First off, to respond to this comment from the comments: “Eye, didn’t you once say you don’t live in the US and are not an American?” I’ve never said such a thing, and I have no idea where you’d have gotten that.
Okay. From the links: Winer for CTO of the United States?
Dear Mr. Riley,
Have you lost your fucking mind?
Signed,
People with more than seven braincells
Despite all of the press he gets for “inventing” RSS and Blogging, relative to people with real CTO capacity and experience, Dave knows zero about technology. A golden retriever would be a better fit — at least they’re likable.
Then there’s this laughable piece of logic:if Paulson’s plan is for real, Bush and Cheney should quit to prove how serious they are about it.
Pardon?
In what world does that make sense? I will say, though, that the post seems to employ so many logical and rhetorical fallacies that he may have just created a new one.
Yeah, that was me. I don’t know if my question rose to the level of a separate response, a reply via comments might have been adequate. I could have sworn I read you commenting that you weren’t an American or living in the US, but I could easily have mistaken you for a million other blog commenters I read. Or I might be right, and you are entitled to any misdirection you feel appropriate. As am I. That is the beauty of pseudonymity. I apologize for inappropriately trying to peek through the veil of pseudonymity, except that it seemed relevant to the political issue under discussion.
Anyway, I could hardly think of a worse pick for CTO than winer. I personally don’t think a new CTO position is really necessary, the role of chief scientific adviser has traditionally been performed by the Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation, he is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
I can hardly stomach to read Winer any more, but I remain irrationally compelled to visit his site periodically (having unsubscribed to preserve a modicum of serenity). I suppose a keystone of democracy is free speech and participation in all aspects of the political process, but how the HELL can he expect readers to take him seriously when he purports to be an expert on each and every issue of the day? This financial crisis has a complicated history and there is no clear way forward — just read the real experts — yet he believes himself qualified to offer advice?
Without question, bloggers can make valuable contributions to political discourse, but sometimes people need to sit down, shut up, and listen to those who have deeper knowledge throwing their two cents into the pot.
Zaphodim: I tried, actually, to reply in the thread but the plugin that locks down old posts’ comments (for spam prevention) wasn’t letting me open them back up. But you’re right, that would’ve been a better way to do it — I just got lazy and didn’t feel like messing with the plugins right then. I wasn’t upset about it, just a little confused. No bother at all.
John: That’s why we have millions of pixels but only 105 keys, right? So we can read thousands of times more than we write? Or something like that.
I totally understand, John. Pretty sure he’s got a script running now that just automatically deletes my comments whenever my name appears. I can leave a comment via Disqus, but it disappears within about 5 minutes.
But I can’t help myself. His latest fantasy, that Bush & Cheney are about to resign, just about tops anything else he’s written. The only stupider thing I’ve read recently is the latest Naomi Wolf column.
Anyway, I could hardly think of a worse pick for CTO than winer.
I can’t think of a worse pick for any management position than Winer. He can’t handle taking orders from other people. He can’t handle having people under him for fear they will betray him. He wants all the credit for anything he touches. There’s a reason that every one of his business relationships lies in ruin.
How much of an idiot is Duncan Riley to make that suggestion? We should keep an Eye on that guy.
Looks like Riley (idiot) was quoting Winer shill and ego whore Scoble with a truly close minded list of CTO names.