Vietnam

[Alison Murie]

On May 20, 2010, at 6:40 PM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      Re: Vietnam
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> As if lawyers never misspeak? What nonsense!
>
> Now that it has become abundantly clear that Blumenthal's
> supposedly deceitful comment was wrenched out of context to make him
> seem to be a jerk, the ridiculousness of Murie's comments below
> become apparent. Her gratuitous wing-nut allusion to some undefined
> putative transgression of our current vice president indicates that
> her comments have nothing to do with how discourse works in
> political speeches and yellow journalism and  everything to do with
> venting a political agenda. Could we get back to the American
> language here?
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
> Date:         Thu, 20 May 2010 17:12:11
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] Vietnam
>
> On May 20, 2010, at 2:30 PM, ronbutters wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       ronbutters <ronbutters at AOL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Vietnam
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Well, no, it seems pretty clear that Blumenthal was not and is not
>> "tradin=
>> g on the sacrifices of others."=A0Obviously, there are people who
>> set out=
>> to do so, for a wide variety of reasons. There are also politicians
>> and=
>> ideologues and journalists who want to make a name for themselves in
>> "inv=
>> estigative" reporting who have agendas that allow them to profit by
>> creati=
>> ng images of ducks out of finger shadows. They are the real
>> charlatans who=
>> are trading on the sacrifices of others" by using really phony
>> charges to=
>> create outrage in those who did the sacrificing, their loved ones,
>> and an=
>> yone with a sense of the injustice that was done in this country to
>> Viet=
>> Nam veterans.
>>
>> If nothing else, does it not really make sense to ask oneself, "Why
>> would=
>> a politician set out to deliberately deceive the public about
>> something=
>> that was so obviously easily discoverable--especially since he
>> himself ha=
>> d made it clear in unequivocal public pronouncements that he was not
>> a war=
>> hero?" And "Why would someone who had served honorably in the
>> Marines wis=
>> h to discredit his fellow Marines by claiming that he had taken the
>> same=
>> risks that they had taken?"
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Two points here:  Blumenthal must have trained as a lawyer, since he
> is the AG of CT.  It makes the carelessness defense rather doubtful,
> IMO.  As to why would a politician indulge in an easily disprovable
> lie: for the same reasons that animate most of their public life, for
> gain.  Look at our vice president who told such an elaborate lie about
> his own background when running for (was it president?) some years
> ago, that it is astounding that his career survived at all.  I think
> getting into office goes to the head of many, & they begin to think
> they can get away with just about anything.
> AM
>
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~~~~~~~~~
I think it's reasonable to assume that an experienced lawyer making a
public appearance would be more than ordinarily careful in his speech.
There was nothing absolute  ("never") in what I said.
You asked why any politician would lie, which hardly makes my allusion
to Biden's well-known misrepresentations "gratuitous."
I wonder about the undefined putative political agenda you posit.  I
have none with respect to Blumenthal, whom I'd never heard of before
this story broke in the NYT & on NPR.  I certainly have no animus
against those who tried to avoid service in the VietNam war (a war I
opposed from the start), but Blumenthal's apparent attempt to have his
cake & eat it is rather disgusting.

AM aka Wing-Nut

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