Memories Of Forum Food Fights Gone By

Dean Barnett has posted an email he got from one of Andrew Sullivan's mind-numbed bots yesterday regarding his pragmatic defense of coercive intelligence gathering. Here 'tis:

I don’t care how you spin it, Barnett. Torture is wrong, end of story. While you may prefer to cower in the corner and let our country torture people for safety, I myself would rather die by terrorist attack then have my country, the country in whose military I proudly served for 5 years, torture anyone. I am as proud an American as you will find, but when I read garbage like you wrote, I am almost sorry to have defended my country, as there is no defense of torture. Allowing torture is as cowardly as it gets, and there is no spin you can put on it to change that.
Besides, aren’t you a Christian? Shouldn’t Christians stand AGIANST this type of thing? I am no Christian, but I am pretty sure Jesus would not approve.

I am SO glad you Christianists are losing control of this country. It will take years to fix what you animals have broken in the name of “safety”.

Ah, the memories this brings back. First and foremost, on the old Republican Forum, a post like this would have been pulled for the "you Christianists" personal attack. The tenor (and misspellings) are tell-tale, too. Back then you could tell which lib dissident posted what almost without checking the username.

Going even further back, before my sysoping/wizoping days, when I was but a lowly and humble neocon dissident in lib forums, I had to actually field fecality like the above. So, for old time's sake, let's take the Mortal Kombatant I used to be out of mothballs and, briefly, come out of retirement.

I don’t care how you spin it, Barnett. Torture is wrong, end of story.

Curious; I thought pagans didn't believe in moral absolutes. Where is you people's tolerance and open-mindedness when we really need it?

While you may prefer to cower in the corner and let our country torture people for safety, I myself would rather die by terrorist attack then have my country, the country in whose military I proudly served for 5 years, torture anyone.

I'm not sure what the connection is between "cowering in a corner" and "letting our country torture people." I suppose you should also be commended for serving the country in its uniform, except that you appear to have learned little or nothing from the experience. I imagine you should also be lauded for being willing to die for your anti-"torture" beliefs (assuming they're sincere), except that you won't be the only one who'll get beheaded with the OBL commemorative olive forks. Sorry, GI Jerk, but I don't choose to die with you.

I am as proud an American as you will find, but when I read garbage like you wrote, I am almost sorry to have defended my country, as there is no defense of torture.

If you have to boast of your patriotism, most likely even you aren't really convinced of it. And of course there is a defense of "torture," or you wouldn't be crapping all over Mr. Barnett's electronic doorstep. Sheesh, haven't you ever seen 24?

But the first thing you need to do is rectify your flabby definition of "torture." I can guarantee you the real thing has not once ever been carried out by anybody wearing the uniform you now disgrace.

Allowing torture is as cowardly as it gets, and there is no spin you can put on it to change that.

No, failing to employ all possible means of gaining intelligence that can prevent the mass murder of American civilians is as cowardly as it gets. If my family will live because some crazed raghead undergoes some involuntary water-boarding, I think that's tremendous "spin." If you don't think the same thing regarding your family, then you obviously don't think very much of them.

Besides, aren’t you a Christian?

Why, yes, I am. Pity Dean Barnett hasn't (yet) seen the light.

Shouldn’t Christians stand AGIANST this type of thing?

Why?

I am no Christian....

Thanks, I figured out that part on my own.

....but I am pretty sure Jesus would not approve.

Another unsaved hermaneuticist. Y'know, if you'd ever actually read the Scriptures, you'd discover that Christ never taught blanket pacifism. This verse is a good place to start.

Go ahead. I dare you.

I am SO glad you Christianists are losing control of this country.

What makes you think we ever had control of it in the first place?

It will take years to fix what you animals have broken in the name of “safety”.

But in the mean time, you're still alive, and the country still exists as we have known it for 230 years, no matter what your paranoid dementia tells you.

I guess false martyrs just don't have the opportunities they used to.