What is the best post on FlynnFiles from the year past? I've selected ten worthy candidates for the "post of the year" designation. I need your help, loyal reader, determining the post that stood above the rest in 2008. Make your choice in the comments section. And the nominees are...

Global Cooling, Courtesy of the Fiery Globe 93 Million Miles Away, February 27
Acute Viral Nasopharyngitis, You Don't Stand a Chance, April 19
Ticketmaster Math, May 2
25 Conservative Critics of the Iraq War, June 4
The Day the Keg Went Dry, July 14
Protection Money, September 23
This Is Barack Obama Speaking, October 30
Get a Life, November 6
Damm Intallekshuals, November 12
Don't Drink the Kool-Aid on Jonestown, November 18

Cast your vote in the comments thread.

Damm Intallekshuals!

"Damm Intallekshuals" (and, yes, I do speak douche-bag).

Runners Up: "Protection Money" and "Get a Life"

Do you speak douche-bag?

I was particular to 'Global Cooling'.

1) Get a Life

2) This Is Barack Obama Speaking

3) Damm Intallekshuals

4) Protection Money

5) Don't Drink the Kool-Aid on Jonestown,

6) Global Cooling, Courtesy of the Fiery Globe 93 Million Miles Away

7) Acute Viral Nasopharyngitis, You Don't Stand a Chance

8) Ticketmaster Math

9) The Day the Keg Went Dry

10) 25 Conservative Critics of the Iraq War,

"It would be no feat to fill a big book with all the things on which intellectuals were grossly mistaken, just in the 20th century — far more so than ordinary people."
--Thomas Sowell

And you all actually listen to this guy? A man so removed from reality as to think that the millions of H.S. drop-outs make fewer logic errors than those with a degree? Or you think to yourselves that 'he can't actually mean that, but I know what he is trying to say' when you are falling into the group-think he describes when saying, "But the ignorance of Ph.D.s is still ignorance and high-IQ groupthink is still groupthink, which is the antithesis of real thinking."

And to say that we should or shouldn't have an 'intelect' in office falls into the same trap as each one should be judged on their own merit, not on their propensity to read Chaucer or to blow up Iran. (read: jefferson/washington argument)

I know that I would prefer to have a 'learned' president who understands the Bush/Cheney folly as to not repeat it rather than another that surrounds himself with yes-men and willfully ignores the decries of advisors against his preformed agenda. It was a return to 8th century politics, and should never happen again. I'll bet that if we locked up Cheney/Bush in the stockades it wouldn't happen again.

What credentials qualify the corrupt slick Used Car Salesman-Elect as an intellectual?

Without the hand of a well financed puppeteer in his back to work his mouth and hand gestures and without a teleprompter to guide him, what evidence is there of intellectual excellence and what ground breaking intellectual tenets has he spouted other than the same old regurgitated leftist constructs?

This rudderless career poll will disappoint in the years to come as he has a weak political and social compass and will follow the liberal and socialist instructions that his handlers will guide him towards.

Appears that kool aid does not understand what the phrase "grossly mistaken" means.

"Damm Intallekshuals" gets my vote.

"Appears that kool aid does not understand what the phrase "grossly mistaken" means. "

As in we were 'grossly mistaken' to invade Iraq? or as in we were 'grossly mistaken' to believe that Bush had our best interests at heart? What about the xenophobic nature of rural america was 'grossly mistaken' by millions as the moral high-ground under a party waving the flag of "values".

Or are you talking about the ignorant beating their children at the supermarket as being 'grossly mistaken' in their belief that abuse is a form of discipline? Or that they are 'grossly mistaken' in the belief that police are out to hurt communities, Cheney caused 9/11, Obama is a muslim, and republicans are closet gays. They all seem the same to me... gross mistakes of logic. Yet I find it hard to stomach that those who base arguments on fact and observation have made more 'grossly mistaken' ideas than the local garbage man.

But if I am wrong, please educate me Ben. The world is flat and we are at war with Eurasia, right?

Thomas,

Did you vote for Bush? You know, 'that one' with one of the lowest approval ratings EVER. You know, the tag-team that knowingly purpetrated war crimes that WE hung Japs for in WWII.

What were their credentials? That their war room was full of the same grey hair that had permitted bombing in Cambodia? That Bush doesn't carry an academic achievment of any kind? WOW! Talk about "Without the hand of a well financed puppeteer in his back to work his mouth and hand gestures and without a teleprompter to guide him" We have all seen what Bush looks like without a telepropmter, but that didn't stop 59,054,087 people from voting for a first round failure.

Did you vote for McCain? You know, the one who can't even speak without a teleprompter, the one who flip-flopped more than a sandal factory (http://www.bi30.org/wordpress/flipflopper.htm), the one who loses his temper and wanders around?

You should feel real good about yourself if you said yes and yes. I have been saying the same thing as you just did for years, just about Bush. What I learned is that no one cares, even if you are right. I just dare you to eat your words when you are wrong, and your 'socialist' fear monger speak is reverently dismissed. He has already shown that he is not focused on a 'liberal filibuster proof' administration where it is his way or the highway (read: like Bush), but open to differing ideas through his cabinet selections (e.g. Gates)

reverently=ferverently

In terms of 'grossly mistaken' ideas referred to by Mr. Sowell, he's probably talking about something along the lines of say, "Peace in our time."

The average high school dropout might make a mistake like, "well hanged Japanese."

Since I'm not Japanese, one of those is more likely to ruin my day.

Anyhoo...my vote goes to "This is Barack Obama speaking." A is A, and btw, B.O. has a little trouble without that pesky teleprompter too.

Wrong about what, kool aid? You haven't said anything, except vent your seething hatred for America in vague generalities.

Here's a easy definition: Grossly mistaken = red koolaid. Right!! Sowell can ONLY be talking about your select caricatures of America if he says intellectuals have gotten things wrong. Wow. As I watch non sequiturs stream from you--supposedly refuting Sowell--I can only think of the dinnerware falling from Harpo Marx's coat as Captain Spaulding shakes his hand at the end of Animal Crackers.

I'm waiting for the teapot...

Ben,

nice try but I love this Country, just not the anti-intellectual argument that we shouldn't heed the advice of experts because they will supposedly run us into the ditch more than Bubba or LaShauntey from the next block over.

There is a reason that we have advisors like Gates. Some of us haven't studied military history and strategy, European and Soviet history, and focused an entire career in that field, so we take their advice on such matters.

Likewise, if it were up to the anti-intellectuals there would have never been Capital Hill testimony regarding the mortg@ge crisis, because the 'experts' don't even know what is going on. Therefore you have sh1t in one hand and your future in the other, but you don't know which is which. I prefer the happy ignorance that the glass is half full and that the Depression Scholar Bernanke has a better plan than you do.

My vote is for Damm Intallekshuals.

A few comments:
- Hopefully our president-elect understands his job is not to react against Bush/Cheney policy
- Hopefully he understands that groupthink isn't the remedy to groupthink
- Granted the Bush presidency has low approval ratings and for good reason, however, the Democratic congress has had lower ratings, and the Left conveniently leaves out this truth
- Thomas Sowell, largely unpopular because he is a "Black conservative", has much to offer our president via his book "Conflict of Visions".

The economic crisis is caused by central banking, which is of course the nationalization of the money supply. You can thank intellectuals that think they know best how to calculate the correct interest rates for that one.

You can also thank intellectuals who have studied military, European, and Soviet history, like Paul Wolfowitz for The Iraq War that you blame on ordinary Americans. Ordinary Americans are known, if anything, for their hesitance to support foreign adventures and nation building. They supported it because they were told falsely, by intellectuals who thought they knew better, that Iraq was a direct threat to their own security.'

Of course never at any point did anyone assert that society does not need intellectuals, nor does pointing out that the intellectual class is prone to grievous mistakes of judgement lead to that conclusion. That is entirely your own strawman.

Don't be confusing people with well thought out logic Ben. At least those people who don't like to confront silly notions like reality.

You could say that these alleged intellectuals are Intellectual Morons.

Hey....catchy name for a book.

"The economic crisis is caused by..."

Wow. If you know what is going wrong, why aren't you in Washington fixing it? Is it maybe a little more complicated than a one sentence causative? I feel like I could just as easily say that it was caused by 'ordinary people' lying on their applications and spending more credit than they could afford, betting that prices would continually rise and pay their interest and loans off, meanwhile lenders willingly exploiting this greed for self promotion and bonuses, while under the guise of 'federal regulation' from a government sponsored enterprise, the loans were then repackaged over and over into derivatives that were unrecognizable and sold worldwide, leaving the real accounting sheets opaque and confusing, leaving giant corporations to leverage money that was never even real and never existed, and crawling back home to Uncle Sam when the house of cards fell.

I am not even going to stand behind saying that my one sentence actually 'caused' the crises because there it so much more to the story than my one sentence. So you see how empty your statement was. If it was central banking that did this in, then I would imagine the current 0% interest rate would bring it out of a ditch, but I am no economy scholar so I rely on 'experts' to help clue me in. Just as I will listen to Petraeus over Obama or Bush any day of the week.

"They supported it because they were told falsely, by intellectuals who thought they knew better, that Iraq was a direct threat to their own security."

By the intellectuals??? Let's define that set of individuals:Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, George Tenet and their puppet Powel.

We all know that they knew there was no Al Queda in Iraq, nor a nuclear program, and that if the inspectors were allowed to finish they would come up with nothing. I do not blame the Iraq war on 'ordinary people', but rather the intentional lies that were spread to diffuse resistance from thoughtful critics like myself.

Rumsfeld said (8/29/06) "Any kind of moral and intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can severely weaken the ability of free societies to persevere."
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082900585.html)

Now if that isn't brainwashing, I don't know what is. He disarms your ability to think by saying you will cause the demise of free societies. WHAT? Do you see what just happened? He is the classic case of pedant over intellectual, as a true intellectual is open to free thought as opposed to telling you what to think. Intellectuals will offer their advice with humility, recognizing their own limitations.

I could maybe take Obama more seriously as an “intellectual” if he hadn’t had Bill Ayers ghost write his books and his mysterious alleged record of scholarship was made public for all to assess and scrutinize.

We don't know what his qualifications were to attend Occidental, Columbia or Harvard but if you want to use his academic career at Harvard as an example of intellectual prowess (hell, even Ted Kennedy got into – and thrown out of – Harvard), don’t. Or his record as a Constitutional lawyer and scholar, don’t. There is no indication that he met or excelled standards in either.

To date, he has not demonstrated any capacity as an intellectual, period. And has done little other than give a memorable speech in 2002 and run for President.

Funny how the lefties conveniently forget the 17 U.N. (you know, that conglomeration of third world toadies who don’t exactly agree with the U.S. and who typically side with despots) resolutions condemning Saddam and how a majority of Congress and Dem stalwarts (including, Clinton (1&2), Kerry, Pelosi, etc). All whom believed that he had WMD’s including the development of nuclear capabilities. They also love to ignore the independent documentation provided by foreign intelligence agencies confirming the same.

Makes leftists sound stupid when the come up with the “Bush lied, people died” shtick. Tedious man.

It makes you sound stupid when you insult someone with a typo.

"Wow. If you know what is going wrong, why aren't you in Washington fixing it? " - Kool Aid

What an ironic question for you to ask, considering the subject of the this very debate. And yes, Austrian Business Cycle Theory is more complicated than one sentence, but it wasn't directly relevant to the post.

More on it here, if you want: http://mises.org/story/672

"By the intellectuals??? Let's define that set of individuals:Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, George Tenet and their puppet Powel.

We all know that they knew there was no Al Queda in Iraq, nor a nuclear program, and that if the inspectors were allowed to finish they would come up with nothing. I do not blame the Iraq war on 'ordinary people', but rather the intentional lies that were spread to diffuse resistance from thoughtful critics like myself."

Then you blame it on intentional lies told by intellectuals who believed that, because they were so far above ordinary Americans in their thinking, there was no need to reveal to ordinary Americans the true motives for invading Iraq. Which runs counter to your argument.

"Red Kool Aid" is probably just as smart as that guy who, although he had never been the chief executive of anything, he hoodwinked a little over half of the nation into believing he was qualified to be it's commander in chief. You really CAN fool all of the people some of the time- at least enough of them to get elected. Talk about Bush being less than brilliant; Obama said he campaigned in 57 states.
So the Bush/Cheney admin. was secretive and evasive, huh? How come Obama's academic records are off limits to public scrutiny? You think we're
guilty of torturing people by putting underwear on their heads, but millions of murdered unborn children...oh, that's a womans right to choose!
Obama is bought and paid for by George Soros. He's got a Democratic majority in congress. He's got the mainstream media and acedemia eating out of his hand. We're doomed to socialism. Say goodbye to America as we know it. Change is on the way. Green is the new Red.
God help us all.

"We're doomed to socialism."

Wow, is this the regurgitation station? You are all so afraid of 'socialism' by means of Obama, but are oblivious to the massive socialist movement of the Bush admin. The banking 'bailout' was the biggest gov. intervention EVER into the private sector, in other words, he made the biggest socialist intervention our country has ever seen. Not to mention there is one pending for Detroit.

So if you are afraid of socialism, you are too late and you voted for the most socialist president of our time. Good job. You have been hoodwinked!

Not to mention the Millions of dollars that we pump into failing industries each year in the name of 'subsidies' because the conservative principles of free market can't keep them afloat. That is socialism! Consider that and you will recognize that we are fiscally a center-left country. We like to pretend that we are a free market society, but that is far from the truth. Obama can be no worse than Bush, we don't have another 700 billion to just give out.

"...he hoodwinked a little over half of the nation into believing he was qualified to be it's commander in chief."

Are you talking about Bush here, because it is all too fitting.

Don't Drink the Kool-Aid was the best.
Most people think these were religious nut and not the Marxist nuts that they were.