Comments on: Korea 59 Years Later: Was My Dad’s Sacrifice Worth It?

By: How Much Will Iran Charge for Its American Hostages?

How Much Will Iran Charge for Its American Hostages? — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:37:12 +0000

[...] Euna Lee and Laura Ling, from North Korean captivity is a fitting denouement to my June 25 article commemorating the Korean War’s anniversary as it aptly demonstrates how far we have atrophied [...]

By: ottovbvs

ottovbvs — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:44:47 +0000

Jeffryw
wrote 23 minutes agoAnd I am not so bright as you

.......That's quite possibly true judging by the parade of muddled thinking.

By: KL7212

KL7212 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:43:59 +0000

Well, I think it's pretty clear from history that a significant percentage, maybe even a majority, of the Founders thought that slavery did not belong in the newly formed United States. That doesn't mean they thought of black Africans as equals. They had a much more hierarchical view of the world than contemporary Americans and were probably more willing to accept the "natural order of things" at least in the social sphere, than we.

Likewise, I think the Communists benefitted a great deal, and not entirely without merit, from their role in the defeat of Fascism. After all, the USSR sacrificed more citizens in WWII than all the other Western Allies combined.

That said, the objections to the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist state were nearly as strong 60 years ago as they are now. The revelation of the extent of their crimes against their people have only made them stronger since then.

By: ottovbvs

ottovbvs — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:43:14 +0000

Jeffryw
wrote 14 minutes ago
"You mistake blaming for judging."

........For those of us unafflicted by pedantry this is largely a distinction without a difference. In your world the mass murder of the jews is "wrong" but you're not "blaming" the Nazi regime for this although earlier you clearly held responsible the entire population of 90 million (you made a big thing of the 90 million although it's actually an incorrect figure) Germans for their crimes.

By: Jeffryw

Jeffryw — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:20:08 +0000

And I am not so bright as you can tell so I would appreciate you telling me how I am a hypocrite. Walk me through it.

By: Jeffryw

Jeffryw — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:17:33 +0000

"no need to tell us three times." Ooookay. So now you've just degenrated into picking at an obvious computer glitch as a point of argument. Splendid. The last refuge of a failed argument on the net. Fair nuff. (Sorry...fair "enough")

And of course you still do not answer my question--not that I expected you would of course. So clever...to yourself I guess.

Anyway since I am not afraid to answer your queries (as you are mine) I will respond to your piint that I am blaming the Chicoms.

You mistake blaming for judging. I will judge that slavery, crucifixion, mass murder of Jews etc is certainly wrong. As did you when you said about Germany "clearly they wre wrong." But once again, I do not blame them per se. If someone is never tuaght math, I do not BLAME them for offering that 2+2 = 5. They are a product of their environment (in this case lack of proper schooling. In the slave times lack of proper enlightenment for many) But I will certainly judge them as wrong because the rules of math state so.

So now I ask YOU for the umpteenth time: Is there an INTRINSIC right or wrong is it all completely and totally relative...therefore really non-existent at all but just a matter of consensus?

By: ottovbvs

ottovbvs — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:04:02 +0000

Jeffryw
wrote 13 minutes ago
"Unless of course you think the right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness etc did not exist for people before the Enlightenment? So therefore the idea of a Right To Life is invented?"

....No need tell us three times.......and it doesn't matter what we think today, whats matters in this context is what they thought in 1700.

" I am not blaming them for their immorality "

.............But you did.....starting off with the Chinese communists, moving through slave owners, then onto the entire German people without distinction for their complicity in the murder of the jews, then the gay community, then finally back to slave owners.

"How am I a hypocrite. Please explain?"

............I'll leave you to work that out for yourself.

By: Jeffryw

Jeffryw — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:38:35 +0000

"You're welcome to your belief that definitions of morality are fixed and immutable but I'm not going to hold the ancient Romans to our mores on cruelty to animals or 18th century slave traders to ours on slavery........They were simply different worlds."

I am not blaming them for their immorality any more than I blame someone who has lived in a cave and never been taught math for not knowing their sums. But that does not mean that the laws of math do not exist.

I am simply saying that just as those who thought the earth was flat back in the Middle Ages were wrong, so too is nailing someone to cross.

Unless of course you think the right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness etc did not exist for people before the Enlightenment? So therefore the idea of a Right To Life is invented?

By: Jeffryw

Jeffryw — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:34:48 +0000

By: Jeffryw

Jeffryw — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:31:16 +0000