(The historical Erotasthones was the chap who figured the circumference of the earth to within 1% by using elementary geometry and a couple of observations...sharp guy.)
I discovered, and then lost track of, the House Erotasthones some time ago. Great to rediscover it.
I would say curious is an understatement. To him, to me and to about...oh...I don't know...40 million people or more, we all have this silly notion that maybe Al Qaeda is there and they are plotting another attack on the homeland.
Rather than making up our own intelligence, we read the NIEs and see that the biggest danger to our country right now is Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These are facts, not gut feelings, and if one is serious about taking the fight to them, that's where they are.
"She says that Obama could be a president like her father. I assume that means that he'll be overrated, not that he'll bring us to the brink of nuclear war."
Like facing down Krushchev was a BAD thing.
"Rather than making up our own intelligence, we read the NIEs..."
Uh, yeah. A contradiction is a single sentence. The NIE, aptly named the National Intellignece ESTIMATE, is guesswork and assumption based on the information we kinda wish we have. Seeing how the CIA and US intelligence services were gutted during the Clinton years, I'm sure we're a FEW years behind the curve, especially in the the "Information Sources Within the Target Organization" area of things.
I think you would benefit from studying the science of complexity. In a nutshell, you can take two linear processes that are well understood in isolation, and put them together—at which point all your expectations get shot to hell as they interact in weird ways.
I could be nasty and say that she's thinking that he'll be assasinated, too, but...
She is right, however. O and JFK have a lot in common: both are of minimal competence and experience, but give great speech.
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JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/02/quote-of-day.html (7 comments)
Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.
He definitely picked a good name for his blog.
(The historical Erotasthones was the chap who figured the circumference of the earth to within 1% by using elementary geometry and a couple of observations...sharp guy.)
I discovered, and then lost track of, the House Erotasthones some time ago. Great to rediscover it.
I would say curious is an understatement. To him, to me and to about...oh...I don't know...40 million people or more, we all have this silly notion that maybe Al Qaeda is there and they are plotting another attack on the homeland.
Rather than making up our own intelligence, we read the NIEs and see that the biggest danger to our country right now is Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These are facts, not gut feelings, and if one is serious about taking the fight to them, that's where they are.
Was anyone on the left outraged by this?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327448,00.html
This is the kind of thing we need to be doing more of....
Biggest, but not only danger.
Welcome to the complex world stage with multiple players, multiple goals and multiple rules.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan:
My plan for the Global War On Terror: We win, they lose.
Bottom line:
We make the rules.
"She says that Obama could be a president like her father. I assume that means that he'll be overrated, not that he'll bring us to the brink of nuclear war."
Like facing down Krushchev was a BAD thing.
"Rather than making up our own intelligence, we read the NIEs..."
Uh, yeah. A contradiction is a single sentence. The NIE, aptly named the National Intellignece ESTIMATE, is guesswork and assumption based on the information we kinda wish we have. Seeing how the CIA and US intelligence services were gutted during the Clinton years, I'm sure we're a FEW years behind the curve, especially in the the "Information Sources Within the Target Organization" area of things.
Hire no bad guys and all that. Good policy. NOT.
The NIE as a valid information source, LOLZ.
Perhaps she is suggesting he will lose his mind too.
Mark,
I think you would benefit from studying the science of complexity. In a nutshell, you can take two linear processes that are well understood in isolation, and put them together—at which point all your expectations get shot to hell as they interact in weird ways.
The world is messy. All else is not held equal.
I could be nasty and say that she's thinking that he'll be assasinated, too, but...
She is right, however. O and JFK have a lot in common: both are of minimal competence and experience, but give great speech.
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>