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The Obama Watch
Distort Reform
Lessons in Obama illogic.
There is an old Jewish joke about the thief who was a long-time member of the congregation. Once Sabbath, after the sermon, this fellow approaches the rabbi and tells him excitedly: “Rabbi, I love your sermons. In fact, I have all your books and all your tapes. I enjoy them thoroughly.”
The rabbi humbly acknowledges the praise and is about to walk away when the fellow adds an afterthought.
“All your silver, too.”
Something like this applies to the current administration, which admires us and helps us to the point where we are almost flat broke. Much more of this adulation will leave us with nothing but our pedestal. Along with the cash we seem to be losing plenty of other valuable resources: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Another way to put it is the current crop of Democrats will neither allow us to pursue happiness nor to escape from it.
There is a rule by which to judge the long-term impact of bad periods of governmental leadership at any level. It is this: are they merely pouring junk into the vessels or are they damaging the vessels themselves? If the basic institutions built for our protection endure, we can survive episodes of mismanagement. We have tolerated excessive taxes in this country, over ninety percent of the highest incomes at one point, we have seen concerns of environment and species preservation used as bludgeons against private enterprise, we have watched as nuclear power was demonized by rank superstition, but we have emerged largely intact because our constitutional pillars firm up the superstructure. When the checks and balances themselves are cashed and embezzled, then we are in real trouble, bereft of our protective systems.
Now the Obama administration and its defenders have targeted a key bulwark of democratic society, an indispensable prerequisite for debates of policy and politics at any level. Namely, logic. It seems clear that there is a revolution against the inflexible bonds of logic. An effort is being made to convince us that logic is an illusion of sorts and a superior intellect will identify counterintuitive conclusions.
The most prominent example has been the health-care debate. How do we stop higher costs? Simple, by insuring more people. How do we get better care? Simple, by insuring more people. How do we prevent the system from overloading by having too much responsibility? Simple, by insuring more people. But isn’t adding people a way of adding cost? No, because we assume the people we add are those who will pay more than they need. But doesn’t a bigger system make delivery of care suffer? Not if some central authority determines access. But isn’t this gargantuan setup going to be unwieldy and likely to collapse? No, size is less of an impediment to order than the chaos inherent in allowing individuals to determine their own fates.
No business that had to report to stockholders and no employee who had to report to bosses would be allowed to proceed on such premises in matters affecting thousands of dollars. Yet nationally we are being guided by such assumptions in structuring the lives of 300 million people and the expenditure of many trillions.
But to me some of the smaller applications of patent illogic are more telling. The big issues are easier to shroud in wooly fluff; the distortions in simple realms are more obvious. A classic scenario emerged the other day. It seems that immediately upon the passing of the health-care bill, clinics and hospitals began to be overrun by patients expecting free services. None of these citizens across the country were aware that the entitlements established by the bill do not appear until 2014.
So whose fault is this ignorance? Obviously the bill’s backers who oversold it to naïve people, promising pie in the sky; right? Wrong, conclude the pundits. It is the fault of those who opposed the bill too hysterically, comparing it to socialism: this led the poor folks into thinking it really was socialism and they lined up to cash in. HUH?
A few weeks before that we had the survey by Public Policy Polling showing Fox News was the most trusted outlet in media. Obviously people believe other networks to be skewed to the left and Fox News to be fair and balanced as per their slogan? Wrong, concludes the president of the polling outfit: “A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most neutral and unbiased conveyors of news. But the media landscape has really changed, and now they’re turning more to the outlets that tell them what they want to hear?” Get it? They explain Fox is most trusted because it is least trustworthy.
We still have freedom of speech, I think, but how much good can be done with speaking when it is not founded on thinking?
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
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Yosemeti Sam| 4.13.10 @ 6:40AM
Logic?
Um, calling Mr. Spock - to opine!
Tomas| 4.13.10 @ 2:04PM
I am reminded of a fable called "Shrew Tody and Lizer the Miser."
Tody is a poor man. All he has in his possession are valuable silver spoons... other than that he is penniless and his large one-room family is starving.
He goes to Lizer and asks if he can borrow a silver spoon. Lizer lets him, and when Tody returns the spoon, he gives Lizer one of his spoons as well, saying, "Your spoon gave birth overnight." Lizer keeps both spoons.
This goes on until Toddy's spoons are gone. He then asks Lizer if he can borrow all his silver candlesticks, which are worth a lifetime of comfortable living for Tody. Lizer, thinking he will profit and - like the spoons - get more back, says, "Yes."
Tody sells the candlesticks for a considerable sum.
When it comes time to return the candlesticks, Tody says to Lizer, "Alas, your candlesticks died."
Lizer takes him before the court. When the judge hears the story he says to Lizer, "If you are willing to accept foolishness when it brings you gain, you must also accept it when it brings you loss."
Put your thinking caps on, kids: in terms of contemporary American politics, who is Lizer in this story? Who is Toddy?
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Dollface| 4.13.10 @ 7:09AM
War is peace, peace is war. ...George Orwell, 1984. He missed it by 25 years.
Too bad Obama, Reid, Pelosi & Co. thought it was a how-to book.
CLC| 4.13.10 @ 8:34AM
It's a COOKBOOK!
Grzmlyk| 4.13.10 @ 12:09PM
I get the reference, CLC (one of the TZ's best episodes): Bull's eye.
Pithiest and most pointed comment I've seen on this site!
Kudos.
george orwell| 4.13.10 @ 7:05PM
actually i nailed it to the year...but ronald reagan happened...he single handedly set the kooks back by a generation....
Ret. Marine| 4.13.10 @ 7:10AM
Take note of this fact, in all of recorded time of an inpending collapse of any country or nation state, those who were in charge looted the treasury of those involved. They were the ones who resorted to lies and deceptions to sell thier idea of money for nothing and chicks for free. Now consider this, what is the difference between what this current admin. is doing and the effect to the We the People when this idea comes down as a total fraud? Anyone see any differences here? I don't. Matter of fact I see a pattern here. The are selling a lie. Nothing has changed, just the players. Their motives were all the same. They lie because WE allowed them to get away with it. If We continue to allow them to lie, cheat, steal our hard earned labor, (money, liberties and freedoms) they will be emboldened to lie, cheat and steal on a larger scale, once again if We allow it.
This all started by the "won" declaring to tell the truth, "so help me God" if I'm not mistaken, right! So tell me what has he told that We the People consider to be the truth so far, I can't think of a thing. Why are We the People allowing him to get away with the lies and deceptions? Because the media tells us it's the truth? or because no-sense makes sense as this article would imply? I don't think so.
I pray someone get this house back in order before the bullets start flying in their direction and of course, they will lie once again as to the direction from which it came. The pattern is nothing new, it's an old trick, and it can be repeated again if We the People allow it to continue. Don't be fooled, that nickle holds two seperate sides to it.
ggoblue| 4.13.10 @ 7:07PM
when the bullets fly i want you near my side brother.
Mark S. MacInnis| 4.13.10 @ 9:01AM
I believe history has credited Hitler with saying, "The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it."....because these matters are somewhat complex, because the liberals have dumbed down the masses by ruining education, and because most people digest political and economic information by sound-bites and headlines, Obamites think they can get away with this. There is little room for logical complex arguments in a 5-10 word headline....we need to keep communicating our stronger case.
Alan Brooks| 4.13.10 @ 10:15AM
Then why don't you start thinking third party?-- a conservative, not Republican, party.
Richard| 4.13.10 @ 10:55AM
Because a conserative third party is, in effect, the democratic party. Are you a democrat plant, Mr. Brooks, trying to split conservatives thereby ensuring democrat victory? I have to conclude you are, at least "objectively" as the Marxists would say.
Grzmlyk| 4.13.10 @ 12:56PM
Not only that, Richard, but the way our politics all run through K Street right now and politicians on both sides of the aisle are measured by the loot they bring home, any tea party candidate would last as a conservative right up until he or she completes the oath of office.
And then it's all about grabbing as much cash as you can for your self, your reelection, your district, your state, your pet projects - whatever.
And yes, Alan Brooks is one of those libs who mistakes his intransigent naivete with wisdom.
Margie| 4.13.10 @ 9:19PM
Alan has said he will be voting for Obama. Ask him. He is one of the many, many Libs who post here who throw the word Neo-con around and say we need a third party because the Republican party is no longer any good.
However, once in a while Alan astonishes us with making complete and utter sense! You have to watch for it, but it does happen.
Right, Alan?
danfromatlanta| 4.14.10 @ 4:20PM
Why don't we? How many third party candidates have run, and how many have won? Do you like those odds? I don't! We have a third party candidate to thank for Bill Clinton. Ultimately, we have to choose between the lesser of two Weevils! Thank goodness the obamanation is the greater of any weevil in modern American history!
davelnaf| 4.13.10 @ 10:25AM
There is currently an escalation of negative language being applied to what Obama is up to. A few months ago he was America’s first “post-American” president; but as his ideological inclinations take him farther and farther away from the mainstream he is being described as “America’s first anti-American president.” Dems can dismiss such talk as racist, bigoted, whatever, but voters will hold them as responsible parties in aiding and abetting Obama as much as the hacks that directly work for him. Will they try to repudiate Obama once his one term as president is over? Anything is possible with these people.
White BikerTrash| 4.13.10 @ 10:28AM
Alan Brooks,
I agree with you to a point. We do need a third party!!
History shows that a third party splits the vote of any political group and kills the chance for an ideological win!
So the third party we need is the American Socialist Party, or maybe the Democratic Socialist Party!
I am donating and hope that they run strong candidates, to the detriment of the Democratic Party!!
old white guy| 4.13.10 @ 11:01AM
a third party will not fix anything. in canada we have three parties and a couple of fringe parties and all have a socialist bent.
1FreeMan| 4.13.10 @ 11:54AM
This is the second time an idiot like you has sugested a third party on this site in the last week.
You have your third-wheel party already. The loosers are called "libritarians" and they are just about as important as the city dog catcher.
please go back to HufPo where you came from. We need to strengthen the party we already have (kicking the pederasts and dishonest RINO's to the curb in the process) and re-install the Constitution.
No third party!
No Constitutional Convention!
No Socialist adjenda!
Curtis Rasmussen| 4.13.10 @ 5:50PM
I think trash is ripping on the idea of a third party....
kjfs2| 4.13.10 @ 10:33AM
Come on, people, self promotion is as human as egotism (something we all share to some degree), and, in the case of name recognition, as important as eating. Can any of you name a single politician, writer, sports figure, actor or actress, media darling, and the like, chi straightener buy now who DIDN'T indulge in a bit of self-promotion?
Bob Miller| 4.13.10 @ 11:06AM
The policy question the typical politician asks is "what's in it for me?"
It's not that they don't think; it's that their thought revolves around this question.
In the mid-1970's, I was complaining to my boss about politicians. He responded that the problem with politicians is that they're like us.
Bilwick| 4.13.10 @ 11:30AM
William Buckley once said of Eleanor Roosevelt that "her entire life was one unending war against the syllogism." By the beginning of the 20th Century--with "liberalism" becoming more and more dominated by the Neo-Marxist "New Left" of the McGovern Era; then the rise of the Feminist Left (who seemed to see reason as a tool of the Patriarchy); then the New Agey Left and the Christian Left; and now the Obamunists whose idea of a rational discourse is "You're a racist!"), along with the Stupid and/or Demented Left (many representatives of which post here) --what Buckley said of Mrs. Roosevelt is pretty much true of "liberalism" in general.
Darla in Idaho| 4.13.10 @ 12:07PM
Read some of the comments to this NY Times article about the Congress accidentally destroying their own healthcare. Apparently, the confusion in being able to interpret the new law as it applies to our lawmakers is the fault of the Republicans for opposing the single payer mandate.
Darla in Idaho| 4.13.10 @ 12:08PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04.....mp;emc=rss
Oops - here is the article
Bill| 4.13.10 @ 12:29PM
It isn't correct that Fox News is trusted because it tells people what they want to hear. Fox News doesn't put a leftist slant on everything that's reported, that's what people like.
I'm for any strategy that creates gridlock among our President, the judiciary, and legislators at the federal level. The less they do, the freer We the People are.
DontTreadOnMe| 4.13.10 @ 6:55PM
OBAMA QUOTE:
“…my administration will make all information available to the American people so that they can make informed judgments and hold us accountable”
WHERE IS YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE SIR? The time has come for the President to perform his duty to THIS country and show us his birth certificate. No certificate? Then all of these constitutional crimes go away; the czars, healthcare, all of it. There are too many questions, too many doubts and he has been dodging far too long. Where there is smoke there is fire. The more people that begin asking for the proof, the less he and the major broadcast networks will be able to ignore us as they have done with so many other issues. If there is the slightest doubt in your mind then you too need to be asking. We have let the seemingly small things go and look where that has taken us. I want to talk about it because they are in cover-up mode. It would be such an easy thing for any one of us to show our birth certificate. Why is it so difficult for him? Why does he treat this country as if he is ashamed of it? Why does he treat our allies as if they are enemies? Why does he encourage Congress to ignore the will of the people? Why did his wife refer to his home country as Kenya? Why will he not release his own school records? Why does he disgracefully bow to the leaders of other countries? Why does he admire dictators from other countries? THIS IS OBAMA’S WATERGATE. There is no need to impeach someone who is not qualified to be president. Everything he has signed, ordered, or acted upon is illegal. So I ask you Mr. President: WHERE IS YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE?
Rmm| 4.16.10 @ 9:26AM
Still kicking this one around are we. Don't remember how long ago , but there it was, a copy of O's Hawaii birth certificate, born in Honolulu. Unless of course, it was fraudulent.
non-Birther| 4.22.10 @ 5:49PM
Let's drop this one, puh-leeze! This one makes us look as stupid as the 9-11 Truthers make the left look.
http://snopes.com/politics/oba.....ficate.asp
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