Ten Things Obama Will Say Wednesday Night – and a couple of things he won’t say

1. Debate is healthy but debate is only valid when both sides listen.
2. People are being frightened and manipulated by those who want to maintain the status quo.
3. Many are spreading fear and misinformation – he may mention the “death panels” specifically.
4. Though we must debate the issues, the time for debate is over. Action is needed now.
5. We must move quickly or risk losing this historic opportunity.
6. At some point, he will cite one or more health care horror stories – anecdotal images that impinge on the feelings of his hearers. He will end with the phrase “we can do better” – he may add “we must do better”.
7. He will speak of the great success of Medicare – a program that would be bankrupt if it hadn’t already gone broke. It is kept afloat only by the extraction of a significant portion of the paychecks of every working American. This is a Ponzi scheme that makes Bernie Madoff look like an amateur and is dwarfed only by the madness that is Social Security.
8. He will assure listeners that they can keep their doctor and their current coverage “if they choose to do so” -- which really means “until this monstrosity really kicks in during the second term to which I am entitled”.
9. He will say that changing the system is costly but the cost of doing nothing is greater, both in terms of dollars and lives.
10. He will say that adding a government option will increase competition and reduce costs. He will even claim that health care reform will save money and reduce the deficit. Unfortunately, there will be no one in the live audience to laugh him down except Mike Pence.

What Obama will not do is discuss details or actual legislation. This will not be a policy speech in any technical sense. He will just tell us that all we think is in the bill is not a problem, and we should simply shut up and let him do what’s best. He is trying to strengthen the hand of Congress against the American people. I strongly suspect that he will be able to do this since, once the legislation is passed, it does not go into effect immediately. The consequences are on down the road, and the Democrats are counting on the short memory of the citizenry to keep them in power.

Obama is intellectually incapable of discussing the real issues with health care and health insurance costs. He doesn’t understand regular business operations let alone the singular economics of health care. Health care cannot operate on a typical business model. Hospitals have traditionally been nonprofit units of religious and charitable institutions or operated by counties for good reason. There must always be some excess supply of available health care, and this overage must be paid for or carried by someone. One reason we end up paying five bucks for a hospital Tylenol is because we want the hospital to have plenty of Tylenol on hand. The reason American health care is not only more expensive but better than any other system is that we have been willing to foot the bill for facilities, personnel, machines, medications, and treatments to be available whenever they are needed. We are willing to pay for empty beds and extra nurses and doctors because we want treatment now. We are also willing to pay for research and innovation. (Remind me of the last time some ground-breaking medical advancement came out of France, Britain, or Canada.)

No government plan has been able to adequately address the health care model because the only way to control costs in a non-competitive environment is to reduce the overhead by eliminating unused capacity. If government gets involved in “controlling costs” this “excess” capacity will go away, and we will be forced to wait months for things we can have immediately under the current system.

Further, costs will not be reduced to the taxpayer because layers of bureaucracy will be added. Career bureaucrats are the same in all nations and all ages. They accumulate managerial levels as part of building their fiefdoms with their departments. Efficiency declines even as budgets increase.

Sadly, despite the townhalls and protests, we will likely lose the health care battle. Congress must pass something to give Obama a victory. A victory of any kind – no matter how detrimental to our freedom – will boost the President’s approval numbers which have declined, in part, because a portion of the radical left thinks things are not moving toward socialism fast enough. This lame, predictable speech will give Congress the rallying point and cover they need to ignore the voice of the people, the Constitution, and the best interests of the Republic.

(Since I have to re-primer the Jeep that night, someone will have to tell me how well I did at the prediction game.)

Kool-Aid, Kool-Aid, Tastes Great ...

Congratulations to Mr. Obama on his inauguration as the 44th President of the United States.

The general feeling seems to be that America is in crisis, and we need solutions. We need to be willing to try things and be patient with less than perfect attempts. We need to be willing to give Obama and his team a chance.

Really? You mean the economic crisis, brought on in large part because of the leftists’ insistence that we make loans to people who can’t afford them, is such an overwhelming threat to our way of life that we should support our government’s efforts even if we disagree with the policies?

Where I'm from we have a technical term for that: bullshit.

Think of me as Code Red.

Don’t question my patriotism.

And remember that protest is, after all, the highest form of patriotism.

I was against the bailout of Wall Street and the automakers because I am a free market capitalist. It doesn’t matter if it is under a Republican administration with a Democrat-controlled Congress or under a Democrat administration. Government intervention in the private sector is bad for everyone. Make-work projects prolong and deepen recessions. We don’t have to go back to 1936 and the WPA. Jimmy Carter tried things like CETA and PSE back in the late ‘70’s. Those were disastrous wastes of tax dollars.

Expect Chicago street crews to expand, such that, instead of five guys – ethnically and gender diverse, of course – leaning on shovels watching one guy work, there will be eight guys leaning on shovels watching one work.

I do not want to live in a European-style social democracy, and I will do whatever tiny thing I can to prevent America going further down that road. America has already embraced too much socialism; government meddling is the primary problem we have now with healthcare and the financial sector. Our income tax system punishes achievement, our courts allow people to play lawsuit lottery, and we allow people on the government dole to vote. To the extent that Obama and his leftist, collectivist buddies want to push America on down the road to socialism, I am not “on board” with them, and I sincerely hope their efforts are monumental and catastrophic failures.

The majority of Democrats, in the face of a vicious common enemy – radical Islam, thought nothing of attempting to thwart the military, destroy morale, and play politics with the blood of American servicemen. They were more concerned about destroying George Bush and regaining political power than defeating a threat to Western Civilization. They succeeded. We can thank God that our military has succeeded as well, despite the increased cost in casualties resulting from an enemy emboldened by Democrat opposition.

In light of that, all efforts by the right to oppose Obama and his desire to destroy the Constitution and our economy are to be considered highly patriotic.

Orson Scott Card Must Read!

If you haven't seen this already, read it. Read it now. Read it to your friends.

Orson Scott Card on "America Unplugged".

Card says:

"Cap and trade" plans have already been tried, and they don't work -- they cost too much, and people find ways to get around them. But Obama promises us that he'll take that failed idea and be "as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's" plan.

In other words, if it doesn't work, let's do more of it!

This is Obama the New Puritan. We've found his real religion: Political and Environmental Correctness.

It's more important to him to eliminate coal than to find practical solutions. Why? Because coal is "bad." Our groupthinking "intellectual" elite thinks they are post-religious -- but they believe in sin and hate the sinners.

OSC bitch-slaps the global warming fruitcakes:

Unfortunately, human-caused global warming exists only in the way Zeus exists -- in the imagination of believers who ignore obvious natural explanations.

After kicking Obama's ass and doing a take-down worthy of Hulk Hogan in his prime, Card grinds the One's face into the dirt:

Obama and his elitist friends think they're smart, but they don't live on planet Earth, they live in a playhouse where they can make huge messes with their stupid policies, and then pretend that the mess is someone else's fault while they hope for some invisible mommy to come and clean it up.

The invisible mommy so far has been the American people and the resilient economy that we create (along with the few remaining moral standards that have not yet been crushed).

But we can't clean up after Obama's plan if we're too broke to turn on the lights.

Read the whole thing. Send it to your friends.

Godzilla versus Bambi

Joe Biden’s mouth is more dangerous to his friends than Dick Cheney’s shotgun. As everyone now knows, Biden has guaranteed a disaster of biblical proportions in the event Barack Obama is elected on November 4. In response to being shot in the foot by his running mate, Obama suggested in a BBC story yesterday that Uncle Joe “sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes”, and other times is he’s just smoking crack. In the same article, the Junior Senator from Daleyville warns that John McCain will “endanger” U.S. security. In related news Leonardo DiCaprio suggests that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is too effeminate to for action hero roles.

Does anyone really think that weakness is a formula for peace? My experience has always been that the guy who has a reputation for toughness or who looks intimidating is less likely to be involved in a fight. Remember, the attack on 9/11/2001 was not even the first attack on the WTC. For eight years, Bill Clinton had done nothing except throw a few cruise missiles around in response to one attack after another. The USS Cole was bombed and nothing was done -- an attack on United States Navy ship, and it brought no response. The enemy was emboldened. They made the mistake of thinking they could do Bush the same way.

Three thousand innocent people had to die. What will it take next time? What will it be when Iran has nukes? What will the enemy think when we flee from Iraq and Afghanistan?

Who is it again that's going to get us in trouble? The old fighter pilot who survived everything the Commies could throw at him, or the metrosexual community organizer? Who will be more intimidating to our enemies?

The Islamic fascists know that McCain will not back down. They have nothing to gain by killing our troops. They are certain that Obama will back down if they can perpetrate a few more suicide missions and IED attacks. Whether the enemy's belief is true or not, more American soldiers and Marines will die needlessly if Obama is elected.

You don't tug on Superman's cape,
You don't spit into the wind,
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger,
And you don't mess around with Jim.

Tools and Truth

Therefore, get your minds ready for action, being self-disciplined, and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance but, as the One who called you is holy, so you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. -- 1 Peter 1:13-16

The more literal translation of the first phrase “get your minds ready for action” is “gird up the loins of your mind”. Tie up all the loose ends so that you don’t trip over the tail of your coat in a fight.

I saw a snippet of Colin Powell endorsing Obama in which he mentioned the importance of “rhetorical skills”. Personally I’d rather have someone who can take care of business than someone who is just too glib to pin down in a discussion. Powell may see politics as a means of getting one’s way, but statesmanship, leadership and good governance should be more about doing the right thing. Rhetoric in the service of truth may be beneficial, but rhetoric is merely a tool. It can be used as easily to obscure the truth as to support it.

When the time for action comes it requires decisiveness. We often have to cut through elaborate and elusive language to see the right and wrong of a situation. Arguments and lines of thinking that are soothing to the ego and self-serving will trip us up when we have to make decisions about crucial issues. It is pretty easy for a man to convince himself, for example, that his wife really isn’t treating him right and that he would be better off with another woman. It’s easy to convince myself to take the easy way, to forego self-discipline and indulge.

Self-indulgence is the real platform of the Democrat party in America. Obama appeals to those who look down upon thrift, effort and achievement, those who despise and deride self-discipline and self-sacrifice. The Obamas’ embrace of black liberation theology is an indulgence of a false victim status that appeals to the left. The reason tying Obama to the terrorist Bill Ayers will have little effect is because forty percent of the American people believe nihilistic decadence should be the norm.

So it really is a fight and I need to be ready for it, in training at all times. The upcoming election is only a minor battle in a much larger war. Training is good but once we are in fighting trim we must carry through. We have to rely totally upon the grace of God.

It’s easy to misread Peter’s statement to be “the grace that was brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. Instead he says not what was brought but what is to be brought. God did reveal Himself via the Incarnation, but the fullness of grace can be known only as Christ is unveiled in me. The revelation cannot come to a heart full of fleshly thoughts and desires. The vessel must be emptied of hope in all other means.

For all their faults, twelve-step programs are absolutely right about the necessity of “hitting bottom”. The bottom doesn’t have to be a physical gutter. Spiritual disciplines can accomplish the same end without all the ugly consequences and repercussions. Fasting is possibly the most effective of all in this regard. Thus when His disciples asked why they could not cast out a demon, Jesus replied, “This kind comes out only by prayer and fasting.” The thoughtful might wonder if it is wise to try casting out another’s demon before dealing with one’s own.

The process of Lent with its sacrifices and constraints is meant to be a picture of exactly what Peter is talking about. There is the discipline based on the hope of the gospel in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It ends with the revelation of the empty tomb on Easter morning. Maybe those old guys knew what they were about after all.

I’ve been hammered with the admonition to “be holy because God is holy.” Like many others I have tried to achieve holiness on my own. It’s easy enough to go off in that direction because that seems to be what the “experts” tell us. In the same way, it is easy to confuse self-discipline with something like “we don’t drink and we don’t chew, and we don’t go with girls that do.” Self-denial is not holiness. Neither is self-indulgence. The essence of holiness is the abandonment of “self-anything”. Spiritual disciplines, like fasting, will move us in the right direction as long as we do not confuse the path with the destination. Sanctification is by grace alone.

Jesus did not chastise the Pharisees because they fasted on a regular basis but rather because they thought fasting itself pleased God. In their case being able to adhere to a “higher standard” did not bring them to the end of self, it strengthened and enthroned self.

I encourage fasting but not as a means of pleasing God or of putting Him under obligation. Rather, we should fast that we may break self’s hegemony and enthrone Christ.

Why the Worst Get on Top

We must return for a moment to the position which precedes the suppression of democratic institutions and the creation of totalitarian regimes. In this stage it is the general demand for a quick and determined government action that is the dominating element in the situation, dissatisfaction with the slow and cumbersome course of democratic procedure which makes action for action’s sake the goal. It is then the man or the party who seems strong and resolute enough “to get things done” who exercises the greatest appeal. “Strong” in this sense means not merely a numerical majority – it is the ineffectiveness of parliamentary majorities with which people are dissatisfied. What they will seek is somebody with such solid support as to inspire confidence that he can carry out whatever he wants.

(Emphasis added)

-- From The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek, chapter 10 “Why the Worst Get on Top”, p. 150 (Fiftieth Anniversary Ed., University of Chicago Press)



I think if I had read Hayek and Bastiat when I was in college I would have become an economist.

The mainstream media is pimping Obama as this leader. He lost the debate, but, since no one really watched it, the media narrative, via polling data, is that Obama won. From Hayek’s insightful analysis, we can see the purpose behind the left's use of polling data. Bush cannot get things done because he has low poll numbers. McCain is falling in the polls. He does not inspire confidence.

Polling has become the most insidious form of propaganda available to the socialists in this country. Even conservatives fall victim to it. Go over to Free Republic sometime after a poll comes out and see the wailing and gnashing of teeth that takes place as they offer prayers, tears, advice and excuses for the conservatives' poor performance.

I said a while back that I thought McCain would win with Palin, but I admitted that a lot could happen. The “mortgage crisis” happened, and America may well pay in more than bailout money.

What can we do? For one thing we can pray. I think this is important because it changes the atmosphere. Right now panic, despair and despondency are ruling. Prayer can change that. God is not a Republican – but He is certainly not a Democrat. What He will do is give us a leader in accordance with our hearts. Being in harmony with God’s will and purpose as the Body of Christ is of far greater consequence than which self-aggrandizing maroon occupies the Oval Office. If the Obamessiah does win, my daily prayer will be, “God smack Barack and keep his butt in line.”

It seems obvious, but, vote. I have my absentee ballot on my desk right now. I am going to fill it out, have it notarized and mailed in a couple of days. It’s easy to do. Christians, libertarians, conservatives, and classical liberals can make history by voting down the most extreme socialist ever to run on a major party ticket in America. Forget your differences with McCain. Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin are not going to win. You are not voting for the pastor of your church. You are voting for a politician – by definition this means picking the lesser of two evils. Practice your holier-than-thou principles in your private life, and cast your vote for the idiot that is going to do the least damage.

The Politics of Humility

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. – Luke 14:11

It has been said that, all other things being equal, a bald man cannot be elected President of the United States. While that may be the case, I would say it is most necessary for a presidential candidate to embrace at least the appearance of humility if he plans on receiving a majority of the votes.

I owe John McCain an apology. I did not vote for him in my state’s primary. I’m not apologizing for that but for underestimating what an astute politician Senator McCain is. I fear that he is still a moderate, still reluctant to shutdown the borders, too willing to compromise with Democrats. Of course I would have voted for him in November regardless. Over the course of many presidential elections I have voted for the lesser of two evils more often than not. Politics is not religion. Like horseshoes and hand grenades, close counts in politics. Anyway, John McCain is an admirable man who served his country nobly and courageously in unimaginable circumstances. He also has a measure of political shrewdness on the level of Richard Nixon. All his faults aside, Nixon was a genius when it came to understanding the electorate and gaming the process. Bill Clinton was only elected President in 1992 because of Ross Perot and the not-so-subtle efforts of the media back before the internet with its forums, blogs and new sources became a factor. Nixon was already detested by the Democrats and the media when he won unassisted in 1968. I’d take Nixon over any 20th Century leader, except Churchill, in a back alley street fight.

Of course the Palin pick was a master stroke, but McCain was on the right track before that. At the Saddleback forum he looked and sounded presidential. Obama sounded like he was running for president of the student council. At Saddleback and more explicitly in his acceptance speech McCain found the perfect note. He talked about how he had been a cocksure, know-it-all stud Navy pilot. Then, so truthfully it was painful to hear, he told how he had been broken and humbled, how he had become a changed man through his trials. Humility will win the South and the swing states.

The core American voter may not have a lot of Scotch-Irish blood in his veins these days, but he still has the culture and the values. We expect a man to brag on his family or his bird dog, and we don’t mind if he takes a little justifiable pride in his brains, his brawn or his skill. But if he ever gets to thinking that he’s better than the rest of us, we will mock him and poke him every chance we get. We will delight in his failures, not so much to gloat over him, though we might do a little of that, but to see him come to his senses and be a better man. We’ll rejoice in another man’s good fortune or success in business so long, as we say, it doesn’t go to his head. We may make fun of one another as the opportunity for a good laugh arises, but we usually trade in self-deprecating humor. We are not bigots or racists. We do not care about a man’s skin color, his accent or where his people came from so long as he treats us the same way.

John McCain has managed to turn this election into a choice between a humble man who can laugh at himself and a cool, distant mocking elitist. Whether that is in fact the truth of the matter makes little difference. If things remain as they are Obama will lose, not just the South, but all the swing states and some states like Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Wisconsin that have gone to the Democrats in the last four cycles. The final outcome is still in question. There are the upcoming debates, and McCain may falter, but at this point John McCain and his team are positioned to win. Obama has allowed himself to be defined, not just by the Republicans, but by his own supporters, as an arrogant aristocrat who knows what’s best for everybody else.

My people do not like aristocrats. We appreciate the nobility of an individual and respect those who are leaders by nature and inclination but we have little use for those who would "lord it over" others.

There are some who do, such as those who think of themselves as part of the aristocracy or the meritocracy – the mainstream media, Hollywood, many of the newly rich technology tycoons, and those from the ivory towers of academia. An aristocracy, though, cannot exist without an underclass. In this case the much more numerous part of the snob voting block consists of those who have been convinced that they are victims of society in need of a savior, such as the urban, African-American community, some of the less thoughtful, more extreme members of the gay community, and various other assorted collectivists. One thing that has always baffled me about the Democrat coalition is the rabid defense of “abortion rights”. Why is this so central to the Democrat platform? If we think about the elitism at the heart of the collectivist left, we see that abortion is an easy way to eliminate “unnecessary” humans: white trash “clingers”, blacks, Trig Palin. There are only so many resources and they should not be wasted on the marginal. It’s the same reason elitists are so in love with universal health care. There is no reason to waste time and money on people who are going to die anyway, or, more importantly, those who should never have been born in the first place, and it should be up to those in the bureaucratic meritocracy to make that decision – not, Gaia forbid, families.

So, too, with the radical environmentalists: humans are bad and need to be controlled least they overrun the pristine world nature created. Only the elite know what is best. The hicks out there can’t be allowed to just do whatever they want with their own property. If it were up to them, the environmental elites would herd us all into high-rises in urban centers. There would be no sprawling suburbs or small towns. Some of us, by permit only, would be allowed to venture out on weekends via light rail. They would eliminate the private automobile, that diabolical device that allows people the freedom to live where they want.

It really is a culture war. We are the rural egalitarians who believe we can take care of ourselves and one another without a bunch of arrogant knowers-of-all-things standing over us dictating. They are the urban elites who -- along with their serfdom of victims -- fear those ignorant hicks who don’t have passports, who drink Folgers coffee, and eat iceberg lettuce and baloney on Wonder Bread while watching NASCAR. The aristocrats’ day may come, but it is not yet. Humility, even if you have to fake it, is still the way to be exalted in America.

I Can Make Like A Turtle, Baby

I went out to water the tomatoes, and I found a turtle sitting on top of this post.

"Well, hello," I said, "how did you get up there?"

"I jumped, of course. I have an awesome vertical jump. It comes with the tight buns. And I can hit 3-pointers."

"It's getting pretty hot out here in the sun, isn't it?"

"No problemo. I don't sweat."

"OK. Um, how you going to get down?"

"Have I mentioned HOPE?"

"Not yet."

"How about CHANGE?"

"Sweat or no, you're going to be baked turtle pretty soon. It's like 95 out here."

"That is so specie-est! I'll bet you're one of those human supremacists. How dare you bring up my turtleness!"

"At least I can get myself off a post. Look, I'll get you off there, but you have to tell me the truth. You know turtles can't jump."

"All right. That Soros guy set me up here, but I really deserve it. I am all about hope and change."

I gently picked the turtle up and placed it on the ground in the shade.

"Whew," he said as he began to crawl away, "that's change I can live with."