tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post2673132072093552909..comments2024-03-27T18:00:02.032-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: Black Comedy for Terror TuesdayKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-92198752091423454852013-05-30T08:06:30.181-04:002013-05-30T08:06:30.181-04:00People are sheep. Mainstream and social media are ...People are sheep. Mainstream and social media are their shepherds.<br /><br />“The moral impulse is unimpeachable. But republics and democracies exist only by virtue of the engagement of their citizens in the management of public affairs. If active or concerned citizens forfeit politics, they thereby abandon their society to its most mediocre and venal public servants.” - Tony Judt, Ill Fares the Land<br /><br />Alas…<br /><br />“Familiarity reduces insecurity, so we feel more comfortable describing and combating the risks we think we understand: terrorists, immigrants, job loss or crime. But the true sources of insecurity in decades to come will be those that most of us cannot define: dramatic climate change and its social and environmental effects; imperial decline and its attendant 'small wars'; collective political impotence in the face of distant upheavals with disruptive local impact. These are the threats that chauvinist politicians will be best placed to exploit, precisely because they lead so readily to anger and humiliation.” ― Tony Judt, Ill Fares the Land<br /><br />Tony Judt’s words on “the Strange Death of Liberal America” are even more relevant today:<br /><br />“It is the liberals, then, who count. They are, as it might be, the canaries in the sulphurous mineshaft of modern democracy. The alacrity with which many of America’s most prominent liberals have censored themselves in the name of the War on Terror, the enthusiasm with which they have invented ideological and moral cover for war and war crimes and proffered that cover to their political enemies: all this is a bad sign. Liberal intellectuals used to be distinguished precisely by their efforts to think for themselves, rather than in the service of others. Intellectuals should not be smugly theorising endless war, much less confidently promoting and excusing it. They should be engaged in disturbing the peace – their own above all.” http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n18/tony-judt/bushs-useful-idiotsDenis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-4861197000156613562013-05-29T22:16:52.525-04:002013-05-29T22:16:52.525-04:00In regard to the report in the N.Y.Times and other...In regard to the report in the N.Y.Times and others of the killing by drone of Rehman, a top Taliban<br />commander in Pakistan, vague references about other people being killed as well but were buried in the ruins of a house, sidesteps whether or not and how many civilians may have perished in this latest exercise.<br /><br />As well the following comment was made in that N.Y.Times report:<br /><br /><br />" Even as Mr. Obama said he was tightening the standards by which drone strikes would be allowed administration officials have said - anonymously -<br />that for months to come the C.I.A. will continue to carry out drone strikes in Pakistan under the more permissive standards used in the past."<br /><br /><br />The more things are supposed to change the more they remain the same or worse. <br /><br /><br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-12980078801550218062013-05-29T17:42:45.918-04:002013-05-29T17:42:45.918-04:00IRS scandal spreads:
http://www.salon.com/2013/05...IRS scandal spreads:<br /><br />http://www.salon.com/2013/05/29/irs_targeting_as_arm_in_federal_war_on_drugs/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-68446596667882803212013-05-29T14:59:59.763-04:002013-05-29T14:59:59.763-04:00I thought Karen's comment on Dowd's column...I thought Karen's comment on Dowd's column today was terrific, as always. I was also heartened by the comments in response to Karen's. I don't much agree with David Underwood in Citrus Heights (or is it David Citrus in Underwood Heights?) but I thought there was a nugget of truth to what he wrote to Karen. And even more weight to Bill Benton's comment to Karen. <br />I agree with Karen that Dowd's was a wasted column in terms of the amount of space it took up, OTOH, I think Dowd's complaint is valid: Of Obama, it is fair to say, finally, after four years: this hound just don't hunt. <br />I'm not sure this hound ever wags its damn tail.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-12887964886279822412013-05-29T12:25:24.632-04:002013-05-29T12:25:24.632-04:00Karen's probably in no rush to repost her outs...Karen's probably in no rush to repost her outstanding comment of this morning (taking both Dowd and O to task for wasting their respective opportunities to say and do the right things). Again, without clearance from the person who owns the copyright, I rush it to the readers of Sardonicky.<br />___________________<br /><br />The only people who care about President Obama's social skills or lack thereof are the denizens of D.C., whom the blogger Digby has derisively dubbed "the Villagers." These are the pundits, the lobbyists, the careerists, the hostesses, the movers and shakers, the hangers-on, the leeches.<br /><br />A prime example of this scourge of insidery insularity is a piece in the Washington Post about the president's low-profile White House counsel -- and her envy-inducing designer shoe collection! Another article in "The Hill" dished about how bad the Republicans feel about being jilted by Obama. He shockingly never asked them out for another date at that fancy $100- a-plate restaurant!<br /><br />When I first started reading this latest Dowd column, I thought it would be something substantive about the war on journalists. But sadly, it once again devolved into one more chapter in "The President's Analyst" saga. I wonder if she writes this stuff just to get a rise out of the reader commentariat. <br /><br />What a huge, huge waste. Here we are, facing myriad crises -- climate change, the theft of entire economies by the predatory plutocratic class, millions without health care, one in five families in poverty, endless wars. <br /><br />And yet every other column, it seems, we get served stale tripe on the endless ways that this president is not a party animal. I'd call it shallow, if not for the feeling I get whenever I read stuff like this -- that I'm stuck in a deep suffocating hole with no chance for escape.Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.com