Ig Nobels

[Bekah]

I too have been disappointed in Obama's performance in just about all  
areas,  but I still trust him.  I think he knows something we don't  
know - maybe can't know -  like the size and power of what's against  
us in the "Great Game" stuff of Afghanistan,   or the medical  
establishment or ???

Besides,  he's not a dictator and the pressure groups get to all  
members of congress to prevent action there.  This seriously affects  
the closing of Guantanamo because it's congress preventing the release  
of prisoners for trial.    Yes, O could be a bit more forceful in  
leadership,  but again - there may be things we just don't know.     
Sad to say,  and I knew this when I voted for him,  Obama's no LBJ who  
had what it took to get what he wanted in the case of the Civil Rights  
Act, the War on Poverty etc.   New faces in DC just don't have the old  
debts and strings and power which LBJ called up.  (Yes,  I know that  
LBJ was no Nobel candidate what with his sorry mess in Vietnam when he  
listened to the bloody Pentagon.)

Bekah


On Oct 11, 2009, at 9:29 AM, alice wellintown wrote:

> Or maybe to Tank Man, who stood in front of the Chinese tanks, but
> that might prove impossible. Where is Tank Man? Obviously the Nobel
> folks recognize that the world is faced with several huge and pressing
> problems and have elected to focus on a handful including the Nuclear
> Arms crisis. I applaud them for doing so and believe they made the
> right choice. Hope is a powerful counter-force and the current
> President of the US has given more of it to more people than anyone
> else in recent memory. I too have reservations about the cult status
> of the President and his misguided decisions concerning the Military
> Camps in Colombia, the incarceration of people who have not been
> charged with crimes, the wars or war or whatever it is that he is
> running, his failure to act on the Wall Street & Real Estate debacle,
> his staff and cabinet appointments, his failings in the Middle East,
> his goof ups on race and class politics, but he has obviously inspired
> a nation that was in dire need of inspiration and he has turned the
> tide the black tide of Bush in a new direction that has some people
> talking who were not and some people backing off from extreme
> positions. A Giant Step for Mankind. A Giant Step.
>
> On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 10:49 AM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>> Idealism and realpolitik might have been better served by awarding  
>> it symbolically to those Iranians (not their purported leader) who,  
>> knowing they could be beaten or shot, peacefully marched on the  
>> streets of Teheran in an anti-government protest.  They showed the  
>> world what courage looks like and how peaceful change is made.
>>
>> Laura
>

http://web.mac.com/bekker2/