Thanks, Deidre.

Interesting how quickly the “political terrorist” line was taken up, including by at least one Dem representative, and how prevalent the urge – beginning with the Prez but hardly restricted to him – to squelch discussion. I don’t think that these people are really totalitarians, but they have all of the urges and reflexes of totalitarians. You see it – or in the universities experience it – all of the time in “speech codes.”

Here’s what I sent Mr. Pearlstein this morning:

Dear Mr. Pearlstein:
I read your article about healthcare reform with interest. I would like to point out one fact, however, which is that you have grossly abused the term “terrorist” in applying it to political dissent within our country. I urge you to cautiously consider your word choices during what is quite obviously a turbulent and important time in our nation’s political history.

I find it interesting that you accuse these protestors of attempting to stop political discussion. Just so I’m clear, how is it that you distinguish yourself from that very crime when you tar them with the “terrorist” label?

Our nation has always allowed for political dissent, but apparently under the current administration, that’s no longer trendy or cool, so it must be silenced.

Wow, I didn’t realize I lived in a country where free speech would now be squelched, where the president would urge me to snitch on anyone who disagreed with his reforms, and where journalists equated free speech with terrorism.
Deidre Knight

Accusing people of what you do yourself is a time honored leftist tactic, and a tactic of all authoritarians.

Like the town hall stuff with SEIU, and then accusing the people hit of being the problem.

The current POTUS hung out with Ayres and Dohrn, two bona fide terrorists, yet his Administration calls people who oppose him terrorists.

I don’t recall George W. Bush’s Administration ever calling Code Pink or even the rioters in Portland or Philadelphia terrorists when they protested his policies. Yet the Dems who cried for retreat in Iraq for years and who have ended the “War on Terror” language at the White House have now called Americans who simply voice disagreement with them terrorists, apparently finding them more annoying than people who blew up buildings and jets.

This is beyond sophistry, it is ignorance and blind grasping for power. America has elected a government of the immature, the greedy and the arrogant. It is not so much a problem that they may be incompetent, we may be a lot worse off if they are competent at pushing their agenda which does not bode well for the future.

Keep up, Pearlstein. It’s “jihad,” LOSER, and it means, like, really rigorous self-improvement. Kind of like a weekend at Ojai with the mud and hot rocks, and no iPhone at all.

Where’s your head at, man? What do you know about the struggle of the Obamacare-Nots? What a… fascist.

What do you want to bet the Leftards wouldn’t turn a hair if these disgruntled citizens ‘political terrorists’ were bunged up in Guantanamo?

I’ll take another whack at it before begging the Tsar’s boon. Thanks, CK

yeah, deleting the account and starting over MIGHT be advisable – but it doesn’t or shouldn’t really mater what name your account is under – the avatars at gravatar are designed to travel with e-mail addresses not account names.

I also have the power, which I’ve been holding in reserve, to assign ZC-only avatars to authors and, by a different method, to commenters.

@CK MacLeod – Igor showed up on JED’s blog, much to my chagrin as he was carrying a name that I made up after Gravatar refused to accept any form of fuster.
Is deleting the account and starting anew advisable?