6/11/2007

OnTheBorderLine: One Side of the Mouth Speaks


Surveys are wonderful things. You hunt around till you find one that agrees with you and use it to make your point. You ignore the ones that don't you make your point. That's life in blogs that have a one-sided view on the issues.

An excellent example of what I'm talking about can be currently seen at the OnTheBorderLIne blog in a posting titled: The Price of Sin (Excerpt)

The post in a excerpt from a book written by a couple of OTBL bloggers that is sure to reach sales into the double digits. Notice how they taken a survey done by CNN that backs the OTBL limited government mantra and try to give it credibility:


A poll commissioned by CNN in October, 2006 reveals that a majority of Americans believe in the notion of limited government. A majority of those polled also believe that government has become too intrusive; intervening in areas best left to the individual. Though not asked, I would venture most would conclude that the path to limited government would be through the electoral process, in other words by electing the right person. We are ignorant to the fact that it is not the elected official which limits government, but the structure of the social contract through the application of a philosophy of individual liberty. The true measure of freedom is not found in the political process; it is found in the principles which naturally regulate the manner in which we interact with one and another.

Excerpt from the Forward of The Price of Sin; A Commentary on Liberty


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Now remember that OTBL'ers are very anti-gun control. The survey cited above comes from the Pew Research Foundation. Below are the results of a Pew survey on gun control taken after the Virginia Tech University slaughter. I'm guessing we won't be see thing this in an OTBL post:



Looks like the number of citizens wanting gun control is increasing. Below is more detail on Pew research concerning gun control:


Looks like fewer citizens want to protect gun owners rights and more want to control gun ownership.

Read more...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clearly because more people are wanting it it must be right.

Even if everyone is against you if you can make a reasoned argument for why you are right, you may very well be right. Just because a chorus of people tell you that you are wrong it does not make you wrong.

Anonymous said...

Cato:

Obviously you are correct. 99 people can be wrong and 1 person correct. I believe they call that a "lynch mob." But then again, that's how our form of democracy works. Any suggestions on how to improve it?

Anonymous said...

Actually that is not how our Republic worked -- well, until the populists took over. Ben Franklin said, when asked if this was a Democracy or a Republic, "A Republic, if you can keep it."; keeping a Republic from the mob is hard work and indeed, we lost. But to improve the mob? Yeah -- it's pretty easy. Just follow the Law of the Land, exactly as it was written.

Anonymous said...

Funny how Bush talks about bringing
Democracy to Iraq.
I've never heard anybody, including the Neo-Cons talk about establishing a Republic in Iraq.

Anonymous said...

Of course not.

Bush is a Wilsonian "liberal". He wants to make the world safe for democracy.

Wilson:

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4943/

Bush:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050120-1.html

I think they had the same speech writers.

Anonymous said...

Funny, If you take of away the idiot Bush twang, this reads like a decent speech.
I guess style does make a difference.

With the numerous "Self government" statements, I'd think this would appeal to your sensiblities.

Anonymous said...

Eh not really, it's all just talk.

And yes, if you read any of Bush's speeches you will be confused as to who actually said them. You would think they were probably done by an educated person. If someone told you it was a President you would probably guess a left-leaning individual, probably a smart guy too. Maybe you'd say "Was it Clinton?" and then the person would howl and say "No it's Bush hahahahahahaha!"

You can test this out easy enough. Print off a bunch and goto a high school or hell, college. You'll see the difference between hearing a speech and reading it. Plus the student's pre-conceived notions of what the speech is about (based on their opinion of the man) will be gone.

Anonymous said...

People who judge Bush on his speech giving amuse me. 99 percent of them shit their pants at the thought of getting up in front of a group and speaking. Yet they will hang a guy for stammering or stumbling over a work.

Maybe people should invest more time in educating about who they are electing and less time whining about impeachment and a Texas twang.

Democracy elected Bush.

Andy Rand said...

Go find some videos of Tony Blair followed by Bush when they've made appearances together. Then tell me Bush doesn't sound like an idiot!!!!!!!!!
We're not talking about Joe blow at the VFW. This is the Leader of the Free World. He should learn to speak English!