Posts Tagged ‘history’

Morning Joe Echos Limbaugh

Posted: December 31, 2008 by datechguy in opinion/news
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The wife accidentally hit me about 3 hours ago waking me up. Unfortunately I stayed up, but that means Morning Joe and I got the chance to see the start of the show. Since I’m typing as they are speaking quotes may not be exact.

Chuck Todd is on and just pointed out that moderates and independents voted for Obama in droves even though the candidate was John McCain.

This is John McCain who is supposed to be Mr Moderate

Joe Scarborough gets it:

Republican Moderates usually do poorly Republican true believers tend to do well.

Pat questions Todd pointing out that when he selected Palin he was up for a while until the market crashed and killed him.

(all this sounds like Rush Limbaugh so far)

Todd however is blaming a bad Obama campaign rather than the Palin pick.

Here is the actual answer. Obama didn’t run a great campaign against McCain, the media ran a great campaign for Obama. Obama was and in my opinion is a rookie pitcher from a corrupt machine with a lot of questionable associations but the media decided he was the next JFK and the cure to all that was wrong with race in America. They didn’t want anything in the way of the history they were making.

As far as McCain goes rallied conservatives with Palin and could have won this campaign but his position on the bailout murdered him and kept conservatives home. The media did and still hates Palin for what she is, an actual living example of conservative values who doesn’t give a damn what they think. So they did their best to destroy her.

Limbaugh was absolutely right about this one but as always we got the government we deserve, and we have 4 years to see if it was the right move.

Update: Morning Joe would be so much better if Andrea Mitchell wasn’t on it. Unlike the others on the show she still pretends that she is a reporter and not an advocate but you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

And even more Sherman

Posted: December 29, 2008 by datechguy in opinion/news
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I dug out my copy of Shelby Foote’s Masterpiece The Civil War a Narrative after that first post and in the first Volume on pages 58-59 there is a speech by Sherman on pages that could have been made to the Palestinian authority:

You people of the South don’t know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it

Substitute “Israel” for North and either “Arabs” or “Palestinians” for South and read it again. The next statement says something profound about the Arab world

Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors.You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, … If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.

The Arab world is blessed with oil wealth yet hey have done nothing but emasculate their own people with it. Even in Gaza, the Israeli’s left greenhouses an infrastructure intact. The Palestinian authority has been given hundreds of millions in aid from the west and Europe and where has it gone?

How do you think Arafat his wife and his boytoys managed to get so rich? If just half of the money was spent on improving the lives or promoting industry the Palestinians would now be prospering.

I could be dead wrong but my gut says that if it was up to the avg. Joe there they would rather just live their lives. Given the chance they could live them well. (Even if hey still wanted to go to war they would have their own wealth and infrastructure to help support it.) The rest of the Arab world and at the moment Iran prefer the Palestinians to remain a tool to threaten Israel and a distraction to their own peoples. That is why there were never absorbed. The other Arabs don’t give a damn about them.

More Sherman in the holy land

Posted: December 29, 2008 by datechguy in amazon reviews, opinion/news
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I’ve invoked William Tecumseh Sherman several times in the last few weeks. Via Glenn The Other McCain does so as well:

Sherman’s sober words about the “terrible hardships of war” were written to the mayor of Atlanta, who had complained about the cruelty of the Union commander’s order for the evacuation of the civilian population of the city. Sherman’s merciless attitude was motivated by his belief that the South bore responsibility for starting the war, and thus had no legitimate grounds to complain about the consequences of war. Sherman furthermore believed that by devastating the interior of the Confederacy, destroying its infrastructure and resources, he would hasten the end of the war and thereby end its attendant misery:

This is exactly right.

He also says this:

If the IDF had a Sherman in command, he would no doubt vow to “make Gaza howl” with a March to the Sea.

Boy that sounds familiar.

Sherman BTW is a fascinating person I suggest finding a good biography to read of him, but not this one by Lee Kennett which managed to make the story of an interesting man into a boring tale.

The Name of War Amazon Review

Posted: December 26, 2008 by datechguy in amazon reviews
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My review of the book The Name of War: King Philip’s War the the origins of American identity is now available at Amazon here.

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