The Smartest Guy in the Room

I freely admit that I do not like Jon Stewart - the most trusted newsman in America. The fact that he is not a newsman but a comedian should not get in the way of exalting him as a voice of reason. Whatever...

It does bother me a little how the rest of the media pundits, famous authors, cabinet secretaries, politicos and even candidates are forced to pay homage to Stewart and his robot audience. I do find it a bit disconcerting that so many young people get their politics from Mr. Stewart and his cohort Mr. Colbert doing their make-believe news shows on Comedy Central. But is it any more disconcerting than the bloviating on Fox's O'Reilly and Hannity or the tripe found on Olberman's Countdown or Maddow's breathless indignation over on MSNBC? I guess not. Thank God we have bloggers!!!

Where is this going?

I was reading a rather pompous, self impressed blogger, David Roberts on Grist.Org's site, who can't seem to get enough teabagging references in his posts regardless if teabagging is even called for. I scrolled down into the comment section and found this gem posted in response to the aforementioned blogger's ir-regard for the so-called Tea Party Movement... The first thing that came to mind was Jon Stewart.

please, read on

I know you're just sure you're the smartest guy in the room, as every piece you write drips with a smug, smarmy self-indulgence that is as condescending as it is dismissive. Tragically, your vastly superior intellect is unappreciated, and you must scratch your head wondering why the rest of the world isn't singing your praises and nodding their agreement. You are, in short, a poster child for today's Left.

Just a generation ago, the Left distrusted government and valued personal freedom above all else. Today, government is the solution for everything, personal freedom is subjugated to the collective, and people can't be trusted to make their own choices. Before you pigeon-hole me, I don't recognize or admire the GOP, either. Hence, the movement you childishly dismiss with vulgarities. This movement has more in common with the 60's era Left than it does the southern Klan, which you clumsily reference in your predictably contemptuous reply. I challenge you to open your eyes, but know you won't. You are so thoroughly convinced of your own superiority that I harbor no hope you could ever be a true thinking person.

Unlike others here, I don't despise you; you are of course entitled to your opinions, however shallow, simplistic and egocentric. I pity you, frankly, because your own grandiosity prevents you from thinking, seeing or appreciating any alternative reality despite the countless historical failings of a tireless devotion to a ridiculous dogma. It's a shame, really.

by libertasso


Now if I could have 2 minutes with Mr. Stewart that's exactly what I'd say to him.

CW

What Obama Should Do...

The President should declare a Congressional holiday (a holiyear actually) and then extend it to the decision makers in the executive branch too. Seriously, if the politicians in DC would just go home for about a year and let the American people (and the businesses too) go about their lives without fear of crippling legislation the economy would turn around in a big way.

Stanford economist John Cogan, a former Reagan administration fiscal adviser said recently... “We are presently in a dangerously risky economic environment, more risky than any in memory and that includes the 1970s. The primary sources of that risk come from uncertainty about U.S. government economic policy. In the area of taxation, personal income taxes, especially those on savings and capital formation, are set to rise substantially in a year. How high tax rates will rise and what activities will be hit hardest creates a sizeable risk this year for investors and businesses.”

No one likes uncertainty. The risk takers accept uncertainty in the course of doing business, but they rely on the ground being stable beneath them. No one builds a house (or a mall) during a hurricane.

What has everybody worried is the administration’s unprecedented peacetime deficits. No one is sure what will happen to the macro economy with this kind of debt burden. What we do know is that it won’t be good. With the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 set to expire in January 2011 any nascent recovery will stall. While the populists and the progressives will be cheering that the "rich" will finally be paying their fair share the economy will not be saved. Many businesses will act in 2010 in anticipation of massive tax changes in 2011, changes that include the tax cut expirations and Obama's promised tax increases on capital formation and capital gains. If any jobs are created in 2010 they will be offset by job losses in 2011.

It's obvious that the things the Administration has pushed for and committed us to are not working - at all. So what is Obama’s answer? The possibility of another spending “stimulus” bill of $200 billion or more. Add ill-advised regulations and tax hikes on the America’s troubled financial system, job-killing climate change hooey, as well as pushing ahead with a costly health care plan, and other legislation that will only drive up the government debt.

If Washington DC goes on vacation for a year the MSM may bark and a few people will be upset that no one is "fighting" for us, but the vast majority of us will be delighted. The odds of this happening are about as good as me winning the Powerball tonight.

Wish me luck!


CW

Introducing The People's Cube: a new link

I'm adding a new link under my Recommended Sites section on the right. Please check out "The People's Cube" when you have a minute.

In these trying times with the heavy anticipation of creeping socialism getting ready to stand up and sprint into our lives at every level we have to take time to laugh. The People's Cube is priceless. Hat Tip to Al Fin on this one... Hilarious!

Let's poke a little fun at "The One" and all that he stands for...

Optimistic Signs Abound for Pessimists

"Probably won't work anyway..." Eeyore

I hate being a pessimist. Yet, here I am happily wallowing knee deep in it. I want more than anything to have hopeful, optimistic feelings about the future. I mean really, what else have we got if we haven't got the future?

Optimistic people are said to be happier. I like happiness, I guess. But just hold on a minute. Pessimistic people are thought to have a more realistic outlook on life. For instance: have you ever played the Power Ball lottery? Ok, who has a better grip on reality every Wednesday and Saturday night? I rest my case.

Maybe it's just the constant stream of bad news coming at me 24/7 from cable TV news. Maybe it's this perpetual Presidential election. Maybe it's $3.00 a gallon gasoline. Maybe it's the deflated sense that people in my life will never live up to my meager expectations of them. Then of course there is me, myself and I, Mr. Disappointment himself.

Attitude Baby, Attitude
I guess it's really all about attitude, right? We all know from the 657 worthless self help books we have read that attitude is the key to everything (after communication, of course). There is nothing the right attitude can't cure. Ah, well, except pessimism.

What is the difference anyhow: An optimist explains away bad and painful events as temporary, isolated and external. What a putz! The pessimist explains them as permanent, pervasive, and personal. Yeah, now you're talking.

Pessimists Unite!
Never mind, no one will show up anyway.

Take The Test
from Dr. Martin Seligman's book, "Learned Optimism"

Here are my results:

Permanence Bad Score = moderately pessimistic
Permanence Bad Score = moderately pessimistic
Permanence Good Score = very pessimistic
Pervasiveness Bad Score = very pessimistic
Pervasiveness Good Score = average
Stuff of Hope = severely hopeless
Personalization Bad Score = very high self-esteem
Personalization Good Score = average
Total Bad Score moderately = pessimistic
Total Good Score thinking is = quite pessimistic
__________________________________
Good minus Bad Score = very pessimistic

I think I win!!! No wait I sure some one will get extremely pessimistic. Dang it, I knew I wouldn't win...



CW