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PowerNoonan
What is this a picture of? It is a nail gun, a high-quality piece of equipment that will put nail after nail into board after board. Whatever you need nailed, this thing will nail it, consistently and accurately. And that is precisely why it should be called a Noonanator. Or a PowerNoonan. Or a Pneumatic Noonanizer. To understand why, here’s an article in the Wall Street Journal by its namesake titled “How Global Elites Forsake Their Countrymen:”
The challenge of integrating different cultures, negotiating daily tensions, dealing with crime and extremism and fearfulness on the street—that was put on those with comparatively little, whom I’ve called the unprotected. They were left to struggle, not gradually and over the years but suddenly and in an air of ongoing crisis that shows no signs of ending—because nobody cares about them enough to stop it.
The powerful show no particular sign of worrying about any of this. When the working and middle class pushed back in shocked indignation, the people on top called them “xenophobic,” “narrow-minded,” “racist.” The detached, who made the decisions and bore none of the costs, got to be called “humanist,” “compassionate,” and “hero of human rights.”
Once again, this essayist who somehow arrives at far different conclusions than mine, winds up describing in precise terms the problems I see; problems that are not acknowledged by most people who wind up with results like hers.
She’s a riddle. Wrapped in an enigma. Holding a nailgun.
Published in Politics
This may well be rigged.
Last week’s column where she discussed how Republicans learn nothing was even better.
I’ll have to find that. I’m already paying for some WSJ wacky morning DJ news podcast that I can’t get rid of. Would be nice to trade.
I thought to read Noonan’s piece but I couldn’t because at one time she was among the crowd using the word “xenophobe” and so forth. She is in with the crowd who would be completely comfortable with open borders. Now she wants to be portrayed as just a casual observer?
She can nail things as well as anyone, but when she’s not deeply focused she falls back on establishment shibboleths and sound bites. At least that is how I have tried to explain her duality to myself. I think it reflects how pervasive and dominant establishment language has become.
She may have had a conversion of sorts. At least she understands the real issue and isn’t propagandizing. There are few pundits who capture the essence of this as well as Noonan. Maybe VDH. I was shocked to read her “Unprotected” column. This one is right on too.
Yes, this essay has it right. Both my son (age 28) and his girlfriend (20) have come down with weird febrile illnesses in the past three weeks. Each was sick enough to require an ER visit. Each time, the illness, which was scary with several prominent symptoms in different parts of the body, in addition to fevers of 104 F, lasted an entire week and was debilitating. I can’t help but think this may well have been brought in by illegal immigrants, not only allowed in but also transported throughout the country (except to affluent D.C. suburbs).
Although it gets very little MSM press, our open borders are also wide open to diseases which were thought eradicated or, at least, not seen here in generations. The customs and immigration authorities used to screen for them carefully. People used to be quarantined. TB, particularly, has increased dramatically, including strains resistant to combination antibiotic therapy. In short, politically-correct open borders trumps standard disease surveillance at the border. We are at enough risk of a pandemic with air travel. This risk is optional, yet, it is another gift to the subjects from their so-called leaders. They expect our thanks for their enlightened tutelage. They and their families, of course, are not at risk.
28/2+7>20, just saying.
I don’t know. Maybe I am just shell shocked from the constant backstabbing from the GOP/Conservative leaders in the public domain, but something seems off to me. Don’t get me wrong, it is encouraging to see her make this case. My question is what took her so long? Why aren’t more in the Conservative Intelligentsia making the same shift. And no, this has nothing to do with supporting Trump. This has more to do with coming to terms with that Codevilla wrote about way back in 2010. I am of the opinion that for all the WFB worship that goes on around here, there is a small percentage who would still be comfortable with his saying about being governed by the first 100 names in the Boston phone book as opposed to the faculty of Harvard. You can hear disdain dripping from the lips of some when listening to their podcasts.
Don’t forget that we lost far more people to the “Spanish flu” in 1919 than we lost in all the carnage of WW1. The threat that will hit us hardest is the one we are not looking for. The protected classes are certain that they are immune, but tell that to Pharoah while he buries his first born.
I can’t listen to the podcasts any more. Listened to the last one live. It was only because they had Dr. Arn on. But yeah, I hear ya!
There will always be elites. I’d like to be one someday myself. I hold no intrinsic animosity toward them, but you have to know the people and honor them, if only for your own good. That’s the real problem and that’s the straw-man they always throw up. That the peasants can’t run things, someone smart needs to be in charge and what’s the alternative?
I think us peasants would be happy enough to be understood and respected by these people, and factored into their decisions. This is supposed to be a representaive government.
The British actually figured this out and now that we have Royals Without Breeding here in the USA, and they are proving clumsy overlords. These elites lack breeding and manners toward the help. They will suffer for it.
She’s been making related cases since 2010 at latest. Her reportage on the scene in conservatism is balls-on. She reported the cause and predicted the result of the 2010 Tea Party wave.
Pharaoh buries his first born because the people who would have done it are all dead.
Likewise, I no longer listen to any of the podcasts. Every once in a while I see one that looks magnificent, and then I don’t get halfway through it.
Chris Plante for me.
Our ‘leaders’ do not give a darn about us – really! I wish the average person understood that.
Peggy is rediscovering her roots.
It’s a good thing.
She is all over the map on a lot of that, but mostly a typical northeast faux conservative. She is humble and introspective on some issues.
We keep sending them back to Washington so who is to blame.
She can also be a hypocrite. 3 weeks ago she is chastising Ted Cruz for not endorsing Trump and now she is calling Trump insane. Is he insane, but we all should bow down?
Exactly.
Term limit is the only way we are ever going to fix this, and they won’t legislate it, even if they say they will.
There are no words to describe how inordinately proud I am of myself for not going blue and just stomping the CoC flat with this. Nope. I just watched the softball float over the plate.
Small victories.
Franco, my approach is this: I would be more than happy to match wits with James, Rob, Williamson, CCW Cook, Rich Lowery, Rush Limbaugh, and the entire cast of Conservative Thinkers. I have read the same books, come to the same conclusions, and analyzed the same data. Just because I don’t have an Ivy League diploma or National Review on my letterhead does not make them any better than me at determining my life choices. If they want to go toe to toe, I am right here, all they need do is ask.
Individuals should manage their own emotions. Bizarre aliens included.
We have term limits. They are called elections.
The only way a democratically elected republic survives is an engaged citizenry. Term limits are a cop out that disengages the citizenry.
We could turn over the entire House of Representatives this fall, but we don’t want that. We want to term limit everyone else’s rascal but keep our own.
Well, I for one did not vote for my Rep Congressman last time. And when he asked me for a donation to his campaign, I sent a generous donation to Jeff Sessions and copied my rep on the communication, saying: this could have been yours if you were interested in representing my interests. (my republican rep is pro amnesty. I even met with him personally on the issue. He’s hard core)
Good for you. I instinctively sign up for whoever runs against Pete Sessions and that even included Katrina Pierson 4 years ago. It talks a lot of time, work, and mostly money to primary an incumbent.
I even donated to someone in another district this year because I was so impressed with him as a primary challenger. It was small, but that is how it starts.
Very disappointing that there is supposedly this rebellion at the top of the ticket, but that has not flowed down ballot to the primaries.
@balldiamondball this is from the previous week’s column:
I agree with her and this is the scariest thing about him.
This is the paragraph I thought most prescient:
This is what is so maddening. For all of Trump’s legion of shortcomings early in his campaign he raised he right issues and asked the right questions. Now those issues have been delegitimized by his continued foot chewing dementia.
Sorry, BDB, but Ms. Noonan seems more a windsock than a nail gun; but, hey, a windsock (rhymes with ‘broken clock’) can be right twice a day…Can you tell I think she’s a bit opportunistic? :-)