# The largest and most effective terrorist organization in the world is:
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [September 25, 2008, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094 "2008-09-25T00:57:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/21 "2008-09-25T16:51:51Z")
But…but…but what about me and my battalions of genetically engineered, winged, flame-spewing, etc. hower monkeys? We’ve brought NOTHING but suffering and sorrow to the peoples of Eaarth.
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### Author:  [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/22 "2008-09-25T20:15:15Z")
> [@THespos](#):
>
> [Or someone flagrantly stole the idea for this post from Valleywag](http://valleywag.com/5053618/harvard-mbas-the-most-toxic-investment-on-wall-street).
I’m not a Yalie and I never saw the article in Valleywag before I posted.
Admittedly, there’s hyperbole in the OP but it’s heartening to see that others recognize the connection between what our esteemed business schools have be sending into the world and the destruction they have wrought.
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### Author:  [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/23 "2008-09-25T20:48:07Z")
> [@Spartydog](#):
>
> I’m not a Yalie and I never saw the article in Valleywag before I posted.
You are amazingly full of shit on one of these counts. And it ain’t the attending Yale one.
That someone _happened_ to post on this crackpot theory in a widely-popular blog recently, and that posting just _happened_ to make the home page of Digg today, and you just _happened_ to post the exact same crackpot concept within the same timeframe - as my Dad would say “What a co-inky-dink…”
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### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/24 "2008-09-25T20:53:36Z")
> [@TVeblen](#):
>
> The entire obscene mess can be fully explained by greed and stupidity.
Alas, sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from actual malice.
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### Author:  [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/25 "2008-09-25T21:12:44Z")
I’m no expert in all this, but I believe I was reading some articles that said Bush (or his administration at least) tried to do something about some of these various economic issues, but that he wasn’t able to get support from Congress.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/26 "2008-09-25T21:13:29Z")
> [@riker1384](#):
>
> I’m no expert in all this, but I believe I was reading some articles that said Bush (or his administration at least) tried to do something about some of these various economic issues, but that he wasn’t able to get support from Congress.
As you were so recently reading these articles, I’m sure you can provide citations. No?
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### Author:  [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/27 "2008-09-25T21:22:17Z")
> [@riker1384](#):
>
> I’m no expert in all this, but I believe I was reading some articles that said Bush (or his administration at least) tried to do something about some of these various economic issues, but that he wasn’t able to get support from Congress.
I think you got that backwards:
> [@Zompist](#):
>
> As recently as 2005, a bipartisan effort to regulate the GSEs was simply [shut down by Bush](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8780c35e-7e91-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html).
[Full zompist comment here](http://zompist.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/meltdown/).
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### Author:  [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/28 "2008-09-25T21:37:29Z")
> [@THespos](#):
>
> You are amazingly full of shit on one of these counts. And it ain’t the attending Yale one.
>
> That someone _happened_ to post on this crackpot theory in a widely-popular blog recently, and that posting just _happened_ to make the home page of Digg today, and you just _happened_ to post the exact same crackpot concept within the same timeframe - as my Dad would say “What a co-inky-dink…”
Well, you are the one that’s FOS. Previously I never heard of Valleywag or Digg (whatever that is). I’ve got enough crackpot ideas of my own. I don’t need to steal them. When I do promote a borrowed idea I cite it. I and others have been a critic of HBS style management for a long time. Is it really such a coincidence that as the financial system faces Armageddon that it might occur to a few people that our “Masters of the Universe” might have something to do with getting it there?
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### Author:  [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/29 "2008-09-25T23:23:00Z")
> [@Spartydog](#):
>
> Is it really such a coincidence that as the financial system faces Armageddon that it might occur to a few people that our “Masters of the Universe” might have something to do with getting it there?
Yes it is. Precious few people are stupid enough to paint with a brush that broad.
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### Author:  [@Mongo\_Ponton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mongo_Ponton)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2008, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/30 "2008-09-27T03:06:36Z")
Damn!
So what am I supposed to do with my “Goldman Sachs is the new mafia” theory?
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### Author:  [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/31 "2008-09-27T03:13:19Z")
> [@THespos](#):
>
> Yes it is. Precious few people are stupid enough to paint with a brush that broad.
Compare the number that have been burned by this crisis to the “precious few” that saw this train wreck coming.
BTW, I’m well positioned against this mess.
GFY.
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### Author:  [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/32 "2008-09-27T05:18:31Z")
> [@TVeblen](#):
>
> Where does Harvard med school stand in this hideous plot? The divinity school? And Yale? The rest of the Ivy League? ::gasp!:: Does this fatwah on our precious American way of life extend to, say, Northwestern? _Ohio State_?!
>
> Spartydog, are you familiar with the old chestnut about never attributing to evil what can be abundantly explained by pure stupidity?
'Tis true.
Folks should never conflate education with actual intelligence.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2008, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/33 "2008-09-27T16:09:10Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#):
>
> For what it’s worth,
>
> One of my supervisors got his MBA from Harvard (full disclosure: it was a web-based course).
Does Harvard offer an online MBA program? I’ve been looking on their website and haven’t found any such thing. Even the executive education programs seem to be offered only in person (although they have some courses off campus).
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### Author:  [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/34 "2008-09-29T14:52:45Z")
> [@Spartydog](#):
>
> Compare the number that have been burned by this crisis to the “precious few” that saw this train wreck coming.
And this has precisely what to do with your argument..?
> [@](#):
>
> BTW, I’m well positioned against this mess.
So you’re a responsible user of credit and probably have some cash in the bank. Whoop-dee-shit. What does this have to do with Harvard MBAs?
> [@](#):
>
> GFY.
Go put together a cogent argument, douchenozzle.
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### Author:  [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/35 "2008-09-29T17:26:09Z")
> [@CircleofWillis](#):
>
> Reeder? Is that you?
Hey…that’s my line!
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### Author:  [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/36 "2008-09-29T23:30:21Z")
> [@THespos](#):
>
> douchenozzle.
Douchenozzle? That’s the best you can come up with? How about, “You play baseball like a girl.”
I just tell you **G** ood **F** or **Y** ou and you come back with some lame insult. However, when I think about it, being reincarnated as a woman’s bicycle seat or a douchenozzle (if it is what I think it is) might not be all bad.
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### Author:  [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-largest-and-most-effective-terrorist-organization-in-the-world-is/465094/37 "2008-09-30T01:24:31Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> Does Harvard offer an online MBA program? I’ve been looking on their website and haven’t found any such thing. Even the executive education programs seem to be offered only in person (although they have some courses off campus).
**Dewey** , it’s been six or seven years since I heard the story…I’ve since lost contract with the person so I wasn’t able to talk to him about what sort of program he was in, other than I remembered Harvard and MBA were mentioned in the same sentence.
As you stated earlier, there are no online MBA programs at Harvard (I immediately searching immediately after reading your post). I probably assumed incorrectly that he got his MBA from Harvard; what he probably meant was he got an MBA and then went to Harvard. Your mention of Harvard’s executive education courses make more sense, because he told me he would have to fly to Boston every now and then as part of his course work.
He certainly wasn’t making it up. His previous job had been a VP of Engineering of a Fortune “1000” company, but had left because of health problems as a result of job stress. This was before coming to work with our company. I would guess that after hitting the VP level, he decided early on that he would take advantage of the Harvard opportunity to do a little “quasi” post graduate work.
Thanks for catching the misinformation, **Dewey**.
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