The American Spectator

Ed| 10.13.09 @ 8:11PM

I can tell you he was a proud American and there's a good chance he may have taken national pride in his leader receiving such an award. I can assure he would not approve of calling the President of the United States "Big O" whether he approved of his politics or not.

Shawn Macomber| 10.13.09 @ 9:32PM

Um, you:

"Wow, how much did Bush suck if just having a rational foreign policy will get you the Nobel Peace Prize?"

And you again:

"I’ll take an early politicized Nobel Peace Prize over a chickenhawk vice president that beats the drums for war but doesn’t have the guts to ever himself."

At least I don't pretend to have respect for public figures and then ignore my own hypocrisies while lecturing others. Hmm, Big O vs. Gutless Chickenhawks Who Suck. Actually, I feel like I do alright when I get on the politeness scale with you!

Oh, and, by the way, I didn't exalt Bush and I'm certainly not going to exalt this current know-it-all yahoo because it was the lack of bootlicking deference to power that made this country great.

Mary Louise| 10.13.09 @ 9:50PM

because it was the lack of bootlicking deference to power that made this country great.

Amen! I'm inclined to think that's not a bad definition of freedom.

Mary Louise| 10.13.09 @ 9:32PM

From the great Robert A. Heinlein. Yeah, it's depressing, but it's too good not to post:

**What are the marks of a sick culture?

It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.

A very bad sign. Particularism. It was once considered a Spanish vice but any country can fall sick with it. Dominance of males over females seems to be one of the symptoms. Before a revolution can take place, the population must lose faith in both the police and the courts.

High taxation is important and so is inflation of the currency and the ratio of the productive to those on the public payroll. But that's old hat; everybody knows that a country is on the skids when its income and outgo get out of balance and stay that way - even though there are always endless attempts to wish it way by legislation. But I started looking for little signs and what some call silly-season symptoms.

I want to mention one of the obvious symptoms: Violence. Muggings. Sniping. Arson. Bombing. Terrorism of any sort. Riots of course - but I suspect that little incidents of violence, pecking way at people day after day, damage a culture even more than riots that flare up and then die down. Oh, conscription and slavery and arbitrary compulsion of all sorts and imprisonment without bail and without speedy trial - but those things are obvious; all the histories list them.

I think you have missed the most alarming symptom of all. This one I shall tell you. But go back and search for it. Examine it. Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms as you have named. But a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot.

This symptom is especially serious in that an individual displaying it never thinks of it as a sign of ill health but as proof of his/her strength.

Look for it. Study it. It is too late to save this culture - this worldwide culture, not just the freak show here in California. Therefore we must now prepare the monasteries for the coming Dark Age. Electronic records are too fragile; we must again have books, of stable inks and resistant paper.--- Friday and Dr. Baldwin in Friday**

Shawn Macomber| 10.13.09 @ 10:17PM

That said, two things:

1. The second quote, taken from the Resurrection Song blog liked above, should read "guts to serve" not "guts to ever."

2. I visited the blog of Ed, the commenter I responded to, and it has a lot of cool images and neat thought blurbs, so I encourage you all to take a moment and check it out.