Since he’s gone, I just wanted to highlight what a fucking insane looney he was.

“As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

- Donald Rumsfeld, Feb. 12, 2002,
Department of Defense News Briefing

Don, I think it was the things that you thought you knew that you didn’t is where you went off the rails.

I have in the past stood up for love, and asked us not to demonize Carville just because he fell in love with a Republican spokesman.

With the Ford incident, however, I sadly must conclude that he has gone over to the dark side.

I still believe in love between two people from widely disparate backgrounds. Love goes where it will.

I love my dog and he believes in all sorts of things I don’t believe in. For exapmle, that the word God comes from Dog, sniffing the butt of everyone you meet, licking yourself, eating food off the ground….

Since he’s gone, I just wanted to highlight what a fucking insane looney he was.

“As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

- Donald Rumsfeld, Feb. 12, 2002,
Department of Defense News Briefing

Believe it or not, if you were trying to do a statistical model of uncertainty, these are about the categories of uncertainty you’d have to capture in your model—using intercepts, coefficients on factors, and components of error terms, for example—or try to explain somehow in you commentary.

The craziness, or immorality perhaps, comes in treating the unknown unknowns (and in this case every other combination of knowledge and state) as little treats or souvenirs to pick up on this great road of discovery you’ve embarked on, when in fact they are the things that will cause your rash and unnecessary enterprise to bring immiseration and death to hundreds of thousands of people. The distance between a model and reality is far greater than that between your ass writing pad and elbow telephone.

With the Ford incident, however, I sadly must conclude that he has gone over to the dark side.

I still believe in love between two people from widely disparate backgrounds. Love goes where it will.

LJ/Aquaria @ 84

Wow, that image is amazing. The first thing I thought was, “if it were lime juice, tequila and ice, that would be the biggest Margarita being made!”

Is it okay for me to do a shameless blogwhore, just this once? I have an analysis up about the election that I’d like some feedback on, see if I’m missing anything or forgot something. It’s at this link: Politics 101.

I think you’ve done a pretty good job. The only thing I’d make more explicit is to smack down the meme going around that the Democrats won the election by “winning the middle” (which is true, if incomplete), and therefore they shouldn’t do anything liberal, because it might scare off the moderates. This is the height of idiocy, for two reasons. First, they won by winning the middle and the liberals, and if they want to keep both, they need to do things that both want. Second, it assumes that anything liberals want will turn off moderates (the “so-called centrist” fallacy, assuming that the center is halfway between the liberal and conservative position.) In fact, self-described moderates hold views on issues much closer to liberals than conservatives, which is why conservatives have to lie to them and stir up emotional rather than rational responses to get their votes.

Well, I did mention that the Dems, policy-wise, have been in line with “mainstream” America for a long time, yet it didn’t result in votes. I’ll look at spicing up that part with some bits about the “running to the center” bullshit.

shooogarp –

Did you and your luverly missus put off your honeymoon until after the election? Political dedication like that is impressive, indeed.

Hope you have a terrific time in San Fran! Say hi to all the wild liberal moonbats for me, OK?

We both had work unfortunately. But it will definitely be more enjoyable with some hope on the horizon. I really have had a great last few months. Married and the Dems are going to Washington!

San Francisco will be great….great to not have people flip you off for your bumper stickers. : ) Then down the coast….Big Sur, Lucia, Gorda, San Simeon….

I have had the great privilege to meet him twice in small gatherings, and found only confirmation that he is an authentic, accessible person with flaws that only serve to endear him to those of us who are his supporters. He just hates to raise money. I told him as a charity president saving lives in Russia I also hate asking people for money, and recommended that he view fundraising as a way of asking us for support so that he can be our leader.

He didn’t need to run for office, he has both fame and fortune from being a successful author and Secretary of the Navy. He is here because he loves his country, and offers to serve the nation one more time. We are indeed fortunate that such people are still willing to step up.