Russia

The Quayle-O-Meter goes DingDingDingDingDingDing!!!

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Obama in Moscow:

Along the way, you gave us a pretty good deal on Alaska. Thank you.

D’OH!!!

The man is a Laff Riot!!!

That’s the way to “hit the Reset button”, Mr. President. Remind the Russians of perhaps the stupidest thing they ever did.

(Can you imagine the teeth-grinding rage of a person like Putin, a guy who has clawed his way to the top on sheer wit, cunning and brutality, having to deal with this lightweight and take him seriously? I almost feel sorry for Putin.)

Can you imagine if any Republican said this? How about if Sarah Palin said it? Geez.

Bottom line: The guy is a smooth-talking ignoramus: not all that smart, not well-read, with a wafer-thin resume.

Some people who are paying attention don’t call our President His Holiness Messiah Barack I or even just The One: We call him J. Danforth Obama!

Hold on to your hats, folks. We are in for at least 3.5 more years of comedic hijinks.

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE: David Brooks — traitor! — says that Obama has restored, get this, dignity to the presidency, sorta like George Washington! “Whatever policy differences people may have with him, we can all agree that he exemplifies reticence, dispassion and the other traits associated with dignity.” So, whatever his defects as, you know, president, we an at least admire his deportment! Duh, no, can’t agree with that one. George Washington would not have set off the Quayle-O-Meter nearly so often. This guy Obama is “dispassionate” until someone disagrees with him even a little, then he gets downright grumpy. I will agree that he is wise to be reticient when he does not have his teleprompter handy. I must say, Mr. Brooks is putting a pretty thin veil over what is turning out to be a big, steaming chunk of buyer’s remorse.

Brooks goes on: “The cultural effects of his presidency are not yet clear, but they may surpass his policy impact.” Gadzooks! That better not be right! If Obama’s cultural effects are as destructive as his policy impact, at the rate we are going, we are going to return to paleolithic conditions, and maybe even be reduced to communicating in a system of grunts and squeals like our primate cousins.

A significant cultural effect of Mr. Obama’s presidency has already been determined. We are now a culture where the rules applied to Governor Palin by the Democrats and their running dog lackeys in the media and the entertainment industry — destroy the enemy at any cost, by any means — will be and must be applied to everyone who wants to play the game of politics. That is cultural degradation, and it is irreversible. But if that is how the combat is now conducted, only a fool would play by chivalric rules. So be it. On to 2010 and 2012.

UPDATE II: Yow! Check out this picture. Medvedev shows a cringing, needful, almost-supine Obama, which one of them is the biggest and baddest guy in the room . Hint: It ain’t the skinny guy with the bicycle helmet.

UPDATE III: Obama being dignified.

UPDATE IV: To clarify: In my original post on this theme, I asked this question, “This is my proposed Quayle Test. Ask yourself: How each time Obama says something stoopid, would the press would have crucified Dan Quayle for it?” Obama fails this test pretty darn frequently. I am not trying to be mean to Dan Quayle. Gerald Ford got similarly unfair treatment. Barack gets the kid gloves treatment. He shouldn’t. The rules should be the same for all politicians. Ha. As if. We’ll never live to see the day.

UPDATE V: A commenter accused me and this blog racism. I spit on that accusation. But I mention it for an important point. Mr. Obama chose to run for president, and as he has told us: “I won”. Yes, he did. And as president, he is going to be subject to the exact same degree of criticism, fair and foul, reasoned or crazed, which every president gets. More, he is going to get the same mean-spirited treatment that his supporters dish out.

Mr. Obama’s race is not going to be a way to intimidate his critics into silence. No one is going to play that. This is a democracy, and the people will not behave with courtly decorum, even if David Brooks thinks they should. Mr. Obama is made of stern enough stuff to take the criticism. There. I said something almost fair and even nice about him.

And for what it’s worth, one of my great political regrets is that Colin Powell — who is every bit as Black as Mr. Obama — did not run for president in 1996. I would not only have voted for General Powell, I would have worked for his campaign. For one thing, President Powell would not have failed to kill Osama bin Laden in 1998, when Clinton could not pull the trigger. The world would be a different and better place.

I assume that Obama’s supporters will routinely accuse his opponents of racism without any basis, for the entirety of his term in office. That is how they play the game.

Fair warning: It won’t make anyone shut up.

A Delayed Feedback Loop from 1982

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Western Europe is currently a shining example of Normalization of Deviance.

Why?

This is why.

In his book Riding Rockets, Astronaut Mike Mullane explained that NASA ignored known risks with the Shuttle because the craft had flown without those risks manifesting themselves in an incident. It is a common feature of humanity. Someone tells you that riding motorcycles without a helmet is dangerous. But you do it once and get away with it. You do it twice. A thousand times. But on the thousand-and-first, someone cuts you off, and you spray your brains all over the landscape, realizing, in your last, painful instants on this Earth, exactly why doctors call people like you “rolling organ stockpiles”.

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Gossip, Rumors, History

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Dutton’s Arts & Letters links to The National’s “The Trial of Leonid K“, which chronicles the attempt by Khruschev’s grandchildren to resurrect the reputation of their father, a World War II hero maligned of late. It is a cry against thuggery – the Russian tradition of rewritten history. Gossip, rumors, suggest: “The point is to suggest; soon, the suggestions will evolve into a belief, which will evolve into an orthodoxy.” But if our libel suits are complicated and victories sometimes counterproductive, in Russia such attempts are even more likely to cross quicksand:

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Well, the Slavs Aren’t Like the Germans. . . but. . .

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This is an audacious post – that is one built purely upon a moment’s connection of dots that may mean nothing. I’m hesitant to put it out there next to the high level of discussion of the ongoing posts about military strategy and history. But, then, this is blogging, too – bullshitting late at night.

Lately we refer to the thirties: not just in America, but throughout the world. Times are likely to get rougher in some places than here – and perhaps more here than in yet others. Parallels abound. In the twenties and thirties, we saw chaos & nihilism in Germany – humiliation, stubborn pride, fear of chaos as governments failed. But, we forget that the Cold War also ended with a defeat. Russia’s pride was insulted, its governments chaotic and then Putin took hold with a strong hand. We forget that war – perhaps because it didn’t seem all that much a triumph for Russia’s foes. For one thing, Europe didn’t feel like a victor and it was their territory: our contribution to NATO and cowboy example were important. (I wonder if their disproportionate and early gut reaction to Bush comes from a lack of ease with our role in that long peace from 1945-1990 – his cowboy style, his father’s presence in 1990.) Russia isn’t all that delighted because, well, why would they be? And we – well, we crow about it a bit, but it doesn’t feel like much of a triumph because by 1990 we didn’t feel we were really at war.

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Recent Reading

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Bitter Waters: Life and Work in Stalin’s Russia
by Gennady Andreev-Khomiakov

A fascinating look at the Soviet economic system in the 1930s, as viewed from the front lines of that system.

Gennady Andreev-Khomiakov was released from a labor camp in 1935, and was fortunate to find a job as a book-keeper in a sawmill. When the factory manager, Grigory Neposedov (a pseudonym) was assigned to run a larger and more modern factory (also a sawmill), he took Gennady with him.

Although he had almost no formal education, Neposedov was an excellent plant manager. As Gennady describes him:

He was unable to move quietly. Skinny and short, he moved around the plant so quickly that he seemed to be running, not walking. Keeping pace with the director, the fat chief mechanic would be steeped in perspiration…He rarely sat in his office, and if he needed to sign some paper or other, you had to look for him in the mechanic’s office, in the shops, or in the basement under the shops, where the transmission belts and motors that powered the work stations were located…This enthusiasm of his, this ability to lose himself completely in a genuine creative exertion, to give his all selflessly, was contagious. It was impossible to be around Neposedov without being infected by his energy; he roused everyone, set them on fire. And if he did not succeed in shaking someone up, it could unmistakely be said that such a person was dead or a complete blob.

With his enthusiasm and dedication to his factory, Neposedov comes across almost as a Soviet version of Hank Reardon (the steel mill owner in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged), with this difference–Nepodesov could throw himself as enthusiastically into bureaucratic manipulation as into his technical and leadership work. All of his skills would be needed to make this factory a success.

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