An Army Of Straw Meets A Curtain Of Hot Steel

October 4, 2012 By 6 Comments

Romney Obama 2 SC An Army of Straw Meets a Curtain of Hot Steel

In the first 2012 presidential debate, President Obama did his best impression of the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. Obama’s campaign is built upon setting up straw men that stand in for perceived policies of the ‘evil Republicans’.  His stump speeches are filled with take-downs of these issues that are not really issues at all.  It is a part of how he perpetrates his fraud of a Presidency on the American people.

Last night, a masterful Mitt Romney met this army of straw with a curtain of hot steel.  Time after time, a befuddled and confused Obama looked on as his straw men were immolated by a combination of impressive command of the facts, self-deprecating wit, vision, and leadership.  Here were the best examples:

On Tax Policy and Outsourcing: Obama deployed his straw man argument that the tax code allows tax deductions for moving  plants overseas.  Never mind that, even if this were both true and bad policy, why hasn’t he changed it in his term?  In any case, Romney’s answer was devastating.  ”Look, I have been in business for 25 years, and I have no idea what you’re talking about.  Maybe I need to get a new accountant”.  Whoosh – in an instant, the straw man was in flames, Romney looked like a successful business leader, and doubt was sown in voters’ minds about the media’s claims of Romney being an ‘evil corporate outsourcer’.

On Debt: The topic of the Simpson-Bowles Debt Commission came up. Romney stated that Obama should have seized on the opportunity to work with Congress to tweak and implement the recommendations.  Obama tried to indicate that he had, ignoring his terrible deficit record and his routine imperiousness when dealing with Congress.  Here came the steel from Romney: “You have been President for 4 years.  Why are we still adding deficits of over a trillion a year?”  With one stroke, he refused to allow Obama to run from his record and laid the blame for gridlock squarely on Obama’s back.  And the scarecrow shrugged, having no comeback to this.

And on and on it went. Tax cuts for the wealthy. Medi-scare. Repealing Obamacare.  De-funding education. Refusal to work with Congress. Every straw man that Obama sent out was reduced to a smoldering husk where it stood.  Obama continued to try the only thing he knows – regurgitate talking points designed to demonize his opponent.  All the while, Romney used the time to humanize himself; stand firmly on his record as a Governor; display a sense of humor; connect with people looking for a serious leader for serious times; and make the scarecrow look small, weak, and out of his depth.  Even the liberal media could not bring themselves to spin this debacle in Obama’s favor.

In the end,  having sacrificed his straw army of campaign ‘issues’ in a slaughter and being shown up as the fraud that he is, Obama walked off with a silly smile, singing softly to himself “If I only had a brain….”

Photo credit: Cory M. Grenier (Creative Commons)

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Why Do We Love To Hate Obama? Ask C.S. Lewis

September 29, 2012 By 1 Comment

Obama NDAA SC Why Do We Love to Hate Obama? Ask C.S. Lewis

In “The Last Battle”, C. S. Lewis’ last book of “The Chronicles of Narnia”, the story centers around a donkey, Puzzle, who impersonates the Lion Aslan, who is the allegory for Christ in the novels. The book is striking because its allegory directly refers to the real source and nature of evil as defined biblically.  In the Bible, we are taught that the root of man’s fall is that he desired to be like God, knowing all good and evil. This rebellion was incited by Satan, who desired to be like God and in fact attempted to usurp God’s authority.  Satan’s sin, then, was to pretend to be God, or as powerful as God. And this, then, is the root of all evil: the fraud or pretense of wisdom.

Understanding this is key to understanding the polarization of views that defines our opinions of Barack Obama.  To many people, Barack Obama is a pragmatic centrist.  When the right makes him out to be a liberal leftist, anyone who does not share this viewpoint is extremely puzzled by it. Here’s the issue – they don’t see Barack Obama for who he is – they see him for who he makes himself out to be. They aren’t really applying moral discernment to their opinion. They are fooled by what’s on the surface.

But even this does not explain the animosity on the right for Obama.  All politicians make out carefully crafted images for themselves. So why does Obama engender such hatred among us? This is not just because he governs as a liberal. That’s bad enough, but there is more to it; and this is where C.S Lewis helps us to understand. The reason we hate Obama so much is that he reminds us of the nature of evil that we all have consciences to discern. We hate Obama because he is a fraud, who pretends to be something he clearly is not. Who pretends to be a consequential, great leader. Who pretends to be wise. We hate Obama because he disregards the truth. Because he says one thing but acts in an opposite manner. Because his ‘issues’ and ‘achievements’ are fabrications.  Because he sets up strawmen and takes them down, claiming to have a ‘spine of steel’. Morally discerning people with God-given consciences hate a fraud because, in God’s eyes, fraud is the root of evil. And so, Obama strikes a deep, dissonant chord in our souls, put there by our Creator.

The end of the C.S Lewis story, of course, is instructive. Eventually, the fraud of the donkey Puzzle pretending to be Aslan is brutally exposed. We, in this country and, indeed, worldwide, are very near to the point when unfolding events will demand truly wise leadership. Economic collapse is coming, brought on by out-of-control financial systems, rampant debt, and declining resources. New global instabilities such as Middle East upheaval, a declining Europe, and an unstable China have the world on a catastrophic crash course with crisis. Freedom-loving and discerning Americans see that we, indeed, have a donkey pretending to be something he is not at the helm and are on the verge of granting him 4 more years to cement the results of his incompetence. This is the message we need to be making in the few remaining days before the election.  Look at the record. Look at the incompetence. Look at the broken promises. Don’t leave America in the hands of a pretender.

Photo credit: watchingfrogsboil (Creative Commons)

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Obama As Reagan? Deconstructing The False Obama Achievement Narrative

September 26, 2012 By 5 Comments

Obama Reagan SC Obama as Reagan? Deconstructing the False Obama Achievement Narrative

In a recent Newsweek article  entitled “President Obama – The Democrat’s Ronald Reagan“, Newsweek’s Andrew Sullivan sums up the media narrative that tries to portray the Obama administration as having an “impressive list of achievements”.  Freedom-loving Americans need to have simple, effective arguments to make to combat these narratives.  This is especially true when standard operating procedure for both Democrats and the media is to substitute wishful thinking for truth and evidence.  Here are some of the claims made for Obama’s “achievements”:

He will emerge as an iconic figure who struggled through a recession and a terrorized world, reshaping the economy within it, passing universal health care, strafing the ranks of al -Qaeda, presiding over a civil-rights revolution, and then enjoying the fruits of the recovery….

Newsweek, Sept 24, 2012

The “GM is Alive” meme emerges here as a broader claim that Obama has “reshaped the economy”.  The wishful thinking is that continuous debt and money printing, strategic bailouts for unions and political allies, and ineffective stimulus will eventually result in a recovery that Obama can take credit for.  The unfortunate truth is that the “real” economy has not improved at all, GM is still bankrupt, Obamacare is destroying business sentiment, and the government dependency rolls are at all-time highs, fueled by unsustainable deficits.  No recovery has sprung from this combination, and none will.  In fact, we teeter on the brink of another downturn, Bill Clinton’s “gut feeling” notwithstanding.

The “strafing Al-Qaeda” theme is also hollow. Recent Middle East terror attacks that claimed our diplomats’ lives show that this administration has, in fact, been asleep at the wheel.  They used anti-terror tactics (that they decried when Bush instituted them) to gain the intelligence to send in the Navy Seals, where they killed a perverted, old shell of a leader.  Meanwhile, their indecipherable foreign policy leaves the rest of the world wondering where the US loyalties really lie, and we turn our back on allies while the world burns; and new Irans emerge in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and all around us.

The narrative that ObamaCare has “reshaped health care” is similarly hollow.  In fact, Obamacare has been a farce, even before its implementation.  It hurts small businesses, shifts health care costs onto a younger generation that is already struggling, sets up impossible-to-follow, business-killing regulations, and threatens existing programs.  In early implementation, it has cost more than planned.  Doctors refuse to participate.  Waivers are granted to cronies. Its only “achievement” is to abolish limits on preexisting conditions, which will really take the risk-sharing premise of insurance and turn it on its ear, making all insurance more expensive.  It is big-government policy at its worst.

The author also cites a “civil rights revolution”.  Calling gay rights “civil rights” is one of the most egregious ways that folly has worked its way into our public consciousness.  We make people into a “minority” based entirely on their behavior (not their race or ethnicity) and then try to foist their viewpoint on everyone as a matter of political correctness.  Along the way, people who dare to have a different, moral viewpoint are labeled as “bigots” and “hate groups”.  This is a false strawman of a “civil rights” issue.  It is a way for people who think they are morally superior to strike a pose against something that is not a problem and to try and posture like they care in order to claim a record of achievements.

In fact, “posturing” is the right way to describe all of Obama’s narrative of “achievements”.  The economic recovery is an illusion.  There has been no real reform of health care.  The war against terror and evil has been reduced to slogans while an increasingly unstable world falls apart, and false civil rights issues are trumpeted as “enlightened progress”.  Obama is not the Ronald Reagan of Democrats.  He is the Ronald Reagan of frauds.

Photo credit: WEBN-TV (Creative Commons)

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How ZIRP Destroys The Economy

September 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Many readers enjoyed the recent post of my song, ‘The ZIRP Song’.  Songs like this resonate because they speak to what we know to be true, if we open our eyes.  I think the message of the song deserves a fuller explanation.  We need to understand the trends that cause ZIRP to be so destructive, so we can break those trends.  To look for them, start by flipping on your radio.

Radio ads can be a good barometer of the true state of mind of a populace.  This is especially true today.  “The big banks got their bailout”, says one.  “You can get yours”.  “You have the right to have your debts settled for pennies on the dollar”, says another.  Others proclaim “Rebuild your 401K”.  “Buy and hold is dead”.  ”The dollar is doomed.  Buy Gold”.   These ads now occupy a lot of radio and television airtime.  They are a very visible sign of a trend – that owing money means nothing in our society today, and speculation is everything.

This very simple diagram illustrates why this is so.  It shows the interplay between businesses and individuals (‘Main Street”), banks (‘Wall Street’), and the government and central banks, whom we consider as one for this discussion.

Loop How ZIRP Destroys the Economy

The Economy is Disappearing into a Black Hole

In the diagram, green represents behavior or revenues that increase, red represents decrease, and the arrows are feedback loops that develop as a result.  The black represents the increasing gravity of a “black hole” that results.  The reasons for these trends are easy to see by just using your common sense – no economic theory is required.

  • The more easy money and easy debt that is created, the less the bond between creditor and debtor means.  We get the moral hazard of bailouts and zero-interest policy, and everybody wants in.  Owing money becomes meaningless. Society tries to convince you that you must maintain a good credit score, or that a lifetime of debt for a house is a good idea, but, increasingly, people see through it.
  • Since credit is meaningless and bailouts/moral hazard are rampant, banks decrease lending, and turn to speculation.  Why would banks lend when they are going to get stiffed anyway?  How can we tell this?   Just watch the asset bubbles grow and pop.  Gold.  Oil.  Food.  Housing.  You name it.
  • As speculation becomes the only way, banks collude with the government in order to protect their rice bowl.  Cronyism is the result, as government goes easy on banks, gives them free money, and turns a blind eye to corruption.  People conclude their government is “run by bankers“.  Government’s authority decreases.  Tax evasion increases.  People who can, leave, or they find ways to shield their money.
  • As people believe the system is rigged, they turn toward subsistence, taking less risk, trying to muddle through, or becoming dependent on handouts to survive.  If they have the means, they will try to join the party by speculating themselves, in stocks, bonds, commodities, gold, etc.  Or they may check out, and become preppers.
  • Even in the presence of all this frenetic speculation, “Main Street” stagnates. The activity is not reaching them.  They lose their jobs.  They close their businesses.  Panicked governments respond the only way they know how.  They ease more, and print more, and the cycle continues.
You don’t need an economics degree to understand that flawed ideology and beliefs cause these results.  Don’t let ivory tower Keynesian cultists like Paul Krugman deceive you.  You can look around you and see what is happening yourself.  You can see how “Main Street” gets worse and worse off while politicians and central banks try the same things over and over again, and only make it worse.  You can see what will result by looking at a Europe in crisis, with 50% youth unemployment, bankrupt governments, hostile populations, and bureaucrats with no answers except the same old ones. Any future that reverses this must cut off the feedback loops.  Fiscal sanity must be restored.  ZIRP and easing can no longer be the default response.  Speculation needs to be discouraged in favor of real economic opportunity, and somehow the subsistence trend of Main Street must be stopped.  The answers are not easy.  But we need to clearly understand the trends, so we can avoid being lied to and bamboozled by those who would wield false arguments, phony numbers, and “hunches” that things are “getting better”.  They won’t until we start attacking the real issues.

 

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