Off topic, and I might ask it again elsewhere, but has anyone noticed that the discussions online seem to be more stimulating than in “real” life? Why is it hard to have interesting convos?

Probably too many to mention….but here’s a few…a lack of democratic traditions and a very strong history of corruption…French colonialism…U.S. involvement in Vietnam that spread to Cambodia ….U.S. led overthrow of King and installation of hated general, which gave rise to Khmer Rouge…Khmer Rouge slaughter of most educated folks, including teachers and doctors, in the professions (those who didn’t die, fled to other countries)…Vietnamese occupation from 1979-1991…U.S. support of Khmer Rouge 1975-1991(U.S. let Khmer Rouge have seat at U.N. and provided funds and weapons, along with China, for them to fight Vietnamese)…UN failure to force Hun Sen to lay down arms and abide by election results in 1993…UN troops, especially Europeans, introducing wide-spread prostitution to the country leading to massive import of Vietnamese prostitutes (this also involved using under-age sex-slaves, a condition that continues today)… a corrupt government that siphons off millions of dollars of foreign aid…the Japanese, Australians and Euros who let them get away with it…no exports to speak of…dependence on rice…land plots too small…theft of farmers land by high-ranking government and military officials…lack of water and electricity and healthcare and schools in the countryside…a civil service system that is still communistic in that employees make from $20-40 per month, inviting massive corruption and bribery…(for example, we pay our teachers in the countryside about $35 a month, about double the government rate. We pay every two months, the government pays twice a year because the villages are so remote)…so many reasons, so many to blame but we keep trying any way in hopes of bringing poor rural kids literacy, healthcare, good water to drink and safety for the girls from kidnappers and deceivers, who take them into sex-slavery. Good question, too long an answer and thanks for asking.

Hektor

Re: Cambodia…I didn’t quite understand your question? Could you pose it to me again?

But the moonbat wing of leftism has been particularly vicious in promoting Terri Shiavo’s death, making fun of her condition, and ridiculing her defenders. Those people are beyond reason, and need to be attacked as the miscreants they truly are.

Thanks for the comeback. I was addressing your first post (03.31.05 @ 4:21 pm), not the later one. I wasn’t addressing living wills at all (BTW, they’re a good idea…I have one). I was saying that this was mostly about judges (liberal and conservative) closing ranks to protect their institution. From this viewpoint, Terri Schiavo was just “collateral damage”–what was important was protecting the institution.

I accept what Jesse Jackson did at face value. I disagree with much of what he says, but until proven otherwise, I believe he’s sincere and that in this instance he and I agree. Which raises a very pertinent point…whence cometh the popular idea that liberals and conservatives cannot find common ground? You won’t read it anywhere these days, but their points of view are not always mutually exclusive. This “all or nothing” approach to dialogue is what’s destroying the fiber of this nation.

At the risk of dating myself, I remember a high school Civics textbook (yes, I know…What’s Civics?) that taught democracies are strengthened by two kinds of people: Liberals and Conservatives. When did you last hear something like that? I submit that much of the problem stems from liberals’ decision in the late ’60s to substitute court edicts for persuasive dialogue to obtain their ends. This is why Prohibition failed…court edicts, legislation, and police power cannot, in the long run, force people to change their behavior when a substantial portion of the population objects.

Finally, if you want to cringe, go to the liberal blog sites and see what they’re saying. They’re practically high-fiving one another over this.

Hektor

I attack liberalism all the time, and if you’re cringing now, I must warn you that it’s only going to get worse. There are plenty of bloggers out there who don’t attack liberalism. In fact, some love it. Perhaps you should spare yourself the pain and start reading some of those blogs. – Admin

If what you’re reading on the conservative sites can be characterized as “hate and vitriol”, I have to wonder (1) What sites you’re visiting and (2) How you’d characterize what I’ve seen on Democratic Underground, DailyKos, etc. Gleeful exuberance at an innocent person’s death seems in remarkably poor taste. At what point did scoring a point in the wastelands of American judicial process become more important than someone’s life?

Also, I visited your site (mossback.org) and found the lead sentence of this morning’s post and found your lead sentence “Now that Terri Schiavo’s heart has stopped beating” rather clever (and extremely tacky/tasteless). Remember this, sir…one day your heart will “stop beating” and the only thing you’ll be remembered for is what you leave behind. Clever punditry about an innocent death isn’t the legacy I’d choose to leave.

Hektor

“Hate and vitriol” are not words I can easily associate with the vast majority of religious folks who opposed this action. A few grandstanding fools fighting one another for tv camnera time do not represent the larger group of genuinely principled people.

I’d like to see a little humility on the part of the people who are so convinced they’re morally superior to the Schiavo family, the entire court system, all the non-charlatan doctors in the world, the vast majority of the American people and the Florida legislature.

I mean, did it occur to you hate-merchants for even one second that you might be wrong and Terri Schiavo really didn’t have any wish to live at the mercy of a food pump for fifteen years?

When the whole world is against you, you just might be wrong. Weird as it seems, it’s possible.