Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
OBAMA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Concerns about Obama's Middle East policy are escalating. The optimistic support for democracy in Arab Spring of 2011 has proved to be an illusion (except to the critics of US policy toward that movement, some of whom see Obama as Bush II). Adam Garfinkle details what seems to be a lack of careful, long-term strategic thinking among our current Middle East policymakers. I like the idea of serious "looking before leaping." Surely something should have been learned from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Monday, May 28, 2012
INFLUENCE OF TELEVISION AND FILM
There is an argument out there that what a person can watch a TV program or movie and not be influenced to change his or her values. Jonathan Gottschall has written an interesting column in the Dallas Morning News on the influence of fiction on our society. He argues that fiction does change a person's values.
Here is his comment on fiction as seen on TV: Moreover, it’s clear that these stories really can change our views. As psychologist Raymond Mar writes, “Researchers have repeatedly found that reader attitudes shift to become more congruent with the ideas expressed in a [fictional] narrative.” For example, studies reliably show that when we watch a TV show that treats gay families nonjudgmentally (say, Modern Family), our own views on homosexuality are likely to move in the same nonjudgmental direction. History, too, reveals fiction’s ability to change our values at the societal level, for better and worse. For example, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped bring about the Civil War by convincing huge numbers of Americans that blacks are people and that enslaving them is a mortal sin. On the other hand, the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation inflamed racist sentiments and helped resurrect an all but defunct Ku Klux Klan.
Here is his comment on fiction as seen on TV: Moreover, it’s clear that these stories really can change our views. As psychologist Raymond Mar writes, “Researchers have repeatedly found that reader attitudes shift to become more congruent with the ideas expressed in a [fictional] narrative.” For example, studies reliably show that when we watch a TV show that treats gay families nonjudgmentally (say, Modern Family), our own views on homosexuality are likely to move in the same nonjudgmental direction. History, too, reveals fiction’s ability to change our values at the societal level, for better and worse. For example, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped bring about the Civil War by convincing huge numbers of Americans that blacks are people and that enslaving them is a mortal sin. On the other hand, the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation inflamed racist sentiments and helped resurrect an all but defunct Ku Klux Klan.
ELECTION HYPOCRISY
I think politicians should strive to be consistent, whether Republican or Democrat. Obama has attacked Wall Street and big capital, but at the same time they have turned out to be his biggest givers so I thought this cartoon from the Charlotte Observer really captured that hypocrisy.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
GAY MARRIAGE
An analysis on how changes in straight marriage paved the way for legal gay marriage. Between the 1970s and 1990s, however, most Americans came to view marriage as a relationship between two individuals who were free to organize their partnership on the basis of personal inclination rather than preassigned gender roles.
Obama's advocacy of gay marriage:
Obama's advocacy of gay marriage:
- National Review: And even though we consider his support of redefining marriage a deep error, he has done the nation a favor by revealing the truth about his position.
- Public Discourse: The president was dishonest in stating his opposition to gay marriage in the 2008 election campaign. So why did Obama make such an announcement now? The Grenell affair assured him, I think, that a theme of “anti-gay bigotry” can be usefully deployed against social conservatives generally, and against Romney in particular.
- Andrew Sullivan, "The first gay president."
- Reasons for supporting gay marriage.
END OF AMERICA?
Jonathan Cahn is a messianic Jew who has written a book, "The Harbinger," which deals with prophecy and the end of America. Here is a 700 Club interview which summarizes many of his ideas.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
AMERICAN VICE PRESIDENT DUPED BY SOVIETS
In 1944 Vice President Henry Wallace visited the Soviet Far East and the gulag at Magadan. He thought it was just a Soviet work project like the TVA.
In 1952, Wallace publically admitted that in 1944 the Soviet officials completely deceived him: “I had not the slightest idea when I visited Magadan that this . . . was also the center for administering the labor of both criminals and those suspected of political disloyalty. . . I can see after reading accounts by former slave laborers who escaped from Siberia that I was altogether too much impressed by the show put on by high Russian officials.”[117] Lattimore never made a similar statement and stubbornly refused to accept that Nikishov was a tyrant.[118]
In 1952, Wallace publically admitted that in 1944 the Soviet officials completely deceived him: “I had not the slightest idea when I visited Magadan that this . . . was also the center for administering the labor of both criminals and those suspected of political disloyalty. . . I can see after reading accounts by former slave laborers who escaped from Siberia that I was altogether too much impressed by the show put on by high Russian officials.”[117] Lattimore never made a similar statement and stubbornly refused to accept that Nikishov was a tyrant.[118]
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
LBJ BIOGRAPHY
Robert Caro's latest volume on President Lyndon Baines Johnson is out. This article deals with what Romeny and Obama could learn from LBJ. Some of the comments:
During his nearly three years as Kennedy’s vice president, Johnson's public life was filled with petty humiliations: minimal staff, exclusion from major meetings, a dinky 10-seat plane for most of his official travels and near total isolation from the Oval Office. Evelyn Lincoln, Kennedy’s personal secretary, kept meticulous records: Johnson spent fewer than two hours alone with JFK during the final 11 months of his presidency.
At Saturday night’s White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Obama tweaked Romney over the de facto Republican nominee’s charges of elitism: “We both have degrees from Harvard. I have one; he has two. What a snob.” These elite educational pedigrees have become the norm in campaigns for the White House. In the past quarter-century, only two presidential nominees (Bob Dole and John McCain) have lacked a degree from Harvard or Yale.
Johnson’s gift was his preternatural ability to find that weak spot in the ego where flattery would be the most compelling. With economist John Kenneth Galbraith, Johnson adroitly suggested that he could be a White House insider like his friend Arthur Schlesinger. With United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, who had been twice defeated for the presidency, Johnson said, “I know, and you know, that you should be sitting behind this desk rather than me.”
When Johnson confronted someone who had double-crossed him, he would often threaten his political demise. Sounding like a Mafia don, LBJ told one errant politician, “I’m going to give you a three-minute lesson in integrity. And then, I’m going to ruin you.” As Caro demonstrates with dozens of examples, Robert Kennedy, when his brother was president, reveled in humiliating Johnson almost for the sheer tearing-wings-off-flies sport of it. Rahm Emanuel sending a dead fish to a pollster early in his career does not measure up to the 1960s standards for hardball.
Here is the New York Times review. It appears to be more a study of hate than power.
During his nearly three years as Kennedy’s vice president, Johnson's public life was filled with petty humiliations: minimal staff, exclusion from major meetings, a dinky 10-seat plane for most of his official travels and near total isolation from the Oval Office. Evelyn Lincoln, Kennedy’s personal secretary, kept meticulous records: Johnson spent fewer than two hours alone with JFK during the final 11 months of his presidency.
At Saturday night’s White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Obama tweaked Romney over the de facto Republican nominee’s charges of elitism: “We both have degrees from Harvard. I have one; he has two. What a snob.” These elite educational pedigrees have become the norm in campaigns for the White House. In the past quarter-century, only two presidential nominees (Bob Dole and John McCain) have lacked a degree from Harvard or Yale.
Johnson’s gift was his preternatural ability to find that weak spot in the ego where flattery would be the most compelling. With economist John Kenneth Galbraith, Johnson adroitly suggested that he could be a White House insider like his friend Arthur Schlesinger. With United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, who had been twice defeated for the presidency, Johnson said, “I know, and you know, that you should be sitting behind this desk rather than me.”
When Johnson confronted someone who had double-crossed him, he would often threaten his political demise. Sounding like a Mafia don, LBJ told one errant politician, “I’m going to give you a three-minute lesson in integrity. And then, I’m going to ruin you.” As Caro demonstrates with dozens of examples, Robert Kennedy, when his brother was president, reveled in humiliating Johnson almost for the sheer tearing-wings-off-flies sport of it. Rahm Emanuel sending a dead fish to a pollster early in his career does not measure up to the 1960s standards for hardball.
Here is the New York Times review. It appears to be more a study of hate than power.
CHURCH HISTORY
A Christian coffee house teaching church history and theology. One of the points is the lack of knowledge about church history among Christians.
Monday, April 30, 2012
"DEMOGRAPHY AS DESTINY"
This is a post from Instanpundit: I have been watching demographic statistics for the last few years (including those from the UN). It is hard to believe that people do not see the ramifications of this trend, even in the United States.
DEMOGRAPHY AS DESTINY:
In Japan, birthrates are now so low and life expectancy so great that the nation will soon have a demographic profile that matches that of the American retirement community of Palm Springs. “Gradually but relentlessly,” the demographer Nick Eberstadt writes in the latest issue of The Wilson Quarterly, “Japan is evolving into a type of society whose contours and workings have only been contemplated in science fiction.”
Funny how the warnings of demographers are laughed off, while the warnings of climate scientists produce immediate calls for action. But what’s most revealing to me is the kind of sentiment displayed in the comments to the piece, such as “There are a DISGUSTING number of people on this earth.” And: “This column is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on a woman’s right to choose.”
And, unsurprisingly, this triumph of eliminationist hate speech:
Call me an America-hating but what better than declining birth rate among a ‘pathogen on the planet’ (Caldicott), hurling pan-global wars & arms & political meddling for its amerigoon-exceptionalist empire promoting a culture of Greed-Uber-Alles. More fundaMentalist Biblicalism we’re all so over?
Oikophobia lives. And Bob Zubrin is clearly on to something. Of course, quoting Helen Caldicott is an immediate I Am An Idiot! marker. . . .
Friday, April 27, 2012
ROMAN CATHOLIC AD
I think this is a bit long for an ad, but it is an interesting production visually. And I can't ever remember a clip like this from a Roman Catholic group in an election campaign.
OBAMA CAMPAIGN AD
The implication is that Romney would not have been tough enough to take Osama bin Laden out. . .but Obama was tough enough.
ATHEIST-ISLAMIST CONFRONTATION
I was wondering when something like this would happen--counter demonstrations.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
EATING DOG SATIRE
A satire on Obama eating dog in Indonesia. I don't know how many times this scene has been used to comment on some issue.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
OBAMA GEOGRAPHY GAFFE: MALVINAS OR MALDIVES OR FALKLANDS?
Obama gets the Malvinas and the Maldives mixed up. I thought this was what George Bush or Joe Biden was supposed to do.
And the Brits are upset because they are supporting him in Afghanistan, but he is not supporting them in the Falklands (or the Maldives if you are President Obama).
This is pretty strong language (from The Telegraph in the UK): For all its PR spin during the Cameron visit, when the prime minister was blatantly used as an election prop and a fundraising foil for Obama’s re-election campaign, the Obama administration could not care less for the Special Relationship. If Mr Obama really believed in the alliance with Britain he would be actively siding with the British people over the Falklands, instead of continuing to appease Buenos Aires and its South American cohorts, including Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.
And the Brits are upset because they are supporting him in Afghanistan, but he is not supporting them in the Falklands (or the Maldives if you are President Obama).
This is pretty strong language (from The Telegraph in the UK): For all its PR spin during the Cameron visit, when the prime minister was blatantly used as an election prop and a fundraising foil for Obama’s re-election campaign, the Obama administration could not care less for the Special Relationship. If Mr Obama really believed in the alliance with Britain he would be actively siding with the British people over the Falklands, instead of continuing to appease Buenos Aires and its South American cohorts, including Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
GATHERING POLITICAL DATA
Market research along with social media reveals much about both potential Republican and Democrat voters.
Like so many other aspects of today's political landscape, the debate over microtargeting reflects a clash of two intractable American values: the struggle for individuality, and the desire for privacy. What Gage calls "Big Data," others would call Big Brother. We're social animals, tweeting every trenchant and insipid thought, but, somehow, we still prize anonymity. We're more open than ever, but less trusting. We want things to be easy -- Amazon, tell us which book to buy, Pandora, which song to play -- but we don't want it done behind our backs. Because that makes us feel stupid and tricked.
Monday, April 09, 2012
THE PROTESTANT ETHIC
The impact of religion on the economy from Forbes.
But perhaps the most important difference over time may be the impact of religion on family formation, with weighty fiscal implications. In virtually every part of the world, religious people tend to have more children than those who are unaffiliated
Organized religion provides a counterweight to the European notion that we must rely on government for everything. Poor people educated or fed by the charities of mosques, churches, and synagogues relieves some of the burden faced by our variously tottering states and shredding social welfare nets.
But perhaps the most important difference over time may be the impact of religion on family formation, with weighty fiscal implications. In virtually every part of the world, religious people tend to have more children than those who are unaffiliated
Organized religion provides a counterweight to the European notion that we must rely on government for everything. Poor people educated or fed by the charities of mosques, churches, and synagogues relieves some of the burden faced by our variously tottering states and shredding social welfare nets.
Thursday, April 05, 2012
OBAMA & RUSSIANS
No Russian shakes Obama's outstretched hand. What does this mean? It is so obvious.
Original Video - More videos at TinyPic
Original Video - More videos at TinyPic
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)