# Ask The Patriotic American Intellectual Conservative Christian **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 9, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234 "2010-02-09T03:41:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/281 "2010-02-18T01:29:20Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > I think sometimes little evil is necessary to prevent far worse and greater evil. For instance we dropped the atomic bombs on Japan to prevent a long and protracted war there. So, in Iraq, what evil was prevented that was large enough to justify 100,000+ deaths? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/282 "2010-02-18T01:57:28Z")
> [@akennett](#): > > And how would that be any more an actual answer about your views, especially in light of the fact that you have given yourself the label of ‘intellectual’? Part, a large part, of claiming that is the ability to actually express your own views, not just say “yeah, what he said.” to every question. The latter is the only thing you’ve been able to do with regards to my questions and with many others in this thread. Than this: Mosaic Law has been superseded with a new Covenant of faith as established by Jesus. > [@42fish](#): > > So, in Iraq, what evil was prevented that was large enough to justify 100,000+ deaths? Maybe we shouldn’t have gone into Iraq in the first place-but we were there and we needed to finish the job. ---
**Author:** ![akennett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@akennett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akennett)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/283 "2010-02-18T15:16:12Z")
See, that’s just a rewording of your initial point, not a line of reasoning that got you there. You need to think “essay question” not “short answer” to these sorts of queries. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/284 "2010-02-18T15:26:12Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Than this: Mosaic Law has been superseded with a new Covenant of faith as established by Jesus. This contradicts the word of Jesus, FYI. Paul said the old law was superceded, but Jesus said it wasn’t. Who was right? > [@](#): > > Maybe we shouldn’t have gone into Iraq in the first place-but we were there and we needed to finish the job. What exactly _was_ the job? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/285 "2010-02-18T15:42:26Z")
What should I ask a Patriotic American Intellectual Conservative Christian, and should I capitalize his title? ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/286 "2010-02-18T15:56:45Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > From Wiki: OK, Curtis, I enjoy reading your posts, and I kick myself that I didn’t start sooner. I also see a lot of the 13 year old me in you, I’m also a Christian, patriotic (but to a different country), intellectual (but then I think all regular Dopers are, which is why I’m here) - not conservative though, have been left-of-centre for as far back as I can remember (and this is where I see the Bible calls us to be - socialists not right-wing) but this has got me frothing at the mouth and I must comment: **Wikipedia is not “Wiki” (or “the Wiki”) - “wiki” is a type of website (open to contribute) of which Wikipedia is an encyclopedia in the wiki style, hence the portmanteau name. There are hundreds of "wiki"s other than Wikipedia!!!** Oh man, do I feel better. Now, don’t slip up again or I shall be forced to really get mad. You don’t want to see me mad. Hey, what kind of Doper would I be if I weren’t to nitpick about a grammar/spelling issue? ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/287 "2010-02-18T16:32:01Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > … Maybe we shouldn’t have gone into Iraq in the first place-but we were there and we needed to finish the job. Much like your own involvement in this thread. Please attend and fully answer this one question. **Curtis** , you’ve agreed that Smedley Butler, the much-decorated USMC general, was a patriotic American who was just, as you put it,“mistaken on some issues”. Now I certainly agree that anyone like yourself who claims to be an intellectual must question authority. From 1898 on, Butler spent decades commanding units on the ground around the world in the service of, what he must have believed thru this period to be, legitimate American interests. I am sure you agree that he was not mistaken in this and accept him as a true authority on the subject, based on his intimate involvement and wide experience. Thus, your opinion that he lapsed into error must somehow be based on his later assessment his own record as presented in War Is A Racket. > [@](#): > > I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents. So **Curtis** , I question your authority as presumed in this OP and ask you to delineate on what issues this poor ultimately deluded man came to be so wrong. Two will do. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/288 "2010-02-18T16:34:31Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > **Wikipedia is not “Wiki” (or “the Wiki”) - “wiki” is a type of website (open to contribute) of which Wikipedia is an encyclopedia in the wiki style, hence the portmanteau name. There are hundreds of "wiki"s other than Wikipedia!!!** You gotta keep up with the hipsters, youngsters, and the hippity-hoppity today. [Wiki](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wiki)in slang. Check out definitions 3,4, and 6. The times, they is a-changin’. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/289 "2010-02-18T16:42:18Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > You gotta keep up with the hipsters, youngsters, and the hippity-hoppity today. > > [Wiki](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wiki)in slang. Check out definitions 3,4, and 6. > > The times, they is a-changin’. I stand by my Righteous Outrage ™. defs 3 and 4 are in a verb sense, and Curtis wasn’t using it as a verb, but a noun. def 6 is … well, the less said about that rambling pile of nonsense that seems to propagate the web the better. The fact that the UD itself seems to be a wiki kind of proves my point. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/290 "2010-02-19T01:42:48Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > This contradicts the word of Jesus, FYI. Paul said the old law was superceded, but Jesus said it wasn’t. Who was right? Jesus could have meant it in a different manner when He said the Law would not superseded. He might have meant the spirit of the Law. > [@](#): > > What exactly _was_ the job? Keeping Iraq stable and not becoming an another Vietnam. > [@adhay](#): > > Much like your own involvement in this thread. Please attend and fully answer this one question. > > **Curtis** , you’ve agreed that Smedley Butler, the much-decorated USMC general, was a patriotic American who was just, as you put it,“mistaken on some issues”. Now I certainly agree that anyone like yourself who claims to be an intellectual must question authority. > > From 1898 on, Butler spent decades commanding units on the ground around the world in the service of, what he must have believed thru this period to be, legitimate American interests. I am sure you agree that he was not mistaken in this and accept him as a true authority on the subject, based on his intimate involvement and wide experience. > > Thus, your opinion that he lapsed into error must somehow be based on his later assessment his own record as presented in War Is A Racket. > > So **Curtis** , I question your authority as presumed in this OP and ask you to delineate on what issues this poor ultimately deluded man came to be so wrong. > > Two will do. The Chinese intervention in 1927 happened after fighting between various Chinese factions in Shanghai and Nanjing where the American consulate was. His served the American League Against War and Fascism which was actually a (Stalinist) Communist front organization. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/291 "2010-02-19T02:35:10Z")
What do you mean by, “Fascism which was actually a (Stalinist) Communist front organization”? Are you suggesting that the fascist regime in Nazi Germany was actually a Communist front? How then do you explain World War II, in which a large number of the populations of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union died while attempting to destroy the other? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/292 "2010-02-19T03:32:18Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What do you mean by, “Fascism which was actually a (Stalinist) Communist front organization”? Are you suggesting that the fascist regime in Nazi Germany was actually a Communist front? How then do you explain World War II, in which a large number of the populations of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union died while attempting to destroy the other? No! The organization name was the American League Against War and Fascism. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/293 "2010-02-19T03:52:25Z")
OK. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/294 "2010-02-19T05:15:34Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > His served the American League Against War and Fascism which was actually a (Stalinist) Communist front organization. Cite for this? (Both him serving it and the fact that it was a Stalinist front?) ---
**Author:** ![wunderkammer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ed8c4c/32.png) [@wunderkammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wunderkammer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/295 "2010-02-19T05:40:06Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > **Wikipedia is not “Wiki” (or “the Wiki”) - “wiki” is a type of website (open to contribute) of which Wikipedia is an encyclopedia in the wiki style, hence the portmanteau name. There are hundreds of "wiki"s other than Wikipedia!!!**[/SIZE] And the United States of America isn’t “the States” or “America”, as perhaps dozens of people around the world might complain. Context-specific cues, people. Jeez. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/296 "2010-02-19T16:19:19Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Cite for this? (Both him serving it and the fact that it was a Stalinist front?) It’s true, and not exactly a shocker. Nearly all the people ideologically opposed to fascism in the early going were communist sympathizers, and the [ALWF was an arm of the Communist Party of the United States.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_League_Against_War_and_Fascism) It wasn’t so much that they were into communism as they were against fascism, and nobody else but the Soviets seemed to care about fighting it. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234/297 "2010-02-19T20:05:21Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It’s true, and not exactly a shocker. Nearly all the people ideologically opposed to fascism in the early going were communist sympathizers, and the [ALWF was an arm of the Communist Party of the United States.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_League_Against_War_and_Fascism) > > It wasn’t so much that they were into communism as they were against fascism, and nobody else but the Soviets seemed to care about fighting it. Ah, thanks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-patriotic-american-intellectual-conservative-christian/528234.md?page=14)