We are all impatient for closure with the inane troglodytes

Post #344,191 by Ashton 6/25/11 7:34:46 AM Reply	We are all impatient for closure with the inane troglodytes Likely I'll read this one, too; have read excerpts. I can empathize with the separation (B. in Hawaii, she in Indonesia) as one--also 'away' in school at a similar age--who is aware of the advantages of such separation -vs- any imagined 'pining' for some Beaver Cleaver soap-opera version of life. I think I was never attracted to homogenization, can merely suppose that Obama's experience might have produced a few similarities in experience. (It was his mother "who could not bear the separation longer" / the strain of her son's growing up without her.) The quality of time spent with a parent is different when the exposure is not constant, expected and--inevitably--taken for granted: thus likely also to spawn a rote relationship, maybe even a shallow(er) one. But I digress. Yeah, it's easy to diss B.O. From the outside, there appear to be so many missed opportunities! to Take A Stand LoudlyÂ--and that's always so satisfying, emotionally. Even when/especially when the outcome is seen to be inexorable and the High Stand betrays a naivete about where real Power resides in the matter(s). Having changed nothing, one has merely shown self to yield to impetuous anger. I cannot doubt that Obama is possessed of the self-knowledge and the essential wider social knowledge which underlies his patience in the face of bald-faced opposition, sometimes of ludicrous dimension and now so Often! towards inane or even malevolent aims. Murican politicos are such gutless, unprincipled and feckless cowards, ever driven by groupthink: as compared with the historical figures we foolishly imagine they might measure-up-to. Obama would need be only moderately courageous to trump most of these harpies, as, I hope he will--at the appropriate/crucial? moment(s). He hasn't been assassinated. Yet. But to the bystander that patience seems like ambivalence or weakness, especially when we are wishing mightily for a verbal smackdown which reflects our own disgust with the hypocrisies and sanctimonies of many (most?) Pols who ever make it through the inane Murican gantlet--that fantasy which demands fairytale claims of personal Wonderfulness. So I'll trust my own perceptions of his character over any easy snarks by the chattering class--unless/until he should commit some overt acts of say, the abject psychotic-grade of Tricky Dick? the mindless fantasy-stuff of Ronnie? or anything approaching the malevolent agenda of the Cheney Shogunate bedfellows.. still (like My Gramma) haunting the planet as-if they were not the zombies seen, but authentically alive. I don't see Anyone out there--lusting after The Power, cobbling up bloviations, plotting ploys--whose intelligence, character, integrity are within an order-of-magnitude of Barack Obama's chops: this despite my own impatience at his failure to display -yet??-Ever?- some crucial Leadership at some perfectly-timed tipping-point (yet to arrive?) There will always be such doubts--or one is merely adoring some fantasy-person and in this.. violating the Prime Directive Â Blessed are those who expect Nothing, for never shall they be Disappointed. Fingers may be cramped when crossed for lengthy periods Â ...
Post #344,193 by Another Scott 6/25/11 9:07:56 AM Reply	:-) Well said. Here's an excerpt from "A Singular Woman" http://www.nytimes.c...?pagewanted=print The white woman and her half-African son made quite a pair traveling in Indonesia together. Elizabeth Bryant, an American who lived in the city of Yogyakarta at the time, remembers a lunch held at another expatriateÂs house that Ann and Barry attended. Ann arrived in a long skirt made of Indonesian fabric Â not, Bryant noticed, a look that other American women in Indonesia seemed to favor. Ann instructed Barry to shake hands, then to sit on the sofa and turn his attention to an English-language workbook she brought along. Ann, who had been in Indonesia for nearly four years, talked about whether to go back to Hawaii. ÂShe said, ÂWhat would you do?Â Â Bryant recalled when I spoke to her nearly 40 years later. ÂI said, ÂI could live here as long as two years, then would go back to Hawaii.Â She said, ÂWhy?Â I said it was hard living, it took a toll on your body, there were no doctors, it was not healthy. She didnÂt agree with me.Â Over lunch, Barry, who was 9 at the time, sat at the dining table and listened intently but did not speak. When he asked to be excused, Ann directed him to ask the hostess for permission. Permission granted, he got down on the floor and played with BryantÂs son, who was 13 months old. After lunch, the group took a walk, with Barry running ahead. A flock of Indonesian children began lobbing rocks in his direction. They ducked behind a wall and shouted racial epithets. He seemed unfazed, dancing around as though playing dodge ball Âwith unseen players,Â Bryant said. Ann did not react. Assuming she must not have understood the words, Bryant offered to intervene. ÂNo, heÂs O.K.,Â Ann said. ÂHeÂs used to it.Â ÂWe were floored that sheÂd bring a half-black child to Indonesia, knowing the disrespect they have for blacks,Â Bryant said. At the same time, she admired Ann for teaching her boy to be fearless. A child in Indonesia needed to be raised that way Â for self-preservation, Bryant decided. Ann also seemed to be teaching Barry respect. He had all the politeness that Indonesian children displayed toward their parents. He seemed to be learning Indonesian ways. ÂI think this is one reason heÂs so halus,Â Bryant said of the president, using the Indonesian adjective that means Âpolite, refined, or courteous,Â referring to qualities some see as distinctively Javanese. ÂHe has the manners of Asians and the ways of Americans Â being halus, being patient, calm, a good listener. If youÂre not a good listener in Indonesia, youÂd better leave.Â The man isn't weak. It reminds me of a quip from a prof in my department in graduate school. He said, talking about departmental politics, something like, "After you've been a B-52 pilot and survived having SAMs thrown at you, you learn not to take these things so seriously." Cheers, Scott.
Post #344,201 by boxley 6/25/11 1:51:00 PM Reply	I have said before he must be tough to have lived his younger years without dying, being in jail or addicted. His toughness is not in our favor except as a blow by of the interests that he services. Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
Post #344,285 by Ashton 6/27/11 7:32:23 PM Reply	Since you (also) are not an idiot I must presume that you realize too, that: were Obama to adopt Your style of 'dialectic' --extreme distillation of a kernel you dare us to extract, much in the manner of nix MAN ls, then --Yes! he'd score lots of zingers, appeal to the few minimalists amongst the vox populi ... and earn a big FAIL in communication with the remaining not-actually-Nutzo citizen-minority of the traditionally non-voting vox populi. There's tactics and there's strategy;* ... observe how BO waited his chance, then skewered the birthers (and the silliness of a Trump candidacy) in pure prescient fashion. Ergo: the man possesses a strategic (not just a Good-) mind. Etc. You think he is Pwned, lock, stock and $gun-barrel, by the national Greed-heads. (One Can go there, as with Every Single predecessor who ever pandered to the 0.1%, either momentarily or consistently.) But I submit that such a charge violates Occam and his straight-razor. Were BO a mere dupe/dilettante, also verily a Hypocrite throughout: then his character has been so skillfully acted-out ... [Sincerity, when you can fake that, you've got it Made--in Murica] that millions of thoughtful/skeptical people (but not You!) have been utterly faked-out and left with no hope that Anyone-at-all is possessed of simple/rare integrity, such is the USSR-of-A by 2011. But What-of Obama? I will deal with my frustrations that, often he acts in a manner not-My-way; I can live with this for realizing that, not only is he lots smarter than I, he also is equipped with the knowledge learned through experience, of how the Demagogue plays the words game, where their Achilles Heels are located and (I may only hope, on this last): that he probably possesses a keen sense of, WHEN to skewer: at a real Inflection Point, some long-running idiot-koan of the mouth-breathing Class. I suspect that, has he never encountered? Chase's The Tyranny of Words--written to help instruct his own children--that BO most likely could have written that manual; as-likely, also teaches his children that Key to recognizing blab-words© like ... Freedom, Truth, TheMuricanPeepul ad nauseum and the rest of the vocabulary of shallow-Pols everywhere. Prediction: should he, via whatever compound-scurrility next transpires, become a one-term Prez? Then the USSR-of-A shall cease to exist in recognizable form--in maybe a matter of months, certainly of, ..a few years after the ascension of a one of guaranteed-Lesser mind, heart and instinctual clarity. [It may expire anyway, so dire is the threat of unified Greedhead$, seeking to cash-in, split and gloat.] The forces against-Clarity are staggering and funded in the $T, as all along, since Ronnie made Greed patriotic and tax-free forever. Dismantling shall proceed apace, as Promised. (I'd bet you a grand on this proposition, except: I would be paid-off in the equivalent of Weimar Republic Million-DMark notes) :-/ If Swift-boating works again, the USSC gets to 'decide' Anything re next sElection? that will constitute proof (to me) that anything short of revolution shall fail to reform and reverse the [-] slope we have been on since '68. And soft-Muricans have no stomach for fighting, except flaccidly to send their offspring offshore, to such mentors as the Cheney Shogunate.. because they'd love to have a beer with a folksy tongue-tied Texan who swaggers. No barricades in streets. I'd rescue any cat before I'd try to 'rescue' This Murica from its own suicidal myths, thankyouverymuch. (I felt similarly during the McCarthy assaults.. so I've had in-trenches Practice with our dysfunctionality all my life.) Yours is an experience here of quite lesser duration. Dueling mindsets, eh? Carrion

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