One of my favorite jokes is a "shaggy dog story", in which the very long-winded setup concerns one man's quest for the meaning of life. When the quester finally confronts the omniscient guru, the guru replies, "Life — is but a toothpick." At this point of the joke, the quester becomes irate and recapitulates the entire setup, ending with, "And you have the audacity to tell me that 'Life is but a toothpick?!" To which the guru responds, "Alright already; so it's not a toothpick."
Most of us would agree that, indeed, life is not a toothpick. Less well understood, however, is that life is also not a pair of loose-fitting sweatpants. In life, very few situations can be addressed with a "one size fits all" strategy.
In particular, the extremely complex, and constantly changing, multi-national interactions between the United States (and its interests) vis-à-vis virtually all the other nations of the world, requires a very large number of dedicated career diplomats and policy theorists (and pragmatists) in a well coordinated State Department. Moreover, the Secretary of State, as practically all the other Cabinet Secretaries, needs to have a lot on the ball, so to speak, so as to coordinate such a complex network of foreign policy efforts. This is why the POTUS has, from the very beginning (when Washington, himself not too shabby a statesman, relied heavily on Jefferson) required a very sharp deputy at the State Department.
President Obama is a community organizer extraordinaire. That in itself is very meager credentials for shaping the foreign policy of the world's only surviving superpower. His politically motivated appointment of Senator Clinton, whose foreign policy expertise comprises little more than some fantasy interactions with terrorists on a few photo-ops in a few foreign countries, does not make for a crackerjack team at State either.
So what does The Obama do? He short-circuits the entire Department of State and appoints some crony from His thuggish entourage, most (if not all) of whom have been extracted from the Chicago political machine, as his foreign policy czar. This someone, whose identity escapes me, works well with The Obama's White House Thug-of-Staff, the inimitable foul-mouthed brazen SOB Rahm-it-up-your-ass Emanuel.
Hope for change, before some schmuck presses the wrong button.
Post #917 Life Is Not a Pair of Loose-fitting Sweatpants
Most of us would agree that, indeed, life is not a toothpick. Less well understood, however, is that life is also not a pair of loose-fitting sweatpants. In life, very few situations can be addressed with a "one size fits all" strategy.
In particular, the extremely complex, and constantly changing, multi-national interactions between the United States (and its interests) vis-à-vis virtually all the other nations of the world, requires a very large number of dedicated career diplomats and policy theorists (and pragmatists) in a well coordinated State Department. Moreover, the Secretary of State, as practically all the other Cabinet Secretaries, needs to have a lot on the ball, so to speak, so as to coordinate such a complex network of foreign policy efforts. This is why the POTUS has, from the very beginning (when Washington, himself not too shabby a statesman, relied heavily on Jefferson) required a very sharp deputy at the State Department.
President Obama is a community organizer extraordinaire. That in itself is very meager credentials for shaping the foreign policy of the world's only surviving superpower. His politically motivated appointment of Senator Clinton, whose foreign policy expertise comprises little more than some fantasy interactions with terrorists on a few photo-ops in a few foreign countries, does not make for a crackerjack team at State either.
So what does The Obama do? He short-circuits the entire Department of State and appoints some crony from His thuggish entourage, most (if not all) of whom have been extracted from the Chicago political machine, as his foreign policy czar. This someone, whose identity escapes me, works well with The Obama's White House Thug-of-Staff, the inimitable foul-mouthed brazen SOB Rahm-it-up-your-ass Emanuel.
Hope for change, before some schmuck presses the wrong button.
Post #917 Life Is Not a Pair of Loose-fitting Sweatpants
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