Friday, June 20, 2014
Conservatives, Vietnam Syndrome and Obama
In a way Bush's foreign policy has become Obama's foreign policy, try as he may Obama cannot fully extricate himself from the situation. We're probably gonna see some big-time action in Baghdad starting with air strikes and as much as Obama distanced himself from Bush and the Bush Doctrine during the campaigning inevitably he's become Bush 2. Now I read a fair amount of conservative commentary, have a few issues of National Review and The Weekly Standard on my tablet and in my view there are many, maybe even most conservatives who when push comes to shove feel we should have stuck it out in Vietnam so the same thinking of course applies to the Middle East. Obama has the perfectly reasonable position that we can't stay there forever but for your average conservative and that's a neo-type no matter how many body bags let's get the job done. Radical Islam, a couple people here don't get it but easily it poses a far greater threat than the Christian Right. I mean c'mon purity balls vs. massacres at shopping malls. In coastal Africa the al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group al-Shabab has been going door to door in villages during the night while people have been tuned into the World Cup and asking the men basic questions about Islam and if they fail to answer correctly they get shot, a kind of terrorist version of Jeopardy (Moustafa: "what was the name of Mohammed's wife?"). Imagine the Jehovahs doing this going door to door with their Watchtowers and if you brush 'em off they open fire. Of course over at the Hannity Forums you can't really talk like this because you're questioning a faith system. Look I'm no fan of Obama but on Iraq the bulk of the blame goes to Bush.
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Cheny- sees bogeymen everywhere, that only he knows how to handle.
ReplyDeleteBogeyman..he just needs to look in the mirror.
You actually need SparkNotes to understand the Middle East. Bush sure as hell didn't.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether the middle easterners understand the middle east.
DeleteDunno but Bibi always acts like he has all the answers. Just listen to him.
DeleteIslam: I'm still sorting out the flavors of Christianity.
ReplyDeleteBut that's the thing, Christianity might have some crazy flavors but they don't go door to door killing folk who don't subscribe to their POV.
DeleteThankfully they got over that after the Jewish pograms in medieval Europe: round them up, lock them in the synagogue, burn it down.
DeleteYou suppose every religion goes through a violent stage before it matures?
Jewish pogroms nothing.. the Catholics and Protestants had plenty to work with just torturing and killing each other. Not to mention the Crusades against the Infidel, which, if you subscribe at all to the law of karma, explains perfectly what's been going on around here. What goeth around hence hath come around now.
ReplyDeleteSure we can discuss History but the current threat is radical Islam. We don't have a Dept. of Homeland Security to study the Crusades or the Inquisition, we leave that to the perfessors.
ReplyDeleteLast I checked some Muslim states are against gays but God forbid should some conservative Senator or Congressman vote against gay marriage.
ReplyDeleteYes, some Muslim states area against gays and treat women badly. We think differently, except for some conservative politicians. It is problematic
Deleteif the US thinks we can 'reform' countries by invading and killing them.
"Except for some conservative politicians" Opposition to abortion does not equal Boko Haram.
DeleteWell, I was thinking more along the line of:
DeleteTodd Akin, GOP-Missouri "if its a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down"
Chuck Winder, GOP-Idaho, on proposing that rape victims undergo a
forced ultrasound at a right-wing 'crisis pregnancy center', noting "women might use the rape issue as an excuse to get an abortion:
Rick Santorum, GOP-Ohio "I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created--in the sense of rape--but nevertheless a gift
in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you"
Mike Huckabee, GOP Arkansas, in defending Todd Akin "many famous
artists and pastors were conceived in forcible rape" Ol Huck released a serial rapist who went on to rape and kill again.
----women really dislike that kind of talk, and so should we.
BB in all honesty what is wrong with the Santorum quote?
DeleteIt's not just opposition to abortion. It's saying that being a rape victim is a 'priveleged status'. It's opposing equal wage laws. It's voter restriction laws. It's a justice system skewed in favor of rich white men. It's rescinding a permit for a pagan temple. It's refusing to let non-Christian groups put displays or memorials beside those of Christian ones on public property. It's a pervasive mentality that is only a few heartbeats away from the Taliban and Boko Haram.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I'm talking.
DeletePope Francis 1...Mafia 0 ...wonder how that works out?
ReplyDeleteI like his mob talk but he recently said something about childless couples that was very retrogressive.
DeleteWe note that private drones have been banned from US National Parks.
ReplyDeleteNot that picnickers want privacy so much as they hate the noise. Wildlife has been
harassed (a hobby among some, whether by snowmobile, ATV or drone) and some
rock climbers on a vertical cliff got buzzed. I'd think a techy like Z-man would have one of these; be sort of a private NSA fellow.
I'm reading about Google testing these driverless cars in CA and they haven't even cured death yet. What could possibly go wrong?
DeleteThen you have the ancients; automotive pioneers like me. My family laughs because I never use cruise control (40-50 trips across the plains
Deleteand mountains). I hate not handling the vehicle speed myself, and my
car hasn't earned my trust yet. :)
I still remember the days before power steering when you had a real feel for the road.
DeleteMy mother told me that as a 3 year old they put me in one of those electric bumper cars at the Fair and that I got out and walked through the
Deletesparking demolition derby to get out. The irate carnie had to shut the thing down. First time I ever got banned.
From Haaretz, the Jewish newspaper we learn,
ReplyDelete"The mezuzah – a piece of parchment inscribed with the Jewish prayer "Shema Yisrael" and contained in a case affixed on a doorway – is now being offered to Christians.
Henry Zabarsky, a Jewish financial adviser from Queens, has created the "Christooza," a hollow plastic cross modeled on the traditional mezuzah, but with Christian prayers placed inside. Merry Christooza and Happy New Year...
Did some yardwork recently and just getting over some bad poison ivy on my lower left leg. Think calamine. My WebMD app suggests taking an oatmeal bath. Yeah OK.
ReplyDeleteIn some areas they use goats to control poison ivy-they eat the stuff, but
Deletethe roots are left. A few people eat poison ivy leaves in the Spring, claiming
it gives them immunity. But, yeah, calamine seems appropriate. A neighbor
out back has some young miniature goats, about the size of a cat. Cute little things. They have sort of a soprano ba ba ba ba.
Calamine seems the best. Tried alcohol, witch hazel, Cortaid, Hydrocortisone 10, Balmex with zinc oxide...DON'T ITCH even if it drives you crazy!
DeleteThe main offender from the poison ivy leaf is pentadecylcatechol, which
Deletecauses T-cell mediated contact dermatitis. We note-"if left on the skin, some diffuses through the skin, where it is metabolized to quinone derivatives. These form covalent complexes with skin proteins such as keratin. These complexes appear foreign to the immune system, which therefore attacks them." Some experts therefore suggest that washing
the exposed skin within an hour of contact (before the diffusion through the skin) will prevent or minimize the effect. So, if you want to be a laboratory rat, you can try washing one arm right away and not the other:
photograph the results and post them on Facebook. But, the problem as I see it is that most times you don't know if you brushed up against any until you get the itch! Modern times; my family laughs at my preference for calamine when sterols and benedryls are available and think it a hoot if I gargle with salt water. Heck, salt water thins mucus (even strawberry jam and dippity doo) as the ions break the micelle linkages, turning the
stick stuff into a thin liquid. Since I'm babbling on here, let's note that calamine can contain zinc oxide OR zinc carbonate and also a bit of phenol which makes it an astringent, antiseptic and anti pruritic. Naturally the FDA came out in 1992 saying it was not effective: in 2008
the FDA recommended it for poison ivy, oak and sumac. Go figure.
On another subject been wondering why most app reviews tend to suck. On the ebook front been venturing off into sci-fi/fantasy territory with the somewhat controversial Harlan Ellison.
ReplyDeleteIn the legal ramifications of thespelling department :
ReplyDeleteYou say Grenada, I say Granada...
It's like getting dropped off in Hawaii by mistake. Dunno, I might have made the most out of it.
DeleteJust in case an El Shabab shows up at your door demanding you give the name of
ReplyDeleteMohammad's wife, I'm thinking a safe reply might be, Which one?
Maybe it's a trick question. I'm thinking any three names that are on the list will suffice. It doesn't hurt to bone up on your Islam.
DeleteSo what is it about US Navy Seal Training ?
ReplyDeleteI don't hate anyone but for the life of me I don't know why anyone would want to go through the whole transgender procedure. I mean I consider a colonoscopy or even a simple oil change to be annoying.
DeleteImagine how important it must be to the people who do make that decision. The process takes years and they are subject to a lifetime of discrimination and bullying-before and after. It's like being gay. Why would anyone 'choose' to be gay? Because they want to spend a lifetime getting beat up, discriminated against, called names and being treated like a second class citizen? Really?
DeleteI just like a free day is all. Think of all the endless appointments not to mention the money.
DeleteSo I'm reading Harlan Ellison's Strange Wine and there are some wonderful short stories here like "Croatoan" and "Hitler Painted Roses" but the guy's an egotist and it shines forth and becomes distracting after awhile. Every once in a while he has to remind you how talented he is as a writer and I think some of his stories didn't have to exist at all but he's like Stephen King he has this writing compulsion. I think in King's case he wants to make an immortal classic like Frankenstein but it ain't in the cards and it frustrates him.
ReplyDeleteSeriously? The Shining isn't an immortal classic? How about Jerusalem's Lot? I have been a voracious reader since I was 3 and I went through a period where all I would read was horror. Dunno how many dozens of horror novels I read by all different kinds of authors but I can still say without hesitation that Jerusalem's Lot is the scariest thing I ever read.
ReplyDeleteAgreed about "Salem's Lot" and the movie wasn't bad either. I just think he overwrites is all.
DeleteThis is not totally fair but I go by are there study guides to the book in question? No Cliffs Notes or Sparknotes no immortal classic. "The Hunger Games" a classic, Stephen King not so much not yet anyway.
DeleteNo, not totally fair. The Shining may be a huge cultural phenomenon (in the same way that no one ever took a shower the same way again after Psycho, or looked at the beach the same way again after Jaws), but it's not Das Kapital. But is it meant to be, and does it lessen its value that it's not?
ReplyDeleteAs it stands now a classic is marked by character development, themes, symbolism, metaphors, social/political observations, prophetic elements maybe and most importantly what does it say about the human condition. Not my rules. "Under the Dome" is not "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." BB say something.
ReplyDeleteThe horror genre is another modern cultural phenom with which I am unfamiliar.
ReplyDeleteAs for 'classic', I hated Moby Dick. I'll bow to your expertise in the matter.
For me Dubliners by James Joyce was boring as all hell. For the longest time I thought, dunno why but that Flowers in the Attic was a classic but there's no study guides for it so I guess it didn't make the egghead cut. For what it's worth my latest is Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.
ReplyDelete