Was I dreaming, or did Thomas Friedman (author of The Lexus and The Olive Tree and frequent NY Times OP ED columnist) say that the Bush whitehouse is filled with "Strangelovian lunatics" on Charlie Rose last night?
Are they really that inspired?
ive heard the "strangelovian" tag bandied about the punditocracy during this bout of missile defense madness. (never accuse friedman of originality.) its usually attached to secretary of defense donald rumsfeld but can be applied to the whole enterprise. although, tom moodys favorite columnist, maureen dowd, applies strangelovian motivations to bush the lesser in her column today.
i couldnt find any concrete references (if only i had that lexis-nexis) but strangelove was referred to in a slate article on the recent spate of spy museums.
Actually Dowd uses a third of her column space listing examples of men who destroyed themselves over younger lovers (plus Captain Ahab) as a metaphor for Bush's pursuit of missile defense. Besides making Bush seem capable of deep romantic longing (which he isn't), that stupid "I've been to college" metaphor distracts attention from the real reason for his "obsession": steady, unrelenting pressure from defense contractors.
Can't we handle them like farmers; pay them not to build weapons?
Then you'd be tampering with the powerful urge--deeper than hunger itself, even--to watch things blow up and go boom.
her conclusions were rather muddled. pandering to defense contractors seems more likely than strictly pandering to the conservatives unless in her mind they are of one voice which isnt necessarily true. i know ive heard conservative hawks who would rather "defense dollars" went toward reconfiguring the armed forces and into more conventional procurement instead of going for missile defense. you would think that defense contractors and the military would generally be in accord but when they are squealing for cash at the public teat the spikes come out. i guess once the military takes their cut, the defense contractors profits arent high enough. missile defense is pure cheese for the contractors.
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- jim 9-05-2001 3:06 pm
Are they really that inspired?
- alex 9-05-2001 3:35 pm
ive heard the "strangelovian" tag bandied about the punditocracy during this bout of missile defense madness. (never accuse friedman of originality.) its usually attached to secretary of defense donald rumsfeld but can be applied to the whole enterprise. although, tom moodys favorite columnist, maureen dowd, applies strangelovian motivations to bush the lesser in her column today.
i couldnt find any concrete references (if only i had that lexis-nexis) but strangelove was referred to in a slate article on the recent spate of spy museums.
- dave 9-05-2001 4:10 pm
Actually Dowd uses a third of her column space listing examples of men who destroyed themselves over younger lovers (plus Captain Ahab) as a metaphor for Bush's pursuit of missile defense. Besides making Bush seem capable of deep romantic longing (which he isn't), that stupid "I've been to college" metaphor distracts attention from the real reason for his "obsession": steady, unrelenting pressure from defense contractors.
- tom moody 9-05-2001 8:08 pm
Can't we handle them like farmers; pay them not to build weapons?
- alex 9-05-2001 8:19 pm
Then you'd be tampering with the powerful urge--deeper than hunger itself, even--to watch things blow up and go boom.
- tom moody 9-05-2001 8:34 pm
her conclusions were rather muddled. pandering to defense contractors seems more likely than strictly pandering to the conservatives unless in her mind they are of one voice which isnt necessarily true. i know ive heard conservative hawks who would rather "defense dollars" went toward reconfiguring the armed forces and into more conventional procurement instead of going for missile defense. you would think that defense contractors and the military would generally be in accord but when they are squealing for cash at the public teat the spikes come out. i guess once the military takes their cut, the defense contractors profits arent high enough. missile defense is pure cheese for the contractors.
- dave 9-05-2001 9:39 pm