And now it’s… Springtime for Iran and Ahmadinejad
Persia is happy and not gay!
The blood of martyrs we do applaud
Look out, here comes the Third Great Jihad!
Springtime for Iran and Ahmadinejad
Parthia’s a fine land once more!
Springtime for Iran and Ahmadinejad
Watch out, Israel and America
We’re going on tour!
Springtime for Iran and Ahmadinejad…
As far as I can see, Mr. Podhoretz is engaged in Trivializing The Holocaust here, which is a form of hate speech. I expect Abraham Foxman to start protesting any minute now.
From a wired article about Niall Fergusson, economic historian at Harvard:
As he played it, he realized the game was good — so good, in fact, that it forced him to rethink some of his long-cherished theories. For example, he’d often argued that World War II could have been prevented if Britain had confronted Germany over its invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. France would have joined with Britain, he figured, pinching Germany between their combined might and that of the Russian army. “Germany wasn’t ready for war, and they would have been defeated,” he figured. “War in 1938 would have been better than war in 1942.”
But when he ran the simulation in Making History, everything fell to pieces. The French defected, leaving Britain’s expeditionary force to fly solo — and get crushed by Germany. His theory, as it turns out, didn’t hold water. He hadn’t realized that a 1938 attack would not leave Britain enough time to build the diplomatic case with France.
dutchmarbel: that could be because Ferguson isn’t a good strategy gamer. It also might have something to do with the game being a simulation. Regardless of of detailed or complex it is, it’s entertainment, and therefore has to be quicker, simpler and more exciting than real events while having to smoothe out the the myriad intangibles.
Oh and I kicked Nationalist Spanish and Nazi arse when I played France in Hearts of Iron 2: you just have to cancel most of the naval programs, call up the colonial divisions and accelerate the tank & related doctrine development – then it’s just a matter of slamming through the undermanned Siegfried line while the Wehrmacht is busy with Fall Weiss. I was in Berlin by Christmas.
This Podhoretz figure is such an insane extremist it’s incredible he has any claim to be taken serious anywhere whatsoever. And yet he apparently has access to George Bush — who is sympatehetic to his views — and is top foreign policy advisor to the Republican frontrunner.
Podhoretz is one reason one thinks that there is something deeply and disturbingly wrong with Americans and their mindset.
#9–
interesting article. ferguson is still a wanker. a slightly chastened wanker is not chastened enough.
“Ferguson became so delighted with Making History that he has joined forces with Muzzy Lane to design a new game. Due out in 2008, this one will model modern, real-world conflicts such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the nuclear confrontation with Iran.”
note: “the nuclear confrontation with iran.”
ferguson: i was clueless about the past; now can i help screw up the future too?
#13: Ferguson wrote a shonky editorial ‘future history’ of the ‘2007-11 Iranian confict’ last year or thereabouts, full of portentious musings of what might have been if the US had acted to take Iran out earlier. Carlos Yu had a great deal of fun ripping it at alt.history.future .
At some point, ‘shut up, you silly old sod’ needs to enter the American political lexicon. Of course, that would mean losing your Serious Pundit status, but it would be a price worth paying.
Also, could someone come up with a strategy game where you start off as a promising young historian with expertise in 19th-century German economic matters, and slowly rise through the ranks? Oh, those decisions: do you deploy your Pundit Points to enter the AEI rubber-chicken circuit, or take the worthy but less lucrative path of doing some primary research?
Podhoretz is one reason one thinks that there is something deeply and disturbingly wrong with Americans and their mindset.
You know, Hitler had similar views to those of stostosto, and eventually he could not be deterred from acting on his dislike of Americans, especially their submarines. One hopes that stostosto is more rational, but can we take that chance?
Oh and I kicked Nationalist Spanish and Nazi arse when I played France in Hearts of Iron 2: you just have to cancel most of the naval programs, call up the colonial divisions and accelerate the tank & related doctrine development – then it’s just a matter of slamming through the undermanned Siegfried line while the Wehrmacht is busy with Fall Weiss. I was in Berlin by Christmas.
You know who else spent Christmas in Berlin from time to time? That’s right, Hitler. Anyone who is oblivious to these disturbing parallels between leinad and another of history’s monsters is either not paying attention or may be on the wrong side of history.
People like cryptic ned like to compare other people to Hitler, but tell me, who came up with that tactic? Yes indeed, it was none other than Adolf Hitler himself. More proof, if ever was needed that that crypto-nazi appeasers who compare their opponents to Hitler must never be appeased!
I think that having this petty discussion about video games and washed-out ideologues makes everyone on this list objectively pro-Islamofascist, including myself.
Now pardon me while I go home and camp on my doorstop to ask myself why I want to appease America’s enemies. ‘Chamberlain! Chamberlain!’, I’ll scream at me.
Podhoretz wrote an article for Harpers in the late 70s arguing that homosexuals were responsible for the appeasement of Hitler. (No, I’m not making this up.) The guy is 100% bonkers.
Norman Podhoretz, writing in October (1977?) Harper’s magazine, blames EngÂlish homosexual writers for the surrender to Hitler in the 1930s, says homosexuality in England was caused by the loss of EngÂland’s “best and brightest” in World War II, and that homosexuÂals are responsible for weakened will and knuckling under to communism. He blames especially James Baldwin, Allen GinsÂberg, and Gore Vidal.
Myself I tend to take my armies to Berlin via the tried and true Quebec-Greenland-Iceland-Great Britain route. With enough armies left in Alaska to hold off the hordes from Kamchatka.
“Podhoretz wrote an article for Harpers in the late 70s arguing that homosexuals were responsible for the appeasement of Hitler. (No, I’m not making this up.) The guy is 100% bonkers.”
Interesting to note the range of opinions in this discussion – all the way from the opinions of a right-wing realpolitikal pundit to the opinions of a crazy right-wind ideologue. When Fareed Zakaria is the one representing the moderate, non-belligerent side of a discussion, something is seriously wrong.
{ 34 comments }
voyou 10.30.07 at 5:06 am
Maybe the war against islamofascism is based on popular flash animations (you might want to turn your sound down if you click on the link).
Selfreferencing 10.30.07 at 5:18 am
Good idea Voyou. Now if only someone would make the hitlerhitlerhitler video to accompany the badgerbadgerbadger video, we’d be set.
Sam Boyd 10.30.07 at 5:32 am
Is it just me, or does he look a lot like Mike Gravel?
JP Stormcrow 10.30.07 at 5:36 am
Leinad 10.30.07 at 6:06 am
Similar songs were written about Hitler stormcrow, and I think it’s appaling that such a serious problem was treated with frivolity…
JP Stormcrow 10.30.07 at 6:26 am
Is this the part where I insult the CT Thread Critic (maybe that’s Andrew Sullivan?) by bribing him in an over-the-top attempt to win the thread?
Leinad 10.30.07 at 7:28 am
Well stormcrow, people tried to bribe Hitler too and the consequences were appaling, millions of lives lost needlessly…
MFB 10.30.07 at 7:51 am
Yes, if only Low hadn’t drawn such funny cartoons, the Second World War need never have happened!
abb1 10.30.07 at 8:11 am
As far as I can see, Mr. Podhoretz is engaged in Trivializing The Holocaust here, which is a form of hate speech. I expect Abraham Foxman to start protesting any minute now.
dutchmarbel 10.30.07 at 9:32 am
From a wired article about Niall Fergusson, economic historian at Harvard:
Leinad 10.30.07 at 9:48 am
dutchmarbel: that could be because Ferguson isn’t a good strategy gamer. It also might have something to do with the game being a simulation. Regardless of of detailed or complex it is, it’s entertainment, and therefore has to be quicker, simpler and more exciting than real events while having to smoothe out the the myriad intangibles.
Oh and I kicked Nationalist Spanish and Nazi arse when I played France in Hearts of Iron 2: you just have to cancel most of the naval programs, call up the colonial divisions and accelerate the tank & related doctrine development – then it’s just a matter of slamming through the undermanned Siegfried line while the Wehrmacht is busy with Fall Weiss. I was in Berlin by Christmas.
bjk 10.30.07 at 11:28 am
Why is NPod reading off notes? I’ve never seen a talk show guest read off notes.
stostosto 10.30.07 at 11:38 am
This Podhoretz figure is such an insane extremist it’s incredible he has any claim to be taken serious anywhere whatsoever. And yet he apparently has access to George Bush — who is sympatehetic to his views — and is top foreign policy advisor to the Republican frontrunner.
Podhoretz is one reason one thinks that there is something deeply and disturbingly wrong with Americans and their mindset.
kid bitzer 10.30.07 at 12:03 pm
#9–
interesting article. ferguson is still a wanker. a slightly chastened wanker is not chastened enough.
“Ferguson became so delighted with Making History that he has joined forces with Muzzy Lane to design a new game. Due out in 2008, this one will model modern, real-world conflicts such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the nuclear confrontation with Iran.”
note: “the nuclear confrontation with iran.”
ferguson: i was clueless about the past; now can i help screw up the future too?
Leinad 10.30.07 at 12:20 pm
#13: Ferguson wrote a shonky editorial ‘future history’ of the ‘2007-11 Iranian confict’ last year or thereabouts, full of portentious musings of what might have been if the US had acted to take Iran out earlier. Carlos Yu had a great deal of fun ripping it at alt.history.future .
norbizness 10.30.07 at 1:01 pm
Rudy: “Great job, Norm. You’re a hell of a foreign policy advisor. But could you ratchet the crazy up in the next interview?”
Norman: “I.. really.. don’t know what else I could do…”
Rudy: “Hmmm.. maybe I need somebody younger and with more energy. I hear that perhaps your son is available…”
Norman: “Not that hairy abomination! OK, I swear, I’ll smash a watermelon that has the name ‘Ahmadinejad’ painted on it, Gallagher-style!”
abb1 10.30.07 at 1:11 pm
Podhoretz is one reason one thinks that there is something deeply and disturbingly wrong with Americans and their mindset.
The fact that Bush was elected in 2004 made me think that there is something wrong with the Americans.
Podhoretz? His magazine has a circulation (according to wiki) of 27,000, and I suspect that’s inflated.
stostosto 10.30.07 at 1:16 pm
The fact that Bush was elected in 2004 made me think that there is something wrong with the Americans.
Goes without saying.
stostosto 10.30.07 at 1:17 pm
Podhoretz? His magazine has a circulation (according to wiki) of 27,000, and I suspect that’s inflated.
Yeah, that’s what they said about the Völkischer Beobachter.
abb1 10.30.07 at 1:40 pm
Heh-heh. Right. Like I said: it’s time to expose Podhoretz as a notorious Holocaust trivializer. He’s not much better than Hitler, really.
nick s 10.30.07 at 2:39 pm
At some point, ‘shut up, you silly old sod’ needs to enter the American political lexicon. Of course, that would mean losing your Serious Pundit status, but it would be a price worth paying.
Also, could someone come up with a strategy game where you start off as a promising young historian with expertise in 19th-century German economic matters, and slowly rise through the ranks? Oh, those decisions: do you deploy your Pundit Points to enter the AEI rubber-chicken circuit, or take the worthy but less lucrative path of doing some primary research?
Cryptic Ned 10.30.07 at 2:55 pm
Podhoretz is one reason one thinks that there is something deeply and disturbingly wrong with Americans and their mindset.
You know, Hitler had similar views to those of stostosto, and eventually he could not be deterred from acting on his dislike of Americans, especially their submarines. One hopes that stostosto is more rational, but can we take that chance?
Cryptic Ned 10.30.07 at 2:59 pm
Oh and I kicked Nationalist Spanish and Nazi arse when I played France in Hearts of Iron 2: you just have to cancel most of the naval programs, call up the colonial divisions and accelerate the tank & related doctrine development – then it’s just a matter of slamming through the undermanned Siegfried line while the Wehrmacht is busy with Fall Weiss. I was in Berlin by Christmas.
You know who else spent Christmas in Berlin from time to time? That’s right, Hitler. Anyone who is oblivious to these disturbing parallels between leinad and another of history’s monsters is either not paying attention or may be on the wrong side of history.
Leinad 10.30.07 at 3:26 pm
People like cryptic ned like to compare other people to Hitler, but tell me, who came up with that tactic? Yes indeed, it was none other than Adolf Hitler himself. More proof, if ever was needed that that crypto-nazi appeasers who compare their opponents to Hitler must never be appeased!
Maurice Meilleur 10.30.07 at 3:49 pm
I think that having this petty discussion about video games and washed-out ideologues makes everyone on this list objectively pro-Islamofascist, including myself.
Now pardon me while I go home and camp on my doorstop to ask myself why I want to appease America’s enemies. ‘Chamberlain! Chamberlain!’, I’ll scream at me.
Matt Stevens 10.30.07 at 4:31 pm
Podhoretz wrote an article for Harpers in the late 70s arguing that homosexuals were responsible for the appeasement of Hitler. (No, I’m not making this up.) The guy is 100% bonkers.
dbomp 10.30.07 at 5:17 pm
I want that article.
David W. 10.30.07 at 5:40 pm
dbomp, here’s a teaser for you:
Norman Podhoretz, writing in October (1977?) Harper’s magazine, blames EngÂlish homosexual writers for the surrender to Hitler in the 1930s, says homosexuality in England was caused by the loss of EngÂland’s “best and brightest” in World War II, and that homosexuÂals are responsible for weakened will and knuckling under to communism. He blames especially James Baldwin, Allen GinsÂberg, and Gore Vidal.
Such good times, those 1970s…
tps12 10.30.07 at 6:01 pm
It’s in the archive if you’re a subscriber.
JP Stormcrow 10.30.07 at 6:08 pm
I was in Berlin by Christmas
And we thank you for being in the vanguard of the New Crooked Timber Orwellian Hegemony.
Myself I tend to take my armies to Berlin via the tried and true Quebec-Greenland-Iceland-Great Britain route. With enough armies left in Alaska to hold off the hordes from Kamchatka.
Alan Bostick 10.30.07 at 10:26 pm
It might be fun, just for laughs, to put Podhoretz in a cable-news talk show he-said-she-said debate just like this one … with Mike Godwin.
c.l. ball 10.31.07 at 1:29 am
Well stormcrow, people tried to bribe Hitler too and the consequences were appaling, millions of lives lost needlessly…
If the US doesn’t bomb Iran now, thousands of lives could be needlessly spared.
HTML Mencken 10.31.07 at 3:52 am
“Podhoretz wrote an article for Harpers in the late 70s arguing that homosexuals were responsible for the appeasement of Hitler. (No, I’m not making this up.) The guy is 100% bonkers.”
Yup.
Sortition 11.01.07 at 7:05 pm
Interesting to note the range of opinions in this discussion – all the way from the opinions of a right-wing realpolitikal pundit to the opinions of a crazy right-wind ideologue. When Fareed Zakaria is the one representing the moderate, non-belligerent side of a discussion, something is seriously wrong.
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