A Good Yesterday And A Better Tomorrow

Dan Drezner opens his campaign for president of the Optimists Club with this upbeat recap of 2014:

‘There have been worse years in recent history,” New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote, “but 2014 definitely stands out for the sheer variety of awfulness.” That sentiment captures the popular perception of a year that can’t seem to end soon enough.

In many ways, it would be hard to disagree. In the United States, political and racial polarization seemed especially deep, and across the globe things got pretty scary. Russia annexed Crimea and sent its forces into eastern Ukraine in an effort to undermine the new Western-oriented government in Kiev. In the Middle East, the Islamic State displaced al-Qaeda as the region’s bad guy. The euro-zone economies stagnated, even compared with how they performed in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. Ebola terrorized Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and threatened many more countries. As the year closed, two cops in Brooklyn were fatally shot at point-blank range, and the Pakistani Taliban committed a heinous massacre of schoolchildren in Peshawar. And to top it all off, a boy dictator in Pyongyang even threatened to prevent the rest of us from weakly laughing at Seth Rogen.

It’s not that there was no positive news — the fall in global energy prices put more money in people’s pockets, and crime continued to decline in the United States. Still, the bad seemed to crowd out the good.

But what if 2014 turned out better than expected? Thinking about what actually happened this past year may not be the best way to judge it. After all, an awful lot of smart people predicted a lot of even-more-terrible things that never came to pass. And these averted catastrophes point toward some interesting ways to think about 2015.

It couda been worse! And he explains why.

And let me add that whatever other debacles 2014 provided, it did not have this.

Comments

[peter]

One other thing about that article about Samantha Power; the New Yorker writes she takes an armored Suburban from her apartment in the Waldorf Astoria to the UN. Its FIVE BLOCKS! WALK!

Oh, and first

[peter]

It's

[narciso]

it's odd how there is no person, who seems to have facilitated many of these negative trends, in Drezner's mind,

[henry]

Feet, like objective reality, are for the little people.

Drezner missed the end of Harry Reid's reign of suspected pedophile terror, the best news of 2014 (or the worst in his case).

[peter]

Boxer Ernie Terrell has died. His sister was a singer for Motown: anyone remember what group she was the lead singer of?

[NKvirusedand back]

henry!! what is the weather in Green Bay today?

[narciso]

Clarice reminded me of the late Jean Jacques Revel's aphorism, which Tom Wolfe brought to light:

'the long dark night of fascism, is always falling on America, but it always lands on Europe'

[NKvirusedand back]

Tom wolfe was a quote machine back in the 70s and 80s. Never met him or even saw him speak publicly... wish I had.

[narciso]

this was the atmosphere of paranoia, in the 70s, which the Bourne series somewhat reprised in the 00s, which was referenced in Marathon Man, the first tale of the Division, where Coolidge's actions re the Boston police, and McCarthy eleventy!! were evidences of tyranny,

[Captain Hate]

Thinking about what actually happened this past year may not be the best way to judge it.

More evidence that Carlos Slim employs no editors.

[narciso]

they practice the converse of Heisenberg's principle, here's the line:

http://www.volokh.com/posts/1139878045.shtml

[narciso]

you're shocked this wasn't pointed out:

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2014/12/28/american-achiever-of-2014-sarah-palin/

[henry]

NK, 28 & sunny in GB.

[Captain Hate]

Rove News Sunday will feature the year in review. I don't suppose they'll concentrate on the CRomnibus sellout although I'm open to being surprised,

[Captain Hate]

Bob Woodward seems to think that the CRomnibus was a good idea and that 404 is no different from every other President. Time to ship Bob off to an assisted living facility.

[Captain Hate]

Jason Riley is blasting 404 for his unwillingness to address false racial statements.

[Captain Hate]

Steve Hayes is blasting Bane.

[Captain Hate]

Jason Riley has set himself up to be blasted by the usual suspects.

[Captain Hate]

Chris Wallace is openly questioning the grand jury system. Well done, Ailes.

[Miss Marple]

Posted this at the end of the last thread. I bet Amazon stock goes up a lot this year.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/12/black_mob_violence_at_christmas_all_over_the_country.html

[Captain Hate]

Jason Riley pushes back against attacks on the grand jury system, arguing that they've ruled against rogue police in the past and they have access to all data versus that which the MFM chooses to emphasize.

[Captain Hate]

Susan Page thinks that the drop in oil prices may pressure Iran enough to agree to a nuke deal. Steve Hayes thinks 404 wants a deal of any type no matter how ineffectual. Bob Woodward trips over his walker to defend Lurch.

[clarice]

narciso--it's cause the earth rotates, I guess.

For those of you who need to squeeze in fat, sugar and flour before your New Year's Resolution kicks in:http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2014/12/28/tiramisu-cupcakes/

[jimmyk]

Did I miss a link to the actual Drezner piece?

[Cecil Turner]

The drop in oil prices is huge: a very egalitarian stimulus plus a sharp poke in the wallet for the world's worst regimes (and if only our government weren't trying to smother the former and fritter away the advantages of the latter, it'd be even bigger).

[Captain Hate]

Dear God, Woodward is high on Kasich, Ryan or Rand Paul for the GOP nomination.

[Captain Hate]

Hayes is the only panel member bearish on the economy. Woodward forgot his prediction; I'm not kidding about that.

[Captain Hate]

Woodward predicted Snyder will sell the Redskins to either Apple or Google. Chris Wallace flat out said that will not happen.

[Buckeye]

Jean Terrell was lead singer for the Supremes. I grew up listening to Motown, lived in NW Ahia and the stations boomed in at night.

Anybody remember CKLW?

[clarice]

I stopped paying attention to Woodward after he claimed he'd interviewed a man in a coma.

[Captain Hate]

Yes, Buckeye; CKLW from Windsor, Ontario was easy to pick up on the beach at Mentor Headlands on boomboxes.

[Cecil Turner]

BTW, if anyone else had a hard time finding the subject article, it's here.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Captain's play by play is especially strong today.

Maybe that stainless french press he got for Christmas loads up on the caffeine.

[jimmyk]

"Steve Hayes thinks 404 wants a deal of any type no matter how ineffectual."

Yes, the Iranians surely know they can extract all sorts of goodies from 404 and the haughty one in exchange for some meaningless concessions that won't even be enforced.

[jimmyk]

And CKLW was the goto station for top 30 hits in our household when I was a kid. That and WKNR.

[Danube on iPad]

I think narc and NK are talking about two different Tom Wolfes. You Can't Go Home Again vs. Bonfire of the Vanities.

[NKonIPad]

I am a fan of Bonfire Tom.

[Captain Hate]

I'm reading You Can't Go Home Again as a book group selection; I don't think time has been kind to it. I think Wolfe styled himself as a hilljack Proust and really needed an editor to cut a wide swathe through the gasbag prose.

[Miss Marple]

Leaving for mass and then a shopping excursion at CVS. Catch you all later.

[Captain Hate]

That french press is outstanding, hit. Between that and CPAP I'm kicking every deserving person's ass in 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5Lg74jSkk

[Johns_Creek_Bill]

To Jane from the prior thread:

Yes, I did attend BC. It's a family thing - my brother, sister, father and his two brothers are all graduates.

You mention the Newton Campus - that was formerly the Newton College of the Sacred Heart, which BC purchased in the early 70's. My mother, an aunt and my brother's ex all attended there.

I was brought up to bleed maroon & gold and only advanced middle age has provided the wisdom to chuckle at the ability of all BC teams (except hockey since 2001) to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Hell, the first time they did it was when they selected "Eagles" as a nickname. Given the history of the school BC has much better claim to be Irish than Our Lady of the Corn Field.

[Captain Hate]

Given the history of the school BC has much better claim to be Irish than Our Lady of the Corn Field.

BC under Tom Coughlin derailed ND's title hopes a week after they'd beaten Charlie Ward's version of Free Shoes. With the maroon unis it was like watching the same teams do battle with a better outcome. It pains me to say this but ND's QB was poised and classy in defeat.

[Jane]

Johns Creek,

Are you still in the area?

You mention the Newton Campus - that was formerly the Newton College of the Sacred Heart

For some reason I thought the school was still operating while I was in law school in the 80's.

My first year was the year of Doug Flute. Now that was fun.

[clarice]

"Mr. Nice Guy" indeed. I must say that after :Winter's Bone" though, ch has become my fave book and movie critic.

[Captain Hate]

Thanks, clarice; I'll try not to let you down.

When I was in the dorm at Terpland, somebody got a package of overstocked stuff from an athletic supply place that he was selling for like a buck apiece. I snagged a t-shirt that had Newton Presbyterian on it and wore that sucker until it was falling apart. I was continually being stopped and asked if it was Newton, Mass., which I'm sure it was.

[Danube on iPad]

I started that book as a young man, CHm and put it down almost ummediately. Of course, I did the same thing with the real Proust, too.

I was in the coliseum watching USC v. UCLA when the final score of that ND-BC game was announced. It was greeted with a lusty cheer.

[Johns_Creek_Bill]

Jane,

No, I graduated in '81 and went to grad school in NC in 1982. I lived in Melbourne, Florida for 1 year and 358 days before moving to Atlanta in 1986.

My timing was bad - I saw Flutie play live maybe 4 or 5 times. What is really sad is that my dad was life long BC fanatic and he passed in June of '82 so he missed out on some great times.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are attending BC hockey games with my Dad.

[JohnH]

Johns_Creek_Bill, what years at BC? I'm a 79. With such a strong BC family any connection to BC High? 5 of my family went there 70-81.

[Captain Hate]

I started that book as a young man, CHm and put it down almost ummediately.

It drifts in and out of being comprehensible. Just when you think it will finally stay on the rails, he'll toss a chapter in which is just a complete confusing nightmare. At its best it reminds me of why I hate Steinbeck. But at heart it's just another disaffected youth story, which I need like a third nut.

[RickB]

"a very egalitarian stimulus"

Cecil,

If Joe Sixpack increases McDonald's sales by the amount he reduces Chevron's sales, no stimulus occurs. If he increases the payment on his credit card and reduces the balance owed, it will be counted as a contraction. If he chooses to buy something Made in China with the Oilysheik money, he's buying braid for a Chinese slave master's cap.

I'm all for actual market based pricing on energy but it won't result in stimulus any more than does regulatory taxation which raises prices without raising quality or quantity of production of goods or services.

[Jane]

Johns Creek Bill and John H - was that the hockey team right before the "Do you believe in Miracles" Team?

I've actually held one of their medals.

[anonamom]

jcb, the kids in the cornfield refer to BC as Fredo.

[anonamom]

with great affection, of course!

[narciso]

no it's the same one, before Bonfire, which was prophetic in so many ways, he penned essays like that in the Volokh link

[maryd]

Captain Hate, Thomas Wolfe HAD an edior, one Maxwell Perkins, who was famous for cutting Wolfe's verbiage down. Imagine how he originals must have gone on!

[Tonto]

Captain H: All my Benedict cousins went to Maryland. John, Carl (our age) Linda, Sally, and a bunch of others. Ring any Benedict bells?

[Danube on iPad]

*sigh*

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/28/politics/bush-leads-gop-field-poll/index.html

[Jack is Back!]

Don't have NFL Red Zone in Southampton, so I am left with either the Gmen v. Iggles or Jets v. Dolphins. Choices. Sort of like Ham or Cheese but no Ham and Cheese:)

CH, Woodward would go with current or prior beltway fixtures because he is sure he could get enough access to write an "insider" book. Whereas, Walker might just say "who are you?" and do a Gruber on him.

[Captain Hate]

maryd, I've seen some of the additional prose in brackets in my edition and it's barely different from what was included so maybe Perkins just sat down and flipped a coin.

A good editor can turn a good manuscript into a masterpiece imo. Gordon Lish, a not particularly noted author, reduced some of Raymond Carver's verbiage to skeletal forms, over Carver's objections, and created what I think was his most compelling work.

[henry]

Bears at Vikings. I think they all get a participation trophy at halftime.

[Captain Hate]

Tonto, I can't remember anybody by that name. The next time I talk to my roomie I'll ask him.

[Sue]

Jack,

How about I keep you updated? ::grin:: Cowboys 17 your Skins 7. Demarco Murray and Dez Bryant have already set new records. The Skins have gone 3 and out their last 3 possessions. Am I gloating? You dadgummed right I am. ::grin::

[Captain Hate]

Josh Gordon was suspended for the last game because of missing a mandatory run through plus he showed up at a practice with somebody else's jersey. I hope Cris Carter is on Mike and Mike tomorrow and unloads on him for being a worthless drug addict who is squandering everything.

[narciso]

Wolfe, the latter one, was more accurate in some ways than I would like, re my former burg, even though one of his guides was an
unreliable one,

[Danube on iPad]

Chargers look like it's a pre-season game.

[pagar]

IMO, the real danger in sending a child to public school in the US.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/12/allah_in_our_schools.html

[Sue]

Cowboys 20 Skins, still 7.

[Centralcal on iPad]

Skins, Sue? I don't follow any sports, but would that be skins like in Redskins?

[Captain Hate]

I just read that no Chiefs WR has scored a touchdown this season. Very strange stat if true.

[maryd]

Captain,I just did a bit of fact checking, and I did you and Max Perkins a disservice. He edited "Look Homeward Angel" and "Of Time and the River", but ultimately Wolfe left Scribners because he thought Perkins' editing was getting all the credit for his books. "You Can't Go Home Again" and "The Web and the Rock" were published posthumously and eidted by someone named Edward Aswell, who was not so good with the scalpel.
Lord, grad school was a long time ago!

[henry]

Flathead hardest hit? China ends government guaranteed pensions. The only story I'd be more surprised by is "Cutler wins Super Bowl."

[Captain Hate]

ultimately Wolfe left Scribners because he thought Perkins' editing was getting all the credit for his books.

I guess I understand this if somebody is really emotionally invested in his work and thinks that the edits make a crucial change in what he's trying to say, but Wolfe was just asking for ridicule on this imo.

[Sue]

C,

Yes. My version of them calling the Cowboys cowgirls. ::grin::

BTW, 27-7.

[narciso]

they really should call themselves Redshirts,

[maryd]

Captain, I think the bottom line is that Wolfe was a kook! :-)

[narciso]

about that Revel reference, his foil was Gunther Grass, who's been insufferable for about 40 years now,

[Captain Hate]

Yes I think we can agree on that, maryd.

Regarding Proust, I can agree that his giant book can be considered a huge slog and that large numbers of pages go by with nothing happening in the representation of the physical world. But it's a much better written book than Wolfe's, where chapter beginnings tend to repeat themselves (I'd go back and quote some of them but that would make me relive that horrible experience of initially reading them).

[narciso]

which one of Proust's works, would you recommend 'if needs must'

starting the week behind, before you get to the gate

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=354022

[Captain Hate]

That Chris Wallace is friends of sorts with Dan Snyder makes me want him to sell the team more than anything else he's done.

[Captain Hate]

Oh I'd recommend going all in for Remembrance of Things Past. It starts with Swann's Way which, if you don't like it you can end it without an investment of time into the rest of it.

[Iggy]

Great pieces, clarice.

[Captain Hate]

Cleveland catches a bunch of crap, much of it well deserved, but check out the pics from yesterday:

http://weaselzippers.us/209376-thousands-come-out-in-sea-of-blue-rallies-across-the-country/

[narciso]

yes, we're making great progress:

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/12/jihadists_continue_t.php?amp

[peter]

Holy Father, please stick to subjects you know rather than opining on climate change.

[Miss Marple]

Merry Christmas from the EPA.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/12/28/regulation-gone-wild-christmas-lights-are-the-next-target-of-nanny-state-thinking/

[Miss Marple]

Oops, not the EPA, the CPSC.

Different branch of the same annoying people.

[narciso]

thanks, Captain:

I know consider the source, but after what has happened this year:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/isis-plot-kill-queens-guards-4882079

[Danube on iPad]

Swann's Way stopped me cold.

[narciso]

Of course, the Europe link ignores how the no growth policies practiced there, have 'unexpectedly' not worked,

[James D.]

Some unbelievable games so far today. How are the Ravens losing to Connor Shaw and the Broens, at home, with a playoff spot on the line?

[narciso]

he comes close to capturing the absurd

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article4940373.html

[Danube on iPad]

How can a team of eleven professional football players be simply unable to execute a punt return without incurring a penalty?

[James D.]

Good question, DoT. I also wonder how a pro football team can fail to block on a punt. And how the worst special teams coach in the NFL has kept his job despite endless, incessant failure.

[Beasts of England]

Jeb, I've given this a lot of thought, and from now on, your J.O.M. name is:

Flounder

[Janet - healthy and jolly as a joker!]

So my Christmas present this year was a compound bow. I asked for a jackalope but my husband didn't want one hanging in our house.

Anyway...don't tell anyone, but so far I am terrible at shooting it. My husband finally went out & did this today - https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10885165_916784641665818_3114529563403875276_n.jpg?oh=b6d5ec4026cd86f8c26f2f1126695215&oe=55470285

Hah! I DID finally hit the target today though....after 4 days of shooting. Yikes!
I can hardly lift my arms. Who knew they were so hard to pull?

If I ever get good enough to hit something I am aiming at...I can make my own jackalope.

[anonamom]

Janet, I was just thinking I might enjoy archery. I love being outside, enjoyed target shooting with guns when my cousin took me shooting two summers ago--
But first I'm going to take some boxing classes while on vacation next week.

[henry]

Janet, Yike!

Granted, if I aimed at the broad side of my barn, I would miss. However, I have not shot my bow 4 days in a row. (For some reason, like shooting thousands of rounds from each, I'm on target with the thunder-sticks).

[Jack is Back!]

janet,

What is the draw weight? If this is your first time then you want a low draw weight. Bear has beginner bows they call Apprentice. Frederick has one.

The great challenge in bow hunting IMO is wild turkey and I believe Virginia has a bow/turkey season.

[Threadkiller]

Finally a use for the finger pinching ladder, Janet.

[Danube on iPad]

Breaking news from the Workers' Paradise:

"CARACAS – A group of seven armed bandits robbed some 300 people enjoying a day in the sun on a Caribbean beach in eastern Venezuela, the Attorney General’s Office said. The attack took place around noon on Friday at Arapito Isla Beach. Newspapers and radio stations in the area reported that, according to the victims, the assailants landed on the beach in a boat whose motor wouldn’t start when they tried to leave, so they stole a fisherman’s boat for their getaway."