House of Eratosthenes

Oh my goodness! Was that racist of me?? I’ll make a note to lose some sleep over that one. I just can’t think of a more apt metaphor. And take my word for it…if the President was a white dude doing what He’s doing, I’d use the same one. I’m piqued in a very equal-opportunity way here.

Consider: No Way No How!

President Obama declared Wednesday that “you will not see bin Laden walking on this earth again” but said he would not release photos of the terrorist leader’s corpse as proof that he is dead.

“It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence, as a propaganda tool,” Obama told CBS’ 60 Minutes in an interview to be broadcast Sunday. “You know, that’s not who we are. You know, we don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.”

Got that? But then there’s…Yes We Can!

President Barack Obama is to release up to 2,000 photographs of alleged abuse at American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan in a move which will reignite the scandal surrounding Abu Ghraib prison in 2004.

The decision to make public the images sought in a legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union comes amid a political firestorm over alleged torture of detainees under President George W. Bush.

Some of the photographs, which will be released before May 28, are said to show American service personnel humiliating prisoners, according to officials.

The images relate to more than 400 separate cases involving alleged prisoner abuse between 2001 and 2005.

Root For Our Side I admit my 8-ball analogy falls apart here a little bit, for “McCarthy”-ite reasons. If President Obama were merely a fickle flibbertigibbet who doesn’t know up from down, rather than an impassioned anti-American douchebag who paid way too close attention during the sermons of that bigoted asshole pastor of His, Jeremiah Wright, the laws of probability dictate that these decisions would promote American interests fifty percent of the time. The Magic-8 ball would respect this, I think. But with our Man-God-Boy-King President Holy Man, the laws of probability are not to be so appeased.

And so I object to the situation that, time after time, the decision made is opposed to the interests of the country over which He is supposed to be presiding…or “rule”-ing…or whatever. I object to the notion that there’s no rhyme or reason to them, and there’s no place for anybody to ask the questions looking for rhyme-or-reason in them; I object to the peeved attitude we’d get back if anyone did so ask.

But I object even more to this:

With respect to Afghanistan, Jennifer, I don’t think this is a matter of some datum of information that I’m waiting on. It’s a matter of making certain that when I send young men and women into war, and I devote billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money, that it’s making us safer, and that the strategies that are placed not just on the military side but also on the civilian side are coordinated and effective in our primary goal…

…blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But did you catch that first part? No particular datum. President Smarty-Pants, President Knows-What’s-Up, will take just as long as He wants to eke out some answer while not awaiting any particular datum.

The decision will not necessarily be consistent with other decisions, prior or subsequent. So we know there is no methodology at work. None other than…whatever diminishes America. That part does seem consistent.

But there’s no methodology apart from that. No data being accumulated or even absorbed. Just President Think-A-Lot needs more time. The question that naturally arises is, in what way would a decision made after ten months, become meaningfully different from a decision made after nine? If there’s no datum? Well the question is not asked, and if ever it is, it means racist!

That is what really sticks in my craw. Obama will take just as long as He wants, and the 310 million or so people who share a country with Him are just supposed to pipe down, go about our meaningless lives, wait with baited breath while He announces that next month He just might announce when He will announce that He’s going to announce His decision. Just like shaking a Magic-8 ball and seeing what comes up. Except this one gets back to you on its own sweet time and you don’t get to shake it again.

Once again: It seems like a fitting situation for an emperor, or a king. It doesn’t fit a constitutional republic operating under a government designed with separation-of-powers in mind.

Update: I thought this was a masterful job of scribbling that Neal Boortz did yesterday. In fact, it captured my thoughts verbatim…as in, syllable for syllable. Until somewhere around ten hours ago.

I’m not exactly a fan of our current president. I feel that he’s dangerous to the cause of liberty, and I earnestly hope that every single day I’ll manage to say something – to put across one small point somewhere – that will cause someone out there who supports Obama to pause for a minute and to say to themselves “maybe, just maybe, there are some things about this man I haven’t considered.” In order for that to happen, listeners – whether friendly or unfriendly – have to believe that I’m trying to be honest with them. And just how will listeners believe I’m trying to be objective and honest if I am completely unable to give credit where credit is due, or if I have to grudgingly give credit laced with sarcasm. So you’re now going to see hear me (or see me) use a phrase I generally try to avoid. That phrase? President Barack Obama. When considering the operation that turned bin Laden into fish food Obama showed himself to be presidential. Maybe it’s early in this particular game, but I can’t think of one single area in this entire scenario where Obama comes in for any legitimate criticism. That may change tomorrow or next week as we learn more … but for now it’s “job well done, Mr. President.”

What happened ten hours ago? “Oh no, we can’t release pictures of the dead bin Laden because I’m a big ol’ pussy!”

Just…dis…gust…ing…

My theory as of now: No masterful plan for manipulating the masses. Just raw, ignorant narcissism. “They are my subjects, they must believe Me!”

The result: A net P.R. loss. Obama stood a better chance, such as it was, of winning re-election of 2012 earlier this weekend, before the first Black Hawk left for that compound, than He does now. This is not ugly just to right-wing zealots; it is creepy to classic “middle America” voters. Creepy and downright weird.

Heard Michael Savage last night — who I don’t typically listen to (I really can’t stand him — but I was coming home late from book club and that’s what was on). He was talking about how we hand to release the Abu Garaib pictures (I guess we weren’t worried about the “Arab Street” then) and then when when we nailed Zarqawi we released that picture — not worried about the “Arab Street”, we saw Saddam’s dead body… what’s the difference?

Oh, that’s right. We’re not trying to take down a sitting president.

Personally, I think it’s pretty clear that we got him.

And frankly, I don’t care if he was sitting there knitting a sweater or petting a pussycat.

Assasination was too good for him, but it was the right thing to do all things considered.
- philmon | 05/05/2011 @ 07:18
I think when He does this thinking for interminable lengths of time, He’s selling a deal.

I mean, think about it. In the Obama household are you ever going to hear “don’t bother your Daddy now Sasha, He’s trying to figure out what to do with bin Laden’s post mortem picture”? Like it’s a really, really tough math problem? No. As we saw in the health care mess, this whole administration is completely blindsided over & over again by the idea that anybody could ever disagree with His Majesty, anywhere. They obviously live in a world where that never happens.

I’ve known people like this. They think it’s their place to figure out which route the parade is going to follow. If they ever find themselves in a minority position, they’re completely baffled by it, and then later they block out the memory. So I think what’s get done is “shoring up alliances” — read that as cutting deals. “I will deliver this bloc of people to you, use my awesome charisma-ness to make them go your way on this thing, if you do x.”
- mkfreeberg | 05/05/2011 @ 07:25
When Chinese emperors sent missives to their underlings, they’d sign off “hear this, and tremblingly obey.”

That thought has bounced around Obama’s head a few times, believe me. He really does believe that He is our Celestial Emperor, and that any questions of His policies are an affront not just to Him, but to cosmic justice and right. His actions and attitudes make no sense otherwise.

It’s all very scarily Ming Dynasty — while the barbarians gather at the gates, the Son of Heaven issues orders and performs rituals to make the Yangtze flood and the crops grow.
- Severian | 05/05/2011 @ 12:07

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Our President, the Magic-8 BallWednesday, May 4th, 2011

Our President, the Magic-8 Ball
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011