A Linker, Not a Writer.

Say what you will about Glenn Reynolds' computer prowess, he's no writer (not even a clever, name-calling but honest critic, truth be told. Remember -- show, don't just 2nd-grade namecall):

EVERYBODY’S ANGRY, to judge from my email, about Paul Krugman’s typo-burdened 9/11 screed. Don’t be angry. Understand it for what it is, an admission of impotence from a sad and irrelevant little man. Things haven’t gone the way he wanted lately, his messiah has feet of clay — hell, forget the “feet” part, the clay goes at least waist-high — and it seems likely he’ll have even less reason to like the coming decade than the last, and he’ll certainly have even less influence than he’s had. Thus, he tries to piss all over the people he’s always hated and envied. No surprise there. But no importance, either. You’ll see more and worse from Krugman and his ilk as the left nationally undergoes the kind of crackup it’s already experiencing in Wisconsin. They thought Barack Obama was going to bring back the glory days of liberal hegemony in politics, but it turned out he was their Ghost Dance, their Bear Shirt, a mystically believed-in totem that lacked the power to reverse their onrushing decline, no matter what the shamans claimed.
...
Indeed. (Will “te atrocity” become a lasting Krugman meme?) Anyway, don’t be angry. Just be glad Krugman illustrated exactly what lies behind the have-you-no-decency schtick he sometimes affects. From the comments: “Krugman’s comments are an indication of the nature of one of the problems we face; which is, a lot of people in positions to influence our country really don’t like our country. Krugman (by the way, did you know he is a former ‘Enron adviser’?) is among those who earn well, live well and eat well but really wish they could live among a better sort of people.”
...
Sad that so many of my academic readers request anonymity.

Wow. With writing like that, no wonder he's pretty much just a link generator, and passer-oner, though a prolific one at that. (Nothing like having the word "Instalanche" enter the blog-reading lexicon. Doubt it gets much play beyond that, to your average man on the street though...)

Speaking of honor, if you missed Krugman's point the first time around, he explains himself here*:

The fact is that the two years or so after 9/11 were a terrible time in America – a time of political exploitation and intimidation, culminating in the deliberate misleading of the nation into the invasion of Iraq. It’s probably worth pointing out that I’m not saying anything now that I wasn’t saying in real time back then, when Bush had a sky-high approval rating and any criticism was denounced as treason. And there’s nothing I’ve done in my life of which I’m more proud.

It was a time when tough talk was confused with real heroism, when people who made speeches, then feathered their own political or financial nests, were exalted along with – and sometimes above – those who put their lives on the line, both on the evil day and after.

So it was a shameful episode in our nation’s history – and it’s one that I can’t help thinking about whenever we talk about 9/11 itself.

Best stick with excerpting angry comments, and linking to your wife and pets, Glenn. You do yourself a disservice when you express your thoughts in words, and reveal yourself so fully, methinks.


You keep carrying that anger...
It'll eat you up inside, baby.

----------------

* Remember, blogging is just a hobby to Krugman's dayjob, which is ... writing. Reynolds is just one of those well-fed, overpaid, tenured employees -- working at a state school nonetheless -- he's always railing against. No wonder the man has obvious internal anger issues: he's on record as supporting -- fool-heartedly -- that purple-finger-waving fiasco that's cost us so much, both in terms of lives and taxpayer dollars.

Plus, for all his freedom-loving, risk-taking, get-out-there-and-make-it-on-the-sweat-of-your-own-brow kinda guys, Reynolds' own career choice seems oddly ... secure. Coming from the Ivy Leagues, with a professorial background and a librarian mother, perhaps he was one of those kids who had help crafting his essays, and never really got to pursue the work that his heart was really in, instead of taking the teaching tenureship and seemingly never looking back....



(wait for it...)



...


Ya Think?

;-)


Free Your Mind,
And Your Rest Will Follow...




ADDED: I knew something was wrong that Christmas long ago when he began plugging The Dangerous Book for Boys ... because ya know, kids these days need a book recommendation on how to play outside apparently. Ah, those Harvard (or was it Yale?) educated men. Pursuing their own boyhoods, well into middle age, because of all that was robbed from them early on, it seems...

Explains the anger a bit, anyway.


FINALLY: Nevermind the writing style either, Reynolds just reports the facts wrong. Had he been reading, he' have noticed that Krugman is one of the bigger critics of the Obama administration's economic policies. No blurry-eyed faith believer, he's been critical of how the Democrats squandered their early advantage, and passed policies that hadn't been shown to work in reality -- nevermind the seeming blessing of the CBO, or all the Very Important People represented in the administration.

You see, from what I've seen, Krugman is an honest practitioner in his field, which happens to be economics. Like a practicing plumber who innately understand what comes after the flush, an honest economist operates using a model. Something he sticks to, despite contrary evidence, and uses to determine where the problem is -- what's clogging things up.

It's really the opposite of teh Reynolds/Althouse namecalling, fingers-in-the-ear method of debate. If Reynolds thinks Krugman is an Obama cheerleader, he's either not current in his reading, or woefully inadequate in his comprehension skills.

Worst of us, he (Reynolds) demonstrates what's wrong with contemporary politics: this simplistic "Winning!" analysis, that pits this "side" against that. Sometimes you see, Glenn, shit doesn't fall just one way or another. Sometimes you really have to get in there, get your hands dirty so to speak, to figure out what's really going on, and not just confidently assert that Plumber X or Y is our man.

Simplistic thinking like that ... why, Krugman happens to be right on this one: that's what got us misthinkingly into the Iraqi shithole in the first place. Where not only didn't our purple-finger-waving save the day, but it remains to be seen if America actually made things worse by crapping things up worse than they would have been had we never even invaded.


PLUS:

Wising up...
Straight to the top
Had the guts, got the glory.
Went the distance
Now I'm not going to stop
Just a man and his will to survive:

September 12, 2011
FORGET POLITICS: If you want reader email, blog about generators.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 5:21 pm

Now that's a tad more manly than whining and and namecalling, no? Keep it up, Glenn. Yes You Can!

( "These Hands are Made for ... Typing...")