Comments on: A Minor Point

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 02:17:53 +0000

The German version of my last name is Doemke, and a short “u” is as close as English can come.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:48:39 +0000

Why any rational Dem officeholder would deliberately alienate MoveOn is quite beyond me. I suppose the key word is “rational”: those 22 were not acting rationally. What could they possibly hope to gain with the overwhelming majority of the electorate that want us out of Iraq? I didn’t much like the ad myself, but should our government… two branches, no less, not counting the Dick Cheney branch… be condemning a group’s political speech?

I had a high school classmate whose family name was Boehme who pronounced it bee-me, almost like “beam me up, Scotty.” I guess Americans of German descent transform those umlauts any way they have to.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:17:31 +0000

If you are going to condemn people for what they do, you really should be able to accurately describe it.

Truth is relative to its political value to these people, John.

As a “public person,” by virtue of the actions of the Shrubbery, the General would have a very high bar indeed to get a hearing in a court in the US on a libel complaint.

The congresscritter says it is pronounced “BAY-ner”, but that is not a version of German with which I’m familiar. I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone pronounce Goethe “GAY-ta”.

The real losers in this are the 22 idiots with the D after their name in the Senate who have cut themselves off from a source of political and financial support.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 13:02:59 +0000

Heh. According to the wiki, "[b]y the law of the Twelve Tables, the composition of scurrilous songs and gross noisy public affronts were [sic] punished by death." Anyone wonder why I am fond of our First Amendment, not to mention the outcome of the Zenger trial? Another thing the GOP leadership appears not to know is that largely thanks to the Zenger acquittal, in America, truth is an absolute defense against defamation charges. (Not so in many other countries, including the UK.) I presume you noticed that MoveOn got about $0.5m in contributions the day after the resolution. Their letter to members, which several blogs published, was almost gleeful... a polite version of "defame us some more"! On to the really important question, which I, not watching much television, cannot answer: how does Rep. Boehner really pronounce his last name?

By: John B.

John B. — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:57:21 +0000

This article, pointing out that Republican lawmaker John Boehner doesn’t know the law any better than a barfly, would be defamatory if it weren’t true.