Friday, March 10, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Welcome friend! Consider this your online Steve-and-Adam's room! Traber 611 Online! So kick back, grab your favorite SAGA-esque snack, turn down the lights, and get ready to relive the good old days!
19 comments:
That looks great, Steve. Wish I could join you.
My spring break is this week (the one coming up). I'm staying in Austin, grading papers, filing taxes, drinking beers. There is a major music festival at the end of the week (South by Southwest), so I plan on checking out some live shows. It's not tropical paradise, but there are palm trees!
Sounds cool, but I'm not really budgeted for that kind of vacation this year. Plus, I don't have the time to take away from class.
why can't this guy just shut up?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060315/ap_on_re_us/graham_islam
because we don't live in a speech-repressing State, that's why.
I bought a tent, so you'd only be paying for food and ferries (and *cough airfare*) Fly into Phuket on March 27 morning. Leave on April 5th evening.
check orbitz.com
So I checked orbitz. It's expensive. How about I provide a tent, and you can stay on my front lawn and snorkel in the Potomac? Have a good trip, Steve! It looks beautiful.
I hate to tell you this, Strauss, but those guys floating face down in the Potomac aren't snorkeling...
i laughed, coye
nights
are
lonely
say it again
it again
Freedom of speech increases rather than nulifies responsibility for what is spoken.
I love you, Dave, and I respect your opinions, but "repression" was a red herring.
That is one thing freedom of speech does. It also acts as a kind of hopeful grace in the midst of idiocy: hoping that thoughtfulness and graciousness will win out in the market of freely spoken speech.
The fact is, not everybody will act with the responsibility you speak of: people will say stupid things. They will think stupid things; we all do, in fact. But, when we say stupid things we have our hearers to help us examine what we have said (i.e. not by killing us, but by talking with us).
I was reacting to what I percieved to be the undercurrent of your words; I misread you (I have done such things before). I read, "why do we have to listen to such lunacy?" -- that seems to be a reasonable reading of "why can't he just shut up?" But from your comments now, I see you were saying, "why can't he behave more responsibly?" (Though "shut up" is a far cry from such significance! (Again, am I stepping over proper bounds into gatekeeping your anger? (probably (I'll try not to anymore)))).
I watched coverage of a panel report on the Guantanamo Bay Dentention Policies on C-Span2 tonight... If half the things they say are true (which they are)...I'll...I'll...
...get off my lazy butt and start thinking and writing and doing what I can to be a responsible citizen instead of feeding the death-system that feeds off laziness, fear and ignorance.
My comment could be interpreted as A) an ad hominem attack disguised as a rhetorical device ("there the lunatic goes again..."), B) expressing the desire to not have to listen to his rants (something very much like "why do I have to listen to such lunacy?"), C) "he's making himself look like and idiot" D) "he's making US look like idiots (by extension)" and/or E) this type of speech is neither productive nor responsible.
While I would like to claim E and only E, I have to admit that there is quite a bit of A-D involved in "why can't he just shut up?", though it remains significantly different from "why doesn't somebody shut him up?", to which your original response would have been quite appropriate.
so...
[with slightly less anger this time] why doesn't he just shut up? (especially when statements attached to his last name will eventually find their way back to us as reflections of what we supposedly think and believe)
yes...
sadly, the administration fails to see the irony in saying "If Sadam wasn't doing anything wrong, he should have let in the inspectors," followed by "No we're not letting inspectors into Guantanamo; we're not doing anything wrong."
I read a play [British] last semester written about British citizens who were (and are) being wrongfully imprisoned in GTMO. It was called "Guantanamo Bay: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom"; it does come across as too left-wing reactionary at times, but overall it was pretty powerful (the dialogue is taken from interviews with the British detainees after their release and from their families). It is currently showing in Chicago.
Well, I guess Steve's camping out on the beach of a tropical paradise about now.
I don't guess he'll see this until he gets back (I hope not anyways... tropical paradises shouldn't include blogs), but I'll wish him a great vacation anyways.
You guys should look at Stephen's blog - sahv.blogspot.com. He's got a sweet log of his Thailand adventures. He's rocking the world!
Post a Comment