Village Idiot of the Day, August 10, 2009: Sourdough Sal, TMelvill

The Nazi meme refuses to retire.

Apparently, Reppies don't know that once they evoke Nazis (or Hitler) they evoke Godwin's Law and its consequences: their arguments are invalidated and exposed for the crackpottery they are.

In our society of instant gratification, I Hate Canton knows that calling Barack Obama or George W. Bush or even Jamie Healy a Nazi feels good. We've done it ourselves occasionally, but never during a serious conversation, and certainly not in public. That would be taking ourselves and our hyperbole way too seriously, while we insult the intelligence of the other parties to the conversation.

Calling somebody a Nazi trivializes the historic Nazi dictatorship and Hitler and shows an unmitigated lack of historical comprehension. It angers and disgusts people who actually know and sometimes experience what real Nazis are and what they do. I Hate Canton actually knows people who equate embryonic stem cell research to Nazi ovens. When anybody--Jews, for instance, who lost families in the Holocaust or survived death camps themselves--dares to call these nincompoops on their historically and politically challenged extrapolations, they are lectured back (1) you don't understand, or conversely, you of all people, should understand; (2) you should be glad you're alive; (3) you're a crypto Nazi yourself; and (4) what they really mean: shut up.

Evoking Hitler is an intellectually and morally bereft rhetorical device that only makes the writer look thick-as-a-brick to most rational people, even those who otherwise might agree in principle with the writer's dislike for an individual or policy-- except the small band of similar-minded loons who never went beyond the playground bullypen.

This, of course, makes no difference to our Reppies who like to pretend that making a lot of noise means they're actually saying something. Our old VIOD Sourdough Sal, for instance, never tires of flying high over 500 S. Market in her own personal gasbag. Yesterday, she took on Canton's historical working class base by writing that the AFL-CIO = Hitler's Brown Shirts.

Sourdough Sal
Donna Brazile: Rx for Reform Means Dialogue Not Disruption.
First off let's get this Nazi thing straight. Nazi's or national socialist party wanted a national government run health care. Which side is that? Brown shirts were Hitler's minions who roughed up the citizens who tried to speak out against what the government was doing. ACORN, SEIU, AFLCIO anyone? Herr Obama calling out his 'brown shirts' to shut up, rough up, drown out protestors? While we are on the subject of Nazi's - in the past few months, which party threw Israel under the bus and sided with the Palistinians? Anyone?

We as Americans have a fundamental right to speak out. No matter who it is. I remember the shrill cries during the Bush years. So I suggest the democrats zip it and allow us to have our say!

On another note, we have Michelle Obama fashion critic and commie hunting gadfly TMelvill (see IHC August 6 below), attacking the patriotic capitalism of 2nd Ward Councilman Thomas West. West, much to TMelvill's pain, made the reasonable suggestion that owners of vacant lots and buildings give them up so they can be used by others who might actually improve the property and not let it rot and collapse or be cared for by crackheads, amateur arsonists, and thugs with pit bulls as current owners are wont to do.

Here's the scenario. Mr. West wrote in his August 11 letter to the editor: Canton Must Begin Taking Advantage of Its Opportunities:

We need people to stop holding onto their vacant homes and lots. I would like to see individuals who own vacant lots, houses, and buildings give their property to the next generation in an effort to create or develop something new for our city. When a successful business closes, we need individuals who have energy, passion and knowledge to step up and recreate that business, but they need an affordable and supportive space to begin. Canton has plenty of vacant space.

He closed saying:

We need to celebrate the ideas, visions, risk-taking endeavors, and successes of the people in our community, especially the younger generation.We need to stop putting barriers and negativity in the way of people with new ideas and vision. We also need government to get out of the way of community and economic (business) development. We don't need more government hurdles or fees.

How translates as a call for jackboot eminent domain eviction against an innocent population much less illegal property seizure by the state is another mystery we'll leave Reppies to explain. Perhaps West was really calling for the abolition of private property but we are too brainwashed by the current Nazi-Communist Messianic Obama regime to interpret the secret code.

Whatever, here's TMelvil's response. We can't wait for a follow-up explanation, but we bet we'll have to.

Let me also remind you Mr. West that your signing your letter as a government official is nothing more than government intimidation. The Constitution, both federal and state, as well as common law protect property owners' rights. Individuals have the right to acquire, hold, use or not use property. Neither you nor your city council cronies can deny us that right. Start by looking up the 5th Amendment 'nor be deprived of life, liberty, or PROPERTY, without due process of law; nor shall PRIVATE PROPERTY be taken for PUBLIC USE, without just compensation.'

The subject of absentee landlords, abandoned buildings, and irresponsible renters has been a topic at the Rep for as long as we have been reading "Comments." We do not remember TMelvill complaining when residents of receding neighborhoods such as the near-Lehman High School area, the the Newton corridor, and the 12th & Cleveland Avenue area make the same suggestions in much stronger terms that did Mr. West yesterday. In the recent discussions on what to do with Lehman HS, abandoned 25 years ago by the Board of Education and city, TMelvill, at least under that name, didn't make a peep. Maybe it's only when a Democratic politician makes the suggestions that the paranoid TMelvill hits the keyboard.

We are happy then, to name Sourdough Sal and TMelvill co-winners of The Village Idiot of the Day Award, August 10, 2009.