Good read (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/there-goes-the-meritocracy/) a little biting humor too.

y god, Andrew Sullivan is starting to sound almost like a democrat sometimes.
Andrew Sullivan, commenting on Greenwald’s post, works the late empire theme as well, but his concerns go beyond pique over ratings ploys by television networks. Nepotism, he writes, is a symptom of a greater national disease.

Late empires are known for several things: a self-obsessed, self-serving governing class, small over-reaching wars that bankrupt the Treasury, debt that balloons until retreat from global power becomes not a choice but a necessity, and a polity unable to address reasonably any of these questions — or how the increasing corruption of the media enables them all.

Obama is, in some ways, a test-case.

He was elected on a clear platform of reform and change; and yet the only real achievement Washington has allowed him so far is a massive stimulus package to prevent a Second Great Depression (and even on that emergency measure, no Republicans would support him). On that he succeeded. But that wasn’t reform; it was a crash landing after one of the worst administrations in America’s history.

Real reform — tackling health care costs and access, finding a way to head off massive changes in the world’s climate, ending torture as the lynchpin of the war on terror, getting out of Iraq, preventing an Israeli-led Third World War in the Middle East, and reforming entitlements and defense spending to prevent 21st century America from becoming 17th Century Spain: these are being resisted by those who have power and do not want to relinquish it — except to their own families and cronies.

Nepotism is part of the problem; media corruption is also part; the total uselessness of the Democratic party and the nihilism of the Republicans doesn’t help. But something is rotten in America at this moment in time; and those of us who supported Obama to try and change this decay and decline should use this fall to get off our butts and fight for change.

I think I just read Harry Potter, damn those with pureblood mania smacking down the filthy mudbloods and half bloods. He does have several points. It would have been interesting, if, he went the intellectual property rights route as well.

So, are we in the "late empire" days of America? What comes afterwards?

So, are we in the "late empire" days of America? What comes afterwards?

Depends a bit on which hype you are willing to buy into.

It could be China (abolish civil rights, ignore environmental concerns if you are far anough away from the capital to get away with it and do not raise incomes while selling more and more junk to the rest of the world...).

Or maybe the incredible economic 'growth' of Zimbabwe is more to your liking (last month alone there was a 1000000000 pct growth of the national currency, and in 2007 they hosted the 'best performing' stock market in the world, according to the financial geniuses who brought us Enron and the banking meltdown of 2008. Guess they conveniently only looked at the numbers and forgot to realise the values were expressed in a currency already falling fast. That alone should have been a warning sign to the rest of the world that the bankers we trusted with our money and the health of the economy were greedy morons and should have been locked up in an institution for everybody's safety).

In truth though, the USA is far too enamoured with those doomsday messages, especially when it applies to themselves. World spanning empires do not fall overnight, and despite the fact that everything happens faster nowadays, the USA will still putter along as a superpower for decades to come even if it does not attempt to change anything. And if it goes, chances are good that nothing in particular will replace it because, frankly, what could? Not the EC, it is too fragmented. Not China, it needs to recover from the damage it did to its environment, the lack of internal resources to fuel its sell-out economy and the fact that in the next two decades over half its population will be too old to work. Not Russia, since that is fast descending into a state controlled maffiacracy shored up by selling its gas and oil. Nothing in Africa for certain. India is developing but is also going to face increasing difficulty to feed its billion-plus population (with no sign of anything curbing in the runaway growth there). Maybe Brazil, but that too has little going for it besides the fact that it is a big country.

And really, is it such a bad idea that there is no one or two countries dominating the world politics?


Eri

And really, is it such a bad idea that there is no one or two countries dominating the world politics?
I think it'd be a welcome change. As an American, I'm getting tired of footing the bill for that privilege. I'd like to be more like Norway. Just sit quietly in the corner and get bloody, stinking, filthy rich.

I think it'd be a welcome change. As an American, I'm getting tired of footing the bill for that privilege. I'd like to be more like Norway. Just sit quietly in the corner and get bloody, stinking, filthy rich.That's stupid.

I don't want to have to rely on some third country to defend my wealth. What country would it be? China? France? What's Norway going to defend me with anyway, Lutefisk stink bombs?

I'll take being #1 and simply ignoring the criticism from superpower wannabes.

I think it'd be a welcome change. As an American, I'm getting tired of footing the bill for that privilege. I'd like to be more like Norway. Just sit quietly in the corner and get bloody, stinking, filthy rich.

I thought you were against oil drilling?

Why would you want us to turn into a petro state than?

I didn't say we'd become Norway 2.0. If it were my call, I'd shovel a lot of money into R&D and keep the development in the US. A bit protectionist.

Lutefisk stink bombs?

Do not underestimate the power of lutefisk. People high on lye discovered america in the first place, so clearly it's within our right to smack you all around the head with a big trout, MIrc-style, if you insist on behaving like the snotty nephew who married up and decided he was suddenly too good for his family.

(p.s. I was only joking. please don't liberate us!)

*giggles as she sits not-so-quietly in the corner counting moneyses*

I think the people who discovered America were fleeing an open of a can of Surströmming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming). Opening a can of this stuff effectively renders your zip code uninhabitable for a week.

I thought you were against oil drilling?

Why would you want us to turn into a petro state than?

*whispers quietly*

Kamion ... the USA -is- a petro state.
It just burns up more than it produces


Eri

I think the people who discovered America were fleeing an open of a can of Surströmming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming). Opening a can of this stuff effectively renders your zip code uninhabitable for a week.

Lesson of today:

1. Surströmning is a Swedish product
2. Implying a Norwegian is Swedish is slightly more insulting than implying that and American is Canadian

So, as your punishment, you're put on a strict diet of smalahove. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalahove

*whispers quietly*

Kamion ... the USA -is- a petro state.
It just burns up more than it produces

The US is a huge oil producer yes (3rd only after Saudi Arabia and Russia) but we're also a nation of 300,000,000 so I would hardly consider us a petro state.

The UK produces more oil per person than the US does. Are they a petro state too?

Compare that to Norway, which produces more oil per person than Saudi Arabia.

2. Implying a Norwegian is Swedish is slightly more insulting than implying that and American is Canadian
That would make it a complement, wouldn't it? I mean, when was the last time you heard of a Canadian slapping a US flag patch on their backpack before touring Europe? :)

smalahove.
I love the picture on the wiki page "Burning the wool off a head." On the bright side, at least it hasn't been decomposing for months in a can.

So, as your punishment, you're put on a strict diet of smalahove. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmalahoveI never realized the eye muscles are the tastiest part of a sheep's head and must be eaten warm. I'll take their word for it though.

I never realized the eye muscles are the tastiest part of a sheep's head and must be eaten warm. I'll take their word for it though.

See? And I bet your parents still claim there's nothing valuable to learn on internet gaming forums!

tsk

The US is a huge oil producer yes (3rd only after Saudi Arabia and Russia) but we're also a nation of 300,000,000 so I would hardly consider us a petro state.

I think it does yes. The national oil production keeps the price of oil low, and this in turn fuels (literally and figuratively) both consumption and economic production.
And no it does not quite, in that oil production is not the only source of income. But in truth there is no country in the world where that is true anymore. Russia comes close these days. Most traditional petro states though have learned to diversify (with varying degrees of success) and to put the profits of their natural resources to lay the foundation for an economy ATO (after the oil).


The UK produces more oil per person than the US does. Are they a petro state too?


Not so much anymore. The oil production has decreased dramatically lately, but before to a large extent (though not as large as the Netherlands which served as a cautionary tale to all other European countries in how -not- to use their new found wealth) the money was used to increase consumption rather than to pay for economic development. You could say that the oil richness paid for the relatively smooth transition of a heavily industrial oriented economy to a service oriented one.


Compare that to Norway, which produces more oil per person than Saudi Arabia.

Norway is a fairly typical example of a modern petrol state that attempts to use the oil wealth smartly instead of making a few people unbelievably rich and buying off the rest of the population with free services and gimmicks.


Eri

That would make it a complement, wouldn't it? I mean, when was the last time you heard of a Canadian slapping a US flag patch on their backpack before touring Europe?

They ought to give out little pamplets on transatlantic flights with reminders that they're not fooling anyone until they stop asking questions such as "How much does it cost to see the midnight sun?" and "When do the fjords open on Sundays?"

(You'll have to excuse me, I've been working nights all week, something which obviously messes with my brain to the extent that I'm only able to come up with things as hideously unoriginal as dumb-american-bashing.)

quote"I'm only able to come up with things as hideously unoriginal as dumb-american-bashing"

Oh you silly little viking. That is fair though, bash away. But, I would like some raspeballs and skolebrod to tide me over while you do.... but, never been a fish person myself, so hold the lutefisk please. See, if ya would have brought the skolebrod and multekrem the first time around, the natives would not have run you off, lol. Plus we can invade Canada again with the new gameplan and liberate their vast reserves of maple syrup to top off the skolebrod.

I take it all back. I thought Norway sat in a corner counting their money. I was totally wrong. They sit in a corner and invent inedible food items. Still, seems like a past time that's a lot more fun that invading a country that hasn't been successfully conquered since Alexander, the Bigshot.

Aside from the yummy food items not involving fish..... but that is personal preference. It could be worse though, you could get someone like me up in Norway, sure it would be fun. But, I think the ladies of Norway would get tired of me asking what they do to keep warm in the middle of the night. But, they get into this following article....Whoops busted Tinsi!

http://www.slate.com/id/2227803/?GT1=38001