Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Asleep at the wheel...

Greetings.

Sorry again about the short post on Monday, the absence of a post yesterday, and then another short post today.

I just got done watching a clip of The Daily Show interview with Mark Thiessen - who used to work for the Bush administration and has written a book about how the Obama administration is making us "less safe." The guy made several points throughout the interview, and was interrupted a few times by Jon Stewart, but then complained at the end of the interview that he didn't get a chance to make his point.

When you make an argument in a debate, you should state your contention up front and then use what time you have to provide supporting evidence. In a debate format, you usually only have a minute or two to do all of this. The interview with Stewart was 14 minutes long, and as far as I could tell, both men had plenty of time to talk. This guy is basically complaining that he didn't get enough time to bring up all of his supporting evidence. Ok, first of all, that is what his book is for - to illustrate all of the evidence without interruption. Secondly, I kind of think that his whole complaint is a bit like a boxer with relatively slow hands who goes up against a boxer with very fast hands and complains that he didn't have a chance to land any punches because every time he started to throw a punch, the other fighter hit him in the face before his punch could connect. We have a word for this: Losing. Accept it with a little dignity, please.

I am the Reverend Humpy and I have approved this message.

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