Morning Coffee (56)

Yay…another one? Side note: yesterday's MC should have been Edition 55. Guess it was a typo. This is the real Edition 56.

Since we're 2,000 years removed from Rome, we can consider today to be the kalends of the month. So, happy first of the month. Shortest one of the year, so, enjoy it I guess.

In Edition 54 I mentioned an Air Force Sgt Tassi McKee while criticizing the ill-informed anti-war protesters. It turns out that her military job is known: she's an intel analyst. This is most unfortunate, because her poor choice of words embarrass me. As an analyst, she should know better. I would wager she's not a terribly effective one if she uses words like "believe" in her assessments. I'm not saying that she needs to agree with me, but I would expect her to be able to put forth a more cogent argument than simply believing that Iraq is embroiled in a civil war and that we're doing more to hurt the situation than help it. That simply doesn't fly in the intel world.

In the past two Morning Coffees, I've discussed beliefs heavily. It seems we've come to a point that all our beliefs, no matter how absurd, are somehow sacrosanct; above criticism. Simply because we preface a statement with "well, I believe" the drivel that follows is somehow protected and combating it is forbidden. We can't challenge their beliefs because, well, everyone's entitled to their own beliefs even if they're patently wrong. A persons beliefs should not be above reproach simply because it's "their belief." I'm not speaking obliquely about belief in god and faith, although I don't think that these beliefs should get a free pass either. I'm discussing specifically all these absurd beliefs like those of Sgt McKee; beliefs put forth with no supporting evidence other than the gut feeling, the burning in the bosom, of the alleged believer. This is, as I mentioned the other day, the sort of belief wherein you suspend belief in other areas to continue to belief in the original belief. No evidence is needed. No challenge is considered by the believer, but in fact, dismissed out of hand - if it does not support the original belief, then it is "a vast right/left-wing conspiracy" or god's way of "testing us." And what's worse, is the media will pass these beliefs off to the world as if they're the ground truth coming from knowledgeable people. Most often they're not. And still these beliefs are never challenged. We never say to the believer, "you may be right, but how about providing some evidence that supports your position beyond the assumed fact that you are entitled to your opinion." Perhaps that should be the preface: all beliefs contained within are the opinions of the believer and their inclusion does not constitute endorsement as truth.

We've now seen the first Democrat casualty of the upcoming presidential election. Sen. Joseph Biden made a most unfortunate statement about Barrack Osama being "clean and articulate, etc, etc" and this will likely cost him not only the nomination, but the chance to try for the nomination. It's unfortunate, too. Biden seemed to me to be the most interesting candidate for the Democrats. He disagreed with Bush's plan in Iraq and, heaven forbid, actually came up with an opposing plan. I'm not saying he would have gotten my vote; it's way too soon for that. But once again we see someone's comments taken out of context by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharp ton. They use phrases like, "the way he constructed the statement was a little unfortunate," and "I'm not sure what he means, ask him to explain what he means." I will agree that the phrasing of his statement could have been better, but I saw no ill intent. Actually, it sounded like a compliment. But in this day in age, we're so hyper-sensitive to racism and other "isms" that we're programed to take statements out of context and accuse the person of being a racist or a womanizer or a homophobe. And you can never just say, "that's not what I meant, this is…" and be done with it. You'll see this with Biden. It's likely this will hound him until he either loses the nomination or withdraws from the race; he will not get nominated to run for president. You've heard it here first. Perhaps Biden is a closet racist, but it would be nice to think that he'd be found guilty based on more than a couple of ill-formed statements. And this is unfortunate, because Biden seems to be the only Democrat actually discussing issues rather than screaming that there are issues that need to be discussed.

Word of the Day: Pellucid (adjective): 1. allowing the maximum passage of light, as glass; translucent; 2. clear or limpid; 3. clear in meaning, expression, or style.

On This Day in History: Imbolc (pronounced im'olk) - first day of spring in the Irish calendar; the goddess Brigid (aka Brigit among others) (goddess of poetry, healing and smithcraft) was celebrated on this day. Brigid later became St. Brigid, the patron saint of Ireland and today is also her feast day.

"Varitas odium parit." - Truth breeds hate.