…at the recent nomination by President George W. Bush for the next Associate Justice to the United States Supreme Court, this might offer an object lesson:

Be very careful what you say when you have the advantage, for those who do not will remember.

Technorati Tags: commentary, right wing, right wing politics, right wing weblogs, right-wing, right-wing politics, right-wing weblogs, Supreme Court, Supreme Court nominees

Confirmation bias at its best, or phrased in terms of outcomes, its worst:

In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right.

Vietnam is the wrong historical analogy for the Iraq War. Try instead the Bay of Pigs Invasion, where the confirmation bias was termed groupthink because people wanted to believe that the Kennedy administration had the “best and the brightest” on board.

It has become painfully obvious this is NOT the case with the Bush II administration.

Do the math…

Technorati Tags: commentary, Bush administration, Iraq War

This past Sunday, I strolled around the center of Grenoble taking photos. Here are a two that show the river that is the heart of the town (if not the geographic center, the first has my apartment building in it, although it is in the distance):

(click on any image for a larger photo in a separate window)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I ran into a brocante, which is a sort of giant flea market/garage sale, where I bought a portfolio of old prints (a few are posted here). Below is a photo that gives an indication of what the brocante looks like:

Here are two “artsy” photos, the second of which is one of my attempts to turn digital color photos into black and white images. Strangely, I find it easier to work with black and white film than I do with color digital images that I use software to convert to black and white. Perhaps I should consider using the black and white option on my camera.

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

Technorati Tags: letters from Europe, photos, photos of Europe

From Captain’s Quarters:

It’s either feast or famine at the White House with the Harriet Miers nomination. Given the chance to lay out a positive, substantial case for her nomination to the Supreme Court, the Bush administration has remained largely silent. However, given an opportunity to smear the base that elected them, the administration has seized practically every opportunity to do so.

So, now it’s “smearing” whereas when Democrats or “liberals” are the targets, it’s “plain talk.”

Fascinating how a small change in target can result in a large change in the words used.

Perhaps the right-wing is finally coming to understand why we moderates have for the past five years been asking for a discussion of the issues, not the politics of attack.

Victory at any and all costs has a price, one that will ultimately be to the detriment of our nation. I can only hope that the right-wing is learning that the political tactic of personal destruction are indeed that, destructive, not only to the target but to us all.

Ordinarily, my posts categorized “Patterns in the White Noise” are groups of links that I find have a common theme, if not immediately obvious to a casual observer.

Recently, however, I have found a series of cartoons (mostly political cartoons, but one blast from the past that is still relevant) that to me show a pattern that cuts through the white noise of the day.

Here they are:

And finally, the inimitable Calvin and Hobbes:

Technorati Tags: patterns in the white noise, commentary, opinion, politics