1) It could only have happened once. Ever. If any captor ever expressed secret solidarity with a prisoner by drawing a cross, we need only track down the one time in human history that this ever occurred, and if it……

This sounds good at first but it is not a good idea.

platypus on August 19, 2008 at 12:56 PM

Not saying to ban them. Let them post. Just give me the option to hide their comments when I get sick of having to wade through their non-sense.

And Ed, Al – I was at a blog once, don’t remember where, where you could select the poster of a comment and then select “ignore.” They’d just vanish from the thread. Sure would be neat to have that ability here.

Rod on August 19, 2008 at 9:51 AM

This sounds good at first but it is not a good idea.

It is in the crucible of ideas that truth and wisdom separate out and rise to the surface. We need alphie, as distasteful as that may sound. He/she allows us to demonstrate superiority in many areas.

There is also the problem of doing things the way the looney leftists do – squishing opposing viewpoints.

I’m pretty sure that we do not want to prove moral equivalence with the nut-roots. Even inadvertently.

And Ed, Al – I was at a blog once, don’t remember where, where you could select the poster of a comment and then select “ignore.” They’d just vanish from the thread. Sure would be neat to have that ability here.

In today’s setting the word “hero” has become worn…and at times misused, and for some meaningless altogether.

But, you are right, anyone who puts themselves in harm’s way for the benefit of people they don’t even know, that rookie policeman, rookie firefighter, newly enlisted servicemenber, are certainly being heroic.

alphie on August 18, 2008 at 5:41 PM

When I think of a War Hero, I think of someone like Audie Murphy whose actions actually helped win the war they were fighting in.

That’s because you’re an idiot. You would not consider Pat Tilman a hero, I suppose.

The fact that someone signs up to put their life on the line so others don’t have to…THAT is heroic. That means every rookie policeman, rookie firefighter, newly enlisted military personell…are all true heroes.

alphie on August 18, 2008 at 5:28 PM

Why are you still here?

Esthier on August 18, 2008 at 5:39 PM

Because that’s what trolls do.

No of course not, it’s much more logical to take a totally different account of ANOTHER prisoner in ANOTHER Christianity suppressed country and say one is fabricated. The situations themselves were entirely different.

McCain’s involved an interaction between a guard and a prisoner. It showed to a defiant McCain that even among his enemies there were fellow Christians (and that they too were being held in bondage in terms of their faith).

Solzhenitsyn’s account involves the power and representation the cross signified and what it meant to him given the situation he was in. It involved an old man and someone who wanted to give up, who couldn’t take it anymore.

The contextual differences are stark and the ONLY similarities between the two incidents is a cross drawn in the sand in two situations where Christianity was severely suppressed (in both cases, in a prison). It says more about how religion was treated in Communist controlled camps and the lengths prisoners needed to go about in displaying their faith than actual theft that some are purporting. I really wonder if people will start discrediting other stories by McCain, how about the one he tells often about a man who went to great lengths to stitch together an American flag, even after severe beatings. Of course that’s probably a lie too, huh? If there is any instance of another prisoner in another time witnessing an event similar to that, then it HAS to be false. What utter B.S.

Try a little harder Alphie. We don’t want to put you on the 2nd string. That’s where all the shriekers are.

alphie on August 18, 2008 at 5:28 PM

Stop feeding the troll.

(I am aware that laughing at my own jokes is a sign of sickness.)

Mormon Doc on August 18, 2008 at 6:44 PM

Liberalism IS a mental disorder.

Remember, Nixon was more of a War “Hero” than John McCain was…and look how he turned out.

Nixon wasn’t considered a war hero. He saw no combat in WWII.

From Wikpedia (best I can do on short notice):

[Nixon] enlisted in the United States Navy in August 1942. He received training at Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island and was assigned to Ottumwa, Iowa, before being relocated and serving in the supply corps on several islands in the South Pacific, commanding cargo handling units in the SCAT. During World War II, he attained the rank of lieutenant commander.

Sheesh.

Do you ever think before you speak? Or are you just that slow to begin with?

upinak on August 18, 2008 at 5:36 PM

Thinking is something the Dhimocrats don’t do. If they had thought processes in the first place, they wouldn’t be Dhimocrats.

As Michael Savage says, “Liberalism is a mental disorder”. Being slow is probably just one of the symptoms.

Remember, Nixon was more of a War “Hero” than John McCain was…and look how he turned out.

War Heroism?

More like War Victim, I think.

Two different things.

Shall we give McCain the Presidency just because he suffered 40+ years ago?

alphie on August 18, 2008 at 5:28 PM

If McCain had just been captured and held you might possibly have a point. However, when the North Vietnamese offered to let him go, and he refused because he knew they would use this for propaganda purposes, he definitely moved into the hero category. He demonstrated that he was a patriot and cared more about his country and fellow soldiers than himself. McCain was not my choice for Republican candidate, but he has proven himself a patriot and a hero, something that I doubt either you or Obama understands.

It cracks me up when leftists think that playing dumb is some form of intellectual sophistication.

sandberg on August 18, 2008 at 5:46 PM

Who’s playing? Alphie really is that dumb.