Ok? No more to be said. Nothing to see. It’s all over now. That’s it, keep it moving.
Recent Comments
- The Clueless Leading The Clueless (2)
Dr Leo Strauss: It’s a great question – does he remember? Probably because it was not authentically him,...
anxiousmodernman: I’m not a poli sci or PR strategist expert by any means, but here’s how I would win on...
- Thoughts On Boston’s Crisis, The New Tribalism And Participatory Meaning (4)
Aldershot: http://si.wsj.net/public/resou rces/images/WO-AN661_RUSKER_G_ 20130507194232.jpg
Polly C. Wahncke: Prescient, cogent and timely. So much to chew on. Brilliant and provocative, as always Dr Strauss....
Aldershot: Wonderful analysis. I remained unmoved throughout, being too discouraged by endlessly recurring spectacle...
Stiftung Latest Tweets
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@AnatolyKarlin @dolboed @markgaleotti @echomskru 'Suvorov' critique on the wrong issue. Given Jan. expulsion & activity rate, it's working. 
@DrLeoStrauss @WWEnd I heard it is lacking in Gene Rodenberry wit. 
@DrLeoStrauss @WWEnd Though I'm a sucker - the millions spent to get to the "I'm a Doctor not a torpedo mechanic" line was well spent. - RT @BLCKDGRD: @DrLeoStrauss @WWEnd Saw it last night, seems a lot of millions $ spent on pyrotechnics to get to reverse radiation bromance …
- @DrLeoStrauss @WWEnd Saw it last night, seems a lot of millions $ spent on pyrotechnics to get to reverse radiation bromance (sorry) scene.
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Afghanistan And Vietnam As Dada-ist Installations
It’s well into the great dissolution. Imperial rot always begins in the core but manifests itself first along the fringe. America’s time is no different. Every narrative of Fall has an arc. There are different scripts. Some end with a retrospectively imposed tangible event. Regardless of what really happened. Case in point? Rome ‘fell’. Other [...]
Race To The Bottom (updated)
Tweety, apparently, went a bit haywire at his anniversary celebration as folks likely have already seen. Interestingly, he keeps insisting that HE was the victor in the Daily Show exchange. We may watch this upcoming debate not only to see Tweety handle the Repubs but also how manically he interacts with the Money Honey. A [...]
Imagine A QDR From . . . GM, Wells Fargo, AIG, Pick Your Dot Bombs
It’s a truism that QDRs are exercises in aspirational futility. Vision and declarations divorced from actual linkage to budget and operational planning. But is the answer really quoting Michael Porter bromides (again, in a Davos-esque flashback)? Who remembers the world conquering X-Car? Can a sock puppet really tell us anything?
Eliot Spitzer Declares #OWS Already Won? Not Yet. But It’s A Start.
The spectacle, energy and unpredictability are contagious. Some national media are suddenly departing from the phony narrative of Right and Center-Right politics to give glimpses of the Occupy Wall Street drama. Twitter naturally offers a more dynamic, unfiltered stream of tactical initiatives. When Ad Busters sent the initial email now months ago calling for the [...]
“He was fond of war and low company: — we know little else of him. He was careless, dissolute, and ambitious; — idle, or doing mischief. In private, he seemed to have no idea of the common decencies of life, which he subjected to a kind of regal licence; in public affairs, he seemed to have no idea of any rule of right or wrong, but brute force, glossed over with a little religious hypocrisy and archiepiscopal advice. . . . Henry, because he did not know how to govern his own kingdom, determined to make war upon his neighbours. Because his own title to the crown was doubtful, he laid claim to that of France. Because he did not know how to exercise the enormous power, which had just dropped into his hands, to any one good purpose, he immediately undertook (a cheap and obvious resource of sovereignty) to do all the mischief he could.”
~Henry Hazlitt
On Henry V – Confirming Tweety ironically
“In Bush [George W.], the country discovered it had a young leader rising to the occassion, an easy going Prince Hal, transformed by instinct and circumstance into a warrior King Henry.”
~Chris Matthews (2002)
By the way, something does not work with your RSS feed.
We agree that Dr. Hadar elevates Huffpost. A platform that exposes his expertise, humor and astounding track record for accuracy on things Middle East is welcome. We have several friends and ‘frenemies’ who post there. His presence raises the bar. Besides, he really is very funny.
Leon Hadar’s honorificabilitudinitatibus is maintained by being the most intelligent writer on HuffPo by far.
We tip our hats to Leon Hadar here – Seems just about right:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leon-t-hadar/counter-factual-history-m_b_318170.html
Tom Donahue must hail from the same village in Eire as Bill D. He’s a total hothead – We saw him totally blow his stack once when Spitzer was NY AG and someone in the audience told him that Spitzer only went after criminals:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/14/dylan-ratigan-to-chamber_n_320397.html
More wreckage in Black’s wake – He would have been a Mack Daddy for unloading all these failing papers had he avoided clinkdom:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aP8EoAr5Slew
Lord Black confesses he formerly admires America:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/09/29/conrad-black-why-i-became-a-catholic.aspx
For what it’s worth we recall Bill Bennett becoming “anti-America” when America decided it did not want to give Clinton the heave ho for Monica-ing around in the Oval Office.
How about compromise – not marginal left – your Critical Theory point holds – But generally – most people that we know in the prius set are well to the left of the most liberal members of Congress. Truly, they do allign with Dems, but their heart is barely to the right of Amy Goodman or nader.
“They are on the marginal left and are joined by the anger on the right, albeit for different reasons.”
Hmmm… no. The prius-driving set would tend to be center-left, for sure. Consumers with conscience, not attackers of consumerism. As I said, these are the earnest, self-satisfied type. Maybe supported Dean. But maybe preferred Edwards. Likely supported Obama in the last primary.
Marginal left tends to be found in Critical Theory departments, and for better or worse I don’t know those people.
Standard irritation has not been about policy. It’s that a man in office for 9 months without any major accomplishments to date was given the Nobel Peace Prize.
Some in the GOP who pretended to love Bush’s faux-rustic inarticulate style could take a lesson from this, but they are not able to – yet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/business/global/12iht-speech.html?em
In other words – it is a gift the anti Obama movement, but it will blow up in their face because it well enourage the worst unelectable elements – Less than 1/3 of the electorate – Right now Obama has no meaningfull opposition – Those at town halls who squeak and gibber do not oppose Obama’s policies – They only think they do – Most are stuffed to gills with disinformation and cheap sound bites carefully spooned to them by monied interest.
Obama (Sheriff Bart) will have to help the residents of “Rock Ridge” (town hall tea party ) against their own will, for a time. Time will change some minds.
Speaking of death panels – 44k die every year because they lack insurance or have bad insurance – This kind of crime affects many of the town hallers who have been manipulated to think otherwise
That being said – - we do think the committee may be using the award to try to box Obama in – or point him in a direction they like — But box in implies Obama does not wanna go there anyway. The NPP would like to see Obama press hard on the Mid East question and they really would like to sort of step aside and let Obama do for them what they cannot do. There is much fear among Obama opponents worldwide that he will actually follow up on US policy in the region and use this award as currency. But so what? Again – hatred of foreigners – esp elite foreigners – is a reality and it really makes media types skittish since they are so far removed from the ordinary folks in the Imperial city – But this is not enough to make a majority and it peels off coastal moderates – Obama does not mind enraging the enragable – Those people cannot even edmit Obama was born in the US, so they are somewhat irrational anyway and they are mostly the Republicans problem – fast forward to next general election when all the GOP candidates have to dance around the birthers and Beck-ites etc.
Bottom line – Obama has never been boxed in and many have tried – Rather, he is an opportunist in the best sense -
DBake – the thoughts of your prius colleagues confirms our pleased attitude toward the award – They are on the marginal left and are joined by the anger on the right, albeit for different reasons.
Notice the objections to the prize – Hamas, Taliban, Limbaugh, Mullah Omar, Hannity, and now anonymous eaters of vegitarian lasagna at universities.
Obama’s persona has helped to craft a new center – There are many other past winners who won on the basis of sentiment.
Like we said earlier – the squalor of Bush and Cheney created a stop-banging-head-against the wall joy when Obama got elected.
Besides – anything the further encourages Republicans to continue their knee jerk hatred of educated foreigners and Europeans is a good thing – It creates an odium that feeds on itself – a further Hannitization of the party that will accelerate – The embrace of stupidity and ignorance and torture etc furthers the decline. The hatred of compliments from foreigners – the peevish opposition to all things good and the love of things bad
DBake: my read from here in Northern Yurp is that this was either:
a) an ignorant hamfisted Machiavellian attempt to box Obama into being the peace-loving change maker he claims to be (oblivious of the fact that maybe he actually isn’t and never was intending to be), or
b) an ignorant hamfisted Machiavellian attempt to ‘help’ Obama against his domestic political opponents (oblivious of the fact the most Americans are not as taken by Scandinavian superiority as the Scandinavians and this is a perfect gift to the anti-Obama movement.
Obama should have turned the prize down. But then again, he also should have not reasserted the executive’s ‘right’ to imprison people without trial.
Does Stiftung have any thoughts on what the committee was even aiming at? Even in academia-land I know no one who’s reacted with anything but snark, and I mean we’re talking about the earnest but self-satisfied prius-driving, all-things-considered-listening, used-to-buy-organic but moved to locally-grown, center-left set. Everyone seems to think that the decision was aiming to manipulate something, but in such a ham-fisted way that it’s hard to see what outcome they thought they might get. I can’t imagine this will do anything but inspire (righteous) mockery from the Republicans.