Grief isn't an automatic validation for a cause

NY Times via Kansas City Star ^ | Jun. 13, 2006 | JOHN TIERNEY

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Micheal Berg...A green Barf candidate....

[Caipirabob]

Grief isn't an automatic validation for a cause

True, however idiocy seems to be the basis of all "Dim" causes and he passes that test with flying colors.

The man may never forgive himself for putting the idea in his son's head that terrorists were "warm and cuddly". That is his personal hell he will need to deal with. We mourned his loss as a nation, but we are not obligated to tolerate outright stupidity on his part.

[neverdem]

Bloated and Incompetent That's the result of the politics of grief.

Cheers and Jeers (Democrats booing Hillary Clinton on video!) How sweet it is!

Victor Davis Hanson: How Oil Lubricates Our Enemies

From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

[johnny7]

Grief... is their vehicle. Only their psychiatrists know if it's for real.

Whether it is... or isn't... matters little. What does matter is that the 'Jersey Girls' used it as a weapon to advance a political agenda that affects my countries national security. Creating redundant layers of bureaucracy to assuage the 'emotions' of a select group is pure nanny-statism.

Coulter exposed their cheesy charade with refreshing candor... I commend her for it.

[Berlin_Freeper]

"Any other politician would have been vilified for saying that. But Berg, as the father of the American who was beheaded, belongs to a new politically invulnerable class. Arguing with someone in mourning just isn’t done — unless, of course, you are Ann Coulter and you have a new book to sell."

That is a load of BS.

1. Berg has been spoken against, just that when you are Rush, Hannity, and other voices from the Right you don't exist to the MSM.

2. When a person calls President Bush the terrorist instead of the guy who sawed his sons head off in a video, that person is not in "mourning", they are plain nuts.

3. How long does mourning last? 9/11 was close to 5 years ago. When you are from the Left the MSM gives you a license to be in permanent mourning.

4. People who freely inject themselves into political debate have absolutely no moral authority to claim special status of being in mourning. If you want to mourn then go home and mourn.

5. If the NYSlimes is truly successful in creating "a new politically invulnerable class" of the mourning. That would create a wave of politically motivated murders on the Left where husbands will kill wives, mothers will kill children, sisters will kill brothers, grandfathers will kill grandchildren, etc. While they build a fake story around it to enhance their new "politically invulnerable" fame, fortune, prestige and position as the darling politician of the Left. Not normal people mid you, but certainly the type of people who so easily sell out our country best interest for their own cheap political gain and those types are a dime a dozen on the Left. Case in point: Berg, Jersey Girls, Sheehan, Murtha etc etc etc ad nauseum.

[PGalt]

Michael Berg's and Cindy Sheehan's words and deeds march on and have not offended Hillary Clinton to Bill O'Reilly.

Their every word and every deed offend me.

99% of the drive by media cannot even get Ann's words right.

In every instance they offend me.

[Guenevere]

See...this is what Ann is about!

Michael Berg gets a pass....and no animosity from the MSM or talk shows or anyone! ...

..for his totally insane, unconscionable support of the very monster who sawed of his son's head....

...but Ann is drawn and quartered for spotlighting these kooks!

[reformedliberal]

I am discovering that my compassion is limited. What this tactic does is eventually makes all of us numb to the grief of those who, by using it to advance a political agenda, force us to examine their behavior.

If Michael Berg had not encouraged his son to work for progressive outcomes, perhaps Nick would be alive today. If the Jersey Girls had been satisfied with their $1.6M (on top of life insurance and other assets) and behaved with decorum,
no one would question their grief and loss.

[redgolum]

We have decayed to the point where it is considered ideal to win a debate on emotions, and not on logic.

Emotions are not reality. We as a people need to remember that.

[Valin]

She managed to offend everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bill O’Reilly by suggesting that some of the activist widows of the Sept. 11 victims were enjoying their husbands’ deaths.

"I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell."
Harry S Truman, in Look, Apr. 3, 1956

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Tabi Katz]

Grief isn't an automatic validation for a cause

Exactly what you were saying.

[an amused spectator]

I call it the Tyranny of the Anecdote.

[Boxsford]

You should make that your tagline. Excellent!

Worth repeating: "We have decayed to the point where it is considered ideal to win a debate on emotions, and not on logic."

Emotions are not reality. We as a people need to remember that.

[pollyannaish]

You become the most narrow special-interest group, obsessed with redressing a personal loss no matter what the cost to society.

In the end, grief legislation is bad for everyone, including the bereaved. This is an excellent editorial.

Thanks for posting it.

[pollyannaish]

While they build a fake story around it to enhance their new "politically invulnerable" fame, fortune, prestige and position as the darling politician of the Left.

I actually think the foundation for this has already been laid. That is why alcoholic driving congressmen can get treatment for their disease, and partying interns can get access to the president and Senators can drive them home via a bridge. There is no accountability, it's all about one's personal life.

It hasn't come to murder, per se, but we're getting there.

[pollyannaish]

I call it the Tyranny of the Anecdote.

Brilliant.

[Cicero]

The Democrats started this whole business, I believe, with the Widow Carnahan in Missouri. Then there was the Paul Wellstone business, which fortunately backfired. Then the 9/11 widows. Then the families of peaceniks killed in Israel. Then Cindy Sheehan. Then . . . .

No one can tell me that the leftists don't deliberately seek these people out and push them forward, fund their appearances and give them publicity. No one can tell me that the news organizations don't have rolodexes full of these useful idiots, ready to pull them out whenever they need them. And the useful idiots are always good for another quote, which makes them thoroughly complicit.

Then, if anyone objects, the proverbial s*** hits the fan.

Those widows let their "grief" be used for political purposes, again and again, deliberately. They deserved Ann's scolding. That's why the media are so angry. Because what Ann said is true.

[Berlin_Freeper]

The pattern is becoming way too consistent.

Jersey Girls, Berg, Sheehan, etc.

Wouldn't life being what it is, wouldn't it be a rare occurrence that a family member thrives on the fame that is the result of the death of a loved one?

How come so many are consistently taking this route?

Something sure does smell fishy. I have no doubt the Democrats are quick to recruit such people almost on the spot, as soon as a person is killed in a way that Democrats think they can wrestle political gain.