Is King Abdullah of Jordan the American Right's new foreign hero?

[politicus]

It's unfortunate that his silly flashy antics distract people from the fact that he's still very much of a horrible person.

It is expected that an Arab leader is a HP. Being less of a HP than the average Middle Eastern HoS earns him a lot of credit. This was always the case.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

He's actually much less of a HP than even many democratic Middle Eastern leaders, like Erdogan or Mohammed Morsi or Netanyahu.

[ingemann]

I have always before the Syrian Civil War put King Abdullah into the same box as Bashar Assad, a somewhat boring, but sane person, who ended up inherite the their own country and do their best to live up their family's expectations. The main difference between the two are their power bases. Assad's power base make even a gerrymanded democracy impossible, while Abdullah power base  made increased democratic reforms possible and a way to weaken public opposition to his rule.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

BRTD I would argue Erdogan was initially ok and then went off the deep end to the point I actually consider he has gone insane.

Anyway the Hashemites are much better than say, the Sauds. Not saying much though.

[Indy Texas]

Anyway the Hashemites are much better than say, the Sauds. Not saying much though.

The Hashemites might have gone the way of the Sauds, were it not for the Sauds.

Losing the Hejaz basically forced them to cozy up to the British and remake themselves into a more cosmopolitan, Western-friendly monarchy that the British found acceptable and were willing to give Transjordan and Iraq to.

So now you've got a half-Jordanian, half-British monarch with an American stepmother and a Palestinian wife. His son and heir apparent is a college student living in the US, so it's not too farfetched to think he might marry an American woman. After a generation or two, you'll have a Jordanian king that's maybe only an eighth or a sixteenth Jordanian. It's not too far removed from the old days of grab-bag monarchies in Europe, like when Greece was a kingdom with a German-Danish royal family.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

One of my teachers today said that she thinks he might be the anti-Christ. I kid you not.

...wow

Florida is one of the few states where you can still become a teacher with just a Bachelors Degree.

Which is an example of the overcredentialization of education, among other fields.  Ideally, we'd go back to the concept of normal schools with a specialized Teaching degree rather than the current system of a fairly generic liberal arts Bachelor's degree with a smattering of education courses followed by a specialized Master's degree.  The only advantage the latter provides is giving those who leave the education profession a head start on a different career, but at the cost of several additional years spent in tertiary education, so is it really a head start?

[Famous Mortimer]

One of my teachers today said that she thinks he might be the anti-Christ. I kid you not.

...wow

Florida is one of the few states where you can still become a teacher with just a Bachelors Degree.

Which is an example of the overcredentialization of education, among other fields.  Ideally, we'd go back to the concept of normal schools with a specialized Teaching degree rather than the current system of a fairly generic liberal arts Bachelor's degree with a smattering of education courses followed by a specialized Master's degree.  The only advantage the latter provides is giving those who leave the education profession a head start on a different career, but at the cost of several additional years spent in tertiary education, so is it really a head start?

Also, why would a teacher want to switch careers anyway? Teacher is the highest paying job you can realistically get with a liberal arts degree.