Weblog
by James Bowman
When I type the word "aspirational" I notice that my word processing program underlines it in red, signifying that it does not recognize the word. I hardly recognize it myself, but lately have felt the need of it more and more. WordPerfect, like the rest of us, had better get used to it. Formerly "aspirational" could hardly have been said to have been a needful word, but now it is. In the same way, the Nobel Peace Prize used not to be an aspirational award, but now it is, as its award to President Obama shows. I am not among those who think that this makes a mockery of the Prize. I think it was a mockery a long time ago — as the awards to Jimmy Carter and Al Gore abundantly confirm — and probably from the beginning. But at least on this occasion it has the perhaps unintended consequence of recognizing something important about the new President and his style of politics — namely the extent to which they, too, are aspirational. Just look at the two main stories in the domestic news on the same day that the Nobel was announced in Norway. Obama Wins Yasser Arafat “Peace” Prize: World Amazed by Roger Kimball | from Pajamas Media
So Barack Obama just picked up the imprimatur and nihil obstat from Oslo’s Nobel Prize Committee for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people.” Yes, that’s right, this year’s Nobel “Peace” Prize goes to Barack Obama. What’s the appropriate response: incredulity? Nah: the Nobel Peace Prize is a thoroughly discredited [...]
Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, that's right, Barack Obama, in office for less than nine months and with (as yet) little to show for his diplomacy of apology and unilateral concessions, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The decision has left pundits of all stripes scratching their heads as to the explanation for such a bizarre award. Some have ridiculed the award as premature or as an attention getting stunt by the Norwegian panel that awarded the prize. While both judgments are accurate, they do not reach the real basis for the surprising decision. The Nobel Panel has for years been trying to use its award to nudge U.S. politics in a leftward direction by rewarding public figures who support the diplomatic, economic, and climate policies of the European left. In the contest between liberals and conservatives in America, the panel has left little doubt as to where its fundamental loyalties lie. Over the past several years, the prizes have been used to rebuke the policies of the Bush Administration and to reward some of its loudest critics.
Francis Wheen’s new book, Strange Days Indeed: The Golden Age of Paranoia, contains an insight that deserves to be the final word on every phenomenon from Freemasons to grassy knolls to Ron Paul For President: “Irrationality is both cumulative and contagious. You start by reading your horoscope in the newspaper; then you dabble in chakra balancing or feng shui, saying that it is important to keep an open mind; after a while your mind is so open that your brains fall out, and you read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion without noticing anything amiss.” That this apercu was made by the author of a brilliant biography of Karl Marx is not without its irony. Conspiracy theories were long thought to be the jagged frontier navigated exclusively by the political right, an assumption largely propounded by the historian Richard Hofstadter in his examination of McCarthyism and Goldwaterism in the 1960s. Yet they’ve had just as much purchase in the left-wing landscape. Where superstition and ignorance remain impervious to bust or boom, Jew-hatred will remain a sentiment that marches just as easily under a Red banner as it does under a Black one. How else to explain the growing alliance between Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose fraudulent “re-election” in July Chavez described as “very important for the peoples who are fighting for a better world”? Their mutual suspicion of Jews is the best example yet of “fusion paranoia,” the late journalist Michael Kelly’s term for how radicals and reactionaries rationalized the Oklahoma City bombing in similar language at the fin de siècle. Obsessions over big government and a cabal of elites are fungible, and it may well be the case that conspiracist logic--which explains the "real" cause of the Twin Towers' collapse as tidily as it does the U.S. invasion of Iraq--is emerging as the dominant ideology of the 21st century. Philip Larkin has a Lesson for Barack Obama by Roger Kimball | from Pajamas Media
Over at The Weekly Standard blog, Bill Kristol has a short but deadly post on Obama’s dithering non-policy about the war in Afghanistan. Bill reports that at a recent meeting with Congressional leaders, Obama gravely pointed out that every thousand troops sent to Afghanistan would cost about a billion dollars a year. A billion dollars [...] Annals of Nausea: Relief is at hand! by Roger Kimball | from Pajamas Media
What was the most nauseating display of politically correct pap you have witnessed lately? My candidate, hands down, was the “I Pledge” video in which a gaggle of celebrities moonlight as part of Barack Obama’s public relations team. Oscar Wilde said that a man had to have a heart of stone to read Dickens’s account [...] The Stupid and Evil Presidency Redux by James Bowman
The media haven’t yet fallen out of love with President Obama, but they’re beginning to ask themselves whether or not criticism of President Obama from the left is a serious news story and, if it is, how it should be treated. For now it remains pretty much a joke, but there are hints and warnings offered to the Obamites that they had better watch their step. In Dana Milbank’s "Washington Sketch" snark-fest in The Washington Post today, for example, the itinerant columnist turns up at the small anti-war demonstration that took place yesterday in McPherson Square, just outside my window in Washington D.C., and writes that Finally, the real skinny on Obama’s Plans for Health Care by Roger Kimball | from Pajamas Media
Most ordinary Americans, I suspect, started tuning out the “debate” over changing the way America delivers and pays for health care weeks if not months ago. Why the scare quotes around “debate”? Here’s a hastily made, but not inaccurate, transcription of a typical exchange: “Did.” “Did not.” “Did too.” And so on. Regular readers know that I am deeply skeptical [...] by Roger Kimball | from Pajamas Media
This from the editorial page of The New York Times today: Mr. Obama’s Promise of Transparency Hopes for an effective law that would protect the public’s access to essential news from inside government have been dealt a severe setback by the Obama administration. Uh-oh. And there’s more: The latest hedging from the White House does not deliver on his [...] by Roger Kimball | from Pajamas Media
Trial lawyers getting you down? Disgusted at the huge settlements they win, supposedly on behalf of the little guy, really for the sake of lining their bulging pockets with a third of whatever the insurance companies are made to fork over? No, I don’t have a solution, other than to say if wishes were horses there [...] |
About ArmaVirumque ( AHR-mah wih-ROOM-kweh) In the Aeneid, the Roman poet Virgil sang of "arms and a man" (Arma virumque cano). Month in and month out, The New Criterion expounds with great clarity and wit on the art, culture, and political controversies of our times. With postings of reviews, essays, links, recs, and news, Armavirumque seeks to continue this mission in accordance with the timetable of the digital age.
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