Friday Fun, etc.
Rod Dreher, the Andrew Sullivan who likes girls. Calm your pretty little head down and finish shopping at Wild Oats for those overpriced organic corn nibblets.
I've read your stuff since you were pro-Bush and even back then I thought you were overly excitable. You lack historical perspective. You reaction to both major and minor things is an overreaction that borders on a hissy fit. You really should adhere to the rule of writing something and then letting it rest for a day before you post it.
pchuck 04.27.07 - 8:53 am #
The advice to "let it rest a day" puts me in mind of the age-old "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down". Sheryl Crow would agree.
We're also having a little discussion over here 'bout good ol' Rod Dreher and his self-imposed gag rule on certain items like Iraq budget bill, Orthodox scandals -- well, that might not be self-imposed. Also the proxy war on Jonah Goldberg, etc.
Speaking of "gag rules", some people are having trouble with logging in to blogger so they can sound off. Here's a help page on this. If that doesn't work, email me and I'll forward your email to Bubba.
More fun in the comments to this post, which adds to mounting evidence of Dreher being a heterosexual Andrew Sullivan.
ReplyDeleteBrilliance from a reader named wm:
The lack of historical perspective here is astounding. This war is nothing like fighting the Japanese at Iwo Jima. Say what you will about their savagery, Japanese soldiers were at least brave enough to stand and fight. We lost as many against Japan in a single DAY as we have lost in Iraq in an entire 5 year campaign!! We lost as many as we have lost in Iraq in HOURS during the Civil war, in battles the Union won!!
...I saw you speak in Indianapolis, I loved your talk, and my wife and I both loved your book, but you are exasperating on this subject. Grow up!! The very therapeutic instant culture you do not like is informing your view on this war! Did Bush screw up? Yes, usually only on days ending in "y." Were there enough troops? No, and there still aren't. Was the intelligence bad, or misunderstood? Yes. Were all our other wars perfectly executed? NO! Lincoln went through generals like toilet paper, Washington perfected the retreat, Wilson lied about keeping our boys out of war, Roosevelt did not take the Japanese threat seriously enough until after we lost 2/3 of our Pacific fleet, etc.
The ONLY question that matters is, having contributed to this mess, are we then going to allow the post-pullout massacre. You want a lesson from Vietnam? There it is. You are morally responsible for that massacre if you keep beating the drums for withdrawal, just as Bush is for doing a very poor job managing the war.
And pure slime from Dreher, despicable to a degree that's astounding even now:
As you know, I feel an intense personal interest in this because I'm about to have a close family member go into that breach in Baghdad. My subjective status doesn't make my argument any more or less persuasive, but it does make me care a lot more about the men who die every day.
That's also irrelvant unless he wants to imply that those who disagree with him don't care about the lives of American soldiers. I'm willing to be he does.
If a Roman Catholic bishop were a member of an organization that produced a statement like that editorial, and remained silent about it, I am quite sure we'd be hearing from Mr. Dreher about how "spineless" this bishop was, but that this is "par for the course" for bishops today, and that "orthodox Catholics" will continue to suffer for real leadership.
ReplyDeleteOf course, as Abp. Burke demonstrated this week, the threshold for RC bishops removing themselves from boards is far lower than what the DMN did.
When I was a little boy in MN, we had a name for a guy who was a heterosexual Andrew Sullivan. We would call him a "dink". Fits perfectly in this case, doncha think? It connotes a male body part, but in a really wimpy and whiny way.
ReplyDeleteMy least favorite statement (i.e., the one most wrong) in the CrunchyBlogpost linked by Bubba:
It is clear that we cannot win in Iraq. We have to end this thing, and let the chips fall where they may.
Pilate-like, Mr. Rod washes his hands of the bloodbath. Or washes them in the bloodbath, if you prefer. Those chips are human beings, sir.
And the reference to his family member makes me yak. I've had three nephews in the military over there, thank you very much. Relevant? I don't think so.
What a dink. It is sad that so many read so much of his output.
The good news, Pikku, is that it appears more readers are realizing the absurdity of Rod's writing. Our relative absence might be a boon in this sense.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion he outdoes Pilate in one respect, in a subsequent comment:
Let me clarify. I've written before that we have a moral obligation to give visas to every Iraqi and his immediate family who helped the US, no matter what. I also think we should offer visas to Christians and other religious minorities. When I say "let the chips fall where they may," what I mean is that we cannot save Iraq from itself, and if we think we can, we are just delaying the inevitable. If Iraq has taught us anything, it's the limits of American power to remake reality. I'm not trying to be cold, just realistic.
I believe he first mentioned the idea here. I'm not sure he was clear that we have a moral obligation to implement the idea.
Someone pointed out that there would be many more victims of a post-withdrawal bloodbath beyond those we saved through visas or passports, and a reader named Franz suggests the idea is unrealistic. I certainly don't think it's politically viable.
If Rod is proposing a band-aid that he knows is unrealistic, he's doing more than merely washing his hands of Iraq. He's trying to get moral cover under an idea that he knows would never be implemented, so that he could say he knew a way out when the real massacre begins.
i'm baaaaack
ReplyDeleteif dreher is a "dink", his output is "dreherrhea"
ReplyDeleteDreherrhea--bwahahahahaha!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove it, love it, love it.
Diane
"Dreherrhea"
ReplyDeleteGame, set & match.
Welcome baaaaack, Kaaaaathleen.