… because I’m sure it will annoy someone and, since I’m in the middle or more accurately all over the place politically, it’s likely to annoy almost everyone. You have been warned. Trolls will be dragged out into the street and shot. (figuratively speaking of course)
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I agree with this post. Before I read that I saw the ABC news piece on Chicago “losing” the 2016 Olympics and thought their spin on it was very odd - as if this was a huge foreign policy defeat for President Obama and (oh my!) what will the future bring if he has no credibility overseas. Good grief! I’m always happy when U.S. cities get to host the Olympics but I don’t see it as a terrible loss when someone else gets a chance. This will be the first time the Olympics have been in South America and it’s likely that was a deciding factor. I think it’s a good thing that our neighbors to the south will finally have a chance to show off and I wish them well.
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The reaction to the Roman Polanski thing is bizarre. I would expect a lot of “Ah ha! Thank goodness they finally caught the bastard!” and even some, “That was thirty years ago. Can’t we forgive and forget?” but all the “OMG! Those horrible, backward, sexually repressed Americans have arrested the great Roman Polanski!” is just bizarre. Seriously… if, for example, a teacher had drugged and raped a 13-year-old and evaded the law for 30 years would anyone be demanding that they let him go? If a pastor had done it would anyone be demanding that they let him go? If a postal worker had done it would anyone be demanding that they let him go? If a soldier had done it would anyone be demanding that they let him go? All of these people perform more valuable services to society than a movie director but they are not above the law and rightfully so. But a disturbingly large number of people think that the great Roman Polanski should be above the law.
Fortunately, there are still a few sensible people in the world. Here are two of them: Susan Estrich and Chris Rock. Here’s the video.
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Finally, via Andrea, former Monty Python star Michael Palin says that Britain should stop apologizing. I agree, with some reservations. I think that we - Britain and the U.S. - should acknowledge our faults and mistakes but we should stop acting like our very existence is a mistake. We should stop destroying our own culture in the name of political correctness. We should joyfully embrace the many good things in British and American culture and hold our heads high and be proud. We have the right. And, I agree with Andrea’s statement that, “if British civilization hadn’t existed, then “democracy” would be an obscure, mostly-forgotten custom of ancient Greece.” And even ancient Greece didn’t extend the privileges of democracy to women and the working class. There is no greater civilization on Earth than Britain and its direct offspring.
October 5th, 2009 - 9:34 am
The thing that disturbs me most about the Polanski thing is that he allegedly said during/after the court trial, “But doesn’t EVERY man think about having sex with underaged girls?”
Um, no. I don’t think so.
Also the fact that he RAPED the girl. I don’t think it’s a “prissy American” attitude to be horrified over someone forcing another person to have sex against their will.
October 5th, 2009 - 3:16 pm
Re Polanski: what upsets me is the number of women who are backing Polanski and saying “let it go.” Hey, ladies? Remember when you were thirteen? Fifteen? Eighteen? And you just wanted to go for a walk, or read a book in the park, or something, and you had to run home because some creep kept hitting on you? I can’t believe it’s happened to none of them. Also, just how great are Polanski’s movies that he gets a pass? As I said in my post on the subject, if he was an American director who hadn’t had a famous murdered wife he’d be considered a director of gory slasher flicks.
Re: Obama’s Olympiad — personally, I don’t care about the Olympics (and fewer and fewer Americans do, IMHO), but just the way Obama’s entourage swanned over to Europe — at taxpayer’s expense, I might add — and seemed to expect the IOC to drop everything and graciously sign up the 2016 games for Chicago is just irritating. Aren’t we still fighting a war or two and aren’t we in the middle of a serious recession? He has more important things to think about — and at least Bush didn’t get on Air Force One to go begging. Obama could have simply made a nice speech from home on how he hoped Chicago would get the games. Anyway, Rio more than deserves them; the US has already had them what, twice? That’s enough.
Re: Britain. It’s not that I think we should go about bragging and putting other countries down; it’s just that the apologizing has been done, redone, and overdone. It’s become a ritual, and is fast becoming meaningless. Now when some fellow American starts spouting off on how horribly ashamed they are of how horribly horrible the horrid American history horror show is, my reaction is to cynically think “Gee, I hope your PhD mentor is impressed by your self-flagellation scars” and think about starting a business designing hairshirts. Hmm… now there’s an idea…
October 5th, 2009 - 3:18 pm
Oops, I should have said “when some fellow Westerner starts spouting off about… Western history” but you get the idea.
October 5th, 2009 - 6:46 pm
I’m offended, because you said this post would probably offend everyone, and I’m part of everyone and I wasn’t offended. I think. Now I have a headache.
October 5th, 2009 - 7:37 pm
Since Palin is a Python alumnus, of course he knows what colonial powers did for their clients.