During World War II, a group known as the Monuments Men, "attempted to minimize [Nazi] damage to European monuments and architecture and then track down stolen works of art. In the end Allied Forces located more than 1,000 repositories of art, sculpture, and furniture stolen by the Nazis," a search which continues to this day. In his book entitled Rescuing Da Vinci, author Robert M. Edsel, quotes William Shirer who described Hitler thusly: I observed his face. It was grave, solemn, yet brimming with revenge. There was also in it, as in his springy step, a note of the triumphant conqueror, the defier of the world. There was something else, difficult to describe, in his expression, a sort of scornful inner joy at being present at this great reversal of fate -- a reversal he himself had wrought. This "scornful inner joy" describes Obama well. With his officious bearing and his "revenge" moment, he is the "defier of the world" as he continues his transformation of this...(Read Full Post)