#1
Two hundred fifty grand was allocated for this dumpâa quarter mil! By the time that money was passed from cousin to brother to friend and handed down to the contractor who finally slapped the structure up, there was only $40,000 left.
The Chicago Way! Maybe the O'man can work it. /sarcasm off
#2
A long piece, but a great read. My favorite quote:
"Goodwill is the key to this multifront counterinsurgency. Its the only way to win the locals away from the brutal scum whove enslaved them in the past and over to some semblance of liberty and the rule of law. Thats why Information Operationswhat they used to call propagandais so important. Thats why the bad guys work so hard to spread lies about us.
And thats why Hollywood should maybe try not to help them."
"Leftist movies portraying our troops as reprobates and fools may not make it to the wilds of Nuristan. But you can bet they make it to the headquarters of our enemies and give them encouragement, not to mention ideas. They make our soldiers mission harder and increase the danger to their lives. And heres a funny thing some people in LA may not understand about those lives: theyre real. Commander Perez and Rory and First Sergeant Mitchell and all the resttheyre not characters played by actors. Theyre real Americans who left real parents and wives and children at home and opted to fight our enemies in dangerous places far away. I dont think De Palma and Robert Redford and Paul Haggis are bad men. Theyre certainly entitled to believe what they want. But when they make these movies during wartime, when they endanger these soldiers and their mission, I think theyre doing something badsomething wicked, really. They are aiding and abetting the enemys Information Operations. And they ought to stop."
TigerHawk demolishes Tom Friedman and points out what we at Rantburg already know: that when the going gets tough in Bambi's brave new world, the Euros will be sitting on the sidelines.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/10/2008 00:00 ||
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We have seen it all the last two years: Weeping journalists on election night; a journalist openly promising to help make Obama successful ("Yeah, it is my job."); film takes of journalists cheering an Obama speech; the savaging of Sarah Palin and the hands-off treatment of Biden; soft-ball interviews and long puff-pieces on Obama as the young cool crusader;comparisons to JFK's Camelot, and on and on.
In the 3rd book of his history, Thucydides has some insightful thoughts about destroying institutions in times of zealotryand then regretting their absence when there is a need for refuge for them. The mainstream press should have learned that lesson, once they blew up their credibility in the past election by morphing into the Team Obama press agency.
There will come a time in the year ahead when either Obama's unexamined past will come back to haunt him, or his inexperience and tentativeness in foreign affairs will be embarrassingly apparent, or his European-socialist agenda for domestic programs simply won't work. And as public opinion falls, what will MSNBC, the New York Times, the editors of Newsweek, a Chris Matthews or the anchors at the major networks say?
Not muchsince they will have one of two non-choices: (1) either they will begin scrambling to offer supposed disinterested criticism, which will be met with the public's, "Why should we begin believing you now?" or "Why didn't you tell this before?", or (2), They can continue as state-sanctioned megaphones of the Obama administration in the manner that they did during the campaign. They will lose either way and remain without credibility.
In short, we live now in the Age of Post-Journalism. All that was before is now over, as this generation of journalists voluntarily destroyed the hallowed notion of objectivity and they will have no idea quite how to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.
#1
The products of late 20th Century academia. The same folks who were so effective in creating our current public school systems. The same folks who's Law Schools opening flaunt laws against discrimination based upon color race and creed. The same folks who support academic freedom by tenuring only those of like mind. /sarcasm off.
#4
They're not even journalists anymore. They're the Ministry of Information. And, as long as the paychecks keep rolling in, they'll continue to be so. The problem for them is, those paychecks might not keep rolling in...and that's what you've got to hope for.
There are rumors of new Executive Decrees, which include magic Federal dollars for stem-cell research that uses human embryos - if you have any objections, you hate science - and a ban on domestic drilling and nat-gas exploration in public lands in Utah. (If you have any objections, you hate the environment.) The two form a nice mirror image: the former was a ban put in place to preserve a particular definition of human life; the latter is a ban lifted to preserve the environment. Again, its understandable: we only have one Utah, but we can always make more people. As long as they dont live in Utah.
Will executive unilateralism remain a bad thing, a threat to our rights, or suddenly gain favor with old critics? Hmmmm. Cue the Jeopardy! theme. Thats a stumper. Then again, this is Washington were talking about. Heaped alongside the altar of politics are numberless goats with eyes open in shock. Principles be damned; when it comes to doing the things you want to do, theres a knife for every throat.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/10/2008 12:05 ||
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Was Rev. Jesse Jackson crying tears of joy at President-elect Barack Obama's victory celebration in Grant Park? Or was the civil rights leader weeping in regret that he might now be out of a job?
Caught by television cameras, Jackson's tears spoke volumes. It is important to remember that Jackson helped to pave the way for Obama. But, like some other old-school leaders, Jackson has been slow to recognize when to step out of the way.
For example, his most memorable contribution to Obama's presidential campaign came when Jackson's whispered wish to "cut his nuts off" was caught by a hot Fox News microphone. Jackson apologized profusely. No problem. His gaffe undoubtedly reassured skeptical whites that Obama was not a Jackson clone.
Much was said about how Obama was opening a "post-racial" era, although "multiracial" is more appropriate. Race and racism have not evaporated. Nor has the need for diversity to be respected, not just tolerated. Jackson's not out of a job yet. But Obama's victory moves our old baseline of racial expectations to a higher and happier level. It's hard to argue that our society is irredeemably racist when our multiracial electorate just elected a man with African roots and an Arabic-sounding name to be commander in chief.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
But Obama's victory moves our old baseline of racial expectations to a higher and happier level
No, Fred, it doesn't. It just marks the fact that the diversity/affirmative action insanity has reached all the way to the top of the political food chain. Anyone who thinks this lying bastard's election was good for anything is seriously deluded. What it really shows is a)that skin color trumps competence, honor sacrifice and experience, and b)that the black populace of the U.S. is irredeemably racist. No WHITE candidate ever got 95% of the white vote.
I'm disgusted with the performance of the electorate this election. I will, however, have the grim satisfaction of seeing most of the stupid bastards who voted for him live to bitterly regret their action in doing so.
They deserve what they'll get. Unfortunately, a lot of other people will have to share in the reckoning they've brought on themselves.
#2
The future's market on 'white guilt' took a hit. Maybe not as big as oil, but its now on the down turn. Those who've always pimped themselves out won't change, but the value to others is going to have less impact as time and performance pass.
#3
I will, however, have the grim satisfaction of seeing most of the stupid bastards who voted for him live to bitterly regret their action in doing so.
That is assumming, they live. We are in a dangerous world remember?
#5
In November, 2007, Jesse had an opportunity to purchase exclusive rights to sell all African themed black light velvet canvas art paintings sold east of the Mississippi River, including Candada and Mexico. He took a pass. Rumor is that some white guy named Rahm owns the rights now. Hence the tears.
#6
I understand why 95% of blacks voted for Obama. If you don't then you should open up a history book. Regardless of his being a vapid marxist, his race did matter to them, hugely. That a black man could run for and win the highest office in the land is a major milestone. I don't begrudge them one bit.
#7
Remoteman, I don't "begrudge them" one bit, either. However, not being patronizing or racist myself, I make the appropriate conclusions about their political maturity and responsibility. You might want to think about that. The condescension towards blacks, masquerading as broad-mindedness and historical sensitivity, is just another discouraging confirmation that race relations are trapped in PC bizarro world.
Naturally I refuse to begin lumping people together on this, as on anything else. Worked as a civilian alongside and under too many outstanding black Americans in uniform - many of whose reactions to the last few years equals mine in despair and anger - to do so. And I know some them are as appalled as I am at all this.
#8
Verlaine, I would argue the fact that blacks have traditionally voted more than 90% for the Dem presidential candidate as far more concrete evidence of their political maturity, or lack thereof. Of course the Irish/Catholics did the same thing until Kennedy was elected.
Regardless, now they have their black man in the White House, and they will get to see how effective he is, or not.
#11
Jackson isn't going to give up his shakedown racket. It is too soon to start the real complaining, but by Feb expect to start hearing whispers that Obama "isn't black enough" and that a Kenyan can't have an authentic sense of the ghetto life. Jackson won't say that sort of thing himself, of course; but Obama will start to need somebody to help maintain good relations with the black communities, and who better than "Benjamins" Jackson?
Posted by: James ||
11/10/2008 23:10 Comments ||
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Anyone would think we had just elected a hip, skinny and youthful replacement for God, with a plan to modernise Heaven and Hell or that at the very least John Lennon had come back from the dead.
The swooning frenzy over the choice of Barack Obama as President of the United States must be one of the most absurd waves of self-deception and swirling fantasy ever to sweep through an advanced civilisation. At least Mandela-worship its nearest equivalent is focused on a man who actually did something.
I really dont see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts.
If you can believe that this undistinguished and conventionally Left-wing machine politician is a sort of secular saviour, then you can believe anything. He plainly doesnt believe it himself. His cliche-stuffed, PC clunker of an acceptance speech suffered badly from nerves. It was what you would expect from someone who knew hed promised too much and that from now on the easy bit was over.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/10/2008 08:50 ||
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#1
Extremely well done. Nice to see someone finally remark on the striking banality of Obama's rhetoric. Might have to track this guy's columns. A tiny speck of light in the galactic darkness of the media and the public square.
'When cheering for someone turns into adulation, something is wrong. Excessive adulation is indicative of a personality cult. The cult of personality is often created when the general population is discontent. A charismatic leader can seize the opportunity and project himself as an agent of change and a revolutionary leader. Often, people, tired of the status quo, do not have the patience to examine the nature of the proposed change. All they want is change.'
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Was Rev. Jesse Jackson crying tears of joy at President-elect Barack Obama's victory celebration in Grant Park? Or was the civil rights leader weeping in regret that he might now be out of a job?
