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Author Topic: The Omnipresent Leader (Mark Steyn)  (Read 2078 times)

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Offline bijou

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The Omnipresent Leader (Mark Steyn)
« on: September 05, 2009, 02:22:00 PM »
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On Friday, I had the rare honor of appearing in the pages of the New York Times, apropos President Obama’s plans to beam himself into every schoolhouse in the land in the peculiar belief that Generation iPod will find this an enthralling technical novelty. As Times reporters James C. McKinley Jr. and Sam Dillon wrote: “Mark Steyn, a Canadian author and political commentator, speaking on the Rush Limbaugh show on Wednesday, accused Mr. Obama of trying to create a cult of personality, comparing him to Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader.”

Oh, dear! “A Canadian author”: Talk about damning with faint credentialization. I don’t know what’s crueler, the “Canadian” or the indefinite article. As to the rest of it, well, that’s one way of putting it. Here’s what I said on Wednesday re dear old Saddam and Kim: “Obviously we’re not talking about the cult of personality on the Saddam Hussein/Kim Jong-Il scale.”

Close enough for Times work.

But, if the Times wants to play this game, bring it on. The Omnipresent Leader has traditionally been a characteristic feature of Third World basket-case dumps: The conflation of the man and the state is explicit, and ubiquitous. In 2003, motoring around western Iraq a few weeks after the regime’s fall, when the schoolhouses were hastily taking down the huge portraits of Saddam that had hung on every classroom wall, I visited an elementary-school principal with a huge stack of suddenly empty picture frames piled up on his desk, and nothing to put in them. The education system’s standard first-grade reader featured a couple of kids called Hassan and Amal — a kind of Iraqi Dick and Jane — proudly holding up their portraits of the great man and explaining the benefits of an Iraqi education: ...

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NWRiZTdhYTA4MmFkYWJkYjliZDA5OWFiMTU0YmU5YTg=&w=MA==

I  :heart: Mark Steyn
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Offline DixieBelle

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Re: The Omnipresent Leader (Mark Steyn)
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2009, 08:28:24 PM »
I love him too bijou. The man is brilliant.
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I can see November 2 from my house!!!

Spread my work ethic, not my wealth.

Forget change, bring back common sense.
-------------------------------------------------

No, my friends, there’s only one really progressive idea. And that is the idea of legally limiting the power of the government. That one genuinely liberal, genuinely progressive idea — the Why in 1776, the How in 1787 — is what needs to be conserved. We need to conserve that fundamentally liberal idea. That is why we are conservatives. --Bill Whittle

Offline Chris_

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Re: The Omnipresent Leader (Mark Steyn)
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2009, 09:48:14 PM »
That article was our evening entertainment over dinner tonight at my house.  My wife was busting up: I couldn't be sure whether it was Steyn's commentary, of my own - pathetic - attempts at his accent.
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Offline djones520

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Re: The Omnipresent Leader (Mark Steyn)
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2009, 10:19:59 PM »
That was a good read.
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Offline NHSparky

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Re: The Omnipresent Leader (Mark Steyn)
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2009, 10:22:16 PM »
Why is it we need to depend upon others from beyond our shores to tell us how quickly this nation is going down the shitter?
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Offline djones520

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Re: The Omnipresent Leader (Mark Steyn)
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2009, 10:24:08 PM »
Quote from: NHSparky on September 05, 2009, 10:22:16 PM
Why is it we need to depend upon others from beyond our shores to tell us how quickly this nation is going down the shitter?

We don't need it.  But I'm sure for the people like the DUmmies who strive for the worlds adoration, it's another chink in their glass armor against reality.
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Offline DixieBelle

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Re: The Omnipresent Leader (Mark Steyn)
« Reply #6 on: September 06, 2009, 11:52:42 AM »
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ5SVDYBNrY[/youtube]

 :bow:

Look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams
Ive been everything you want to be
Im the cult of personality
Like mussolini and kennedy
Im the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights, a nobel prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You dont have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
Im the smiling face on your t.v.
Im the cult of personality
I exploit you still you love me

I tell you one and one makes three
Im the cult of personality
Like joseph stalin and gandi
Im the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights a nobel prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You dont have to follow me
Only you can set you free

You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You me power in your gods name
Im every person you need to be
Im the cult of personality
Look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams
Ive been everything you want to be
Im the cult of personality
Like mussolini and kennedy
Im the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights, a nobel prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You dont have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
Im the smiling face on your t.v.
Im the cult of personality
I exploit you still you love me

I tell you one and one makes three
Im the cult of personality
Like joseph stalin and gandi
Im the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights a nobel prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You dont have to follow me
Only you can set you free

You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You me power in your gods name
Im every person you need to be
Im the cult of personality
« Last Edit: September 06, 2009, 11:54:47 AM by DixieBelle »
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I can see November 2 from my house!!!

Spread my work ethic, not my wealth.

Forget change, bring back common sense.
-------------------------------------------------

No, my friends, there’s only one really progressive idea. And that is the idea of legally limiting the power of the government. That one genuinely liberal, genuinely progressive idea — the Why in 1776, the How in 1787 — is what needs to be conserved. We need to conserve that fundamentally liberal idea. That is why we are conservatives. --Bill Whittle
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