tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post8610601302844992975..comments2024-03-18T21:33:35.309-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Obama and the Shadows of Things that Might BeGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-47433687263625500552009-09-27T20:52:38.308-07:002009-09-27T20:52:38.308-07:00I spent a bit of time tossing and turning in my sl...I spent a bit of time tossing and turning in my sleep having read this particular essay just before I retired for the night. With a moment or two for reflection I can now see that my initial post was too rushed to convey my thoughts and that I was too grouchy about my fears that, shall we say, our communal determination voiced by the slogan "never again" has with little doubt degraded into "more likely than not".<br /><br />Some of René Girard work has a heretical tone that I'd expect is off putting to orthodox believers. It seems Girard himself is returning to a more orthodox perspective. In my view, he also seems to be unwarrantedly critical of market capitalism. However, in <b>On War and Apocalypse </b> René Girard, addresses several interesting themes: why Islam is not aware of the victimage mechanism, how a new mutated version Islam embraces suicide bombing and become a particularly virulent danger, and how Clausowitz rightly intuited that the emergence of "total war" during the French Revolution and Napoleanic Era portended our collective inability to prevent violence from escalating into apocalyptic war. Dr. Victor Hansen has voiced related concerns as does Fred Charles Iklé in <b>Annihilation from Within: The Ultimate Threat to Nations</b>.<br /><br />Our good doctor Bob evokes these sobering considerations when he writes: <i>If we abandon any pretense of spiritual ideals, it is not God who will damn America. Rather, we'll do it ourselves</i>. The French Enlightenment and Germany's 19th Century culture war (Kulture Kampf) de-Christianize Germany and it was from that de-Christized Germany that the Nazi Third Reich emerged.<br /><br />But as our good doctor suggests <i>If we abandon any pretense of spiritual ideals, it is not God who will damn America. Rather, we'll do it ourselves</i>. One may recall that 70% of American Jewish voters chose a man for POTUS who spent an adult lifetime surrounding himself with virulent anti-Semites and even anti-Israeli terrorists, a candidate whose own official campaign website hosted webpages for virulently anti-Semitic Socialists for Obama. I recall a generation of Jewish voters who despised and refused to vote for Richard Nixon because Nixon at one time belonged to a Golfing-Country club that refused admission to Jews. And Catholics, who accounted for about a quarter of the electorate, supported Obama, to the tune of 54%, despite that fact that candidate Obama supported infanticide and promised his radical supporters to enact vicious anti-Catholic legislation. Small government and Libertarian conservatives failed to support Republicans in two elections, 2006 and 2008, in some cases intentionally causing disastrous political loss. Why? Because in their opinion Pres. Bush spent too much money on faith based initiatives and on Gulf States recovery from Hurricane Katrina, while ignoring Pres. Bush's effort to address much larger budgetary dangers in Social Security and Fannie Mae. One could go on but we may well <i>do it ourselves</i>.<br /><br />Thanks for allowing me to clear this up.<br /><br />.<br /><br />"We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth", President LincolnMike O'Malleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03786963522098086259noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-89917233642934255952009-09-27T16:22:47.478-07:002009-09-27T16:22:47.478-07:00Magnus, just think about the lifespan of someone l...Magnus, just think about the lifespan of someone like Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957) & what that encompassed...Susannahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381272662339466736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-59386939052164837062009-09-27T10:47:02.431-07:002009-09-27T10:47:02.431-07:00Ohh and this one is good:
More Secret Nuke Sites ...Ohh and this one is good:<br /><br /><i><b>More Secret Nuke Sites in Iran?</b><br /><br />September 27, 2009 9:00 AM<br /><br />When I asked Secretary Gates <b>if the US had evidence of more secret nuclear sites in Iran, he would only say "we're watching very closely." But his tight-lipped smile sure seemed like a "tell."</b><br /><br />Here's the exchange...<br /><br />STEPHANOPOULOS: US intelligence had been tracking this site for quite some time before President Obama made it public. Is this the only secret site that we know of?<br /><br />GATES: Well, I’m not going to get into that. I would just say that we’re watching very closely.<br /><br />STEPHANOPOULOS: <b>Does the US government believe that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program?</b><br /><br />GATES: I think, my personal opinion is that the <b>Iranians have the intention of having nuclear weapons. I think the question of whether they have made a formal decision to move towards the development of nuclear weapons, uh, is in doubt.</b></i><br /><br />It kind of reminds me of Pres. Clinton and then staffer (and now ambassador) Susan Rice back in early 1994 arguing that genocide was NOT going on in Rwanda just "acts of genocide".<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow">http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/09/more-secret-nuke-sites-in-iran.html</a>Mike O'Malleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03786963522098086259noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-42005123001612991032009-09-27T10:27:07.215-07:002009-09-27T10:27:07.215-07:00Thanks Ricky and Dr. Bob. I've read a number ...Thanks Ricky and Dr. Bob. I've read a number of Girard's shorter essays on occasion over the years. Based on the good doctor Bob's recommendation ;-) a year or two ago I decided to invest the necessary time to read Bailie. From there I moved on to <b>Violence and the Sacred</b> and <b>Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World</b> by René Girard and a number of lectures given by Gil Bailie.<br /><br />I'm trying to finish up Shlaes's <b>The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression</b>. But I have ambitions to read <b>I See Satan Fall Like lightning</b> and the translation of <b>Achever Clausowitz</b> both by the end of this year. I expect that Achever Clausowitz will supplement my earlier reading of the obscure but thought provoking <b>Annihilation from Within: The Ultimate Threat to Nations</b> by Fred Charles Iklé. <br /><br />In any case ... the storm gathers ... I guess that no one is going to be so impolite as to suggest we pillory the principals in this fiasco:<br /><i>"New York Times<br /><b>U.S. Says Iran Ended Atomic Arms Work</b><br />By MARK MAZZETTI<br />Published: December 3, 2007<br /><br />WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.<br /><br />The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape the final year of the Bush administration, which has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy.<br /><br />The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely keeping its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.<br /><br />... a statement issued by <b>Donald Kerr</b>, the principal director of national intelligence, said the document was being made public “since our understanding of Iran’s capabilities has changed.”<br /><br /><b>Rather than painting Iran as a rogue, irrational nation determined to join the club of nations with the bomb, the estimate states Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.”</b> The administration called new attention to the threat posed by Iran earlier this year when <b>President Bush had suggested in October that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to “World War III”</b> and <b>Vice President Dick Cheney promised “serious consequences” if the government in Tehran did not abandon its nuclear program</b>.<br /><br />Yet at the same time officials were airing these dire warnings about the Iranian threat, <b>analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency were secretly concluding that Iran’s nuclear weapons work halted years ago and that international pressure on the Islamic regime in Tehran was working</b>.<br /><br />Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, portrayed the assessment as “directly challenging some of this administration’s alarming rhetoric about the threat posed by Iran.” ”</i>. <br /><br />One must wonder, what changed?<br /><br />.<br /><br />BTW Bob I love your new Batman Avatar!Mike O'Malleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03786963522098086259noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-88456038967889294532009-09-27T06:23:45.787-07:002009-09-27T06:23:45.787-07:00Actually, two big ideas: mimetic desire and the r...Actually, two big ideas: mimetic desire and the role of Christ in undermining the sacrificial scapegoat mechanism. I also think Girard is too reductionistic in applying his ideas.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-40608064088037037052009-09-27T06:21:51.363-07:002009-09-27T06:21:51.363-07:00Good analogy! That's how I would put it. I g...Good analogy! That's how I would put it. I guess I should add that I've only read two of Girard's books, his magnum opus on violence and the sacred, plus a compilation of writings. My impression was that he has One Big Idea, but that Bailie draws out the implications much more effectively. Plus, he's not French.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-87414134417746455282009-09-27T05:59:02.357-07:002009-09-27T05:59:02.357-07:00Mike,
I ran across Girard for the first time, ther...Mike,<br />I ran across Girard for the first time, there, about a week ago. Some other pieces are there by him and an interview. I found the piece you refer very thought provoking.<br />I beieve Bob doesn't care for him as much as for Bailie. I haven't read any of Bailie - but plan to. From what I've gathered so far. Bailie seems to expand or makes use of in a richer way the insights of Girard.<br />Maybe Bailie is to Girard as SRV is to Hendrix.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-84197069948513891002009-09-27T05:20:20.420-07:002009-09-27T05:20:20.420-07:00... a shadow of things that might be?
"Sa...... a shadow of things that might be? <br /><br /><br />"Saul has killed his thousands and David has killed his tens of thousands" might we be fortunate if the death toll from Dear Leader's malice and malfeasance goes no higher than tens of millions?<br /><br /><br />I recommend to all: On War and Apocalypse, by René Girard, in the August/September issue of First Things.<br /><br />Gil Bailie also indicates that an English translation of Achever Clausowitz will be published this Fall.Mike O'Malleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03786963522098086259noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1257234089222970192009-09-26T23:58:03.523-07:002009-09-26T23:58:03.523-07:00Salvation through Statism.
That, along with a pic...Salvation through Statism.<br /><br />That, along with a picture of Obama or his little dorky swirly-gig icon campaign symbol would make a great bumper sticker.<br /><br />w.v. gater<br />Cuz, when's the next barbee-Q.hoarheynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-41097731010906040352009-09-26T23:34:41.725-07:002009-09-26T23:34:41.725-07:00Super post, Bob! Actually, an outstanding series. ...Super post, Bob! Actually, an outstanding series. <br /><br />I would be commenting more but my wife has been playin' the hermit card on me, so now I'm struggling to catch up.<br /><br />"What's that dear? Yes dear, Yes. Of course. I'll get right on that."<br /><br />Never trust dames when they say "would you please do... whenever is convenient." <br />They really mean RIGHT NOW!!USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-71899879742905279042009-09-26T23:32:41.698-07:002009-09-26T23:32:41.698-07:00Or impolitely point out the fact, whatever suits y...Or impolitely point out the fact, whatever suits your fancy.hoarheynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-32581411883454084062009-09-26T23:28:21.615-07:002009-09-26T23:28:21.615-07:00So, boys and girls, the next time one of these &qu...So, boys and girls, the next time one of these "Christian" marxists tells you that it's the State's role to take care of people because it's a Christian principle, politely point out the FACT that they seem to be confusing the Bible with Uncle Karl's Manifesto.hoarheynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-90827342118994593852009-09-26T23:08:53.197-07:002009-09-26T23:08:53.197-07:00So in my book, 'render to Caesar' means, t...So in my book, 'render to Caesar' means, tax to keep the roads paved and the military kickin' ass and that ought to about do it.<br />Hmmm, seems the American founders had similar ideas.hoarheynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-8299456821926298922009-09-26T23:02:52.640-07:002009-09-26T23:02:52.640-07:00Render to Caesar?
I think back then, Caesar was in...Render to Caesar?<br />I think back then, Caesar was into road and aqueduct construction. He wasn't trying to take over EVERYTHING.hoarheynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-72721855408112615492009-09-26T22:44:37.537-07:002009-09-26T22:44:37.537-07:00Addendum: The recent "disturbance in the pnu...Addendum: The recent "disturbance in the pnuemashpere" were the direct result of meetings between Obama and certain elements in his administration. At these high-level meetings ideas were bandied about of such magnitude that time-lines were jostled and disturbed. Huge stuff. These are historic times, but the story will not really be told until decades or even centuries hence. <br /><br />Better to stay small, keep the nose to the ground, so to speak. To grasp the gravity of what is being contemplated means the end to "normal life" and the beginnings of some kind of civil disturbance.<br /><br />NedorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-4891438116994189602009-09-26T22:35:27.923-07:002009-09-26T22:35:27.923-07:00Bob wrote:
"The trouble with Obama is that ...Bob wrote: <br /><br />"The trouble with Obama is that he is doing exactly what the conservatives said he would do and the people that voted for him hate to admit that the conservatives were right."<br /><br />There are some who say "you don't know the half of it yet..."<br /><br />In the "prediction" circles I travel in, mediums and other sensitives are only talking about one thing...how Obama is going to "turn" on his electorate. It will be historic, grandiose and scary. 2011, June-ish, we'll see staggering developments.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-79444710847721028162009-09-26T22:15:40.191-07:002009-09-26T22:15:40.191-07:00Hoarhey, I was wondering the same thing.
Magnus,...Hoarhey, I was wondering the same thing. <br /><br />Magnus, apropos time I was reading this earlier today, which seems relevant:<br /><br /><i>"No, Mrs. Dalby, I'm sorry." I put down my cup. "I don't think there's anything country vets need and want more than a <a href="http://www.huskvac.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">husk</a> vaccine. People keep asking us that question and we have to keep on saying no."<br /><br />We had to keep on saying no for another twenty years as we watched disasters like I had just seen at the Dalbys', and the strange thing is that now we have a first rate vaccine it is taken completely for granted.</i><br /><br />Judging by that link, they aren't taking it for granted so much anymore, though.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-20080227245415201342009-09-26T22:13:04.840-07:002009-09-26T22:13:04.840-07:00Hoarhey,
The closest He got was Matthew 22:21.Hoarhey,<br /><br />The closest He got was Matthew 22:21.Aquilanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-53425382921697661702009-09-26T22:04:07.768-07:002009-09-26T22:04:07.768-07:00New Testament that is.New Testament that is.hoarheynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-76218467831132341452009-09-26T22:02:51.082-07:002009-09-26T22:02:51.082-07:00I'd like one person to show me ANYWHERE in the...I'd like one person to show me ANYWHERE in the Bible where Jesus speaks of the State's role in ANYTHING.hoarheynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-47329481375447991652009-09-26T21:33:27.624-07:002009-09-26T21:33:27.624-07:00At the time of Jesus and his apostles, deep time w...At the time of Jesus and his apostles, deep time was a span of hundreds of years at best. Some of their words would take more than a thousand years to hit home. It is the same today, except that a thousand years passes in less than a generation. Human time is speeding up so that changes that would take a hundred years may take less than ten. And then it speeds up again.<br /><br />However, the future is still equally hard to predict. That means that if you, in the age of Emperor Augustus, had not been able to foresee the Middle Ages... then you are not able to foresee the world twenty years from now.<br /><br />A fascinating side effect of this is that we, in a certain sense, have regained the lifespan of the mythical ancestors from before the Flood, who would live to see nearly a thousand years pass. Even had this been literally true, they would hardly learn as much, or see as much change, in their 900 years as some of us have seen already.Magnus Itlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18445902788427523461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-12200489710668230942009-09-26T21:26:30.382-07:002009-09-26T21:26:30.382-07:00With hammer in one hand and tongs in the other, gr...With hammer in one hand and tongs in the other, gripping another vexing word, another of those misformed words that needs but the smite of my hammer to enform it to its should be shape, and smite I do, and to my amazement that thought to be iron-like word, that word that in my mind had but one shape, yielded to my smite, not like red-hot iron, but like clay, willing, if not eager, to mold to my mind, or to any mind, and assume a new guise, for that was its soul, to mean whatever like-minded minds wanted it to mean, and always ready to change, from this to that, and not from hammer beats, but from minds, minds that are ever reshaping the world, with its words.Bro. Bartlebyhttp://brobartleby.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-70427159324136318702009-09-26T21:25:09.970-07:002009-09-26T21:25:09.970-07:00Re: politics + spirituality...my dad taught me tha...Re: politics + spirituality...my dad taught me that how you view the world (cosmos) is foundational to *everything,* and this effectively erases the false dichotomy of sacred/secular; i.e., the "total separation of church and mind" that leftists demand of conservative Christians. You can't keep faith out of politics...not if it's real, living faith. I've tried to explain this to leftists more than once, but for them religious affiliations serve their politics--their true religion, as with those folks who meet to serve up to the congregants the meat-substitutes Bob mentioned. They don't get why we can't keep all that God-talk inside the sanctuary walls. It's because in my case, politics is just one subset of my overarching belief. I do not expect the state to be my savior. Already got one.Susannahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381272662339466736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-36471481160679555942009-09-26T21:09:59.731-07:002009-09-26T21:09:59.731-07:00To ask for another Reagan is to cooperate again, a...To ask for another Reagan is to cooperate again, as he did, in managing this hundred year slide, not in changing it. The socialist state cannot live without the conservative making it work for him. What Reagan accomplished was remarkable indeed, yet here we are at the precipice again, and quickly. <br /><br />'We are dismayed when we find that even disaster cannot cure us of our faults.' <br /><br />If we do not re-discover and remove all things in which all government extends itself and reduces citizens, we will acheive that end point of democracy for which Tocqueville elequently described but for which he could find no name.xlbrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01931950075332608449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-69731977349323645672009-09-26T21:06:02.784-07:002009-09-26T21:06:02.784-07:00"I routinely encounter people in the US and C..."I routinely encounter people in the US and Canada who 25 years ago would have by temperament been conservative, but who are instead today postmodern 'men'." <br /><br />Yes! I am shocked at the attitude of some of my Christian friends who claim to believe that universal health care is What Jesus Would Have Done. And somehow it will magically do away with abortion, too. *Even though* the people pushing a centralized economy are the very selfsame ones who want to fund abortion with tax dollars, do away with any legal limits whatever on it, etc. Opposed to abortion, yet linking arms with abortion lovers? Flies in the face of all common sense.<br /><br />All the same, I'm with Ximeze. And Van is firing me up!Susannahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381272662339466736noreply@blogger.com