Althouse: "Are Americans really on the ground? Do we perceive ourselves that way? Or — are we really that way, even if we don't feel it?"

January 22, 2009

"Are Americans really on the ground? Do we perceive ourselves that way? Or — are we really that way, even if we don't feel it?"

Marc Ambinder parses the inaugural address.

4 comments:

paul a'barge said...: Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life.

Not really.

Like all the rest of those who've been hard at work trying to make things better, I've been hard at work for
1) the sheer pleasure of hard work
2) myself
3) my family
4) my near community (church, friends)

As for the rest of the mutts in the nation, let them work hard for themselves and for their own families and their own near-communities.

You folks think I'm going to slog for a bunch of people who don't have the inspiration to slog for their own selves and their own families and who want a piece of my productivity because, well they just want it?

Bloody hell.; 1/22/09, 3:28 PM
traditionalguy said...: And what about the Kenyan masses struggling to breath free, and I mean free at the expense of King Obama's wealth he plans to collect here using a the new and improved IRS made up from a cadre of paid CORE volunteers. Maybe Joe the Plumber can at last see how this will benefit him, that poor, confused working class fool.; 1/22/09, 3:44 PM
rhhardin said...: The parsing does not quite seem to capture how shoddy a speech it was.

Shoddiness that probably comes from filling it with things that are not true.

That meets audience resistance.

Then they don't go along with the alliteration.; 1/22/09, 6:28 PM
George M. Spencer said...: "Because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace."

That was the bomb.

"Bitter swill"...great...."swill" is hog slop or cheap liquor.

"Lines of tribe shall soon dissolve...common humanity shall reveal itself..."

Translation: Hey, Arabs and Persians, you are fucked. Us mongrel atheist Jew-loving homos and Jesus freeks got you beat."

I'm not a big Obama fan, but when and if he travels to places like Cairo, Baghdad, and maybe Teheran, he is going to turn out stupendous gigantic crowds beyond all imagining. People over there dig words in a way that we no longer do, and Barry just might send major shock waves through Iran and Arab countries. I used to think that he shouldn't meet with Iranian leaders. If he went to Teheran, it would have to be under the condition that he could address a public crowd and be televised. He could majorly fuck up that regime with one speech. He's the weapon.; 1/22/09, 8:27 PM