In article .com,
"bpnjensen" wrote:

Hey! I am slightly on the liberal side, and I don't feel this way at
all.

Robert Green is wrong - My wife and I sent some $$ because we felt
bad (I won't differentiate between pity and sympathy here) for the
folks in SE Asia that got smacked by the wave. It wasn't guilt, and
it surely isn't guilt that makes us happy our government is chipping
in either.

And apart from that, it's just what we do...and that makes me proud.

And I think, if another disaster befalls someone, we'll do it
again...because it's just what we do. Green is wrong.

But Telamon, you don't quite have it right, either. Not all liberals
think like Green.

Thank god that all liberals don't think like Green but I do think I have
it right. If you were a far to left liberal instead of "slightly on the
liberal side" you would be thinking same as Mr. Green.

Criticism works for the good when it is constructive. There was nothing
constructive in Mr. Greens monolog. You can't go around publicly bad
mouthing peoples intent to provide charity to others facing disaster.

Our intent is an expression of our will. Charity is giving, which by
definition requires one to relinquish control over goods. I don't know
what one can do other than give what they perceive as needed and to
require them to be responsible for what other people do with those goods
is nonsensical. It's just like anything else in life. You do what you
think is best, take your best shot and let things fall where they may.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

In article ,
Telamon wrote:

I just listened to a news commentary by Robert Green on Radio
Netherlands and concluded that he is a complete idiot. He complains that
the huge response in of money to the tsunami destruction in Asia is due
to western national guilt and not a response to the magnitude of the
destruction and death to that event. He furthers this line of
thoughtlessness by postulating that this act will be leveraged to offset
any future contributions for aid to future disasters.

This is just another demonstration of the liberal mindset at work with
its distortion of facts of an event, the motivations of entities in
response to it and of course how everyone should behave instead.

Hey, I heard it too. (6195 kHz, 04:20 on Sunday, local Saturday evening)

I thought it was pretty frigging cynical, but probably too close to
the truth. This fund raising thing is getting a bit out of hand, and
his point is that if this could have negative effects next time around
and a lot of beneficiaries aren't the poorest countries around.

People who are on a feel-good trip thinking that their efforts can only
help and not hurt should think about their addiction to "doing good
things" that really aren't necessary. Remember the people who donated
tons of stuff to New York City after 9/11 which later was found to be
unneeded and looted out of the warehouses it was stored in. The poor
******* who bankrupted himself buying a truckload of gloves and stuff
should be a cautionary tale for all of us.

And I bet Robert Green would be amused that you would classify him
as anything as right wing as "liberal".

Did you listen to Amsterdam Forum, too. It was interesting. A
repeat of a program from Oct. '03 about the problems caused by
(and to) people who live on the Internet and tailor their readings
and participation to only things they agree with, and how a forum
where everybody is in agreement leads the participants getting more
and more extreme and disconnected from reality. (I don't think
that's a problem with r.r.s).

Mark Zenier Washington State resident