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Journal perfessor multigeek's Journal: Losing My Patience with Liars 9

Journal by perfessor multigeek
Okay, so I've flamed, I've derided, I've dismissed, and I've insulted.

I have run out of patience with the defenders of "christian" morality. I'm just sick of them.

I used to make my living designing and implementing workflow systems. This means that I was the guy in the suit walking around, sometimes with others, finding out who actually did what in a given office. Wow, does that bring up people's hackles.

I have been a manager on and off for years and have dealt with plenty of truculent resentful subordinates or managers who hid their screwups or laziness behind lies.

And I have no place for that sort of thing in my life anymore.

Be honest or get out of my face.

Is part of this my reaction to living under a government whose job projections assume reductions in productivity?

Yes. Of course.

But that is why I am so implacable.

The impression that I get is that people in the New Right (not so new anymore) have created a culture in which they tell themselves, and, more importantly, each other, that it is just fine to lie about reasons to outsiders.
"They" wouldn't understand anyway and we can explain it all to them after the job is done.

No.

That is what got us into Iraq, that is what got nuclear power plants built even after they were known not to be cost-effective or safe. That is what is being used to justify putting our citizens under siege to "fight" an enemy our government can't even find.

If you can't explain an action on a public good then you're just going to have to wait until you can do better.

My readings on American covert action after WWII, US foreign policy in general, and institutional decisionmaking overall have left me with no mercy for secrecy and deception.

They are fun. They are comfortable. They are almost never worth it to the public that has to fix the damage later.

We are seeing an interesting experiment these days in how people interact. "Transparency" truly works. Open source truly works. People are not such idiots after all.

If you have to hide it, then you probably shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

Rustin
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Losing My Patience with Liars More

Losing My Patience with Liars

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  • If you have to hide it, then you probably shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

    That's always been my philosophy both in my own personal life and at work. It should be part of every human's mindset.

  • nuclear reactors? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lommer ( 566164 ) on Tuesday March 09, 2004 @03:38PM (#8512493)
    that is what got nuclear power plants built even after they were known not to be cost-effective or safe.

    Can you please explain this comment? I can see where the other ones are coming from but what's the deal with this? Has there been a recent scandal in the States regarding nuclear power or something? Because otherwise, your nuclear plants ARE cost effective (i.e. cheaper per joule than anything else) and asides from TMI (Which had NO casualties and NO release of radiation into the environment), they have a near-perfect safety record.
    • Uh, no.

      First of all, TMI did have releases of radiation, they were just localized and much smaller then expected. Secondly, fission plants have nothing like a "near-perfect safety record". Hanford alone has had dozens of "unanticipated" "events" that led to radiation releases. I'm assuming, btw, that you don't consider the early reactor that blew up internally like something out of the X-Files to be relevant. After all, it was primarily a research reactor.

      But mostly, I just don't have time for this righ
  • What, you've never heard of the "Noble Lie [straightdope.com]?"
    • Oh, I've heard of it alright. I am well aware of the explicit justification of fraud in the philosophy of this administration. The more I read and hear about them, the more they remind me of the "management team" that ran the design and building of Biosphere II - a small group of long-associated cult members running a vast and important enterprise by the wingnut theories of an even more clueless bunch of maniacs.

      We all may have loathed past administrations but at least they were built of people chosen from
      • They are treating the White House like a ten year old's tree fort.

        Wow, that is the most succinct description I have ever heard.

        And accurate - especially when you watch clips of Rumsfield's press conferences.

        Anyway, the thing that gets me is all these people proudly claiming that there is "no evidence" that the administration lied about anything. Well guess what? The evidence needed to prove said lies is unavailable due to National Security restrictions ("classified"). Neat trick, huh?

        In 40 years we
  • The one that got me was Ann Coulter's recent attack on Max Cleland. She claimed he wasn't a hero and insinuated he'd wounded himself in a safe zone while trying to get drunk.

    Despite the refutations of her version as baseless, some folks still haven't heard that she made it up. Read the excerpts and links for details.

    I understand wanting to present one's candidate in a favorable light, but concocting lies to vilify a disabled war vet?!?! It's completely repellant.

    Link 1 [iht.com] : He [Cleland] spent three deca
    • Hey, good to see you droppin' by. How are you doing?

      I followed your links and yes indeed, Coulter is a perfect example of what I was talking about. I love her complaining that nobody could document her sleazy remarks but when somebody actually offered to show her a videotape of them, she declined. She truly does not care if what she says is true or not.

      She and Bill O'Reilly and the rest who are so into Passion should get some old Roman-style justice. Cut them until they bleed, then sew them into a sack wi
  • Of course, we know ALL the intelligence agencies "knew" Saddam had stockpiles of chemical weapons...RIGHT?

    CIA says Cheney was wrong [kansascity.com]
    ...under sharp questioning by Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, Tenet reversed himself, saying there had been instances when he had warned administration officials that they were misstating the threat posed by Iraq.

    "I'm not going to sit here and tell you what my interaction was ... and what I did and didn't do, except that you have to have confidence to know t

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