This story is archived

Book Excerpt: The Assault on Reason »

Posted by: Karina 2 years, 6 months ago

Archived 35 0 drops

Not long before our nation launched the invasion of Iraq, our longest-serving Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor and said: "This chamber is, for the most part, silent-ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute in the United States Senate."

Read Full Story at time.com »

Submitted By:

Karina

Karina Longworth blogs about film at Spout.com. She co-founded the film blog Cinematical in March 2005, whilst simultaneously completing an MA in Cinema Studies ...

This Story is Archived and Commenting is Closed

Comments: 8

Avg rating: (+3/-4 -1)
bubba2
May 17, 2007, 1:46 p.m.
"It is simply no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse. I know I am not alone in feeling that something has gone fundamentally wrong. In 2001, I had hoped it was an aberration when polls showed that three-quarters of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on Sept. 11. More than five years later, however, nearly half of the American public still believes Saddam was connected to the attack."
This article and book go right to the HEART of what is wrong with our current government and our 'American discourse'.
Avg rating: (+2/-3 -1)
texangelwings
May 17, 2007, 9:58 p.m.
We need more Reps. like Sen. Robert Byrd. I had half my family mad at me when I told them that going to war in Iraq was all wrong!
Thanks for this posting, Karina.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
crespi
May 18, 2007, 4:06 a.m.
A few years back, on the House (I believe) floor, a Neocon Rep stood up, and in response to some abortion legislation, gave an amazing tirade how "liberals hate the disabled" because they are for abortion solely to kill deformed (disabled) fetuses in the womb*.
The Democrat rebuttal was a woman indignantly sputtering something like "I never..." (like someone's flustered mother) and using up her minute fruitlessly.
Then another Neocon who attacked with a WORD FOR WORD restatement of the "Liberals hate the disabled" thing.
That was one microsecond in an hour glass of bullying, mean-spirited hate diatribe that was popularized by Rush Limbaugh and introduced into Congress by Neocon think-tanker Newt Gingrich.
continued-
Avg rating: (+3/-0 3)
crespi
May 18, 2007, 4:09 a.m.
The "we don't make critical judgments on anything" liberals were unable to fathom the intentional destruction of Democracy waged by the Republicans. And the ultra-liberal attitude of "defending oneself is a form of aggression" (!) left Democrats only able to play dead (for 2 decades) as their form of defense. Sad.
However, this bully attack style can be countered, repelled and even destroyed with transparency, facts, guts and truth (and more facts to back up that truth.) And if you got it, irony.
Fight Back!
*Funny thing- Eugenics is a Neocon science involving forced sterilization of the "inferior" American citizens, like retarded, epileptic and negro.
American eugenicists gave German eugenicists (and later Hitler) the idea of "gassing the unfit" that lead to the Holocaust.
Grandfather Prescott Bush originally ran for senate on the eugenics platform.
anioklyComment has been removed: User banned.
Avg rating: (+3/-0 3)
Raiderwall
May 18, 2007, 1:13 p.m.
Bush will be talked about for decades to come, as the standard for incompetence and corruption. He has replaced both Clinton for scandal, and most importantly of all, he is the new image, the new face, the new standard for what it means to be conservative. He has wiped out the postives of Ronald Reagan, and replaced it with an image of cronyism, unethical government, and gross incompetence.
Yeah, Democrats will be running against Bush conservatives for decades, and Republicans will be running away from Bush, just like they ran away from Nixon.