meredith

"What you still didn't answer... What does my being a conservative have to do with trying defending of Boaz?":

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Take a deep breath, Bronwyn.

Now, meredith dear, it was not me who FIRST brought up this conservative link. YOU did.

"I thought he was great, I didn’t worry about the religious stuff and just read his posts, for conservative posts, they were pretty good…"

I only picked up on it. I've already apologised in case I'd got it wrong which I've since realised and pointed out I hadn't at all. You're the one making a deal out of being conservative. I'm not. I couldn't care less. You're the one who's linked BD, yourself and conservatism in the one sentence. I only picked up on it as a minor aside. I didn't expect to have to waste post after post to make my position clear - not for you I might add, I wouldn't go to that trouble, but for the public record.

"It sounds like an assumption that I can't see beyond my own kind."

It's nothing of the sort. Both myself and others here have acknowledged though that it is a natural human tendency to see fault in the style of those whose arguments you disagree with more readily than in those with whom you're in agreeance. I freely admit to it myself. It's a truism to me. Big deal! What's your point?

No, on second thoughts I don't want to know.

My god meredith I'd hate to debate something complex with you. It'd take weeks!

Clearly, there is a lot that Col Rouge writes that I emphatically disagree with.

Probably in most threads I would be on the side of his detractors, but I heartily concur with his expressed views of the utter hollowness of another OLO contributor, who is by now, unfortunately all too familiar to most of us:

"CJ is the biggest troll of all, he parades around this site, taking 3 line bites at the ankles of others, largely because he lacks the where-with-all to walk on two legs."

"... CJMoron's vocabulary did not extend to the word 'pesthole'"

---

As Col Rouge has raised the subject of Oliver Cromwell and the Levellers, I would like to draw the attention of people to songs about another group from the English War period.

They were the Diggers and regarded as to the left of the radical democratic Levellers.

They attempted to form agricultural collectives on abandoned land so that they could grow food and feed themselves and not have to bow down before landlords.

However the land-owning classes of the time saw this as threat and on their behalf Cromwell set in his Army to brutally suppress the Diggers.

As a consequence of this and as a consequence of Cromwell's suppression of the Levellers and his brutality in Ireland, I am not absolutely certain that I found him preferable to King Charles I.

Two versions of "The song of the Diggers" are by Guy Manley of Tasmania at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3-uw1dAjY0 and bu Billy Bragg at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKLbj6oMiaI

Bwonwyn,

Your in error here not me, I never said that I was concerned you called me a conservative... I said you had decided my motives...

You answered Col honestly about it, when he asked:

"When I suggested to Meredith her judgement might be clouded, it was said in a light-hearted fashion, not an arrogant one"

Anyway, it's obviously not light heated for you, lol. :)

I am not going to bother with this anymore... go on Bronwyn love have the last say, it'll make you feel better.

As Margaret Thatcher said “"Socialists have always spent much of their time seeking new titles for their beliefs, because the old versions so quickly become outdated and discredited."

That's great Col!.

Spikey, yeh, just go read the post about half way through this string.. it's about bullying... you will see the reasons of how and why I think it explained there...

Col,

I think we would all like to hear more about Margaret Thatcher.

"If only some of the conservatives on OLO were more like that. I know there are lapses among the progressives too, but it's notably the conservatives who rely on evidence-free assertions and, who when challenged, resort to abuse." Spikey.

I forgot to say that it's notably the conservatives on OLO who resort to bizarre historical figures and events - Oliver Cromwell and the Levellers, Margaret Thatcher for example - as a distraction from contemporary debates.

And it's notably the conservatives who assert that by nature they are right, and anyone who opposes them is by nature wrong. Watch for it. It's as subtle as a sledgehammer.

Houellebecq,

I'm not sure you can speak on behalf of all - or even many - OLO posters when you tell Col Rouge "I think we would all like to hear more about Margaret Thatcher". And certainly it's the case for me that if we must have the words of the Iron Maiden littering this site let them please come from an informed, dispassionate and reputable historian - not Col Rouge.