In honor of Presidents Day (or President’s Day, or perhaps Presidents’ Day), the Sanity Squad yaks it up about good Presidents and bad, and the office itself. We also discuss the recent terrorist train bombing in India. Please join me, Siggy, Shrink, and Dr. Sanity. And take a look at this, Siggy’s intro to the podcast, in which he outs some information about my secret past.
More reasons to visit the blogs of my esteeemd colleagues: Dr. Sanity proves she is a lyrical parodist extraordinaire in her “Rime of the Ancient Socialists,” while Shrink has a multi-parter on abortion (just go to his blog and scroll down; I may post something on the topic soon, as well). And Siggy has a personal story of his own to share, in addition to some general reflections on this most weighty and profoundly controversial subject.
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely
February 22nd, 2007 at 5:51 am
Ah, good old Blogger! First it seemed to eat the link to the podcast, and it also published the post twice. Then it wouldn’t delete the extra post when I asked it to. And then, when some commenters pointed out the problems with the link and I went to fix it, Blogger finally decided to delete one of the extra posts (ex post facto)–but it turned out to be the one with the comments! Ah well, the link’s finally fixed, anyway.
I think Blogger might be a bit angry that I’m planning to leave it for Wordpress. Like Hal in “2001,” it’s taking its revenge.
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:41 pm
“Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do”
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Good podcast, BTW. An excellent illustration of the winners getting to write the history. I have some friends who still refer to the Civil War as the “War of Northern Aggression”; who heard personal family accounts of the war period and Reconstruction from grandparents.
Just another reason to distrust orthodoxy and the conventional wisdom while working hard to avoid drinking anybody’s Koolaid. As my late mother used to say, “Simple answers for simple minds, dear.”
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Please say ‘me’ and not ‘myself’.
[This is one of the comments that Blogger deleted, you may think it does some good after all!]
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I changed it, ligneus–but now Haloscan is acted up and wouldn’t accept a comment I wrote (although perhaps it will register later, and then I’ll sound as though I’m saying it over and over again).
More revenge–not of Blogger this time, but of Haloscan.
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:09 pm
My goodness: has acted up, not is acted up. That’ll teach me not to preview.
Haloscan is still acting up, by the way.
February 23rd, 2007 at 1:40 am
Wow, I didn’t think you’d actually change ‘myself’! It’s one of those things that bugs me and most people get kinda upset if I point it out.
Way back in the sixties a friend’s three year old little girl one day in the car looked behind and said, ‘That car’s following myself’. We all thought it hilarious [as well as cute], I hope it wouldn’t pass quite un-noticed now.
February 23rd, 2007 at 5:34 am
Did you catch my comment on the audio cast before it went away, Neo?
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:56 pm
There is a brilliant commentary to the topic, which I strongly recommend to read:
http://www.olimu.com/WebJournalism/Texts/Commentary/GWB-NurturistInChief.htm
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
There are two things that seem to me strange, even ridiculous, about American culture. First is obsession with legal issues, conviction that every aspect of human existence can and should be somehow translated into some provision of law. Nobody in Russia ever wants to settle family disputes involving lawyers - it is shame and disgrace if this happened. Even less intimate matters, like conflicts of employe with administration, we try to settle without formalities of law, by personal agreement.
The second, which is related to the first, is attempt to turn every moral dispute into legal battle. As if legalization of a sin makes it not a sin at all - sodomy, for example, or abortion on demand. For Russians, these matters - sin and crime - are two separate topics, and moral reasoning have nothing in common with legal reasoning; they exist in separate realms. And in nation where half of populace believes that abortion is a sin, and the other half believes otherwise, no law on this subject is possible: it will criminalize millions and create a huge organized crime industry. Isn’t sad experience with Prohibition enough?
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:52 pm
A lot of American obsessions can perhaps be traced to narcissism and also to denial of guilt and responsibility. The eternal child so to speak.
There is also a lot of fear mixed in. American power is like a pandora’s box. If you open it… it will conduct a permanent state of things onto the world. Hollywood fears this because they dislike responsibility, guilt, and seeing themselves for what they are. Guilt of being rich also factors into it. If you feel guilty for being rich, why would you use that money to get richer. Thus people see America’s power and believes that America’s power should be spent on… appropriate fields of endeavour, instead of power creating more power.
They fear this, they dislike it, and they shun it. Bush included. Why? I assume because once you start the chain reaction, Pandora will not be stopped by anything. Although Nemesis is a good example of a chance.