The Death of an Obasm
By czs Posted in 2008 — Comments (77) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Promoted by Jeff. Again, *where* else can you get this kind of pure gold? That's what I thought.
I am having trouble fully appreciating the phenomenon that is Senator Obama. Certainly, Obama’s overpowering charisma has an amazing effect on any listener, such as spontaneous tears or quasi-erotic tingling in one’s leg. (The latter phenomenon is dubbed the "Matthews syndrome” after a man whose capacity for rational thought has been completely destroyed by the syndrome’s effects.) For me, however, any such tingling is immediately recognized and countered by my brain, which forces the nascent Obasm to a premature and unsatisfying conclusion.
Usually, my brain counters the Obasm by asking difficult and disturbing questions. For example, I will begin trembling with excitement when the senator’s magnetic voice rings out with an inspiring, “Yes, we can.” However, as soon as the leg starts tingling, my brain quashes the excitement with nagging questions: “What, exactly, is it that you think we can do? Do you really think we can afford to do that right now? Shouldn’t we take care of our other responsibilities before we start doing it? How are we going to do it, anyway? Are we going to do it your way, like always, or can we do it my way for once?” (Interestingly, my wife uses a similar tactic to quell tingling sensations. She even uses some of the same questions.)
(More below the fold...)
After hearing Obama’s speech this Wednesday at a GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, however, I hoped my brain would finally have some satisfactory answers for its persistent questions (and thus permit me to experience more of that leg-tingling goodness). Obama decided to make a tentative foray into substance, laying out some details on where he wants to take the country economically. We learned that Obama’s grand vision of the economic future is… the past. Yes, “the next great chapter in America's story” is, apparently, a manufacturing economy reminiscent of the early twentieth century.
Obama’s foray into substance begins with a description of the utopian manufacturing economy we had once upon a time, in the long, long ago:
It was nearly a century ago that the first tractor rolled off the assembly line at this plant. The achievement didn't just create a product to sell or profits for General Motors. It led to a shared prosperity enjoyed by all of Janesville. Homes and businesses began to sprout up along Milwaukee and Main Streets. Jobs were plentiful, with wages that could raise a family and benefits you could count on.
Later in the speech, Sen. Obama (with trademark optimism) shows us how this utopia has fallen apart over “the last decades”:
[One of the] major economic challenge[s] we have to address is the cost crisis facing the middle-class and the working poor. … It's the result of skyrocketing costs, stagnant wages, and disappearing benefits that are pushing more and more Americans towards a debt spiral from which they can't escape.
The contrast is beautifully rendered, as always – the old, unionized manufacturing economy offered “plentiful” jobs, wages to “raise a family” and benefits “you could count on,” but the modern, post-union service economy offers nothing but “stagnant wages,” “skyrocketing costs,” and “disappearing benefits.” Obama punctuates the message with some of his trademark inspiration, assuring the audience that the change in our economy is “pushing more and more Americans into a debt spiral from which they can’t escape”
(I am excited to see that Obama not only lent substance to his economic vision, but also rhetorically surpassed President Reagan himself. After all, Reagan only had the courage to ask us, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Obama has the nerve to go well beyond such short-sighted thinking. “Not only are you worse off than you were four years ago,” says Obama, “you are worse off then you were nearly a century ago.” It don’t know if this rhetoric is hopeful, but it is definitely audacious.)
Obama’s inspirational rhetoric of America’s decline put the tingle back in my leg – and oh, was it good. Unfortunately, my brain was not satisfied, and started picking away with typical Washington-style cynicism (also called “research”). In 1919, the year in which “the first tractor rolled off the assembly line” at the Janesville plant and ushered in the apex of the American economy, the average wage for automobile workers was $0.67 per hour. This equates to an annual salary of approximately $14,000 in today's dollars.
When my brain discovered this, there was hell to pay. “So,” asks my brain, “Is Sen. Obama stating that we were better off in the economy of the early 1900’s? Is $14,000 a year is a wage ‘that could raise a family’? Did 1919 auto workers have ‘benefits you can count on?’”
“No,” I argue to my brain, “Sen. Obama could not be that dense and disingenous. He went to Harvard Law!”
So my brain gives Sen. Obama the benefit of the doubt (as so many do, these days) and assumes that he was actually referring to a later, more prosperous era of the American auto worker. After all, the brain notes, by 1959 the UAW had raised the wage of the auto worker to $2.66 an hour – a salary of $39,000 in today's dollars. That is a wage that could arguably “raise a family” and a job with “benefits you could count on.”
“See,” I say, “Sen. Obama wants to bring the auto workers back to this golden era, before the stagnant wages and skyrocketing costs caused by the Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest and Cheney’s subsidization of corporate greed!”
My brain responds quietly, pointing out that today the average line worker at GM makes $60,000 a year and is granted a staggering array of benefits. “In fact,” states the brain, “we haven’t moved away from some golden era of ‘shared prosperity.’ Auto workers are paid far better now than they ever were.”
“But”, I stammer, “maybe the workers are doing better, but the fat cats that own GM are taking more than their share. Obama said so in the speech: the new economy is one where ‘only a few prosper’ and we need to return to a ‘shared prosperity’ by restoring ‘balance and fairness.’”
My brain responds that that GM lost $2 billion dollars in 2006 and $39 billion in 2007, and asks what profits, exactly, the fat cats should be sharing. “Maybe,” my brain asks, “Obama thinks workers should take pay cuts to help offset the losses. After all, he does talk about ‘shared sacrifice.’”
At this point, my leg stops tingling.
Sensing an opening, my brain goes in for the kill: “The truth is,” sneers my brain, “this is nothing new. Democratic candidates from Teddy Kennedy to Gary Hart to Mike Dukakis have tried to prop up the old manufacturing economy, with its promise of lifelong employment at comfortable middle-class wages. They largely succeeded in their short-term goals, bolstering the unions, increasing wages regardless of corporate performance, and ensuring job security regardless of the quality of the work.”
“But you can’t create a quality product with a government mandate, you can’t unionize workers into productivity, and you can’t regulate an industry into competitiveness. So, the quality of the American auto product declined and the industry lost whatever competitive edge it had. Declining revenue, exacerbated by the burden of oppresive union contracts, eliminated industry profits, and when the profits left, the jobs left with them. The truth is, we simply can’t sustain or create jobs in this country unless we sustain and encourage the profits needed to fund those jobs.”
I know there is a comeback to this. I heard it in Obama's speech. Suddenly, I remember the counter-argument. “Yes, we can,” I proclaim proudly.
“No, you can’t,” my brain sighs.
I had nothing more, and my Obasm died right on the vine - foiled by the pesky logic my brain insists on applying. Obama rightly attacks such logic in his stump speech, referring to it with derision and disgust as “the politics of fear.” However, until my brain can see fit to join Obama's movement and abandon the failed philosophies of the past (i.e. logic and evidence-based argument), I guess I’ll just have to keep taking cold showers and thinking about John McCain.
That will take the tingle out of anybody.
You write: "The latter phenomenon is dubbed the "Matthews syndrome” after a man whose capacity for rational thought has been completely destroyed by the syndrome’s effects."
This presumes that Matthews ever actually had some capacity for rational thought.
I have never seen any evidence that this was the case.
he did, but it disappeared somewhere in the 2000-2002 time period. It's been gone a while. I enjoyed his show in the 1990s.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
Zowie! Outstanding first entry. Welcome to the community.
The "Third Worst Person in the World" and aiming higher.
I might have to link to it at my blog.
I have never experienced even the "t" in tingling when hearing the O. I envy you. ;-)
You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
Easily recommended, and looking forward to reading more of your stuff.
--------
After the 2006 elections, al Qaeda released a statement saying they were happy Democrats won. That should tell you all you need to know.
Enjoy.
"Glory is not a conceit. It is not a decoration for valor. Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely and who rely on you in return."-Senator John McCain
There has never been anyone that could put it as clearly as he could.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
of an old Quaylism that our "friends" on the left once used to deride our former Vice-President:
"We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward."
When selected as Vice President, J. Danforth Quayle had eminently more experience by a factor of 3 than his next door neighbor, Obama.
I like this term, "Obasm". It's payback time.
I am only sorry that the electorate won't hear about it and the MSM won't air it. Our election process has degenerated to a fluff and fold contest where the pretty person wins. The electorate doesn't want the truth. They are extremely superficial. They don't think past a thirty second sound bite. Trying to tell them what you just told us is like trying to teach a pig to sing.... The bottom line is if McCain can figure out how to LOOK GOOD, he can win. I wish it were different.....
You keep this up and you will be a must read.
Fighting for conservatism one day at a time.
The Chad
"Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream." ~ Rush Limbaugh
I still think Urkel will be easier to run against than Hillary. Sure he has the young, clueless kidz gawking all over his empty yet uplifting speeches. But in a general election, he'd be roadkill. Urkel is not a proficient debater, either.
Ideally, we have an ugly Dem convention, and Urkel limps out of it the winner.
HTML Help for Red Staters
"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
In the next installment, you need to talk about how that tingling in the leg has led to such a state of paralysis that people earning $60,000 a year are barely middle-class in this country -- not because $60k a year isn't a lot of money, but because of the money we waste -- the enormous, overwhelming tidal waves of money that we collect and simply pour down the rathole every year to fund
1) The various and sundry government(s)
2) A broken health-care system
3) A system of higher education run by liberals whose cost is going through the stratosphere so fast that the cost alone is going to stop people from attending college.
In fact, for a family of four living on the East Coast, $60,000 isn't even really middle class any longer, it's scraping by, if that. We've created a "bankruptcy industrial complex." Obama is only going to make it worse.
Great post, but there's sooooo much more here to explore.
Support the Patriot Post | Defend Liberty - Join the NRA| Visit me at TMR
example 1: a postage stamp in the 1958 cost 3 cents; today's cost is 41 cents - 1,266% inflation;
example 2: a gallon of 90 Octane full-service gasoline cost 18 cents before; today it is $3.05 for self-service - 1,870 % inflation;
example 3: a house in 1959 cost $14,100; today's median price is $213,000 - 1,400% inflation;
example 4: a dental crown used to cost $40; today it's $1,100 - 2,750% inflation;
example 5: an ice cream cone in 1950 cost 5 cents; today its $2.50 - 4,900% inflation;
example 6: monthly government Medicare insurance premiums paid by seniors was $5.30 in 1970; its now $93.50 - 1,664% inflation; (and up 70% past 5 years)
example: several generations ago a person worked 1.4 months per year to pay for government; he now works 5 months.
And in the past, one wage-earner families lived well and built savings with minimal debt, many paying off their home and college-educating children without loans. In your own words you said the worker made $60,000 which would be about $28.00 an hour which is about 1,075% Raise which is even lower than the Inflation on a Stamp, so if your point was that Inflation has outpaced salary wage increases you would be correct.
Other Food for thought.
For 150 years America experienced relatively stable consumer prices, but in the last 50+ years prices have soared. Today's inflation is highest in 15 years. What happened? Why do we pass on to young families and youth a currency which has lost 89% of its purchasing value? Should we not provide annual rates of inflation of less than 1% as was achieved in the past, when family incomes consistently zoomed upward with one wage-earner per family - - and more mothers had a real choice to stay home and raise the kids? Should we accept statements that inflation is "under control" when nothing basic has changed to restrain the banking system from creating money and debt out of thin air, meaning the dollar's internal value may drop another 58% before our infants are out of college - and decrease by another 89% before they reach retirement age? Why do we have a government mandating inflation protection via cost of living adjustments for the incomes and medical insurance of government employees (federal & state/local) - - while many, many families pay extra taxes to provide that protection for others with no such guaranteed protection for themselves? Should we be proud today's families pay a higher share of their incomes on all taxes than before? Should we be proud that inflation in housing prices has caused the highest percentage debt load on families in history? Should families be proud to take the 'buying power hit' caused by the fact today each working person must now support 3 times more state & local government employees than before, in addition to supporting more seniors per capita? Should we feel good about future prospects when the nations money supply has been driven up at rates 2-3 times faster than economic growth and much faster than that of our major trading partners, meaning more and more debt creation and more trade deficits are needed to support a dollar of growth? Should we 'feel safe' accepting official cost of living index reports when we know measurement criteria were dramatically revised during the 1990s to minimize same, plus recognizing that the CPI does not include cost impacts of government and taxes - - the largest spending component in the entire economy - - and does not reflect manipulated asset bubbles in stocks and real estate, or home prices?
Sorry to burst your price stability bubble. That was true in the 1700's, 1800's and the last century as well.
I am certain you will retaliate with the Republican party is just a conspiracy by former members of the Whigs to perpetuate the fleecing of America.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
First off i am going to vote for McCain secondly i worked on his Campaign in 2000 and have donated money this time around and will probably work for his campaign this time around too.You are aware i did not defend Obama. You are aware that those are facts weather you are anyone else in the US wants to believe it. I hope you are aware that this country can no longer maintain its current path of tax, borrow, and spend. I also hope everyone is aware that since 1913 1,929% Inflation. http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/Long_Term_Inflatio...
According to the calculations of the Census Bureau the average "real weekly wage" [i.e. wage adjusted for inflation using the "consumer price index"] has fallen by 14 percent between 1970 and 1996. Meanwhile real G.D.P. has increased from $3.771 trillion in 1970 to $9.817 trillion in 2000.
In 2001 the Department of Labor C.E.S. measured the average expenditure per person in the poorest quintile of households to be equivalent to the average expenditure per person in a median income household in 1976. What i am saying is that we have problems in this country for working families. Is there an easy fix No I think it is are obligation to try and fix it.
You have to remember that interest compounds it is not simply additive. So a 6% rate over 70 years results in a larger increase than 420% much larger
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Due to the nature of time travel, you won't actually be able to change the past, which includes (in your case) being in on the ground floor of Microsoft and so on. You have to leave now, so no loading up on anything, no quick visits to the doctors, and certainly no trade goods. I can spot you a thousand bucks with the right serial numbers, though. That should last you long enough to get you on your feet. Shall we drop you off in that wonderful earlier world of yours?
You'll get back to me?
Thought so.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
To whom it may concern,
I am interested in your 1958 time travel internship as advertised on Redstate. I would like to experience pre-hippie influenced culture and would also like the $1,000 dollars. Due to some ill-advised "career" choices I will not be making much cash over the next year or so and would use this chance to escape to the past to the fullest extent possible.
Also, I promise to vote for Goldwater.
I hope you'll consider me for your time travel internship,
Addison.
...of various and sundry musical acts. Record 'em, stick the recordings in a vault, wait fifty years, rake in the dough.
But you see my overall point. :)
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
That was a cruel trick to play Moe. I could use $1,000.
PS: I wasn't making any point against your point with my comment at all. The past is the past, it can indicate trends, perhaps, but "golden ages" defined by modern folk with agendas are useless to pretty much everyone. I agree with you that most people wouldn't want to travel back to the supposed wonderful age of working American man. I mean, now is pretty ripe with possibility and importance, looking backward with nostalgia seems pretty pointless.
...would read this, invent a time machine, and drop it off in exchange for me investing in a couple of stocks for him/her. Then I'd go back to 1958, go see Buddy Holly in concert, and try (futilely) to convince him to take the train.
If you want to go, I was planning to charter a bus.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
- Why do we pass on to young families and youth a currency which has lost 89% of its purchasing value?
Here's an idea: don't hold your wealth in the form of currency! Get some out of the ATM and spend it within a couple of weeks. That's what I do. That way, I don't lose 89% of my savings in 50 years. My savings are in things that pay interest. Did you know that over long periods of time, the interest on savings is roughly the rate of inflation plus 3%? If you were so wise that you hid your savings under your mattress in the form of currency for the last 50 years, you got hosed, big-time, and it's no wonder you're pissed. Know what? You deserved it. That's what you get for hoarding capital in places where it isn't doing anyone any good. Say hi to Ron Paul for us.
Drink Good Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead.
but how about those on Retirement or SSI. Cost of Living raise went up 2.3% while inflation was at about 3% lets see they are doing real good maybe a couple of more years and we will let them even out.
are you talking about? Social Security is pegged to the Consumer Price Index which overstates inflation.
How is RonPaul!RonPaul!RonPaul! doing?
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
was changed in the 1990 right... CPI does not include cost impacts of government and taxes - - the largest spending component in the entire economy - - and does not reflect manipulated asset bubbles in stocks and real estate, or home prices?
in awhile, so I don't know how it handles taxes, but it definitively does include shelter costs.
In Vino Veritas
older workers or retirees. CPI-U, the usual index, measures a "market basket" of products and services and compares its prices over time. That's all it does. It does not measure inflation, though it can give some indication of inflation as well as of higher values not related to inflation. It does not measure or even indicate the effect of the changes in prices on any person but rather some abstract person who would be purchasing every single item in the basket every measurement period, e.g., bought a new house or changed apartments every month, bought a new car every month, replaced all the measured consumer goods in their home every month.
High seniority workers and retirees will presumably have homes either paid for or ownership costs pegged long ago. They will have fully furnished homes and only breakdown, desire, or technological change, not pressing need, will cause them to purchase new consumer goods. Consequently, the market basket measured by the CPI-U is relevant to older workers and retirees principally only for the food, fuel, medical care, and tax components.
In Vino Veritas
As you might have guessed, there is a fundamental flaw in your argument: you ascribe an intrinsic value to money.
That leads to you become alarmed when you observe that nominal prices for the various things that people buy have increased over decades of time.
But money has no intrinsic reality. It's nothing but computer blips. We invented money in order to have a way of measuring things that actually do have value: the goods and services that we all create through our own labor, and also by the productivity improvements that arise from taking risks with our accumulated capital.
You need to reconsider your inflation argument in terms of measurements that are actually meaningful in people's lives: how much material well-being can you actually acquire in return for the ten or twelve hours that you work every day?
Look at the average size of the houses people buy today for $214,000. Generally speaking, they're far bigger than what your grandparents bought for $14,000 in 1958.
Look at the toys kids play with. In 1958, kids could buy Spaldeens and Hula hoops with their allowance, a new baseball was a major investment, and they wore their older siblings' hand-me-downs. Today's kids feel ill-used if they don't get expensive new clothes, a new cell-phone every six months, and bags of expensive electronics at Christmas and birthdays.
And speaking of kids: they're fat these days. That goes to the most basic and critical measure of macroeconomic success: caloric intake.
Don't measure the counters we use to do our trading. Measure the value of what we produce and consume.
I know a project that you'd be perfect for. :)
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
That was quite a bit of "food for thought," and I am notoriously slow in thought-digestion. However, in response to your examples for inflation on individual items, I can provide the data sources for the wage and inflation data contained in the post.
The data on auto workers' wages in 1920 and in 1959 came from the National Bureau of Economic Research's 'Macrohistory' database. The average salary for the current decade was something I just grabbed from a quick Google search, specifically an article posted on National Review Online that was, I believe, orignally published in the Detroit News.
The inflation data (the source for the "today's dollars" equivalent of past wages) was taken from a composite CPI series created by Lawrence H. Officer of the University of Illinois, Chicago. The white paper describing the derivation of the CPI series can be found here.
Hope this helps, and thanks for the comments!
excellence here?
What a long diary to say what would fit in a reply.
Yes we know Obama's a panderer and is spouting empty promises to all and sundry. Yes we know the dem's say they want to go back to some glorious era (usually when they were the prime political force in the country). Yes we know they are panderers of the first rate. All your points are correct and well said but to receive the accolades you're getting for this has caused me to rethink the level of critical thought here at Redstate.
It seems to me that serious discussion of the underlying problems facing this country and the real threat to our safety comes from those who are being sedated by empty promises and socialist rhetoric is more important than gathering around and oohing and aahing over the latest scrivener promoted to the front for who know what underlying reason.
This is thin gruel for such praise.
__________________________________________________________
"The Constitution is not a suicide pact". Justice Robert H. Jackson
It's a teriffic shoot-down of doubleplushopechange while being funny. Lighten up.
HTML Help for Red Staters
"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
__________________________________________________________
"The Constitution is not a suicide pact". Justice Robert H. Jackson
HTML Help for Red Staters
"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
The article is an amusing and well written read. Neil (or another frequent poster, I'm too lazy to go back and look) argued recently that the reason Conservatives have done poorly over the last several years is not because our ideas are not excellent - they are, not because they wont fix this country- they will.
Rather, we are suffering because...we are dull and uninspiring in how we present our solutions. I agree.
Yes, the OP could have written a succinct, serious summary of why Obama is an empty pandering skin suit...and it would have been a boring, uninspiring read.
He did a good job, there's nothing wrong with patting him on the back.
If you still want to chew on sour grapes, consider that a lot of folks here are probably just responding positively to a rare post that doesn't excoriate McCain/Rudy/Romney/Huckabee/Paul as Liberal devils incarnate who are all going to sell us down one or another river if they get our vote.
It IS time for folks here to move on to more substantive articles, like the ones that drew me here in the first place. However, a few weeks of the kind above would be a good transition away from the constant primaries sniping that has driven so many good contributors away.
The greatest single cause of Atheism today is Christians who profess Jesus with their lips & then go and deny him by their lifestyle. That's what an unbelieving world simply finds..unbelievable -Brennan Manning
__________________________________________________________
"The Constitution is not a suicide pact". Justice Robert H. Jackson
school system has done you a dis-service.
__________________________________________________________
"The Constitution is not a suicide pact". Justice Robert H. Jackson
There's a long list of former RS user IDs. They were banned for various and sundry reasons (trolls, moby's, RP worshipers, couldn't follow the rules, etc) but nearly all of them shared one thing in common: they went out of their way to be an a** to others.
I sense your time at RS may be brief if you continue being juvenile.
The greatest single cause of Atheism today is Christians who profess Jesus with their lips & then go and deny him by their lifestyle. That's what an unbelieving world simply finds..unbelievable -Brennan Manning
We only praised this one because we didn't have one of your opuses to ooh and ahh over.
Get crackin'.
__________________________________________________________
"The Constitution is not a suicide pact". Justice Robert H. Jackson
__________________________________________________________
"The Constitution is not a suicide pact". Justice Robert H. Jackson
Robert Hahn's comment was an ad hominem attack?
Uh, no.
He doesn't attack you personally in an attempt to discredit your argument (the essentials of an ad hominem attack). His comment, though snarky, is factual: He pointed out that you've written nothing for others to praise.
You on the other hand, responded to my post with an slur of my education (of which you know absolutely nothing) without addressing anything written in my comment (therefore meeting the essentials of an ad hominem attack).
Please review the following:
Go away. RS deserves better.
The greatest single cause of Atheism today is Christians who profess Jesus with their lips & then go and deny him by their lifestyle. That's what an unbelieving world simply finds..unbelievable -Brennan Manning
The greatest single cause of Atheism today is Christians who profess Jesus with their lips & then go and deny him by their lifestyle. That's what an unbelieving world simply finds..unbelievable -Brennan Manning
Well, Jakee, the quality of any piece comes not just from what is said, but from how it is said as well. And he said it very well.
The "Third Worst Person in the World" and aiming higher.
You have effectively taken apart, and exposed the lack of intellect in, Obama's argument about where we now are as opposed to where we once were. That you were able to do so with so much wit and humor made it an especially enjoyable read.
I'm not sure what jakee308 was looking for, but I found it in your blog. Please continue contributing.
jakee308, how about posting a blog of your own that will elevate
the level of critical thought here at Redstate.
__________________________________________________________
"The Constitution is not a suicide pact". Justice Robert H. Jackson
Reread the blog and you will see that there is substantial critical thought included with the wit. You seem put off by the humorous aspects, but if you examine the blog you will find a well-reasoned argument against Obama's fallacious claims.
...that the primary conflict is between the heart and the brain.
The answer is simple. Just disengage your brain, as so many of his followers have already done.
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. - Frank Zappa
Interestingly, my wife uses a similar tactic to quell tingling sensations. She even uses some of the same questions.
Hey, maybe that should be McCain's answer whenever Obama proposes one of his new Federal spending programs:
"Not now, Obama. I have a headache."
That is hilarious! Obama is certainly being built up big right now & there is not much substance to back it up - & what is there isn't that attractive. Kinda like the gorgeous woman who knocks your socks off early on but lack of knowledge about economic realities & practicing Santa Ria really dampen the enthusiasm quickly...
I enjoyed your thoughts and the presentation of your thoughts was humorous. I think you are dead on. Unfortunately, the dems are given a free pass by the MSM when it comes to the things they say. Substance, facts, details just get in the way of a good story for our liberal media.
I get very depressed with with our current political situation. However it is hard to be upset with the masses. Most voters today grew up with a media that we trusted to present the facts. Voters believe what the MSM spoon feeds them and has no reason to go research the facts for themselves. Unfortunately, the MSM is only serving a buffet of liberalism with a desert cart of socialism. It all tastes great until you realize what you have just been fed and see how much the all you can eat free buffet really cost you.
I am anxiously awaiting an awakening of the good American masses with common sense to understand that empty speeches and promises that cannot be filled is not enough to keep voting for the Dems.
As a conservative base we need someone like Reagan that can get out the message of personal responsibility and stop this epidemic of government stepping in to "solve" everyones problems.
I know what Obama was talking about, and so do the workers he addresses in his speech.
What those old unionized jobs gave the workers was security: job security (union contracts made it more difficult to fire workers); health care security (generous health care benefits); and retirement security (guaranteed pensions).
Those guarantees have now disappeared. Unlike unionized employees, salaried employees in non-union jobs can be fired at will. Employers have cut back on health benefits, replacing old fee-for-service health plans with more restrictive HMOs. And most serious of all, the guaranteed pensions have nearly disappeared, replaced by 401(k) and IRA plans that require every worker to become a stock market guru, with all the personal financial risks that come with stock market investing. Yes, you can do very well in the stock market. But you can also go bust; the NASDAQ declined 78% in the 2000-2002 bear market.
In short, today's workers have more income, and more opportunity. But that comes with greatly increased financial RISK. That doesn't matter as much to younger workers who are just starting out. But to an older worker who has a family to support, kids in college, a mortgage to pay off, just been diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease, and is trying to put down roots in a community rather than moving from place to place to chase the next lucrative job, increased risk is troublesome.
would probably provide more of the security you seek than our capitalist system.
Woe is me. I have to think about my own retirement planning. I might actually have to take risks.
You want a nanny-state, not a capitalistic society.
Obama is trying to advocate the best of both worlds, the economic prosperity that free enterprise brings and the "security" that socialism promises.
But no nation in the history of human beings has been able to enjoy the benefits of both systems simultaneously. As the author of this post mentioned, "the good old days" featured lower living standards, less access to health care and more time at work, less time with the family.
Obama might be able, however, to fool 51 percent of the voters.
then find a job that won't force you to. I know that sounds easy but it is also not easy for Corporations to guarantee certain wages and Benefits when you factor in the effect of competing in a Global marketplace. Corporations must make a 'Profit' regardless of what the Socialist think. If you want to 'Share in those 'Profits' the buy shares in that Company.
More Government involvement in providing more for the worker at a Company's expense will only guarantee less jobs or no jobs in the long run.
Truly excellent writing - a delight to read.
And ignore the naysayers; there is plenty of substance to this diary too.
I'd like to thank you for all the recommendations and positive comments for my first-ever blog post. Difficulty in acheiving Obasm is not an easy subject to discuss publicly. Even in this day and age, many folks cannot address the subject maturely- implying that Obasmic problems are always caused by an inadequate endowment of compassion or obsessive envy of Obama's poll (sp?) strength. Given these common reactions, I am overwhemled by the warmth and support the Redstate community has shown for my open confession of this problem.
With your help, I believe we can reach out to the millions who suffer from Obasmic impotence in silence. Our youth, especially, need to know that one can lead a joyous and fulfilled life without ever experiencing this cheap form of gratification. Alternative lifestyles, such as self-reliance and critical thinking, have allowed millions of individuals to enjoy peace and prosperity while staying Obama-free.
To be fair, we should also help inform the public about the array of treatment options for those who insist on experiencing the Obama phenomenon. There are a mutlitude of choices on the market - barbituates and other depressants, prolonged exposure to MSNBC, or any other approved method of supressing higher brain function. Remember, however, that use of these treatments is not without risk. If you experience an Obasm lasting more than four hours, you must seek medical treatment immediately, as this symptom could be indicative of liberalism - a serious political disorder.
Anyway, thanks again for all the comments, recommendations, and support.
obsessive envy of Obama's poll (sp?) strength
And, regarding the previous phrase, are you sure you didn't mean "compression" instead of "compassion"
it sounds like thinkers much older than Teddy Kennedy, and more like Karl Marx. Once I get some more research done I will do a post on it, but in fact, much of his economic related rhetoric is really no different than the class warfare that Marx used to sell communism.
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor
or whatever we call it nowadays... Witty, with "just this side of ribald" humor that makes a great point. Obama reminds me somewhat of a Dilbert character, a guy who comes in from "headquarters" with great ideas to make everyone happy & do everything good - of course, ideas that don't work in the real world.
pointed out that Obama's victory for his Senate seat was against Alan Keyes, something that was never going to be difficult to do because, among other reasons, Keyes was (unfairly) seen by many as nuts and (fairly) seen by others as the same kind of carpetbagger that Hillary was in 2000. He might pull off this election but of course, nobody today knows how he'll do in the long haul.
It reminds me of http://youtube.com/watch?v=mVh75ylAUXY Which is where I got my signature.
"When someone preaches disunity, tries to pit us against each other through class warfare, race hatred or religious intolerance, that person seeks to rob us of our freedom and destroy our very lives. And, we know what to do about it..."
In teh same vein, this is kind of funny read from a young liberal. I hope the kool aid wears off this after he is nominated
The problem with Obama is that he taps into the greedy side of humans. The "What can my country do for me" side.
He talks about hope and change yet talks about how we are getting screwed over.
Liberalism is the lazy-man's politics.. quote me on that. We need government to do everything for us no matter the cost. Obama is running on EMPTY promises. The dirtiest of politics when it boils down to what he is talking about.
I consider myself a moderate... but Obama makes me want to punch a hippie. Seriously. Just to get it out of my system.
YES WE CAN... not if we can stop you.
Outstanding piece. Even if Obama doesn't get the nomination, which is now unlikely, this crusade will continue until he has finally succeeded in taking "the holy land." It's going to be a long next few years.
Send this far and wide to all of your friends and family members that have been sucked into Obamanation.
Because, friends don't let friends vote uninformed.