More Proof That Advice Is Easier To Give Than To Follow: For Once I Agree With The Vice President

I was reading the Big Dick Cheney's commencement address at his old High School (from yesterday, which wasn't all that different from the one he delivered at the Naval Academy). I know, I know...what kind of fool am I? But hey, I always like my data fresh and first hand. And usually, when the Veep speaks, he delivers some thing where we wish he sure followed his own advice. This time is no different.

As I stumbled across this particular paragraph, I couldn't help but think of the whole WMD charade and agree with the Veep here - wishing that they did a little more research on the facts rather than going to war on faith:

Wherever life takes us, it's also good to keep an eye out for people who can give you advice, or give you a hand, or simply be trusted to help you think and figure out a problem. In this world there is information and opinion -- and then there is knowledge and wisdom. And a lot turns on knowing the difference.

Further down, he makes my point for me:

We're always better off if we seek out people who know more than we do, and ask them questions, and take their good advice.

Certainly, don't you wish they spent a little bit more time verifying whether or not there were WMD in Iraq? I do.

Indeed there is a difference between information and knowledge. But there is a substantially larger difference between opinion and wisdom. The fact that the Veep strings those concepts together may be a substantive clue as to why they have led us into the deep quagmire they are leaving us with at the end of their reign. Indeed, it may have been the very straw that broke our camel's back.