"... Trump is a spiritual black hole. He has no ability to transcend himself by so much as an emotional nanometer.... He represents the ultimate triumph of a materialist mindset. He has no ability to understand anything that is not an immediate tactile or visual experience, no sense of continuity with other human beings, and no imperatives more important than soothing the barrage of signals emanating from his constantly panicked and confused autonomic system.... In his daily coronavirus briefings, Trump lumbers to the podium and pulls us into his world: detached from reality, unable to feel any emotions but anger and paranoia. Each time we watch, Trump’s spiritual poverty increases our own, because for the duration of these performances, we are forced to live in the same agitated, immediate state that envelops him.... Each of these presidential therapy sessions corrodes us until the moment when the president finally shambles away in a fog of muttered slogans and paranoid sentence fragments.... We are all living with him in the moment and neglecting the thing that makes us human beings instead of mindless fish swimming in circles."
Such are
the entirely subjective ruminations of Tom Nichols (author of "The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters")(in The Atlantic).
I watch the briefings every day, and my subjective experience is nothing like that. I don't feel myself dragged into soullessness or losing touch with reality.
AND: The poll results are very clear:
Posts
311 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 311 of 311@Nichevo:
Maybe it's because you're shitty salesmen. Maybe PDT has that going for him. Which is nice.
It's certainly true that I don't have the capacity for el good about myself. bullshitting people required to be a successful real estate developer. And I certainly don't have anywhere near Trump's net worth. But I do all right. And I've never needed to see my name on a building to feel good about myself.
Of course, complaining about a dishonest politician is like complaining about water being wet. Lying is part of a politician's job description. There is nothing people hate more than being told the truth. People want to be lied to and flattered.
This Tom Nichols person is, obviously, a spiritual asshole.
"Republicans accepted an interventionist foreign Policy from 1941-1990 because we keeping three evil empires (imperial japan, nazi Germany and the USSR) from taking over the world."
As I recall, the French and the British started the Second World War in order to save Poland from the Germans. But by the time we got involved, there was no Poland left. Wouldn't it have been simpler just to let the nazis and the USSR duke it out, while we explained table manners to the Japs?
Buchanan wrote a book about this, BTW. The Unnecessary War. I think he got it right.
Anytime someone wants to make the case that a majority-minority America will be an improvement on what's come before, I'm all ears.
majority-minority?
Care to translate LibSpeak to English?
Nichols is asshole
Why do progressives want to change everything, take over control, tell everyone how to live? Not only do they think things suck now, they think they will get much worse unless they make all those changes. Conservatives believe that things will be fine if you mostly leave them alone, especially individuals, so which is the more optimistic philosophy?
@Browndog:
majority-minority?
Care to translate LibSpeak to English?
No racial/ethnic group will make up more than 50% of the population.
Okay, the Oscar Levant reference wins the thread as far as I am concerned. Well played Roughcoat.
I'm honored! Thanks for this award and thanks to all the little people I had to step on to get here!
bagoh20 said...
Men exert control over other men. It's as old as time. It's in our nature.
It's why Easter us the most important event in Christianity.
"That's a droll remark! The Gabor sisters are tittering, Peter Ustinov is chortling.
Levant is stuttering"
We laugh now at Merv, Mike Douglas, and Dick Cavett. But their discussions were the meetings of intellectual giants compared to the TV trash we have today. Judas Priest, if you'd told me in 1989 that I'd be writing that, I'd have called you crazy.
We have no more middlebrows, because we have no high brows.
"Wouldn't it have been simpler just to let the nazis and the USSR duke it out, while we explained table manners to the Japs?"
Pearl Harbor made that a theoretical discussion. We certainly could've fought WW II without pretending Stalin was good ol' "Uncle Joe" and our Best friend Forever.
well no because they wouldn't have seized the Caucasus oil fields, then take
n over iran, hitler would have completed his liquidation of the jews, James Hogan
described on scenario, in the proteus operation,
If Trump is spiritually impoverished, then that must not be very important to being an effective businessman, father, presidential candidate, President, leader, or babe magnet. I doubt that he is spiritually impoverished, but when he's better than you and your heroes at most everything, you might as well throw that at him. Nothing else is sticking. Has anyone ever been punch up at more than Trump, and to less effect?
Blogger J. Farmer said...
@Browndog:
majority-minority?
Care to translate LibSpeak to English?
No racial/ethnic group will make up more than 50% of the population.
You're better than that, Farmer-
Connoisseur of the oxymoron.
Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box
Religion is the smile on a dog
I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know, if you know what I mean, do doo yeah
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – What I Am
"Buchanan's views on WWII were fringe. The paleos' view on the Civil War was fringe. Things like that made many of us unwilling to identify with paleoconservatism."
Historical views of matter long past are irrelevant in the real world. If you voted for or against Buchanan in 1992 or 1996 because of his views on the Lee vs. Grant, you're an idiot.
It's certainly true that I don't have the capacity for el good about myself. bullshitting people required to be a successful real estate developer. And I certainly don't have anywhere near Trump's net worth. But I do all right. And I've never needed to see my name on a building to feel good about myself.
I don't know, you're the big smart guy, so it seems impossible to me that you genuinely misunderstood my meaning. Maybe you just don't want to engage.
"But I do all right." Defensive much? You do all right sucking off the government teat to fund your delinquent day care. It should be no surprise you're ok with certain aspects of socialism. The only thing I can think of about you that could entitle you to feel good about yourself is your expression of filial piety.
Bullshit or no bullshit, Donald Trump isn't a successful real estate developer. He is the President of the United States.
He got that job the same way he got his old ones. Salesmanship. You don't care about anyone but your own self-defined circle. People like that die alone. They certainly don't attain power or see their ideas, however worthy, promoted and adopted.
It seems impossible that you don't understand that, so I presume disingenuousness on your part, but maybe you can make yourself clearer if you try hard. I assume you do wish to be understood?
I've never seen a President go out of his way to speak publicly to defend the tenants of Christianity the way this godless New York liberal, Donald J. Trump has.
In his daily coronavirus briefings, Trump lumbers to the podium and pulls us into his world: detached from reality, unable to feel any emotions but anger and paranoia. Each time we watch, Trump’s spiritual poverty increases our own, because for the duration of these performances, we are forced to live in the same agitated, immediate state that envelops him.
I had been thinking that Trump could easily shorten these press conferences to an hour, tops. Trump and his Covid-19 task force could each read their prepared statements, and then take a maximum of, say, 4 questions from each reporter.
But reading how this affects insipid twats like Nichols and his ilk, maybe Trump should double these press conferences to four hours so that Nichols and his ilk all kill themselves. The country would certainly be better off without twaddle such as this.
After which these press conferences could be trimmed to an hour.
They not only can read Trump’s mind, they can now see into his soul, such as it is.
Blogger narciso said...
well no because they wouldn't have seized the Caucasus oil fields, then take
n over iran, hitler would have completed his liquidation of the jews, James Hogan
described on scenario, in the proteus operation
Narciso, I wish you wrote better, then I could engage you. I didn't read Hogan, but would be interested in exploring further some scenarios where Germany did better against the USSR. I question whether even reaching the Caucasus would have done more than prolong the war. If Germany had still been on Russian soil in 1945, we'd have just nuked them from behind, and saved Eastern Europe from Soviet domination.
What do you feel?
Watched "The Passion of the Christ" last night for the first time. Pretty intense, and I guess that was the objective - to make you feel it. The people and especially the Roman soldiers were too cruel and depraved to be believable. Not that such people don't exist, but acting that cruel in public and enjoying it just seemed over the top to me, especially considering that the Roman soldiers really didn't have any beef with with Jesus to motivate such cruelty.
@Browndog:
You're better than that, Farmer-
Connoisseur of the oxymoron.
I encounter this reaction a lot. A lot of white Americans find discussing things in frank racial terms distasteful. So much so that they have convinced themselves that importing millions of non-whites into their country is a tremendous benefit for them. "Diversity is our strength" is practically a secular religion in America. Unfortunately, it isn't true. Diversity is a source of division. The more diverse we become, the more disunited we become. There is no longer a common cultural core holding everyone together. "We're all in this together" becomes "I got mine."
hitler would have completed his liquidation of the jews,
More than just the Jews, narciso. See Generalplan Ost. All the Slavs west of the Urals.
All of the them.
@Jupiter,
"Buchanan wrote a book about this, BTW. The Unnecessary War. I think he got it right."
Loved that book. Really provocative way to rethink some of our views of WW2.
Didn't completely buy all his arguments, and certainly didn't vote for him, but loved the book.
AJP Taylor's book, "The origins of the Second World War" is even more in depth and brilliant.
a precursor to turteldove's alt civil war series yes, the jews were only the primary of hitler's target group,
his views on the Lee vs. Grant, you're an idiot.
of course Lee vs. Grant doesn't matter; Lee vs. Grant was just a holding action.
The REAL war was Sherman and the Army of the Tennessee vs. Johnston and the Army OF Tennessee
EVERYBODY KNEW THAT; well, everybody except possibly LEE
The Army of the Tennessee marched from Cairo Illinois (at the mouth of the Tennessee river) to Raleigh North Carolina (130 miles from Petersburg VA). Letting THAT happen sure implies a failure on SOME Southerners account
that link didn't work,
the attacks against lee, who was the counterpart to Rommel, keeping the analogy going, is to deconstruct history, the confederacy produced much worse,
Maybe some people feel good about themselves first, and that's why they put their name on a building. It also something known as branding, which I don't care for much myself, but Trump is one of the best at it ever.
@Nichevo:
He got that job the same way he got his old ones. Salesmanship. You don't care about anyone but your own self-defined circle. People like that die alone. They certainly don't attain power or see their ideas, however worthy, promoted and adopted.
I am flattered that you have a massive hard-on for me, but you seem to have confused me with somebody who gives a fuck. I am not here to attain power or see any ideas promoted. I'm here to write what I think. That's it. You're free to ignore me. Trust me, I won't lose any sleep.
You, on the other hand, want to talk about me. I get it, you think I'm a know-it-all. You feel some strange need to criticize me personally. And yet, even though you're completely free to ignore me, you read every single thing I write. You're my biggest fan.
One of the objections the fascists/progressives keep spouting about PDJT is that he doesn't "listen" to the experts.
What they really seem to mean is that he doesn't unquestioningly accept and/or do what the experts recommend.
While I want him listening to the experts, I want him deciding whether to follow their recommendations or not.
Usually there are a number of different experts, often with competing viewpoints. The competent manager, which I have always believed Donald Trump and now PDJT to be, listens to them and decides on his own course of action balancing the competing views.
For example, he has medical experts like Fauci who says stay shut down for 18 months. Fauci is a doctor, he looks at the medical aspects and perhaps that is the correct approach. He wants zero medical risk and puts the economy in distant second.
OTOH, Mnuchin is in charge of the economy (sort of) and wants to get it going again. He thinks that the continued shutdown is is a greater risk than the medical and wants us to get going again.
So, two competing experts, both probably pretty good in their fields. Both probably pretty knowledgable in what is going on currently in their area.
Somebody has to make a decision. Someone has to say Mnuchin is right, open it up. Or Fauci is right, shut it down. Or some other course, influenced by other factors.
Right now, the decider is PDJT. Don't like his decisions, replace him with Biden in November.
Generally, experts make poor managers or deciders.
I don't want an expert for president. I want someone who can find the right experts, listen to various points of view and then make a decision based on what to do. Perhaps based on the advice of experts. Perhaps based on deciding that the experts are full of shit.
45 in 20! I thought he'd been doing a great job before. He is outshining himself every day in this crisis.
John Henry
I'm listening (again) to Winston Churchill's The Second World War, which is where Buchanan got the quote from
One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once, "The Unnecessary War." There never was a war more easy to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle.
Churchill shows (in DETAIL) how MANY places and times WWII could have been prevented from happening. . . All of which are BEFORE Poland
"... Trump is a spiritual black hole. He has no ability to transcend himself by so much as an emotional nanometer.... He represents the ultimate triumph of a materialist mindset."
That is Nichols, projecting his own manifest traits, onto someone he doesn't like.
Oh golly ... are we really going to refight both the Civil War AND the Second World War?
"What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?"
LOL! Took me couple of minutes to remember where that came from, and I have only seen the movie 10 times, but it has been a while since the last one.
@bagoh20:
Maybe some people feel good about themselves first, and that's why they put their name on a building. It also something known as branding, which I don't care for much myself, but Trump is one of the best at it ever.
Possibly. I've never doubted Trump's fluency as a bullshit artist. It's a skill for which New Yorkers are quite famous. But bragging about one's net worth and a desire for fame don't exactly scream self-confidence to me.
Fast Times.
What a fun time in America.
a rare moment where sean penn, showed common sense,
what a load of hot garbage most prestige publications have become, the atlantic, the new republic, even commentary, has been devalued in the course of these crazy years,
Yeah - we need more phony "feel your pain" rhetoric wrapped inside shiny media fellatio.
"Churchill shows (in DETAIL) how MANY places and times WWII could have been prevented from happening. . . All of which are BEFORE Poland"
Perhaps he was right, but I still believe that WWII had to happen in some form just to birth the world that followed it, which was coming whether it was wanted it or not. I can certainly imagine much worse things replacing WWII in the course of history.
Farmer wrote: Rubin's conservatism seems to me a function of her deference to Israel, and Boot's a function of his cold war nostalgia.
4/11/20, 4:47 PM
Rubin has bitterly criticized Trump's Israel policies, including the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem. She has even defended The Squad - because the enemies of my enemy are my friends, I guess.
Believe me, any "deference to Israel" Rubin has ever felt is dwarfed by the hatred she feels for Trump.
We have no more middlebrows, because we have no high brows.
4/11/20, 6:26 PM
Very true.
"Oh golly ... are we really going to refight both the Civil War AND the Second World War?"
Heh - no refighting ancient wars!!
But..,.,re-assessing and re-evaluating and re-interpreting is always fair game, no? We may learn sumptin' that helps us fight or avoid fighting a future war.
And yet, even though you're completely free to ignore me, you read every single thing I write. You're my biggest fan.
You completely misunderstand me, and I speak very clearly and directly. Maybe you ARE stupid. Maybe you're not worth engaging after all. You certainly can't listen for shit.
@Yancey Ward
"Perhaps he was right, but I still believe that WWII had to happen in some form just to birth the world that followed it..."
I think it had to happen too but for a different reason - namely, because Hitler wanted to move east, and because Stalin wanted to Communize the west. The big boys were spoilin' for an epic fight.
#Nichevo:
You completely misunderstand me, and I speak very clearly and directly. Maybe you ARE stupid. Maybe you're not worth engaging after all. You certainly can't listen for shit.
Yep. You're right. You shouldn't waste your time engaging with me any further.
p.s. Glad we could end on a note of agreement
I am not here to attain power or see any ideas promoted.
No, you're here to pitch a bitch-fit because nobody will listen to you and Cassandra Buchanan mourn the demise of white America. That's an idea. If you were sane, or sincere, in believing it best, you would want that idea PROMOTED.
Are you really such a weaponized autist that you don't get that?
Like you, I'll say what I choose. Like me, you are free to not respond.
But..,.,re-assessing and re-evaluating and re-interpreting is always fair game, no? We may learn sumptin' that helps us fight or avoid fighting a future war.
Count me out. I ... I can't do it. I still haven't gotten over Macho Grande.
@Nichevo:
Are you really such a weaponized autist that you don't get that?
Guilty. I guess I just don't take commenting on a blog that a few dozen people read that damn seriously. Why you are so concerned with what I think or believe or get is beyond me. As far as "pitch a bitch-fit," that sounds like a much more accurate description of yourself than me.
Like you, I'll say what I choose. Like me, you are free to not respond.
You began this exchange with me. Not the other way around. Again, I'm flattered. If you have anymore of these great suggestions for how I should be, write them down in a journal.
“Anytime someone wants to make the case that a majority-minority America will be an improvement on what's come before, I'm all ears.”
Gotta say, in a witch-hunting world, I admire your say-it-now-and-say-it-loud stance. Unless that’s some random dude in the photo and your surname isn’t Farmer.
"Count me out. I ... I can't do it. I still haven't gotten over Macho Grande."
Sorry, but you're in. Unless, of course, you'd rather scroll thru 48 J. Farmer comments.......,
You completely misunderstand me, and I speak very clearly and directly. Maybe you ARE stupid. Maybe you're not worth engaging after all. You certainly can't listen for shit.
I so wish I could mass produce, bag, and sell this comment.
Gold.
@The Cracker Emcee Refulgent:
Gotta say, in a witch-hunting world, I admire your say-it-now-and-say-it-loud stance. Unless that’s some random dude in the photo and your surname isn’t Farmer.
Ha. Both are indeed my own. Fortunately, I've long abandoned any interest in activism. As W.C. Fields observed: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it."
Sorry, but you're in. Unless, of course, you'd rather scroll thru 48 J. Farmer comments.......,
Only 48? I must be slacking.
I so wish I could mass produce, bag, and sell this comment.
Gold.
Yeah, the commenters who tell me over and over again how pointless it is to engage with me are my favorite.
We know-
Your create them out of whole cloth.
Not that I have any problem with that.
"But bragging about one's net worth and a desire for fame don't exactly scream self-confidence to me."
Not my kind of thing either, but I'm not the President of the United States who got there against all odds and the opinions of our smartest experts on the subject, with a beautiful young wife, adoring millions, and could you really need to pursue fame when you are Donald Trump, possibly the most famous man on earth?
If I had accomplished all that, I can't imagine confidence being a problem. Charging that Trump is overcompensating for some lack of confidence is a the kind of charge you hear from a homely high school girl about the hot cheerleaders. Truly confident people don't have a problem with others who are high performers, popular, or just better than them at something.
It's humor, Farmer, humor - perhaps you should read up on it:)
AJP Taylor? Pat EFFING Buchanan?
Those are jokes.
At least Taylor was an actual historian and not a Churchill-wannabe blowhard.
If those are the standards we're using, count me out. Anybody who thinks they can prove WWII could have been prevented is selling a book. A bad one.
Any imbecile can point to places where history might have gone differently--ergo, "preventing World War Two."
Narr
No killing Baby Hitler!
It's humor, Farmer, humor - perhaps you should read up on it:)
Perhaps you should realize that I'm playing right along.
@Narr:
If those are the standards we're using, count me out. Anybody who thinks they can prove WWII could have been prevented is selling a book. A bad one.
I know of no one who has claimed that "they can prove WWII could have been prevented." What they aim to do is challenge the popular history of the war many people have in mind, one which is often as much at odds with reality than the revisionist ones you don't care for.
Pointing out the role human decision-making has in the events of history is important. For a prime example, see The Guns of August, in which the causes of World War I are recounted as some kind of inevitable force of nature. There was nothing inevitable about Germany giving Austro-Hungary the war guarantee.
The Bad Man’s Calvinist Reformed Christianity is not spiritual enough. But Sarah Palin’s Charismatic Christianity was too Pentecostal. He seems to want a middle of the road Spiritual leader...maybe a C S Lewis type will fill the bill. But Lewis believed Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day. That might make him more like Palin.
Pleasing spiritual Atheists is hard to do.
Pleasing spiritual Atheists is hard to do.
Threading the needle.
Bishop Talbert Swan
Verified account @TalbertSwan
White evangelicals keep claiming COVID-19 is God‘s punishment for homosexuality, abortion, environmentalism, etc...
... if it’s a punishment by God, why can’t it be for y’all’s bigotry, greed, white supremacy, mistreatment of the poor, and election of the devil as potus?
__________
@AmyCaires
Replying to @TalbertSwan
I’m an atheist, but dammit, you’re getting an Amen for that.
Re: Trump. It ain't braggin' if it's true.
People that have never had to earn a living by selling are far too quick to insult and denigrate the profession. Selling successfully is a skill, not magic nor slight of hand. Buyers are much more sophisticated and attuned to their self interest than people are willing credit them.
1) John Henry@ 6:55PM is correct about "experts." The old saw that "experts" should be on tap and NOT on top is one of the truest, long-proven-by-experience decision-making axioms extant. And 2) re: Trumps "spirituality?" As one commentator here noted awhile back about this subj. and Trumps election: "We didn't hire the Pope, we hired a BODYGUARD!"
Farmer, I've forgotten more history than you'll ever know. And historiography, and theories of history and historical agency and contingency.
And I knew Tuchman stunk-stonk?-when I read her book. I think I was 13.
Don't tell me people on this thread and all over don't claim they can see points where some great war "could have been prevented" by this or that action. gilbar, above is rolling in Churchill's musings as if they were gospel.
Read Lukacs. Read Weinberg. Read Evans. Read Overy. Read Wilmot. By all means read and appreciate WSC.
Narr
Just don't tell me anybody here but me has displayed anything but limited reading on the topics
@stevew:
Selling successfully is a skill, not magic nor slight of hand.
Undoubtedly true. Nonetheless, the stereotype of the shyster salesman did not spring out of thin air. Stereotypes are based in truth. Some industries are more notorious for it than others. Real estate development is one. Automotives is another.
Every time people get flustered, trying to move J Farmer; i always picture a muleskinner whacking a mule with a board... It doesn't change the mule's mind; but it SURE is exhausting for the muleskinner
@Narr:
Farmer, I've forgotten more history than you'll ever know. And historiography, and theories of history and historical agency and contingency.
Boy this blog seems to attract a lot of thin-skinned blowhards. I have no opinion on the inevitability WWII, but I also don't care about people choosing to pursue the question. Why it engenders such acrimony in you I haven't the slightest idea.
And another thing. I think you misremember Tuchman's parsing of responsibility for the war, which were not mere blind historical forces but arrogant, short-sighted and frightened men, especially German men. Her book fairly seethes about the Kaiser and crew.
In fairness, Proud Tower was better.
Narr
Low bar
Thanks for reminding me that human decision making is important in history and that it's a fair thing to discuss. If only I had known.
Narr
Do you have room for another honorary doctorate?
@Narr:
And another thing. I think you misremember Tuchman's parsing of responsibility for the war, which were not mere blind historical forces but arrogant, short-sighted and frightened men, especially German men. Her book fairly seethes about the Kaiser and crew.
Its biggest flaw is that it spays scant attention to the period between the June 28th assassination and the July 23rd ultimatum to Serbia. That is the most critical period and a glaring omission. I think the popularity of the book is do mostly to the fact that Tuchman is a very good writer. Much better work preceded it, but they were mostly dense works that heavily drew on source material and were not intended for a mass audience. International politics of the day also made a thesis that dampened Germany's guilt more tenable.
Yes I found proud tower very illuminating on late 19th century and early 20th, in Europe and America, particularly the wave of anarchism,
I tried to translate this in simple language sentence by sentence
"President Trump is the least spiritual president. ... Trump makes other people less spiritual. Trump only thinks about Trump. ... Trump likes goods. Trump is not smart, Trump does not get along with other people, and nothing is more important to Trump than making Trump happy even though he is sad. ... For example, in his press briefings Trump speaks but Trump is not smart, and does not get along with other people. When he speaks, people get less spiritual because of Trump and because he is sad. ... When he speaks we get less spiritual and Trump is not smart. ... Because Trump exists he makes us less smart."
Wow, that was harder than I thought. It matches most of the (very little) gobbeldygook I've read these days in that it's completely devoid of 'evidence' or 'support'. But my last sentence actually describes people like the author (and a shockingly large percentage of society): Because Trump exists they are less smart.
@Narr:
Do you have room for another honorary doctorate?
Don't need one to point out that you were attacking a claim nobody made. Straw man is in the dictionary under S.
But boy I really am impressed that you read Guns of August at 13. You must've been in the gifted program.
I want to go to bed friends, Farmer. Ha. I'll leave it.
There were much better works before and after Tuchman of course, but yes she was not a bad popularizer all things considered. The political story of the period you mention is so complex that few readers would stick it out, and the military story is so broad and sweeping it needed most of the book.
Joy of the morning to you believers.
Narr
Good night, friends
See gilbar, citing Churchill on the myriad opportunities to prevent WWII happening.
No Strawman.
Narr
Good night
@Narr:
The political story of the period you mention is so complex that few readers would stick it out
And the events of that period cut against her thesis of war by miscalculation and her more equitable assignment of guilt.
Have a good evening.
See gilbar, citing Churchill on the myriad opportunities to prevent WWII happening.
No Strawman.
I think it is probably the word "prove" that I take issue with. I am not even quite sure what it means to say that a specific event in the past was "inevitable." And I am even less sure what it means to declare the question null and void.
Gifted program? They didn't have those where I was. I had to persuade the library ladies to let me take out grown-up books using only my gifts of good looks and tragic family history. The drooling was mostly an act.
Anyway, I was taking issue with 'show,' 'prove,' 'inevitable' etc.
And I don't think the questions are null and void, I think they're inevitable!
Narr
But very very very thorny and I mean it this time good night
Ah, geez, I leave for a couple of hours and return to find you lads arm wrestling over the causes of WW1,
Not this hoss. Been there, done that. G'night all.
The man who wrote a book on the death of expertise believes that he is a mind reader.
Worst. Elites. Ever.
Why you don't check out Nullpk.com for download free seo tools
"That's why they sent me, I am expert." - Karl Hungus
Jeeze, I come here to straighten you guys out on everything related to WW1 and WW2 and everybody has gone to bed.
Maybe some other time ..
Short version: Orange Man Bad.
[58,000] psychologists say that Trump’s condition is a combination of mental disorders that cause one to distort reality and make violent, impulsive decisions. These disorders form, according to the doctor who coined the term Malignant Narcissism in the 1960s, “the most severe pathology and the root of the most vicious destructiveness.” [snip]
Malignant Narcissism . . . is basically a combination of three mental illnesses — Anti-social Personality Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder — plus sadism, or the enjoyment of inflicting pain.
Narr > I've forgotten more history than you'll ever know. And historiography, and theories of history and historical agency and contingency.
Barack Obama › I think that I'm a better... I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director.
Serious Question: WHICH is the bigger blowhard? If you Think about it; it's an easy question
The stereotype of the shyster salesman is at best antiquated, I call it bullshit. This response validates my point that people that have never had to earn a living by selling are often quick to insult and denigrate the profession. It also insults the buyers as hapless rubes.
I remember when we were called names because we said we didn't think Obama was a Christian. Now it's okay to diss a persons "personal journey" with their religion??? But what do I know...
I agree, Obama was a blowhard!
Narr
He dresses nicer, though
This is why I gave up on The ATLANTIC some years ago.
Tbh, I always thought of Obama in this way. He never seemed spiritual in the sense I have of it. He spokes in platitudes and cribbed phrases like “bending the arc of history” which he thought sounded spiritual but they were anything but. Spiritual to me means touching the essence of things. Trump did that on Friday when he said, “This is the toughest decision I will ever make. God help me,” or something to that effect. I was touched by its words as well as his delivery.
It is true, Trump has lived his life as a materialist but he occasionally deeply hits the right chord. He did it in his debate with Hillary concerning late-term abortions. He did it in the Republican debate when he addressed Ted Cruz’s New York values bit by talking about being there on 9/11, even smelling death. The fact that he doesn’t use this speaking register much makes it powerful when he does.
When I voted on the poll yesterday the "all three cray-cray" option (which I selected) had garnered 2 percent and there were no comments; just now the 3 up has declined to 1 percent and there are about ten comments.
Narr
When I see numbers like that, it gives me more confidence in my superb judgement
You don't have to worship Trump to conclude Nichols is off his rocker.
Just save time and skip to the bottom of Mr. Nicol’s columm. His last paragraph says it all.
Fundamentally, every malignant and hypocritical thing the Left does is Trump’s fault. That’s it in a nutshell. Trump’s personality is an irresistible force that coerces the Left into behaving badly. He never really explains why this exonerates the Left, or excuses their numerous excesses. I think he’s claiming that Trump’s soulless and materialistic mind makes their blind hatred... forgivable. Maybe even laudable.
Mind you, this tripe appeared in The Atlantic(!)— a publication that I’m certain would never publish anything written by Ms. Althouse, or me, or anyone else who visits this site.
So, you would prefer the other extreme, THE CLINTON & FOUNDATION...??
Honest question: Who the hell is Tom Nichols?
Jupiter
Question: Wouldn't it have been simpler just to let the nazis and the USSR duke it out, while we explained table manners to the Japs?
Answer: As Germany declared war against the United States first, neutrality towards Germany was not an option.
United States declaration of war upon Germany (1941.
Now the left wants to feign morality, as if they know anything about it.
J. Farmer said...
Browndog said...
I so wish I could mass produce, bag, and sell this comment.
Gold.
Who are you again?
Yeah, the commenters who tell me over and over again how pointless it is to engage with me are my favorite.
I haven't said that repeatedly, IIRC. Actually I had thought you were worth engaging with. If you say you're not, and provide evidence, maybe you're right. If you are going to deliberately mischaracterize my positions, IMHO a form of lying, then indeed, I don't know how communication is possible, let alone worthwhile.
Sorry I missed your latest (complete with cheering section! Good for you!) as I don't spend as much time here as you. I doubt Ann spends as much time here as you.
Well, if you want expertise it is all well and good to consult Tom Nichols, but my go to is Cher.
the Oscar Levant reference wins the thread as far as I am concerned. Well played Roughcoat. Well played Roughcoat.
Where are choices "Nichols and Althouse" or "Just Althouse?"
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