Up to this point I was faithful to my new years resolution to ignore all national news.

A brief survey of how this played out taking the perspective here doesn't suprise.

But there is a central questions I want answered:

1) Does american exceptionalism mean that ideas have no power/agency in the United States vs. Europe or the Muslim World?

That is less supose the "liberals" screwed up by blaming "conservatives". In what sense are we not simply talking about the requirement of having agency, and the principle/agent or master/slave dialectic.

That is who owns the bundle of sticks that are the intellectual property of an idea?

To be European about it (or perhaps Muslim as I understand the issueing of Fatwa's...) Someone (a principal, or a cleric) says that X is immoral...(say abortion) from the very issuance of the decree...person B takes it upon himself as an agent of morality, to seek out and destroy an abortion clinic.

He is thus the agent of the Cleric, who is the principal, or the one authorized by the religion to speak on behalf of God (or what is good, or evil, blasphemy seize his soul if he is incorrect.

Ideas do not matter in the United States because an idea is not copyrightable, in addition being a protestant commerical republic we would all laugh at one who claimed the title.

In addition a gun man even if he wanted or believed he was simply killing off the evil X would also be killing a human being who is not capable of being the concrete "representative" of that which he abhors. That is human beings have "manifold" characteristics, none which are neatly compressed by association with an abstract idea.

"Megadittoes" [Dan Quayle just rang - it's spelled d-i-t-t-o-s] ???

That sounds like a Rush Limbaugh fan!

I wonder how many Dittoheads (their term, not mine) were at the memorial ??

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/13/rush-limbaughs-tucson-billboard_n_808563.html?ref=twitter

"Honey, pack the lawn chairs, the camera, and don't forget the sniper rifle!"

I jest!

No you don't Scanlon.
You just react like most doctrinaire liberals (left wing loons) would do.
Accuse your adversaries of what you would really like to do yourself.

thedaddy

PS notice the bullet holes that the foamers of the puffingtonhost have a picture of are in a Rush Limbaugh sign, not a sign of one of your weenie compatriots.
How does that fit your twisted narrative ?

Craig, even when you have a free shot, you blow it: At the Rush website, it's spelled "Mega Dittos." We both need to tune in more often!

I hardly blew it - the idea was that Dan learned to spell better after his infamous blunder and was now trying to help a fellow conservative avoid embarrassment. (I actually didn't think I'd have to explain the joke but here we are...).

Also, I wouldn't count on Limbaugh's website as a spell-checking resource.

small potatos

That's it - embrace the misspellings. Proper spelling is just another form of liberal elitism, anyway.

Huffington Post?

C'mon ... the effin' Huffington Post?

This is actually good news. If you consider the Huffington Post a legitimate source for your points of view, then nothing is off limits to me, no matter how crazy and right-wing you may find it.

So, www.drudgereport.com is a legitimate source for supporting information.

Certainly you'll accept michellemalkin.com, right?

And of course /www.rushlimbaugh.com goes without objection.

I used to think my brother-in-law was the most unprincipled, unthinking liberal I ever knew.

Well, actually, he still is. Despite my lack of respect for your approach to reasoned thinking, Scalon, I still hold you in higher regard than my brother-in-law.

But don't get too excited about that. It's weak praise.

You're right, Don. HuffingtonPost is a questionable site. Far too much celeb gossip and meaningless trash has taken it over, and not enough control over their content. I erred in linking to it, even for the simple purpose of posting that completely legit. photo (one might assume that Limbaugh's media employer wouldn't respond to the whole thing if it were not real).

So, here's the same photo, as offered on Politico (a site that's been linked to numerous times here at NLT):
https://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0111/Limbaughs_unfortunate_billboard.html?showall

including a quote from Limbaugh's syndicator about the billboard.

No need to get nasty and insulting, though, Don. Comparing me to your infamous brother-in-law??!! That's below the belt! 'Fess up - is "a darker place in [your] soul" getting the better of you again?
https://nlt.ashbrook.org/2010/08/20-minutes-before-beck.php#comment-70978

Absolutely. Certain behavior by others tends to do that to me.

Craig, huffing about liberal elitism has little to do with conservatives thinking that they got all their fancy learnins. It is more that liberal elites think they do. That you think proper grammar constitutes elitism is something else altogether.

"That you think proper grammar constitutes elitism is something else altogether."

Where did I say or imply that?

I referred only to spelling.

Also, that is a very incoherent jumble of 3 sentences.

"[H]uffing about liberal elitism has little to do with conservatives thinking that they got all their fancy learnins."

What?? DO conservatives - generally, overall - think that they "got all their fancy learnins"?

Next sentence:

"It is more that liberal elites think they do."

Who's the "they" in this sentence - liberals or conservatives?

btw, I don't think that proper grammar constitutes elitism. Nor does proper spelling. Was I wrong to give you the benefit of the doubt, that you would detect my sarcasm when I wrote that "Proper spelling is just another form of liberal elitism, anyway"?