UHLENSPIEGEL
the purpose of government is to win wars and deliver the mail
Not my quote, but from a German News Article, entitled "America is not the way Europeans would like it."
http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/obama2302.html.
The quote is supposedly how Americans few government. An oversimplification, but nothing fundamentally wrong with that sentiment.
Obama and his country have fatally misunderstood each other.
Most European Commentators do not get America. But once in a while they do get it right:
Obama understood his election two years ago as an endorsement to rewrite the social contract and to Europeanize America: expand State Healthcare, more Government in Energy policy, Education and Economy. However, tAmericans understood Obama’s election more as an order to restart the economy fast and to renew faith in America’s abilities. Obama and his country have fatally misunderstood it each.
Translated from German http://blog.zdf.de/zdfdasblog/2010/10/der-staat-ist-was-fur-waschlap.html#more
Prejudice Right and Left
Prejudice and racism seem to come from two different perspectives. On the one hand there are those that act from the perspective of their own inferiority. They have a deep sense that there are others that are better, physically, intellectually, economically, etc. So prejudice and racism functions as an equalizer by putting those others down, or by lifting yourself and the group with which you identify up. It is driven by fear and therefore often anger. This is the prejudice most often coming from the right wing.
There is another type of prejudice and racism, that comes not from feeling inferior, but from actually feeling superior. You and your equals are the only true actors, those in control of their destiny. The others need protection or guidance from your own group, or even protection against one’s own group. This type of racism can be benign on the surface as in the image of the “noble savage,” but even though noble, the savage is still a savage, an animal, a deer or sheep, something less. Even the enemies of the sheep, the lesser predators can be excused, since they are just animals, not responsible for their own action. Animals need protection from themselves and from your own group. One is the Sheppard, the Olympian, tending and guiding the flock. In that sense it can also become very callous against individual sheep. What is important is not the sheep, but the flock as a whole, so sacrifices can and must be made. Culling is therefore an act not of malice, but love. The only anger is anger against your fellow Olympians, that fail to understand their true nature. This is the type of prejudice and racism that underlies much thinking on the left.
Marriage is not a gender neutral term - Equal rights is.
What comes around goes around
Politics is like driving. If you turn left often enough you end up turning right, if you turn right enough, you end up turning left.
Colored Glasses
A new Rasmussen poll
shows that most Americans think that the media is biased, mostly to the left. This few is shared by people of all political spectrums to a varying degree, except for some core liberals that think that at least major media is fair and balanced (neither they nor I are talking about FOX). Those results should surprise no one, except the major media. My guess is that most professional media type belong to that core liberal group that deceives itself in thinking that their viewpoint is a neutral viewpoint. Traditional media is losing viewers/readers/listeners because it is in that same self deceptive frame of mind: “Just the Facts Mam.” Professional Journalists vet the news to report accurate and neutral facts. That was never the case. Journalists have always presented the world through their rose (green, black, brown,) colored glasses. Certainly Ed Murrow’s broadcast from the London Blitz were not examples of neutral reporting. Ed’s reporting did not attempt to balance the impact of the bombs with a human impact story of the bomber pilot. He took a side in that conflict, and reported based on his views and impressions.
Many of us never had any illusions that the Press was neutral, but the coming of the internet destroyed that illusion for all but the most committed progressives, and the “professional” journalists.
In contrast the reporting by new media reporters like, for example Mike Totten, is much more honest. Mike does not hide his views, but still tries to give a full picture. Since he tells us what color glasses he is wearing we can put the appropriate filter to his reporting. With the proper color correction we get a much truer picture then being told we receive the objective truth.
Pajamas Media: ISn T IT ROMANTIC?: Suicide, Homicide, Terrorism and Romanticism
http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/02/isnt_it_romantic_suicide_homic.php