On Philosopher Kings Who Don't Read History and Philosophy

Victor Davis Hanson offers valuable perspective at Works and Days on Obama's recent speeches badmouthing the U.S. His leadoff, as always, is compelling:

"The most successful practitioner of community organizing looks around for what he thinks is a problem, chastises both sides and allots absolutely equal blame, gives exalted moral lectures about compromise and understanding, and then waltzes away well paid, praised for his moderation, but having accomplished nothing.

So I wasn’t too surprised to learn that President Obama decided to tackle European-American relations—something that has a pedigree going back to our Revolution, and has been analyzed by the likes of Tocqueville and Henry James to contemporary essayists such as Bruce Bawer, Joseph Joffe, Robert Kagan, and Bruce Thornton. But then who needs to read them, when you have the power of ‘hope and change’?"

Go read it all here.

For Obama's most recent trash-talking excursion in Turkey, you can read John Hinderaker's summary here. Power Line has been on it from the beginning, so you might as well go there and read for a couple of hours.

North Korea Launches Rocket, Not Intimidated By Lamb of Chicago

North Korea tests missile.

Obama says "Stop it," and tells on North Korea to the U.N. That'll show 'em. Don't fret, though. My sources inform me that Kim Jong-il can forget about the movies Obama was about to give him. Within hours of the launch, representatives of the White House Administration proceeded to Target to return "The Fast and the Furious" Movie Three-Pack and The Complete Works of Pauly Shore. And the iPod Shuffle with Obama's best one-liners, including the commitment to make his administration "the most open and transparent in history" or to take his scalpel to the budget? "That depends," said one highly-placed insider on condition of anonymity. "Obama wants Kim to know that he'd like to trust him again, but it's just hard right now. Given their similar views toward government, economics, and ideology, Obama never thought Kim would just ignore him like this. But he just wants Kim to know he remains ready to offer that iPod, if the circumstances are right."

Roundup

Pilgrim of Say Anything calls it here: "Every half baked crackpot dictatorship on the planet was watching how we would react to this. And what they saw has plastered indelible smiles on their faces."

DrewM at Ace of Spades HQ posts here what many of us feel: "Compared to this idiot, I'm starting to miss the days of clear eyed realism and muscular military posture of Jimmy Carter."

Scott Ott at ScrappleFace knocks this softball out of the park by recalling Biden's "gird your loins" speech.

Mark Steyn warns that "we approach a state in which the planet's wealthiest jurisdictions, from Norway to New Zealand, lack any capacity to defend their borders, and the planet's basket-cases, from North Korea to Sudan, will be nuclear powers."

Tom Smith at the Right Coast knows a Team America moment when he sees it.

Richard Fernandez (Belmont Club) addresses the launch and the likelihood that the U.N. simply won't respond, noting: "On[] the one hand you have a comical tyrant firing missiles over the second richest country on earth towards the most powerful country on the planet, and on the other you have a “World Body” that can barely say — anonymously — that they aren’t going to do anything about it, though they may carry out sanctions they had announced earlier but had never quite enforced."

Scott Johnson at Power Line sees more trouble ahead: "Working in tandem with Iran, North Korea helped Syria install the nuclear reactor that Israel bombed last year. Iran's nuclear program is itself on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon. With the Obama administration now working feverishly to conciliate Iran, one senses that we are sleepwalking toward the precipice."

Gateway Pundit has this must-read post considering this event in light of Obama's Superman IV "World without Nuclear Weapons" speech.

Back Again

It's been busy and will remain so for awhile, but how good does it feel to try another return to blogging?

This good.

Little Longer Hiatus

Sorry -- What I said about being back? Well, the last month made the previous six weeks look like vacation. I'm underwater for another 3 weeks or so, but will get back to beginning in February.

Happy New Year!

Howdy

Mama didn't say anything about days like these ...

In the last four weeks, I have often looked back fondly to the carefree, lackadaisical days of boot camp. You know, it's been that kind of month.

Enough caterwauling. It's good to be back.

Still alive

Sorry for the delay in posting, readers. And by "readers," I mean Mom. Work has me swamped these days, and even as I try to catch my breath tonight before racking out, the "Above an Beyonce" special -- 60 minutes of Beyonce videos! -- banished blogging. I will be back within two days!

Egyptian lawyer advocates mass rape of Israelis

The video and translation is here.

But remember -- who's to say which culture is better or worse than others? And remember the Crusades, and many other nasty systemic abuses by Christians centuries ago, and whatnot. Did I finish the checklist, or do I need to add any other multiculturalist excuses to this?

H/T Ace.