Allow me to begin on a positive note: the intermingling of D's and R's in the audience was a very good idea. It cut way down on the annoying clapping, both in the number of interruptions as well as length of clamor. No matter what party is in office, that clapping stuff sucks. So, on that point, last night's SOTU address got a thumbs up from me.
Now to the speech itself. I found Obama's address to be one of two things, delusional or deceptive. Logic and intellectual honesty were given the night off while he spoke. Obama framed his vision with the rhetoric of American ingenuity, productivity, invention, the concept of achievement of any individuals dream being possible here in America, unlike any other country on earth. What American doesn't support these ideals?
Obama, however, employed these inspiring words (in Reaganesque fashion) to conversely make the argument for BIGGER Government, MORE tax dollar spending, LESS personal choice (ala Jimmy Carter). With not much stealth, he uses code words to describe these actions, ie, protection of the public equals BIGGER Government, investment equals tax dollar spending or worse borrowed Chinese money, alternative energy sources equals less personal choice and forced higher prices to heat homes, drive cars, buy groceries, turn the lights on. What American DOES support these ideals?
With all of Obama's clever wording, he still came off like an alcoholic justifying that next round of mixed drinks for himself and EVERYONE in the house. He pretends that substituting a yummier cocktail of peach schnapps and vodka for the much harder to swallow scotch, neat, as addressing the addiction problem. Mr. President, a pay freeze at the obscene levels you've already raised them to is NOT a solution to the addiction problem of Government spending. Obama's ploy is clear. If the addict can get us all hooked then he no longer has to deal with roadblocks to his and now our shared poison.
Obama is not to blame for our addictions to entitlements, pensions and the fairytale of a Government who takes care of us in the most excellent manner. Bush, Clinton, even Reagan had a hand, to differing degrees, in creating this crippling addictive scenario as well as presidents going back as far as Woodrow Wilson. Obama has only taken the role of Pusher to an exponentially outrageous level at possibly the most dangerous time in history to do such.
Our president tells us all to go for the American dream, be entrepreneurs, innovate yet turns around and suggests millionaires should cough up the funds to "save our schools". With logic like that, who wants to EVER achieve millionaire status if it means you are to be painted as the evil success story, responsible for the poor staying poor?
No, it's GOVERNMENT that has robbed us all blind, kept the poor, poor, that enabled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to pull off fraud so insipid, even the U.N. would blush. Did you know we TAX PAYERS are paying the legal fees to DEFEND the Fannie and Freddie Executives who defrauded...we, the tax payers? How dumb do they think we are? Maybe they're banking on the fact we were educated by the U.S. Government public school system that now needs evil millionaires to save it.
The Government has mis-managed our schools, not millionaires. It is the GOVERNMENT who has taken power away from parents and communities, turning our educational institutions into high priced day care centers where socialist theory is the only point of view presented. We don't need any regulations to protect the people from big business, it's our GOVERNMENT and their mind-numbing "free education" we need protection from. Even Obama wouldn't dare subject his daughters to the Government controlled education he pushes on the rest of us. The Government needs the reigning in, not free enterprise, not capitalism or successful individuals.
Obama spoke of creating jobs, cutting pork, transparency in Government as if he just came up with these ideas last night. Excuse me Mr. President but you promised all these things over two years ago but did just the opposite. The stimulus was a fiasco. Billions still sit, not funding anything, creating zero jobs yet our debt rises.
Cutting pork was not accomplished when Obama signed the Health care legislation, laden with very expensive, unnecessary, untraceable streams of waste, setting up state budgets to fail in the funding of these programs and our debt rises.
Transparency occurs in this administration only after the fact. Perhaps on this item Obama is being honest because he said on the new website we will be able to see where all the tax dollars are going, not where they are proposed to go. Providing transparency ahead of time is never good in socialist societies. That might give the people the ability to disagree and stop wasteful spending before it happens. And our debt rises.
I had to hold back laughter when he went into the whole SPUTNIK riff. He wants us to "do big things" like mind blowing advancements such as solar roof tiles, toxic mercury light bulbs, high speed trains (that can't ever be go over 70 mph due to the other train traffic on the rails but why bother with that little factoid) all the while he guts NASA, the very agency capable of "big things"... instead turning them into an agency assigned to promote Muslim self-esteem. Big things? Did Obama's literature teacher EVER explain the term irony to him? Just asking.
Obama used all the right words to mean all the wrong things. If he had started out saying, "Hello, I am Barack Obama, and I am a spendaholic, Fabian socialist, narcissistic front man", then, then I might have believed the rest of his long-winded pontification. Delusion or deceit. Which is it?
But again, that seating idea was really good.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Diamonds Are Forever
I had a very interesting conversation with my teenagers recently. We were talking about how so many people who call themselves conservative or liberal or Christian, Muslim, etc. will profess the high ideals of their group yet turn around and live their own lives with disregard, even contempt for the ideals they publicly profess. This being so often the case, why should we believe, support, live by any doctrine whatsoever? Why not live each moment of life in a way that benefits a person the most personally rather than ever making a choice of morals over what results in immediate satisfaction or individual success? Why shouldn't we all be hedonists? At least we'd cease being hypocrites, right?
As a person who approaches life similar to a Libertarian philosophy, live and let live, I don't have a problem with any person choosing to be a hedonist. However, of the hedonists I've known, all resulted in self-destructive behaviors that did not end well for the hedonist nor those who surrounded them. So the question goes back to why do so many high-profile people profess the moral attributes of their group yet don't live their own lives as such? Does this mean the morals, beliefs and philosophies are false, pretend, worthless?
These are the questions we must all answer for ourselves. Most people attempt to find out the answers but make their first mistake when they begin their investigation by looking at those claiming to be the personification of the mindset. Many people investigating a particular mindset will judge the mindset, philosophy, belief, strictly by the actions of an individual rather than the substance of the thought.
Here's the metaphor I used with my children...If there exists a truly brilliant, flawless diamond and it is worn by a good person, does the good person make that diamond more precious? If the good person dies and the diamond is then worm by an evil person, does that evil person make the diamond less precious? The wearer of the diamond is not the point. The diamond was precious and brilliant before anyone wore it, good or bad and it remains the same diamond after the wearing is long over.
Further, does the diamond hold powers for the person who wears it? Ironically, the wearer or possessor of the diamond is the one least likely to benefit from its true worth. People often have the misconception that possessing something, like the flawless diamond, translates into their own superiority, their right or justification to control the lives of others. If that is the motive behind wearing the diamond, it will never truly serve the person who wears it. The power of the diamond is in the pure inspiration and appreciation of its beauty which the diamond alone possesses, not the wearer. Those who can witness the diamond, regardless of who is wearing it, and be awed by its brilliance, be inspired by its clarity but have the SELF control to NOT need to possess it or fawn over the person who currently wears it, these are the people who actually receive the precious gift the diamond offers.
Every now and then, there is a person who can wear the diamond with the true knowledge of why they are wearing it... not to enhance their own power but to provide more access to more people to witness the beauty and inspiration of the diamond. These wearers are called LEADERS.
Sadly, we have many, many more people today wearing the diamond as a means to dupe the ignorant innocent. Conflation of possession with authority over all those not in possession is the lie peddled now as it has been in times infinitum. These sort of wearers are called TYRANTS, DICTATORS, and an array of other titles that sound nicer but result in the same thing. These are the people who have never received the gift of SELF CONTROL. They are so lacking in SELF CONTROL that they become ravenous for the much easier false substitute, that being the perceived control over another human. Ironically, the more people they "control" the less satisfied the controllers become. Why? Because the control they have is imaginary and deep down, they know this. Talk about a vicious circle!
Crazy as it sounds, throngs of people believe in the lie that whomever wears the diamond IS superior. These people willingly submit themselves to the servitude of these egotistical scam artists with the hopes of falling into favor with the wearer, FALLING being the operative word. Unfortunately, there are also souls who unwillingly fall under the false control of diamond wearing scum. These victims become servants to the control freaks due to a host of reasons, i.e., lack of maturity, lack of access to the truth, lack of intelligence, to name a few. They do not know that there is only ONE type of actual control, that being self-control. All other forms of control are artificial. As long as a person retains their mind, they retain the prize their false masters truly want. A person's mind can only be controlled with the consent of the individual. Never forget that.
At the end of the day, each of us must use our own mind to look past the wearer of the diamond and examine the DIAMOND for its cut, clarity, carat, brilliance and authenticity.
NOTE: There's loads of cubic zirconium out there so take your time examining!
We must each decide for ourselves if we are inspired by a diamond's natural beauty, a beauty that existed before it was ever worn and will exist well after the last wearer takes their final breath. We are all free to look for the diamond, not to possess it necessarily but to behold it and accept its true gift...or reject it. Regardless of your individual choice, diamonds are forever, leaders and tyrants are not.
As a person who approaches life similar to a Libertarian philosophy, live and let live, I don't have a problem with any person choosing to be a hedonist. However, of the hedonists I've known, all resulted in self-destructive behaviors that did not end well for the hedonist nor those who surrounded them. So the question goes back to why do so many high-profile people profess the moral attributes of their group yet don't live their own lives as such? Does this mean the morals, beliefs and philosophies are false, pretend, worthless?
These are the questions we must all answer for ourselves. Most people attempt to find out the answers but make their first mistake when they begin their investigation by looking at those claiming to be the personification of the mindset. Many people investigating a particular mindset will judge the mindset, philosophy, belief, strictly by the actions of an individual rather than the substance of the thought.
Here's the metaphor I used with my children...If there exists a truly brilliant, flawless diamond and it is worn by a good person, does the good person make that diamond more precious? If the good person dies and the diamond is then worm by an evil person, does that evil person make the diamond less precious? The wearer of the diamond is not the point. The diamond was precious and brilliant before anyone wore it, good or bad and it remains the same diamond after the wearing is long over.
Further, does the diamond hold powers for the person who wears it? Ironically, the wearer or possessor of the diamond is the one least likely to benefit from its true worth. People often have the misconception that possessing something, like the flawless diamond, translates into their own superiority, their right or justification to control the lives of others. If that is the motive behind wearing the diamond, it will never truly serve the person who wears it. The power of the diamond is in the pure inspiration and appreciation of its beauty which the diamond alone possesses, not the wearer. Those who can witness the diamond, regardless of who is wearing it, and be awed by its brilliance, be inspired by its clarity but have the SELF control to NOT need to possess it or fawn over the person who currently wears it, these are the people who actually receive the precious gift the diamond offers.
Every now and then, there is a person who can wear the diamond with the true knowledge of why they are wearing it... not to enhance their own power but to provide more access to more people to witness the beauty and inspiration of the diamond. These wearers are called LEADERS.
Sadly, we have many, many more people today wearing the diamond as a means to dupe the ignorant innocent. Conflation of possession with authority over all those not in possession is the lie peddled now as it has been in times infinitum. These sort of wearers are called TYRANTS, DICTATORS, and an array of other titles that sound nicer but result in the same thing. These are the people who have never received the gift of SELF CONTROL. They are so lacking in SELF CONTROL that they become ravenous for the much easier false substitute, that being the perceived control over another human. Ironically, the more people they "control" the less satisfied the controllers become. Why? Because the control they have is imaginary and deep down, they know this. Talk about a vicious circle!
Crazy as it sounds, throngs of people believe in the lie that whomever wears the diamond IS superior. These people willingly submit themselves to the servitude of these egotistical scam artists with the hopes of falling into favor with the wearer, FALLING being the operative word. Unfortunately, there are also souls who unwillingly fall under the false control of diamond wearing scum. These victims become servants to the control freaks due to a host of reasons, i.e., lack of maturity, lack of access to the truth, lack of intelligence, to name a few. They do not know that there is only ONE type of actual control, that being self-control. All other forms of control are artificial. As long as a person retains their mind, they retain the prize their false masters truly want. A person's mind can only be controlled with the consent of the individual. Never forget that.
At the end of the day, each of us must use our own mind to look past the wearer of the diamond and examine the DIAMOND for its cut, clarity, carat, brilliance and authenticity.
NOTE: There's loads of cubic zirconium out there so take your time examining!
We must each decide for ourselves if we are inspired by a diamond's natural beauty, a beauty that existed before it was ever worn and will exist well after the last wearer takes their final breath. We are all free to look for the diamond, not to possess it necessarily but to behold it and accept its true gift...or reject it. Regardless of your individual choice, diamonds are forever, leaders and tyrants are not.
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