I’m not dismissing her book. She may very well surprise us all and come out with the next Road to Serfdom. I’m saying that it’s not unreasonable for Matthews, and whoever else, to expect her book to be crap.

I’m saying that based on what I’ve seen of her so far, while she may not be the dolt the media has tried to make her out to be, but she’s certainly no Friedrich Hayek, or Isaiah Berlin, or who have you, either.

As far as her ideas are concerned, if she uses personal anecdotes rather than universally applicable reasoning to justify them, I’d say yes, it makes her ideas less valid from an intellectual perspective.

Marx was also an intellectual. Sometimes intellectuals don’t have a firm grasp on how the real world works.

Life is not in an institution like a college. Sometimes it is better worth lived and proven if the ideas are applied in real life.

It means that your values are a product of random circumstance rather than personal analysis. And it means that you, and your children, and therefore our society, will be vulnerable to the lies of the next power hungry demagogue who dazzles you with beautiful, life-affirming anecdotes.

That conclusion seems to belong to moral relativism combined with the idea that humans are stupid mindless animals.

Human beings can differentiate and discriminate, however intellectuals it looks like have done a lot more damage to our recent society than people with real-life applications ever will. Again, I’d believe someone that has lived it, instead of an academic ivory tower.

Matthews is a shitstain moron, Sarah Palin is 10 times the man/ person he could ever be. He is embarrassing to america.

Why do you think that Liberal books rarely make it to the top of the heap in sales, and don’t stay there long if they do make it.

No pictures.

Leave Matthews alone, he is still dealing with a tingling in his pants over his sexual desire for Lord Obama! No blood left in his poor little head!

Too bad he doesn’t know how to read, except for the talking points that the Dictator’s administration feeds to the MSNBC lackeys. I suppose the can fill in the blanks with pictures.

So it makes her less valid if she isn’t in academia?

As far as her ideas are concerned, if she uses personal anecdotes rather than universally applicable reasoning to justify them, I’d say yes, it makes her ideas less valid from an intellectual perspective.

Matthews is, after all, prejudging her capacity to write something intellectually convincing, not her ability to write the next “How I Found God and Became a Good Mother” memoir. I am confident that she can writer the latter — doesn’t mean that anyone over 120 IQ should read it though.

No criticism from the press on Obamas lame books. I think the press is already concerned about what Palin will say about the horrific treatment she received from the media. It’s should be revealing.

Following up on my earlier comment:

I wonder if Obama will one day write (or read) one?
Evidence Mounts: Ayers Co-Wrote Obama’s Dreams

Who Wrote Dreams and Why It Matters

I’m saying that based on what I’ve seen of her so far, while she may not be the dolt the media has tried to make her out to be, but she’s certainly no Friedrich Hayek, or Isaiah Berlin, or who have you, either.

So it makes her less valid if she isn’t in academia? Or just writing about her experiences in real life not good enough? I’d rather read those books with real-life experiences and how she had weathered them, because you can see how her values system applies and works with her life.

I wonder if she will say where she hid the 150,000 worth of clothes you bought her.

Marx was also an intellectual. Sometimes intellectuals don’t have a firm grasp on how the real world works.

It’s funny how often I encounter that argument from people who have never, or have barely read the works of Marx. If you read him, you’ll find that Marx in fact had an excellent grasp on how the real world worked. There is in fact no practical opposition to Marxist thought, only intellectual. On a practical level, Marxist philosophy is flawless. Why should people care that it serves fascist dictators when they don’t seem to mind fascist dictators?

The intellectual opposition to Marxist thought runs like this: individual liberty > social justice and equality, and therefore people should care that Marxist philosophy serves fascism. That said, it takes an intellectual to make such an argument, not someone writing about their personal anecdotes.

Life is not in an institution like a college. Sometimes it is better worth lived and proven if the ideas are applied in real life.

That’s kind of like a worthless bromide. Just because a textbook will never teach me how to properly use a tire jack, doesn’t mean a textbook won’t properly teach me how to justify the use of real politick over some other institutional discipline.

intellectuals it looks like have done a lot more damage to our recent society than people with real-life applications ever will.

Really? Are you saying that a handful of intellectuals could have done all this damage without the help of the thoughtless masses? I can really see Marx with his gun taking over Russia in 1917 — like in an action movie.

Sorry. Intellectuals may be the instigators, but it is the morons who can’t reason for themselves who are the enablers and the muscle for those intellectuals.

I’d rather read those books with real-life experiences and how she had weathered them…

And that perfectly illustrates why our society is swirling down the intellectual toilet. Because that kind of preference bespeaks the fact that the only reason you hold the values that you hold is because someone introduced you to Right-wing preaching before you had a chance to listen to the Lift-wing preachers. It means that your values are a product of random circumstance rather than personal analysis. And it means that you, and your children, and therefore our society, will be vulnerable to the lies of the next power hungry demagogue who dazzles you with beautiful, life-affirming anecdotes.

Maybe, but then there are a lot of preconceived notions about conservatives: especially Ann Coulter and Mark Levin. Yet, their books make it to the #1 of the New York Time’s Bestselling list.

I’m sure we’re not getting a real complete picture here in terms of Palin’s popularity, but one of the indicator of the Left’s fear is their attacks.

I think her book will do just fine.

And why is my name and everything I am writing in italics?

palin has no political clout that she hasn’t earned by flinging cold-war era buzzwords. she took obama’s stimulus package after whining for months. she is a flip-flopper, an opportunist, and… as i have stated before… a heinous bitch.

she is like Cheney. please, give her speaking appointments. put her out there. let her talk. she is another one of your coffin-nailing, lying, epithet-hurling tarts.

ride her into the sunset of obscure, paranoid, post-popularity.

Hairy, I think the maxim about judging books by their covers applies.

You say people will buy her book to confirm their pre-conceived notions. I’d note that your pre-conceived notions cause you to dismiss her book.

MOst people, unfortunately, have made up their minds about Palin and aren’t budging.