Obama’s doublethink

The New Neo Posted on by

Jack Kelly (and others) has noted that Obama is giving a mixed and contradictory message on Hugo Chavez and whether to isolate him or to negotiate with him.

But that’s not a unique situation for Obama; for example, he’s got more positions on Iran than the Kama Sutra. Obama seems to have no trouble holding and/or promulgating mixed or even contradictory messages. It’s his specialty, in fact, one of the ways in which he’s going to bring us all together.

Like the fictional O’Brien in 1984, Obama appears to subscribe to the idea that in the service of a cause (in this case, his own election) one ought to practice doublethink. Continue reading →

The multitudinous world inside your elbow

The New Neo Posted on by

One of the more formative experiences of my life was reading Theodor Rosebury’s book Life On Man back when it first came out in 1969. It revealed that our efforts to sanitize the world and rid it of those seemingly pernicious bacteria were not only futile, they were counterproductive.

Our bodies and the surfaces of nearly everything on earth teem with bacteria, most of them friendly, some of them even helping us gain immunity. But sometimes we can get too much information about this phenomenon; it’s not always comforting to think of ourselves as a vehicle for so many hitchhikers of the miniscule variety.

Now comes the news that scientists are mapping the demography of the whole thing. Continue reading →

Memorial Day: mourning and honoring

The New Neo Posted on by

Before Memorial Day became a national three-day weekend in 1971 and the official kickoff to summer festivities, it was Decoration Day.

I’m not all that ancient, but my earliest recollection of the holiday is of the latter name. It was a day on which people brought flowers and flags to graves of the war dead, and maybe held a parade featuring some tottering old vets and their strange hats.

One also might be stopped by an elderly gentleman selling a poppy. Not a real poppy, but one made of crepe paper. Continue reading →

Grieving parents in war: from Kollwitz to Sheehan

The New Neo Posted on by

Who is this woman?

The serene young artist, glowing with life:

The worn-out older woman, lines of age etched deeper by profound grief:

She’s Kathe Kollwitz, one of the greatest graphic artists of all time, in two of her extraordinary self-portraits. Born in Germany in 1867, she had the sorrowful distinction of living long enough to see her beloved son Peter die at age nineteen in one of the earliest battles of World War I, and her beloved grandson die fighting in WWII. She never got over her grief at either event, but transmuted it–at least partially–into art.

Kollwitz was a socialist and a pacifist. As such, she supported neither war waged by Germany, and so she didn’t even have the solace available to those who did.

I first encountered Kollwitz’s spare and haunting work about three decades ago, at an exhibit devoted to women artists, and was immediately struck by its power and uncompromising sorrow. Here was a woman who had no need to prettify things. Take a look at some of her graphics, which focus mainly on loss and grieving, particularly in war. Continue reading →

John Kerry advocates talking with the enemy: again

The New Neo Posted on by

John Kerry has a piece in today’s Washington Post that champions Obama’s policy of talking to any and all comers, friend and foe alike.

It’s full of Kerry’s overheated and outraged rhetoric towards the opposition. Bush’s mention of appeasement in his Knesset speech was “slander” towards Obama (even though he didn’t mention his name), and “toxic rhetoric” as well. I’m surprised Kerry didn’t label it “swiftboating,” but perhaps he’d like us to forget that particular episode in his own past.

Of course, there are other even more relevant episodes in Kerry’s past that he’d like us to forget, although he once seemed quite proud of them. I refer to his own talks with the enemy—this time, an enemy in a hot and ongoing war: Vietnam. Continue reading →

The networking Valley Boy (Silicon, that is): how Obama raised his money

The New Neo Posted on by

Every time I’ve read that Obama has been one of the largest political fundraisers of all time, I’ve wondered how he did it. Here’s the answer.

He did it by innovative networking-type fundraising among computer-savvy people who were excited by the newness and youth of his candidacy. Google and Facebook and You Tube were started by the very young, and they’re wildly successful. Why not a president who understands such things and isn’t hampered by too much prior experience? Experience just hobbles the mind. Who needs it—and who needs to know much about history? Not Obama.

Here’s the flavor of his appeal: Continue reading →

Obamaphiles: well, nobody’s perfect

The New Neo Posted on by

I have a friend who isn’t ordinarily very political. But from the start she’s been taken with Obama, and supported him enough to do some canvassing for him during the primaries—the first time in her long life that she’s actually worked for any candidate. She’s a highly intelligent, not-too-far-to-the-left Democrat, and even a practical and rather cynical sort. And so it stunned me to see that certain light in her eyes—the light of a quasi-religious belief—when she spoke of her admiration for the man.

She and I have learned over time not to talk about politics too much. But after the Wright revelations, I decided to ask her a brief question or two, because I was so intensely curious to hear her reaction. Continue reading →

Tough talk about—talking

The New Neo Posted on by

Charles Krauthammer charts the shifting sands of Obama’s changing desire to talk to Iran, without preconditions and/or with.

The responses in the comments section of his piece break down in the usual fashion. Supporters write, “You tell ’em, brother!” Haters excoriate the slimy neocon Jew.

But a goodly number of the commenters harp on an old theme, which is that anyone who opposes or criticizes Obama and does not believe we should be talking to Iran sans conditions is motivated by, of all things, fear. Continue reading →