International aid

[mmcirvin]

I should update something I said earlier: The US government is now accepting offers of aid from other countries for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Their early feckless response to these offers still seems to have been the result of inability to imagine that they'd need or want it.

Comments

Hanlon's Razor

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

With due respect to your views, which, though I disagree, are nearly-always* well-reasoned or supported, I'd call Hanlon's Razor, for the unreasoning Bush-hater, a major dilemma. heh!

*gotta leave myself an out.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I don't see anything in Matt's post about malice. An "inability to imagine that they'd need or want" help is a pretty obvious case of stupidity, or as i prefer to call it, oblivious incompetence.

"I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars." That's our president, condescendingly patting other countries on their head.

Seriously, what the fuck happened to the George W. Bush i saw on Sep 12, 2001? He was so good, even *i* was impressed. Must've been a double.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

I don't see anything in Matt's post about malice.

Neither did I, but I don't have to turn the knob on my browser too far to see accusations of malice to find it. This is why I made a point of distinguishing Matt from those who do find malice.

Re: Hanlon's Razor

[glitter-ninja.livejournal.com]

Ah, is "Hanlon's Razor" the term for it? I brought this exact thing up in a post somewhere (I blame chianti for not remembering where, exactly) recently. I do try to live by the phrase "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity", because it's played out so perfectly so often. But I am having difficulty applying it to all the problem points which have been revealed during the last five days. Some, sure. Not all.

I suppose that puts me in the same group as Matt, as an "unreasoning Bush-hater". Wanna print that up on a few t-shirts at Cafe Press? I'd buy at least two.

Re: Hanlon's Razor

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

I didn't, or didn't intend to call Matt an "unreasoning Bush-hater." But yeah, I'll take money from unreasoning Bush-Haters.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

FEMA now seems to be repeating the fecklessness with regard to aid from other American cities. New York and Chicago are on the line...

This stuff really needs to be worked out in advance.