Whoops. No need to dream:
Up to 40 people have been killed and thousands more left homeless after unusually early winter blizzards hit north-central China.
The heavy snowfalls caused nearly 10,000 buildings to collapse and destroyed almost 500,000 acres of winter crops, Chinese officials said. More than 158,000 people have had to be evacuated from their homes.
Around half the estimated 40 deaths resulted from traffic accidents, as the unexpected weather caused havoc on ungritted roads…
…Beijing has been hit by three successive waves of snow, forcing the cancellation or delay of scores of flights.
Just two weeks ago, the Western press was credulously reporting Beijing’s claims that the snowfall was man-made. Now it’s a natural disaster. Which is it?
Well, common sense (all too rare these days, especially in members of the media) would lead one to believe it is cold and snowing in China.
No, the Chinese government is not able to make widespread snow. Mother nature, however, can handle it easily. Now ask yourself: Why, exactly, is a very, very slight increase in global temperatures to be feared (IF it is actually happening at all)? As opposed to early snow, collapsed buildings and destroyed crops?
Jeff Jacoby:
Obama, on the other hand, positively revels in The Great I Am.
“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters,’’ he told campaign aides when he was running for the White House. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that . . . I’m a better political director than my political director.’’
At the start of his presidency, Obama seemed to content himself with the royal “we’’ – “We will build the roads and bridges. . . . We will restore science to its rightful place. . . . We will harness the sun and winds,’’ he declaimed at his inauguration.
But as the literary theorist Stanley Fish points out, “By the time of the address to the Congress on Feb. 24, the royal we [had] flowered into the naked ‘I’: ‘As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress.’ ‘I called for action.’ ‘I pushed for quick action.’ ‘I have told each of my Cabinet.’ ‘I’ve appointed a proven and aggressive inspector general.’ ’I refuse to let that happen.’ ’’ In his speech on the federal takeover of General Motors, Obama likewise found it necessary to use the first-person singular pronoun 34 times. (“Congress’’ he mentioned just once.)
At this rate, it won’t be long before the president’s ego is so inflated that it will require a ZIP code of its own.
Rather a lot of us have been pointing out Obama’s oversized ego for quite some time. His narcissism pushes at the boundaries of pathology. He vilifies fellow Americans while bowing to foreign kings and emperors. He preaches bipartisanship while engaging in hyper-partisan politics at every turn. He lies regularly in what the press describes as wonderful, sonorous rhetoric (my youngest son describes his delivery as being “like that Star Trek guy” – meaning William Shatner’s portrayal of James T. Kirk).
The guy behind the curtain may be a legend in his own mind, but he’s looking more and more puny to people who are paying attention.
Proudly genuflecting across the globe. First the king of Saudi Arabia, now Ob(sequious)bama bows again to the emperor of Japan. Ed Morrisey:
Both Allahpundit and I referenced this blast from the past at the time Barack Obama bowed to Abdullah earlier this year. It’s worth posting again, not just because Obama pulled another boneheaded protocol violation and bowed to an emperor, but in this case bowed to the same emperor with whom Bill Clinton almost committed the same protocol violation. Douglas Jehr, in a 1994 New York Times report, made it clear that had Clinton actually executed a full bow, it would have destroyed a precedent dating to the founding of the Republic:
Go over to Hot Air to read the quote they have up.
American presidents do not – ever – bow to foreign kings, emporers or anything else. Hell, Americans do not bow to them. We settled that a long, long time ago. We are not subjects, we do not bow.
What’s next, kneeling? Who does Ob(sequious)bama prostrate himself to?
Why do I think a complete kow tow to the Chinese is coming up? That’s the full monty, including kneeling and touching his forehead to the ground.
Environment | Gaius November 14, 2009 | 
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