Comments on: Open Thread Friday

By: AuthorJack

AuthorJack — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:47:44 +0000

Yet another fine example of the Stockholm syndrome gone awry- crazy Swedes are eating too much smorgasbörd again. Speaking of lutefisk, herring and meatballs, here's something that may ruin dinner. http://www.usdebtclock.org.
When you see it all on one page, it is ominous & foreboding.

By: El_Gordo

El_Gordo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:32:14 +0000

This is the kind of naive nonsense that could only come from provincial American liberals. Having lived in Europe I have witnessed rabid anti-Americanism since the Carter administration. They pay np price for bashing the US while freeriding on our political and military commitments. I could say a lot, but in the end, when Bush left office the anti-American governments of Chirac and Schröder had been already been replaced with centrist ones. That was one of his many gifts to Obama. On the other hand, Japan just elected an anti-American one. Should we blame Obama for that?

Second, the mostly exaggerated or false stories about torture, rule of law, democratic norms etc. originated with American liberals. The European press follows the American "elites" in condemning the US. Bush has objectively done nothing to justify European outrage. The European left took it and ran with it. Michael Moore sold more books in Germany than in the US. You can thank him and his ilk.

By: El_Gordo

El_Gordo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:46:18 +0000

You can have him.

By: El_Gordo

El_Gordo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:45:44 +0000

Bush was actively engaged and had tangible foreign policy successes in Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Libya, Liberia, Haiti, Lebanon, Southern Sudan, Indonesia. The cheap catcalls from selfinterested and/or unconcerned parties do not change that; it´s just a kind of sport for them. Maybe they do not care much about brown people.

Obama has insulted or bullied Britain, India, Honduras (where he opposes constitutional government!), Israel, Poland etc – all important and friendly countries. He cuddles or rewards those who do not deserve it and will never reciprocate: the regimes of Venezuela, Iran, Burma, Sudan, the Taliban etc. Then there is his stance against free trade. Obama is thoughtless and strategically inept and we will reap the results sooner or later. It´s not for nothing that Sarkozy makes sarcastic jokes about him. The Nobel Peace Prize does not change that.

By: El_Gordo

El_Gordo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:43:31 +0000

Schröder is a good example, by the way. He supported and took part in an unilateral war on Serbia, against the objections of Russia and with no blessing from the UN. He was also engaged in shameless pro-war propaganda, some of which was later exposed as untrue in the German media but no one cared much. Do you really think his grandstanding over Iraq sprang from a genuine concern over international rules which he had flouted himself? Or was it a cheap and costfree way to get reelected with the votes of the left despite having implemented unpopular welfare cutbacks? Considering he was a radical in the 1970s and 1980s who already disliked the US and what the US stand for? Get real.

By: El_Gordo

El_Gordo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:30:29 +0000

Bush was actively engaged and had tangible successes in Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Libya, Liberia, Haiti, Lebanon, Southern Sudan, Indonesia. The cheap catcalls from selfinterested and/or unconcerned parties does not change that; it´s just a kind of sport for them.

By: El_Gordo

El_Gordo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:17:55 +0000

Now THAT is American hubris. Relief about what? Which countries? Which country actually gives a damn about third world peoples being killed or oppressed? Those who count – apart from us – are not going to do anything effective with regard to nuclear proliferation or they would already have. We didn´t stop them. Torture? Unlike you, they know already that we don´t torture. Some use torture themselves. They are comfortable dealing with regimes of all kinds – no vitriol in the European press towards Putin´s Russia, which actually blackmails European countries and generally does everything the US have ever been accused of and then some.

Call me when the Europeans, Russians, Chinese etc. do more for us or with us than they have done in recent years.

By: El_Gordo

El_Gordo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:14:30 +0000

Now THAT is American hubris. Relief about what? Which countries? They are not going to do anything effective with regard to nuclear proliferation or they would already have – we didn´t stop them. Torture? Unlike you, they know already that we don´t torture. Some use torture themselves. They are comfortable dealing with regimes of all kinds – no vitriol in the European press towards Putin´s Russia, which actually blackmails European countries and generally does everything the US have ever been accused of and then some.

Call me when the Europeans, Russians, Chinese etc. do more for us or with us than they have done in recent years.

By: El_Gordo

El_Gordo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:37:53 +0000

This is the kind of naive nonsense that could only come from provincial American liberals. Having lived in Europe I have witnessed rabid anti-Americanism since the Carter administration. I could say a lot, but in the end, when Bush left office the anti-American governments of Chirac and Schröder had been already been replaced with centrist ones. That was one of his many gifts to Obama. On the other hand, Japan just elected an anti-American one. Should we blame Obama for that?

By: gingersnapper

gingersnapper — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:45:50 +0000

Doris Day——A Class Act!