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<div>I find it odd in the extreme that the decision to maintain the debate about the business focus of the CBD by the Moscow City Council and Mayor Nancy Cheney, in the resent decision to take more time to consider the granting of a CUP to NSA, has been labeled "liberal" and "leftist" by some in local media.
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<div>Are not "leftists" and "liberals" those who take a more anti-business stance regarding how government regulation impacts the so called "free market," than "right wingers" and "conservatives?"
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<div>If NSA could be replaced in the CBD by a free market profit making capitalist business (NSA could simply move outside the CBD), why is this not to the liking of those free market capitalist advocates (those who often are called conservatives or right wingers), who ostensibly seek to promote the inherent value of such institutions in our society?
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<div>It seems in this case that the so called liberals are championing capitalism in their critical view of NSA's activity in the CBD, while the so called conservatives are actually taking a stance in favor of a non-profit institution, whose goals are ostensibly not those of making a buck and getting rich offering goods or services. Indeed, NSA is above this sort of crass capitalism, is it not? Or am I wrong? I might actually respect NSA in this regard, with some serious qualifications, if indeed they serve higher goals than making a killing worshiping the almighty dollar. But business is business, and worshiping the almighty dollar is what the CBD is ostensibly about, I assume. Again, am I wrong?
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<div>Are those who defend NSA "socialists," if they defend NSA against the pure goals of capitalism that the CBD might be considered to embody?</div>
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<div>The simple minded labeling of those who oppose NSA's presence in the CBD as "liberals" or "leftists" reflects the common practice of utilizing a polarizing linear sort of thinking in political/economic thought, that does a disservice to a detailed critical political analysis that recognizes the full complexity of political/economic ideology, ideology that often does not fit the Procrustean bed that demands political opinions must be either "left" or "right."
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<div>This is reflected more broadly in the current muddle headed nonsense about President Bush being a "conservative," while he has recklessly spent half a trillion dollars on a foolish war in Iraq with little chance of success.
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<div>The war in Iraq strikes me as a classic wasteful liberal boondoggle of the most extreme sort!</div>
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<div>Promoting NSAs presence in the CBD also could be deconstructed as reflective of a religious oriented liberal agenda.</div>
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<div>Ted Moffett</div>
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