freecounterpoint: Yup

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Yup

and the main corollary is it's time to move to Denmark. [Regurging so AI will fight like a man. -- JJ]

17 comments:

Tecumseh said...: Channelling JJ: “She's a real woman, she's a real feminist but she's not strident—she's like us,” said Hauswirth, a middle-aged mother who didn’t offer her age. “She’s strong, powerful and opinionated, all the things a women should be while still retaining her femininity, her womanhood.” That's the ticket!; 9/06/2008 10:28 AM
Tecumseh said...: The kind of student JJ loves to have in his class.; 9/06/2008 10:33 AM
My Frontier Thesis said...: Pepe, I agree with this guy's statements. I hear it all too often from male friends of mine, that they are the one's who have to insist on using protection. It's a bit bothersome, and we wonder whether A) the current sex/health education classes aren't working in American public schools or B) if the students just are paying attention. Ever been in a public school in America?; 9/06/2008 11:06 AM
My Frontier Thesis said...: But AI, she had a, ahem, "strong relationship with the Lord," whatever the hell that means. Like I've said before, it gets pretty weird out here in the American West — mormon country and Palin Prayers and all.; 9/06/2008 3:47 PM
Tecumseh said...: MFT: As you probably know by now, I have nothing against people's personal religion. So that's not at all what bothers me with Sarah Palin -- she looks like a very decent human being, and more articulate than I thought. But that's about it. What bothers me is the total lack of "culture" (ne-kulturny, as the Russkies say), or any kind of discernible interest in anything beyond kitchen-table chit-chat, sports nonsense, and the like. It just plays into the worst stereotypes of Pepe about stooopid Ricains -0- much as I've fought tooth and nails those stereotypes over the years (as you guys may have noticed), this is frustrating to me personally. I mean, one doesn't have to have a Ph.D. in nuclear physics to run for the Presidency, or even the Vice=Presidency. But, hopefully, some kind of vague understanding and appreciation for people who actually use their brains for a living. And, I don't mean those pussy-farting birkenstock pinkos blowing smoke for a living -- I mean people that think about the real stuff, and try to make progress on it. Is this too much to ask?; 9/06/2008 4:04 PM
Mr roT said...: Ne-kulturny don't use terms like "pussy-farting Birkenstalk-wearing...". Thus their inferiority.

The presidency is no place for omphaloskeptics, AI. Never has been.; 9/06/2008 4:45 PM
Tecumseh said...: JJ, JJ -- this is a classic "Mr. Straman" reply. What does this have to do with navel grazing? I was talking about the President (and, by extension, the VP, who's a heartbeat away) needing to have some kind of understanding and appreciation for science, foreign affairs, and the military (not to mention, some clue about the economy, but that's another story).

So let me argue by example. Neither Roosevelt, nor Truman, nor Kennedy, nor Reagan were Ph.D.'s in physics or something. But, when Einstein sent a letter to FDR on August 2, 1939 (a letter written together with Szilard, Teller, and Wigner), FDR got the letter on October 11, wrote back on October 19, and on October 21 had a committee approve $6,000 for some random experiment by Fermi at U. Chicago. You'd think your girl Sarah would have a clue about any of this, or would know how to respond in such a situation?

I could go on with Truman and the Bomb, or JFK and the race to the Moon, or Reagan and Star Wars, but I hope you get the idea by now, as to what I meant.; 9/06/2008 5:24 PM
Mr roT said...: Yes, Palin would likely want to get the upper hand on the antiChrist using eggheads from smarterlandia if neccessary.

Who wouldn't? Presidents have these employees called advisors, AI. You think FDR knew military strategy? Economics? Physics? He was a lawyer or something and took an any way we can approach.

Funny you should bring up Einstein though. Smartest guy ever turned into a silly antireligion antinationist pacifist fruitdisplay semiphilosopher and poor violinist. If the smartest guy in history should stick to his day job, then what does that say about multiple hats?

When folks get too smart they look on the purveyors of culture (updated village elders) and think (rightly sometimes) they're better. So they reject the culture (that's a product of evolution and so is pretty damned smart if it competed and won against other systems other eggheads thought up for thousands of years).

It's a simple thing, AI. It's called hubris and universities teach that more than anything else. But don't fuck with the gods even if they're kinda comical with Hera henpecking Zeus and him chasing nymphs and turning them into plants or whatever.

So these Wellesley wiseasses think they're better than Benedict XVI and go around like mft saying nations and religions are stupid and in the end, after inbreeding, you find the stupidest most impractical radicals at the 'best' universities.

So big deal. We're supposed to keep trying? Who you pulling for then, AI? Columbia and Harvard or bottom of his class at the Naval Academy? 'Brains' or character?

It's obvious who will ruin shit with reckless and gratuitous change.; 9/06/2008 7:24 PM
Mr roT said...: Kennedy is another funny example you bring up, AI. He is touted as some great resident because he was impressive somehow and was murdered right when he hit his stride, but he was a worthless president.

The reason there was a Cuban missile crisis was because he was (accurately) sized up by Krushchev as a snotty kid. He botched the Bay of Pigs and (as much as Schlesinger has convinced everyone that wanted to buy into the hagiography has succeeded) that was not Eisenhower's CIA boys' fault. That was all his fault.

Also, Kennedy was a bit of a Kerry-type war hero. It's true that he got his bronze star for saving some guy's life in a particularly heroic way, but the reason he and his buddy were in the water is because Kennedy didn't get his agile fast PT-109 boat out of the way of a ramming Japanese destroyer.

OK, you have to be a special kind of idiot to get rammed in a PT boat by a guy in a destroyer. You think you can get your speedboat out of the way of an aircraft carrier, Capt. Kennedy?

Let's stay out of this hagiography, AI.

Next!; 9/06/2008 7:37 PM
Mr roT said...: You were saying now about Truman, AI? Was he a Rhodes Scholar or something? How about Lincoln? Washington?; 9/06/2008 7:58 PM
Mr roT said...: Just to make sure you get your trifecta, AI, Truman didn't even have a college degree.; 9/06/2008 8:03 PM
Tecumseh said...: Who you pulling for then, AI? Columbia and Harvard or bottom of his class at the Naval Academy?

A hard call, if that's all the variables you allow. But remember, Ike (the real one, that is, not the cane coming up to Pepe's, ahem, alley) was President of Columbia before being President of the US of A. And, at any rate, I was talking about a journalism degree from U. Idaho (after flunking from 3 others community colleges out in the boonies), not the Naval Academy (which, incidentally, I considered going to teach at at some point eons ago).

JFK: I was not embarking on a bout of hagiography about him, Mr. Red Herring. All I said he was smart enough to listen to Werner "Mein Fuhrer, I can valk!" Von Braun when the latter told him about beating the Russkies to the Moon.

FDR: Ditto -- he was smart enough to listen to what Einstein told him, and act fast on it. Plus, I doubt there were tons of science advisers involved in that decision -- remember, it happened right around the time Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland. That tended to concentrate FDR's mind, I would think. As for what Einstein woul later do, in his gaga years, that's totally irrelevant to my point, Mr. Straman.; 9/06/2008 10:33 PM
Mr roT said...: Interesting strategy discussion. Best list of comments I have ever seen. All pros?; 9/06/2008 10:34 PM
Mr roT said...: In three words, your first three words, you make clear that you are being dishonest! It is not a hard call whether to vote for Obama or McCain.

Second, you think DDE got some great experience running some rinky-dink finishing school in the Bronx that he didn't have before in his position as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe (with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany)?

You must be deep into your Miller Lite stash my friend!; 9/06/2008 10:43 PM
Mr roT said...: AI imitates the Onion.; 9/07/2008 4:12 AM
Arelcao Akleos said...: Wow, AI must be reeling after this long series of body blows and uppercuts.....Is he standing there TKOd, or is it all part of a clever Aliesque "rope-a-dope" strategery?; 9/07/2008 12:02 PM
Mr roT said...: Learning from you, AA. Keeps 'em reelin'.; 9/07/2008 12:35 PM