It was bad enough that Secretary of State John Kerry didn’t make it to the “Je suis Charlie” unity march in Paris last Sunday (he finally managed to drop by yesterday on his way home to the states). But to make amends (or something) for his tardiness, he took along James Taylor to sing “You’ve Got a Friend.” I was too embarrassed by the whole scene to notice (and could scarcely hear) that Taylor started by strumming a few bars of “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem, and ended by singing the song’s last words in French. I’m sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house … er, City Hall. (/snark) But I can’t say because I turned it off before then.
And sometime during the day, probably when he first arrived, Kerry managed this hug with French President François Hollande. Can you say awkward?
The whole thing has taken on a bit of a sordid air to me PT. Between the psychos looking for their share of infamy on their way to martyrdom and the “afterlife,” the politicos / taking heads tossing in their two cents, and the steady drumbeat of 24/7 media coverage, I’m pretty much fed up with the whole thing. And I’ll bet the “terrorist masterminds,” whoever the hell they are, are just sitting back, eating it all up, and laughing their asses off. What a world, what a world!
It’s pretty crazy, that’s for sure. The 24/7 media coverage of this and any other story they latch on to has, I think, become more of a disservice than service. So much gets blown out of proportion (for a number of different reasons, none related to newsworthiness) while other stuff gets completely overlooked. It’s very tough for the public to determine what’s true, what’s fact, and how important it really is or isn’t. Are the police really swarming all over Europe in search of terrorists? Or are we just now hearing about them going about their normal police work? Are there really more terrorist plots afoot, or are we just hearing more about them now (because the media have decided to talk about them)? I don’t know. Do you? Does anybody? And you’re right. It all plays right into the hands of the terrorists. Just like our continuing overreaction in the wake of 9/11. One attack big enough or unusual enough to grab media attention and half the world will go nuts for weeks, or months, causing more confusion and fear than the terrorists could have dreamed of causing all by themselves.
D’oh! I’ve said more than enough on these topics already. Sorry. I do rant sometimes.
Talk about ranting. An acquaintance of mine “shared” this Ken O’Keefe video with me on Facebook the other day. I can’t say I “enjoyed” hearing it, but I have to admit that some of what he says has the ring of truth to it: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=760326817347344&fref=nf
Now THAT’s a rant! He hardly comes up for air. People like that are scary. But although his ranting sort of invalidates everything he says, he does make some good points. I just hate conceding anything to wingnuts like this.
You reacted pretty much as I did PT, and that’s a relief. That guy has one helluva following, many of whom think of him as a saint. Reminds me of all those “great leaders” in history who, along with their armies of followers, later turned into mass murderers… Yikes!
Pathetic. And yeah Kerry is ugly all right.
The whole incident made me want to crawl into a hole. Better he’d not gone to Paris at all.
Upfront I’ll admit, not having high-ranking representation in the post-massacre demonstration was a major gaffe. Impressions matter to the public and public opinion does sway political decisions. The prime example in my head is going to war in Iraq after 9/11 because we were mad as hell about muslims, never mind that Saddam had no part in it, never mind that al Qaeda was not active there and never mind that there were no WMD’s there.
It’s my guess that this gaffe will blow over pretty fast as far as Europe is concerned. Leaders of republics are generally mature people and they won’t let stuff like this get in the way of sensible decisions. Remember when France denied permission to fly over their territory to retaliate against Gaddafi? Nobody else does either. On the other hand, I expect the GOP will make full use of the omission during the coming campaign. For them, the national interest takes a back seat to their primary goal – defeating the hated Democratic enemy.
You mention another reason why this pains me so much — the ammunition it gives the GOP. That my chagrin aligns me, even for a moment, with certain highly visible publicity-seeking GOPers just makes it that much more painful.
Crawl in a hole is right.
(Did anyone bother to check the lyrics? “Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall…all you have to do is call…and I’ll come running….” but we didn’t)
Juvenile move ….totally stupid. (And I like James Taylor..but he didn’t sound very good) What were they thinking? The rest of the world’s leaders are in awe of music guests and will be so thrilled he showed up?
Maybe the French are big James Taylor fans? Even so they’d have been disappointed with this performance. Mic problems aside, I still felt I was watching some wizened old performer trying desperately to recapture the glory of his youth (and I like him, too). Or something. I was embarrassed for both of us.
Sometimes I wish the vintage performers would just smile and politely refuse(and don’t dance on stage. It’s not the same. Please.)….they had some of the Beach Boys here for 4th July concert a couple of years ago…..grim.