Posted on 09/10/2013 10:07:53 AM PDT by Hoodat
Maybe Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin really did discuss the idea of putting Syrian chemical weapons under international control last week on the sidelines of the G20 conference. Putin sure doesn’t care that Obama’s taking credit for the proposal, or that the administration is posturing like a Mob enforcer. “The only reason why we are seeing this proposal,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney, “is because of the U.S. threat of military action.”
Right, Putin is laughing to himself. Whatever. If Obama wants to sell it like a Christmas miracle on Pennsylvania Avenue that’s fine with Putin, because Putin won.
Reset with Russia was originally a strategic priority for the Obama administration because it saw Moscow as the key to getting Iran to come to the negotiating table. Putin, from the White House’s perspective, was destined for the role of junior partner. Now Putin has turned “Reset” upside down. By helping Obama out of a jam with Syria, Putin has made himself the senior partner to whom the White House is now beholden. Accordingly, when Putin proposes the same sort of deal with Iran, with Russia having established its bona fides as an interlocutor for Syria, Obama is almost certain to jump at it.
What’s unclear is whether Obama understands that his foreign policy legacy will be to have ruined the American position in the Middle East, our patrimony of the last seven decades. If the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran signaled weakness, the Russian deal screams surrender. The real surprise is that it’s not Iran kicking the United States out of the region under Obama’s watch, but Putin. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
What does Putin’s stance on homosexuality have to do with Syria? Nothing at all.
I could care less where he stands on that issue or any other issue he determines for his country. My concerns are the man can play to any who give him a ‘foothold’...just as he’s playing this administration now...who not only left the door open but ushered him in by their incompetence and stupidity.
Putin has stated nothing in his op-ed we were not already aware of ... this op-ed was propaganda used on the American people...and that’s all it is.
Indeed, they do seem to overrate their own power and ability to control what people believe about their actions....
Yet in a conflict between a community organizer and a former head of the KGB, who would you rationally expect to "win?"
BO is either in over his head, or is actually achieving the policy results he really wants (but would never admit he wants — i.e., the evisceration and demasculation of the United States as a world power).
Put aside all his rhetoric and just look at his deeds. Tot them all up, and a rational person would conclude that he does not wish this country well — either in terms of domestic affairs or national security.
The way Putin has played Obama I wouldn't be so sure.
Nobody “ushered him in” - he was already there. Russia’s only Mediterranean port is in Syria, and they have a substantial investment in their naval base there. The MB overthrowing Assad would be a direct threat to that. Anybody who imagined we’d be able to just go in and eliminate Assad and Putin would just sit back and watch is a fool.
Well obviously, it was a statement about the theory — for he said this particular theory permitted him to be an "intellectually fulfilled atheist."
What was the context of the discussion? If it wasn't Darwinian evolution theory, then what could the context have been? Especially in light of the fact that Richard Dawkins is one of the leading public promoters of doctrinaire Darwinism alive today. He makes no bones about the fact that, on his belief, Darwinism "proves" that there is no need of God to explain the origin and order of the universe or anything in it.
...”Tot them all up, and a rational person would conclude that he does not wish this country well — either in terms of domestic affairs or national security”....
Oh I agree fully.....my fear is OB has gone much further then destroying this country from within...and this with as much zeal attempting to take us down on the world stage in order to set this nation up for “something else” all together.
I believe what is happening now with Putin and Obama is sinister....and there is much more riding on this than Syria or what leaders involved stand to gain or loose.
In order for the global governance to be positioned the US has to be weakened.....that is happening within as foreigners coming here today have no allegience to this nation or in being Americans...this weakens the citizenry who would oppose what we see going on with Obama....our voice is being diluted because it’s all about the numbers.
I could easily see Obama working all sides of what we see going on...after all he sees the world as World Citizens...and he is one. The problem is how he manipulates the populace into believing he has our interests at heart.... foreigners can always return to their countries...we have only this nation....so they don’t see thru our perspective. They have another out.
Can you explain how that affects the scientific validity of the theory? I understand your aversion to the statement, but I don't understand how that changes whether or not it explains the evidence.
Of course he was already in Syria....we all know about his port and Putins interest there as well as with Iran and other ME nations. ...And very few Americans were for Obama’s strike on Syria. We sure as heck didn’t need Putin to clarify that...or appear as if he’s the good guy supporting us...which is what he was attempting to do.
Putin is simply now “trolling” to the American people via his op-ed...and playing with Obamas coat-tail as he does so.
Anybody who thinks Putin cares a lick about America or it’s people is the fool.
I don't disagree. I just can't reconcile his actions with the statement that he doesn't care what happens to his own people.
“.. I cannot reconcile attributing morality to what they do.”
Spirited: As our souls are completely embedded within our material bodies, our “choices” are very often influenced by passions, appetites and senses. So it is not true that matter (molecules) plays no part when a man overwhelmed by hate or perhaps envy chooses to harm the object of his violent emotions.
I get chills just contemplating your "'something else' all together."
You truly said,
In order for the global governance to be positioned the US has to be weakened.....that is happening within as foreigners coming here today have no allegience to this nation or in being Americans....Oh so true. Forget the "melting pot." Today, too many immigrants "integrate" into our society; but they do not assimilate to it.
...this weakens the citizenry who would oppose what we see going on with Obama....our voice is being diluted because it’s all about the numbers.Just HAD to add the bolds above. You nail the problem right there.
I could easily see Obama working all sides of what we see going on...after all he sees the world as World Citizens...and he is one. The problem is how he manipulates the populace into believing he has our interests at heart.... foreigners can always return to their countries...we have only this nation....so they don’t see thru our perspective. They have another out.
Plus also consider that he is "resegregating" America along racial lines via outright bribes and the proselytization of (barely concealed, anti-white) racial animosity. He is the apostle of "where's mine," the ideology of reparations for America's past sins....
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., must be rolling over in his grave nowadays. Probably Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, too.
Meanwhile, the populace is sleepwalking through it all, evidently not seeing the imminent danger that threatens their lives, families, communities, livelihood, property; and accustomed mores, values, and traditions — in particular, our tradition of liberty under law with equal justice for all, of a system of government dependent on the consent of the governed.
BO by rights should have been impeached long ago, generally for breech of his Presidential Oath of Office:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.He certainly isn't preserving, protecting, or defending the Constitution of the United States. He is on record deploring it as a charter specifying "negative liberties." (That is, it tells the federal government what it can't do. A lot of the things it prohibits are things that BO avidly wants to do.) But to that we could add charges of systematic, routine perjury and general incompetence in carrying out the enumerated presidential duties.
Jeepers, this guy trashes the Constitution every single day, usually before breakfast.
One just wants to scream, "WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!"
Sigh....
Thank you ever so much for writing, caww!
You don’t have to like or trust Putin to appreciate the fact that he has been able to expose Obama for what he is to the world.
Something our hapless republican party has not been able to do in 5 years.
Of the two, Obama has done infinately more damage to the United States than has Putin.
So anything Putin does that weakens Obama domestically is good for America and Americans.
I did not claim the matter/molecules do not play a part in the choices we are presented, merely that they do not choose what they present. The measure of morality is how we choose to respond to them.
It doesn't. But it surely affects Dawkins' state of mind.
I understand your aversion to the statement, but I don't understand how that changes whether or not it explains the evidence.
Well, how well does Darwin's theory explain the evidence? Some of the "evidence" it's desperately looking for simply isn't there in the historical record; i.e., the intermediate forms supposedly pre-existing the Cambrian explosion.
Even Dawkins tacitly admits this, as in the following:
"...[T]he Cambrian strata of rocks ... are the oldest in which we find most of the major invertebrate groups. And we find many of them already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they appear. It is as though they were just planted there, without any evolutionary history." — The Blind Watchmaker, 1987, London: W. W. Norton, p. 229.To me, Darwin's theory is like a three-act play that STARTS with Act II. The audience never sees any of the "business" of Act I. Without Act I, Act III makes no sense at all.
Should I further explain this analogy?
I can't go along with injecting information that's irrelevant to the validity of a theory in order to try and influence assesment of the theory. IMHO, that's an exercise in propaganda - attempting to emotionally manipulate what ought to be done objectively - and not how science is "done".
Well, how well does Darwin's theory explain the evidence?
At this point, better than any other theory that I've seen. If you've got a better one, I'm happy to look at it. Historically, this is the way many theories start out, and are refined and developed as more information becomes available.
To me, Darwin's theory is like a three-act play that STARTS with Act II. The audience never sees any of the "business" of Act I. Without Act I, Act III makes no sense at all.
Should I further explain this analogy?
No. I understand your argument, but as I said earlier theories commonly start out this way. You're free to reject it unless and until every necessary piece of evidence is produced to verify every possible aspect of it.
I don't know of any scientific theory that has ever been subjected to that kind of requirement and can't think of a good reason why this one needs to be singled out for special treatment. I can think of reasons, but none of them are good.
I understand the drama of seeing Putin take on Obama as we’ve all seen...I’ve had my share of enjoying that as well...but never without loosing sight of who Putin really is.
The fact so many Americans opposed Obama’s march to war is plenty to stand on....and I’m not convinced that this whole show wasn’t planned by Putin and Obama for they both got what they wanted...Obama’s out of the corner he put himself in..and Putin got world attention, which he has been seeking, as the diplomatic hero.
Neither of these thugs has Americans interests at heart...and it’s all about playing us to the high stakes game they are in. We are the spectators....and the revenue sources that keeps their game in play.
Thank you Betty...and for enlarging on this topic. I agree.
I do think there is a very real effort on this administrations part ..to deliberately seperate the people into camps/tribes and then watch us all fight one another...meanwhile the Globalists move their agenda along so that in time there are no longer soverign nations unto themsleves.
The worlds people are simply the means of revenues..or lack of so that they can receive revenues....in order to prop up what’s coming...... Every nation leader now is positioning themselves, via their country’s resources and assets, for the heirchy of World Governance and their places at that table.
That is what Syria is about...and the entire Arab Spring....they have to have the oil revenues from the ME Countries.....so the larger nations are all playing to the highest bidder in how to attain them. Dictators have to be dethroned in order to set up “agreeable” administrations who will adhere to the Global Governance Agenda.
In the ME the Muslim Brotherhood have the most organized groups, and reflected in all ME countries....who the Globalists believed they could control and manage by offering them inclusion into the governances of these nations. We watching it work and also back fire as the people oppose being under Islamic rule who have had a taste of freedom.
IMO the Globalists are “learning” you cannot control many of these tribal people without a strong hand over them......who understands and knows how to deal with them effectively....
Enters Putin....and I believe China too is a huge player... though they, like Putin, do not show their hand until they can be highly effective in doing so. But they are making vast in roads throughout the world in attaining resources and that includes our nation.
Not so sure the US can escape this push....Saddam and Mabarak went down, Gadaffi and now Assad... all who opposed Global Governance. Oddly enough Gaddafi said outright he would not be part of their New Roman Empire!
Start out??? Jeepers, this one's been around for some 150+ years. And it still can't satisfy a requirement that even Darwin himself thought was crucial to validating his theory: evidence of the gradualist progression of intermediary forms predating the Cambrian, as captured in the fossil record. There is no fossil record of such forms.
It seems to me the only "virtue" of this theory is its insistence that all causes in Nature must be "natural," effectively meaning "material" causes. Personally, I don't regard this as a virtue; but those who want to explain everything sans divine action definitely do. Indeed, that is the entire point of the Darwinian exercise for some people nowadays.
Most definitely WRT China. Putin just wants the old Soviet Union back. I don't see either country as truckling under to a New World Order anytime soon.
But both countries are cozying up to Iran these days, presumably on the theory that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." They are conniving to undermine American power both at home and abroad. And BO is doing his utmost to help them do that.
Wonderful insights, caww. Thank you!
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