I know I have failed miserably at reviewing the Limits of Power, so here is a peace offering:
It is an hour long, but most likely worth it (I am only 15 minutes into the discussions).
by John Cole| 36 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links
I know I have failed miserably at reviewing the Limits of Power, so here is a peace offering:
It is an hour long, but most likely worth it (I am only 15 minutes into the discussions).
Comments are closed.
Octavian
Great catch.
cleek
meta: clearly some people like it, but i for one am completely uninterested in hearing bloggers talk.
Dreggas
cross posted from another thread LOL:
Some want to re-litigate Schiavo.
Octavian
@cleek: Except Bacevich is not a blogger.
David
Here is Bill Moyers doing an interview. I watched a bit of the blogger one, which seems much more unfocused…
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08152008/watch.html
Common Sense
Nothing about Surgeon General Sanjay Gupta?
cleek
it’s bloggingheads.tv
i hate the whole concept.
BP in MN
I’m with cleek; the format means you don’t get a lot of added value from facial expressions or a really genuine interaction, and I read faster than they talk, so I just get frustrated and move on to something else. If they had transcripts, I’d like it a lot more.
That said, there are people who get a lot more out of audio than out of the written word, so it’s nice to have it as an option. Just not for me.
Ninerdave
@cleek:
+1
John Cole
@Common Sense: As long as it gets him off my tv on saturday mornings, I am cool with it.
Common Sense
@John Cole:
I suspecct you might be seeing a bit more of SG Sanjay Gupta, no matter what channel you watch.
Admit it, it will be great fun to watch the Surgeon General of the United States eviscerate Bill Donahue in a debate. Almost as fun as it would be if Obama poached Zakaria too.
Montysano
This post was my reminder to wander over to Amazon and order Bacevich’s book The Limits of Power: the End of American Exceptionalism.
While the vast majority of the reviews are positive, there are a several that are just what you’d expect: "anti-American", "liberal claptrap", etc. But my favorites were the ones that sought to remind me that the USA!® is the Bestest Country That Will Ever Exist.
Which is high-larious on several levels.
monad
All is best in the best of all possible countries.
JL
@Common Sense: I expect you are right. By the way, who is Bush’s Surgeon General?
JL
News that put a smile on my face.
Andrew Sullivan has a link to the poll at his site.
The Moar You Know
Winky The Brood Sow from Wasallia is finished. Thank goodness.
Reverend Dennis
There is at present an acting Surgeon General. He used to work as a barber on Fleet Street.
Reverend Dennis
That’s a slap in the jowls to Brood Sows.
maxbaer (not the original)
The Limits of Power is a great book. It’s short, so it won’t take you long to read. Then, you’ll have time for some of the other great books at American Empire Project.
Sorry, it was supposed to be a review, not a commercial.
It would be great if a Bacevich or Chalmers Johnson had some voice in the Obama administration.
Conservatively Liberal
Fix’t.
Punchy
Dumb white suburban idiot now begz ta know just what a "brood sow" is eggacktly….
Reverend Dennis
@Punchy:
A brood sow is a female pig who is maintained on a pig farm because of her ability to produce large litters of healthy piglets.
demimondian
@Punchy: A brood sow is a female pig which is kept for the purposes of manufacturing piglets.
Joshua Norton
But at least Candide made that point with a catchy tune to go along with it. Wingnutz just sort of reflexively blurt it out without even a passing attempt at persuading anyone.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Common Sense:
I can’t believe that I am not only going to get a POTUS that I can drool over but I will actually be having naughty thoughts about the Surgeon General… when I think of the past Surgeon Generals that thought almost makes my eyes water.
srv
Bacevich’s latest is a quick read and filled with institutional slaps in the face on every page:
Litlebritdifrnt
PS) I don’t know if anyone else has been following this or if it has been posted in the comments (if it has I apologize) but there has been a war of comedic proportions going on between Wonkette and Confluence with RumpRoast acting as the cheerleader today. I have got absolutely nothing done today due to the fact that it has been hilarious to follow, it began cause Wonkette realized that they had been nominated for the Weblogs award and sent their posters out to vote, at which point Riverchucky’s minions started calling foul. You have GOT to check out the threads. The Wonkettes only discovered Riverchucky’s site yesterday (I think) and they are simply aghast that such batshitcrazy people could actually exist.
TenguPhule
The emphasis is on *healthy*. Think of the sows!
maxbaer (not the original)
This interview strayed from the book more than the Moyers interview. The talk about Afghanistan is particularly good. He points out that sending more troops isn’t in anyone’s best interest. How we square things with the Afghanis and Iraqis is going to take some real effort. Wish I thought Hillary was the best person to be leading that.
How did that hippie become a colonel?
Conservatively Liberal
@Litlebritdifrnt:
OMFG that ‘war’ is a riot to read! The comments over at Wonkette are f’ing gold. They are shredding PUMA ass and laughing their asses off while doing it.
Thanks for the tip, time to go back and laugh some more! Those PUMAs are entertaining fuckwits but the commentary at Wonkette is to die for. Laughing all of the way, of course.
bago
Yeah. Wonkette is almost like SA, but political. Watching the flame wars is hilarious.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Conservatively Liberal:
It truly has been comedy gold all day, I have been laffing my little british arse off all day. The best bit was when the Puma’s declared war, one poster at the confluence said "they didn’t know better than to bring a knife to an Annie get your gun fight" at which point the Wonkettes just about lost their nice (don’t play with the retards) position and went for all out war. I swear, this is the most fun I have had on teh intertubes since I don’t know when.
A Squirrel
Thanks for the link, John.
Even when I disagree with Bacevich, he comes off as so damn thoughtful – even kind. I have a tremendous amount off respect for that guy. I don’t usually like bloggingheads, but I’m glad I got to catch that.
I’m not usually so positive.
A Squirrel
@maxbaer (not the original):
Thanks for that link, too. You should go into marketing, Mr. Baer.
binzinerator
I’ve never seen Heather Hurlburt before, and don’t know who she is, but she is one of those women who I inexplicably find attractive without her being either pretty or sexy, at least not in the usual sense. And then when she talks there’s that utterly charming gap between her front teeth.
Bacevich, old guy, white hair, his son dead, he’s retired, he’s looking at the twilight years of his life. A sane conservative, alas, rare, and no wonder it seems he’s a dying breed. It’s the slow closing of a lineage in many ways.
Other than that, I have nothing to add, certainly nothing of value. Not that I ever did.
Napoleon
@binzinerator:
Funny, I thought the exact same thing about her.