text:
I would like to open nominations for the best reader comment on the Belmont Club. The rules are:
- It should have been submitted by someone other than myself in this version of the Belmont Club or in any of the archives.
- The comment should make sense on its own and not require the context of the main post in order to be comprehensible.
- Supply a link to the comment in your nominations by obtaining the link location of the comment. For example, the first comment in the previous post by Life of the Mind has the link value http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/10/27/code-review/#comment-1
- After the nominations close, I'll tabulate the most frequently suggested comments and conduct a small poll. The prize is a modest gift certificate from Amazon which I will pay for. Many people have generously donated to the Belmont Club. I think it's only fair to give the commenters a small prize back.
159 Comments, 159 Threads
1. Brian Dunbar
Best Comment – in my opinion. But I think some of y'all will agree.
October 27, 2009 - 6:21 pm Link to this Comment -
2. NahnCee
Oh, Lord, so many over so many years — who can remember or sort them all out.
I would, however, like to nominate a thread, and that would be the Manchurian Candidate President thread. I first saw that term written here at Belmont Club and since then have seen it used repeatedly in all sorts of other places. And everyone knows what it means without further elucidation, although I am remembering several different discussions over a period of weeks about what a Manchurian Candidate would look like, how he would act, how he would have been put into place, what his goals would be, etc.
Another thread which can be part of the Manchurian Candidate thread or can stand on its own would be the many discussions and dissections of whether the various stock market and real estate crashes both in America and world-wide over the past two or three years have been the result of a person or a country gaming the system in an attempt to bring down the United States of America. There are several BC commenters who bring a lot of knowledge about the market to the discussion and it's been extremely helpful to a neophyte such as myself to read what the experts have to say as to whether or not something is feasible.
Off the top of my head, I'm remembering Buddy Larson as being one of those market experts, who always comments with flair and humor as well as insight. And Mongoose as making pithy inroads and insights about the Manchurian President possibility. But I couldn't point to a single "best" comment by either of those worthies, so maybe each of them will step up to the podium with a Sally Fields "you really LIKE me" moment and highlight something that they themselves particularly remember writing and are proud of.
October 27, 2009 - 6:55 pm Link to this Comment -
3. vb
I can't offer a final best comment right now, but I read #1 Brian Dunbar's choice and agree that it is excellent.
October 27, 2009 - 7:31 pm Link to this Comment -
4. gadfly
I began reading Belmont Club earlier this year mainly because of the interesting dialogs that follow Wretchard's brilliantly formulated topics.
A post by J. R. White at his Rattlergator blog honoring Leo Linbeck III, featured one of Linbeck's brilliant BC observations on the subject of illicit baby trafficking. JR's link to Belmont Club doesn't work anymore, but L3′s post is preserved on Rattlergator here.
Good stuff. A topic worth engaging.
The philosophical core of "the concentration camp oven, the post-partum dumpster and infant trafficking" is the notion that some human beings have greater value than others. Germans are worth more than Jews, gypsies, gays, and members of the underground. Women are worth more than fetuses. Western babies with a terminal illness are worth more than Nigerian babies with healthy organs.
The Judeo-Christian culture – with elements wonderfully described above by Pascal et. al. – has always had this fundamental notion that each human stands as an equal before God. This does not mean that everyone is equal; that is absurd and clearly contradicted by our personal experience. Rather, God is infinite, and therefore as finite beings we are all equal on a comparative basis (1/infinity = 1,000,000,000,000/infinity).
The practical implications of this cultural norm are extremely important. Without equality before God, all sorts of horrible behavior is easily justified by the perpetrator, who is the only one who needs justification. It is but a small stretch to say that the belief in fundamental inequality has been the source of all the great evils: communism (vanguard>proletariat>bourgeoisie), Nazism (Aryans>everyone), Rwanda (Hutus>Tutsis), apartheid (whites>blacks), slavery (masters>slaves), the Inquisition (Catholics>Protestants), jihadism (Moslems>everyone), materialism (rich>poor), eugenics (beautiful>ugly, smart>dumb, light skin>dark skin, etc.), and so on. Add to the list as you see fit.
In all cases, it's "Us" vs. "Them," which always implies Us>Them.
This is why the fight is always so difficult for those of us on the Us=Them team. We're not really saying we're better in some ontological sense. We're saying they're not better than us. This is, by its nature, a defensive argument, which is why just wars are defensive. But it's hard to win on defense, a fact that multi-cultis have turned to their advantage. And there is always the fact that the best defense is a good offense, which tempts us into buying into the same Us>Them logic. But we do so at the cost of our own soul.
Population control is an excellent example of an intellectual tradition founded upon Us>Them inequality. When "population" is determined to be a problem in need of solution, the next step is to decide who to control to solve the problem. The world is quickly divided into those who "breed responsibly" and those who need to be spayed or neutered like a dog. Initially, attempts are made to convince people that birth control is in their interest. But when these attempts fail to address the "problem," birth control is imposed. One couple, one child. Abort or abandon.
Not much of a choice.
October 27, 2009 - 7:44 pm Link to this Comment -
5. cas
I can't claim that I've been visiting the Belmont Club for the entire 6 1/2 years that "Wretchard" has been open for business; I do remember that Steven Den Beste (USS Clueless) first linked me to a post here, and I have returned as often as possible.
Having said that, I find that I can't even keep up with the quantity, much less the quality, of the comments and discussion here, and I wouldn't know where to start as to the "Best Comment Ever". It must be my memory; I'm getting too old…October 27, 2009 - 7:44 pm Link to this Comment -
". . .give the commenters a small prize back. . ." you say? Feels to me as if we all take a huge prize every time we open up your threads, Wretchard.
But I would nominate if I could keep one comment in particular mind. I pretty much always learn from L3 and I haven't seen a poem by Walt that wasn't worth forwarding to my friends. Nah, come to think of it, I'd be hard pressed even to pick a favorite author. You might just have set yourself the hardest task yet, W: picking the best comment from a field of real beauties. F
October 27, 2009 - 8:02 pm Link to this Comment -
7. Oh, Bother
Yes, their name is Legion. Just to read the nominees will be a pleasure.
October 27, 2009 - 8:04 pm Link to this Comment -
8. ScenarioA
Best by what criteria? If (1) clarity of logic while (2) addressing a central cultural issue of our day* are the criteria, then I nominate
If the rules accept that the comment may be in several parts, then my nomination would include:
* the issue being the claimed legitimacy of scientific determinism made by proponents of Marxism and secular scientism.
October 27, 2009 - 8:17 pm Link to this Comment -
9. Nomenklatura
The comments I learned the most from almost certainly came from Steven Den Beste.
October 27, 2009 - 8:25 pm Link to this Comment -
10. Mark
For me there is a clear winner: Leo Linbeck, III—topical, prophetic, and highly poetic, deserving of the laurel wreath, or at least a gift certificate to Amazon:
"Let's try a Villanelle"
I drunk the Kool-Aid long ago
Then pulled the lever for the One
And now my body's all aglowWith chimpy quashed by my new beau
There's so much work to be undone
I drunk the Kool-Aid long agoHe sort of closed Guantanamo
Because rendition's much more fun
And now my body's all aglowHe promised earmarks would all go
Then spent our money by the ton
I drunk the Kool-Aid long agoHe's reached across the aisle to foe
To say, "My way or none; I won"
And now my body's all aglowSo now the government will grow
His brave new world has now begun
I drunk the Kool-Aid long ago
And now my body's all aglowOctober 27, 2009 - 8:32 pm Link to this Comment -
11. Danydash
The BC for two weeks
I have been following,
Ici et ailleurs
I have been imbibing.
Kudos commenters!
Et un grand Mercix.October 27, 2009 - 8:48 pm Link to this Comment -
12. Ned
Suhbotai (mea culpa spelling) certainly belongs in the top ten, if not higher.
October 27, 2009 - 9:09 pm Link to this Comment -
13. rickl
I can't think of a single comment in particular, but I nominate Walt for a Lifetime Achievement Award.
October 27, 2009 - 9:09 pm Link to this Comment -
14. gadfly
Here is the link to my Leo Linbeck III nomination in comment #4 above:
October 27, 2009 - 9:10 pm Link to this Comment -
15. trangbang68
I'd have to nominate Buddy Larsen for his body of work, humorous,self effacing and yet packed with piquant observation.
October 27, 2009 - 9:36 pm Link to this Comment -
16. Das
I agree with Brian #1 – that was a great post to a beautiful thread that RF began and encouraged throughout. I'd also like to see Buddy Larsen get some kind of honorable mention…
October 27, 2009 - 10:12 pm Link to this Comment -
17. Tomorrowist
I'd be curious to see what the community views as the best thread. What thread had the most high quality comments from divergent points of view, well explaining complex and obscure considerations? I learned a lot about Iraq, Lebanon, Georgia, and Afghanistan here. There have been excellent political discussion here. I also remember a great discussion about some relatively obscure heroes of World War II.
October 27, 2009 - 11:04 pm Link to this Comment -
18. RagnarD
Off topic, I know, but this is a must read:
Interview with Charles Krauthammer – 'Obama Is Average' from Der Spiegel Online
Money quote:
"What the Obama administration pretends is realism is naïve nonsense."
THAT is going to leave a mark!
Now, for the best posts? Leo. I learn more from him than most which is saying a whole lot. The quality of the posts from all in response to wretchards writings is atmospheric.
2nd place: Tie to Subotai and old Den Beste.
October 27, 2009 - 11:12 pm Link to this Comment -
19. Walt
Someone will have to clue me in. I have some absolutely remarkably well written and well reasoned comments in my memory file by a longtime and prolific commenter I shall not name here, and have no idea how to find them. Is there a search feature by commenter name for long archived comments and threads?
Walt Erickson
October 27, 2009 - 11:14 pm Link to this Comment -
20. Indydog
I have been reading this site for years and Buddy Larson has been consistently wonderful. I must admit, however, that I always look for comments by Leo Linbeck III on every thread and am disappointed if he has not commented. He gets my vote for his many insightful posts.
October 27, 2009 - 11:23 pm Link to this Comment -
21. Doug
If it goes back to when BC was on Blogger, the search feature at the top of the blog is remarkably powerful.
For a Body of Work, Buddy would take the cake.For an individual post, I nominate Sara's description of her Husband.
Lots of neat comments in that thread.
Indydog,Leo gets the award for most useful work done for the cause.
Not many folks are capable of successfully taking on the NEA.October 27, 2009 - 11:29 pm Link to this Comment -
22. geoffb
How long before comments close. I figure it will take awhile to even begin to browse through threads.
October 27, 2009 - 11:49 pm Link to this Comment -
23. wretchard
It closes in 48 hours as is standard for most of these posts. It may be impossible to pick the "best". In fact, no sooner did I open the nominations than I regretted not having asked for the most outstanding thread. But on reflection it was apparent that you couldn't get an Amazon gift certificate for a thread. It had to go to a single individual commenter. It's not perfect, but the best is often the enemy of the good.
October 28, 2009 - 12:05 am Link to this Comment -
24. olde fogey
Wretchard is getting much too clever.
He gets a great blog post without having to do any of his typical amazing analysis, creative thinking, and eloquent writing and we all get to enjoy reading again some of the great comments by undoubtedly the best group of commenters anywhere.
The problem is that it's way too hard to pick from the many comments by Buddy, LoTM, Mongoose, LIII, Walt, Doug, Subotai, bogie, M. Simon, eggplant, and so many others. And there's gotta be a special category of some kind for Whiskey.
I look forward to returning to this post often in the next few days.
October 28, 2009 - 12:25 am Link to this Comment -
25. feeblemind
I have been coming to BC since about the time The Three Conjectures was written. I am too feeble minded to come up with a single comment that is head and shoulders above the rest. There are too many smart people commenting here for me to be able to do that. It will be interesting to see who 'wins'.
October 28, 2009 - 12:30 am Link to this Comment -
26. bob
For my part, I cast my vote along with Doug at No. 21 above, both for Buddy and Sara.
Walt's the best poet.
October 28, 2009 - 2:57 am Link to this Comment -
27. bob
And there's gotta be a special category of some kind for Whiskey.
Best Combo of Lucid and Lunatic?
October 28, 2009 - 3:22 am Link to this Comment -
28. Bob Murphy
You guys are cracking me up.
I simply cannot name a single contributor as my number 1, but L3, Walt, Subothai, LoTM, Buddy Larsen are right up at the top.And someone not mentioned so far. Old Salt. I wonder where he went.
October 28, 2009 - 3:40 am Link to this Comment -
Too hard to pick a comment, but some of my favourite commenters, in order, are:
Subatai (Spelling)
The irrepresible Doug (despite everything)
Nahncee, for tenacity
and from way back, Pork Rhinds for Allah.ADE
October 28, 2009 - 4:20 am Link to this Comment -
I would nominate any number of Leo Linbeck's posts, especially the ones where he was explaining monetary policy and the origins of the financial crash. He and Buddy ought to be doing a radio program.
I don't always understand every aspect of everything Leo writes, but it always makes me feel as though I should be wearing a tie at the time.
Whereas in reality I usually am not even wearing pants.
What we really ought to do is have categories of best posts and then have everyone send in a special contribution to support multiple awards. I would be up for that, if not this time then in the future.
October 28, 2009 - 4:49 am Link to this Comment -
31. Storm-Rider
whiskey_199 said…
Thinking the unthinkable? What happens when a city is nuked, by a shipping container bomb. The "nuclear car bomb" that Wretchard mentioned?
Simple. World trade goes to zero, and ships are routed well out to sea, inspected bit by bit or simply sunk. No amount of trade is worth the suddenly realistic risk of losing a city. Just the way air travel shut down after 9/11 for three days in the US.
Afterwards, there will be more than just the half-measures taken in air travel post-9/11. Instead you'll see just a trickle of trade, and institutions such as NAFTA, the EU, and every other trade bloc will be dead, dead, dead.
Worldwide and decades long depression. Akin to the 1930′s. Along with the whole-sale rounding up and imprisoning of Muslims, prior to their permanent expulsion.
Singapore's reaction would be to do so, and attempt to remake itself as a custom, small-volume, high margin manufacturer in competition with Japan. China would be out of luck, their low margin, high labor involved products would not make it over in the volume they need to stay alive economically. They'd collapse, regime change of some kind, and aggressive wars of resource grabbing (not the least, women, as all those men without them provide irresistible pressure).
Europe does the same, as even the Iranians do not yet have ICBMS which can reach Copenhagen. Danes can be "safe" for a while if they only, post-nuclear blast in say DC or Berlin or the Vatican, they imprison and then expel all Muslims, don't let any in, and close off their borders.
This is precisely why bin Laden or some Islamist WILL nuke a major city, to collapse global trade. Of course it will happen — the costs of acting are too great, politically, and the benefits too iffy as opposed to showing up the fantasists their fantasy. There was a reason Churchill spent a decade in the Wilderness, no one wanted to hear his warnings, they would rather party. Like it's 1939!
If it was a US city that was hit, absent a President McCain, there would be no response. Obama has built his entire campaign and political base on that precept, that America deserves whatever it gets and it's time for us to be killed and humbled. It would take two or three cities in the US destroyed before he was removed by impeachment and THEN the response would be survival. Killing most Muslim nations. No one would feel guilty either until decades later.
But yes, death of a major Western city and global economic collapse following the death of global trade is coming. Be assured of it. We certainly won't nuke in the behalf of other nations since we won't on our own behalf.
If NYC were nuked tomorrow (God Forbid) most Dems, all Media people, and Obama would say we had it coming, and want to be "sympathetic victims." Call it the Oprah-ization of America.
October 28, 2009 - 5:12 am Link to this Comment -
32. Storm-Rider
I copied the wrong URL for Whiskey_199′s comment. Here's the correct link:http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2008/06/thinking-unthinkable.html
October 28, 2009 - 5:14 am Link to this Comment -
33. anton
I have learned so much from the regular commentors that it is hard to choose but Leo's stuff almost always gives me pause to think.
I would have to pick Leo Linbeck III for his body of work, I am frantically sorting through my old cut-n-pastes of comments from the threads that I have been accumulating since I first discovered Wretchard when I came here from Arthur Chrenkoff's old site……too many, nowhere near enough time.
October 28, 2009 - 5:14 am Link to this Comment -
34. El_Heffe
I think Leo has this all sewed up. Here are two stand alone comments from Leo from the changing places thread, the first almost got me to make up a "stasis = death" bumper sticker, the second one actually brought a tear to my eye.
If these peices were stitched together into a essay and needed a title I would suggest "The Nature & Distribution of Work & Wealth, and the coming Political & Spiritual Realignment"
October 28, 2009 - 6:00 am Link to this Comment -
35. Annoy Mouse
I think Doug makes an excellent observation about the body of work of Luddy and the perspicuity of Leo (gads both Texans?). But for the sheer enormity of posts Doug certainly takes the cake and all of the frosting too.
How 'bout a top 10 list for starters? Gee… I'm afraid I'd leave someone out.
There are so many great and prodigious commenters and so many great commenters come and go too. I remember when Baron Bodesly (sp?) and Vercingetorix used to frequently weigh in on the old site.
I'm with LLIII as numero uno too.
October 28, 2009 - 6:06 am Link to this Comment -
36. Bill R
I am not able to read even 10% of what is posted, and really don't feel qualified to make a nomination.
Just keep the meat and potatoes coming folks, I'm not full yet.
October 28, 2009 - 6:32 am Link to this Comment -
37. Lifeofthemind
Give it to whiskey and watch MC's head explode. L3 has my serious vote but it is a very strong field.
PJM really does need a good search feature. Must have been one of the many things that CJ of LGF took with him when he flounced out.
October 28, 2009 - 6:39 am Link to this Comment -
38. wws
I would vote for Batman's post in the "Lighting of the Beacon's" thread which Brian Dunbar provided the link for.
And I would pick that for best thread, and not simply because it's recent and still on my mind. For Best Thread, I think the criteria should be – "Which thread – original post + comments – would you direct someone who had never heard of this blog towards, if you could only pick one and you wanted them to truly understand what makes this place special?"
October 28, 2009 - 6:46 am Link to this Comment -
39. whitehall
As you now realize, an impossible task. So many good comments and unique insights. I do especially appreciate Whiskey's biological worldview for being so unique and biologically sound.
However, any comment in poesy gets skipped over without a second glance. In the print world, one has to PAY to see one's poems on the page.
October 28, 2009 - 6:54 am Link to this Comment -
40. starling
I've been reading this blog regularly for over 5 years now. I keep coming back because the quality of posts and comments is exceedingly high. No matter who wins the gift certificate, all other nominees are tied for second place in my book. Thanks for letting me hang out with and learn from you all.
StarlingOctober 28, 2009 - 7:02 am Link to this Comment -
41. Cannoneer No. 4
Trouble in the Caucasus, August 8th, 2008 3:25 am
116. fred:
Let me remind everyone what a very, very important stake is in our November election: the future of the missile defense shield. Russia, Iran, and China oppose it vehemently and will go to any length to stop it, including rendering assistance to a U.S. candidate for office who has promised to end the program.
It is the one thing that can help stabilize, not destabilize, the world. One of my sisters is married to a Raytheon exec who is in the missile defense program. If Obonga is elected, well, he'll likely be out of a job, but my interest in the program goes beyond his job security. It is the security of my country and of all free peoples who resist tyranny, whether Islamic or Socialist. All of the world's totalitarians are against this program, including our own internal Leftist Fifth Column and its filthy alliance with the Islamic jihad.
Aug 8, 2008 – 8:04 pm
RIP, fred.
During the Russo-Georgian War Belmont Clubbers mobilized, scoured the web for information, analyzed it, interpreted it, and were recognized by the Russians as a threat.
Wretchard's blog has made history more than once.
October 28, 2009 - 7:45 am Link to this Comment -
42. bogie wheel
On posts about monetary policy and esp. the crisis (perhaps "crisis") of last fall, I found blert's posts to be excellent. Blert's, L3′s and buddy's comments on this subject, one re: which I don't bring a lot of knowledge to the table, have taught me a lot.
Subothai and Mongoose would get my George Washington award, if there were such a thing.
LoTM is another remarkable mind on so many topics, at least one of which (movies) is near and dear to me, the PT film teacher. I almost feel like we've sat down in a bar somewhere & discussed in nitty-gritty detail all the best parts of "High Noon" and "The Searchers."
trangbang has more grace and patience than I could ever muster.
And I would pick that for best thread, and not simply because it's recent and still on my mind. For Best Thread, I think the criteria should be – "Which thread – original post + comments – would you direct someone who had never heard of this blog towards, if you could only pick one and you wanted them to truly understand what makes this place special?"
Well, I've seen it happen several times now … just last week there was a thread (not the first) on religion; and a few months ago, a thread on which abortion became the main topic of discussion. IOW, topics that most people would consider radioactive to an atmosphere of civil discussion or intelligent debate. The depth of knowledge, earnest persuasion and passion that BC commenters have brought to these topics is, I have to say, something I have never seen the likes of anywhere else. And I've hung around debate geeks all my life.
Why are we not seeing these kinds of intelligent discussions — ones on items of profoundest importance and principle — surface in larger media venues? Is format an obstacle? Or does the entertainment quotient always push things towards content-poor screamfests? Whatever the answer, I am grateful that there is such a place as the Belmont Club. Sanity has not completely fled the planet!
Thanks, all.
October 28, 2009 - 7:56 am Link to this Comment -
43. Marie Claude
Give it to whiskey and watch MC's head explode
uh, then I am in yourmind
Ok, let's go for a try :
1- Buddy, for his humor and accurate points
2- Alexis, for his great historical knowledge
3- Subotai, for his "samourai" views
4- many others, (among them, Life for his love for dogs) that I can't quote for the moment (forgot their names)
5- Wiskey, Robot… for their carricatural views of womenhood, and of Eurotrashes
last, the french haters, but, nonentheless, interesting to read !
October 28, 2009 - 7:58 am Link to this Comment -
44. dan
I'd nominate L3′s post explaining the sudden deflation of oil prices last summer & his explanation of the $500,000,000 money market run, which may have both been in the same thread. But buddy/luddy is my personal fave generally.
October 28, 2009 - 8:05 am Link to this Comment -
45. Jim Nicholas
Leo Linbeck, III, for the body of his contributions to our thoughts. An example, perhaps not even the best but one I could remember and retrieve easily, is # 34 at http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/05/18/the-death-of-kings/
Also his work with KIPP schools is inspiring.
October 28, 2009 - 8:12 am Link to this Comment -
46. JoeB
Visit Google.com
In the search box enter: site:pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandezThat is the foundation of searching only for the BC portion of pajamasmedia.com. We build the search from this. Remember to always have a space after /richardfernandez.
site:pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez "Leo Linbeck III"
>>This will bring up all occurrences of threads on BC where Leo Linbeck III made comments.Surrounding something in quotes forces Google to find EXACT matches of the search for phrase.
site:pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez inurl:"/2009/04/26/"
>> match the date just like above. This will pull up threads on that date.SEARCH BY MONTH OF YEAR
site:pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez inurl:"/2009/04/"
>> The above search query will find all posts in April, 2009.SEARCH FOR POSTS BY TITLE
If you can remember part of the title of a post this will find it for you:site:pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez inurl:dreamed
>> this search will find all posts that have the word dreamed in the post title. Obviously, just replace dreamed with whatever word you are searching for that was in the post title.
COMBINED SEARCHES – If you're looking for a comment by a specific poster and all you know is the month it happened…
site:pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez inurl:"/2009/04/" "Leo Linbeck III"
>> You must include the space after the last quote of the inurl portion. You can combine searches in very powerful ways.SEARCH FOR GENERAL WORDS OR PHRASES (NOT EXACT MATCHED)
site:pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez fighter pilot
>> This finds occurrences of the words 'fighter pilot' in any order.Again, you can combine the search features in methods that make it quite easy to find old posts – even if all you can remember is just a few bits and pieces….
October 28, 2009 - 8:12 am Link to this Comment -
47. mac
For my money, it's Subotai. Damned close run field though, with L3, Whiskey, Trangbang and Habu, among a few others. I wasn't here when Steven Den Beste was posting here although I did read USS Clueless. He could be arrogant on occasion, but he might have been the most intelligent commentator I ever read on the Web.
Walt gets a special award for poetry, and Buddy Larsen gets a lifetime achievement award for best work done by both himself and his alter ego, Luddy Barsen.
Thanks again for this blog, Richard. Its quality is truly exceptional, as shown by the number of incredibly bright and witty contributors who gather here. Well done, sir!
October 28, 2009 - 8:16 am Link to this Comment -
48. joe buzz
I agree with many ^. Too many good ones and not enough time to search and re-read. I too have been a reader since before the last two moves. Much to be learned hereon.
October 28, 2009 - 8:20 am Link to this Comment -
49. twobyfour
I nominate MC as a winner amongst BC's French contributors!
Leo, Buddy, LoTM, Subotai, Mongoose… many others, in no particular order. All of them are a part of a distinct esprit of the BC, its non-linear depth.
"Pick one!"
"Damn hard…"
"Gimme yer hat."
[shuffle of paper bits...]
October 28, 2009 - 8:40 am Link to this Comment -
50. Doug
Two by for Best Check!
(twobyfour Best Check)October 28, 2009 - 8:46 am Link to this Comment -
51. Cannoneer No. 4
188. fred:
I seriously doubt that Russia is truly interested in winning a propaganda war, despite the ubiquitous nature of their agents of disinformation in all these weblog discussions (and their allied Western useful idiots squawking about Kosovo being the raison d'etre for this attack). Their only purpose is to blunt an early, hard public opinion against Russia, and thereafter when the Russians have Georgia digested it's not going to matter anyway.
Russia did this:
1. To take out a country on its border that is a U.S. ally.
2. To humiliate the United States and send the message that the U.S. is an unreliable ally and cannot defend anyone.
3. To seize the oil pipeline which we helped build and cut off a non-Russian controlled supply of oil to Europe.
4. To show Europe that it is well and truly on a dog collar with the leash and lead running from Moscow.
5. And possibly to set up its air force in Georgia to help Iran if we should inaugurate an air campaign to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons' development programs and enrichment facilities.
6. To stem the tide of falling oil prices.
Make no mistake about it, as small as Georgia is this is a serious defeat for the West an our country.
Aug 11, 2008 – 2:06 pm
Belmont Clubbers covered themselves with glory during the Russo-Georgian War, recognized by RBN & FSB as a threat in need of sock puppet attention.
116. fred:
Let me remind everyone what a very, very important stake is in our November election: the future of the missile defense shield. Russia, Iran, and China oppose it vehemently and will go to any length to stop it, including rendering assistance to a U.S. candidate for office who has promised to end the program.
It is the one thing that can help stabilize, not destabilize, the world. One of my sisters is married to a Raytheon exec who is in the missile defense program. If Obonga is elected, well, he'll likely be out of a job, but my interest in the program goes beyond his job security. It is the security of my country and of all free peoples who resist tyranny, whether Islamic or Socialist. All of the world's totalitarians are against this program, including our own internal Leftist Fifth Column and its filthy alliance with the Islamic jihad.
Aug 8, 2008 – 8:04 pm
RIP fred.
October 28, 2009 - 8:50 am Link to this Comment -
52. Ann
Leo Linbeck III for body of work and JMH for comment 95 on the 5G post August 27, 2009.
I copied and saved this comment so that I would remember how much effort would be spent trying to lull the super majority and how strong, even when I get tired, I will need to remain.October 28, 2009 - 8:57 am Link to this Comment -
I get it now — damned clever, W: the purpose was always to get us to identify the very best posts. Now you're gonna put them in a book and make millions off it! Very, very clever. And I just can't wait to get my hands on that book. F
October 28, 2009 - 9:05 am Link to this Comment -
54. wretchard
I get it now — damned clever, W: the purpose was always to get us to identify the very best posts. Now you're gonna put them in a book and make millions off it! Very, very clever. And I just can't wait to get my hands on that book. F
I resisted suggestions to do a BC anthology a couple of years back because I didn't see the point. It's already published on the web and for free. Why would anyone pay for a compilation? Today, I'm not so sure. There are nearly 4,000 essays (I think) in the total and aggregation has now become a problem. The best way to do it would be to discover themes in something which simply organically grew. Nobody could anticipate the eventual direction it took. But I think that's a job for an editor; and I am a very poor editor.
What I did instead was write a book of fiction. It's finished and going through a second edit and has grown somewhat from 81,000 words to nearly 85,000. I expect it will come in, after cleanups and deletions, at 85,000. The formula for converting that to pages is apparently pages=words/250. There are about 340 words "in the can". I've been having trouble finding the time to rewrite/re-edit the remaining 150 or so pages what with the usual needs to earn a living and do the regular stuff. But I expect to have a little space to act in about two weeks. And then I'll do the last polish before really shopping it around.
But — and here's my suggestion — I was going to point out that many of the commenters on this blog are capable of a book or pamphlet on their own. Whiskey, for example, has a comprehensive theory, which I mostly disagree with, but he's got one. He's a got a natural book on his hands, though I think he will have his hands full if and when he publishes it.
Some commenters are real stylists and maybe they know this already. There are some, however, for whom I suspect the BC has been an "ice-breaker". They never knew they could write until they saw it for themselves in their comments. I would recommend that they gather up their comments and use them as a starting point for their own books.
October 28, 2009 - 9:22 am Link to this Comment -
55. joe buzz
I had a "good for me" comment mentally formulated but tried to post it from my blackberry while driving west on the dulles greenway and it came out something like:
"OU812? but buddy, said "the market deep6 5, 4 all", so my thumb blew it but I thought I would nominate it anyway.October 28, 2009 - 9:27 am Link to this Comment -
56. what is "occupation"
Too hard to pick a comment, but some of my favourite commenters, in order, are:L3
Subatai (Spelling)
The irrepresible Doug (despite everything)
Nahncee, for tenacity
and from way back, Pork Rhinds for Allah.ADE
Ah shucks….
Pork Rinds for Allah… I loved that handle….
October 28, 2009 - 9:41 am Link to this Comment -
57. peterike
I would love a "Best of Belmont" book myself, broken into topic areas.
Along those lines, Belmont should consider branching off a Wiki area where our host and the commentators could compile info on specific topics. It would be invaluable to be able to go to a page on "Financial crisis" or "Obama" or whatever other things come down the pike in these troubling times.
As for posters, I like Subotai and Mongoose myself, though finding an individual post could take weeks.
October 28, 2009 - 9:41 am Link to this Comment -
58. coisty
If NYC were nuked tomorrow (God Forbid) most Dems, all Media people, and Obama would say we had it coming, and want to be "sympathetic victims."
If NYC were nuked how many leftist media people would still be around?
October 28, 2009 - 9:47 am Link to this Comment -
59. WHat is "occupation"
An impossible task..
But I will say that my time reading Belmont Club has been exceptional ..
Many thanks to Wretchard for giving us topics to study and giving us and insight refreshing and unique way ahead of the curve….
I don't post as much as I used to (Pork Rinds for Allah) and my current name, What is "occupation", now that I find so many who excel at wordcraft and say exactly what I was thinking but have a MUCH greater ability to say it than I can…
I still think the Jihadists need to be humbled and humiliated to be defeated, killing them doesn't solve the issue.. PROVING to them that ALLAH has stopped supporting them is the only way to get change from the jihadists…
Destroying 1 of the 5 pillars of Islam is the ONLY way…
"Kill the Kaaba" should be the rallying cry from all points on the globe….
The Black Stone (called الحجر الأسود al-Hajar-ul-Aswad in Arabic) needs to be nuked….
Change… it's coming to a Black Stone near you soon…
October 28, 2009 - 9:54 am Link to this Comment -
60. Konyok
The task is too difficult to undertake as detailed by Wretchard – even selecting the best thread. All I can do is cite posters that I've enjoyed, learned from or been inspired by:
L3, Buddy, Lifeofthemind, Cannoneer, Mongoose, Alexis, Steveaz, Fedya, Nahncee, Starling and many others I'm too senile to recollect right now.
Special mention to fred, God bless his soul.
The most unique voice is a tie between Whiskey and Cedarford, with Teresita running close behind.
At the risk of being a bit obsequious, I would nominate our host. Very often, his redirecting posts in the body of the thread are most trenchant.
October 28, 2009 - 10:06 am Link to this Comment -
61. buckets
I'll nominate "Karen" – not sure if it's the same one who still posts.
Don't recall the thread, within the last 6 months or so – topic was the death of some innocents/civilians, who had the misfortune not to be favored victims of the Left.
The gist of Karen's post: "The Left knows it cannot offer justice to these victims, as such true and necessary justice would destroy the Left and its ideology"
It's a sentiment that was probably not original, but the way she phrased it… it just really struck me and hit home why I cannot support the Left's agenda. Powerful stuff.
October 28, 2009 - 10:15 am Link to this Comment -
62. buckets
"Karen" –
If you remember which post, pls dig it up, don't have the time to do it myself. Don't be modest!
October 28, 2009 - 10:17 am Link to this Comment -
63. LFMayor
Subotai, Habu, Cannoneer No.4, Mongoose, Leo, Whiskey…
The Officers carry rapiers. I carry a cudgel in the rank behind them, and all march forward together.October 28, 2009 - 10:19 am Link to this Comment -
64. starling
Wretchard, I am glad to hear about the progress of your novel. I had been meaning to ask.
I absolutely agree that many BCers have the makings of a book. Several regularly produce comments that compare favorably with op-eds penned by people that do that for a living. Were they to put them altogether and organize them by subject matter they'd have something worth sharing. Of this I am sure.
I have an idea about why this is. The high quality of your posts attracts a pretty erudite crowd to begin with. On top of that anyone and everyone gets their theories critiqued here–and most of it is constructive. Even better is the demonstrated willingness on the part of so many to accept those critiques and improve their arguments thereby.
If anyone thinks otherwise please say so, but I my distinct impression is that the quality of comments/threads has improved markedly over the last 3-4 years…and they were really good back then too.
October 28, 2009 - 10:41 am Link to this Comment -
65. Konyok
A humble suggestion:
Perhaps make this an annual event, allowing us to collect our favorite comments for submission next year at this time – Halloween does seem oddly appropriate …
October 28, 2009 - 11:17 am Link to this Comment -
66. Zeno
I found it!
October 28, 2009 - 11:43 am Link to this Comment -
67. Lifeofthemind
Concur, perhaps wretchard could modify the terms of this first contest and have it limited to the archives of the original site? Then you could have another contest in say 6 months for threads from a 2 year period max and repeat as needed until we get caught up to real time. Break the task down to manageable chunks.October 28, 2009 - 11:45 am Link to this Comment -
68. Eggplant
Thank you for the link in Comment #18 to Krauthammer's interview. I found it very interesting.
Krauthammer is easily one of the most intelligent and well informed writers from the MSM. The professionalism shown in the linked interview was very refreshing. The journalist from "Der Speigel" asked intelligent questions and spiced the interview with just enough booby-trap questions to demonstrate Krauthammer's keen intellect.
I find it interesting that I had to come to Belmont Club to find that link (another reason why I like Belmont Club).
Wretchard: You should publish a "best of Belmont Club" but not as hard copy. Simply create a PDF containing a distillation of the best feature articles and comments then provide the link here.
I have to be boring and agree with everyone else that Leo Linbeck III is the best commentator. Also up there are Lifeofthemind, Cannoneer No. 4, Marcus Aurelius, Whitehall, Starling and RWE.
A random thought: If Wretchard does produce a "best of Belmont Club" it might be fun to show the exchanges that occurred when the Russian agit-prop people came to Belmont Club during the Georgian War. Watching them being "outed" and hooted down was most amusing. Ditto that for the various moonbats who have plagued this forum over the years.
October 28, 2009 - 11:53 am Link to this Comment -
69. Cannoneer No. 4
Starling David Hunter said…
Wretchard said: "I am somewhat disappointed with Secretary Rumsfeld's response to the subject of the disinformation campaign he himself brings up: "that would be like trying to stop the tide. The last time out he described the enemy as winning the information war. Here he speaks of it again. But what to do about it?"One thing that can't be done is to openly court bloggers the way Wal-Mart has done. See yesterday's NY Times article entitled Wal-Mart enlists bloggers in PR campaign
What can be done is that individuals can form loose-knit, issue-centric "citizen information militias" as I think I termed it in the comments of a previous thread.
Each CIM would be organized around 1-2 major and a handful of minor issues.
Each CIM would be formed of at least two major departments or functional areas- research and retail and possibly and third operations.
The Research department would work on information gathering and analysis.
The Retail department's basic responsibility would be to identify channels through which, the means by which, and the audience to whom the CIM's messages could delivered. They might also cultivate feeders who could send useful leads to them and/or the research group.
If there is an "Operations" group it's job would be to maintain the critical infrastructure (websites, blog, etc) and to provide technical support and evaluate the cost and feasibility of adopting software applications, adding features (e.g. podcasting, video).
In the CIM's early stages the Operations function could be subordinate to "Retail".
At the top of the food chain would be a farily small cadre of writers whose primary responsibility is to craft compelling content.
If that group has a leader, it would also be his or her job to set the broad agenda for the CIM, in consultation with the other team members, as well as to look for opportunies to collaborate with other CIMs on projects of mutual interest.
The smallest number of people required for a CIM to be effective would probably be 5-6 excluding the occasional feeder. While the structure could theoretically scale up by an order of magnitude, in practical terms it would probably be best to split them at about a size of 12-15. It is my feeling that anything larger than that requires communication and organizational design practices that are overly formal for what should be a rather organic undertaking. Even a CIM of 12-15 should be able to be broken into two if new issue arise that require it.
Some three and a half years later, this international, multi-racial, politically incorrect band of freedom-loving on-line Subject Matter Experts, Been There Done Thats, Out House Lawyers, Bar Stool Philosophers and Disputatious Hard Heads refuse to submit.
October 28, 2009 - 12:05 pm Link to this Comment -
70. truepeers
Having recently suffered mysterious hard-drive crashes and not having figured out where bookmarks are stashed to be copied, I wouldn't know where to begin. This blog has the best commenters on the web.
What makes it great, i think, is the sum of the parts, the distinctive form of interaction and playing off one another that blogging at its best allows. It's the baroque at its best. There are great comments that are often the fruit of an individual's struggle with the historical dialectic to achieve a freer combination of reason and faith, to find a quick-footed discipline for our times. But the individual synthesis, however great as it so often is, does not alone the great blog make. I think the reason Buddy Larsen is getting so many votes is that he represents a kind of somewhat, not too-much, self-effacing discipline that greases others' wheels and makes a blog comments section roll, while also having something to say. That I'm not quite sure how to point out a fine example is the point. And then there is Doug who comes up with links in light speed that sometimes are amazingly illuminating in a lateral thinking kind of way. And then there is the Buddy-Doug kibitzing, and so on and so forth.
I second Konyok's call for an annual award we could prepare for. And maybe there could be categories, like, say, "most imaginative theory"
October 28, 2009 - 12:26 pm Link to this Comment -
Okay, I searched through the posts back to May 09 using the clever technique called "Hitting the Earlier Post Button" while waiting for the Ares 1-X to launch this morning.
I was not able to find the Leo Linbeck posts that impressed me the most but I did find one impressive one I would nominate:
Specifically – Comment #8
Looking through those old posts brought back many memories. And there is so much there. Emotional observations, interesting stories, learned lectures, remarkable perspectives, unequaled insights, delightful prose and even poetry. And more than few vitriolic rants that were well done also.
I would have to vote the series of pieces on the mortgage meltdown as the most important. Even today many professional commentators seem to be all but clueless as to what really transpired. The Belmont Club posts and the links in them explain it better than anyone else has. I know that Dr. Thomas Sowell has written a book on it and I am sure he does a fine job, but I doubt it is any better than the Club's work.
I took the Belmont Club provided Mortgage Meltdown info to the financial advisor at my credit union, who was formerly with Merryl Lynch, and he was astonished with what it revealed.
October 28, 2009 - 12:30 pm Link to this Comment -
72. Cannoneer No. 4
46. JoeB:
Thanks for that. Helped me. You're a scholar and a gentleman and a Great American in the Bill Cunningham sense of the phrase.
(He's a 2nd-tier talk radio guy who gave
Sean Hannity that line.)October 28, 2009 - 12:34 pm Link to this Comment -
73. Gaffe Prices
#58, gosh, I pine for the days when Blackstone was an entertainer, a prestidigitator. That thought of yours used to pop into my head all the time. It shows the superstition of its pagan roots
I still want to nominate wretch, at least in a special mention, for his titles alone. maybe we could play the game someone suggested by quoting someone's post, and the winners would then name the title it came from.
There's also the idea of a long comment form and shorter post categories. BC is the place to read long posts, including, and perhaps especially the anecdotal or personal ones.
but I suppose if we got too many awards shows going, we'd end up like the left.
There's one I remember, from another PJ blogger, from months ago, March maybe, and it came along at a bleak time where the thread was cathartic, but little or no cause for optimism was on the horizon, and the personal perspective gained from that one post was astounding. From the best of BC's committed its hard to pick as the bar has been cleared many times by our most notable's
Blogs have created a need as to sourcing and indexing the comments that would otherwise be considered random or accidental. A lot of wisdom is contained in them because a conversation has been going on. I read a book called the 'cluetrain manifesto', and I saw and felt that the things it talked about were indeed manifest on the conservative weblogs, from the start. That's where the ideas, the humor, and the perspective were, not to mention a good argument or two.
October 28, 2009 - 12:50 pm Link to this Comment -
I agree with many of the points above, and think that L3 has contributed a ton to the discussions here.
October 28, 2009 - 12:56 pm Link to this Comment -
75. Storm-Rider
What is it that keeps all of us here? Why do we keep interacting with each other and with Wretchard?
Answer: We are able and eager to struggle for our (and our neighbor's) sacred unalienable individual rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (in part our private property attained through creative labor). This is the same struggle as our Founding Fathers, but to this point without our blood. Our struggle is enlightening, enlivening, and fun; I fear that the fun part could someday be rendered past tense – but I hope and pray not.
I thank God for all of you.
October 28, 2009 - 12:57 pm Link to this Comment -
76. Eggplant
RWE said:
"I searched through the posts back to May 09 using the clever technique called "Hitting the Earlier Post Button" while waiting for the Ares 1-X to launch this morning."
The Ares 1-X launch was very cool. I'm pleased that it was successful (there was some quiet concern about dynamic stability). I actually saw the Ares 1-X as it was being assembled at the VAB. The Ares 1-X as a flight demonstrator is mostly boiler plate and actually has much of its "gantry" ***inside*** the vehicle, i.e. stairwells, catwalks, platforms, doorways, etc. All of that stuff got launched with the vehicle and is now on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It's not as crazy as it sounds because the vehicle needed to have ballast in order for the dynamic modeling to be correct. Don't use concrete ballast or fill it with water but instead use ballast that is actually useful making it cheaper and easier to assemble the vehicle. Someone was using his head and thinking outside of the box.
October 28, 2009 - 1:14 pm Link to this Comment -
77. Bear
rook king #33. Maybe not the best but I like it
October 28, 2009 - 1:29 pm Link to this Comment -
78. Orphaned Son of Liberty
I think I see the best comment in this very thread:
My nominee is RWE, for this coffee snorter:
"I don't always understand every aspect of everything Leo writes, but it always makes me feel as though I should be wearing a tie at the time.
Whereas in reality I usually am not even wearing pants."
October 28, 2009 - 2:26 pm Link to this Comment -
79. Bonzo
I realize the following is not a Belmont post. However, starting with the assumption that it is not possible to delineate a single Belmont post as amazing (since far too many are beyond outstanding) I nominate Steve McCroskey (played by Lloyd Bridges) and his quotes from Airplane…..
I've seen nothing better than his Airplane quotes:"I picked the wrong week to quit…."
Sniffing glue
Smoking-Oveur, Dunn.
If only The WH was as on the ball as them….
October 28, 2009 - 3:17 pm Link to this Comment -
80. Doug
Wretchard can declare the comments to be open source, and you folks could print multiple booklets with this technology.
…still looking for the article I read about this topic.—
In fact, Eggplant, he was thinking inside the ship.October 28, 2009 - 3:41 pm Link to this Comment -
81. presbypoet
While sifting one diamond from among 40,000 is daunting, perhaps if we limit it to this year, it becomes slightly more doable. The problem is that we are not looking for one needle in a haystack. The problem is so many gems, so little time.
After we vote on us commoners, then we should vote at the end of the year on favorite W. thread of the year.
The idea of a way to organize all this wisdom is interesting. Editing is a valuable skill. Organizing is not one of mine. It tends to be a pile for everything, and most everything in its pile. How would we do a wiki? There must be 50,000 comments. Do comment makers have to approve doing something with them? Or can W. just do as he wills?
I appreciate the thoughtfulness of this club. I picture us sitting around in comfortable chairs, with no distractions, sipping selected beverages, sharing wisdom. Actually, my version of heaven looks a lot like that description. Perhaps a variation on Field of Dreams:
"Is this Heaven?"
"No. It's Belmont Club."October 28, 2009 - 3:59 pm Link to this Comment -
82. marymcl
Too many commenters to choose from, I love you all (even whiskey, heaven help me) but I'll take a crack at choosing a favorite thread
It has Mongoose's description of Yeats @122 (that was the thing that stuck most in my mind, which is how I found the thread – thanks JoeB @46!)
"Yeats sits firmly on this earth and squarely in his time but looks backwards and forward across great distances. Thus he stands out of time – think Brahms or late Beethoven. Vistas so wide they are timeless, universal."
Though in re-reading it all I'll have to give best-of-the-thread to Charles's beautiful post @38 describing the lights at Antietem, among other things
And there's buddy on Cervantes, which I'd forgotten all about when he mentioned it again recently (sorry buddy!) Also Viktor Silo heading out to the great white north ~ and lots more besides. A typical BC thread with several fine discussions that covered lots of ground, which is what makes this place so special.
I love cannoneer's characterization of BC @68 above!
October 28, 2009 - 4:20 pm Link to this Comment -
83. Habu
"President obama is a clear and present danger to the United States"
Said time and again and it's clarity more evident with each passing day.
October 28, 2009 - 4:51 pm Link to this Comment -
84. Annoy Mouse
How 'bout best troll? That would be a hoot.
Another thing would be to offer a snipit of a comment and see if you could guess who it was. Half the commenters here have a certain inalienable style that you can recognize.
October 28, 2009 - 5:09 pm Link to this Comment -
85. Marie Claude
"Michelle Obama gives relationship advice" http://bit.ly/2W9qvi
I'd like Wiskey analyse abour Ms Obama advices
October 28, 2009 - 5:37 pm Link to this Comment -
86. Leo Linbeck III
I consider it a privilege to participate in the creative process that takes place here, and especially appreciate the complements. I've really been busy lately on a number of things (KIPP priced about $67M of tax-exempt bonds today to support their growth in Houston, and we were way oversubscribed (2 to 4 times) – truly good news during these challenging times), and have missed contributing to the conversation.
Frankly, thinking about this special place in terms of individuals contributors can cause us to miss the bigger picture. I, for one, am attracted to BC because of the high quality of the comments, but just importantly because of the tone of general civility. It is this combination of quality and tone that brings me here. It is the only place I regularly comment on a blog, and if what I have written here is inspirational, I can assure you it is because I find the place downright inspiring.
In trying, then, to encapsulate The Belmont Club, I would say it is a symphony orchestra. Many different players, instruments, and styles, but it works together because we have a superb conductor – and because we are all committed to the pursuit of what is good and true.
So here's how I see the lineup:
Conducting (from the piano) – Wretchard
Violin – Lifeofthemind, RWE, ADE, Gaffe Prices, programmer, bob
Viola – Nahncee, Teresita, marymcl
Cello – Wadeusaf, bogie wheel, Charles, starling
Double bass – Habu, Mongoose, Subotai Bahadur
English horn – Fletcher Christian, Lord Acton
Clarinet – buddy larsen, luddy barsen, uddy blarsen, and bluddy arsen
Oboe – Jamie Irons, hdgreene, Batman, presbypoet
Bassoon – Annoy Mouse, peterike, Tony
Contrabassoon – Whiskey
Trumpet – herb, Eggplant, Doug, Alexis, twobyfour
French horn – Marie Claude
Trombone – Storm-Rider, What is "occupation"?
Tuba – Cannoneer No. 4
Tympany – trangbang68
Cymbals – M. Simon
Triangle – benjAnd, of course, there our resident composer, Walt. I'm sure there are others who belong in the orchestra that I've missed. I value the whole lot of you.
Still, if I had to pick one contributor to single out, it'd be Walt. He has a gift, and it is an act of tremendous generosity for him to share it with us here.
L3October 28, 2009 - 6:05 pm Link to this Comment -
87. JFSanders031
I consider BC something very close to a liberal arts degree course with heavy doses of economics and history and spiced with science and good old fashioned humor.
M/C slays me. Every post she makes takes me back to Harvey Korman on the Carol Burnett show.
LL3 is simply one of the unsung heroes that goes about doing the right thing without fanfare and blowing his own horn. His posts are always well thought out and presented in an easy to follow manner. Truly a top 2%er.
Buddy Larsen amazing and funny. Has helped me keep from losing what little I have by pointing me in directions I hadn't even thought of. Thanks! I owe you a frosty one.
People whom I always read. In no particular order.
Mongoose, Old Salt, Whiskey (Although he gets very, very tedious at times), Konyok, LotM, Sabotai Bahadur?, Cannoneer, Habu, Peterike, Doug, Marymcl, Wadeusaf, steveaz, programmer, blert, bogie wheel and many many more people who by just being around them in the digital class room that is Belmont Club make me much more intelligent and a better person.I saved the best for last. This guy has made me laugh and cry ever since I read his first post. Smart and smooth. I would like to nominate this post #9 with a bullet from the Tin foil hats thread.
Walt you are THE MAN in my not so humble opinion. Here is to you! Huzzzaaaah!
October 28, 2009 - 6:17 pm Link to this Comment -
88. steveaz
Thanks for this opportunity to goad on my favorite commentors, Richard.
They are Sabotai, Leo Linbeck, Marie Claude, Buddy Larson, Nahncee, Sertorius, LifeoftheMind, Mongoose, Herb, Trangbang and Bogie Wheel, in no particular order…and Lord knows, not because I always agree with them.
But if I could pick just one commenter to goad, it'd be Dan. You know, Dan…the guy from the Cracked Crystal Ball thread two posts back.
Here's why. His comment @ # 45 came on outta nowhere, like a typhoon zipped up in a Zoro costume: his style was assertive and feisty, his prose announced squared shoulders, his attention to grammar implied a firm brow. And his deliberate, transitioned paragraphing hints at a set, steely jaw. He was new. He was sassy. He made impact.
And Dan's a moderating influence, too. Heck, he stuck around to prod the thread here and there – something I rarely have the guts to do, and his way was to offer gentle palliative admonitions intended to calm the brusque or to vent the overheated, and delivered always with, it seems, a teasing mum's smirk on his lips. Good moderating skills, both, and style to boot.
So, my vote's for Dan.
(And, no, he didn't pay me to write this.)October 28, 2009 - 6:23 pm Link to this Comment -
89. marymcl
Habu @82 – Take heart. It's only a passing thing, this shadow. And that's all he is.
Call me starry-eyed, but I can't help thinking of the words of Brendan Behan (incorrigible commie though he was)~
"Up the Republic, and f*%k the begrudgers"Nothing in this life lasts forever, but it will take more than this shadow of a man to take down our Republic. Believe it.
October 28, 2009 - 6:25 pm Link to this Comment -
90. buckets
Scrolling through some of those old threads – wow, we were right about Obama and the Dems. Like W wrote a few months back, it takes a groups of misfits to recognize a con man.
Despite how right we were, I take absolutely no pleasure in it. How can it feel good to correctly predict that the sky is falling?
At least we know we're doing something right here. Huzzah!
October 28, 2009 - 6:52 pm Link to this Comment -
91. bob
85. Marie Claude:
"Michelle Obama gives relationship advice" http://bit.ly/2W9qvi
I'd like Wiskey analyse abour Ms Obama advices
Oct 28, 2009 – 5:37 pm
heh, I dropped my drink.
October 28, 2009 - 7:03 pm Link to this Comment -
92. d'Percy
Yes, I'm one of those first time responders, long time readers (5+ years). The Belmont Club is the best thing on the web and feel very lucky to have found it. My sentiments are perfectly described in #75 by Storm Rider. Thank God for the Belmont Club.
My vote would go to any of the L3 posts listed above, a master's degree in a few paragraphs…the posts are brilliant. As is the Symphony L3 listed above…perfect, with the exact measure of whimsy. (And yes, I feel that wearing a tie is in order after reading an L3 post as well).
The Belmont Club is the greatest source of edification and inspiration on the net. Thank you Wretchard and all.
October 28, 2009 - 7:04 pm Link to this Comment -
93. d"Percy
Oh and a special note to Konyok…Georgian wine is outstanding. I drink all I can get (which isn't a lot in Pennsylvania). I followed the discussion minute by minute of the Russian attack on Georgia here…because it was really the best place for news, and it was a source I trusted. The agit-prop fellows? They only proved how special this site is.
October 28, 2009 - 7:20 pm Link to this Comment -
94. NahnCee
I know it's not in Wretchard's rules, but I do want to acknowledge that one of the things that first hooked me on BC was his analysis of the war in Iraq and in particular the fight in Fallujah. I mis-remember now if it was Fallujah 1 or Fallujah 2 and am too lazy to go look it up, but I have been astonished at Mr Fernandez's printing of topological maps, analysis of same and predictions of who would do what to whom and when during these various dust-ups. To me, that was a tour de force. I've seen lots of people write about what happened afterwards and why it happened that way, but I've never seen predictions with explanations of a war situation.
That's why whenever Wretchard thinks something is worthy of being looked at and discussed, I want to take the time to look at it, too.
And I think it's astounding, too, that he has such a grasp of Americana and what's going on here from the other side of the world, to the point where some lower-level CIA spook thinks it's worthwhile to ask if he's been stealing Official Government Secret Stuff. If someone the caliber of Wretchard the Cat thinks America is interesting and worth discussing, then we must be doing something right.
P.S. I hate it a *lot* that I'm paired with Theresita in that cutesy symphony scenario. Excuse me while I snap my fan shut and flounce off into the darkness of the garden for a while until my pique passes.
October 28, 2009 - 7:24 pm Link to this Comment -
95. Tony
I love the Belmont Club, both Wretchard's excellent essays and the ALWAYS educational posts from commenters. Going back to around First Fallujah when Andrew Sullivan of all people pointed me here, I have learned tons from all of you. I consider old buddies, some still here, some long gone – Buddy, Doug, RWE, Exhelo, Nahncee, Habu, Trangbang, Fred, Desert Rat, Baron and his Lady (forget her name), C4 (arrrghhh)… and newer classmates like Eggplant, L3, Subotai, LoTM, Mongoose… ahhh, too many, too good, so much fun!
I love you guys! (including females)
Thanks Wretchard for building this lovely Belmont Club.
October 28, 2009 - 7:32 pm Link to this Comment -
96. Annoy Mouse
Bassoon! What kind of monkey do you think I … it's a musical instrument?
Never mind.
Thanks LIII, I always seen myself as a gadfly amongst this company. I lurked for the first year and a half or so then weighed in when I was sufficiently fortified with a dose of I don't care. Wretchard nails it when he notes that a number of people were inspired by his writing (and I add his eloquence) to add their own voice, to try it out in an anonymous forum. There were threads that were over four hundred comments long and I think a few topped 1000 (thanks Doug). I felt totally compelled to read every single one of them before I weighed in but got so slogged down, there were threads I could never reasonably keep up with for the sheer traffic. Later I settled into the routine of reading Wretchards commentary then making my first post right out of the shoot without reading any of the comments. Then later I would read the comments, the best I could, then weigh in on the thread if I could be focused and inspired enough to do so. There were times I would skip over overly long posts and skim for favorites. But frankly I have come to really appreciate some of the longer comments and am amazed at the strength of some people's ideas and abilities to express those ideas. I constantly wonder where people get the time. This thing is addictive and time consuming and I have spent a least one weekend dialed-in. The only thing it isn't is expensive. Cheers to you Wretchard!October 28, 2009 - 7:38 pm Link to this Comment -
97. Annoy Mouse
Well, I am not well read, not well educated, I am not well mannered… well, well, not a deep subject.
October 28, 2009 - 7:50 pm Link to this Comment -
98. marymcl
Nahncee @94
from Wikipedia
"The viola is generally strung with thicker strings than the violin. This, combined with its larger size and lower pitch range, results in a tone which is deeper and more mellow. However, the thicker strings also mean that the viola "speaks" more slowly than its soprano cousin. Practically speaking, if a violist and violinist are playing together, the violist must begin moving the bow a fraction of a second sooner than the violinist to produce a sound that starts at the same moment as the violinist's sound. The thicker strings also mean that more weight must be applied with the bow to make them speak."
I take this to mean that we (as women) hold a certain weight in LLIII's eyes. Cheer up.
Annoy Mouse @86
The bassoon is a lovely instrument – count yourself honored. While I'd hesitate to second guess LLIII's judgment, I'd happily trade a viola for a bassoon any day, monkeys be damned. The reeds are in a class by themselves. BTW I'm still laughing about the clarinet (love ya, buddy)
October 28, 2009 - 8:02 pm Link to this Comment -
99. Leo Linbeck III
I hate it a *lot* that I'm paired with Theresita in that cutesy symphony scenario.
At the risk of getting further under your skin, don't take your instrument selection as anything other than gender equivalence. Violas are often associated with the fairer sex. That's all.
Honestly, I appreciate your posts greatly and always read them, even when I'm the target of your scorn. Oh, sorry for the cutesy smiley face. Damn, did it again.
Seriously, BC wouldn't be as interesting without your contribution. So, please, let your pique pass quickly.
L3October 28, 2009 - 8:08 pm Link to this Comment -
100. Lifeofthemind
I am at best a second fiddle in this company.
If we ask buddy if he has schizophrenia do you think he will answer "Yes I do, No I don't, wait a sec, Yes I do, oh I mean No I don't?"buddy is on my short list for the best we have.
October 28, 2009 - 8:36 pm Link to this Comment -
101. Bob Murphy
That poem by Walt is wonderful and the entry by Whiskey mind boggling and visionary (and with a reasonable degree of probability) but I still have to nominate L3, witness the grace in the last para of his entry above.
And that comment about feeling like one should be wearing a tie when listening to L3 was a bottler.
Guys and gals, I loves this place and what you do here.
Thanks for the playpen, Wretch.
October 28, 2009 - 9:22 pm Link to this Comment -
102. pharmaguy
Oh my, whatever did I start when I suggested the poster contest a week or so ago???
Are all the entries in?
I can see an entire night of awards, presented live at the Belmont Club World HQ deep in the heart of Texas….
October 28, 2009 - 9:38 pm Link to this Comment -
103. Twiceshy
Formal dress for reading LL3 should be a bow-tie! (o0)
Casual dress code for reading LL3 is, of course, a guayabera.October 28, 2009 - 9:48 pm Link to this Comment -
104. mark
I've been reading BC for a some time now…not regularly at first, but lately it is my regular watering hole. I think I first became aware of Wretchard back in late 2001 when I began reading Afghanistan Online. Don't quite remember how that developed…but I've kept track of W since then.
I've left a minor comment or two, but I'm really just here to soak up the ambience, insight, brainstorms and wisdom.
I've looked over every comment in this thread and followed almost every link. There's a few I still need to check out. I've become familiar with and enjoyed many of the players in the band, as Leo's #86 so aptly analogized. I don't really feel qualified to air an opinion in this forum of committed and veteran contributors, but having said that, and in view of the implausibility of nailing the ONE best comment in all of BC, and the overwhelming number of excellent nominees, I humbly would cast a vote for #86 in this very thread, by Leo Linbeck III, for it's masterful distillation of what the Belmont Club's comment section is, and his inclusive generosity of collegiality; it's representative of the quality of all his other posts, and creates a real sense of community in that most bizarre and post-modern of places, the internet.
My runner-up nominee is Wretchard himself, for Lighting of the Beacons #46. The entire thread was brilliant, I sent it to friends and family and posted it on FB, and saw it linked to and/or posted on blogs elsewhere as a result.
This is indeed a terrific CIM: citizens information militia, and I for one intend to exercise my right to keep and bear arms.
October 28, 2009 - 9:54 pm Link to this Comment -
Some commenters above have added why they keep coming here to read and comment. This is probably a topic in its own right. My rationale is:
The discussions on this blog remind me of my undergraduate days (late 60s) in the Honours Pure Maths and Theoretical Physics classes. For me, that time was truly a case of Wordsworth's phrase I cannot paint What then I was, the intellects that I bumped into were simply staggering.
The hurly burly of making a living pushed these memories into the background, only to have them revived and added to by Wretchard's and contributor's great thoughts.
I am very curious to know what the proclivities of many of the commentators are. I suspect that there is a preponderence of the harder sciences. A topic for another thread, perhaps.
October 28, 2009 - 10:07 pm Link to this Comment -
106. south dakota lawyer
I am a collector of stuff from this site. Although I am violating Rules 1 and 3 above, I think the following from Richard is worth putting in one place, rather than going to the individual links.
Please forgive me:The Left is the Mr. Hyde of Western civilization, and as such probably ineradicable for as long as the civilization itself exists. As practical matter, it has to be treated as a golf handicap. There's no use railing against it. All that anyone can do is make allowances for their inevitable input.
Personally I hate the idea that politicians should be expected to get things right the first time. No one ever does that. What's important is evidence that a politician has the ability to keep his mind open to the relevant facts and think them through.
It's a little known statistic that the two major capital ship encounters of World War 2 (Hood vs Bismarck and Washington vs Kirishima) were both settled in about 5 minutes. In the USS Washington's case it came down to the Captain making the snap decision to "take her left" past a US destroyer burning ahead of him. That put the flames of the wreck between Washington and Kirishima, rendering the US battleship invisible. Kirishima never saw Washington until it pumped 9×16″ and 40×5″ into it.
That capacity to take in the facts, understand changed conditions and possess the decisiveness to act is all one can expect of a commander because things can be over in five minutes. Personally I don't give a hoot whether Obama foresaw the future, though it helps if you can. I do care about whether he can acknowledge the present when it is staring him in the face. Unless he can do that, when the Day comes he might not be able to say 'take her left' when everything depends on it.
I've come to believe that the extraordinary rancor associated with the Obama campaign is driven more by anxiety than anything else. They've pulled out all the stops, dropped all the masks, dispensed with all the subtlety because this is Last Chance Saloon. They'll run whatever media they've got left into the ground in the hope that if they can just get BHO into the White House, history will stop. But it won't. BHO's administration will be about as safe as British New Labor is against militant Islam and Russia in a world without America because the whole guiding principle of BHO is that America is part of the problem, if not the whole problem. Which is to say, that after he succeeds in sawing off the limb, he'll wait for the tree not the branch to fall. But he'll be in for a surprise. What's BHO going to do after he sells both Iraq and Afghanistan down the river? What are the Kos people going to do after they've cancelled all advanced combat systems and made it a crime to criticize their shibboleths? What are they going to do after they've made every apology and paid every reparation and Hezbollah still wants more? Who's going to bail out Chavez and Morales after they've Mugabeized their countries? Get money from Obama? Basically the Left is up against it and must burn their shirts for a little bit more flash.
They may get it their momentary blaze of glory, but the fire they see will be that of the house burning down. I feel sorry though, for the bystanders of their gotterdammerung.
I know at least one very smart person who dislikes Obama but has been hoping for the last six months that Obama wins. His fear was that McCain would. The reasoning is a McCain victory, especially a narrow one, would simply keep the old RINOs marking time and pave the wave for an even more powerful Obama challenge or something like it. Therefore he wanted to take the hit and take it now, like a market correction. In a way socialism is to politics what bankruptcy is to the economic markets. It destroys bad ideas by putting them in charge. It gives people with the dumb ideas the chance to kill each other. Unfortunately, it destroys a lot else too. But it is an inescapable teaching moment because it forces people into a literal life and death struggle to recover what they previously took for granted. The tree of liberty may not be watered by blood. But the tree of sanity is perpetually fertilized by occasional encounters with Leftist ideas. The lesson is good for a generation, maybe a generation and a half, before it has to be relearned over again.
* * * *
I think my friend regards the Obama moment as inevitable. It's the time when all the nonsense our civilization has come to spout is actually going to put into practice. We literally can't know what will happen except that it will probably involve ruin, insecurity and unrest, in some measure, caused by the interaction of our stupidity with events. There will be no time for rancor, gloating or hatred. The people you despise will be punished — or rewarded — by events. And the people you admire likewise. Focus on staying alive and if possible, keeping the spark of humanity and divine life guttering inside you. Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.
One thing I learned from hard experience is you always start from where people are. Not from where you want them to start. You have to take people step by step, on the basis of their own experience, getting them to reflect on it to their own conclusions. Just because you "know" doesn't mean you can force what you "know" down people's throats. They have to figure things out for themselves. It's not a function of being unsure of your beliefs. Just an acceptance of the fact that people have to travel their own road to the same spot you may be standing on.
There are no shortcuts. Fourteen years it took us to knock down a tinpot dictator. And we did largely by letting him expose himself. The key was to set up what I would call the reflectional infrastructure. You got people together. And they figured things out. But that required energy to overcome entropy. Just no way around it. I don't think it necessary to create one big conservative opposition to socialism. You can create people who are opposed to socialism out of greed; some out of philosophy; others out of a desire for liberty. Still others for reasons they can't articulate. It dudn't matter. Also organizations have the disquieting tendency to fall apart after they've formed. Coalitions are always splitting up or coming together. It's like trying to build a sandcastle. Still if you keep at, as the Temptations used to say, 'Our Day Will Come'.
And when the Day comes it won't solve all the problems of the world. It will just keep the night back for one more day. Our job isn't to fix things for all time, but to keep this old world running for the time we're on it. Like Gandalf said, "all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
One of the things that worried me from the first about Barack Obama is how structurally similar his career was to that of a con man. That doesn't necessarily mean that he is one, but like the man at Madoff's country club, I get bad vibes about a person who operates out of a black box, offers social proof instead of a track record and who takes umbrage at any efforts to inquire too closely into his promises. Something about a career that's always moving on to the next and higher level without producing any results at any particular one strikes me as disquieting.
Sixty years ago Winston Churchill promised the British people that he could give them nothing more than "blood, toil, sweat and tears". Anyone who tried that today would be unelectable. Any candidate who promised the voters ten years of austerity, belt-tightening, longer hours and less consumption in order to save social security and put the economy on a sound footing can kiss his career goodbye. Anyone who promised generations of struggle against Islamic extremism wouldn't have a hope of being elected.
But if someone promised to stop the oceans from rising, create millions of green jobs, restore America's respect internationally, cut taxes for 95% of Americans, cancel missile defense, end the threat of terrorism and usher in a world without nuclear weapons, he would be elected by a large margin. He would be so cool that nobody would even dare question it. What was that about Mr. Madoff's clients being foolish for believing in something too good to be true?
Inflation is the tool of choice for creating a totalitarianism, whether wittingly employed or unintentionally created by mismanagement. Inflation wipes out fixed incomes and savings. People on salaries with savings accounts will find themselves pauperized overnight. Literal survival becomes contingent on "getting close" to those in power, who will provide the chosen few with indexed incomes or simply goods in kind.
Despots like Mugabe exploit this desperation to create units which are loyal, not to the institutions, but to the leader maximus personally. Once inflation bites there will be no shortage of people willing, nay clamoring, to do the bidding of the high and mighty. So from one point of view printing money is a coup de etat by those who control the currency. It gives them the ability to destroy all legitimacy save that of minter of money.
Of course it can't last. Sooner or later it must all come tumbling down. But that's tomorrow. Today it's all sweet.
Sometimes I think that lying has become the vice of Washington. Why tell the truth when fantasy will serve? Fannie Mae was too big to fail. Your future is assured with social security. We will create a world without nuclear weapons. "I will reduce the deficit by the end of my first term". The stimulus package will put money in your pocket. We can keep printing money without consequences. That all my moral administration will ever ask of fanatics bent on killing civilians is their name, rank and serial number. That I will keep you safe. On both sides of the aisle, politicians have piled lie on lie until they can't keep track of them any more.
At some point a liar begins to believe the falsehoods himself. Self-deception is the most dangerous phase of deceit. At this point you truly believe that you are above the requirements of reality. That at your word the oceans will fall and the world will begin to heal. But it won't last. Reality eventually taps you on the shoulder and whether you wake to a pleasance or a challenge, you will awake.
Truth is both beautiful and perilous. We all remember Tolkien's famous line about Sam watching the stars twinkle above Mordor. "The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was a light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach." But that star was also a reminder of the hard journey ahead of him. That it would light him up the slopes of Mount Doom. That was truth too. To bear the Ring, it is sometimes necessary to admit that you do not know the way.
Morality, in case no one has noticed, has a price. Sanctions mean lost business. Engagement means that people peddling certain things can sell them again. In the case of Iran a lot of people stand to make money if one could sell them things: aircraft maintenance contracts, financial services, gas pipeline development services … you name it … once those sanctions are out of the way. Lest I give the impression that engagement for 'behavior change' is all about sordid things, there are sound geopolitical reasons too. Europe wants Iran's natural gas online to counter Russia's. Iran could be useful in supplying Afghanistan. Engagement means a whole parade of business deals can go forward, some for good reasons, some for simple business reasons. Sound public policy doesn't require that no private interests are served; it only requires that public interest is not made secondary to private ones.
It's much more lucrative to deal with the Chinese, the Saudis and the Ayatollah's than to talk to some martyr in a dungeon, or an exile in a one-room London apartment with nothing in the cupboard but a kipper wrapped in newspaper waiting to be fried on a gas ring sputtering on a line deeply in arrears with the energy company. Just as in the case of coercive interrogation, taking a stand, one way or the other, means a willingness to pay for it; because pay you will.
Personally, I don't think paying for things is a deeply rooted virtue in either Hillary or Barack. They are 'winners' above all. The ultimate accolade in their world is "I won". Consequently, they'll sell you Hope and Change. But don't expect them to sell it at a loss. You'll be lucky to get any change for the hope in your pocket.
I think that if God actually "spoke" to us in natural language sentences the message would have be throttled down to fit the bandwidth of words, which in general cannot carry the freight of human experience. There's a scene in Cool Hand Luke when Luke enters a church, with the prison guards hot on his tail looking for an answer. He hears nothing in that small chapel and yet gets an answer, and I tend to think that what Luke heard was that there was something in him worth defending; something that should never completely surrender. There was a voice, or near enough.October 28, 2009 - 10:28 pm Link to this Comment -
107. geoffb
Since this is best comment that could stand alone I too will have to go with that already submitted by #21 Doug and #26 Bob.
It has been one that stuck with me.
October 28, 2009 - 10:35 pm Link to this Comment -
108. Walt
Thanks to all who mentioned my name in the same company as our esteemed members of the BC orchestra. Thank you JF for liking my stuff, and thanks to L3 for the very kind words. The winner, hands down, is L3, for his always brilliantly written and brilliantly reasoned arguments. In second place I would nominate the irrepressible Buddy Larsen, who makes me laught out loud. In a third place tie is everyone who visits here at BC and sits in or just listens to L3′s orchestra, sometimes Beethoven, sometimes Louis Armstrang, sometimes Chet Atkins, but always in tune with the temper of the times.
Walt Erickson
October 28, 2009 - 10:42 pm Link to this Comment -
109. olde fogey
Following up on ADE @ 105
Am I the only one that is very curious about the lives of the major contributors to the unparalleled experience provided by the Belmont Club, especially Richard.
I admit to being surprised by Richard's comment @ 54 about earning a living. I confess that I had this image of him being an independently wealthy person for whom BC was his main activity now that he no longer lives in the Philippines.
A few have mentioned families in passing but others have not. A few have mentioned their past jobs when it was relevant to the topic but others are a cipher. It's strange to feel such an affinity to someone about whom you know nothing other than they possess a very good mind and have learned to use it extremely well.
Have I inadvertently crossed an invisible line in being curious?
October 28, 2009 - 11:36 pm Link to this Comment -
110. Annoy Mouse
of course not. I feel the same way. Wretch is a cipher indeed. I always wonder and think about him being a bit of a bit flipper but think that he wouldn't have that much time. I wonder if he is doing something much more adroit but uses his pedestrian metal-life as a foil for the real he. But I suppose we will never really know and, in the end, it is OK that we know him as the stealth sage that he is.October 28, 2009 - 11:52 pm Link to this Comment -
111. Karen Yvonne
buckets @62: If you remember which post, pls dig it up, don't have the time to do it myself. Don't be modest!
Well, um, I do feel a little funny about fulfilling your request, especially among this company. But I would like to acknowledge your mention and thank you. Thank you for remembering me.
I think the comment you referred to @61 is this one:
And yes, Karen and Karen Yvonne are one and the same. Expanded the screen name here in the last paragraph of comment #298:
October 29, 2009 - 12:54 am Link to this Comment -
112. sgi
Buddy, Life of the Mind, RWE, Mongoose, Habu, L3, Walt, Whiskey, Alexis, and anyone else I may have forgotten, in no particular order.
Forced to choose, it's a toss up between the comedic genius Buddy (I yam not an animal!) and L3, who is simply the most brilliant and cheerful commentator.
I know this isn't about Wretchard, but thank you Wretchard from the bottom of my heart for the Belmont Club.
October 29, 2009 - 1:14 am Link to this Comment -
113. Gaffe Prices
I nominate Delia and buddy larsen for a tie in the special ops short burst category. They put out a ferocious surprise attack on the enemy, while simultaneously lifting morale with humor, daring, and a wink back at us, earning a medal of honor for folk wisdom and modesty, not to mention the tap dancing.
October 29, 2009 - 1:44 am Link to this Comment -
114. dtmack
Since this seems to have evolved into a best commenter poll, I have to go with L3 as well. Although #30 RWE on this thread has issued an instant classic in the best comment, comedy category.
I came to BC last fall during the financial meltdown, and found many comments well reasoned, and well informed. Although I didn't understand all the nuances (not my field) I remember several of L3′s posts at that time – gave me a lot to think about, and were head and shoulders above most of what I'd read.
My impression in general was of a site where the commenters actually had something of value to say, whether I agreed with them or not. That's why it's become my favorite site. Thanks to all for your thought provoking and inspiring work. I even was inspired to write the first (and hopefully last) poem of my long life by reading Walts excellent submissions! Who'da thunk it?
I also enjoy the lack of "trolls" here – my guess is that they're intimidated.
October 29, 2009 - 1:58 am Link to this Comment -
115. Leo Linbeck III
Karen Yvonne (aka The Artist Formerly Known as Karen),
You should have been in the viola section. Sorry for my oversight. Your comments here are always first-rate, and (unlike a lot of my stuff) thoughtfully brief. Thanks for both.
I recalled this post of yours
when I was visiting with an old professor of mine. He made a comment that struck me as perfect in its description of our current President:
I'll bet that he's never read a book written before 1900.
His shame, our burden.
L3October 29, 2009 - 2:15 am Link to this Comment -
116. Karen Yvonne
Gollee, here I am up half the night searching through old posts and I'm gonna have to call it quits and turn in without a single nomination after getting distracted and sidetracked rereading all these old posts – so many oldies but goodies. There's just too many – and I know I'm echoing others here but love the contributions of Subotai, Mongoose, bogie wheel, JMH, maineman, our Norwegian Texan (Buddy, how'd your folks end up way down there?), L3, LoTM, RWE, Whiskey, the amazing versifying Walt, and so many others. If we could be ruled by the first hundred commenters on BC, I think we'd be alright.
Richard's blog is undoubtedly in a class all by itself. I too am curious about him. How'd he get to be the way he is? Was he always so wise or was there a time when he was foolish? How can he seem so American? How can he write so well in a language that I'm assuming wasn't his first? I wonder, was your mother American? Well, I'm getting too nosy, time to say good-night.
October 29, 2009 - 2:26 am Link to this Comment -
117. Karen Yvonne
Oh Leo, Leo, Leo… the unfailingly gracious.
Re your professor's comment, I confess I've had fantasies about Obama being "force-read," sort of ala Clockwork Orange.
October 29, 2009 - 2:35 am Link to this Comment -
118. Marie Claude
outstanding orchestra,
hmmm french horn is "corne des brumes"
froghorn or "fog signal" or "fog bell" is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of hazards (or of the presence of other vehicles) in foggy conditionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foghorn
October 29, 2009 - 3:12 am Link to this Comment -
119. tomw
I am so hesitant to add to this symphony of thought my cacaphony of ideas…
BC is like a college bull session
like a graduate course in "World" or "Life"
like a complete set of the "Harvard Classics" as illuminated and interpreted by experienced and wise women and men
As I read each post, since before 'fallback' days, my mind is intrigued more and more by the depth of thought, the breadth of knowledge and the accumulated wisdom of the posters.
Somehow, Wretchard has induced very smart, capable people to spend their precious life's time commenting and arguing back and forth, to the erudition of those such as me.
It is not by inducement of wealth, nor the adulation of ones' comrades, but by a genuine, I think, desire to ADD to the lives of others, to help them understand and respond to the pitfalls and arrows of life, without rancor, but with a certitude that the right will endure.
As posts accumulate, one begins to build up a mental image of the poster. One can react without concern that there will be an barrage of derogatory comments as posters parry each other. We, as posters, reveal a little bit with each and every comment made, with bits of wisdom, knowledge, and explicit details of when/where/how such was gathered. If you consider, you likely have a mental image of the prominent posters, as well as the host.
I think that you can ascribe their attitude, their 'self image' to a degree, their demeanor in the face of adversity and their relations to the rest of us and the world at large from their posts.
Not quite the comfortable pair of old shoes, but rather a well-worn leather chair under the reading light with pages of thought stimulating commentary available every time.
Maybe the Belmont Club is really and truly a club similar to those of the late 19th and early 20th century where cigars were smoked, port(?) was poured, perhaps whiskey consumed, and thoughts and observations about current events were exchanged…
I'll shut up.
tomOctober 29, 2009 - 4:26 am Link to this Comment -
120. Storm-Rider
Let's not get the idea that Belmont Club is "elitist." We need a greater and ever increasing audience and cadre of contributors in the orchestra. Although of equal or superior intellects, let's never; as have our leftist (Marxist) political opponents, turn into the "pigs" of Animal Farm.
October 29, 2009 - 4:28 am Link to this Comment -
121. twobyfour
MC, f r o g h o r n?
Almost looks like a freudian slip of sorts!October 29, 2009 - 4:35 am Link to this Comment -
122. 49erDweet
LLIII is the one, imho, but the field is laden with contenders. Just pick any of those already nominated, or for his "body of work".
And special mention goes to presbypoet #81 on this very thread.
"Is this heaven?"
"No, this is [the] Belmont Club"Excuse me while I don a tie. Looking for something that matches my slippers.
W as a Maestro also seems fitting. That we are all waiting for the next upbeat from his baton is a given. Even those of us who don't play instruments, but simply belong in the chorale. Put me down as a basso. Cheers
October 29, 2009 - 4:55 am Link to this Comment -
123. Storm-Rider
I'd like to offer this too, as it illuminates the difference between non-productive intellectuals (pigs of animal farm) and productive entrepreneurs and free enterprisers (Belmont Club):
"They (intellectuals) prefer ideas, which give them jobs and income and which enhance their power and prestige…They look for ideas, which enhance the role of the state because the state is usually their main employer, sponsor or donator. That is not all. According to Hayek "the power of ideas grows in proportion to their generality, abstractness, and even vagueness"…Hayek put it clearly: "the intellectual, by his whole disposition, is uninterested in technical details or practical difficulties." He is interested in visions and utopias and because "socialist thought owes its appeal largely to its visionary character" (and I would add lack of realism and utopian nature), the intellectual tends to become a socialist.…The free market system does not typically reward those who are, in their own eyes, the most meritorious. Because the intellectuals value themselves very highly, they disdain the marketplace. Markets value them differently than their own eyes and, in addition to it, markets function nicely without their supervision. As a result, the intellectuals are suspicious of free markets and prefer being publicly funded. That is another reason, why they are in favour of socialism…" President of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus
"The People's State of Marx … will not content itself with administering and governing the masses politically, as all governments do today. It will also administer the masses economically, concentrating in the hands of the State the production and division of wealth, the cultivation of land, the establishment and development of factories, the organization and direction of commerce, and finally the application of capital to production by the only banker — the State. All that will demand an immense knowledge and many heads "overflowing with brains" in this government. It will be the reign of scientific intelligence, the most aristocratic, despotic, arrogant, and elitist of all regimes. There will be a new class, a new hierarchy of real and counterfeit scientists and scholars, and the world will be divided into a minority ruling in the name of knowledge, and an immense ignorant majority. And then, woe unto the mass of ignorant ones!" Michael Bakunin
It is precisely this "new class" that reflects the defining contradiction of modern leftist reality: The goal of complete economic equality logically enjoins the means of complete state control, yet this means has never practically achieved that end. Yes, Smith and Jones, once "socialized," are equally poor and equally oppressed, but now above them looms an oligarchy of not-to-be-equalized equalizers. The inescapable rise of this "new class" — privileged economically as well as politically, never quite ready to "wither away" — forever destroys the possibility of a "classless" society. Here the lesson of socialism teaches what should have been learned from the lesson of pre-liberal despotism — that state coercion is a means to no end but its own. Far from expanding equality from the political to the economic realm, the pursuit of "social justice" serves only to contract it within both. There will never be any kind of equality — or real justice — as long as a socialist elite stands behind the trigger while the rest of us kneel before the barrel." Barry Loberfeld
October 29, 2009 - 4:58 am Link to this Comment -
By the way, Leo, I would like to say I am pleased to have been placed in the violin section.
Not that I have ever played a musical instrument more demanding than a superheterodyne radio, but in Chicago the phrase "I am going to play you a tune on my violin" used to mean a particular kind of "music."
The violin case was the favorite disguise used by those innovative businessmen of Chicago when they needed to carry their Thompson submachine guns somewhere.
And playing that kind of tune pretty much sums up my attitude toward The Chicago Way we see so much of now.
October 29, 2009 - 6:12 am Link to this Comment -
125. bob
I'm proud to be in the violin section too. I want to be in that number, when the saints come marching in. I dang near bought a new Thompson commemorative sub-machine gun at a gun show once, came in a violin case. Course it wasn't really an automatic weapon, you had to pull each time. Very fancy, attractive. Came within an inch of buying it. Now I wish I had done so.
October 29, 2009 - 6:26 am Link to this Comment -
126. herb
I am in awe of the Company here. I raise an occasionally snarky point every now and then and dont even begin to think that Im in the same class as L3 (thanks so much for the nod) or LOTM or Buddy Larson or even Luddy Barson.
Several have noted my presence. I must go somewhere and have my head deflated.
On a serious note: One of the reasons I read here is the fact that serious people are as concerned about our country as I am and still remain hopeful for the future. You all help me get thru the newspaper and the Drudge Report without taking a hostage.
Im still looking for that erudition button on my computer.
October 29, 2009 - 7:24 am Link to this Comment -
128. Blindman
There are so many posts that have given me pause. I remember some but a few were before 2005. When I tried to access the early posts form the achieves they did not give access to the responses of the readers. Still no matter,I know that you would agree that the threads are as smoked wisps of thought and were not meant to be forever but just for the the night travelers at that quieted junction.
Still a favorite has been that of anders:
Wretchard, the philosopher was Blaise Pascal. Here is the full quote:
"The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frighten me… How many kingdoms know us not!"I've heard the quote used to sum up the modern (or perhaps more accurately, post-modern) attitude. Here is something C.S. Lewis said that is on that topic, which can be read as a response to Pascal:
"To look up at the towering medieval universe is much more like looking at a great building. The 'space' of modern astronomy may arouse terror, or bewilderment or vague reverie; the spheres of the old present us with an object in which the mind can rest, overwhelming in its greatness but satisfying in its harmony. That is the sense in which our universe is romantic, and theirs classical."
posted by Wretchard at 7/24/2007 05:44:00 PMSorry I don't quite know how to post the link.
October 29, 2009 - 7:43 am Link to this Comment -
129. Texmac
Wretchard, thanks for the opportunity to think back over all the thought-provoking posts and comments through the years. It seems as though I've read Belmont Club in at least three different locations. How long have you been posting? I'm curious to know how long you have been my daily habit.
October 29, 2009 - 7:44 am Link to this Comment -
130. Fletcher Christian
#128 Blindman re the Pascal quote:
Pascal made that famous statement not long after the discovery of the true scale of the Galaxy – which was thought at the time to be the Universe. And it was not at all an unreasonable response; the space between the stars is utterly incomprehensible to the human mind, even more so than is the size of the Solar System.
And then, in the 1920s and 30s, the real scale of creation was revealed. No coincidence at all that this was the time when Lovecraft wrote his works. What would Pascal have said about the Endless Deep between the galaxies?
Douglas Adams had his own inimitable slant on the subject in the form of the Total Perspective Vortex; a device that reveals to you just how you small you are – not only intellectually but emotionally.
And yet some of the narrow-minded among us continue to argue about minor points of doctrine or about whether the Creator cares about us fitting tab A into hole B rather than into hole A. The One who looks after everything from superstrings to superclusters, and from the infernal heat of the Beginning to the frigid cold of the End, cares about that. RRigght. Just how arrogant can a human get?
October 29, 2009 - 8:42 am Link to this Comment -
131. steeple
Gaffe Prices, I have to add Anton to the list of nominees for Best Short Burst, on multiple occasions.
I feel blessed to be involved in this conversation; thank you all for what you do, especially you, Richard.
October 29, 2009 - 9:01 am Link to this Comment -
132. Bear
I have to re-iterate what other posters have made clear: this is likely one of the best blogs out there. Kudos to Wretchard and all those that contribute.
I've been making the circuit lately, and this is (remarkably) absent of the crabs that obstruct and attack a reasoned and civil discourse.
October 29, 2009 - 9:17 am Link to this Comment -
133. always right
To me, the best of BC is not just the host, nor the comment section. It is the scope and depth in any single thread.
What distinguishes BC is the wide range of initial threads from our host, not only we get military/intel on current wars, economic analysis, politicians, but we get singularity theory, or even a Susan Boyle video link (the 1st rendition of the Dream song), and much much more.
What is even more amazing is the unpredictable directions the comment section provide. Most of the time, I couldn't even keep up.
October 29, 2009 - 9:23 am Link to this Comment -
135. twobyfour
OT – France to launch national pride campaign in battle against Islamic fundamentalism
"M. Besson … proposed measures contrast sharply with the situation in Britain where 'citizenship education' centers on multicultural diversity and the European Union, while 'God Save The Queen' is not even taught in schools."
October 29, 2009 - 9:55 am Link to this Comment -
136. Sylvia
BC has made my years of bed rest infinitely more interesting. I track down and read most of the books mentioned. I read BC posts and comments aloud to my family and we discuss them and find ourselves referring back to Subotai's observations or RF's conclusions. I write lengthy comments, read them and delete, and figure I'll have something worth posting in a few years.
I wish I could have you all over to supper and simply listen, learn, and laugh as I tend the stove and refill the platters on the table. Until then, I'll vote — since RF is not in the running, L3, please, with lauds also to Alexis and Subotai, Habu and eggplant and Walt and … Whiskey!
October 29, 2009 - 10:04 am Link to this Comment -
137. GerryP
You wrote "KIPP priced about $67M of tax-exempt bonds today to support their growth in Houston, and we were way oversubscribed (2 to 4 times.)"
Congratulations to you and KIPP! What a terrific vote of approval and confidence. An incredible fund-raising feat – to have a $67 million goal OVERSUBSCRIBED by 2-4 times! Personally, I never heard of such a thing. As an old fund-raiser, I can hardly comprehend it. It speaks volumes for the great value and quality of what KIPP has been doing. As it speaks well of Houston too, for that matter.
Long may your and KIPP's winning streak continue and increase. Great work! Hearty congratulations to all of you.
October 29, 2009 - 10:09 am Link to this Comment -
138. jim Nicholas
JoeB @#46,
The guide to searching will be very helpful. Thank you.
Best wishes,
October 29, 2009 - 11:38 am Link to this Comment -
139. hdgreene
My first encounter with the Belmont Club was during the first battle of Fallujah, pointed this way by Instapundit. Between Wretchard and the Fourth Rail (now The Long War Journal) I could make sense of what might be happening — at least enough to impress the morning coffee clutch, who thought I had access to a top secret briefing.
All during the Iraq war the BC was a good place to get information on strategy and tactics — sometimes the information was quite technical and vetted by other commenters — and place it in the context of what was happening. Watching the TV news was like receiving "snow" rather than a picture. Their reporting was so over the top at the first insurgent attacks that it was difficult to treat their reporting seriously when the situation actually went in the crapper. When gloom settled over the comment section of the Belmont Club, I knew for sure the situation was beyond serious.
I suffer from adult ADD, whatever that is. A few years back I started a folder for the best comments from the Belmont Club but when I checked, it only contained one comment. It was quite good but it was also one of mine. False humility prevents me from linking.
In attempt to narrow the range of choices, I went back to the time around the subprime mortgage meltdown. At the risk of sounding redundant, I found the posts of L3 and Habu (who, if I recall correctly, described Wall Street's creation of myriad investment vehicles) — as well as many others — quite informative. But rather than choose "a best," I thought I'd choose a good example of a type. It is a comment where the experience of the commenter brings an extra dimension to the discussion. During a discussion dealing with the effects of the national governments involvement in the real estate market, Unsk told of the effects of local government intervention in LA.
October 29, 2009 - 11:53 am Link to this Comment -
140. always right
46 JoeB
Re: SearchSorry,
Does this method work on other search engines or it is google-specific?October 29, 2009 - 12:10 pm Link to this Comment -
141. Marie Claude
121. twobyfour:
MC, f r o g h o r n?
Almost looks like a freudian slip of sorts!nah, I made it purposely, because of the opportun similarity of sound
October 29, 2009 - 1:06 pm Link to this Comment -
142. Marie Claude
A froghorn, is that like a leghorn?
nah, leghorns haven't the same cooking recepts,
only frogs legs are pricefulOctober 29, 2009 - 1:11 pm Link to this Comment -
143. Marie Claude
Eric Besson was a socialist defector, and I support what this article is telling, but on the ground, reality isn't so "optimistic", there will a lot of arguties with the "lefty" sentiments of most of our intellectuals, since reverring the french anthem was seen as retrograde, and this since De Gaulle passed out
October 29, 2009 - 1:35 pm Link to this Comment -
145. Sobieski
The quality of comments posted on The Belmont Club is second to none. Wretchard, you have established one of the most thought-provoking and inspiring communities on the web, and I thank you for that.
There are a great number of posters whose comments stand out in my mind – L3, Subotai, Buddy Larsen, the late Fred, RWE, LOTM; just to mention a few.
At the moment I don't have the time to sift through the archives looking for gems, but I would like to share one comment which I saved a while back because I felt that it was truly special. I believe that it was posted by L3:
"Has freedom simply become too burdensome to bear?"
Living the life of a free person is not child's play. It is a game for adults. It has always been burdensome, too burdensome for children. Too much responsibility, too little frivolous entertainment.
It takes an adult to absorb repeated setbacks and challenges and yet continue striving toward a goal.
It takes an adult to forgo gloating and strutting when providence puts you on the winning side, because you may be on the other side some day.
It takes an adult to suffer defeat with grace, and not run screaming back to daddy (i.e. the state) if you end up with the short tine of the wishbone.
It takes an adult to put the needs of the others ahead of one's own, to sacrifice your wants and desires for those you love.
It takes an adult to make the hard decision, knowing it won't be the popular one, but it is best for all concerned.Children think that freedom means doing what I want to do.
Adults know that freedom means doing what's right, regardless of the cost.This is a hard lesson to learn. It usually requires the experience of being let down by someone you thought you could believe in. But that experience is not enough; you must also realize that just because one person let you down doesn't mean you should abandon belief in others. You have to travel the rocky and winding road from trust to distrust, then back to trust. Along the way, you move from näivete to cynicism to skepticism. Older, but wiser.
Our nation's prosperity has created large numbers of perpetual "children," people who have always been taken care of by "adults." (I used the quotes because adulthood is not correlated with age, but with experience.) Obama's promise – take from the independent "adults" to give to the dependent "children" – may well get him elected. But when his supporters discover that the change was not worth believing in, I believe they will change. They will grow up.
Not all of them, maybe, or even most. But enough.
October 29, 2009 - 2:27 pm Link to this Comment -
146. Storm-Rider
"Obama's promise – take from the independent "adults" (middle class owner of property) to give to the dependent "children" (intellectuals and proletariat)"
"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state (for redistribution to intellectuals and proletariat)…Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property…You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible." Karl Marx
October 29, 2009 - 2:44 pm Link to this Comment -
147. Bonzo
Be cautious of anointing a Belmont-Cult. It is human nature to uplift cliques and become tribal. Someone once said, he would hesitate to join any organization that would admit him.
I prefer to not see a top ten list here.
October 29, 2009 - 3:05 pm Link to this Comment -
148. Danydash
After reading some additional posts it is even more difficult to nominate, but here are my favorites: Wretchard, L3, Karen, LOTM, NahnCee, Batman, Subotai, Buddy Larsem, Egg plant and Walt.
All the comments are very well written, clear and sometime poetic. I believe it is not only because of rhetoric or perfect grammatical usage but because they invite the reader to think.
Boileau – L'art Poetique
Il est certains esprits dont les sombres pensées
Sont d'un nuage épais toujours embarrassées ;
Le jour de la raison ne le saurait percer.
Avant donc que d'écrire apprenez à penser.Selon que notre idée est plus ou moins obscure,
L'expression la suit, ou moins nette ou plus pure.
Ce que l'on conçoit bien s'énonce clairement,
Et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisément.October 29, 2009 - 3:27 pm Link to this Comment -
I could not pick a best comment, far too many excellent ones to pick just one. And since others were having the same problem, I decided the honorable thing to do was to write a comment of my own that would be clear and away the best to save everyone the angst of choosing.
Unfortunately, the Internet ate it when I hit the submit button, so I'm back to my default position of not being able to choose. But I'll gladly read everyone's comments here – they are truely thought provoking and engaging.
Oh, L3, could I play bagpipes in your orchestra? I figure that's the right instrument for me because, even when a piper is playing the same tune as the rest of the band it doesn't sound like it.
October 29, 2009 - 5:04 pm Link to this Comment -
150. Karen Yvonne
Bonzo @147: Be cautious of anointing a Belmont-Cult.
A similar thought occurred to me at first. But only momentarily because, at bottom, my honest opinion is: when something particularly meritorious comes along, it should be lauded and applauded.
I'd like to see more nominations. But will Wretchard drop the whole idea if too few come in before closing time?
October 29, 2009 - 5:08 pm Link to this Comment -
151. Doug
Luddy gets to play the Sax when he appears back home in the Big Easy.
October 29, 2009 - 5:11 pm Link to this Comment -
152. Mongoose
Golly…I go away for a week or so and come back to see my name, and see it along side such ratified company–all my favs. Thanks for the kind words. I am not sure I deserve to be mentioned along with such a fine bunch. I generally cannot forbear a complement, but I most certainly value one out of BC.
I must say that, besides the odd toll or moonbat, there really are really very few posters I do not read and value, though I certainly agree with everyone's lst here.
I think in the end, there is no one particular writer–LL3 has it right. However, I more would like to think of myself as a cello or a piano rather than a double base, but I get the point.
BC has a way of pulling the best out of people, I feel. The nature of this forum bring out a certain decorum, as certain honesty and a respect for ideas and language. We can thank wretchard for this–and also thank each other.
One wishes that there were more venues such as BC.
October 29, 2009 - 5:13 pm Link to this Comment -
153. blert
The most remarkable posters, beyond W: Subotai, L3, LoTM, Batman, eggplant, Doug, Buddy, Walt, Whiskey, Mongoose, et. al.
My pick for best thread:
October 29, 2009 - 6:45 pm Link to this Comment -
154. Charles
<a href=cowboys herding cats
rufus 2006
who datJakeGint 2007
who datRWE 2008
who datbuddy 2009
who datOctober 29, 2009 - 7:30 pm Link to this Comment -
155. Tony
Prof. W presents a classic Information Retrieval problem in asking the thoughtful BC membership for a favorite 'post'.
After 9/11, this particular type of problem was called 'connecting the dots'. JoeB's tremendously helpful post @46 shows us the controls of the Google search machine – nice. This is how machines Remember/Recall.
'Connecting the dots' machines constantly search, and the results of those machines is what we search, bottom-feeders, natch. Another layer up, the machines pick their own targets to connect. If we're unlucky, like in the case of Google, 'puny humans' are assigning 'values' to search targets.
ERGO: Prof W's current problem – finding our favorite post – aiiiyeeee.
The upside of the insolve-ability of the problem is that computers can't yet mimic Human Memory. For example: I noticed several of us, HDGreene, Nahncee, me, others? discovered Wretchard's unique perspective on the truth while we were trying to follow the war at the time of "First Fallujah" (~04/04). Of course, if you search for "First Fallujah" (~04/04), you find no joy – we don't know which Belmont Clubs are included in our Search, and even worse – we don't quite recall what fabulously creative Title our Prof W assigned.
Other TOPIC: the Big Picture, as revealed by Blindman 128 and Fletcher Christian 130, it was of course Hubble who proved by the red shift that the universe is expanding, proving we are not only infinitesimally tiny but growing tinier at an accelerating pace. Just like they told us in the Diamond Sutra, there's nothing new under the sun.
Thus shall you think of this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.Oh, wait, sorry — this IS Professor Wretchard's Poetry, Philosophy, Writing Class, isn't it?
October 29, 2009 - 8:07 pm Link to this Comment -
156. GerryP
For two months, heavy rehab therapy after knee-replacement surgery has left little time to comment. Still, I have kept up fairly well with reading Belmont.
It is not possible to pick one better than all, out of so many truly impressive comments. But here are some that I thought exceptional, in no particular order of preference:
Voltemand's thorough and deft discussion of the legalities and moralities of torture at #68 on "The Mandate of Heaven" on 8-25-09.
Buddy Larsen's tour de force on Dan Rather, and on Buddy's son's role in exposing Rather's fraud, at #7 on "The One and the Many."
Blert's debunking of the idea of giving Russia the credit for the fall of the Nazis at #56 on "Nothing Half So Melancholy" on 7-23-09.
PapaBear's short explanation of why Congressional bills are so large and confusing, on "The Constipation of Power" on 7-29-09.
Mongoose's fine summary of the problems of the U.S. and what must be done (no link – sorry) at #21 on 7-23-09.
Hdgreene's exposition on the economies of blue vs. red states, same thread as above, #100 on 7-23-09.
Subotai Bahadur's masterly layout of the course he believes we should take as a nation at #83 on "The Mandate of Heaven" on 8-25-09.
Leo Linbeck III's rousing explanation of what KIPP is, how it is working out in Houston, and his role in it. No link, sorry. But it was in response to the great post by Wretchard about LL3's "outing" as a contributor to some fanatic right-wing blog known as "The Belmont Club."
Like most here, I'm embarrassed to nominate so few, and would like to include everyone already nominated. Sigh. My apologies to the many others I wanted to include.
October 29, 2009 - 8:26 pm Link to this Comment -
157. Doug
Here ya go, Tony:
Al Gore Advised Google About Its 'Search Quality'
Google's achievement of this goal depends in no small measure on the restless, we-are-never-satisfied energy of its founders and its engineers. Al Gore recounted a conversation he had with [co-founder Sergey] Brin and [co-founder Larry] Page several years ago in the conference room near their office. Gore raised specific concerns about aspects of search quality. "They had to go to another meeting," Gore recalled, "and said, 'If you can stay, Al, we'd like to bring in the search-quality researchers and specialists in charge of this part of the business.' Ten of them came in. Larry and Sergey left. I spent another three hours. And then, when it was over, I gave Larry and Sergey an oral report."
Some weeks later, Gore said, laughing, "I went up to their office and found that all ten of these people had been moved in. All ten of them!" He described how Page and Brin had had to cram twelve computer monitors into their office, and "move around some of their toys-a remote-control helicopter, flying messenger boards . . ." The researchers and specialists stayed-until Brin and Page "satisfied themselves that they had an ongoing system for maintaining hyper-vigilance." He added, "I defy you to think of any other executives in the world who would bring a team like that into their personal office for weeks on end."
So, a few years ago, Gore raised some concerns about "search quality," and then sat in Google's office for three hours watching ten "search-quality researchers and specialists in charge of this part of the business" work on solving problems he shared with the company's owners.
October 29, 2009 - 10:07 pm Link to this Comment -
158. Subotai Bahadur
I am just a wordy bugger who tries to figure out what fresh new horror we are going to have to endure next. While I go back to the days when the "3 Conjectures" first came out; I have not really commented much until about a year ago. And when I started, I was worried that I would not measure up to both Wretchard's standards, and to the quality of the other posters. I am honored to be in the company here, in the midst of one of the finest brain trusts available anywhere.
I just wish that the collection of lop-eared duds that govern us had half the sense and love of our country, Constitution, and Western culture that is displayed here. And for that matter half of the good manners, and sense of humor that is found here. Much of the tragedy is that they are deadly serious about their lunacy.
Thanks to the efforts of our esteemed host, we are affecting the world in our own way. Our thoughts and conjectures go out, and we never know where they will land or who they may inspire. Our example of civil discourse on issues that most of our society is terrified to discuss seriously will hopefully spread.
Picking threads, or comments to honor over the entire life of the site is a daunting task. Yep. I'm daunted. All I can do is point to our "orchestra", and try to keep up with the score.
Thank you Wretchard, for all you do, and thank you to all of my fellow BC-ers; who both enlighten me, and who put up with my mental meanderings.
Subotai Bahadur
October 29, 2009 - 10:07 pm Link to this Comment -
159. Wadeusaf
There is too much, way too much, all the way back to the old site and the Alternate old site.
I think you had published a Marine Lieutenant's letter or email from the rat line, (river operation?) after gaining appropriate permissions. The letter was an eye opener and an appeal for support. That I believe, has more appeal for "a best of" and proceeds could go to a Wounded Warriors fund. Fitting I think.
On reflection I think the letter was Owen West's. Could not find it in the archives, so it could be from the old old site.
October 29, 2009 - 10:41 pm Link to this Comment
Comments are closed.