Dear "Lurker": I was going to email you privately about your puzzling comment on my last post, but to my great surprise and dismay, "lurkie@lurkie.net" was not a legitimate email address! Perhaps you inadvertently misspelled something. Oh, well. I will just have to address your comment here.
You see, "Lurker," I'm really not sure why you would paste this particular letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times into a comments section on my blog, mostly because you left no comment yourself. Is your purpose to let David Manos of Lancaster, CA put me in my place by assuring me that "The United States, as always, will give more aid through its governmental and private humanitarian organizations than any other nation in the face of global emergency"?
Perhaps you believe, as Mr. Manos might, my suggestion that the U.S. dial down the glamor of the inaugural festivities out of deference and respect for the suffering of a huge chunk of the world in the face of possibly the planet's greatest natural disaster in our lifetime is, indeed, a partisan one, and that I'm just another America-hating liberal wanting to cheat President Bush and his fellow partygoers out of a well-deserved good time?
Well, you're partially right. I guess I am appealing to our president's so-called Christian nature (what would Jesus do if 150,000 of God's children were wiped out in one fell swoop, I wonder?) and asking him to think twice about throwing a big fat party while Rome burns. However, it's nothing I wouldn't ask of John Kerry or any other Christian/Jew/Muslim/Atheist who might happen to be in the White House. It's just nice manners, I think.
But I do take issue with Mr. Manos' statistics, oh, wait...he didn't give any. So here's some...
In 1999, a year when Bill Clinton, for whom I voted, was still in office, the United States trailed five developed nations in aid as a proportion to GDP. See? Democrats are sucky (Source: the NY Times, via Business Statistics.)
"Of the 21 major donor nations, the United States ranked 16th in the quantity and quality of the population and reproductive-health projects that are supported by its foreign aid program, according to a new study released Tuesday by Population Action International (PAI), a Washington-based research and advocacy group." (Source: WorldRevolution.org)
Now, "Lurker," you of course were welcome to post your own statistics. In fact, there a some interesting ones posted on The Heritage Foundation's site you might want to check out. I don't agree with the writer's reasoning, but hey, last I checked, it was a free country.
However you can't post them here because I'm banning your IP address.
And from now on, I'm banning anyone else I catch playing post-'n'-ditch, too. If you want to engage in lively debate, fine. If you're here to drop an anonymous stinky poop on my site, uh-uh.
So, "Lurker," if you would like to comment, on your comment, or on anything else, please email me at communicatrix -at- gmail -dot- com and with a real name and email addy and we can talk about unblocking you.
Have a lovely day, everyone! You, too, "Lurker."
xxx c