James Cramer: The Making of a Hawk

And then, on Sept. 11, a quarter of a mile away from where I was sitting, something occurred that was so horrific, so despicable, so evil and so darned foreshadowing of the future, that I realize in retrospect that I was a dreamer, an appeaser and, alas, a fool. In my lifetime we, as a people, have had enemies who wanted to win us over to their ways, enemies who wished we would change our culture and enemies who would fight our soldiers if we fought theirs.

But in my lifetime, we never have had enemies who wanted to kill us, all of us, and had the means to do so.

via War Now!

In this business of life, we have experiences, assemble those experiences into hypotheses about how the world works, then live our lives on the basis of those assumptions. Even a schoolchild knows that when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. But we have to assume things, we have to make guesses about the way things will go. I turn the car's wheel to the left, it goes left, as I assumed it would. If I turned it left and the car went right, I'd have to reassess my assumptions -- and quick!

Like Cramer, I assumed...

I believed that if we could get Arabs and Israelis together in a room, we could solve that crisis, just as the Northern Irish crisis was defanged through negotiation and patience. I even thought we would see peace, a world dominated by a Pax Americana, in which economic growth would lead to a safer, stronger community that would be safe for my children and their children and their children's children. I love you, you love me, we are a happy family, this land is your land, this land is my land; you get the picture.

At school, my kids learn Second Step, a conflict resolution program that focuses on how people deal with their feelings. It teaches empathy and problem-solving skills. The first part of Second Step entails the two parties in conflict to decide that they want to solve the problem. If they both don't want to, there's no reason to proceed.

I assumed that both sides wanted to solve the conflict. I was wrong. Given that fact, I need to change my assumptions about the world. And I have.   

10:24:36 PM  comment []    

Lileks: What the President REALLY Meant Was

I’ve been reading reactions to the President’s UN speech, and I’m amused at how people don’t seem to get it. Oh, now he’s being a multilateralist? Now he believes in the UN? No. That speech was the equivalent of that fabled kung-fu move that removes your opponent's heart and shows it to you, just before you crumple. It’s of a piece with the administration’s behavior since 9/11: Let all the carpers and obstructionists gather on the tip of the thinnest branch, then show up with a saw and announce they have five minutes to come hug the trunk, which incidentally is covered with sap and stinging ants. It was sheer malicious brilliance to cast the entire case in terms of UN resolutions, because now the UN has to chose: either those resolutions mean something, or the UN means nothing. Why, it's almost as if the UN painted itself into a corner - and woke up to find this rude simple cowboy holding the brush. How the hell did he do that?

via Pundit Tree

I've heard a lot of talk about multilateralism and how Bush is finally making his case to the international community. Bull. He's making his case to the American people -- the only constituency whose disapproval matters to W.   

1:34:12 PM  comment []