September 11, 2011

President Obama reads Psalm 46 at the NYC 9/11 ceremony.



Come, behold, the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth...

79 comments:

Toshstu said...

Bloomberg must be pissed.

Ann Althouse said...

Note George Bush's face at the very end of the video clip.

Ann Althouse said...

"Bloomberg must be pissed."

Bloomberg excluded clergy, not religion.

ken in tx said...

The word bow in this passage refers a bow that shoots arrows. He pronounced it as it refering to the bow of a ship.

pm317 said...

Ann Althouse said...

Note George Bush's face at the very end of the video clip.
--------------

What about it?

BJM said...

Well, that was an uncomforting and odd choice coldly delivered in an impersonal voice.

Saint Croix said...
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Saint Croix said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
pm317 said...

The response to 9/11 over the last ten years is so confused and chaotic and resulting in the economy of the present time, throw in the faux elections of '08 to install a fucking incompetent, I am overwhelmed and numb. I don't feel anything as these stupid men parade around and try to appear relevant. I expected better leadership in America in the aftermath of 9/11 and am yet to see it. We are see-sawing between two extremes, one of PC protection for Muslims and therefore, indirectly of the forces that perpetrated 9/11 and the other of blood lust and the military industrial complex.

Toshstu said...

"Bloomberg excluded clergy, not religion."

Obama is clergy to many.


wv: unreligm - what Bloomberg did (hard to believe these things are random at times)

Saint Croix said...

Bloomberg excluded clergy, not religion.

Ann, you realize that makes zero sense.

Suppose Bloomberg said the U.S. Olympic Basketball team was not allowed at an Olympic ceremony. And you said, "Bloomberg excluded basketball players, not basketball."

Of course he excluded religion. That was why he did it.

What you should be saying is that the Republican is oppressing religion, and President Obama rebuked the Republican (which he clearly did). And you should take this opportunity to remind everybody that you voted for Obama.

Capt. Schmoe said...

Just words, coming from him.

TWM said...

What was worth noting in Bush's face? And Barry looks like he is just going through the motions.

Anonymous said...

"President Obama reads Psalm 46 at the NYC 9/11 ceremony."

"Would rather be playing golf instead."

Erik Robert Nelson said...

Obama's demeanor here demonstrates a good bit of the disconnection her has with the American people. Bush showed more authentic emotion in a handful of frames at the end than Obama did in the whole speech. :/

Lionheart said...

@pm317 Althouse's direction to note Bush's face is probably another of her opportunities for all of we lesser folk to "think deeply" and in the end she may reveal her ultimate wisdom. Kinda like Carnac, just slower.

SteveR said...

Bloomberg's reasoning was the mythical constitutional "separation of church and state" and therefore the inclusion of some religion via a priest or rabbi, etc. was innappropriate. In that context, reading from the Bible would clearly seem to be against his reasoning. The God of Jacob is pretty exclusive language.

neomom said...

Who the heck ever said Obama is a great orator?

It was painful to listen to the halting and clipped recitation.... he is completely disconnected.

Seemed like he was just going through the motions.

Leland said...

Obama needs to read some poetry, and have someone explain meter to him.

And I'm no theologian, but that didn't sound like the best Psalm for the President to read. If I understand it correctly, we are to take refuge in God because God is vengeful and wages war across the land.

As for Bush's face; it really looks like he chokes back a sob before returning to a somber look. But if anything, perhaps he was thinking, "not what I would have picked to say at a time like this". And he didn't pick those words. Imagine if he did, what would Krugman write then?

PaulV said...

As a Keynesian Obama speaks with a British accent.

Mark O said...

Obama's just not that smart.

Ann Althouse said...

"Suppose Bloomberg said the U.S. Olympic Basketball team was not allowed at an Olympic ceremony. And you said, "Bloomberg excluded basketball players, not basketball.""

No, it's more like he was having a basketball game for the people of the city and excluded professionals. Or a big sex orgy and excluded prostitutes.

m stone said...

Saint Croix is right IMHO.

Mark O said...

That reading was simply awful. This is the greatest orator to have held this office? Give me Elmer Fudd.

m stone said...

No, it's more like he was having a basketball game for the people of the city and excluded professionals.

And everyone who is left was not allowed to play basketball (no voice).

I'm Full of Soup said...

Prez Obama read that like he did not have any idea what the words meant. I heard no energy or passion in his reading. Did I miss something?

ddh said...

President Obama has difficulty reading from a piece of paper. If he had had a teleprompter, he would have sounded less halting.

SunnyJ said...

@Althouse: watched it several times...must be missing the nuance in Pres Bush's expression, just looked serious to me and a slight nod of affirmation.

Beg to differ with you on Bloomberg...he stated in interviews that he didn't want religions because "people are offended with others prayers if it's not their prayers, clergy if its not their clergy". Sounds like no religion to me.

Obama is possibly the singularily most insincere speaker I've ever seen when it comes to delivering what you know is counter to his agenda and progressive/marxist soul. Even his immitation MLK rehtoric rings hollow and just sounds like mocking, "pay now, pay it right now, pay it now baby!" Very SNL delivery. The only time he sounds like he means it, is when he his doing his pompous teacher/child lecture bit, with slamming America, Tea Party Members, conservatives, and generally anyone that is critical of him. When he gets a bit of his own "ridicule" he's pretty thin skinned.

Anonymous said...

"Bloomberg excluded clergy, not religion."

Seems he let at least one Hussein get past the barricade.

Brent said...

Ann, you are brilliant, but your statement about excluding clergy but not religion is probably the most stupid and most bigoted statement you have ever mad on this blog.

Cody Jarrett said...

"As a Keynesian Obama speaks with a British accent."

God don't wake Mick up.

I'm way too tired to have to skip over his posts.

Saint Croix said...

No, it's more like he was having a basketball game for the people of the city and excluded professionals. Or a big sex orgy and excluded prostitutes.

Ann, both your examples are in regard to money. So what you are saying is that amateur Christians are allowed, but Christians who receive a salary are not allowed? So, in your opinion, clergy that was strictly volunteer should have been allowed? The objection is not to a man holding a Bible and reading from it, but to the money in his wallet? Or something?

Bender said...

You do know that, technically, much of Protestantism does not have "clergy"? Anyone and everyone who wants to declare himself to be a minister is ipso facto a minister?

Same with Islam and Hinduism. There is no recognized authority to judge who can and cannot lead religious services. And I'm not sure that there is anything to stop any Jew from simply declaring himself to be a rabbi, even if he does not serve at a synogogue.

To say that he excluded clergy, not religion, is Clintonian at best.

Cedarford said...

Saint Croix said...
Bloomberg excluded clergy, not religion.

Ann, you realize that makes zero sense.
=================
Makes all the sense in the world. He excluded the professional purveyors of their religious sect, he did not exclude attendees from their own religious feelings or statements.

When you think about it, the Wiccan Warlocks, Priests, Rabbis, Mullahs, Ministers, black preachers, "God Hates Gays Phelps creatures" not involved in 9/11 have no more "standing" to instruct the crowd and the public and coincidentally affirm their status as high ranking wise people - than other groups.

To say nothing about the usual mystical Native American gibberish purveyors or "healing crystals that center you with God and the universe" types.

Groups that also demanded inclusion. To advance their beliefs, and themselves.

Professional "grief experts" of the secular humanist strain that wanted to lecture briefly on the grief process. Media-savvy activist lawyers wishing have time at the 9/11 ceremony to push their particular "rights" cause related to 9/11. "Safety experts" to instruct us on preventing recurrence. Some dog lover who wanted to speak about the "hero rescue dog movement".

Sorry, clergy has no special "right" over any other faction in America.

Saint Croix said...

Could Jesse Jackson have appeared on the stage? Yes or no?

How about Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Saint Croix said...

Ann, you got C-4 on your side. Always a good sign.

Cody Jarrett said...

I don't even get why Midget Bloomers didn't want clergy.

I'm not religious, don't even think I believe in "God", but I'm perfectly happy to listen to a minister or priest or rabbi or whatever give a little sermon and prayer.

Then again, I'm not a politically correct midget with a perpetually overtightened sphincter.

caplight said...

<>"Bloomberg excluded clergy, not religion."<>

Once again, I state, it is the presumptuousness of Bloomberg who wasn't even mayor at the time to think he knows best as a secularist how to represent the needs of people who by and large were people of faith and who's faith was part of what made them act selflessly and heroically.

Acts 12:21-23:
21On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. 22The people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” 23And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.

Cody Jarrett said...

Douchenozzle said:

Sorry, clergy has no special "right" over any other faction in America.


And he's wrong. Hell, they have special rights. Go to a hospital, they even have special reserved parking areas.
If that's not a special right--I don't know what is. The god squadders and the gimps.

Cedarford said...

And honestly, wasn't it worth it if it stopped the public from being subject to 5 minutes of a Mullah instructing everyone how wonderful Islam, the Religion of Peace, is?
Or some NJ beersalesman who puts on his tribal feathers and becomes a "mystical Indian shaman" on the weekends?

Then having to invite in the head of the NYC atheist movement for his inclusionary 5 minutes of time?

Cody Jarrett said...

Douchenozzle says:

Or some NJ beersalesman who puts on his tribal feathers and becomes a "mystical Indian shaman" on the weekends?


I wonder if he realizes how offensive that is? The answer is I'm sure he does.

God what a douchenozzle.

There's a cloud shaped like a tit.

traditionalguy said...

Obama's narsicism was showing big time.

He believes that everything is about him and how he holds his pathetic face. He is not a genuine person ever, unless he is threatening Americans for money.

Cedarford said...

CEO-MiniatureMindsPeople said...
Douchenozzle said:

Sorry, clergy has no special "right" over any other faction in America.


And he's wrong. Hell, they have special rights. Go to a hospital, they even have special reserved parking areas.
If that's not a special right--I don't know what is.

==============
Miniaturemindperson may also note there are "special" spots at the hospital for handicapped people and deliverymen and ambulance parking.
Clearly special rights.
Does that mean the speeches also had to have a Teamster, a ambulance orderly, and a person in a wheelchair or just too fat to use regular parking spots speak at the 9/11 ceremony?

J said...
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q said...

Did anyone else notice that Obama omitted only one part of Psalm 46? He omitted the words, "He says" before saying 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.' So whether by accident or intention, he makes it sound like he is claiming to be God.

Cedarford said...

Bloomie is a Nanny State Nazi of the 1st order, but he has also had 10 years of dealing with 100s of special interest groups, including religious ones, that demanded special privilege over 9/11 affairs.

Is it any wonder that Bloomberg is, dedicated lover of "blessed diversity" that he is - simply sick to death of all the groups and people demanding a say on all "9/11 matters"???

edutcher said...

He read it like a campaign speech.

Or a grocery list.

Ann Althouse said...

Note George Bush's face at the very end of the video clip.

"And the Lefties say I speak poorly????".

"Suppose Bloomberg said the U.S. Olympic Basketball team was not allowed at an Olympic ceremony. And you said, "Bloomberg excluded basketball players, not basketball."

No, it's more like he was having a basketball game for the people of the city and excluded professionals. Or a big sex orgy and excluded prostitutes.


I'd say more like he invited the people to play a game, but excluded the ones who could best explain the rules.

Me, I would have read the First Amendment and then said, "I want all you Lefties to notice the words, 'separation of church and state', are nowhere included".

Which, of course, is why I never get invited to such things.

PS I'll bet there are plenty of orgies where the non-pros know more than any hookers that might be invited.

Cody Jarrett said...

MiniatureMindPerson. That's clever. Mad, mad props to you!

MiniMindPerson believes he said that. "God squadders and gimps."

Apparently douchenozzle has reading comprehension issues and is nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is.


Tits! And oh yes, Clouds!

caplight said...

Actually, I rather like the President engaging in religious behavior. Let's go back to the days when FDR prayed for the success of D-Day:
Almighty God: our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph. They will be sore tried, by night and by day without rest - until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war. For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom. And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters and brothers of brave men overseas -- whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice. Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a countenance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces. And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.

J said...

The Psalmist may have been an eloquent scribe at times, but not..the most rational. Starring at the battlefields full of dead, dying, and mutilated, he usually cries out..why do we deserve this, O JHVH? Unlike the...noble Stoics..who would have said something like...I told you the judean's idea of a benevolent omnipotent Being was a crock, hermano.

Bender said...

Let's not forget that high school students -- who hardly qualify as "clergy" -- have been threatened with suspension, expulsion, or withholding of graduation if they were to do something like read the Psalms as part of a valedictorian speech or if they were to say a prayer at a football game.

JAL said...

Oh crap. Do I have to?

I just watched Bush (PA and NYC)and Clinton (PA) and I was touched. (I am avoiding all the memorial pieces today. I went back and watched some from right after 9/11 and 5 years ago on youtube.)

I don't think I can bear watching President Obama wag his head back and forth and inflect the Psalm so wrong that I will have to bang my head against the wall the rest of the day.

Yes. I am petulant and don't want him to ruin today.

(By reading the comments it seems he was true to form. Why did some of you vote for him again? John McCain can read better than BHO. And do math better, too.)

JAL said...

The problem with the delivery of course was it wasn't about him.

He's good when he gets to lower the seas.

J said...

in a sense I agree with you Bender--but what about a school with a multicultural makeup? Are the muslim students allowed to read from the Koran? Mormons, from the BoM? Do Hindu kids get to read like..a selection from the Vedas--say, A hymn to Varuna? Yeah.

SunnyJ said...

From AP article by B Fuller WH correspondent:

"This also was not a day for partisanship or rancor.

Bush gave Obama a quick nod of solidarity after the president's reading. It was the first time the two presidents had seen each other since their Rose Garden appearance after the Haiti earthquake in January 2010."

As I previously posted, all I saw was a serious expression and a slight nod of affirmation.

Anonymous said...

(Adapting from A Man for All Seasons):

The President of the United States would have snored through the Sermon on the Mount, but he'll labor like a scholar on March Madness brackets.

SunnyJ said...

@J you make a good point in that if they earned the right to speak through scholarship or the vote of their classmates, then whatever version of "prayer" or mention of their higher power is their right to speak. They are not speaking for the world, they are speaking for themselves of their own experience...seriously, what else does a 17 yr old have to speak about?

Bloomberg's remarks regarding the issue of whose prayer and whose clergy is just more progressive elitist nonsense...like small communities all over this country haven't shared churches and taken turns with clergy at every community sevice there is to note.

It is childish to act as if everyone is going to have their nose out of joint...and very ACLU to lay claim that if any one person's nose is out of joint over something, then it must be stopped. The "I'm offended" police need to shut up and sit down. The rest of the adults can figure out and take turns. And to be honest most kids understand taking turns too. Only Progressives and radical Islam things it should always be their turn...it's progs version of democracy and radical Islam's califate.

Think of it like a 4-way stop. Us poor dumb bitter clingers navigate those every day.

m stone said...

caplight: As you know, there is power in the words of scripture spoken, but the heart of the man is in question and who he serves.

Compare Obama today with Rick Perry raying at the Christian gathering in August.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZvENzg61kw

miller said...

I thought it was gracious and moving for both of them - Bush and Obama. I guess I don't hear the dog whistle you all hear whenever Obama speaks.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Obama's reading of the Psalm was just terrible. You get the feeling that he doesn't even think about or care about the words or the meaning conveyed by them.

Robotic. Stopping in weird spots. Unable to string the psalm's poetry together. Mispronouncing simple words like bow.....or corpsemen

It is almost like someone who doesn't speak the language but who is phonetically saying the words without understanding the meaning.

Obama is so disconnected from the American culture and people.

Robert Cook said...

Obama's reading of the Psalm was pretty horrible. One has to assume he rehearsed it...couldn't his staff tell how bad this was?

The words of the Psalm, in Obama's reading, are leached of all meaning or feeling or sense, and it becomes mere word hash.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

Yeah, the President (Obama) has a "sing-song" approach or delivery that just doesn't work here.

His pauses needed to be lengthened.

pm317 said...

Robert Cook said...

Obama's reading of the Psalm was pretty horrible.
-----------

May be showing to the world that he does not know how to read a Psalm was the point, ;)

BJM said...

@J

...but what about a school with a multicultural makeup? Are the muslim students allowed to read from the Koran? Mormons, from the BoM? Do Hindu kids get to read like..a selection from the Vedas--say, A hymn to Varuna? Yeah.

They do in California schools.

School districts have designated culture weeks wherein students adopt the religion, culture and dress of a ethnic group/country. The two exceptions are Christianity and Mormonism.

Even in the liberal and ethnically diverse Bay Area there has been a decade long kerfuffle between atheists, parents and school boards. Everyone seems to be offended at some point. I guess that's a lesson unto itself.

BJM said...

@DBQ

Yeah.. how does one sit in an evangelical church with a firebrand Pastor known for his rhetoric and preaching skills for 20 years and not be able to parse a psalm?

michaele said...

Kind of ironic that Obama spoke the words from the psalm "...we will not fear.." while standing behind a large plate of bullet proof glass.

Phil 314 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Phil 314 said...

I liked the psalm and felt it fit the occasion. I didnt like the President's halting reading.

Simon said...

Robert Cook said...
"Obama's reading of the Psalm was pretty horrible. One has to assume he rehearsed it...couldn't his staff tell how bad this was"

I suspect that Presidents are usually ill-served by their minions because they end up surrounded by sycophants. That problem only gets more acute when you add in a cult of personality, which was essentially the basis of Obama's campaign.

Anonymous said...

The thing that raised a question for me is that fact that this Psalm is about Israel. Jerusalem specifically. That is the city of God, according the Bible. Considering the activity and history of the Middle East, I think Psalm 46 was either an interesting choice or a dumb choice.

Ralph L said...

Aren't Muslims mythically considered children of Esau, whose birthright Jacob stole?

madAsHell said...

Man...I dunno...but that boy never went to bible class! Every line was a complete surprise.

Bender said...

Ralph --

Try Ishmael, son of Abram by his wife Sarah's handmaiden, Hagar, before God changed his name to Abraham and entered into the covenant with him. Genesis ch. 16-17

Ralph L said...

Call me, Ishmael.

Oh wait, I'm on dialup, so the line is busy.

mockmook said...

I'm pretty sure Bush was thinking "What a SCOAMF".

Saint Croix said...

In my Bible, God has this to say about Ishmael: "I will make you into a great nation. Yes, you are pregnant and your baby will be a son, and you are to name him Ishmael, because God has heard your woes. This son of yours will be a wild one--free and untamed as a wild ass! He will be against everyone, and everyone will feel the same towards him."

DENISE said...

I am just starting to research, is Psalms accepted by the Muslims?

mark said...

@President Obama

You are a professed Christian. Is it to much to ask that you understand what you are reading BEFORE you read it? It is bow as in bow and arrow.

Respect the book you profess to believe in. It is not supposed to be just words on paper to you. You are to take them to heart and understand their meaning.

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