Jonah, Gore, James, and Todd
Just when I thought I'd read one of the best blog posts in quite a long time, (Peter Daou's incredible analysis over at Salon) James Wolcott hits one out of the park with this one. Here's a couple excerpts, this one from Gore Vidal:"Originally, God wanted Jonah to give hell to Nineveh, whose people, God noted disdainfully, 'cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,' so like the people of Baghdad who cannot fathom what democracy has to do with their destruction by the Cheney-Bush cabal. But the analogy becomes eerily precise when it comes to the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at a time when a president is not only incompetent but plainly jinxed by whatever faith he cringes before. Witness the ongoing screw-up of prescription drugs. Who knows what other disasters are in store for us thanks to the curse he is under? As the sailors fed the original Jonah to a whale, thus lifting the storm that was about to drown them, perhaps we the people can persuade President Jonah to retire to his other Eden in Crawford, Texas, taking his jinx with him. We deserve a rest. Plainly, so does he. Look at Nixon's radiant features after his resignation!"Shifting gears, here's another from Emmanuel Todd regarding America's response to Katrina:
"American industry has been bled dry and it's the industrial decline that above all explains the negligence of a nation confronted with a crisis situation: to manage a natural catastrophe, you don't need sophisticated financial techniques, call options that fall due on such and such a date, tax consultants, or lawyers specialized in funds extortion at a global level, but you do need materiel, engineers, and technicians, as well as a feeling of collective solidarity. A natural catastrophe on national territory confronts a country with its deepest identity, with its capacities for technical and social response. Now, if the American population can very well agree to consume together - the rate of household savings being virtually nil - in terms of material production, of long-term prevention and planning, it has proven itself to be disastrous. The storm has shown the limits of a virtual economy that identifies the world as a vast video game."You know what to do, go...what, afraid of gaining some knowledge? Go I say...
posted by FuzzFinger @ 1/26/2006 08:49:00 PM
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