Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
From The Economist, hat tip to Dyspepsia Generation. Who is wondering “how come we take so much shit from these piss-ant places.”
Comment poster cylarz had some interesting thoughts about this lately…like…
Have you ever heard the familiar refrain that the United States is a bully and a victimizer of third world countries, especially those in the Middle East? Did you ever stop to wonder, if that were even true, how we got into a position of being able to do so in the first place? It’s not like the British gave us a grant to get started – we began with a continent-sized untamed wilderness, and proceeded to build a mighty nation capable of projecting its will halfway around the globe. How did we do that, when so many other countries can’t even control the territory they claim?
:
Why other countries would have a say in our affairs, is an idea that positively mystifies me, and I’m even more mystified as to why they’d have any more wisdom than we do. Aren’t their citizens human, too? The rest of the world divides its time between demanding our money and telling us to stay out of its business. Being an American is a lot like raising teenagers.
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“how come we take so much shit from these piss-ant places.”
Because we completely lack civilizational self-confidence?
Maybe that was a rhetorical question and I’m investing too much time writing about this (gee, somebody taking something rhetorical waaaay too seriously… on the internet. Wonders will never cease). But I think it’s a real problem. Ever read any big histories of the British Empire? Even the ones specifically designed to make them look awful (i.e. every book on the subject ever written after, say, 1960) show a civilization just brimming with confidence, and they accomplished amazing things. We on the right know, for instance, that the Atlantic slave trade was stopped by the British navy and not, say, transgendered disabled Wiccan performance artists. They decided it was a moral evil, and ended it. Just. Like. That. Was it “imperialism?” Sure. But — no more slavery. Imperialism ain’t all bad.
This is germane because we’re the first unquestionably top-dog civilization to a) deny that it is the top dog, and b) act like it’s not the top dog, and c) actively try to take away its own top-dog status. The left would cheer all three of those things, and its true that some aspects of American “cultural imperialism” are rather ugly. But there’s never a situation where nobody’s the top dog; it’s only a choice between this hegemon (to slip into grad-school-speak for a second) and that one. Think America sucks? Oh, you’re gonna love taking orders from the ChiComs.
A world where America is too wishy-washy to defend even her most fundamental values is going to be a lot poorer, sadder, scarier place. For instance, even now the world’s tinpot dictators still feel they have to go through sham “elections” and call themselves “president” and make noises about doing what they do for “the people.” This may not do much in practical terms, but at least it keeps the idea alive that maybe the people should have some say in the way they’re governed. What happens when that no longer applies, and the world reverts to the absolutist god-king model under which humanity lived for so many millenia?
See, this is what happens when you let idiot leftists run your school system. The first step to rebuilding a strong society is to abolish teachers’ unions and “colleges of education” forever.
- Severian | 01/30/2011 @ 08:21Bu-but that would be…anti-education!
- mkfreeberg | 01/30/2011 @ 09:27The Economist is seriously lacking in alternative economies… I mean five Thailands? What do they produce, other than really good weed, transsexual hookers, and tuk-tuks? I’d be really embarrassed if I were Arizona, Colorado, et al.
Love,
- bpenni | 01/30/2011 @ 09:35Angola
Five Thailands, and at least two Finlands as well. I didn’t look carefully enough to see if any others were duplicated. I did notice that most of the nations identified are third world countries, though it should embarrass the hell out of Europe that California alone is like Italy, Texas like Russia, Florida like Holland, or Georgia like Austria. All of those four are industrialized, developed countries and have been for a long time.
Oh, and Morgan, thanks for the shout-out, though I have a confession to make:
The rest of the world divides its time between demanding our money and telling us to stay out of its business. Being an American is a lot like raising teenagers.
I swiped this line from the “Mallard Fillmore” comic strip over at http://www.jewishworldview.com. It’s a strip about a duck who is a conservative news reporter in liberal la-la land.
Sorry, had to come clean. The rest of the part you quoted was actually a question I have never seen anyone else ask, and I think it deserves an answer.
- cylarz | 01/31/2011 @ 01:17