Comments Posted By jackson1234
Displaying 131 To 140 Of 190 Comments
OBAMA'S FORIEGN APOLOGIES: WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
I actually agree with Obama's Af-Pak strategy, Michael. What I meant, and the Carter-era Soviet analogy was a bad choice given today's Afghan realities, was that Obama would be surprised when a nation whom he believes to be overblown as a threat (Iran, I suspect) doesn't behave as he suspects. He is naive in that particular fashion, and his love letters to Tehran bear it out.
That concern certainly isn't a matter of partisanship. Defense of such naivete is.
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 7.04.2009 @ 12:45
I missed it. Which conservatives are surprised? Appalled, as they should be, but surprised?
A few points.
First, Turkey could suffer an Islamist takeover. Obama would have done well to concentrate on how refreshing it is to have a vibrant Muslim-majority democracy. As it is, he will be perceived as weak by our enemies and unless the Turkish government acknowledges it is a democracy and that is the bottom line it will face the same perception from the same monsters.
Before I get off Turkey, there is a huge difference between what happened to the Armenians there and the Indians here. For the most part, the United States, in the most heavy-handed way possible, forced natives into ghettos. The Turks subjected Armenians to outright genocide. The comparison is over the top, and that is not to diminish what happened to the native peoples but to point out the "genocide" here was primarily cultural. It was good-old fashioned slaughter in Turkey. Unlike us, they have never come to terms with it.
Finally, as to the traditional Euros, their infantilism has gone beyond reason. The United States bears some blame only because it should have made Europe pick up its tab for its defense albeit the Mansfield Bill decades ago. As it is, American taxpayers paid for European defense and the Continent became lazy and complacent and reliant on ever-growing social programs.
There was nothing to surprise anyone about Obama's European tour. He wants to be liked more than to lead, and he knew his audience and shared many of its beliefs. Like Carter before him, he will be truly taken aback when whatever is the contemporary equivalent of the Red Army rolling into Kabul happens on his watch. It will be a good reminder for the nation about what happens when this mentality is in a leadership role. This isn't a matter of patriotism. It is matter of naivete.
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 7.04.2009 @ 11:11
It isn't so much about rationality as it is about rationing. The Left has a legitimate point that health care rationing already occurs via HMO's. But this is like their complaints about Bush's deficits, which have been dwarfed by the Democratic spending orgy so quickly it has become a ludicrous comparison. Once the government fully takes over health care, rationing will be so balls to the wall memories of HMO's will bring a tear to the eye.
Assisted suicide is the logical extension of a system that can only provide so little care that in the end people die as they await their turn on the table. Your concerns about people with depression are warranted, of course, but this Brave New World has to break a few eggs and all. Not to go off on a tangent, but echoes of the Weimar Republic can be heard throughout the West now. The eugenics and euthanasia of that hyperinflated era may become contemporary "necessities."
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 3.04.2009 @ 12:19
Ruffini is right and you are wrong, but not for the reasons stated. The public is nervous, and the economy will be in deep shit for several years. I expect a Democratic bloodbath in 2010 that will rival or exceed 1994 simply because you can't spin an empty stomach. You probably will have to live with a Republican surge, Rick. Trust me, it won't be any worse than the insanity we will have to endure until Obama is castrated next year.
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 2.04.2009 @ 09:38
LIBERAL AUTHORITARIANISM AND EARTH HOUR
The richest part is the Gore family didn't dim their lights at their Nashville mansion. Floodlights continued to illuminate the trees that line their driveway.
Also an agnostic, and increasingly an atheist on this particular issue, I have a word for those who believe it to be true: all you did was hurt yourself.
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 31.03.2009 @ 09:07
ALZHEIMER'S: THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL
I agree with everything Michael Reynolds wrote, as well. I have chronic RA and have caught myself getting angry at the amounts spent on AIDS and other less common but more "glamorous" diseases. The competition is indeed unseemly.
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 26.03.2009 @ 13:28
Beautiful, Rick. The only disagreement is that it is "Filipino," and in the case of women "Filipina." So you get a 99.99 on this entry due to my anal-retention.
I am afraid that these cuts are just the start. Whether or not health care is nationalized, there is steady progress toward rationing. Is this particular cut penny wise and pound foolish? Absolutely, but that is an immutable trait of the federal government, and for that matter, local governments.
I lost grandparents to Alzheimer's. I cannot imagine a more cruel disease, and if you wanted to personalize any one thing, this was it. You got my attention.
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 26.03.2009 @ 10:34
OBAMA HASN'T SHEATHED HIS SWORD OF FEAR QUITE YET
By the time the bridge money passes through the hands of Pelosi, Dobb, Frank and their cronies, there conceivably might be enough of that billion left to buy lunch at McDonald's. I'm not sure about the concrete, though. Whoops, I forgot, that astute auditor in the form of Joe the Pl...make that Joe the Biden..is on top of all the waste. Memo to Joe: concrete doesn't cost two million dollars a ton. Big Macs go for less than a bill, too.
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 25.03.2009 @ 12:53
I pretty well agree with you although I probably would give the president a solid "C" due to his boring delivery. What also has grown stale is his strawman bullshit, such as "while others say we need to do nothing..." I really haven't heard anyone say such a thing, although as our Economic-Illiterate-in-Chief continues to make things worse that probably isn't a bad alternative (I don't buy that he has intentionally set out to wreck the economy, at least not yet). Also, as he continues an unprecedented spending orgy his claims of deficit reduction have passed from the laughable into the surreal. For the sake of the country, I hope he realizes this is just deceptive rhetoric.
This has started to look like the shortest honeymoon in history. Fuck, even some of the reporters started to push back last night. I thought that would take at least six months, but he has not paid them the homage they expect so it isn't a surprise.
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 25.03.2009 @ 08:57
IS OUR NATIONAL WILL 'WILTING AWAY?'
First off, President Obama is too inept to lie well let alone to decide which American traditions and values will survive.
As for the thrust of Breitbart's column, I have to agree with him about the Boomers and their progeny. We are pale reflections of our forefathers. If anything, the children of Boomers are even more reprehensible than their parents. Given our younger citizens have never lived through even a light recession, their opportunity to disprove this perception is here. I won't hold my breath.
Breitbart's thoughts on the GWOT were expressed clumsily but dead on if he meant what I think. I don't think he drew up the police matter/military solution distinction. Instead, Breitbart acknowledged something we all have seen--large swaths of this nation chose to ignore the threat. It wasn't a matter of what worked best. I also was appalled that so many of my fellow citizens decided it was best to pretend things were just fine and the threat overblown or non-existent.
As for Petraeus, who knows? I agree with you about generals. One this is for certain, though. Petraeus has at least run something. Given the flailing about of the current White House occupant, that is something to commend him.
Comment Posted By jackson1234 On 23.03.2009 @ 09:25
