[FoRK] Another one bites the dust

[Jeff Bone]

On Feb 27, 2008, at 8:44 PM, Kevin Elliott wrote:

>
> On Feb 27, 2008, at 4:54 PM, Russell Turpin wrote:
>> In that quote, Buckley prefigures what we see in the Bush right.
>
> I'm sorry, but I think your taking his idea so far out of context as  
> to completely eliminate all meaning.
>
> ""We have got to accept Big Government for the duration—for neither  
> an offensive nor a defensive
> war can be waged, given our present government skills, except through
> the instrument of a totalitarian bureaucracy within our shores. …""
>
> He said this in 1952, not long after WW2 ended, and in the context  
> of fighting the cold war.  It seems clear
> to me that in this context he's not talking about some sort of  
> gestapo apparatus, but the very large and
> invasive military bureaucracy that was used to fight WW2.  In long  
> hind sight, fears about the "Red Menace"
> seem overwrought, but the were very real an present at the time.

"Al Qaeda."  Boogedy boogedy boo!

>
> And YES, in a REAL, HONEST to god war, warrants don't mean shit!

When you're talking about domestic activities, yes they absolutely do  
--- unless you're at war with your own citizens!

>  I don't think the current "War On Terror", is sufficiently severe  
> to require those sorts
> of measures, but we've had all out war in the past, and in 1952 that  
> war felt pretty damn real.

So are you asserting that Buckley in general, at least after the early  
Cold War scares, consistently supported individual liberty and checks  
and balances over nationalist considerations?

Mmm hmm...  tell me another one.

jb