Wow. <\/strong> It takes some \u201cnerve\u201d indeed, to ask this<\/a>:<\/p>\n I know that the president believes himself a good man. My nervy query to him is: \u201cDoes he believe America to be a good country?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n THIS takes some nerve, too:<\/strong><\/p>\n For the first time since 1991, the [Dalai Lama] will visit Washington this week and not meet with the president. Since 1991, he has been here 10 times. Most times the meetings have been \u201cdrop-in\u201d visits at the White House. The last time he was here, in 2007, however, George W. Bush became the first sitting president to meet with him publicly<\/a>, at a ceremony at the Capitol in which he awarded the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress\u2019s highest civilian award. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n The U.S. decision to postpone the meeting appears to be part of a strategy to improve ties with China that also includes soft-pedaling criticism of China\u2019s human rights and financial policies as well as backing efforts to elevate China\u2019s position in international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund. Obama administration officials have termed the new policy \u201cstrategic reassurance,\u201d which entails the U.S. government taking steps to convince China that it is not out to contain the emerging Asian power.<\/p>\n Before a visit to China in February, for example, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said advocacy for human rights could not \u201cinterfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate-change crisis and the security crisis\u201d \u2014 a statement that won her much goodwill in Beijing. U.S. Treasury officials have also stopped accusing China of artificially deflating the value of its currency to make its exports more attractive<\/em>. (Italics mine; things look so different when one is actually in power, don\u2019t they?) -admin]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yes, it takes nerves and balls to be a Human Rights and Liberty<\/strong> sort of president. To appease, soft-pedal and hang with Anti-Semites? Not so much:<\/p>\n The Obama team clearly lacks an internal warning system to identify when it\u2019s going drastically off course. And the president plainly lacks the gut instinct to figure it out for himself<\/a> \u2014 as well as savvy advisers with enough influence to steer him clear of fiascos like Honduras.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019m feeling mildly distracted by a few things going on over here<\/strong>, so let\u2019s have a post full of quotes \u2013 and you\u2019ll have to go to the link to figure out who said them!<\/p>\n 1)<\/strong> \u201cGoodbye, Dalai!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n 2)<\/strong> \u201cI must say,<\/strong> that is some truly impressive toadying\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n 3) \u201cAngela Merkel\u2019s targeted, small stimulus<\/strong>, the one economists said will be a disaster, has proven itself effective according to Boston Consulting Group Survey<\/a>:<\/p>\n Berlin \u2013 The German economic stimulus package is seen as highly effective in combating the effects of the global recession and stabilizing the country\u2019s economy. A recent survey by the Boston Consulting Group found that the measures implemented in Germany were effectively stimulating domestic demand and lacked protectionist tendencies. \u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 4 ) \u201cPrivately, Mr. Obama\u2019s economic advisers are sifting options<\/strong> for a new package of tax cuts and other job creation measures<\/a> to be unveiled in next year\u2019s State of the Union address \u2014 or earlier if pressure for action becomes irresistible.\u201d<\/p>\n 5) \u201c3 Americans win the Nobel Prize in Medicine<\/strong>, and I don\u2019t suppose that creates an occasion to talk about how our health care system might not be so terrible<\/a>. Does it?\u201d<\/p>\n 6)\u201dif you happen to be someone<\/strong> who was giddy about the president of the United States having a shoe thrown at his head<\/a>, maybe you should also be a little hesitant to play the \u201cthe president\u2019s critics are anti-American\u201d card this time around.\u201d<\/p>\n 7)\u201d\u2018The White House<\/strong> attempted to use federal agencies for political gain,\u2019<\/a> I blurted out.\u201d<\/p>\n *8) (A must-read)<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAfter John F. Kennedy was elected, President Dwight D. Eisenhower spent many hours with him. One of the key lessons was this: \u201cAll the decisions you will make,\u201d said Eisenhower, \u201cwill be hard decisions.\u201d<\/a> Dwight went on to explain that the easy things will be tended to by cabinet secretaries and others of the administration with executive authority. But the tough ones will always be kicked to higher levels to be decided. At every level, the decisions become more and more difficult until, at last, the presidential inbox is filled with nothing but the most difficult items.<\/p>\n Fortunately for Kennedy and the country, he already had some experience facing very difficult decisions and for the most part was prepared for the inbox. Yet he was not so proud that he never asked his predecessor for advice. The photo at left won the 1962 Pulitzer Prize. It shows JFK and DDE walking at Camp David during the Cuban Missile Crisis after the Bay of Pigs fiasco (see endnote). Kennedy had asked Eisenhower to come there to give advice. It\u2019s worth noting that Eisenhower was a Republican but it didn\u2019t matter to Kennedy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 9)<\/strong> \u201cThe Democrats and their cheerleaders<\/strong> in the punditocracy used to scream for President George W. Bush to listen to his generals. Then Bush got better generals, listened to them, and avoided defeat in Iraq. \u2018Obama, it seems, is bent on ignoring his generals<\/a>. . .The public already trusts the generals more than Obama to make decisions about Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n 10) \u201cNow, with evidence of apparent theft<\/strong> of federal grant money and blatantly partisan political work, what else must be exposed before Congress gets off the dime<\/a> and conducts a full-fledged investigation?\u201d<\/p>\n 11) \u201cFeel better about that giant<\/strong> database of sensitive health care information<\/a> that the tax-and-spend Democrats want to create when they nationalize health care? The feds holding your family\u2019s most personal information? What could possibly go wrong?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n 12) \u201cWhite House negotiating for public option<\/strong> behind the scenes<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n 13) \u201cWho says do nothing? <\/strong>The GOP plan calls for elimination of the walls that separate<\/a> health insurance companies across state lines greatly increasing competition, as well as tort reform since it is malpractice insurance that is driving up healthcare costs. Obamacare is a disease, not a cure. It will lead to rationing and the lowering of quality. It will make healthcare more expensive, not cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n 14) \u201cAnd<\/strong> he presented various priests, Biblical quotations, and movie footage from \u201cJesus of Nazareth\u201d<\/a> to make the argument that Christianity requires socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n 15) \u201cThere is an enormous difference between<\/strong> a few dozen people voluntarily giving up their worldly goods for communal living, and forcing people to participate in such a society against their will<\/a>. The first brings freedom for those who choose it. The second, historically, has brought tyranny, poverty, slaughter and the gulag.\u201d<\/p>\n 16) \u201c\u2026if we\u2019re living only for ourselves<\/strong> it\u2019s not going to get better. The ego grows by staring at it.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n 17) \u201cNorway\u2019s consistently high rating for desirable living standards<\/strong>, is, in large part, the result of the discovery of offshore oil<\/a> and gas deposits in the late 1960s.\u201d<\/p>\n 18) \u201cThe new resolution, championed by the Obama administration<\/strong>, has a number of disturbing elements. It emphasizes that \u201cthe exercise of the right to freedom of expression carries with it special duties and responsibilities . . .\u201d which include taking action against anything meeting the description of \u201cnegative racial and religious stereotyping.\u201d It also purports to \u201crecognize . . . the moral and social responsibilities of the media\u201d and supports \u201cthe media\u2019s elaboration of voluntary codes of professional ethical conduct\u201d<\/a> in relation to \u201ccombating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n 19) \u201cIs Virginia denying military voters<\/strong> the chance to vote in its state election<\/a> this November?\u201d<\/p>\n 20) (These are connected)<\/strong><\/p>\n He began, \u201cI hate George Bush, but . . .\u201d \u2014 then he criticized the production. He had to assure me, you see, that he was not a Neanderthal or prude<\/a>. He needed to assure me that he did not have horns and a tail. So he said, \u201cI hate George Bush\u201d \u2014 out of nowhere, to a complete stranger <\/p><\/blockquote>\n (and)<\/p>\n Suffice it to say that this injection of politics into all things apolitical represents a kind of \u201cmission creep\u201d of the Left.<\/a> Been on any federal-government websites lately? I\u2019ve been to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service site only to find a government agency attacking the \u201cfailed policies of the last eight years.\u201d I work in the environmental field and have never seen such overtly political content in my entire 20-year career. . . <\/p><\/blockquote>\n 21) \u2026the so-called stimulus<\/strong> has not worked at all<\/a>, and the December projections of Larry Summers and the administration\u2019s economic team have been shown to be completely off base. The structural imbalances that exist in the world economy are apparently coming home to roost, and it is not yet clear what can be done to restore a more stable economic situation.\u201d<\/p>\n 22) \u201cThe totality of his life<\/strong> has been the promotion of homosexuality, and much of it within education,\u201d<\/a> says King. \u201cHe has focused on nothing else during the last two decades, and that is not the focus that our schools need to be on.\u201d<\/p>\n 23) \u201cGiven the current economic and political climate,<\/strong> it\u2019s not surprising that the globe\u2019s climate ranks dead last<\/a> when Americans are asked to name the \u201cmost important issue facing the country right now.\u201d<\/p>\n 24) \u201cWhereas Bush was excoriated by the left<\/strong> whenever he cited God, Obama\u2019s religious imagery receives silence from both sides of the aisle. The left won\u2019t criticize him, while the right ignores any politician invoking the Almighty. But it\u2019s how he invokes the Lord\u2019s name<\/a>, so to speak, that\u2019s unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n 25) \u201cThese ideas linked a series of associations<\/strong>. Mary\u2019s womb-blood that nourished the unborn Christ-child became the milk that later fed Him at her breast<\/a>. This in turn became Christ\u2019s redemptive blood, which worshipers drank like milk as they suckled at His wounded side. This cleft led to a womblike cavity wherein Christians could take refuge to be formed into other Christs.\u201d<\/p>\n 26) \u201cWords to live by:<\/strong> \u2018Turn off the news!\u2019<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n <27) \"I confess I was once of the same opinion, or at least affected to be. I don\u2019t know if I ever really disliked Bruckner\u2019s music, but I certainly knew I should dislike it<\/a>, and set about doing so with a sense of mission.\u201d Wow. It takes some \u201cnerve\u201d indeed, to ask this: I know that the president believes himself a good man. My nervy query to him is: \u201cDoes he believe America to be a good country?\u201d THIS takes some nerve, too: For the first time since 1991, the [Dalai Lama] will visit Washington this week and not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quoting-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWhat I mean is,<\/strong> it took some nerve for George W. Bush to do what no other president before or since has done: publicly bring forward the Dalai Lama as a champion of Human Rights. But then appeasement was never Bush\u2019s style:<\/p>\n
\n
\n28) (Late addition): <\/strong> \u201cParent Pam Harris didn\u2019t choose to lead a revolt against Big Labor. \u2018We\u2019re not boat-rockers. We struggle to keep it together. There\u2019s little time to deal with union organizing and gag orders and privacy invasions of the state<\/a>. Do you know how blown away I am that a bureaucrat is phoning me and sending me e-mail?'\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"