Posts

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Interesting post by Sady at Tiger Beatdown. It’s worth reading the whole thing (unless you don’t like strong language), but here’s the main thing:

“Every time I yell at some pathetic anonymous commenter and people cheer, every time I get all righteously outraged without talking about what I’ve done that is the same or worse as what the person I’m outraged about has done, every time I play the toreador and gore a bull for your entertainment, I shudder a little. Because I’m helping it happen: Aiding in the creation of a discussion where we reward outrage and scorn and hatred and Othering of the ideologically impure, the bad feminists and unfeminists and anti-feminists…” 

Hmmm. This reminds me of something…. But she goes on:

“I’m letting you glorify me; I’m giving you a false impression of how things actually work, letting you believe that the world consists of Good People and Bad People. I’m telling you that I am Good, and that you are Good to the extent you agree with me, and that people — other people, people on the outside of this discussion, not us, certainly — are Bad if they disagree with us. I mean: This is basically how every terrible thing in the history of humanity has started, the decision that there’s an Us and a Them and the former is good and the latter is bad.”

She’s right, I suppose. But what she describes is not merely the cause of “every terrible thing in the history of humanity”. It is the history of humanity.

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Obsidian Entertainment’s new video game Alpha Protocol is superb. Do not allow yourself to be duped by the reviews; while it may not have the greatest graphics ever, it has a great story, great characters, and its replay value is incredibly high.

If there were any justice in the world, it would be a serious contender for Game of the Year.

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“Full and vigorous debate on matters of national policy is a vital element in the constitutional system of our free democracy. It is fundamental, however, that military commanders must be governed by the policies and directives issued to them in the manner provided by our laws and Constitution. In time of crisis, this consideration is particularly compelling.”–President Harry Truman, 11 April 1951.

“President Truman must be impeached and convicted. His hasty and vindictive removal of Gen. MacArthur is the culmination of series of acts which have shown that he is unfit, morally and mentally, for his high office. . . . The American nation has never been in greater danger. It is led by a fool who is surrounded by knaves. . . “–Senator Robert Taft.

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It occurred to me that the discrepancy in the reactions to Hayward’s yacht race and Obama’s golfing may not be due to media bias or anything like that. It may just boil down to good old-fashioned charisma.

Obama has tons of charisma, Hayward… not so much. And when you’re charismatic, you can get away with things like that.

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Lots of people are outraged at BP CEO Tony Hayward for going to a yacht race, but not at President Obama for going golfing. This is indeed impressive hypocrisy.

Now, if you actually asked most pundits, they would, I think, admit that there is no actual reason why Hayward shouldn’t go to the damn yacht race. The problem, they’ll say, was not that he was neglecting actual duties, so much as that he was “sending the wrong message” or “it made him look bad.”

Well, yes; because the pundits and commentariat decree that it makes him look bad. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and an example of the extent to which the media creates its own reality.

Of course, the White House itself didn’t help matters by criticizing Hayward. Rahm Emmanuel himself used the “it’s a bad PR decision” line. I guess it is, but only because you all have decided to make it into one.

Let me make it clear, by the way, that there’s no reason Obama shouldn’t be golfing either. The fact is, there is nothing that either Hayward or Obama need to do that they cannot do from a yacht race or a golf course. I suspect that at their level, almost all of their “oversight” can be done using cell phones.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

 “The benefits of drilling accrue to a private company, but the risks of that drilling accrue to we the American people.” says Maddow.

I like Maddow, but she’s waaayy oversimplifying here: the benefits do not accrue just to private companies. They also accrue to… wait for it… the American people, at least the ones who use oil-fueled transportation, or in some way benefit from the activities of the people who do. I think that’s everybody.

Progressives like Maddow prefer to ignore this fact, and act as if companies are mindlessly drilling oil to magically make money for themselves at the expense of others. But that’s not the case, and acting like it is and ruthlessly punishing BP will not get the job done.

Look, I agree BP needs to pay a price. But there’s a certain unthinking vindictiveness in the liberals’ rhetoric that disturbs me. They really seem to view oil companies as 100% pure evil, that provide no service, but merely enrich themselves.

Mock me if you like, but I’m one of the few people who thinks Obama is handling this situation in precisely the right way. He’s taking a measured and considered approach to the situation, and properly recognizing the complexities involved.

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He nails it:

“Analogies between present-day America and Nazi Germany are historically absurd and morally unseemly. Every time President Obama is accused of being a Nazi, every time a controversial Democratic policy or a woman’s legal right to abort a fetus is compared to the greatest carnage ever perpetrated, every time a Democratic politician evokes Third Reich imagery in describing a Republican opponent, our civil discourse is dumbed down and the memory of millions of murdered men, women and children is trivialized and desecrated.”

So true. It is madness, the way this comparison is so lightly bandied about in political discourse.

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Andrew Sullivan is “trying to understand the Tea Party.” It’s interesting, though he doesn’t seem to have reached my conclusion, at least not yet.

One thing Sullivan realizes:

 “The Bush-Cheney presidency was, in some respects, the perfect pseudo-conservative administration. They waged war based on loathing of the experts (damned knowledgeable elites!); they slashed taxes and boosted spending for their constituencies, while pretending to be fiscally responsible; they tore up the most ancient taboos – against torture – with a bravado that will one day seem obscene; and they left the country in far worse shape than they found it.”