August 2, 2016

The word "sacrifice" is in issue this week, so let's look at 14 examples of the use of the word "sacrifice," mined from 186 posts with the tag "sacrifice" in the 12-year archive of this blog.

1. Back in November 2013, President Obama said this (in the context of staying in Washington until Sasha finishes high school):
"Cause she's, you know, obviously they-and Michelle-have made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my cockamamie ideas, the running for office and things."
2. From a 2006 NYT article  about couples who choose not to live together:
Carolyne Roehm, the New York socialite and author, is similarly unwilling to sacrifice control of her space. Ms. Roehm, 54, said she is perfectly happy with her extreme version of the L.A.T. relationship, with Simon Pinniger, 53, a businessman who lives 1,700 miles away in Aspen, Colo. 
3. "Sacrifices have to be made," said a father who sold his motorcycle and got a minivan.

4. But another father put out a book in 2012 about the selfish reasons to have children:
Children cost far less than most parents pay, because parents overcharge themselves. You can have an independent life and still be an admirable parent. Before you decide against another child, then, you owe it to yourself to reconsider. If your sacrifice is only a fraction of what you originally thought, the kid might be a good deal after all.
5. The NYT reported something Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in the U.N. in September 2009:
“The engine of unbridled capitalism, with its unfair system of thought, has reached the end of the road and is unable to move... Selfishiness [sic] and insatiable greed have taken the place of such human concepts as love, sacrifice, dignity and justice. The belief in the one god has been replaced with self-belief.”
6. Here's Obama in April 2011:
"To meet our fiscal challenge, we will need to make reforms. We will all need to make sacrifices. But we do not have to sacrifice the America we believe in. And as long as I’m president, we won’t.” 
7. An Orwellian banner hanging at the Wisconsin protests of 2011:
"All shared sacrifice is equal, but some must share the sacrifice more than others."
8. From a 2006 USA Today column:
"For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, [Al] Gore requires little from himself."
9. In 2012, Frank Bruni had a whole column in the NYT about the failure of the presidential candidates to use the word "sacrifice."
It’s odd. We revere the Americans who lived through World War II and call them the “greatest generation” precisely because of the sacrifices they made.... [T]he last president to make a truly robust call for sacrifice was ridiculed for it. That president, Jimmy Carter, suggested only that we turn down our thermostats a tad and guzzle a bit less gas, and in July 1979 observed, “Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.”

Then came Ronald Reagan, whose many great contributions to America were coupled with less great ones, including the idea, which has dominated our political discourse ever since, that we should speak only of morning in America and that optimism, like virtue, is its own reward....

Conditions, all in all, are ripe for a serious conversation about sacrifice. But this presidential campaign has been noteworthy for its nonsensical insinuations or assurances that although we’re in a jam, we can emerge from it with discrete, minimal inconvenience.... We live in a sacrifice-free bubble of volitional delusion.

Obama has lately taken to speaking of “economic patriotism,” which is in some sense his euphemism for sacrifice....
10. From a speech President G.W. Bush made in December 2005:
It is also important for every American to understand the consequences of pulling out of Iraq before our work is done. We would abandon our Iraqi friends and signal to the world that America cannot be trusted to keep its word. We would undermine the morale of our troops by betraying the cause for which they have sacrificed. We would cause the tyrants in the Middle East to laugh at our failed resolve, and tighten their repressive grip. We would hand Iraq over to enemies who have pledged to attack us and the global terrorist movement would be emboldened and more dangerous than ever before. To retreat before victory would be an act of recklessness and dishonor, and I will not allow it.
11. From the Democratic candidates debate, April 27, 2007:
SEN. CLINTON: This is not America's war to win or lose. We have given the Iraqi people the chance to have freedom, to have their own country. It is up to them to decide whether or not they're going to take that chance. And it is past time for them to demonstrate that they are willing to make the sacrifice, the compromise that is necessary to put together a unified government and provide security and stability without our young men and women in the middle of their sectarian war....
12. In 2006, the NYT "public editor" said this when Supreme Court journalist Linda Greenhouse revealed some of her political opinions:
[J]ournalism [is] a calling ... that requires sacrifices and special obligations. Keeping personal opinions out of the public realm is simply one of the obligations for those who remain committed to the importance of impartial news coverage.
Which made me say:
Greenhouse's speech didn't seem that out of line to me, because I am so used to hearing law professors express all kinds of personal and political opinions about the Supreme Court, and, obviously, I do it all the time myself. I'm trying to imagine a law school where the professors felt they needed to make sacrifices and suppress and submerge their opinions. Actually, it's a scary place! Do you really want us to become more devious?
13. From a 2006 review of a book about how religion works:
[Daniel C.] Dennett, anticipating the outrage his comparison will make, suggests that this how religion works. People will sacrifice their interests, their health, their reason, their family, all in service to an idea "that has lodged in their brains." That idea, he argues, is like a virus or a worm, and it inspires bizarre forms of behavior in order to propagate itself. Islam, he points out, means "submission," and submission is what religious believers practice. In Mr. Dennett's view, they do so despite all evidence, and in thrall to biological and social forces they barely comprehend.
14. When we first encountered Edward Snowden in 2013, he spoke of himself in terms of "sacrifice":
He has had "a very comfortable life" that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."

45 comments:

Tommy Duncan said...

Much of what now passes for "sacrifice" used to be called maturity and self-discipline. And maturity and self-discipline were the expected behaviors.

Jon Ericson said...


http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=365092

Go.
Read.
Comment.
Pls Return.

David Begley said...

I sacrificed greatly to listen to Hillary Clinton bellow her lies in Omaha yesterday.

Jon Ericson said...

Nail'n em I see.
Woot!

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Exactly what has Hillary Clinton sacrificed, again? Just kidding, George Steppy Peppy won't ever ask that.

Oops, I'm whining again.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

I feel bad for the guy who had to buy a minivan.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

"Sacrifice" is from the Latin, meaning to "make holy".

jimbino said...

Edward Snowden wins in the sacrifice game. He freely gave up a job worth $200,000 and more per year, friendships and family relationships--all in order to educate the Amerikan people with no prospect of personal financial gain.

Hillary couldn't even give a canned speech without guarantee of great financial gain.

Jon Ericson said...

Thanks! to all the timid AOS posters here.
Let your deepest feelings flower!
morons.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

A quick Bing! search tells me that AOS stands for American Orchid Society.

Cool!

narciso said...

ace of spades, aka the horde,

the only sacrifice, linda greenhouse entertains is the truth, red queen, sacrificed the iraqi people, and hence we got islamic state.

narciso said...

obama demanded one sacrifice your plan and your doctor, and he wants your air conditioner, a functioning electrical grid,

buwaya said...

Sacrifice is not the most necessary thing, or that fascinating a word.
The proper, necessary word of the moment, though little used, as is the concept, is penance.

narciso said...

the first amendment, the second amendment and I wouldn't be too confident about the third,

Mark said...

Sacrifice = not kicking a baby out of your rally.

n.n said...

Sacrifice wealth for progressive debt.

Sacrifice science for prophecies of past and future dreams.

Sacrifice equality for congruence ("=").

Sacrifice individual dignity for class diversity.

Sacrifice native-born for refugees from progressive wars.

Sacrifice Americans and natives in social justice adventurism.

Sacrifice men for female chauvinist progress.

Sacrifice women for revenue and leverage.

Sacrifice babies for their lucrative parts.

Sacrifices for the greater gods... I mean, "good."

Truly a religion pulled from the nether regions of the twilight zone.

David said...

Obama apparently would like the Republican Party to sacrifice all the votes of the people who got Trump nominated.

Amazing thing is some leading Republicans are edging towards this very thing (not having had the votes or guts to do it at the convention.)

YoungHegelian said...

@david,

Obama apparently would like the Republican Party to sacrifice all the votes of the people who got Trump nominated.

Between the Republican Party leadership's reaction to Trump & the Democratic Party's coronation of Hillary, it's really frightening to see just how anti-democratic the ruling & chattering classes are. I'm afraid this is the Europeanization of American politics, where a combo of a non-elected bureaucratic & political order rule, & see that lack of voter input as a veritable blessing.

wildswan said...

Kizr Khan's son sacrificed for something other than sharia; he believed in separation of church and state. The father runs a business promoting Muslim immigration. You would think with a son killed by other Muslims the father would realize that some screening is necessary. After all, his son died screening Muslims coming into US base. He saw unusual behavior and waved other soldiers back. He thus saved their lives. But the father wants any Muslim admitted to the US and has no proposals for screening. The right screening, the kind his son did, would sort one kind of Muslim (like his son) from another kind (like those who killed his son and who want to kill us.)

D. said...

the proggtards do child sacrifice with every abortion. baal for the win!!11!!

D. said...

>; he believed in separation of church and state.<

you should really read up on islam before making such a comment. mr. fort hood "was" fighting for the same "cause"

D. said...

the con that died was ieded. being in the wrong place at the wrong time isn't "heroic".
just bad luck.

David Begley said...

If Hillary ever has a press conference again maybe she could be asked about her sacrifices.

Drago said...

Ted Kennedy and the dems were happy to sacrifice Mary Jo Kopechne to salvage Teddy's very important career so it's clear they are in a position to lecture us all.

Sprezzatura said...

"I feel bad for the guy who had to buy a minivan."

They are good for folks w/ kids. And, men who drive them can come up w/ some sort of mantra that repeats the fact that minivans can (technically) swallow full sheets of plywood.

JPS said...

Young Margot Tenenbaum: "Is it [her parents' impending split] our fault?"

Royal: "No, no. Obviously, we made certain sacrifices as a result of having children, but no, Lord, no."

Drago said...

Mark: "Sacrifice = not kicking a baby out of your rally."

I'm just happy that baby was not kicked out into a screaming mob of lefties who might have decided that was a good time to continue harvesting baby parts.

geoffb said...

The son sacrificed, perhaps not in his death, though he did order others back as he went to investigate the taxi which held the bombers who killed him and two Iraqi soldiers, but by enlisting and putting himself and his life on the line for America.

The parents suffered a tragic loss but they did not sacrifice. Their son was not theirs to order or force into enlisting and going into battle. They are not Abraham at the altar holding a knife.

The father by stepping into the political realm and attacking Trump, (but not Hillary? who was more directly involved in decisions that led to his son's death) opened himself up to be responded to.

That the response was not hard enough for the Media led them to introduce a straw-man and then attack it as if it was Trump and Trump's response. This is what passes for normal journalism nowadays and is slowly biting them in the ass since the online world can, if they wish, look at original sources and judge for themselves.

Bill said...

That's a real clusterf_ck of tags ya got there.

FWBuff said...

GWB's warning in #10 was ignored and came true under Obama. And his use of "sacrifice" matched Mr. Khan's.

Jon Burack said...

Funny, but there is a whole other level of meaning to "sacrifice" than what I see here. The comment that comes closest to it here is this one:

"Sacrifice" is from the Latin, meaning to "make holy."

This puts the nice spin on it. But made holy to what end? The sacrificial animal is sacrificed to atone for sins, but the animal did not sin. It is a sacrificial scapegoat. Made holy in order to bear the community's sins and discharge its guilt for it. The Jesus story is powerful because even though he sacrificed for our sins, he did not take those sins on himself and make himself our scapegoat. He released us from the burden of past sins, but not from responsibility for our own.

Etienne said...

Sacrifice is a big word in all religions and philosophy. From it, we derive martyrs.

Although, most philosophy is derived from European culture. Non-Western philosophy having been sacrificed to best serve the doctoral candidates...

Sprezzatura said...

"That's a real clusterf_ck of tags ya got there."

I thought that, too. And, I thought that this post seemed like a lot of effort w/o much of a punchline.

It seems like, more than ever, DJT could use some contrarian lawyering. Althouse should tell us something reassuring about DJT. At least she could take shots at HRC. If she's out of ammo, she can always crib from Scott Adams.

walter said...

Perhaps the most footnoted Altparse yet.
I think an Altparse of "presidential" would be more worthy.

eric said...

Huelskamp sacrificed his Congressional seat in KS in order to be anti-Trump.

eric said...

Blogger Jon Ericson said...

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=365092

Go.
Read.
Comment.
Pls Return.


Ace writes,

"What the hell is going on?

The only thing I can think of is the Feiler Faster Thesis that Mickey Kaus used to talk about all the time. "

He's not thinking hard enough.

I said before the conventions even started that:

A) Trump will get a bounce

and

B) It'll vanish and Hillary will be back in the lead after the conventions.

This wasn't hard to predict. Right now, the polling isn't about reflecting the electorate or who we want to be President. Did you read Pat Caddell's recent rant about Reuters and how they are changing Trump winning to Hillary winning?

The pollsters don't have to be accurate right now. No one is going to hold them to their polls months before the election. They only have to be accurate a few days before the election, maybe a week.

Right now, polling is propaganda by the DNC-Media-Pollsters trying to get out a message of inevitability for Clinton.

Do you know any of the NeverTrump people? Follow them on Twitter? Jane the Actuary, who posts here, is one of them. They are all singing from the same sheet of music right now. Praying that Trump is going to/will drop out of the race.

Before the conventions, it was, "Let's replace Trump at the convention! We can do it!" and this depressed Trumps poll number (Not really, but it allowed the pollsters to use that as an excuse).

I thought if #NeverTrump didn't give up after the convention, Hillary will win.

Well, they haven't given up. Instead, they've just dug in. Now they are praying Trump will drop out. Quit. Walk away.

In other words, they are useful idiots of the DNC. And they will all be paraded around on CBS, NBC, ABC, the New York Times, etc. They will be invited to speak, put forward as the voice of reason, and everything in the power of the media to depress Trump votes will be done by and for #NeverTrump.

It's all campaigning. It's not science. The polls are just another part of the process. Another arm of the DNC, just like the media.

It's too bad this doesn't occur to Ace.

Kathryn51 said...

@jimbino said...
Edward Snowden wins in the sacrifice game.

After reading through Professor Ann's lengthy list, Snowden was the obvious winner.

And the Hildebeast is totally about other folks sacrifice as she rakes in the dollars and corrupts the souls of all around her.

Sprezzatura said...

"Did you read Pat Caddell's recent rant about Reuters and how they are changing Trump winning to Hillary winning?"

If it gets much worse cons will need to bring back Dick Morris.



David Duffy said...

Guys who make sacrifices don't talk about them because they are painful, or are mocked, or don't fit well into regular conversation.

Unknown said...

Another "let's throw red meat" at the crowd post. Why talk about the historical use of the word "sacrifice" from previous posts when it is obvious what is meant between what Trump said and the Gold Star families.

In their hatred of Obama and Clinton, the Trumpkins should understand where the roots of their problems, which are very real, started from. The Republicans/GOP have taken all their poor/working-class/lower-middle-class voters to the cleaners for decades.

When Bill Clinton left office the country was in great shape and with no debt. Soon after, George W Bush started 2 wars, one of which was illegal, that cost trillions of dollars. At the same time, Bush reduced taxes for the rich. How in heck were these wars going to be paid for? With borrowed money from China and those loans have an interest rate and you, your children and children's children will be paying for those wars. The people at the top, including Trump, have been laughing all the way to the bank. They have never been richer.

To top it off, the greatest financial meltdown the world has ever seen happened under Bush. This is when the shit hit the fan because it directly affected the poor, working-class and lower-middle-classes. But the rich just kept getting richer including Trump.

That is what Obama inherited and a Republican Congress that were going to do whatever they could to stop him from doing his job which they more or less succeeded with.

Wherever you're on the political spectrum from the extreme left or extreme right, those are facts.

The poor, working-class and lower-middle-classes have every reason to be angry because you have been had by the Republicans/GOP for decades. The problem is that your anger is being salved by a con man.

Rusty said...

Unknown said...
Worst economic recovery since 1948.
Your man-god has been in charge for eight years.
Sub 1% growth.
90+ million unemployed/underemployed
Good news.
Price of gas is under $2.00!
Oh. Wait.
Obama didn't do that. Private enterprise did that.
More good news.
The dow is over 18000!
Oh. Wait.
The Fed has been salting the mine with taxpayer money.
IOW making their cronys on wall street rich.
Vote democrat , unknown, vote early, vote often.

damikesc said...

I find it endlessly amusing that Greenhouse ever felt that people weren't really pretty clear on her political leanings.

Edward Snowden wins in the sacrifice game. He freely gave up a job worth $200,000 and more per year, friendships and family relationships--all in order to educate the Amerikan people with no prospect of personal financial gain.

He's now unhappy that Wikileaks is planning on leaking Hillary info. So he wasn't a whistle blower. He was hoping to hurt Bush. If he was a whistle blower, then Wikileaks releasing Hillary information wouldn't be a big issue for him.

When Bill Clinton left office the country was in great shape and with no debt.

$5.6 trillion, actually. Bush then doubled it. And Obama doubled the $10T Bush left behind.

And he left office as the dot-com bubble burst but before the years of auditing fraud had become public knowledge.

He managed to get on the lifeboat just before the Titanic started to capsize.

The people at the top, including Trump, have been laughing all the way to the bank. They have never been richer.


Well, except for now. Obama has been a God send for the very rich who funded his campaign. The working class has been fucked over.

To top it off, the greatest financial meltdown the world has ever seen happened under Bush.

Bad home loans backed by the government and protected by Dodd and Frank were a huge crisis, yes. And Bush warned about the excesses but they shouted him down. As did the press.

That is what Obama inherited and a Republican Congress that were going to do whatever they could to stop him from doing his job which they more or less succeeded with.

He had two years of a filibuster-proof majority and didn't do "what he wanted". Why not? He had a chance few have had.


The poor, working-class and lower-middle-classes have every reason to be angry because you have been had by the Republicans/GOP for decades. The problem is that your anger is being salved by a con man.


What, exactly, has Obama done to help?

Try and kill coal. Try and kill fracking. Try and regulate start-ups out of existence. Screw over car dealerships. Import illegal immigrants to drown out lower-skilled Americans. Black youth unemployment is nearly 50% currently. And he wants to increase the minimum wage, I guess, to see if he can that percentage up to 75%.

MikeR said...

"Wherever you're on the political spectrum from the extreme left or extreme right, those are facts." Heh. No. Most of them aren't facts, they're interpretations. For instance, change "Bill Clinton" to "Republican Congress". Correlation isn't causation, but people never tire of trying.

Dude1394 said...

Boy do I miss the goodness of this man, the class, the humbleness. Not to mention he was absolutely correct. "For which they have sacrificed". Not we, us, our country, me, they.

"From a speech President G.W. Bush made in December 2005:
It is also important for every American to understand the consequences of pulling out of Iraq before our work is done. We would abandon our Iraqi friends and signal to the world that America cannot be trusted to keep its word. We would undermine the morale of our troops by betraying the cause for which they have sacrificed. We would cause the tyrants in the Middle East to laugh at our failed resolve, and tighten their repressive grip. We would hand Iraq over to enemies who have pledged to attack us and the global terrorist movement would be emboldened and more dangerous than ever before. To retreat before victory would be an act of recklessness and dishonor, and I will not allow it.

Fernandinande said...

The word "sacrifice" is in issue this week

It shouldn't be because that shyster lawyer who profited from importing muslims didn't sacrifice anything - he had a loss, not a sacrifice.