I’ve seldom seen a statement that so perfectly delineates the line between tragedy and comedy.

When I was teaching at a State University, I begged the board to let me teach a Basic Logic and Reason class. I volunteered to do it for free, and provide all the materials. All they had to do was let me use one of the empty classrooms and allow students to show up. Absolutely zero cost to the school and to the students.

No dice. Apparently, a class in learning how to understand thinking was “unclassifiable” (I’m not making this up). What department would it fall under? How do you list it in a course catalog? Think of the administrative headaches trying to apply credits for Major and Minor concentrations! There had been no sub-committee formed to hold multi-year meetings into the concept. It couldn’t be used to enhance their accreditation review package. What if students wanted more? Then they’d have to make more classes and print documents! And who would determine who had the authority tp print documents? It could turn into a major power struggle among the tenured faculty.

Better to ignore the topic. It was, and I’ll never forget this until the day I die . . . “too dangerous”.

That’s their narrative and they’re sticking to it. “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest,” as Paul Simon pointed out.

The percentage of people — especially people on the extremes — who will fit narrative to facts rather than the other way around is disappearingly small.

As I point out from time to time we badly need education in basic philosophy, particularly epistemology. Chances of that happening? Zero.

“Wow, even the hardcore righties are giving Obama praise.”

Sadly, no.

People who actually think are giving him respect for the speech. Hardcore Righties would trot out the same anti-Obama chant if he cured cancer (see comments #6 and #7 above for examples).

Remember — he’s evil, thinks of nothing but doing evil, drinks the blood of infants, and has spent his entire life plotting for the destruction of America. He is both a brilliant sleeper agent embroiled in a pan-government conspiracy and incompetent, stupid and naive (neat trick that). He’s a Kenyan, a Chicago Mobster, a terrorist, a Mooslim, a fascist, a Communist, and probably a Satanist as well.

But aside from that . . . yeah, good speech.

- The Real Lincoln

A few kind words about the United States cannot wipe away a lifetime of associations with highly questionable and anti-American characters. Why should anyone believe that Obama has changed merely because he interspersed a few kind words about the U.S. in his acceptance speech? I am not keen on death bed conversions. Prudence dictates wait and see.

There is nothing new, surprising or different in this speech. Not a single word or paragraph, thought or reference surprised me. Nor have his actions in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan surprised me.

When people see what they want to see rather than what is real, they are often surprised when forced to face reality. The Right has gone off on a magical mystery tour of fantasies about Obama. But this is Obama, as he always was.

Which is why I voted for him.

Maybe what you meant to say, rather than “he’s growing into it,” is “I was wrong, like most of my buddies on the Right because I saw what I expected to see rather than what was right there in front of me.”

The growth isn’t his, it’s yours.

I’m mystified at the Right’s criticism of his approach to Afganistan. Before the election, he made clear he wanted to send more troops. Almost the first thing he did after the election was send more troops. His planning recently over the “surge” getting ready to go to me was impressive — he wanted to make sure we had a coherent plan, and stayed on the process until he felt comfortable that we had (whether you disagree with the “plan”, or even if we have one, the approach seems prudent, presidential, and appropriate to me).

Likewise his desire for mutlinationalism. Saying “we’d rather do things with multinational agreement and support” doesn’t in any way equate to “we won’t take a piss witout a UN resolution approving”. Again, the approach makes sense to me.

So the whole “naive, bumbling babe that has no idea what he’s doing” meme just mystifies me in terms of what its based on. He may be a rookie quarterback in this league, but he’s making intelligent calls. I may not agree with the particular calls . . . but they do demonstrate a respectable level of ability and competence in my eyes.