John Derbyshire doesn't think much of (what I'm guessing is) Keith Cowing's emails:

I had some exchanges with one fellow who took strong exception to my Space Shuttle piece. "It must really suck being you," he asserted. Now, this is pretty lame on a first occurrence; but in our subsequent exchanges he just couldn't think of any way to improve on it. "Like I said, it must really suck being you," he'd close. It dawned on me at last that the guy thinks this is the most crushing, most devastating put-down that has yet been devised from the English language. I weep for these people.

Which reminds me that I still plan to critique the piece myself.

Seems John (I'm a school teacher) wants Keith to learn how to use hyperbole. Chomsky is a school teacher too.

I agree with Derbyshire's comments about the absurd cost of the shuttle program. I disagree with his comments about its safety. But his comments attacking the President's eulogy make him seem like a pompous ass. I guess that is too simple a concept for him.

I don't know if he wants him to use hyperbole. I think that he was just hoping for something a bit more clever.

Sorry, maybe I was being a bit too clever. After reading Derbyshire's article, I thought it a bit of "the pot calling the kettle black" for Derbyshire to complain about literary value of Cowing's response. If John wants efficiency from the space program, he just got it in spades from Keith Cowing. A few words made an excellent point.

However, exlude the pointless remarks made about the astronauts who died, and the opinion piece actually is a fair article.

Derbyshire and Cowing deserve each other. Neither of these guys seems like they would be much fun to invite to a party.

I think Derb's complaint that "It must suck being you." is a weak put down. On the other hand, he must be getting much stronger ones, because he's complaining that considering his hate male, someone may take his life.

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