tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post3090892425735781035..comments2023-12-20T04:18:41.617-06:00Comments on The Hunting of the Snark: Net BenefitsSusan of Texashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-47230875477438626312011-05-04T19:40:59.069-05:002011-05-04T19:40:59.069-05:00Hey Susan, Thanks for asking. We're both old ...Hey Susan, Thanks for asking. We're both old enough now that a whole lot of time is about to be spent on maintenance, kind of like our relationship to our ten year old car, with the only difference being that if we really wanted to we could probably get another car but I don't think there's a clone leasing program available to us yet. But he's better. I'm really just fighting with the ER and the hospital generally because I'm a kibbitzer who believes that systemic problems need to be handled systemically--not my husband's system but the nursing system.<br /><br />aimaiAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-33088479257702275772011-05-04T09:18:33.328-05:002011-05-04T09:18:33.328-05:00Aimai, I hope Mr. Aimai is doing well.Aimai, I hope Mr. Aimai is doing well.Susan of Texashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-78967579376326969662011-05-04T09:18:12.936-05:002011-05-04T09:18:12.936-05:00That 2002 post is so revealing in its emotional ar...That 2002 post is so revealing in its emotional arrogance. Smug superiority tells her both sides are to the extreme of herself, automatically shifting every argument to the right. Fear-based appeals to authority. Exaggerations of competence based on spite, due to dislike of the Other Tribe. Feelings of inadequacy compensated for by nationalist sentiments and appeals to naked national power grabs. <br /><br />McArdle has grown much more careful over the years, naturally. She has been very moderate of late, which is interesting.Susan of Texashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-78456546332198934282011-05-03T20:57:19.799-05:002011-05-03T20:57:19.799-05:00Well, I agree with most of your analysis Mr. Wonde...Well, I agree with most of your analysis Mr. Wonderful but I have always interpreted "revenge is a dish best served cold" to mean that the revenge that is prolonged the farthest from the original offense tastes the sweetest to the avenger. Its sort of aspirational--its advice to the blood thirsty and the angry to hold back and to wait, even years, to get revenge rather than rushing into it in hot blood. And its generally used of situations in which the length of time between the offense and the reaction/revenge either prolongs the agony of the eventual victim, or enables you to gloat quietly over your plans in advance.<br /><br />Still, whatever, Megan is a complete moron. Her morality is so vapid it almost can't exist in the same universe with ordinary morality. Its like an anti-morality.<br /><br />aimaiAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-69337035550728058892011-05-03T20:56:55.209-05:002011-05-03T20:56:55.209-05:00That Jane galt post of Sept 13 2002 was *very* dif...That Jane galt post of Sept 13 2002 was *very* difficult to read through. I feel as though I need a brain scrub, clockwork orange style. I realize that knowing what we know now, it's inconceivable how anyone can heap that much praise on the collective braintrust of condi, rummy, dick and junior. Hindsight being what it is, of course. Nonetheless, by that point in the "rolling out" of the pro-war psy-ops campaign on the nation leading up to the AUMF vote, most of the pieces of evidence proffered by that crew had been either debunked or revealed to be of dubious merit. You supported the war because you *wanted* that war, either out of misplaced anger following 9/11, team red pride and/or a deep seated desire to stick it to those weak, America-blaming libs. <br /><br />As pointed out above, the parallels to the jane's health care posts are striking. In both instances, thousands upon thousands of words feigning internal debate and "I see both sides" posturing end inevitably with the conclusion that props up the most powerful, entrenched and completely risk-averse private institutions in the nation. always. Actually, that kind of sums up her entire oeuvre, does it not?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-51655625234455482322011-05-03T19:47:30.092-05:002011-05-03T19:47:30.092-05:00They say that revenge is a dish that's best se...<i>They say that revenge is a dish that's best served cold. We've been waiting a long time for this particular dish to cool, and now that I've eaten it, I'm surprised to find that it's pretty tasteless and unsatisfying.</i><br /><br />It's possible that she completely misconstrues the saying, too. I take it to mean that one should obtain one's revenge coolly and not in the heat of an immediate response. <br /><br />You serve the "dish" TO THE OTHER PERSON, on whom you are being avenged, in a cool manner. Not to yourself for eating. That, in order to assure that you obtain the result you want, as opposed to merely expressing your emotions.<br /><br />As always, her hubris kills me. Can't someone tell her to just shut up, resist the urge to write about feelings, cooking, gadgets, and the history of appliances, and just focus on explaining to the lay public her supposed topic of specialization? Please, Atlantic?Mr. Wonderfulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-35114426928702164792011-05-03T19:12:43.528-05:002011-05-03T19:12:43.528-05:00Sounds like ArgleBargle doesn't want to admit ...Sounds like ArgleBargle doesn't want to admit our military finally "getting" Bin Laden was a good thing (well, I think they ought to have captured him) because the Obama Admin succeeded where BushCo failed. <br /><br />But she tries to dress up her feelings of "meh" in the guise of having achieved a more adult emotional insight, and the amazing realization (to Her) that Revenge is NOT sweet.<br /><br />I never felt the rage and blood lust towards Bin Laden/other Muslims that so many of my friends and family expressed. I hoped that <i>this time</i> somebody would wonder <i>why</i> it was that Arab terrorists kept bombing us, particularly symbols of our military & financial might? <br /><br />And I hoped people would NOT be satisfied with the "They hate us for our freedoms" shitola. My mistake.<br /><br />ArgleBargle never really cared, doesn't care now. As Bob Dylan put it in "Positively 4th Street"<br /><i>You just want to be on the side that's winning...</i>Kathyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03176801494652946278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-38858199576780101152011-05-03T18:28:54.398-05:002011-05-03T18:28:54.398-05:00Okay, reading the rest of that post was really pai...Okay, reading the rest of that post was really painful. So many crocodile tears. Does anyone doubt that if Dubya had accomplished this mission she'd be crowing about how vindicated she felt?<br /><br />Anyway, this made me laugh:<br /><br /><i>"The first time I suspected Bush was smarter than he looks (well, actually, it was the second time. But I can't remember what the first one was)..."</i><br /><br />This makes me assume that she's probably the type of person who, in conversation, never has an unspoken thought. There's just no filter.atatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-66177779734123098152011-05-03T18:15:00.501-05:002011-05-03T18:15:00.501-05:00The best thing about her MLK quote post is that sh...The best thing about her MLK quote post is that she seems to be entirely unaware of a little thing called the Vietnam War.atatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-81579135949305521092011-05-03T15:54:52.589-05:002011-05-03T15:54:52.589-05:00"And we will ignore the twitter frenzy McArdl..."And we will ignore the twitter frenzy McArdle set off by musing about a quote on twitter mistakenly attributed to Martin Luther King."<br /><br />A friend now in WI notes that MLK Jr. said something rather close to that quote in "Strength to Love" (1963).Ken Houghtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01440837287933536370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-71809101583928680652011-05-03T15:12:14.111-05:002011-05-03T15:12:14.111-05:00Well, you've nutshelled Megan with your last p...Well, you've nutshelled Megan with your last point, which I can't manage to quote here, where you point out that her cost benefit analysis for the war was identical to her cost benefit analysis for big pharma and for the status quo on uninsured people. In all three cases she argues that future deaths will probably either not be as bad as we argue, or are inevitable, or will be fewer than the status quo. She has absolutely no reason to argue that and, in fact, she always has to take it back eventually when the numbers are in. But as long as she is arguing for the majority position (the Bush admin position, her paymasters position) she always, always minimizes the counter arguments by making up some fictional accounting scheme.<br /><br />And the goal of the fictional accounting scheme is to pretend to take the metric (deaths) and use them to argue that no one can know what will happen in the future so we are all off the hook with our actions today.<br /><br />She reminds me of my recent argument with the hospital over my husband's treatment in the ER. They assured me that they had done a "cost benefit analysis" and that it demonstrated that X was too costly to be worth it. I pointed out that such an analysis always proves the cost to be of no benefit since the costs come from the patients but the benefit is to the hospital.<br /><br />aimaiAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com