Wretched Writing

 Lloyd George

From Prairie Weather
http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2013/11/we-just-arent-into-praise-even-when-praise-is-due.html

we get the following example of Billy Kristol's wretched writing:

On the heels of winning the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, the unglamorous but undeniably effective OPCW  [Organization For The Prohibition Of Chemical Weapons], using saws, sledgehammers and cutting torches in the middle of a war zone, defied predictions by meeting the Nov. 1 deadline to disable Syria’s chemical weapons program. The bombshell was that there was no bombshell — at least, not of the unconscionable chemical kind.

This wasn’t just a vindication of President Obama’s decision to work with Russia on a non-military solution to the Syrian weapons crisis (and a well-deserved slap in the face to neoconservatives like Bill Kristol, who compared the president of the United States to Groucho Marx, “doing farcical pratfalls as he followed down Neville Chamberlain’s tragic path.”) It was also a success for international organizations like the United Nations and the OPCW, and, indeed, for diplomacy itself. ...Katrina vanden Heuvel,WaPo

I have to admit that I wrote just like that in my time, but it is something I do not like.

First, the reader does not need me to draw analogies.

Second, comparing Bashar Al Assad to Adolf Hitler is goofy.

Third, how does one interpret the Venn diagram of the intersection of "Groucho Marx" and "Nevile Chamberlain"?
I mean, does Mr. Kristol just assume that everyone who wears a black frock coat - such as Mr. Chamberlain and Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush - just sort of meld into each other?

 The Hon. N. Chamberlain

Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush

My entire time writing this blog has been an attempt to understand that the reader is just as smart and sharp as myself. The only thing I can do is add my own slant to things, and I am not going to be effective at it if I write such nonsense as Mr. Kristol's.

I also believe that the returns from bombing everyone that disagrees with us brings fewer and fewer benefits all the time.
The refusal to bomb Syria was the first time since Eisenhower anyone stood up to the war mongering parties.

Neville Chamberlain, my patootie! More like Lloyd George !

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