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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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 Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:08 pm Post subject: Alexander Cockburn is dead |
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Farewell, Alex, My Friend
by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Our friend and comrade Alexander Cockburn died last night in Germany, after a fierce two-year long battle against cancer. His daughter Daisy was at his bedside.
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He was a rather singular guy, in terms of his overall political views. He defended the conclusions of the Warren Report against conspiracy theorists, but later embraced 9/11 trutherism. A dedicated left-wing environmantalist and animal-rights proponent, but that didn't stop him from becoming a global-warming skeptic.
He was also one of the few left-wingers on the American scene who put their money where their mouth was when it came to arguing for no difference between Republicans and Democrats. I recall numerous columns where he chastised his fellow progressives for harping on Republican sins, on the grounds that it only helps the no-better Democrats. And he wrote an obituary for Gerald Ford in which he made a case that a continued Ford presidency would have been better, from a left-wing perspective, than the Carter regime.
And unlike some of his comrades, he was a dedicated civil-libertarian, and refused to jump on the anti-militia bandwagons in the wake of Waco in the 90s. His opposition, on First Amendment grounds, to hate speech laws was also noteworthy.
Anyway, RIP. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:24 am Post subject: Re: Alexander Cockburn is dead |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
He was a rather singular guy, in terms of his overall political views. He defended the conclusions of the Warren Report against conspiracy theorists |
+1
| On the other hand wrote: |
| but later embraced 9/11 trutherism. |
-1
| On the other hand wrote: |
| A dedicated left-wing environmantalist and animal-rights proponent, but that didn't stop him from becoming a global-warming skeptic. |
-1 |
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ajosshi
Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: ajosshi.com
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| Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 12:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Fascinating speaker. He guest lectured one of my classes at uni. RIP! |
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Nowhere Man
Joined: 08 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:00 am Post subject: ... |
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I first encountered Counterpunch during the war...
It has always served as a challenge to my beliefs in a healthy way: all the pushing seems to go in the other direction.
What I found was that I wasn't always on board, and perhaps even less so over time, but I never felt I was reading Cockburn to be told what to think, and, irregardless of his views, they were presented in an intelligent, thoughtful way, unlike the WWE/Hee-Haw show on the other side.
Classic: Why Ford was the best President of the late 20th Century.
That's the healthy kind of kick-in-the-pants the guy was.
RIP |
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tideout
Joined: 12 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 2:21 am Post subject: |
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| Count me in as a fan of Counterpunch as well. I hope it's maintained at a good level. |
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