Dipping into the old fishin’ stream, I hooked a bit of mail that, in part, starts out thisaways:
Charles Krauthammer is a brilliant man. Really. A man of character who lives life in a wheelchair. Among his other careers, he is a doctor of psychiatry. He was a devoted Democratic activist and presidential advisor. An independent thinker who won the Pulitzer Prize. He has both liberal and conservative stances and writes a weekly column in the National Review which is syndicated to 400 newspapers. He has been a regular panelist on a variety of programs, including Fox News. Mr Krauthammer is an independent thinker and has become a neoconservative. Why am I telling you this?, Because a brilliant man of character as he is can clearly see much that we do not.
Please read this article.
Recently, Charles Krauthammer alluded that he had no doubt some of the 30k emails Hillary deleted from her private e-mail server very likely had references to the Clinton Foundation, which would be illegal and a conflict of interest.
The first fatal weakness shows up here – “… he had no doubt …“. Why? Well, the article doesn’t say. Apparently he’s got the ol’ second sight.
The second weakness is that the introduction of this brilliant man is in itself a fallacy, the appeal to authority that has been discredited by skeptics. It’s going through your mind, right? A doctor of psychiatry and so many other careers, despite his physical disability, he must be so strong; he holds positions on both ends of the political spectrum, why, he must be fair-minded. Sorry, none of this makes any real sense, once you start thinking about it.
Finally, the factual parts are no doubt correct, and in fact I’ve heard Mr. Krauthammer described as a neoconservative many times. The writer depends on the ignorance of the reader to skip that little bit – but if you’ve been paying attention, it’s the neoconservatives who cried out for the war in Afghanistan, and then for the invasion of Iraq – indeed, it is their signature pair of achievements. But a large percentage of Americans do not approve of these wars, in retrospect.
Afghanistan, as ever, has proven to be a hellhole, while Iraq’s war was founded on fraudulent assertions. Both have resulted in immense civilians casualties, and to proclaim they have achieved their objectives is specious in the face of the number of casualties, disruptions, and unintended consequences (Islamic State, etc) that were a direct result of them.
I’ve never heard of a neocon admitting the error. Indeed, many of them call for bombing Iran, resulting, without a doubt, in many more thousands of innocent deaths, not to mention the comparatively fewer American deaths.
So I just threw this fish back into the flood, as it appeared to be black and moldy, snarling with the sharpest of teeth, just like a lamprey.
(Sea lamprey mouth (Photo: T. Lawrence, GLFC))
The sea-going neocon lamprey.
