Jokes, not always funny

How power transforms the presidential brain - The Irish Times - Sat, Oct 27, 2012: "Three years later, at the 2012 Washington White House correspondents’ association dinner, the president continued his now famous series of light-hearted singing and jokey press outings with a warning to the Jonas Brothers band about his daughters: “Sasha and Malia are huge fans but, boys, don’t be getting any ideas. I have two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming. You think I’m joking?”

The tasteless joke about the predator drones – imagine the same joke being made about a Texas execution – was in line with the sort of decline in empathy that even small amounts of power can cause. This is not to say that Obama would have triggered nuclear war in the way many of Kennedy’s advisers would have – on the contrary, his handling of the Iranian nuclear crisis has been deft, moderate and effective, if the current Iranian economic meltdown is a measure of that."

'via Blog this'