From (formerly) Great Britain – America’s Petri Dish

KevinLeave a comment

The left has seen the pinnacle of its efforts to sell “utopia” and “social justice” pass by without the success they envisioned, and have resorted to voter cultivation and union terrorism to produce what their manipulation and appeals to compassion have failed to achieve. They are simply no longer interested in what the white British family wants, feels, or have the potential to be; the white British family is now a threat and a detriment to Marxist goals for the future state. When one fails to vote as commanded, then social engineering through mass immigration and a total breakdown of morality through creating apathetic dependence shall compel a “new” British voter to simply vote for what will keep them alive and free of any responsibility whatsoever. This, according to their plan, creates an unopposed mandate for generations to come. That, my friends, is the evil which we must eradicate with the coldest and most brutal determination if we are to survive.

I would also ask that my American readers take notice of these extraordinary times and try to draw parallels to their own demise currently in progress. The initial step was to create a two pronged attack; the first would be to effectively destroy one sixth of the economy, the private sector, and nationalize it. The second would be to create the ultimate dependency of the people to their well informed and all powerful dear leader. There can be no greater power over the people than the decision of who lives and who dies. “Vote for them and you shall lose your tit from which you suckle for your very existence” they will say. Meanwhile by eradicating such a major swath of the private sector, they can begin to scoop up the newly unemployed by putting them on the government payroll; no one would vote against the hand that feeds. The next and most obvious step would be amnesty for 20 to 30 odd million illegals.

— Torchlight – Great Britain: Emails Reveal Labour Is No Less Than The Future Communist Party Under Union Control

This is what reader PhilB abandoned the UK to escape. And it’s coming here. RTWT

Quote of the Day – ‘We’ve Met the Enemy’ Edition

KevinLeave a comment

From a comment to a WaPo piece, Obama’s 17-minute, 2,500-word response to woman’s claim of being ‘over-taxed’ from yesterday:

The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.

The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.

Posted by: Grandpa2 | April 3, 2010 11:24 PM

But what if he’s not? A fool, that is.

I’ve been arguing since about day one on this blog that the unannounced but obvious purpose of our public school system over the last 100 years has been the deliberate dumbing-down of the electorate so that they would be easier to lead around, said purpose justified by a philosophy that made its end game the destruction of the capitalist West – a philosophy still around even after the collapse of its spawning ground, the Soviet Union. “Grandpa2” believes Obama a fool that the country can survive, but 95 year-old Harold Estes is concerned that he’s not a fool, but a determined enemy. Lou Pritchett shares that concern.

So do I.

But “Grandpa2” has hit upon the problem: we elected him. Not only that, but we settled for John McCain as his opponent. And before that, George Bush and John Kerry, and before that George Bush and Al Gore. And before that….

Comedian Lewis Black had it right, back during the run-up to the 2000 election. “In my lifetime,” he said, “we’ve gone from JFK to Al Gore. In my lifetime, we’ve gone from Ike to G.W. Bush.

“If this is progress, in a few years we’re going to be voting for PLANTS!“

And not wondering why.

They’ve trained us well.

But Can it Survive Emnity?

KevinLeave a comment

That was a question I asked last August when I wrote Restoring the Lost Constitution. I quoted from Orson Scott Card’s recent book Shadow of the Giant:

(America) was a nation created out of nothing – nothing but a set of ideals that they never measured up to. Now and then they had great leaders, but usually nothing but political hacks, and I mean right from the start. Washington was great, but Adams was paranoid and lazy, and Jefferson was as vile a scheming politician as a nation has ever been cursed with.

…

America shaped itself with institutions so strong that it could survive corruption, stupidity, vanity, ambition, recklessness, and even insanity in its chief executive.

But, I asked, can it survive enmity?

Today I received an interesting email from a coworker about a letter sent to The Won by a WWII veteran. Here’s that letter in its entirety:

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert. I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man. So here goes:

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can’t figure out what country you are the president of. You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

“We’re no longer a Christian nation”

” America is arrogant” – (Your wife even announced to the world,” America is mean-spirited. ” Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)

I’d say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said, “America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American! If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue .. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.

You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That’s not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now. And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.

Sincerely,

Harold B. Estes

Neither do I, Mr. Estes, but I’m wondering how hell I could tell the difference?

This letter reminded me of another, written by a former vice-president for Procter & Gamble, Lou Pritchett:

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America’ crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

But then I tell myself that these are both obviously heterosexual white males and are thus racist homophobes and xenophobes and probably almost definitely Republican Palin-supporting teabaggers, so I can safely dismiss their concerns – the Media tells me so.

When Does a Wookie-Suit Become Evening Wear

KevinLeave a comment

I’m beginning to understand the fascination that sociology holds for some people. I came across an AP piece today that was originally published on Sunday, Prosecutor: Agent infiltrated Christian militia. Since it’s an AP piece, I won’t tempt their wrath by actually quoting from it, I’ll instead quote one of the commenters (at the time of this writing there are 12,443 comments):

the comments are a @#$%load more interesting than that waste of time “story/non-story”
three unspecified arrests of unspecified persons for unspecified crime/s in unspecified places, insinuating that unspecified persons may belong to an unspecified militia.(a 2nd amendment right) oh my! – Pooh, 967+/194-

The last number, 967+/194- is the “approve/disapprove” rating given by the readers of the comment. I’m in agreement with “Pooh.” Others were as well:

Could this article be any more vague? Jeesh. Not news worthy without information. John B. 3/28 1:04pm 2036+/419-

what did they do,couldn”t make much sense from the article – Richard 1:10 pm 1733+/324-

That was apparently OK though, because it didn’t prevent many from commenting on what they thought it was about.

The truly fascinating thing about the comments, though, was not so much what was said, but the tone and to some extent the approval/disapproval ratings.

From a quick sampling, I call the ratio about four parts anti-government/pro-liberty, two parts pro-government anti-right, and about one part each of neutral and “WTF, over?” (those being comments that leave you scratching your head wondering WTF the commenter intended to say).

Here are a few representative samples from immediately after the story posted:

Tea party terroists strike again. – Paul 3/28/10 1:29pm PDT 364+/724-

—

It aint over until they bust and waterboard Glen Beck – Knight 3/28/10 1:34pm PDT 514+/708-

—

You can stop all this nonsense by shutting down RUSH LIMB, glen Beck, Hannity, you know what just shut dow FOX NEWS…Radio and TV people are useless. Bunch of people sitting on their arses expressing their oppinion that I don’t give darn about.. – David 3/28/10 1:47pm 363+/648-

—

just another tea bagger republican who dosen’t want to pay his taxes like the rest of us. he wants to operate his illegal meth labs and illegal distilleries to making his moonshine and raping his nine year old cousin doing the lords work by being fruitful and multiplying and claims the government is infringing on his freedoms and rights and stocks his pantry with guns and bullets and bibles instead of food. he buys them with his welfare check.hallelujah praise god bubba now past me that bottle of moonshine and that mexican ak-47 . i think i see them damn government revenuers coming i can’t tell though i can’t see to good shouldn’t have taken that last hit of meth. – Daffy22 3/28 2:02pm 148+/329-

—

They are nuts, the REPUBLICANS, are promoting rage, Palin say the REPUBLICANS are tie to the TEA PARTY, and the TEA PARTY is evil and to me they are dangerous, every time they start up, there is more more killing, more harsh words, they are lack of moral value, just because some did not want HEALTH PLAN, doesn’t mean the rest of AMERICANS did not want it, just cannot satisfied very one.

THE AMERICA WAY IS DEMOCRATIC WAY, just be glad, happy and enjoy it
THE JUG HEAD PROMOTING SUES
AGAIN WASTING OUR TAX PAYERS MONEY, IS THAT WHAT THE AMERICAN WANT? BECAUSE THAT IS AGAIN OUR MONEY IS BEING SPEND FOR SOMETHING GOOD FOR THE PEOPLE – Wanda G 2:12pm 89+/229-

I didn’t format any of these. They’re taken verbatim from the comments. Note their scores.

From the other side:

Why do you, whichever of you, say derogatory things about Tea Party people? I have not gone to a Tea Party meeting, but the last time I looked, this still was The United States of America, operating under the Constitution. These people have every right to rally and say basically whatever. That’s America. I will say this, the history of America has always been one set of ideas competing against another. Another side of America is that sometimes it has come to a face to face confrontation. I hope it doesn’t, but I would expect many of the Tea Party types to be there if it comes to it. The idea of America is a free flow of political ideas. Try and stop that, and something else may flow. That’s our history. – William 3/28/10 1:49pm 657+/125-

—

Oh (expletive deleted) wonderful. The last thing we needed right now was for the Obama administration to turn the paranoid delusions of the extreme right-wing crazies into reality. One would sincerely hope the FBI had actual evidence of actual crimes committed or planned. If not, this is just pouring gasoline on a fire.
I hear the government sent troops to confiscate an illegal arsenal in Concord, Mass., and they ended up in a running firefight with the local militia. Oh, wait- that was April 18th 1775- the “shot heard ’round the world” that began the American Revolution. – Ostlandr 3/28/10 2:05pm 334+/92-

–

Let me get this straight. Muslim terrorists threaten and kill thousands of Americans and Homeland Security tells us not to call them terrorists. A Christian militia group THREATENS muslim groups and the FBI and Homeland Security perform raids around the country rounding up these “terrorists” to protect who? Whose side are they on? – Scorchin_blues 2:08pm 322+/102-

—

When arrests are made, indictments, especially federal, should NEVER be sealed. Our government is totally out of control. But then, Waco proved that. – WillamK 2:10pm 255+/58-

—

Meanwhile, radical Muslims are living in Virginia right in the shadow of our Nation’s Capitol. And Barack Hussein ‘I’m not really a Muslim, I’m just named after one of the most revered Muslims, and both my father and step-father were both Muslims and I spent my developmental years living in Muslim countries’ Obama turns a blind eye. – M 2:11pm 266+/118-

—

The mighty Homeland Security Forces, under the auspices of our Beloved Leader Barak Hussein Obama, have swooped down on the evil heartland of America and apprehended 3 very suspicious Bible readers who also owned guns and were concerned about so many Jihadists allowed to festoon the urban areas of our nation. Wow…..I wish I could have seen them slide down from the ropes of their black helicopters and bust through the windows of those bungalows with their automatic weapons. I makes me proud of this what this country has become. Janet Napolitano warned us about these evil doers…now I feel so safe. – Shannon – 2:13pm 232+/97-

—

Everyone in the USA should own a gun to protect themselves from the power hungry – Opps did I say that 1:20pm 1356+/393-

Personally, I have to say I share Daphne’s position on this story:

My level of trust in the government has reached such a low point that I am seriously doubtful that the militia people recently arrested actually did anything criminal. I’m inclined to believe that they’re nothing but political scapegoats to further the White House meme that white, Christian, right-wing protesters are dangerous extremists.

I know, that sounds nutty, but I still remember the murders committed by our government at Waco and Ruby Ridge the last time a Democrat administration went on this sort of witch hunt.

Could be wrong, but I remember (I think) John Ross in Unintended Consequences saying something on the order of “You can always tell which militia member is an undercover Fed. He’s the one agitating for violent action,” or words to that effect.

Anyway, I don’t think that the comment thread to that article is representative of the general public, but I do think it may be representative of the politically active subset of that group.

Which means that the “Tough History Coming,” as Peggy Noonan put it so long ago, appears to be coming closer.

Read that piece, and think on Billy Wilder’s words.

Interesting Coincidence

KevinLeave a comment

On Saturday I posted Now We Find Out What’s IN It, linking to a piece entitled Obama Just Got his Private Army over at NoisyRoom.net. That piece pointed to a section of the “health care” bill that establishes a “ready reserve corps.” Wookie-suits were donned, bowcasters were charged, until the more level-headed noted in the comments that this wasn’t anything new:

Perhaps we should sit on this one a little longer. I hold a naval commission and was also “personally appointed by [GWB] without the advice and consent of the Senate.” That’s how the uniformed services work. (Promotions are approved, typically en masses, by Congress.) Without looking deeper into it, it seems like this is just a tweak of the statute that deals with the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service (who for some reason wear naval-looking uniforms and use naval ranks).

You can say what you want about the existence of the service or this apparent expansion of it, but I simply don’t see the reason to go nuts over this part of the law. We’re talking about more doctors, nurses, and civil engineers on the federal payroll here, not the creation of an SA/SS. – Xenocles

—

See Hot Air, this is apparently a 60-year-old program.

Guys, let’s try not to become the mirror-image of the unhinged BDS sufferers. — Mastiff

Ok, ok, I retracted. After I retracted, RobertaX had a comment though:

...So, the program is 60 years old, that makes it okay-fine? More badged bastards from the Feds is a good thing?

Nobody remembers that once upon a time, when the Constitution was still read and even, somewhat. observed, the Feds had to go roust _the_County_Sheriff_ if they wanted to arrest somebody.

It’s been grab, grab, grab ever since and as long as it was that way when _you_ popped onto the planet, why, that’s How It Should Be.

Except it ain’t. And it’s never gonna stop until we stand up and say, STOP. Liable to get squished like a bug but the way I see it, better a grease spot than another cog in the Federal nightmare.

Valid point.

Now to the coincidence.

I have a stack of books on the headboard of my bed that I’m slowly (too slowly) working my way through. I’ve had some of these books for a while now, some loaners, most I’ve purchased, a couple sent to me by authors or publishers (yes, Professor Patrick, I WILL get to yours!) One of those books is Tom Kratman’s A State of Disobedience. Now Mr. Kratman is a very interesting person. From his personal web page:

Kratman is a political refugee and defector from the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. The mechanism of his defection was enlisting into the Army in 1974 at age 17, which deeply distressed his high school (Boston Latin, founded 1635) as they thought he had “higher and better things” ahead of him. He served two years as an enlisted grunt with the 101st Airborne and one and a half with the 193rd Infantry Brigade in Panama, getting 2 years of collegedone in the process (when he wasn’t in the field he was taking courses). At that point the Army gave Kratman a scholarship and sent him off to Boston College to finish his degree and obtain a commission. Tom graduated, cum laude, in 1980 and returned to the Army as an infantry officer. Tom served another three year tour in Panama, then more schooling at Benning, then 4+ years with the 24th Infantry Division near Savannah, Georgia. Fun times then ceased for a while while he did two years in Recruiting Command.

Saddam Hussein (PBUH) saved Tom from this by invading Kuwait. He has been told that he was the only captain to actually escape from USAREC for the war. Tom arranged a transfer to Special Operations Command and went through the active part of the campaign attached to 5th Special Forces. He continued slurping at the Army trough until it became painfully clear that the bottom had dropped out of the militantly and violently aggressive anti-communism market and that he was not going to like the rather PC direction the Army (which was, arguably, the only thing he ever selflessly loved) was heading in.

Among other things, Tom earned a Combat Infantry Badge and the Ranger Tab.

Tom got out in 92 and went to law school. He hated it but was far too pig headed to quit. He became a lawyer in 95 and quickly realized that what he had felt about law school was but a pale shadow of true hate. Stayed in the Reserves and took every tour he could to avoid practicing law. And when the reserves had nothing interesting there was MPRI (“white collar mercenaries R us”).

Saddam Hussein (PBUH) once again stepped to the fore and saved Tom from the continued practice of law. In February of 2003 the Army called him up to participate in the invasion of Iraq. Still, God has a sense of humor. While awaiting a flight over Tom was informed he had a 100% blockage in his right coronary artery (imagine his chagrin) and wasn’t going anywhere fun anytime soon. Instead, he spent eight months stuck at Fort Bragg, then a few in the DC area, before finally being sent on to be on the faculty of the Army War College as Director, Rule of Law, for the US Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute. Keep in mind that divine sense of humor previously mentioned.

Tom retired in 2006, bored out of his gourd and finally ready to admit his love affair with the Army was over. He’s returned to Virginia and, instead of practicing law, writes full time for Baen.

Now that you have some feel for the author, let me excerpt just a bit from A State of Disobedience – a book, I’ll remind you, that was first published in 2003. The setting: 2009. America’s first female president has just been elected. She’s a Democrat, über-liberal, and committed to power at any cost (the Department of Redundancy Department, I know). Not only that, but the majorities of both houses of Congress are also Democrat, and the Supreme Court is, for the moment, perfectly split. The President, Wilhelmina Rottemeyer (no, Kratman is not subtle) addresses a joint session of Congress – excerpts:

“We stand poised on the brink,” she began. “We can either go forward, to a new era of peace, progress, and prosperity, or backwards to the dark age of old, to the days when women were kept barefoot and pregnant, when blacks were lynched in the streets of the south, backwards to ignorance, want and filth.

“My administration is pledged to work with Congress to go forward, into the future, rather than backwards to the Republican age of deficits, doubt, debt and decline; recession, repossession and retrenchment.

“We must go forward into the future . . . and we cannot afford to leave anybody behind in the past.

“We are going to invest in America. We are going to invest in a very large way. No more tax cuts for the rich. No more crimping away social security. Instead we are going to make the rich — and the corporations they control — pay their fair share for the first time. We are going to expand social security to ensure that every American can enjoy a comfortable and secure retirement.”

Rottemeyer paused, thinking, It still amazes me that anyone falls for that “soak the rich” crap.

—

“The people have spoken clearly of the kind of investment in the future they demand. We are going to a national health care system and we are going to do so very quickly indeed. The people demand and deserve nothing less.

“The people demand and deserve a national public education system that is second to none. They will have it. Among the other measures that will be sent to Congress for legislative action is a plan for rigorous testing of schools for quality of education, and national assumption of authority over any schools that fail that test. In short, we will shut down those schools and reopen them under our guidance, funding them directly through bypassing the state bureaucracies.”

—

“We are also going to put one million new teachers in our classrooms, many of them to go to staff ‘Opportunity Academies’ to help prepare disadvantaged youths for college. In those academies and in nationally funded and run charter schools.

“We are going to ensure that college education becomes as universal as high school education is today.”

—

“Moreover, along with one million new teachers, I intend to see one million new law enforcement officers, Federal law enforcement officers, to clean up he streets and make our communities livable again.”

I’ve edited out a lot of stuff, but that’s the gist of what I wanted to hit from that speech.

After the speech, the President meets with members of her Cabinet in the Oval Office:

“It’s the expansion of the federal law enforcement capability I have problems with,” said her new attorney general Jesse Vega. “There’s a limit on how fast any organization can expand. It’s not just a question of funding the money and recruiting the bodies. We’ve limited training facilities, limited numbers of people trained for upper management, limited number of administrative people to take care of everything from pay to promotions. The U.S. Marshal Service, DEA, FBI and Treasury can only . . .”

“Who said anything about limiting the expansion to only the existing agencies?” demanded Rottemeyer

“What?” asked Vega, incredulously. “You want to create . . . oh . . . the Surgeon General’s Riot Control Police?”

“Tell me why not, Jesse? Does the Surgeon General’s office not have an interest in controlling demonstrations that get out of hand at, say, abortion clinics? Do they have a bureaucracy capable of administering an additional force of several hundred men, or even a thousand? Can they hire people to train the new officers? Yes to all. So why not?

“Well,” she continued contemplatively, “there has been a certain amount of expansion of federal law enforcement in places you would not expect. Maybe that’s the way I intend to go. I mean, we already do have armed turkey inspectors with the Food and Drug Administration, armed agents of the Environmental Protection Agency.”

Shotgun-toting members of the Department of Education . . .

I read that on Sunday.

Interesting coincidence, no?

Primum, Non Nocere

KevinLeave a comment

The t-shirt is available. As with Kalashnikitty, I have no fiduciary involvement, I just like the idea and am providing advertising gratis:


(Click for shirt link)

“First, do no harm.”

They seem to have forgotten that one.

I hope you make a mint on the shirts, Gregory.

UPDATE: Generally the quote is “Primum Non Nocere,” but Gregory replies in an email:

Although “non” is considered proper, both are actually acceptable. My use of the “nil” variant was due to the essay linked below by Dr. Milton R Wolf, a cousin of Barack Obama, who utilized the “nil” variant while addressing the health care reform bill.

http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/dr-milton-r-wolf-obama-cousin-obama-health-care-bill-primum-nil-nocere-first-do-no-harm-fixing-price-at-any-cost-wolf-blasts-obamacare-america-has-the-finest-health-care-delivery-system-in-the/

There is madness to my method 🙂

And he adds a new version of the Caduceus as requested by my readers:

Batwings and fangs, oh my!

Symbology

KevinLeave a comment

Our President has used a lot of symbology both in the run-up to the election, and after. There’s his well-known “O” –

There was, of course, the iconic “Ché” poster:

Then there was the “Office of the President-Elect” symbol:

And more recently the “Obama Health-Care” symbol:

Now there’s a new symbol out there that, at least as far as the “Health-care bill” is concerned, says it all:

All it needs is that Obama ““ on top instead of the ball.

(h/t to Alan)

UPDATE2 – Here we go:

Reader Gregory generated that image. I think he’s going to offer it on a t-shirt.

I’ve Never Heard of This Guy

KevinLeave a comment

But I LIKE HIM. Reader DJ DC pointed to this YouTube clip in comments:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pte_2vEnX8&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&w=640&h=505]

Here’s the text of the speech:

So this is what change looks like. If he were here, Mr. Speaker, in this time of momentous national distress, I would remind the President of the United States that he is not the leader of a party or an ideology; he is the leader of our country—one founded, not to emulate others, but to inspire the world.

As families lose their jobs, their homes, and their dreams for their children; as our troops fight and sacrifice in foreign fields for our liberty and security, President Obama’s obsessive-compulsive pursuit of an abominable government takeover of health care has defied the public’s objections, despoiled this, “The People’s House,” and further alienated Americans from their representative government.

As President Obama’s campaign mantra of “hope and change” has degenerated into “tax and hate,” reputable surveys prior to this vote report: the public overwhelmingly thinks that the U.S. Government is broken. Only 21 percent of the public thinks it is being governed with its consent. Only 26 percent of the public trusts the Federal Government most of the time or always; 56 percent of Americans think the Federal Government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedom of ordinary citizens; 70 percent believe the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors; and 71 percent of Americans think the Federal Government is a special interest.

In the wake of this health care debate’s despicable, dysfunctional process and product, it is clear: The most dangerous special interest is Big Government and President Obama is its lobbyist.

In contrast to Americans’ faith in themselves, every major piece of legislation proffered by the President and his Democratic Congress expands and empowers Big Government at the expense of the people. Possessed of a smug, cynical, patronizing view of Americans as dependents desiring State benefits, this arrogant administration and its enablers have defied the American people and bi-partisan opposition in Congress to unilaterally jam through a trillion-dollar government takeover of health care.

Why? For so many Americans, the answer is that this President and his Democratic Congress think they are smarter than you; want to run your life; and want to make government your ruler, not your servant.

Such hubris threatens not only our health care system but it tears the social fabric and political contract of our Nation. Instead of working for a more perfect Union, the President’s ideological obstinacy exacerbated the disorder and divisions within our Nation, and wrought a crisis of consent—one that puts America’s exceptional experiment in human freedom and self-government on the precipice of implosion.

To do so the President has the power, but not the right. Thus he has merely scored a Pyrrhic victory over the American people. Ultimately, his government-run medicine scheme will be repealed and replaced with free- market, patient-centered wellness, because America’s strength and salvation remains her free people, not a person.

And this November, America’s sovereign citizens will remind the President and his Democratic Congress that We the People do not work for government; the government works for us.

No, the President and his Democratic Congress will not break us beneath Big Government. Devoted to our freedom and a more perfect Union, we will keep the faith, trust the public, calm the times, and heal our country.

Edited to add:

Here is Rep. McCotter’s one-minute on the floor of the House during discussion of the bill – another winner:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXvxzkyFtp8&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&w=640&h=505]

The Democratic Party believes that you can take an imperfect health-care system and fix it by putting it under the most dysfunctional and broken entity in the United States today: It’s called the Federal Government.

That proposition is insane.