Noble Woes
The Norwegians who gave the Nobel Prize to Obama before he did anything to deserve it were bowled over by their assumption that he's just like them, "our sort of chap".
Alas, he isn't even that. Now they're furious that having given him the honor, he's not going to give them any of his time. Not even to have a sandwich with their King. Americans, alas, aren't really into kings, nobility and that sort of stuff.
Though, if you really want to know, it seems Americans do have all the trappings of protocol, in their republican sort of way. Here's a glimpse into that world: a New York Times writer is absolutely scandalized by the way those two party crashers at the White House desecrated all the norms in their unseemly haste to get near their leaders. What do they think, it's a democracy where the people own their leaders and their house? Maybe it was in Abe Lincoln's day; perhaps even Teddy Roosevelt's. Not anymore, it isn't.
Finally, since I'm already so far off-topic, here's another one from the NYT, severely admonishing Tiger Woods for wanting his own life. Who does he think he is? A private citizen who can simply cheat on his wife and have her go at him with a golf club? Doesn't he understand there are inviolate rules, and by those rules he owes us a carefully scripted public apology?
On second thought, maybe the Norwegians were right to expect more from the American President.
Alas, he isn't even that. Now they're furious that having given him the honor, he's not going to give them any of his time. Not even to have a sandwich with their King. Americans, alas, aren't really into kings, nobility and that sort of stuff.
Though, if you really want to know, it seems Americans do have all the trappings of protocol, in their republican sort of way. Here's a glimpse into that world: a New York Times writer is absolutely scandalized by the way those two party crashers at the White House desecrated all the norms in their unseemly haste to get near their leaders. What do they think, it's a democracy where the people own their leaders and their house? Maybe it was in Abe Lincoln's day; perhaps even Teddy Roosevelt's. Not anymore, it isn't.
Finally, since I'm already so far off-topic, here's another one from the NYT, severely admonishing Tiger Woods for wanting his own life. Who does he think he is? A private citizen who can simply cheat on his wife and have her go at him with a golf club? Doesn't he understand there are inviolate rules, and by those rules he owes us a carefully scripted public apology?
On second thought, maybe the Norwegians were right to expect more from the American President.
Originally posted by Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
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