Kind Words

Sometimes people will surprise you. When you opine as much and as candidly as I have on various sites you have to get used to having your statements misrepresented and attacked, as I demonstrated on a previous post here. People disagree with varying degrees of vehemence and insult you in a great variety of ways. The ad hominem attack is the most used tactic of those with weak arguments. Because of that my guard stands hard when a public post is addressed to me, personally.

So, my psychic fists were up in preparation for sparring when I saw the latest post last night on a CIA thread on NPR's site. I had to do a double take on that one; here's what it said:

Yuri Paskalovich (Yuri) wrote:

Mr. Ed, your voice is a reasonable one. I appreciated your responses to Paul Cook & J. Walsh. With regard to "American Exceptionalism," I strongly recommend Andrew Bacevich's book, "The Limits of Power." He, like you, is a man of good sense.

Saturday, July 18, 2009 6:17:42 PM

The guy took the time to compliment me. The least I could do was take the time to thank him.

Eduardo Tijerino (Mr_Ed) wrote:

Yuri,
Thank you sir. Your kind words are appreciated. My experience in posting on this & other such sites has led me to gird myself for some verbal abuse when I see a post addressed to me. Anger seems to be a stronger stimulus to writing something than agreement. So it was a pleasant surprise to read your post.
I will look for the book & read it, thank you,

Sunday, July 19, 2009 3:11:12 AM

Yuri mentioned a couple of posts that I addressed. I'll post them and my responses to give as complete a picture of what this is about:

Paul Cook (BBQ) wrote:

Yawnnnnnn. The NYSlimes reported on this back when it started but now everyone is acting surprised that the CIA makes contingency plans. Schorr won’t be happy unless all our kids are forced to speak Arabic.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 7:27:22 PM

Eduardo Tijerino (Mr_Ed) wrote:

Paul Cook,
"Schorr won’t be happy unless all our kids are forced to speak Arabic."

Here is a perfect example of the kind of lame, gratuitous insult that is clearly false, thereby reducing the credibility of the person who posted it. How could he possibly know that about Mr. Schorr? He can't, he doesn't. He's just parroting Rush. If I were to parody brother Cook I would say something absurd, like it's obvious that he has a man crush on Rush.

Saturday, July 18, 2009 10:45:03 AM

J Walsh (walshamatic) wrote:

By bomb or bullet.....who cares, as long as the terrorist is dead....they will cut your head off in a second and have no regrets for doing it..

Thursday, July 16, 2009 7:32:57 PM

Eduardo Tijerino (Mr_Ed) wrote:

J Walsh,
"By bomb or bullet.....who cares, as long as the terrorist is dead....they will cut your head off in a second and have no regrets for doing it.."
By descending to the level of our adversaries we would make it impossible to claim "American Exceptionalism."

Friday, July 17, 2009 9:45:31 AM

I have to give some props to NPR listeners. Had I made similar statements on the Az Daily Star's site, where I used to opine, my patriotism would have been questioned many times for pointing out that claims of exceptionalism need to be backed by exceptional behavior. I was barred from that site because, upon his death, I posted a wish that Jerry Falwell rest in pieces. :)