Follies

Conscientious readers may have noted a certain fondness for exposing folly animating these precincts from time to time. The professoriat and the pretenders of the press are frequent targets. I am certain by now that I will never run out of material.

A few days ago I noted a reference to a learned paper produced at U. C. Berkeley which undertook to inquire into the psyche of conservatives. I knew immediately it was not science and had to be nonsense, bigotry, in fact. So I wasn't surprised to find that A. Hitler, B. Mussolini, Rush Limbaugh, and Ronald Reagan--conservatives all--were lumped together for psychological inspection and evaluation.

I have a number of hypotheses to account for the psyches of the four academics who wrote this paper. It is likely that early potty training warped their developing brains. On the other hand, it is not impossible to conclude that too-long deferred potty training is at the core of the problem. If you choose to dismiss these hypotheses as mere caca, think again. I am a board certified member of the intelligentsia who can tell you the meaning of "immanent," "imminent," and "eminent" without drawing a deep breath. I am confident that I will shortly be awarded a MacArthur genius prize.

An AP dispatch in the WashPo of 28 July referred to a paradox first noted by Fox Butterfield of the NYTimes several years ago and repeated by him in the NYTimes nearly annually. How come, Mr. Butterfield wants to know, the prison population is rising while the crime rate is going down. Mr.. Butterfield has been the Times crimes idea guy under Executive Editor Joe Lelyveld and Howl Raines. He has yet to be exposed as a fabulist like the late Jayson Blair. Bill Keller takes the helm tomorrow. If he dismisses Butterfield promptly and publishes a suitable correction for Butterfield's implacable foolishness, take it as a sign that the Times is on its way to recovery. If not, Dr. Trentino's diagnosis, the Times is dead, remains in full force and effect.

I am always amused when "those in the know" list Hitler with right winger or conservatives. As all of us here know that Hitler was the leader of the National SOCIALISTS Party. As a Socialists, he is closer to Stalin the Communist dictator in his beliefs.

The left never gets it correct.

2 posted on 07/30/2003 11:11:15 AM PDT by Citizen Tom Paine (In an insane world, the sane would appear to be insane.)

Stalin himself is the one responsible for this bit of propaganda placing Hilter on the right. He ordered the Nazi's to be label facists and never as national socialists after Germany invaded.

3 posted on 07/30/2003 12:14:35 PM PDT by Nateman (Socialism first, cancer second.)

Benito Mussolini was a socialist, too, but not a Marxian one.

Those Berkeley professors who wrote that paper missed the chance to include Stalin and Ho Chi Minh and Mao as conservatives. Maybe, they'll correct themselves next time.

They ought to be horsewhipped and run outta town on a rail.

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