July 10, 2004
"The historians will have to tell us"
This is a very interesting piece:
Much of world is more peaceful, By Jonathan Power | July 9, 2004That's the sort of thing I say all the time, but this guy seems to be a leftish British journalist. Whoa! Scratching his head over these strange goings-on. He ends with:THERE IS A tendency these days -- and I share it -- that urges one on to hit George Bush while he is down. But before he goes, permit me a word in his favor -- or, more accurately, his regime. Briefly put, the world is more at peace than when he came to power. The big powers have never been so relaxed with each other since the late part of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th, and the number of small wars -- ethnic disputes, tribal conflicts, and territorial disputes -- has been going down every year...
...If Bush loses the election in November, he will be leaving the world -- Iraq and Israel/Palestine apart -- a better place than he found it. Whom to thank? Colin Powell or the left side of Bush's own brain? The historians will have to tell us, since the press has conspicuously failed to keep us informed.Left side of his brain? You know, that's very funny. I wonder if it will become a meme—when certain people are forced by facts to acknowledge Bush's successes, we will start to hear more about the little lefty inside him. Sort of like those cartoons where people have those little angels and devils whispering in their ears. There will be a little Powell-Angel, and a little Wolfowitz-Devil, with a kippah and a bagel.
'Course this guy seems to think Bush is "down," thinks he's going to lose. Ha!. He may regret saying these nice things after W takes 50 states without even getting his hair mussed....(Thanks to O Judd)
[Question: Who was the pugilist who was going to beat the champ "without even getting his hair mussed?" My memory says it was Corbett, but I couldn't dredge it out of Google...However Googling lead me to the book John L. Sullivan and His America, which looks intriguing, I've requested it from the library.]
Posted by John Weidner at July 10, 2004 02:01 PM | TrackBackIf you are interested in great non-fiction writing related to boxing try "The Devil and Sonny Liston" by Nick Tosches. It's not the best book I've read this year (that would be Murachik's "Heaven on Earth") but it was the most enjoyable to read.
Posted by: Lance Jonn Romanoff at July 10, 2004 05:35 PMHasn't someone already done the "inner liberal" defense of Reagan?
Posted by: Phil Fraering at July 10, 2004 05:37 PMAlso remember the comments of Steyn's you just quoted here:
"So, in ''Fahrenheit 9/11,'' if it's a choice between Bush and Saddam, Michael Moore comes down on the side of the genocidal whacko and shows us lyrical slo-mo shots of kiddies flying kites in a Baathist utopia. In the Afghan war, if it's a choice between Bush and the women-enslaving gay-executing Taliban, Susan Sarandon and Co. side with the Taliban. And in the most exquisite reductio of this now universal rule, if it's a choice between Bush and the CIA, the left sides with the CIA..."
It will probably be easy for the liberals to portray Bush as a "liberal" because the left/liberal "faction" hasn't been ideologically "liberal" of late.
Posted by: Phil Fraering at July 10, 2004 05:43 PMMr. Power may be more correct than he realizes, as (if I am recalling correctly), the left hemisphere of the brain deals with reason. Counter to political left-right, the right side of the brain deals with emotion.
Posted by: paul at July 11, 2004 06:25 AMYou're right! I'd forgotten that.
Posted by: John Weidner at July 11, 2004 08:52 AM
