Dumb Pundit, “Dumb Power”
The other day at AIPAC:
The biggest divergence came in the discussion of “smart power.” Kurtzer said we haven’t done enough. Here, to the audible gasps of some conservatives in the room, he proclaimed that we can’t aspire to promote American values when we have 30 million people without health insurance. (The woman next to me declared in a stage whisper, “And he teaches this at a university.”) And, citing the controversial CENTCOM report, he said that the U.S. military was implicitly arguing that the U.S. has been insufficiently dedicated to resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. (More crowd murmuring.) He then bemoaned the Iraq war, which had cost so much and in which we had lost so many lives. Kristol joked that he wanted to defend “dumb power” — that is, the indispensible role of American military power. The issue, Kristol said, is what types of policies work — citing the failure of Iran engagement and the Obami’s Middle East approach.
Ya rly cuz “dumb power” worked so well in Iraq, dumbass.
“And, citing the controversial CENTCOM report, he said that the U.S. military was implicitly arguing that the U.S. has been insufficiently dedicated to resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict.”
The trouble is that the GOP’s worldview is removed from reality to a degree that soldiers, who live in the real world, fight real wars and bleed real blood, simply cannot afford. Thus, yet another time when The Party Line differs with what “the brave men on the ground” are saying. As usual, The Party Line will take precedence and soldiers who object will be labeled treasonous, disgracing the uniform, etc etc etc.
Shorter Bill Kristol:
Hulk smash!
So Kristol actually admitted he was defending the stupid?
Kristol joked that he wanted to defend “dumb power” — that is, the indispensible role of American military power.
Because you can’t be the world’s leading superpower unless you’re committed to bombing the utter living fuck out of any part of it that disagrees.
Why do educated conservatives still listen to Kristol? Costing them an election with his Palin infatuation wasn’t enough to scare them off?
Be he’s a tithing Catholic as well. Wonder what priest busted his cherry?
“Kristol joked that he wanted to defend “dumb power” — that is, the indispensible role of American military power.”
So now our soldiers are ‘dumb’?
You disgust me. You unpatriotic draft-dodging liberal elitist trash.
The issue, Kristol said, is what types of policies work — citing the failure of every neocon plan and effort in the history of forever, those failures being spectacular fiascos and fuck-ups.
Iran engagement and the Obami’s Middle East approach..
.
.
.
Mrfgh? Okay okay, I’m awake now.
Ugggggh. FI–NALLY. We can stop talking about blahdiddy blah blah healthcare whatever derp blah and talk about what REALLY matters: My wars! My precious, precious wars!
(The woman next to me declared in a stage whisper, “And he teaches this at a university.”)
Quelle horreur! Bitch, if that’s the most insidious thing that students learn at a university, then they’re doin it rong.
educated conservatives
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh shit–stuck keyboard.
Seriously. Educated–HA! Formally educated, perhaps. Intelligent? NOT SO MUCH.
Bil KRysalMETH RULZ
Bitch, if that’s the most insidious thing that students learn at a university, then they’re doin it rong.
I have to reiterate: only 20% or so of college age kids in America these days actually graduate college. That means in the heartland, where Kristol is actually read (or rather, read to) people have little concept of what goes on inside a college and assume that it’s rote learning as goes on in high school and earlier.
You know, the shit that made them drop out and open a meth lab.
Kristol isn’t defending the principle of “dumb power” because nobody in Washington disputes it. He is advocating it as the only legitimate application of US foreign policy. He wants to drop the idealistic reasons that we used to justify WWII to ourselves and the colonized bits of the world and just get to the killing for fun part.
So now our soldiers are ‘dumb’?
You disgust me. You unpatriotic draft-dodging liberal elitist trash.
Bill Kristol said that, not us.
-25 points to Wingnut House and see me after class.
“I have to reiterate: only 20% or so of college age kids in America these days actually graduate college. That means in the heartland, where Kristol is actually read (or rather, read to) people have little concept of what goes on inside a college and assume that it’s rote learning as goes on in high school and earlier.”
Also, they just recorded the first year on record in which Democrats outnumbered Republicans among college graduates. So for the last forty years, the people whining about liberal subversion in colleges have been full of shyte.
You know, the shit that made them drop out and open a meth lab.
It was either that or read Heidegger. Don’t judge!
“Bill Kristol said that, not us.”
Yes, but I do not accept that, because you see, being the wingnut, I can’t possibly be the unpatriotic one or the troop-hater. The script won’t allow it. My fuzzy little head would explode!!!
(The woman next to me declared in a stage whisper, “And he teaches this at a university.”)
OMFG!! burn the bookstore! Quickly! There is no time to waste!
We can’t afford to have a small-country invasion gap with the Ruskies.
It was either that or read Heidegger.
Pfft!
Read him in my high school existentialism class!
Bitch, if that’s the most insidious thing that students learn at a university, then they’re doin it rong.
Fraid ‘so. Just look at my schedule for this year. Destroying Wealth Through Social Programs 101, Introductory Bowing To the Muslim Menace Through Multiculturalism, 97 Interesting Recipes You Can Make With Dead Babies, Gay Sex For Fun And Profit 2000…jeez, how will I find time to sleep?
Gay Sex For Fun And Profit 2000…jeez, how will I find time to sleep?
You can sleep during Sex.
I know I do.
Destroying Wealth Through Social Programs 101, Introductory Bowing To the Muslim Menace Through Multiculturalism, 97 Interesting Recipes You Can Make With Dead Babies, Gay Sex For Fun And Profit 2000…jeez, how will I find time to sleep?
Oh, you’re becoming a librarian, too?
jeez, how will I find time to sleep?
I hear it gets much easier after the White Is Right semester is over. After that, you can pretty much stop worrying about any kind of education at all.
Fraid ’so. Just look at my schedule for this year.
Fortunately I was on the AP track, so I took “Saul Alinsky and Your Changing Body” in high school.
I took “Saul Alinsky and Your Changing Body” in high school
I was excused from Ghey Gym class so I had to take “Home Necromonics” with Betty Friedan”.
So “Obami” isn’t a typo then since Rubin uses it again in the closing ‘graf. Does Obami refer to teh brainwashed legions of Obots or does it refer to the Obambi Administration itself. Man, my wingnut dictionary is so out-of-date.
Well, at leat the AIPAC crowd keeps it simple. If you’re ciritcal of Israel and you aren’t Jewish, you’re an anti-semite. Of course if you are Jewish and critical of Israel, you’re a self-hating Jew.
I guess that’s just a little microcosm of conservative thought: anyone who opposes me is always wrong.
Does Obami refer to teh brainwashed legions of Obots or does it refer to the Obambi Administration itself.
No, he’s saying he’s a place for schools and families.
(By the way, do not Google “Obami” unless you want your eyes to be assaulted with some really racist shit).
The focus on college is kinda, well no not kinda but REALLY, off-base.
I went to college and like probably the majority of people who go, my major wasn’t something that lended itself to political polemics. Architecture has fuck-all to do with left or right politics at least in terms of instruction, and you could say the same about most things. If I had to guess, I’d say that that probably outside of law, journalism, political science and most of all, BUSINESS, politics pretty much gets left out of the curriculum for students of most disciplines. And since it does, indoctrination by one side or the other probably has fuck-all to do with the political leanings of most college graduates. However they arrived at their position on the political spectrum, it wasn’t because their college professors were Bolsheviks.
That having been said – there’s plenty of way-smart motherfuckers out there without college degrees or who never attended day one of college who, using their smarts and seeking out and logically evaluating information, see the picture quite clearly. And obviously they haven’t been indoctrinated either.
W/R/T the heartlanders graduation rates and the rest, I’d just note that for the teabagger crowd, the fear is that college isn’t enough like high school, where instead of learning by rote you’re expected to learn how to use your brain. Doing that can lead to all kinds of trouble. But that’s just the teabaggers. Higher education is maybe not as highly valued in the heartland as other places, but there are still plenty of people who value it.
Architecture has fuck-all to do with left or right politics
*GASP*
I guess that’s just a little microcosm of conservative thought: anyone who opposes me is always wrong.
Sounds logical. At least it’s a good defense for being wrong all the time.
Unless I am mistaken (no way!) the Commentary site does not allow, er, comments (or at least none without an RSS feed and none were visible).
Imagine that.
I went to college and like probably the majority of people who go, my major wasn’t something that lended itself to political polemics.
I think most majors where politics are important (at least, the conservative understanding of politics) are ones that appeal to liberals anyway. I mean, is a conservative really going to major in peace studies or women’s and gender studies?
The only time I really heard anything political from professors in college was during my anthropology class (he made fun of creationists, which isn’t really that political anyway) and my transgender studies class. And my trans studies class was festooned with queers of all stripes, so we were a lost cause anyway.
Holy shit, ACORN just folded?
Fortunately I was on the AP track, so I took “Saul Alinsky and Your Changing Body” in high school.
A much better choice than “Rupaul and Your Changing Body”. Though it was still educational in its way.
Teh funny pitchur:
http://www.daylife.com/photo/08Kc3Rz46b9bk?q=pence
Howard Roark
Heh. We used to show that movie during Archi Week every year, as a joke.
At least until we made our own classic, Invasion of the Trash Monster, in which a student who had gotten a bad critique summoned up an entity composed of yellow “trash” paper by invoking Bannister Fletcher. The Trash Monster claimed several victims, including the Dean and its creator, before the intrepid students determined that it could be defeated with the use of electric erasers, which as we all know, will disintegrate yellow tracing paper.
I played the Jamie Lee Curtis role.
It’s kind of a cult classic at the school now, which is one reason why I can never return to my alma mater.
Teh funny pitchur:
“Vote Republican: We Have More Flags Than Reporters At Our Pressers”
Heh. We used to show that movie during Archi Week every year, as a joke.
Wait, there’s a movie????
Wait, there’s a movie????
And a really bad one, too, as you might imagine.
Wait, there’s a movie????
Gregory Peck plays Roark. You did not know?
Maybe it was Gary Cooper. I can never keep them straight
Gregory Peck plays Roark. You did not know?
ZOMG. I did NOT!
Shame on Gregory Peck!
Maybe it was Gary Cooper. I can never keep them straight
It was Gary Cooper. And Patricia Neal. Ouch.
It was Cooper, after all
Hmm, now I’m thinking that I did know this, and just blocked it out of my mind. It’s quite possible.
….people have little concept of what goes on inside a college and assume that it’s rote learning as goes on in high school and earlier.
Actually, I’m pretty sure they believe it’s some sort of thoroughgoing indoctrination where we grade students on how well they can recite Chomsky or Zinn while dancing widdershins around a drum circle. The evidence for this, of course, is that someone flipped through a coursebook and found a few courses with funny names, which obviously means that the whole enterprise is corrupt.
(I particularly enjoyed it when someone used a course called “Drug Delivery” to argue that the pernicious hippie hedonist left had weaseled its way into the sciences as well. No use explaining to such a person that “drug delivery” refers to such things as extended-release tablets and transdermal patches, as well as a whole lot of complicated biochemical tricks. Sigh.)
Wait, there’s a movie????
Yes – a really, really bad one. I suspect the IMBD rating has been skewed by Randoids, because that movie was so over-dramatic, so over-acted, and yet still so damn boring that no one could ever really enjoy it.
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041386/"Gary Cooper. There’s a smarmy story of unrequited Objectivist lust there too, but EEUUEEUUUWWWWW!
Someone with a lot of gravitas posted a substantial link to the four and a half hour long courtroom speech scene. That was a while ago though.
Damn all of you! My google-fu is weak, weak-assed tea.
FYWP and your tag fucking up-itude. And Damn You Jennifer for getting the link both faster and more correctly than I.
And a really bad one, too, as you might imagine.
In large part because Ayn Rand insisted that every single frikkin’ word of dialogue she wrote had to be included. That’s 752 pages of crap right there.
And it was, well, The Fountainhead. Also.
I particularly enjoyed it when someone used a course called “Drug Delivery” to argue that the pernicious hippie hedonist left had weaseled its way into the sciences as well.
Just reading this sentence made me ten times dumber.
You can sleep during Sex.
Phew. I thought it was just me.
The dumb is strong with this one …
BEHOLD!
Someone with a lot of gravitas posted a substantial link to the four and a half hour long courtroom speech scene. That was a while ago though.
Heeeeyyy, they stole my idea for my next performance art piece! I guess I’ll have to read that goddamn 20-hour-long Galt speech instead.
FYWP. Righteous link below:
http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/17511.html#comment-815504
So, I’m not “getting out of the boat,” as you young kids put it, but is there any mention of how teh ghey is going to totally destroy the morale of the military, just like it did to those genocide-allowing Dutch troops? Did one of the panelists say something about it being time to get rid of DADT, to audible murmurs and groans and gasps from the audience?
[the movie of “The Fountainhead”] was so over-dramatic, so over-acted, and yet still so damn boring that no one could ever really enjoy it.
That makes it the perfect adaptation of the novel, no?
From the AIPAC thingy:
“Have we fallen in love with bombing for bombing’s sake?” being the other approach of course.
I guess it’s good it was in black and white because Gary Cooper would look like shit with red hair.
I feel like I was cheated. None of my math or engineering profs propagliberdoctrinated me one iota. I should demand a refund.
None of my math or engineering profs propagliberdoctrinated me one iota.
The guy who taught me steel and concrete design – not so incidentally, my adviser – kept pushing the Chicago Bears on us. Telling him that I didn’t give a flying fuck about football did nothing to stop the sermons/
I enjoy it! Gary Cooper never overacted EVER. Completely incapable.
Oh, on the indoctrination, I forgot that our RAs tried to do the brown eyes/blue eyes experiment with us. I was chastised for walking out on their dumb fucking experiment because I didn’t give a shit and my eyes are hazel.
I particularly enjoyed it when someone used a course called “Drug Delivery” to argue that the pernicious hippie hedonist left had weaseled its way into the sciences as well.
Doctors are supposed to administer drugs by standing in the doorway of the room and tossing them at the patient, who is then expected to catch their meds in their mouth.
A.K.A. the “Ricochet Biscuit” school of medicine.
I enjoy it! Gary Cooper never overacted EVER. Completely incapable.
Neither did Patricia Neal.
Blue eyes bad! Four legs good!
From a Rotten Tomatoes review of The Fountianhead:
PENIS.
I enjoy it! Gary Cooper never overacted EVER. Completely incapable.
True that. Gary Cooper had two modes of “acting” – acting like he was Gary Cooper, and being Gary Cooper. Upon reviewing that thread, I do have something very important to add.
COCK-PUNCH!
Blue eyes bad! Four legs good!
It was the dumbest shit ever. I kept telling them that this was an experiment somebody performed on THIRD GRADERS and if they fell for it, they were as dumb as eight-year-olds. It doesn’t surprise me that only 20% of students graduate college, because I’m pretty sure only about 5% of the people on my floor were actually intelligent enough to be admitted in the first place.
The Fountainhead in five seconds
So what do I do? I get out of the boat, like an idiot, and head for the Google raft.
::shudder::
Can someone throw me a line? Or at least some shark repellent?
I’m still impressed with the Toohey portrayal. You have to have major mental problems to believe that the Forces Opposed To Your Brilliance behave like that. Although I guess it’d be nice if enemies would snivel reliably.
That’s pretty great.
It doesn’t surprise me that only 20% of students graduate college, because I’m pretty sure only about 5% of the people on my floor were actually intelligent enough to be admitted in the first place.
Oh come on, it’s like you ever even met any business majors. PS business profs are totally liberal indoctrinators!
Dumb Power.
For some reason I can imagine Kristol carrying a sign with this on in some kind of pro-war protest march.
Dumb Power does dovetail really well with the Stupid Anger political movement, more’s the pity to all of us who think they’re both, well, dumb.
I particularly enjoyed it when someone used a course called “Drug Delivery” to argue that the pernicious hippie hedonist left had weaseled its way into the sciences as well.
Pharmacy schools should only teach PRAYER.
Wikipedia on GC:
“perhaps this would be a more efficient government without a Congress”— statements he characterized as “very un-American.”
You just made some teabagger somewhere very sad.
Dumb Power does dovetail really well with the Stupid Anger political movement, more’s the pity to all of us who think they’re both, well, dumb.
Stupid Dumb Anger Power!
our RAs tried to do the brown eyes/blue eyes experiment with us.
I am keen on anything that distracts attention from the vertical slit pupils.
Neither did Patricia Neal.
Even before her stroke.
The Fountainhead in five seconds
Actually, Rand could have written that and it would have made as much sense, been more poignant and gotten her point across better.
Architecture has fuck-all to do with left or right politics
I was gonna make a snarky comment here, but then I got thinkin, never a good thing, but yanno, being an architect means you are inherently interested in building new things, better buildings; better cities; better environment for humans. It’s almost inherently liberal. Nobody becomes an architect because it’s a fast track to riches ( I WILL TESTIFY!!) even if it is always popular cocktail party fodder; but people become architects because of the interest in MAKING A BETTER WORLD in some way.
So maybe Jennifer’s point is strictly correct, but it’s been my experience that archies tend to be more liberal. If you meet a rich architect, he’s an asshole.
Of course, so are the poor ones, so THAT theory is shot all to hell. Fuck it, time for another drink.
I am keen on anything that distracts attention from the vertical slit pupils.
Maybe you needed to paint little irises on the nictitating membranes?
OK, scrolling past all the comments I see that architecture has become fodder for many comments. Dammitall, how dare you folk continue commenting while I had to work?
But now I have to get out of here before the parking structure turns my car into a pumpkin and then go pick up a stinky dog so NOBODY SAY ANYTHING until I get home and get a new drink and am able to catch up, OK?
I guess that’s just a little microcosm of conservative thought: anyone who opposes me is always wrong.
Not wrong. EVIL. Anybody who opposes them is E-V-I-L.
Oh by the way. Fuck Bill Kristol.
With the rusty drive-shaft from a ’74 Chrysler.
It’s kind of a cult classic at the school now, which is one reason why I can never return to my alma mater.
I CANNOT FIND THIS ON YOU TUBE. DO YOU HAVE A TORRENT?
so over-acted, and yet still so damn boring that no one could ever really enjoy it.
as such, it’s still less boring than the book, mainly because they had to cut so damn much out. Including the inevitable rape scenes.
I must say, the LAST thing I expected was you lot to stop talking when I demanded it.
This is a power I shall not abuse.
except maybe with N__B. I will probably tell him to shut up. A lot.
Re: the Fountainhead movie: of course it wasn’t that flaming liberal Peck. Shame on Gary Cooper though, but hardly surprising.