The Kindergarten President

Yesterday, President Obama gave a stump speech in Michigan, complete with the usual class warfare and blaming. Really, a long stretch of his speech blaming everything but his regime for the economy was downright comical:

Now, some of what we’re facing today has to do with events beyond our control. As the economy was improving and improving through 2009, 2010, the beginning of this year, suddenly it was hit with the unrest in the Middle East that helped send gas prices through the roof. Europe is dealing with all sorts of financial turmoil that is lapping up on our shores. Japan’s tragic earthquake hurt economies around the globe, including ours, cut off some supply chains that were very important to us. And all of this has further challenged our economy. And as we’ve seen, it’s playing out in the stock market, wild swings, up and down, and it makes folks nervous, and it affects the savings of families all across America.

Now, challenges like these — earthquakes, revolutions — those are things we can’t control. But what we can control is our response to these challenges. What we can control is what happens in Washington. Unfortunately, what we’ve seen in Washington the last few months has been the worst kind of partisanship, the worst kind of gridlock –- and that gridlock has undermined public confidence and impeded our efforts to take the steps we need for our economy. It’s made things worse instead of better.

So what I want to say to you, Johnson Controls, is: There is nothing wrong with our country. There is something wrong with our politics. (Applause.) There’s something wrong with our politics that we need to fix.

Of course, those politics are not his fault at all, no more than the earthquakes, revolutions, sea monsters, etc. etc.

One statement later in his speech also stood out to me:

We can’t ask the people in this room — working families, middle-class families — to bear the entire burden. We’re not going to balance our budgets on the back of middle-class and working people in this country. Everybody has got to do their part. (Applause.) Everybody has got to do their part. Everybody has got to chip in. That’s fair. You learn it in kindergarten.

And you know, Obama is right. We do learn a lot in kindergarten.

What do kindergarteners learn and learn well? They learn to blame others. I remember saying, “It’s not my fault.” Those were among my favorite words. I even remember blaming my babysitter for drawing on a white sofa. Why, I didn’t do that.

Has Obama learned to blame others? Check! (Pats Obama on head.)

Kindergarteners also learn to whine, “It’s not fair!” Hey, I said that a lot, too!

Has Obama learned to whine about fairness and to play that card against “the rich”? Oh, has he! Check!

And we see both traits in his speech yesterday . . . and practically every other day.

Barack Obama – the Kindergarten President.

Abomination of the Week

Puppet of Doom consumes a congregation foolish enough to attend St. Joan of Ark Roman Catholic Church, Minneapolis, which is a veritable zoo of abominations.

I always thought that interpretations of the Apocalypse that associate the Church of Rome with the Beast were a bit over the top. But I might make an exception for that parish.

Blame Games

When the blameworthy engage in blaming others, it says more about those engaging in blame games rather than their targets. Two instances (actually three *coughSchoricough* but I may get to that later) over the weekend stand out in that regard.

First, the worst of the Labour Left have tried to pin the blame for the Tottenham riots on the Tories. Red Ken Livingstone is, of course, among those playing that blame game. Yes, I can envision Maggie Thatcherites and businessmen in suits setting London on fire.

The blame, of course, belongs with the lowlifes who rioted and, perhaps, with the very soft response to their predations.

But if one wishes to blame political parties, which party is it that opened the door to massive indiscriminate immigration of those whose culture is an ill fit with English culture? If any party owns those who rioted, it is Labour, most definitely not the Tories.

Second, in the aftermath of the S&P downgrade of U.S. debt, Democrats have tried to pin the blame on Tea Partiers.

Excuse me. Who is it that created a welfare state of entitlements that we cannot afford? Who is it that has created another massive entitlement, Obamacare? Who is it that, for decades, whenever someone dares to stick his neck out and reform Social Security and Medicare so that they are slightly more financially rational, they demagogue, engaging in scaring the elderly and in mediscaring and in selling out our future in order to win the next election?

And under whose President do we have three straight $Trillion plus deficits, exploding the national debt?

And Tea Partiers get blamed because they are striving to put a stop to this madness.

Comment of the Week

Yes, this post is a first for me. I've never had a comment of the week before. But with all the blaming of our current debt situation and the accompanying S&P downgrade on eeeevil Republicans, TERRORIST CARJACKING tea partiers, George W. Bush, etc. etc., it is a good time for a reality check. And this comment by one Deacon Michael Harmon is a reality check that goes yard:

The national debt when Bush left office was approximately 10.0 trillion. It took us about 233 years to accumulate this amount. The current debt limit that was just expanded was $14.3 trillion, and it was expanded to $16.7 trillion, which is expected to get us through 2012. Therefore, Obama’s first term in office will add 60 percent of the total debt the nation will experience by the start of 2013. To recap, $10 trillion in 233 years, $6.7 trillion in four years.

He calls it Winning The Future, but I just use the initials.

About Child Bans

There has been no little controversy lately about private businesses banning young children. Such bans are being decried as anti-children. And it is hard to deny that they are literally anti-children. But the issue is not so simple.

(Note: The story linked above notes that a Missouri Whole Foods is reportedly banning young children during certain hours. The reports are wrong. The Whole Foods in question is actually assisting families with young children. Glad I double-checked that!)

On the one hand, businesses have a right to seek to provide a pleasant experience for their customers. On the other hand, although most parents do their best to make their children act tolerably in public (and gently remove them when they do not), enough do not that it can be a problem. I still can remember one set of parents who let their precious one bang his silverware on a metal tray, metal on metal, without let or hindrance at a meal I tried to enjoy years ago.

I have mixed feelings about all this. Society should and needs to welcome children – for its own good! Still, there are certainly some places were young children are not a good fit.

The Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Kings College comes to mind. Does anyone in their right mind think it appropriate to allow in babies and toddlers to interrupt the music? And Kings ever politely and rightly states, “Please note that the service is not suitable for young children.”

Less clear cut, but still understandable is the controversial McDain’s restaurant banning of children under six. The owners tried to accommodate families with young children. But some families were less than cooperative.

In a very tactful summation of the scenario, the McDain's Restaurant owner says he doesn't hate kids: “Parents have gradually diminished their cooperation.”
 


Basically there's been a lot of customer complaints -- and the owner's obviously tired of dealing with it.
 


“This is a three-part issue," says Vuick. "One is the increasing number of small babies that can’t be controlled. They can’t be quiet and really they can’t be expected to.” He says the kindergarten crowd has “shown increasingly poor manners.” And the McDain's guy says parents “act like we’re the ones being offensive” when staff asks them to help their children simmer down.

What we have here are jerk parents (and their little ones who predictably take after them) making life more difficult for others, including for those parents who try to control their kids and not inflict their misbehavior on others.

And parents need to realize that they are responsible for their children. While, again, society should welcome children, that does not mean people are obligated to put up with all of their enormities in every situation.

And with the decline of common sense courtesy in our society (I could have a good rant on that topic!), private businesses and other institutions have to make some hard choices. I understand those who make provision for those who have a reasonable desire for some peace.

You Tea Partiers are Racist Terrorist Carjackers!

First, tea partiers and those of us who oppose higher taxes and spending were raaaaacists.

That tack did not work too well in the 2010 elections for some reason. Some haven’t gotten the memo, however.

More recently, we are terrorists. Again and again in the past couple weeks, tea partiers have been compared with jihadis, suicide bombers and Hezbollah. So much so that these attacks appear coordinated.

Now, we are carjackers, too, according to Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post. Gimme your Lexus, NOW.

Next thing you know, the Southern Poverty Law Center will declare us a hate group.

This all has become so silly, it is hard for me to get very indignant about it. The Left is seeing that their cycle of endlessly higher spending is coming to end and might be even in the process of being reversed. And as for their fond vision of turning all those “millionaires and billionaries” into tax slaves, forget about it. So hissy fits abound.

And this racist terrorist carjacker is enjoying the show.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and “Hate Groups”

Touchstone is having some fun with the Southern Poverty Law Center listing the Family Research Council and the Illinois Family Institute as hate groups. I notice SPLC also lists the American Family Association as a hate group for being “anti-gay”. I am very familiar with the AFA, and, although they are not my cup of tea, calling them, the FRC, and God knows who else a “hate group” is absurd and outrageous. Apparently, opposing gay marriage makes you a hate group along with the KKK and Neo-Nazis.

I also note on their Hate Map that advocating immigration law enforcement or “radical traditional Catholicism” can land one on their hate group list.

Now I am not acquainted with every “anti-immigrant”, “radical” Catholic, or “anti-gay” group so listed on the Hate Map. So some of them may be haters for all I know. But count me as a skeptic.

Before we laugh off the SPLC as another collection of Leftists who brand opponents as haters and bigots, I wish to point out two reasons for concern.

1. The Southern Poverty Law Center as long been used by the “mainstream” news media as a credible source. I remember back in the 80’s frequently seeing local North Carolina news stories citing them as a source. The gullibility and bias of the news media combined with effective PR enables SPLC to get their extreme views portrayed as respectable and mainstream.

2. Totalitarians of both Left and Right have a long history of vilifying those they later repress. To think the SPLC and like-minded Leftists have no intent of taking freedoms from those of us who oppose gay marriage or unrestricted immigration and may be a bit “radical” and traditional in our Christian views would be naïve indeed – dangerously so.