Oh look, another Poster Boy for the Loony Left. Don, PtG, DS, any of you folks want to either disavow him or try to play apologist?

Bobby Fischer's story is so laden with heartbreaking irony that it's almost unbearable. He bacame a Chess Grand Master at the age of fifteen, possessing a one-of-a-kind talent for the game that the term "genius" miserably fails to adequately describe, yet now, as a middle-aged man, he appears to be mentally and emotionally stunted, trapped in the arrogant, and paranoid mind of that same fifteen year-old.

I hope the powers that be in the US government recognize his mental illness and treat him as mercifully as possible.

:jackson

Achilla, Fischer has some serious mental issues, and mocking him only makes you look like a fool.

Was that supposed to be a disavowal, Lakhim, or an apology? Frankly, having 'serious mental issues' describes much of the Loony Left (hence the appellation), and it's to the LL's perpetual shame that they persist in lauding people like Fischer as spokesmen (hence Poster Boy). The ones who show themselves up for fools are people like you who try to indulge in weak arguments otherwise.

And it's AchillEa.

Who said he was a leftist? Anti-Semitism is more often practiced on the fringes of the right than the left.

A good piece in the Atlantic on Fischer from 2002.

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/12/chun.htm

My unofficial diagnosis would be paranoid schizophrenia, a la John Nash. It is really very sad.

He was one of my boyhood heroes, and no one my age who plays chess could every forget 1972 with Spassky.

Jackson, I agree.

Rdelephant, we hear antisemitism from the left all the time these days. I can't remember the last time I heard it from the right.

You are obviously confusing support for the Palestinians with anti-Semitism.

Rdelephant:

Nope.

Interesting that many rioting Palestinians make the same confusion. And Arafat himself isn’t exactly the poster-boy for tolerance, either.

To the topic at hand: Bobby Fischer is a nut case. The best thing we could do for him and us, would be to just lock him away and let him babble as much as he wants.

I am heartened, at least, to see that the Japanese will consider extraditing someone who played chess in the enemy’s territory. The French won’t even extradite a known paedophile rapist for sentencing.

You are obviously confusing support for the Palestinians with anti-Semitism. rdelephant

Is support for anti-semites anti-semitism? In the palestinians case, the answer is probably yes.

Well, considering the definition of semite...

Sem·ite Pronunciation Key (smt)
n.

1. A member of a group of Semitic-speaking peoples of the Near East and northern Africa, including the Arabs, Arameans, Babylonians, Carthaginians, Ethiopians, Hebrews, and Phoenicians.

Well, if indeed the man is not competent, we have a process in place for dealing with it.

But how did we get from that to the left's denial of it's current anti semitic behavior.

and how could any rational person support the Pallestinians as long as Arafat's in control?

skip,

It is perfectly all right to opress people in the name of the fight against capitalism and its ally the Zionists. And once the fight is won you don't even have to oppress them any more. You can just kill them.

Ah yes, ask any marxist and they'll tell ya: the end justifies the means. so the palestinians are heros because they lie, cheat, steal and murder. but hey, they live under the rubric of the UN so they can't be all bad.

It's hard to tell whether the PA is capitalist or communist since there's virtually no economy outside of spending foreign aid dollars.

Arafat is not so bad. Rabin shook his hand, so did Barak. He was foolish to let Barak's peace offer get away, he wanted it, just several months too late. It was foolish, but he has a right wing he has to deal with too.

Did you really mean to write that? "Arafat is not that bad?"

that's like reuters bemoaning the fact that Lenin died of syphillus because he was an otherwise stellar dictator.

There is simply no way that a rational thinker can support Arafat. None.

Sure he's a murdering,theiving, corrupt doddering old man, but he's also a jew hating, murdering, theiving, corrupt, doddering old man so the left in America, in an act of sheer perversity, will support him.

Why the Jews in America aren't all Republicans by now is a testament to their loyalty if nothing else.

It has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. If you were a Palestinian leader, I suspect you would have adopted many of the same tactics that Arafat has adopted. Rabin recognized that ... Barak recognized that. The fact that you want to paint the hard line adopted by the butcher Sharon as the only "rational" "less than anit-Semitic" view, says more about you than me.

rdelephant: So you're saying Arafat is actually a pretty tolerant fellow? He is tolerant, only insofar as it will help advance his agenda of wiping out Israel, as attested by the map on his office wall.

Some Israeli PM's have been tolerant, much to their later chagrin. Others have taken a hard line. Arafat has never been truly interested in peaceful co-existence. Sharon is merely calling a spade a spade, when he delcares Arafat an enemy of the state of Israel.

Arafat has already recognized Israel's right to exist. I admit, he was foolish not to have taken the deal that Barak offered him until it was too late. I am not saying he is a saint, just that he is not the devil he is made out to be by some.

I believe fully that Bobby Fischer should receive a full pardon. There are 4 reasons.

1) Fischer was not living on American soil for many years when traveled to Yugoslavia.

2) Of all the things you can do to someone, playing chess is not the worst thing in the world.

3) There were many chess matches played in South Africa against UN sanctions for apartheid, and nobody said a word.

and finally

4) America was founded upon, among others, freedom of speech and "life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness." Both these things were brutally deprived Fischer at the time the warrant was issued for Mr. Fischer's arrest.

I hope Bobby Fischer gets a full pardon, and I don't believe he did anything wrong. Thank you.

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