Obama in video at the Berlin Wall
Obama went to Berlin before his election, on a triumphant campaign tour. He had time to go to Copenhagen to plead for a Chicago Olympics. And he will make time for an extra-special Oslo jaunt in order to receive his very own Nobel Peace Prize.
But he only found time to appear at the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall through the magic of video. Otherwise, poor Hillary will have to do.
As part of his taped address, Obama intoned:
“Few would have foreseen ”¦ that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent.”
I have a bit of a quarrel with the word “led” to refer to what Obama is doing to this country. But of course, it’s never about him—except when it is. The man seems compelled to continually bring his personal history into each and every occasion, even when he can’t be bothered to be personally present.
Ronald Reagan used to point to the greatness of the American people
∅bama points to the greatness of himself.
Palin had more executive experience than him though.
We are all of African descent….
However fewer still would have predicted that America would be led by a son who idolized his African father — an alcoholic socialist who deserted the son and returned to Africa with a different American wife, abused her, and died of drinking, poverty and traffic accidents.
Yet the son rose to prominence in part because of a memoir he wrote (or co-wrote) based on the inspiration in life he received, not from his white mother, white grandmother or white grandfather who raised him, but from his dissolute African father who only visited the son once after he was two years old.
Off Topic:
Today’s the USMC Birthday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7fTppX5swo
Semper Fi
I understand that there was no mention in his speech of Reagan or Thatcher, or their “minor” contributions to ending the cold war.
Me, me, me,
it’s all about me
(and ya’all can go ta hell)!
Me, me, me,
it’s all about me.
And don’t you forget it!
What the hell is wrong with Obama? Is everything about him? Are his coordinates (0,0,0)?
He’s quick to point out that he wasn’t involved in anything for which America gets criticized (e.g., his pathetic defense of himself to assorted Latin Red pinup boys), but happy to put himself front and center in other things he wasn’t involved in if they’re considered good.
What a putz.
Huxley, let’s flesh out the story a bit more.
Dear old dad was scoring a little underaged (note Obama was born nine months and a week after Stan’s 18th birthday — think that was their first time?) and none-too-bright white tail when Mr. Stork unexpectedly made an emergency landing. Dad was temporarily stuck with Stan and little Barack until the first opportunity to boogie out of there, which he leapt at, never to return, or to give a rat’s ass about his kith and kin there. He went on to another wife or two, spousal abuse, alcoholism, drunk driving, and half-assed socialism. Who wouldn’t be in awe of such an admirable, inspiring character? I’m amazed he wasn’t chosen for Father of the Year.
Meanwhile Obama and the Mrs Just Arrived in Texas for their Fort Hood Photo Op.
Guess the Obama brains trust realize how badly they blew the press conference last week or they would have blown this off like the Berlin Wall commemoration.
Thank god that Michelle is wearing black and not the tasteless scarlet confection she wore to the posthumous award ceremony for a Medal of Honor recipient last September.
Meanwhile Obama and the Mrs Just Arrived in Texas for their Fort Hood Photo Op.
Focus groups. Is there anything they’re not good for?
Thank god that Michelle is wearing black and not the tasteless scarlet confection she wore to the posthumous award ceremony for a Medal of Honor recipient last September.
And fortunately Barry didn’t turn up in an aloha shirt or anything, but it is after Labor Day.
Someone better tell him not to give Hasan a shout out.
Well, you can’t expect Barry to expend the same effort on commemorating the fall of [what was it? Communism? never mention the name!] whatever, as he did on his million-dollar date with the First Heifer in Paris.
I mean, come on.
You gotta admit the guy is consistent. Red to the core.
I’m just pleased that this occasion didn’t prompt him to announce a multibillion dollar bailout of the German construction industry.
For some reason, I’m really fed up with him today. Something has snapped. I keep trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it gets harder and harder as my doubt dwindles.
huxley — good points
OB – Coordinates (0,0,0).
Perfect image, especially as Obama does exceptionally well among people who were told there would be no math on this exam.
Here’s an interesting thought: Journalists are word-and-image people, so they are quite good at filtering people in terms of those skills. New independent media could focus on asking questions that would reveal their general numeracy and scientific understanding. It wouldn’t have to be a Jeopardy-style gotcha quiz. And Lord knows, no more of the do-you-support-funding-for-SCIENCE!-questions. Just people who know a little something about math and science themselves, constantly keeping before the American people the abilities of the candidates with skilled questioning.
Obama and Hillary are just distractions.
I’m keeping my focus on celebarting that wondrous year of freedom, 1989.
The year the wall (and the iron curtain) came down , and the Soviet Union was on its way to the “ashheap of history.”
For some reason, I’m really fed up with [Obama] today.
OB: I know the feeling. His handling of the Fort Hood murders and the Berlin Wall commemoration really got under my skin.
Obama can’t name our enemies and he can’t name our heroes because to do either wouldn’t support his narrative.
nyo: Thanks!
AVI, I’ve got one for ya. “Please explain why we can’t solve our energy problems by using batteries.”
You laugh at this, I’m sure, but I’ve had to explain this multiple times to college graduates (and one physician!). It’s an elementary shibboleth to determine whether someone has the faintest clue what he’s talking about.
I may have posted this comment before, but it is worth repeating here. In 1980, Eugene McCarthy endorsed Reagan over Carter. After a “thank you for your support” meeting Reagan, aide Michael Deaver (story told by Deaver on a C-Span shown panel) asked McCarthy why he was supporting Reagan. After a general answer, Deaver asked, “(n)o, why are you really supporting him?” McCarthy’s answer: “Because he doesn’t confuse the presidency with himself.”
NeoNeocon,
Did you see the article in the Wall Street Journal today about neo-neo-cons? Thought you’d find it interesting. I know it doesn’t decribe you but they’re stealing your label:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704402404574525722665041310.html
zfredz: That was an eye-opener about Eugene McCarthy. Back then the Democratic leadership wasn’t nearly so bankrupt as what we have now.
I have a CD live recording of Beethoven’s Ninth that Leonard Bernstein conducted in Berlin on the Christmas after the wall came down. At Bernstein’s insistence, they sang the “Ode to Joy” as “Ode to Freedom” — “An die Freiheit.”
You have to remember that Bernstein was a typical New York leftie who hosted fundraisers for the Black Panthers, but even Bernstein was not above celebrating the Fall of the Wall, and robustly.
Hans Gruber: I guess you missed this post.
But thanks for the heads-up anyway!
Not only was Obama’s message about him, it was also about racist America. It subconsciously reinforces the anti-Americanism that was obvious during the Bush years and sends a message about those who don’t support him back in the good ole USA. If he fails, it will be the fault of those racists, who by the way also aren’t too keen on enlightened (but broke) European social welfare systems.
That’s ok, google can only celebrate sesame street for days… makes one want to look at the calander to see why they didnt find anything else.
Occam’s Beard:
I could be wrong, but it seems the whole “Hydrogen as a fuel source” falls into the same category as batteries. It does not seems to occur in large quanties in a pure diatomic H2 form here on Earth. Almost always bound up to something else- which takes energy to break. Seems Hydrogen on this planet, in whatever form, is really little more than a potential energy storage system,a battery if you will, rather than a true energy generator…
but i could be wrong….
“Why can’t we just use batteries?” reminds me of my 3 year old saying “can’t you go to the ATM?” when I said we didn’t have enough money for something.
I for one won’t fault the president for waiting until today to meet the families of the Fort Hood massacre victims. It takes a long time to upload the tele-prompter…
Beverly,
Your reference to the “First Heifer” is over the line.
I’m no fan of either Obama, but as Michelle herself would say, “that’s just mean.”
De gustibus!
As a native German (and born and raised in East Germany), I have to admit that you are completely right. The “event” was just like a giant Disneyland, with a pseudo-wall falling down like Domino.
However, some of the guests really were a part of the process – Polish Lech Walesa, Hungarys Miklos Nemeth, and of course east German civil-rights activists from these times. Finally, they and the people brought down the wall, no politicians.
However, the best speeches were held by Angela Merkel (she really could recall her personal situation at that time) and the speech of Hillary. Obama – you mentioned all about his speech. Finally, Hillary would have been the better Democrat president 🙂
Greetings from Germany
He will, says current planning, to go Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I presume he will not say Pearl Harbor was just retaliation for the atomic bombing. I think only undergraduates believe that.
Wait. This is zero we’re talking about. The man who outdoes all your presumptions.
Christian,
yes but wasnt it nice that marcus wolfe was not there?
and on the issue of hiroshima and nagasaki, he will BOMB AND BOMB about the BOMBS..
why?
becuse the japanese do not share our view of the situation… (not to mention how their cities show that nuclear war IS viable because the planet is a lot larger than we perceive).
they CELEBRATE it solemnly…
NOT memorialize it as a trajedy.
if they would have won the war, they would have stayed a backwards feudal state, of the kind obama and the left are trying to make.
by losing to a very historically unique force, they did NOT lose their country, their freedom, nor their prospertity. they ended up many times better than they were, and they are aware of it.
their view is not as simple as obamas and ours.
this is much more complicated than my tiny paragraphs can explain. do not think that the hibakusha do not still suffer. do not think that they are FOR such methods of change. that would be childish.
obama is going there not for the event, but to give personal blessing to certain people and groups. this is what such despotic types do.
in this case people like Akiba:
“The year 2020 is important as we want to enter a world without nuclear weapons with as many hibakusha as possible. We call on the world to join forces with us to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020.”
“Global democracy that respects the will of the world and respects the power of the people has begun to grow.”
“We have the power. We have the responsibility. We are the Obamajority. And we can abolish nuclear weapons. Yes we can,” said the mayor.
its for such people that he goes.
if you want to know his stand on the subject, just read this…
The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
By James P. Cannon
http://www.marxists.org/archive/cannon/works/1945/hiroshima.htm
he will not have the more complicated view of the older japanese who lived through it, but the younger ones to which the marxists are controling their world view.
$100 to anyone who truthfully knows of such things as Hachiko (a testimoney to loyalty), and and Sadako Sasaki a different similar memorial.
I would say.. if you want to celebrate and do right, to go out and learn how to fold a paper crane.
Version 1
It seems to me sometimes that all the soldiers,
Who never came from battles of the war,
Were not just laid into the dirt, but
Were turned into the cranes as white as snow.
So they are flying ever since those ages.
They call for us and may be that is why
The voice of them is full of burning sadness
And we keep silence looking into sky.
The flock of cranes is flying slow and sadly
Through colors of a sundown. I can see
That there is a gap between them, and maybe
It is a spot that’s meant, my friend, for me.
There will be day and I will fly right there,
There will be day and may be it is close.
And from the skies above I will be sending
The voice for those I loved and left on earth.
Today, over 9 metric tones of paper cranes are delivered to Hiroshima annually. They are displayed in the Hiroshima Carp baseball stadium as a reminder to the world.
i leave it up to you all to discover her…
and maybe not be turned inward all the time in your discussions….
here is how to fold a crane…
http://www.pacificfriend.ca/html/how_to_fold_a_paper_crane.html
if you get a chance… do go during the sakura festival, and cherry blossom time. (if you cant and you live in ny, you CAN go to the brooklyn botanical garden… they celebrate. or if you want to know another place, the pepsi company above ny. they have a campus… has one of my fav rodins there… )
i found it hard to find images..
the cranes are not just at the baseball stadium, they are also in other parks too
this is what a thousand paper cranes look like
farm1.static.flickr.com/44/138617896_1c05d5899b.jpg
this is at the peace park
postcardexchange.net/wp-content/uploads/childrenspeacemonument.jpg
and
http://www.traveladdicts.connectfree.co.uk/Japan/Images/Childrens_memorial_Hiroshima.jpg
another pile in another place
http://www.cebix.net/photos/japan/g04.jpg
there are other interesting memorials and things.
the ones that stain my mind the most are the wall shadows.
they remain… the one that got me was a childrens school yard.
wall shadows are made by the radiation.
its so severe and strong, that it dissociated the atoms of your body and sprays them behind you.
if the sun were hugely more powerful, it would do the same.
this instantaneous thing leaves a bleached wall in its place… and where the shadows where, the carbon condenses.
in a hyper second, they became shadows on a wall.
perilousmemories.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/2003_0126.jpg
there is an artist (?) in ny that paints such silhouets at the turns to alleyways and such…
http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~wigley/HiroshimaWatch.jpg
[Obama] will, says current planning, go to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I thought Richard Aubrey was joking, but I would have been wrong. From the AP:
President Barack Obama says he wants to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki sometime during his presidency but won’t have time during this week’s trip to Japan to go to the cities devastated by U.S. atomic bombs at the end of World War II.
No sitting U.S. president has visited the two cities largely because of the controversy it could raise at home. …
“The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency,” Obama said in the interview, done Monday at the White House.
Is there no venue that can make America look bad that Obama will not exploit?
I think strong, even overwhelming, arguments can be made for the use of nuclear weapons to force Japan to surrender. I believe those bombs saved literally millions of lives, more Japanese than American, but I rather doubt that Obama’s visits will be an occasion to recall those arguments.
You’re absolutely correct. Hydrogen, hydrocarbons, whatever one burns, is just a source of electrons that can be transferred to oxygen exothermically, i.e., downhill energetically. How did the electrons come to find themselves at a thermodynamic potential that their transfer to oxygen would be exothermic? Put another way, you can’t burn something twice. Why?
Electrons in energy generation can be thought of as the “working fluid” just as water is the working fluid in a hydroelectric dam, or steam in a steam engine. Thinking that we can solve energy problems by switching to, e.g., hydrogen is as pointless and silly as replacing the water behind a hydroelectric dam with champagne. It’s nothing to do with the fluid — it’s to do with the height of the fluid, whatever that fluid may be. The analogy is precise. No one builds hydroelectric plants on flat ground.
The question is how do we get the working fluid at sufficient height that we can obtain energy from letting gravity act on it? For a hydroelectric plant, the sun volatilizes ocean water into vapor that drifts over mountains and condenses, falling as rain/snow behind dams. Hydrocarbons come from plants, whose growth is driven by …the sun. The oxygen for combustion comes from plants, whose growth (and whose photosystem II, the part that generates oxygen) is driven by …the sun. Wind power? Sun. And where does the sun get its energy? Nuclear fusion — nuclei lighter than 56Fe are thermodynamically unstable with respect to fusion (those heavier are unstable with respect to fission).
Donna, how long has your three year old been a White House economics advisor?
Besides, that was the Germans that bombed Pearl Harbor. And we liberated Auschwitz, with multicultural troops from all 58 states. Ask any Obama voter.
huxley.
As I said, zero is the man who outdoes all your [negative] presumptions
No one builds hydroelectric plants on flat ground.
no one but liberals… these are people who chastized me for pointing out that using the sahara desert to power europe is unworkable.
one big dust storm then what?
the answers were incredible in their lack of anything but cartoon inventing, and incredible in that they were chastising me for the obvious and coudlnt see what was wrong with their “oh yeah” solution
technically, to add, solar cells are also a battery!!!
it takes more energy to make them than they produce in their lifetimes. so in essence they are a special kind of battery who can provide the energy that was put into making them, back to the user as released by the sun. an absraction for both examples but an accurate one.
by the way… i took the model plant that google built, and used that as a basis, and did some math.
they are slamming up against the tyranny of numbers. an old term meaning that the size of the numbers involved are so large that they are unworkable. this is something Information scientists are very aware of, as you dont want to start a project that will not be done till the year 890,435 way in the future… (if the power dont cut between now and then).
this is why the libs couldnt argue a reason. even the authors and researchers didnt do a back of the envelope calculation.
so what did they say when i said a dust storm will screw ya?
well, one said they can put saran wrap on every mirror… and just take it off and reapply it.
8 million mirrors and a bunch of people runing around with saran wrap…
others imagined it to be like beach sand.. not talcum powder… so said it would just fall off.
another one said… the sahara is a large place, as if the solar cells will get up and run away, or that there are places where there are no sand storms.
and my favorite…
they can hose them down…
yes…
they actually said that we can wash them in the sahara.
no wonder manufactureing went away..
such people are too stupid to build the nikes that they want to wear. and if they didnt roll aroudn associating with similar stupid people, they would starve to death.
thanks for a great commentary occam!!!!!!!!!!
oh.. one way i explain it to those not too bright that i think you might enjoy..
i said want to know the real energy in solar?
they say yes.
and i say, ever see a plant get up and run away?
they say no
i said thats because it cant gather enouhg energy from the sun to be able to move.
want to know why we can run?
yes
because we eat many many many plants to aggregate their energy so we can move.
Nuclear fusion — nuclei lighter than 56Fe are thermodynamically unstable with respect to fusion (those heavier are unstable with respect to fission).
and it was one of my heroes. a man like me who sees things so differently that discovered that. and no it wasnt einstein. einstein understood the implication when he went to him, but leo slazny realized how to make the doomsday weapon.
back to obama…
i think that he is following the teachings of the frankfurt school.. after all, just read the script and lyrics to rocky horror, and especially shock treatment… which covers phase two, after middle america was shocked from their puritanical resting place.
You’ll find happy hearts, and smiling faces
And tolerance for the ethnic races
You’ll find a rambling rose and a picket fence
Tenderness and innocence
You’ll find conference rooms
And a children’s playground
Denton is a real OK town
Civic pride and civic duty
And Denton girls are
Full of beauty
If you’re looking for a life of leisure
You’re going to get a whole lot to please ya
This is the Mecca of America
The Bethlehem of the West
The home of happiness
Leisurewise, we’re sure you will adapt!!!
ah.. it covers the disolution of traditional family by socially tying up the men, feeding the vanity and selfhishness of the women and empowering them, and making everyone “mental cripples”
but the song that fits obama is there too!
There’s just the two of me
Alone at last together
We’ve got the luck so far
We are my lucky star
Deep in the heart of me
I love every part of me
All I can see in me
Is danger and ecstasy
One thing there couldn’t be
Is any more me in me
I am my destiny
Je croie en toujour en moi, ha ha
I’d never lie to me
I’d be willing to die for moi
I’ll pray every day to me
And here’s what I’d say to me
This is the me of me
Me me me
Me me me
Me me me
Me me me
Oh, me me
Me me me
Yeah, me me
Look at me
Moi moi
its better with the music…
but thats the message given to the grandchildren of the greatest generation and THATS why they helped elect obama…
affective narcisists supporting a socipath who plays them as one of their own.
the me of me…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5v-jYWukhw
🙂
oh.. the script is prescient as it predicts our move to reality tv… where the lines between real an fake blur… and we look to television and the manipulated people put up as exampled of how we should live, exploiting our minds circuits for social normalcy by mimicry.
Here’s a lovely tribute to George W. Bush from a couple of gay Chicago Hillary Democrats blogging at
Hillbuzz:
…we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.
FOR HOURS.
The Bushes went and met privately with these families for HOURS, hugging them, holding them, comforting them.
If there are any of you out there with any connection at all to the Bushes, we implore you to give them our thanks…you tell them at a bunch of gay Hillary guys in Boystown, Chicago were wrong about the Bushes…and are deeply, deeply sorry for any jokes we told about them in the past, any bad thoughts we had about these good, good people.
There’s more at the link about how they came around to their appreciation of Bush plus some rather invidious comparisons with the current White House resident whom they refer to as Dr. Utopia.
It took me years to warm to Bush myself, but I do miss him now.
I read a telling comment somewhere recently: if the situation were reversed, can you imagine the Obamas making a private, quiet visit to Fort Hood as the Bushes did?
No, neither can I.
No, neither can I.
I doubt the Obamas would have shown up at the Ft Hood service if it were not politically mandatory.
I agree. And that’s while he’s in the White House. Once he’s out (please, God, in 2013), forget it. He won’t lift a finger then, is my confident prediction.
Thanks for that, Huxley.
In re being able to imagine a someday former President Obama going to visit the troops, the way the Bushes just did — ask yourself this: how many other former Commanders-in-Chief did what the Bushes just did?
Was Bill Clinton there? Was Jimmy Carter there? Was GHWB there?
This isn’t about party affiliation; it’s about having character, and having some class and some grace. Nobody would have said a word about the Bushes had they stayed home; but it was important for THEM, personally, to be there, and so they went.
I miss them too.
respectfully,
DiB
P.S. — I have to laugh when I recognize some of the pseudonyms in use here. Thanks for making me smile, Hans Gruber!
Thanks for the share