Glenn Greenwald's OBL Sophistry

I got fed up with Greenwald soon after he arrived on the scene. In my opinion, the guy is a blowhard. It's not that I haven't learned things from reading him, for I have. However, I can't help but being put off by his blowhardism. I'm funny like that. His reasoning often turns on legal points that I can't easily evaluate...and I have a day job, so...  But when it turns on non-legal points, it sometimes seems to me to border on the sophistical.

I'm trying to stay away from policy and politics and away from blogger, but the OBL incident has sucked me back in, largely because I've been aghast at the poor quality of some of the arguments offered against taking satisfaction in OBL's killing. As for the legal aspects of the case, I tried to read Greenwald's take, and left, disgusted, a few paragraphs in. But I'm trying to deblogify my life, so I whipped out a derisive drive-by and tried to put it out of my head.

Here's a substantive anti-Greenwald argument by rootless_e at The People's View. The main point is pretty damn obvious...once it's articulated for you... Turns out Greenwald's recent analysis is predicated on a patently erroneous reading of the Fifth Amendment. And by 'patently erroneous' I mean: inconsistent with the plain and explicit language of the amendment.

(via Balloon Juice)