Chomsky still alive, but not taking calls

Boston Globe ^ | September 22, 2006 | Mark Shanahan

[singfreedom]

The difference is he is trained and has an experiential background in linguistics and absolutely NO credentials in political theory--other than imagination and animosity.

[Billthedrill]

ROTFLMAO! Your number 6 - not nice, not nice at all. I love it.

It is fascinating watching the dance between Chomsky and Chavez - both are essentially clowns and only the former realizes it. He'd be ungrateful to avoid the fellow that has brought his anticapitalist fellow traveler such lovely cash, but on the other hand he can't afford to be upstaged. He'll smile and pretend but he's hoping desperately that Chavez just goes away, because one of his books in Chavez's hands is about as radioactive as an endorsement from Pee Wee Herman.

[uglybiker]

"Why couldn't Hugo Chavez hold up one of my books?"

Ummmm....because your books suck even worse than Chomsky's?

[chilepepper]

gosh, it seems quite simple to me -- hugo chavez will be remembered as the a*shole who actually took noam chomsky seriously, while noam chomsky will be remembered as the a*shole who was only taken seriously by intellectually challenged communist nutjobs like hugo chavez.

ah, noam chomsky - trotskyite defender of khmer rouge, pol pot and cambodian genocide... to be defended along with the usual suspects Mao, Stalin, and any person or thing that advances the New Socialist World Order... ah, noam chomsky, the national poster boy for why academic tenure needs to be abolished...

[goonie4life9]

No one has been able to answer this for me (yet)- If Chomsky is such a brilliant linguist, why was his review of Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior so terrible (in other words, why was Skinner's book so over Chomsky's head)?

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

What I don't understand is why a prestigious military academy like West Point would invite Chomsky as a key note speaker.

[singfreedom]

Sorry, guys, but I CAN NOT imagine why the "Boston Globe" would find any aspect of this incident "news worthy"?! Jeez, would you really want to read this article in your "daily"?

[RedRover]

When in Boston, read the Herald. When in New York, read the Post.

[singfreedom]

Precisely.

I mean, Chomsky is only discussed and debated by college kids before they get out of school and realize there are real life issues far more worthy of discussion and debate.

[RightWingNilla]

He's a socialist and an anarchist.

The two are utterly incompatible beliefs.

[tet68]

He's a socialist and an anarchist.
The two are utterly incompatible beliefs.

That hasn't stopped thousands of others just like him.

[Uncle Vlad]

Brilliant linguist

Pfft. That's like saying "a tall midget."

...or being the greatest ice hockey player in the history of Ecuador.

[Blind Eye Jones]

"It is fascinating watching the dance between Chomsky and Chavez - both are essentially clowns and only the former realizes it."

Yeah, but Howard Dean and Chomsky car pool together and they listen to Rush every morning before donning clown suits and drinking a mickie of ole 88 in preparation for the birthday parties they are obligated to attend.

[kublia khan]

Not surprising, C Span has turned into the cable version of NPR. I don't fully understand why and frankly it makes me very angry because tax dollars finance it.

[RightWingAtheist]

He was the first to suggest that there was an innate "linguistic module" that instinctively allows us to acquire language. Unfortunately, he seems to think that pure intuition is sufficient for any form of knowledge.

[RightWingAtheist]

Which just goes to show just how irrational this supposed "rationalist" truly is.

[Moonman62]

He's bitterly anti-American. That assures his fame and fortune with most universities and the media.

[reg45]

Chomsky ia a commielinguist.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Chomsky ia a commielinguist.

I've hear tell that Hillary is a cunning linguist.

[RedRover]

William Burroughs said our capacity for language was caused by a virus from outer space. Like Chomsky's module theory, it's imaginative speculation that can neither be proved or disproved. I think Chomsky belongs to a intellectual tradition that includes Freud and Marx. They are writers of speculative fiction posing as scientists. Chomsky would destroy America for not being perfect so that some imagined utopia would arise.