Diminished Expectations Watch....
She "remained calm" gushed this recap. She "looked and sounded presidential" according to another observer. Sort of like Richard Grasso, former head of the New York Stock Exchange, getting a special $5 million bonus for simply doing his job after 9/11. Or like a former mayor who thinks showing up for work on 9/11 qualifies him for the presidency.
When did we start heaping praise on political and business leaders for not falling completely to pieces in the face of a challenge? Do we need heroes that badly?
When did we start heaping praise on political and business leaders for not falling completely to pieces in the face of a challenge? Do we need heroes that badly?
posted by The Cunning Realist at Sunday, December 02, 2007
11 Comments:
"...a regal-looking Hillary Rodham Clinton strolled out of her Washington home, the picture of calm in the face of crisis."
Regal-looking!?!?
She radiated strength from the balcony, all hail! She disabled the bomb with her own hands, comforting the wounded and the weak, binding up wounds with sand and spit. She took down the hostage-taker with her bare hands and grit, unshaken, unrelenting, her eyes like steel and fire.
She talked on the phone a couple times while the police got the crazy guy calmed down. And somehow she didn't shit in her pants and suffer a breakdown.
I'm embarrassed for the people who write this stuff.
They write this drivel for the same reason movie critics suck up to big ticket stars. They need access. If you get locked out by a campaign ( or white house steno pool ) your article possibilities are diminished, and therefore your paycheck. I think they are embarrassed to write it, at least until their paycheck arrives.
"When did we start heaping praise on political and business leaders for not falling completely to pieces in the face of a challenge?"
Since W was elected maybe?
Let's hope she doesn't ape "911" Rudy and start referring to the "hostage crisis" in every campaign speech for the next 11 months.
I doubt she will.
Back when Bill was president, he went fishing with a few folks from the press pool. They were on a boat in the middle of the lake when one of the reporters realized he'd left his block and tackle on the dock.
"Hang on just a sec," said Bill. "I'll go get it."
So he gets out of the boat, walks across the lake, gets the stuff, walks back and climbs back on board.
What does the headline read the next day?
"Clinton Can't Swim!"
It's about time HRC caught a break from the pres.
Public school educated citizens have been taught the great man theory of history. We are taught from a young age to worship our "betters". This is what America is now. We learn to do our leaders bidding or at least queitly except our place in the food chain. The world was a very confusing place when I was a young man. I knew I was taught many things that were not true. I also knew that my confusion about the world was related to these false beliefs I held. When I started reading for the first time (in my twenties)...not the books forced down my throat by the school system...but reading in the pursuit of wisdon and attempting to undestand the human condition...that was when the fog started to lift. Some books cut through more than others Crime and Punishment was one of those books. The idea that all great leaders have to learn to sacrifice their people for the "greater good" was a rather shocking eye opener. That the people most respect the leaders that cause them the most death and destruction is not a easy pill to swallow. Chris Hedges great book War is a Force that gives us Meaning highlights the reasons why this is so. My immediate thought when I was reading about this character, who wanted to do murder to prove he had "greatness" in him, was is he right? Well who do Americans worship the most? Lincoln? FDR? How many Americans dies for the "greater good" in their wars. When I started reading I was on my way out of the military. If I had started reading before...I never would have served.
Two comments way way off topic:
1. TCR: I was reading your Mark Gleich Mark post* from last year and you predicted the devaluation of the dollar that has continued, but expressed no alarm at that time, stating that the dollar is still the de facto world's currency. Comments were made back and forth regarding "fiat" vs "hard" currency. With the dollar index having fallen further and the price of necessary commodities having risen further, are we getting any closer to the Weimar Germany model? On a scale of 1-10, are we at 3 or 4 yet? Is there a tipping point phenomenon in the scenario?
In short, a lot has happened and I'm jonesing for another TCR economics lesson.
* http://cunningrealist.blogspot.com/2006/11/mark-gleich-mark_19.html
2. Goldhorder: you sound like an interesting soul. Do you blog at greater length anywhere else?
We have been running a "confidence" scam since 1972. The Gulf states are on the border edge of revolt. We have had them in our back pocket a very long time. It is the inflation effects on the population that brings this pressure to bear.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article2988001.ece
The tipping point comes if the Asian manufacturers...the people who produce nearly every thing we buy...begin dumping the dollar. This might never happen. They might work with us to bring a steady decline rather than a rapid one....To be a fly on the wall when Paulson went to China. Who was dictating to who?
I've had an interesting life...not sure I wanted it that way. But I did. I do blog a good deal but always at other people's blogs. I would advise anyone who wants to attempt to re-educate themselves to look up John Taylor Gotto's work on the history of our educational system. He documents his work very well....and it is very eye opening. Most of his work is free and online.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto
Grodge and others interested in the decline of the dollar and the "confidence scam" economy America has been running on, as Goldhorder aptly puts it, would be interested in the iTulip website. For example, they refer to this "tipping point" about Asian manufacturers as "Economic M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction)" and frequently have discussions about how and when this situation might change... (latest)
Hmmmm, blogger seems to have screwed up my reference to the iTulip homepage.
http://www.itulip.com/gold_dow_inflation.htm
Gold!!!
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