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Afghanistan Animal Kingdom anonymous source AOL Barry Blitt Britain Century Club Citizens United Council on Jobs and Competitiveness Dallas Mavericks David Michôd DIrk Nowitzki Etta James GE Golden Globes highbrow Hilary Putnam Jacki Weaver James Frecheville Jeffrey Immelt Joseph Keppler journalism Luke Ford media Michael Barbaro middlebrow News Corp. News of the World Obama obituary Occupy Wall Street pragmatism Puck magazine racial Rick Carlisle Robert S. Halper Rupert Murdoch Schadenfreude Steve Case Tea Party The New Yorker Time Warner troop withdrawal William Logan World War II
Author Archives: Robert Asahina
The mind of a strategist
Announcing his plans to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan this year, President Obama declared, “We are starting this drawdown from a position of strength. Al Qaeda is under more pressure than at any time since 9/11.”
Posted in Politica, Rhetorica
Tagged Afghanistan, Dallas Mavericks, DIrk Nowitzki, Obama, Rick Carlisle, troop withdrawal
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Obama’s risible dance with corporate America
President Obama’s new pick for his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness — Steve Case — is even more ridiculous, and less qualified, than his previous selection, the hapless Jeffrey Immelt, the inadvertent downsizer of GE.
Posted in Politica
Tagged AOL, Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, GE, Jeffrey Immelt, Obama, Steve Case, Time Warner
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Saying the unsayable, again
The “Dirty Harry of the poetry beat” continues his “blood sport.”
Posted in Rhetorica
Tagged highbrow, middlebrow, The New Yorker, William Logan
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Who won World War II?
In a Wall Street Journal review (February 3, 2011) of Between War and Peace, a collection of historical essays on “How America Ends Its Wars,” Richard Hart Sinnreich argues against the view “that military victory solves nothing”:
Posted in Politica
Tagged Belarus, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Fascist Italy, France, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George S. Patton, Holland, Hossbach memorandum, Hungary, Imperial Japan, Joseph Stalin, Lebensraum, Nazi Germany, Poland, Richard Hart Sinnreich, Ukraine, WInston Churchill, World War II
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The sourcing charade (continued)
Some newspapers and media commentators belatedly addressed the shortcomings of anonymous sourcing several years ago. But the practice had been all too common for decades before then, and it continues today as if it had never been called into question.
Posted in Politica, Rhetorica
Tagged anonymous source, David D. Kirkpatrick, Helene Cooper, Leila Fadel, Mark Landler, Will Englund
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‘Blogs are not important now’
Technological triumphalists beware: After hearing about the transformative power of blogging for the past 15 years, of social media for the past five years, and of WikiLeaks for the past year, we now have evidence of how easily the disruptive … Continue reading
Posted in Politica, Rhetorica
Tagged blogging, Internet, Matt Richtel, Mohammed el-Nawawy, Queens University of Charlotte
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Immelt and Isiah
President Obama’s decision to appoint Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman and chief executive officer of GE, as chairman of the new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness will remind long-suffering Knicks fans of James Dolan’s choice, seven years ago, of Isiah Thomas … Continue reading
Posted in Politica
Tagged CFL, Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, Dow Index, GE, Isiah Thomas, Jack Welch, James Dolan, Jeffrey Immelt, Winchester
1 Comment
The fate of philosophy: from Thales to texting
In Theaetetus (174A) Socrates tells the story of “the Thracian maidservant who exercised her wit at the expense of Thales, when he was looking up to study the stars and tumbled down a well. She scoffed at him for being … Continue reading
Posted in de Caelo
Tagged F.M. Cornford, Plato, Socrates, texting, Thales, Theaetetus
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