When Occam's Razor Can't Cut Butter

[Charles Drago]

A well-executed cover story, which is designed in essence to pacify the parsimonious with its simple, initially plausible, fictive narrative supported by "evidence" made out of whole cloth, turns Occam's razor into a blunt and ineffective instrument for the dissection of intelligence operations.

Charles Drago

[Alan Kent]

A well-executed cover story, which is designed in essence to pacify the parsimonious with its simple, initially plausible, fictive narrative supported by "evidence" made out of whole cloth, turns Occam's razor into a blunt and ineffective instrument for the dissection of intelligence operations.

Charles Drago

Occam's razor, put forth precisely as intended, is a very useful maxim for streamlining thought. Dictionary definition: "The maxim that assumptions introduced to explain a thing must not be multiplied beyond necessity." The key wording obviously is "beyond necessity," making a detailed knowledge of the subject matter mandatory before the principle can be properly applied. Using "Occam" to avoid confronting the real-life complexity of covert operations is not only a misuse, but often a confession of intellectual sloth or cowardice. IMO.

[Charles Drago]

Alan,

You write, "Using 'Occam' to avoid confronting the real-life complexity of covert operations is not only a misuse, but often a confession of intellectual sloth or cowardice."

I'll add "complicity" to your list of possible motives.

Old Bill's shaving instrument is waved with abandon by Rahn, McAdam, and their ilk when they attempt to wrap the cloak of scientific rigor around their hideously ill-clad LN "arguments."

As you correctly note, "detailed knowledge of the subject matter" is indeed a mandatory prerequisite to the proper use of the principle of parsimony. And it is precisely such detail that the prevaricators must obscure if they are to carry the day.

Charles

[Cliff Varnell]

A well-executed cover story, which is designed in essence to pacify the parsimonious with its simple, initially plausible, fictive narrative supported by "evidence" made out of whole cloth, turns Occam's razor into a blunt and ineffective instrument for the dissection of intelligence operations.

Charles Drago

Occam's razor, put forth precisely as intended, is a very useful maxim for streamlining thought. Dictionary definition: "The maxim that assumptions introduced to explain a thing must not be multiplied beyond necessity." The key wording obviously is "beyond necessity," making a detailed knowledge of the subject matter mandatory before the principle can be properly applied. Using "Occam" to avoid confronting the real-life complexity of covert operations is not only a misuse, but often a confession of intellectual sloth or cowardice. IMO.

I find Occam's Razor readily applicable to the JFK assassination on the front end, if you will,

and then again on the back end.

In between lies the jungle of mirrors known as "covert ops."

The front end: JFK's proven T3 back wound has rendered moot, "The Question of Conspiracy."

The back end: transportation tycoons and criminal syndicate chiefs found a smuggler's

paradise in Cuba, and wanted it back.

That's my 69 cents.* **

(*accounting for inflation)

(**a nod to KRS-One and his great rap song, Illegal Business (Controls America).)

Edited August 16, 2007 by Cliff Varnell

[Charles Drago]

Cliff,

Your comments regarding the T3 wound are on the money.

I have heard those who claim to be utilizing Occam "argue" that the "simplest" version of the location of the back wound that takes into account "all the evidence" is that offered by the prosector who used non-stationary anatomical positions to locate it in a position consistent with the SBT.

According to these fools, anyone who chooses to seek an alternative explanation is violating the parsimony principle.

Your Cuba construction, alas, leaves much to be desired.

QED.

CD

[Cliff Varnell]

Cliff,

Your comments regarding the T3 wound are on the money.

I have heard those who claim to be utilizing Occam "argue" that the "simplest" version of the location of the back wound that takes into account "all the evidence" is that offered by the prosector who used non-stationary anatomical positions to locate it in a position consistent with the SBT.

According to these fools, anyone who chooses to seek an alternative explanation is violating the parsimony principle.

Your Cuba construction, alas, leaves much to be desired.

QED.

CD

Charles,

I greatly appreciate our agreement on the front end.

Our disagreements on the back end (my "Cuba construction") I attribute to the elusive

nature of the aforementioned covert-op Jungle Of Mirrors.

To which, it was Clint Murchison's Cuba construction that needs investigation.

Edited August 16, 2007 by Cliff Varnell