Maureen, Meet Occam

A man goes to a psychiatrist…

"Doctor," he says.  "You have to help me.  I’m having terrible problems with sexual fantasies."

The doctor begins his analysis by showing the man a Rorschach (inkblot) test.  "Tell me what you see in this image," asks the doctor.

"A naked woman," says the patient.

The doctor shows him another image.  "And this one?"

"Another naked woman," the patient replies.

"How about his one," the doctor asks, showing the man a third inkblot.

The man blinks.  "A man and a woman in a… uh, sexual position."  He looks embarassed.

The psychiatrist puts away the Rorschach test.  "This is a very simple diagnosis.  You have a sexual preoccupation."

The patient is indignant.  "ME?!?  But you’re the one with all the dirty pictures!"

And so, when Maureen Dowd "hears" Joe Wilson say, "You lie, BOY!" one must wonder… who, exactly, is obsessed with skin color?

But rather than dispute Dowd’s column, the contemptible premise of which is "if you disagree with Barack Obama you are a racist," I want to focus attention on the comments to the article.  There are hundreds.  Read them.  You don’t need to read all of them, just enough to get the feel.  At least a few pages.

Now, notice something:

• One the one hand, supporters of Dowd’s article are quick to point out that Obama’s detractors are, overwhelmingly, racist.  I cannot find one supporter who actually goes back to the facts and defends the truthfulness of Obama’s statements.
• On the other hand, those who oppose Dowd primarily do so on the basis of factual inaccuracies (a.k.a. lies) that the President has put forth.

Occam’s Razor suggests that "the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible."

In other words, perhaps Joe Wilson isn’t a racist, but was just upset about the mistruths the President is trying to sell.