Tread lightly on the things of earth

My vote for “most interesting discussion” on the U.S. president’s state-of-the-union (SOTU) address is at Daily Kos.

My favorite comment (naturally I think so because I, too, could hardly think of anything else during the speech) —

Anybody watch this guy and think again “WTF is this guy doing as the president of the United States? My God, he can’t even get through a major major speech with many mispronunciated words — Peninshulah, nookleer, better women instead of battered women … — tripp

Yes. What I heard again and again was, “Nucular, nucular, nucular.” I’m sorry. I cannot have confidence in someone who still can’t pronounce a simple word correctly. That nuclear war could be unleashed by someone who can’t even pronounce the term just adds insult to annihilation.

More significantly, one who will not or cannot repent of a small error like mispronunciation — that is, turn away from, correct, improve, adjust course in response to input — is unlikely to repent of larger errors as they come to light. (Like, for instance, plunging us headlong into war when even our most experienced military advisors counsel against it [1].)

Unrepentance is serious business.

[1] Schwarzkopf: “‘It’s scary, okay?’ … There are guys at the Pentagon who have been involved in operational planning for their entire lives, okay? … And for this wisdom, acquired during many operations, wars, schools, for that just to be ignored, and in its place have somebody who doesn’t have any of that training [in context, Rumsfeld], is of concern.”

2003-01-31 update:
Schwarzkopf has changed his mind, for reasons that aren’t clear.