Patriot Act Author ~ ‘I’m a Complete Intellectual Fraud’

[HamiltonHabs32]

Viet Dinh, the Bush-appointed former assistant attorney general and main author of the USA Patriot Act, began his Jan. 11 speech at UC Irvine’s Beckman Center Auditorium by admitting, "I am a complete intellectual fraud."

It was supposed to be a joke. But it wasn’t funny, because, as his speech would soon reveal, Dinh is, in fact, an intellectual fraud. So his confession of cerebral incompetence turned out to be both factual and devoid of irony—the latter being key to humor. But Dinh’s non-funniness didn’t inhibit his spectacular success in revealing the complete idiocy behind the thinking that governs our nation’s War on Terror.

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The Rest

[skypilot]

1. This sounds like a satire piece to me.

If that is what it is then it should probably be in the Lounge.

[HamiltonHabs32]

2. Not too sure

Here's what a google search on the author revealed

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=Nick+Schou+&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

is the OC weekly a satire mag?

[Ruby Romaine]

3. Weekly, Metro Times, Reader, Observer etc are all "alternative media"

often owned by same big media corporations!

http://aan.org/gyrobase/Aan/index

[skypilot]

4. Not to be argumentative but...

...that proves nothing. Just because Nick Shou writes serious articles doesn't mean that he isn't capable of delving into satire now and then.