Modest proposal
By Thoreau
Frankly, life is cheap, most notably to Serious People. And among the Serious People there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their foreign policy. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.
That’s some pretty outrageous stuff, isn’t it? Fortunately, though, it’s just a riff on what a Serious Person said, so it’s rooted in good, Serious stuff.
Comment by Scamp Dog —
September 7, 2010 @ 7:50 pm
I didn’t realize that it was Marty Peretz, even though I had read his rant earlier. It could be a paraphrase from almost anybody in the US foreign policy establishment.
Comment by Fraud Guy —
September 7, 2010 @ 9:22 pm
So the past 9 years is the result of serious people worrying about any threat anywhere near anywhere they care about, so we randomly attack and kill people around the world so that they don’t have to feel scared anymore (even though they do–because, seriously, once you’ve shat your pants that badly, there isn’t enough immodium(tm) anywhere in the world to stop you from shatting again).
Comment by Rojo —
September 7, 2010 @ 9:48 pm
It’s really amazing. If the First Amendment is a “privilege” (and I will concede that the entire Bill of Rights is generally treated as the Bill of Privileges-to-be-Rescinded-at-Government-Will nowadays) and not a right, than there is almost no-one who deserves the revocation of that privilege more than Marty Peretz.
If it could be made clear to the general populace the role that Peretz has had in goading us into these unnecessary wars and if it were true that free speech was a privilege and not a right, is there any doubt that the majority would vote to have Peretz shut the hell up?
I view free speech as a right, which leaves me free to say, “Hey, Marty, fuck you!!”
Comment by Rojo —
September 7, 2010 @ 10:06 pm
Adding…
You gotta love the principles of accountability among these jackasses. So, apparently, Peretz misspells NY’s five “boroughs” as “bureaus,” this is pointed out by the first commenter on the story and the second commenter goes on to blame Peretz’s mistake on the NYT, because they apparently have a hatred for everyone outside Manhattan! Not that the Times actually misspelled the word, but they have a general hatred of the other four boroughs, so that must explain Peretz’s entirely independent mistake.
Now, I despise the Times too, but I generally limit my criticisms of that long-standing imperialist propaganda rag to stuff that they actually, you know, do.
Is it now fair game for me to criticize them for the mistakes of my own political confederates?? Sweet! All anarchist actions that turn off the country in and of themselves I hereby declare the fault of the NYT.
…and Marty Peretz.
Comment by matthew h —
September 7, 2010 @ 11:08 pm
Per the commentator above —
In a nutshell, all the evil is right there:
“the privileges of the First Amendment”?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Comment by Aunt Deb —
September 8, 2010 @ 7:00 am
This is the best sentence in the whole stream of unconsciousness: “I want to believe that Muslims are traumatized by the unrelieved murders in Islamic lands.”
We need IOZ to do this full justice, I think.
Comment by Don SinFalta —
September 8, 2010 @ 11:12 am
I guess I need to look at the links before clicking them. I didn’t bother to read past the author’s name once I was there, but I still regret giving him any traffic (or his magazine for that matter).
Comment by joe from Lowell —
September 8, 2010 @ 4:53 pm
Marty Peretz is really a step beyond normal.
I once saw him attribute Larry Summers’ dismissal from Harvard on “anti-Jew animus among the Harvard faculty.”
Comment by Granville Bonne —
September 8, 2010 @ 6:01 pm
Hey… It looks like there’s a problem with the site layout. For some reason the text block is running into the border. I don’t know if it’s just me or have other people mentioned this? Just wanted to let you know in case you’ve been updating the site. Thanks! Granville Bonne