{"id":6655,"date":"2009-01-20T09:30:10","date_gmt":"2009-01-20T16:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=6655"},"modified":"2010-06-26T10:50:07","modified_gmt":"2010-06-26T17:50:07","slug":"reading-the-signs-and-portents-of-obamas-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6655\/reading-the-signs-and-portents-of-obamas-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading the signs and portents of Obama’s America"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

We call it inauguration after the Romans, of course. Beginning at midnight on January 1st of each new year, the priests would take the augurs — the signs and portents — for the two new consuls, the duoviri<\/em> who would govern the Republic for the next year. The ceremony would end with a long, slow march to the top of the Capitoline hill at dawn, at the end of which the senior consul for that year would sacrifice a bull. Only then would the new consuls and the senators convene in the Curia to take up the Republic’s business for the year.<\/p>\n

And Janus, for whom January is named, is the god of doorways, presiding not just over beginnings but also endings. Today marks not just the beginning of Obama’s presidency, but also the end of the Bush era in Washington.<\/p>\n

Both Bushes, pere and fils, seemed to me to be fundamentally decent people, quite unlike the man who served between them. But Bush the younger, by being so roundly reviled as president, has nowhere to go but up from here. Someday Americans will have the fortitude to thank this man for calling Islamofascism by its true name: Evil. In the mean time, the bull is no longer his to slay.<\/p>\n

I’m less afraid of Obama than I was on election day, but still I fear for capitalism and for individualism. The good news, always, is that socialism cannot work. The bad news, always, is that millions perish in the process of discovering that socialism cannot work. Janus may well be opening the door to a renewed appreciation for classical liberal virtues, but it seems likely that the glorious light we associate with ages of reason may be found at the end of a long, dark hallway.<\/p>\n

The one hope I hold today is to be found in the photo at the top of this post: I hope that today is the beginning of a post-racial America. Everything we’ve done about race so far, for four hundred years, has been pretty stupid. I hope it turns out that electing a black president was the first Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We call it inauguration after the Romans, of course. Beginning at midnight on January 1st of each new year, the priests would take the augurs — the signs and portents — for the two new consuls, the duoviri who would govern the Republic for the next year. The ceremony would end with a long, slow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","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":""},"categories":[251,24,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-egoism-in-action","8":"category-flourishing","9":"category-group-therapy","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2932,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2932\/consider-24-the-unaired-1994-pilot-and-then-tell-us-in-detail-how-the-world-is-going-to-work-15-years-from-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":6655,"position":0},"title":"Consider “24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot” and then tell us in detail how the world is going to work 15 years from now","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I get a huge kick out of this because I remember what tech.life was like in 1994. Everyone rebelling against Barry Cunningham's pronouncements has very detailed ideas about future portents -- and each one of those ideas is almost certainly hugely wrong. See more funny videos at CollegeHumor Technorati Tags:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16661,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16661\/whotube-two-challenges-for-bloodhoundblogs-contributors\/","url_meta":{"origin":6655,"position":1},"title":"Whotube? Two challenges for BloodhoundBlog\u2019s contributors.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This site has 69 contributors, surely a propitious number. We got a lot of new software this week, including shortcodes and the Markdown markup language. Markdown is an EZ way to get to formatted text, emulating in many ways longstanding Usenet markup conventions. Chances are, if you work in it,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-22-at-12.40.52-PM.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18343,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18343\/overnight-news-counting-cranes-the-future-is-built-by-people-who-believe-there-will-be-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":6655,"position":2},"title":"Overnight News: Counting cranes: The future is built by people who believe there will be\u00a0one.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"At the time the election was stolen, I advised people to count the cranes on their skylines. They weren't there three years ago, and three years from now they'll be gone again, shunted back to Obamaville. This is practical ontology, apprehending the universe with your own senses, so you cannot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18166,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18166\/overnight-news-given-a-choice-humanity-chooses-not-to-live-without-freedom\/","url_meta":{"origin":6655,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: Given a choice, humanity chooses not to live without\u00a0freedom.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times discovered the population bomb over the weekend, so our ugly demographic portents are temporarily news. I've been talking about this for a long time, and others, notably Mark Steyn, for even longer. I can explain this in DISC terms, but the matter is plain on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18237,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18237\/overnight-news-who-will-father-the-future-guess\/","url_meta":{"origin":6655,"position":4},"title":"Overnight News: Who will father the future?\u00a0Guess…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I took back a rental home two weeks ago today, rehabbed it in twelve days and started showings for a new lease last night. That's not news, just my job. What was newsworthy for me was one touring party: Dad, mom, four kids \u2013 and if there was 18 months\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17829,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17829\/overnight-news-when-you-throw-everything-youve-got-at-your-pet-monster-and-it-just-makes-him-stronger\/","url_meta":{"origin":6655,"position":5},"title":"Overnight News: When you throw everything you\u2019ve got at your pet monster \u2013 and it just makes him\u00a0stronger…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a bunch of impeachment links, but I ditched them. If you care, you know what to Doogle. I expect I'll wait to see the highlight reel. I'm much more curious about Trump and his portents than I am watching the Senate embarrass itself some more, in any case.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6655"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12458,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6655\/revisions\/12458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}