Charlie Rose

SirD  12/02/2008 08:11 PM Report

George Will has pie on his face after this interview. Low tax, light regulation? Nice call George, you pompous.

somecommonsenseplease  10/23/2008 02:09 AM Report

"teachers unions support teachers unions"

well said.

RT  07/23/2008 09:02 PM Report

So this is the evil George Will you read about in political blogs. I must say I liked him and his arguments. A lot.

cafe response  07/17/2008 09:48 AM Report

Government is full of people like George...that's the problem. Neo-cons, zionist sex molesters and war mongers, toilet surveillance addicts, compulsive liars, thieves and armchair gods of the world....their great self-proclaimed superiority guarded behind private clubs and illicit privilege....yes, we need more scoundrels, satanists, seducers and frauds....especially with ivy league pedigrees. You want to understand hatred and envy? Cultivate Mr. Will. (You can also try Mr. Rose, or his upcoming guest, Tom Wolfe....these men have preyed on others for years). Birds of a feather.

Steve Brown  07/03/2008 01:12 PM Report

It was refreshing to hear George Will agree that the Republican Party is at a loss for decent ideas and direction.

I agree with Will's points on Iran. No one wants change in Iran more than the young Iranians.

Of course, George Will is always ready with a short historical story to bring his points home. I truly enjoy those stories.

Jim Conyers  06/28/2008 08:11 PM Report

Will is sooo good. I've read the comments on the program and they all seem to miss the point......it's our Welfare State that's driving Capitalism down the drain and George lists just a few things we can do to reverse the direction.....the best comment: Obama most likely will be a shoo-in and after 8 years of him our economy will be worse.... but he's smart so will figure out a way to keep Capitalism alive to pay for his Welfare State.....

REC  06/26/2008 12:37 PM Report

This was a textbook example of "mental masturbation".

We see Mr. Will rebound, like a cue ball on a billiard table, within the confines of an a priori mental system/construct that purposes to answer all of life's problems and challenges.

Despite the fact that we understand little of the universe, or the sub-atomic level or even the workings of our own minds, that is quite a claim to absolute knowledge.

It somehow reminds me of Stephen Hawking and his pursuit of a "unified field theory".

It is quite a leap of faith (or arrogance depending on your viewpoint) to assume such a thing exists.

Mr. Hawking has said that he doesn't care if his derived mathmatical model represents reality - as long as it is "mathmatically elegant".

I suppose such "elegance" gives one a good feeling.

So it is with Mr. Wills and his social theories.

Perhaps they make him and some of us "feel" good.

"Exceptions" only confuse the issue and are to be ignored.

"Rules" are for those who think they already know everything.

Shaft 2  06/23/2008 01:35 PM Report

Shaft... I give up. You are quite simply paranoid (i.e. a psychotic disorder characterized by delusions of persecution or grandeur, often strenuously defended with APPARENT logic and reason). So, join the club. You are in good company around here.

TO: Comment by back at you on Sunday, Jun 8 at 03:20 AM  06/16/2008 03:11 AM Report

Comment by back at you on Sunday, Jun 8 at 03:20 AM: "To: the Dems won't change anything because ... I think you are starting to get the idea. I hope so at least if you really are on the air waves on a regular basis. Anywhere near the state of WA where I might tune in?" _____ Sorry to get back to you so late. No, unfortunately, I haven't been on the air on a regular basis and, when I have, it hasn't been anywhere near WA state. I'm in Berkeley, CA. ...Thanks for the URL and the Tylenol laugh! And thanks again for what you typed. Peace... Take care

Hank  06/13/2008 03:39 PM Report

The irony is, the privacy advocates are enjoying Charlie on a public channel(albeit one with significant private support). This show couldn't likely exist as it does where commercial necessities are prioritized. Perhaps it's a poor analogy but, let's consider that while big government has many drawbacks, the Private sector is NO panacea.

Chandra  06/11/2008 02:18 AM Report

I always enjoy reading George Will at Washington Post. The hour long conversation was very good. I just wish you had more on the show...

Cate  06/10/2008 01:33 AM Report

We need more people like George in government.

-- Yo Linda Mae I listen to old school rap music all the time: it *inspires* me/others to learn and think critically. --   06/09/2008 10:55 PM Report

Comment by Linda Mae on Saturday, Jun 7 at 12:12 AM: "Rap music that calls women ho's and bitches, I'm sorry, does not lend itself to giving a clear picture of a group's values."

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Look, maybe you're just too old, &/or too "Black bourgie/middle-class, and get all your info about the Black hiphop generation from Newsweek, Time, or corporate TV -- because you obviously don't know what you're talking about -- but you need to get off the rap music stereotyping, because it's just a way to stereotpye *ALL* Black people. I guess you DON'T read any BOOKS, because there are plenty of *intelligent* books, some even authored by *Black* academics on this topic. Michael Eric Dyson's book on rap music or Tupac come to mind, but there are others written in everything from academic language to layperson language. (And you can Yahoo/Google search a couple of my formal articles on this subject, as well as others, online -- written, in impecable English, in Black literary or political journals, even as I often speak in *Black English vernacular* with my intelligent Black friends.) So, GO READ A BOOK(!!) because we younger Black intellectuals are tired of trying to pull you old heads along into the 21st century. *EVERY* FORM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC -- FROM SPIRITUALS, TO GOSPEL, TO ROCK-&-ROLL, TO JAZZ, TO BEBOP, TO BLUES, TO SOUL/R&B -- WAS CRITICIZED AS DEGENERATE/EMBARASSING/DESPICABLE/LOW-CLASS(!!) BY SOME CREATIVELY-MYOPIC MEMBERS OF THE BLACK OLDER/BOURGIE GENERATION AT THE TIME. (I grew up listening to everything from European classical and bebop jazz -- both to which I used to do my homework and read literature -- to every popular form of Black music and virtuousic rock, and later to hiphop, even authentic gangsta rap which I compared to German/European *EXPRESSIONISM* in music, art, poetry, literature and theater: bet you didn't know *that* about some forms of rap music!) ...JUST CHECK OUT PRIME TIME TV ALONE (YOU MUST NOT HAVE ONE) AND SEE HOW OFTEN *WHITE* PEOPLE/CHARACTERS/*WOMEN*/*KIDS* SAY THE WORD "BITCH/BEEYATCH/BEEYOTCH". ...Look I'm sorry to be so abrupt with you -- I know you're some well-meaning, but only half-informed, older school-marmish lady who doesn't stay in any *real* touch with any younger generations of intelligent Black people/youth -- but I just don't have the patience or the time to really school you via Charlie Rose's comment pages. At some point I/we just have to leave some of you *mentally old/older* Black folks behind in the snow instead of always trying to mentally pull you along. If you were here in Berkeley, we could take an hour or so of my time and have an espresso drink at a quintessential Berkeley/Oakland coffeeshop with some rap music listening Black afficianado/expert friends of mine (like TRACEY JAMES OF "SLAVE REVOLT RADIO" or radio & print journalist DAVEY D, perhaps the country's formost hiphop journalist, just to mention only two -- GO CHECK OUT BOTH THEIR WEBSITES OR ONLINE AUDIO ARCHIVES). ...**IF** YOU ARE/WERE A **GOOD** TEACHER/EDUCATOR, YOU COULD HAVE A LOT MORE EFFECT ON THE MINDS OF YOUNG BLACKS THAN ANY WHITE RECORING/RADIO INDUSTRY WHICH SIFTS OUT *INTELLIGENT* RAP MUSIC FROM THE KIND OF STUFF THAT WHITES HAVE USED TO STEREOTYPE BLACK PEOPLE LONNNNG BEFORE RAP MUSIC. ...**IF** YOU ARE/WERE A **GOOD** TEACHER/EDUCATOR, YOU CAN MUCH BETTER INTELLECTUALLY *INNOCULTATE* BLACK YOUTH FROM THE NEGATIVE MESSAGES AND STEREOTYPES THE WHITE RECORDING/RADIO INDUSTRY PUTS OUT THAN WRITING THOSE CORPORATIONS A LETTER. Also, with all due respect, please, in your "well-meaning, *good-liberal* way", stop trying to give me history or culture lessons or whatever other *really basic* stuff you think you are telling me that's not new to someone as intelligent as I am -- not to mention your *platitudes* which, frankly, bore me to tears like cutting an onion: I'M NOT *LEARNING* ANYTHING FROM YOU, TEACHER. From my first post on "The miseducation of the American", it's obvious that I'm at least fairly well-read. Me and my *Black* and other friends are all educated, are all multicultural -- we live in historically one of THEEE MOST multicultural parts, longitudinally from Asia to Europe, of the country -- I regularly attend *international* political discussion groups -- and we have all travelled abroad. I have a Black friend who has never been to college and he's as smart as anyone --Black or white or anything else-- who has!: I've seen him intellectually go toe-to-toe with even white grad/doctoral Berkeley students and stomp an intellectual mudhole in them! He could do the same thing with you -- even more efficiently than I could! Finally, SOME STUDIES HAVE REPUTEDLY SHOWN THAT SOME BLACK KIDS WHO ARE STUCK IN CRUMMY BLACK SCHOOLS -- BY *WHITE* INSTITUTIONAL SOCIETY AND HOW *WHITE* SOCIETY STRUCTURES THE SCHOOL FUNDING BASE -- ARE TRUANT OR DROP OUT OF SCHOOL (LIKE "ICE T" RAPPED) TO *PRESERVE* THEIR SELF-ESTEEM (the same reason I *ignored* my American history class and almost got a D until I finally read the shit to ace the final and pulled my grade up to a B, or the reason I ignored most of my math teachers and finally taught myself math -- finding my own math books, and was the only student to achieve a perfect final exam, a higher grade than all the white students *ever*, from one of the toughest math teachers in the high school at the time), RATHER THAN BE TAUGHT CRUMMY LESSONS EVERY DAY ABOUT HOW WHITE PEOPLE CONTRIBUTED *EVERYTHING* TO THIS COUNTRY AND CIVILIZATION. Again, my apologies for being so abrupt, but I think that the *well-meaning platitudinous liberals* bother me a lot more than the white conservative idiots that post around here: at least they are *entertaining* in their mental lumpen way, and I don't feel like I have to read everything they come back with in order to *try* to be polite. (You can look me up for coffee if you come to Berkeley again: just ask all the appropriate people to get word to me.) Thanks, okay? -- and lets leave it at that.

Shaft-Original  06/09/2008 07:32 PM Report

"Shaft 2" If you cannot handle the heat get out of kitchen, remember that expression? It just happened I caught the man you are defending (Mr. Will) trying to get away with his bigotry, and identified his precise inner thoughts in the subject matter raised, minority Students vs. mainstream. It's not my fault he espouses such negative feeling toward African-Americans and Latino-Americans, I was just helping with reaching out and grabbing that negative idea he has difficulties spitting out. It's funny that you thought I am like 90% of the people who do not listen properly, you went further even questioning where I learned how to listen to. Well, I must have listened too well not to allow Mr. Will a free ride of contempt toward fellow Americans just because they do not fit into his wish of color. I guess, it was you after all that failed to listen properly - not me! If you can get Mr. Will and ask him what he was trying to say @ minute 21:21 of the interview, he would have confirmed to you exactly what I wrote as a response. Sorry to disappoint with piercing thru thoughts, next time I will try to pass by when I see people struggling to express their inner thoughts. :smile: p.s. BTW, I do not have the illness you described, I just have too good of attention to what people say. sorry

Bill Fischer  06/09/2008 04:01 PM Report

Great interview, interesting perspective. Apparently, some viewers mistakenly believe Charlie's job is to present them with voices that are echos of their own.

Gotitsussed  06/09/2008 09:31 AM Report

What a great interview.

I've read many posts and come away asking how anyone can draw racism and bigotry from what I just watched. This was a great exchange between two highly intelligent and thoughtful people.

The best out of the hole is to stop digging. The government will never solve real problems for people, only people themselves can. Stop condemning education, manners and hard work. That, along with good parenting will always be the answer to perpetuating success. Your bitterness rubs off on the young who continue to pepetuate bad decision making.

People who are successful, bright, articulate and well mannered like George Will should be celebrated, not put down. If you keep hating, your mind will remain bitter and unhappy. That is simply jelously, envy at work.

Most of all, stop blaming. Look within.

Great job PBS!

Joe Smith  06/09/2008 12:40 AM Report

George Will looks smart with journalists around the round table, but not on the Charlie Rose show. Charlie kept trying to find the man's soul, but he came up empty. George Will does not understand the complexities of the world he lives in & he can only sell his new book to a limited number of like minded bigots. This interview was a waste.

Tyler  06/08/2008 08:00 PM Report

Every now and again you and your guest do something really special Charlie. This was one of those times. Exceptional! Bottle it, and occasionally sprinkle that same magic over your desk before an interview, and only sparingly please, lest we be cloyed with the delirium that comes with too much of a good thing.

back at you  06/08/2008 03:20 AM Report

To the Dems won't change anything because ... I think you are starting to get the idea. I hope so at least if you really are on the air waves on a regular basis. Anywhere near the state of WA where I might tune in? It just blows me away how any time Charlie (who tries his very best, I'm sure, to invite a diverse cross section of guests with all sorts of backgrounds on his show) happens to invite someone on the show who happens to say a few things the libs don't really like to hear or that don't match 100% with their myopic view of how the world does work, vs. how they WANT it to work, and they get their tails in such a knott it really must hurt. What is it like going through life thinking that way? Thank god for Tylenol. Here. Check this out. It's good for another laugh (after getting a major migraine reading some of these lib posts)... http://www.tylenol.com/

curious  06/08/2008 02:04 AM Report

The Bilderberger Group is meeting and their goal has always been worldwide global elite dictatorship....the CEO of Google, the CEO of Microsoft, and Charlie Rose of this program are among the few representing communications. My question: Why do you interview people like G. Will instead of report, in detail, on the agendas discussed in the Bilderberger meetings? Since they are planning our lives, shouldn't we, at least second-hand, know what is being said???? Isn't that of greater importance than amusing interviews? (By the way, Hillary Clinton was a past member) Just wondering what you are hiding......

-- not buying your schtick, so-called, "Shaft 2", or George Will's --   06/07/2008 10:57 PM Report

You can't get around this: Reportedly, at 21:12 into Charlie's show interveiwing George Will, Will flippantly, glibly and smugly said (in that typical George Will way), "If you're worried about (racial and economic) *equality* (in this country) then ask all the (he meant *white*) students to quit school"(!!) -- in the contextual assumption of Black & Latino students 'all' dropping out and otherwise (inherently) being inferior students, and *that's* the *CAUSE* (rather than a *RESULT*) of racial and economic inequality in this country: supposedly, subtextually, "all *those* lazy Black and Latino people who won't go out and get themselves a proper education". If Will wasn't being racist, then (since so many, but thankfully not all, white people here think he's so great) he would have proposed effective measures to bring in and bring 'all' those "truant" Black and Latino students *up to* the supposedly high uniform level of white students. (I'm sure Will proposes no sufficient federal or state funds in this process, although I'll bet the schools that *his* kids go to have/had plenty of money, the best teachers, facilities, programs, and extracurriculars. And, I'll bet he's not arguing about the -- at least what's *admitted* by the govt -- *~3 BILLION DOLLARS* EVVVERY *WEEK* spent on this war that he championed for non-existent WMDs, though.) But it's a lot easier for Will to be flippant, glib and smug, isn't it.

-- TO: "back at you" -- re the RepubliCrats, OR the DemoPublicans libs -- YOU'RE EXACTLY RIGHT!! --   06/07/2008 10:32 PM Report

Comment by back at you on Saturday, Jun 7 at 03:40 PM: "quit blaming all the world's problems on Bush" _________ *I* don't. I guess we're agreed on that. (But Bush has been the *captain* of the U.S. imperialist ship that has run the Empire aground: *GGGOOOD*...!!) Anyway, MY *SINCERE APOLOGIES* FOR MISCONSTRUING WHAT YOU SAID. I REREAD WHAT YOU SAID -- "back at you", Jun 6 at 05:05 PM

-- AND I'M ACTUALLY EMBARRASSED FOR MISCONSTRUING YOU, BECAUSE YOU ACTUALLY SAID IT *QUITE WELL* -- EVEN *ELOQUENTLY*!! Including about Obama. And *I'm* Black! (See my long post, to comment poster "Laura Decker", over at Charlie's show, "An update on the 2008 Election", June 4th, webpage.) ....The U.S. actually has only ONE party -- with two *wings*, maybe only two *factions*. Some Repubs and Dems actually trade places with each other at the same big-time Washington corporate law firms when they are conversely out of power in whatever Repub or Dem administrations trades places. And every four years the Dems put on a new show with a new set of candidate gimmicks (a slate of gimmicks in different color and gender combinations) -- and the phony, so-called, Democrat "alternative" -- to keep disillusioned Democrat/liberal voters coming back for the new hype and hoopla. .....I PREDICTED ON THE RADIO; I SAID TWO THINGS: (1) I'M GLAD THAT THE PARTY WHO GOT US INTO THIS WAR WAS PUNISHED BY LOSING THE CONGRESS, AND (2) SO THAT ALL THOSE LIBERALS WILL SEE THAT THE DEMS WILL *NOT* GET US OUT OF IRAQ (OR DO A DAMN THING ABOUT HEALTH CARE, ETC). Remember how Rep. John Conyers and other Dems were loudmouthing about impeaching Bush *before* they had the Congress? But *right afterwards* they all said that "impeachment was off the table". .....I guess you're actually A *SMART* white boy -- like some of my *best* friends! *Yyyyeahhh*..., a *DAMMMN SMART* white boy! ;-) Peace.

Turd  06/07/2008 07:45 PM Report

George Will is an elitist snob.

back at you   06/07/2008 03:40 PM Report

To the Dems won't change anything because ... You got most of that right. Are you arguing with me or against me? That's also WHY I never voted for Clinton or Bush (more than once) or Gore or Kerry or any of the lame asses that the two main parties keep cooking up now days. And I won't be voting for slick Obama or McCain (although he is the lessor of the two evils) either. You can bet on that. Let the herd vote for the two losers nominated this time. BUT... quit blaming all the world's problems on Bush... for crying out loud. The voters get what they ask for. Let them take the blame.

jake 2  06/07/2008 03:23 PM Report

jake you haven't got a clue what you are talking about, do you? I've worked in berry fields, bean fields, an aluminum and manufacturing plant, got a degree in college, worked in IT for 25 years and now own my own (working class) business. I don't have one single problem with one single thing Will said on this show or the one he had with Charlie on 10/08/2002. Anyone who does is out to lunch and should get back to work.

YYYYAWWWWNNN 2  06/07/2008 03:16 PM Report

When the next Truman shows up in the Dem party let me know and I'll vote for him/her. As you may recall he actually had enough balls to drop the A-bombs on Japan and save a LOT of soldiers lives (on both sides) and finally stop the B.S. we were going through in the Pacific. Obama will never have the guts to hit terrorism or radical middle east leaders that hard and put an end, once and for all, to the B.S. going on in the Middle East. Like I said... The only thing liberals are good for and the only thing they know how to do is bitch and complain and cook up excuses and UNDERMINE any positive effort anyone makes to clean up the various messes around the world. Until you find us another Truman to ellect... YYYYAWWWWNNN back at ya.

Roderick  06/07/2008 02:54 PM Report

George Will is brilliant. Great interview indeed!

Shaft 2  06/07/2008 02:54 PM Report

Shaft... who taught you how to listen to people who are speaking? Boy, have you got a twisted preconceived agenda or perhaps you just were not paying attention any better that 90% of the other folks who have slapped posts on this blog. You said (quote)If you listen carefully @ 21:12 Mr. Will has implicitely insulted African-American and Latino-American population at the same time.(end quote) Go back and start the replay at apx 20:28. (quote)What worries people today is widening inequality of outcomes... differnet income capacities. Now, it is true. They are widening. There is a reason for that. Two centuries ago the great source of wealth in the western world was LAND. A century ago it was FIXED CAPITAL. [he gives examples\ Today the great source of income power... you earn what you learn. It is knowlegde, mind, education, HUMAN CAPITAL. (end quote) Mr Will and Charlie were discussing WHY there seems to be a growing gap between rich and poor. Mr Will was pointing out that different forces allow people to generate income now days vs. in past times. His theory was that KNOWLEDGE is power now days (quote)You earn what you learn.(end quote) That is what he was telling Charlie. But Charlie, as with most folks, wanted to keep circling the wagons to find a way to say that it still is not fair, (quote from Charlie)You can make real serious arguments that we are beginning to slip in that game(end quote), to earn so much when others are not. Mr Will agreed that you can make arguements to that effect. Then Mr Will said, @ 21.05 (keeping it in context), (quote)But, if your soul obsession is EQUALITY OF OUTCOME then what you want to do is get Americans to drop out of school. Quit learning so much.(end quote) Charlie then kept going at it from there and Mr Will basically agreed with what Charlie was trying to cook up. Bottom line: Some people are going to go out and get an education, gain access to KNOWLEDGE and LEARN how to make a VERY GOOD LIVING by educating themselves and figuring out how to leverage off of what they know. And he is RIGHT. If you want to pump gas for a living or flip hamburgers then drop out of school. If everyone did that everyone would be earning min wage and we would not have a big gap in incomes. If you want to compete in our current day world (vs. the MAKE BELIEVE world most libs would prefer we lived in) you better WISE UP. It has nothing to do with putting down anyone EXCEPT stupid people in general, who fail to figure out how to put 2 + 2 together and who want to take from the rich (who have learned) and give to the stupid people (who have not and would probably squander it if they had it). And the world sure is chuck full of stupid people. I run into them ALL THE TIME. Like on this blog. Look at all the idiots who think Mr Will is dumb and they think they have all the insight. Where does THAT come from?

--- *EXCELLENT* POST, BRUCE! ...*EXCELLENTLY* WORDED. ---   06/07/2008 05:00 AM Report

RE Comment by Bruce, An American in London on Saturday, Jun 7 at 02:57 AM!!

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PEOPLE LIKE GEORGE WILL, MOST OF OUR POLITICIANS AND OUR MAINSTREAM MEDIA -- AND, MOST WHITE-AMERICANS AND EVEN, UNFORTUNATELY, TOO MANY BLACK POLITICIANS -- most of whom have never been abroad -- KEEP BEATING THEIR CHESTS ABOUT THE U.S., ALMOST GENETICALLY (AS FAR AS MOST WHITE-AMERICANS VIRTUALLY TOUT THEMSELVES), BEING "THE BEST COUNTRY ON EARTH" ACCROSS THE BOARD -- WHEN *ANY* LOOK AT INT'L COMPARATIVE STATISTICS SHOWS THAT THE U.S. *ISN'T*. If I could speak a foreign language fluently enough, or wasn't spoiled by coastal California's warm weather and lack of snow (except in the mountains), I could easily find a *MUCH* better country to go live in (and more accessable to other interesting countries and foreign cities) for anyone who is university-/professionally-educated/trained (especially as far as the quality of life for the average person) -- and *would*.

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A LITTLE HUMBLENESS IS *OVERDUE* FOR AMERICANS -- AND, BETWEEN THE IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN WAR FIASCO AND OUR SHARP ECONOMIC DOWNTURN, WITH EVERYTHING FINANCIAL GOING UP BUT WAGES / SALARIES(except for the rich), AND THE INCREASING EROSION OF THINGS LIKE ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE (for all but the rich), ONCE CONSIDERED AN AUTOMATIC ASSUMPTION BY THE MIDDLE-CLASS -- AMERICANS ARE GOING TO BE *PLENTY HUMBLED* IN AT LEAST THE NEXT NUMBER OF FORESEEABLE YEARS.

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(Yo Bruce, check out The Troubadour Cafe on Old Brompton Rd while you're there, if you like good imported beers and wines, good cafe/deli food, and good music, often jazz but also other, and a lovely small beer garden in back! A great and colorful unisex restoom with a fountain in the middle! And, speaking of jazz, I trust you already know about The Jazz Cafe music club & restaurant in Camden. --- Joseph Anderson, Berkeley, CA)

Bruce, An American in London  06/07/2008 02:57 AM Report

When I see people like George Will talking about 'American exceptionalism'; it reminds me of the 'Emperor has no clothes'. Yes America is exceptional at many things which have benefited the world. But when you have the richest country in the world have an infant mortality rate either 12th or 14th or a healthcare system rated 29th-33rd depending on the rating system with 100 million people not having healthcare or underinsured and the healthcare's costs are 300% greater per person than the best rated heathcare systems in the world (Scandinavian countries, France), 80% of the people having no increase in their wages for the last 20 years, and having invaded Iraq and either rkilled, injured or exiled over 4,000,000 people in return for $140 per gallon oil; one can make the case that America is both exceptuional and exceptionally stupid.

How George Will and Charlie Rose can live in a vacuum and not acknowledge that espousing 'American exceptionalism' is not real when taking into account the misery of much of the population. Just because the George Wills and Charlie Roses of the world spend much of their time with the top 5% income earners doesn't allow them to make the judgement, American is exceptional, without coming to grips with the fact that the American quality of life for the vast majority of the population is not exceptional when compared to the mature social democratic countries of Europe.

-- the Dems won't change anything because the Dems *ARE* the Repubs too! --   06/07/2008 02:02 AM Report

RE Comment by back at you (some stupid white boy to another one) on Friday, Jun 6 at 05:05 PM.

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Ever hear of "Good Cop, Bad Cop"? Remember, the D.L.C. morphed into the *G.O.P.* -- almost all of the senior Democrats and the Democrat party as a whole are "the Republicans in drag" -- and CLINTON STOLE THE REPUB'S PROGRAMS! -- which is really why the Repub politicians hated him so much!: CLINTON STOLE THE REPUBS *THUNDER* -- including greatly eroding civil liberties (just more *quietly*), exporting American jobs overseas, slashing welfare (I know you like that because 'poor Black women were really bringing the country down', as Clinton was exporting white-American mfg jobs to everywhere from Mexico to India to China to the Philippines to SE Asia, huh?), gee he trigger-happy cruise missile attacked two countries in one day (and like Bush *falsely* claimed that one was mfg WMDs), he bombed targets in Iraq every week (along with the British govt) and at least half-starved the Iraqi people to death and didn't even permit them medical supplies, he raced back to Arkansas to *personally* 'preside' over the execution of a mentally handicapped Black guy, he publicly attacked one Black woman (Sister Souljah), threw another Black woman nominee (Lani Guinear) to the right-wing wolves and didn't even defend her against a right-wing *racial slur*, fired another Black woman (Jocelyn Elders whom if Clinton had taken her advice he wouldn't have gotten into the Lewinsky mess), and that's just part of it! And the Democrat Congress kept funding your Republican fiasco war (I *knew* the Dems would and predicted so on the radio)! And Hillary/Barack -- they kept voting to fund Bush's war fiasco -- will continue the same foreign policy -- Barack if he becomes president and Hillary from the Congress. ... But at least Clinton *DID* leave a *BUDGET SURPLUS* -- instead of Bush's huge *BUDGET DEFICIT* (financed by high-interest loans from *China* making China rich and the leading creditor nation to the U.S., and Bush making Venezuela and Iran even *RICHER* with his oil-market destabilizing war in Iraq). SO WHAT MORE DOES A GOOD OLE CONSERVATIVE WORKING-CLASS (I assume you're working...) WHITE BOY LIKE YOU WANT!???: a white boy like you who doesn't collect a single damn penny in capital gains -- yet constantly votes against your own economic interests as long as the Republican politician you vote for promises to keep the Blacks & illegals down -- but loves the Repubs who keep cutting capital gains taxes for the RICH.

jake  06/07/2008 01:24 AM Report

George Will showed exactly how out of touch he is with America, when he stated that the current generation never had it sooo good and they should just toughen up.

He is the kind of guy who gets all his economic news from the corporate media and probably has zero real contact with anybody who is working class to actually understand what is going on. It is a "let them eat cake" kind of ignorance. If he actually got he hands dirty by meeting some real people and understanding some real problems, he might have some credibility.

Yes, he says the economy is "growing", but almost all the growth under Bush has been among the top 1%.

-- YYYYAWWWWNNN.... --   06/07/2008 01:00 AM Report

RE ***BOORISH RANT*** by tramky 2 on Friday, Jun 6 at 03:09 PM.

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YO FLAMER BOY! EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES... YO! EVER HEAR OF *PERSONAL* RESPONSIBILITY??? YOU BLAME EVERYTHING THAT "DRINKY (& SNORTY) MCDUMASS", AS BILL MAHER CALLS "DUBYA", DIDN'T DO RIGHT ON EVVVERRRYONE ELSE BUT **BUSH**. (I'm surprised you didn't go back all the way and blame *Jimmy Carter*, the Republicans old favorite scapegoat for everything all through Reagan's 8 years and Daddy Bush's presidency.) ...If "personal responsibility" is good for liberals, then its good for *CONSERVATIVES* too. When Truman, a Democrat, was president, he had a NO-NONSENSE sign on his desk: THE BUCK STOPS HERE! PERIOD.

IT-Slave  06/07/2008 12:20 AM Report

Here is the summation of GW's (and the right wing) of the 60 million plus american workers (Baby boomers) that powered our great nation for the last 40 + years. They call us the welfare class and call the social security we paid into "entitlements". Once our best years are gone and we have little to exploit, we are just discarded and seen as a "drain" on their system (predatory capitalism). There's the double standard. Don't get me started on the other drains they see like the Iraq vets and their needs after their service and courage to protect the right wings assets. The are ghastly in their pathology, imo.

Linda Mae  06/07/2008 12:12 AM Report

To Joseph Anderson, Berkeley, CA

Paul Robson happened to live in Enfield, CT, in a house about 4 miles away from me. I did get to meet his son several years ago when he presented a program about his dad at Asnuntuck Community College. Learning is lifelong. Don't ever stop trying to learn. Question both sides of an issue. Ask what is the agenda of each side of an argument. You do need to learn some basic facts so that you can be creative. I liked to use Bloom's Taxonomy because it went from the concrete to the abstract. Rap music that calls women ho's and bitches, I'm sorry, does not lend itself to giving a clear picture of a group's values. I've always liked Afro Cuban. We get Afro Pop on our PBS radio station. But then I'm older and remember King Sunny Ade. Somehow I don't think the old African cultures treated their women with such little respect as does some rap music. My friend was a Peace corps volunteer in Guyana in the 70's. It was a matriarchal society. The women were ignored by the men who came to "help."

"STUFF PUSHED BY THE *WHITE* RECORDING/RADIO INDUSTRY (OR THEIR SELLOUT BLACK CORPORATE SUBSIDIARIES), IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT, STEADILY, FEWER AND FEWER BLACK LISTEN TO THAT CRAP.' I would hope you write to the artists who write and sing these songs aw well as the companies that produce them. It is a crime that they come to represent black society but they do. If you are black, then you have the power to affect change.Demand that the artists who make the money give some back to their fans.

The number system was developed by many older cultures. Did you read Walkabout? Talk about tenacity and mixed societal values. We celebrated Chinese New Year, plus other holidays that came about. There is only so much one can do in a school setting. Learn basic skills, cultural literacy, and the thirst to continue learning. Why? Should be the final question for each learner. I'm sorry you had such a poor experience. I question your conclusion that it was a waste of your time. It should have taught you something and also given you a springboard to finding out more. To be open minded is the best attribute for a learner. It is strange, however, how one's point of view changes as we age and go through stages of life. We review and re clarify our perceptions. It's amazing how - as we age - and learn - we often make a complete 180 in our beliefs. Keep learning but try to find the positive as well as the negative. Try to change the negative. I'm glad you join in comment forums. I love SF. Used to fly into Oakland for my February break and drive up to Calistoga. I remember sitting in a cab in the center of Mexico City and being told by our Mexican driver to look carefully at the government buildings. The Aztecs knew how to build on the lake bed and their buildings were still plumb. When the missionaries came, they built buildings and ignored/decried the advice by the natives. The walls of those buildings were angled. Lessons: Respect the knowledge of the ages. Don't think you are the only one who is right. Respect all cultures. Appreciate them. Learn about them. I found that food and music usually helped get everyone at the same level.Celebrate your unique talents and respect the talents of others. Learning doesn't mean a college education but whatever skill you can acquire that will make you a productive member of the society. Yes, it takes a village. Children who were truant, however, once had the letter T branded on their forehead. Also, there is a picture of how slaves were laid out side by side on ships. We tried to see how it was in class. Also, it is sad that slavery was practiced by black and white cultures on each other. Women have been sold into the sex trade for ever. Man's inhumanity to man has never been wiped out. Some day. Let's hope.

Shaft  06/06/2008 11:57 PM Report

Mr. Rose, this is one of your good conversations, it was nice you challenged him so well, he gets so frustrated he would have called you a name if you were on one of his sunday morrning programs. If you listen carefully @ 21:12 Mr. Will has implicitely insulted African-American and Latino-American population at the same time. He says, 'if you worried about equality then as all the [white\ students to quit school.' TRANSLATIONS: blacks and latinos are droping out of school so the inequality you are referring of is a result of these kids dropping out so to bring equality you have hold white students back from attending schools so all of them can be dumb and and have no education. That is when I realized his political ideology leans toward ultra-conservative republican. A genuine Democrat would tell you to bring more equality you have to try to hold all the high risk drop-out kids in school thru all means, so America can prosper at the same time bridging the income gap.

->>@ 33:20, Mr Rose struggles to find words to call Presidential Hopeful Sen. Barack Obama as a candidate chosen based on his color. He slids the words as 'the Democratic Party was looking for a vessel to nominate a black candidate and Barack Obama was there.' The fact is Sen. Barack Obama is a capable politician who (as mr. will said) saw politics much differently than veteran politicians (Clintonites) have. The fact is Democratic electorates did their homework much like Sen. Obama did when he received the intelligence report prior to the pre-emptive war, they watched eight people standing to represent the Democratic Party for the Presidential contest and in the midst of the smoke screen the electorate saw Sen. Obama clearer than the other candidates who were tricked by Pres. GWB and his CEO friends from the oil industries. Unlike his colleagues in times of great pressure not to sign the blank cheque for the war Sen. Obama resisted all the pressure and sifted out the sexed-up intelligence report for war. As he adds and subtracts all the factors he found out there was nothing that was reason enough for him to put his signeture on the blank cheque, despite at great risk of being labelled "unpatriotic" he says NO! The other Sen. went ahead and signed the blank cheque, so Pres. GWB and his oil industry CEO friends can go to war for profit.

boring times 2  06/06/2008 05:26 PM Report

back at you - it wasnt all that smart the first time around you ripped off someone else's text - but if you cant come up with fresh content then by all means repeat yourself. Aint nobody listening.

BZ  06/06/2008 05:06 PM Report

Buzzzzzzzzz. Buzzzzzzzzz. Buzzzzzzzzz. Buzzzzzzzzz

back at you  06/06/2008 05:05 PM Report

I just cut and pasted this from one of the other comments pages because it sure as heck applies on this page full of lib dribble too... Give it 4 or 8 years and the ferris wheel will come to a stop again and the libs, who will fix nothing and accomplish nothing because they are clueless, will get off and the conservatives and GOP will get back on. But, at least we won't have to listen to all your gibberish for a while. BTW. You bone heads have had majority rule in the 100 person and 435 person congress for how long now? Why haven't you gotten us out of Iraq yet? Why haven't you fixed global warming yet? Why haven't you stopped the illegal immigration problem yet? Why haven't you fixed our education system yet? Why haven't you establish uni-freaking-versal health care yet? You yappers have been in charge for years now. Yap, yap, yap. All talk, no action. All the GOP has had is one little guy in the white house. What are you waiting for? Hillary? Good luck. She ain't coming to the party. Now what are you going to do? Oh, that's right. Obama will fix everything. That will be the day. Good yapper. But he has never done anything about anything either. This is going to be great. I look forward with curiousity to see if you yappers can actually get anything fixed in the next 4 or 5 years. But I won't be holding my breath... I'd like to add to that the following... How long will it take for all you libs to start driving electric cars? Put your money where your mouths are. Go buy one. And how long will it take for you libs in congress to get the price of gas back down to $2/gal? When will you pass a bill to regulate gas prices so we poor people can get to work and back (I can't afford an electric car right now). And how long is it going to take you to get the housing market going again? I don't need a $600 welfare check I need something fixed. And how long will it take you to get same sex marriage and bisex marriage and man dog and woman cow marriage passed? And how long will it take you fools to fix social security? And when will we all have a $1 million dollar retirement plan given to us free of charge from the government? That's what I want to know? What is taking you guys so long to make sure we all have a job tomorrow? Come on, get with the program. Can't you guys pass some sort of bill to take a few million from all the rich folk and spread it wround to us poor folk? Heck, I don't want to work for a living. But I've been waiting and I don't see any money coming my way fast enough. Hurry up. Solve all the problems before they kill us all. Please.

-- The miseducation of the American -- Part 2 --   06/06/2008 03:37 PM Report

THIS COMMENT, ESPECIALLY FOR LINDA MAE (BELOW), WAS *MYSTERIOSLY DELETED* -- PROBABLY SOME ZIONIST DIDN'T LIKE IT BECAUSE IT WAS TOO TRUTHFUL -- SO I AM REPOSTING IT (my apology for the length, and lack of available paragraph breaks function, on Charlie Rose's website comment pages):

______________________________________________________________________________________________

TO Linda Mae: Hmmmph, what African proverbs are *you* teaching. ANYONE WHO TELLS ME THAT *GEORGE WILL* IS A "FASCINATING" THINKER REALLY TELLS ME ALL THAT I *NEED* TO KNOW --OR *WANT* TO KNOW-- ABOUT THEM AND *THEIR* ABILITY TO CRITICALLY THINK. And I normally wouldn't give them anymore of my valuable time than I would give to George Will -- when *anything* else I would normally do would be a *MUCH* better use of my time than directly/indirectly utterly throwing it away on him. GEORGE WILL IS JUST A RACIALLY PRIVILEGED WHITE MAN -- WHEN THERE WASN'T ANY PROFESSIONAL & INTELLECTUAL COMPETITION ALLOWED *AT ALL* (CERTAINLY NOT ON PUNDIT TV) FROM MINORITIES (AS THERE STILL BARELY IS NOW) -- TO GET TO WHERE HE'S GOTTEN. ...SO THE SYSTEM FINDS HIM USEFUL AND LETS HIM RUN HIS MOUTH -- AND GRIPE ABOUT HOW AWFUL THE WHITE CAPITAL GAINS INVESTMENT CLASS BOYS HAVE IT -- EVERY WEEK ON TV. But, since I've been commenting on various ones of the latest programs on Charlie's show (you can usually check them out under my name or casual writing style), I was passingly curious to see how the show matched up with what people had to say, beforehand in my San Francisco Bay Area time zone, and as a snippet sampling of Charlie's audience. So, I listened to the show in the background while I was answering email and catching up on my reading late at night. If I thus heard George say something particularly white and stupid (with the usual white racial and sociopolitical double standards) that happened to catch my ear, I chuckled and made mental note of it: note, "Comment by Joseph Anderson, Berkeley, CA on Wednesday, Jun 4 at 05:17 AM". I happen to touch-type pretty fast, so the time spent in my typing off comments didn't really cost me much of anything in time. I won't start to now throw away any real time discussing George, so I won't repond to *everything* you said in your very lengthy post. ...First of all, if you think that *George Will* is a great thinker, well then enjoy him to your blessed little heart's delight! I got bored with him when I was a *mid-teenager* -- AND MOST BLACKS FIND GEORGE WILL BORING TOO. But, I realize, like standard grade/high school American history, GEORGE WILL, AND ESPECIALLY OTHER CONSERVATIVES LIKE HIM, MAKES A LOT OF WHITE PEOPLE FEEL *GOOD* ABOUT THEIR SUPPOSED WHITE-AMERICAN "SUPERIORITY". But, as long as Black people stay out of the U.S.'s stupid, if horrific, imperialist wars, and to at least try to be the moral conscience of America (those that aren't bought off, like Condoleeza, Collin and Clarence), that's my most important concern at home. If other people want to throw away their lives, able-bodiness and psyches on the U.S.'s imperialist wars, as the American human cost of empire, then that's largely beyond my control. I CAN ONLY HOPE, like I already have regarding this imperialist war, THAT THE U.S. FINALLY GETS ITS ASS KICKED *AGAIN*, just like in Korea, Vietnam, in Beirut, so far in Iraq (with well over 4,000 Americans dead, not including the extra 1,000 or more that the U.S. won't count from PTSD suicides and military occupational hazzard deaths, as well as later deaths at home related to war wounds, and not including contract employees, and tens of 1,000's Americans maimed and seriously wounded), and in Afghanistan and, if it comes to it, in Iran. ...Second, African culture, was, like Native American culture, traditionally communal. OH, AND RAP MUSIC IS A DIRECT DESCENDENT OF AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE -- AND CAN EMBODY *EVERY* FORM OF BLACK MUSIC AND SPOKEN WORD ARTS. WHY DON'T YOU LOOK UP THE, GENERALLY NOW OLDER, *POLITICAL* AND *SOCIAL/CULTURAL/HISTORICAL CONSCIOUNESS/COMMENTARY* RAP MUSIC AND *LLLEARRRN* SOMETHING -- INSTEAD OF THE STUFF PUSHED BY THE *WHITE* RECORDING/RADIO INDUSTRY (OR THEIR SELLOUT BLACK CORPORATE SUBSIDIARIES), IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT, STEADILY, FEWER AND FEWER BLACK LISTEN TO THAT CRAP. The capitalist, white-American concept of "personal responsibility" and hyper-individualism says "everyone for him-/herself" and "you're on your own": this is something that George "Ayn Rand" Will obviously mostly adheres to. Communal responsibility begins with, "It takes a *village* to raise a child" -- the most famous African proverb. When a child/minor commits a serious offense or crime in a capitalist society, well then that's *his/her* (and maybe that of their individual family) and the victim's problem. When a child/minor commits a serious offense or crime in a communal society, then that's a problem for the village, community, or society -- and the correction or punishment is *respectful* and *restorative* to him/her, the victim as much as possible, and the community; the child/minor is not thrown away to morally, mentally and spiritually rot somewhere until someone is ready to release them. *Respectful* correction is why The Nation of Islam (though I am not one of its members and certainly don't see it as a perfect solution for African Americans) has been able to turn around Black lives and instill cultural pride, and respect for self and others, that the white-American punitive system could not do for Blacks -- the kind of punitive system that undoubtedly tough "law and order" George Will supports, though he would undoubtedly say that it's not tough enough: "We have to get *tough* on those kids and if that doesn't work, we have to get *tougher*. One of the reasons the East Asian crime rate is so relatively low, compared to the U.S., and the education grades are so relatively high, is because what people do reflects on their families -- a small sense of communal responsibility -- whereas in the U.S. it just refects primarily on oneself -- not to say that East Asian societies are perfect. If your immediate family functioned in an everyone for him-/herself, laissez-faire capitalist way (like family members running and grabbing more food from the refigerator and cabinets than they could possibly eat at a time or whomever grabbed the most food forcing other family members to work long hours for food), it would truly be dysfunctional; but if your family functioned in a communal, equitably sharing way, it would be mutually caring, loving and respectful. I once lived, with my multicultural housemates in a small, semi-isolated predominantly renters neighborhood that was neither rich nor poor, yet everyone had their basic needs met, and routinely not much more, and certainly not any luxuries: it was the friendliest neighborhood I ever lived in, because next to their basic needs, the most important thing people had was a sense of community. I once forgot and left my bicycle unlocked outside in front -- a *good* late-model bicycle -- and it was still there the next day. The only thing unpleasant in the neighborhood was the police, as usual everywhere when it comes to Black people. ...Third, if your "Teaching Tolerance" course were really enlightened, it would have been called "Teaching Mutual *APPRECIATION*" of among the best that all other people's ethnicity, culture and societies have to offer and what they have contributed to and can teach humanity. "Tolerate" is what I do with heavy traffic at rush hour -- not what I do with human beings of another race/ethnicity: I *APPRECIATE* them. ...Fourth, "the Boston Tea party": didn't they go disguised as Native Americans? -- yeah, 'blame it on the Indians'! Reminds of when Zionist Jews dressed as *ARABS* when Jews bombed the British headquarters in Jerusalem in 1946 -- not the first time Zionist Jews posed as Arabs to commit terrorism. ...Fifth, "the U.S. Constitution: the Supreme law of the land": isn't that the one that commited genocide against millions of Native Americans and brutally enslaved millions of Africans taken an ocean away!? Isn't that the one that President Andrew Jackson *ignored* in a Supreme Court verdict when he sent what white-Americans called "The Five *Civilized* Indian Tribes" of the Southeast on a death march and freezing starvation to concentration camps called "reservations" to the then Oklahoma Territories? Yeah, that's why I hated high school Civics and Citizenship classes too. In fact, EVERYTHING IMPORTANT I LEARNED I LEARNED *OUTSIDE* OF FORMAL GRADE/HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES -- AND I LEARNED IT FROM MY BLACK PARENTS, MY BLACK AND OTHER CONSCIOUS MINORITY FRIENDS, AND MY BLACK MENTORS. I EVEN HAD TO TEACH MYSELF MATH (UP TO DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS IN COLLEGE). BECAUSE, JUST LIKE ICE CUBE RAPPED, ALMOST EVERYTHING I LEARNED IN GRADE/HIGH SCHOOL WAS A LIE -- INCLUDING THAT ONLY WHITE PEOPLE CONTRIBUTED TO MATH AND SCIENCE. Okay, I'm spending too much time here in search of no new knowledge, so let me skip to my last issue: We could ALL use a little less of being hammered over and over and over, again and again and again, IN WESTERN HISTORY SCHOOL BOOKS, ON TV, AT THE MOVIES, ON THE NEWS, with THE HOLOCAUST, THE NAZIS, ANNE FRANK, AND JEWISH SUFFERING -- LIKE JEWS ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO'VE EVER REALLY SUFFERED IN THE WORLD -- AS DEEPLY PROFOUND AS THEIR MASS SUFFERING *WAS*, *AT TIMES*, *IN CERTAIN PLACES*. .....HOW ABOUT SOME HISTORY ABOUT HOW THE *ARABS/MUSLIMS* OF FRANCE AND NORTH AFRICA SAVED JEWS FROM THE NAZIS (which you, a history teacher, probably don't even know about). ....WHY DON'T WE EVER STUDY ABOUT HOW THE *PALESTINIANS* WERE OPPRESSED BY MANY OF THOSE SAME EUROPEAN JEWS THAT THE NAZIS OPPRESSED? -- AND THAT *SOME* OF ISRAEL'S FOUNDERS NOT ONLY FAILED TO SAVE OTHER EUROPEAN JEWS WHEN THEY COULD HAVE, BUT EVEN OFFERED TO COLLABORATE WITH THE NAZIS! .....Why don't we ever read about democratic liberation leaders like Sun Yat Sen, Mohammad Mussodeq, Kwame Nkrumah -- the latter two whom the U.S. CIA overthrew? .....Or about Black multidisciplinary intellectuals like Cheikh Anta Diop or Frantz Fanon, or Black historians like Molefi Assante -- and what *they* had to say about the supposed 'superiority' of "European civilization"? Why don't we --especially whites-- ever learn in grade/high school about African, Arab and African American contributions to science and mathematics? We learn nothing about the largely self-taught early 20th centruy Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, as well as others, and his direct contribution to modern advanced mathematics *in England* -- not even that he/they existed, as well as other great non-European mathematicians. We learn nothing of the direct contributions of African and Asian art to European art. How about some in-depth history about Paul Robeson (and how Albert Einstein was close friends and fellow political activists with him, as well as how the U.S govt spied on and dogged both of them), about Fannie Lou Hamer and other Black women Civil Rights activists? But first, why don't we learn in grade/high school about the different nations of great Native American tribal leaders, their personal histories, how they organized their societies, how their governance ideas contributed directly to the U.S. Constitution, yet how "the Supreme law of the (U.S.) land" hunted them down and shot/hanged/imprisoned them to within the chronological rise of German Nazism and its own extermination & "racial hygiene" program?: Hitler was directly cognizant of the *American* one. THERE WERE A *LLLOT* MORE AFRICANS THAT DIED IN SLAVERY (WHETHER IN THE AMERICAS OR AFRICA!), AND A *LLLOT* MORE NATIVE AMERICANS, ALONE, THAT WERE GENOCIDED IN AMERICAN COLONIALISM/EXPANSIONISM, AND FOR *MANY* MORE CENTURIES, THAN THE 4 OR SO YEARS OF THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST -- YET ALL WE HEAR ABOUT, ALMOST *DAILY*, SOMEWHERE ON AMERICAN TV, IS SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T EVEN HAPPEN TO PEOPLE HERE, INSTEAD OF ABOUT WHAT *DID*. Why don't we learn in grade/high school about the, later, Native American civil rights and liberation activists, incuding the Native Hawai'ian ones? What about INDIVIDUAL life stories of historical Asian American leaders, activists, scholars, scientists and American concentration camp internees. WE DON'T SEE THESE STORIES ON SOME AMERICAN TV CHANNEL EVERY DAY -- BUT *HOLOCAUST* STORIES ARE ON HEAVY ROTATION. WHILE, ARAB/PALESTINIAN STORIES, DOCUMENTARIES, MOVIES AND CULTURE GET NO COVERAGE EVEN IN *YOUR* TEACHING. ...*IF* *SOME* Blacks, Latinos, or Native Americans consider "getting a traditional public school education" as "acting white" -- and I'm glad that you questioned that, to the extent that clueless Bill Cosby keeps STEREOTYPING his own people (and his ultimate *MATERIALISTIC* "acting white" TV show, which MALCOLM X WOULD HAVE REJECTED as "aping the white man") -- it's because, if you don't learn for yourself outside of traditional schooling, or in spite of school, as Ice Cube rapped, "teaching you to memorize nothing but the lies", and IF YOU'RE NOT WHITE AND MALE, it will teach you to think of yourself as culturally *inferior* (even in spite of your success), to identify with and pursue traditional *rich* white-American male values and his behavior (especially *THE OBSESSION WITH POSSESSION* -- ESPECIALLY OF ANYTHING THAT IS NOT HIS) as "superior", to think like GEORGE WILL, and to utlimately, culturally and even phenotypically *HATE* yourself and anyone who looks like you. _____ Joseph Anderson, Berkeley, CA

Q  06/06/2008 03:31 PM Report

George has to be on more often!

Bzzzzzr  06/06/2008 03:15 PM Report

Buzzzzzzzzz. Buzzzzzzzzz. Buzzzzzzzzz. Buzzzzzzzzz.

tramky 2  06/06/2008 03:09 PM Report

tramky you are quite right. Now read all the B.S. the liberals on this forum have and will toss back in response to what you just observed. And do any of them propose any real positive course of action? Not likely. In stead they will suggest that it is not the fault of the persons trashing the ocuntry or insulting others around them. They have a perfect right to be trash talkers and to pass their ways on to the next generation. Now expand this liberal thinking, which excuses every wrong in the world and BLAMES it on Bush or on conservatives or on someone other than themselves, to the gang bangers and rap freaks (sitting around in their hide outs planning their next destructive move in the name of xxx) in the radical areas of the middle east and Africa, etc... the terrorists... and how the libs excuse every act they have perpetrated on the civilized world and how they pass on their radical B.S. to generation after generation, rather than do something positive to correct their plight, and you have one heck of a mess that the liberals will never get a clue how to fix. The only thing liberals are good for and the only thing they know how to do is bitch and complain and cook up excuses and UNDERMINE any positive effort anyone makes to clean up the various messes around the world. And just about the time when one problem or mess is being corrected then they get in line and cook up some other problem they want one of there heros, like Clinton or Obama or whom ever is their hero for the day, to fix for them. They never figure out any way to roll up their sleeve and confront the problem head on themselves because it is a hell of a lot easier to bitch and complain and go to some rally and talk and scream and hold signs up and raise hell about it than to actually do something. A perfect example of what I'm talking about is this Freedman goon. Clinton does NOTHING for 8 long years about Bin Ladin. Bin Ladin cooks up a plan in the mean time to hit the US. Bush gets elected. Osama bin Laden attacks us. And Bush is slow to react? Does Freedman blame it on Clinton? No Clinton is his hero. And he probably worship Osama bin Laden too. Clinton sits on his fat ass getting blow jobs in the oval office can do no wrong for 8 long years is not slow to respond. It was all Bush's fault. That's logical Freedman. Real logical. And while we are at it let us blame global warming on Bush too... even though it was building up for YEARS before Bush ever became Pres. Real logical Freedman. Freedman, if you are so blindingly smart how about you run for Pres and let's see you fix the world in 7 days and 7 nights. I dare ya.

Travis  06/06/2008 02:58 PM Report

Good Interview.

-- I don't have time for your insipid racist stereotyping STUPIDITY : *that's* what I have to say. --   06/06/2008 02:15 PM Report

Comment by tramky on Friday, Jun 6 at 12:35 PM: "What does 'Miseducation' (of the American) have to say about this kind of communal education? I am not going to suggest that the tossing of trash out the window by a black woman and her children is something only black people do--hardly." ----- RIGHT.

--- Yeah Bush has put this country in such 'wonderful' shape... ---   06/06/2008 01:29 PM Report

Comment by Freed Freedman on Friday, Jun 6 at 04:33 AM: "What I like about liberals and the democrats in particular is how slow they are. I mean it takes them years and years to figure out what to do about anything." ---- Yeah Bush has put this country in such wonderful shape. ______THE REPUBICANS CLAIMED TO DO THREE THINGS BEST: RUN A *WAR*, RUN THE *ECONOMY*, *DEFEND* THE COUNTRY -- BUSH **FAILED** AT ALL THREE.______ Bush didn't protect us from 9-11 and was *SLOW* to respond while he was reading "My Pet Goat": the REPUBLICAN president controlled military was caught TOTALLY OFFGUANRD in spite of all the warnings in the world); Bush didn't protect older people from runaway prescription drug prices; Bush didn't have a plan for a major natural disaster like with KATRINA -- TALK ABOUT HOW *SLOW* THE A *REPUBLICAN* ADMINISTRATION WAS TO RESPOND!! -- and international embarrassment -- even though such a storm, *over New Orleans*, has been predicted for decades; Bush was *SLOW* to respond to global pollution and thus global warming; Bush has let the national infrastructure deteriorate and has been so *SLOW* to respond to that that even some major bridges and roadways have collapsed or all-but-collapsed; Republican deregulation allowed the mortgage securities crisis, and Bush was so *SLOW* to respond to that that it turned into an economy-threatening crisis, as before it happened with Republican deregulation and the Savings & Loan crisis; Bush has certainly *SLOW*ly, but steadily, eroded most of our civil liberties and legal rights protections; THE DOLLAR IS FALLING AT RECORD RATES AGAINST THE EURO AND THE BRITISH POUND; Republican deregulation allowed rampant predatory lending to happen in the first place; gas prices are over $4/gal and expected to rise to $5, because Bush has been *SLOW* to repond to conservation (a dirty word for Republicans) or green/renewable energy technology; EVEN AS BUSH IS MILITARILY OCCUPYING ONE OF THE MOST OIL-RICH COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD!!; ...REMEMBER WHEN BUSH WAS *SLOW* TO RESPOND TO THE RIOTING AND GROWING INSURGENCY IN IRAQ?; ...REMEMBER WHEN BUSH WAS *SLOW* TO REALIZE THAT HE HADN'T WON THE WAR PREMATURELY DECLARED "VICTORY" IN IRAQ *5 YEARS AGO*?; ...REMEMBER WHEN BUSH WAS *SLOW* TO GET AMERICAN SOLDIERS ARMORED PROTECTION?; ...WHO HAS BEEN *SLOW*, WITH THE WORLD'S LARGEST MILITARY BY MULTIPLES, TO DEFEAT THE IRAQI RAG-TAG INSURGENTS RUNNING AROUND IN SANDALS, OR THE AFGHAN WARLORDS?; ...BUSH, WITH THE WORLD'S LARGEST INTELLIGENCE SERVICES, SATELLITE SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM AND MILITARY CAN'T EVEN FIND AND OLD MAN ON A CRUTCH, BIN LADEN, WHO'S ABOUT 6'4", AND RUNNING AL-QAEDA FROM A *CAVE*!!; a huge percentage of Americans are increasingly priced out of insurance and health care access, and Bush has been *SLOW* to fix that broken system; grocery prices (even milk and cereal for the children) are getting sky high; Bush has *SLOW*ly let the air travel industry become a snarled mess (it's not even fun to travel by air anymore); more and more American manufacturing and service-industry jobs have been exported overseas; Bush has left this country with such a huge national deficit and debt (after Clinton's left him a national surplus), that now we have to borrow massively from *CHINA* in order to stay financially afloat!!; and this is just the *half* of it; WE HAVE THE STUPIDEST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY AND THE STUPIDEST ONE OFF ALL THE DEMOCRACIES IN THE WORLD -- WHO'S *FAILED* AT EVERYTHING HE'S DONE, OR WOULD HAVE FAILED IF IT WEREN'T FOR HIS DADDY -- AND HE'S BEEN A NATIONAL *JOKE* ON NIGHTTIME TV TALK SHOWS AND AN INTERNATIONAL *JOKE* ABROAD -- A *REPUBLICAN*!! .....BUT THE DEMOCRATS --TO SHOW THAT THEY'RE JUST AS "TOUGH ON (WHATEVER)", AND INSTEAD OF GETTING US *OUT* OF WARS LIKE THE REPUBICANS USUALLY DO-- ARE SO BUSY ALWAYS TRYING TO *APE* THE REPUBLICANS, INSTEAD OF OFFERING A *REAL* DIFFERENCE IN NATIONAL DIRECTION AND PHILOSOPHY, THAT THE DEMS JUST MIGHT LOSE ANOTHER ELECTION TO THE *REAL* REPUBLICANS.

tramky  06/06/2008 12:35 PM Report

Here are a couple of personal observations that demonstrate something that exists within African-American culture. It is not clear how widespread this is, but it does exist. In my view these demonstrate two currents in black American culture--there are others, much more positive than these.

Two young black girls walking down a city street sidewalk near the local public library and City Hall. One of these girls, probably 18 to 20 years of age, is wearing a white T-shirt with the following emblazened in large letters on the front:

Hello!

my name is

bitch

And then there is this story from someone who workes in a fast-food restaurant in this same city:

As the car pulls up to the drive-thru window to get the order they had just placed, this is what happens:

the black woman driving the car starts pulling all kinds of trash from inside the car and tossing it out the window--this is right at the drive-thru window of this restaurant. While she's doing that, she is heard to tell her two kids in the car with her to do the same, so the kids also start grabbing papers and other stuff in the car and tossing it out another window.

The kid at the drive-thru window is frozen, slack-jawed, unable to say anything, just astonished and horrified that anyone would do such a thing--and a mother teaching her children that it must be acceptable behavior in the public square to simply trash the place.

I would suggest that these little stories reflect two currents in black American culture:

the negative influence of rap culture, and the kind of thing that Bill Cosby has been talking about--the unwillingness to take positive personal responsibility for behavior on the part of components of black culture.

I would add something else: this demonstrates the methods by which bad behavior and lack of personal responsibility is passed to the next generation. What does 'Miseducation' have to say about this kind of communal education?

I am not going to suggest that the tossing of trash out the window by a black woman and her children is something only black people do--hardly. What I would suggest is that, most of the time, when white people do this the will do it surreptitiously, away from likely detection because somewhere in their hearts they know it's wrong and don't want to get caught. This black woman, on the other hand, thought nothing of it and likely viewed it as her right as a black woman, to thumb her nose and toss her trash in the face of the community in which she lives.

We have, due to the Obama campaign, had some unusual insights into black culture in America. We have been reminded that there is a separate black culture in America--it is just as separate in many ways as was Jim Crow white America in the south in the '50s and '60s. We've even learned that there is a separate black theology in black churches.

Obama was quite right when, as he was wriggling out of his 20-year involvement with Jeremiah Wright, he said in a speech that America needs to have a dialogue on race. I am starving for such a discussion. But it's hard to come by.

orlox  06/06/2008 11:49 AM Report

Listen to George Will's interview from 10/08/2002 then tell me about his great intelligence.

Cirl  06/06/2008 11:38 AM Report

This guy is so wrong about Europeans and their flight from "nationhood." They are not in flight from nationhood because of their bloody history; they are trying to unite in order to overtake the USA as the world's superpower, which will not happen, but that is their wish- it is anti-Americanism, it is ambition to rule once again. Thankfully, it will never happen. He's also wrong about Iran and has obviously been taken in by Iranian-American propaganda.

sue Rawley  06/06/2008 09:24 AM Report

The artistic simplicity of George Wills' ability to put his thoughts into words is something he should package and sell to this messy-minded bunch. As for Charlie Rose "interrupting" , it's called interviewing.