Critical Times for Critical Thought

A few weeks ago the Senate Intelligence Report, written by the Democrat-majority committee was released and the Washington Post dared to point out that the report stated very clearly that all of Bush’s “lied” leading up to the Iraqi war were actually “substantiated by intelligence.”

Some readers of the piece, clutching their truthiness to them the way Obama accuses the Midwest of clutching their guns and bibles (bibles, truthiness, we’re not so different, after all, are we?) seemed immune to the facts and left some juicy comments along the lines that the writer, Fred Hiatt, was a lying patsy of the Bush Administration, re-writing history and – because he’d reported the Senate Committee’s findings with some clarity – was in dire need of termination from his position.

It made me wonder about the state of critical thinking in the nation, and after talking to a teacher friend, a home-schooling friend and my son’s friends, I wrote this piece which is up at Pajamas Media just now:

“Yeah, it is that simple. He lied, and we all know it. So STFU. Now.” — Marecek

That was one of 1,643 comments left in response to Fred Hiatt’s June 9 piece in the Washington Post, entitled “Bush Lied? If Only It Were That Simple,” which covered the findings of the Select Committee on Intelligence, headed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV).

Marecek’s was the majority opinion.

In writing his piece for the editorial page of the Washington Post, Hiatt — that page’s editor — made the mistake of actually quoting passages of this report, which claimed that a host of “lies” of which President Bush has been accused since 2003 were “substantiated by intelligence.”

Vituperation and ad hominem attacks were left as commentary at the paper’s website, with calls for Hiatt’s immediate firing, for — apparently — his treason in quoting a report, written by a Democratic majority, that dared to depart from a narrative that has become conventional wisdom.

You know? The more I think about this lying idiot that edits WaPo, the more I realize how venal and corrupt the neo-cons really are. They really have no shame. No shame at all. Their corruption is complete. Frankly, the Emperor in Star Wars had more integrity than these neo-cons. Hiatt truly is a lapdog. — santafe2

Read the rest here.

Rick at Brutally Honest has more thoughts and a link to a youtube video that perhaps gives a clue as to how we got here.

A Home-schooling mom says her kids loved this series on thinking.