printMy thanks to the brilliant Dr. Thomas Szasz for alerting me to the sickening specter of Obama talking treacle in PARADE magazine. As the president vaporizes about his vision of fatherhood and his hopes for his girls, you get the sense that these kids must think they are at the center of the universe. In that, the president resembles most American parents.
“Too often, especially during tough economic times like these,” writes the country’s chief Idiocrat, “we are emotionally absent: distracted, consumed by what’s happening in our own lives, worried about keeping our jobs and paying our bills, unsure if we’ll be able to give our kids the same opportunities we had. Our children can tell. They know when we’re not fully there.”
In better times, before we began breeding self-absorbed brats, mom would say to the cherubs: “Kids, your father is worried. Let him relax a bit before you go in … ”
A world of wisdom was conveyed in the message Mr. Mindless urges against. Yes, children matter a great deal, but so does dad; he is not an extension of the kids, roped into making their world perfect at a cost to himself. (As we have established that mother is an entity entitled to her own fulfillment, why not father?) And yes, he bears a far greater burden than they can fathom. There is nothing wrong with a child having a sense of the weight of that fatherly responsibility.
Here’s Überdad, again:
“I came to understand that the hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill.”
What does government have to do with fatherhood and family? In a better America nothing. In Obama’s America everything. The man starts from the premise that government can do pretty much everything. His own experience of state largess has not taught him to question his premise. Rather, Obama seems to have concluded that, affirmative action and racial privilege; the best jobs and career track the pigment burden can buy—these are all well and good, but not as good as being blessed with the love of a dad.
Its hackneyed message aside, Obama’s prose, which seems to thrill the low and high-brow alike, is uninspiring and mundane.
Update (June 22): Myron, a single dad, is BAB’s Daddy of the Year. I’ve seen a photo of the apple of Myron’s jaded eye, and she’s an absolute doll. Her daddy, moreover, is nothing like the country’s papa Stalin. Myron’s cherub looks truly happy.
Myron, you’ll be disqualified, though, if the young lady begins to paint her pretty face and talk in a mixture of Valley Girl and ungrammatical grunts (that’s a botched quote from “Idiocracy“). Also, do not deprive her of your unique humor and wit out of some sense of propriety. I inflicted mine on my daughter. The result: she’s the funniest girl I know. For your own sanity, you can’t cultivate a dull, deadpan kid, which is what the schools churn out.
For example: At my daughter’s primary school, back in South Africa, the women were in the habit of running what we called a tuck shop, “Brit for a shop in or near a school, where cakes and sweets are sold,” mainly to raise money. At least so I think. My girl, then only 7 or 8, wanted to know why I never made any cookies. I told her right away that I did, only my cookies were invisible. She was too small to appreciate the joke, and big enough to get furious at my poking fun at her. You should have seen the little Rumpelstiltskin stomp her little feet. Obama would disapprove of her mother big time.
You know how parents are always telling kids, “You are so cute I can eat you”? Well, in my home the well-worn expression got a bit of a twist. After telling her how cute she was, I’d get this serious look on my face, while looking her over, and say, “Hmmm… Juicy adorable kid. Maybe I should eat you, what do you say? Do you know how much time and money it’ll save me. Think about it….” Then I’d chase her all over the house trying to catch her. She’ll deny it today, but initially she was a bit nervous. Good fun.
Abuse in Obama’s book.
The joking had the tendency to backfire. When I read her Roald Dahl’s Enormous Crocodile, who sounded a lot like her mother as he discussed what kind of child was tastiest, she began to scold me, “Stop joking mommy; read the book.” I promised her that the text was real, but by that time I had lost all credibility. Each time the Enormous Croc expatiated on the hazards of eating children (“they give you tummy rot”), my child recoiled; she could not believe another character was as wacky as her mother. Good times.
I’m in the midst of re-reading a great work by von Mises called “Omnipotent Government: The Rise of Total State and Total War”. His section on “etatism” is something everyone should read in today’s climate. The words that drip and ooze from the Statists in Washington these days convict them of the very description that von Mises paints of those enlightened few who are so knowledgeable about living that they must not only share their knowledge with the rest of us who lack their insights, but also they must make sure we align our lives as they see fit. The hubris that drips from these people could choke a horse. Soon we’ll all know what the Obamas have for dinner, what television programs they watch, and what great works they read. How could we possibly live out our existence without such pearls of great wisdom?
Our FATHER who art in the White House, hallowed be HIS NAME! Well, this single dad was not “fully there” for his daughter on father’s day because I was documenting and making copies of 50 pages of idiotic paperwork for Fairfax County VA to prove to my local government bureaucrats that I am not cheating my daughter of my wife’s bank accounts. I dropped her off at friends who took her to a (loud disco) party while being “distant” and “not there” for my daughter according to our HOLY FATHER of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. As for Barack’s own bigamist dad, all he got out of daddy was a nice complexion and an exotic name that he road into the White House.
In our local paper, Mr. McClain is quoted from the program, “Face the Nation,” that the only thing Mr. Obama has done wrong is not meddle in Iran. Which brings me to the (expected) conclusion that the country would be in the same shape it’s in now, if McClain were president; not only that but we would also be demonstrating a case of hoof and mouth disease over the “Iran Election” as well.
My opinion, for what its worth is that the only thing Mr. Obama has done right is keep his tongue in his mouth about Iran, but the week is still young yet. One thing Mr. Obama still has not learned, is that it is his own government welfare system that is the greatest ‘fatherhood destroyer.’ Meanwhile we can add his ‘father’s interview’ to another page in your “age of idiots’ example list.
“And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called ‘Benefactors.’ Luke 22:25
Obama is surely the king of Chutzpah. He bankrupts the current generation and then admonishes them about worrying about the opportunities of the next generation. He says that government cannot take the place of fathers while expanding the welfare state with breakneck speed.
I knew it was going to be a very long four years. Five months in and I’m ready to hang myself. The mere sight of his mug makes me ill.
Barack is simply intolerable. How long will Americans put up with this self-righteous nonsense? It’s like he spent his entire college life taking courses in pop psychology or something. Must he pontificate publicly about every mundane subject under the sun? Can’t he keep his pie-hole shut about anything? Please!
[Funny; LOL]
My dystopian hometown of Washington, D.C. had a terrible accident on its Metro system today. Six dead, a few hanging on, and many, many more gravely injured.
It’s a government run rail system in a company town that survives solely on public largesse, yet the Liar in Chief thinks that Big Government can run everything. And not only run everything, but do it better than a market based system.
Wonder what he has to say about today’s accident?
Oops! Big Daddy hasn’t been paying enough attention in the bedroom. D.C. has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world! http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-17-DC-AIDS_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
Wonder if the innumerate Big Man can grasp the significance of this?
Roger,
The government response is simple: if only the lousy transit authority had the luxury of a bigger budget, they could have prevented the needless killing. It’s greedy people like you and me that are responsible for their deaths.
Also bear in mind that any restitution to the survivors will be socialized onto the taxpayers. There is no bankruptcy with these incompetent agencies. There is never any legitimate accountability with the idiots running these state sanctioned organizations.
And we want to give these people total control over our health care! Be afraid.