[mdlug-discuss] [mdlug] Iraq stuff again was:First impressions of Vista

[allen]

Robert Adkins wrote:
> allen wrote:
>   
>> Bill Maher forming national security policy. Now *that's* funny.
>>   
>>     
>     I really don't think that questioning someone's opinion on a matter, 
> such as national security has any relation to what they do or have done 
> for a living. 
Of course you do. Evidence your very next sentence.

Besides, it isn't Mr. Maher's vocation that makes his policy 
pronouncement presumptuousness so funny. It's the contrast between the 
seriousness with which he takes himself and the vapidity he displays in 
his performance and his punditry.

> This is a nation that has had a "B" movie actor as a 
> President after all. 
Here ya go. It's not all that accurate or complete but it isn't a 
hatchet job either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan
> I don't see anyone claiming that he was singularly 
> unqualified purely because of his past work.
>   
I don't see why anyone would claim that the six-term president of the 
Screen Actor's Guild, successful syndicated columnist and two-term 
governor of the state of California would be unqualified to because of 
his past work either although the comparison between the two seems a bit 
of a stretch.
>     Besides, if we really want to go there. None of us on this list 
> should be talking about this stuff, as none of us are singularly 
> qualified to fully grok this stuff. (AFAIK) After all, this mailing list 
> is filled with nothing but a bunch of Linux Geeks and Nerds, that hardly 
> makes all of us National Security Advisors.
>
>   
How fully do you have to grok meteorology before you're qualified to 
make the decision to come in out of the rain? Most of this stuff isn't 
all that difficult if you eschew the urge to view the world through the 
prism of your own centrality.

There are people who want to hurt you and they aren't interested in 
talking to you. Is an advanced degree really necessary to understand 
that the situation admits of very few options? I don't think so but if 
you've chosen to reject the possibility of personal extinction, a luxury 
enjoyed by Americans thanks to the sacrifices of other Americans, all 
sorts of specious options open up.

You can pretend that when presented with a sufficiently nuanced policy 
the people who've professed a desire to hurt you will see the error of 
their ways and refrain from further violence. Of course, they won't see 
the error of their ways and once more it'll fall to the insufficiently 
nuanced to speak the language such people reliably understand.

>     Which I why I prefer to keep things civil and attack the ideas, 
> rather than attack the person remarking those ideas, or do you really 
> believe that all of us on this list are more qualified to discuss and 
> make National Security decisions than Bill Maher, who's dedicated 
> himself for at least the last ten years (that I know of) in studying and 
> participating in debate on the topic of politics.
>   
I've watched his program a number of times. If Mr. Maher has been 
studying and participating in this debate then the conclusion he's 
obviously formed is that smirking is evidence of intelligence and 
vulgarity a sign of courage.

Allen