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Monday, June 21. 2010Monday morning linksRomantic music works Kaplan: Saving France Is my testosterone too low? Reason: Ideas Having Sex - How prosperity and innovation exceeded the expectations of John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith Review of God's Brain
Ed Lasky likes Mike Pence. So do I. EJ Dionne: A guy who definitely would have been on England's side in the Revolution One guy golfs, one guy sails. What's the diff?
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The main difference between yachting and golfing is the yachter has been fired from his job and has a lot of free time. The golfer still has a job (for the next two years), but seems to have just as much free time. A similarity that has gone unnoticed by the media.
I think Dionne has it right, but missed the reason. The anti-establishment fervor doesn't have anything to do where one is educated, but rather with the entrenched elite making decisions which clash directly with the values the average Americn holds close. The fact that a goodly number of the entrenched elite - on both sides of the aisle - are products of Eastern elite schools is not relevant. It is the fact that these elites, left and right, are totally out of touch with the everyday concerns of the average citizen which has set off the fury.
The simple truth is that the political elite, both sides, look upon the average citizen with the same contempt that the European royalty held the peasants - silly, stupid and only concerned with their daily lives - they don't grasp "the big picture". The Great Unwashed must be led by the nose to what is good for them. Where this will all end is still a mystery, but if I were a betting man, I'd say that we're in for a revolution of some sort. NJ - Did you read the comments to the EJ Dionne article? Of the sixty-plus comments, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of them excoriated this renown asswipe. And made RCP look like the pandering bozos they are in the process.
I liked this one: "Most of the comments miss the good news here. Generally, when a certified liberal like Dionne complains about the "dangers" of some new right-wing activity and the "fear" it engenders in his heart for Americas future, it's nothing more than an indication that the activity is in fact being effective." Exactly. And there's more on the golf/yachting story here. All things considered, you brief comment about E.J. Dionne is probably a bit too kind. Transport this apparatchik back a few hundred years, and he would be making the case for the doctrine of the "Divine Right of Kings". He is a Statist, through and through.
"Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality."
- George Orwell Difference between yachtin' and golfin' is participants' fun meters elevate higher when yachtin'.
Methinks, golfers don't know how to have fun and that is why they golf. One of me Mother's sons is a miserable golfing lout. That boy just cain't get fun meter to register but louts about the grass. One story on Drudge this morning bears further consideration... Rahm Emanuel is considering leaving the White House staff. I've always considered that Emanuel, whom I think is a deliberately evil man, is probably also the only practical and effective brain on the White House staff, which is otherwise a mess of impractical, opinionated academics who feel that they have nifty ideas they'd like to try out in the real world.
Sooo ... what do you folks think about this? Is it a Good Thing? A Bad Thing? Both? Marianne Wretchard the Cat at Belmont Club has a good article and discussion on this. Several speculations:
1) Rahm looking to become Mayor of Chicago. (A message from Oilbama to Daley? Most dismiss this, as Daley should have enough dirt on Oilbama to ignore such a message.) 2)Laying the ground for Hillary running in 2012. Several point out that the empty suit characterization of Oilbama can also fit Hillary. Wretchard makes a good case that this is coming from Rahm, not from Oilbama. I see it as an example of the rat leaving the ship, but with advance warning. I viewed Rahm as the only hope that Oilbama would triangulate instead of continue to double down. Recall that Valerie Jarrett is the person in the inner circle with the closest link to the POTUS and his wife, and that Ms. Jarrett said that she had been "keeping an eye" on what Van Jones had been doing in Oakland. No pragmatism and triangulating from Valerie Jarrett. My prediction: Oilbama will become even more unhinged when and if Rahm leaves, if that were possible. While this will make Oilbama's reelection less likely, it also increases the harm that Oilbama can do to our Republic until January 20,2013. The NPH's view is that some of the worst blunders of the administration have occurred when Emmanuel was on vacation. He may be an awful man, but he's skilled and effective. I look forward to the spectacle after he goes.
"A guy who definitely would have been on England's side in the Revolution"
Nope. We wouldn't have wanted any Whig trash, thanks. Your friendly local Loyalist in the Great White North http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalist_(American_Revolution)#Loyalism_in_Canada gringo ... Yours is an interesting comment on Emanuel. [yours is also, Texan99.] And I agree that Obama will become even more spacey and unhinged if he leaves. Obama's lexicon of behavior is pretty limited and unrealistic at the best of times, based as it is on his overpowering obsession with himself. Emanuel has been one of his few anchors to the real world. If Emanuel goes, Obama will fall back on his simplistic Alinsky view, which does not factor in what real people out here in the real world want and need. That will doom him to a single-term presidency, but he can do an awful lot of damage to the country before 2012.
So if Emanuel does leave, we'll be watching, and suffering, that fabled 'slow train wreck,' we've been predicting. Marianne |