Some of the deficient comments that have poured into the blog in response to “Hornbeck & The Tyranny Of Low Expectations,” and “In Defense of Bill O’Reilly,” have, naturally, not been posted because their deficient originators have audaciously distorted not only my views, but the actual text of my columns on the topic. That’s a low that’s not tolerated on this blog. Disagreement is fine; any distortion of the opinion discussed is out of the question.

Others complained bitterly about the fact that this writer does work from first principles —always has, always will. Principled positions demand a theory of human nature.

And what would the “Idiocracy” be without those who’re filled with venom on encountering an English word they don’t know. (“What’s a dictionary, Butthead? Hehehehehe“) Dogmatic plebeians are always poised, pitchforks hoisted, to enforce the lowest common denominator. Really, save yourself the heartache; if you hate people who value first principles and utilize the English language to the best of their abilities —there are an infinite number of writers who don’t violate the tyranny of no expectation. Oh what would the Founders have said if they read my mail box! (Jefferson actually answered all his mail in beautiful longhand and in an English to which we can only aspire. And, woe is me, he was a First Principles kind of guy).

When interviewed for a Canadian men’s magazine, I said this: “When people are rational, they observe reality as it is, and are more likely to be concerned with justice and avoid misplacing compassion.” Indeed, rationality and reality are the enemies of the petty minded and the evil. Thus, because I have fought the pseudo-science of pop-psychology and believe that guarding liberty rests on upholding personal responsibility and combating the “diseasing of society” by the professional class and their patsies —I am viewed as heartless.

Speak to me about compassion when you’ve volunteered your time as an AIDS and HIV counselor in South-Africa, and held in your arms the newly diagnosed —just one of the things this heartless rationalist has done. But then the slobs that have written in have probably never been out of this country; much less acquainted themselves with the world out there —and some genuine sorrow.

And to the same weak-minded slobs I say, “Don’t dare to impugn my daughter’s kind, dear heart.” Like her mother, she doesn’t misplace compassion. In South-Africa, when she was a very small personage —five or six —her cruel and exacting mom would get her to make sandwiches each and every time we went out together on errands. She was to give the food to the street kids. In SA, they beg on every corner and at every traffic light. Yes, she was taught how to develop authentic empathy.

My greatest achievement is my daughter. Moreover, I consider being loved by my child both an honor and an accomplishment. Children should show their parents respect, but they are not obliged to love them, especially if parents have not inspired love. When you have earned the love of your child —well, then, you have surely ARRIVED.

I’m sure those of the “Idiocracy” who’ve written in response to my Hornbeck articles inspire great love— in their slobbering pets.

Updated: Michele Lowe (see Comments Section) was the only left-liberal who attempted some civility. (Yes, this is as good as it got. But, swearing like sailors, and leveling ad hominem, never argument —they all demanded to be published on my private property: this blog). She points out that my opinion is a minority opinion. Again, the sum total of my non-deterministic world view —to which Viktor E. Frankl, the existential philosopher and distinguished psychiatrist, would certainly not object —is an infuriatingly simple contention: Hornbeck, who was given ample freedom, was capable of contacting his parents, or muttering under his breath to the cops, who picked him up on numerous occasions, and with whom he even filed a complaint: “I’m that kidnapped kid.”

In any event, having a minority, or unpopular, opinion in no way invalidates it. I (and other libertarians) was in a minority when, starting in September 2002, I argued against a war many of the truly heartless lauded. It turned out my minority opinion was correct.

Incidentally, speaking of misplaced compassion: where is the sorrow for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis we’ve killed and caused to be killed and displaced? I bet none of the low-brow, frothing-at-the-mouth types writing in has shed tears for those who really need them: Iraqis. But poised they are to pounce like rabid hyenas if one so much as suggests that their prototypical indulged youths can phone home if abducted, and given considerable freedom (and a cellphone) to dick about at malls, on the Internet, at sleepovers, and so on.

Updated Again: I wish to repeat one of the comments with which I interspersed a letter hereunder. The histrionic hisser mistook me for someone who has “traveled to the ends of the earth to give aid,” and declared that “If you have never experienced abuse or control in a relationship, you truly do not have the perspective to make such judgemental comments on this subject.”
Such statements leave me marveling at the intellectual sloth and cultural insularity evinced by so many Americans on this matter, and in general. First, information about me is available on this site. I was born in South Africa; I didn’t travel there to give aid. If it were me writing to someone, I’d actually bother to make sure I was correct about their biographical details, rather than ass-uming a whole lot of stuff about her or him.
Next, how insular and stupid must one be to believe that a woman with an adult daughter, who is from South Africa, and who grew up in Israel, having lived through a few wars in that country, has never known trauma and tragedy? Only in America! My background alone and life experience make it highly probable that I’ve experienced far more than have the pop-psych fetishists writing in to fulminate. See, the thing is, I don’t go telling everyone about my past traumas. And if I were so tacky, I would never demand special breaks for them. Try it: such conduct was once known as dignity and grit and formed the foundation of this now-crumbling soft society. As my mother would say, when pushed to “share” things she was too much of a lady to share: “I have my pride and my privacy, respect those, please.”

Some of the deficient comments that have poured into the blog in response to “Hornbeck & The Tyranny Of Low Expectations,” and “In Defense of Bill O’Reilly,” have, naturally, not been posted because their deficient originators have audaciously distorted not only my views, but the actual text of my columns on the topic. That’s a low that’s not tolerated on this blog. Disagreement is fine; any distortion of the opinion discussed is out of the question.

Others complained bitterly about the fact that this writer does work from first principles —always has, always will. Principled positions demand a theory of human nature.

And what would the “Idiocracy” be without those who’re filled with venom on encountering an English word they don’t know. (“What’s a dictionary, Butthead? Hehehehehe“) Dogmatic plebeians are always poised, pitchforks hoisted, to enforce the lowest common denominator. Really, save yourself the heartache; if you hate people who value first principles and utilize the English language to the best of their abilities —there are an infinite number of writers who don’t violate the tyranny of no expectation. Oh what would the Founders have said if they read my mail box! (Jefferson actually answered all his mail in beautiful longhand and in an English to which we can only aspire. And, woe is me, he was a First Principles kind of guy).

When interviewed for a Canadian men’s magazine, I said this: “When people are rational, they observe reality as it is, and are more likely to be concerned with justice and avoid misplacing compassion.” Indeed, rationality and reality are the enemies of the petty minded and the evil. Thus, because I have fought the pseudo-science of pop-psychology and believe that guarding liberty rests on upholding personal responsibility and combating the “diseasing of society” by the professional class and their patsies —I am viewed as heartless.

Speak to me about compassion when you’ve volunteered your time as an AIDS and HIV counselor in South-Africa, and held in your arms the newly diagnosed —just one of the things this heartless rationalist has done. But then the slobs that have written in have probably never been out of this country; much less acquainted themselves with the world out there —and some genuine sorrow.

And to the same weak-minded slobs I say, “Don’t dare to impugn my daughter’s kind, dear heart.” Like her mother, she doesn’t misplace compassion. In South-Africa, when she was a very small personage —five or six —her cruel and exacting mom would get her to make sandwiches each and every time we went out together on errands. She was to give the food to the street kids. In SA, they beg on every corner and at every traffic light. Yes, she was taught how to develop authentic empathy.

My greatest achievement is my daughter. Moreover, I consider being loved by my child both an honor and an accomplishment. Children should show their parents respect, but they are not obliged to love them, especially if parents have not inspired love. When you have earned the love of your child —well, then, you have surely ARRIVED.

I’m sure those of the “Idiocracy” who’ve written in response to my Hornbeck articles inspire great love— in their slobbering pets.

Updated: Michele Lowe (see Comments Section) was the only left-liberal who attempted some civility. (Yes, this is as good as it got. But, swearing like sailors, and leveling ad hominem, never argument —they all demanded to be published on my private property: this blog). She points out that my opinion is a minority opinion. Again, the sum total of my non-deterministic world view —to which Viktor E. Frankl, the existential philosopher and distinguished psychiatrist, would certainly not object —is an infuriatingly simple contention: Hornbeck, who was given ample freedom, was capable of contacting his parents, or muttering under his breath to the cops, who picked him up on numerous occasions, and with whom he even filed a complaint: “I’m that kidnapped kid.”

In any event, having a minority, or unpopular, opinion in no way invalidates it. I (and other libertarians) was in a minority when, starting in September 2002, I argued against a war many of the truly heartless lauded. It turned out my minority opinion was correct.

Incidentally, speaking of misplaced compassion: where is the sorrow for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis we’ve killed and caused to be killed and displaced? I bet none of the low-brow, frothing-at-the-mouth types writing in has shed tears for those who really need them: Iraqis. But poised they are to pounce like rabid hyenas if one so much as suggests that their prototypical indulged youths can phone home if abducted, and given considerable freedom (and a cellphone) to dick about at malls, on the Internet, at sleepovers, and so on.

Updated Again: I wish to repeat one of the comments with which I interspersed a letter hereunder. The histrionic hisser mistook me for someone who has “traveled to the ends of the earth to give aid,” and declared that “If you have never experienced abuse or control in a relationship, you truly do not have the perspective to make such judgemental comments on this subject.”
Such statements leave me marveling at the intellectual sloth and cultural insularity evinced by so many Americans on this matter, and in general. First, information about me is available on this site. I was born in South Africa; I didn’t travel there to give aid. If it were me writing to someone, I’d actually bother to make sure I was correct about their biographical details, rather than ass-uming a whole lot of stuff about her or him.
Next, how insular and stupid must one be to believe that a woman with an adult daughter, who is from South Africa, and who grew up in Israel, having lived through a few wars in that country, has never known trauma and tragedy? Only in America! My background alone and life experience make it highly probable that I’ve experienced far more than have the pop-psych fetishists writing in to fulminate. See, the thing is, I don’t go telling everyone about my past traumas. And if I were so tacky, I would never demand special breaks for them. Try it: such conduct was once known as dignity and grit and formed the foundation of this now-crumbling soft society. As my mother would say, when pushed to “share” things she was too much of a lady to share: “I have my pride and my privacy, respect those, please.”