[net.columbia] more on Challenger eulogies

miller@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU (02/28/86)

> sorry, but they seem to love to stoop to red-baiting to defend their point of
> view ... only the self-made idealogues and defenders of the one true faith
> posted to the net with their slander.

I posted the original note.  It was very short, consisting of three eulogies
international figures/groups had made on the Challenger 7.  I also inserted a
one line editorial comment, calling these groups "slime".  I will call anyone
slime who refers to the dead astronauts as "war criminals" and expresses
"happiness" over their deaths and the destruction of the orbiter (as did the
communist guerrillas in El Salvador).  I stand behind my position, despite your
simplistic charges.

A. Ray Miller
Univ Illinois

ins_argr@jhunix.UUCP (Robert G Roberds) (03/04/86)

> 
> > sorry, but they seem to love to stoop to red-baiting to defend their point of
> > view ... only the self-made idealogues and defenders of the one true faith
> > posted to the net with their slander.
> 
> I posted the original note.  It was very short, consisting of three eulogies
> international figures/groups had made on the Challenger 7.  I also inserted a
> one line editorial comment, calling these groups "slime".  I will call anyone
> slime who refers to the dead astronauts as "war criminals" and expresses
> "happiness" over their deaths and the destruction of the orbiter (as did the
> communist guerrillas in El Salvador).  I stand behind my position, despite your
> simplistic charges.
> 
> A. Ray Miller
> Univ Illinois

I agree.  While I am neither a right- nor a left-winger, I find that
*both* sides employ a double standard.  For my money, calling a cosmonaut
or an astronaut a war criminal is reprehensible.  Period.  Politics are not
the point.  Expressing happiness over a death is contemptible, as it is to
defend those who do so.  I wish to God (if He exists, so flame off)  that
lefties and righties would try to cure their rampant myopia and
try to look at things objectively.  I defy anyone out there to defend the
SLIME who expressed joy over the Challenger explosionxplosion  xO
tendency to polarize issues.  And you?
-- 
Bob Roberds			|	Sitting here in Queens,
ins_argr@jhunix			|	Eating refried beans,
The Johns Hopkins University	|	We're in all the magazines
Baltimore, Md.			|	Gulping down Thorazines.

bzs@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein) (03/04/86)

>I defy anyone out there to defend the
>SLIME who expressed joy over the Challenger explosionxplosion  xO
>tendency to polarize issues.  And you?
>-- 
>Bob Roberds			|	Sitting here in Queens,

Being the one quoted and sort of indirectly challenged here:

LOOK, no one is defending such statements, that's absurd. I also don't
remember anything in the articles expressing 'joy' over their deaths.
I remember about a half-dozen quotes from Gus Hall about the green cannisters
being some sort of secret experiment (misinformed) and some typical quotes
criticizing the fact that american business stand to make a lot of $$ off
of this disaster (not entirely untrue, private business exploiting others'
misfortunes is a typical criticism by socialists.)

Obviously this medium doesn't work very well on such issues, once
someone disagrees with someone they seem to feel free to make any wild
claim that pleases their rhetorical urges.

Remember, it was *I* that was asking for the cessation of the self-serving
politicking. Somehow things have evolved to the point that anyone that
says anything is liable to be seen as the source of inappropriate flamitude
by someone. Sigh.

At any rate, if you feel it is reasonable to continue to use Gus Hall
and Pravda as frequent sources of authoritative reference on whatever
it is you are trying to prove or convince us of in this group...fine,
we're all impressed. That's all this was ever about.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University