Swaggering to Nowhere (from SALON)

[Crankie Avalon]

Swaggering to nowhere
As the Mideast burns and North Korea threatens, the once-boastful president has no policy and is reduced to pathetic bleats.

By Sidney Blumenthal



July 13, 2006 | President Bush was against diplomacy before he was for it. But with the collapse of U.S. foreign policy across the board, he has discarded talk of preemptive strikes and reluctantly claimed to have become a born-again realist. "And it's, kind of -- you know, it's kind of painful in a way for some to watch, because it takes a while to get people on the same page," he said at his July 7 press conference, adding, in an astonished tone, "Not everybody thinks the exact same way we think. Different words mean different things to different people."

Just two years ago, he appeared before the Republican Convention boasting of his "swagger, which in Texas is called walking." But in the face of the consequences of his failures, he has not adopted a new doctrine so much as swaggered into a corner. The cowboy's White House has become Fort Apache.

His policy is paralyzed toward North Korea, reduced to kowtowing to China in the forlorn hope it would implore the hermit kingdom to forswear developing nuclear weapons and firing test missiles. The Chinese, however, have declared they will veto any U.S.-initiated sanctions in the United Nations Security Council.

When Bush was president-elect, Bill Clinton's national security team informed him that a treaty with North Korea was essentially wrapped up. Incoming Secretary of State Colin Powell was enthusiastic. As president, Bush not only cut off diplomacy but also humiliated Powell and then South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung for seeking to continue the process associated with Clinton...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/07/13/bush_foreign_policy/

I found this part really amazing, "In January 2003, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, Bush met with three prominent Iraqi dissidents, who, in discussing scenarios of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, 'talked about Sunnis and Shiites. It became apparent to them that the president was unfamiliar with these terms.'"

He didn't even know about Sunnis and Shiites? Even after two years of being "president"???

[Warpy]

1. People who believe live in a dream world, and no amount

of factual information to the contrary will penetrate that world.

They try to keep themselves as ignorant as possible to maintain that world, and they'd like to keep you ignorant, too, to avoid challenges to it.

It takes a huge personal or national crisis to shake people out of their carefully constructed bubbles bounded by nonsensical beliefs and wishful thinking.

It took Europe two world wars with a depression between them to shake this stuff off.

It will likely take us the same. Forget about reaching the dreamers. They are unreachable. Even now, Stupid denies that the factions he didn't know existed are fighting each other even more viciously than they're fighting the US. Everything is proceeding according to plan, and the country is being rebuilt and will be a shining beacon of democracy in the region.

Just listen to his speeches. Read them if you can't stomach that fake Texas whine. He's drifting along, secure in the fantasy. So are his followers.

[npincus]

2. The Micropenis Poster Boy.

http://mens-health.health-cares.net/micropenis.php

Micropenis is a medical condition in which a man has an unusually small penis. Micropenis is defined statistically as a penis at least 2.5 standard deviations smaller than the mean penis length. Assuming a normal distribution of penis length, according to this definition 0.6% of men are born with micropenis. The condition is usually diagnosed shortly after birth. For newborn boys, micropenis is diagnosed when the stretched flaccid penis measures less than 1.9 cm from base to tip. Micropenis does not indicate any deficiency in the function of the male reproductive system, merely that the penis is small but otherwise functional.
Micropenis can occur alone, but usually occurs in combination with other disorders. Hormone disorders that cause an abnormal level of hormones which are involved in development of the sexual organs may be seen in combination with micropenis. This can involve the pituitary gland or the hypothalamus. While each child may experience symptoms differently, the most common finding with micropenis is an infant penis size that is less than 1.9 centimeters when stretched gently. In some cases, low sperm count, resulting in infertility or decreased fertility, is found in adulthood. Micropenis may or may not be seen in conjunction with other disorders. Always consult your child's physician for a diagnosis. Micropenis can have numerous causes and may indicate Klinefelter syndrome, but more commonly it simply indicates that either the mother or developing male fetus failed to produce, or the male fetus failed to respond to, one or more androgens normally produced during pregnancy. Accordingly, micropenis can often be treated with injections of various hormones, such as human chorionic gonadotropin or testosterone.

Diagnosis is usually made by physical examination. Your child may then be referred to several specialists including a pediatric urologist (a physician who specializes in the in disorders and care of the urinary tract and the male genital tract) and a pediatric endocrinologist (a physician who specializes in hormones). Treatment of micropenis when hormone injections fail to stimulate penile growth has been a controversial issue. In the past, doctors frequently recommended and performed sexual reassignment surgery, and the child would then be raised as a girl. However, in many cases the patients of such surgeries have rejected their female gender identity after puberty, and surveys have indicated that even those who have retained their female identity are not significantly happier with their female-ness than those who have remained outwardly male are with their male-ness. As a result, sexual reassignment is rarely performed today in response to persistent micropenis.

[npincus]

3. Peter Galbraith was on AAR and told this story

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743294238/sr=8-1/qid=1152800716/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3767826-0385505?ie=UTF8

his new book sounds like a must-read.