[Dragaera] Current Financial Mess

[Kenneth Gorelick]

On Oct 5, 2008, at 9:11 PM, Howard Brazee wrote:

>
> On Oct 5, 2008, at 1:48 PM, Maximilian Wilson wrote:
>
>> Yes, there are good and sensible reasons for progressives to dislike
>> Bush.
>
> Which makes me irritated when people complain that he pronounces  
> "nuclear" with the same regional pronunciation as nuclear engineer  
> Carter did.
>
> What's interesting is that GWB learned early to be a good old boy,  
> and his slower talking is more comfortable for rural counties -  
> which were most all red counties.   People from rural counties don't  
> trust fast talking used car salesman types.    People from urban  
> counties voted blue - they think slow talkers are dumb.
>
> In Isaac Asimov's autobiography, he was dismayed to discover the  
> same variety of political positions with Mensa members as with the  
> general population.   Whether someone is a Liberal or a Conservative  
> isn't a matter of intelligence.   I'm seeing evidence that it may  
> not even be much of a result of learning or environment as it is  
> from what's in our brains when we are born.
>
> Would a "smarter" GWB been preferable to those who dislike his  
> policies?   I don't think so.  
> _______________________________________________

Here is a good article that is on point:
Oxley DR, Smith KB, Alford JR, et al. Political attitudes vary with  
physiological traits. Science 2008;321:1667-70.

One factor concerning GWB is his performance in debates against Ann  
Richards in the mid-1990s. He was far more fluent at that time. His  
hesitant speech and neologisms came later, and progressed between 2000  
and 2004.

I never thought W was stupid, although he is no genius. Most  
executives are not the smartest guys in the room. They leave that to  
the ones who create financial derivatives and CDOs.

What bothered me more than anything is the clinical evidence of  
progressive cognitive impairment. I can disagree with a person, and  
lose, and not have a problem with it. However, when the person with  
his finger on the button is not functioning with all his marbles, we  
all need to worry. I suspect that this problem explains the ascendency  
of Dick Cheney.