Either I don't disagree or even where I do disagree, Jim is actually clever and sane, which makes it awfully difficult to rake him over the coals.
This in particular...
No need to waterboard Joe Biden. If he knows, you know. Real torture’s when he’s forced to remain silent. Where’s the doomsday bunker, Joe?is damned funny.
But there is one item where I can at least provide a little elucidation.
Almost half — 46 percent to be exact — of the 2,800 people who responded to the Web question, “How would you describe President Obama’s political philosophy?” posed by Richard Viguerie’s ConservativeHQ.com answered “Socialist.” Another 24 percent said Marxist, 11 percent Communist, 10 percent fascist and 5 percent liberal. I’d be in the 5 percent. Not scientific, of course, and Viguerie would draw a particular segment of conservatives, but it does reveal how polarized we’ve become.Well, at least Jim admits Viguerie pulls from a slice of the right wing. He doesn't tell you Viguerie is the pioneer of right wing direct mail. I know because, despite my never signing up, he fills my inbox daily. This little poll is the ultimate preaching to the choir. Next, Jim will be quoting WorldNetDaily polls.
But even that's a quibble.
Maybe Jim took Crawford's little spanking to heart?
Selah.
5 comments:
Gotta disagree. I say Jim's in usual form today. My personal favorite is this:
Surely this new school superintendent in Clayton County has been hired to take the system to “the next level.” Or if not, he’s got to be a “change agent.” All new hires are these days. But if we’re lucky, he’ll be just a guy who improves outcomes without lots of drama.
Whenever Jim starts with "Surely," it means he's making the next part up. He doesn't quote anyone in Clayton saying those things about the new superintendent, so he imagines they did just so he can take them down a peg. As if there's not enough to pick on with the Clayton County school board already.
Jim does this shit all the time, including three items later.
Yeah I know what you're saying. But does anyone really need me point out once again Jim's made up "sources"? It just feels like quibbling. Maybe I'm mailing it in because he's mailing it in.
But you got to admit the Biden line is a good one.
I took his line about the Clayton County superintendent hire as a comment on the general way we have to boost everything and make it sound wonderful, not as a specific jab at imaginary sources.
For instance, how many times have we heard a policy proposal that would make ABC community a "world-class (fill in the blank)"? And, inevitably, whatever institution that was supposed to become one of the world's best is mired in mediocrity five or ten years down the road.
I think Wooten's point is that with all of the turmoil and failure going on in the world today -- from government to business -- why can't we settle for solid and dependable institutions? Why does everything have to be flashy and garner recognition?
There's something to dull and dependable. I think that's one of the key insights of philosophical, Burkean conservatism. We don't always have to be the best, when "good enough" will do.
Indeed, I think it's implicit in Wooten's point that when we expect too much from our institutions, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Trying to be the best is great, but it's also risky. And sometimes we don't take into account that risk, and are shocked when our grandiose plans fail. We would have been better off lowering our expectations and excepting the world for how it is rather than as how we wish it would be.
OK, but if that's a "general way we have," why not pick one that actually happened? It's because he wants to pick on Clayton County, that's why. He would never say this stuff about Cobb.
Almost reminds me of the credibility of push pols from the Daily Kos and Jim Galloway.
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