[analphilosopher] Keith Burgess-Jackson: Bush-Hatin' Paul

[analphilosopher at lists.powerblogs.com]

Posted by Keith Burgess-Jackson:
Bush-Hatin' Paul
http://www.analphilosopher.com/posts/1128116490.shtml


   Paul Krugman* is out of his mind. His New York Times op-ed column of
   this date, entitled "The Way It Is," consists of a series of
   assertions. No analysis. No argument. No explanation. Is Krugman
   implying that all of the problems he identifies are the fault of
   President Bush? Here's the one that shows Krugman's dishonesty:

     When Senator James Inhofe, who has called scientific research on
     global warming "a gigantic hoax," called a hearing to attack that
     research, his star witness was Michael Crichton, the novelist.

   Crichton is a medical doctor, not just a novelist. That may not make
   him an expert on climate change, but it gives him more authority than
   that of a novelist. Suppose Krugman wrote an essay on some economic
   matter and I dismissed it by saying that it was written by a newspaper
   columnist. What I said is true, but it's highly misleading. A person
   can be both an economist and a newspaper columnist. Crichton is both a
   medical doctor and a novelist.

   * "Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping,
   slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his
   acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults" (Daniel Okrent,
   "13 Things I Meant to Write About but Never Did," The New York Times,
   22 May 2005).