I had this awful feeling, a few months into Obama’s presidency, that he had no wish to lead the nation, but to rule it. One of his minions (I can’t remember who, sorry) had actually used the phrase “when Obama rules” prior to his inauguration, but I’d excused it as a misspeak. Now, I am not so sure.
In five years of blogging, I have never called a president by anything but his name or his title. I have booted people who have tried to call past or current presidents by foul nicknames. President Obama is President Obama. But I am starting to wonder if he should not also, quite accurately, be called President Opposite. Increasingly one gets the sense that everything he does is accompanied by the hypnotic words…“what you see me doing, is not what I am doing…who do you trust, me or your lying eyes?”
The press calls it striking a delicate balance:
The Obama administration struck a delicate balance on executive pay Thursday, blaming flawed compensation packages for encouraging disastrous risk-taking but insisting it doesn’t want to dictate how corporations reward their top people.
Translation: Do you see me dictating how corporations will compensate their top people? Now, I’m not doing that…but here is what I decree these corporations will do…
Gene Sperling, a top counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, conceded to a congressional committee that imposing compensation caps on companies could lead to a flight of talent. “I can say with certainty that nobody in the Obama administration is proposing such a thing,” he said.
Translation: Yes, this is exactly what the Obama administration is proposing.
…he and officials with the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission laid out a case for how payment structures rewarded short-term gains at the expense of long-term performance and contributed to the nation’s financial crisis.
The administration plans to seek legislation that would try to rein in compensation at publicly traded companies through nonbinding shareholder votes and by decreasing management influence on pay decisions.
Remember when President Obama said he didn’t want to run corporations? He didn’t think it was the role of the government to run corporations? He just wanted to see the economy set right?
Can this brilliant, Harvard Law grad explain how-with unprecedented spending, an unprecedented and unsustainable deficit and inevitable tax increases looming before every person in the country-he is going to “fix” the economy by overseeing reductions in pay, thus decreasing the very tax base he needs to exploit, in order to sustain his spending?
My father dropped out of High School during the depression, to help his widowed mother; even though he did not have an Ivy-League education, he understood that you collect more tax revenue when people are employed and earning good money than when they are unemployed, or limited in their earnings. Good heavens, in 2006, even the NY Times had to admit that stoopit Bush and his stoopit tax cuts had resulted in high employment and such a record-level collection of tax-revenues that the deficit was being paid down a head of schedule!
Obama wants to punish the high-risk takers? Geez, that’s every parent in the nation. That’s every creative thinker who goes out on a limb, or dares to think outside the box. That’s every starry-eyed kid who dares to dream a “foolish” dream. That’s everyone who has ever looked at a problem and devised a solution. Risk has come with every great bridge, every skyscraper, every airplane, every cesspool!
Obama wants to discourage risk? That means he wants to discourage America, itself! The nation was founded on a great risk! It has flourished on great risk! It has lifted up and sustained other countries thanks to its willingness to take great risks!
Does Obama know anything about history? Does he understand that a Berlin Airlift cannot happen unless a nation has a mindset that welcomes risk and challenge? The Marshall Plan could not have evolved without risk. We would not have reached the moon without a mindset that saw risk and shrugged. We would not have toilets if a capitalist had not taken a chance, held his breath and flushed.
What sort of American president is this, who tells Americans to “stop acting like Americans? Go to sleep; stop dreaming glorious dreams!”
America has been the country millions of inventive, creative-mad people have wanted to come to because it was the country that would allow them to run with their madness, give them the freedom to take their risks, and see what they could make of their lives and their visions. Liberty demands that human people – imbued with the Divine Spark of creativity – be allowed to use their gifts, to take them as far as they can.
If we’re not supposed to take risks, if underachievers are to be penalized when their attempts fall short, then America will cease to be America, vibrant America, alive America. She will go to sleep, like most of Europe. She will offer to the world all the inventiveness, joy and wonder we see offered by Cuba, the old USSR, sad old England, and worn-out France. But it will be a terrible sleep, without the dreams.
A while back I wrote:
America’s honor is no illusion. Imperfect as it may be this is still the land to which – in large or small ways – every free nation owes its current liberty. This is the nation that has routinely sent its idealistic young men off to foreign lands, to die there, not for empire, not for real-estate, but for the protection and advancement of that unseen thing that is freedom, the strengthener of the human spirit, the burnisher of human potential. First Children and their motley co-horts aside, this is still the nation to which millions of creative or industrious people wish to come, it is the nation to which the oppressed call out for rescue and relief.
Obama said he wanted to bring “hope” to America. He kept using that word; I don’t think he understood what it means. What President Opposite is offering is the opposite of hope:
When folks feel good about what they are doing, when they feel like they have some control over the direction their lives take – they have hope. And hope is not simply a feeling. Hope says, “awake, O Sleeper, arise from death!” Hope is the builder of bridges, the tamer of winds, the harnesser of ideas and possibilities. A poor man with hope is immeasurably richer than a wealthy man without it, because he carries within him the spark that can alight a thousand tomorrows.
By the curb, toward the edge of the flagging,
A knife-grinder works at his wheel, sharpening a great knife;
Bending over, he carefully holds it to the stone—by foot and knee,
With measur’d tread, he turns rapidly—As he presses with light but firm hand,
Forth issue, then, in copious golden jets,
Sparkles from the wheel.
– Walt Whitman “Sparkles from the Wheel”Hope sparkles from the wheel, and all possibility is contained therein. And the man who can sharpen his own knife, and teach his children that craft, will never be helpless or hungry or cast aside as worthless. He will, therefore, be at peace, and so will his house, and columnists will write about it in wonder.
I never, ever thought I’d live to see the day an American president told America to stop, just stop, being itself. The opposite of hopeful. No risks. Tight controls. The opposite of America. Weep, folks. Put your dreams away, and weep.
Mr. President – if you want to pursue a policy of “opposites” then may I respectfully suggest that you adapt the George Costanza theory. Think of whatever it is you want to do, and then…DO THE OPPOSITE. Please. It might save the nation. And your foundering and panicking and slowly awakening party, if you care.
Related:
Easing Into Exec Pay Limits
Is Obama’s Economic Maneuvering Room Already Exhausted?
The Mythological “created or saved”
The High Risk President.
AMA rejecting Obamacare (H/T)
About that Kennedy-Dodd bill…
“Smart Diplomacy”
Obama’s Gestures
The Health Care Trojan Horse
Obama misleads on Health Care
Oil Prices
Is the left scared?
Repost:
The Art of the Painless Coup
Why The Recession is Over
June 11th, 2009 | 6:29 pm | #1
Oh, dear Anchoress, he loves risk.
As long as it is the government risking your money.
June 11th, 2009 | 6:37 pm | #2
Bravo!
June 11th, 2009 | 6:53 pm | #3
I share many of your concerns. I used to consider myself fairly apolitical until 6 months prior to the presidential election. I have been troubled about Obama ever since I started learning about him.
I thought David P. Goldman’s article, “Obama and Cairo” had a very astute analysis of who the REAL Obama is. I thought it was spot on on why Obama does not think or act like an American.
Kyrie Eleison.
June 11th, 2009 | 7:03 pm | #4
Great post, I’m right there with you.
June 11th, 2009 | 7:08 pm | #5
[...] people the moon. Remember the lady who said President Obama would get her groceries? Now, President Obama is less trustworthy. It’s not that he lacks power–he controls the banks and the auto industry and now the [...]
June 11th, 2009 | 7:13 pm | #6
America gets what she votes into office. Mind you, we tend to vote based on our emotions rather than on qualifications, but political candidates grow more and more difficult to know the right things about. Partly because MSM can savage even Mother Teresa and partly because we let them.
Unfortunately, one of the failings of capitalism, because no system is perfect, is that it leaves up to the “consumer” to correct mistakes by simply withholding purchase. This strips away any sense of citizenship, which should make corrections when the American detects a wrong that needs righting.
The parental chant “In America, you could become president” sounds a little different from this side of this election.
And I’m certain someone will come along and denounce that as racist. They will completely miss that the object of that observation is not the candidate, it is the voter.
June 11th, 2009 | 7:18 pm | #7
“Can this brilliant, Harvard Law grad”
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m getting ~really~ tired of hearing how “brilliant” these Ivy League grads are, especially after watching them for the last six months make hash of Truth, Justice, and the American Way (as well as the economy).
It was the “brilliant young men” of JFK’s administration who got the U.S. into Vietnam and who exacerbated the Cold War.
Maybe what we need are fewer Ivy League alumnae and more from the Land Grant and State colleges.
June 11th, 2009 | 8:35 pm | #8
Anchoress,
“when Obama rules” comment I beleieve can be attributed to one Valerie Jarrett. From wikipedia “Jarrett is a Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama administration. Prior to that she served as a co-chairperson of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.”
June 11th, 2009 | 8:52 pm | #9
The Anchoress is on a roll the past few weeks. Some of the most reasoned writing on the web.
Many thanks.
June 11th, 2009 | 9:34 pm | #10
Sadly, Anchoress, the opposite of hope is despair. Too bad so many of the electorate bought into President Opposite’s “hope and change” because now we’re seeing the despair.
June 11th, 2009 | 9:39 pm | #11
I lost count of people Obama has given power to and given them the informal title of czar. The title is informal because all these people are being given great power while skirting the need for senate confirmation. This is really scary and the Dems in Congress don’t seem to give a bleep at this cagey shredding of the Constitution. I suppose they feel “Yeh. but he’s our dictator!”
June 11th, 2009 | 9:41 pm | #12
When I hear Pres. Obama’s pronouncements, I immediately add the word “but” … much like Laura Ingraham’s But…monkey-isms.
As in:
* Do these folks (terrorists in Afghanistan) deserve Miranda rights? No. (But I’m going to Mirandize them anyway.)
* I’m not interested in running GM. (But just watch how long I do.)
* I want to reduce the number of abortions. (But I will increase funding of abortion providers both in the US and abroad — even those countries who strongly resist.)
June 11th, 2009 | 10:27 pm | #13
You need to adjust your medications.
June 12th, 2009 | 12:44 am | #14
Alexa, I’m giving the American voter the benefit of the doubt a bit here. In James Surowiecki’s marvellous book, “The Widsom of the Crowds”, he lists five conditions in which this wisdom called crowdsourcing breaks down. Voting for president is an exercise in crowdsourcing. One of these fatal conditions is homogeneity in the crowd, a condition that happens in a vacuum of private information among the crowd’s members. This happened throughout Obama’s rise to power, thanks to a fawning press corps. Contrast the situation of legions of reporters crawling around Wasilla, Alaska to the dearth of ones in South Side Chicago. This was a damning abrogation of duty by the organs of our free press which sucked the oxygen out of any wise outcome from the last election, I’m afraid.
June 12th, 2009 | 12:50 am | #15
I’d say the alarm continues in that today the White House has moved to set private salaries broadly and also to control tobacco companies.
To date we have actual takeovers of much of the following industries:
- finance
- automotive
- tobacco
- mortgage financing (Fannie & Freddie)
Real threats exist for:
- the health care providers
- the health care insurers
- any salaried white collar position (they’ve hinted moves beyond just TARP fund participants)
Of course, in each case, Obama himself has come out saying just these kinds of things:
“I don’t want to take over banks …”
“I don’t want to run car companies …”
“I don’t want to run health care …”
etc.
President Opposite indeed!
June 12th, 2009 | 1:59 am | #16
You would love to read this comment and find the video in question here:
There it is.
***
“St. Prisca
June 11th, 2009 |
You need to adjust your medications.”
And you need to get a life.
June 12th, 2009 | 2:02 am | #17
And he got the Catholic vote.
For the first time in my life, I’m ashamed to be Roman Catholic.
June 12th, 2009 | 8:21 am | #18
Oh dear, Anchoress! Please read your catechism re: the 8th commandment! So many words wasted on SHT(Stupid(note spelling!) Head Trip) What happened to all your fairness and good judgement? We have, finally, an adult in the Presidency and the pseudo-conservative sophomores can’t handle it.
Also read Matthew 12:37 about idle or unfounded words, then back to v.34 about words flowing from the abundance of the heart.
I send healing to your heart.
June 12th, 2009 | 9:23 am | #19
Good Morning Anchoress:
A very astute column! Like you, I don’t like calling Obama names, but rather engaging his ideology. However, this opposite’s matter does need to be addressed, and you have done such quite reasonably. (I am also impressed at the quality of so many responses which engage your argument in a positive manner!)
Adding to the problems of being the Opposite-in-Chief is taking on too many key issues at the same time. This I would expect from a freshman senator, what surprises me is that the former Clinton appointees on his staff didn’t better explain that he needs to take on fewer key issues if he expects any of them to be successfully resolved.
And all around D.C. you hear a common complaint of, “where are the policymakers?” Many government agencies have yet to see their political appointees (except at the highest level). So the bureaucrats continue the previous policies while awaiting new instructions. Obama can make all the claims he wants about new policies and new directions, etc., but until his people are in place, it just won’t happen. Rhetoric isn’t policy.
So into the void steps Congress. Its 535 members aren’t shy about legislating policy! So Pelosi and Reid run more of the show than might normally be expected.
Hypocrisy happens! And it is happening quite a bit in Opposite-land. My favorite recent example is this: Kurt Campbell is expected to be the point man for East Asia and the Pacific and he recently exclaimed (10 June) in his confirmation hearings how the US ignored these regions, and that has now ended with Obama [see, "US Envoy Nominee Vows To Re-Engage With Asia," link here].
BUT, as the reporter noted, “However, the administration’s Asia record hasn’t been spared criticism with observers pointing out that key posts – including Campbell’s own – have been left vacant months into Obama’s presidency.” Yep, say one thing and do (or not do) another!
June 12th, 2009 | 10:01 am | #20
Greetings Catherine:
>>And he got the Catholic vote.
For the first time in my life, I’m ashamed to be Roman Catholic.<<
No, please don’t be ashamed of being Roman Catholic. Rather, feel sad for, or embarrassed for, or whatever for the Cafeteria Catholics!
Be proud of Catholic Christians like the Anchoress and millions of others that have not put their brains on autopilot, or rather, Obamapilot.
This came up recently with regard to Notre Dame. Was I embarrassed about Obama receiving a degree at Notre Dame? No, for Fr. Jenkins is NOT Notre Dame. He is Prez. of ND, but he is not ND.
Notre Dame is a Catholic university with a long and wonderful history. This temporary aberration does not negate the good of all its students, faculty, and alums.
I am proud of the students who respectfully opposed the honorary degree by creating NDResponse [http://www.ndresponse.com/]. I am proud of faculty like Fr. Miscamble and Ralph McInerny who eloquently confronted Fr. Jenkins’ error. I am proud of alums who articulate a renewed Catholic vision of Notre Dame, e.g., Project Sycamore [http://www.projectsycamore.com/].
I am proud of the Identity Project (idND) [http://www.nd.edu/~idnd/index.html] and its Edith Stein Project [http://www.nd.edu/~idnd/edithstein/index.html] which offers a refreshingly Catholic view of women and men, and has a great annual conference that I recommend all of you to attend [e.g., link here].
Individual Roman Catholics have done many foolish, even evil things over the centuries (look at St. Peter — wow, did he ever mess up before he got his act together!). But they do not define Roman Catholicism, other than our Church is made up of great sinners and great saints (and little sinners and little saints), and often they are the same person.
Roman Catholicism allows for this as it is made up of humans exercising free choice, but it still offers the best path to salvation — a path that some will choose, and some won’t.
June 12th, 2009 | 10:20 am | #21
I often comfort myself with the fact that my ancestors survived the 100 Years War, the Highland Clearances, the Civil War, two world wars, and the Great Depression.
The peasants survived, no matter what.
Yet even the peasants can be driven to action when they see their land taken, their children’s future stifled, their livelihood destroyed. Especially because we have no nation to emigrate to, unlike the oppressed of previous generations, I feel the American people will eventually say”enough.”
June 12th, 2009 | 10:37 am | #22
One of his minions (I can’t remember who, sorry) had actually used the phrase “when Obama rules” prior to his inauguration, but I’d excused it as a misspeak.
During an interview last year on ABC’s This Week, Obama misspoke and used the word Muslim when he corrected himself and substituted the word Christian.
Does this means he’s actually a Muslim in disguise? Now I’m not so sure.
June 12th, 2009 | 11:00 am | #23
Catherine
Please don’t ever be ashamed to be a Roman Catholic or an American. Be proud and be hopeful because we know how the book ends and Who wins!
June 12th, 2009 | 11:20 am | #24
Actually, Dark Avenger…it wasn’t Obama who corrected himself, it was George Stephanopolus (sp?) who actually corrected him with “you meant Christian” and then BO made the correction.
I used to think that Obama was doing some of these things because he just didn’t know any better. Now, I’m not so sure but what everything he does isn’t a cold calculation. That is scary.
June 12th, 2009 | 12:13 pm | #25
Kiddie porn, crack, abortion on demand and contract killings are all products of the free market at work. Only a socialist would oppose them. It nice to see the Anchorite making common cause with the scrappy risk-takers who provide such goods and services.
[Yeah. Only bad things evolve in the free market system. That's it. And none of these things exist without the free market, do they? Yeah, that's it. Who needs freedom? Btw, some of Obama's latest ambassador appointments made their fortunes in the free markets, (car dealerships, etc). Does that make them evil? - admin]
June 12th, 2009 | 1:06 pm | #26
Yeah, he’s dictating executive pay by “…through nonbinding shareholder votes and by decreasing management influence on pay decisions.” Which is both long overdue (i.e. the SEC could have done something like this) the only way to do it.
A dictator would just say x and it would be, so I’m not sure where the “translation” comes into play.
Overwrought?
[Not overwrought. Aware. Liberty is lost in inches and increments. And when it is gone, it is nearly impossible to get back without the spilling of blood. While right cheers for right and left cheers for left, inches are lost and lost. - Admin]
June 12th, 2009 | 1:19 pm | #27
Oh dear, Anchoress! Please read your catechism re: the 8th commandment! So many words wasted on SHT(Stupid(note spelling!) Head Trip) What happened to all your fairness and good judgement? We have, finally, an adult in the Presidency and the pseudo-conservative sophomores can’t handle it.
Also read Matthew 12:37 about idle or unfounded words, then back to v.34 about words flowing from the abundance of the heart.
I send healing to your heart.
An adult in the white house, because George Bushhitler was just sophmoric? What I see is a small child who grabs for everything at the check out counter and throws them on the conveyor belt while his parents just nod ok and then pay for all those things instead of saying, NO and putting everything back where it was.
June 12th, 2009 | 2:34 pm | #28
An “adult” in the White House?
More like the Golden Calf.
June 12th, 2009 | 2:36 pm | #29
Blue Max:
Sorry, I just don’t share your optimism. Notre Shame is just that. Shame. So is Georgetown, and my own alma mater, which built a campus mosque after 9/11.
Imagine that. A Catholic university with a campus mosque.
I should say, Katholik, I suppose.
June 12th, 2009 | 3:23 pm | #30
Here’s a reason to be proud of our Vichy Church in America:
American Life League (ALL) is sounding an alarm over a potential abortion scandal involving the Archdiocese of Boston.
Celticare is a joint venture partnering the archdiocesan Caritas Christi Health Care network with another corporation, which will join Massachusetts’ subsidized health program July 1 — a program that mandates abortion. ALL spokesperson Katie Walker says the archdiocese is using an odd approach.
“They’ve hired a third-party company that will do the abortion referrals for them, as if that would somehow diminish their responsibility for it,” she argues.
[Catherine, I have already linked to the question of Catholic Health Care possibly co-operating with abortionists, and it is certainly something to question and find out about, although I am not sure it is yet time to indict. But the Church as a whole has been the consistent, foremost, unrelenting voice for the sanctity of life and the aberrations you are bound to find here or there do not in any way represent the whole or the teaching of the church, and you have no business suggesting that they in any way DO represent the church as a whole.
You're free to express your opinions here, and no the church is not perfect; it cannot be, since Jesus did put it in the keeping of faulty, imperfect Humanity. We'd all like the church to be perfect, the priests to be perfectly holy and every prominent Catholic in the world to be perfect Catholics. Since we cannot be that, we rely on the help of the Holy Spirit, and we pray to be made better. We none of us are "perfect" Catholics, and the church is bound to disappoint. She always has and will, which is why "come on in, it's awful" is both humorous and true. All of that said, I won't stand for you calling the church names, ("vichy") or "Katholik" or whatever. If the church is not a full-enough representation for you of the Body of Christ in Humanity, well, pray for it and deal with it - or find a more perfect church for yourself - but don't come here and be childish in namecalling or Kreative Spelling or whatever it is you want to do. I'm a tolerant girl, but I have my boundaries, and you're treading very close to one of them. Please rein it in. Admin]
June 12th, 2009 | 4:01 pm | #31
[...] MONEY LINKS: Oh my: NOW inducts Letterman into its “Media Hall of Shame” Obama, the Opposite of America Pop Culture vs. America: This Round Goes to Sarah Palin David Letterman: Perv Published [...]
June 12th, 2009 | 6:29 pm | #32
I’ve been reading some of de Tocqueville’s writings on soft despotism, and they strike a loud note. I leap to add, for those worried about sophomoric conservatism, that I fully recognize that the Bush administration opened the doors for at least the economic statism we’re seeing. However, Obama not only walked through the doors, he’s blown through them and started redecorating.
This quote in particular catches my eye: “It is indeed difficult to conceive how men who have entirely given up the habit of self-government should succeed in making a proper choice of those by whom they are to be governed; and no one will ever believe that a liberal, wise, and energetic government can spring from the suffrages of a subservient people.” The desire for government to save us from a looming economic storm so overcame enough of the electorate that I believe they made a very unwise choice of President. Sometimes, in fact, I still think it must be a joke. They didn’t really elect a junior senator of dubious connections and no real accomplishment for the most powerful office in the world; he who now talks about being conciliatory with other countries while dictating to one of them where their borders may legitimately lie.
June 12th, 2009 | 7:04 pm | #33
Anchoress:
Fine. I’ll leave. It seems that the Church and its members are incapable of accepting true criticism, and until it’s able to, there will be no reform.
I don’t expect a perfect church, but this is beyond the pale. Catholics supporting and voting for abortion.
If that’s not a reason for criticism, then nothing is.
[Didn't ask you to leave. Didn't tell you not to criticize. Asked you - politely - to lay off the name-calling. You should be able to give "true criticism" without that. Stay or leave; it's your decision. Admin]
June 12th, 2009 | 9:56 pm | #34
Interesting post. I would dare to say, though, that your copnclusions are very subjective. Not everyone believes that what he is offering is “the opposite of hope”- for some people, it’s the first hope they’ve seen in awhile.
June 13th, 2009 | 1:16 am | #35
This is interesting. I agree that Obama’s words and actions are contradictory. I also agree we can’t make it about right and left or just about Obama. The problem is government. We have a Constitution that specifically limits government and these limitations have been eroding under both Republican and Democrat administrations for nearly a century. Obama is merely the latest; his efforts enhanced by a complicit press. I was just as upset about the expansion of Medicare via the drug benefit and the McCain-Feingold limitation on free speech under Bush. Bush also allowed the initial creation of TARP and other interventionist actions.
The ax needs to be laid to the root of the tree. Socialism is evil, and its fruit is despair regardless of who initiates it.
June 13th, 2009 | 11:07 am | #36
Catherine Wright:
While your comments indicate support for the presidency of an individual whom I feel will become a political and economic tragedy for this country , I nevertheless find considerable value in what you say. Your comments encapsulate in a few brief words the obstinacy of your politics coupled with the all-too-familiar disdain for our previous president. And in doing so, they provoke a question that I want to ask yourself and all who think similarly; that is, what circumstance, condition or consequence would have to develop in the United States that might cause you to consider that the election of Obama was one huge mistake? Personally, I don’t think you can define any.
June 13th, 2009 | 9:55 pm | #37
Those of us who knew all of this before the election will now wait to see how long it takes for the rest of the country to wake up. You have given him 4 yrs. to trash America. Can you wait out the 4 yrs.? Irish45
June 14th, 2009 | 5:26 am | #38
@JackPrice; Maybe you should give the man more than 6 months to prove himself. My answer would be; . I’m sure there’s more.
And very nice writing of yours. Deflecting from the fact you just want to be confrontational, so you use all the big words, so after a stupid guy like me writes you can tell him he is an ignorant? Sounds pretty “elitist” or “ivy league” to me. I had to laugh.
Sorry if I’m a little off topic. I am not an US-citizen and it may not seem, but I really always loved the USA. After being the “promised land” for so many decades, the United States of America came to the point of being disliked by approx. 85% of the World. Under Bush 43 you became the bully on the playground (at least before that you were trying to appear “good”). If it wasn’t for your arsenal, most of the other countries would have kicked your “behaviour” and shut you down at least 6 yrs ago. Why do you think everyone wants to have atomic bombs now? Because everyone is tired of you bullies behaving like madmen and imposing their will on everything and everyone. But, hey, you have to sell Arms and Bibles and make your rich buddies tax-free! Your manipulation and support of the dumb and the rich is astonishing and I must say quite a feat. And now that someone is trying to re-build the bridges you curse him as a “not-american”, a softy, a socialist, a fascist, a muslim, a manchurian whatever, the anti-christ. Don’t you realize you’re just being evil and embracing ignorance? The PNAC and the big corps are playing you like marbles. You created the breeding ground for terrorists, e.g. Iraqi Al-qaeda never existed before you made it possible. Muslim kids who were going to school are now planing retribution for their little sister, instead. Terrorists are usually marginalized from society, now they’re hailed as true martyrs by more and more freightened victims of your bullying. I don’t care about islam, I don’t care about oil. I am just a white man in a neutral country with a high living standard, an army which was and will never be used, not near any fighting zone, no involvement in the war, and you still made my life worse. But it’s still nothing like living in the US or “living” in the middle east. I love Jazz, I love freedom, I love equal opportunity!, you’re loosing all of that. You’re on the way of becoming what you are fighting against. It’s still a long way, but your mindset will make it possible. I am not so arrogant to believe anyone will finish reading, I am just on a rant here, but thanks for the space and may your lives be healthy and bomb-free. Oh and btw, most of your religious rethoric, not even the pope would approve of that. If you weren’t killing people, it would be funny.
[Are you aware of this story? How do you square your Bush hate with the fact that Obama is acting unilaterally (and arrogantly) toward our Allies, to the point where he doesn't even bother telling them he's putting terrorists on their soil? Your rant is old stuff, and most of it is media-generated. Have to go to mass, but I DO wish you'd look at different templates than the ones your using, which seem to come from Michael Moore. Iraq WAS hiding terrorists (including Nedal) in Iraq and allowing terrorist training to take place there; it was not the peaceful happy land you want to claim, what with its raperooms, etc, and EVERY NATION IN THE WORLD (and even your sources) believed Iraq had WMD at the time. After 9/11, it would have been foolhardy not to go after Saddam. People forget what they want to forget. "Arrogant bully" Bush went to war with contingents from over 60 countries and went to the UN twice before he made his move. But again, this is old stuff...I've responded to it for 8 years. Go into my archives, if you want to still play this tune. I am not on the way of becoming what I'm fighting against...but some in this nation are. - admin]
June 14th, 2009 | 5:28 am | #39
Sorry bad formatting on my part;
My answer would be; If he continues to make foreign politics based on the idea that it’s the USA vs. the World / or if he attacks sovereign countries w/o approval of the UN / or if he continues to let people die in front of hospitals / or if he just mismanages his appointments to important state depts so badly that a city is almost destroyed.
June 14th, 2009 | 6:24 am | #40
Good heavens, in 2006, even the NY Times had to admit that stoopit Bush and his stoopit tax cuts had resulted in high employment and such a record-level collection of tax-revenues that the deficit was being paid down a head of schedule!
No, that is not what the New York Times said in the article you cite, nor is it what is the case.
First, understand that the term “deficit” refers to the difference between revenues and outlays, not debt. You can pay down a debt, to be sure, which mean reducing the amount of debt, but nobody, but nobody, would describe reducing the rate at which you are increasing debt as “paying down” anything.
Further, as is often the case, and as is recorded in fact, the Bush admin was simply dishonest about the projection, which turned out to be quite different than their big tall wish.
Lastly, you have a voice in a public forum, and as such, I wonder whether you feel any sense of responsibility to get your facts right, or simply feel it’s okay to say any crazy damn thing you want and the hell with the truth.
Just asking.
[Can you write a comment that is not calling people names ("crazy") or insulting them for not being sophisticated enough for you? Or implying they are lying? Just asking. Have you seen this chart? Deficit really was being paid down. Not an illusion. You do know, too, that the projected "surplus" of 2000 was adjusted down more than 30% after Clinton left office, right? Just asking. I have rules here about comments. One of them is that people in the news are not allowed to be called by ugly names, like "BJ" or "Hitler" another is that commenters must maintain the most basic of civilities, which is that they do not call people names or impugn their ability to reason. We start off on the assumption, here, that everyone is entitled to their views and to be respected for them. You can manage that, right? Please try. - admin]
June 14th, 2009 | 6:47 am | #41
March Hare writes: Maybe it’s just me, but I’m getting ~really~ tired of hearing how “brilliant” these Ivy League grads are, especially after watching them for the last six months make hash of Truth, Justice, and the American Way (as well as the economy).
It’s not just you, March. Many people perceive the world through an uncomplicated lens they were given in a fifties television show about an alien in a blue bodysuit with a big red S on the front who just wanted to help.
Seems perfectly sensible to me.
[There is no cause at all for you to insult people and imply that they're uncomplicated morons too unsophisticated to understand the value of the Ivy League when they see so many suspected idiots coming out of there - admin]
June 14th, 2009 | 11:43 am | #42
Can you write a comment that is not calling people names (“crazy”)
But it’s okay to call Michelle Obama ‘unhappy’ because that’s what you felt is the honest truth about her?
All of Mrs. Obama’s attractiveness is subsumed by an outward manifestation of an inward (and thus sincere) sort of ugliness. It made me feel bad for Mrs. Obama who sometimes seems like a most unhappy woman.
Matthew 7.1, again.
And get over your ODS, yourself.
[I re-read what I wrote and found nothing wrong or (in your words) "vicious" about it. I have been very complimentary to Michelle Obama, but yes, she often SEEMS unhappy; I did not say she looks unhappy due of one picture. I also said I feel badly for the fact that she seems so unhappy. That said, I have never called her "crazy" or "lying" or anything else derogatory. Get over it, yourself. I'm done discussing this obsessive topic with you. admin]
June 14th, 2009 | 1:08 pm | #43
Fabio:
I never said anyone was ignorant, but self-admitted stupidity is fine by me. I’m also quite pleased that elitisit rheroric provoked a response to my comments based on an evident close reading of them. Thanks, that was kinda my intent. By the way, you lost me right off with that “I’m not a US citizen” bit; I am about as much interested in a your life in another country as you are in a West Texas quinceanera.
June 14th, 2009 | 1:43 pm | #44
Good heavens, in 2006, even the NY Times had to admit that stoopit Bush and his stoopit tax cuts had resulted in high employment and such a record-level collection of tax-revenues that the deficit was being paid down a head of schedule!
All right, we’ll go over it again.
The New York Times article you cite does not claim a high level of employment. Further it is a simple fact that unemployment has moved steadily upward since, which means that you are not telling the truth. That’s one.
Further, the New York Times article you cite does not claim that revenues were at record levels; in fact, it is pointed out in the article that revenues were still lagging behind 2000-era levels, which means that you are not telling the truth. That’s two.
Further, the New York Times article you cite at no time makes the claim that the deficit is being “paid down a head [sic] of schedule”, which means, again, that you are not telling the truth. That’s three, (and yer outta there!).
Since you won’t respond to anything but a perceived insult, wrapping yourself in a warm glow of pretended civility while calling Obama a liar, I’ll give you a little rubber ball which you can chase under the couch:
Either you are are lying or you are not smart enough to read a simple newspaper article. The choice is yours, but, you must decide, Grasshopper.
Here, I’l get you started on your non-response:
[Why are you so obsessed with name-calling? Here I am, perfectly reasonable and civil, and all you can do is call me names, boo hoo hoo]
[You make my point for me. Thank you. -Admin]
June 14th, 2009 | 4:17 pm | #45
As the Devil seems to have you well in hand as a tool against Obama and his wife, I’ll do the only thing possible for a layman in my position and pray that you see the light despite the effort of the Prince of this World.
June 15th, 2009 | 5:54 pm | #46
[...] MONEY LINKS: Oh my: NOW inducts Letterman into its “Media Hall of Shame” Obama, the Opposite of America Pop Culture vs. America: This Round Goes to Sarah Palin David Letterman: Perv The Ghost of Johnny [...]
June 15th, 2009 | 6:39 pm | #47
Dark Avenger, do you see Obama as God, then, as others seem to? Your words indicate this. Otherwise, I don’t see how well-written factually based articles hurt anyone.
June 15th, 2009 | 9:11 pm | #48
Actually Dark Avenger, I think you will find that most here don’t have a concern or care all that much about the Obama’s on a personal level. The concern is over what they do and don’t stand for. Seeing your country run into the ground has a tendency to make one a bit defensive.
June 16th, 2009 | 12:11 am | #49
Dark Avenger, do you see Obama as God, as others seem to?
Congratulations, Anchoress; dopiest reader base evar!
[You include yourself in that reader base, I take it, since you're here reading and commenting? I still note you're unable to make a comment that does not denigrate others. Sad. Admin]
June 16th, 2009 | 10:26 am | #50
Sorry, where did you get that reading, or do you suspect my real name is Evan Thomas?
Seeing your country run into the ground has a tendency to make one a bit defensive.
Wow, barely in office for 6 months, but you’re willing to tell us that Obama is running the country into the ground, even though the financial bailout, the housing market crash, etc. all took place before he took the oath of office.
I don’t see how well-written factually based articles hurt anyone.
Like the one about how Michelle is ‘obviously’ so angry, based on one photo and other ‘observations by her serene Anchoress.
As Chris Vosberg noted above…………
June 16th, 2009 | 10:54 am | #51
“Wow, barely in office for 6 months, but you’re willing to tell us that Obama is running the country into the ground, even though the financial bailout, the housing market crash, etc. all took place before he took the oath of office…”
Yes, the speed is breathtaking isn’t it?
June 16th, 2009 | 11:04 am | #52
No, nutiness has no boundaries.
June 16th, 2009 | 11:12 am | #53
That’s “Vosburg.” I’m Dutch, not jewish.
Ba dump bum.
Assignation of Obama to, how shall I say this, scriptural status is the hallmark of Stormfront-type lunatics. Nobody who voted for him, or supports him, believes he is God. However, those who are convinced, for reasons they often don’t themselves understand (can’t quite accept having a nigger be the boss), that Obama is the antichrist consistently project this onto his supporters.
It’s really creepy, and well, really sick. Now that you know that this is how you are perceived by the rest of the world, I wonder if you will knock it off.
Probably not. You need to believe it, and as I often say, need is a powerhouse.
June 16th, 2009 | 11:32 am | #54
And I’ll tellya somethin’ else fer nuthin, sister.
You are proprietor of a breeding ground for psychopaths. Take a look at your comments; a really good look at your comments, and then take a look in the mirror.
Any shrink would quickly identify you as a classic textbook passive-aggressive– as you probably already know– and what you are doing here is harmful, not only to yourself, but to the reader base.
Word.
[Okay. I'm done. You and DA may talk amongst yourselves, but you've had all the attention you're getting from me. Admin]
June 16th, 2009 | 11:56 am | #55
You include yourself in that reader base, I take it, since you’re here reading and commenting?
I am a simple tourist following a link from Roy Edroso’s Alicublog site, and therefore not part of your reader base.
But you knew that, so why the bullshit?
[Actually, I have no idea who you are or where you come from, but I should have guessed. - Admin]
June 16th, 2009 | 12:38 pm | #56
Okay. I’m done.
A very wise decision. Perhaps you can continue your chosen vocation as a professional scold in a less public forum. Personally, I think you’d be totally the bomb as a knuckle-rapping ruler-wielding nun in a catholic school, but other opportunities are certainly available.
June 16th, 2009 | 12:57 pm | #57
And if you burst into laughter upon reading “knuckle-rapping ruler-wielding nun” then there may be hope for you yet.
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