Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Darlin'
Well?
I say Gail Norton is incompetent, at best.

She may very well be corrupt,
based on her treatment of the Klamath farmers.

1,367 posted on 01/12/2002 9:46:10 PM PST by exodus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1365 | View Replies ]


To: exodus
Well?
I say Gail Norton is incompetent, at best.
She may very well be corrupt,
based on her treatment of the Klamath farmers.

As I will admit .. she may not be the best choice .. I don't think I would call her corrupt

1,368 posted on 01/12/2002 9:50:15 PM PST by Mo1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1367 | View Replies ]

To: exodus
You are far too liberal with the word corrupt.Use it wisely,as all you do is diminish any point you try to make.
1,369 posted on 01/12/2002 9:53:09 PM PST by habs4ever
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1367 | View Replies ]

To: exodus
I say you are spoiling for a fight. She is no more corrupt than I am. It is ludicrous to label everyone and everything you disagree with as corrupt.
1,371 posted on 01/12/2002 10:07:08 PM PST by Darlin'
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1367 | View Replies ]

To: exodus
I say Gail Norton is incompetent, at best. She may very well be corrupt,

I think I can help. There are gradients to doing bad things. There's negligence, harm, mistreatment, abuse, malevolence and evil. Hitler was evil. Saying Hitler is corrupt is a gross understatement and insult to Jews. You get the drift.

No doubt you've heard the term, "voting for the lesser of two evils".  Voting for the lesser of two "evils" begets "evil".  Evil in quotes because few are actually evil. Almost every member of congress is corrupt for the simple reason that congress is corrupt. When you think about it, saying a senator or representative is corrupt is stating the obvious. Plus it will be expected of you to back up your claim with reasoned argument.

Many of your opponents are comfortable making emotional based arguments. Going head to head against that is an uphill battle. You can win them over if they're at least willing to learn but you'll likely face many emotional arguments that will be up to you to debunk. Not to mention it's up to you to keep pulling the discussion back on track.

Rather using a seemingly moral based terminology such as corrupt and evil, I recommend using "ignorance" and "incompetent". Both are quantifiable. Ignorance is lack of pertinent knowledge while incompetence is unqualified for the task, project or job. The real nifty thing about using those is you don't necessarily have to identify which one is the failing of the object/senator/politician/bureaucrat.

For example; why did the Senator vote in favor of another unconstitutional gun law? I don't know whether he did it out of ignorance or just plain incompetence but clearly he is unqualified to be a Senator. Unless we consider...

I can carry that further because I have differentiated among objects and quantified them. I'll continue where I left off... Unless we consider that he is actually corrupt because congress is corrupt, but that is stating the obvious as we know that it is congress that empowers the bureaucratic alphabet agencies of the Executive branch in which we are lucky if we are able to get even one unconstitutional law before the Supreme Court to be overturned for every twenty unconstitutional laws passed by congress. Clearly we are loosing the battle and we can't expect to win anytime soon if we keep chasing after laws that are but the symptoms/sores of a much more perverse disease/cancer that is outpacing our band-aid relief efforts. It's a disease/cancer. That's The Problem. I've set my sights on the goal and am working on a solution to The Problem.

Using 'ignorance' and 'incompetence' will help you to quantify. After a little practice you can begin to take on additional objects and differentiate between them quantifiably.

1,383 posted on 01/13/2002 12:57:57 AM PST by Zon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1367 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson