Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I'm Confused About What Rumsfeld Means Here, but I'm Scared to Ask for Clarification

"Rumsfeld: Bush Critics are Confused"/ "Rumsfeld: Bush Foes Lack Courage on Terror" at CNN.com.

13 Comments:

Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

Believing what you read in the papers again, I see. Shame, shame.

Clarification.

6:03 PM  
Blogger rilkefan said...

Wait, since when did weak obfuscation equal "clarification"?

3:57 PM  
Blogger rilkefan said...

Actual clarification.

4:20 PM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

Even if I agreed with you, the AP didn't, and changed its original misrepresentation of Rumsfeld's speech. The question was comprehensibilty.

I'm actually forgiving of Neville Chamberlain. WWI was the senseless carnage of 10 million people, with the net result of the status quo ante. He could not be blamed for trying to avoid the replay.

Which was, unfortunately, inevitable, the Nuremberg Laws (and the Rape of Nanking) being the previews.

But please don't let me interfere with your linking to the comments sections of other blogs and sports announcer Keith Olbermann's fact-free rants. We all do what we must.

5:24 PM  
Blogger rilkefan said...

Wait, I thought we were supposed to ignore what was in the paper?

I'm sorry I linked to a quashing of your link, tvd, and I'm sorry I linked to a citizen's opinion that would make you blush in shame if you were able to, but you're harming the country, or trying to - and really I don't think the sting to your belief system will last very long, as years of punishing blows from reality have clearly had little effect. And as no doubt anybody with a lick of sense will ignore you without said quashing and shaming, I'll go back to not paying any attention to your comments.

1:52 AM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

Good, because I was writing about not the content of Rumsfeld's comments, but the AP's distortion of them, and you decided to use the occasion to try to pick a fight with me instead.

And Keith Olbermann does not pass for intelligent discussion; you wasted my time, for one, by linking to his screed. You're much better than that yourself, at least on your good days.

2:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"But back to today's Omniscient Ones. That about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this:

This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely. And as such, all voices count - not just his. Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience - about Osama Bin Laden's plans five years ago - about Saddam Hussein's weapons four years ago - about Hurricane Katrina's impact one year ago - we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their omniscience as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact, plus ego."

TVD, I had a vision of St. Sebastian last night, he said that he can lend you a few arrows if you really need the air of martyrdom, a do-it-yourself pity party isn't how you get to heaven these days..........

9:59 AM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

I know you think there's an argument in there, but there really isn't. I playfully pointed out that the AP stilted Rumsfeld's speech and look where we ended up. It's all about you ("I have the right to dissent!") or me (martyr, shameful, harming the country, blah blah). Nothing rises above ad hominem<.

(Yes, I did a driveby on Olbermann, who had it coming. I would never insult the gentle readers [not so gentle] hereabouts by quoting his fellow infotainer Sean Hannity, who like Olbermann, has never been accused of actual thought.)

Meanwhile Ahmadinejad, who explicitly states he wishes to hasten Armageddon, draws closer to nuclear weaponry. Yet all the myopic can see is some remarks by Rumsfeld, who as a matter of real concern rates only for his proximity and the low stakes in criticizing him.

(Rumsfeld as Neville Chamberlain? O my. An astounding perversity of reason.)

3:22 PM  
Blogger rilkefan said...

Djerejian calls the speech dishonest and repulsive.

In the meantime, Iran is having trouble with its nuke program, but no doubt the idiots who still trust the admin war drums are all excited.

3:51 PM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

And the idiots who distrust the administration's war drums will continue to look the other way.

Being a recalcitrant sheep still makes one a sheep. Think for yourself. Speak for yourself. This is a democracy, after all.

4:27 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Whoa, go away for a coupla days and all sorts of interesting things can happen around here...

10:25 AM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

12:59 AM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

Ah, never mind.

3:35 AM  

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