Jon Carroll { Rumsfeld Deserves To Be Shunned }

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/27/7 | Jon Carroll

[SmithL]

As you may have heard, Donald Rumsfeld has been offered a one- year appointment as the Special Distinguished Visiting Something at the Hoover Institution, a right-wing think tank affiliated with Stanford University in a way not clear to me or, apparently, anyone else.

The online petition opposing his appointment has been signed by more than 2,600 "members of the Stanford community," another fuzzy designation. The reaction of the Hoover Institution to the online petition has been a hearty laugh and another round for the table. It has never cared about the opinions of the Stanford community in the past, and it is not about to start now. A nicer way to say this is that the Hoover Institution is an independent and resolute sanctuary for beleaguered scholars.

This latest controversy is being played as yet another silly "political correctness" controversy. The usual Fox News-ready conservative commentators have trotted out the arguments about how colleges celebrate diversity but really demand strict intellectual conformity. Liberals? They're in control. Conservatives can do nothing except withhold endowments, join think tanks and work for lobbying firms, whereas powerful liberals can be tenured English professors.

Think of the children.

. . . If the phrase "war criminal" means anything any more, then Donald Rumsfeld is a war criminal.

[SmithL]

Rumsfeld hasn't lost his touch in getting the liberals all wound up.

[SevenofNine]

Damn in even retirement Rummy rile up the Libs and Far left

I don’t think Rummy care he live this long he doesn’t care he probably going WHATEVER

[1rudeboy]

. . . a right-wing think tank affiliated with Stanford University in a way not clear to me or, apparently, anyone else.

An old-school English professor (I had many) would have written in the margin: "don't announce your ignorance, proceed with it."

[LucyJo]

I love Donald Rumsfeld, and that is way up there on the list of reasons why.

[rlmorel]

Heh, that’s GREAT!

[VR-21]

This must be who Mark Morford gets smashed on Brandy Alexanders with on Friday nights.

[MNJohnnie]

IF ever the phase idiot level IQ ever meant anything Jon Carroll is an idiot.

Talk about your glittering jewels of colossal ignorance!

To rank Rumsfield with the German or Japanese war criminals of WW 2 not only cheapens the real horrors they perpetrated but it demonstrates an arrogant hyper hysterical disregard for all factual reality in order to cling to a wholly ignorant, demented emotive partisan political bigotry of world record proportions.

Jon Carroll, today's idiot studying to be a moron....and failing.

[MNJohnnie]

Mark Morford

Given they both have a complete disregard for all factual reality. It has to be who Mark Morford sleeps with.

[Timocrat]

A nicer way to say this is that the Hoover Institution is an independent and resolute sanctuary for beleaguered scholars.

A better way is to say it's an island of right reason in a sea of liberal insanity.

[rocksblues]

Of course they would accept with open arms ex NJ Governor McGreevey.

[VR-21]

"Factual reality" would certainly be a controlled substance in San Fransisco.

It's unfortunate for Jon Carrol that there isn't a Nobel Prize for Shrillness. He'd be a slam dunk.

[6SJ7]

Think of the children.

Upon reading this; I began to think perhaps this entire article was a spoof of a liberal diatribe.

[Argus]

To the useful idiots on Planet Liberal, Rumsfeld’s a war criminal, the frathouse hijinks at Abu Ghraib are torture, illegal aliens are plain old immigrants, and foreign terrorists deserve the same constitutional protection as US citizens.

Like the Red Queen said, words mean what they want them to mean, however it suits them.

[Soul Seeker]

I love Rummy. :-)

[AnotherUnixGeek]

He's a guy who ordered bombing runs on helpless civilians.

I'm pretty sure that Rumsfeld ordered no bombing runs for the purpose of hitting helpless civilians. Evidence to the contrary would be needed before a statement this stupid could be entertained. Civilian casualties happen in wartime, and the US in this conflict has taken more care to prevent them than any other participant in any of history's wars.

He's a guy who sent American soldiers to their death.

This is true of every leader who has sent troops into war throughout history, including such liberal icons as FDR and LBJ. However, as Sec'y of Defense, Rumsfeld did no such thing. Under our form of government he can't.

He's a guy who displaced 2 million Iraqi citizens.

This is an awful lot of power ascribed to one man. As long as we're assigning all blame from the Iraq war on Rumsfeld, why not give him all the credit for deposing a dictator who massacred millions of people in his own country and in neighboring countries?

If the phrase "war criminal" means anything any more, then Donald Rumsfeld is a war criminal.

The phrase "war criminal" does, in fact, mean something. It appears Jon Carroll doesn't know what that meaning is.

I'm no military expert, but from what I've read it appears that Rumsfeld's worst fault was a refusal to put more troops on the ground from day one of the occupation.

[George W. Bush]

I think I'd rather shun libmedia hacks from San Francisco instead. Good grief, how many people even know what a shunning is any more?

Rummy obeyed his commander-in-chief and implemented his policies. He offered advice, strategy, etc.

This is largely just Bush Derangement Syndrome by proxy.

[HawaiianGecko]

  In this man's first sentence he says: "Donald Rumsfeld has been offered a one- year appointment as the Special Distinguished Visiting Something..."
Why should I read the remainder of an article where the author announces immediately that he doesn't even know what he's talking about?

[paddles]

Spot on. It almost reads like one of Mo Dowd’s bourbon-fuelled screeds.

[SevenofNine]

I just wondering how come Stanford University didn’t hire RUmmy as BUSINESS Professor that be so cool to having Donald Rumsfeld former Secretary of Defense and bad*** Chicago businessman as your business class professor

That be so cool having Rummy as professor

[mimaw]

Was Carroll fired from the LA Times.