RAH writes:
I see not a single denial.
Ah. Prove to you that he didn't say it?
At least I'm not trying to refute it by claiming it was debunked in the media two days before it was said. :) This is not simply a case of reporting something, and then tossing the burden of proof on the opposition to prove it wasn't said. This is a case of something pretty widely disseminated on the Net, to which not a single official voice of opposition has been raised. In a general subject area where the slightest dissent generally makes one a big target. I mean, you'd at least expect the Weisenthal Center to come up with a press release decrying the unfair slandering of poor Prime Minister Sharon with the horrible antisemitic libel of Jewish control of the US government. This strongly suggests to me that the "Occam's Razor" scenario here is that Sharon said something that made his advisors soil their Depends, and everyone is busy pretending it didn't happen.
Not that I care either way, though I expect Peter's probably right on this one.
He very well may be. I will not suffer any decrease in my happiness, nor my appreciation of Peter, should that be proved to be the case.
If Sharon said it, there are enough people who hate his guts in the mainstream press that we'd have heard all about it by now.
To paraphrase Golda Meir badly out of context, this would require that one not love ones paycheck more than one hated Sharon's guts. A hard test, given several recent journalist and editor firings for publicly articulating truths about mideast history some find unpleasant.
I certainly don't wish to adopt the position that nothing is credible that doesn't get mainstream media coverage. But you are right that it's a bit suspicious.
There ya go. *That* makes a whole lot more sense, now, doesn't it? "Never attribute to conspiracy that which can easily be explained by stupidity", or whatever Pournelle said.
In this case, I think it's never attribute to conspiracy or stupidity that which can be easily explained by herding and schooling behavior. Kind of like when the totality of mainstream journalism decides at the same moment in time that the "Tiananmen Square Massacre" is now the "Tiananmen Square Crackdown" and probably later, the "Tiananmen Square Tea-Time Unpleasantness."
But then, a good thing never lasts, does it?, viz,
I see no denials of this even more widely reported story, and I find that suspicious too.
Whoops. There you go again, Britney -- or "Eric", or whatever your name is...
"Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy." Seriously, though. If anyone can cite an unimpeachable source on whether the words in question were uttered by Ariel Sharon, I'm sure we'd all be overjoyed to be pointed to it, so we can get on with our lives. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"