Well, "some poster", my apologies. Explanation: When you get down the line in years, you'll realize that memory stuff takes more work. I could not recall who posted the original Ross stuff and was too lazy to go check it.
As for FL being my friend, never met the guy. I suspect we might like one another if he lived here in Bergen County in northern Jersey; or, better still, if I lived around San Francisco. I might even become a Giants fan, who knows.
Now what else? Oh, yes, Ross, and someone PMed me that I have not responded to LLLefty asking me about Ross and conflict of interests. Must have missed that post, so I'll answer both here. Hope Lefty sees it.
I have no problem with nor knowledge about Ross' diplomatic skills, nor his negotiating skills, nor his moral character, nor anything else in that realm.
I do have two things to say. One, and I don't wish to make too much of this, tekboy's comments about his aspirations in another wise innocuous exchange between the two of us about an article by Martin Indyk. In my response to Indyk's article I said I smelled some careerism at work. He responded that I had misread it, that was not characteristic of Indyk; but if I really wished to see it, check out Ross. Tek can defend himself on that one. But my guess is he's much too busy right now getting ready to welcome Cornell West back to the home station (g) (just a little in house humour).
Second, as for the conflict of interest observation, I wasn't trying to make any sort of profound observation. It was more an offhand comment but I'm prepared to state it clearly and defend it. (whoops, Lindy, I've read too much Jack Whyte--halfway through the third volume--and I'm begining to type like his characters talk) There are two conflicts of interest that lend suspicion to Ross' accounts; they are generic. The first is as a participant he has a stake in the creation of the narrative which follows those meetings. He is definitely not a disinterested participant. Not a bad thing; just a thing. Second, I think all folk who have been players wish to be players again. Thus, since I don't know differently about Ross, I assume the same of him. And I assume that he wants to nudge forward those narratives that leverage him back into being a player. Not a bad thing, either. Just a reason to think twice about his version.
Whoops, way too verbose. No, I didn't drink too much during dinner tonight. I don't drink wine with my take out Chinese. But I just listened to an absolutely breathtaking recording of Alfred Brendel playing Beethoven's 2nd and 3rd Piano Concertos. Played on our new stereo system. So I'm mello.
A good life. |
