symbiotic relationship: Bush and bin Laden

* cannon:

" The current anti-war movement has accomplished much, and those working for an end to the madness in the Middle East have reason for pride. But we must go beyond discredting Dubya's disastrous occupation. We must discredit war as a concept.

Remember when young people said "Peace" as a greeting and a farewell, the way Hawaiians say "Aloha"?

Back then, some folks had sufficient naivete to suppose that the Vietnam war would or could be America's last. It wasn't. But opposition to war (not just opposition to the war) secured roughly fifteen years of relative peace. Right now, that sounds pretty damned good.

What we need is not just peace but a peace mentality. In the late 1960s, peace became hip. What can we do to make it hip again?"

* maha:

"I’ve sometimes wondered if some Internet forums amount to positive feedback loops for personality disorders. In this case, Free Republic is a medium by which authoritarian personalities get together and feed each other’s authoritarian traits. You can say the same thing for Little Green Footballs and other blog communities. And never forget — anything you feed will grow. Eventually (I postulate), a Freep who was mildly authoritarian when he began freeping will become a flaming, snarling, foaming-at-the-mouth authoritarian; the sort of person compelled to destroy anyone with whom he disagrees."
maha is correct, of course, about positive feedback loops - one of the mysteries (I was discussing with a friend this week) is why most of the Righty blogs don't have comments. It has been suggested that it's because they are authoritarian and prefer to dictate, sans feedback /message dilution, to the masses. I'm thankful that they don't have comments - because of the feedback loop - but I wonder why they (gerenally) don't. It appears that their 'cause' would benefit more by having more people being pushed further to the crazy extremes.

* maha: "To those who say Bush’s policies must be working, because Muslim radicals haven’t achieved a terrorist attack in America in the past five years — remember, eight years separated the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and September 11, 2001. By rightie logic, Bill Clinton must’ve really been tough on terrorism."

* don gets all arithmetical on us:

To wit: V(d)=D(d)

Which is to say, the value (V) of democratic evolution/revolution (d) is directly proportional to the event's distance (D) from Washington, DC. Thus, the obsession with Iran, which is literally on the other side of the world from the Beltway.

(compared to, say, the dirty hordes in mexico)

* bob parry:

"The strange symbiotic relationship between Bush and bin Laden continues."

you can tell that Parry is desperate to spit out what he really thinks. he walks right up to the line...