Reply #24: Of course people liked him, he was a celebrity. What does that have to do with the truth of the OP?

[tom_paine]

And when you talk about the "safe harbor of DU", it makes me smile. Why? Not just because it is true (why try to be all Bushie about it and deny the obvious?), but because it makes me think of other "safe harbors" where it was safe to spew "hatred" of a tyrant while the rest of the populace at large was clueless of "Principa obstis. Finem Respice." (Resist the Beginnings. Foresee the Ends.)

Also, using "hatred" as a term is something I could easily debate the validity or obviously misleading invalidity of, but which would take me off on a long-winded tangent - it's a topic for a thread of it's own, and I believe they are already here on DU. You should go seek them out and read for awhile before you judge.

But back to those "safe harbors" of old that makes me smile involunatrily at your comment.

The Red Dragon Tavern and other sites in Boston, where those crazy, hateful Founding fathers met to talk because in the beginning, such talk in public would have gotten them punished, perhaps hanged.

The quiet homes throughout Germany where like-minded people could quietly discuss what a horror Hitler and the German Bushies were, where they could be safe from the mass-mania that had taken over their society, a related "kinder and gentler" form which has also taken over our country.

(oh, and just in case you think my "German Bushies" comment is hyperbole, please listen to this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml )

Those two, and so many more. So you may sneer at the "safe harbor" that is DU, electronically-speaking (and it's not exactly safe, for unlike the Germans and the Founding Fathers, the Tories and Nazis can view everything we say, but it's close enough to be analogous to the pre-Internet Age), but I smile.

I say THANK GOD for such safe harbors as DU and the ones I mentioned, as well as all the rest throughout history. Because history has shown, often, repeatedly, and conclusively, that the great mass of people, the "rest of the world" has time and time AND TIME again been lead to perform or accept monstrous deeds in the service of evil tyrants. Time and time and time again.

And if you think this makes me superior (a common Bushie talking poiint which our own side uses far too often to close down debate) to anyone else, you are wrong. Like anyone else, I am smart in some areas, dumb in others; strong in some areas, weak in others. So are you. So is everyone.

I do agree that these discussions are a bit unseemly, coming so soon after his death, but what does that change, honestly?

"De Mortus Nihil Nisi Bonum" (say nothing buit good of the dead)

But where do we draw the line? Just how evil, how much in the service of tyranny and against the cause of Liberty does someone have to be before this rule need not be observed?

Tim didn't murder anyone, but he helped, immensely helped, with the murders of at least a million innocents, the destructions of the homes of millions of innocents, the deaths of 4000+ American Soldiers, the wholesale theft of the Public Treasury, and on and on and on.

No, Tim didn't get his hands dirty, but he is as much an accomplice as the lockpick who breaks down the bank's security so that the criminals can get in, rob and kill anyone who stands in their way.