The Atlantic carries a nice gallery of photos from the day, complete with breathless captions.
Social media is flooded with millions of selfies of smug self-satisfied faces of smiling ladies in little pink hats. It was such a feel-good moment. Never waste an opportunity for a selfie!!
It was the opening stump speech for Elizabeth Warren, catching up with Michelle--who has been crafting hers for some years now. It was Madonna at her potty-mouth lowest, it was the literati and the famous and those who seek to be famous and those looking to climb back into the public eye. It was quite an event, it was....
The Atlantic did share an impressive array of photos--including the images of Muslim women in headscarves marching for their own 'human rights'. A number of questions come to mind, some too indelicate to state in public.
However, one obvious question comes to mind as OS scans the gallery:
Where are the pictures of brave women in pink hats, wearing crosses and carrying Bibles, or wearing the Star of David, in the huge women's rights march in Riyadh?
What would happen to a group of women who would undertake to do this in a place like that?
Would it occur to all those comfortable middle-class-with-liberal-arts-degrees-from-good-schools ladies in pink hats to brave the journey to Medinah or Cairo to stand with their Christian and Jewish sisters? Or does Sisterhood only extend so far?
Does it extend to the daughters of those women marching with them who are trapped in arranged marriages, or who were or will be mutilated? Or are those things merely 'cultural differences', ergo off limits? Nothing to see here, move along.
Did one of those ladies display a poster with the sexual battery victims of Bill Clinton who were further victimized by Hillary? Or does Sisterhood not extend to them? Don't the Sisterhood demand that victims be believed, unless of course, the victims are Clinton victims?
What of the women who didn't vote their way? What Sisterhood for them?
What of the women who work and work and work, and haven't seen incomes rise in almost twenty years? Those ladies were working today, no time for pink hats and selfies for them.
The questions just keep on coming.
And finally--is it just OS who sees a disconnect between The Donald's inaugural address and the hysteria of the marchers? Does anyone see a disconnect between the dignity of 20 January and the shrill tone of 21 January? Does anyone see a disconnect between the laconic treatment of 20 January and the breathless coverage of 21 January?
Tomorrow is 22 January, Monday is 23 January, etc.
And Donald Trump, thank Heaven, is President.
Showing posts with label Atlantic Magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atlantic Magazine. Show all posts
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Saturday, November 2, 2013
An Obama Speechwriter Explains What Himself Really Meant...
Really, you just can't make this up!
Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter, explains what Himself REALLY meant when he claimed repeatedly 'If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance!'
It was an ObamaMantra, endlessly hammered home.
Any and all who pointed out that this would not be the case were derided, considered to be racist, or at least someone who enjoys watching sick people suffer.
Really, the problem has been that we were not sufficiently clairvoyant to understand what Himself really really really meant.
Silly us. Click on the image in order to find out what we should have known all along.
Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter, explains what Himself REALLY meant when he claimed repeatedly 'If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance!'
It was an ObamaMantra, endlessly hammered home.
Any and all who pointed out that this would not be the case were derided, considered to be racist, or at least someone who enjoys watching sick people suffer.
Really, the problem has been that we were not sufficiently clairvoyant to understand what Himself really really really meant.
Silly us. Click on the image in order to find out what we should have known all along.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Quote Of The Day: Andrew Sullivan's Response To Himself's Budget In Today's Atlantic
To all those under 30 who worked so hard to get this man elected, know this: he just screwed you over. He thinks you're fools. Either the US will go into default because of Obama's cowardice, or you will be paying far far more for far far less because this president has no courage when it counts. He let you down. On the critical issue of America's fiscal crisis, he represents no hope and no change. Just the same old Washington politics he once promised to end.
This is Andrew Sullivan, a Lion of the Left, writing for the most East Coast of all the East Coast Establishment brands. Whoodathunkit?
This is the sort of tone one spouse takes to the other as she's walking out the door to visit her newly-engaged attorney. This doesn't allow for any kiss-and-make-up moment later.
It's dawning on him, and many on The Left, that Obama is a nihilist at heart. The Empty Shirt the rest of us have always known him to be.
OS was curious as to why today's 11:00 am press conference was so hastily called. Given the reaction OS has been able to garner from Himself's posse on the left, the event seems less surprising. It was damage control, pure and simple. It was all dodging and weaving and calling for 'adult conversations' and 'compromise', anything to change the subject.
Problem is, unless this subject is addressed, the other subjects don't merit discussion. It's the situation of the wife who discovers the husband's other wife and family tucked away in San Diego. No need to discuss the color scheme for the bathroom remodel just now.
This is Andrew Sullivan, a Lion of the Left, writing for the most East Coast of all the East Coast Establishment brands. Whoodathunkit?
This is the sort of tone one spouse takes to the other as she's walking out the door to visit her newly-engaged attorney. This doesn't allow for any kiss-and-make-up moment later.
It's dawning on him, and many on The Left, that Obama is a nihilist at heart. The Empty Shirt the rest of us have always known him to be.
OS was curious as to why today's 11:00 am press conference was so hastily called. Given the reaction OS has been able to garner from Himself's posse on the left, the event seems less surprising. It was damage control, pure and simple. It was all dodging and weaving and calling for 'adult conversations' and 'compromise', anything to change the subject.
Problem is, unless this subject is addressed, the other subjects don't merit discussion. It's the situation of the wife who discovers the husband's other wife and family tucked away in San Diego. No need to discuss the color scheme for the bathroom remodel just now.
Friday, January 8, 2010
The Theology Of The Great Bubble
December's Atlantic Magazine features an extensive article tying The Great Bubble to a popular brand of American Christianity: The Prosperity Gospel. Written by Hannah Rosin, it is thoughtful, and well worth the time invested in the read.
OldSouth has always always believed that culture shapes economy; and that behind culture stands theology, even if it's the anti-theology of atheism. OldSouth also thinks that heresy is no laughing matter, that it destroys lives and cultures.
Rosin refers to Jackson Lears, author of Something for Nothing. This paragraph states the problem succinctly:
...Jackson Lears describes two starkly different manifestations of the American dream, each intertwined with religious faith. The traditional Protestant hero is a self-made man. He is disciplined and hardworking, and believes that his “success comes through careful cultivation of (implicitly Protestant) virtues in cooperation with a Providential plan.” The hero of the second American narrative is a kind of gambling man—a “speculative confidence man,” Lears calls him, who prefers “risky ventures in real estate,” and a more “fluid, mobile democracy.” The self-made man imagines a coherent universe where earthly rewards match merits. The confidence man lives in a culture of chance, with “grace as a kind of spiritual luck, a free gift from God.” The Gilded Age launched the myth of the self-made man, as the Rockefellers and other powerful men in the pews connected their wealth to their own virtue. In these boom-and-crash years, the more reckless alter ego dominates.
The 'second American narrative' is soooo seductive, and has become ubiquitous in American church life. Like the original serpent, the message is often subtle: God loves you better than that pagan down the street. Step out on faith, and He'll be there to catch you! They purposefully ignore the entire Wisdom tradition of the Old Testament, the very tradition that gave birth to Christianity. Some of the purveyors of the heresy even blatantly connect donations to their ministry to the rewards of earthly wealth for the faithful donor.
It's a far cry from that crucial moment of history when that certain rabbi from Nazareth sweat blood and prayed, 'Not my will, but thine, be done.'
Culture forms economy. Our view of God and mankind form culture.
Let's be careful out there. That same rabbi also issued warnings about wolves among the flock, and wheat and tares, and trees that bear good and bad fruit...
OldSouth has always always believed that culture shapes economy; and that behind culture stands theology, even if it's the anti-theology of atheism. OldSouth also thinks that heresy is no laughing matter, that it destroys lives and cultures.
Rosin refers to Jackson Lears, author of Something for Nothing. This paragraph states the problem succinctly:
...Jackson Lears describes two starkly different manifestations of the American dream, each intertwined with religious faith. The traditional Protestant hero is a self-made man. He is disciplined and hardworking, and believes that his “success comes through careful cultivation of (implicitly Protestant) virtues in cooperation with a Providential plan.” The hero of the second American narrative is a kind of gambling man—a “speculative confidence man,” Lears calls him, who prefers “risky ventures in real estate,” and a more “fluid, mobile democracy.” The self-made man imagines a coherent universe where earthly rewards match merits. The confidence man lives in a culture of chance, with “grace as a kind of spiritual luck, a free gift from God.” The Gilded Age launched the myth of the self-made man, as the Rockefellers and other powerful men in the pews connected their wealth to their own virtue. In these boom-and-crash years, the more reckless alter ego dominates.
The 'second American narrative' is soooo seductive, and has become ubiquitous in American church life. Like the original serpent, the message is often subtle: God loves you better than that pagan down the street. Step out on faith, and He'll be there to catch you! They purposefully ignore the entire Wisdom tradition of the Old Testament, the very tradition that gave birth to Christianity. Some of the purveyors of the heresy even blatantly connect donations to their ministry to the rewards of earthly wealth for the faithful donor.
It's a far cry from that crucial moment of history when that certain rabbi from Nazareth sweat blood and prayed, 'Not my will, but thine, be done.'
Culture forms economy. Our view of God and mankind form culture.
Let's be careful out there. That same rabbi also issued warnings about wolves among the flock, and wheat and tares, and trees that bear good and bad fruit...
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Rumblings from the Left--They're not buying Obama/Geithner either
The Atlantic Monthly boasts a loooong tradition as a linchpin of the East Coast Liberal Establishment. How interesting then, to see the editors feature this article by Simon Johnson, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.
His conclusion is sobering, namely that we are on the way to becoming a banana republic (and I don't mean the hip retailer), characterized by an unholy alliance between the political leadership and the heads of the banking establishment.
(Have we noticed that our President had a friendly sit-down the with heads of the banks on Friday, and fired the CEO of GM on Sunday? Have we even wrapped our heads around the fact the the President of the United States fired the CEO of General Motors?)
It isn't just the so-called 'right-wing-nut-cases' saying this. Those guys can easily be dismissed, if one is in the mood not to listen. Simon Johnson, you can't dismiss; he's been there, done that, and has the chilling tales to tell.
In my mis-spent youth, I worked in a banana republic(a country south of here, not the retailer). I was shocked daily by the grinding poverty of so many, the flaunted wealth of so few, the families in the middle running full tilt just to stay in place, and the rampant cynical corruption that permeated the entire society.
The IMF had to be called in when things totally broke down, as did our Treasury. The cost of meltdown was deemed to be too high, and the proverbial Day of Judgement was postponed for about fifteen years(in other words, until now).
Trust me, we don't want to live that way. The article is worth the time you'll spend reading it.
Again, it's not about a weak economy driving culture astray; it's about cultural decay driving the economy over the cliff. It's the only place a decayed culture can drive an economy.
His conclusion is sobering, namely that we are on the way to becoming a banana republic (and I don't mean the hip retailer), characterized by an unholy alliance between the political leadership and the heads of the banking establishment.
(Have we noticed that our President had a friendly sit-down the with heads of the banks on Friday, and fired the CEO of GM on Sunday? Have we even wrapped our heads around the fact the the President of the United States fired the CEO of General Motors?)
It isn't just the so-called 'right-wing-nut-cases' saying this. Those guys can easily be dismissed, if one is in the mood not to listen. Simon Johnson, you can't dismiss; he's been there, done that, and has the chilling tales to tell.
In my mis-spent youth, I worked in a banana republic(a country south of here, not the retailer). I was shocked daily by the grinding poverty of so many, the flaunted wealth of so few, the families in the middle running full tilt just to stay in place, and the rampant cynical corruption that permeated the entire society.
The IMF had to be called in when things totally broke down, as did our Treasury. The cost of meltdown was deemed to be too high, and the proverbial Day of Judgement was postponed for about fifteen years(in other words, until now).
Trust me, we don't want to live that way. The article is worth the time you'll spend reading it.
Again, it's not about a weak economy driving culture astray; it's about cultural decay driving the economy over the cliff. It's the only place a decayed culture can drive an economy.
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