Idiot Substitutes for Springer

I was running late this morning and caught part of Springer on the Radio on Air America. Springer is on leave, and his substitute was some schmendrick named Jay Gilbert. He went off on some collectivist rant that seemed way out of place on Air America.

First of all, he agreed with the Israeli foreign minister that the Israeli soldiers had been “kidnapped”, not “captured”. Yet, he reckoned that the military response was appropriate even though he tried to characterize the triggering event as a crime. He insisted that it could not be seen as an act of war, yet he approved of Israel's use of war in response. I don’t think you can have it both ways. You don’t deal with a kidnapping by military means. Say a subject of New Jersey was nabbed by a New York gang. Should the Jersey Guard bomb the subway to prevent the New York gang from using it to transport the kidnap victim? Should the NYPD and Transit Police be targeted because they might defend the subway system? Should Jersey blow up some buildings in New York to encourage New Yorkers to turn in the kidnappers?

Gilbert played an excerpt of a report from Beirut. A Lebanese man stated that he did not want to be punished for someone else’s crimes. He didn’t figure it made sense to bomb him in response to something done in the south of Lebanon by an organization with which he was not affiliated. Gilbert reminded the audience that some Lebanese had protested Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed and had attacked some Danes in Beirut, and he reckoned that this made the Lebanese man who had spoken a hypocrite. Gilbert presented no evidence that this particular Lebanese man had ever attacked a Dane or advocated attacking Danes. I reckon in Gilbert’s mind, if you’ve seen one Lebanese you’ve seen them all. All Lebanese are fair game in Gilbert’s mind to atone for the crimes of any single subject of Lebanon or visitor to Lebanon.

This didn’t sound at all “Progressive” to me, but then again I probably don’t know what “Progressive” means. If it means advocating violence and collective guilt, count me out.