Important!
Some passing commentary on the flummery that has recently stained the pages of our local newspaper…
— Monsieur Jacques d’Nalgar, Lundi 5 novembre 2018 de l’ère commune
This was published in the Sentinel Record Sunday, November 12, 2018 CE. The reactions are posted in comments following, the latest being published Saturday, December 12, 2018 CE (or 1440 according to Islamic calendars). Please enjoy.
Dear editor:
As I write this, the dust of Tuesday’s election has not yet settled. Either our nation’s lurch towards full-blown fascism continues unabated, replete with swastikas and flag-waving, cross-burning white supremacy, and out-in-the-open Christianist, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant bigotry. Or perhaps – and hope springs eternal – reasonable voters have turned out in numbers that shout “our rights shall not be denied!”
My friend Mike Nunn is fond of reminding us we live in strange times. Indeed we do. Ever vigilant George is startled to learn that Arkansas’s brightest teachers and students are mostly liberals. Surely, a conspiracy is afoot! Mary is, as always, fixated on Benghazi and the sins of Democrats long gone and now inconsequential. But God Bless President Trump, nevertheless. Meanwhile, Billy Graham wannabe Lloyd offers us yet another altar call. Just as we are, if only we weren’t…
To arms! To arms! A rag-tag caravan of impoverished refugees slowly approaches our southern border, bearing gifts “perhaps” of polio, drug sales, and even possible gang affiliations. An invasion! Where is Ellis Island when America really needs her? A Villager pleads for civility in our national discourse, and then abandons the moral high road for a few shekels in arms sales (after all, Khashoggi wasn’t even an American citizen…).
Our very own local Donald warns us that only the 1611 KJV is flawless, and anything else is a fast foxtrot down the path to perdition. And of course there’s the always verbose Bradley R. Glitz from Batesville, Arkansas, who appears about twice a week on these hallowed pages. I swear he must be paid by the word, or at least for every time he refers to Democrats as socialists and communists. According to his erudite rationale, if you dare vote for anything but Republicans, you are nothing but a slave to orthodoxy.
Indeed, we live in strange times. Sign me a slave to orthodoxy,
Jacques d’Nalgar
Hot Springs, Arkansas
6 comments
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It amazes me how Christians make the lodestone of their political beliefs abortion, while ignoring the golden rule!
What is hateful to you do not to your fellow man.
That is the entire law;
All the rest is commentary.
Judaism
Author
‘You didn’t do that’ again
Dear editor:
We got to hear the high-pitched strangulation of the English language by Barack Hussein Obama again this week (Oct. 28). He is stuck on “You didn’t do that.” Remember when he told business owners who risked everything they have and worked long hours, “you didn’t do that!”? Now he’s telling Donald Trump, who has a booming economy, “You didn’t do that!” I did! Talk about ego! He takes the prize!
What do you think would happen if Donald Trump used Hillary’s line “What does it matter, at this point, who killed them,” if he said that concerning Mr. Khashoggi’s murder? Smoke would be coming from the presses. Dems want us to hush about Benghazi. Remember, these were American citizens, too, as a writer pointed out about Mr. Khashoggi’s three children. And the Twitter quote, “Remember when Jesus said it’s OK to deal with murderers as long as you can make a profit? Neither do I.”
“Remember this one? Jesus said, it’s OK to deal with murderers as long as they are abortion doctors making big bucks, OK for men to marry men, OK for women to marry women, and OK to change gender on your birth certificate? Neither do I.”
An article on today’s (Sun 10-28) front page, all but put President Trump in the white van making bombs. Guilty until proven innocent for Republicans, right? We’ll see how this one turns out, OK? Maybe a hit job? I find it so strange that liberals own mobs, running people out of restaurants, storming federal buildings, perching on statues, screaming outside Republican’s homes, screaming on cue during the Kavanaugh hearings, Dem politicians telling people to tell Republicans they’re not welcome anywhere, ever, and it’s all because of a Trump tweet or something he said?
That works perfectly for Dems, but there are some of us who live in the real world of reality and we’re not caving to the double standard. They call us lawless!
God answered our prayers in the 2016 election, much to the consternation of Hillary and the left.
I have health insurance, which I pay for. I have Medicare, which I pay for and I’m too old for free college, but I think that Chuck, Nancy, Maxine and Spartacus may be contemplating “Nutri-System,” “My-Pillow,” and “Super-Beets” for all. Now that’s what I’m talking about!
Pray for the Jewish families in Pittsburgh who lost loved ones in a terrible tragedy.
Thank You, God Bless America. God Bless President Trump and all the brave men and women who protect us every day.
Mary Robinson
Hot Springs
Author
The losing side
Dear editor:
I could tell which side lost just from reading [Jacques d’Nalgar]’s hate-filled diatribe. He’s filled with all this hate because that’s who the Democrats are. It’s who they have always been they’ve just changed tactics a little but they’ve always been the party of hate. Last time, [Jacques], there was any hooded white supremacists they were Democrats.
You lost here because many Democrats today, especially in this state are perceived as crazy. You lost because of Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Cory Booker and Schumer. You lost partially because of the hateful way they treated Kavanaugh. I know you don’t hear any real news but when she knew she was falling behind Claire McCaskill was running ads saying: “I’m not like those other crazy Democrats.” Hayden and Clark were nice enough but it wasn’t about them. Even they to tried to run away from those crazy Democrats.
Instead of being so hateful, [Jacques], maybe you should get down on your knees and thank the winter solstice or whatever it is you believe in that you, despite what you’re feeling, live in the greatest country ever conceived by man. I noticed your hateful diatribe appeared on Veterans Day. I know they’ll be parades and things but it’s not about those that are still walking around it’s about the thousands that gave their lives so you can express your views no matter how much you hate your fellow Americans.
As for me I’ll do what I do every week, along with my growing list of those no longer with us, as a Christian I’ll kneel and pray for my friend, Ron, who I was closest to, and a few others I knew who died in that crazy Asian war and for all those who gave all for you and me in all of our wars. After my kids and grandkids I try to think of them as I wait in line to vote. I don’t think Ron ever got the chance to vote. I like to think anyway, that I’m doing it for him.
Thank you,
Larry Bauer
Hot Springs Village
Author
An easy quiz
Dear editor:
Every time I think Larry Bauer’s view of our country could become smaller, he fools me. His letter last week, addressed to [Jacques d’Nalgar] (who I doubt he’s ever met), called [Monsieur d’Nalgar]’s letter “a hate-filled diatribe.” Larry went on: “He’s filled with hate because that’s who the Democrats are.” Nowhere in his letter did [Monsieur d’Nalgar] identify his political affiliation, simply his views as an American. “It’s who they’ve always been,” Larry went on to state.
That’s a sad, and pathetic view, of America. Divided, assumptive, and labeling people based on what you think they are, not what they truly are.
My beliefs, as an independent-minded thinker, beholden to no party? The Democrats are not the party of hate. They may be a lot of things, but not that. The party of no identity and no leadership? Yes. The party of idiotic ideas such as free college, abolishing the border control, unlimited immigration? Yes. Not all, but many of them advocate these ideas.
As for the party of “hate,” as Larry puts it, I would like to think neither falls into that category yet, but we are headed in that direction. I would, for Larry’s enjoyment, however, like to pose a few simple trivia questions to him. Even he can get these correct.
It’s an easy quiz, Larry. A single answer should suffice.
Noah Little
Hot Springs
‘Ridiculous’ statement
Dear editor:
Come on Larry, the Democrats “have always been the party of hate.” That’s a totally ridiculous statement even for someone as prejudiced as you. Speaking of hate, are you aware of who your president is? Just wondering.
Gary Vogt
Hot Springs Village
Author
The party of hate?
Dear editor:
I admit I have not read Larry Bauer’s submissions in some time. They pretty much all fall into the same category: Democrats are evil, the source of all that is wrong, and Republicans are good, and should take credit for everything good. It’s a small, myopic universe that Larry lives in, and his rhetoric is generally not worth reading (or printing, but this is America).
But when I read two letters rebutting a previous letter this Sunday, I had to go back and read the original Bauer submission. Without surprise, he blames Democrats for pretty much everything, without any real facts or substance.
So, like the other letter writers Sunday, I would pose a question for Larry: Just a couple of months ago, a journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, walked into the Saudi Arabian embassy in Turkey, and never left. Our own Trump Central Intelligence Agency has publicly confirmed he was murdered, with an advance plot, by 15 or more members of the Saudi intelligence and ruling establishment, and that the murder was likely planned in advance and ordered by the Saudi royal prince.
Here’s what our president, Donald Trump, has said since then:
“The crime against Khashoggi was a terrible one.” Agreed. But then, citing a pending arms deal with Saudi Arabia “This is a record amount of money. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs (something even the arms companies dispute, citing between 500-1,000 created or saved jobs).”
Trump continues. “Of the $450 billion (again, a made-up number; sources say less than $100 billion, at the most), Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and many other U.S. defense contractors” could be hurt if we simply let the execution of journalist get in the way of business.
“I don’t want to lose an order like that,” Trump said.
So, Mr. Bauer, there you have it. Murder someone, in cold blood. But money “Trumps” moral decency. Where is the party of hate? Personally, I don’t think Republicans have become the “party of hate,” but simply the party of cowardice. We used to be better than this.
At what point do you, and the other letter writers who continually defend him, have the decency and courage to simply admit that Donald Trump is a serial liar, egomaniac, and has zero integrity or moral decency? When does it end?
Anthony Lloyd
Hot Springs
Author
Swamp water
Dear editor:
Well, it didn’t take long for Twiddle Dee and Dum to chime in. Dum couldn’t figure out how I knew who [Jacques] was [herein, LB inserts a clever play — if you’re a snicker-snicker juvenile fifth-grader — on my real last name: “Rag N on”]. I don’t know maybe it was all the seething rage that came through loud and clear, maybe it was the shot he took at Christians which he likes to do from time to time in his other letters. All I know is one needn’t be a Mensa member to figure it out.
About 50 years ago the Democrats figured something out. The people they had stood in the way of for a hundred years, now with the civil rights acts, were going to vote. They knew they better change tactics so they went low. For the next 40 years, they sliced us and diced us into groups and then pitted us against each other. Is it any wonder we’ve been at each other’s throats? What we see today is the product of the past 40 years of their political ploys. Who does it really benefit, not you or me but Democrat politicians in the swamp?
Stop and look for a minute at the communities they’ve run or maybe I should say run into the ground for the past 40-50 years. Mostly inhabited by the people they supposedly care for. For the most part, these places 50 years ago were in better shape. I remember an article that ran in this paper a few years ago that pointed out how in many cities in the wake of MLK’s death changed the names of streets that had mostly minority-owned businesses to MLK St. These were once prosperous places, then the Democrats came to town and said, hook your wagon to our train, as the article pointed out, it’s been downhill ever since. If you go around this country from city to city what do you find now, poverty, crime, and a new phenomenon created by their policies, food deserts?
I want people, the average Joe and Jane, to prosper and they don’t do that under Democrats. I mention this because I just watched Trump sign the new trade deals with the Leaders of Mexico and Canada. In the early ’90s, a rich guy named Perot said: “That sucking sound you hear is jobs leaving the country.” Clinton signed NAFTA, they left. The Democrats used to be or at least said they were the party of the working class, another sucking sound you’ve been hearing is them sucking up to the Elites, more money in it for them. Trump took advantage of their abandonment of the working people leading to his victory and the swamp hates him for it. Obama said those jobs were lost forever and they were if nobody ever tried to get them back. It won’t be perfect, nothing ever is but we have been hearing a whispering sound of jobs coming back. The haters and the resisters who only listen to the swamp water in the MSM will never hear it but hopefully, the average American will come election time.
Larry Bauer
Hot Springs Village