But you don't need to be a psychiatrist to see superiority complexes in action. Nor do you need to be a mental health therapist to see a hint of the similar megalomania in someone. Nor do you need to have a college degree in anything to see utter, rank hypocrisy in someone, or to observe any number of logical fallacies being ignorantly trotted out in support of one's position. Luckily for us, you can see all of these unsavory characteristics in a single specimen. Heck, you can see all four in a single one of Davescot's (David Springer) blog posts.
Ed Brayton and his commenters at "Dispatches from the Culture Wars" do a great job at dismantling the sheer stupidity and the aforementioned neuroses/psychoses/antisocial behaviors, so I will not belabor the details. I will simply make a few comments.
For those of you who lack the stomach to trudge through the histrionics and soliphistic nonsense at UncommonDescent (like me), I will sum up DaveScot's post thusly:
Jim Webb, freshman senator (who delivered the Democrastic response to the State of the Union address), Viet Nam combat Veteran (Marine Corps), is in no position to pass judgement on the "new" Bush policy in Iraq because he, Davescot, was a Marine (supposedly) without combat experience and he knows what is best in terms of combat. Further, he says that those without military experience should not comment on any of this stuff.
In true Davescot fashion, after a couple of highly insightful and devastating comments directed at and showing Davescot's ignorance, all commments were deleted (see reference to Mike Dunford's post at 'Dispatches...' link above) and comments are no longer allowed for that post.
Here is what gets me - if Springer is telling the truth and he was in the Marines in the mid 1970s, he's been out for about 30 years. GET OVER IT. If the Corps is so 'beloved' to him, as he so frequently writes, why serve the minimum time? Why not stay in for life? I find it a bit disturbing that someone that served that long ago STILL refers to himself as a Marine. I served as an army paratrooper from 1984-1988. I am proud of my service, and as an associate professor at a military college, I am authorized to wear any ribbons/decorations I earned while I served and I do. But I do not run around referring to myself as a paratrooper. I do not declare that only those with military experience can voice opinions on military matters*.
And to reiterate - Springer had no combat experience, Jim Webb did. So why does Springer's opinions have more weight than a combat veteran's? Well, re-read the second paragraph above, and it will make sense.
The highly ironic side of this is that, as is pointed out in the 'Dispatches...' link above, Springer, who has no education, training, or experience in the biological sciences whatsoever (in fact, he claims that one can learn biology 'on their own' in their free time) sees no problem with his own pontifications on the subject.
That is because, of course, he cannot recognize his own shortcomings.
For more insight into Davescot's psyche and antics, try this.
Or this.
And keep in mind, this is the fella that Bill Dembski not once, but twice hand-picked to essentially run his blog for him.
I guess we should not be surprised - the DI crowd has also enlisted the services of the Public Relations firm that brought us the Swiftboating of John Kerry...
Also, for a sort of on-going commentary on the antics of Springer and Uncommon Descent denizens in general (starting with commentary on Springer's silly military experience post), see this.
*I have commented previously that I find it disturbing that there are those - almost exclusively conservative republicans - who advocate military action, such as invading Iraq and Iran (and Syria) yet have no intention of serving in the military themselves. But that is hardly the same thing as claiming that those without military experience should not even comment on issues pertianing to the military.
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