39 Comments

1. SoberHorseThief:

Evan Thomas has reached new heights of clownitude. Would not have believed it possible.

Jun 6, 2009 - 3:36 pm 2. Andrew_M_Garland:

Obama has a history of taking no position or taking all positions. He has said one thing, then said the other.

Most commonly, he will explain two or more sides of an issue, explain that these are both worthy and in conflict, and that resolving the problem will be difficult. That is it, no choices made.

He stridently opposed policy choices of Bush, and now supports those policies, with no explanation or apology.

He announced that he doesn’t want to run the auto companies. Then, he forced a plan that gives the government 60-70% control. Other structuring would have been possible that would have truly kept the government out of a controlling, decision making position. Even better, he could have left those companies alone and saved the resources of the taxpayers and the country.

This may all be brilliant politics, from the viewpoint of maintaining popularity.
Unfortunately, this also means that his word means nothing. So, what does it matter what he says in any speech?

Let’s see his well considered plans, papers, and written proposals. Let’s see his administration’s analyses of the problems of our times. Let’s stop reading the tea leaves of his words, and instead demand accountable, written presentations, more than 12 hours before these are pushed through as new law.

It is useless to analyze his speeches as if they mean anything, because he constructs his statements for effect. We don’t know what his policy is, or the solid reasoning supporting that policy.

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:12 pm 3. lefroy:

Reagan: “One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.”

Obama: “No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation by any other.”

And the allied nations imposed it on Japan and Germany, with spectacular success. It was, apparently, wrong to do so.

Queasiness? It’s indignation and contempt I feel about the President Obama’s nursery moralising.

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:12 pm 4. Mrs. Jackson:

“Well, we were the good guys in 1984, it felt that way. It hasn’t felt that way in recent years. So Obama’s had, really, a different task. We’re seen too often as the bad guys. And he, he has a very different job from . . .Reagan was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is — we are above that now. We’re not just parochial, we’re not just chauvinistic, we’re not just provincial. We stand for something, I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above above the world, he’s sort of God.”

Honestly Mr. Kimball, if these *men* were charged to build airplanes, the planes would never get off the ground.

The cult of personality is really quite ugly.

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:17 pm 5. lc:

The father of a friend of mine was at D-Day. He wasn’t an engineer or a ranger, just a regular grunt riding in on a landing craft. Since he was tall he was standing toward the back of the boat. When the ramp went down in a matter of seconds all those in front of him were mowed down and he had to scramble for his life over the bodies of friends and fellow grunts to get to the beach. He was an eventual liberator of a concentration camp (unknown which one), a topic he never talked about.

I agree there are things worth dying for. I thank God, and all the grunts, engineers, rangers, and, both famous and nameless courageous people who fought for freedom, that I have never had to face that choice.

How foolish Thomas is. Peoples’ reaction to Obama is scary. Air sickness bags are appropriate because the Obama myth can’t be stomached, except by the likes of Thomas. I’m sure he’s in need, though, of some industrial strength diapers.

I have been reading Hayak’s “The Road to Serfdom” which is a very common sense response to the collectivist urge – again, a great anti totalitarian work written in the 1940’s…(wonder what they knew then?) From the book:

“Hitler did not have to destroy democracy; he merely took advantage of the decay of democracy and at the critical moment obtained the support of many…” (who detested him)…..

Obama is like Hitler in at least this: he appeals (intentionally, I think) to the mythic in people; he lays it on thick with symbolism (and frankly, double talk and nice sounding falsehoods), and he is such a windbag (his “soaring rhetoric”). There are many differences; Hitler, after all, was a wicked wicked man (in the words of Louis Farrakhan).

From another work from the 1940’s:

“Who controls the past controls the future.
Who controls the present controls the past.”

“I am glad I was caught – I was mentally deranged. Now I am cured…I ask only for you to accept my love of our Leader…” (the last bit from the excellent movie of the book…)

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:35 pm 6. Ed Driscoll » No Apologies Necessary:

[...] Roger Kimball advises keeping the Dramamine alongside the TV remote control: “D-Day and the air-sickness bag: the way we live now.” Filed under: Bobos In Paradise, Oh, That Liberal Media!, War And [...]

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:50 am 7. David Thomson:

“he’s sort of God.”

Barack Obama is something of a trojan horse able to con the gullible citizenry to get inside the city’s gates. Evan Thomas and his ilk merely need to follow him to acquire significant wealth and power. A fascist society rewards only those “elites” that go along with the program. Thomas does not want to remain a mere journalist. He also desires to become a valued member of the power structure. His “sort of God” rhetoric is reminiscent of the adulation received by Benito Mussolini from his adoring admirers.

Jun 7, 2009 - 1:36 am 8. Pajamas Media » D-Day and the Air-Sickness Bag:

[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]

Jun 7, 2009 - 4:56 am 9. Allston:

Someday, if all keeps on as it has been, Frank Herbert’s line from “Dune” will apply: “Here lies a toppled god. His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal,A narrow and a tall one.”

Jun 7, 2009 - 5:23 am 10. tanstaafl:

Evan Thomas (grandson of socialist Norman Thomas) is the guy who made that mind boggling statement after Duke/la crosse melted down that…

“The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong.”

Translated, that means: “in this unequal, oppressive society, the story of a black dancer exploited by rich white sports’ guys (”the narrative”) was accurate. Unfortunately (aw, gosh, gee whiz) the facts in this case didn’t support it.”

(However, caveat, the narrative is still right !)

That attitude pretty much sums up the press’ (not to mention many Duke professors themselves) mea culpa, or lack thereof, in the Duke case. Trash some lives, no big deal, when they’re rich, white kids.

Modern liberals, and their various publications such as Newsweek and the New York Times, are deeply into the idea of narrative being truer and having more weight than any boring old facts.

We’re all way too familiar with the entrenched media’s convenient narrative during the two terms of the previous President. Of course, any practice or procedure that the press deemed to be foul and wrong and oppressive under GWB is sainted and enlightened under BHO.

Curently, the God-Smacked “legacy” press buys into the “sort of God” narrative and has completely abandoned any trace of objective reportage. That’s why when God goofs up, is preachy, calls the US one of the largest Muslim countries of the planet, says he doesn’t speak “Austrian”, spends our money on a monumental scale with no results, conducts a systematic anti-Republic power grab, whines about Guantanamo to true despots, apologizes to Europe and obsequiously venerates the “Holy Koran” in an Arab country, et al. and etc., it all just gets washed over.

Jun 7, 2009 - 6:35 am 11. kenny komodo:

A sort of God? No I don’t think so. A false God maybe to the mindless sheeple on the left who are only to eager to find something or someone to lead them on their way, someone to worship in place of one of their socialist hero’s such as Lenin or Stalin. The very very thin sheer of greatness that Obambi has coated himself in is already starting to wear away as his policies and positions, the things he states and his very actions are being questioned by his acolytes on the left. Buyers remorse is already starting to kick in. This is a one term loser who will be remembered forever as the absolute worst President the country has ever elected.

Jun 7, 2009 - 6:40 am 12. Alcuin:

Thank you, Roger, from the UK. A somewhat more cynical view of the American Idol’s betrayal of those brave democrats in the “Muslim World” is presented by Amir Taheri.

Reagan did not do soaring rhetoric like Kennedy and Obama, he spoke simple truths, and he did Policy, not Politics. He is much missed.

I would also like to point out that D-Day was primarily a British operation. The ground forces came from Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. But the Intelligence that enabled them, the ships that moved them and the aircraft that supported them were nearly all British. That the Queen (who was herself in uniform at the time) should not have been invited to the 65th is a disgrace, whether it be an omission by Sarkozy of a screw-up by Brown. Who knows which, but I would put little beyond Brown’s desire for a photo-op with Obama.

You may also have noted that Brown was booed at the ceremony.

Jun 7, 2009 - 7:35 am 13. savage24:

As I recall Obama was supposed to be the great fence mender. The countries in Europe that hated us still hate us and the countries that liked us are starting to hate us. His D-Day speech like all of his speeches was total garbage. If anybody believes he has respect for the military are out of their minds. Another thing I didn’t know. Do Marxist believe in God? A whole lot more of us need those barf bags.

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:10 am 14. Войска ПВО:

“he’s sort of God.”

..no, he’s sort of slime.

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:21 am 15. Mary Jackson:

Obama Beach – it’s beyond embarrassing.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:17 am 16. md:

1Pe 4:19 Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls [to Him] in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.

Obviously, Mr Thomas sees the writing of Scripture to be representing someone else other than the One the scripture actually represents.

Gal 2:4 And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage)

HOWEVER! True Scripture, or should I say the TRUE interpretation of Scripture, holds a different picture as to the reality of “false gods” or “false prophets”.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:21 am 17. no name:

pres. Reagan had it wrong. freedom is something for which it is worth killing!

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:27 am 18. no name:

Gen. Patton was the one who had it right. you make the other guy die.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:35 am 19. dan:

What a tragedy that these mediocrities and crypto-Leninists should be the administrators of the public discourse. We need media term limits. Congress should pass a law directing any corporation engaged in media to implement as part of its employment contract provisions some method of consumer voting at some reasonably infrequent interval. The market is not doing its job in this respect, debauched as it is by a witting of unwitting quasi-conspiracy of demoralized educators and journalists. The teachers establish the expectations, the journalists fulfill them; as a result, everything is marbled with falsehood. And nothing, absolutely nothing, augurs an imrpovement in the situation – quite the opposite. Every time see that idiot Jon Meacham and his plasticene dentitia on Meet the Press or MSNBC I wish I could be sitting at the table absolutely humiliating him.

You got that right, no name. I overheard a conversation in a Starbucks yesterday. An old guy who had been a part of some unit that liberated one of the lesser-known concentration camps. Everyone was so shaken by the spectacle of 20,000 living corpses, he said, that they grabbed every German soldier they could find, put him against a wall, and executed them. He said it actually took the restraint of the some of the officers to prevent them from setting up their artillery and levelling the nearby German town, which was in sight of the camp. Of course they should not have done that and would not have – we are Americans, not Russians. But the German camp soldiers: execution is justice. What did Patton say? When you see your buddy’s brains blown out next to you, you’ll know what to do!

Jun 7, 2009 - 11:17 am 20. Cristina:

# 15 Mary Jackson:

It’s beyond the beyond. It’s where there are no words left to express revulsion.

Love your writing, Mary. Follow it whenever I can, especially at New English Review. Your comments are gems of wit, wisdom and knowledge.

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:13 pm 21. Cristina:

Am i the only one who thinks Evan’s quip about Obama being a “sort of God” is strange?
Not that Thomas’ writing deserves deep analysis, but
it’s as if he’s trying to distance himself, ever so nimbly, from his mostly god-skeptic/atheist readers and intellectual peers who have nevertheless made Obama a “sort of God”?

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:42 pm 22. Macko:

The left seems to be staying very quiet lately. Is it gloating or are they realizing what they have done ?

Jun 7, 2009 - 3:12 pm 23. Teleprompter Jesus:

Not just any sort of God. I’m the son of Teleprompter. But you can call me Lord Teleprompter.

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:22 pm 24. Marc Malone:

Patton’s quote is, “No son of a bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. You win wars by making the other son of a bitch die for his country.”

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:54 pm 25. Scott M:

Bring back punitive war and wars of destruction. In the case of Iraq or Afghanistan this would have meant a short, B-52 and M-1 filled, and violent war to destroy anything worth having in those countries. If the bad guys move back in or fund the reconstruction that gets destroyed again. Just as the ACLU hyper-attention and hyper-extension of rights is being used to make our cities more dangerous, hyper-attention and hyper-extension of “just war theory” is being used to make our wars inconclusive and never-ending.

Nation-building happens after the enemy is vanquished. Nothing promotes enemy surrender like being bombed or starved sufficiently.

All the various gorups among the Left (ACLU, NOW, PETA, etc) are acting as “luddites” throwing their shoes into the machinery of American survival and freedom. You may think of the supposed goals and areas of interest of the various Leftist groups as different colors of shoes thrown into the machinery or shoes thrown into the machinery at various places along the production line.

The Left is the enemy and they will support or oppose any policy simply based on whether it helps weaken America or strengthen their anti-American efforts.

Jun 8, 2009 - 12:47 am 26. Alex Bensky:

I must say that Evan Thomas’s book on the Battle of Leyte Gulf is very good; accurate, as far as I can tell, and quite readable. I disagree with some of his conclusions, such as that Kurita withdrew from Samar because he didn’t want to see useless bloodshed rather than because he took counsel of his fears, but it’s still worthwhile for anyone interested in the battle.

That said, he does highlight, however inadvertently, that Obama is the first president who doesn’t really like the United States, or at least the first one to make no secret of it. I don’t mean that he doesn’t think it’s perfect, etc., but that he really doesn’t seem to like America. He sees himself more as president of the world. He wasn’t elected to that office but then again, while no one gets to be president who is modest, Obama’s immodesty seems to be unusual.

By the way, Ic, the excellent film version of “Nineteen Eighty-Four” you refer to is, I am sure, the one released in 1985. The one from the fifties with Edmund O’Brien is not at all good.

Jun 8, 2009 - 4:52 am 27. Maggie:

One of the most nauseating and frightening aspects of this drivel is that it appears that Obama believes he “is sort of God”. Mr. Thomas and Barack Obama would do well to remember “beware of false idols”…

Jun 8, 2009 - 5:13 am 28. molonlabe28:

To Newsweek, of course, Obama is a sort of God.

Didn’t it put the light halo on his head back in the Fall and didn’t he appear on 8 or 9 Newsweek covers before the election.

But not to worry, because one day in the not too distant future, children will ask us “What was Newsweek?”

Jun 8, 2009 - 7:54 am 29. Dean from Ohio:

I hope that President Obama gets Evan Thomas on the phone and tells him to apologize at once and promise never to write such things again. Perhaps he has read this account from the early days of the Christian church–in Acts chapter 12 in the New Testament. I pray that no leader of our county will ever suffer such things:

“Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they sent a delegation to make peace with him because their cities were dependent upon Herod’s country for food. The delegates won the support of Blastus, Herod’s personal assistant, and an appointment with Herod was granted. When the day arrived, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to them. The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, ‘It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!’

Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died.”

Jun 8, 2009 - 7:55 am 30. Dr. Bukk:

It is sad that Peggy Noonan and Kathleen Parker have become Pod People too.

Jun 8, 2009 - 9:25 am 31. The Anchoress — A First Things Blog:

[...] on D-Day: good cartoon. I thought Sarkozy gave the better, more meaningful speech, while Obama was simply continuing his perpetual campaign. Read Brits at their Best as they recall [...]

Jun 8, 2009 - 11:36 am 32. Self-hating Boomer:

Cristina, it’s called replacement theology. If God is dead, then anyone can be made into a neogod. BTW, speaking of strange, it’s rather strange that he capitalized “God”. Maybe he was trying to replace the God of Israel with Obama, but I suspect that he was just so poor in his use of the English language that he didn’t understand the difference between “God” and “god”.

Such is the media elite…

Jun 8, 2009 - 12:30 pm 33. lc:

Alex #26
You are correct. It (”1984″ released in 1985) is available on Youtube here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5464625623984168940

and it is worth the watch. This version on Youtube is without the awful Eurythmics music foisted on the film when it first came out (making it basically a platform for a music video).

Obama’s immodesty is strange, and dangerous.

Jun 8, 2009 - 2:33 pm 34. Brian:

I posted on the Rosett report this particular columnist,Eric Margolis.Just google him and youll get the picture of where hes coming from.Columns like his are the product of our universities,the last 20 some odd years.No communists in govt?My foot.

Jun 8, 2009 - 3:46 pm 35. Class Clown:

I’ve been mocking the birth-certificate conspiracists for months now, but suddenly I think they might be onto something. Could perhaps the media church be trying to disguise their Lord’s own Immaculate Conception? After all, to be President, even God would have to be a natural-born U.S. Citizen.

Jun 8, 2009 - 6:08 pm 36. gordo:

“For it is the doom of man that he forgets”

Merlin
Excaliber

Jun 8, 2009 - 6:30 pm 37. AST:

This may explain why the left is so irritable about having the Ten Commandments posted where people will see them. Whittaker Chambers said “The Communist vision is the vision of man without God.” Mr. Thomas shows that liberalism, progressivism, socialism or whatever the left wants to call itself, shares that vision with Communism, which which it also shares its historical roots.

Jun 8, 2009 - 8:53 pm 38. Steynian 362 « Free Canuckistan!:

[...] on 65th anniversary of invasion,” says a headline today in the LA Times. Roger Kimball– “D-Day and the air-sickness bag: the way we live now.” …. [...]

Jun 9, 2009 - 6:18 am 39. heyyoukidsgetoffmylawn:

To Mr. Kimball and Alcuin #12

What was the beach the Australians stormed on D-day?

I asked the Australians, and they responded thusly: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/remembering1942/dday/index.asp

And good on them for the support roles they played…but I asked them about this “British and American paratroopers” but no reply, so I googled and got this:

http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/second_world_war/topics/1317-7867/

Son of a gun, who’d a guessed it?

And on dial-up.

Jun 14, 2009 - 7:14 pm

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