Comments on: WHEN INCOHERENCE STRIKES

By: mannning

mannning — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:44:53 +0000

in response to Jerry #12, I am personally fed up with continual back and forth comparisons between Bush and Obama. It seems to me to be far more fruitful to compare any President with some more objective, idealized standard of behavior, such as: is the President–Obama, for instance— doing his job to protect, preserve, and lead the nation adequately now, or not.

In my judgement, he is not, so far, and he seems to be digging himself deeper and deeper into the hole. His czars and appointees are not performing very well at all against any objective measure I can think of, and the one score against him that is most telling and impossible to miss is the size and growth of the national debt. He appears to be doing an excellent job of filling the pockets of odd groups in the nation with cash, but the real employment rate has grown to about 17% according to some economists. I will not even bring up the chaos in foreign relations.

By: JerryS

JerryS — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:13:19 +0000

Rick -

How about an essay on how the Right is criticizing Obama for things they never criticized Bush for - even with the circumstances were much worse?

1. Criticizing him for his lack of response for 3 days after the attempted terrorist attack on flight 253. Bush took six days to address the Richard Reid case, and wasn’t even asked about it directly during his press conference.

2. Criticizing him for choosing to try the terrorist in a civilian court, exactly like Richard Reid, which Bush tried in a civilian court.

Hmmm…..

By: mannning

mannning — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:15:24 +0000

MR, you are on! Full glass raised here. Happy New Year to all.

By: Eric Lindholm

Eric Lindholm — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:00:42 +0000

I’m reminded of the adage: “Writing is re-writing.” And sometimes it means just throwing the whole damn thing out.

By: michael reynolds

michael reynolds — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:25:22 +0000

Mannning:

My obsessive compulsive son just asks to “start over” when things go awry.

How about if we all do a start over for New Years? Amnesty and extended handshakes and all that. Grudges forgotten, clean slate, glasses raised to a good 2010.

By: mannning

mannning — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:59:43 +0000

I should have done the same thing with a few recent comments of mine that were, obviously, less than precise. You know what you are trying to get across, but somehow the right slant or words fail to convey the thoughts properly, and a quick reread doesn’t detect the flaws either, apparently, since your own thought trail remains flawed for the moment. A cascade of explications doesn’t cure the problem, and they become very frustrating to submit again and again. Your solution is the preferred one, but the re-re-read must be sufficiently objective to be successful. This is why most writers let a piece “cook” for a reasonable time before proceeding with it.

There ought to be an erase button for commenters to use! Is that possible? Would you accept requests for deletion?

By: Surabaya Stew

Surabaya Stew — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:27:07 +0000

All of us have our bad writings days, but few are honest enough to own up them.

By: Chuck Tucson

Chuck Tucson — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:37:07 +0000

Michael Reynolds said:

If you don’t occasionally read your own stuff and begin to fantasize about Scotch and sleeping pills you’re not a writer.

I’m a writer! Rick would never believe me though.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:05:43 +0000

Secondly, it was crappy thinking. I tried to draw a parallel between Obama’s policy and “Sitzkrieg” in World War II. Not even close. To say I tortured logic in trying to connect the two is an understatement. The connection is more in attitude than action which is difficult to quantify and impossible to expose.

Hi Rick:

I believe I understand where you were tempted to take that; I also see several of the dilemmas. The last sentence of the paragraph is intriguing. Were you suggesting that the French and British lacked the nerve to start the next phase of the war? And were you comparing that to our present situation? Or were you suggesting that the Allies became even more acutely aware of their military unpreparedness and the ways in which their actions were constrained by reality?

I am hoping you are feeling better and glad that your inner judgment stills drops the hammer on material you don’t wish to have represent you.

But the tease is effective and sets me to thinking….

By: smitty

smitty — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:57:30 +0000

Mr. Moran, sir:
It would be a better world if more (for example, Smitty) would take your self-reflection to heart.
Cheers,
Chris