"A Tsar is Born"
Vladimir Putin Is TIME's "Person of the Year". Mitt Romney thinks Gen. Petraeus should have gotten it and so does John McCain. TIME explains why the nomination went to Putin.
TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse. It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership.
By that standard how well has the Time Man of the Year been chosen? Here's the list from the World War 2 years, and it's not bad.
| 1938 | Adolf Hitler |
| 1939 | Joseph Stalin |
| 1940 | Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill |
| 1941 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
| 1942 | Joseph Stalin |
| 1943 | George Catlett Marshall |
| 1944 | Dwight David Eisenhower |
| 1945 | Harry Truman |
| 1946 | James F. Byrnes |
Here's the list from around the fall of the Berlin Wall.
| 1987 | Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev |
| 1988 | Endangered Earth |
| 1989 | Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev |
| 1990 | The Two George Bushes |
| 1991 | Ted Turner |
| 1992 | Bill Clinton |
And this is the tale of the 21st century.
| 2000 | George W. Bush |
| 2001 | Rudolph Giuliani |
| 2002 | The Whistleblowers |
| 2003 | The American Soldier |
| 2004 | George W. Bush |
| 2005 | Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, & Bono |
| 2006 | You |
posted by wretchardthecat at 12/19/2007 01:50:00 PM
21 Comments:
The real reason Al Gore lost to Putin for Time's Man of the Year:
Antarctica is getting colder. Neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007 season was the third-quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S.
South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens of homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency.
Now NO ONE Can deny how extraordinarily prescient George Bush was years ago when he looked deeply into Pootie Poot's Soul.
Russian Mind Games
Thanks, Francine for the link to David Deming's Washington Times Article "Global Cooling."
Anyone care to hazard a guess as to whether any of his astounding statistical points will be picked up by the alleged Mainstream Media?
Years ago I had to conclude that the AMSM (alleged msm) is in the thrall of its own delusions, and cannot be trusted to report ANYTHING accurately. If you want to know what's going on in the world, you can probably get a reasonably reliable weather report for a few days out, or local traffic conditions as they were within the last two or three hours, from your local TV news station, but I wouldn't place my confidence in them for much else.
So, what else is new?
Hey! I also notice that the Washington Times has a huge selection of slideshows w audio and videos on a mess of different subjects. I'll have to start spending more time over there.
It seems like the Times is openly admitting that they do not believe in an American's power to change the world for the better, while they do believe in a Russian's ability to change the world for the worst.
I think Petraeus would have been the right choice, but you can make the case that Bush - the lame duck who has stymied congress and gotten his own way, and who dared to stare down the Kyoto treaty could have been named.
Mad Fiddler, did you notice over the last few years how the language has shifted from "global warming" to "climate change" ? That way they can cover all the bases and still get their social engineering pushed through.
Now even Rudy is getting touchy-feely on Iran.
(CNN) -- Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani Wednesday said he would be open to diplomatic talks with Iran but only if certain preconditions were established.
She may now think we're no better:
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Homeland Security
ht Cannoneer
I don't have a problem with that, Francine, as long as one of the preconditions is to have Nutjob's Head Mounted on a Pike.
By the reasoning Time Magazine claims then it seems obvious that Brittany Spears or Lindsay Lohan should be on the cover.
Bold earth changing leadership?
Putin putting the brakes on democracy is earth changing, while Petraeus' laying a firm footing for change affecting all humanity is not?
Hummmm, Putin puts the kibosh on President Regan's legacy, snubbing General Petraeus puts the kibosh on any recognition that Bush just may have been right...,
..Consistency, a beautiful thing.
Who's Been Putin Polonium In My Time Magazine?
Brittany may sicken people, but that's a far cry from being able to transport TIME back in time to the glorius Glory Days of the KGB.
For Putin, not a problem.
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And there is plenty of circumstantial evidence linking Russian spetzsluzhba (special services) in political "hits" using poison:
In 2003, Yuri Shchekochkin, a journalist and Kremlin critic, died of an "allergic reaction" that was likely a deliberate poisoning.
Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of Putin and the war in Chechnya, fell mysteriously ill while flying to negotiate the release of Beslan schoolchildren being held by Chechen terrorists in 2004. (She was ultimately gunned down in Moscow in October.)
Also in 2004, pro-West Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushenko, running against pro-Kremlin candidate Viktor Yanukovich, was poisoned by suspected dioxins, making him ill and leaving his face severely disfigured.
And now Litvinenko - a KGB/FSB veteran whose investigations of corruption in Russia reportedly made a lot of enemies among his comrades, the siloviki and the Russian mafia - dies a painful death from ingesting a highly toxic radioactive isotope.
A Thing of Beauty
Given the number of 'global warming is all humanities fault' supporters who were 'global cooling is all humanities fault' supporters when that was fashionable (early 80's, there were novels, movies, scholarly articles in among other Playboy) why is anyone surprised?
The Earths climate changes. Note the fact that there is fossilised coral 100 MILES from the south pole. And no, Antarctica never drifted far enough north to account for it with today's climate.
Note the fact that sea levels were 450 feet lower 18,000 years ago, and Syria was wet enough to export Hippopotomus ivory in Roman times.
All of this was taught in high school science classes not long ago. The Earth will get hotter or colder than it is now, it has been both many times before. That again is not controversial, it is covered in first year geology courses.
The one thing this planet will NOT do is stay one temperature for long. It never has and it never will regardless of what humans do.
As for Time, well Vladimir Putin is now a member of an exclusive club whose previous members include Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler. Personally I would not be particularly thrilled.
Putin seems to be an improvement over the recent trendy picks. Maybe Time is attempting to be seen as serious again. If things get bad in the future with Russia then this will look prescient.
Well, it only took a full year, a few unexplained nortoriously KGB-style assasinations, and complete shutting down their press for the Time to recognize Putin has been consolidating power.
As this rate, the next person of the year will have to "achieve" A LOT more to beat that. Good luck, Ahmed!
Pat Patterson said:
"By the reasoning Time Magazine claims then it seems obvious that Brittany Spears or Lindsay Lohan should be on the cover."
Don't you think in their heart-of-hearts, Time Magazine wanted Obama on their cover?
In all seriousness, I canceled my subscription to Time Magazine a long time ago. I now find the magazine an annoying distraction when I'm standing in the checkout line at Safeway.
francine said:
...over the last few years how the language has shifted from "global warming" to "climate change"?
It doesn't matter what name they use. Man-made CO2 is the major cause to "global warming", therefore the Bali conference for the "carbon rationing". Let's see how they twist it (man-made CO2) also is responsible to global cooling.
My bet is that they will conclude "Human is the cause for climate change!" We will have another conference (at a tropical locale) to announce enforced birth rations. That way they cover front, back, and sideways.
Bill and Melinda Gates, and Bono.
But not Petraeus?
The general has saved thousands of lives, nearly destroyed al-Qaeda and turned an entire nation full circle in a matter of months, potentially influencing the course of events in the Arab world for many years to come.
But he's not Bono.
(Time is a ridiculous magazine that's long past its sell date.)
There are three people not on the list who should have at least one of their three on the list. I refer to these three as mustard seeds, because they had that much faith.
I see Stalin's name on the list twice. I see Gorbechev's (I at in the same room with the man once, he visited the U I was teaching at, did not get to shake his hand or any such thing, still cool) on the list twice.
Putin's made it the first time in what obviously is going to be at least a two times appearance.
Yeah, it seems somewhat obvious Time's Man of the Year does not necessarily imply there is a goodness about their selection, but where are the mustard seeds? Surely Ronald Reagen, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II had something to do with truly monumental events? Gorbachev tried to prop up a corrupt and evil system and the mustard seeds sprang into a large tree and pushed it over.
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