KRAUTHAMMER: Decline Is a Choice - The New Liberalism and the end of American ascendancy.
Among these crosscurrents, my thesis is simple: The question of whether America is in decline cannot be answered yes or no. There is no yes or no. Both answers are wrong, because the assumption that somehow there exists some predetermined inevitable trajectory, the result of uncontrollable external forces, is wrong. Nothing is inevitable. Nothing is written. For America today, decline is not a condition. Decline is a choice. Two decades into the unipolar world that came about with the fall of the Soviet Union, America is in the position of deciding whether to abdicate or retain its dominance. Decline--or continued ascendancy--is in our hands.
First comment and nearly last for the day?
ReplyDeleteYesss. Later folks, time to go walk the lab along the American. If anybody hasn't read the comments at the zomblog post you're missing an interesting discussion ... take care.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, as he made his hajj from Strasbourg to Prague to Ankara to Istanbul to Cairo and finally to the U.N. General Assembly, Obama drew the picture of an America quite exceptional--exceptional in moral culpability and heavy-handedness, exceptional in guilt for its treatment of other nations and peoples. With varying degrees of directness or obliqueness, Obama indicted his own country for arrogance, for dismissiveness and derisiveness (toward Europe), for maltreatment of natives, for torture, for Hiroshima, for Guantánamo, for unilateralism, and for insufficient respect for the Muslim world.
ReplyDeleteUgh.
Latest from AP:
ReplyDelete{an official} said [the balloon] also had some kind of electric power unit which was run by double-C batteries. He said the balloon did seem to big enough to carry a 6-year-old. Messick also said investigators are looking into every possibility, including whether the boy was ever in the balloon. Yellow crime-scene tape was placed around the home.
Obama -- if you dislicke America so much, just leave. We don't need you or your piss-poor elitist attitude.
ReplyDeleteI have two words for you, and there not "let's dance."
I hope Krauthammer is right and we don't go into a decline, but I see too many people in the West who think there is nothing worth saving of our civilization and our culture.
ReplyDeleteThis to me is what I hated about the end of
SPOILER ALERT
Battlestar Galactica -
they decided there was nothing of their civilization or culture worth saving.
Might as well have let the Cylons wipe them out; I would have preferred they went down fighting than gave up.
While that might be a TV show, I think it is representative of too many people in our culture; the result of too much "multiculturalism".
Well, I suppose he probably represents some people ....
ReplyDeleteNEW YORK (AP) -- A freshman state senator accused of slashing his girlfriend's face in a jealous rage was acquitted Thursday of a felony charge, but was convicted of a lesser charge of grabbing her by the arm in a scene caught on videotape.
State Sen. Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat, could have lost his Senate seat if convicted of second-degree felony assault. He faces up to a year in prison at his sentencing Dec. 4 for a misdemeanor count of third-degree assault for injuring his girlfriend while forcibly dragging her from the apartment.
Monserrate, 42, claimed the incident was an accident, and so did his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo.
"A terrible accident occurred to my girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, a person that I love, and I have to live with that forever. There were no winners here," Monserrate said outside court after the verdict.
But prosecutors argued she told medical personnel Monserrate intentionally smashed a drinking glass into her face following an argument about another man.
The greatest ally that Obama and his friends have is despair -- if we give up and surrender to despair, then they win.
ReplyDeleteDespair is the dictator's best friend. Repeat.
ReplyDeleteMulticultural countries are always a smashing success.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of Yugoslavia as the shining city on a hill.
He has the typical liberal mindset. It is what it is, but it makes for a truly sucky presidency.
ReplyDeleteMulticultural countries are always a smashing success.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Lebanon. That worked pretty well too.
OH GOOD GRIEF:
ReplyDeleteFourth-grader to Obama: Why do people hate you?
This makes twice now in two months that a child’s stood up during a Q&A with The One to ask why people are being so mean to him or his policies. The last time it happened, the questioner’s mother turned out to be a state organizer for his campaign, but it’s foolish to assume that these kids are all plants.
Don't knock Lebanon - they're getting on the UN Security Council.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that nice; a government that is held hostage by terrorists on the UNSC.
When will Israel get on? My guess, some time after Obama has a snowball fight with Arafat in hell.
Trying to look on the bright side, even if health care "reform" and cap 'n trade pass, don't you think they're both likely to be tied up in the courts, potentially for years? The mandatory health coverage requirement, in particular, is probably unconstitutional.
ReplyDeletebut it’s foolish to assume that these kids are all plants.
ReplyDeleteVery foolish. There's a difference between one child being used with an ulterior motive and a whole schoolful of children being used with an ulterior motive.
/mmmm mmmm mmmm
BTW, all my kids were left in class to hear the Obama speech.
ReplyDelete/muwhahahahahahahahaha
Lebanon's not even multi-culti; it was like pretending Poland was a country after Germany and the USSR carved it up, except in the case of Lebanon the Iranians taking ownership did so by proxy.
ReplyDeleteOLT, that's AllahPundit talking. I should have made that clear in my post.
ReplyDeleteCorre∫pondence Committee said...
ReplyDeleteOLT, that's AllahPundit talking. I should have made that clear in my post.
Oh, I'm not deriding it at all, or even disagreeing. It is foolish to pretend that the rising wave of "Dear Leader" nonsense is just a few isolated nutballs.
"You've just got to keep on going, even when folks are criticizing you, because -- as long as you know that you're doing it for other people, all right?" Obama concluded.
ReplyDeleteThe boy's question was the last one the President fielded at his event at the University of New Orleans, his first trip to the city since being elected to the Oval Office.
- Matthew Jaffe
From Tapper's Political Punch. Does it seem weird that he'd take a question from a child as his last, unless he wanted to use it as a little punctuation at the end of his visit?
/cynical
Oh, I'm not deriding it at all, or even disagreeing. It is foolish to pretend that the rising wave of "Dear Leader" nonsense is just a few isolated nutballs.
ReplyDelete: )
for other people, to other people
ReplyDelete/semantics, semantics, get in line
Whoo-hoo!
ReplyDeleteFalcon was hiding in the house! He's safe!
Obamalytes on one side and Tea Party Nazis on teh other!
ReplyDelete/oh noes!
Yeah, I liked that too. He's the president of some people - others, not so much.
ReplyDeleteThey found the little boy in Colorado. In his house.
ReplyDeleteSo Falcon didn't fly after all?
ReplyDeleteDianna said...
ReplyDeleteWhoo-hoo!
Falcon was hiding in the house! He's safe!
Alright! Let the celebratory ass-whuppings commence!
Madeleine Albright pines for decline. (18.09.2009 Pravda.Ru)
ReplyDeleteMadeleine Albright said during the meeting that America no longer had the intention of being the first nation of the world.
Ms. Albright started her speech in Russian. “Hello and thank you! It’s a pleasure for me to be here,” she said in Russian. Albright wrote in her autobiography that she was trying to learn some Russian during the 1960s.
The former US Secretary of State surprised the audience with her speech. She particularly said that democracy was not the perfect system. “It can be contradictory, corrupt and may have security problems,” Albright said.
America has been having hard times recently, Albright said.
“We have been talking about our exceptionalism during the recent eight years. Now, an average American wants to stay at home – they do not need any overseas adventures. We do not need new enemies,” Albright said adding that Beijing, London and Delhi became a serious competition for Washington and New York.
“My generation has made many mistakes. We give the future into the hands of the young. Your prime goal is to overcome the gap between the poor and the rich,’ the former head of the US foreign political department said.
Falcon was hiding in the house! He's safe!
ReplyDeleteThat's the child, I assume (I wasn't aware of his name). Do we know why he was hiding yet?
Alnotsobright can go stay in Russia.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that, yes, he was hiding.
ReplyDeleteEwww, Madeleine.
ReplyDeleteCrap, she makes Helen Thomas sound good by comparison.
“My generation has made many mistakes."
ReplyDeleteI can get behind that.
I think thats a good answer by Obama. Gotta keep on keepin' on.
ReplyDeleteWish he'd take his own advice though, and stop sending people out to acknowledge and knock down his critics.
Did he think he was in trouble, or just playing a game, or...?
ReplyDeleteCC - It appears that he originally thought it would be funny; then the police showed up, and the news crews...
ReplyDeleteHe's six. He really didn't think that one through.
CC: he released daddy's big ass expensive ballon. I would have been hiding in the next county. :)
ReplyDeleteI think (from what's being said), that he originally thought it was a game.
ReplyDeleteThen it all got way too exciting, and he hid.
CC: he released daddy's big ass expensive ballon. I would have been hiding in the next county. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah!
I'm not at all surprised he was hiding. My son went missing once, around age 6 or 7, for about two hours. He was under the deck the whole time I had the entire neighborhood looking for him. At first he thought it was funny, but then he realized how upset we were and got scared to come out.
ReplyDeleteDoppel - That sounds about right.
ReplyDeleteIt was reported that law enforcement searched the house for the child three times. He was hidding in the garage attic in a box.
ReplyDeleteThat was one scared kid.
Time to head home. See you later
ReplyDeleteI think thats a good answer by Obama. Gotta keep on keepin' on.
ReplyDeleteWish he'd take his own advice though, and stop sending people out to acknowledge and knock down his critics.
He's right that you have to keep going, in spite of criticism. President Bush did that, but I think he was doing it because he believed it was best for the nation - not a specific segment of the nation's population to the detriment of the others.
Krauthammer is a brilliant man.
ReplyDeleteDespair is the dictator's best friend. Repeat.
The.Truth.
Dianna: He's six. He really didn't think that one through.
ReplyDeleteI'm not six, but I can relate! LOL
OldLineTexan said...
ReplyDeleteBTW, all my kids were left in class to hear the Obama speech.
mmm mmm mmm
I have idea ... give giant balloon to Lil'Kim as present. He so ronery.
ReplyDeleteCC - Been there, done that.
ReplyDeleteIt's why, so frequently, someone's last words consist of, "Hey, y'all! Watch this!"
buzz, I see that you recognize my bitter clinginess
ReplyDeleteDianna, as the joke says:
ReplyDeleteQ: Why don't they put black boxes in pickup trucks?
A: Because they always came up with "Y'all hold mah beer and watch this shit!"
Falcon was hiding in the house! He's safe!
ReplyDeleteThat story had me sick to my stomach all afternoon. A Great Big SHHHEEEEEWWWW...!!!
Hello C² community!
ReplyDeleteree Syrah:
Miss Albright just seems to wish that America was in decline.
Correction she gloats in the thoughts of America not being First.
Plus her critique about democracy is just sucking the Russians ...
One word: DESPICABLE
Syrah said...
ReplyDeleteMadeleine Albright pines for decline. (18.09.2009 Pravda.Ru)
With all due respect Madame Albright......FUCK YOU!
I must go home, but I'm happy to leave on a high note!
ReplyDelete"Here, honey, hold my beer." Pause. "Hey, y'all! Watch this!"
OldLineTexan said...
ReplyDeleteVery foolish. There's a difference between one child being used with an ulterior motive and a whole schoolful of children being used with an ulterior motive.
I learned something from you today. Ulterior is correct. Alterior (that I was thinking) is not a word. LIke learning that it's separate, not seperate.
"Separate" haunts me to this day.
ReplyDeleteI have to remember that there is a rat in separate.
gak,
ReplyDeleteI learned something from you today. Ulterior is correct. Alterior (that I was thinking) is not a word. LIke learning that it's separate, not seperate.
---
Don't your guys from the mid-west pronounce the differanz ? ;-)
///
midwestgak said...
ReplyDeleteI learned something from you today. Ulterior is correct.
I love the ulterior design shows on TV.
I learned something from you today. Ulterior is correct. Alterior (that I was thinking) is not a word. LIke learning that it's separate, not seperate.
ReplyDeleteIts/it's, Whose/who's. Possessive form has no apostrophe. People often get those wrong.
I love the ulterior design shows on TV.
ReplyDeleteFrom some of the ones I have seen that statement isn't that far off....
I won an apos-trophy at the Grammar Rodeo!
ReplyDeleteI jus tipe stuf.
ReplyDeleteSpeelchxer isn 4 me.
OldLineTexan said...
ReplyDelete"Separate" haunts me to this day.
I have to remember that there is a rat in separate.
Two "e's" and two "a's".
And {Callahan} yes we do. Hence the common missplelling.
Corre∫pondence Committee,
ReplyDeleteIts/it's, Whose/who's. Possessive form has no apostrophe. People often get those wrong.
---
I might stumble on such things from time to time. I might be excused? Pretty please?
I won an apos-trophy at the Grammar Rodeo!
ReplyDeleteWhat event ?
I'm guessing Paracalf structure.
Callahan23 said...
ReplyDeleteI might stumble on such things from time to time. I might be excused? Pretty please?
I've stopped correcting such stumbles, except my own. And you are certainly excused. How many here know that English isn't your first language?
{midwestgak},
ReplyDelete"Separate"
Two "e's" and two "a's".
---
Easier yet, two "a's" between two "e's".
It was the hog-colon contest.
ReplyDeleteIt was the hog-colon contest.
ReplyDeleteLMAO.
Gak,
ReplyDeleteHow many here know that English isn't your first language?
---
I'd hazard a guess by saying the majority.
Yeah, but first buzzsaw had to make it past the semi-colons first. :)
ReplyDeleteGuess who was just found safe and sound at home?
ReplyDeleteBoy Believed to Have Been in Runaway Balloon Found
A massive hunt for a 6-year-old boy who was believed to have been trapped inside a flying balloon that crashed without him inside was found in his parents house, according to the Larimer County Sheriff's Department.
"He's been there the whole time," said a sheriff's department official."He was hiding in a cardboard box in the attic above the garage."
The official said his parents were beisde themself during the search and believed the boy was in the balloon.
He said officials searched the house twice, but it wasn't clear if it included the garage.
Mystified authorities in Colorado had launched a ground search for the boy after the flying balloon he was believed to have been trapped in crashed without him inside.
buzzsawmonkey said...
ReplyDeleteI won an apos-trophy at the Grammar Rodeo!
Congrats buzz.
buzzsawmonkey,
ReplyDeleteI won an apos-trophy at the Grammar Rodeo!
---
Was the bu'll buck'ing?
Madeleine Albright said during the meeting that America no longer had the intention of being the first nation of the world.
ReplyDeleteOkay, fine then let's take all the money we give to the other nations out of our budget. Because that is what is keeping us first nation in their eyes. Bet they will decide they want us back up as the first nation pretty darn quickly.
Callahan, I'll think about it. ; )
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I need correction on half of what I write. I just happen to know about those!
Just got home from the restaurant to see that the child is safe and sound. Thank God.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the whole story turns out to be, I'm thrilled I didn't come home to the other alternative.
Lincolntf,
ReplyDeleteI bet the parents are too relieved to be angry.
On noes....I killed it...
ReplyDeleteOh did you kill the thread {Violet}?
ReplyDelete;-)
...hangs head..
ReplyDeleteIz sory. Wont do agin.
Oh, no, V/T, you didn't - it's drive time in the west, and people are just saving their energy to invade the Pub at the top of the hour. : )
ReplyDeleteDo you guys think I should give one of my two shares of Packer stock to Rush Limbaugh so he can be an NFL owner and there won't be anything Jesse Jackson can do about it?
ReplyDeleteI think I might. I could have Hutch give it to him. : )
ReplyDeleteWell, it's echoing in here now for sure! LOL
ReplyDeleteGood time for me to get a shower. You guys behave. ; )
And I will let my computer do its update thing.
ReplyDeleteLater.
Hi, folks. Thanks for the link to that excellent article.
ReplyDeleteOT: I'm impressed by the layout and appearance of this site: it's gorgeous.
I still haven't managed to get up early enough for fruit cup but I'm working on it.
Oh, yeah, me and my excellent timing: showing up on a dead thread.
ReplyDelete;) I'll have to try again another time. Bye, all.
Don't run away yet Josephine. Some of us are still here.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Josephine!
ReplyDeleteI just got back from an encounter with the po-po. My daughter was driving (on wet pavement in heavy traffic) and was hit from behind by a man in a 1995 Lincoln Continental. (Why, yes, he was an older gentleman, how did you know?)
Her car is fine, the Lincoln has some front end damage but nothing huge. The other driver insisted on calling the police and getting a report, in spite of the fact that he was at fault and probably doesn't have collision on such an old car. Anyway, everyone is okay, thank goodness.
Phil,
ReplyDeleteyep!
Good Evening all. Where is the starting block for the pub?
ReplyDeleteright over there <--------- :)
ReplyDeleteErik,
ReplyDeleteright around the corner in the ether of the intarwebz. ;-)
Hello Erik!
Hi, folks. Thanks for the link to that excellent article.
ReplyDeleteOT: I'm impressed by the layout and appearance of this site: it's gorgeous.
I still haven't managed to get up early enough for fruit cup but I'm working on it.
Josephine, welcome!! We're glad you like it!
If you have a chance, hit the Pub - it opens in about ten minutes.
2P and Cal I think you are trying to put me out of the race. :)))
ReplyDeleteStanding with my nose pressed against the pub window...
ReplyDeleteOh dopple - thank goodness! It doesn't take lot of speed to do a lot of damage. I was in an accident at 35 mph that destroyed the car I was in (I was a passenger) and I ended up with glass in my eyes and about 35 stitches in my face.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad everyone is okay.
Erik The Red said...
ReplyDelete2P and Cal I think you are trying to put me out of the race. :)))
Now why would you think that?
/*whistles innocently*
Standing with my nose pressed against the pub window...
ReplyDeleteLOL - windowlicker! : )
I see that there's a little Blogspot avatar problem...I think they're playing tricks on Brandy and Bambi.
Aaaaaaaand now they're back. Okaaaaay.
ReplyDeleteETR, if you just say "FIRST!" here, then it's out of the way. ; )
ReplyDelete