It’s a measure of how badly the “peace process” has warped Israel’s language of values that the most intelligent response to Friday’s torching of a mosque near Nablus, allegedly by extremist settlers, came from the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Its secretary general, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, correctly identified the crime as “blatant aggression against the sanctity of sacred places.”
That’s more than Israeli politicians seemed capable of doing. Defense Minister and Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak, for instance, sounded as if the real crime were the potential damage to the peace process. “This is an extremist act geared toward harming the government’s efforts to advance the political process,” he declared. Similarly, opposition leader and Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni condemned it as a “despicable act of provocation” — as if the crime were the response it might provoke.
If the perpetrators were settlers, they probably did intend to undermine the peace process by provoking a violent Palestinian response. But that’s not what made their act criminal. The crime isn’t the impact on the peace process; it’s the wanton destruction of a house of worship.
This perversion of language began when Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres deemed the suicide bombings that followed the 1993 Oslo Accord “crimes against the peace process” and the victims, “sacrifices for peace.” For them, this was a political necessity: If Oslo were seen as producing more anti-Israel terror rather than less, Israelis would turn against Oslo — and its sponsors. Hence they had to paint the attacks not as the same old anti-Israel terror, but as a new form of terror, aimed equally at Israel and its Palestinian partner — i.e., at the peace process itself.
This recasting of the crime led inevitably to the next perversion: the frequent labeling of settlers by leftist politicians and journalists as Israel’s equivalent of Hamas. If Hamas’s crime is mass murder, this comparison is clearly false: Blowing up buses and cafes is not a standard practice of settlers. But if the real crime is opposition to the “peace process,” the comparison becomes plausible: Settlers were trying to stop Oslo. The only difference was their choice of tactics: demonstrations and lobbying rather than violence.
And that is precisely what makes this new language, and the value system it embodies, so warped. If the crime is what you oppose rather than how you choose to oppose it, there is no difference between a peaceful protest and blowing up a bus. So why shouldn’t settler extremists torch a mosque, if they deem that a more effective means of “harming … the political process”? Their very opposition to the process makes them criminals regardless of what tactics they use.
Clearly, most Israelis think no such thing. But language does shape thought. So if they don’t want to raise a generation that indeed sees no difference between peaceful and violent tactics, Israelis need to realign their language with their values. That starts with saying clearly that the crime is torching the mosque — not its impact on the peace process.
Interesting analysis of Barack’s ordering of Orange Juice for breakfast. I have also seen him eating arrugala during one of his lunchtime meals.
I should note that John McCain regularly orders prune juice when he goes in for breakfast. What does this represent to him?
I love you Commentary folk, but Abe, this post about Obama’s beverage choice , and JohnPod’s about a grammatical slip are psycho babble stretches beyond the ridiculous.
Is Barack a man or a fem?
What Chris Matthews was referring to was that there were 15 people in the diner, all drinking coffee, and Obama was the only person there who only ordered Orange Juice. I guess he wasn’t just “one of the guys”.
I notice that Obama doesn’t smile much anymore . .. this is wearing him down. And his wife, was positively scowling on Today Show this morning.
I have to agree with Paul here. You guys are just running out of things to say. And heaven help us, there are still 6 months to go before the election.
And by the way, I’m older than Barack Obama, and I prefer juice to coffee. You know, some people just don’t like coffee.
This is also weak.
I’m no fan of Obama, but drinking orange juice in lieu of coffee is perfectly reasonable – sensible even.
Orange juice will provide steady energy throughout the entire day. Coffee, however, will cause a crash an hour later.
This is ridiculous. Choosing not to drink coffee doesn’t mean you’re childish.
Here’s an alternative explanation: Obama takes care of his health. Coffee is not good for you. Orange juice is. Ergo, no coffee. One could blame Obama’s arugula-chomping and good physical condition on the same tendency.
I don’t think Obama’s abstaning from coffee says anything about the man’s childishness–or lack thereof.
The coffee vs. juice analogy is weak, Abe. I’m a conservative with no love for Obama, but to say his choice of orange juice is a sign of arrested development? Please. Maybe coffee gives him heartburn or maybe -gasp!- he just wanted orange juice.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Agreed. This is getting silly. Sometimes a glass of orange juice is just a glass of orange juice. I’m 51 and I love the stuff. Plus I’ve recently cut back on coffee.
This is as bad as the earlier piece about Obama making a grammatical slipup. For pete’s sake, who cares? Everybody does it. Why read anything into it? Because it gives you another stick with which to beat Obama.
I’m a McCain supporter and even I think this is ridiculous.
This is hilariously bad. Not every grownup drinks coffee all the time. Coffee impairs sleep; releases endirphines that have temporary effect and then wear off causing minor depression; unnaturally enhances the stress system; and is highly addictive. Orange juice hydrates and provides vital Vitamin C.
Hey…come to think of it, Mormons don’t drink coffee either. So is Mitt Romney childish?
Sheesh.
The point isn’t the juice. I’m not terribly concerned about the juice. The piece linked even points out the silliness of the juice. The point is, Chris Matthews held the juice up as a sign of elitism and expounded from there, while I think it’s symbolically in keeping with what’s becoming a bigger Obama problem–his immaturity. However, if the post isn’t clear than I accept complete responsibility and shall renounce the juice in no uncertain terms. I renounce and reject the juice.
While I generally think it’s much ado about not much Dellis, when you’re sitting with a group all drinking coffee, it does seem somewhat aloof to buck the trend — especially when you want their vote.
I’m not so sure coffee is so bad for you either, I’ve been drinking 40 ounces a morning for decades, maybe it’s the 32 ounces of grapefruit juice I drink with it that keeps me alive?
I don’t really care about the coffee thing, but Obama’s focus on “fairness” and global popularity is indeed, as Abe points out, a pattern of adolescence. As is trash-mouthing Grandma when in a tight corner, and whining and tap-dancing when one is caught hanging out in dubious company.
It continues to amaze me that someone who has never taken any harder knocks, or more responsibility, than Obama has can be making a 6-7 figure income, represent Illinois (well, OK, Illinois…) in the Senate, and be running for president.
Obama seems to me like a hothouse flower made possible by the colossal, ridiculous wealth of our entire society. Or like the lilies of the field, who toil not, neither do they spin… but Solomon in his glory was not arrayed like Barack Obama.
It’s better than it was in the 1830s when a private citizen who walked into some bars and wouldn’t drink risked getting himself roasted — literally.
That said, what kind of dimwit politician strolls into a diner and doesn’t accept a free cup-o-joe?
What’s alarming is that none of the comments so far has managed to get past the orange juice, which was mainly a device (what writers call the “hook”) to draw the reader’s interest.
As Greenwald points out:
– Falling in with bad company and making a mess of getting out: childish
– Getting rattled when things don’t go smoothly: childish
– Raising the capital-gains tax, regardless of the actual revenue effect, for “fairness”: childish
– Wanting the rest of the world to like the U.S., really like us, apparently at any cost: childish
Then again, there hasn’t been an adult in the White House since 1988.
Here’s another take:
Maybe OB is used to have a cigarette with his coffee.
Or maybe he might just lose his cool if he got overstimulated.
Ellis: Using a palm buzzer is adult?
Okay,my mistake: SINCE 1988.
And if the “messiah” had ordered water what would the cat entrails have shown.
Maybe he already had several cups of coffee within the previous 24 hours and decided to take a break from it before his heart exploded. Greenwald should think more before writing.
OBAMA is not ready for prime time. his advisors are anti israel.
defeatism will only carry you so far.
Seriously? Orange juice? Seriously?
Bush-league blogging.
Wow, the issue that is on every American’s mind, “why is Obama not drinking coffee”? Your brains are in your butt, you two-bit loser hack. Go call your mom and tell her she likes you
I hope this piece was tongue in cheek. Who care what the man drinks. Really! Write about something relavent. Or better yet nothing at all if you don’t have anything to say. Why waste the electrons. Jeesh!
I’m 5’9″, 210 pounds of solid muscle. I can probably break Abe Greenwald in half in about 30 seconds. I don’t drink coffee though – I drink tea. Does this make me less of a man than Abe Greenwald?
This is about the dumbest column I’ve ever read….
“I realized what the diner incident was: it was childish.”
No my friend, this article is childish — shallow and immature in thought. One of the most pathetic “reaches” I have ever read.
Amazing that you have readers when you insult their intelligence with tripe like this. Sometimes I read this stuff and do a double take thinking, this HAS to be a joke. But it’s not is it? You are really hoping the American people are this dumb and will continue to sleep as the country slowly fades away
I won’t cover the juice vs. coffee thing, Abe, since pretty much every commenter above me has already pointed out its inanity.
As far as the issues go, though, I guess you’re right – your straw-man distortions of Obama’s positions do make him sound pretty childish. Of course, they don’t have much to do with Obama’s actual positions, so it’s a bit hard to see what your point is, son.
Are you kidding me?!? The tagline does read May 1st and not April 1st, right? There must be a camera watching me right now to see my reaction to this column. Our political discourse is insane. We’re going to get a McCain presidency and the disaster resulting therefrom and it’ll be our elite press’ fault.
Is this The Onion, or Commentary Magazine? If someone told me this was satire, I would easily believe it.
So, so, so ridiculous. My Bush-supporting, Texan father doesn’t drink coffee. Know what he drinks on his way out the door in the mornings? A smoothie.
That hippy.
I never read your columns, and now I know why. (I saw a link to it from Andrew Sullivan’s blog The Daily Dish.) You get paid for this? How pathetic. Members of my family and circle of freiends make all kinds of different choices for beverages, from coffee to black tea to herb tea to OJ. What will you focus on next, Dr. PseudoFreud, whether John McCain uses butter or margarine? I agree with the commenter who says this is about the dumbest column I’ve ever read.
Thank God someone finally had the courage to raise this issue.
Wow! I just read the last couple of paragraphs and this Abe guy is a real genius!!
Fairness is childish?!? Are you kidding me? Gee, I guess the Bill of Rights must be childish.
And Obama wants to talk to “bad” guys because he wants them to like us? Who’s the childish one now. Have you ever heard of soft power Abe. I guess two-inch limp dicks like you only understand foreign policy if it’s our military blowing things up. Foreign policy is, like “hard work”, as W would say. Your caricature of an intelligent and nuanced position is truly intellectually immature.
You go, Ian. One more time, for a little balance: Abe is 100% right about the adolescent tendency of Obama’s habits of thought.
If you drink OJ, the terrorists have won. Nice reporting, Abe!!!
This is possibly the most inane thing ever written.
C’mon, people, how obtuse can you be? The entire post was satire on the current state of political discourse. There were at least half-a-dozen dead giveaways scattered throughout, and even more in Mr. Greenwald’s comments. Try to keep up!
This sort of stuff proves a thesis I have had for years. That neocons and their Straussian forebears are not the anti-thesis of absurd Central European thought (i.e. facism and communism) as they like to claim. But rather, they are absurd Central European thought’s last dog in the fight.
I just have to say that it’s entirely possible that, (1) as Keldefin #21 wrote, BO may have already drunk his quota of coffee that day, or, (2) he regularly chooses OJ over coffee because it’s better for you in about 5 different ways than coffee, or (3) — and this would be my answer — he simply prefers to feel relaxed and refreshed rather than agitated and dehydrated.
It’s the *real adults* who are not afraid to be iconoclastic in their choice of food and drink!
And as for the criticism about BO’s reasoning for revising the capital gains tax, those who protest too much must have a lot to lose! Since when did fairness become a virtue confined to the schoolyard?
Maybe he’s Mormon…
He ain’t healthy – he SMOKES!
He did quit smoking you know. I’d refuse coffee too.
Great points, Abe. Talking about fairness is utterly infantile. No mature adult would think of fairness as a constraint on policy choices.
Except for John Rawls, and every political theorist since him, including grown-up conservatives and libertarians who took the theory of justice as fairness seriously despite disagreeing with it.
Also, orange juice. Also, the idea that neoconservatism isn’t the most breathtakingly paternalistic approach to foreign affairs in American history. Also, the idea that John McCain isn’t a thoroughgoing paternalistic on domestic issues.
Do any Commentary writers actually read what they write? How have they not all been cowed into an embarrassed silence?
Unbelievable. Is this really what we are talking about here. Are we so bereft of intelligence and depth that we have to resort to this kind of infantile criticism? Is there nothing else to talk about? War? Energy? Health Care? Environment? I guess those issues are just too boring. No, let’s razz Obama for his choice of beverage, cuz he is sooooooooo uncool. He doesn’t drink what all the rest of us drink. What a loser.
This reminds me of grade school. “Barrack is a sissy…He likes orange juice.” I actually remember someone saying something like this to me in second grade.
Abe, you need to take your own advice. Grow up.
Is this a spoof article? I saw a link to it and thought I was reading the Onion. PLEASE say I am reading the Onion right now.
You are insane. No two ways about it. Orange juice over coffee? These are the issues that make news in the pages of Commentary? Get real.
Coffee? Juice? Pussies. I want to know why the media isn’t covering the real story — why Obama isn’t drinking bourbon.
How DARE B Hussein Obama submit to the evil Orange Juice agenda. Does he not know that oranges are grown by terrorists in Afghanistan, and cultivate in California and Florida by ILLEGAL MEXICANS!!! Only gays and atheists drink Orange Juice, so which one are you Barack?? I also heard that he is a MUSLIM!!!! Barack Hussein wants to increase taxes on red-blooded patriotic Americans in order to subsidize Orange Juice costs for the do-nothing poor people. And blacks, too! How dare he. He is a corporate slave to big OJ, and should be tried and hung for treason against the United States of America!!
This is absolutely ridiculous. I personally hate coffee. That does not make me a little kid. It just means I don’t like coffee. Also, I know plenty of people who like coffee who also know that orange juice is a good option once in awhile. What, Obama’s supposed to be wired all the time?
This definitely takes the cake for the stupidest thing I have read all year. Congratulations. You should be proud.
You’re an idiot.
I think the article is completely childish. Abe is a child. Support Florida — drink more O.J.
Or maybe B Hussein was sending a coded message to his peeps in the hood that he thinks OJ is innocent.
So, this is what intellectual bankruptcy looks like?
Take a long look in the mirror. This site and its supporters are as guilty as any for the current American decline. You’ve run the country into the ground, and now you’re discussing orange juice as signifier.
You should feel shame, but it’s clear you haven’t sufficient insight to recognize your own culpability. History will judge you fairly and harshly. The shame of this time will be upon your heads.
Wow. Conservatives are really reaching. I suppose discussing Obama’s beverage choices and using it as “proof” that he isn’t grownup is one way to avoid talking about the unpopular Iraq war. Way to focus on the really big issues Abe! Maureen Dowd would be so proud of this “article”.
good grief!
Dear Sir,
Congratulations. I have never read this website, or you, previous to this particular article. In fact, I never even knew of its existence, until this mind-blowingly stupid article literally sucked me in from across the internet into this forum.
The fact that your lack of any actual political insight, analytical skills that would shame a gorilla and simple, good-old-fashioned stupidity was enough to bring me and others like me here when we otherwise would never have showed up should make your chest swell with pride, good sir.
I am certain that your insight into Obama’s choice of orange juice over coffee has not only generated valuable traffic for this august site, but has also advanced the overall progress of humanity about twenty years. Years from now, when this election is well in the history books, scholars and great minds of the day will say, “Obama was cruising along…UNTIL, ABE GREENWALD, BRINGER OF NUMBSKULLERY, laid him low by exposing his choice of morning beverages!”
Excelsior to you, sir. You have elevated the political discourse in this nation immeasurably. I salute your unswerving dedicaion to pointless, asinine commentary. May your name be writ large upon the heavens themselves, perhaps in the form of a constellation known forevermore as. “The Great Mongoloid.”
Sincerely,
Cagey B
I initially thought this coffee/orange juice analysis was satire. And when I thought that, it was funny. Then I realized you were serious. You need a new hobby. Something really time consuming.
You are a terrible person, Abe. I wish the worst upon you.
Wasn’t it Hegel who said “In America, the drinking of orange juice reflects the callowness of an unripe civilization”?
Actually, I just made that up.
Maybe he’d just had a cup of coffee before. Who knows. Many people don’t drink coffee and are still considered adults.
Talk about interpreting things to fit a pre-existing media narrative. Ugh.
to all this new commenters going after dear Abe.
Guys, Abe is a neoconservative, the only language he understands is the language of the bombing of Iran.
So be nice to him when he talks about coffee/juice habits of any other sane not stuck on the muslim/arab blood issues…
Coffee-drinking is a sign of maturity? I guess, at the ripe old age of 48, I should still be in diapers then. I always prefer juice to coffee, simply because it tastes better and it’s far healthier. I guess you’d also consider Obama a wimp because he gave up those “macho” cigarettes.
Lately I’ve started to suspect that the children are taking over the writing tasks at Commentary. When will we start seeing real issues discussed again?
Pathetic, Abe. Given his heart problems, how much coffee to you think McCain drinks? And if it is a lot, what does that say about *his* judgment? What’s next? Over easy vs. scrambled? If it’s poached, so is any hint of connection with the common man!
I think someone else around here needs to grow up.
I can’t believe I just wasted two minutes reading this breathtakingly stupid drivel.
You’re trying to pick a fight over what he drank on one occasion, and Obama’s childish?
I hope this is deliberate self-parody.
But Muslims don’t drink coffee.
No, wait, that’s Mormons.
!!! Is Obama a Mormon?
Great reasoning… this was allowed to be posted?
Adults scrutinizing the beverage choice of Presidental candidate.
You’re a bunch of Goddamned idiots.
Thank God he didn’t ask for hot tea.
so if obama orders coffe, he’s a “latte drinking” liberal but if he opts for orange juice he’s childish. i can’t wait till this is all over. . .
Really? This is what passes for a well-reasoned editorial? Abe must not be a coffee drinker. That’s the only way any of this makes sense.
This article is a roundabout way of calling Obama a “boy”. I’ll give you points on creativity, but this is just ridiculous. There is nothing childish about Obama, the only thing is childish is this article and people’s insistence on finding any little thing they can to trash him.
Due to an ulcer, I’ve had to give up coffee and now drink the queen’s tea. (I’m an elitist.) Sometimes I substitute for dilute orange juice (Arrested development wan style.)
Due to irregularity, I’ve had to bulk up my diet with leafy greens, sometimes arugala. (Out of touch)
Irregularity also drives me to prune juice (I guess I’m full of it.)
This analysis reminds me of the fiber I take: no nutrtional value but lots of bulk to get the crap pushed through.
This is the most retarded article I ever sat through to read about politics. You should join FOX. Thanks for wasting my life on this garbage.
SC
This is a stupid, stupid column.
God you are a vacuous twit. Apparently the issues of America are to be avoided at all cost.
You’re insulting our intelligence with this pseudo-psychological crap and you have the temerity to call Obama childish? Do you really believe you’re offering “adult”-level analysis here of the important issues in this election? You’re a waste of time.
Worst.Column.Ever.
It takes the idiocy of distraction in this election to an absurd level. This is something I would excpect to see written as satire, not as commentary.
How did you get this job? This is the dumbest thing I have read this election cycle and that’s saying something. A man in a stressful job who shakes thousands of hands a week (therefore exposing himself to a variety of germs) drinks orange juice to take care of his health and you think that makes him immature?
Please. Retire. Stop writing. you’re just embarrassing yourself.
Lame.
Is that the best reason you’ve got to be against him.
This really helps to raise the level of discourse in our nation. Coffee and Freedom Fries for everybody right?!?!?!?
I’d like to say that this is the stupidest article I’ve ever read, but unfortunately it’s not even in the top 20.
Way to focus on the issues, Troll
What a dumb column. Not all of us like or drink coffee. Oh boo hoo, I’m not a real man then.
You sat around and pondered his beverage decision and how that made you feel? I feel the bar set for professional journalism is getting closer and closer to the bar set for a paparazzi. I’m sure you feel you were “asking the hard questions” and “really getting to the truth of the matter”, but your symbolism is pathetic. Find a real reason for me to be concerned or alerted to the illusion of Obama, and I will listen. But if the people I depend on for information continue to waste my time on ridiculous drama, I will stop listening altogether.
I am now less intelligent for having read this article.
If this is the best you can muster, then please stop writing. Step away from the computer and apply for a job worthy of your analytical acumen. Rounding up the shopping carts in a supermarket parking lot comes to mind.
Hey, Abe — you’ve obviously struck a nerve. You’ve got to be laughing your head off. I myself, however, am awestruck by the incredible maturity and intelligence of the comments flooding your “dumbest/stupidest ever” piece. Talk about the Mother of all QEDs.
As for the commenter who says that Greenwald’s post is “satire” – yeah, buddy….Commentary Magazine is really known for its witty repartee and blistering satire. Right?
WRONG….
This just in: Obama tries to bring out the black vote with support for OJ! More at 11.
Now, I didn’t technically read the article, as it would likely have caused my heart to explode like a dozen cups of coffee, but the stupid radiated all across the internet and drew me here so obviously it’s pretty vile. Could this have been written in an attempt to divert money from orange juice, a crop grown in America, to coffee, which is imported from Colombia? Why does Abe Greenwald hate America so much? Wait, isn’t Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff full of people supporting trade deals with Colombia? Isn’t that a bit larger of an issue considering she’s professed to be against it?
It’s not like it’s hard to find ACTUAL news to report. Lazy bastard.
Is this satire? I’m confused. It can’t possibly be sincere.
Mr. Greewald, what you’ve just posted is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent column were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this thread is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Wow…orange juice. Just another reason why the only Republican I would vote for this year is Ron Paul, the only one talking about issues. Meanwhile, the rest of the NeoCon tools talk about orange juice and “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran”. The Republican Party is broken, helpless, gutless and meaningless. Thanks Bush, Cheney, et al for ruining the Party and the country in only 7 years. Wake me when this is over.
Mr. Greenwald, you are an idiot. Further, you are what is wrong with this country. Rather than use your position to discuss actual issues that matter to the country, you present us with this festering pile of idiocy. Now go away and let the grown-ups talk.
Well hot diggety damn. I just FELT those brain cells fusing into a mass of hot molten wax. Whoo, that is some deep insight there. I’m sure that the Founding Fathers really loved that fairness crap – oh, right, 3/5 of a human, they didn’t! You are SO right, my god, everything I knew about the US is wrong. Thank you for helping me learn this. Wow. I am now your slave. Command me, and I am yours. Boot licking preferred.
Reasons to hate coffee: It tastes like crap, it stains your teeth, it makes you want to poop, it isn’t good for you, it makes your breath smell.
Reasons to hate Abe Greenwald: He is a tool.
Reasons for Republicans to vote for Obama: McCain is mentally unstable. The NeoCons have destroyed our party, the neocons have sent the country down a path of financial destruction, a McCain victory will mean four more years of a Democratic Congress, an Obama victory will mean a (hopeful) withdrawal from Iraq and a Republican Congress in two years.
Reasons to hate Abe Greenwald: He is still a tool.
You get paid to do this? So how does one happen into a job like this? Because clearly writing ability and insight aren’t high on the list of requirements.
No, no, this was an effort to reach out for the Anita Bryant vote.
I have to say…this is my first ever visit to this site, and after reading this post I can only conclude that you must be retarded. Or in kindergarten. Or both.
Stick to your guns, Barack! Coffee stinks like burning dirt, to me. Boo, rancid bean. Hooray, juice!
You people need to get a real job…Obama drinking OJ is now worth writing about? Please.
you have got to be kidding me. i could not even finish reading this article. blather.
My. Lord. This. Is. Retarded.
A friendly word to Republitards: Sooner or later, you will realize that most young americans (like me, sort of–i’m 28) find boomer-laden crap like above just too stupid to take seriously, and here is the fundamental reason: Despite their pretensions, the REPUBLICANS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY NONSERIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING.
Some examples: 1) Our international image and reputation. We have a problem with our international image, and therefore, with our legitmacy, and therefore, with our authority in matters both soft and hard. Maybe we don’t deserve this. Maybe we were right to go into Iraq. Maybe we are right even on how we are prosecuting the war on terror. I don’t think so, but maybe. But being right doesn’t mean that the problem is not a real problem. Contra your assertions above, part of being an ADULT is accepting that one has to deal with problems that one is not necessarily responsible for having caused. 2) Health Care. There is a problem. Many, many hard-working americans cannot afford decent health care. Labelling a serious attempt to deal with it–even if it has deep flaws–as ‘socialism’ and dumbly yelling ‘big government’ is not going to change this. No one I know thinks that the republicans are serious about doing anything about health care, rather than just opposing whatever the democrats propose. But health care is a problem. So no one I know will vote republitard. 3) The debt. We have huge debt, both private and public. Cutting taxes WILL NOT solve this problem. No one seriously thinks it will. Laffer econ is laughable, and everyone knows it. Raising taxes might not be the solution, either, for clearly it’s spending–whether financed by deficit spending or higher taxes–that is the problem. 4) Iran. Folding one’s arms and turning one’s back and loudly huffing ‘mullah mullah’ will NOT solve the Iran problem. Again, the republitards have no serious proposal for dealing with country. Maybe meeting with the government entails large risks, maybe beginning to cautiously normalize relations is a dangerous thing to attempt, but jeez, at least it’s SOMETHING.
Don’t mean to rant. Just don’t be surprised if no one under 30 votes for the republicans because we see them for the joke that they are.
Wow. What a tool. He wouldn’t drink coffee, how childish! Not every adult likes coffee. I have eaten breakfast with plenty of people who are quite a bit older than me, and a lot of them have ordered milk or juice rather than coffeee. If this is how you decide who you are voting for, please don’t vote. Like I said before: What a tool.
Actually I almost always have BOTH OJ AND Coffee for breakfast. I thought all normal people did. People who don’t drink OJ are just as childish who don’t drink coffee. Hell, I didn’t even like OJ when I was a kid (I drank milk).
Clearly you guys are missing it. OJ don’t have no electro-lights. You need your electro-lights! Plants need ‘em too. Anybody not drinking their electro-lights is a fag.
– Mike Judge is a prophet of the present.
Y’all get used to it. This is FAR from the stupidest thing that will be written about Obama before this thing is over. Anything to avoid writing about the ditch conservatives have driven this country in — but driven it in appropriately macho way, while drinking bourbon, shooting small animals, and scratching their balls.
As we all know, real men spend all their time thinking about how they can adopt meaningless signifiers to show other men how manly they are.
Dear Abe Greenwald:
I am one week away from 38 years old. I have never developed a taste for coffee and I do not drink it. I drink orange juice most mornings, and indeed my doctor encouraged me to drink more orange juice.
Do you understand just what it is you are doing when you insinuate that Obama, being a juice drinker, is somehow juvenile and suffering from ‘arrested development.’ Do you understand how many other people you are insulting when you say this. Please keep insulting me and millions of other people who drink orange juice instead of coffee. I dare you. I double dog dare you.
P.S. The orange juice industry would like to have a word with you.
My condolences for the shrill desperation you must be feeling to stoop to such levels of inanity.
My god. That was an avalanche of stupid. That was rock hard stupid. Dehydrated rock hard stupid. Stupid so dense, no intellect can escape. That was trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Perhaps this article was some primordial fragment of the original Big Bang of Stupid. I can’t even believe what I just read. May the inanity of this article follow you the rest of your days.
Profound and moving piece… please make your next piece on how Obama’s longing for the maternal glands led him to run for President.
Get a life!
Coffee? BLECH!! NEVER touch the stuff. I Agree w/ Obama. Give me juice every time!
Orange juice comes from Florida. Coffee comes from Columbia. Now, look who’s being unpatriotic?
You sir, are an idiot.
Talk about childish. This whole entry is childish. And what about Clinton and her “It’s my turn! Wah” attitude? I prefer orange juice over coffee myself. I had a 7th grade teacher whose breathe smelled like s*it because he drank a cup of coffee every morning before class. Who wants to smell like that?
Honestly, this is one of the most idiotic comments I’ve ever heard.
Plenty of reasons to vote against Obama. This isn’t one of them.
This is meant to be a parody of cable news, right? Please?
“My god. That was an avalanche of stupid. That was rock hard stupid. Dehydrated rock hard stupid. Stupid so dense, no intellect can escape. That was trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Perhaps this article was some primordial fragment of the original Big Bang of Stupid. I can’t even believe what I just read. May the inanity of this article follow you the rest of your days.”
Quotin this.
This has to be Satire.
really, this has to be?
right?
right??
cause if it’s not, you’re scarier than a clown left alone with the kids at a birthday party.
As the recently departed Norman Mailer was once heard to say :
“I haven’t had this much fun since my Bar Mitzvah”
And we havn’t even started on the chasers and the Kool Aid!
Is this an intentional self-parody of the media’s magnifying-glass scrutiny of Obama or something?
By the time the general rolls around, the man won’t just be teflon- no one will even be able to make a legitimate criticism of him anymore without seeming trite and cliche. For god’s sake, just give it a rest until you have something real. He’s a politician, so it’s not like it will take long.
Hey Americans,
Which of the following is grown in the US?
A. Coffee Beans
B. Oranges
Want to use a lifeline??
As an unapologetically starry-eyed Obamazombie, I have to admit, it’s been a rough month and a half watching Senator Sweetcheeks get battered and beaten from all fronts – but this abortion of an article has cheered me up tremendously! Thanks, Abe!
Random person: “Hello.”
Psychiatrist, to himself: “I wonder what he meant by that.”
That’s what the attempts to read detailed meanings into the request for a glass of juice remind me of.
Wow, this is vapid mindless stuff. IT’S A BEVERAGE. Did this guy learn to write at a workshop offered through The Learning Annex?
Gad why does this sound like a Flush Limpdick smear piece?
Orange Juice has vitamins.
Coffee does NOT.
Obama’s got a TORTUROUS schedule
HE made a SMART choice.
This is probably the most idiotic piece of rubbish I have read in a very long time. The problem with you people who are rattled about Obama’s candidacy is that you don’t really have anything substantial to latch into, so when you are not trying to make this election a referendum about an egocentric Pastor, you are drawing pathetically idiotic comparisons to minute things – like Obama having orange juice instead of coffee. I like orange juice, I don’t like coffee, I doubt this reflects on my maturity or anything of that sort. If a Doctor told me otherwise, I’d probably marvel at his lunacy. You can imagine how baffled I’d be being told this was the case by a half-baked journalist.
This piece is a sorry excuse for journalism. It’s totally totally stupid and pointless. You need to come from a different angle if you are going to keep going at Obama. At least try and make sense.
I wonder, if drinking OJ instead of coffee is childish, what is writing about someone drinking OJ instead of coffee? Penetrating social commentary? The beginnings of a political philosophy worthy of Aristotle?
Seriously, let’s talk about the gas tax or war in Iraq or fiscal stimulus or something else. Please. Pretty please?
What kind of nonsense is this? Coffee or OJ? Who cares!
This is the kind of superficial criteria that resulted in W being elected over Gore.
Gee, Abe…what grade are you in? 8, 9th grade??? did you text this OJ vs. Java to all your friends. Maybe you can this written up in the school newspaper as an “expose”!
The only adolescent here is you, Greenwald…you should GROW UP!
Again and again I wonder. How you people really want that tax cut. How horribly much you want that tax cut. It’s awful, like watching a crack head pick the rug.
In all my life, at my worst and most misguided, there may have been a couple of times I wanted a woman even a fraction so bad, where I didn’t care about what I said or did or how I lied or whom I betrayed or how shameless and stupid everyone would know me to be later. I never wanted drugs so much, not ever. I certainly never wanted mere money and property so badly!
Yet every damn time I open a newspaper this year, I see you all in phalanxes, promoters and publicists and partisans by the thousands, arms out glassy-eyed chanting in unison “tax cut, tax cut, tax cut, tax cut, give me that tax cut, cheat for my tax cut, drivel for my tax cut, lie for my tax cut, smash open the country with a hammer like a stolen child’s piggy-bank and give me my tax cut this instant, destroy everything on the whole globe that threatens to stand between me and my beloved tax cut, though the world perish tomorrow, today, right now, I’VE GOT TO KEEP THAT TAX CUT!”
Now you tell me, I dare ya, that Abe’s post didn’t draw out the most inspired, creative, committed, and ridiculous replies ever encountered in a single set of internet blogging responses.
I’m still platzing and my belly’s really sore.
I’ll thank you, Mr Greenwald though, to only allow youself so many of these distracting posts, just like this one, in a single Primaries season. The toll it takes on your readers, as you can see, is just too great.
Contentions is a serious internet journal, you know.
I’m also surprised and deeply offended that the conversation never did get round to a more in depth treatment of the “Kool Aid;with or without OJ and coffee chasers?”, hypothesis.
That choosing orange juice over coffee is childish is the stupidist thing I’ve heard in a long time.
Not only is it stupid, but you’ve just insulted every single adult who chooses to put their health over the short term energy boost of coffee, which is anything but healthy. And you’ve managed to insult adults like me, who just like the taste of a cold class of orange juice.
In drawing this conclusion, you’ve shown yourself to be the elitist one.
hahahahahhahahahahahhahahahhahahahhaha, OMG! You’re mad funny dude.
Obama is right; silly season is here.
Greenwald belabors the obvious by stating that Obama is childish, and the Obamatons throw temper tantrums. Go figure.
This was one of the single dumbest things I’ve read in a while. Go shoot yourself in the face.
Rippy,
try not to fall off the short bus on your way to the Special Olympics. Stop drinking the bong water while you’re at it, tard-master. Forks are for food, not scratching your eyeballs.
Keep crying about your Obamatard messiah.
Hey, Mitch, It’s ARUGULA, stupid. Not arrugula.
The idea that what someone eats, orange juice versus coffee, as indicator of adulthood or capacity for being President of the United States is moronic. Coffee contains caffeine and caffeine is addictive — while I am a fan of the stuff, I applaud those with the ability to start their morning without it. Arugula is quite tasty, so if you’ve not tried it, I suggest you do. Of course, good old iceberg lettuce and white bread may be more up your alley, in which case, I feel sad for you. You’re missing out.
Getting to the actual issues here, AGE is a problem with McCain. His “apparent” forgetfulness and geographical/historical memory loss is troubling. It was a close enough call with Reagan, who only shortly after leaving the office was “officially” diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. McCain displays all those symptoms, including the temper tantrums.
I say apparently because I am beginning to believe it is a part of a larger game strategy. The “say anything” over and over until the low information voter believes it has LONG been the tactic given Bush by Karl Rove. I quote our illustrious moron-in-chief, directly from his pages over at whitehouse.gov (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050524-3.html):
“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
Yeah. Kind of like how the neoCONs repeated the whole WMD need to start a war in Iraq…
What is most disturbing about this game strategy is that it seems unlike the John McCain of 2000 – and his so-called straight-talk “identity.” Yet few realize that the self-touted, self-perpetuated title of “maverick” came only after being caught up in the Keating 5 scandal and a very public castigation of his treatment and statements about his first wife during the divorce he obtained to marry (one month later) rich wife Cindy… the same woman, by the way, that he called a “see you next tuesday” and I quote:
“At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you —t.”
* Taken from The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, referring to his wife, Cindy McCain. Overheard by three anonymous reporters during his 1992 senate bid.
And lest anyone think I am taking an isolated incident to illustrate my bias, let me quote conservatives’ favorite pundit, Pat Buchanan, on John McCain:
“You get John McCain in the White House and I do believe we will be at war with Iran. That’s one of the things that makes me very nervous about him. … There’s no doubt John McCain is going to be a war president. Can anybody see John McCain as sort of a peacetime Calvin Coolidge president? It’s preposterous. … He’s in Putin’s face. He’s threatening the Iranians. “We’re going to be in Iraq a hundred years.” If we’re in Iraq a hundred years, Joe, we will be fighting a hundred years of war just as the British, if they had stayed in our country a hundred years, would be fighting the Americans for a century. … John McCain is a bellicose, red-faced, angry guy who constantly explodes.”
and Mona Charen in the National Review Online, February 8, 2008 (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1967034/posts):
“There is a strutting self-righteousness about McCain that goes hand-in-hand with a nitroglycerin temper. He flatters himself that his colleagues in the Senate dislike him because he stands up for principle, while they sell their souls for pork. Not exactly. He is disliked because on many, many occasions he has been disrespectful, belligerent, and vulgar to those who differ with him.”
So let us look fully at the alternative to the guy who likes organic, healthy food. The guy who has a calm, collected demeanor in the face of Republican flatulence such as the latest “celebrity” ad put forth by the McCain campaign. Obama, who promotes American with a positive message of global unity and effort to better this country and this world.
John McCain is a surly, cantankerous old misogynist who has a lofty view of his intelligence (3rd from the bottom of his Annapolis class) and no moral issue with breaking his promises to run a civil and respectable campaign. He is a man who simply screams “I KNOW how to win wars! I KNOW how to win wars!” as if saying it once in a calm voice wouldn’t be enough to make anyone believe him.
John “I will NEVER surrender” McCain is a war-monger and, I fear, still stuck in Vietnam with the (and I quote him from in response to a question asked by reporters aboard his campaign bus February 17th, 2000) “gooks” he bombed, bombed, bombed when he wasn’t crashing jets.
That’s SCARY.
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