Archive for 2009
December 9, 2009
“SMART DIPLOMACY:” Obama snubs King.
A day before President Obama receives his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, the president’s treatment of his Norwegian hosts has become hot news across Scandinavia.
News outlets across the region are calling Obama arrogant for slashing some of the prize winners’ traditional duties from his schedule. “Everybody wants to visit the Peace Center except Obama,” sniped the Norwegian daily Aftenposten, amid reports the president would snub his own exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center. “A bit arrogant—a bit bad,” proclaimed another Aftenposten headline.
“It’s very sad,” said Nobel Peace Center Director Bente Erichsen of the news that Obama would skip the peace center exhibit. Prize winners traditionally open the exhibitions about their work that accompany the Nobel festivities. “I totally understand why the Norwegian public is upset. If I could get a few minutes with the president, I’d say, ‘To walk through the exhibition wouldn’t take long, and I’m sure you would love the show. You have no idea what you are missing.’”
Meanwhile, the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet is reporting that the president has declined an invitation to lunch with King Harald V, an event every prize winner from the Dalai Lama to Al Gore has attended. (The newspaper’s headline: “Obama disses lunch with King Harald.”)
To be fair, though, Obama’s just in town to pick up his prize, and the King probably doesn’t have enough accomplishments on his record yet to merit lunch with Obama. But here’s the best point:
The American president is acting like an elephant in a porcelain shop,” said Norwegian public-relations expert Rune Morck-Wergeland. “In Norwegian culture, it’s very important to keep an agreement. We’re religious about that, and Obama’s actions have been clumsy. You just don’t say no to an invitation from a European king. Maybe Obama’s advisers are not very educated about European culture, but he is coming off as rude, even if he doesn’t mean to.”
Stupid cowboy.
I BLAME AL GORE: ABC News: Storm Dumps Snow on Midwest, Bitter Cold to Follow.
FLEXING HIS MAZEL: Paul Mazursky On Overcoming Jewish Stereotypes In Hollywood.
“HE’S LIKE the whitest black boy you’ve ever met.”
ON DECEMBER 15TH, a Code Red Rally at the U.S. Capitol. And I think people are organizing them in quite a few states, too.
RAND SIMBERG REPORTS FROM THE VIRGIN GALACTIC ROLLOUT: Virgin Galactic’s Unveil Is Tip of the Iceberg for Private Spaceflight.
SPIRALING LIGHT OVER NORWAY: Obviously, Barack Obama will ascend to Heaven after receiving his Peace Prize. Signs and Portents!
CORRECTING EUGENE ROBINSON: “Barbie is very pretty and glossy and made-up, but in a daytime, cheerleadery way. The Tiger women are all made-up for nighttime, indoor work, and they are not all that pretty. Tiger’s wife is the Barbie. Tiger’s women to cheat on Elin with are all getting away from Barbie/Elin. It strikes me as a touchingly ordinary search for sex that feels dirty.”
UPDATE: Related: “There are many, many, many doors that many, many, many people would prefer stay tightly closed for now.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Events without Tiger see TV ratings slump 50 pct. A lot of people are going to be trying to stuff this genie back into the bottle.
MORE: Maybe Tiger just needs to write that his affair saved his marriage. If he can just find a therapist to tell Elin that it’s all her fault. . . .
IS THE U.S. NOW EXPORTING TERROR? Pakistan: Five Americans Arrested In Raid. Well, turnabout is fair play, I suppose . . . .
RANDY BARNETT SAYS a health-insurance mandate is unconstitutional.
FREE-MARKET COMPETITION 1, GOVERNMENT 0: Fast-food standards for meat top those for school lunches. “In the past three years, the government has provided the nation’s schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that wouldn’t meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants, from Jack in the Box and other burger places to chicken chains such as KFC, a USA TODAY investigation found.”
But don’t worry, they’ll do a bangup job on healthcare.
UPDATE: Steve Postrel writes: “The government could immediately surpass the fast food companies’ standards with two little words: food irradiation. The tech is decades old, thoroughly tested and proven safe, and they even use it in progressive Scandanavia! Surely the genius technocratic Vulcans in the Obama administration can mobilize their superior understanding of science and public policy to execute this no-brainer.” Yeah, because with these guys, it’s all about the science.
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE is out on DVD and Blu-Ray. Also out, “ultimate editions” of the first two movies.
NO CORRUPTION HERE: Hillary Pollster Mark Penn Got $6 Million From Stimulus.
CLIMATEGATE and the Hamster Effect.
THE CHRISTMAS TRUCK: One Dream, 3000 Lights.
But there’s a downside: “If you’re picking up your girlfriend in the Christmas truck and she’s not expecting the Christmas Truck that can be a dealbreaker.”
WELL, I DON’T THINK IT EXPLAINS BERNIE MADOFF: Hanna Rosin: Did Christianity Cause The Crash? Or Lehman Brothers . . . .
UPDATE: Reader David Bell writes: “This headline should be on Scrappleface, not the Atlantic Monthly’s cover.” My favorite part is the ending, where we’re presented Barack Obama and Bill Clinton as proper objects of faith and adoration.
ARBITRAGE: Airmile hackers use mileage credit-cards to buy $1 coins that they use to pay the CC bills. “Airmile hackers figured out that they could buy dollar coins (free shipping!) from the US Mint, using credit cards that gave them airmiles for purchases. Then they took the dollar coins straight to the bank and deposited them, paying off the credit card bills before any interest was incurred. The only cost was gas for the bank-runs.” Never underestimate humans’ ability to game the system . . . .