Friday, July 20, 2007

How Dare I Quote An Environmentalist About Al Gore!

Over at 43rd State Blues, BinkyBoy does his usual classy and accurate number, complaining that the reports about Al Gore dining on an endangered species were inaccurate:
Al Gore recently was seen eating Chilean Sea Bass. To those that are ready to jump to judgement, that suddenly makes him less of an environmentalist.

Unfortunately, they're lying again.
Now, there has since been a news report that says the first news report was wrong. It turns out that the environmentalists who made the first, and inaccurate claim--were wrong.

Now, if BinkyBoy is upset that his hero is being falsely castigated by environmentalists in a newspaper article, then this is where the rage should be directed. If the environmentalists who made the initial claim knew that it was a false statement, you could claim that they were "lying." But to claim that people who report a newspaper report by someone on Al Gore's side is "lying" is about what I have come to expect from BinkyBoy--a rather severe carelessness about the meaning of words.

"Lying" means that you are making a statement that you know or have good reason to be believe is false. A statement can be incorrect without being a lie.

BinkyBoy has an awful lot of rage at people that don't agree with him, and it shows up in very juvenile behavior--such as calling people liars for linking to a news report by people whom BinkyBoy would normally defend.

What's really interesting is that 43rd State Blues has a comment section where a reader might ordinarily point out this distinction. But I have been specifically prohibited from commenting there. Policing comments is a lot of work; that's why I don't have comments enabled on my blog. If BinkyBoy didn't want the extra work of doing so, I could understand and agree. But BinkyBoy apparently doesn't mind doing the work of policing comments--he just won't allow me to comment there. How typically Democrat: they believe in free speech, as long as you agree with them.

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