12 Comments Add your own

• 1. Mike Carroll  |  May 9th, 2008 at 9:43 am

  How wise they are when they agree with you and how annoying when they do not. To quote a former liberal who has now, at least partially, seen the light-”There’s no intolerance like liberal intolerance, no close mindedness like the close mindedness of liberals”.
  Christopher Hitchens

• 2. Pat Cunningham  |  May 9th, 2008 at 10:21 am

  Michael: What kind of sense would it make for me to see wisdom in opinions with which I disagree and a lack of it in opinions with which I agree? I mean, really. Do you see wisdom in everything I write? Clearly not, right? By the way, do you see wisdom in Christopher Hitchens’ book extolling atheism (”God Is Not Great — How Religion Poisons Everything”)? I’m reading it now.

• 3. Mike Carroll  |  May 9th, 2008 at 10:45 am

  Well of course I see wisdom in everything that you write Patrick, thats why I lurk here. Perhaps by osmosis I shall be reformed.
  I have not read Hitchens book and have no plans at this point to do so but I would be very interested in your synopsis when you finish it.

• 4. Pat Cunningham  |  May 9th, 2008 at 11:10 am

  Sorry, Mike, but I shant be reviewing Hitchens’ book here. I’m reluctant to completely bare my soul for the edification of the masses. Oh, regarding Hitchens, I think you’re wrong in labeling him a “former liberal.” He’s a former leftist — a former Trotskyite, actually. That ain’t liberalism. The conflating of all forms of leftism with liberalism is invalid. Stalinism, for example, was illiberal in the extreme. It would be just as wrong for me to conflate neo-Nazism or certain other forms of the radical right with conservatism. These shadings, left or right, are more than your average barstool political philospher can fathom, but you seem smart enough to grasp such matters. Well, that’s our lesson for today. Now, return to your humdrum job. America needs your productivity.

• 5. Mike Carroll  |  May 9th, 2008 at 12:19 pm

  Actually I used Hitchens self characterization as the descriptor but I always welcome a lesson from the sage of the Rock River Valley.

• 6. Pat Cunningham  |  May 9th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

  Sage? Man, I ain’t even got one of them college educations. If you added up all my credits (at two fine schools,by the way, Marquette and Northwestern), I’d probably be a second-semester freshman on double-secret probation. You see, I majored in beer with minors in poker and late-night political arguments. (Regarding the last of those, I recall being in top form during the Bay of Pigs fiasco, but I don’t remember exactly what position I took. Oh, well, as Buddy Holly once said: “It doesn’t matter anymore.”)

• 7. Mike Carroll  |  May 9th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

  I always wondered why you didn’t get a degree. I didn’t start majoring in Johnny Walker Red until grad school. Thank God I sobered up enough to drop out or I’d be a lawyer today.

• 8. Pat Cunningham  |  May 9th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

  Johnny Red? I graduated from beer to Dewar’s. Drank like hell for many years, and now I only consume as much in a year as I used to in a week, probably less.

• 9. Mike Carroll  |  May 9th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

  Two that flirted with the Irish Virus.

• 10. Mr. Baseball  |  May 9th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

  If you don\’t mind my interrupting your conversation about college drinking, your points about liberal and conservative Pat are godd but don\’t go far enough. I hate those political labels since noone is 100 conservative or liberal if they really think about the issues. In general, I\’m a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, so what does that make me? Also, the definitions keep changing. A traditional conservative wants no government deficits, no government interference in our private lives and no military adventurism or nation-building in foreign countries. By that definition, George Bush is one of the biggest liberals of all time. Barry Goldwater was a true conservative. He deplored deficits, was pro-life, and thought gays should be allowed to openly serve in the military. He\’d have been appalled by our current President. Goldwater was also one of the biggest critics of Richard Nixon for trashing the constitution.

• 11. Pat Cunningham  |  May 10th, 2008 at 7:01 am

  Mr. B: You’re forgetting that Goldwater wanted to nuke that little girl with the daisy. But seriously, I think you had a mental cramp when you said Goldwater was “pro-life.” Surely, you meant he was pro-choice.

• 12. Mr. Baseball  |  May 10th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

  I stand corrected. I did mean to say pro-choice.

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