tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post6631737684298485726..comments2023-12-20T04:18:41.617-06:00Comments on The Hunting of the Snark: Assessing FailureSusan of Texashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-413314325549197422010-03-17T12:21:16.472-05:002010-03-17T12:21:16.472-05:00There were several more posts justifying her decis...There were several more posts justifying her decision that I would have liked to rake over the coals, but the post already was long and I am always short on time. <br /><br />How I wish we had the backing that conservatives have--any idiot with a computer and a mean streak can get a paycheck on the right.Susan of Texashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-83359312475191024242010-03-17T03:53:20.185-05:002010-03-17T03:53:20.185-05:00Wait, someone believes McArdle is a thinker?
Da...Wait, someone believes McArdle is a <i>thinker</i>? <br /><br />David Brooks has been on the same kick lately. Universal health care would rob Americans of their sense of adventure, etc. I suppose it's slightly less noxious than the neocon bombing fetish. Maybe we can all chip in and buy them something to give them a sense of manhood. (McArdle can get some pink salt or whatever else she considers a status symbol.)<br /><br />The thing that astounds me about McArdle is that she's dumb at such lengths and in such tangled ways. It would be so <i>easy</i> for her to merely think for a second, reflect, consider the consequences of her dogma, or do the most cursory research. In a weird way, she puts a great deal of <i>effort</i> into being obtuse. But then, bad arguments are often convoluted, because they need to twist around and away from the truth. <br /><br />There's a huge difference between trying to do a good job and failing in the external sense, and trying to get away with whatever you can and getting caught. It was a distinction we tried to impress on our more wayward teenagers back when I was teaching high school. Guess which paradigm Wall Street uses? Who caused the economic meltdown? Why, no one knows! Certainly not Brooks, nor McArdle! The ruling class can do no wrong in the eyes of its members, nor its wannabes. <br /><br />You know what would help Americans "fail" a lot better? Universal health care. They could leave lousy jobs, move easier, start businesses. <br /><br />I seem to remember an even dumber post or two of hers justifying her stance on the war (one at Jane Galt and one at The Atlantic, IIRC) and attacking the people who got it right, but that one's pretty bad. Like most hawks, she conveniently forgets that weapon inspectors were <i>in Iraq</i> before Bush told them to get out and invaded. If the goal had actually been to disarm Iraq versus to conquer it, <i>he wouldn't have done that</i>. Even if you thought Iraq had WMD, <i>war was not necessary</i>. She was an eager dupe, and like Richard Cohen, truly cannot grasp that others a) do not think the way she does, and b) are much smarter than she is. Yeah, some of us got it right, but that's not about bragging rights, it's about trying to prevent human beings from suffering or dying unnecessarily. I'm dismayed but not surprised a Randian doesn't get that.Batocchiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02193752396025012825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-60371069839534907472010-03-17T00:39:41.812-05:002010-03-17T00:39:41.812-05:00"That doesn't mean that my decisionmaking..."That doesn't mean that my decisionmaking wasn't faulty. It was, in all sorts of ways, and I am trying to learn from them with proper humility"<br /><br />Humility is best learned thru feeling embarrassment and shame, even "humiliation". Megge is impervious to such emotions.Kathyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03176801494652946278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-69042849240510396982010-03-16T16:31:47.121-05:002010-03-16T16:31:47.121-05:00"This has not convinced me of the brilliance ..."This has not convinced me of the brilliance of the doves, because precisely none of the ones that I argued with predicted that things would go wrong in the way they did."<br /><br />This, of course, is a lie, but notice how she packages it: "...none of the ones I argued with..."<br /><br />So since she never had this debate directly with people like Shineski or Howard Deam--two people who predicted it as it happened--she can make this ridiculous claim.tatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-40500075435411893512010-03-15T22:06:21.449-05:002010-03-15T22:06:21.449-05:00Thanks for re-posting her old hawk vs. dove thing....Thanks for re-posting her old hawk vs. dove thing. I'd almost forgotten why I *really* hate this child, and those like her.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-25791448179065954442010-03-15T18:40:17.092-05:002010-03-15T18:40:17.092-05:00Yes, McArdle, who has never studied the Middle Eas...<i>Yes, McArdle, who has never studied the Middle East in any fashion whatsoever</i><br />Oh come on, Susan, don't act like this is some sort of a requirement! Where I come from, the no. 1 expert on Middle East is a washed-out psychologist who regurgitates Bernard Lewis' books and Daniel Pipes' articles. Like a wise man said, these days, all you need to be considered an expert is a big enough megaphone. And so while I agree that we do need experts and don't need elites, I'm afraid that the two categories have irreversibly fused and not in the good way. Is there really a good way to tell an expert from a crank without actually being a low-level expert yourself?bulbulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14505565281151328789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-45994918216413105302010-03-15T18:37:25.117-05:002010-03-15T18:37:25.117-05:00Here's the weird thing that seems to have esca...Here's the weird thing that seems to have escaped her attention--not only did she write down her own thoughts at the time but *a lot of other people did too!* Incredible as it may seem many anti-war people gave rather detailed reasons for their opposition, in real time. Only some of that opposition was based on the notion that Saddam "didn't have any weapons of mass destruction." Other perfectly valid and *to this day apparently correct* perspectives were that<br />a) Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11<br />b) attacking an innocent civilian population was wrong<br />c) starting a spontaneous war against an innocent country was a war crime<br />d) winning might be as bad as losing<br />e) the era of colonialism was over<br />f) the country would fall apart in ethnic infighting<br />g) the only people who wanted the war aside from the neo-cons were the iranians<br /><br />and etc...<br /><br />All of these were as good reasons for opposing the war as the singular "no wmd" or "we'll lose." In fact, plenty of people opposed the war even though they thought, erroneously, that we would "win" as we did in Kuwait.<br /><br />I really despise that woman. At some point her stupidity becomes a conduit for undiluted evil and her writings reduce themselves to half hearted pleas for forgiveness mixed with "what? what did I do wrong?" and snotty asides about the people who challenge her.<br /><br />aimaiaimaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03956073425680585780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-83044640015811079712010-03-15T18:29:30.422-05:002010-03-15T18:29:30.422-05:00I hadn't noticed that was a link to an old pos...I hadn't noticed that was a link to an old post. Sorry!Clever Pseudonymnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-85225259711277995072010-03-15T18:19:43.501-05:002010-03-15T18:19:43.501-05:00c.p.--
She may be finished with her Brit affectat...c.p.--<br /><br />She may be finished with her Brit affectations (although I doubt it), but I only discovered after I'd fumed in this comment that Susan was excerpting a Jane Galt post from 2007.<br /><br />I'm still struck by what, in the end, is the juvenile nature of her post. "I was wrong, but could have been right, so I don't have to feel bad. People who disagreed with me were right, but for the wrong reasons, so they shouldn't feel good." <br /><br />And how should the tens of thousands of those maimed (never mind killed), or the loved ones of those killed, feel?Mr. Wonderfulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-1484302739237505932010-03-15T17:47:28.267-05:002010-03-15T17:47:28.267-05:00The "programme" thing bugged me, too. I...The "programme" thing bugged me, too. I thought she was over pretending to be British.<br /><br />"Watch a hearing held before the House Financial Services committee, and you don't see legislators absorbing sound policy advice; you see them mouthing talking points and beating up on bankers."<br /><br />My goodness, a legislature holding people who broke the law accountable for breaking the law!?!?! And of course you're not going to see sound policy advice being absorbed in hearings that are meant to find out what in the hell went wrong, how it happened, and who is to blame. That is how you learn to not make the same mistakes again, not by listening to the likes of Megan bloody McArdle.Clever Pseudonymnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-75859158554631976242010-03-15T17:40:46.816-05:002010-03-15T17:40:46.816-05:00I can't even finish your excerpts, this cunt i...I can't even finish your excerpts, this cunt is so despicable. I'd challenge her to name one "dove" who is crowing about being brilliant. She writes like a sarcastic teenager. "You got it right out of luck and now you think you're so smart." <br /><br />And, of course, not a word about the tons of squandered or stolen cash, the idiot 20-somethings who went there for a lark and bungled everything, the sheer incompetence of the occupation, and the massive corruption of the country, our military, and the very idea of "fighting terrorism."<br /><br />Plus: it was obvious to me, everyone here, and many others, that George W. Bush was a lying dickhead and would certainly surround himself with lying dickheads. MM's contention that she couldn't know, or had at worst a 50-50 change of being right, ignores her completely stupid, blinkered credulity about people who were obviously liars and scum before Bush was even awarded office.<br /><br />And finally, of course: "programme."Mr. Wonderfulnoreply@blogger.com