My Mental War

Recently, Missy and I debated whether Obama spoke out of ignorance or calculation when he said that overturning his healthcare law would be “unprecedented.”

Today I find myself mentally debating this question again, this time about Hilary Rosen’s “never worked a day in her life” schtick.

Was it a gaffe, in which she let the mask slip?  Or was it calculated to distract us from The Real Issue?

I wrestle with this mental debate a lot, and I can never truly make up my mind.  Neither answer satisfies my rather unfortunate urge to understand these people because either way, the truth is unsettling.

Take Ms. Rosen’s case, for example.  Either she is disdainful of women who (if they are “rich enough” to have the “luxury” of the choice) decide not to work, or she is willing to say anything with a straight face if it will benefit her political party.

Which is it?  And did you notice how clever that little limitation is?  The disdain is reserved only for the rich stay-at-home moms, ‘natch.  Disparaging the opinions of all stay-at-home moms would be beyond the pale, even for the most leftist of the left.

Of course, this limitation only works if it’s true.  First, it must be true that rich persons cannot understand the difficulties of the poor.  In other words, there is no such thing as empathy in Ms. Rosen’s world.

Second, it must be true that staying home is a luxury reserved for the wealthy.  And oh, looky, right on cue, the President enters stage left with his ridiculous claim that they couldn’t afford the “luxury” of Michelle staying home.  (Never-you-mind about the First Lady’s opinion.  That was way back in 2007 when she said that staying home makes her ill.)

Do you know what?

I’m tired of wondering whether these people are actually thick enough to believe the ridiculous things they say.

Is it purely partisan political hackery?  Or do they really believe that only the rich can live comfortably on one income?  If so, then the Obamas and the Rosens may as well live on the moon, they are so far out of touch.  Come on over to my house, guys.  Meet me and all my stay-at-home mom buddies.  We exist.  None of us are even the teensiest bit rich.

Oh, no.  See what I’m doing?  Mentally debating the “ignorance v. calculation” question.  Again!  I may need professional help.

It’s just . . . I’m confused.  I can’t even keep up with the various lines of reasoning.  Does the left believe there is a real Republican War on Women?  (In which women are dying!  Dying!  Because evil conservatives are killing them during childbirth!)

Or not?  Because we have Ms. Rosen saying the Democrats had actually never used the phrase “War on Women,” and that it was a Republican invention.

Wait.  Is it really . . . Obama’s War on Women?

Okay.  I guess I’m done.  I thought I’d have something more meaningful to say about The Left and The Right and The Staying Home and The Mommy Wars, which is normally like crack to my little brain.

Yet, here I am too far into a post to just delete it, and with nothing more meaningful to add than this:  it doesn’t matter what we say anymore.  We’d probably be better off not responding at all.

Ann Kane at The American Thinker says it best:

“Wouldn’t it be cool if he next time the Left entices us with some manufactured crisis, we just ignore it and continue on with exposing what’s really going on?”

UPDATE:  John Malcolm takes a stance opposite from Ann Kane, and his argument (via Red State) is quite effective:

“Contrary to what a lot of folks on our side are saying these attacks are far more important to defend against than obsessing over Romney’s position on Afghanistan or the capital gains tax because this election is not going to be fought over issues and ideas. . . .  Obama . . . doesn’t have issues and he doesn’t have accomplishments so all that is left to him is to tear down Romney.

If he can convince you that Romney is a cross between Scrooge McDuck and Moe Howard who adheres to a very strange set of religious beliefs then he wins.”

Cross-posted at Disrupt The Narrative.  Hop on over there, too.  You know you want to!

It’s Gonna Be A Good Day, Tater.

First, Weiner’s ex-district elected a Republican for the first time since forever ago.

Then, comes Great New Material for Mockery:  AttackWatch.com.

Instant hilarity has ensued in twitter feeds and comment threads.  Somebody at ABC tried to give Attack Watch a positive spin, but even folks at the Washington Post are smacking their foreheads.

Get on over to Attack Watch, and sign up to Report an Attack. Out of patriotic duty, I signed up and reported my own humble blog site, as well as the First Lady’s attempt to make her husband look bad.

You just can’t make up stuff like this.   Iowahawk tweets it best:

“I’m grateful to live in a country where the totalitarians are so hilariously inept.”

This parody (via Hot Air) is chockfull of mockery-goodness, too:

Better than finding M&Ms in the folds of your jowl skin.

Meet Bob Mack and Chew the Fat about the First Lady

He’s over at Be Sure You’re RIGHT, Then Go Ahead.  Apparently, he only just set up shop in August of this year, but he’s already got way more page views than I do.  Annoying!

Alas, he is funny and reminds me of my step-dad-in-law, so I have to give ‘em a pass.

He’s following Michelle Obama’s War On Fat, and he’s not even making the easy jokes about how maybe that battle should start . . . closer to home.  A funny cartoon is included, so go check it out.

I’ve followed the First Lady’s pet project too.  Back in May, her Obesity Taskforce issued its Big Report, and I said:

“No amount of “task forcing” or other governmental meddling will change my children’s habits.  Only I have the ability to turn off the Wii and toss the rug rats into the yard for exercise.  Only I decide whether they eat McDonald’s or steamed fish and brussel sprouts.

Folks on the left are lauding the fact that the recommendations are voluntary, not mandated.  Even though, by golly, this President has on taken the insurance, banking, and auto industries, and he’ll take on those evil peddlers of fast and junk food too! 

To those on the left, I must ask:  really?  Is nothing a private, individual decision? (I mean, other than abortion, of course.) ”

You know, fat seems a pretty personal thing to me.  It is attached to your body.

Thus, the First Lady’s ”war on obesity” is basically a war with her husband’s own subjects constituents.

The latest aspect of this war is the signing of The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (S. 3307).  I have not digested this new law thoroughly enough to comment on it.  However, I did find an interesting opinion from something called the American Association of School Administrators.

Sounds like a government-friendly enough bunch, to be sure.  Most school administration-y types aren’t rabid right-wing extremists, are they?

Yet even they don’t like the new law.  In a recent letter to the House they wrote:

“AASA is opposed to the intervention of federal government in local school district budgeting decisions.  Setting lunch and breakfast prices and establishing indirect rates are local decisions and should remain that way.  AASA also objects to fines for violating program requirements.  No other federal education program has a fine provision, and we question why they are thought necessary . . . .”  (emphasis mine)

Oh, they are so nice to give the federal folks the benefit of the doubt, but not I.  How often is power used because it can be, not because it must be?

In a November letter to Congress the AASA wrote:

“School districts simply request that Congress pay for the costs of the federal free and reduced priced school meals, and refrain from imposing new federal requirements particularly in this economic environment.  Much attention has been directed to the use of food stamp funds (SNAP) to pay for or offset the cost of the Senate’s Child Nutrition bill.  Unfortunately, little attention has been focused on the drain of local school district funds to pay for or offset the continuing un-funded costs of the federal free and reduced-priced school meals.”  (emphasis mine)

Their mild-mannered protests went quite unheard.

I wonder what’s next.

How Much Does the Media Love the Obamas?

I’ll tell you.

Members of the mainstream media love the Obamas so much, that a reporter can write this, without realizing how extraordinarily bad it sounds:

“Arriving in a small jet before the Obamas was the first dog, Bo, a Portuguese water dog given as a present by the late U.S. Sen Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.; and the president’s personal aide Reggie Love.”

Ha ha ha!  I truly laughed out loud at that one.  Even funnier is the clarification now posted to the side of this article:

“Today’s story about the arrival of the Obamas said the Obama’s dog and one aide arrived on a small jet before the First Family, but there were other occupants on the plane, including several other staffers. The presidential party took two small jets to the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton because the airport was too small to accommodate the president’s usual jet.”

Ha ha ha ha ha!  Oh, that was nice.  I can always use a good laugh.  Thanks Instapundit.

P.S.  We honeymooned in Bar Harbor, Maine.  It’s really nice there.  I bet Bo really liked it.

Ministry of Childhood Obesity

The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity has issued its report on whether flashy cars really help geeky men score.

Not really.

The White House Taskforce on Childhood Obesity has issued its report on . . . childhood obesity!  (Sounds of cheers, party horns inserted here.)

Here’s the rundown.  On the left, you’ve got folks cheering this valiant and effective fight to micro-manage the populace through the use of statistics, nice-sounding jargon, and cocksure ego:

pressdemocrat.com, Huffington Post, Media Matters, Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide.

And on the right you’ve got folks booing and jeering this misguided or even sinister fight to . . . well, micro-manage the populace through the use of statistics, nice-sounding jargon, and cocksure ego:

Michelle Malkin, Ed Morrissey, Michelle Malkin again (with a nice bit of hypocrisy pointed out as a bonus), Howard Portnoy, There’s My Two Cents.

Me?  That silly voice from the rabble?  I’m sure you ten-readers-a-day are on the edge of your seats in nail-biting anticipation for my sage opinion.

Oh-kay then:  Every doggone day the Ministry of Silly Walks skit gets funnier and funnier:

At first I was bothered.  It’s a natural reaction, when someone tells you how to parent your child.  Hey, I get annoyed at my own mother if she’s too opinionated about whether I force my child to finish his vegetables. 

But with this task force thing, the annoyance quickly wore off, and I was left wondering:  how can Michelle Obama be so self-righteous and self-important to think she and her cracker jack team will get the whole population of America whipped into shape within a generation?

Perhaps the suspicions on the right are true, and she doesn’t believe her own marketing.  It’s all a subterfuge for gaining power and riches.  Fine.  My question then becomes:  how in the world do so many people take her seriously?

Because it’s absurd.  No amount of “task forcing” or other governmental meddling will change my children’s habits.  Only I have the ability to turn off the Wii and toss the rug rats into the yard for exercise.  Only I decide whether they eat McDonald’s or steamed fish and brussel sprouts.  (Folks at Finding Ponies have some excellent points worth reading.)

Folks on the left are lauding the fact that the recommendations are voluntary, not mandated.  Even though, by golly, this President has on taken the insurance, banking, and auto industries, and he’ll take on those evil peddlers of fast and junk food (oh-so-yummy fast and junk food) too!  Well hip-hip-hooray for them trying to nudge us, before they regulate the food market outright.  I feel better already.

To those on the left, I must ask:  really?  Is nothing a private, individual decision? (I mean, other than abortion, of course.) 

When will you wake up and stop acting like sheep?

It’s nutrition, not rocket surgery.  We learned this stuff ad nauseum in public school.  Just throw some chopped carrot, celery, mushroom, and stuff in your spaghetti sauces and chilis, and be done with it.  Your kids won’t even notice.  We need a federal task force to issue a 124-page report?  Is that where we stand as a culture now?

Sigh.

News flash:  The problem is not a lack of education and empowerment.  (The report’s copious use of the word “empower” was nevertheless most impressive.)

I suspect a real root of the problem is the breakdown of the family unit and family traditions in the last few decades.  Also, the increased cultural unwillingness to teach and train our own children.  You know:  putting veggies on their plate, and not allowing them to eat other foods until they’ve finished their dinner, and that sort of thing.

All the “education” and “empowerment” in the world won’t contravene a permissive, or lazy, or otherwise dysfunctional household that allows a kid to eat what he wants, when he wants.  Hmm.  Permissiveness.  Letting a child “find his own path.”  Isn’t that a kind of liberal idea?

UPDATE:  There is some complimentary legislation in the works, the Healthy Choices Act, which requires health care providers to submit BMIs of children to the state government, if that state receives federal grant money under this law.

One thing is sure.  If a liberal uses the word “choice” in a bill, that means you really don’t have any choice at all.