Monday, March 15, 2010

Idiocy Of Split The Difference

One of the real stupid ideas in circulation lately is that if there are two radically different approaches - say Liz Cheney and the ACLU - that half way in between is where sensible people land. This asininity assumes that there is equal stupidity or looniness in each position and that the middle isn't. The real big problem is that assumption which says that one idea is equal to the other; stating that the moon is green cheese and stating that it is rock are two radically different assertions but the moon isn't broccoli because that seems to be a middle.

Dick and Liz Cheney may have an emotional appeal to the fear ridden, and terrorists do terror for the sake of creating fear. Are we really supposed to buy into the idea that arresting and indefinitely detaining people for uncommitted crimes is a sensible middle? I don't often link Glenn Greenwald because he usually uses an awful lot of words to make his point; and I'm already guilty of that. In this case there simply are not enough words written on this, so Glenn is doing what should be done by a lot more people than just himself and a couple bloggers.

Some things are just plain awful.

2 comments:

Chuck Butcher said...

Spam deleted.

realbtl said...

Chuck- I think "terrorism" is just a convenient stalking horse for Cheney's desire for an Imperial presidency unfettered by the rule of law. If he and Bush were in charge during the current fiscal mess he would have used it as the excuse.