There's nothing new under the sun, saith Ecclesiastes 1:9, and these LTE's prove it.
Need for balance
What part of "dysfunctional" do we not understand? The take-home message provided by the Standard & Poor's downgrade is that our government is dysfunctional and unable to squarely place the fundamental fiscal needs of our country above political rhetoric. Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Independent or "other," our elected leaders have failed in their responsibility to the citizenship. Worried more about pandering to the hard-line positions of a few constituents, our legislators are unable to successfully bring the message of reality to we the people.
It is time we are squarely educated to the mandatory need for balance between entitlement-program cuts and tax-revenue increases. There simply is no other realistic way to shore-up our failed economy.
Our officials have failed in their duty of Hippocratic benevolence to "first do no harm." The needed change requires fresh representation removed from the perils of our current dysfunctional leadership.
STEPHEN J. MOTEW
Lewisville
Demeaning
AL BAKER
Pfafftown
Our only voice
DAVID JONES
Winston-Salem
Rebuttal
A rebuttal to the Aug. 10 letter "Six Republican myths":
Tax cuts for the rich don't create jobs: No, tax cuts for everyone create jobs. More money in pockets means more spent, meaning more goods and services consumed and more people hired to produce those things.
Shrinking government does not create jobs in the private sector: Governments fire employees to save money. The problem is that the spending saved by these firings is eaten up by other "vital" entitlement programs, keeping it from going toward tax breaks or debt payments, both of which stimulate growth, including jobs.
Deregulation does not benefit the economy: Regulation impedes growth. George W. Bush's deregulation of finance? Under whose presidency was Sarbanes-Oxley passed, and under whose was Glass-Steagall repealed?
SAM BARRETT
Winston-Salem
What part of "dysfunctional" do we not understand? The take-home message provided by the Standard & Poor's downgrade is that our government is dysfunctional and unable to squarely place the fundamental fiscal needs of our country above political rhetoric. Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Independent or "other," our elected leaders have failed in their responsibility to the citizenship. Worried more about pandering to the hard-line positions of a few constituents, our legislators are unable to successfully bring the message of reality to we the people.
It is time we are squarely educated to the mandatory need for balance between entitlement-program cuts and tax-revenue increases. There simply is no other realistic way to shore-up our failed economy.
Our officials have failed in their duty of Hippocratic benevolence to "first do no harm." The needed change requires fresh representation removed from the perils of our current dysfunctional leadership.
STEPHEN J. MOTEW
Lewisville
Demeaning
The six Forsyth County commissioners who voted to appeal the prayer ruling ("Appeal of prayer ruling OK'd," Aug. 9) remind me of the people who leave religious tracts in bathrooms, nail religious tracts to telephone poles and trees in a national forest, paint "Jesus Saves" on everything that doesn't move and hold up "John 3:16" signs at sporting events. These actions may do some good, but they mostly demean the faith.
There are Christians being killed all over the world, famine in the heart of Africa, and needs everywhere. Meanwhile, the Alliance Defense Fund fiddles while Jesus weeps.
AL BAKER
Pfafftown
Our only voice
Following the debt-ceiling debacle, the Standard & Poor's downgrade and now the very real threat that our nation will enter into another recession, there can be no doubt in anybody's mind that our president and Congress are failing the American people. These non-leaders are more concerned with their own ideology and those who put money in their campaigns than working together to take care of the people's business.
Our only voice is our vote, and we should send all these dysfunctional lawmakers back to where they came from. Perhaps then the newly elected will understand what they are being sent to Washington to accomplish.
DAVID JONES
Winston-Salem
Rebuttal
A rebuttal to the Aug. 10 letter "Six Republican myths":
Tax cuts for the rich don't create jobs: No, tax cuts for everyone create jobs. More money in pockets means more spent, meaning more goods and services consumed and more people hired to produce those things.
Shrinking government does not create jobs in the private sector: Governments fire employees to save money. The problem is that the spending saved by these firings is eaten up by other "vital" entitlement programs, keeping it from going toward tax breaks or debt payments, both of which stimulate growth, including jobs.
Deregulation does not benefit the economy: Regulation impedes growth. George W. Bush's deregulation of finance? Under whose presidency was Sarbanes-Oxley passed, and under whose was Glass-Steagall repealed?
Democratic Party rule is not bad for business: American companies are reporting record profits due to pent-up demand and inventories that are finally being matched up. A larger-scale example: the U.S. economy after World War II. Despite Bush's mishandling, and President Obama's outright incompetence in economic matters, businesses still managed to make money.
Admittedly, the Iraq war is a Republican mistake.
Republicans do not care about the working class: Busting unions demanding unsupportable benefits and practices for noncompetitive industries like steel, automotive, farming and education? Reforming unsustainable entitlement programs? Adding a third major entitlement program to the first two? Fine by me. Shift tax burdens? How about we just eliminate every credit, like EIC, and deduction, like mortgage expense, and have everyone pay what they owe?
SAM BARRETT
Winston-Salem
LTE1: A bit of a broad-brush LTE, but I'll go with it. I'm fine with tossing the bums out, but with whom do we replace them? We need to be most careful, lest we end up once again with stooges, gadflies, and ideologues.
ReplyDeleteLTE2: Somewhat polemical, but I'll agree with Mr. Baker, who seems to be exempt from the 1 LTE published each month policy.
LTE3: See comments re LTE1.
LTE4: Interesting rebuttal to the earlier TB LTE. About taxes. When we have borrowed heavily for years, more than spending cuts will be required. The tax system can be reworked so that some enjoy cuts, perhaps, but the net result needs to be increased revenues targeted at paying for previous spending. As for Republicans v. working people, a ploy of liberals/lefties is to equate unions with employees. The agendae of union chieftains and their political catspaws differs from the wants and needs of working folk.
Stab........have you noticed how hateful atheists and gay and lesbians are towards Christians? And they are the ones that are always preaching tolerance. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteI hope Kit elicits some intellectual help from either Bob or Arthur, he's getting borish with his posts.
In other news, Obama's approval rating is down to 39%, just as I predicted. 57% of independents now say they are going to vote for someone else in the next presidential election.
No,...I'm beginning to believe that the president will lose by record numbers next year.
Good AM, Bucky,
ReplyDeleteI note that some (not all, mind you) atheists appear militant and or/dismissive. I haven't noticed a preponderance of gay and lesbian antipathy, in spite of condemnation of them by various religious groups.
There is also a fair amount of intra-faith infighting, as over the stupid flag issue in King or the misuse of government time and money over prayer prior to county commissioner's meetings, a lot of useless posturing.
And then, there is the oh-so devout not-so-reverend Fred Phelps along with his demented followers in the Westboro Baptist Church. We can find plenty of fault among self-proclaimed Christians without roaming outside the faith.
Edit error in above post ("and or/dismissive"). Apologies for not being a morning person.
ReplyDeleteStab, I trust the new kitchen floor is a work of art?
ReplyDeleteGood AM, WW!
ReplyDeleteIt is Mrs. Stab's bathroom floor, and yes, it ranks as one of mankind's finest efforts, as soon as Mrs. Stab finishes touching up the moldings I nailgunned.
OTOH, the kitchen floor remains a work of archaeology.
Stab..Sorry, wrong room. A fine looking floor in the "necessary room" is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteKitchen floor is next, whenever time permits.
ReplyDeleteWW, how are your patients doing?
Stab...surprisingly well at the moment. But my phone has a tendancy to ring at any moment....
ReplyDeleteGreen Street is a Reconciling Congregation, open and affirming of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Transgendered and Straight people. While the United Methodist denomination continues to wrestle with issues around sexual identity, Green Street seeks to be a witness to the wider church community by living out the motto of “open minds, open hearts and open doors.”
ReplyDeleteAn Anti-Racism team helps Green Street partner with the Institute for Dismantling Racism for training and activities that help us embrace one another across lines of difference.
Green St. Methodist Church
__________________________
The Reverend Kelly Carpenter makes up his own rules as he goes along.
His anti-racism team is made up of people that want to inflame racism by continual fanning the flames of the Darryl Hunt fiasco. I haven't heard his irrational, racially tinged rants in the Journal lately. Maybe a few phones helped.
If he wants to start his own open non-denominational, open church, he can have at it. But he's a poor excuse of a Christian minister.
Stab...aren't you a Methodist?
Here's a good story. You go to grab something and it's no longer there. Yiiiiiikes!
ReplyDeletehttp://abcnews.go.com/Health/transgender-love-husband-transitions-wife/story?id=14280850
Bucky,
ReplyDeleteYes, I am a Methodist. The church of which I am a member, one of the larger Methodist congregations in town appears to have no quarrel with Green Street Methodist, and works cooperatively with it to help folks in need. I have no problem with Green Street either, don't follow the apparent politics of its pastor.
Haven't heard much out of or about D. Hunt, which is appropriate, since he has been freed and compensated, and the real murder is doing LWOP.
Bucky again,
ReplyDeleteApparently, the wife in the ABC report you cite was aware of her husband's changing anatomical landscape, so the absence or presence of components would not have been a surprise.
While this LTE page is pretty easygoing about off-topics, this one is sufficiently non-newsworthy to warrant posting in the Leopard's Limb instead of here. How about posting articles of similar nature there? You're far and away smart enough to understand what "similar nature" means.
I think Kelly Carpenter is an utter boob. He was in the paper constantly not long ago stirring up racism in Winston Salem. He called the District Attorney Tom Keith a racist publicly when a tape was translated wrongly in the Kalvin Smith case . He never offered an apology.
ReplyDeleteHe's a good example of how not to be a religious leader. I didn't know there were so many Methodist Churchs until I started doing a little research.
I've got no problem with helping the poor, but stirring up racism and changing the teachings of the Bible is not my idea of a minister.
lol,Bucky, since when did you become so religious and worried about the teachings of the Bible, you won't or can't even answer one of the most fundamental questions: Did God create man in his own image?
ReplyDeleteand, I may not believe in deities, but I've never been hateful enough to condemn someone to Eternal, not just 30 days, or 25 years, but eternal torture and hellfirish damnation for not accepting my beliefs.
ReplyDeleteHello Bob!
ReplyDeleteBucky: the Bible has been subject to all sorts of reworks and interpretations over the centuries. The New Testament wasn't set for over 3 centuries after JC died and ascended. The decisions on what constituted Gospel were made by men, many or most of whom had an agenda. All the writing in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, was done by men, many of whom had a point to make.
It is our job to find the Truth that is in those writings. Some of that Truth is evident, as in "Do unto others . . . "
How do you feel re Fred Phelps, speaking of people who misuse the Bible?
Bob....come on. I already know where you're going with that question. Besides, I don't even like cheese.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're back in the game. You at least know how to do battle in a debate.
Well of course everyone knows where I'm going with that question and everyone knows you've backed yourself into a philosophical corner,
ReplyDeleteNot so fast Sherlock. You are assuming that I believe in the Bible and God. You're just a little too quick on the trigger, Bob. Hee Hee....but I like your effort.
ReplyDeleteThen you should have no problem either way, answering my question.
ReplyDeleteI don't answer baited questions.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to have you back. How's your ticker doing?
Doing very well, thanks, hope you are. Do you believe in God and the Bible?
ReplyDeleteI do not believe in gay marriage, if that was your implied question. Changing the definition of marriage is much like changing the definiton of what is right and wrong. Webster has already changed the definiton. However, the legal definition is still up in the air to a certain extent.
ReplyDeleteNo matter if 'marriage' is legally changed, gay marriage will never be accepted by society as the normal.
According to most Biblical scholars, marriage is between a man and a woman which is derived from the Bible-not between two men or two women, or a man and a beast or forms thereof. I believe that, so yes I do indirectly believe in the Bible.
Gay marriage belies what is considered the norm in my view. The psychological impluse for a male to go after the bad end of another male is clearly aberrant in my view.
Does that make things any clearer?
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1&3: The 2 party gerrymandered system is broken, but I don't see the will on either party to do anything about it. I will note that in the 2010 election where the battle cry was "throw the bums out", Forsyth County and W-S voters kept the status quo. I do not have strong hopes for change in 2012 either.
LTE 2: Speaking of a local board in dire need of a turnover, the voters had a chance to elect CC's who would have put an end to this waste of time and resources. A definite losing court battle that could ring up a 7 figure tab is NOT being fiscally responsible. I believe the bank account of the organization putting up the money should be available for viewing to the public to prove it has sufficient funds.
LTE 4: Tax cuts for everyone normally results in higher demand, but in this case people are paying down debt instead of spending. Furthermore, tax revenues are at their lowest per GDP since 1950 so there's nothing left to cut. Govt jobs - there's not enough demand to absorb the lost govt jobs, so the effect is going to be smaller GDP which results in fewer jobs. "Regulation impedes growth" - debatable..depends on the nature. The writer seems to agree that deregulation in the past has had poor outcomes. The "D" / "R" party bits are TB nonsense that didn't needed a rebuttal.
CNN is not even reporting Obama's low approval poll numbers on its website. You gotta love the liberal media. Without them, Obama would lose by a landslide the next presidential election cycle.
ReplyDeleteHello dotnet! Excellent commentary, as usual.
ReplyDeleteBucky: you are not answering questions.
then don't marry anyone who is gay, but the question was: do you believe in God and the Bible?
ReplyDeleteBucky Dead Ducky must be doing his own poll these days, because here are all the most recent legit polls and nary a one below 40%.
ReplyDeleteOops, I left one out. The Bucking Bucky Knothead Poll, which has Obama at 11% and Michelle Bachmann at 95%. I realize that that comes out to more than 100%, but don't blame me...those are the numbers that Bucky Ducky Lucky made up in his own little head
President Obama Job Approval
Poll Date Sample Approve Disapprove Spread
RCP Average 8/2 - 8/14 -- 43.6 50.3 -6.7
Gallup 8/12 - 8/14 -- 41 52 -11
Rasmussen 8/12 - 8/14 -- 44 54 -10
Dem Corps 8/6 - 8/10 -- 45 50 -5
Wash Post 8/9 - 8/9 -- 44 46 -2
FOX News 8/7 - 8/9 -- 42 48 -6
Reuters 8/4 - 8/8 -- 45 52 -7
CNN 8/5 - 8/7 -- 44 54 -10
McClatchy 8/2 - 8/4 -- 44 46 -2
Hello, O.T.!
ReplyDeleteI regard Gallup as the most reliable. The approval ratings appear to me, a non-statistician, to be statistically even, or almost. I note that Fox' poll is middle of the pack, doesn't reflect the bias attributed to the network.
Bob: your question to Bucky, still unanswered, is both precise and imprecise. The first part, "Do you believe in God?" is straightforward, with a range of definite answers:
ReplyDelete1. Yes.
2. No.
3. When I get in a jam.
4. Haven't decided/unsure.
5. God Who?
Now, believing in the Bible is a bit harder to pin down. Which part, OT or NT? They occasionally contradict each other, so believing in Biblical inerrancy involves a bit of doublethink. An "eye for an eye" is incompatible with "turn the other cheek," IMO.
As to dotnet's comment on the County Commissioners, they were actually almost the only change we got last time. Two incumbents lost, Bailey, probably because of his health, and Kaplan, because he didn't take care of business.
ReplyDeleteWe have an opportunity to make a real change in 2012. I would love to see someone challenge Marshall in the Dem primary. But the ones that really need to go are Whisenhunt and Conrad, whose crybaby tactics mostly decided the first appeal of the prayer ruling.
Fortunately, there is some action in that area, involving political veterans who have not been active in a while, but still know how to win. If we target those two and send them home, then we will have a more resonable board, unfortunately, too late to save the prayer ruling fiasco, which will probably cost us taxpayers a pretty penny.
Oh, and there is also a very good possibility that the board will be sued again for allowing special interest outside agitators to represent the citizens of Forsyth County re public business.
:), I figured I needed to keep it a simple as possible and then fill in any details as they become available.
ReplyDeleteGot it. We'll see re availability.
ReplyDeleteAs to the polls, Gallup is certainly the best established and best known, but they admit that they have been experimenting with their process a bit, so may not be as reliable as usual. Actually, newcomer PPP had the best record in the 2008 election, correctly calling every swing state. They are busy at the moment doing swing state polls, so are not represented here.
ReplyDeleteFox hires out for their polls, as do other news agencies, so has little control other than who they hire. The one that interests me is Rasmussen, which has been repeatedly, with some justification, accused of leaning pro-Republican, yet their 44-54, completed yesterday, is right in line with the average.
Statistically, it is indeed a wash.
As to PPP, mentioned above, they released an NC poll last week that had O beating Romney by 3, with the others farther behind. Bachmann trailed by 10, Palin by 12.
Keep in mind that this is NC, a pretty conservative state, not the nation, where O's marginns are bigger over any specific GOP candidate.
Also keep in mind Congress's dismal approval rating, latest average 16.8%, with Fox at 10%, the lowest in history in any poll.
You can forget defeating Conrad and Whisenhunt in the next election. It's going to be a landslide Republican election thanks to Obama.
ReplyDeleteBob...I appreciate your desire for me to answer your question the way you want me to. However, I get to respond in my own way or not at all. You would have the same choices too if I asked you a question.
Stab, liked your characterization of Bob's bible question, especially #3, which for many says it all. If the christians want conversions, they should put way more effort into prison ministries, which lead the world in the minting of new christians.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the OT/NT question, might also add wich of the over 400 English language bibles are we talking about here.
If Perry gets elected, I think he's going to put the brakes on the gay marriage push.
ReplyDeletePlus, I think he'll get the economy moving again by eliminating all these socialist regulations that Obama has implemented.
Thank you, O.T.
ReplyDeleteI thought about the numerous translations. My preference is the Oxford study edition. However, some things sound more, um, biblical when read from the KJV. Our associate pastor cited Ps 23 and 121 as examples, in his sermon yesterday.
Thanks Stab!
ReplyDeleteO.T. - unfortunately, one of those CC changes (Whisenhunt for Kaplan) was one that should not have been made.
Why are we even talking about polls at this point? In Aug 1983, Reagan was polling similar numbers to those cited for Obama while in Aug 1991, following the Gulf War, Bush was polling over 70%. We know what happened with those two reelection bids.
I think Perry is the man to beat now. He's gotten off to a good start by saying and declaring that a marriage is between a man and a woman. Everybody knows that, but it's always good to hear.
ReplyDeleteIt's clear that Obama is desperate. He's telling crowds in the Midwest about all of the jobs he's added. I guess he thinks all the Democratic lemmings are actually going to believe him, and they probably will.
Glad to hear that about Perry, Bucky Buck. It's always good when a candidate can identify the single most important issue right off the bat.
ReplyDeleteI mean, some are wasting their time talking about irrelevant things like the economy, the national debt, wars, health and social security, but not our boy Perry, no sir!
HE KNOWS...the entire election will hinge upon gay marriage. Because of that, I'm switching my vote from Bachmann to Perry, because Bucky has not told me what Bachmann stands for...probably in favor of gay marriage
It is nice to know that there are people out there who are experts on something. How many readers would be willing to put in the long hours that Bucky Bucky does to keep us informed as to matters gayish. I'm sure that in his case it is every waking hour, and you know where he sleeps, so...
There's some discussion that Obama's poll numbers may be actually lower than reported in Gallup. Once you add in standard deviation and respondents that are afraid to speak negatively about an African American because of political correctness, Obama's numbers could be 35ish in terms of approval. Not that far from GW Bush's low of 28%.
ReplyDeleteNo,....it's not looking too good for Obama at this point.
Actually, I believe Bucky is malreporting Perry's priorities. Perry's main talking point is his claim to have created a herd of jobs in TX. Now how much influence over job creation Perry has had is thoroughly debatable, but he knows where to focus his claims of accomplishment, whether factual or not.
ReplyDeleteBucky: just a guess on my part, but I suspect this deep into President Obama's administration, pretty much everyone is indifferent to his skin coloration. The only color that concerns his respondents is green, as in the color of the reverse side of our currency. If polls from Fox' to Gallup's to Rasmussen's are all statistically the same, I'd say those are pretty credible numbers. Again, I'm not a statistician.
ReplyDeleteAnd, it doesn't matter. It is a cliche', to be sure, but only one poll matters, to be taken on 11/06/12. I make no predictions at this point.
Well, now that Perry is officially a candidate (note that the governor who has raised the banner of secession announced in Charleston, SC), one would hope that his jobs claims would get a bit more scrutiny...what I am seeing coming out of Texas is that he had little to do with it; that the driving force is record profits in the oil industry (like other oil states, all of whom have had higher job growth rates); and that most of the jobs are Wal*Mart level.
ReplyDeleteThe other area that Perry may not want to see discussed is Texas' national rank in education, health and poverty, often 50th (high school grad rate, people living above the poverty level, etc) and always 40th or worse.
He likes to brag about balancing the budget this year (required by Texas law, so not something he had a choice on), but he doesn't like to say how it was done, with huge cuts from an already feeble education budget, 42nd or worst in the nation.
Like many in his state, Perry is a blowhard who fits my favorite Texas saying "All hat and no cattle".
You can accept or reject my opinion at your discretion. But I happen to know just a little bit about polls and statistical analysis of polling data.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started looking back at Bush's historical approval ratings in Gallup polls, there was some discussion by statisticians about how culture and people's perceptions can indeed affect political poll numbers. Gallup's own statisticians even brought up the fact that because of cultural changes within the U.S. during different time frames, that Bush's approval numbers might not have been as grim as earlier thought. In other words, based on Gallup's research, people in the early part of the 20th Century were less likely to criticize their leaders as compared to people of Bush's era or present day.
A similar type of analytical assertion was suggested in the intrepretation of Obama's poll numbers, because he is African American. There is little or no disputable doubt that political correctness exists in today's society. Therefore, it's only logical that such a cultural code exists not to criticize an African American leader.
Note: This is demonstrated daily by media reports by CNN, CNBC, ABC, and CBS.
Thus, you have my hypothesis of why Obama's approval poll numbers are probably indeed much lower than reported by Gallup.
Signed and respectfully submitted, Bucky
"Actually, I believe Bucky is malreporting Perry's priorities."
ReplyDeleteI just noticed this and am appalled, appalled, I say. Surely, Stab, you are not claiming that our dear brother Bucky Bucktooth would actually malreport (probably not a word, but I like it) such important information. For shame.
I'm on your side, Bucky Banger...but if you have malreported that Perry's #1 priority is doing away with gay marriage, then I am back in the Bachmann camp, which is much more fun due to sheer lunacy.
Maybe Perry and Bachman will take up Sweet Sarah's idea of a nationwide, unscheduled bus tour and all three will come together with a bang in St. Louis, where, supposedly, the first ever collision between two cars occurred, in this case, the only two cars in town. "Yield right of way"?
On the economy, Christina Romer, a former Obama advisor, agrees with Republicans-now is not the time to raise taxes.
ReplyDeleteChristina Romer:
William and Mary 1981
MIT PhD 1985
Current: Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley
Here's the video:
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2011/08/12/n_romer_velshi_intv.cnnmoney/
Fellow Texans, I am proudly standing here to humbly see.
ReplyDeleteI assure you, and I mean it- Now, who says I don't speak out as plain as day?
And, fellow Texans, I'm for progress and the flag- long may it fly.
I'm a poor boy, come to greatness. So, it follows that I cannot tell a lie.
Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.
Now my good friends, it behooves me to be solemn and declare,
I'm for goodness and for profit and for living clean and saying daily prayer.
And now, my good friends, you can sleep nights, I'll continue to stand tall.
You can trust me, for I promise, I shall keep a watchful eye upon ya'll...
Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.
You mean Rick Perry aka Al Gore's former campaign manager?
You know, Buckity Buckaroo, since you seem to have nothing better to do, maybe you should enroll in a quality college and learn a little history.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where you get your crazy ideas about criticism of presidents, but if it came from Gallup, then Gallup is forever discredited as a voice of any kind.
Right after the first tribesman declared himself chief, or more likely, the high priest, of the tribe, the first Joe Sixpack began spreading rumors about the high priest, attacking his virility, intelligence, sanity and dietary habits.
That has always been a part of human nature. We hear the BS "The king is dead, long live the king", but what the peasants were actually muttering under their breath is "The king is a despot, a fag, a child molester and he doesn't wear clean underwear." As often as not, all or part of that was true.
But it took the establishment of the USA and its famous First Amendment to bring the art of leader vilification to its highest development. A sampling of common contemporary commentary on some of our leaders:
George Washington: arrogant, treacherous, despotic, tyrannical, traitor to the people, usurper, political degenerate. The Father of Our Country?
John Adams: fool, criminal
Jefferson: coward, atheist
Jackson: thief, murderer
Lincoln: filthy story-teller, despot, liar, thief, braggart, buffoon, monster, ignoramus, scoundrel, perjurer, robber, swindler, tyrant, fiend, butcher, ape, demon, beast, gorilla, imbecile. One New York newspaper got into the habit of referring to him as "that hideous baboon at the other end of the avenue" and suggested that "Barnum should buy and exhibit him as a zoological curiosity."
Grant: crook, drunkard, ignoramus. This is the same man who just months before had been THE great national hero, favorably compared to Washington himself.
Arthur was accused of being an accomplice in the assassination of Garfield; LBJ the same in the assassination of JFK
FDR: swollen-headed nitwit, unprincipled charlatan, ham actor, imposter, Public Enemy No. 1, socialist, Svengali, sorcerer. He was also accused of being involved in the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby and the assassination of Huey Long.
Note that the greater the president, the worse the vilification. On the other hand, we find little about the lower end of the spectrum, Filmore, Grover Cleveland (who got elected twice but not consecutively...had not a great baseball pitcher been named after him, we probably would have forgotten him entirely), Harding, Coolidge and other such riff raff.
Truth is that if Obama is the great satan that you say he is, you and your ilk are not doing a very good job of vilification. Currently he would fall only into the low middle ground. Don't know if that is because you guys simply lack creativity or are just as dumb as the rocks that you appear to be.
Ben Franklin once said that George Washington was the most respected man of his time in the western world. And he was absolutely correct. But even then there were hosts of ignoramuses who thought differently.
People like you, who know nothing of history, think that everything revolves around you and your pitiful lifetime. Try this timeless quote from the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby":
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Well, Bob, that is simply great. "Best Little Whorehouse In Texas" pretty much said it all. But in this case, instead of shutting Miss Mona down, our lovely governor has executed an innocent man with the comment that he deserved to die anyway, and has raped the poor and needy of Texas by destroying their safety net, while taking away any future hope by gutting the public schools.
ReplyDeleteFolks, little Ricky Perry is the hope of America's future. Why even Bill Clinton agrees, as he stated upon watching little Ricky announce his candidacy "Now there's a good looking man." I suppose I should add that he was laughing as he said it.
Kit, I hope for your sake that you just have a drug or alcohol induced psychosis, and not a more serious form of schizophrenia.
ReplyDeleteAnd my dearly beloved brother Hopalong Buckity, I see that you are seriously impressed with credentials, especially in the case of Ms, or should I say, Dr. Romer.
ReplyDeleteThat is not unusual. The unlettered peasants are always impressed by credentials. That is why, when given the UNEARNED opportunity to vote, they almost always elect the wrong people.
As one who holds a PhD, and who has spent many years in the company of other PhDs at one of America's elite universities, allow me to disenlighten you.
PhD does NOT mean I am smarter than you and don't you forget it. What it really means, in far too many cases, is Piled Higher and Deeper, as in you know what fragrant brownish substance.
For credentials to mean anything, they must be backed up by accomplishments. No one had better credentials to be POTUS than Adlai Stevenson, yet he never had the chance. No one had fewer credentials to be POTUS than Abraham Lincoln, yet look at his accomplishments.
They have PhDs down at "Bob Jones University" in Greenville, SC (unaccredited school whose degrees are meaningless) who teach that Darwin was wrong and that god created the world in six days and rested on the seventh and expect their students to believe them because their students have been brainwashed from birth by their ignorant parents and their so-called christian high schools.
How do we then explain that some of the best colleges and universities in the world, say Oxford, Harvard, Heidelberg, Duke, are also schools founded by christians. Simple. Because they were founded by christians whose brains were actually functioning and that continued to function while the brains of those who founded BJU were never functioning.
Unfortunately, for more PhDs than we would like to think, their careers began with a BS from BJU or its ilk.
I'll be out of town for a while Kit. I've got bigger fish to fry. So don't jump out the window while I'm gone. You can always check yourself in.....
ReplyDeleteChao!
Good evening, folks!
ReplyDeleteInteresting discussion here this PM.
O.T.: "Malreport" is indeed not found in dictionaries. It was coined by Orwell in "1984," where he writes that Winston Smith, the not terribly sympathetic protagonist, is given instructions that the state newspaper has "malreported" the existence of "unpersons." Smith is ordered to cleanse the report from the paper.
As cynical as the government he despises, Smith fabricates an unperson of his own to supplant the real and now executed people in the paper's column inches. The government has a monopoly on cynicism, however, and Smith ultimately becomes an unperson himself.
Bucky: have a safe trip. Are you going trolling? We look forward to your return.
ReplyDeleteBTW, it's "ciao".
O.T., in the interest of being "fair and balanced," since we have pretty much ripped most of the R "talent" running for Prez, what is your opinion of the erstwhile community organizer now holding the office?
ReplyDeleteO.T. yet again: in what discipline did you receive your PhD? There is no purpose in this question, just simple curiosity.
ReplyDelete"As one who holds a PhD, and who has spent many years in the company of other PhDs at one of America's elite universities, allow me to disenlighten you."-Kit
ReplyDeletePretty scary huh Stab? And he/she/it didn't even know about the Gallup poll released today.
Well, as much as I hate to say it, maybe Bucky did not intend Italian. "Chao" in Vietnamese means either "hello" or "good-bye". I said this twice a day to my interpreter, a gorgeous young woman, as in "Chao, co" (Good morning, young lady) and "Chao, co" (Good-bye, young lady). As we got to know each other, I was permitted to say "Chao, Thuy" (her actual name) on both occasions. That was a huge step forward, because among the educated classes in VN, terms of address are quite formal.
ReplyDeleteHad I not been quite happily married, Co Thuy might have been living in WS today. She was brilliant, charming and spoke about half a dozen languages. We got to be very good friends, to the point that I was invited to dinner at her parents' house, where I managed to embarrass her by addressing her grandmother, the matriarch of the family, as "water buffalo". Fortunately, her grandmother had a great sense of humor and also loved her granddaughter dearly, so I was forgiven and returned many times. We have several excellent Vietnamese restaurants in the Triad, but none can match the food served at Co Thuy's house.
Of course, to accept that Bucky meant the Vietnamese word would assume that either he is some sort of linguist or that he served in Viet Nam, both of which I seriously doubt
My PhD is a bit crazy. I started out to get an MD in psychiatry, but soon accumulated so many doubts in that area that I began questioning much of what I was learning.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I was at one of the great schools, thus found a sympathetic professor who allowed me to travel into unexplored areas which led to a PhD in a totally new area which we jokingly call the philosophy of psychiatry...in other words an inquiry into the workings and validity of psychiatry.
I am delighted to say that I am not alone...there are others, but not many, like me scattered around the world...we do not take ourselves too seriously, so have pretty much enjoyed our lives, so far. You always must say so far.
In the bag again Kit? I've told you to keep taking your medicine. I'll bet your doctor has told you the same thing. Drinking only makes your schizophrenia worse.
ReplyDeleteMalreport:
ReplyDeleteJust reread 1984 a few months ago, maybe the 5th or 6th time. A very disturbing book. I am amused by the sort who say "Well, 1984 has come and gone, and it didn't happen."
Really? I think much of it HAS happened, beginning with the LBJ years, the genesis of Nixon's more formalized "enemies list". If you got onto the wrong side of LBJ, you were in deep do. Moreso with Nixon, our Macbeth. And anyone who does not see the so-called "Patriot Act" for what it is is simply asleep at the switch. What is next?
By the way for all you know it alls. Chao means goodbye in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteThe current holder of the office?
ReplyDeleteWow. Tough question.
I was extremely unhappy with the Cheney/Rove administration...not a typo. I think it is clear who was running the show.
At the time, I was not really attentive, because I tend to focus on local politics, where I have a better chance of making a difference, but even there I was negligent.
I assumed that in 2008, Hilary would steamroll both the Dems and Repubs. Paid no attention to Obama.
I wanted us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, both ghastly mistakes. I wanted Gitmo closed and real justice for those imprisoned there and elsewhere across the US, numbers in the thousands. I wanted religious nuts out of my government.
O seemed to offer that, so I voted for him.
None of the things that I wanted have happened. Every time one of our GIs dies over there, it is a kick in the gut for me, especially if it is a US Marine or a SEAL, both of whom I worked with in VN. Last week 22 SEALs died for nothing in Afghan. That is Cheney's fault, but it is now also O's fault.
If we totally pull out tomorrow from both places, there will be disaster, but our continuing presence for x number of years will lead to the same result. We kicked the sleeping dog, and it doesn't really matter what we do now. Bring them home and let the citizens of Iraq, Afghan, whatever settle things. Unfortunately, that means that Iran will play the major role. But Cheney should have thought about that before deposing Saddam and the Taliban. He is an arrogant idiot of the first order. I hate to see what will come, but it will no matter what we do.
I am less critical of O's performance regarding the economy. It will probably take 10-20 years to bring us back from the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush(Cheney) disaster. I think that he has done pretty well in that area. Certainly the T party is not the answer.
As to the hopy/changy thing, I hope that O is ready to grow into the office. He has a guarantee of another year and a half, and will most probably, due to the hideous failure of the GOP to find any kind of reasonable candidate, get another four. We must hope that he can rise to the occasion. Obviously, Congress will not.
Bucky me Bucky, you are always one step ahead of the rest of us. What a brilliant mind!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, "chao" is used by a small minority of Spaniards who want to fool people into thinking that they are "cool" by appropriating the Italian word. Only the worst fools buy into that, but then when we are addressing my dearest friend Bucky Buckaloo, that is exactly what we are talking about. Think of it as a sort of Ebonics for Spaniards.
And lest ye think that only Spanish fools use the term, be aware that certain fools in Chile use the same term. One of my Chilean friends said "Yes, the buffoons use it...ha, ha, ha. It is a good thing, because it helps us to know who not to deal with."