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April 22, 2007
Dyslexia or Ignorance?
Alex Massie, writing in the Scotsman, made a reference to "Second World War B52 bombers."
The B-52 Stratofortress was first deployed in 1955, ten years after World War II ended.
Perhaps it's simply a typographical error, and he meant B-25 (or some other World War II bomber). Or the author really is clueless.
Anyone who writes or speaks publicly a lot is bound to make some stupid mistakes. In the grand scheme of things, referring to a "Second World War B52 bomber" is not that big of a deal, especially since it's not a mistake that is being used to promote some agenda. But is is another piece of evidence that the main stream media is not infallible -- something to keep in mind when their errors do tend to favor one side of a debate.
On a related note, even though I used to be much more active in the gun-rights movement, I haven't felt the need to blog much about the recent shooting at Virginia Tech. There's very little new to say that hasn't been said previously, by myself and others. And one thing I learned while working with some gun-groups is that people I agree with tend to piss me off more than those I disagree with. And dealing with organized anything gets frustrating after a while.
If you are interested in some more-thoughtful-than-most commentary about the Virginia Tech shootings, read what the folks at The Volokh Conspiracy have posted at volokh.com/posts/chain_1176746946.shtml
PS - After writing this, I see that "Perkins" already pointed out the B-52 error in the comments section to the Scotsman story (comment # 20 at 7:14am 22 Apr 2007).
PPS - According to the Miss America organization, "In her honor her picture was adorned on a B-17 fighter plane, which made 68 sorties over war-torn Germany and never lost a man. The story made the Associated Press." So the reference to "B52" was not a transposition of "B25," but ignorance on the part of both the author and his editor.
And whoever wrote her bio for the Miss America organization is obviously unaware that the B-17 is a bomber, not a "fighter plane."
Posted by Robert Racansky on April 22, 2007 at 8:46 AM
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