Spelunking for Popularity

The other day I criticized a Nicholas Kristof piece which commented on the 9/11 commission.  Kristof’s piece was titled “Why Didn’t We Stop 9/11?”  Within that post, I linked to a Billy Beck post which was related to the subject matter Kristof was wondering about.  Also, in the comments section, a commentator, Robert, left a link to another opinion on this subject.

Today, stopping by The American Spectator, I find another interesting piece written by Geoffrey Norman.  Norman’s piece is titled “Surprised Again” and within his piece Norman has the following to say, among other things.

“Taken together, the 9/11 hearings and the 2004 presidential campaign are an almost lethally demoralizing combination. William Faulkner famously said (or wrote) that the past is not really dead; it is not even past. Well, he was a smart man but even he probably couldn’t have anticipated the way we have gone spelunking down the memory hole these last few weeks, mining for votes. First, Bush/Kerry rekindled the debate over Vietnam. Then, the hearings turned into the kind of “it wasn’t my fault; it was all your fault” sort of exercise that obscures the past in the smog of partisanship when what most people outside of Washington would settle for is a little more clarity.

With this crew and these hearings—fat chance. When it is not about votes; it is about book sales and television ratings. Will the hearings produce any new information or insights or—perish—the kind of wisdom it will take to prevent a future 9/11?”

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/19 at 08:54 AM

  1. Once again, government fails us.  Why do we persist with the notion that it has ANY useful qualities?

    -sed

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  04/19  at  09:36 AM

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