Friday 3 February 2012

Do I think this is a good post? No.

You know what I really hate?
People asking questions and answering it themselves.

It wasn't started by Donald Rumsfled, but certainly Rummy popularised it.  Doonesbury even mocked Rummy about it, though I can't find the strip.  Must've been around 2006.  When Rummy grilled himself over troop levels in Iraq and gave himself the answers:
"Do I know that the right number is there? No. Do I think it is? Yes. Is there anyone who is smart enough to prove it is or isn't? No." 

What got on my goat was watching folks interviewed at the Davos conference and doing the same thing. "Do I think that we're going to have difficult times ahead? Yes, I do.  Do I think that we'll manage to work things through? Yes.  Do I think we'll get through unsathed? No..." and so on ad nauseam.

Do I wish this would stop?  You bet.  Do I think it will? No. That's about as likely as giving up saying "going forward".  Could I care less?  Well, I could but don't, I care more, as in caring about American's use of "could care less", when it should clearly be "couldn't care less".  That'll do, you!