The Age of Outrage: Incensed Sensibilities

  

In terms of human nature I do not know that our world is much different from all the worlds of centuries past. Human nature appears to be a constant. But I do see that today because of the enormous reach of instant electronic media we are at any given moment enjoined to take offense at anything perceived to be an attack on the rosy perception we have of ourselves and our world.  We will even take offense for others whose shoes we are not wearing. The general response to any perceived threat to the safety net, our egos, is often to tweet ourselves and others with word-packets of rage. Misery loves communication. Just ask Obama.

Obama has an #attackwatch Twitter website (attackwatch.com) set up by his campaign people to gather reports about attacks on Obama’s record.  The site invites you to snitch on your neighbor in order to intercept smears to Obama’s mirrors.

Today, for the most part, narcissism is the ‘I-cad’ battery behind the hardware and software of every electronic gadget purchased for personal communication. And once powered up, every gadget is attuned to the mirror on the wall affixing our image clearly in cyberspace. The  “human” part of the gadget’s human machine interface (HMI) is easily prone to having its ego front and center where it will stand ready and waiting for an offense, for its sensibilities to be stirred to anger. It may take only one indirect affront to reach the tipping point. When that happens, outrage will then be projected onto everyone around us causing human interface disconnects go viral.

As the word “outrage” suggests, we do not keep our offended selves to ourselves.  We blast the horn loudly. We rise up on our hind legs and make a fierce growling sound in direction of the perceived offender. We lash out. We strike. We mock and jeer. We demonstrate, we march and we riot. We “flash” our rancor into vigilantism and mob action. We jump the shark with self-righteous responses, pummeling others with our heavy-handed diatribes. Cooler heads do not prevail. Instead, hot heads storm the gates of decency and respect. Our egos deem that the “other” has not been fair or there has not been adequate homage to our feelings. We text ourselves and to others ‘We deserve better”.

 So, in this Age of Outrage with it electronically vaunted egos and its absence of meekness and personal contentment, with all of its rants and its plethora of pretense and aborted conversations and with the death of civility lying everywhere around you you end up getting exactly what you deserve – more of yourself.

“All of civility depends on being able to contain the rage of individuals.”
Joshua Lederberg, American Molecular Biologist

“Treat others the way you want to be treated.” Jesus

*****

AttackWatch Update:

“By contrast, Reagan and both Bushes dealt with attacks either with good humor in the former case or by ignoring them in the latter. One criticism of President George W. Bush is that he ignored attacks a little too much, allowing some of the accusations to take hold without a response. “

Source:  http://news.yahoo.com/attack-watch-snitch-focus-internet-fun-195600841.html

Genus Envy or How to Covet the “Hero” Class ala Paul Krugman of the New York Times

It was just a few days ago that I noticed a bumper sticker on the rear-end of a Subaru:

THE MORE PEOPLE I MEET
THE MORE I LIKE MY DOG.

 

After reading that bumper sticker I was taken aback.  Now, after reading Paul Krugman’s New York Times Sept. 11th, 2011 opinion piece I would definitely buy a bumper sticker that read:

THE MORE PEOPLE LIKE PAUL KRUGMAN I MEET
THE MORE I LIKE MY DOG.

 

The Real Hero of 9-11.

I’m going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.

Bureaucracy Speaks

Paradise News Release (PNR):

On Thursday, Sept. 8th, 2011, Bureaucracy To Speak Before a Joint Session of Bureaucrats:

Using the core principles of Newspeak Barrack Hussein Obama or The Bureaucrat of the ruling class inner party, is expected to deliver a moving speech (hopefully avoiding teleprompter whiplash), before a joint session of bureaucrats. Directors of the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Plenty, The Ministry of Truth and the Ministry of Love will all be in attendance.

Before his fellow bureaucrats Obama will present the reasons for the economic problems at hand: you, me and a dog named Boo.  Tilting at windmills, he will verbally attack the America-loving Tea-Party. He will blame them for making his bureaucracy so difficult to maintain. He will remind us just how hard he has worked for our benefit. And, with Big Brother love he will tell us that he only wants the best for us, that only he knows what is best for us. He is a community organizer after all, born and bred by the likes of Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and a host of Radical Progressive myopians. He wants us to understand that he is just one of us born to rule.

Our Dear Leader will remind us that we the people even managed to interrupt his vacation with our concerns about Hurricane Irene.

In his ineffable non-partisan way Obama will pronounce that Republicans and Tea-Party Proles are to blame for the economic mess we are in. He will also invoke the force majeure clause in his contract with America. (BTW: for atheistic and agnostic Americans, it’s still God’s fault.) And, he will remind us that the bureaucratic buck should never stop long enough to stick to him. He’s from Chicago.

Obama will once again play the Bush card by telling us that he inherited his problems from W.  He will say this while asking to pile on more debt via more stimulus money in a move reminiscent of his own first two years in office.

Obama won’t mention that his aunt and uncle are in the US illegally. He doesn’t want to inherit any of that.

In a nod to the Outer Party (those who have been under liberal university tutelage) Obama will tell them to continue to Lean Forward.  A sign that he wants them to embrace the Rainbow Peacock just as he has done.

His speech will include class warfare indictments against those rich people with teleprompters of their own (not state-owned) and against those who use corporate jets to take vacations (this type of luxury is reserved only for bureaucrats of his stature and for those up and coming bureaucrats in the Outer Party).

On that night, our Beloved Leader, Barrack Hussein ‘Moses’ Obama will speak to us about the Progressive Land of milk and honey based on his dream of wealth re-distribution rationing.

In order to spur the damaged economy, he will offer higher taxation on taxes – if you pay taxes you must pay more taxes. He will clean up government waste by hiring only union sympathizing bureaucrats for any bureaucratic position. He will bring in a new economist to his financial team who will tell him he was right all along.

He will offer ‘Green’ jobs (actually, ‘greenbacks’ or patronage ) as a means to get our country (actually, those close to him) out of the economic mire it is in.

In typical grandiose fashion Obama will offer his own alternative energy jobs plan:  build wind towers. (a project that he and Jeffrey Immelt of GE fully approve of)

Obama, confident in his appeal, will remind us that we need to create jobs to get people back to work. And, that we each need to do our part.

Finally, Obama is expected to talk down to the Prole class.  After all, they are too stupid to know better than that Someone who has no experience but lots of campaign money and connections

Let the bureaucratic babble begin! After the speech, celebrate with some Victory-gin!

Your faithful and obedient reporter, Winston Smith.

*******

“Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me—“

 from 1984 by George Orwell

Outsourcing

 The radio message came at 22:01:44.9 Martian time:  “The Community-Organizer-in-Chief has left the Washington DC Bureau of Breadlines and has fled to his Martha’s Vineyard compound.”

 It was to be expected. The People’s Economy had turned on him. Unfed jobless (and tattooed) masses were walking the streets looting, robbing and killing for food. Washington, the center for The People’s Economy was no longer safe.  But, we felt safe in our star-ship Gorforit. That is, Friedrich and I felt safe.  My name is Milton.

 You should know that there were many Capitalists in The People’s America when the Hope and Change Desolation began ten years ago. But, since that time, there is now only a small remnant left.

 Back then we were called the “Free-Market-eers.”  As such, we were constantly booed and jeered by The People’s Media.  Flash mobs of union workers, guided by The People’s Media, attacked us. And though we were peace-keeping people, many of us were battered and some lost their lives.  At one point it became so bad that corporate jet owners were being hung openly on the Mall, right in front of Lincoln Memorial.

 How did this all begin? A Progressive candidate (The Candidate) won the presidential election in 2008. This newly elected president began to stir up class warfare among the people.  He incited people to turn against each other, neighbor against neighbor, because of money. The People’s Media joined in.

 In 2011 a “Lean Forward” campaign was launched by the People’s Media.  Soon, the slothful, the dimwitted and the envious began to call themselves “The Forward Thinkers” or the “Lean-Forward Thinkers” – commonly known as the “LFT”. Their numbers, mostly union workers and unemployed college graduates with useless degrees, grew rapidly.

 The People’s Media which had once campaigned for The Candidate in 2008, now campaigned for the Lean-Forward group.  The campaign encouraged these marauders to take from the rich (those who had a job and some income) and to give to the “under-privileged” – those who saw what others had and wanted the same things.

From the Oval office the president, via regular People’s Media broadcasts, told the citizens that government was the best mechanism to handle society’s problems.  So, with the help ‘elected’ representatives he began to take away the people’s money through taxation. People were no longer able to donate to charities or to directly help their neighbor.  Every dollar was excised from the people for the people in The People’s Economy.

 The People’s Media, rousing the animal passions of the LFT members, encouraged demonstrations to take place against Free-Marketeer businesses.  Soon, though, the demonstrations were replaced with random looting and pillaging of stores.  Strife increased between merchant and customer, neighbors and friends.

 Our nations’ economy, once strong and vibrant because of free-market exchange, was now subject to the whims of recalcitrant, angry mobs and inept tyrannical leadership.  It quickly deteriorated until our present time.

 So, a plan was decided at our last Capitalist conclave held in a secret hiding place near Mount Rushmore.  Two of us would go to Mars and begin a free market economy on a new planet. Both Friedrich and I volunteered to go.  We were the oldest in the group.  If something happened we were both prepared to die.

 We had the star-ship Goforit but not the fuel.  The People’s Economy rationed both fuel and food. So, we had to put our heads together to find a solution. Now, we had done similar things like this before so we were not overly concerned but time was running out.

There was no IPO for this venture, no influx of cash.  The US dollar had folded.  Instead, we had to learn to create fuel out of gold bullion.  And, as it turned out, a small amount of this fuel would take us all the way to Mars. Once there we could also use it to barter with the Martians.  They have no gold on Mars but they do have good underground living quarters for the two of us. We could set up shop very quickly. In fact, it was the Martians who had offered to help us.  They would benefit from us. It would be a mutually beneficial relationship, something no longer found in The People’s America.

 We all believed, the Free-Market-eers, that is, that there would be defectors from the People’s Economy but we didn’t know when. Things were getting nasty in The People’s America.  So we decided to plan ahead and get ready for the influx of homeless and hungry. We had to start somewhere new.  Somewhere that wouldn’t be affected by The People’s Media. 

It seemed to us that Mars was the best option since there was a significant time delay for any radio signal to reach that planet. And better yet, The People’s Media Broadcasts would easily get lost within the noise of space radiation and our own Sun’s solar flares. “Bingo,” I said when I heard this.

*****

 “Milton”, Friedrich spoke glancing out Goforit’s small window at the silent Martian orb, “soon you and I will be able to start our booming life again, but this time, on the Red Planet!”

Milton replied, “A laissez-faire world at last. To Mars or bust, my friend, to Mars or bust.”

© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved

CTRL-ALT-DELETE

Have you ever been in a relationship with a controlling person?  If you have you will better understand what I am writing about below.

 A controlling person is often a perfectionist.  For whatever unsettling condition/s that occurred in their young lives their need for perfectionism is absolute.  These people must have everything perfectly in order and under control.  And, in doing so, these people will find fault with everything. It doesn’t matter how good things are.  They will find fault with it. Their common reproach:  This is good, and yet…”  

You have just broached the liberal/progressive mindset and the maniacal motivations behind Hope and Change and MSNBC’s Lean Forward campaign

 *****

Control is the modus operandi of the Democratic Party.  This party seeks to control the conversation, to control your words with its ersatz religion of political correctness, to control the amount of your take-home pay, to control the social milieu, to control your food intake, to control the air, the water, the earth, control the science of air, water and earth, to control energy, to control finances, to control the pretense of international involvement via undeclared military action, to control education through teachers unions and text-books, to control jobs through unions, to control guns – to control your life ad infinitum.  The Dems have myriads of tyrannies of control governed by their politicians in charge of their ‘kingdoms’.  These Dems inherently seek more power to control and more time in office doing more of the same – controlling you at your expense. And, they keep Black-Americans in ‘their’ place with social welfare programs.

Let’s look at some of this tightening of the noose around our necks:

Control the conversation:  Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller are just two examples of those who would constrain the first amendment to only leftist thinkers. Remember Stalin and the Gulags? Remember Alexander Solzhenitsyn being imprisoned for his writing against the government? Students today only read the myopic screed The People’s History of the United States written by the communist Howard Zinn.  These students have no idea about real world and American history. Student neo-socialists will seek to repeat Stalin’s Russia, I have no doubt.

Control the social milieu:  homosexuality, the donkey’s behind of the Democratic Party symbol, demands that the homosexual life-style addiction be accepted and endorsed by everyone at every level, much like pot-heads who want pot legalized.  Homosexuality demands that our children be taught about this lifestyle.  It demands that our children’s text books be filled with homosexual lore and history. And, if you don’t agree with homosexuality it will shout out “Homophobe!” Americans have every reason to fear the degeneration of America because of homosexuality.

Control your food intake:  Think Michelle Obama; think Democratic thin lizzies wanting to stop McDonalds and other fast food restaurants from serving their product to you. They want to control your weight.

Control your take home pay:  Democrats want to tax, tax, tax, build a casino to lure your money away, tax, tax, build a casino, tax…

Control energy:  Cap and Trade (says it all)

Control your job through unions:  union leaders want to have command of your job.  Once someone joins a union they want you to donate, donate and donate to their ’cause’. They will then skim money from your collected donations.  Union bosses are greedier than the corporate industry they rail against. And, they know that you are eager to give over your rights to them in exchange for the pretense of collective bargaining. They play on people’s laziness, people’s lack of motivation and people’s lack of self-determination. They tell you that they have the leverage that you don’t have.  This is a lie, of course. You can work wherever you want whenever you want if your are determined to do so or you can create your own company/job. You are free but unions are control mongers.

Control finances: the Dodd-Frank Act equals control, control, control, blame, control, blame and control; the irony: co-author Barney Frank is the very one who brought upon us the financial crisis of 2008 with his oversight Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’ little or no money down mortgages for low-income people.

Control the pretense of international involvement via military action:  It is a well-known fact that presidents who have not had military experience go easily into war. And, when they go to war they strictly limit and control the military action which in turn never yields a resolution or a decision of surrender. Instead of decisive military action there is only the ‘controlled’ back and forth of military hokey-pokey wasting lives, money and time.

 Extreme control and droll sameness are necessary to create a manufactured utopia. Everyone has to be on the same page for the utopia to work. The elitist left, Progressive Democrats, think that they know what is best for you.  Their ivory tower professors lecture naive and un-historied students spewing out their idealist nonsense in hopes of producing more useful idiots for their cache of followers.  These same professors have no real life experience.  They are afraid to go out into the real world. (Except, of course,  for William Ayers, the domestic terrorist.  He has actual experience in domestic terror.)

  “Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business,” President Calvin Coolidge told journalists in March 1929.

Allen West, Black America & Plantation Politics

Toe the Line with Women & Our National Budget

The “No Class” Class Warfare of Obama

Just the facts, ma’am, from the Tax Foundation:

The President’s notions are not, however, grounded in fact. Let’s review the data on individual taxpayers first:

  • Recently released IRS data for 2009, shows that taxpayers earning over $200,000 paid 50 percent of the $866 billion in total income taxes paid that year, or $434 billion. Skeptics will say, “That’s because they earn the majority of the income inAmerica. Not so. These taxpayers earned 25 percent of the $7.6 trillion in total adjusted gross income in the country that year.
  • The 2009 IRS data also shows that a record 58.6 million tax filers had no income tax liability that year. This means that 42 percent of the 140 million Americans who filed tax returns that year contributed nothing to the basic cost of government.
  • Millions of people received cash “refunds” in 2009 even though they paid no income taxes: Some 21 million nonpayers received $27.5 billion in refundable credits from the child credit; Obama’s Making Work Pay program gave out $12.8 billion in refundable credits to 32 million filers; The Earned Income Tax Credit program doled out $54 billion in refundable credits to 24.9 million filers; and, nearly 5 million filers received $3.9 billion in refundable Education Credits and roughly 1 million filers got $4.65 billion in refundable credits under the First Time Homebuyers credit program.

The data also shows that the corporate tax burden is extremely progressive as well.

  • In 2008, the roughly 1,900 largest corporations paid $152 billion in income taxes. This amounted to 67 percent of the $227 billion in total corporate income taxes paid that year.

Obama repeated statements that the wealthy and corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes are simply false. The facts show that the very taxpayers Obama wants to raise taxes on are already paying more than their fair share of taxes and that the majority of Americans are getting the benefits of government spending while contributing next to nothing to its basic cost. That is a recipe for fiscal and social instability. (emphasis mine)

from:  http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/27530.html

*****

My tax returns leave no doubt that I am paying a large amount of taxes. Ergo, I am effectively supporting many who are not paying taxes.  They receive the benefits of what I am paying for.

https://sallyparadise.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/this-shall-not-pass/

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”    Thomas Jefferson

Fifty Ways to Leave Your President (Obama version)

The problem is all inside your head
She said to me
The answer is easy if you
Take it logically
I’d like to help you in your struggle
To be free
There must be fifty ways
To leave your President

She said it’s really not my habit
To intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning
Won’t be lost or misconstrued
But I’ll repeat myself
At the risk of being crude
There must be fifty ways
To leave your President
Fifty ways to leave your President

[CHORUS:]
You Just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free

She said it grieves me so
To see you in such pain
I wish there was something I could do
To make you smile again
I said I appreciate that
And would you please explain
About the fifty ways

She said why don’t we both
Just sleep on it tonight
And I believe in the morning
You’ll begin to see the light
And then she kissed me
And I realized she probably was right
There must be fifty ways
To leave your President
Fifty ways to leave your President.

h/t to Paul Simon.

Déjà vu All Over Again

Remember the “Recovery Summer” of 2010?

“Vice President Joe Biden today will kick off the Obama administration’s “Recovery Summer,” a six-week-long push designed to highlight the jobs accompanying a surge in stimulus-funded projects to improve highways, parks, drinking water and other public works.

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president, said: “This summer will be the most active Recovery Act season yet, with thousands of highly-visible road, bridge, water and other infrastructure projects breaking ground across the country, giving the American people a first-hand look at the Recovery Act in their own backyards and making it crystal clear what the cost would have been of doing nothing.” “

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38654.html

 Obama should really get to “feel our pain” during his upcoming 2011 Pass the Buck/ force majeure /”WE’RE NOT EVEN HALFWAY THERE YET”/”Money for nothing and our chicks for free” bus tour: he should be fired immediately.

During this tour you will learn about Obama’s management style:  managing uncertainty with more uncertainty.

This is like deja vu all over again.” –  Yogi Berra