Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Yawn ...

Another day ... another Shea lie.

I remember the good old days when Shea would make up his own misquotations. But now he's relying on others. Note that his post doesn't link to my words (that'd be too confusing), but to a citation from Morning's Minion. And he puts ellipses in the precise place MM did and picks up the quote in the exact same place. I'll guess on that basis that Shea never even bothered to read what I wrote, instead taking MM's word. Which was that I had said (these links are what are called "citations"; they enable the reader to check the claims being made for truth):
I see Victor the Impaler of the Foggy Bottoms is now arguing that "if any harm is done to the British sailors, we will execute Iranian nationals held prisoner in Iraq or in Guantanamo... send one of ours to hospital, we send one of yours to the morgue."
Predictably, in between historically ignorant fantasies of Russia and China being outraged over US "torture" and of France, Russia and North Korea being perfectly willing to harm their own commercial interests in Iran had Abu Ghraib never existed, Shea works himself up into a self-righteous lather to say that I ...
prefer to murder prisoners in cold blood if it suits their Machiavellian needs ... [and that] those in my combox and elsewhere in St. Blog's who will either try to tell me this is okay (Hey! It worked for the Nazis at Lidice!), or else find themselves baffled over what the exact, precise, technical meaning of "murder" and "prisoner" is.
Anybody interested in what I actually said (i.e., not Shea or MM) can read it here will of course notice that the ellipsis was very strategic and precisely placed. The literate will realize that the two liars left out a rather important qualifier. One that makes what I called for objectively not murdering prisoners in cold blood. (Those who don't realize that are persons whom I don't give a shit about.)

I don't know what MM thinks about the death penalty, but I know that Shea at least realizes that the death penalty can be just and so is not "murder." This is a chemically-pure example of Shea passing over what he perfectly well understands in any other context -- you see it when he writes about the death penalty that he knows that even it shouldn't be used in a given case or a certain society, it isn't murder -- if ignoring what he knows gives him another excuse to lie about me.

Yawn.

UPDATE: Well, he has finally read the exact quote, thanks to Disputations. Not that this affects anything (that would require that the two actually think facts matter more than their desire to lie about me and self-righteously preen and posture). Both of them sarcastically underplay the importance of the distinction between "murder" and "execute" -- even though it is not a small one. And they both know it (which is why I'm comfortable calling them both liars over this ... they are deliberately ignoring something they know). The only other referent is "cold-blooded," which in the context of homicide merely means premeditated, calculated and with full knowledge ... so all executions, even right ones, are cold-blooded, making it a classification that doesn't classify.

UPDATE 2: If the entire population of Lidice were to be red-handed illegal combatants or terrorists, then Shea's invocation of it would be something other than what it is: the laziest of sub-moronic pseudo-intellectual lies out there -- "the Nazis did [something the speaker constructs as parallel]." Yawn. I call Godwin on this insufferable human (maybe) toothache.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least Tom and Mark are now exploring the nature of lying. Perhaps soon Mark will stop applying that label to everyone he disagrees with or whose argument he doesn't understand.

Anonymous said...

JOSEPH D'HIPPOLITO SAYS...

As the Illustrious Mr. Shea, Ultimate Arbiter of All Things Catholic, says in his own comboxes:

I view this blog largely as an opportunity to teach aspects of the Faith that don't get heeded in our culture.

English Translation, part one: Character assassination, personal attacks, obsessive campaigns against individuals and deliberatly distorted arguments are aspects of the Faith that don't get heeded in our culture. All Faithful Orthodox Catholics (TM) should use these precious, holy tools to support and promote the Cause of Christ whereever and whenever they can!

English translation, part two: As a professional apologist who is committed to teach aspects of the Faith that don't get heeded in our culture, I have the responsibility -- nay, the obligation -- to use whatever tools I have at my disposal to achieve this noble goal. Other people's reputations and arguments are nothing but insignificant speed bumps on the way to implementing the Greater Catholic Good For All Of Humanity (Especially in These Corrupt, Calvinist United States). Of course, my enemies believe that this is "consequentialist" thinking (which I condemn in others repeatedly). However, nothing done in the name of Holy Mother (Dominatrix) Church can ever be considered "consequentialist" (especially if I'm doing it) because all of Holy Mother (Dominatrix) Church's prudential pronouncements on geopolitics are Good and Wise and Perfect. And, as somebody who is dedicated to spreading such pronouncements, I am (by extention) Good and Wise and Perfect. So I can never be "consequentialist" in my behavior, even when I am.

Behold Mark Shea, the Eric Cartman of Catholic apologists and pseudo-theologians.

Anonymous said...

Joe:

Insulting Eric Cartman is grounds for banishment.

Anonymous said...

Wow, am I out of pop culture. Had to Google Eric Cartman to know what you all were talking about.