I realize that much already has been written about John Kerry’s unfortunate (and reprehensible) decision to talk down the US at Davos, but there are certain points that I think bear emphasizing, a few of which I’ll rehearse here briefly.
First, Kerry’s statements were clearly not aimed at the US per se, but were intended instead to attack the Repubican stewardship of the US government—in effect, to allow Kerry to remind his fellow internationalists (and, ironically, the tyrannical governments who share their assessment of the US) that just because he is an American doesn’t mean he isn’t an internationalist first and foremost.
And politically, to be an internationalist, one must be committed to the cause of transnational progressivism, something that Kerry (he of the “global test” and worries over “pariah”-hood) most certainly is.
Too, though, one must (if he happens to be an American, as well) likewise be committed to disguising his anti-liberal attitudes in the garb of liberalism, often using the rationale that doing so is unproblematic precisely because, when all is said and done, such short-term compromises of integrity will ultimately put the right people in power to bring about the utopian idea of a disinterested world government sitting in judgment of nation states and “managing” international affairs as a shepherd might his flock.
The ends, that is, justify the means.
We see this trend in such arguments as “fake but accurate,” and such newly-minted journalistic and political postures that attempt to bracket inconvenient facts in the service of driving home the metanarrative chosen by elite gatekeepers—linear, easily-digestable stories that require only that one follow along with the contours of the plot as it is laid out for them.
And nobody is more committed to this Machiavellian idea than is John Kerry, who has made a career out of blasting his own country at pivotal historical moments as a way both to win the approval and admiration of his internationalist coterie, and to assert the easy moral authority that comes with claiming an interest in a peace—even when your actions, ironically, do nothing but consistently undermine the achievement what you claim is your goal.
Still, what is most disturbing to me about Kerry’s (or Jimmy Carter’s, to use another example) neverending quest for cosmopolitan approval, is that it is predicated on an intellectual laziness that I find increasingly troubling, mostly because I believe we are living in a philosophical milieu that actively promotes such intellectual torpor. Victor Davis Hanson says it best:
It is always easier to cite America’s flaws to applause than it is to take the time to explain the nature of its rare morality to catcalls.
For Kerry to stand before an international audience and bemoan the failure of the US to enter into Kyoto (Kerry, incidentally, joined the 95-0 Senate vote against signing the resolution—but maybe he was just against it before he was for it) is, then, nothing more than a cheap pander—and if those in Davos presuming to represent the morality of transnational cooperatism had an ounce of integrity among them, at least one of the participants would have wondered aloud how Mr Kerry could accept plaudits for condemning the US’s failure to adopt a measure him himself helped oppose.
Similarly, while it is a valid subjective argument to say that the US has been slow in responding the AIDS problem in Africa, it is baffling why Senator Kerry would not gloss his outrage over our “irresponsibility” and our failure to “live up to our standards” with a mention that, under the current administration, $4 billion annually has been allocated to the fight against AIDS in Africa—a sum that triples the amount allocated under the previous administration.
And of course, to return to what has become one of this site’s more frequently explored themes, Kerry’s rhetoric—whether it is intentionally deployed to harm US interests abroad, or whether it is merely the product of a self-centered mind groping around for gladhanding—has an appreciable, real-world impact.
Here’s Hanson again:
Kerry’s criticisms are hauntingly similar to al-Qaida’s own talking points. Both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have preposterously claimed that America’s past inaction on Kyoto was a good excuse for going to war. In various ways, they have long blamed America for the spread of AIDs, and insisted that the United States is an international outlaw. When Kerry makes similar charges, it only enhances the jihadist propaganda, and weakens the United States in a war that is largely to be decided by relative resolve.
Anti-war advocates, naturally, seize on such pronouncements and immediately try to couch them as a revolting tendency, on the part of rightwing fascists, to question the patriotism of honest dissenters like Senator Kerry.
Leaving aside the dissonance of playing wounded over questions of patriotism while simultaneously calling your political rivals “fascists” (which, were that true, defines them as de facto unpatriotic, given that such political beliefs are at odds with the foundational beliefs of this country), the question of whether or not such statements are unpatriotic—while it makes for a nice red herring— is moot: to me, at least, such statements are only unpatriotic, in the strictest sense, when they are made in bad faith, a point that may or may not obtain in this particular case, but one that, likewise, has no bearing whatsoever on the assertion that, unpatriotic or not, such statements do in fact provide what I’ve taken to calling “rhetorical cover” for our enemies.
To me, it is beyond troubling that a man who came within a few hundred thousand votes of being President is off sucking up to our critics—many of them despots, many of them uber nationalists and realists hiding in the expensive, button down garb of “internationalist” statesmen and diplomats—when what he should be doing is letting them know that, whether they agree or not with our methods, they should at the very least be celebrating our country’s willingness to do much of the heavy lifting in an effort to spread not just “stability” (too often marked by the silence that comes when millions of people are having their voices silenced by an authoritarian boot heel), but real peace around the globe, the kind that is born of freedom and that spreads in the wake of prosperity that freedom inevitably brings.
I agree with you in that I don’t think Kerry made his statements in bad faith, I also don’t think he knowingly parrotted al-Queda talking point. I honestly don’t think he thought about what he was saying that much.
I think that is a great fault of Kerry and of a lot of the other side of the political aisle. They are convinced that whatever is being done is the wrong thing, but they don’t know why and have no alternative plan. If there is and alternate plan, it’s usually the most simple suggestion possible, and not very well thought out. For example, they’ll say we should sign Kyoto, leave Iraq and stop Global Warming. OK, how? What will that get us?
Most often they are against it. What exactly could be anything, doesn’t matter.
They remind me of some old cowboy in some movie I saw (could have been Gabby Hayes), “I’m agin’ it, I’m agin’ it, I’m agin’ it. I don’t know what it is I’m agin’, but I’m agin’ it!”
Jeff,
Whenever Kerry sticks his leg in his mouth, I’m always reminded of this great moment from SNL:
To repeat an old response, there’s really no need to question their patriotism—their rhetoric answers the question before it is asked.
Jeff,
Thanks for, once again, providing the kind of lucid, informed commentary that makes reading your blog such a pleasure. Your dissection of Kerry was spot on, both in analyzing his motives and the audience to whom he was pandering.
As Brit Hume remarked, “Is it really fair to accuse John Kerry of America-bashing on “foreign
soil” when he’s in Switzerland?”
Given that politics attracts narcissists like moths to a flame or spiders to my bathtub, you can assume a priori that politicians are afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder unless and until they do something to rule out the disorder, such as doing the right thing when they know it will destroy their career or warrant a nasty editorial in the NYT or WaPo.
John Kerry is one of those politicians whose narcissism is unquestionable. The only thing you need to know about a narcissist is that they have one Prime Directive only: the acquisition of Narcissistic Supply. Once you figure out what the narcissist “needs,” everything s/he does from that point on “makes sense.”
Kerry desperately needs to be seen as a Great International Statesman whose Brave Voice cries out in the wilderness to thunderous applause. That’s the key, right there. The adoration. The applause. That’s his Narcissistic Supply.
Kerry knows what will get applause in Davos, so that’s what he says. For a narcissist, concepts such as “national interest,” “consistency,” and “intellectual honesty” don’t come into play unless they accidentally coincide with his acquisition of his Preciousss. Narcissists are so damaged that getting that supply truly eclipses all else. They are psychologically incapable of behaving any other way.
That’s why we can honestly say that Kerry isn’t actually trying to hurt the US, because he isn’t. He’s not cynical or Machiavellian, because Machiavelli had his sights set on having power over other people. Kerry just wants his Supply.
Aw, not you’ve gone and made me feel sorry for the poor fella, dicentra.
I’m gonna go make him a mix tape.
Astute observation, dicentra, theough I tend to disagree with this:
Deep down inside, Kerry knows who ought to be calling the shots, not because of particular conviction, only because he knows he’s the smartest guy in the room. He knows we need him to do it, but we’re just too stupid to recognize it.
Jeff, I suggest closing that up with “I Touch Myself”.
I’m not disagreeing, dicentra, just emphasizing Kerry’s fundamental incoherence. It isn’t brave to cry out to thunderous applause.
Not brave, just terribly needy.
That’s just so…icky.
Inre, John Kerry:
Remember, Benedict Arnold Was A War Hero, Too.
The only thing left to say about Jon Cary at this point is that we should all thank God everyday that we didn’t elect him POTUS. That fact alone makes me think there is still great hope for us.
Can’t we just get his butt-print into Hollywood concrete and have done with it?
America’s rare morality” is something that has to be continually earned.
America’s non-military foreign aid is rather low as a percentage of GDP.
An occasional reminder of that fact isn’t a bad thing.
Yes, maybe so, DG. But I’m still unnerved that this vapid, thin-skinned, vain, tin-eared, stiff got as close as he did to being Prez. That still says a lot about this country, I’m afraid.
Speaking of vapidity…
alphie,
But, believe it or not, almost all of us here, and probably especially the military men and women would much rather we didn’t have to make so much of our contribution to the world with our military. But because the “international community” is bugger-all, it falls to our brave men and women to do this shit again and again. And it falls to all of us to pay for it.
Would you rather be “reasonable” the way a world in thrall to the truly selfish and stupid regards it, or principled?
Are you a “reasonable” man, alphie?
You forgot to include outsourcing, alphie. Regardless, just how many condoms spread over Africa would it take for you to rectify your disquiet?
Shit: America’s Defense Budget is rather low as a percentage of GDP!
The largest portion of the budget is redistribution entitlement payments and alphie STILL doesn’t like his Goddamned country ‘cuz HE isn’t rich or famous!
In Kerry’s partial defense, with China set to surpass the US as the biggest CO2 emitter by 2010, you can bet the day is coming when the easy applause lines are increasingly difficult to come by. The scheme is predicated on U.S. culpability, and when that becomes a more convoluted proposition, the proscriptions of the left are going to be increasingly difficult to explain to any reasoning public.
At Davos, they did start to get a handle on how they might sell Global Warming 2.0 to the developing world:
The sum total of American economic development to date has been a mistake? Yup. A mistake we have to pay for by developing energy technologies and implementing them in China and India. What I think this clarifies though is that there simply is no way to discuss Global Warming at an international forum without having already tacitly accepted U.S culpability. In short, Kerry’s specific critique of the US having “walked away” on the issue is no more or less perjorative than the tacit acceptance of US responsibility implied in any discussion of the issue in an international context.
Gray,
The right tends to feed off and hide behind the great things America has done in the past.
Huge budget deficits and clouds of pollution are our gifts to the future unless we change our ways.
A little prodding to get us back on the path of greatness isn’t such a bad thing.
If alphie weren’t a complete waste of time, I’d point out the enormous amount of charitable aid that comes from America, outside (gasp!) the realm of government handouts of taxpayer dollars. That would be sheer American generosity.
But he’s a tool, so fuck ‘im.
Oh, yeah–I never hear the left talk about how they were intrumental in child labor laws, unions, civil rights and anti-trust legislation.
Hey, we won the cold war–that was about 15 years ago and the right got me a tax cut only a couple of years ago….
We are the least polluted and polluting industrial country on earth. We produce more, with less polution than any other nation, plus we defend and feed the whole damned free world and part of the unfree!
It’s the assumption we even left it that is so patronizing and unfair.
TW: results17, not intentions.
To quote Buggs Bunny “What an ultramaroon.” You cant be serious. Huge budget deficits I might give ya if you use entitlement programs as an example. But huge clouds of pollution! From where? China? Ignoramous.
alphie:
In the past when some of us tried to argue that Defense Spending and the deficit as percentages of GDP were relatively small, you accused us of using inconsistant comparisons. But now that we are dealing with foreign aid, those comparisons are now valid? You will determine that we will be judged moral as a country by how many children we save in Africa from death due to diarrhea?
Also, still waiting for your opinions on the 2 peace initiatives.
1) Balloon Fence Missile Shield™
2) Mile High Dirt Berm™
Please respond.
How’s it shape up in absolute dollars? And are you including private efforts, or (as is typical) only government programs?
OK, now I know this is a joke. Had me going, but I see what you did there.
Alphie just for you:
Wikipedea
By contrast, European private giving is infinitesimal compared to the US. It’s not all about the governemnt larder, alphie.
Now, my other questions?
What ways have you changed, alphie, other than making some token gestures?
alphie – when you’re done prodding the country I could use a little shove back onto the path of greatness myself… be a pal would ya?
Leaving out all the money we’re borrowing from the rest of the world, Gray?
Add it up and you’ll see America is running quite a tab with the rest of the world.
I just want a hug in exchange for a promise to stay mediocre.
“America’s non-military foreign aid is rather low as a percentage of GDP.
An occasional reminder of that fact isn’t a bad thing.
Posted by alphie | permalink
on 02/01 at 02:08 PM”
Oh, alpo, you slippery little eel.
You forgot to add PRIVATE donations tinto your America bashing calculations.
So, once again, you prove yourself to be worthy of an asshat award.
First class.
Deep down inside, Kerry knows who ought to be calling the shots, not because of particular conviction, only because he knows he’s the smartest guy in the room. He knows we need him to do it, but we’re just too stupid to recognize it.
And this is why we put Kerry in the subspecies “Cerebral Narcissist.” Instead of projecting charm into the room to get Supply (see Bill Clinton), they project their incomparable intellect. If you question their intellect or accuse them of making a mistake (or botching a joke), they go thermonuclear on you. And we’ve all witnessed that personally.
Aw, now you’ve gone and made me feel sorry for the poor fella, dicentra.
Narcissists are truly pitiable creatures because they arise from situations of deep childhood psychological abuse. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t horribly dangerous (or worthy of ridicule). Narcissists by definition lack empathy and can never admit that they are wrong, and as I said before, they put scoring Supply above all else.
This is why I cannot support the cult of the Sainthood of the Oppressed. Yeah, they’re victims, but now they’re so twisted they’re like psychological mutants, roaming the countryside and devouring all in their path. Anyone who has been in a relationship with a narcissist knows whereof I speak. (My father is a cerebral narcissist, hence my ability to detect the Exact Same Crap in Kerry.) You’d be better off doing a swan dive into a chipper-shredder.
We’re not borrowing shit from them. Is it our fault that our bonds are high investment quality due to the political and economic stability of this fine country?
Fucking please, the rest of the turd world owes us big time for everything from the lightbulb to antibiotics to semiconductors.
This whole fucking planet would still be squatting around wood fires if it wasn’t for America.
And what the hell have those wretched savages and frenchmen ever done for us?
But if the rest of the world owed us “quite a tab” that would be a super-happy thing? Cause I’m thinking you’d find reason to bitch.
Darn you, pablo, just….darn you.
What’s that got to do with the amount handed out for development? Or are you just trying to move the goalposts and change definitions?
Besides, borrowing money from someone doesn’t make them poorer (it reduces the cash they have on hand, but the note is an asset as much as, say, a stock certificate). And I doubt there’s a lot of American debt tied up in, say, Angola.
Have you ever tried to admit when you’re wrong? Do you have the same problem The Fonz had? He was able to overcome it; you can, too.
Well, duh.
N. O’Brain, you can use this, if you like.
Funny how a couple of commentors suggest that Kerry is narcissistic & just needs attention & then little alf shows up playing the same game.
Jeff,
I think you make some excellent points, which may be true to a point & would explain most of his actions in the past. But personally, it smacks of nothing more than sour grapes. I’m not sure if this is part of the “progressive” healing process or a natural progression of integrating the fact that he lost. It seems to me that Gore went through the same thing when he disappeared, like Kerry did, & then remade himself by attacking the Bush Administration & following you points, Kerry is indeed referring to Bush & his policies when he says America. Carter, I guess never recovered & has simply lost his mind.
Quite frankly, that just doesn’t cut it, whether it is viewed internally as politics as usual or not, when there are troops in harm’s way. As a former Naval Officer, US Senator & standard bearer of the Democratic Party, he has no excuse to be so smug & condescending regarding his country or the President. I’m not upset that it is disrespectful to Bush, but his words & thoughts echo the talking points, whether intentionally or not, of the enemy & supports those that would prefer to see America lose in Iraq & Afghanistan – Germany, France, etc. That is borderline treason & he should know better, period.
I think too many on the Democratic side view this war as anything but, & fail to see the unintended consequences of their actions or our possible failure throughout the region. That in itself is unforgivable, but to see this behavior be so directed & overtly patternized among the opposition’s party’s elites is w/o precedent & makes continued, childish & similar attacks acceptable from our side.
The fact that they have yet to release an alternative plan & run from the concept of victory shows not only the lack of earnest support in seeking, truly a successful outcome & is proof positive that they indeed do wish the opposite outcome & are hedging their bets & prepping the ground to lay all further blame solely on Bush for political advantage. It’s not like history won’t do that itself, rightly so. But in fact, the end result is that the political tension & total partisanship, on both sides, is strengthened, while a unique opportunity & chance for real success is squandered away as fodder for one-up-man ship & a quest for power & control.
I believe that the Republicans, especially those jumping ship, reflect the same lack of virtues shown by Kerry & have inadvertently given up important political & necessary grounds in hopes of either re-capturing political power (very doubtful) & betting on both sides of the war, while praying for the politically inconceivable jackpot.
In truth, like always, their greatest advantage lies in the fact that the war isn’t over & that given enough space, Kerry & his pals have the tendency to hang themselves.
dicentra, or anybody, what kind of narcissist is it which gains gratification from saying stupid things as a prod, and expecting and then finally receiving a justly negative upbraiding?
Is it an infantile masochist, a religious fanatic with delusions of grandeur actually encouraged by rejection, just a program running mindlessly,…? Can such a grossly mechanistic process have a self at all – a reflecting organizing awareness of what it is doing?
I kinda know where he is coming from, like I have been loaning money to the neighborhood bank, you know, a little bit out of every paycheck I deposit for them. Then I got to asking around and found out almost everybody I work with, and pretty much everybody in town was doing the same thing! I mean I got really nervous wondering how safe it was to trust them with my money if they were borrowing money from the whole fucking town, you know?
So I took my money back and started burying it in jars in the backyard. What do you do with yours, alphie?
I think this thread is closest to the subject of this little gem I found….
Happy b-day, Jeff.
It is to snicker!
Here it is.
John Kerry and Al gore are nothing more than spectacular walking brain farts – brain farts being a staple of the left’s philosophy.
Pee-e-e-u-u-uuuuwww!
TW: late66 – Woooohhh! Boner up to here!
Robert,
The big question is:
Will we be able to pay back all the money we’re borrowing from the rest of the world?
It’s not like America is acting like a bank.
We’re blowing all the money on living large today.
Again, the right cashing in on America’s glorious but distant past…
No, dumbass. Bonds mature in the future!
Goddamnit–why are you so fucking dumb?! Why?! Why?! Why?!
Did you even read anybody’s responses?! Did you look that the graph!?
Why do you post dumb shit!?
Stop it! Stop posting stupid shit like you never read any of the responses!
Stop it now!
Gray,
You do know when bonds mature, we have to pay the money we borrowed back, right?
Putting off all our problems for our children to solve in the future is what I am talking about.
So is Kerry.
AAANNNNDDDD… the goalposts move again!
Yeah. So? It’s happened before. It’s happening constantly. They don’t all come due at once, you know.
Are you going to move the goalposts again?
I can hear Gray’s head pounding off his computer desk from here in Texas.
Alieve… for those pesky Alphie headaches.
No, dumbass. We were talking about this:
Stop moving the fucking goalposts!
Goddamnit–I’d like to shake you until your eyes bleed and yell: “Stop being a dumbass!”
Since he’s running off the field with the goal posts, I’m going to post, again, my post that started this, ‘cuz it’s dead on:
We’re not borrowing shit from them. Is it our fault that our bonds are high investment quality due to the political and economic stability of this fine country?
Fucking please, the rest of the turd world owes us big time for everything from the lightbulb to antibiotics to semiconductors.
This whole fucking planet would still be squatting around wood fires if it wasn’t for America.
And what the hell have those wretched savages and frenchmen ever done for us?
Gray,
I understand your rather selfish and short-sighted attitude is appealing to many, but most of us don’t think the world is gonna end before America:
1. Has to pay back the trillions of dollars we’re borrowing.
2. Chokes on all the pollution we’re pumping out.
3. Drains the last drop of our domestic oil reserves.
We’re called parents.
And we vote, if case you didn’t notice.
That is the most depressing fucking thing I have read in weeks.
They come due every day and we pay it every goddamned day and other people buy more every goddamned day.
It’s a free financial market–something you don’t understand.
We are the least polluting and least polluted country in the world.
This is some kinda repressed guilt you’ve got here:
“I’m dirty…. I’m dirty….”
“Everything is dirty now!”
“I’m spewing out filth I’m so dirty and filty!”
“I’m so dirty I make the whole world dirty!”
Leave me out of it and read the statistics instead of going with your weirdo guilty feelings.
We’ve hardly tapped it!
No. No, you malignant leftist shit.
No I am not ‘a parent’. I’m ‘a father’. A difference you will never understand.
M’eh: I’m pleased my vote cancels yours out. ‘Cept the difference is, I give money to the things I believe in.
Then why are people lining up to invest in us?
Why are our bonds so valuable?
Are all the worlds investers retarded?
They can’t see something that only alphie can?
Little Mr. alphie McNoItAll is the smartyest investment analyst in the whole wide world.
Keyboard—apply directly to the forehead!
Also, re alphie: Death to threadjackers.
Facts:
American exports are the 8th largest economy in the world.
The U.S. trade deficit is about 5% of GDP.
U.S. domestic oil reserves just went up 50%.
And we’re not even counting the oil shale that could dwarf anything anyone has–for $20 a barrel.
At 3% growth for 25 years, the U.S. GDP would be 26 trillion dollars.
At 10% growth for 25 years, the Chinese GDP would be 24 trillion dollars.
Yep, we’re doomed.
The amount of money America has to pay to service our debt is growing every year kids:
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdint.htm
It will soon start to crowd out all the corporate welfare the right likes to spin as “capitalism.”
I swore I wouldn’t do this, but when stupidty rears its head, it should be lopped off:
So does the economy that the money comes from.
Tell us again how rams’ bladders can be used to predict earthquakes.
There’s no guarantee Amerrica’s economy will keep growing, wish.
It may stay the same size for years while the debt continues to grow.
We’ve even had a few periods where America’s economy actually shrank.
‘Scuse us squirrels while we put away a few nuts.
ROFLMAO!
Let’s base our economic and fiscal policies on those assumptions.
2+2 will never equal 5. No matter how hard you try.
I figure if I cause enough of a stir, maybe someone will pay attention to me.
I might even get someone to comment on my blog.
Sometimes, when I get angry, I hurt puppies.
I always thought of a young Gore Vidal as a puppy, but I wouldn’t hurt him, he was gay.
It isn’t right to hurt gay puppies.
What. Ever.
BUSH LIED PEOPLE DIED!
If you want to imitate me properly, you gotta change your email address too, PMain.
Not that I’m not flattered.
Hey you got your 5 minutes of attention & I made my point you talk drivel.
Alphie, as always I am enthralled by your, um, unique spin on macroeconomics. However, I am less enamored of your manners.
Please provide for me your take on these 2 Middle East peace initiatives:
1) Balloon Fence Missile Sheildâ„¢
2) Mile High Dirt Bermâ„¢
I have asked this question many times and yet, for some reason, you won’t respond at all. Isn’t a lasting peace for Israel and the Palestinians important to you or are the Iraqis the only brown people that you care about?
monkyboy, alphie.
m-bot, a-bot
is there really any difference?
Great Tag Team, Goldstein and Hanson.
”…they should at the very least be celebrating our country’s willingness to do much of the heavy lifting in an effort to spread not just “stability†(too often marked by the silence that comes when millions of people are having their voices silenced by an authoritarian boot heel), but real peace around the globe, the kind that is born of freedom and that spreads in the wake of prosperity that freedom inevitably brings.”
I swear this quote is something from 1984. We spread peace through war, stability through toppling governments…”prosperity comes from freedom”?????? Is Iraq free, ‘cause it sure ain’t prosperous.
Jeff’s a fine writer and he knows his literature, but he thinks our duty to the world is to create freedom, he doesn’t understand power politics. Our mission is to protect our national interests. Jesus, if you promoting “freedom” so much, why do you loathe Hamas (elected in a free election) or Hugo Chavez (elected in a free election).
What happened to thoughtful people in this country and when did they abdicate their leadership in the name of kookery? When one of nation’s leaders stood up at a debate and said the US does too much nation-building, Jeff, you voted for him. Which is it. Or we God’s Justice Force smiting governments from Turkey to Venezeula or are we trying to protect American citizens and American interests?
At least Kerry, for all his public faults, has an idea of our place in the world that is not from a cartoon or video game.
Sycophants, commence the vicarious defense…
Good lord man, Iraq is more prosperous than it has ever been. The economy is booming for them AND they have all that sweet oil revenue.
What they need is time and our willingness to do what we promised to do.
Timmy, either repudiate the Balkans campaigns or stand forever branded a hypocrite.
Time to re-issue my John Kerry biography.
John Kerry was born a dickhead. He was a dickhead as a toddler. All through elementary school he was a dickhead. During those tumultuous middle school years, John remained steadfastly a dickhead. His high school years were frustrating as he couldn’t get any dates being the dickhead he was. John wasn’t the most popular student at Yale, but he was a standout dickhead. Then came his valiant military career where his dickheadedness really shined earning him many medals. He was a dickhead as Lt. Governor of Massachusetts and in the House. He remained a dickhead as a Senator. But his crowning achievement was to convince a majority of Americans (thank God) that he was still a dickhead. And now as a Great International Statesman he stands tall as a dickhead for the whole world to see.
dicentra, or anybody, what kind of narcissist is it which gains gratification from saying stupid things as a prod, and expecting and then finally receiving a justly negative upbraiding?
He’s getting the negative upbraiding from either his “lessers,” people who don’t count in the Grand Scheme of Things, or from the bad people. And if They are tearing him down, that justifies his position.
I can’t remember who said it, was it Lileks?, that when your whole world is a round hole, your mind is a lathe that pares down everything so that it fits. Narcissists do this. (But not just narcissists; we all have this tendency to a point.)
Can such a grossly mechanistic process have a self at all – a reflecting organizing awareness of what it is doing?
Frankly, no. Narcissists really are very mechanistic and reactionary. They’re frozen in amber. One identifying characteristic is that they have no ability to self-evaluate. They can’t see how their actions affect the rest of the world, because everyone else is a bit player in their small little world, which they exclusively control. No one else has an existence apart from the narcissist’s perception of them.
They’re extremely superficial people with no inner life to speak of. It’s a tragedy on one hand that the defense mechanisms against abuse become so extreme that they destroy that person’s inner life. But that doesn’t mean we should be giving them the car keys or cutting them any slack. They have to be stopped cold because they cannot be reasoned with and they cannot be cured.
Alphie –
Until right now, I thought that there could be no one denser than “tas” and “punkassmarc”. I have changed my mind after reading your drivel.
Are you a trust fund baby, or is mommy still taking care of you? Your arrogance and ignorance are a major threshold for the Proggs. Congratulations! Invective over facts! Long live the Proggs!
How stupid can a human being get? Stay tuned and I bet we will find out…
Phil, you mean when we bloodlessly (on our side) intervened in a sectarian, stopped the wa, and saved NATO? Yeah, NATO…that’s not in our national interest.
Well-played, old man. Completely wrong-headed, but well-played indeed
Bloodlessly on our side? When did that become the measure, Timmah? And what on earth is this “saved NATO” nonsense?
You mean, timmy, when we used war to impose peace. When we unseated a government to impose stability.
You’re a fool and a hypocrite, timmy, and it took fewer than 100 words to prove it.
dicentra. I think this goes a long way in understanding Al Gore as well.
Phil, you mean when we bloodlessly (on our side) intervened in a sectarian, stopped the wa, and saved NATO? Yeah, NATO…that’s not in our national interest.
Yeah. You’re a hypocrit.
[…] Because John Kerry seems to think so — and was willing to say as much “24 years later” in Davos. […]