Do intellectuals simply not understand brutes?

Of course we they don’t. Brutes can hardly ever figure out how to get all the way up that ivory tower, what with the curvy staircase and all. (Trigonometry, right?) The only way most intellectuals ever “get it” is when we they go downstairs for a soda pop and get mugged by reality out on terra firma.

The lucky ones live to maybe think a little and write about it, if they have the nerve. Not because they’re afraid of the brutes outside. Now they have to be afraid of the ones back inside the tower, with the pinz nezes.

Instapundit writes:

Jules Crittenden would rather distinguish between bozos and non-bozos: “It’s the smart jihadis I’m more worried about. Not bozos like these. You’d almost think these were the ones they wanted us to catch.” Actually, there’s a high bozo contingent in Al Qaeda. They make up for the fact that they’re not especially bright by being persistent and willing to learn from their mistakes.

Actually, I can’t think of a better definition of “bright” than learning from your mistakes.

William Saletan explains that despite the spin, a recent study demonstrates that the Atkins Diet really does work.

What was the spin? That no one stays on it.

Saletan’s right: Okay, so it works until you go off it. You can’t blame the diet for that. Now, saying it works is not the same as saying, “Go ahead and do it.” Because the latter is an overall recommendation that includes a prediction of success… and….

The likelihood of success on Atkins is, I would say, not high. Because everyone I know who has ever been on it has lost a lot of weight — a lot. And gained it back. A lot more. They’ve done nothing to learn how to eat less which is, let’s face it, what it’s really all about, long-term. And now they’re not only fat, or fatter, they’re mean. But a jolly mean.

So yes, Atkins works. Until it doesn’t.