Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Just How Stupid.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.transterrestrial.com/admin/mt-tb.cgi/10218
15 Comments
Bob wrote:
Not necessarily stupid at all. Not only, obviously, are some failed predictions based on some pretty smart thinking, but it also depends on what the intent was, as predictions are often used as a way to make rhetorical points, or for entertainment value.
Your recent failed predictions weren't stupid -- they seemed wildly unlikely, but they were thought-provoking and entertaining.
I predict that someone will make a politically partisan nasty comment now. I also predict someone will think that I predicted that Palin would drop out.
Dennis Wingo wrote:
Stupid is as Stupid does I hear
Edward Wright wrote:
Not only, obviously, are some failed predictions based on some pretty smart thinking
"The validity of a science is its ability to predict."
That's why "political science" isn't.
it also depends on what the intent was, as predictions are often used as a way to make rhetorical points, or for entertainment value.
In other words, trolling.
Making it Palin wrote:
Why did Todd Palin's business partner seal his divorce records today. Is it beacuse of what's coming out in the National Enquirer?
Why was the State of Alaska Public Safety Commissionare fired? Was it because Palin wanted someone punished and considers the governorship her personal little fiefdom?
Why doesn't Palin release the obstetrician's report on the birth of Trig? What is she afraid of?
When is Palin going to give her first interview to the Press detailing her views on the economy and foreign policy? Or is she going to be the exclusive broadcast property of Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox?
Why, given how brilliant you-all think she is, did she need to attend 5 colleges in 6 years to get her first rather mediocre degree?
Why does Krauthammer think Palin is a terrible choice? Why do Will and Brooks agree?
When do we hear Vogels rant about America and why Todd Palin wants Alaska to secede from the union? Is wanting to secede a special right for white people?
Why are McCain and Palin running against their own party? Don't they know who has been President the last 7+ years, or do they think the public is just dumb stupid.
Well, I guess that answers your question in the title.
Rand Simberg wrote:
Well, I guess that answers your question in the title.
Indeed. Maybe we should rename that commenter "Stuck On Stupid."
Karl Hallowell wrote:
Good thing the emergency mud slinging system is working. It'd be uncomfortable not knowing the latest irrelevant dirt on our republican candidates.
Mike Puckett wrote:
How about renaming it "Strawman-Humping Subhuman" becauae that is what it really is.
Scott Noble wrote:
"Why, given how brilliant you-all think she is, did she need to attend 5 colleges in 6 years to get her first rather mediocre degree?"
Facts-
1. She went to Hawaii Pacific for one (fall)semester and hated it.
2. One year later she transfered to Northern Idaho College (JUCO)
3. Transfered to University of Idaho and graduated from there.
4. One other semester Matanuska-Susitna JUCO in Alaska.
This is a total of four schools. Note two are JUCOs with no four year degree.
In addition, Governor Palin was in college the following academic years:
1. 82-83 (Fall only in Hawaii)
2. 83-84
3. 84-85
4. 85-86
5. 86-87
So she took 5 total school years to get the degree.
Most people don't have 100% start to finish in college. I went to University of Illinois CU and graduated in 4 school years. Took Biology at College of DuPage (JUCO) for a summer and was off my spring semester junior year. Transfered from Chemistry to Physics to Computer Science (Magna Cum Laude)so I can somewhat relate to the Gov.
ken anthony wrote:
Why did Michelle Obama push Oprah away from her husband. Is it beacuse of what's coming out in the National Enquirer?
Why is the State of Illinois not put up monuments to Obama all over his old neighborhood? Was it because Rev. Wright wanted someone punished and considers the city of Chicago his personal little fiefdom?
Why doesn't Obama release the records of what he was up to in Chicago? What is he afraid of?
When is Obama going to give her first interview to the Press detailing his views on bombing the pentagon and being a terrorist policy? Or is he going to be the exclusive broadcast property of everybody but Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox?
Why, given how brilliant you-all think he is, did he need to attend 20 years in the pews of someone he would later throw under the bus?
Why does Walt Disney think Dumbo would be a better president than Obama? Why do all sane people agree?
Do we hear Wright rant about America? Is wanting to kill whitey a special province of B.L.T.?
Why are McCain and Palin running against their own party? Don't they know who has is in control of congress, or are you just dumb stupid.
So many questions, and not a neuron firing....
Edward Wright wrote:
Why does Krauthammer think Palin is a terrible choice?
Perhaps Krauthammer is an anti-libertarian socialist big-government Democrat and Palin isn't?
If you can't figure that much out, I don't think you're entitled to call other people unqualified.
Thanks for the tour of the Chicago sewer, by the way.
It's amazing how much the "new politics" smells like the old Daley machine.
Dick Eagleson wrote:
Not exactly my job to answer these, but I've got a few spare minutes, so, what the heck.
Why did Todd Palin's business partner seal his divorce records today. Is it beacuse of what's coming out in the National Enquirer?
Not unless Todd Palin's business partner is the mother of another of John Edward's unacknowledged offspring. (ba-dump-bump)
Seriously, it's just my guess, but probably to keep the ravening army of deranged left-wing window peepers now running everywhere amuck from rummaging through his personal business in the hopes of finding anything with which to imply something invidious about Sarah Palin. I don't know, just to posit a hypothetical, if the Palins' next-door neighbors have ever buried a deceased family pet in their backyard. But, if they have, I am supremely confident that some MoveOn type will be out there at midnight with a shovel and a flashlight to look for evidence that Sarah Palin shot/poisoned/strangled said cat/dog/hamster.
Why was the State of Alaska Public Safety Commissionare fired?
Because he served at the pleasure of the Governor. The Governor was not pleased.
Was it because Palin wanted someone punished and considers the governorship her personal little fiefdom?
In this case, apparently not - at least if you take the word of the fired commissioner in question. It would, in my view, be perfectly reasonable to give a senior appointee the boot if he actually did refuse to fire a subordinate who made threats of violence against family members of the state's highest elected official and even tasered his 11-year-old stepson. The fired commissioner, though, says that's not how it actually was.
Why doesn't Palin release the obstetrician's report on the birth of Trig? What is she afraid of?
The same reason I don't post my own medical records on the Web, I suppose. It's nobody's damn business. The fact that a few deranged lefties have been hitting the hash pipe too hard and making up stories imposes no affirmative obligation on anyone to pay their crap any mind.
When is Palin going to give her first interview to the Press detailing her views on the economy and foreign policy? Or is she going to be the exclusive broadcast property of Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox?
Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox are part of "The Press," though I'm guessing that, in your head at least, that designation is reserved for the usual MSM hacks who make their living kissing Barack Obama's backside. Personally, I'm quite looking forward to Sarah P. going toe-to-toe with any or all of the usual suspect media gasbags. Hindenburg II awaits!
Why, given how brilliant you-all think she is, did she need to attend 5 colleges in 6 years to get her first rather mediocre degree?
The twin exigencies of having to work to pay one's own way and work- or family circunstance-related changes of address, I suppose. That was certainly my own situation. I expect the final tally to be six colleges and 10 years by the time I finally get the degree I'm working on. Sarah and I are far from unique in this respect.
Why does Krauthammer think Palin is a terrible choice? Why do Will and Brooks agree?
None of them actually say she's terrible.
Krauthammer wrote a column in which he stupidly bought the whole "inexperience" line of crap, and posited a couple of additional reasons why Palin might turn out to be a bad pick if she was actually deficient in certain respects, but it was all hypotheticals - none of which actually apply. What I mainly inferred from the piece was that he'd evidently been caught flat-footed by McCain's announcement (the man seemingly doesn't read blogs), figured that anyone he'd never personally heard of or known about must, ipso facto, be a bad pick, and went from there - probably under deadline pressure - in a mainly ass-covering direction. Despite Krauthammer's general perspicacity as an analyst, he is more than a bit of the DC-insider, old-boy-network snob. When he's wrong, it's usually this elitist provincialism flaring up.
George Will - Pretty much Krauthahmmer redux.
David Brooks is chary of Palin for the same reason he doesn't really like McCain - neither of them are Movement Conservative idealogues in the classic sense. As Brooks puts it, their moral philosophy trumps whatever political philosophy they have. Given how easily the evident lack of a strong moral philosophy has led many 'Class of 94' Republicans to also heavily compromise their alleged political philosophy, I'm not sure I agree this is a bug. To me it looks more like a feature.
For what it's worth, none of the three named pudits criticized the Palin pick on political grounds except with reference to her presence on the ticket allegedly neutralizing the Obama = inexperience meme. On that score, of course, they are quite wrong, as is already becoming clear and which will clarify even more in coming days.
When do we hear Vogels rant about America and why Todd Palin wants Alaska to secede from the union? Is wanting to secede a special right for white people?
As you seem to own a Web browser, I'm guessing you can hear, or at least read, Vogels's rant anytime you want to. Secession is not a special right of anyone - we settled that little matter in 1865. While it is true that Vogels seems to detest America almost as much as, say, Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright, it is perhaps useful to ask you to contemplate the answer to the question people of your political stripe were quite anxious to put in a different context seven years ago, to wit, 'Why do they hate us?' A lot of Alaskans feel they are effectively the colonial subjects of a Washington largely run by a permanent Interior Department bureaucracy staffed by people with a taste for arugula and Ivy League degrees. If I was being second-guessed and thwarted at every turn by pecksniffian Liberals 5,000 miles away to the extent typical Alaskans are, I'd be frustrated too.
Why are McCain and Palin running against their own party? Don't they know who has been President the last 7+ years, or do they think the public is just dumb stupid.
Haven't noticed that they are. As for imagining the American public "dumb stupid" that appears to be the self-imposed job of the political Left as evidenced by the enormous body of written contempt for non-Left Americans one can find on any randomly selected comment thread at Kos, HuffPo, etc.
So many questions, and only 60 days....
So many questions, so many moonbats....
Bill Maron wrote:
Dick,
You did a fine job answering those questions. The problem is the POS anon doesn't care about the answers like most of the anon commenters here.
Habitat Hermit wrote:
That's not really a problem Bill, plenty of other people do care and few can be impressed by the zOmbie drivel coming from the left.
Neurons firing = victory.
Ilya wrote:
A few questions Obama never answered:
Here are a few questions for Senator Obama:
1. Are you really black? If you are less than 12.5% of a minority group, under U.S. law, you can not legally claim this minority status. Did you ever gain personal advantage by applying for a position, school or complete any official government document claiming you were black?
2. Have you ever traveled to another country on a non-U.S. passport?
3. Did you ever socialize, fraternize or associate yourself with known felons or unrepentant terrorists?
4. When exactly did you stop using illegal drugs? Have you submitted to a drug test recently?
If US media put Obama through same kind of grinder they are (unsuccessfully) trying to put Palin through, he would have dropped out before primaries.
Leave a comment
Note: The comment system is functional, but timing out when returning a response page. If you have submitted a comment, DON'T RESUBMIT IT IF/WHEN IT HANGS UP AND GIVES YOU A "500" PAGE. Simply click your browser "Back" button to the post page, and then refresh to see your comment.
About this Entry
This page contains a single entry by Rand Simberg published on September 5, 2008 12:23 PM.
Not necessarily stupid at all. Not only, obviously, are some failed predictions based on some pretty smart thinking, but it also depends on what the intent was, as predictions are often used as a way to make rhetorical points, or for entertainment value.
Your recent failed predictions weren't stupid -- they seemed wildly unlikely, but they were thought-provoking and entertaining.
I predict that someone will make a politically partisan nasty comment now. I also predict someone will think that I predicted that Palin would drop out.
Stupid is as Stupid does I hear
Not only, obviously, are some failed predictions based on some pretty smart thinking
"The validity of a science is its ability to predict."
That's why "political science" isn't.
it also depends on what the intent was, as predictions are often used as a way to make rhetorical points, or for entertainment value.
In other words, trolling.
Why did Todd Palin's business partner seal his divorce records today. Is it beacuse of what's coming out in the National Enquirer?
Why was the State of Alaska Public Safety Commissionare fired? Was it because Palin wanted someone punished and considers the governorship her personal little fiefdom?
Why doesn't Palin release the obstetrician's report on the birth of Trig? What is she afraid of?
When is Palin going to give her first interview to the Press detailing her views on the economy and foreign policy? Or is she going to be the exclusive broadcast property of Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox?
Why, given how brilliant you-all think she is, did she need to attend 5 colleges in 6 years to get her first rather mediocre degree?
Why does Krauthammer think Palin is a terrible choice? Why do Will and Brooks agree?
When do we hear Vogels rant about America and why Todd Palin wants Alaska to secede from the union? Is wanting to secede a special right for white people?
Why are McCain and Palin running against their own party? Don't they know who has been President the last 7+ years, or do they think the public is just dumb stupid.
So many questions, and only 60 days....
Well, I guess that answers your question in the title.
Well, I guess that answers your question in the title.
Indeed. Maybe we should rename that commenter "Stuck On Stupid."
Good thing the emergency mud slinging system is working. It'd be uncomfortable not knowing the latest irrelevant dirt on our republican candidates.
How about renaming it "Strawman-Humping Subhuman" becauae that is what it really is.
"Why, given how brilliant you-all think she is, did she need to attend 5 colleges in 6 years to get her first rather mediocre degree?"
Facts-
1. She went to Hawaii Pacific for one (fall)semester and hated it.
2. One year later she transfered to Northern Idaho College (JUCO)
3. Transfered to University of Idaho and graduated from there.
4. One other semester Matanuska-Susitna JUCO in Alaska.
This is a total of four schools. Note two are JUCOs with no four year degree.
In addition, Governor Palin was in college the following academic years:
1. 82-83 (Fall only in Hawaii)
2. 83-84
3. 84-85
4. 85-86
5. 86-87
So she took 5 total school years to get the degree.
Most people don't have 100% start to finish in college. I went to University of Illinois CU and graduated in 4 school years. Took Biology at College of DuPage (JUCO) for a summer and was off my spring semester junior year. Transfered from Chemistry to Physics to Computer Science (Magna Cum Laude)so I can somewhat relate to the Gov.
Why did Michelle Obama push Oprah away from her husband. Is it beacuse of what's coming out in the National Enquirer?
Why is the State of Illinois not put up monuments to Obama all over his old neighborhood? Was it because Rev. Wright wanted someone punished and considers the city of Chicago his personal little fiefdom?
Why doesn't Obama release the records of what he was up to in Chicago? What is he afraid of?
When is Obama going to give her first interview to the Press detailing his views on bombing the pentagon and being a terrorist policy? Or is he going to be the exclusive broadcast property of everybody but Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox?
Why, given how brilliant you-all think he is, did he need to attend 20 years in the pews of someone he would later throw under the bus?
Why does Walt Disney think Dumbo would be a better president than Obama? Why do all sane people agree?
Do we hear Wright rant about America? Is wanting to kill whitey a special province of B.L.T.?
Why are McCain and Palin running against their own party? Don't they know who has is in control of congress, or are you just dumb stupid.
So many questions, and not a neuron firing....
Why does Krauthammer think Palin is a terrible choice?
Perhaps Krauthammer is an anti-libertarian socialist big-government Democrat and Palin isn't?
If you can't figure that much out, I don't think you're entitled to call other people unqualified.
Thanks for the tour of the Chicago sewer, by the way.
It's amazing how much the "new politics" smells like the old Daley machine.
Not exactly my job to answer these, but I've got a few spare minutes, so, what the heck.
Why did Todd Palin's business partner seal his divorce records today. Is it beacuse of what's coming out in the National Enquirer?
Not unless Todd Palin's business partner is the mother of another of John Edward's unacknowledged offspring. (ba-dump-bump)
Seriously, it's just my guess, but probably to keep the ravening army of deranged left-wing window peepers now running everywhere amuck from rummaging through his personal business in the hopes of finding anything with which to imply something invidious about Sarah Palin. I don't know, just to posit a hypothetical, if the Palins' next-door neighbors have ever buried a deceased family pet in their backyard. But, if they have, I am supremely confident that some MoveOn type will be out there at midnight with a shovel and a flashlight to look for evidence that Sarah Palin shot/poisoned/strangled said cat/dog/hamster.
Why was the State of Alaska Public Safety Commissionare fired?
Because he served at the pleasure of the Governor. The Governor was not pleased.
Was it because Palin wanted someone punished and considers the governorship her personal little fiefdom?
In this case, apparently not - at least if you take the word of the fired commissioner in question. It would, in my view, be perfectly reasonable to give a senior appointee the boot if he actually did refuse to fire a subordinate who made threats of violence against family members of the state's highest elected official and even tasered his 11-year-old stepson. The fired commissioner, though, says that's not how it actually was.
Why doesn't Palin release the obstetrician's report on the birth of Trig? What is she afraid of?
The same reason I don't post my own medical records on the Web, I suppose. It's nobody's damn business. The fact that a few deranged lefties have been hitting the hash pipe too hard and making up stories imposes no affirmative obligation on anyone to pay their crap any mind.
When is Palin going to give her first interview to the Press detailing her views on the economy and foreign policy? Or is she going to be the exclusive broadcast property of Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox?
Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox are part of "The Press," though I'm guessing that, in your head at least, that designation is reserved for the usual MSM hacks who make their living kissing Barack Obama's backside. Personally, I'm quite looking forward to Sarah P. going toe-to-toe with any or all of the usual suspect media gasbags. Hindenburg II awaits!
Why, given how brilliant you-all think she is, did she need to attend 5 colleges in 6 years to get her first rather mediocre degree?
The twin exigencies of having to work to pay one's own way and work- or family circunstance-related changes of address, I suppose. That was certainly my own situation. I expect the final tally to be six colleges and 10 years by the time I finally get the degree I'm working on. Sarah and I are far from unique in this respect.
Why does Krauthammer think Palin is a terrible choice? Why do Will and Brooks agree?
None of them actually say she's terrible.
Krauthammer wrote a column in which he stupidly bought the whole "inexperience" line of crap, and posited a couple of additional reasons why Palin might turn out to be a bad pick if she was actually deficient in certain respects, but it was all hypotheticals - none of which actually apply. What I mainly inferred from the piece was that he'd evidently been caught flat-footed by McCain's announcement (the man seemingly doesn't read blogs), figured that anyone he'd never personally heard of or known about must, ipso facto, be a bad pick, and went from there - probably under deadline pressure - in a mainly ass-covering direction. Despite Krauthammer's general perspicacity as an analyst, he is more than a bit of the DC-insider, old-boy-network snob. When he's wrong, it's usually this elitist provincialism flaring up.
George Will - Pretty much Krauthahmmer redux.
David Brooks is chary of Palin for the same reason he doesn't really like McCain - neither of them are Movement Conservative idealogues in the classic sense. As Brooks puts it, their moral philosophy trumps whatever political philosophy they have. Given how easily the evident lack of a strong moral philosophy has led many 'Class of 94' Republicans to also heavily compromise their alleged political philosophy, I'm not sure I agree this is a bug. To me it looks more like a feature.
For what it's worth, none of the three named pudits criticized the Palin pick on political grounds except with reference to her presence on the ticket allegedly neutralizing the Obama = inexperience meme. On that score, of course, they are quite wrong, as is already becoming clear and which will clarify even more in coming days.
When do we hear Vogels rant about America and why Todd Palin wants Alaska to secede from the union? Is wanting to secede a special right for white people?
As you seem to own a Web browser, I'm guessing you can hear, or at least read, Vogels's rant anytime you want to. Secession is not a special right of anyone - we settled that little matter in 1865. While it is true that Vogels seems to detest America almost as much as, say, Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright, it is perhaps useful to ask you to contemplate the answer to the question people of your political stripe were quite anxious to put in a different context seven years ago, to wit, 'Why do they hate us?' A lot of Alaskans feel they are effectively the colonial subjects of a Washington largely run by a permanent Interior Department bureaucracy staffed by people with a taste for arugula and Ivy League degrees. If I was being second-guessed and thwarted at every turn by pecksniffian Liberals 5,000 miles away to the extent typical Alaskans are, I'd be frustrated too.
Why are McCain and Palin running against their own party? Don't they know who has been President the last 7+ years, or do they think the public is just dumb stupid.
Haven't noticed that they are. As for imagining the American public "dumb stupid" that appears to be the self-imposed job of the political Left as evidenced by the enormous body of written contempt for non-Left Americans one can find on any randomly selected comment thread at Kos, HuffPo, etc.
So many questions, and only 60 days....
So many questions, so many moonbats....
Dick,
You did a fine job answering those questions. The problem is the POS anon doesn't care about the answers like most of the anon commenters here.
That's not really a problem Bill, plenty of other people do care and few can be impressed by the zOmbie drivel coming from the left.
Neurons firing = victory.
A few questions Obama never answered:
Here are a few questions for Senator Obama:
1. Are you really black? If you are less than 12.5% of a minority group, under U.S. law, you can not legally claim this minority status. Did you ever gain personal advantage by applying for a position, school or complete any official government document claiming you were black?
2. Have you ever traveled to another country on a non-U.S. passport?
3. Did you ever socialize, fraternize or associate yourself with known felons or unrepentant terrorists?
4. When exactly did you stop using illegal drugs? Have you submitted to a drug test recently?
If US media put Obama through same kind of grinder they are (unsuccessfully) trying to put Palin through, he would have dropped out before primaries.