Pandagon

Taranto And Du Toit, Sittin' In A Tree

See if you follow this train of thought, via James Taranto's Best of the Web.

1.) There is a discussion on Iraq and the War on Terror.

2.) After numerous questions to Dean, Clark, Kucinich and Sharpton about Iraq, Brokaw references the "nation of Islam" for the first time, goes to a commercial break, and asks Kerry about whether or not he agrees with "Europeans" who feel that Bush has exaggerated threats in the War on Terror.

3.) Kerry brings up a bunch of things which he feels Bush has exaggerated as terrorist threats, all of which are involved with Iraq.

4.) James Taranto, evidently sharing the bong with Kim DuToit, doesn't get it at all:

Yes, flower, it is. However, the question was about whether or not Bush had exaggerated terrorist threats. Kerry listed a bunch of things that he believed Bush had listed as terrorist threats which weren't. Taranto is pointing out a take on Iraq that supports exactly what Kerry said. Democrats don't believe that Iraq has anything do with the War on Terror. Bush says that it does.

Therefore, if I say that the threat level is 1, and you say that the threat level is 10, then my believing that the threat is low would, by extension, lead me to believe you're exaggerating when you say the threat level is high. Do we expect Taranto to understand this?

Well, sadly...no. But we must at least quarantine the ignorance to a small and manageable area of infection until we figure out how to eradicate it.