Comments on: Making Deals With the Devil http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/ Paleoconservative Observations Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:59:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: James N. Markels http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3664 Thu, 07 Sep 2006 09:14:52 +0000 http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3664 I agree that if we all acted like a bunch of Spartans, with a damn-the-torpedoes “you get my name, rank, serial number, and an invitation to go to Hell” attitude, radical Islamists would be thinking twice about messing with us. Instead, they eat Big Macs, wear Levis, and think we’re weak and decadent without realizing that they’re slowly becoming just like us. We are like the Borg only with a much more insidious bedside manner.

]]> By: malwords http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3663 Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:00:49 +0000 http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3663 James: forget about religion for a sec. The propaganda value could be huge for the terrorists. Might prospective jihadists look at these two reporters as products of a weak, decadent culture and religion–thus encouraging more of the same.

With respect to religion: If you’re a Chrisitan, you’re required to witness the faith. That’s why we celebrate Pentecost and the martyrs. Yes, anyone can say anything in a moment like that; those guys were scared to death, and that’s forgivable. But if they were Christians, they were still wrong. Again, easily understood, but still wrong.

cl: “good little Italian did.”
Those adjectives are pretty freaking callous.

]]> By: James N. Markels http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3662 Tue, 05 Sep 2006 12:52:48 +0000 http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3662 We can’t accomplish much? We’re the most dominant and successful economy and culture on the planet by a very wide margin!

]]> By: cl http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3661 Tue, 05 Sep 2006 12:15:26 +0000 http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3661 The real question is why the double standard? Why with one breath do we exclude journalist from being “American” or “Western”, attacking them for being…well…journalist. And then say they are a representation of us and should just do what the good little Italian did?

I think that we have to face the facts…that America and by definition the “West” is not made up of card caring patriots forming a single-minded front. But instead it is the “lumpy pot” of un-melted ideas, religions, and philosophies that preclude us from ever forming a central front against such a strong ideology as Islam.

I am not surprised that the two Fox employees did what they did. I would expect, to be honest, that that would be result more seen…then the opposite. We are not a country of Christians. We are not a country of patriots. We are not what the neo-cons say we are. We are not even what the enemy says we are.

We are a country of diverse ideologies, religions, philosophies, life-styles, politics, and values. It is because of that we can not accomplish much. And why when push comes to shove we cannot put forth a single-minded strategy that is shared from the administration to the way a citizen of this country will respond when captured and coerced into converting while on camera.

And to be honest…I prefer it that way. But it sure does make it hard to fight a single-minded ideology sometimes.

cl

]]> By: James N. Markels http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3660 Tue, 05 Sep 2006 09:16:55 +0000 http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3660 How is it blasphemy? Isn’t God able to look at the situation objectively and know that the “conversion” is a fraud?

]]> By: Vanishing American http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3659 Tue, 05 Sep 2006 00:11:34 +0000 http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3659 I wonder, too, about just what would be considered worth dying for. I’ve noticed that many people are saying they, too, would do whatever was necessary to stay alive. But where is the line there? Is betrayal of others OK to stay alive? Collaborating with enemies? Where is the line to be drawn?
And of course Christians, who believe that we are just passing through this world will see things differently than the agnostic or atheist. But I’ve just been troubled by the seeming lack of will to resist that has emerged in the discussions of this incident.
In the words of John Stuart Mill, ”A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

]]> By: Roach http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3658 Mon, 04 Sep 2006 17:54:38 +0000 http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3658 You’re undoubtedly right that the pro forma confession to save one’s life was done here under durress and may have even been rational when the merely earthly interests of one’s own life and family life are taken into account. I definitely have sympathy for them, but I think there is a broader point to at least consider: what things are worth dying for? What actions are so degrading and dishonorable that it is better to die than to perform them? For Christians, blasphemy is pretty high on the list.

]]> By: Roach http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3657 Mon, 04 Sep 2006 17:52:39 +0000 http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3657 You’re undoubtedly right that the pro forma confession to save one’s life was done here under durress and may have even been rational when the merely earthly interests of one’s own life and family life are taken into account. I definitely have sympathy for them, but I think there is a broader point to at least consider: what things are worth dying for? What actions are so degrading and dishonorable that it is better to die than to perform them? For Christians, blasphemy is pretty high on the list.

]]> By: James N. Markels http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3656 Mon, 04 Sep 2006 10:01:45 +0000 http://mansizedtarget.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-deals-with-the-devil/#comment-3656 Wait a minute. Just because someone agrees to convert to Islam with their mouth doesn’t mean they convert to Islam with their heart. I like what the Italian did, and I’ll bet Islamists would have some second thoughts about things would every captured American act in the same way. But I’m not going to fault someone who has a family (especially kids) that rationally decides that life at the expense of a lie is better than a widow and bereft kids.

If those journalists were now praying to Mecca each day, well, then maybe you’d have something. But I really doubt that they are.

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