inkbluesky

after the last wave

Cesare Lombroso the Inventor of Criminal Anthropology

Lombroso’s fame rests above all on his theory of the atavistic or born criminal, the individual whose physical structure possesses the degenerative traits that differentiate him from the normal, socially well-adjusted man.

A very literate way of saying that Lombroso was born a touch off himself. He believed and it is a belief that lingers on in various degrees that criminals could be identified by their physical characteristics. Notice that we carry on that tradition in movies where not always, but generally the hero/heroine are attractive and the criminals are less so.

We do need a new pundit class. From Glenn Beck to Bill O’Liely to old Rush we seem to have an entire cadre of multi-millionaire self appointed experts that do more to obfuscate the issues then clarify them. They’ve become a class all onto themselves, At the pundits’ table, the losing bet still takes the pot

Pre-war position: As Judy Miller pursues freelance projects out in Sag Harbor, doggedly accompanied by the rotting corpse of her career, she likely has much time for rumination. And it’s tough to imagine these sessions of thought don’t sometimes include spleen toward Jeffrey Goldberg. How did she end up getting screwed by Ahmed Chalabi and the neocons— metaphorically, of course—while Goldberg, who also demonstrated a remarkable willingness to channel their war-enabling disinformation, managed to keep both his job and his reputation? It’s a tough task to argue that his work was any less influential in the pre-war debate than hers, or that he was any less of a go-to guy for the Rumsfeld gang. For instance, when Doug Feith had a hard-on about launching military action against Arab terrorists in Paraguay, who stepped forward and wrote the scare piece? Now we have a big special-ops base! And when Chalabi wanted to disseminate a dodgy tidbit about Saddam having a secret evil plan to kill 100,000 Israelis in a single day with bioweapons, was it not Goldberg who duly pimped it to the New Yorker’s million discerning readers? It was indeed.

Isn’t The New Yorker supposed to be part of the eastern liberal elite. Several other profiles at the link. Rats who helped fill the boat with water and are now trying to pretend like it wasn’t them. They’re all doing quite well despite their screwy predictions and prognostications. So much for pay based on merit.