Ben Shapiro

I would like it better if Conservative Americans did not have any power or very little power. Let me amend that. I would like it better if the neo-conservative boneheads along the lines of Ben Shapiro, Pat Robertson, and President Bush, had no power to implement their policy. I don't think they add very much positive (if anything). On the contrary the influence of this type of modern conservative has been very very negative. So I would like to see these people, others like them, and people who support them lose power in America.

Of course there are certain constitutional and moral limits to how far I can go in shutting them up; in reality I'm mostly limited to trying to present an alternative view and, more often, criticizing their own bonehead statements. Which brings us to today's article by Ben Shapiro.

Ben Shapiro is still lamenting that as a young conservative he may be criticized for hosting a talk show in Oklahoma City rather than enlisting to fight a war he supports (and apparently four or five other wars he also supports (when we get around to them)). In this article Ben Shapiro lets out a deep dark secret; people like Michael Moore and Susan Serandon would rather see people who think like them making decisions for this nation.

What a shocker. This is totally different from young Ben who, of course, favors people who think different from him. Oh wait, that's nonsense.

What clearly gets young Ben's goat, besides the personal angle to this argument, is that this has proven an effective technique. The right wing in this nation has spent all day and every day telling America that Liberals are unpatriotic, that we don't love our country, that we don't care about regular Americans, that we are elitist snobs and so on and so forth. SO when we get a comeback that punctures this particular line of attack, well, it's worth using.

Ben Shapiro also throws around the word "pacifist" pretty loosely in his article. Apparently in the Shapiro Family Dictionary, a pacifist is anybody who doesn't support any war. It's a bit like virginity, I guess; once you think a war is stupid and you oppose it, you become a pacifist forever more.

Anyway it's nice to see Ben, in an article criticizing the democratic for making (effective) ad hominem attacks, he can't stop himself from using an ad hominem attack.