0550 - Advisees

Let us dispose of some office business. (a) An error crept into the last OO. That poisonous fat cleric Muckytoadie in Iraq is a Shia, and not a Sunni; thanks to Reader HA. (b) We also thank all those (save one) who responded to the OO's Personal Message. Of the replies, over 95% were laudatory, but two offered strong (yet wrong) defenses of the Big Botch in Iraq; these two are welcomed, as all civil dissent is here. One reply was simply abusive, and called the OO a “S.O.B.”. The response was severe: he received a reply calling him a “Pottymouth”, and, as the ultimate punishment, he was cut off the OO list. One common element in the responses of those who disagreed was that they called this column, our Staff, and the OO himself “Liberal” as an ultimate insult.

While we don't know why it would be a terrible thing to be “Liberal”, were we such, we are in fact not. In fact, we consider ourselves Conservative in almost all matters large and small. Item: we are fond of books, and believe children should be required to read early and often. Item: we approve of nuclear power generation, as more sparing of the environment than fossil fuels. Item: after due consideration, we favor open trade, and oppose wasteful cotton subsidies and bans on sugar imports; Adam Smith should be proud. Item: again after due thought, we believe a small part of the Alaska preserve should be open to oil drilling, with precautions for the sex life of the moose (mooses?). Item: we are horrified by the arrest and detention of prisoners without any judicial hearing, access to lawyers, or basic rights. When the prisoners are U.S. citizens, we think such detentions are blatantly against the Constitution we love and defend.

We have a great many more items to pelt you hapless Readers with, but we end with Item: we agree with Nancy Reagan (no flaming Liberal she) that stem cell research should be permitted and funded. Why should we kill people because of someone's religious arguments? That worthy of the fat cleric. We admit, though, that we were more disturbed by the awful prisoner abuse (and the evasions of those in charge) than we were by the sight of Janet Jackson's boob, or the dirty words of the radio shock jocks. That's not being Liberal, that's being grown up and knowing what is important.

Now, let us turn to the title above. After several weeks of watching TV morning, noon, and night, the entire Staff is exhausted. We have become Advisees of a whole batch of characters who have no license to advise us. A whole platoon of retired military types tell us what is being done wrong in Iraq. Although they are quite often correct, it isn't because of their presumed expertise. And then, just this week we had a strange announcement by the Attorney General and the head of the FBI warning of attacks from al Qaeda, but no specifics. These fellows and their CIA counterparts, on their record of so-called “Intelligence” about 9/11 and WMDs in Iraq, are less than confidence-inspiring, aren't they?

Further, it is tiring to listen to panels of self-appointed pundits repeat themselves endlessly on all matters political. The panels are all divided as if the shows were equal opportunity employers. Each side says the same things over and over. So do we, we suppose, so we'll just quote columnist Jim Hoagland, who wrote that “The occupation of Iraq has shown a managerial incompetence that is breathtaking”. He may or may not be an expert manager, but that sums it up. Liberal, Conservative, he's right.

Next time: BareMinerals [OO #551]

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

Home