“No Shirt, No Shoes, No Surgery”

1. Medical degrees from Devry
2. Mandatory organ donor cards
3. Lighters used to sterilize syringes
4. Stomach stapling done at Office Max
5. Coin operated morphine dispensers
6. Tap water plasma substitute
7. Homeless people all have one kidney
8. Free cremation with any major operation
9. Bunkbeds in the Intensive Care Unit
10. Your first dose of narcotics is free
11. Special “showers” for the elderly
12. Tongue depressors taste like Popsicles

Welcome to the world of adulthood. I also want candy from Santa on Christmas morning and brightly colored eggs from the Easter bunny. Instinctively, we are inclined to pretend that the problems of our era can be avoided. This was the pervasive attitude of most citizens of the West toward the Nazi threat before WWII erupted. Sorry about that, but you are morally compelled to keep paying attention.

Barack Obama is a product of affirmative action policies. It is obvious that he merely had to go through the motions while attending Harvard University. The only real thing demanded of him was to behave like an “authentic black man.” Thomas Sowell also attended Harvard for a number of years—but he never embraced leftist doctrines. He is therefore deemed not to be truly a man of color. Obama openly brags about his eagerness to interact with the more radical elements on campus. He stuck his wet finger into the air and saw which way the winds of the zeitgeist were blowing. There was nothing courageous concerning his behavior. When everything is said and done, Obama is a flunky of the white left-wing establishment. I may sound cruel, but it is very fair to describe him as an Uncle Tom. And no, I don’t believe that I am even slightly exaggerating.

When we took Clinton’s “peace dividend”, we went from being able to win 2 wars simultaneously as a strategy to “win-hold-win”. This meant wars would be longer. Our enemies have seized on this strategy change so that the conventional force war is short as our opponents go straight for the counterinsurgency to drag out the process. This Clinton strategy change wasn’t reversed by GW Bush and it was a mistake. This is why these two wars are long and Obama has signed up to continue win-hold-win.

I have read Shlaes book. It’s a dog’s breakfast of factoids. But the best response — even more relevant today — comes from FDR himself:

“Let me warn the nation against the smooth evasion which says: ‘Of course we believe all these things. We believe in Social Security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them; we will do more of them; we will do them better; and best of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.”

Such a long and entertaining paroxysm of rage! And btw, elaine, using initials doesn’t make you any less vulgar.

5. DaveP.: “Biblio thinks … that Andy Card was George Bush….”

No, just his spokesman.

Have a nice, hateful day, folks!

You remember the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns starting at the same time, do you? As for their resolution, you may have noticed Iraq isn’t in the news much. That’s not just the press covering for their guy – deaths should be 1/2 as high this year as last, and 2008 saw a third the toll of 2007. It looks like the surge Obama opposed, and said in late 2008 he would still have opposed, worked.

As I remember, when Bush took office Iraq was a totalitarian country which we confronted with a sanctions regime and troop presence in Saudi Arabia, both of which were sources of – or at least, excuses for – Arab anger with the US. I also remember that when Bush took office, he took office, and didn’t spend months whining about the fact that prior administrations hadn’t abolished war and poverty so he could concentrate on playing basketball and throwing parties.

Jeez, elaine, Roger takes us all the way back to FDR. And btw, it’s OK to say “Shut the fuck up.” Using the initials doesn’t make you any less vulgar.