{"id":891,"date":"2006-03-28T08:02:20","date_gmt":"2006-03-28T13:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/post-up\/"},"modified":"2006-03-28T08:02:20","modified_gmt":"2006-03-28T13:02:20","slug":"post-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/post-up","title":{"rendered":"Post Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of neat op\/eds at the Washington Post this morning:<\/p>\n

Robert Samuelson tries to break down the problems with French labor laws<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The dilemma of advanced democracies, including the United States, is that they’ve made more promises than they can keep. Their political commitments outstrip the economy’s capacity to deliver. Sometimes the commitments were made dishonestly. Sometimes they were made sincerely based on foolish assumptions. Sometimes they’ve been overtaken by new circumstances. No matter. The dilemma is the same. To disavow past promises incites public furor; not to disavow them worsens the country’s future problems.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Richard Cohen weighs in on the silence of the Muslim countries<\/a> over the Abdul Rahman apostasy case:<\/p>\n

[Y]ou can say that these horrors are usually being inflicted by a minority. You say it is a few crazed terrorists of Iraq who are doing the killing. It is not most Iraqis. You can say the same about suicide bombers and torturers and rogue governments, like the one Saddam Hussein once headed. You can take solace in numbers. Most people are like us.<\/p>\n

Then comes the Rahman case and it is not a solitary crazy prosecutor who brings the charge of apostasy but an entire society. It is not a single judge who would condemn the man but a culture. The Taliban are gone at gunpoint, their atrocities supposedly a thing of the past. In our boundless optimism, we consign them to the “too hard” file of horrors we cannot figure out: the Khmer Rouge, the Nazis, the communists of the Stalin period. Now, though, this awful thing returns and it is not just a single country that would kill a man for his beliefs but a huge swath of the world that would not protest. There can be only one conclusion: They were in agreement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then Charles Krauthammer went after Francis Fukuyama with a two-by-four<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of neat op\/eds at the Washington Post this morning: Robert Samuelson tries to break down the problems with French labor laws: The dilemma of advanced democracies, including the United States, is that they’ve made more promises than they can keep. Their political commitments outstrip the economy’s capacity to deliver. Sometimes the commitments were … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Post Up”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-explicit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-en","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1937,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/those-are-pearls-that-were-his-eyes","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":0},"title":"Those are pearls that were his eyes","author":"Gil","date":"March 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, I rambled on ad nauseam about discovering my big ol' box of correspondence. I mentioned one letter that filled me with sadness because the writer died a few years later, lost at sea: Sometimes we lose the memory, and sometimes the memory loses us. The letter\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/images\/dcard.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1420,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/lala","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":1},"title":"Lala","author":"Gil","date":"March 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Speaking of world-building and cities (see previous post), I was oddly compelled by this Go Fug Yourself post. It wasn't just because of the insane fashion choices of its subject (which are great), but because it discusses a phenomenon that's wholly intrinsic to Los Angeles, a city I've managed never\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "travel"","block_context":{"text":"travel","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1160,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/to-the-manor","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":2},"title":"To the Manor","author":"Gil","date":"October 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Spent yesteday at a barbecue\/party with friends in Wappingers Fall, NY. The scenery was pretty on the drive up, but I didn't feel like stopping to take a picture. There were all sorts of great opportunities for pix at the party, but I brought Amy's super-camera with me and never\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "suburbs"","block_context":{"text":"suburbs","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/suburbs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12979,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-kate-lacour","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":3},"title":"COVID Check-In with Kate Lacour","author":"Gil","date":"March 25, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: COVID Check-In with Kate Lacour \"This is not an artists' retreat for me at all, but emotionally, it's been probably very healthy to be super-frazzled with lots of stuff from sunup to sundown.\" In our first COVID Check-In podcast, artist Kate Lacour (Vivisectionary, Fantagraphics) calls in from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/vivikate.jpeg?fit=750%2C482&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/vivikate.jpeg?fit=750%2C482&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/vivikate.jpeg?fit=750%2C482&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/vivikate.jpeg?fit=750%2C482&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":92,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/revolutions-always-leave-you-back-where-you-started","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":4},"title":"Revolutions Always Leave You Back Where You Started","author":"Gil","date":"November 8, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Haven't gone to see the third Matrix film yet. I enjoyed the first (insofar as it was a live-action version of Grant Morrison's Invisibles comic), but the second one was terrible, and the third promises more of the same. Nice article by Matt Feeney over on Slate, explaining exactly where\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1700,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-the-warnening","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":5},"title":"NBA Preview: The Warnening!","author":"Gil","date":"October 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The annual Virtual Memories NBA Preview will post next week! It promises to be filled with inscrutable cultural references, obscure free-agent details, and predictions that stand no chance of coming true! You've been warned! To tide you over, here's a photo I just received as part of an e-mail from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/images\/knicksballs.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}