Blogging will be light, Air America, Condi's Story Corner
1. Blogging will probably be light until the semester is over (i.e. until the second week in May), though I hope not as light as this last week...
2. I heard about 5 minutes of Air America on (I think) its first day. Not impressive. No, not impressive at all. Pretty pathetic, actually. I mean, I'm optimistic given how good Franken's book was, but what I heard was bad. I had to turn it off after about...well, 5 minutes I guess that would be. Their biggest mistake was--and this is obviously a doozy--having Michael Moore on as a guest...and on the first day, even. Ugh. Not a smart move. That guy's awful. He strikes me as being about as serious and intellectually honest as, oh, say Rush Limbaugh. Not as big a blowhard, but cut from more-or-less the same cloth. The only notable thing I heard went like this: They begged for callers for awhile, then they finally got one, who turned out to be a really pleasant apparent conservative, who apologized for giving them a toughish comment on their first day, but noted that even according to the most pessimistic estimates about Iraqi civilian casualties, we may very well have saved more people than we killed given how many were dying under the sanctions. Then Moore stammered out some non-sequitorial hogwash, and they moved on. I can't even remember what Moore said, in part because it made absolutely no sense. An inauspicious beginning, sadly. But, as I said, after that I turned it off out of embarrassment, so it may have gotten better. But these guys need to distinguish themselves from the Limbaughs of the world not just by adopting a more reasonable-sounding tone of voice, but by being more reasonable. They should have noted that Reasonable Conservative had an interesting point, promised to check out the numbers, and comitted themselves to having a serious discussion of the point on the air in the near future. Sadly, as I said, they elected just to bullshit about it instead. Or, rather, Moore did, and Franken tacitly gave his consent.
3. Tuned in to Condi's Story Corner today between classes...tried to disengage my cynicism drive before tuning in...but only got to hear about 10 minutes, during which time the only notable thing she said was utter sophistry. On the general topic why the heck didn't you guys do something to stop 9/11, she said--this is almost a quote but isn't--the real question isn't why we, in our 200-some-odd days in office, didn't do something to stop it; the real question is why wasn't more done before we got into office. No, see, DOCTOR Rice, that isn't the real question at all. That's a question, of course, but there is no sense in which it is the real one.
It's pathetic that these people can't take responsibility for their own failures and are still trying to blame Clinton for everything bad in the world. It's important to know whether the Clinton administration lived up to its responsibilities, but, see, that administration is over, so questions about its actions are primarily (as they say) academic. The real questions in this case are questions the answers to which can have concrete practical consequences for the future of this country. For example, questions that bear on the issue of whether this administration deserves another term in office. Those are the real questions.
These people deserve to be kicked out of office--even ignoring all other reasons--because they are so obviously unhinged about Clinton. Anyone that unhinged about anything should not control the Presidency. I suppose we're all tired of discussing how bizarre it is that these people came into power vowing to "restore" honor to the White House (falsely presupposing, of course, that honor had been stripped from it)...and proclaiming a new "era of responsibility"...only to refuse to take responsibility for anything, reflexively blame Clinton for everything, and behave in the most dishonorable manner of any administration since Nixon. So, let's make sure we've got this straight: consensual oral sex between adults in the Oval Office--dishonorable; massive, sustained campaign of blatant lies and distortions to trick the country into a probably-ill-advised war: honorable. Does anyone, off the top of his head, know what planet these people come from? Originally, I mean?
See, one of the most alarming things about all this is that it's so bad that it's almost not even worth mentioning anymore...
[That last sentence doesn't make any sense. Sorry. (Don't blog tired...don't blog tired...) It was supposed to say something like this: "One of the most alarming things about all this is that their sophistries have become so common that they are almost not even worth mentioning anymore."]
1. Blogging will probably be light until the semester is over (i.e. until the second week in May), though I hope not as light as this last week...
2. I heard about 5 minutes of Air America on (I think) its first day. Not impressive. No, not impressive at all. Pretty pathetic, actually. I mean, I'm optimistic given how good Franken's book was, but what I heard was bad. I had to turn it off after about...well, 5 minutes I guess that would be. Their biggest mistake was--and this is obviously a doozy--having Michael Moore on as a guest...and on the first day, even. Ugh. Not a smart move. That guy's awful. He strikes me as being about as serious and intellectually honest as, oh, say Rush Limbaugh. Not as big a blowhard, but cut from more-or-less the same cloth. The only notable thing I heard went like this: They begged for callers for awhile, then they finally got one, who turned out to be a really pleasant apparent conservative, who apologized for giving them a toughish comment on their first day, but noted that even according to the most pessimistic estimates about Iraqi civilian casualties, we may very well have saved more people than we killed given how many were dying under the sanctions. Then Moore stammered out some non-sequitorial hogwash, and they moved on. I can't even remember what Moore said, in part because it made absolutely no sense. An inauspicious beginning, sadly. But, as I said, after that I turned it off out of embarrassment, so it may have gotten better. But these guys need to distinguish themselves from the Limbaughs of the world not just by adopting a more reasonable-sounding tone of voice, but by being more reasonable. They should have noted that Reasonable Conservative had an interesting point, promised to check out the numbers, and comitted themselves to having a serious discussion of the point on the air in the near future. Sadly, as I said, they elected just to bullshit about it instead. Or, rather, Moore did, and Franken tacitly gave his consent.
3. Tuned in to Condi's Story Corner today between classes...tried to disengage my cynicism drive before tuning in...but only got to hear about 10 minutes, during which time the only notable thing she said was utter sophistry. On the general topic why the heck didn't you guys do something to stop 9/11, she said--this is almost a quote but isn't--the real question isn't why we, in our 200-some-odd days in office, didn't do something to stop it; the real question is why wasn't more done before we got into office. No, see, DOCTOR Rice, that isn't the real question at all. That's a question, of course, but there is no sense in which it is the real one.
It's pathetic that these people can't take responsibility for their own failures and are still trying to blame Clinton for everything bad in the world. It's important to know whether the Clinton administration lived up to its responsibilities, but, see, that administration is over, so questions about its actions are primarily (as they say) academic. The real questions in this case are questions the answers to which can have concrete practical consequences for the future of this country. For example, questions that bear on the issue of whether this administration deserves another term in office. Those are the real questions.
These people deserve to be kicked out of office--even ignoring all other reasons--because they are so obviously unhinged about Clinton. Anyone that unhinged about anything should not control the Presidency. I suppose we're all tired of discussing how bizarre it is that these people came into power vowing to "restore" honor to the White House (falsely presupposing, of course, that honor had been stripped from it)...and proclaiming a new "era of responsibility"...only to refuse to take responsibility for anything, reflexively blame Clinton for everything, and behave in the most dishonorable manner of any administration since Nixon. So, let's make sure we've got this straight: consensual oral sex between adults in the Oval Office--dishonorable; massive, sustained campaign of blatant lies and distortions to trick the country into a probably-ill-advised war: honorable. Does anyone, off the top of his head, know what planet these people come from? Originally, I mean?
See, one of the most alarming things about all this is that it's so bad that it's almost not even worth mentioning anymore...
[That last sentence doesn't make any sense. Sorry. (Don't blog tired...don't blog tired...) It was supposed to say something like this: "One of the most alarming things about all this is that their sophistries have become so common that they are almost not even worth mentioning anymore."]
posted by Winston Smith at
7:53 PM
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