NRO's The Corner 2: Ghost Protocol

more on A. McCarthy's lie

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/obama-and-romney-are-both-raising-money-americans-overseas

Obama will spend the Fourth, his daughter Malia's birthday, throwing a party on the White House lawn for military families.

And yet, more than 48 hours later, it's still up without any correction. At least, no correction that I can see. Surely National Review can at least bring itself to post simple corrections to simple factual errors?

In any case, if you're curious about where this comes from, check out Tim's piece. In a nutshell, both the Obama campaign and the Romney campaign hold fundraisers overseas because lots of Americans live overseas. The Obama campaign is hosting events in Paris and Geneva, while the Romney campaign is hosting events in Hong Kong and London. All kosher, all above board. Nothing to get in a tizzy about.

it is my fervent wish that michael walsh reacts to gawker today

It is my fervent wish that Michael Walsh get run over by an 18-wheeler.

is that a Christian sentiment

http://gawker.com/5923268/beez-in-the-capitation-how-nicki-minaj-and-john-roberts-are-both-constructionists-at-heart

motm

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/304658/post-colonial-killing-fields-conrad-black

It is an ever-growing matter of suspense how long it will take before there is general recognition of the fact that, although the spread of democracy is — next to its irreplaceable contribution to victory in World War II and the Cold War — America’s greatest bequest to the world, most of the world worked better in colonial times. No one could seriously dispute that almost all of sub-Saharan Africa, all of North Africa except Morocco, all of the Middle East except Israel and Jordan and most of the oil-rich states, and the entire former British Indian Empire were better governed by Europeans. The Philippines and Cuba and, during the piping days of the U.S. Marines’ occupations (even if they were deployed at times by the United Fruit Company), Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic were all better off under the Americans.

haha i c/p'd that without reading the whole essay which is quite a doozy

The colonists had the better of the argument with the British, but individual Americans did not have substantively more liberties at the end of the Revolution than they had had at the beginning, nor more than the British in the home islands had (then or now or at any time in between), apart from having a resident sovereign government. The whole American notion of liberty came from the British, along with the common law and the English language. If the Americans had maintained their British status, they would control Britain and Canada and Australia and New Zealand now (another 120 million people and over $5 trillion of GDP), have all their energy needs met, and enjoy better government than they have actually endured for the past 20 years. It would have been much easier to abolish slavery and, if there had been a Civil War, it would not have lasted long, nor cost a fraction of the 750,000 American lives that it did. There would have been no World Wars or Cold War, or at least no conflict remotely as perilous as those were. The United States would also have less than its current 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated people, and wouldn’t have a legal cartel that devours 10 percent of its GDP. These are matters that, though they verge on secular heresy, Americans may want to consider, in between singing splendid anthems and rereading Jefferson’s defamation of poor old George III and his blood libel on the American Indian in the Declaration of Independence, this national holiday.

"the piping days" gtfo

that's I was doing yesterday afternoon alright: reading Jefferson’s defamation of poor old George III

wait, so an NRO author is writing that we'd be better off if we had ended up being Super Canada????? Am I reading these excerpts correctly??????

Dave USA 07/04/12 08:30

Conrad is a monarchist and a buffoon. He was sentenced to prison, but should have been sentenced to an insane asylum. What tripe this article.

conservative suspicion of democracy is my favorite thing

the civil war retconning in the comments is just grim

ugh "The Philippines...during the piping days of the U.S. Marines’ occupation" was vietnam beta, almost exactly! right down to its off-the-books nature, absolute butchery of the populace, severely low troop morale, anti-imperialist politics at home. it's really fascinating; i should try to find a good book on this period (what i know came from something on pbs heh)

Robert L. Beisner's Twelve against Empire: The Anti-Imperialists, 1898—1900 touches on domestic efforts to inform the populace about those atrocities.

It must be said that the motives for colonialism were discreditably greedy and largely based on racial and sectarian arrogances.

ha ha haa.

cool thx for the tip

Why would the US being part of Britain mean no World Wars and no Cold War?

because magic

no World Wars and no Cold War?

Apparently the author presumes that the rapid development and population growth of the North American continent would have proceeded under British rule just as they did under USA independence, so that come the 20th century the British Empire would have been so utterly dominant that no other power would have chosen to go to war with it.

Given overall British colonial policy, especially any continuation of the policies in place prior to 1776, that's one very silly assumption there.

ugh "The Philippines...during the piping days of the U.S. Marines’ occupation" was vietnam beta, almost exactly! right down to its off-the-books nature, absolute butchery of the populace, severely low troop morale, anti-imperialist politics at home. it's really fascinating; i should try to find a good book on this period (what i know came from something on pbs heh)

― goole, Thursday, 5 July 2012 18:10 (25 minutes ago) Permalink

Though it is a historical novel rather than non-fiction, and also it covers many other subjects from the spanish american war to jim crow era Wilmington NC, I read and enjoyed John Sayles' A Moment in the Sun. also his most recent film Amigo.

would be interested in that pbs documentary if you know the name of it.

Gore Vidal's Empire covers the war from the pov of TR and the jingoes.

dsb: pretty sure it was an ep of 'the american experience'

cool, thanks will look for that.

hey goole: write yr own dang book

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/308393/obama-s-friends-are-america-s-enemies-michele-bachmann

"Who lost Egypt?"

Revisiting G.I. Joe: Real American Hero.

oh come on, alfred. you wrote that.

Let me assure the reader, the show is worth a gander. It is indeed meant for children — there’s no blood or sex, and the plots are simplified

G.I. Joe also features strong male role models, at a time when many Hollywood action stars are female, such as Angelina Jolie in lots of movies or Merida in Disney-Pixar’s just-released Brave.

2trillionMinus2trillionEqualsZero 07/13/12 16:51
Here's a question for you NRO janes and joes. If you could—Serpentor-style—create an ultimate american leader from the DNA of leaders-past, what would you create?
I've always felt a Reagan-Kennedy-Eisenhower crossbreed would be hard to beat.

The sequence ends with Duke on a jet pack picking up the fallen Old Glory and carrying her to the top of Lady Liberty. If you don't get choked up by that, something's wrong with you.

commenter otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN034sBeF4c

Little touches of realism are another great feature of the cartoon. Serpentor, upon taking command of Cobra in the “Arise, Serpentor, Arise!” story sequence (season 2, episodes 1–5), decides to launch a typically unrealistic frontal assault on Washington, D.C. Tomax and Xamot, the leaders of Cobra’s corporate-front operation, appeal to him: “With all due respect, O mighty Serpentor, we beg you to reconsider. Invasion is easy . . . but holding U.S. territory . . . is all but impossible!”

Serpentor vs. Dubya: FITE!

Tomax and Xamot

codename TOMBOT

the story arc of the creation of Serpentor smacks of nothing BUT little touches of realism!

i love things that smack

With five kids of my own now, age 7 and younger, I am constantly looking for wholesome entertainment for those times when we let the kids in front of the TV.

I feel bad for his wife.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/309479/against-growth-jay-nordlinger

Truth is, some conservatives lamented that he had indeed “grown” in office. He had gone out of his way to accommodate liberals and moderates, and to accommodate the Kremlin. He was raising taxes, spending like crazy, welcoming wetbacks, pursuing arms control. One common cry from the right was, “None of this would be happening if Ronald Reagan were alive.”

just a little racist alliteration, no big whoop

stupid little shit

holy shit

I like the commenter who said 'but he was being ironic!'

NR must have some sort of internal betting pool/challenge on who can say the most racist things on The Corner without being fired

I was just about to post that! How in the world does he think that Nordlinger was being ironic in that post?

the "ironic!" comment is worth capturing in full:

It looks to me like Mr. Nordlinger used the w-word to be ironic. In the context of the other examples in that sentence, that's how it looks to me. Nothing offensive about it in this instance--and for the record, because I have a feeling that replies to this comment will be loaded with accusations of racism, I am not a racist.

the whole exchange is worth preserving imo:

Bobby Zimmerman
07/16/12 11:15

It looks to me like Mr. Nordlinger used the w-word to be ironic. In the context of the other examples in that sentence, that's how it looks to me. Nothing offensive about it in this instance--and for the record, because I have a feeling that replies to this comment will be loaded with accusations of racism, I am not a racist.

Maledictorian
07/16/12 11:31

Could you explain, in the context of that sentence, how that word was used ironically? Maybe I'm irony-challenged after listening to the Alanis Morissette song too many times, but I really don't see much irony, satire, or any other non-literal intent in the rest of that sentence. If we replaced it with a certain n-word would that have been ironic as well?

Bobby Zimmerman
07/16/12 12:29

"Spending like crazy" is the context: you can't use a phrase like that to make a serious point in an argument because it's pure hyperbole, hence my interpretation as irony. Given the broader context of the article, it made sense for Mr. Nordlinger to go over the top in characterizing the criticism of Reagan back then--and to get politically incorrect about it--to make the point that we look at the past through rose-colored glasses, especially when it seems that our least favorite parts of the past are a lot better than our not-quite-as-bad moments today.
And no, it would not been ironic for him to use the n-word, because the majority of illegal immigrants were and are from south of the border. It would've been stupid.