Posted on 01/17/2011 11:02:42 AM PST by Al B.
[...]
As a lifelong liberal democrat, I am no political supporter of Sarah Palin. I also oppose her use of rifle cross hairs as political symbols. Yet I have no problem with her use of the term blood libel to characterize what she perceives to be false charges that her rhetoric and symbols were partly responsible for the deaths and mayhem in Tucson.
The term blood libel has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse.
[...]
Language changes over time by usage. Whether Palin was or was not aware of the theological roots of the term she used, she selected a phrase that has become common place. Jews no longer own it, any more than Christians own theological terms rooted in their religion, or Moslems own words like Jihad, which have now assumed metaphorical status.
So let’s stop trying to stifle debate in the name of political correctness and let’s stop pretending to be offended when people we disagree with use words commonly employed, without criticism, by people we agree with. No group owns the vocabulary of political discourse.
[...]
Words can kill. But censorship can kill as well. As Justice Robert Jackson, the American chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, reminded us: “Those who begin by burning books, end by burning people.”
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
So let’s stop trying to stifle debate in the name of political correctness and let’s stop pretending to be offended when people we disagree with use words commonly employed, without criticism, by people we agree with. No group owns the vocabulary of political discourse.
Amen, bro!
But......but.......Andrea Mitchell, Joe Scarborough and other media pundits and host said that it was a terrible, terrible mistake!
Surly, he can’t be serious?
Uh, surveyor's symbols! Semantics, I guess.
That's something I'll keep in mind when I'm cleaning out the attic.
LLS
I opposed the maniacal Rahm Emanuel stabbing a knife into a table top and screaming kill! kill! kill! when explaining his preferred strategy for dealing with President Obama's political enemies. As I recall, nobody gave a sweet diddly-damn about my concerns then, or now, for that matter.
NO.. she is a victim of propaganda and republican progressive sedition..
Progressives are in both parties..
Republicans NEED to seek them out, label them, convert them, -OR- eject them..
Its really that simple..
Excuse me, horses a$$, but they were NOT “rifle cross hairs “.
Dershy got it right this time.
wonder why they are so scared of SARAH......go girl go
The left always reacts this way,
because we’ve TRAINED them to act this way.
Whenever we present an effective argument/truth that really hits home,
the left screams (and usually uses some sort of charge of “racism”, as this reference to Jewish history is),
and “we” on the right shut up and stop using the effective argument to expose the left.
It has worked every time, so why not keep doing it?
Dershowitz too?!! Hubba, hubba hubba. Krugman and Olberdork really stepped in it.
I'm glad Dershowitz is basically on the right page, as he periodically is. But it's silly, ignorant, and typically secularized-Jewish-insular to refer to Jews having "owned" the term "blood libel." Blood libel is as old as civilization, or slightly older. People tell malicious lies about other people, and one of the most serious is to falsely say a man has killed someone—and hence is "guilty of blood," to use the Old-Testament term. In most primitive societies, that means the deceased's family are coming after the killer's family, unless the killer's peeps pay them off or deliver up a family member to their so-called mercy.
The persecuted Jews weren't trying to get creative. They used the term blood libel because it had an understood meaning.
This phrase of Dershowitz's also stuck out: "Whether Palin was or was not aware of the theological roots of the term . . ."
Are you kidding? She knows more theology and history in her pinky than you—partly because all the crap liberals like you "know" that ain't so doesn't count.
“Words can kill. But censorship can kill as well. As Justice Robert Jackson, the American chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, reminded us: “Those who begin by burning books, end by burning people.””
I agree with Dershowitz here, but it was the German philosopher Heinrich Heine, in the 19th Century who actually turned the phrase, not Robert Jackson.
I agree with Alan’s opinion. That’ll do it for 2011. Bob
Begrudgingly baried in a CNN article Today:
“Two-thirds say that shootings like the one in Arizona will happen again regardless of any action taken by the government or society.” -CNN Polling Director Keating Holland
=> People get it, generally, despite the best efforts of the corrupt in the media.
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