Charlie Rose

REMant  08/24/2010 02:02 PM Report

NB- There is, BTW, a very good article on US aid to Pakistan on the front page of Tuesday's Washington Post.

NeilMacCallister  08/24/2010 02:29 AM Report

Golly John, ..you are eclectic!

You rise in the morning with John Milton illuminating your waking, move on later to Eldridge Cleaver, and wind up dining with Ayn Rand arguing "The American Century".

..Congratulations!! ..that's quite a "Rainbow Coalition"!!

Please let us know if Mr. Terzian reads full and natural, ..I personally found Mr. Kagan's "Dangerous America" rather tunnel-visioned.

I'm going out now to pull a few onions for dinner, I hope the world is good for you, too!

JohnGelles  08/23/2010 03:44 PM Report

Book I just purchased from Amazon after watching the author on CSPAN--

Architects of Power: Roosevelt, Eisenhower and the American Century -- by Philip Terzian, Literary Editor of the Weekly Standard since 2005.

JohnGelles  08/23/2010 03:38 PM Report

To politicize the hardship to which 20 million are now at increased risk would be cruel and criminally insane in any world worth saving from itself.

But to use this terrible wake-up call to gain an upper hand on possible climate change-- and the overall good sense of switching NOW from carbon to hydrogen as our global commercial energy store-- would be COMMON SENSE. And, in that sense, it would be an expression of political preference for common sense over idiots delight.

President Obama does not YET see this light. Is he stupid-- or WHAT?

And so my HOPE reaches out for General Petraeus. He has the brain and leadership training to want to be president-- and to know he could have the job if WANTS it.

So if Obama remains the fool he's acting-- and Petraeus remains coy while destiny is calling-- we may have to wait and wonder if China or Russia picks up the pieces and calls us to our duty. Climate change may NOT be upon us. But it MAY!

Global mismatch between supply and demand remains. It's been here more or less from the beginning of mass production to the hyper-mass production of this hour.

I trust Europe, Japan, China or India will tell us so-- IF America remains STRUCK DUMB as it's been-- since Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher found too much fault with the welfare state and decided to replace it with nothing at all.

I just a new small book I hope will cover the straits we're in. I'll post its name in a moment-- all I remember is the author is of Armenian descent, an American literary editor for the Weekly Standard, a conservative brain and mouthpiece owned by Rupert Murdoch: a man not afraid to be both rich understanding of the game he plays.

REMant  08/23/2010 10:48 AM Report

Tho I am sure that there will be an attempt by some to exploit this disaster, I would resist the temptation to politicize it. Congress did recently pass, it should be noted, a $7.5 bn bill championed by Kerry to aid Pakistan, which will be, I've read, "recalibrated" to meet present needs, and Americans their have been directly involved from the beginning, tho there hasn't been a lot of US press coverage to date. I do see the networks now have a few reporters on the ground, or rather, in the water, there.

JohnGelles  08/23/2010 12:53 AM Report

Cogent is cute. Concrete is practical. The second Bill of Rights puts money in you pocket. Hard work makes the things you need that the money can buy.

We need to be grounded in everyday necessity: water, grub, a good night's sleep. Society that's aware. Government that works.

robdverity  08/22/2010 10:42 PM Report

That was less cogent.

JohnGelles  08/22/2010 04:51 PM Report

We are His Children or His Parents or God himself in carnate. None are better than us. Perhaps none are much worse.

For an instant let's get real. Why not agree on universal support for the Second Bill of Rights. If you do not know it by heart, use Google for a copy.

robdverity  08/22/2010 03:47 PM Report

Some cogent thoughts John. You ask, "Who are we? In whose image were we created? In whose path do we tread?"

Apart from the last two (religion oriented), we are (Darwinian evolved) animals that have to mature past and beyond surreal beliefs that create unreal differences a la Islam, Christian, Jew, Buddha, Shinto yadda, yadda. If we were to keep it on an animal level (sans dogma) we could FEEL, EMPATHIZE - and (gasp, choke) even contribute.

Our lowest natures are exposed in these crises: Katrina, Haiti, now Pakistan. The NGOs, and the so-called charitable orns that are skimming from the relief efforts (Red Cross, et al) become the pole-to-pole pit.

Our Military-Industrial complex war-for-profit is the only thing lower.

You ask: Who are we? My answer: Not much!

JohnGelles  08/22/2010 07:35 AM Report

The rains came. The rivers delivered turbulent water that inundated the land-- creating a destructive flood never before seen or imagined in the terms of the loss of life and crops on which Pakistanis depend.

The devilish flood developed at enormous speed--but not as fast as an earthquake that is nearly instantaneous. In fact it flooded dry land in slow motion, compared to raging fire like the s that which burned up Russian forests only days ahead of Pakistan's immediate ordeal.

No nations or organizations were prepared to meet the lakes that formed (almost immediately) with rubber boats and igloos, dropped from the sky within hours of the rain-- to inflate and save lives and the threat to life.

All this defensive reaction to disaster was possible if men paid attention to nature the way they nurse their hate of each other and the love of war and money for sin not saintly endeavor.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi, foreign minister of Pakistan, did not mention this counter-factual product of fertile human imagination. It might have been impolite, as well as useless wishing for something earthlings may never by prepared to do -- just to save mostly poor people from the fear, pain, disease and death coming their way at the moment.

The flood has struck a region of the world where killing is on their agenda and America is loved and hated. We, too, are ill prepared for storms, fire and flood, devilish nature has in store for us-- and for our friends and neighbors on earth.

What the hell is the matter? Do we not have the brain, rubber and planes to do for others and ourselves what we would want done for our children if they were exposed to the fate we're seeing on TV.

We see that fate-- but only when we're not being sold with the same tube things of lesser need-- that happen to yield a profit randomly earned in the mindless market we worship ahead ahead of wisdom and saintly belief.

Who are we? In whose image were we created? In whose path do we tread?