Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: August 15, 2004 – August 21, 2004 Archives:
Catching a liar lying isn’t a coup; it’s a definition.
Nice quote there: the context of the quote is priceless. One of the veterans/right-wing operatives attacking Kerry’s service refused to supply his own service records, claiming he was afraid they would be used against him. So the Washington Post got them through a FOIA request and, surprise, Kerry’s version of history matches the evidence.
I am also working my way through this lengthy screed on conservatism. I don’t have the book learnin’ to verify his claims, though some of it rings true. (I remember being struck by the story some years back on Wm F Buckley Jr learning an instrument in his retirement. Seems he had always had the desire but never the time. Now, I think of a well-read, erudite person learning an instrument and guess the piano, the cello, perhaps the violin, maybe the classical or Spanish guitar. He chose the harpsichord, an instrument that has been, if not obsolete, a period piece for 200 years. Reading this piece on his flavor of dogma drives home the idea that his philosophy is similarly out of date.)
The core issue — the idea of framing and the use of language to attack your opponents’ ideas without really discussing or refuting them — is one I’m all too familiar with. Coming from the South where code words for racist or other discriminatory ideas are commonplace gives a person a crash course in the fine art of framing.
This is also getting a good bit of Technorati love.