PJM continues to update regularly—noting that Newt Gingrinch wants the President to let us know that we’re in the midst of World War III. For his part, Joe Biden dismisses the idea completely, noting that Gingrinch must be “one of them silly dot heads.” Whatever the hell that means.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah “urged Arabs and Muslims worldwide to support his guerrillas, saying Sunday that his group is fighting Israel on their behalf.” The Arab street, fresh from its brisk morning walk, has yet to respond to Nasrallah (though some of the CNN reporters seem delighted by his bluster)—but early indications suggest it’d rather stay out of this whole mess, content to kick back on the couch with the hookah, have itself some sesame candies, and watch reruns of “What’s Happening?” on satellite.
On the domestic misinformation front, LGF points out that the Larry Johnson lie about Israel PM Ehud Olmert’s lack of military service has now been picked up as “truth” by, for instance, George Snuffeluphagus and Cokie Roberts on ABC’s “This Week”. Charles also notes that the WaPo is taking this opportunity to once again let it’s readers know how powerful is the Zionist lobby.
Whereas all those Saudi-funded Islamic Centers and mosques preaching anti-Americanism and death to Jews? Coincidental. After all, the brown people are too stupid and backwards to organize. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need the media’s help evening the playing field.
And the New York Times wants you to know that Bush’s real agenda has never been to fight terror (or rather, such is a convenient cover)—but has rather been to expand executive branch power. Me, I’d frame Bush’s actions as a desire to take back executive powers usurped by the other branches—and point out that 1) we haven’t been attacked since 911, thanks in large part to the speed with which the executive is able to move, and 2) that this supposed power grab will be available, too, to Democratic Presidents—but that would just confuse matters.
Better just to pretend that the absence of successful attacks on the homeland since 911 has to do with the willingness of papers like the Times to leak national security secrets. Because had they not, the terrorists would have already won. Whereas now, we get to wait until they’re able to benefit from the leaked secrets.
Anyway, Dan Riehl has another roundup of overnight links. Me, I’m going to go have a salmon melt.
Rerun is the shiznit, yo.
Am Yisrael Chai!
I’m curious as to why hezbollah hasn’t hit any of the same types of targets that israel is hitting—fuel, infrastructure sort. Is it because they can’t, or because they’re idiots driven by a rage that prefer to just rain random death on jews, rather than strategic gain?
Good question. What’s your theory?
But Pasty, The New York Times is a secular organization and, as such, would never align themselves with the likes of religious fanatics. Don’t try to pull to wool of our eyes with your “facts.†Oh, and the photograph of the Timesman in the bunker with those Jihadis aiming at US soldiers? Well, Rummy took a picture with Saddam.
yes
I don’t know what their capabilities are, so I can’t comment on whether they can. I suppose their form of collective punishment is just raining random death. Which may be all they can do. I’ve always thought these palestinean resistance groups would gain more prestige if they started focusing on attacking the tools of occupation and oppression, rather than just random death.
Jeff
Take a quick gander at the bit of email Jeff Harrell got from ANSWER calling for a “national emergency march” on 8/12 at the White House “to defend the people of Palestine & Lebanon and stop the US-Israeli War”
Note at the bottom of the flyer:
Yep. Not too organized, eh?
Maybe the problem here is that the NYT likes terrorists better than it likes their fellow citizens who happen to be vote Republican? Likewise, perhaps the WAPO really feels that Israel is a rogue state that should be crushed and swept into the sea? Or perhaps, by attacking the WAr on Terror and Israel both the WAPO and the NYT believe they will accomplish the most important thing in the history of man kind…the return of the Democratic party to power? If millions of jewish persons in Israel happen to be slaughtered as a result of their postion…well, you got to break a few eggs.
Ignore Actus. He’s running the timeclock out on moron-hours, and I FOR ONE WILL NOT STAND FOR ACTUS’ BLATANT ABUSE OF THE SYSTEM!!!
You only get ONE 40 HOUR WORK-WEEK, actardo, with which to unimpress us with your stupidity. NO OVERTIME FOR YOU, PAL.
They’re not concerned with occupation and oppression—their concern is the continued existance of the hated Jew.
C’mon, Actus. That was pretty lame, even for you.
Actus we told you about practices and purposes when we showed you the secret hand-shake. You weren’t listening were you?
History to actus
The Arabs that claim to be “Palestinian” have way less interest in falling in love, getting married, raising a family, going to school, establishing a career or business than in murdering Jews. They “rain death” because a Jew … six months old or 85 years old … is only a pig or monkey to be slaughtered.
Remember the words of Golda Meir.
Ok, I have to ask.
At what temperature does a salmon melt?
What do you use? A charcol grill? A blowtorch? An open pit smelter?
Please, Jeff, I just gotta know.
tw: value, as in your wisdom
N.O’Brain  It’s the pollution, man! Just like Al Gore said! The pollution is melting the salmon, man and The Man, man, is only worried about The Man’s profits and keepin’ us down, man!
They tried for an oil refinery in Haifa, but missed.
Biden may have said “ditto heads” (a Rushism) and it was misreported, or he may have said “dot heads” and got it wrong.
And Nasrallah said they avoided it on purpose. What shall we make of that?
tw: choice
I bow to the AI.
They are TERRORISTS actus. Rage-driven killing of random innocents is their only strategy. Will the left never understand this?
You all need to go over and read the comments in Johnson’s post.
My favorite, a fellow traveler tries to throw Lar a life preserver:
Larry,
With your comments about Olmert, did you intend that he didn’t servce in a senior command position in a combat unit where he had to take strategic and tactical decsions that directly impacted the lives of the men he commaneded or did you really mean he didn’t serve at all?
Translation: You really stepped in it this time, Larry. Here, try this spin for size.
BWHAAAHAAAHAHAHAHA!!!
No. Four or five decades of fetishizing groups of murderous thugs as “the resistance”, “revolutionaries”, and as “authentic”, has warped their moral sense.
“Snuffeluphagus”
That’s great. Hadn’t seen it before. But you did misspell his co-world travelers name –
Kooky, not Cokie, Roberts
Now, now. Actus is making some sense. I wouldn’t have phrased it as “oppression and occupation”, but I’m sure the Palis would.
In any case, these Katushyas are unguided artillery rockets, being set up for single snap shots and torn down as quickly as possible because they undoubtedly attract unpleasant Israeli attention. CEP is probably, roughly, half of Israel. So, no, they’re not particularly aiming at much of anything.
How to melt salmon:
The traditional method used by the Tlingit tribe of native Alaskans, was to bury the salmon heads in the beach at the tideline. After a day or two, it turned to jello and stunk up the town. Supposedly, that’s a delicacy (seriously). I forget what the Tlingits called it, but us whities called it “stink head.”
Another way is to wrap up the salmon in something to trap the moisture in. Store it at 85 degrees, and it will melt in no time.
I prefer my salmon in a solid state–the firmer the better. Raw is best. Although my ex used to make a great salmon soufle.
-a former Alaskan
I’m curious as to why the Israeli’s drop leaflets into population centers warning Lebanese civilians to get to cover and express regrets when they are accidently killed, yet Hezbollah doesn’t. I mean they’re the same right? Um…right??
Nasrallah is propagandizing, of course, he’s a formidable orator. Hezbollah’s exact arsenal remains to be seen, heard, felt, and smelled.
There are three things that should be clear from the current events in the middle east.
First, there are far too many on the Arab side that only seek the destruction of Israel, so until the underlying hate is eliminated, there can be no peace.
Second, the idea that military responses to terror must be proportional is idiotic. That is where asymetrical warfare gets its strength, so proportionately is really just fertilizer for future terror.
Third, and most important, there is no such thing as land for peace. What we are seeing today is the effect of land for peace. Israel gave up land (or withdraw from land it was using as a buffer) and the only thing that resulted was the rockets and missiles can strike deeper into Israel and the terrorists can easily sneak across borders to launch attacks. I hope that what is happening now shows that land for peace is one of the worst policies to ever be attempted.
More on this topic at http://vengefulzhid.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-land-for-peace-never-works.html
Since it’s sure to come up again, here’s Olmert’s CV. Note military service from 79-82.
As we type elite IDF units are belly-humping Lebanese terrain, identifying rocket locations and taking their coordinates to prepare precision bombardments that will precede rolling ground forces north.
Some young Israeli dudes I know here in the States will hear very soon whether they have to report back home to suit up.
You can support the troops buy sending them burgers and pizzas through http://burgerIDF.org and http://pizzaIDF.org
(I’m not aware of salmonIDF.org. Maybe the other sites have comment cards.)
Denny
Jellied salmon head? Now that’s a WMD.
I know why Jeff keeps actus around. Every time I worry about the left taking up arms in the U.S., actus pops up with his brilliant strategic analysis and I don’t worry as much. Actus with a weapon would pose no threat of harm to anyone but actus.
Good to see you still alive Denny.
How’s the finger? Stopped bleeding yet?
(people like you keep me up at night; “thanks for taking that tooth out, doc. did I mention I was on coumadin—why do I have all this blood in my mouth?)
I’m curious as to why hezbollah hasn’t hit any of the same types of targets that israel is hittingâ€â€fuel, infrastructure sort. Is it because they can’t, or because they’re idiots driven by a rage that prefer to just rain random death on jews, rather than strategic gain?
You’re joking. Right?
ummm…jeff, the arabstreet is replying. thru arabic journalists.
You should read the Father of Aardvarks.
aren’t aardvark and armadillo kin?
here is my take.
there was a rumored shadow-negotiation german brokered prisoner exchange that failed last year.
the hiz’b took the israeli soldiers to up the payoff, and have opened themselves up for a world of hurt. there is right now a confusion window, where the arabstreeet hasn’t synched up with their leardership yet, and Condi and GW are standing off the rest of the world so Israel can have an opportunity to drastically deconstruct hiz’b before the rest of the world gets their act together.
hiz’bullah made a mistake, and the israeli response took them by surprise.
personally, i think the deal-breaker was Samir Kuntar, because the Israelis refused to trade him before.
you gotta feel for the hiz’b guys, they thought they were just uppin the ante on a prisonerswap, and instead got WW III.
stupid of them to cross the blue line.
that p.o.’d the saud, the UN, egypt, etc.
so now there is this window of opportunity where Israel can kick the livin shit out of hiz’b and no one to naysay them. implicit sanction of Condi–“now is not the time for a cease fire”.
I thought the withdrawl from lebanon was unilateral—no deal. No ‘for peace.’
I wonder if the ny times had any articles complaining about clinton’s expanding executive branch power.
The famous quote that summed it up was “stroke of the pen, law of the land pretty cool”
Somehow I doubt it.
I think that “melting salmon” means a Frisch fry:
Debbie, you’re a post you
Debbie, I’m a read you
You’re the only one
You care enough to hurt about
Maybe you’re a crazy
Cuz you just can’t live without
Your internet connection
Paedophile suggestions
Like a psycho bitch
You keep on at it every hour
Reading what you’ve written
I think I’ll just be a hittin’
The shower
Was it when that big promotion passed you by
You began to feel embittered, poor gadfly?
Prolly you’re a nutcase
Why then be a fuckface?
When your whining’s done
Perhaps you’ll get the help you need
Debbie, I’m just sayin’
That you’ll always be a stayin’
Away
Used to be that trolls would hit the road when they got fried
Then you came along and made me laugh so hard I cried
I’m just that snide
Debbie, ooh, Debbie
I’m a taunt you
Debbie, I’m a mock you
(Well you’ve really screwed the pooch now, Debbie)
Ooh, ooh, ooh, baby
What’s it been, 28 or 30 months of nonsensical random syllables out of actdude? Perched over there as pw’s very own flip-flop keyboard sniper?
And now, all these months later, all we get for the little idiot’s very first foray into human-think is this mash of disassociated characters? I think I preferred V. 1.0 to the “upgrade”, Jeff. ‘Cause this is really embarrasing, even for the TTP.
Maybe it’s still saying something that a machine made of snotted-up wood would make the attempt…
Thanks, TomB
The finger’s healing pretty well. I’m still recovering from all the Bombay Sapphire, however.
It’s funny– I got just buzzed enough to allow my fiance to start sealing the wound with superglue–right about the time someone suggested “liquid bandage” or whatever. She opened the tube, and the smell sent the room spinning. Groan, I don’t know how people do that (and I know plenty who do).
As long as I keep the finger away from melted salmon for a couple days, everything will be fine.
I’m thinking we should send unguarded mandolines and coumadin to Hezballah.
Uh, “Dot Head” is a an anti-Indian slur. Not again?
I wouldn’t expect the actard to know (or to care if he did know), but I’m pretty sure Israel withdrew from Lebanon under a UN Resolution that provided (6 years ago, mind you) that *ALL* the militias, including Hizbollah, would disarm. Yeah. Like that was going to happen.
Too bad stupid isn’t painful.
tw: expect: I don’t expect sense from actard, ever.
I thought dot heads were the people who were all upset about Phish breaking up.
I’m pretty sure even israel called their withdrawal ‘unilateral.’ Which would mean its not under a multilateral agreement like a UN resolution, and not part of a deal with anyone for peace or anything. But if you want unilateral to mean multilateral, or ‘per UN resolutions’ go ahead.
Well, sure, they said it was “unilateral.” In the sense that Syria wasn’t going to pull out. In the forlorn hope that they’d get some kind of international political capital for their action, and that Clinton would be able to seal a last-minute deal with Aratard.
Oh, now I get it. Silly me. Obviously, I’ve taking too many pains to be a civil, educated, informed, respectful-but-forceful neoconservative. Thanks for the heads up: Time to bone up on my South Asian slurs! What else am I missing?
Like the “unilateral” invasion of Iraq, right?
Damn… it’s like Hezbollah is a bunch of … terrorists or something. Who would have guessed?
Actus, you’re making progress. Some day, you may make it to the 21st Century.
Pablo,
It would have been multilateral if we’d been allowed to go through Turkey, doncha know.
I’m gonna break one of my rules here. From the Retarded Telephone Pole™ (AKA Talking Telephone Pole™ ):
Emphasis is mine.
No one caught this. How is it that Hamas (who supports the terrorists that tunneled OUT of Gaza INTO Israel to kidnap and murder Israeli citizens), the elected government of the Palestinian Authority, is a “resistance” group in actards’ eyes?
Or Hezbollah, which occupies terroritory of their own? (Thus nearly a de facto state, although not declaring themselves as such.)
Not that I expect a coherent reply from TTP/RTP. I’m just pointing out the little “slip” from him for everyone else.
The reason why the rocket attacks on Haifa (and for that matter, Ashkelon) are so dangerous is because of the proximity of fuel tanks and industrial chemical plants, which, if hit, would have a WMD type effect.
That is why stopping the rockets is the top priority. I still don’t think the IDF is prepared for a full ground offensive, but, we’ll see. If the two sides keep blasting each other from the air, each time the ante gets raised. The end result will be a lot of dead people, mostly Lebanese, and that will not be in Israel’s interest.
I don’t expect this conflict to widen but Israel has nothing but tough options at this point.
Could “dot heads” be confused with “l-dotters “ from lucianne.com?
And superglue on split skin (called dermabond in the ER) is the best. Just be sure to use the “leather and wood” one. Beats butterfly bandages and up to 3 stitches.
– Rusty, that would require a semblance of a sense of humor. The only thing that brings a smile to actus’s face is an oily ballerina.
– We hear that Dr Deaniac has held forth with yet another “World according to Lunitics” screeches.
“…and we wouuldn’t be in this situation today if we had a man like Bill Clinton in the white house, showing the moral superiority and diplomacy he had when he brought Israel and Lebanon together in peace….”
– He short changed Clinton by failing to mention his “other” great “moral superiority and trouser diplomacy”, when he brought Monica and the Cuban cigars together. Neither effort lasted very long.
– Every time Dean opens his pie hole Bush’s numbers go up 5 points….
You never truly recover from Sapphire. You can be recovering, but never recovered. And stay out of the olive aisle. It’s a killer. (Hehehe, I said olive aisle, I’m sooo clever).
Too good.
You think you got “problems” now….
– Identifiable brain cells?
BBH–
And they acccuse us of cocks-lapping.
WTF! I’m glad I’d never heard of the term.
Based on what I’ve been reading about events, it seems that Israel will limit it’s response to isolating and immobilizing Hezzbollah on the ground, via its air attacks on roads and bridges, in preparation for ground operations to take on and destroy substantial elements of Hezzbollah’s militias and especially to eliminate the rocket launchers. Then to re-establish the buffer zone in southern Lebanon to prevent a repeat performance in the future. Whether the IDF or the Lebanese Army occupy southern Lebanon remains to be seen.
Once this objective has been acheived, Israel will refocus on Gaza. Israel needs to critically hurt Hezzbollah and Hamas.
It also appears that Iran may have miscalculated the international response, which has been exasperation with Hizzbollah and Hamas. Even Egypt, Saudi Arabia and many of the Gulf states are blaming Hezzbollah and Iran as the source of the troubles and Iran may be blinking. This seachange in attitude from the reflexive blame of Israel is a direct result of Bush’s policies in the middle east.
While none of us watching can know what the near future holds, I do hope that Israel deals Hamas and Hezzbollah crippling blows and makes Syria think long and hard about its alignment with Iran.
If Hezzbollah’s military capabilities are destroyed or severely reduced and Lebanon is freed from Hezzbollah’s grip, Israel will have achievd its objectives and won a substantial tactical victory. Additionally, if Syria is persuaded to distance itself from Iran, in its own self interest, which is possible, Israel will have achieved a strategic victory by further isolating Iran. My hopes are with Israel in acheiving all of its military objectives and the freeing of the hostages.
And stay out of the olive aisle. It’s a killer.
– I ding’st find out’st, she were a Liberal ‘til was tew lake’st! keeks-keeks-keeks’t
Or, the IDF could take Golan, and wait for the idiots to come to them. I don’t think they’re as hemmed in as people make them out to be, strategy-wise.
Note to the IDF from the American Jooooish Freedom League:
“…Nuke them with Chicken soup from orbit…. its the only way to be sure…”
Hey Actus,
This answer your question?
Dan,
No. It would have been “multilateral” if France had joined in. There are no other criteria.
Regards,
Ric
Damn good thing they didn’t join in.
We would have been forced to surrender after the first IED.
A bit. It just seems to me to cause more colletive punishment, as well as strategic gain, to hit these sorts of installations. But perhaps their logic is simple terror.
But perhaps their logic is simple terror.
Wextree Wextree…. read all about it. Typing Telephone Pole makes a point, AND gets it right, all in a tall post in a single bound.
– Medivac’s are standing by to attend any injuries suffered from falling off your computer chairs….
Big bang. The only thing I can conclude is that Law school must be dead easy.
Wm. J Clintons famous quote upon winning the presidency.
“ My administration will be the most ethical administration ever to occupy the white house.”
That never fails to crack me up.
Actually, BBH, I don’t think so—although I do agree that actus has, for once, reached a logical conclusion from the evidence at hand. I just think it’s the wrong logical conclusion.
As Verc has pointed out, the motive for Israeli action(s) seems to be “preparing the battlefied”—which entails arranging things so that Hizb’Allah has trouble moving around and/or getting supply. HA won’t, for instance, be schlepping Styxes around if there aren’t any bridges for the trucks. Since Hizb’Allah happens to be trying to move around in Lebanon, that means Lebanese stuff gets blown up and Lebanese people get hurt. I don’t think the Jews are doing that specifically to hurt Lebanon or to terrorize Lebanese.
I think they just don’t give a damn any more.
The default solution to any problem, from a hangnail to a major earthquake, in the Arab world for the past half century has been to kill all the Jews. Israel and its supporters have been trying to placate its enemies for that entire time, and the response to every act of generosity or accommodation has been “kill more Joooooooos!” It’s a wonder, to me, that they’ve been peaceful and patient for so long. Arafat, and now Hamas and Hizb’Allah, assure us (and Israel) that as long as there is a living Palestinian the war against Israel will continue. There’s an obvious solution to the problem lurking in that statement, one Israel hasn’t been willing to look at up to now. But, after all, ammunition is cheap.
Regards,
Ric
Wow. Agreement from both righty & lefty posters that Hizbullah is using terror tactics.
That adds to the evidence that Hizbullah/Iran/Syria did miscalculate. But then the military boys & girls are always pontificating that War Plans never survive first enemy contact. Nice to see that rule work in the good guys favor every now and then.
As an aside: Does anyone consider the IDF tactics to be terror tactics in the same manner that (it appears) that many agree that Hizbullah’s tactics are?
Some texans don’t even get into UT.
Olive Aisle and I are heading to the movies. I hope Bluto doesn’t show up!
Hic!
Ric,
Well, re France, yes, of course. However, just to make sure you got my drift, I meant that the invasion would have been from more than one side had we been able to deploy from Turkey, as well. You know–engaging in counter-actardy.
I just pulled out my personal, well-worn copy of the Koran on this one to see what BroMo (pbuhas)had to say about it. Best I can tell, and admittedly something could’ve gotten lost in the translation, you get no virgins for blowing up infrastructure. Virgins are only for jihadis who kill infidels. Double bonus green stamps if those infidels are joooooooos. Now back in the day you could get some free dishes for blowing up a gas station, and a free 8-track player for hitting a bank, but I think Allah has become a bit more niggardly in this modern, more streamlined, jihad.
You know, you’ve got a point there.
While you’re up, could I have one too?
Or Zhang Zi Li, that would work.
Ric, brace yourself: Actus was saying Hizbullah was using terror tactics.
You can blog, you can troll, having the time of your life
Read that girl, watch that screen, digging the Victim Queen
Friday night and the lights are low
Looking out for the place to go
Where you can bash the wingnuts, getting in your swings
You go in for that kind of thing
Any blogger could be that guy
Protein Wisdom, you just say *sigh*
With a bit of vile comment, everything seems cool
Youre in the mood for a flame
And when you get the blame…
You are the Victim Queen, lesbian, only fourty-three
Victim Queen, feel the heat, now you’re up the tree
You can dance, you can jive, piling it on with your lies
See that girl, watch that scene, digging the Victim Queen
Youre a troll and you turn em off
Second coming of old JackGoff
Looking out for winger, anyone will do
Youre in the mood for a flame
And when you come up lame…
You are the Victim Queen, lesbian, barely forty-three
Victim queen, right-wing bloggers are really mean
Lost your job, lost your mind, you couldn’t leave it alone
Screw you Deb, you’re obscene, you’re just a pity-ho
I love it when crazy, evil, stinking predators like Deb Frisch and Hezbollah miscalculate and get flattened with totally unexpected hammer blows from someone they considered an easy target.
Hubris, baby. It’s the absolute best.
I heard when the IDF first started the bombing in Lebanon, the mayors of 3 French Cities surrendered to the closest rabbi they could find, just in case…
Concerning acthole, it likely is. But as with salmon melt, it just feels so good.
Set me free, why don’t you Prof
Get out of my life, why don’t you Prof
‘Cause you don’t really love me
You just keep me banging’ on
You don’t really need me
But you keep me banging’ on
Charlie,
Eh? OK, I missed that one. Sorry, actus.
But, in truth, I’ve never shared you guys’s disdain for actus. He (??-for convenience) is often silly, definitely a leftist partisan, and often short of vocabulary (especially in Rightspeak), but if you read his posts in the light of his known postulates he’s actually something of a right-leaning moderate. That’s probably why he’s hung around here so long.
Even many of what looks, from here, like non sequiturs are perfectly reasonable skips of non-relevant matter from the point of view of a person informed by Leftist thought. Read actus’s posts in that light and they look a lot better. It’s just that you need to figure out what the bases, the givens, of his thought patterns are. Those givens are scary as all Hell, all by themselves, but don’t blame actus for the difficulty of generating a coherent arithmetic from a system where the result of 2 + 2 depends.
Regards,
Ric
Depends.
He’s off of them, that’s for sure.
For what benefit?
I contacted Biden’s spokesperson, a Ms. Rachel Bigtree. She mentioned that she was half American Indian and half Indian-American and as a member of the American Indian Indian American Community, she could assure me that “dot-heads” refers not to Hindus, but to “bloggers”.
I used to be a highly-paid blogger, but I’m thinking of going into the lucrative mental health field; those psych-wards will be jam-packed when President Gingrich assumes office!
I wish I was a member of a palindromic community.
This explanation is utter BS, and I’m wondering how long Biden had to look around to find this chick.
He could have just trotted out “i don’t see the big deal” malkin.
Want to understand what Israel is doing?
I wish actus was dead.
What?!?
“i don’t see the big dealâ€Â
You mean, for instance, tunneling into Israel from Gaza and kidnapping Israeli soldiers, who are in Israel and not Gaza, right?
Someone please define “occupation” for actus.
Seeing as Hizbollah appears to be busy miscalculating responses these days, how long before they start taking American hostages to get their tits out of the Israeli wringer? They just might be stupid enough to do it – or shoot down a helo ferrying Americans out to the 6th fleet. Probably blame it on the Jooooos anyway.
McGehee,
Humanitarian reasons.
The Left’s world is falling in. Fitzmas came, and all they got was coals and switches. Generosity and multicultural sensitivity has gotten them a Balkanized “movement” that, predictably, spends more time in internecine warfare than in productive effort. A century of forceful anti-imperialism has won them a world in which the United States is hegemonic by default, not desire. It’s becoming more and more obvious every day that all their heroes are torturers, tyrants, and opportunistic profiteers, and that their biggest and most important supporters are fatcat capitalists of the vilest stripe. For now they’re able to stave off the full realization by pointing smugly at Misha (e.g.; next up, Frank J) and calling Jeff names, but that’s a stopgap. It all has to come falling in sometime, and if things continue as they are that “sometime” looks like being pretty soon now.
When it happens there’s going to be a real problem. Universities, newspaper and TV news offices, and a few major cities are going to be littered with the semi-catatonic forms of lefties curled up in the foetal position, occasionally gasping out “hate bush”, “gay marriage”, “sorry”, and the like. Leaving them where they are isn’t an option—consider the sanitation problem alone, if you have no fellow-feeling. But you’re going to need to soothe them and administer aid, and how ya gonna do that if you don’t speak the language? I’m ashamed of you.
Regards,
Ric
If people who only eat vegetables are vegetarians…?
CANNIBAL!!!
Ric, here’s something totally off-topic and unrelated to your 8:07 PM comment
It was a sad thing, but I know the moose didn’t suffer. Don’t think anybody there was fluent in moose, come to think of it.
Totally OT, you understand.
I don’t know, Ric. Your arguments make a great deal of sense. But, somehow I can’t picture the Left imploding – wishful thinking. They’re firmly ensconced in the schools, merrily indoctrinating students who have little choice but to buy into the bilge if they desire to get a decent “GPA”.
They seem to have a bedrock system of beliefs that are impervious to most tenets of logical thought. Science in their schools is no longer about objective truth but about consensus and politics. You can’t argue with someone to whom reality is only defined by their belief system.
McGehee, something for you in return. Note particularly the paragraph beginning “For your information…” I reckon you and Steve are pretty much on the same page.
My son the mighty warrior actually looked up from Everwinter Nights to laugh, BTW.
Regards,
Ric
Then you’ve forgotten your youth. My youth, one of each, parrot the bilge as need be. They don’t buy it.
My generation’s grip on academia will fade as they die off and their charges pass on into the Real World. The ones who stay and recycle the bilge, would’ve anyway.
Sure. But it’s already happening.
Being an academic these days is a “position” in the Jane Austen sense—such a person has a decent income and few if any demands. That’s because we, as a society, subsidize them, and that, in turn, is because we consider them ornaments of a liberal society. I called them “tailfins on Juggernaut” not long ago, and to my mind that pretty well sums it up. They like to congratulate themselves that they’re contributors, and some of them even are; the ones that aren’t still keep up the facade as a matter of pride.
But if you build it, they will come. Free money and no demands attracts a lot of people who don’t even intend to contribute. Con men and parasites, many of them wily enough and dishonest enough to parrot the required litany but without even the intention that it be contributory. Ward Churchill, except that Churchill’s an incompetent ass. There are a lot of people who are slicker and more intelligent than he, and they’re gradually replacing the True Believers. That’s why your kids can afford not to pay attention. The catbird-profs who are gradually taking over don’t give a damn whether anybody believes them or not. The pay’s the same.
That’s why what’s being taught is so incoherent. They don’t have a guiding philosophy, except to the point that they can pour it out on demand. Pull the chain and the same noise always happens. In a way, it’s a move to the British method of university teaching—the books are there, the data is there, and the student who wants to learn can do so. The rest, the majority, memorize the litany and party between times.
The dangerous ones are the ones in positions of power who were taught by the previous generation, most of whom were true believers. The Rathers, the Sulzbergers, the Kerrys. They’re the ones who have to die off or be pushed out, and it’s a slow process. It’ll happen, though.
In the meantime, the younger ones were partly taught by believers and partly by clever “con persons”. They’re confused as all Hell because nothing they were told actually works. For now they can keep it up on pure belief, supported by the Old Guard. But too much is happening too fast, and a psychological public health disaster is in the making. It’s gonna be hard to be supportive, but we need to make the effort.
I think we’re having a violent agreement and if I could write as purty as you, I would’a said so.
I’d say that creationism exists mostly outside of the academy, not in it. But there are still lunatics left, and tolerated.
Do you know many academics? most of the ones that I’ve seen seem quite busy, and also quite full of demands, given the competitiveness of their fields.
– It would appear the TTP’s enlightenment did not last long.
… and he was doing so good there for a few seconds….
Sure, actus, but take a good close look at what they’re actually doing sometime. It may require deliberate adoption of the “man from Mars” attitude for you to see it. C. Northcote Parkinson was a wise and perfect-sighted man, dammit.
There’s the “hard” sciences—physics, chemistry, math, various sorts of engineering. No new useful principle in those fields has been discovered in decades now. There’s new, even hyper-new, stuff, but it’s all abstruse reasoning, with no way to apply it. String theory occupies lots of physicists and mathematicians, but there’s no way even in principle to determine whether it means anything or not (though, to be fair, one of the main lines of investigation is to find such a principle). Everybody else is busily tacking on the nth decimal place, and engaging in academic politics to stay busy.
The middle ground—archaeology, anthropology, the various political science variants, economics, psychology—is mired in the same rut. For instance, museums around the world are jammed to the rafters with stuff that’s been dug up, but archaeologists almost never pay attention to it. Instead they’re out digging up more, which is sexy and out in the sunshine, or they’re arguing vociferously about interpretation of stuff that’s already been interpreted by chains of investigators back to Schiller and Scheer. In the meantime they do academic politics to stay busy.
In the really soft studies, philosophy and language and literature, either the basic material has been exhausted—there are only so many books, and the Draconian expulsion of “pulp fiction” from the concept of “literature” limits the field even further—or there isn’t any basic material in the first place. One of the reasons for “po mo” and debates over “meaning” of “text” is that all the reasonably obvious discussions have been run into the ground. Philosophy has gotten itself into a tailspin of nihilism and self-contradiction, because the Universe doesn’t have an organizing principle unless it’s God—it’s all Quantum. So they do academic politics to stay busy.
The doctors, biologists, and lawyers are busy with real work. That’s about it, and it isn’t clear that what the lawyers are doing is actually a benefit. Teachers have the same problem as journalists—if you define teaching as a separate profession, teachers only learn teaching and can’t teach anything but teaching; if you define journalism as a separate profession, journalists can’t tell us anything about anything but journalists. Either way it makes the “professions” useless to the society at large, and the practitioners engage in politics for something to do.
Look at the workload of a typical academic from the outside, and four things become immediately apparent:
1) Eighty percent of it is running in place, doing repetetive work and political activism to maintain a place in the system;
2) Eighty percent of the remainder is replowing old ground;
3) Eighty percent of the remainder of that has no application outside the field, however tenuous; and
4) The said academic has lots of time for peace marches, Gay Pride parades, and political activism outside the University.
This is not a picture of overworked ditchdiggers.
Regards,
Ric
tw: degree. No, I don’t.
I’m so happy you’re not in charge.
This is as opposed to philosophy back in the day.
I’ve met one who basically was. But like I said, most of the ones i’ve met work over 9-5 hours and are usually compensated less than the similar amount of work available in the non-academic sector. I don’t know about the ones you’ve met. Likewise, the ones I’ve met, and seen on various campuses spend quite a bit of time at their work, and not much on things outside of it.
But the general public does get to see more of hte ones that leave campus.
You are such a waste of space, actus. Starting salaries for PhDs in Genetics for instance are about $95,000. Which is much less than working for a corporation, but being PhDs, I rather figure that they can read a chart and figure where they want to go from there. So the poverty/overwork issue is bust.
And as far as the work that they DO do, well that’s fine, but it is only a portion of the total research that goes on. And there are hard researchers.
And then there is Juan Cole whose sole academic output is blogging or Cornel West who publishes a book (like Glen Greenwald!!!) and makes cRap music. And there are thousands upon thousands of others that produce essentially nothing of any worth whatsoever, despite how hard they might work at whatever it is that they do, such as Ward Churchill.
Arguing that they are all hardworking underpaid underappreciated folk might get your nethers in a tizzy, but it is NOT accurate.
Without actual competition, competing for the most eloquently written piece of garbage isn’t competition at all.