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...
You Made A Mistake
A few days ago, I made an observation that there is a repeated pattern of bovine feces and codswallop being pumped out about the current White House having done something really bad. I don’t mean to say things are being said which I find disagreeable; what I mean to say is, things are being said that subsequent events confirm to be untrue. Someone says the President did something, and then we find out it’s not true, and the person who says it gets a little embarrassed, but his embarrassment is eclipsed by his anger — and he blames his own screw-up on the “spin machine” of Karl Rove and President Bush. Life goes on, and before too long, it happens again.
It’s gotten to the point where we really don’t know much about anything anymore. Ninety-nine percent of what we’ve been told is either crap, or has been placed under legitimate suspicion of being crap. This is not good. The tightrope we walk between safety and liberty is all too real, and we need good information, not rumors.
Well, I must conclude that the rumors will keep on a-comin’. For the Jason Leopold/Truthout dealy-bob, Truthout has issued a “partial apology” that even the Bush-bashing Democrats find to be unsatisfying at best. Once again, there is a prevailing wisdom blanketing us that runs directly afoul of common sense, a notion of forgive-and-forget, next time they’re sure to do much better, let’s move on. Some of my conservative friends are frustrated by this; they wonder when-and-if this will be hung around the neck of the crap-spewers like the dead albatross it is.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of guys, I must agree. It won’t happen. Why? Because there is a good possibility that someday, Karl Rove will be indicted. Do you really want to see a bunch of loud liberals, each imbued all the maturity of a five-year-old, still smarting from the spanking they received over falsely claiming Karl Rove was indicted and then being embarrassed — after Rove has really been indicted, albeit just a little bit late?
But I sympathize with the conservatives. For now, the prediction has turned out to be false, the latest of many. The falsity impresses me, but not nearly as much as the lack of responsibility taken for the falsity. Things are spewed, and I’m supposed to take them seriously, but how can I take what is spewed any more seriously than those who spew? They put their crap out there, get nailed on it, shrug and move on to the next load of crap.
The way I see it, this is a case of throwing stones while living in a glass house. Even today, if you google the phrase “Won’t admit he made a mistake” it seems all of the results you get back are references to President George W. Bush — each and every single one of them (I stopped checking after the first page). This is quite bizarre. The phrase is used nowhere else, in the whole universe of googledom? No transcripts from puppet shows about marriage therapy sessions? No blogs written by angst-filled teenaged girls about their fathers? Just an endless river of crap about the President? Surreal.
Two years ago when the election was in full swing, a co-worker made an interesting observation in the form of a rhetorical question. His inquiry was, what is up with all this concern, lately, over admitting mistakes? What is the point? If you make a mistake and it results in a lot of damage you can’t fix, and you admit it, is that any better than making a mistake, correcting whatever damage resulted, and then keeping quiet on any regrets you might have about the mistake? In other words, when did admitting the mistake become any more important than actually fixing the problem that resulted?
Two neighbors have a barbeque. One buys the wrong brand of charcoal and has to make a quick run down to the store to get a better brand — thus correcting his mistake — but won’t admit he made a mistake! The other neighbor burns down his whole house but says “oops I made a mistake.” It’s better to burn down the house? The charcoal-mistake was a worse mistake because it was never outwardly confessed?
Well if we’re going to allow that, then I have to have it on my mind when I think about these “Truthout” people and their mistake. If “won’t admit he made a mistake” is such a paramount and all-consuming concern with the President…to the point where the leading search engine is persuaded by its content to hold the phrase virtually synonymous with his name…should this concern not apply to his critics, when it fits them so well right now? Whatsamatta with you guys, that you won’t admit when you made a mistake?
To which they would respond — and I’m quite sure of this, almost on a word-for-word basis — “when we made our mistake, nobody died.”
Very true. But don’t go there. Don’t go there, because when we compare the “mistake” of going into Iraq, versus the mistake of saying Karl Rove’s indictment was imminent when it really wasn’t, a whole fistful of differences emerge and the military casualties are only one among those differences. For starters, the admission of a “mistake” carries different ramifications with the two situations. In Iraq, this would mean a change in foreign policy — a change toward Neville Chamberlain appeasement toward those most threatening. A policy of doing nothing. This would be a change appealing to some, but it finds avid support from neither the electorate, the executive voted into the White House by that electorate, nor history. So besides putting a disenfranchised minority in charge of our foreign policy, it would fix nothing. Show me a million people who despise President Bush because he “won’t admit he made a mistake,” and I’ll show you a million people who would hate him just as much if he admitted it. No one’s ready to dispute I could do this.
Contrasted with that, admission of a mistake in the Rove indictment thing, would signal a new policy of simply getting the story right. That was supposed to have been the goal all along — to conservatives, to liberals, to people who just like to read stuff and don’t care who wins. We’re all supposed to want diligence and accuracy. Such an admission would show that someone, somewhere, is at least trying to get some good information out. That is what we need now. Accuracy over timeliness — and if you can’t show us some achievement, then at least show us some effort.
Right now, in the Bush-bashing world, we see neither.
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