Gross impoliteness

[Marc Sacks]

At the risk of getting further away from what I think this list's purpose
is (i.e., language, not politics) I'm afraid I'm missing the point of this
reply. The message simply presents the line; it doesn't comment on its
truth value. Moreover, I hope James Landau isn't defining as "gross
impoliteness" any viewpoint with which he disagrees. This particular one,
although I can't vouch for its correctness, is held by large numbers of
people, including many whom I respect. In any case, I don't see how it
rises to the level slander of either President Bush, both of whom (along
with Vice President Cheney) have always been closely aligned with oil
interests.

Marc Sacks
msacks at theworld.com

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> Subject:      Gross impoliteness
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sagehen posted the following colophon:
>
> ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
>     DIE FOR OIL?   * * *   LET GEORGE DO IT!
> ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
>
>
>
>
>
> This is grossly impolite.
>
> The claim that the US was going to war for lower oil prices, or for oil in
> general, is a slander that was made about the FIRST President Bush and the
> Gulf War.  Yes, I say slander.
>
> I distinctly remember that there was a fair amount of opposition to going
> to war in the Persian Gulf among the Democrats in Congress.  (I honestly
> do not recall about Congressional Republicans; the Democrats were much
> more memorable).  But did anyone in Congress get up and say, as someone
> said about Korea, "Wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time"?
> (Sorry, I don't have the YBQ handy to check that quote).  No.  The only
> things that were made against the Gulf War was the slander that G. H. W.
> Bush was going to war for oil (specifically for cheap oil) and the
> disingenuous argument that if Bush extended the deadline, Saddam would
> negotiate seriously or something.
>
> So now it is a decade and a half later and what do I see when I read
> through my ADS-L digest?  A slander that doesn't gain anything by having
> been recycled.
>
> I say this is both grossly impolite to the list and totally out of place
> in a list whose purpose is to provide a forum for gathering information on
> philological questions.  I ask Sagehen to stop posting political messages
> on this list and to apologize to the list.
>
>     - James A. Landau
>       Test Engineer
>       Northrop-Grumman, Information Technology Division
>       8025 Black Horse Pike, Suite 300
>       West Atlantic City  NJ  08232  USA
>
>
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>
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