Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Defined here.
And…being demo’d, for the benefit of anyone who wants to see it in action…over here.
Here’s your embed…
They must have the final word. Will not tolerate any disagreement. If they have the authority to back that up, it’s a disaster because you can rest assured they’ll make a whole lot out of that.
They know everything, actually, at least while they are in the process of deciding something. Especially when they’re brushing off a question about it. And the things they know, they know for an absolute certainty since the first questions they brush off, are the questions that have to do with lack of likelihood, or inconvenient and contrary evidence.
The “know nothing” moment comes along when it all turns to shit. As reliable as the following sunset. But at least that’s more honest than the previous know-everything event, because what they’ve been doing is the authoritarian-decision-maker version of copying an answer off your classmate’s paper. Some of them are well “educated” in the sense that they’ll be happy to walk you through the steps of the decision-making process, but when you listen to it all awhile you see they’re really just repeating back what they’ve been told. If you raise a dilemma about some contradiction you’ve found, or a rational inquiry about “how did we get from this identified problem, to that other thing as a proposed solution?” — they just start at the beginning and repeat it all. Those are the more intelligent ones. But their intelligence, applied to the problem at hand, amounts to very little more than a capacity for memorizing details and repeating them back.
So, they don’t actually know anything. You often haven’t very long to wait to see some among them bragging about not knowing anything.
They want to decide everything. They’ll accept nothing less.
They are the policymaking equivalent of that asshole who wants to drive in the left lane, and poke along ten to twenty miles under the speed limit.
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“They are the policymaking equivalent of that asshole who wants to drive in the left lane…”
Actually, a better analogy would be the assholes who drive in the left lane doing 15 – 20 miles over the speed limit, tailgating anyone who dares to use the left lane. Then realize their come to Jesus moment when they see a cop anywhere in sight, even on the other side of the highway, suddenly slow down to a ridiculously slow speed.
Like Eric Holder realizing he might just get caught, otherwise…I’m gonn’a break the law baby, ‘cause I can. And I’m gonn’a be a asshole to everyone who dares get in my way. Literally.
I love driving in the Right (*cough*) lane. I laugh at those folks in the left lane. They do all sorts of maneuvering, getting upset about slow drivers, barely not getting into accidents.. And the they get to their destination what…a couple minutes faster? I’m less stressed, use less gas, get to where I’m going safe and sound, no road rage assholes ruining my day.
- tim | 05/16/2013 @ 10:15Tim, there’s actually a term to describe that left-lane rider that Morgan mentions: “nestoring.” Shock of shocks, it’s named after an actual bureaucrat in Washington DC who helped cause Beltway traffic snarls with every commute because he didn’t want to deal with people exiting and entering the highway from the right lane. His solution was to do exactly the speed limit in the passing lane, regardless of anyone else’s wishes in the matter.
I do, however, think your description of the current bureaucracy is quite apt, so I nominate the concept of “holdering” to describe this driving pattern.
- nightfly | 05/17/2013 @ 10:40He doesn’t know. Linked here: http://bobagard.blogspot.com/2013/05/brick-wall-people.html
- bob agard | 05/20/2013 @ 18:46