Friday, December 30, 2005

Notice: Only Neo-Cons can use Heroes out of context

Earlier this week Jessica McBride accused Sen. Russ Feingold of taking Patrick Henry’s words “give me liberty or give me death” out of context. Here is a brief review if you missed the exchange where Russ used the famous words. In defending the current version of the Patriot Act, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Loony Bin) was quoted as saying, “none of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead.” Feingold responded, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

First let me say that this McBride post was full of so much spin that it was difficult to keep track of her original point (Feingold allegedly quoting Henry out of context). McBride instructs us that Henry’s statement came as a result of the Stamp Act. Apparently McBride is upset because Patrick Henry was not specifically talking about one’s own government violating the civil rights of its own people, and this is how Feingold used it. Apparently McBride feels that WE can only quote Henry if we are talking about the Stamp Act.

The most outrageous thing about McBride’s post is that she takes quotes from Patrick Henry out of context herself to support the pre-emptive war with Iraq. Was Patrick Henry talking about a pre-emptive war against a nation that had not harmed him? No. Was he so mad at King George that he declared pre-emptive war on Spain? Nope, that would be a neo-con strategy. Yeah, someone certainly has taken Patrick Henry out of context here, and methinks she’s a conservative blogger.

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