C'mon rat, I gave you the courtesy of explaining to you my definition of a moonbat and changing how I will address you after you said you're not a leftie. The least you could do is explain what a "poodle" is to you in the context of political viewpoint. Do you have any idea other than you just use it to refer to people who do not subscribe to the 9/11 conspiracy theories that you do?
I would bet anybody that Venezuela's economy will be ruined few years down the road. This is not to say they are in such a good shape today.
Not a chance. You must have missed Pabst getting outed as a Nazi wannabe with pictures of Hitler in his bedroom. This is pure damage control; the idea is something like this "See? I am now saying I 'admire' Chavez but I don't endorse his 'rhetoric or methods'. So when I said I admired Adolph Hitler and that I consider him a genius, I similarly don't endorse his 'rhetoric or methods', I just forgot to actually say that at the time' So whenever I slip up and reveal my admiration for the criminally insane, please remember that my admiration is figurative, not literal".
I'll make my views clear. I believe Adolph Hitler was a brilliant political leader who ensured the freedom of Germany from Communism. I believe Hugo Chavez is a brilliant politician who is trying to free SA from greedy Internationalists in oil and agriculture. By keeping a Soviet style revolution out of Germany, I believe today's highly paid factory worker in Munich (as opposed to his impoverished brethren in Warsaw or Moscow) owes part of his continued success to Hitler. Hopefully, courtesy of Chavez, someday a poor factory worker in Caracas will have a stipend from Venezuelan oil that helps him clothe and feed his family. I believe that FDR handed Eastern Europe a worst fate for the half century they endured behind the Iron Curtain than anything Hitler presented. I believe we've allowed the people of Cuba to be enslaved by Castro. I believe Churchill was a war monger who encouraged a socialist leaning FDR to use a war in Asia and western Europe as the ultimate Kenysian lever to end depression. I belive "oil politicians" (including the Left) in the U.S. are allowing us to "war" with any oil producer who resists being under our thumb. I know you're not stupid. At all. However like many "book smart" people, you're shallow. You think you're spot-on because you're clever but only in a self righteous frat-boy type sense. Like the yuppie snob who can't wash his own car snickering at the blue-collar rube who orders the wrong wine with dinner. You don't see nuances. I'll give you a tip. It's ALL grey. Adam Duritz got that right. Wouldn't it be great if Hitler, Chavez, Saddam, McVeigh and Capone were pure evil. Well guess what? They're not. Nothings pure one way or the other. Not even Mary. Some of the biggest despots are often nice guys, sensitive guys, who flip out or over emote or think they're on a mission from God or Satan or whatever. But that doesn't mean that they don't as in Saddam's case, enjoy breakfast cereal while in prison awaiting trial on capital charges. Hell, George Bush is the most hated, feared man in the world. Yet few American's, even Z, would describe him as evil. Every trade has two sides and multi views are called PERSPECTIVE. Individuals no more shape events in a vacuum than one trader moves a market. It can't be done. The forces all must be in motion together. To analyze let alone JUDGE the motives of infamous leaders without fully examining the socio/economic/psychological wave that they rode through the masses is fruitless. One of the truest adages there is "the era defines the man, the man doesn't define the era." "Just following orders". People do what they believe NOT what they are told. Hence, coups. Hence rebellion. Hence draft dodgers. You can think that Hitler was the "black hat", FDR the "white", Stalin because he helped the good 'ol U.S.A. was white but after Yalta "black" ect. Everyone's hat is GREY!!!! People have good lives and so they do good things. Do they deserve a star? People with fucked up lives in fucked up countries commit atrocities. Want to condemn them? Be my guest. But be fucking sure that you KNOW you'll never be in a situation where your response is similar to their's. I've seen your views about Islam. Every time a Canadian tax dollar helps kill an Afghani you're a de facto "ethnic cleanser." But of course, no! Not you! You're BETTER than THEM!
There is one thing you don't see that often, a Hitler apologist. But, right here on ET we have one: Putzie, the neo Nazi...
And I know you're not stupid. This is the most frightening thing about you. Yes, I can understand how you think this about me because I tend to post in a demeaning manner when I see what I perceive to be muddled or morally bankrupt statements here. You may have noticed that I have essentially stopped posting in this manner. You are now making the argument that I have been making in the other thread. As I said, evil is not genius. It is banal. Sure, it can be perpetrated by people who eat cornflakes for breakfast. Dangerously close to the moral relativism of your arch enemy/occasional brother-in-arms-against-me, the troll. He is the Queen of moral relativism here at ET. Surely you aren't the same? Look man... you don't need to tell me that history puts the black hat on the loser and that we can only view a faded, blurry picture of historical battles and those who are now considered despots. Hell, look that the Soviet Union today; many older Russians are pining for the Commie days, when they at least knew where they stood. How many of them would say that at least there was bread on the table with Stalin? Hitler was a criminally insane bigot who ordered the massacre of millions of innocent people because his dog told him it was a good idea. He built FACTORIES to murder people. Okay, Pabst? Okay? He was not a great statesman, not a brilliant leader, not a man who took tough decisions, not a hero in his time, none of the things you paint him to be. He just happened to come along at the right time, in a country that was ideally open to his brand of rhetoric. He died like a coward, like every nutbag who kills a bunch of people to satiate his sexual appetites. They put the gun in their own mouth in the end because they can't face the consequences of what they've done. It just took him a while to do it. Pabst, you are also a dyed-in-the-wool bigot. This is why Hitler's flaws don't seem to you to be flaws. You are the most bigoted individual I have ever been exposed to, assuming that your statements here are sincere. I may have met worse bigots but I didn't get a chance to know about their problem. My statements to you are clouded by my knowledge of your bigotry. In this sense I am not an objective reader of your work. I don't really care to spend any more time responding specifically to the 3rd paragraph in your post above. Better than whom? You know nothing about my feelings regarding the Canadian military's presence in Afghanistan. In general, 9/11 has made me realize that my overall feeling about the military is one of gratitude and pride towards the young people who volunteer to do the jobs the rest of us want done. I think the soldiers are heros; it's the guys higher up in the command chain who make the bad decisions. Anyway, I have stopped engaging the troll and I had decided not to engage you anymore, then you came out with this 'Hitler was a genius and my personal hero and a great man misunderstood' thing. And regarding my being 'book smart'... real thin ice, Pabst. Again, you have no fucking idea what I've gone through or seen in my life. I don't ever talk about any of it here, unlike you. I just deal with it and try to live a good life every day. And that means trying as hard as I can to avoid falling into the traps that you are so badly mired in, permanently it seems. Sure, I slip once in a while. This whole Islamo-fascist thing is making me slip up sometimes. But I'm trying, you know? At least I can say that. Finally, I have spent a lot of time with the guys who work at the car wash and I know dick about wine. In fact, you seem to be much better read in history than I am.