody would be foolish enough to take that stance (as you are now doing,) as it’s a direct admission of rather feeble conceptual powers.

But, if that’s the route you would like to take, that’s fine with me. It seems damn similar to the “I don’t know what I’m talking about enough to explain my opinion” argument of just a day or so ago in that other thread. I sense a trend.

No. If you don’t want to debate it don’t post it. Nor do I feel a compelling moral reason to accede to your request. If you post something stupid, saying “I don’t want to talk about it anymore” doesn’t get you a free pass.

You’re projecting here, anyway. You’re the one that’s being rude and disrespectful. I was attacking your arguments. You were attacking me.

104

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H. L. Mencken (circa 1920)

I don’t know about the rest of you, but Ive never felt safe living in America. Our murder rate is through the roof. We have all kind of polutants in the products we use. Not to mention the odds are in our favor to die in a traffic accident. This threat of more terrorist attacks is just another slight concern in the course of daily living.

Ive never trusted the government to protect my rights or my person. Now that Im frightened by Sept. 11, I find myself really wanting to believe that my government has taken care of things. Of course, with healthy skeptism, I dont.

105

I’m just so darn mean to you! I just came after you with both barrels, didn’t I? Chasing you down, hounding you! Finding a dozen different ways to call you an idiot! (oh wait, that was you calling me an idiot, my mistake) Poor baby!

Well, not to worry, I will be leaving you completely alone, I promise you.

See ya.

stoid
** Really ** done now.

106

Please please. Stop the melodrama. I’ve been on both sides of the fence with you. I’ve defended you’re arguments when I they merited defense, and I’ve defended you when I thought you merited it.

I call them like I see them, and act accordingly. When you post things I think are reasonable and make sense, I say so.

For as long as you’ve been on this board I have not once ever seen you admit an error or apologize.

You’ve made a couple of unsupportable statements, and rather than simply admit you took a cheap shot, you’re being evasive and attempting to claim aggrieved status.

But, I am neither chasing you down, nor hounding you. We’re in a couple of the same threads right now and we are in disagreement. That’s what GD is about. What I am doing is simply not letting you off the hook for your statements without addressing them.

I don’t do this because I think you’re stupid. Quite the contrary. You’re an excellent tactical debater, IMO.

But, I really liked the Stoid that didn’t take cheap shots, the one that didn’t lean so heavily on partisanism, and speak the language of hate, the one that didn’t have this irrational fear of Republicans and Conservatives and George Bush the way others fear and speak the language of hate about blacks and Gays and such.

I thought that Stoid had some very worthwhile things to say, and I enjoyed hearing them.

I know you said that both parts are the real you. Fine. I write bestiality stories in MPSIMS but I don’t go fucking sheep in GD.

If you have this hatred of Bush and Republicans, have at it in MPSIMS or the Pit or IMHO. However, when it shows up in GD it is fair game, and I’ll make an issue of pointing it out for what it is when I happen to see it.

107

I hope the Mods move this to the Pit. This is embarrassing.
Or even better: Scylla and Stoid, please go to the Pit for more juvenile haranguing at each other someplace else. Who cares who ‘started’ it, just get over it.

And then maybe the topic at hand (“Another attack? 100% certain sez intelligence. Discuss.”) can actually be discussed. You know, an actual debate, sans pies and epithets. This is an important topic.

Jeez.

108

I’ve been working all day and I’m coming back into this party a little late, BUT…

I have to back up Stoid on this one. When I said, “Look at the various people who have a shot at president, and pick the worst one”, She took me to mean the people who are in positions of power and have an outside shot at being president, and who meet the constitutional requirements.

AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEANT. No Bin Ladens, No Hitlers. The range of people I was thinking of would be nutbars like Pat Buchanan maybe on the right, and Nader or someone from Hollywood like Martin Sheen on the left. But Maybe not even that extreme.

For instance, we have this insane new anti-terrorism bill, which has measures in it which can curb speech, invade your privacy, and even managed to sneak in riders prohibiting Internet Gambling (money laundering for Terrorists, don’cha know - what a stretch that is). So for those of you on the right in favor of this, imagine what might happen if that power gets tossed around by, oh, Ralph Nader. And for those of you on the left in favor of it, imagine what fun Pat Buchanan could have if he has the power to read your mail or search your home on the thinnest of pretexts.

So Stoid got it right, and the rest of you are wrong. And I can well believe that Bush IS her ‘worst of all worlds’ if she narrowed her range down even a little bit more to exclude the Buchanans but include, say, any member of the House or Senate (Not that I agree with her, and I’ll bet she can think of some scarier people on the right that are currently in the House or Senate, but that’s okay - we can agree to disagree).

Oh, and ‘Elucidator’ gets a big BITE ME for that sarcastic and nasty rant of his aimed at my debating style. For your info, Mr. Snide, I have NEVER intentionally tried to obscure an argument or engage in sophistry. I try to say the things I believe, to the best of my ability. If I fail in communicating my beliefs, it’s a personal failure of communication, either on my end or yours. Feel free to attack what I say, and not what you perceive are my motives.

109

Here you go, Scylla and Stoid: you now have your own Pit thread: Scylla started it! No, Stoid did! Nyeh! Spppt!

Go forth and bicker.

110

…So can we now get off this stupid “who is the worst president” hijack and discuss the original post?

111

Sam:

Well, I took “conceivably” to be a pretty broad term, and feel comfortable having done so, especially in light of Blacksheepsmith’s question, I thought the context was pretty clear.

Most people I know of can conceive of quite a lot.

Also, it’s a relatively easy misaprehension to clear up, and I’m disapointed and somewhat skeptical as to why Stoid didn’t simply say so if that was her stance sans the histrionics.

At any rate, we’ve certainly pulverized the ex-horse so to speak.

112

squeegee:

Ah yes. Thank God you came along to save the day!

113

Yeah, Scylla, I guess you’d lose your audience. Can’t have that happen. As I said, probably a pointless gesture.

114

Okay, I misread the note I received on this situation.

Lemme try this again.

Debate the issue, don’t fistfight one another. Take THAT to the Pit.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

115

I retract my last post with apologies. Moved to the Pit.

116

Can I keep my brass knuckles?

(Sincerest apologies if I’ve pushed things too far.)

117

Your earlier post was the easiest in this thread to use for the purpose of clarifying of my thoughts & position on this subject. Your further response allowed me point out a few items I’d missed. No hostility to you, and thank you for providing the trellis for my vines.

118

Tranquilis:

I was just being facetious there. Sorry. Sometimes it doesn’t come across well when you’re joking. I probably should use the smiley.

At any rate I found your arguments compelling and reasonable, and I concede that we may indeed have cause to be suspicious.

I will also maintain that this is a poor and dangerous stance to take, because they might have very good reason for making the warnings they are.

We have no choice but to take it seriously.

119

Mr. Snide? Mr. Snide!

Oh, now I am just so upset My needlepoint is simply ruined! I mean, how did I know? Got this stern, film-noir, Raymond Chander kind of name, I thought he could take it. How was I to know he was so…emotional

Tell you what. I figure, if you can dish it out, you can take it. If that isn’t the case, look carefully at the top and when you see “elucidator”, just pick up your little basket and skip along.

I’ll miss you, it’ll be difficult at first, but somehow…somehow…I’l go on.

No…no…don’t say anything…just go. It’s better this way.

120

Tranquilis:

Another reason why I feel it’s important to take this threat seriously, is the language it’s couched in.

I too heard the “another attack, 100% certain” being said.

Saying you’re 100% certain isn’t the language you use when you’re looking to cover your ass. It’s what you say when you know something.