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...
Quagmire
I was trippin’ through the headlines this morning and I saw several references to this editorial in OpinionJournal:
The Iraq Panic
Zarqawi’s bombs hit their target in Washington.
The editorial starts out with two quotes, one from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts (D). My eyes glossed over the content of the quote, but then I did a double-take on the date. June 23, 2005. Last Thursday.
“And we are now in a seemingly intractable quagmire. Our troops are dying. And there really is no end in sight.”
I continue to be amazed at why Americans don’t get blisteringly offended — forget about Democrats and Republicans for a second — when words are carefully selected for their consumption after being tested in front of focus groups.
It’s as if some of our most powerful public servants regroup with their handlers after every speech, and the handlers pound their fists on the table and say “Senator Kennedy, I demand to know why you failed to use the word ‘quagmire’ in your speech!” and the powerful senator has to say “Oh I’m so terribly sorry, I’ll try to do better next time.”
This is yet another time we should be singing hosannas and celebrating that we don’t have a Secretary of Defense Freeberg. What chaos that would be. I’m sure I’d learn immediately afterward why it would be ill-advised, but while at that table I wouldn’t be able to resist the following, and oh what fun it would be for the moment:
Senator Kennedy, my Defense Department regards you as a venerable and esteemed legislator, certainly a force to be reckoned with. We don’t want you to see Iraq as a quagmire. Tell me, please, pretty please, what situation would you like to see over there in order to lift it above any threshhold that could be described, in your mind, by such a word. Tell me please. Be specific. And you have my commitment that I will do my very best to make that happen.
I’m sure there are several reasons why Rumsfeld can’t ask that question — he’d be making commitments contrary to the President’s policy, he’d be giving Kennedy a lead-in to make a devastating speech that would be carried coast-to-coast within minutes, it would not rise to the level of decorum demanded by the occasion, “pretty please” could be seen as failing to give proper respect, etc., etc., etc. I don’t doubt any of that.
But the point is, Sen. Kennedy has no premeditated answer to that question. The good Senator is not governing, he is politicking, and everybody knows it.
Cue Sen. Kennedy’s sympathizers and fans to jump in with “Yeah, but Republicans are just as…” blah blah blah. Back to the subject at hand, folks. We are smarter than being bought off with this cheap q-word in June of 2005. We shouldn’t be putting up with this.
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