Who's Your Daddy?
It's a tough slog these days if you're leading the nation, or if you're being led for that matter, down the happy path to economic cuckoo land and cultural asininity. Then again, it really is a matter of perspective, right? Comedian and professional vulgarian Chris Rock grew uncharacteristically somber last week when he instructed us that:
The president and first lady are kind of like the mom and dad of the country. And when your dad says something, you listen. And when you don't it usually bites you in the ass.
I said his remarks were uncharacteristic because in 2011 he predicted that a second term Obama administration would engage in, "some gangsta [expletive]." "There's a [expletive-ing] art to the first term," Mr. Rock opined, "because you're always running for a second term the whole time." The comedian expressed his hopes thus:
I'm like everybody, I want more action. But I understand that he's not trying to [expletive] off a lot of people. But I believe wholeheartedly if he's back in, he's going to do some gangsta [expletive].
Actually, I think Rock got it right back in 2011, and would rather he had stuck to his guns last week instead of watering it down in the lukewarm, paternalistic gruel of mommy and daddy nonsense. Though sticking to one's guns these days is liable to incur the wrath of everybody from Mayor of Murder Central Rahm Emanuel to Diane Feinstein to Hizzoner Mayor Bloomberg, who would rather waterboard you with no more than 22 ounces of sugar-free soda from a non-styrafoam container than see you stick to your guns with more than seven bullets to defend life and hearth.
By the way, do mommies and daddies abandon their own when they are in mortal danger? Actually, yes, some of them do, …but those aren't generally regarded as model parents. During a Senate hearing last week, outgoing (but not fast enough) Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta revealed that he had informed President Obama in real time of the ongoing attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, which led to a stunning exchange with Senator Kelly Ayotte:
AYOTTE: Did you have any further communications? Did he ever call you that night to say how are things going, what's going on, where is the consulate?
PANETTA: No.
AYOTTE: Did you communicate with anyone else at the White House that night?
PANETTA: No.
AYOTTE: No one else called you to say, what, how are things going?
PANETTA: No.
Four Americans, including an American ambassador and two Navy SEALS, died that night during an attack that proceeded over a span of more than 7 hours, and during which American forces were precluded from responding because the "dad of the country" was AWOL. With a dad like that, who the hell needs death panels? Even The Washington Post, through writer Erik Wemple, agreed that these were, "…telling and consequential tidbits about Benghazi."
Meanwhile, on American shores, we learn from the CBO that our dad's health care program will kick some 7 million Americans off of their employer-provided health insurance. Remember back when he was telling us, "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. Period." But, as Chris Rock might remind us, that was during dad's first term, back when he told us Santa Claus was real. Unfortunately, though not unpredictably, things will get worse still. As Kathryn Serkes of the Doctor Patient Medical Association explains it:
Doctors clearly understand what Washington does not -- that a piece of paper that says you are 'covered' by insurance or 'enrolled' in Medicare or Medicaid does not translate to actual medical care when doctors can't afford to see patients at the lowball payments, and patients have to jump through government and insurance company bureaucratic hoops.
Clearly then, dad is in his "gangsta [expletive]" phase of fundamental transformation and, well, … things are being fundamentally transformed.
Among the things being transformed will be your grocery bill. Under the auspices of Obamacare, the FDA is set to impose shiny new rules that could cost grocery owners a billion dollar in the first year alone. According to Erik Lieberman of the Food Marketing Institute, grocers and restaurants will be required to place additional nutritional information on food bars, salad bars, bakery goods, soups, etc. "If you get it wrong, it's a federal crime, " said Lieberman, "and you could face jail time and thousands of dollars." But this is dad's brave new world, where all is sweetness and unicorns, unless dad turns his cap sideways, lets his pants sag, and busts a new regulation on yo [expletive].
Speaking of going gangsta, did you hear the one about the Cincinnati poll worker who voted twice? This, of course, goes under the heading of non-existent voter fraud, and explains why requiring voters to display as much identification as is needed to buy a pack of cigarettes is racist … or something like that. Meet Melowese Richardson, a Democrat and poll worker of some 25 years in Hamilton County, who readily admitted to the local media that she voted twice last November, first via absentee ballot and then in person, because her faith in the system which employed people like her for a quarter of a century was such that she feared her absentee ballot wouldn't be counted in time. Her granddaughter, India Richardson, was similarly fretful, for she too voted twice. Insisting that she had done nothing wrong, Melowese affirmed that, "I'll fight for it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama's right to sit as President of the United States."
The problem is that Mr. Obama's "right to sit" in the White House is contingent on the people having conferred that right upon him by virtue of their votes, and the American people have every right to expect that their votes are not compromised or negated by a system which permits its poll workers to vote multiple times.
There is some fleeting hope, as the effronteries on human dignity, reason and freedom continue, that there will perhaps be a crystallization of American opinion that things weren't supposed to turn out this way, that our people in harms way have every right to expect their Commander-in-Chief to attend to their survival when under attack, that rising food prices aren't the correct result of a health care bill, and that a government which seeks increasingly to disarm its citizens even as it arms itself to the teeth has more in common with the wretched and failed totalitarian experiments of the last century than with the enlightened ideas that founded this nation.
Perhaps Chris Rock might take a breath just long enough to remember (or learn) that a bloody revolution was fought on these shores precisely because someone who fashioned himself as our familial chief did "some gangsta [expletive]" to a free people. The result was a disappointment for King George, but gave birth to a nation so free and so exceptional that a talented performer like Chris Rock can vulgarize his way to prosperity and is given a public platform from which he can wish "gangsta [expletive]" on his countrymen.
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Comments:
Sep '10
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
It isn't brain surgery to figure out that America's deadbeat dad doesn't sound like the kind of guy I would trust with a $16 trillion debt.
Edited on February 10, 2013 at 1:54amFeb '12
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
"There is some fleeting hope, as the effronteries on human dignity, reason and freedom continue, that there will perhaps be a crystallization of American opinion that things weren't supposed to turn out this way, that our people in harms way have every right to expect their Commander in Chief to attend to their survival when under attack, that rising food prices aren't the correct result of a health care bill, and that a government which seeks increasingly to disarm its citizens even as it arms itself to the teeth has more in common with the wretched and failed totalitarian experiments of the last century than with the enlightened ideas that founded this nation."
I'm anxious for this day or moment. Will it be a person or an event that finally breaks through? I don't know. We're all good and angry, but it's not enough. What will finally be enough?
Jul '11
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
A Dad that goes back to sleep after hearing that one of his sons is being attacked isn't a Dad. He's something else, entirely.
If that's Chris's idea of what constitutes a good Daddy, Chris needs more time on his therapist's couch.
Feb '13
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
I kinda wish they hadn't repealed the asinine, insane "businesses must file a 1099 for EVERY purchase made over a few hundred dollars" thing.
Rising grocery prices, rising insurance premiums, losing one's coverage, all can be spun against insurance companies, the free market, tonsil-pulling monry grubbing doctors, anything but Obama and the ACA.
And apparently everyone will just lop it right on up. The voters sure bought the nonense in totum in November.
But the 1099s.....that would have been much harder to spin.
I really want to know what happens when everyone faces the IRS-enforced purchase mandate for the first time.
God, this law has been just one piece of bad news after the other. I've spent so much time over these past years first hoping it wouln't be passed, then that SCOTUS would do its job and strike it down, then hoping Mitt could win and pare it back....and now just hoping it's so horrible that the public will not stand for it.
A whole lot of people are going to get what they voted for.
....Pity I'm going to get what they voted for, too.
*First member comment*
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
La Dernière Lettre: ...
I'm anxious for this day or moment. Will it be a person or an event that finally breaks through? I don't know. We're all good and angry, but it's not enough. What will finally be enough? · 51 minutes ago
It's not unlike a person with some sort of addiction, in that they have to "reach bottom," as they say, before they will recognize the problem and take corrective measures. I fear the US will have to hit bottom as well, though exactly where that point lies, I don't know. The second question is whether the ship can be righted after the "bottom" is reached? Either way, we're in for a bumpy ride.
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
Hawkins1701: I kinda wish they hadn't repealed the asinine, insane "businesses must file a 1099 for EVERY purchase made over a few hundred dollars" thing.
Rising grocery prices, rising insurance premiums, losing one's coverage, all can be spun against insurance companies, the free market, tonsil-pulling monry grubbing doctors, anything but Obama and the ACA.
...
But the 1099s.....that would have been much harder to spin.
I really want to know what happens when everyone faces the IRS-enforced purchase mandate for the first time.
God, this law has been just one piece of bad news after the other. I've spent so much time over these past years first hoping it wouln't be passed, then that SCOTUS would do its job and strike it down, then hoping Mitt could win and pare it back....
A whole lot of people are going to get what they voted for.
....Pity I'm going to get what they voted for, too.
*First member comment* · 10 minutes ago
Agreed, agreed, agreed, and agreed some more. And thanks for chiming in! I always like to hear from people I agree with.
Apr '12
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
How about Chris Rock telling other men and women to step up and be proper mothers and fathers together, not just single mums.
I watched Argo and there is a line where Allen Arkin says, yes, a child needs their mother.
Well, a mother needs a husband to help her.
Chris is talking to down to the American people with that nice image - was he talking to a class of children?
The problem with these Hollywood types trying to get involved in politics is that it puts me off watching them.
Feb '12
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
I'm 30. There are days when I don't think I will live long enough to see it. I think we're living in a time where unless it is happening to you or someone you know, it isn't happening.
Dave Carter
La Dernière Lettre: ...
I'm anxious for this day or moment. Will it be a person or an event that finally breaks through? I don't know. We're all good and angry, but it's not enough. What will finally be enough? · 51 minutes ago
It's not unlike a person with some sort of addiction, in that they have to "reach bottom," as they say, before they will recognize the problem and take corrective measures. I fear the US will have to hit bottom as well, though exactly where that point lies, I don't know. The second question is whether the ship can be righted after the "bottom" is reached? Either way, we're in for a bumpy ride. · 3 minutes ago
Dec '12
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
I've been reading RACE AND CULTURE by Thomas Sewell and came across this sentence, "A society can be made ungovernable by the impossibility of satisfying those with a passionate sense of entitlement - and without the skills or diligence to create the national wealth from which to redeem these expectations." It sent shivers through me because... here we are.
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
That's good. Very good, in fact. The problem is that when someone admonishes people to take responsibility while simultaneously supporting politicians who mean to replace parents and spouses with omnipotent government, they are at cross purposes with themselves whether or not they realize it. I know people, for example, who, in their personal lives, live very conservatively and yet actively support the biggest statists this side of Lenin's tomb. The contradictions are immense.
Sep '10
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
Dave Carter
That's good. Very good, in fact. The problem is that when someone admonishes people to take responsibility while simultaneously supporting politicians who mean to replace parents and spouses with omnipotent government, they are at cross purposes with themselves whether or not they realize it. I know people, for example, who, in their personal lives, live very conservatively and yet actively support the biggest statists this side of Lenin's tomb. The contradictions are immense. · 14 minutes ago
Its very common to encounter people who are very confident that if they had lived in Nazi Germany, they would have been courageously on the side of the resistance and risked prison camps and torture to oppose Hitler, and I've even seen well intentioned Christians openly belittle the Apostles when they deserted Christ in the New Testament, again as if "they"would have done it differently.
I think we are now seeing played out like the vice grip of war in Thucydides what the human soul reacts like under pressure. And its not pleasant.
Feb '12
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
What pressure? The pressure that if you disagree with Obama you might be called racist? If you disagree with gay marriage, you're a homophobe? If you're pro-life, you hate women? If you think we should cut entitlements, you hate the elderly and the poor? And so on and so on...
Jun '12
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
Chris Rock is a joke. Wait, isn't that what he is all about? Those who look to Chris Rock for political advice need to get their heads examined.
Jan '11
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
Obama's idea of leadership is that in a time of crisis, he tells his subordinates, "fix it!" (As if they were confused about whether they should remain inert.) Then later, he claims to have given them "clear" instructions.
That's about as helpful as a quarterback going into a huddle and saying, "On this play, we should try to score!" A lineman would punch his face out if he said anything like that.
Obama's leadership method is simple: tell people ... to succeed. How? Well, that's up to them. Obama thinks his job is simply to advise them to succeed.
Jan '11
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
How's that Benghazi investigation going? You know, as Obama assured us ...
The word isn't good.
Dozens, maybe hundreds of people attacked Benghazi and killed four of our people. To date, the hunt for the attackers has identified one suspect, whom they released because he denied participation and they didn't have enough evidence to hold him.
It'll be five months on Monday.
Apr '11
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
Actually he has: here and here. Funny, and he uses some simple, direct, vulgar language to make the point.
Edited on February 10, 2013 at 11:27amDec '12
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
That is Mr. Hitchens (The Case for Humanitarian Intervention, Foreign Affairs, September/October 2008) but, while he was referring to Afghanistan and probably had a slightly different intent with the word “rogue”, I fear his point can now be interpreted appropriately a little closer to home. Mr. Rock has supplied the domestic translation.
I would offer only one edit…change “be” to “appear”. From nearly day one (see Chrysler bond holders) and progressing through the legislative shenanigans (to put it as nicely as possible) associated with the passage of Obamacare, this crew has never been anything but “rogue”. Since last November’s trip to the polls, more and more of We the People are now just more sensitized to the symptoms.
Unfortunately, it’s probably too late. I suspect from this point on the demise will actually be alarmingly abrupt.
Nov '10
Re: Who's Your Daddy?
And so it continues apace. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=ZaGVCO6CByQ&sns=fb&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZaGVCO6CByQ%26sns%3Dfb