Thanks for your post. How to even begin thinking about the relationship between democracy and the fairer sex, and the role women have in ending tyrannical regimes is way, way above my pay level. But the book you mention sounds fascinating. In any case, I hope your progress on the subjects continue, I too will give it my best, and in the meantime, per such research, and if Roger doesn’t object, important photographic documentation should proceed. In my humble opinion.

Wow!

And we gotta work “Garryowen” into the playlist somewhere…

When I was taking my officer’s basic course, one of the instructors had compiled his own motivational music video remixing Shostakovich’s Third (iirc) with Beethoven’s Eroica and a symphonis rendition of Garryowen. It kicked ass.

Just wanted to quickly thank you for your posts above re: dealing with the anti-American and BDS crowd. I vacillate from being impatiently cross with such people to the other extreme of completely ignoring them. Between those extremes I suffer the frustration of trying to find some way to have civil discourse and counter or question their vulgar pronouncements about all things American and/or Bush. It is interminably tedious and sometimes strikes me as very similar to dealing with children between the ages of, say, six and sixteen. Nice to know one is not alone with such tedium and frustrations.

On another topic… somewhere in a recent thread I teased you about the “women and democracy” thing. I was, however, serious about you having given some thought to the topic. You suggested that I have also. That is not the least bit true in my case. I grew up, and remain (to my never ending joy and consternation) surrounded by females. It never really occurred to me that people have thought about the possibility that women play a special role within “democracy” (I just assumed the Tyranny of the Fair Sex was an existential fact). By fortuitous coincidence, however, I’ve been reading, in a very “background project” sort of way, James Buchan’s Crowded With Genious. The Scottish Enlightenment: Edinburgh’s Moment of the Mind. It’s taken me a while to connect with Mr. Buchan’s sense of humor. If the British sense of humor is understated and dry, the Scottish is ethereal and downright arrid. But just as I was making this connection and happened onto your interesting thoughts on the topic, I began reading chapter six, “The Art of Dancing” where Buchan relates some of the “enlightenment” ideas of womenfolk and their role in society. Facinating and downright funny. Well worth further exploration.

ìBut the lady who came before Hughes, and the little fiefdom that was created, at least the impression I got, was all about this “hearts and minds” stuff, and let’s do p.r. and make ads.î

And she stayed on a job for less than a year, during which Powell ran the State Department. Karen Hughes is one of the Bushís key players, in fact, if one is to believe WaPo, Bush made his decision to run for a president in 2000 contingent on her willingness to come with him to Washington. I was frankly surprised to see her go before, but she is back with the team. We can assume from all those latest moves that Bush knows his mind and the way to achieve his goals.

My only regret is that he keeps this creep Norm Mineta. Maybe he is trying to demonstrate his bipartisanship. I donít see any value in it ñ he will be reviled by his enemies no matter what he does, and we desperately need some reasonable transportation and air travel policy. PC ainít gonna cut it in the age of terror, and ancestral memories of injustice cannot justify suicidal policies today.

On the black leather jackets the Syrian secret service guys wear – I remember one of the brothers at Iraq the Model, I think it was – mentioning that every Arab man has to have a black leather jacket.

So maybe they wear the black leather to blend in.

That is good news. If it is message discipline I am all for an enforcer. If it is about everyone at State being required to support the President’s policies, great. But the lady who came before Hughes, and the little fiefdom that was created, at least the impression I got, was all about this “hearts and minds” stuff, and let’s do p.r. and make ads. Yuck. And the person before Hughes was also a Bush appointment. If this is a way of shutting down the experiment, or under cover of darkness getting something else done, yea!!

My interpretation of Hughes responsibility is that she will be trying to get the State Department to stay on message regarding delivering administration policy points in all public fora. I don’t expect her to pay much attention at all to trying to “win hearts and minds”. It’s more of a ‘herding cats’ function that will depend on her willingness to shoot the odd stray. She has shown that willingness in the past so I have rather high expectations. We can expect some rather sudden transfers of State people to places like Togo and Malawi (or to liaison positions with Homeland or Justice).

I doubt very much that you’ll see much handwringing about “why do they hate us”. That’s just not W’s style – and Hughes reflects W about 120%.

Nice link. Talk about an echo-chamber. We got the same little argument, i.e. the vast left wing conspiracy’s newest talking point regarding evil Bush two weeks ago.

IMHO, pretending you care what the echo-chamber thinks, just feeds the beast. I hate all this “why do they hate us so, we need to get our message out” talk. Give it a rest. You’re playing right into their hands. The best thing Hughes could do to help our standing in the world is get Dr. Rice up to speed for 2008.

http://medienkritik.typepad.com/

Trying to presents any facts to Europeans that are contrary to their cherished anti-American beliefs is a hopeless business.