1

Very rarely do I disagree with VDH, but I dunn’o about the comparison between the Iraq War and government run health care.

 

While it may be true that “the Bush administration in response could not articulate what the aims in Iraq were, why they were worth the likely costs” I look at them as being two totally different situations for a variety of reasons that I really don’t fell like banging my keyboard about.

 

Let me just say that, using the comparison, that if Pres. Bush had used Pres. Obama’s tactics for the government take over of our health care system for the lead up to the Iraq War, Saddam would still be in power.

 

Another words, the reason why Pres. Obama is failing at pushing this thing through isn’t because of some lack of communication on his part, it’s because the American people, many of whom voted for him, KNOW it’s a bunch of crapola. No amount of sweet talk can cover the stench emanating from it.

 

Hell, they have the votes; they control the House, the Senate and the WH, if it’s such a great freakin’ idea why don’t they just pass it already? Makes ya’ wonder, no?

 

To hear then blame Republicans is laughable; the R’s couldn’t do anything to stop this if they wanted to. The Democrats are being silly, (as usual). What, do they need to control every seat in the Senate and the House before they could push through their legislation? If they are that weak when they are in control ya’ have to wonder whether they should have that control in the first place.

1 I love this.  Singin' in the Rain is one of my very favorite movies of all time.

2 I watched it while he was at SERE, and so now I sing this song all the time in the mornings.  He thinks it's cute when I sing it to the dog..."Good mornin', good MORnin', we scratched our ears the whole night through..."

1 It's another breaking windows scheme.

2 My favorite phrase in that article is the one right before your quote: "a rounding error in Tim Geithner's nose-hair".

Heh... what better way to describe the personal agendas flying around and dictating demonically whimsical policy?

3 As one of the "estimated 12 percent of Americans aged 15 years and above who don't drive, period" and as one of "the adults who live in the 8 percent of households that don't have a vehicle", you can imagine what I think about my money going to buyers of Detroit-made SUVs.

Why the emphasis on popularity? That's indicative of an externally oriented mindset. A person who constantly wonders what others think and tries to keep up with the latest feelings and beliefs. Fashion is in the mind, but truth is out there.

The last line is a keeper:

... what parties in power always do: look for creative new ways to bribe the middle class.

with 'free' benefits they pay for!

4 Amritas -- You just reminded me of a Karl Rove article I just heard about on Rush about how Obama is changing with the winds of focus groups.

5 Manufacturing a car is an energy-intensive process. Making and transporting steel, forging, foundry, and stamping operations, transportation of components and finished cars--all these things use energy, and a good part of it is thrown away when the car is scrapped.

Did anyone bother to do the calculation of BTUs lost (through scrapping useful vehicles) with BTUs saved (via more efficient new cars)? I'm guessing the answer is "no."

6 and 7 of the 10 top cars purchased are not from American companies... purchases s/h/b restricted to the car companies we already "own"... this whole thing -- including the additional $2 BILLION is making me absolutely over-the-edge cuckoo crazy  (oh, that & bank bailouts, ObamaCare and a host of other "you're frickin' kidding me?!" legislation...

I keep trying to remember to breathe....

7 And yet another angle on how this is SO not a good idea: I listen to WOAI radio out of San Antonio. They had a local news report the other day from someone who helps local charities that accept donated vehicles as a means of fundraising. Donations are down, depending on the charity, 40 to 70 percent...

8 david,

Did anyone bother to do the calculation of BTUs lost (through scrapping useful vehicles) with BTUs saved (via more efficient new cars)? I'm guessing the answer is "no."

Of course the answer is no. Calculation and BTUs are both Europpressive concepts of no relevance in the eOn of miracles. So we not only expend energy on building cars but we also expend energy on destroying usable ones. The point is to use energy. To be active. To be revolutionary! Using an old car is conservative. Destroying one is change! Conversing is boring, but change is exciting. It's that excitement which drove half of Omerica to vote for the One.

Miss Ladybug,

Who needs charity once the State supplies us with everything from Government Motors cars to freeee health care? Give to the tax collector so that the State can redistribute in accordance with true sOcial justice. It is clear that unOrganized, private, and therefore unfair attempts at redistribution have failed to transform America into a prosperous nation like the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea. Omegas should stop choosing charities to support. Why let in-duh-viduals think when the One and the other chosen ones (praise Pelosi!) can do the hard wOrk for us little peOple?

9 "Conversing is boring" should be  "Conserving is boring".

Spelling is boring, too. Another Europpressive concept that must go!

Literacy is overrated. Ask the Khmer Rouge. They didn't need literate farmers to power their mighty economy.

Reason can be surprisingly perceptive l for a magazine that fails to grasp the success of Communism:

funneling money to an auto industry that it already largely owns (at a hefty taxpayer price tag), then taking multiple (and multiply premature) bows for rescuing the economy and the auto industry in the process.

It's all about empowering Ourselves (i.e., Government Motors) and taking the bows, baby! (Was that sexist? Do we have to report that at our next self-criticism session?)

What matters to us is not what our pOlicies actually do, but what people think about them. We live in the realm of beliefs, not facts. This is why media cOntrol is a must. On Wednesday, CNN cited a poll saying Omericans were in favor of Obamacare 50 to 45. Make people think your way is the majority way. (And it might very well be, for the program to Redden Omerica has been progressing smoothly for decades.) Use peer pressure. Everyone's wOrshipping the Great Leader ... why not me? Marginalize the Rightist freaks. Make them hide in their gulches. They cannot stop the mighty prOletariat from taking back Omerica and handing it all to the One.

10 CaliValleyGirl,

It's another breaking windows scheme.

It is. That's the beauty of it. Making windows ... zzz. Breaking 'em ... kewl, maaaan. Destruction is the most obvious form of change. In the blink of an eye, blam!, something that took so much effort to make is gone! The next time you see Leftist activists going wild - though not as wild as the 'health careless' savages - think of how their property destruction stimulates the economy!

Sarah,

Obama is changing with the winds of focus groups.

Did you expect Mr. Hopenchange to - gasp! - remain stable? That would put us to sleep. Besides, one thing remains constant: his devotion to sOcialism. He will cOntrol all. Only his wording is changing (emphasis ours):

Every Wednesday night senior Obama aides gather for two hours to review the latest polling and focus-group data to develop that packaging.

Health care reform yesterday, health insurance reform today, whatever, the goal remains the same. Increase pOwer by pandering to the peOple. Forget objective facts; focus on subjective beliefs. Tell the mOb what they want to hear so they reelect you. They won't remember what you said yesterday. They're too thrilled by the sounds of broken glass to care.

1 You know how much this movement scares me - I home-school for goodness sake! 

2 We are all little brothers in Britain. We. Who or what is this 'I'? It is but a letter equal to its 25 brothers.

The Children’s Secretary set out £400 million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Who are the watchmen watching us, and who watches the watchmen?

The number of 'children' being watched - including the nominal adults - will grow until it encompasses all of Britain.

Big Brother will be the biggest Children's Secretary of them all. Don't let him catch you reading 1984 in State housing, lest you be sent to a State psychiatrist and enjoy freeee mental health care.

3 That's the thing, isn't it Amritas?  We LEARN from our mistakes,far more than we learn from our successes.  We make small mistakes as children and it keeps us from (some) bigger mistakes as adults.  This is an absolutely vital part of the learning process, and one that the current trends in child-rearing and education are cutting off.  The result is thirty and forty year olds who act like teenagers.

I read an interesting study a few years ago where they studied the brain chemistry of teen agers in the US and teen agers in less developed societies where the social construct and realities of life in general called for an immediate entry into adulthood at a young age (usually after a rite of passage, yet another thing we Americans have blown aside, in most cases to our detriment.  But I digress and that is a story for another day).  Anyway, they found that the hormones and drawn out development that cause American teens to behave like such little shits for eight, ten (and now seemingly twenty) years at a stretch were not present in anywhere near the quantities in the teenagers who had to actually fulfill a societal role as an adult. 

I had read before that "teenager" was a relatively new phenomenon (and any girl who has read the Little House on the Prairie books growing up figures that one out pretty fast), but here was actual physiological proof!  Our methods of child-rearing are circumventing the normal human growth cycle.  These ideas have thrown our bodies into a weird sort of chaos by allowing perpetual childhood.  We are not mentally where we should be, and the government's answer to this isn't to look at the problem and see what we're doing wrong, but to further the problem by even more nannying.  Which causes more of a problem, ad infinitum.

Communities used to band together to take care of their own. Now that the goverment has stepped in to be mother/father/grandparents/and executive chef we have thrown all that aside.  Those elements a human mind needs to properly develop, we refuse to run their course.

It's very scary indeed.  (sorry for the thesis, this one always gets me going)

4 That quote is incredible without even going to the link.

1 I think your posts are wonderful.  I will keep you and your family in my prayers.  I wish my family had this kind of outlet when I deployed to Desert Shield.Storm.  But, the internet and email were still in their infancy. We had snail mail.  Now, it looks like that is going by the wayside.  

2

"Why doesn’t Ottawa introduce a National Doughnut Licensing Agency?"...see my post no steak for you!

Re the decline of the spirit of liberty, also see big wheel cease from turnin'.

 

 

 

3

Link for second post messed up...

big wheel cease from turnin'

 

4 Even we Leftists realize this isn't about utilitarianism.

Capitalist health care would be wrong even if it were cheaper and healthier. It's a power issue. We'd rather be free to choose for you, even if we make the wrong choices. And we will. Because we don't really care about you. We are Alphas. We are superior.

Why should we Alphas shed a tear for the Delta Queen?

Wagyu steak for us, no steak for you! Welcome to our world of true ikwo-lity.

1 Remember to spin your coin, don't flip it! 

1 Two words: Soylent Green. Or one number: 1984. But we can still fight it, thank goodness. I've been trying to get the message out however I can, and more people than I'd think are on the same wavelength. That gives me hope. :-)

2 If Live Free or Die doesn't appeal to those folks  I think they would get the don't tread on me slogan, in a very selfish way.

3 Really incredible that they called it NICE.

In the novel "The Hideous Strength," published circa 1950 by C S Lewis (a Brit), the primary source of evil is an organization of highly politicized scientists called NICE (National Institute for Coordinated Experimentation)

Literacy levels among PR people in the UK government must not be very high.

4 "Nice, nice, very nice
So many people in the same device"
- Ambrosia

The same big government device!

I like McArdle's device, er, advice:

"If you worry about global warming, you should worry at least as hard about medical innovation."

How much of that comes from the big government device? Seriously?

Is this really the best way to get rid of old cars? It seems like such a waste.

Speaking of waste, how many people remember state slogans? I guess I never thought about state branding because Hawaii's identity is self-evident.

5

6 McArdle names those who control the "device" (emphasis ours):

"These aren't just a way to save on health care; they're a way to extend and expand the cultural hegemony of wealthy white elites."

... our allies, er, we mean, our Europpressive enemies. They know whose lives matter:

"Once the government gets into the business of providing our health care, the government gets into the business of deciding whose life matters, and how much."

Alphas: a lot. Omegas: who cares? Immigrants, particularly the undocumented, will do work those Americans won't do (or can't do once they're gone). And you'll pay for their freeee health care! Enjoy.