I thought that the official party line now was that the Arab people clamoring for democracy was a Good Thing and that the doddering and repressive oligarchs were the Bad Guys?
You know, except in those places where the populist Islamists are trying to overthrow a government that, while undoubtedly corrupt, repressive, and autocratic, is the only thing standing between the status quo and another terrorist haven of a failed state.
I would like to think that we pick which dictators and oligarchs we'll prop up and which we'll topple using a selection process at least as involved as the one by which we pick our college basketball teams, and which doesn't involve a dart board or a Magic 8 Ball, but I get less and less certain about that as time goes by.
It's a combination, actually. They throw the 8-ball at the dart board, snort whatever sticks, and then spin around until they fall over on a giant map of the region. If they land face up, it's democracy, face down it's despots. Puking means we back a rebel faction and then hang them out to die.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there will be a presser forthcoming stating our official policy.
ReplyDeleteReally.
Any day.
Simply calibrate your Magic 8 Ball against a reference Magic 8 Ball traceable to the Standard Magic 8 Ball kept at NIST in an irony proof enclosure.
ReplyDeleteA magic 8 ball DOES contain oil...
ReplyDeleteThe libs are finding that running the show is a helluva lot harder than sitting back and b*tching about how badly the other side is doing it.
ReplyDeleteThey are also finding that their faculty lounge theories about how the world works (which, I believe, involves quite a lot of pixie dust and moon pony flatulence) don't really apply to any country outside of... of... er... don't really apply to any actual country.
I think that they are also finding out the the adherent of the Religion of Peace (TM) are surprisingly less peaceful than they thought, and that the yen for democracy is no stronger in places like Yemen or Egypt than it is in the average union headquarters.
When theory fails, what is left but to punt?
Presidents throw money they don't really have ay problems that they don't understand, because something is too big to fail. Why should I expect that they throw people and bombs around the exact same way? How much money is in each Tomahawk Cruise Missile? How many unverified civilians are now collateral damage?
ReplyDeletewv woryn = yeah, worryin' Google strikes again...
and that the yen for democracy is no stronger in places like Yemen or Egypt than it is in the average union headquarters.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you meant that as a compliment but I'd take it as one. Anybody yearning for a pure democracy is an idiot.
So I guess it is a good thing for Bob Mugabe and the rest of the African tin horn despots that there is no oil in their particular fiefdom?
ReplyDeletewv midise - as opposed to topise or bottomise? Bigise or littlise?
If you're NOT confused you obviously don't understand ... anything.
ReplyDeleteDunno the current price of a Tomahawk; they were about a million per when Slick Willy was using them like party favors ... or perhaps AS party favors...
There might not be oil in Bobby Mugabe's workers paradise but there are a LOT of other cool things, else the Chinese wouldn't be in so deep.
The question that keeps running through my mind is this: What would American foreign policy for defending people wanting to rebel, overthrow their government, or split off from a government they felt was unjust - what would that mean if, say, the South were to secede from the North here in the US? If the Civil War had struck 150 years later, would there have been an armed conflict? Would B. Hussein Obama even care, as long as he gets visiting rights to Southern golf courses?
ReplyDeleteIt's just History Rhyming to those Golden Yesteryears of 1848, when all the Socialists and Communists and Anarchists decided to have the First Summer of Love. But the Proto-Hippies (Homo Cranius Rectus Inversionis) were soon squashed, and a couple of generations of Imperialism and Fascism made the world safe for the Industrial Revolution to spread. This lead to the invention of those Evil Products that is Killing Mother Gaia, such as Electricity, Medicine, Refrigeration, Mass Transportation, Efficient Food Production, etc. Relax, enjoy the ride, keep your powder dry (just in case you're needed to man the barricades), and take Heart that, sooner than most of those "Progressive" political Hacks think, they'll soon be a bunch of Baddies running things that'll make the Bushes, Reagan and Nixon look like Jimmy Carter!
ReplyDeleteLibertarians, however, will need to chose a side. In a World of Extremes, being part of a Third Way just gets one shot at by both sides.
As far a government goes, I'll take the Magic 8-ball over a committee every time.
ReplyDeleteGerry
Answer unclear. Ask again later.
ReplyDelete"No Libyan ever called me a teabagger."
ReplyDeleteShootin' Buddy
I don't think I could handle an 8 ball anymore,let alone a magic one.....
ReplyDeleteCIII
"we back a rebel faction and then hang them out to die."
ReplyDeleteSeen that once to many times....
"I would like to think that we pick which dictators and oligarchs we'll prop up and which we'll topple using a selection process at least as involved as the one by which we pick our college basketball teams....."
Perfect, because I don't pick basketball teams, unless one of the players is one of my progeny.... I don't have any kids outside this school district, so..... that would kinda limit these foolish escapades, huh? Would that be a bad thing?
This gives me an idea for a killer video - Barack handicapping the various factions of (insert place here) on his whiteboard, and explaining which terrorists/politicians/statesmen/thugs will make the difference in the run up to the "Final One"
ReplyDeleteThere IS a selection process, Tam.
ReplyDeleteThis administration supports whichever side will be more hostile to American values and interests.