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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Rowan Berkeley
Published Letters: 176
substantiate what I just said about the hidden logic of 'real men'. Obviously, having joined the army with this subliminal logic of sexual entitlement already installed in their minds by advertising, they perceive the women who serve with them as no more than their just reward, and as having been provided for the taking, providing they (the male soldiers) apply the lessons they have been taught regarding courage. So much for allowing the sexes to mix within the armed forces. Few other nations would have been so naive.
oh, sweet robot, you have cheered me up. :=)
Obama is unlikely to be the next president of America. Not because he is black - his tacit offer to white voters of absolution from the sin of slavery is his greatest political asset - but because his values are not those of most Americans. In the battle for the Democratic nomination. Obama invariably won university towns and state capitals - i.e., the redoubts of the talking classes. Clinton dominated those counties where the majority of voters are what political analyst Michael Barone describes as Jacksonian Democrats. Barone's Jacksonian Democrats are typically of Scotch-Irish stock (though many white Catholic males of later immigrant groups fit the profile). Primary among the core values of the Jacksonian Democrats is the belief in liberty, including, crucially, the willingness to fight to preserve that liberty. They are fiercely independent. "Live free or die" might serve as their motto. Freedom of speech and the right to bear arms rank high on the list of personal liberties that they value. In international affairs, their independence translates into dedication to the preservation of American sovereignty and support for a strong American military. The Jacksonian values are quintessentially American. The promotion of liberty has played a far more prominent role in American foreign policy than that of any other nation. Americans are far more ready to join the battle against Islamic jihad than Europeans. Free speech is better protected in the US today than in Europe or Canada, where various human rights councils have stifled free political speech in the name of "cultural sensitivity." Only on American university campuses do speech codes threaten freedom of speech.
THE CORE Jacksonian values explain in part why the US is the only country in which Israel enjoys overwhelming popular support. Americans view Israelis as doughty defenders of their freedom, relying on no one but themselves against a host of enemies. American religiosity - another crucial component of American uniqueness - also helps explain the widespread support for Israel, which for millions of evangelical Christians is the fulfillment of the biblical promise to Abraham. Religiosity in America tends to reinforce core Jacksonian combativeness. The more one believes that morality is not just a lifestyle choice, the more inclined one will be to fight to protect one's moral values. Not only in the minds of their enemies, then, are the United States and Israel invariably linked. Obama's world view (which might be termed irrational rationalism) is that of European elites and Ivy League campuses. Its central premise is that virtually all conflicts can be solved by more talk. Thus his signature foreign-policy promise has been that he will immediately engage in unconditional talks with Iran, North Korea and Syria - as if the only problem with these folks until now has been that we weren't sufficiently nice.
he means presbyterians.
here are the articles, but I suppose everything Barone puts on his column is worth examining:
(1) http://tinyurl.com/2z4sfs
(2) http://tinyurl.com/6o45dk
"Obama did know what a Tony Rezko is and took $150000 donation and did not return it until it was stuck under his nose. I am also waiting for him to denounce the Jane (the POW Murderer)Fonda endorsement."
Posted by: robert okane on 05/16/08 at 2:17 PM
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/
archives/2008/05/8236_john_mccain_dci.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/
washington/2008/04/jane-fonda-endo.html
april the second.
here's the link:
http://tinyurl.com/6xzgdj
I'm glad i discovered this:
http://tinyurl.com/58v27j
via sarah posner's excellent lambasting of hagee in the huffpost:
http://tinyurl.com/65r2ck
which had a little note saying she maintains this regular column.
I second the opinion that says you are a stimulating read.
As for blogs, I mean, not to tout my own or anything, but all the material I mention on here, even though I give the original links, I also blog it, along with lots of intriguing or otherwise music videos, news videos, personal views, etc. and I spend even more time updating that than I do here, if that is possible. So just click my name and be transported to the tortured and wondrous realm thereof.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
