Queeg moment

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http://spectator.org/archives/2013/01/29/his-queeg-moment

The American Spectator: his Queeg Moment
By Hal G.P. Colebatch

 

A perspective on our president from Down Under.

 

In Herman Wouk’s classic World War II novel, The Caine Mutiny, there is a moment when a group of the ship’s officers are getting away from the increasingly eccentric Captain Queeq by relaxing ashore.

Suddenly the malcontent Lieutenant Keefer asks the others: “Does it occur to you that Captain Queeg may be insane?

In fact Queeg is not insane, at least not at that time. He is simply grappling, more and more disastrously, with a job too big for him. Come the crisis of a typhoon, he becomes paralyzed and nearly sinks the ship by failing to give the obvious orders. At the subsequent court-martial he appears quite normal until he breaks down under the pressure of cross-examination. Before this, the officers have searched the regulations for guidance, but the regulations refer only to a captain who is clearly and unmistakably insane, not one who is merely guilty of eccentricity and bad judgment. At a lower level of responsibility, Queeg might have performed adequately, but with Keefer’s question, the remaining respect for Queeg’s office has gone.

Obama’s second inauguration speech may be his Queeg moment — an undeniable demonstration that, in an emergency, he is incapable of grappling with reality. For all his unceasing invocation of the word “change,” the outstanding thing about Obama has been his apparent inability to react, even to an imminent crisis. Like Queeg, he stands frozen on the bridge as the waves grow higher, or obsesses over issues like homosexuals and women in the military as the typhoon rises.

Faced with the worst looming fiscal cliff-fall in world history Obama, like Queeg in the typhoon, has done nothing at all, but has, increasingly, resorted to meaningless words. His pseudo-Keynesian fiscal notions and a mantra-like repetition of old and failed ideas, suggest a serious lack on mental versatility.

Economics is not an exact science, but some of its rules are now well-known, and one is that a government cannot spend its way out of a recession.

Yet Obama does not project any sense of urgency, merely a smug, radiating sense of his own greatness. The one fiscal measure to which he seems committed — taxing the rich — is infantile stuff, like Queeg’s obsession with who ate the wardroom strawberries. Any first-year politics or economics student knows that there are not enough rich, even in as wealthy a country as the United States, to have raising their taxes make any appreciable difference. President Reagan’s application of the Laffer Curve proved emphatically, and only a short while ago, that the way to both stimulate the economy and to increase government revenues is to lower taxes. And it is not hard to pick some areas as least where towering taxes would make no appreciable difference to public infrastructure.

Like Queeg, Obama shows an inability to change course when such a change is desperately needed. Giving 20 F-16 fighters and hundred of tanks to Egypt was never, in my opinion, a clever idea. Even when Egypt was an unequivocal friend its security required things like armored cars to put down street violence, not these hi-tech weapons whose only conceivable use would be against Israel. Indeed, Obama seems to show no awareness that Egypt and other major Islamic countries have changed from being friends to something like enemies in a few months. For a President of the United States there is a difference between making a bad policy choice and clinging to that policy when it is plainly completely wrong, like the Caine steaming in a circle and cutting its own tow-line. Mistakes that cannot be ignored are always someone else’s fault (refer George Bush).

The dancing is still there, the golf, the celebs, the multi-million dollar holidays, but behind them it is possible to detect a desperate emptiness, a interconnected mosaic of failure. The one much-boasted triumph, the killing of Osama Bin Laden, was the work of other men. One of those most responsible, Dr. Shakil Afridi, rots in the hellhole of a Pakistani jail, abandoned. Obama’s oath to bring the Benghazi murderers to justice seems to have been forgotten as soon as it was made, something — I am not sure if there is a word for it — actually below the level of a campaign promise. Allies have been lost or slighted in almost every part of the world, the Afghan war has brought the U..S and NATO humiliation and Russia and China lead in Space. The defenses of the U.S.’s major allies, such as Britain, are in an even more dire situation.

This does not even consider the exploding levels of domestic poverty. Restoring flexibility to the wage system, so as to give American industry a reasonable degree of competitiveness, seems out of the question.

The Western position in Mali seems to have suddenly collapsed without warning, or without preventative action being taken, and meanwhile, we have had the North Korean threat. I somehow doubt we would have had that if Reagan had been at the helm. What, exactly have things come to when a cockroach of a country, apparently run by real, certifiable lunatics, can threaten the United States with nuclear weapons? The typhoon waves are starting to break over the bridge.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA

[Gordon Ray Kissinger]

Is President Obama A Pathological Liar?

 Posted 06/20/2012 07:01 PM ET

The Obama Record

The Obama Record: The most frightening aspect of this president may not be his radical ideology but his rank dishonesty in selling that ideology. Now he's been caught lying about family racism.

In "Dreams from My Father," his 1995 memoir, Obama used the story of his paternal grandfather's imprisonment and torture at the hands of British colonists in Kenya as an example of white cruelty. He claimed Hussein Onyango Obama was unjustly detained for six months before being released a crippled, lice-ridden "old man."

In fact, none of it is true, according to Washington Post editor and biographer David Maraniss, who traveled to Kenya to investigate the tale. His grandfather was not detained or beaten by his "white rulers," as Obama, writing as a 34-year-old lawyer, claimed.

This is only the latest example of a growing body of fabrications, embellishments and outright lies told by this president, who has a real and possibly pathological problem with the truth.

Stacked up, his whoppers would make even Bill Clinton blush. Here's a sampling:

Lie No. 1: Obama has repeatedly claimed his white grandfather, Stanley Dunham, "fought in Patton's army," when he was a clerk with no combat in WWII.

Lie No. 2: Obama claimed Dunham, a communist sympathizer, signed up for duty "the day after Pearl Harbor," when in fact he waited six months.

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Lie No. 3: Obama claimed his father "fought when he got back to Kenya against tribalism and nepotism, but ultimately was blackballed from the government," when in fact he fought against capitalism and lost his job when he advocated communism.

Lie No. 4: Obama has claimed his late mother's health insurer refused "to pay for her treatment" for cancer while citing a "pre-existing condition," when Cigna paid all her hospital bills and never denied payment.

Lie No. 5: Obama claimed he and a black high school friend named "Ray" were ostracized in Honolulu, when in fact the friend, Keith Kakugawa, was half-Japanese, and neither of them experienced discrimination.

Lie No. 6: Obama claimed the father of his Indonesian stepfather was killed by Dutch soldiers while fighting for Indonesian independence, when in fact the story turns out to be "a concocted myth in almost all respects," Maraniss found.

Lie No. 7: Obama claimed his parents decided to marry in the excitement of the Selma civil-rights march of 1965 — and that he personally has "a claim on Selma" — when in fact they were married several years earlier.

Lie No. 8: Obama claimed his father got to study in the U.S. thanks to JFK's efforts to bring "young Africans over to America," when in fact the Kenyan airlift his father participated in occurred in 1959 under Ike.

Lie No. 9: Obama submitted a phony bio to his book publicist claiming he was "born in Kenya."

Lie No. 10: Obama denied being a member of the socialist New Party, when a member roster of the Chicago chapter of the party lists him joining on Jan. 11, 1996.

Lie No. 11: Obama claimed he had only a passing acquaintance with Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, when in fact they held a fundraiser for their Hyde Park neighbor in their living room, and years later, while Obama served in the U.S. Senate, hosted a barbecue for him in their backyard.

Lie No. 12: Obama claimed he never heard Rev. Jeremiah Wright spew anti-American invectives while sitting in his pews for 20 years, when in fact Obama was moved to tears hearing Wright condemn "white folks" and the U.S. for bombing other countries and even named his second book after the sermon.

Lie No. 13: Obama claimed he got in a "big fight" with old white flame Genevieve Cook, who after seeing a black play asked "why black people were so angry all the time," when in fact she never saw the play nor made the remark.

In both his autobiographies, Obama paints a false portrait of a still-racist America and West, where he, his friends and relatives are victimized by that racism. Conveniently, his remedy is redistributive justice through bigger government.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/062012-615581-obama-tells-...

[Gordon Ray Kissinger]

The Victims of America

Written on Sunday, February 17, 2013 by Rod Bedard Jr.

In America’s history we’ve had every type of leader, every type of Administration, every type of President. From the one-of-a-kind George Washington to the fool Woodrow Wilson to the disaster Jimmy Carter to the great Ronald Reagan we’ve had real good and stinking rotten bad too. But what we never had and never saw was the likes of Barack Obama. His beliefs, his ideology, his attitude, his hubris…we’ve seen the like before, but we never had a divider-in-chief like him.

President Obama and his Administration are the first to use victimization as such an effective club with which to beat Americans into submission. The game plan to ruin America has been implemented from day one of Obama’s win in ’08. He said he’d “fundamentally change America” and though I have no idea what was so terrible about us, he apparently does. And he’s really changed us already. Welcome to the land of victims.

The Progressive Liberal strategy is pretty simple. It starts with electing all the Lefty Eggheads possible. Done. Elect a sympathetic Socialist for President. Done. Have that President be one who’s willing to piss on the Constitution any time he sees fit. Done. Take advantage of the corrupt and shameless mainstream media. Done. With the stage set we move “forward”.

It is then time to activate the heart and soul of the grand plan. Victimization. It is so easy especially when a large part of the population is ready for “victimhood”. Victimhood is like the opposite of “Knighthood” which requires bravery, chivalry, selflessness, etc. Victimhood is bestowed by President Obama and the Left, on those low info voters who just need to be heard.

Blacks are victims of the colonial white slave owner, racist, cotton pickin’ rich white folks. It doesn’t matter that blacks sold blacks to blacks and whites. It doesn’t matter that the Democrat Party did their best to keep slavery legal. It doesn’t matter that it was long ago. Joe Biden said it best….that the Republicans want to “put y’all back in chains”. The folks on the Left keep racism alive and well in America. What would guys like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson do without racism. It is their purpose in life to find it everywhere whether it exists there or not. They are like termites. Racism is their oak.

Poor people are victims. They’re ALL poor through no fault of their own. The ones who never tried in school, dropped out, got in trouble, screwed around, slacked off, were lazy or just didn’t give a damn are poor now because of some guy in a corporation somewhere. Or due to a hateful and indifferent upper class. Or because that guy over there has a job he earned. Or whatever. I remember as a child our family was helping a poor family with food, clothing, day care etc. With church help the mom and dad both found jobs. Well it wasn’t long before mom and dad quit their jobs and went back on welfare. They, like many on the dole are poor by choice. Those people make me sick.

Women are victims. Men want to rule them, take away their birth control, pay them less than they are worth, etc. Look at silly Sandra Fluke. Look at the ridiculous speeches she’s given on the subject. She’s a victim so she says. She NEEDS to be to have a voice. The voice screams victimhood. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This just doesn’t end.

Blacks are victims of whites. So are Hispanics. (We white folk must really be some kind of hideous people eh)? Women are victims of men. The poor are victims of everybody not poor. The city is a victim of the suburb. Workers are victims of bosses. People are victims of corporations. Mother earth is a victim of everyone who doesn’t believe in the bullcrap known as global warming. We are all victims of something or someone so we’re told.

The Obama administration and its proponents use victimhood (and the almighty race card) all the time to carve us up, to turn us against one another, to make us suspicious of one another so we won’t come together in love and trust.

There are plenty of people who are happy being victims because they are ignorant and lazy and want handouts. Screw those people. You know them when you see them. Avoid them. Most people don’t see themselves as victims and they take responsibility for themselves. It can be hard to resist though, the idea that someone “owes” you. The Left wants us all to feel owed so they can step in and get us some “social justice”. If they can break us up into tribes at war with each other we’re done.

Life is full of choices. I choose NOT to be a victim. I don’t want anyone to be MY victim. The disgusting leadership in Washington WANTS and NEEDS us to feel victimized by each other because unity will kill, (yes, kill) their grand agenda. Americans must stick together against such tactics or we’ll end up like the Native Americans (who fought each other constantly and never unified). Obama is carving Americans up and placing us against each other. How revolting a man he is! Quick break while I go puke.

The big victim in America is……….America. The Country is torn up, broke, hurting. It is intentional. Imagine if Romney had been elected and he actually put in an energy policy. The Country would be rockin’ like N. Dakota. Not Obama though. No energy independence for us he says. No millions of new jobs. No new prosperity for us. King Obama has spoken. You sit down and shut up and be a victim of everyone but the real oppressor…Obama himself.

Americans of all stripes must refuse the temptation to be called a victim. We are an independent people. We must take care of our own and also help each other. Do you think you are down because someone else is up? Poor because someone else is rich? Stupid because someone else is smart? Sick because someone else is healthy? That is what our President and the Progressive Left WANTS and NEEDS us to believe. Remember the quote about a Nation divided against itself?

And one of my very favorites:

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
Samuel Adams

In America you can truly be anything you want to be. Be ok, or good, or great or whatever you want but don’t be a victim. Don’t fall into that self-pity trap. If you do you are owned. Rather, be free and self-reliant and truly American. We are the home of the free and the brave, not the home of the pitiful and victimized.

http://patriotupdate.com/articles/the-victims-of-america/