Ghost of a flea

Who is this "the left"?

A self-selecting group exhibiting the psychopathologies outlined above and related psychopathologies concerning the free market, crime and punishment and reality-testing deficiencies regarding the weather.

The real left, the ones who continue to advance universal values of liberty and equality, do not exhibit these symptoms. Here I am thinking particularly of Christopher Hitchens and those of us who advance under his banner.

But that is an excellent answer but one I never hear when "the left" is used. I need to update my own more detailed crank with your statement.

The answer is one of cause and effect. To the left, the Iraq war caused 9/11.

Flea, you are starting to sound like Master Shake and it is scaring me.

To the left, the Iraq war caused 9/11.

Oh, please. Everyone knows that it was Afghanistan that caused 9/11.

Get it right, man.

In other news, Mr. Layton says that events in Afghanistan are boosting support for the Taliban. By "support for the Taliban," he must be referring to the increase in NDP donations.

If donating to the NDP is not supporting the other side, then I don't know what is.

Alan?

I like the Mister Shake thing. A sense of humour like that is sure to come in handy as the black banners are raised over whatever is left of Parliament.

I'm sorry, but it's funny that you should be talking about non-Euclidian thinking when I see absolutely no logic to your blanket statement on "the left" at all. Are you referring to the _first_ Gulf War that "caused" 9/11? Even if that's the case, many people would be happy to walk you right back to 1919 and beyond to explain why the Middle East is the mess it is today, and why the West's hands are far from lily white on this one.

I sense you are in a pretty dark place, and I'm sorry to see that. It's not in all of the people around you. You need to get out a little more and engage some of these people in conversations other than politics. You need a regrounding because you are starting to see darkness in a lot of people where it doesn't exist.

Oh, I don't know. I'd say that said darkness does exist -- but that's just life, and it's not like this is anything new.

We live, and we do okay. Till we don't, of course.