COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
That might be the scariest thing I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteHell, that Is the scariest thing I've ever seen.
Watching these two videos, especially the latter part of the second, you realize that there are events in life that rise slowly but then catastrophe. In a moment, you are no longer an observer but a participant.
ReplyDeleteThe cameramen in both of these videos had no idea that the incoming tsunami would reach them. They were fortunate to find a safe place but had no other choice than to be a spectator and to record the disaster before them.
That seawall in the second video looked to be thirty feet above the water. Then, it wasn't.
ReplyDeleteI could not understand why we needed to risk becoming involved in a third war but now I hear something developing in the dialog.
ReplyDeleteThe tone to the conversation seems to be pointing to a necessity and inevitability of a US military involvement in Iran. It is not inevitable nor necessary.
It is a cynical manipulation and interpretation of events and it is leading to a needless deeper involvement of the US in the hideous Middle East.
It doesn't make sense for Obama to be part of it. I hope he is smart enough to realize where this could go and has the courage to stop it from happening.
I shared your reaction.
ReplyDeleteThere's something profoundly disturbing about watching that.
ReplyDeleteI think my dreams of being a "beachcomber" have died, forever.
Think about it. The repression and murder that will come when the mullahs have to face the Iranian street will be far worse and more violent than anything seen in Libya. If the argument is won that we have to be involved in the Libyan civil war what will happen in Iran?
ReplyDeleteAlways did prefer the mountains.
ReplyDeleteA quiet stream works just fine.
ReplyDeleteObama might be a lot of things; but I don't think he's stupid. I believe he got snookered into this one, but I doubt they'll get him on Iran.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, about one or two more days like this one, and he will, most likely, be seriously considering putting out a "hit" on the hildebeast as it is.
ReplyDeleteAh, I'm going to bed. Dream about the Mountains. The Mountains seem like a good idea right now.
ReplyDeleteJust one last thing. We have about 100,000 Soldiers and Marines trooping around Afghanistan looking for Al Queda. Shouldn't someone tell them that "Al Queda" are now Pumping Oil in Libya?
ReplyDeleteJapan is to decommission four stricken reactors at the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, the operator says.
ReplyDeleteTokyo Electric Power (Tepco) made the announcement three weeks after failing to bring reactors 1 - 4 under control. Locals would be consulted on reactors 5 and 6 which were shut down safely.
Harmful levels of radioactivity have been detected in the area.
GE had a good year in 2010. Made $5 Billion in the U.S. Made $14 Billion Globally, and Paid NO U.S. Income Tax.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure someone will be along shortly to complain about the poor U.S. Corporations being driven offshore by our Confiscatory, Criminally High Corporate Taxes (Highest in the World, don't you know?)
The part of Japan near those reactors will be a radioactive wasteland for years to come.
ReplyDeleteRemember Nanking and the Japanese involvement, there.
Cultural karma, in Asia.
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ReplyDeleteGE had a good year in 2010. Made $5 Billion in the U.S. Made $14 Billion Globally, and Paid NO U.S. Income Tax....
Also, what is not mentioned in the article is that GE in addition to paying no taxes was paid by the U.S. government (you and I) over $3 billion in subsidies for programs on alternative energy (wind turbines, etc.).
Without the subsidies they would have ended up paying 'some' taxes in the U.S.
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Nice jump videos Sam. Evil Knevil the Younger has an application in to jump the Snake River, taking up where his dad left off.
ReplyDeleteMountains and streams is it.
a/bakadwr
Unless you're in Montana like my uncle when the big one hit back in the day and changed the rivers around a good deal, and collapsed whole mountains.
ReplyDeletea/bakadwr
this video, which I saw linked at the end of the second one is interesting as well
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRDpTEjumdo&feature=player_embedded
Recall that Mr Gates was in Bahrain, when the Saudi troops fired upon the pro-democracy rallies, there.
ReplyDeleteRecall that the tear gas grenades used in Egypt against the pro-democracy protesters were manufactured in the United States.
Recall that Cast Lead ended when the US stopped the arms shipments to Israel.
Recall that the Iranian, Israeli and Saudis air forces all use US equipment.
The idea that the US, under any President, will avoid participation in the conflicts in the ME is not reasonable, really.
Know that there karmic justice.
ironically those mountains are a result of plate tectonics. I can't imagine the forces involved in thrusting those peaks as high as they are.
ReplyDeleteKnow that there IS karmic justice.
ReplyDeleteyou are getting pretty mystical there in your old age rat. Next thing you know you'll be spouting off like Billy Graham et al that God is punishing America for...
ReplyDelete38. spindok
ReplyDelete"I just dont get it.
What is really needed is something unexpected to jolt the Libyans into a new reality. We need to address the fact that they won't know what to do with their freedom once they have it.
Look, Gaddafi has had a toga party all these years while the regular Libyans sweated it out in the sweltering heat without even access to vodka or porn.
No wonder they are angry.
I propose a “let’s fly zone” to be set up along the Libyan coast.
This would be a giant beach party supplied and equipped by the US government.
Tents with free booze, strippers, food, pot, everything. 24 hour concert stage. We could bring in Snoop Dog, lil Wayne and Lady Gaga.
These folks need something more to fight for and with the unique capabilities of the United States entertainment industry we are in a position to help. Just in time for spring break too.
If one has the largest military in the whirled, there is an expectation that it will be used.
ReplyDeleteThat all those trillions of dollars worth of equipment are not just for show, but have to be used.
If not, why have it all, in the first place?
The Russians never deployed their forces outside of their sphere of influence, they never had a direct intervention across an ocean, nor have the Chinese, in the modern era.
It is the US that has Armies deployed around the globe, to influence events and to shape the political outcomes "over there".
The Mexican military, it looks just like that of the US. Same uniforms, same equipment.
Paid for by, well, you know who.
The idea that the US should not "pick the winners" is ludicrous.
ReplyDeleteIf that was not our game, we would supply all the toys.
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ReplyDeleteKarma has little to do with it rat.
The U.S. is the largest arms dealer in the world and they need to keep drumming up business for those GE jet engines.
With regard to using the weapons, it just creates more business for the boys making the weapons. Kind of on the scale of designed obsolescence.
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The Egyptian military, except for the small arms, it sure looks like US.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteInteresting take Dougo.
On the other hand, the people in Libya, unlike those in Egypt and some of the other countries there, really didn't have it all that bad (relatively speaking of course).
Ghaddaffi may be a prick but he wasn't all that stupid. He's been bribing his people with goodies for decades.
The 'rebels' there aren't complaining about food and jobs, they are complaining that they don't have free elections which would allow some of them to hand out the goodies.
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"That all those trillions of dollars worth of equipment are not just for show, but have to be used.
ReplyDeleteIf not, why have it all, in the first place?"
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Deterrence -
Weakness is Provocative.
Who are we deterring, doug?
ReplyDeleteThe US spends more than all others, combined.
When the spending of US allies are factored in, well, there is no one left to "deter".
The asymmetric terrorists are not deterred by carrier battle groups, or 9/11/01 would not have happened.
If your argument had real merit, we'd be done, in Afghanistan and Iraq, not mired in guag.
It did have some merit, in the 1960's. But who were we deterring, in Vietnam, but the Vietnamese from controlling Vietnam.
In Korea, but Koreans.
Even the NorKs have never threatened Hawaii. Nor will they.
MAD works and does not need 12 carrier battle groups and a million man army to implement.
As for "Weakness being Provocative"
ReplyDeleteYou are right.
The US is quite proactive in the face of the weakness, of others.
Quirk,
ReplyDeleteHard to know who the rebels are much less what 'they' want. I heard on the radio this a.m. that 50% of the Libyan population is under 20 years old.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOverwhelming strength is provocative, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd the US will continue to be provocative.
ReplyDeleteBank on it.
Saddam was weak and the US was provocative because of it.
ReplyDeleteThe Iranians are certainly weak, and the US and its allies could be provocative, because of it.
The debate centers on whether or not the US should be provocative, in Iran not whether or not it could be.
The US has certainly been a provocateur, in Iran, in the past.
More so than the Iranians have ever been provocateurs in the US.
Obama gave an excellent speech on Energy.
ReplyDeleteHere is a Transcript.
He's proposing the kinds of goals that can be achieved, and that will work, IMHO.
Hard to know who the rebels are much less what 'they' want.
ReplyDeleteI apologize Ash.
Should have said "What they say they want."
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ReplyDeleteThe debate centers on whether or not the US should be provocative, in Iran not whether or not it could be.
Obama says it all depends. From his speech the other night, it depends on our national interests (anyway he chooses to define them), the money it would cost, whether we can get a coalition of the willing (Grenada, the Virgin Islands, etc) to support us, what kind of mood Michelle is in, and how he shot hoops that day.
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Do the rebels actually have an established spokesperson(s) and policy statements? I'd suspect that what is reported as to what the rebels want is more what Hillary and crew want as opposed to a coherent set of goals emanating from the rebels.
ReplyDeleteActually, it was yesterday I heard an interview with the Libyan former Ambassador to the UN and he was getting asked what the rebels wanted, whether AQ was involved ect. The interview noted how many of the 'rebel spokespeople' were ex-Ghadafi government people. The interviewer queried whether it was simply a power play. He, of course, claimed purity of the movement, that it was to support the Libyan people.
ReplyDeleteDo the rebels actually have an established spokesperson(s)..
ReplyDeleteTheir spokesperson is anyone we say is their spokesperson, anyone who mouths the right words to justify our actions.
Hell we made Ahmad Chalibi, crook, hustler, and liar spokesperson for he Iraqi opposition for exactly the same reasons.
I would expound futher but have a doctor appointment.
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http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/two_libyan_states.html
ReplyDeleteEast Libya/
West Libya
a/bakadwr
'Interestingly, this almost duplicates the old imperial Roman division into the provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica'
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting.
a/bakadwr
Yes, that Is interesting.
ReplyDeleteDo you suppose the Romans were actually looking at the Tribes that inhabited the area?
WP: Creta et Cyrenaica was a senatorial province of the Roman empire created in 20 BC. It comprised the island of Crete and the region of Cyrenaica in north Africa (mod. E. Libya).
ReplyDeleteIn other words, Cyrene is just the coast of Africa night to Crete.
A Cyrenian named Simon carried the cross of Christ (Mark 15:21).
Jews from Cyrene heard the disciples speaking in their own language in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:10).
...er, "nigh" to Crete.
ReplyDeleteCool, T, thanks.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it still doesn't completely rule out the possibility that the Romans understood the Tribes of Tripoli weren't a good fit with the folks inhabiting the coast "nigh" to Crete. :)
I think it's hard for us Westerners to get a good grip on Tribal societies. Maybe, we've just been separated from that type of system for too long.
I know, a few days ago when various commentors, and commentators were talking of the potential for an East/West split in Libya, I wasn't paying much attention. Now, I'm looking at it, and starting to understand what they were seeing.
It just didn't come "naturally" to me. I had to be hit upside the head with it.
During that interview with Libyan ex-ambassador he derided the notion of Libya being primarily a tribal society. It was while responding to this notion of tribalism that he mentioned the 50% being sub 20 and none of those kids knew, or cared, what tribe their friends had come from.
ReplyDeleteDuring that interview with Libyan ex-ambassador he derided the notion of Libya being primarily a tribal society. It was while responding to this notion of tribalism that he mentioned the 50% being sub 20 and none of those kids knew, or cared, what tribe their friends had come from.
ReplyDeleteThe " kids" may not care at 5 and 6 but their parents care immensely and the kids will be converted. That is how tribes persist.
By all indicsations, there is not much public support for the rebels if they cannot advance and hold territory without US air support.
ReplyDeleteMuammar Gaddafi's forces have continued their rapid advance despite continued coalition air strikes, retaking much of the territory gained by rebels at the weekend.
Their advance also threatens to humiliate the western coalition by again coming within striking distance of Benghazi, the rebels' de facto capital that Paris, Washington and London launched the aerial campaign to defend.
People who had returned to the strategic town of Ajdabiya after it fell to the rebels on Saturday again fled as the government's army seized two important oil towns further along the coastal highway, Ras Lanuf and Brega.
Put on your big girl panties and deal with it
ReplyDeleteNew moon in Aries.
Go ahead, watch it you may learn something.
I think in order to avoid a stalemate we'd have to put some real weaponary and advisors in there.
ReplyDeleteI kinda like the idea of a stalemate.
a/bakadwr
Well Thank God Mercury is in retrograde or whatever I'll put on my warrior panties burn some energy by riding a horse retreating to Yellowpine I intuited I should do this and there focus like a laser on my inner moment all spring fly rod in hand and wolf rifle at the ready and the hell with the middle east.
ReplyDeleteThankee for the tip
a/bakadwr
Miss T, I heard on the news earlier today about some big discovery by the a-rabs deserters of some really old manuscripts talking about the life of Jesus. Keep your eye on that story. Might be as big as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
ReplyDeletea/bakadwr
http://www.archaeology.org/news/
ReplyDeleteGo to Tuesday, March 29 and scroll down a bit, you'll see it.
a/bakadwr
ABC Online -
ReplyDeleteAs dangerously high levels of radiation spread beyond the Fukushima exclusion zone in Japan, there are fears the race to contain the nuclear crisis has been lost and meltdown has already taken place.
Libya: Bombing to Support Jew-Hating Jihadists?
ReplyDeleteAndrew G. Bostom
As the UK Independent reports, thwarted in their efforts to reach the city of Sirte, Muammar Qaddafi's birthplace, and a key strategic milestone on the path to Tripoli, most of the Libyan "freedom fighting rebels" retreated in disarray, resigned to a stalemate. Except for one critical contingent -- the openly avowed jihadists whose "battlefield jihad experience" includes hostile actions against the US in Iraq and Afghanistan:
But one group of fighters, calling themselves the Mujahedin, were vocal in their condemnation of such pessimism. To cries of "Allah hu Akbar" they charged forward towards enemy fire, exhorting others to follow. The men from Darnah were once again in the lead, as they have been in so many of the recent battles. Darnah, which has the reputation of being the most devoutly Muslim city in Libya, has been singled out by Gaddafi as playing a central part in the "al-Qa'ida-orchestrated plot against his rule". ...
Not surprisingly, given Libya's brutal millennial history of Islamic Jew-hatred, and final liquidation of its small Jewish minority community-steadily pogromed into flight between 1945 and 1967 -- these forthright jihadists openly project their own virulent Muslim Jew-hatred on to Qaddafi's regime.
A band of fighters from Darnah at the town of Ras Lanuf were also eager to deny any dealings with terrorism. "We are not al-Qa'ida," were the first words of Khalid Arshad Ali as he dusted the triggering mechanism of an anti-aircraft artillery gun. "We are Mujahedin. We are here to fight for Libya and no one else. We are Muslims in this country and we are all Sunnis. We know that Gaddafi is getting paid by the Jews. We know that Israel is supplying him with special guns. He is not a proper Muslim and it is our duty to fight him."
The geopolitical and moral perversity of US and NATO support for this Jew and broader Western-hating jihadist vanguard of the "Libyan freedom fighters" reminded me of Aldous Huxley's remarkably prescient observations, based upon his own sojourns in North Africa during the 1920s and 1930s:
Mohammedanism...is hard, militant, and puritanical; it encourages the spirit of martyrdom, is eager to make proselytes, and has no qualms about levying "holy wars" and conducting persecutions....And to think that we are busily teaching them all the mechanical arts of peace and war which gave us, in the past, our superiority over their numbers! In fifty years time, it seems to me, Europe can't fail to be wiped out by these monsters.
Well, Mr Huxley was certainly wrong when he wrote:
ReplyDeleteIn fifty years time, it seems to me, Europe can't fail to be wiped out by these monsters.
Unless he wrote it on his death bed.
If we are to take the wisdom of an LSD dropping guru, this should be the message that we take to heart:
A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.
Far out, man.
Fifty years or more have past, and
ReplyDeletethe Europeons are standing tall, in the midst of the Islamic Arc.
The US is destabilizing the existing power structure across Islamic Arc, proof is in the tasting of the pudding.
"If humanitarianism is the new standard for U.S. military intervention, what about bombing North Korea, liberating Tibet, strafing the Congo, Darfur and scores of other countries where authoritarian regimes deny basic human rights to their people?"
ReplyDeleteWell, if any of those are well understood, prudently planned out, affordable, and reflective of other American interests that make them worth more than their cost, that would make them good candidates.
As for Libya? Er, no, not well understood, not planned out at all, questionable in terms of affordability, and only tenuously connected with American interests -- certainly not interests that would make our intervention there a matter of increasing our strength rather than frittering it away.
Bismarck, Disraeli, Kissinger, Polk, Metternich, Marshall, Wellington, how they all must be shaking their heads in dismay right now...
The Europeons are bombing the Mohammedans, not the other way around.
ReplyDelete300,000 Mohammedans have fled Libya since the start of NATO involvement in the fighting, there in Libya, how many Europeons have fled Europe, refugees of Mohammedan attacks?
As I'm sure everyone here knows, Kazachstan has found a fair amount of oil in the last decade, or so. So what are they spending THEIR money on?
ReplyDeleteWind Power, of course.
It must be tough being a sock-puppet for Consol Coal. When even the Kazaks make you look backward?
The idea that the US could use these Islamists as a tool to take down a State sponsor of terror, just so sweet.
ReplyDeleteThis Obama is a damn sight smarter than GW Bush. Using proxies to do the fighting. Especially when the proxies are enemies of the US.
Killing two birds, for the price of one.
Those Libyans who fled, are smart unlike the Arabs on the West Bank and Gaza strip.
ReplyDelete------------------------------------
Supposedly, there is an American educated Libyan who was a part of Saif Gaddafi's "reform efforts" who is acting as the "coordinator" for outside support. As for al Qaeda in Libya, it's been reported that so far, no more there are no more than is normal for the Muslim whirled. You can be sure that will change as they have time to transit the arc and find their way to the "front lines."
Would you also say, whit, that the Loyalists that abandoned New York City, when the British withdrew were "smart" and that the colonists that stayed were not?
ReplyDeletePatriotism is dumb?
ReplyDeleteThe Gypsies of Europe that did not flee NAZI aggression were stupid?
How about the Vichy French?
ReplyDeleteSmart or stupid?
It's smart for civilians to flee before an advancing army. Always has been.
ReplyDeleteWhere was the advancing army, on the West Bank?
ReplyDeleteThe Arabs that did flee, in 1948, why they've been Stateless and homeless. They and their descendants living in US supported refugee camps ever since.
Nothing "smart" about that.
The Gazans that were attacked, in 2008, were locked in, by the Israeli and the Egyptian Armies, no where they could flee to.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, they're not smart people.
ReplyDeleteThey allowed themselves to be manipulated by every two bit hustler to come along since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The Grand Mufti, Yassir Arafat, Ahmed Yassin, Hamas.
ReplyDeleteThe best they ever had it was when they could go to work every day in Israel.
So, if the Israeli are nuked, its' because they were stupid to be there, in the cross hairs of a Wahhabi attack?
ReplyDeleteOr will their intelligent defense in the face of unrelenting Islamic pressure be praised?
Where should the Israeli flee to?
ReplyDeleteWhen should they decide to go?
How will they know when it is not "to late"?
Video:
ReplyDeleteDid Obama Call the Libyan Situation a ‘Turd Sandwich?’ (NBC Anchor Says ‘Yes’)
Don’t call it a Kinetic Military Action!
Yet another neck-snapping moment provided by one of the MSNBC anchors.
Savannah Guthrie was part of the ‘panel’ on Meet The Press this past Sunday and she gave us all one for the video clip file. This was all happening in advance of the President’s Monday night address to the nation.
‘And the President is obviously not happy with his set of choices. One person told me, in a meeting he called this military action in Libya a ‘turd sandwich’ but he was quoting one of his national security aides who likes to use that term.’
If humanitarianism is the new standard for U.S. military intervention, what about bombing North Korea, liberating Tibet, strafing the Congo, Darfur and scores of other countries where authoritarian regimes deny basic human rights to their people?"
ReplyDeleteNo oil in those other places.
Ford to surpass GM in car sales for the first time in 80 years; coincidentally, Obama announces government to buy huge fleet of "green" cars.
ReplyDelete