I object! This is an insult to Peter Keating! At least Keating sought to acquire unearned and second-handed greatness. This evil creature wants nothing to do with greatness whatsoever.
The Fountainhead character Chief Little Big Man most closely resembles is Gus Webb, the nihilist who got an orgasmic delight over witnessing the degradation and destruction of greatness.
Little Big Man’s bowing down to the Saudi rulers is a perfect example of him being Gus Webb. Ask yourself under what sort of circumstances a civilized person VOLUNTEERS to bow down to someone outside the context of rote ceremony? They do so as a sign of RESPECT. Now ask yourself, is there anything at all about Little Big Man that would suggest that he would have authentic respect for ANYONE, let alone some random foreign thug he does not know who rules a country, if his line today about speaking “Austrian” is any indication, he probably knows very little about? Little Big Man is too much of a narcissist to bow down to someone out of respect. People like him expect the world to bow down to THEM.
So why would a pathetic narcissist like him choose to bow down to someone else? In his case, it is because he is doing it not on behalf of himself but rather, on behalf of the OFFICE and the POSITION that he holds. He did not bow out of respect for the Saudi king. He bowed out of DISRESPECT for the office that he holds and for the country that he represents. The disgusting remarks he made at other stops on his appeasement and apology tour were not made out of any desire to win the authentic respect on the part of people in other countries. It was his opportunity to show his DISRESPECT for the country he represents – a disrespect that he has had his entire life, a disrespect that motivated him to associate with the likes of Bill Ayres and Jeremiah Wright.
This evil creature is disgusting – and dangerous. Quite frankly, I don’t think that even the treasonous John F. Kerry Who Served In Vietnam would stoop so low (pun intended!)
Mark Steyn, subbing for Rush today, was puzzled as to what Obama could have been thinking when he made that bow. I believe it was the perfect expression of his foreign policy. He believes America must altuistically serve the world, and do nothing in its self-interest. So he makes a point of bowing to the Saudis, a prominent muslim nation that funds terrorists and should be considered our enemy. He is showing the world that America will bow to Islam. It’s his way of showing that the Bush era is decidedly over, no more arrogance, etc. He thinks this will repair our image in the world.
Our enemies will understand the gesture. I suspect plans are being made in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Pyongyang and other place to test just how far Obama’s weakness goes.
The Saudi King looks like a fat mafia thug. I don’t think even Ayn Rand could have contemplated this. This post-modern/Kantian/Judeo-Christian world is spinning out of control. Obama has absolutely no good elements to him. In some ways we have a budding dictator as President and in other ways we are totally leaderless. Can we survive 4 (8?) years of this?
We’ll survive. That is a certainty. America will not be wiped off the map. But what will we survive as? How changed will we be?
Barring some ghastly crisis involving mass deaths — something that triggers unrest and chaos and martial law — we will probably be the welfare state we are now, but worse, with higher taxes, more regulations and higher inflation. Free speech, free elections and a market economy will be intact. This is now my best case scenario — which says something about how bad it’s getting.
“In some ways we have a budding dictator as President and in other ways we are totally leaderless. ”
So true.
“Can we survive 4 (8?) years of this?”
I’m very much afraid we can’t. The really bad thing is that this is the worst possible time to have someone like Obama in office. He reminds me so much of Carter, whom I vividly remember.
He also reminds me, at times, of someone with narcissistic personality disorder. The preening and posing, the characterization of himself as the only hope of the fortunate nation he has condescended to lead, the astonished reaction when challenged in any way, the basic disconnect from reality. It is from these things that the authoritarianism springs. It’s how he’s planning on saving us from ourselves. From the dark side of us that doesn’t see the truth as clearly as he does.
Well, we’ve elected a narcissistic incompetent to office because we wanted to feel better about ourselves. When you peel away all the layers of posing from narcissists, you find no real abilities and no substance. Because they live to admire themselves in the mirror that others provide, they have never developed anything real within themselves, and they always remain mostly cut off from reality. When they can finally no longer fake it any more, and they hit the hard wall of truth, the crash is very bad.
On the other hand, could we get some type of backlash against the extreme welfare state (obviously not the welfare state itself) that happened with Reagan in the 80s? Maybe after 4 years of this we might get some type of limited gov’t Republican.
If we get the type of inflation that Peter Schiff is predicting and the hyper-Carter type Presidency that we all expect of Obama, then maybe the country might be open to electing some type of Reagan/Thatcher type Republican. This is not ideal but it might buy us time.
Also to consider, will we be safe from Islam over Obama’s term? Did Iraq and Afghanistan do enough damage to the Islamic war against the West to set them back for a decade or so and hopefully get us past the Appeaser-in-Chief that is Obama? (Bush was an appeaser also but Obama looks to be an order of magnitude worse.)
I hold a differing opinion on this issue. I do not think that it is serious that Obama in particular has bowed to the Saudis, but rather that it is “traditional” foreign policy to do this. We should concern ourselves more with the practice rather than who in particular is doing it.
Charles of Little Green Footballs has pointed out that it is not only Obama and Bush Jr. that bowed, but several presidents before them.
I know that Charles Johnson is trying to prevent the Christian fundamentalists from dominating the conservative movement (too late for that I think) but it does seem that he is becoming annoying as of late. There are legitimate criticisms to be made of Obama but Johnson seems that he would rather they not be made because they would give the “impression” that conservatives are all “wingnuts” or some such. The difference between Obama’s bow and Bush’s bow does seem significant.
Now I agree that it is entirely proper to point out the similarities between Bush and Obama with regards to their foreign policy and their view of Islam. But Bush was a misguided wimp. Obama is far worse. He is potentially a traitor, but I will wait for the evidence of that to roll on in over the coming years before I say that with certainty.
In the long-run and on the broad scale of events, which is more fundamental (causal) — a president’s psychology (“narcissist”) or his philosophy (supernaturalism, mysticism, altruism, and statism)?
I object! This is an insult to Peter Keating! At least Keating sought to acquire unearned and second-handed greatness. This evil creature wants nothing to do with greatness whatsoever.
The Fountainhead character Chief Little Big Man most closely resembles is Gus Webb, the nihilist who got an orgasmic delight over witnessing the degradation and destruction of greatness.
Little Big Man’s bowing down to the Saudi rulers is a perfect example of him being Gus Webb. Ask yourself under what sort of circumstances a civilized person VOLUNTEERS to bow down to someone outside the context of rote ceremony? They do so as a sign of RESPECT. Now ask yourself, is there anything at all about Little Big Man that would suggest that he would have authentic respect for ANYONE, let alone some random foreign thug he does not know who rules a country, if his line today about speaking “Austrian” is any indication, he probably knows very little about? Little Big Man is too much of a narcissist to bow down to someone out of respect. People like him expect the world to bow down to THEM.
So why would a pathetic narcissist like him choose to bow down to someone else? In his case, it is because he is doing it not on behalf of himself but rather, on behalf of the OFFICE and the POSITION that he holds. He did not bow out of respect for the Saudi king. He bowed out of DISRESPECT for the office that he holds and for the country that he represents. The disgusting remarks he made at other stops on his appeasement and apology tour were not made out of any desire to win the authentic respect on the part of people in other countries. It was his opportunity to show his DISRESPECT for the country he represents – a disrespect that he has had his entire life, a disrespect that motivated him to associate with the likes of Bill Ayres and Jeremiah Wright.
This evil creature is disgusting – and dangerous. Quite frankly, I don’t think that even the treasonous John F. Kerry Who Served In Vietnam would stoop so low (pun intended!)
Mark Steyn, subbing for Rush today, was puzzled as to what Obama could have been thinking when he made that bow. I believe it was the perfect expression of his foreign policy. He believes America must altuistically serve the world, and do nothing in its self-interest. So he makes a point of bowing to the Saudis, a prominent muslim nation that funds terrorists and should be considered our enemy. He is showing the world that America will bow to Islam. It’s his way of showing that the Bush era is decidedly over, no more arrogance, etc. He thinks this will repair our image in the world.
Our enemies will understand the gesture. I suspect plans are being made in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Pyongyang and other place to test just how far Obama’s weakness goes.
The Saudi King looks like a fat mafia thug. I don’t think even Ayn Rand could have contemplated this. This post-modern/Kantian/Judeo-Christian world is spinning out of control. Obama has absolutely no good elements to him. In some ways we have a budding dictator as President and in other ways we are totally leaderless. Can we survive 4 (8?) years of this?
We’ll survive. That is a certainty. America will not be wiped off the map. But what will we survive as? How changed will we be?
Barring some ghastly crisis involving mass deaths — something that triggers unrest and chaos and martial law — we will probably be the welfare state we are now, but worse, with higher taxes, more regulations and higher inflation. Free speech, free elections and a market economy will be intact. This is now my best case scenario — which says something about how bad it’s getting.
“In some ways we have a budding dictator as President and in other ways we are totally leaderless. ”
So true.
“Can we survive 4 (8?) years of this?”
I’m very much afraid we can’t. The really bad thing is that this is the worst possible time to have someone like Obama in office. He reminds me so much of Carter, whom I vividly remember.
He also reminds me, at times, of someone with narcissistic personality disorder. The preening and posing, the characterization of himself as the only hope of the fortunate nation he has condescended to lead, the astonished reaction when challenged in any way, the basic disconnect from reality. It is from these things that the authoritarianism springs. It’s how he’s planning on saving us from ourselves. From the dark side of us that doesn’t see the truth as clearly as he does.
Well, we’ve elected a narcissistic incompetent to office because we wanted to feel better about ourselves. When you peel away all the layers of posing from narcissists, you find no real abilities and no substance. Because they live to admire themselves in the mirror that others provide, they have never developed anything real within themselves, and they always remain mostly cut off from reality. When they can finally no longer fake it any more, and they hit the hard wall of truth, the crash is very bad.
“Can we survive 4 (8?) years of this?â€
We will. The question is, at the end of those years, will we want to?
Remember how the libs used to complain about Bush being in the Saudis’ pocket? And not a peep about this.
Man, I want some of that koolaid…
Basically, best case is France or Sweden. I’m a-tingle with anticipation.
On the other hand, could we get some type of backlash against the extreme welfare state (obviously not the welfare state itself) that happened with Reagan in the 80s? Maybe after 4 years of this we might get some type of limited gov’t Republican.
If we get the type of inflation that Peter Schiff is predicting and the hyper-Carter type Presidency that we all expect of Obama, then maybe the country might be open to electing some type of Reagan/Thatcher type Republican. This is not ideal but it might buy us time.
Also to consider, will we be safe from Islam over Obama’s term? Did Iraq and Afghanistan do enough damage to the Islamic war against the West to set them back for a decade or so and hopefully get us past the Appeaser-in-Chief that is Obama? (Bush was an appeaser also but Obama looks to be an order of magnitude worse.)
So many questions.
If history is any guide, when an underachiever with delusions of grandeur amasses power the prognosis is not good.
Disturbing when the leader of the free world, bows, to the leader of the unfree. This moment will not be recounted positively in the history books.
I hold a differing opinion on this issue. I do not think that it is serious that Obama in particular has bowed to the Saudis, but rather that it is “traditional” foreign policy to do this. We should concern ourselves more with the practice rather than who in particular is doing it.
Charles of Little Green Footballs has pointed out that it is not only Obama and Bush Jr. that bowed, but several presidents before them.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/33293_Monday_Morning_Bow
Look at Bush’s bowing in context: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/33289_Bush_Bowed_Too
He was taking a medal from the Saudi king and bowing down so that the shorter person could get it over his head. It seems vastly different.
I know that Charles Johnson is trying to prevent the Christian fundamentalists from dominating the conservative movement (too late for that I think) but it does seem that he is becoming annoying as of late. There are legitimate criticisms to be made of Obama but Johnson seems that he would rather they not be made because they would give the “impression” that conservatives are all “wingnuts” or some such. The difference between Obama’s bow and Bush’s bow does seem significant.
Now I agree that it is entirely proper to point out the similarities between Bush and Obama with regards to their foreign policy and their view of Islam. But Bush was a misguided wimp. Obama is far worse. He is potentially a traitor, but I will wait for the evidence of that to roll on in over the coming years before I say that with certainty.
In the long-run and on the broad scale of events, which is more fundamental (causal) — a president’s psychology (“narcissist”) or his philosophy (supernaturalism, mysticism, altruism, and statism)?