Saturday, July 25, 2009

Mark Steyn on "Stupid-Gate" -- Plus, a PSA

Well, this saves me from having to write much on the topic! Thanks, Mark!

Um, Public Service Announcement for my gentle readers: If you say that you don't know all the details of a situation, then DON'T TAKE SIDES AND MAKE JUDGMENTAL COMMENTS. The correct response is "I can't comment until I have all the facts." I would have thought this was common sense, but again I am sadly mistaken.

Meanwhile, I cannot resist quoting: "Stupid is as stupid does." Well, ain't that the truth! I personally think that probably everybody involved (professor, police, president, press) has acted more or less stupidly in one way or another, but the Stupid Prize goes to the guy who made an idiotic, judgmental comment on national TV. The Cambridge PD is demanding an apology, and I don't blame them for that.

Anyway, here is Steyn's opening salvo:
By common consent, the most memorable moment of Barack Obama's otherwise listless press conference on "health care" were his robust remarks on the "racist" incident involving professor Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge police. The latter "acted stupidly," pronounced the chief of state. The president of the United States may be reluctant to condemn Ayatollah Khamenei or Hugo Chávez or that guy in Honduras without examining all the nuances and footnotes, but sometimes there are outrages so heinous that even the famously nuanced must step up to the plate and speak truth to power. And thank God the leader of the free world had the guts to stand up and speak truth to municipal police Sgt. James Crowley.

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