Weekly Schiefferism

OK, yeah, I like Bob Schieffer. Here's yet another of his quotable "final thoughts," from Sunday on "Face the Nation":

Finally today, it is an example I have cited many times over the years, that Hubert Humphrey once said the 1964 Civil Rights Act was America's single most effective foreign policy initiative.

It had nothing to do with foreign policy, but it told the world who we were and what we stood for and that our system was about fairness and equal treatment, and that it worked.

I thought about that when Barack Obama announced that torture would never be part of our national policy. America has always been the most successful when it is leading by example, when we have practiced what we have preached.

America's weapons did not win the Cold War. They kept the Soviet Union at bay. The war was won when the people on the other side looked across the Iron Curtain, saw a better way of life there, realized their system of government could not give it to them, and so the walls came down.

With a simple declaration, President Obama told the world our system of government is so strong, we don't need to torture people to survive. That is the way of those who would destroy us. But that is not us. We have found a better way.

That is what our message to the world must be. More importantly, that is what we want our children to know. When we are admired and respected by others, we are far more secure than any weapon can ever make us.

Quote du Jour: Hope Over Fear

The inaugural speech

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord." -- President Barack Obama

Important Presidential Update: Obama is Keeping his BlackBerry!

on John King's new CNN Sunday show, "State of the Union" today:

KING: Well, actually, one last question. And it's, in part, silly. But it's not always silly. You like these [holding up BlackBerry]. I was just with you before this, and you have a couple of them. And there are a lot of people who say, because this will end up in the presidential library, because you don't have privacy any more, your life's about to change.

Tuesday noon, you have to give this up.

OBAMA: Yes.

KING: You going to do it?

OBAMA: I think we're going to be able to beat this back.

KING: Beat this back?

OBAMA: I think we're going to be able to hang onto one of these. Now...

KING: Do you want mine?

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: My -- my working assumption, and this is not new, is that anything I write on an e-mail could end up being on CNN. So I make sure to -- to think before I press "send."

But what this has been -- what this does is -- and it's just one tool among a number of tools that I'm trying to use, to break out of the bubble, to make sure that people can still reach me, that if I'm doing something stupid, somebody in Chicago can send me an e-mail and say, "What are you doing?" You know? Or "you seem detached" or "you're not listening to what is going on here in the neighborhood."

I want to be able to have voices, other than the people who are immediately working for me, be able to reach out and -- and send me a message about what's happening in America.

Good for you, Mr. Soon-President. Bring us into the 21st century, in yet another sense.

Quote of the Year (so far): Joe the Plumber...

... I mean Middle East war correspondent:

"I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting."

More words of wisdom from Joe

Some clerical errors are worse than others.

This is probably the worst I've seen.

Army apologizes for "Dear John Doe" letters

Where do they find these contractors? I guess I shouldn't ask.

More ex-presidential photo ops

Don't you feel nostalgic just looking at those guys? (Well, some of them, anyway...)

And a belated ball-drop moment...

Given how I've followed the Clintons' ups and downs this past year, I couldn't resist posting this cheerier moment from New Year's Eve.

New Year's Day Special: Why You Should Sleep Late

from Wired:
3 Smart Things About Sleeping Late