Wednesday, July 13, 2005

MORE THOUGHTFUL THAN ME

Pretty much the only two blogs I continue to read regularly right now, Mader and Alan. Both are commenting today on the significance of the London bombers being British born.

Mader with, 'They were British.'

And Alan with, 'Home Grown.'

Posted by Matthew @ 10:36 a.m.

Read or Post a Comment

From Ikram

Alan I quite like. But Mader? I've never read anything intelligent on his blog. He's now predicting UK civil war and solo suicide bombers!

Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ July 15, 2005 1:31 p.m. #
 

Ahahahahahahahaha.

Look, I can understand your hard-line 'progressives' finding 'nothing intelligent' on my blog. But of all the examples, civil war and solo suicide bombers?

Ikram, last week, four Britons blew themselves up in order to kill their neighbors. In fact, it appears that one of the bombers was frustrated in his initial target, and had to improvise. Why - intelligently - is it such a stretch to anticipate a similar attacker acting alone? Why is a prediction of further attacks, some of them individual rather than co-ordinated, so unintelligent?

And as for civil war, I recognize that it's a jarring term. But if you can suggest a better descriptor for a situation wherein one group of Britons engages in a campaign to kill another group of Britons, who reciprocate, well, I'm all ears.

Posted by Blogger David Mader @ July 15, 2005 8:09 p.m. #
 

For 30 years, Britons have been blowing up bombs in London killing other Britons, yet no-one calls the long-running IRA actions the 'British civil war'. As for suicide bombers -- they require extensive support. They don't operate solo.

It's quite embarrassing. I am also a Texan-Canadian who lived at Gardner Hall. Clearly, standards have slipped.

Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ July 18, 2005 2:13 p.m. #
 

Funny, I must have missed all those counter-attacks by British civilians against Irish republicans... although, incidentally, if there's a better term than 'civil war' for what went on in the six counties in the last thirty-five years of the twentieth century, I am, again, all ears. But apparently our good friend 'anonymous' is entirely deferential to popular culture, and entirely averse to, you know, original thought.

And as for suicide bombers, I never suggested that I expected suicide bombers to act without support. I expected - and still expect - them to detonate solo.

Matty, do commenters on my blog - yourself excluded, of course - resort to ad hominem so quickly and so often? And are those who do use ad hominem so eager to hide behind a wall of anonymity?

Posted by Blogger David Mader @ July 19, 2005 10:30 a.m. #
 

Mader,

Your blog is (or was) one of the best for comments. The level of debate is always civil and most have very intelligent things to say. I think it is a reflection on the tone of your blog.

I find comment bords on most other blogs (some more than others of course) to devolve pretty quickly to ad hominem partisan hackery.

I only say 'was' in reference to your blog, because since the change to registration for commenting the number of comments seems to have decreased significantly. The regulars (including me) only comment sporadically and I hardly ever see new people anymore. Of course your own output has diminished as well, so that has an effect also.

Posted by Blogger Matthew @ July 21, 2005 1:12 p.m. #
 

Yea, matty, I'm as unhappy about the registration as you are - well, maybe not quite so much, especially as the alternative was an unbearable number of spam posts. I hope that as volume increases (and I hope it will!) readers, and my wonderful commenters (yourself, of course, most prominently included) will return and become active once more.

I certainly didn't mean to suggest, incidentally, that your commenters are a reflection on your blog, which (as you can see) I continue to read regularly. I was just frustrated and bewildered at the eagerness of some of your readers to criticize on what is, I think, a less than reasonable basis.

Criticism on a reasonable basis, on the other hand, I'm all for.

Posted by Blogger David Mader @ July 21, 2005 2:36 p.m. #
 
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