Category Archives: Media
Exceptional Exceptionalism
Putin wrote an op-ed in the NYT last week mocking Obama and the idea of American Exceptionalism. He scored bonus points because everyone knows Obama himself is not so wild about the idea. He thinks America is exceptional in the same way Britain and Greece are exceptional. Which is to say, not very. But that didn’t stop him last week from asking Americans to support an attack on Syrian president Assad – with something more than a pinprick, yet unbelievably small – because we are exceptional.
The abuse continued this week when a Russian minister claimed the Navy Ship Yard shooting was an example of American Exceptionalism.
Exceptional and Weird
Maureen Dowd had a few thoughts of her own about the president concerning the partisan speech he delivered while the shooting was still going on:
“The man who connected so electrically and facilely in 2008, causing Americans to overlook his thin résumé, cannot seem to connect anymore… Top Democrats who used to consider Obama one cool cat now muse that he’s “one weird cat,” as one big shot put it.”
When the going gets tough the weird get going.
iPhone 5 Fingerprints
Apple introduced two versions of the new iPhone 5 this week.
iPhone 5 Special Print Function
The upscale version features fingerprint recognition technology. You don’t need a password, just your fingerprint. The upside is you’re unlikely to forget your fingerprint. (You might be unlikely to forget. I’m not. I have ten fingerprints and it’s not easy to keep them straight. I hope I can still use one of them to type in the name of my first pet to get an email link where I can enter a new digit.)
The downside is, it’s kind of creepy.
An NSA secret slide presentation about how it accesses data from mobile devises was leaked to Der Spiegel. You can see it here. The first slide has a picture of the famous Apple 1984 Superbowl ad. The copy says:
Who knew in 1984 that this (Steve Jobs) would be big brother and the zombies would be paying customers?
Yikes!
But Bloomberg says not to worry. With the new iPhone you won’t be leaving your fingerprints all over The Cloud. That information is stored within the device and not accessible to nosy parkers.
Pinprick Peace Process
Syrian President Assad denied having chemical weapons until he agreed to John Kerry’s accidental offer to give them up. Now he denies doing so because of U..S. pressure.
President Obama called for a “shot across Syria’s bow”. Secretary of State Kerry called for an “unbelievably small strike”. Then Obama proclaimed that the United States military does not do pinpricks.
Putin Pinprick Prince of Peace Process
Not surprisingly, Putin has taken the leadership role in the Syrian crisis. He even has an opinion column in today’s New York Times to prove it.
Obama off the Hook
After redlining himself into a hopeless corner of the Mideast live box, Putin let Obama off the hook. Actually, it was more gaffe than hook.
Kerry’s lame comment about Syria turning over its chemical stockpiles is the basis for the whole thing. At first he walked back his proposal. Then Putin snatched it up, Assad agreed, and Kerry walked back the walk back.
Soon enough Obama took credit for the idea and the party elite swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. Next thing we know President Obama was flip flopping like a fish out of water while giving a speech, trying to convince us to hold off on a war nobody – least of all him – wants.
Noonan Nails Obama
Peggy Noonan imagines Putin wants to negotiate with a president of foreign policy stature (like Nixon) but he’s stuck with “a self-besotted charismatic who can’t tell the difference between showbiz and strategy”.
Update: Michael Tackett at Bloomberg covers the whole situation here.
An Unbelievably Small Really Futile and Stupid Gesture
The Obama/Kerry insistence on the insignificance of their proposed attack on Syria reached its logical absurd conclusion yesterday when Kerry described it as “unbelievably small”. What do you do with news that’s already a cartoon? You go to Animal House for “a really futile and stupid gesture”.
The side-splitting must have been too much for Putin. He pounced on Kerry’s “rhetorical point” that Assad could avoid attack by giving up his chemical weapons:
“He could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it without delay and allow the full and total accounting. But he isn’t about to do it, and it can’t be done.”
By six o’clock Obama was all over the news shows swapping his red line for a life line from Putin.
Unbelievably Small Update
Bret Stephens wants to know “when did the American way of war go from shock-and-awe to forewarn-and-irritate?”.
