I have looked back at this thread and also read back a ways in your history.
I see that I was wrong to attribute to you a motive to undercut the U.S. I was wrong, and I was over-the-top. I apologize.
I see that you are a fastidous corrector of historical error, an enterprise that I generally support. (I certainly agreed with you in the What's-the-harm-in-making-up-Tocqueville-quotes thread, among others.)
However, I have no patience with raking through America's historical sins in the same coversation as when serious evil in the here-and-now needs to be confronted. Usually, this drift back into historical sins of America is for the purpose that I wrongly attributed to you -- to establish the moral equivalence between some recent barbarity and America's historical role in the world.
My error and quick temper is not in any way expunged by now quibbling with you over nuances. But I can not pretend now to be entirely reconcilled with your posture in this. Correcting the record is important, at times, but, at other times, it can be a prideful insistence on the flawlessness of one's knowledge and understanding. You apparently are a conservative (who has put up some thoughtful post, IMO) but there is a quality of baiting your fellowship here when you feel the need dwell on what "is not a lie" in some piece of hate-filled bile. Hitler built the autobahns, so they say, but I wouldn't want to be the one always insisting on giving that fact prominence in an assessment of the man, as true as it may be.
I don't know why you call yourself LIBERALlarry, maybe a rejection of the twisting of that word that our side has done and to remind us of the honorable (as in "liberal democracies") history of the word. I don't know. Perhaps you have a temperment like a lot of intellectuals do (and that got Bill Bennett into trouble recently) in which you like to show a little bit of edge but then it turns out only to be a didactic device. When I saw a poster caller himself LIBERALlarry and eager to defend the historical correctness of an indictment against America which was being used to stir the pot of Muslim rage that threatens a war of civilizations, well, I bit.
My bad. I should have been more careful.
(Pinging a few others who were active in the thread so that my mea culpa is suitably public)
LiberalLarry is one of those long-time liberals who has survived the zotting process. That suggests that he practices a degree of temperance and understanding.
"My bad. I should have been more careful."
I can remember who you are but I don't like this guy you're apologizing to, so I'm on your side. ;)
Right now I'm arguing over at what I consider one of the classier Left-Wing sites; TPM cafe. They're not stupid or vulgar like the DUers, but they seem no better at admitting error. Perhaps it's my fault - I am truly outraged by many of their positions and make no attempt to hide my disgust - but still...
But I can not pretend now to be entirely reconcilled with your posture in this.
I have no problem with people who disagree with me, or find my positions horrid or disgusting, or who react with fury and anger. Just so long as it's me and my positions, not some straw man. :)
I don't know why you call yourself LIBERALlarry
I should have called myself Classicalliberallarry...Teddy Roosevelt is my man. My excuse is that I do like to be blunt and stir things up in political discussion (you got this one right). I like to think I bring it helps to define the issues...but maybe I'm just a jerk. :)
Check.