George Will, conservative columnist, whines about "narcissistic bloggers" who write "their diaries as though everyone ought to care about everyone’s inner turmoils". Well, George, if you quit lying your ass off in those totally un-narcissistic Washington Post columns (which everybody ought to care about, by the way, because it is the great and wise George Will expressing his inner turmoils and not just any garden-variety internet user), we wouldn't need bloggers in the first place.
It is sad, oh so very sad to contemplate the desperate meanderings of a marginalized old man who's just beginning to grasp his own irrelevance in this world.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Friday, December 01, 2006
Is George Will turning senile?
George Will hammers Democratic Virginia Senator-elect Jim Webb for being rude to President Bush in his Washington Post column. George is offended by the following conversation he says took place between Jim Webb and the President :
On reading this exchange, it would probably be fair to think of Bush as a gentle concerned soul who, even after being rebuffed by the impolite Webb, continued to inquire about the well-being of Webb's son, who is serving in Iraq, only to be rebuffed again. One might even call Webb a "boor" and describe Bush's question towards Webb as "civil and caring" as Will does in his column.
Yes, that would be fair. If it were actually so. But George Will is not being entirely honest here. That's because he posts the link to the entire exchange in his column and this is how the conversation actually went :
Now doesn't that change things a bit? Doesn't Webb's response look much more reasonable now and Bush's seem to be petulant, infantile and yes, rude. And doesn't this pretty much demolish the basis of George Will's column, called "Already too busy for civility" which criticizes Webb for being an uncivil cad?
What was George thinking? Did he deliberately and mendaciously omit the truthful exchange from his column in order to bolster his non-existent point based on the belief that his readers would be too lazy to click through the link and check up on the facts? Did he recite the conversation through memory which can be pretty treacherous for a person of advanced age? Was it just sloppy editing? Or was it an instance of constructing facts around an already drawn premise, namely Webb's supposed boorish personality?
Whatever it was, it was a pretty sad spectacle to behold.
President : How's your boy?
Webb : I'd like to get them [sic] out of Iraq.
President : How's your boy?
Webb : That's between me and my boy.
On reading this exchange, it would probably be fair to think of Bush as a gentle concerned soul who, even after being rebuffed by the impolite Webb, continued to inquire about the well-being of Webb's son, who is serving in Iraq, only to be rebuffed again. One might even call Webb a "boor" and describe Bush's question towards Webb as "civil and caring" as Will does in his column.
Yes, that would be fair. If it were actually so. But George Will is not being entirely honest here. That's because he posts the link to the entire exchange in his column and this is how the conversation actually went :
President : How's your boy?
Webb : I'd like to get them [sic] out of Iraq.
President : That's not what I asked you, how's your boy?
Webb : That's between me and my boy.
Now doesn't that change things a bit? Doesn't Webb's response look much more reasonable now and Bush's seem to be petulant, infantile and yes, rude. And doesn't this pretty much demolish the basis of George Will's column, called "Already too busy for civility" which criticizes Webb for being an uncivil cad?
What was George thinking? Did he deliberately and mendaciously omit the truthful exchange from his column in order to bolster his non-existent point based on the belief that his readers would be too lazy to click through the link and check up on the facts? Did he recite the conversation through memory which can be pretty treacherous for a person of advanced age? Was it just sloppy editing? Or was it an instance of constructing facts around an already drawn premise, namely Webb's supposed boorish personality?
Whatever it was, it was a pretty sad spectacle to behold.
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