Frum and Goldberg -Is Obama Socialist?

The Ant and The Grasshopper in the Age of Obama

My friend Liz sent me this....she's a MEGA ANT!



THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
This one is a little different... Two Different Versions...
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OLD VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away..

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
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MODERN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.

The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.
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I've sent this to you because I believe that you are an ant - not a grasshopper! Make sure that you pass this on to other ants. Don't bother sending it on to any grasshoppers because they wouldn't understand it, anyway.

Mark Steyn Looks At The Future Of The US And Sees......Greece

The incomparable Mark Steyn peers into his social palantir and sees a future for the US of socialism, Greek style.

There is still time.

What's the Difference Between Twitter and Venezuela?

One is social networking, the other is socialism not working.

Problem with that joke is "socialism not working" might lead some to believe that there are circumstances where it does work.

What do twitter and Venezuela have in common?

They are both led by a "twit".

Late Friday, the latter twit (Baby Hugo) devalued the Bolivar, Venezuela's currency. Perhaps if it devalues further, they can rename it the "Chavez" and put his pudgy mug on it to remind everyone of who destroyed the economy of the nation with the largest oil reserves in all of South America.

Actually, it's a tad unfair to blame that terminally-homely SOB for the downfall of the entire nation. That's because for a while at least, Venezuela was functioning as a capitalist democracy. Voters actually voted him into office and his inauguration was a momentous event full of hope for change. And change they got. He nationalized industry and started spending money on government programs at an unprecedented rate. So those who were the benficiaries of this redistributed wealth voted him back into office (how do you say "ACORN" in Spanish?). So he nationalized more industry and spent more on government programs and the recipients cheered. But, as Margaret Thatcher pithily summed up socialism, the problem with it is "eventually you run out of other people's money."

And today all those who voted him into office are wondering why they are being crippled by some of the highest inflation in the hemisphere. Life is tough, even tougher when you are stupid, even tougher when you are stupid AND you vote.

Thank God we here in the US are so much smarter than to run down this path.

BTW, here are some pics from one of Hugo's Scrapbooks titled "My Pals from the USA". See how many loyal Americans you can name. Any guess which way they voted?

Gorbachev In 2012

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came out swinging against the policies of the current Russian regime, and hinted yesterday that he may return to politics in some fashion. He urged Vladimir Putin to restructure the economy and cut government spending. "We have paternalistic expectations of government support," he told a conference gathered at one of his charitable organizations.

Hmm...reduce reliance on big government; restructure the economy, presumably away from central planning toward market-based reform and ensuring political freedoms?

Sounds downright conservative.

Truly, the world has been turned on its head

Where Were You When The Wall Came Down?

Tigerhawk's got this question on his site, and it made me think about it. You see, unlike a good deal of my generation, I don't have a very clear memory of this event--a little ironic for a guy so into politics and world affairs, huh?

I will rely on any old shipmates who read this to confirm, but I am almost certain we (the USS MCCANDLESS (FF 1084)) were down in the Caribbean doing Counter-narcotic operations--receiving news of this great miracle by naval message/news service every few hours. The iconic photos, the video--I saw none of it.

Where were you? What were you thinking? Do tell!