…and a few names and this is even more relevant today than it was 46 years ago:
In Light of Some of the Reactions to the SOTU Address…
Remember this?
“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”-third world county’s corollary to Santayana’s Axiom
“Refuse to learn from history”? Heck, the electorate, enstupiated by Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind Kool-Aid, is largely ignorant of current events! As a result, de Jouvenal’s observation is not so much a warning as a description of where we are headed:
“A nation of sheep will surely beget a government of wolves.”
Still, thanks to The Zero, we now have a new graphic illustrating the thinking person’s response to his policies:
And, apparently Joe Biden wrote the SOTU address… 😉
“Birthers”?
Word from the White House–I suppose–via Robert Gibbs, The Zero’s mouthpiece,
“I think rational people have — have long ago, many when they first heard and saw the president, come to the conclusion of his citizenship.”
What’s not rational about asking The Zero to simply release his records like other politicians have? It’d cost him maybe $25 to, oh, perhaps $50 tops, to obtain a certified copy of his official birth certificate and then release it for public view. Less to release records of his college years, more than likely, by just sending his colleges permission to release records.
Instead, he and his minions have spent millions of dollars fighting to prevent release of his records. What in the world is rational about that?
Unless, of course, he has something devastating to hide.
UPDATE: on the fundamental irrationality of Gibbs’ argument, Nicole has this to say in comments:
What in hearing and seeing Obama would offer any proof that he was born in the US?
What proof indeed. The question is rhetorical, of course. Simply seeing and hearing a person is no proof of nationality or native birth. I have friends who sound like they might have been foreign-born and others who certainly look different to the great majority of Americans, but I wouldn’t adjudge them as foreigners based on appearance. OTOH, I know some Canadians who sound for all the world like North Dakotans an d look as “American” (whatever that means) as you or I.
Gibbs’ argument is not only irrational; it is stupid. And it seems no one at the presser called him on it. Is it any wonder I view the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind as completely unworthy of my attention save as a class to mock?
Oh, and that derogatory “birthers” term so bruited about by the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind? Simply a way of diverting attention from the real question: if there’s nothing to hide, why not release records at least as comprehensive as were demanded by that same Hivemind–and then lied about–of Bush II or even that his opponent in the 2008 election freely released? Why?
Rational people deserve a clear answer, not irrational derogation.
The Hivemind just cannot keep its narrative straight. Last week, Mike Evans said this:
Now, he says,
“Only this I can you tell you is 100 percent fact: that Neil never told me there was no birth certificate… I never talked to him.”
Is it any wonder that reasonable people have questions? Only the insane (or those who are highly invested in The Zero’s agenda) wouldn’t.
Politics vs. Science
Nope. Not what you think. In fact, in order to remove current political “science” from consideration this time, I’ll simply ask:
Tomato: fruit or vegetable?
True fruits are developed from the ovary at the base of the plant’s flower and contain the seeds of the plant. Botanically a tomato is a fruit.
However, in 1893, in what I view as a purely political decision contrary to fact, simply decreed the tomato to be a vegetable in order to satisfy the bureaucrappic “needs” (read that as “desires”) of tariff collectors, since fruits were exempt from a tariff on imported foods and vegetables were not.
Now, can anyone else name anything in current events that might fall into this unscientific denial of reality that is being pushed as public policy? Hmmm?
Note: I originally, and very uncreatively, typo-ed “1983” for the date of 1893 above. You would have thought I’d at least make some sort of interesting mistake, eh?Oh, well. 🙂
Putting My Eyes (and Head) Where My Mouth Is
*heh* (A follow on to About That “Literacy” Thing)
A brief discussion on Son&Heir’s naming of his new birds led me back to re-reading Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (Yeh, I’m reading it online even though I have a copy within reach of my right hand, even as I type. ;-)) I’m not really reading it in order–just skipping and cherry-picking for now out of some of my fav passages. Here’s one, from the chapter, “OF DARKNESS FROM VAIN PHILOSOPHY AND FABULOUS TRADITIONS” that makes me think of much “thought” from the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind, our wonderful *gag-spew* “political elite” and others who frame much of public discourse, from that on Anthropogenic Climate Panic to “racism”:
Nor are we therefore to give that name [philosophy–in general, reasoning to obtain knowledge of the physical world] to any false conclusions; for he that reasoneth aright in words he understandeth can never conclude an error:
Nor to that which any man knows by supernatural revelation; because it is not acquired by reasoning:
Nor that which is gotten by reasoning from the authority of books; because it is not by reasoning from the cause to the effect, nor from the effect to the cause; and is not knowledge, but faith.
Thomas Hobbes, where are you when we need you?
Silver Lining?
It’s too early (or is it?) to look for a “silver lining” to the cloud of 01-07-11’s Arizona shootings, but talk–even some limited talk by politicians, of all things!–spurred by vitriolic lies from the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind about causes of the shooting may well yield a silver lining to that dark cloud. One observation was highlighted by a reader, Don Rubottom, of a James Taranto piece,
“…all successful politicians have at least a capacity to imitate civility and compassion in a way that makes voters willing to believe them to be human.”
We would do well to take note of this observation and attempt to clearly discern the correlation between (and relationship or even causality, if any *heh*) the speech of politicians and their behavior. Sure, the other day, at the T-Shirt and Beer Bust Arizona “memorial” hosted by The Zero, da big Kenyan (Well? Wo? We don’t know and he ain’t showin’ his papers) spoke words of moderation and conciliation, mildly (Oh, so mildly) rebuking the recent Hivemind excretion of lying memes.
Well-coached, he departed only once, it seems, from the advance copy TOTUS was supposed to feed him (although I’ve not seen any report of whether that “ad lib” really was an ad lib or if it had been inserted into TOTUS’ feed into the “presidential sock puppet’s” mouth), and that was to emphasize the fact that the Hivemind’s rush to blame the shootings on Limbaugh, Palin and TEA Party rhetoric was uncalled for.
Apparently a lone adult is still on The Zero’s staff and was able to have substantial influence on the script TOTUS fed him.
So, were his parroted words sincere? Or were they just a reasonable facsimile of civility and compassion? From a contemporary leftard politician, I’m willing to accept a reasonable facsimile for now. It’s so refreshingly different, you know?
“TOTUS” for those who’ve been living on a strict Mennonite farm for the past few years, is “Telepromper of the United States”–The Zero’s external brain.
Classicism Redux
A post by Layla spurred a recollection of something I wrote (for the nth time *heh*) back in 2006:
One of the primary reasons I am a fan of Classical (and even much classical *heh*) music is not just because the music is complex, beautiful and compelling but because it is the expression of a particular ethos which our society sorely lacks.
Aside from technical matters of form, the Principles of Classicism as found in Classical Music were
- balance
- clarity
- accessibility
- expressiveness
- edification
Although two of these principles are still found in abundance in contemporary music (though not in contemporary “serious” or “academic” music, IMO) it is the lack of the others, especially the last, that has seriously harmful effects upon our society.
Keep in mind that the Principles of Classicism can be found in Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” as easily as in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It’s not the genre but the genuine artistry and teleos that makes the difference.
When the only principles of an “artist’s” presentation (I won’t call the presentation Layla displayed music or even the “artist” an artist, without the denigrating quotation marks) are expressiveness and accessibility and the presentation itself lacks any real art, all it usually has going for it is just groping for the groin. It’s not even as useful as fecal matter, as fecal matter can at least be useful in compost.
RPG for the Idle Rich
Make that, “RPG for the Dhimmicraps, Mass MEdia Podpeople and ‘The Political Elite'”.
(Note the copyright. I excerpted one pane for my purposes of 1. sticking something sharply pointed into the “debt ceiling” talk and 2. “Fair Use” of a small portion of a strip to point to the larger opus, hoping some others might get sucked into the world of the Foglios, which includes not just the strip referenced here but also Girl Genius.)
I Hate to Say “I Told You So” But…
I did. A couple of years ago (and again, three years ago), I said the economy would be getting worse and that getting out of debt, curtailing unnecessary expenditures (especially credit card “purchases”), doing all essential maintenance on properties–and person–and other such sensible things made, urm, sense in light of what we were facing at the time.
Makes even more sense nowadays, what with unemployment still growing, the Fed deliberately increasing costs to citizens for ALL goods and services by continuing to devalue the dollar, and a debt load increase in the last year on every man, woman and child in these (dis)United States of $10,000 ladled on by a spendthrift Congress that’s wasted every (borrowed–stolen from future generations!) “stimulus” dollar it’s thrown down the toilet–in just the last year alone.
Hold on folks, because the ride’s just going to keep getting bumpier before things turn around (said hopefully).
Again: get out of debt, make sure your “stuff” is in good shape (so you don’t have to buy new “stuff” or fix a hole in your roof or whatever when things are even worse off), buy what you need and stockpile essentials–paying cash.
Heck, if worse comes to even worse, that (well-guarded) stockpile of toilet paper could be worth far more than its weight in gold… *heh*
The 12 Days of Winter
*heh*