tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post4622887994848361976..comments2024-03-15T20:32:39.815+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: National security and intellectualsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-25192974980973760012008-10-22T16:32:00.000+01:002008-10-22T16:32:00.000+01:00Pliable,Thanks for the reblog. By way of third-ord...Pliable,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the reblog. <BR/><BR/>By way of third-order response to the above comment, I should note that the "'Knowledge [...] politicians' meme," despite being endlessly amusing to anyone paying attention, is not finally the point. Everyone -- even politicians -- knows something about something; the problem is that, for whatever reason, they're forced to moon around like morons.<BR/><BR/>The problem is that some politicians seem to enjoy the condition more than others.<BR/><BR/>Best,<BR/><BR/>Pat. SmithPatrick J. Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15830512039293613477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-14392132917524667682008-10-22T12:29:00.000+01:002008-10-22T12:29:00.000+01:00The "knowledge-of-particular-cultural-artifacts-by...The "knowledge-of-particular-cultural-artifacts-by-politicians" meme always falls apart. Bush may not know his Wagner, but Tom "The Hammer" DeLay, former congressional Republican Whip and Texan bug exterminator by profession, a solid advocate of the religious right agenda, is a devoted opera-goer. In the US Supreme Court, far right justice Antonin Scalia and moderately liberal justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg are such opera fans that they have appeared together as extras on the local opera stage, so operatic familiarity seems to be bi-partisan. <BR/><BR/>In the end, it just doesn't matter that Bush doesn't know his opera or that DeLay does, what matters is their knowledge of facts on the ground, the design of policy appropriate to those facts and their skill in its administration, and that is precisely where their deficits — which, being blinded by nonsensical ideology, they fail to recognize — are most appalling and dangerous.Daniel Wolfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09093101325234464791noreply@blogger.com