March 29, 2017

Why did John McCain choose to insult Kim Jong-un at the expense of the mentally ill, the overweight, and the very young?

Whatever loose talk a political official might want to use to talk about world leaders, shouldn't he take into account the collateral damage?

John McCain may properly think Kim Jong-un is terrible, but to call him a "fat crazy kid" is to drag in 3 categories of vulnerable people who shouldn't be used to symbolize worthlessness.

The focus in the press — if I may go by New York Magazine — is on how seriously North Korea takes the dignity of its leader. It issued a statement calling it "grave provocation little short of declaration of war" and threatened retaliation. If it's retaliation in kind, it will only be what we do to our President continually.

But what concerns me is how blithely McCain concocted his insult out of disdain for qualities possessed by millions of Americans who don't deserve the careless swipe. 

114 comments:

Once written, twice... said...

How politically correct of you Ann. Funny you have never even once criticized Trump for saying much worse.

Michael K said...

McCain should stay away from anti-aircraft guns.

He already got into trouble with one.

Now, he may be scheduled for another encounter.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un executed five security officials by anti-aircraft gun recently due to “false statements” which were given to the North’s leader and caused him to be enraged. The event was disclosed by the South Korean spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, and discussed in a private meeting with South Korean lawmakers, reported the Associated Press.

Michael K said...

Bad case of TDS above.

Inga said...

Yes, it was a careless insult, not worth the possible repercussions. Trump and McCain are starting to sound alike, sort of like Al Gore and Trump. WTH, everybody wants to be Trump? Why???

Chuck said...

But what concerns me is how blithely McCain concocted his insult out of disdain for qualities possessed by millions of Americans who don't deserve the careless swipe.

Haha. Good one, Althouse. I love it when you are doing your sly trickster thing.

Valentine Smith said...

You gots to be kiddin'.

dreams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
I'm Full of Soup said...

Fat and crazy are qualities now. Good to know- I will update my CV.

mezzrow said...

everybody wants to be Trump? Why???

It's a sign of the the times. Maybe your lucky star at last decides to shine, and the next thing you know you sound just like Donald Trump.

Mikec said...

But he just said the truth? If someone is crazy, then it's OK to lable him as such. It's not an insult if it's true. Or should Mcclain have said mentally challanged [but that means the same as crazy?]

In all fairness, I have to say that most of what McClain says can be ignored, but once in a while he is spot on.

Yancey Ward said...

Fat and crazy is no way to go through life.

Owen said...

Professor, I have to think you are just trolling here. Yes, McCain deserves our derision and severe remonstrance. Even if he had not invoked such PC-enriched categories as "fat/crazy/kid." But you have very deliberately tried to get us all worked about this, when it is not justified. Alternatively, we should be outraged about his usage, and in that case everything is cause for cranially-exploding indignation.

Scott M said...

Sorry, but I just can't bring myself to feel sorry for fat people. Yeah, yeah, there are some that are fat do to genetics, but from my observations over the past quarter century, its mostly down to bad personal decisions in diet and activity (or the lack thereof). I'm no beanpole, but I do try to eat well and get a fair amount of exercise.

We've gotten so used to people being overweight, it's so normalized, that we don't even notice the damage we're doing to ourselves, both individually and as a people. History will judge us harshly.

rhhardin said...

It's a blogging special olympics.

There's nothing wrong with crazy fat kid.

James Pawlak said...

Respect? Would the same be provided for Herman Goering or his co-actors, including the, under treatment, mentally ill Hitler?

Larvell said...

Ann, being a contrarian by engaging in mainstream PC concern-trolling. I'm sure she could have worked "cis-normative" in there if she had put in a bit more effort.

BarrySanders20 said...

The NK who came up with the little/short reference may find himself on the business end of that anti-aircraft gun.

Little short is not to be used in reference to a reference to Dear Leader.

Once written, twice... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Once written, twice... said...

I get it that Ann is now embarrassed that she joined the mob and thought that it would be fun to make Trump President. Now Ann wants to dismiss her fifteen months of not writing critically of Trump as her just being a "sly trickster." Good one Ann.

Bob Boyd said...

What is the evidence McCain's insult was blithely concocted?
For all we know, he might have agonized over the wording for months.
If his concoction was indeed blithe, then certainly that is something that should concern us all. In fact, I would go so far as to call for expressions of deep concern. But in the mean time, I call for concern to held in check. We simply aren't there yet.

johns said...

If you are trying to get your readers to react either the same or differently than they reacted to Trump using similar insults, I just think it's different when referring to a homicidal dictator. See, i used truthful adjectives that do not rely on negative stereotypes.

Scott M said...

John McCain to KJU: "Diabetes runs in your family because no one runs in your family."

Limited blogger said...

I don't normally defend John McCain, but come on.

Bob Boyd said...

Now that you mention it, I can't think of a single, worthwhile insult that doesn't include disdain for a quality possessed by millions of Americans.

Once written, twice... said...

In Ann's twisted moral universe...
*McCain referring to a homicidal dictator as fat = bad.
*Trump referring to dozens of women as fat=Trump being Trump.

Drago said...

The North Koreans announce they've been insulted and are preparing for war about twice a week since the mid-1950's.

It's kind of what they do and it paid off handsomely for them under the Bill & Hillary show.

If McCain hadn't insulted KJU, they would have found something else.

Maybe the Norks are figuring out that without Bill/Hill and obambi in power their standard sabre-rattling is basically falling on deaf ears though there appears to be quite a bit happening on our military side in the background which is about time.

Kevin said...

Wait until McCain releases the dossier on him!

Drago said...

Once written: "*Trump referring to dozens of women as fat=Trump being Trump"

Rosie is fat.

I'm sorry if that upsets you.

Perhaps Babs should cut back on the pancakes as well.

On the "plus side" (all puns intended), Lena has lost weight because of Trump, so let's just call it all even.

Michael K said...

Once written needs to get back on her meds.

holdfast said...

I could give a sh*t about Kim's feelings - but is this really the best McLame can do? Really?

Drago said...

Kevin: "Wait until McCain releases the dossier on him!"

McCain is always ready to be the patsy for democrat shenanigans as long as it negatively impacts a republican President.

We still don't have sufficient info yet on how Harry Reid got McCain to act as the frontman for "obtaining" the fake russian dossier hit-piece and bringing it to the FBI. McCain danced away from that just as fast as he could but we don't yet have the full background on it.

robother said...

McCain wants to go out in a blaze of glory, taking many of us with him. The fat cozy kid and the senile old Senator share a fondness for bombs as solutions in search of a problem.

Inga said...

Once written needs to get back on her meds."

Once Written is a male from the avatar. Why assume he's a woman? Sexist?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I do not like McCain - but it is the height of obscene decadence to be offended over a comment like "fat crazy kid"

Kim Jon-Un IS a fat crazy kid.



Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

So one of the Unknowns is gone and Inga is here. hmmmm.

Inga said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David Begley said...

Has a week gone by without McCain on TV?

Inga said...

Yes April, it is I, Unknown#99.

Infinite Monkeys said...

McCain is an idiot. (I apologize in advance to any idiots here who may be offended. You know who you are...or if you don't, we certainly do.) But, in this case he's right. Kim is overweight, unstable, and behaves like a spoiled child.

Rob said...

But what concerns me is how blithely McCain concocted his insult out of disdain for qualities possessed by millions of Americans who don't deserve the careless swipe.

You crazy old broad!

Brando said...

Are we so PC that we can't call that fat crazy kid a fat crazy kid?

Screw Kim, he's more than just a fat crazy kid. He's a murderous, evil fat crazy kid. We've reached a point where you can call someone "crazy" without having to think "oh, aren't we insulting the genuinely mentally ill?" Because whether Kim is officially mentally ill or not, he's still a murderous crazy fat kid who should not be in power.

Paddy O said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Isn't is more offensive to assume so many American kids are fat AND crazy?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

My opinion of McCain will go up a notch is he refuses to apologize.

Don't back down, dude!

Inga said...

LOL! "Unknown" sighting @1:26 PM.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Brando said...
Are we so PC that we can't call that fat crazy kid a fat crazy kid?"

Exactly. And I am no McCain fan either. Kim's not only a fat, crazy kid, but a vicious murderer of thousands.

For most North Koreans, "fat shaming" just isn't an issue. While Kim is wolfing down a third helping at dinnertime, his subjects are eating grass and counting their protruding ribs, probably one of the only leisure activities permitted in North Korea.

David said...

Why?

Loose lips mangle quips.

His lips have become very loose.

Inga said...

Oh! And 1:17! Didn't this bot used to call itself by some Asian sounding name?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Unknown at 3/29/17, 1:26 PM makes more sense than any other Unknown comment ever posted here, with the exception of Vance's.

Michael said...

Once written ...
How is that DJIA going for you??? LOL through a megaphone.

dreams said...

"So one of the Unknowns is gone and Inga is here. hmmmm."

Obviously Inga is not Unknown for we have come to know her.

I Callahan said...

I'm sure she could have worked "cis-normative" in there if she had put in a bit more effort.

Nah - that would surely have given the game away...

Quaestor said...

Let's deconstruct "fat crazy kid", shall we? Firstly we must remember McCain spoke the words, he didn't write them. Therefore the press may have transcribed his comment inaccurately. He may well have said "phat crazy kid". I'm not sure what phat means, but in hip-hop lingo, phat is a compliment, I think. A "phat chick" is supposedly a sexually alluring woman.

Crazy is a word that with a universe of nuance. I think everyone has been called crazy from time to time, and usually by a loved one as a term of endearment. Buy an extravagant gift for a woman and 82.7% of the time she will call you crazy. 76.03% of the time when a woman uses the word crazy in this context does not mean she thinks you are insane. Granted the confidence interval is quite wide whenever verbal communication involves a female nexus, nevertheless one may safely conclude that crazy is a word not necessarily containing derogatory intent. John McCain is not a woman (I think), however, there is reasonable doubt he intended an insult by referring the Great Leader as crazy. Men have been known to use the word to describe themselves as a form of self-approbation..

Kid is famously ambiguous. Literally, a kid is a young goat, especially one unweaned. It's hard to pin down when it began to be used almost universally in America as a synonym for child. However, it seems to have meant a young and sexually alluring woman before the word referred to children generally as in the popular music hall number of 1909 and the famous line spoken by Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca.

walter said...

Send Dennis Rodman and a case of booze..STAT!

Snark said...

Not everything is meant to be deconstructed. It's far less Fat OR Crazy OR Kid and far more Fat AND Crazy AND Kid. It the juxtaposition of those words that conjures a particular characterization that of course does not drag in all the fat, all the crazy and all the immature. Perhaps the small subset of fat, crazy kids might have a legitimate issue.

Sebastian said...

@ Snark: "Not everything is meant to be deconstructed." Your handle notwithstanding, you are obviously not very sly.

Let's just call Kim "that man" and be done with -- the only category that can still be used with impunity (I think).

Dan Truitt said...

Oh, please.

Trumpit said...

"Fat crazy kid." Crazy is the most worrisome trait. He has or will soon have the ability to kill millions of people in an instant. A crazy person might do it for crazy reasons (Note to self: All reasons are crazy). I think "fat" & "kid" were meant to be descriptive not disparaging. I don't think he is still a kid, but he is still a fat pig. (He heartily eats while his hapless subjects go hungry.) Pig, the animal, is the most maligned animal there is except perhaps for rat. I will continue to call people greedy pigs, and fat pigs because I can't think of a better word to use in place of "pig." Sorry, pigs, you're stuck. Maybe it's due to your messy way of eating, or your voracious appetite.

khesanh0802 said...

I am getting the increasing feeling that McCain is indeed entering senility as so many have noted. Of course it could just be the crappy quality of how he is reported, but if accurate his judgment is questionable.

Quaestor said...

Kim Jong-Un is a fat crazy kid — One of the most remarkable examples of human evolution is the spread of a mutation in the LCT gene which permits adults to assimilate lactose, which first appeared among Neolithic farmers in Europe nearly 6,000 years ago, leading eventually to the famous cheese culture of Switzerland (the country most responsible for Kim Jong-Un, btw). The mutation slowly made its way eastward, reaching Korea and Japan only in the last century. Still, the majority of Korean adults remain lactose intolerant. Therefore when we see pictures of the Great Leader gloating over a huge vat of Velveeta we know it's because it's all for him. To call him cheese obsessed is perhaps an overstatement, however, his enthusiasm for dairy fats is at least excessive. And he is among the younger mad dictators, his closest rivals being Ibrahim al-Badri (aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) age 45, "caliph" of ISIS and Justin Trudeau, also aged 45, the caliph of Canada. Therefore "fat crazy kid" may be just mean a young man too fond of ice cream. How insulting is that?

Darrell said...

McCain wants to save the NWO. Somebody should tell him.

David Baker said...

Sounds like psyops to me, something cooked up with Mattis. Make Fatso-Kim snap.

J. Farmer said...

Yeah, he's not like the al Saud or al Thani families whose murder and despotism is simply born of a craven desire to keep their dynastic lines of power alive. Oh wait.


p.s. And speaking of "fat kids," perhaps John should have a conversation with Meghan at this year's Thanksgiving get together

richlb said...

@David Baker - "psyops", or "Psy ops"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Amadeus 48 said...

Damn! Why did I vote for McCain for president?!!?

Oh...

Paul Ciotti said...

North Korea is trying to establish the King-with-no-clothes principle. No one is supposed to notice their leader is crazy and fat.

walter said...

McCain is rumored to be behind the many Kim Jong un food memes.

J. Farmer said...

p.p.s. The wars McCain has cheerlead since just 2001 have gotten orders of magnitude more people killed than Kim Jogn Un, but I'm sure that means nothing to McCain. After all, he's one of the "good guys." When he advocates and supports unleashing massive amounts of violence on distant populations, he does it for very sober, adult reasons.

Bad Lieutenant said...

J. Farmer,

Are there any enemies you DON'T like better than us and our allies?

Brando said...

"My opinion of McCain will go up a notch is he refuses to apologize."

Unless he gives a solid un-pology, along the lines of "I'm sorry...sorry North Korea has to suffer under this crazy fat kid who clearly ate all their food!"

"For most North Koreans, "fat shaming" just isn't an issue. While Kim is wolfing down a third helping at dinnertime, his subjects are eating grass and counting their protruding ribs, probably one of the only leisure activities permitted in North Korea."

I'm guessing Althouse is trolling us again, as Kim is quite clearly fat--unless all those photos were faked by her new villain, the "fake news". And he is, relatively speaking, a kid--very young for a world leader! That's not even an insult.

And as for "crazy"--well, I'm no psychiatrist and obviously haven't treated him (two things which Althouse thinks are necessary before we use the word "crazy") but then I'm not a mechanic yet if I see a car on fire I can say "that car's f*cked!"

So I stand behind my argument that Kim is crazy until proven sane.

J. Farmer said...

@Bad Lieutenant:

Actually, I am quite fond of my country, especially as nationalists go, which is precisely why I don't want my country's government wasting our taxpayer and fellow countrymen lives (never mind the lives of numerous others) on stupid foreign adventurism.

And did I say anything empirically incorrect? If dumb manichean patriotism is all your selling, then no thanks.

J. Farmer said...

@Brando:

How qualitatively different is he than the brutal autocrats who we support?

Brando said...

"p.p.s. The wars McCain has cheerlead since just 2001 have gotten orders of magnitude more people killed than Kim Jogn Un, but I'm sure that means nothing to McCain. After all, he's one of the "good guys." When he advocates and supports unleashing massive amounts of violence on distant populations, he does it for very sober, adult reasons."

Even from the most anti-war standpoint, there is simply no comparison between how America conducts war and how vile regimes like North Korea conduct war and peace on their own population. Complain about McCain's politics all you want, but he's nowhere near the same ballpark as the Kim family.

Brando said...

"How qualitatively different is he than the brutal autocrats who we support?"

We've supported and continue to support some rather unsavory autocrats, but I'm not aware of any who have reached the level of oppression, chaotic foreign policy of threats and violence, international crime, and most importantly mass forced starvation and prison camp atrocities as North Korea does.

roesch/voltaire said...

This is a clever troll from the moll who runs the blog.

J. Farmer said...

@Brando:

Complain about McCain's politics all you want, but he's nowhere near the same ballpark as the Kim family.

McCain's "politics" have included supporting and championing wars of aggression against other states that have gotten hundreds of thousands of people killed.

"but I'm not aware of any who have reached the level of..."

So then it's a quantitative difference not a qualitative one?

George said...

How many millions of Americans would I be affronting if I described McCain as he really is

Earnest Prole said...

He can't do that to our children! Only we can do that to our children!

Brando said...

"So then it's a quantitative difference not a qualitative one?"

Actually it's both, unless you consider any killings for any reason to be equivalent. Kim's treatment of his own people has been near genocidal and indiscriminate. Who do we support who even comes close to that?

As for McCain's "wars" there's a big difference between unintentional collateral damage and intentional targeted murder. It's why we don't look at WWII and say "well, we killed some civilians too, so we can't really criticize Hitler..."

J. Farmer said...

@Brando:

As for McCain's "wars" there's a big difference between unintentional collateral damage and intentional targeted murder.

That's assuming your war is just in the first place. The US carries out targeted assassination campaigns globally. People that we suspect of being guilty of something are blown apart with a missile, plus anyone who has the misfortune of being in their perimeter at the time the execution is decided.

Bad Lieutenant said...

People that we suspect of being guilty of something are blown apart with a missile,


This troubles you for some reason?

What if we did it to people you don't like?

And you asserted a comparison of casualty counts that you have not stated. I'm not so sure you're right, counting the whole Kim "dynasty." Plus some points for the quality of the Nork totalitarian system (Syria et al get scores too, but juche will score high), and also some adjustment for the chronic starvation of the entire population, with associated stunting of physical and mental growth...

...I meant mental stunting via nutrition, but the NK brainwashing is at an almost unprecedented level, way over anyplace in EMEA but maybe your friends in Iran (assuming you don't count Islam as brainwashing, which I think you don't), who you seem to want to make the big winner and set up as the fourth global hegemonic near-peer to us, an Iranian-led Caliphate vs. the US, the Russians and Chinese.
I guess I am Manichean. Pick a side, baby!

And your tone re McCain is indecorous, and marks you for the Counterpunch camp.

J. Farmer said...

@Bad Lieutenant:

This troubles you for some reason?

Yes, I believe in a theory of justice where someone is a suspect first. If having the executive play accuser, juror, and executioner is such a great system, why don't we implement it here?

What if we did it to people you don't like?

I'd still be against it.

I'm not so sure you're right, counting the whole Kim "dynasty."

Sure, if you want to completely change what I said, then no, I am not "right." But I made no mention of the "whole Kim 'dynasty.'" What I said was "The wars McCain has cheerlead since just 2001 have gotten orders of magnitude more people killed than Kim Jong Un."

assuming you don't count Islam as brainwashing, which I think you don't

"Brainwashing" isn't a phrase I'd use, but I consider Islam to be as equally false as any other religion.

And your tone re McCain is indecorous, and marks you for the Counterpunch camp.

I don't see why one needs a decorous tone when describing a politician, but if that's your kink, you're more than welcome to it. Regarding Counterpunch, insomuch as they oppose American military adventurism, I agree with them. As far as SJW-type activism, I could not be more opposed.



Sebastian said...

"The US carries out targeted assassination campaigns globally. People that we suspect of being guilty of something are blown apart with a missile, plus anyone who has the misfortune of being in their perimeter at the time the execution is decided."

You'd think people would get the message, but no.

Anyway, we've hardly begun to fight in earnest. The so-called "assassination campaigns" are pinpricks. Of course, it's not clear that Americans want to fight, and in the short run DJT may well dial back what little was left of US aggression under O. Nor am I advocating some sort of gratuitous war.

But at some point the Norks, the Russians, the mad Muslims, and even the Chinese can piss us off to where we won't hold back, when the world realizes that "assassination campaigns" is America trying to play nice.

J. Farmer said...

@Sebastian:

But at some point the Norks, the Russians, the mad Muslims, and even the Chinese can piss us off to where we won't hold back, when the world realizes that "assassination campaigns" is America trying to play nice.

Considering that three out of the four powers you just mentioned are armed with thermonuclear ICBMs, what exactly do you expect the US to do when they "piss us off??

TWW said...

John McCain doesn't understand that he lost his candidacy for the President; he is not Secretary of State; he does not represent the United States in Foreign Policy matters; he should adhere to the tradition of not criticizing the President on foreign soil and, as an overall point, should just shut the fuck up.

readering said...

I get the fat and crazy but I don't understand the complaint about calling him a kid. Not old enough to be president of the united states.

Alex said...

Fat, drunk & stupid is no way to go through life son.

Chuck said...

One thing you gotta understand about John McCain; anytime he concocts an insult out of disdain for qualities possessed by millions of Americans who don't deserve the careless swipe, you just know he's gonna do it blithely.

bagoh20 said...

If you called Hitler a bossy, mustachioed, white guy, with delusions of grandeur, I wouldn't get offended, but for some the truth hurts, and no matter how little, it's unbearable. This acute, yet chronic, pain is disabling the entire nation. We need a Manhattan Project type effort to find a medication that can ease the pain of the truth, and mandate it for all insurance plans. Better yet, add it to the water supply, double it in bottled water.

Quaestor said...

J. Farmer wrote: How qualitatively different is he than the brutal autocrats who we support?

Typical tu quoque dodge.

Name one brutal autocrat supported by the Unites States, and explain why they are autocrats and how we support them.

The Godfather said...

NK has nuclear warheads and missles that can hit countries that we are allied with -- and they are working on missles that can hit the US. And some Senator calls their leader fat and crazy and they threaten retaliation. I think it's time we took them out.

Dude1394 said...

John McCain should not be allowed out of the country, he is senile.

Quaestor said...

Unknown wrote: John McCain should not be allowed out of the country, he is senile.

Abby Someone understands senility intimately.

Bad Lieutenant said...

J. Farmer said...
@Bad Lieutenant:

This troubles you for some reason?

Yes, I believe in a theory of justice where someone is a suspect first. If having the executive play accuser, juror, and executioner is such a great system, why don't we implement it here?


I'll pay you the compliment of saying that such stupidity is beneath you. Foreigners have no rights. If you're all butthurt about a couple of Americans who got sent to their rewards, again, they were in Afghanistan. Under what possible theory were they innocent? Innocent of what?


What if we did it to people you don't like?

I'd still be against it.

I regret to say that I don't believe you. You are not a pacifist. To take the hackneyed example of Hitler-or the more real one of Yamamoto-if you had a drone (or a flight of P-38s) handy and could kill, assassinate, execute or murder him, would you say No, Hitler is innocent until proven guilty?



I'm not so sure you're right, counting the whole Kim "dynasty."

Sure, if you want to completely change what I said, then no, I am not "right." But I made no mention of the "whole Kim 'dynasty.'" What I said was "The wars McCain has cheerlead since just 2001 have gotten orders of magnitude more people killed than Kim Jong Un."


What you said was not cogent. Among other things, KJU has not been in power since 2001.

assuming you don't count Islam as brainwashing, which I think you don't

"Brainwashing" isn't a phrase I'd use, but I consider Islam to be as equally false as any other religion.

But no more false, or dangerous, or otherwise lacking in merit. This is proved by their civilization which is equal to ours. -Sorry, I was attempting to avoid snark.

And your tone re McCain is indecorous, and marks you for the Counterpunch camp.

I don't see why one needs a decorous tone when describing a politician,

Helps to take you seriously.

but if that's your kink, you're more than welcome to it. Regarding Counterpunch, insomuch as they oppose American military adventurism, I agree with them. As far as SJW-type activism, I could not be more opposed.

Because the two things are wholly unrelated, of course. -Sorry, more snark.

3/29/17, 4:07 PM

gg6 said...

My goodness, Ann, for someone who can go on for long paragraphs dissecting the real, imagined, possible, impossible, probable, appropriate , legal or imaginative meaning of a word like 'word', you sure go overboard on 'fat' and 'crazy'!
Lighten up, you word crazy lady.

J. Farmer said...

@Bad Lieutenant:

Foreigners have no rights.

Never said they did.

What you said was not cogent. Among other things, KJU has not been in power since 2001.

No, I started the clock at the war on terror; I didn't bother bringing up McCain's stupid support for intervention in the Balkans earlier. I made an empirical statement, and it remains true.

But no more false, or dangerous, or otherwise lacking in merit.

Well now you're asking completely different questions. Is Islam the reason the region is the way it is, or did Islam take off in a geographic area already prone to such behavior. I don't know, and neither do you.

Helps to take you seriously.

Again, I don't consider obsequiousness towards politicians to be a sign of seriousness. In fact, usually just the opposite.

Because the two things are wholly unrelated, of course.

Counterpunch's editorial line is strongly left-wing. Alexander Cockburn came from a famously left-wing family. To the degree that Counterpunch advocates non-interventionism, I agree with them. When they publish SJW stuff, I disagree with them. You were the one who brought up Counterpunch like an insult. Like most periodicals, I agree with some of their stuff and disagree with others.

You're just making the same boring, lazy attempt to accuse me of being left-wing, which even if it were true would make no difference in whether or not what I said was true or not.


J. Farmer said...

@Quaestor:

Name one brutal autocrat supported by the Unites States, and explain why they are autocrats and how we support them.

Gulf Arab monarchies for one thing. All of whom are absolute monarchies who use violence and political repression to maintain power. They all enjoy broad financial, military, political, and diplomatic support from the United States.

Michael K said...

Gulf Arab monarchies for one thing. All of whom are absolute monarchies who use violence and political repression to maintain power.

A popular Democrat president once said, "He is a son of a bitch but he is our son of a bitch."

Stalin got hundreds of millions in Lend Lease from us.

I am no fan of Saudi Arabia and their usefulness is declining as fracking allows us to replace their contribution to civilization.

Qatar is a major US base.

Our principle enemy is now Iran with billions of aid from Obama in his insane quest to make them friends and allies.

The Gulf Arab monarchies are the front line along with Israel which is forming an alliance with the Sunni states.

J. Farmer said...

@Michael K:

The Gulf Arab monarchies are the front line along with Israel which is forming an alliance with the Sunni states.

The Gulf Arab monarchies are the source of most of our trouble. They support financially and strategically radical salafi jihadist all over the globe. Saudi Arabia is a particularly nasty actor, fueling the violence in Syria and delivering it directly in Yemen. US efforts to maintain a hegemonic position in the middle east will inevitably result in pushback. Our relationship with the Gulf Arabs gets us virtually nothing of strategic value in return and costs us a great deal. It's a rotten arrangement and far past time for scrapping it.

Bob Loblaw said...

McCain's house is a little too glass-like for him to be calling other people crazy.

Birkel said...

I hate to be this mean to anybody, but...

John McCain is Chuck's sort of Republican.

Damn! Now I feel bad for both Chuck and John McCain.

jaed said...

That's so-called John McCain.

Birkel said...

@ Chuck, so called

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Are you psychotic?

Seriously, now we have to walk on eggshells for that NORK POS?

Where was your post when Donny Tiny Hands held a confidential meeting in open view of all his patrons at Mar a Lago and had them taking pictures with the guy carrying the nuclear codes?

Your priorities are completely unjustifiable.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Ann, you crazy old lady . . .

Roy Lofquist said...

Kid comes from the German kinder which means children. Did you attend kindergarten? English is rich in German, French, Spanish and Latin cognates with smatterings of other languages suck as Hebrew and Yiddish (Bible).

WarrenPeese said...

Fat? Check. Crazy? Judging by his recent behavior, check. Kid? Relative to McCain, check.
The way I see it, there's never a bad time to speak truth to power or bad behavior.

Drago said...

TTR: "Where was your post when Donny Tiny Hands held a confidential meeting in open view of all his patrons at Mar a Lago and had them taking pictures with the guy carrying the nuclear codes?"

I'm afraid that talking point has already been debunked.

All classified and confidential discussions were held in the on site SCIF. The discussions at the table with the Japanese Prime Minister involved protocol plans for the following days public activities.

stevo said...

McCain's statement was true. Obama's special olympics joke was funny. Credit where it's due.

Rich B said...

Rand Paul was right about this guy and I suspect McCain has done this to exacerbate Trump's problems with NK. The Wrath of McCain knows no bounds or statutes of limitations.

Roger Sweeny said...

North Korea does not "seriously ... take[s] the dignity of its leader. The government of North Korea does. They are not now, and never have been, the same thing.

Roger Sweeny said...

the problem isn't that Kim is fat. The problem is that the same system that keeps him well-fed keeps most North Koreans on the edge of starvation--or over the edge.

Martin said...

Go easy on McCain, he's 80 yrs old and not all there. (See what I just did? 2 more groups insulted.)

The Elder said...

Truth is a complete defense to an action for defamation, but not very effective as a missile defense system.