Does Fineman think the shape of the earth is "controversial"?

[pmbryant]

Fineman is up to his old tricks:

And now the Swift Boat boys are back, this time with an ad focusing on Kerry's record as an antiwar activist after his return, especially his (still) controversial accusation before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 that Americans in Vietnam had committed atrocities and war crimes there. Many vets loathe Kerry for those statements.

Is the shape of the Earth "(still) controversial" because there exist some people somewhere who happen to think it is flat?

More here: http://pmbryant.typepad.com/b_and_b/2004/08/is_the_shape_of.html

Peter

[lancdem]

1. Another example of lazy press coverage

Kerry did not accuse Americans of committing atrocities. He was asked to read firsthand accounts given by OTHER vets who were there.

[napi21]

2. Controversial means "not agreed upon".

Vietnam is always going to be a war that a majority will never agree on. You had to be there! You had to live through all the fleeing to Canada, joining the NG, marches, protests, etc., to understand all of this. The only thing that will ever make this go away is time. Someday, all the 'Nam vets will be dead, and all their close relatives will be too. Someday, people will look upon 'Nam as they do on WWI, WWII, the Civil Waw, etc. and most will see things through a history book, and the hatered will be mostly gone.

edit for spelling.

[pmbryant]

3. There is no controversy about the facts

So do you think the evidence for the My Lai massacre is controversial?

If "controversial" simply means "not agreed upon", then virtually everything is controversial and the word loses all practical meaning. In practice, there is a certain threshhold of disagreement below which use of this word is not accepted.

This is no more controversial than the shape of the Earth.

Peter

[stopbush]

4. As Howie is a charter member of the * Flat Earth Society, I would say

yes.

[AmerDem]

5. Fineman is irrelevant

Him and Tweety try so hard to be players. They are second rate wanta-bes