This nationwide address to children without their parent’s consent is just too Dear Leader, North Korea-style Orwellian for me.
Here’s the link to the “Recommended Study Materials” to go with Mr. Obama’s proposed Sep. 8 address to school children.
Select chapters and verse for this little trip down indoctrination lane:
Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?What is the President asking me to do?What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?
But one targeted to kids, with those kind of suggested, loaded questions such as “Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?†— that’ a horse of a different…ahem… that’s something else entirely.
And I’d object just as strong to McCain, to Reagan, to JFK — hell, like I said, if Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek or Herbert Spencer were president, I’d object.
It’s not the role of the president, and it creates this idea that these politicians are somehow important and should be followed.
What they say isn’t important. What we say — as individuals — and what we do — as individuals — is far more important.
This didn’t start with Obama — see the third book I linked to — but we’re treading closer and closer every year towards an ugly, led society, instead of a republic of free individuals who should only have to deal with government when they violate the rights of their neighbors or pay a general tax to support the few, constitutionally mandated and delegated duties government should be performing.
We watched President Reagan speak on TV in our elementary school, and got news from the White House in the Weekly Reader. Why is this any different?
My parents didn’t vote for him, but they didn’t freak out about it, either.
Would you object to the same presentation from a President McCain?
Watching a general speech in school is one thing. Gotta learn civics and politics. No problem.
But one targeted to kids, with those kind of suggested, loaded questions such as “Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?” — that’ a horse of a different…ahem… that’s something else entirely.
And I’d object just as strong to McCain, to Reagan, to JFK — hell, like I said, if Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek or Herbert Spencer were president, I’d object.
It’s not the role of the president, and it creates this idea that these politicians are somehow important and should be followed.
What they say isn’t important. What we say — as individuals — and what we do — as individuals — is far more important.
This didn’t start with Obama — see the third book I linked to — but we’re treading closer and closer every year towards an ugly, led society, instead of a republic of free individuals who should only have to deal with government when they violate the rights of their neighbors or pay a general tax to support the few, constitutionally mandated and delegated duties government should be performing.
Gotta remember, Trey… Some people WANT to be led. Thinking for themselves requires too much effort and makes them uncomfortable.
I agree Trey, it sounds a bit Orwellian.
Bear makes a good point too: Sheep bleat all along the political spectrum–the best inoculation?
As Thomas Jefferson noted: A well-informed and well-educated citizenry is the best bulwark against tyranny.
Unfortunately, that requires effort and too many would rather spout ideology instead of actual, critical, thought.
On cue, the Republican Party of Florida is all kinds of fired up about this:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/02/republican-party-florida/republican-party-florida-says-obama-will-indoctrin/
But an St. Pete Times investigation (in same link) shows that President Bush had a similar address to students in 1991 and there was criticism from Democrats.
Newt Gingrich, then the Speaker of the House, rose to his defense. I wonder what Newt thinks about this broadcast?
This is getting to feel more and more like a personality cult, something we associate with third worlds and totalitarian regimes. Now the National Endowment for the Arts is going to employ art in the service of the key issues according to Obama. This description is quite scary. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574378753571636982.html
How long before we are issued a little red book of Obama’s sayings and philosophy?
I wonder if I can get a Gadsden tee shirt in kindergarten size?
To the internets!!!
I would like to note that Republicans and other right-wingers neglected to raise the same concerns as have been raised above back when George H.W. Bush did the same thing back in 1991.
If we’re gonna cry foul, it might do to be “fair & balanced” about it.
Here’s a link to a blog post about the “better Bush” giving a policy-making speech to school children in 1991.
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/09/george_hw_bushs_speech_to_scho.php
I think the pres should put up or shut up. In fact I am tired of seeing his face all of the time talk about your major burnout. He sees himself as a star. I see him as a man with an over inflated ego who wants to be a star. He also wants to ruin my country. He also wants to tax us to death. Thats okay the 2010 elections are coming. He then can become a one term pres and a lame duck for his last two years. Bush did it so can he. Bush did not control congress his last 2 years in office. The mess that was left was as much the Democrates problem as it was his. You left wingers seem to forget that part. As for him asking anything from my children, grandchildren, or anyone’s children, I think is a bit much. Sounds like Germany under Hitler. What does he want our children to do rat out their parents, neighbors, each other, I think not.
“…the few, constitutionally mandated and delegated duties government should be performing.”
And in libertarian fantasy-land, these “duties” consist of mopping up blood and carting off the corpses left behind after the shoot outs on Main street.
“And in libertarian fantasy-land, these “duties†consist of mopping up blood and carting off the corpses left behind after the shoot outs on Main street.”
I am pretty sure we can privatize that.
To Trey and anyone else who stupidly thinks this is “Manchurian Candidate” brainwashing or indoctrination or some other “evil” plot to control children:
If you are SO adamant about keeping “politics” out of the classroom, then stand up with ME and DEMAND that religion be kept OUT OF THE CLASSROOM IN ANY FORM! Including prayer, distribution of religious related material and other forms of possible “brainwashing.” Because THAT does NOT belong in the public schools, either.
You can’t have one and NOT the other. Religion belongs in the church and the home – NOT in SCHOOL!
Right???????
I am SOOOOOOOOO ashamed to even be living in such a jelly-fished, spineless administrative-directed school district as Plano. And to think we pay such enormous salaries to this sheep-ple who “educate” our children. It is shameful beyond words!!!!!
I know what this is about.
You know what this is about.
How much irony in the fact that if comes from PLAN O TEXAS?
This makes our state look ignorant and non inclusive.
The race card, Jack? Seriously?
You’re right Jack…I don’t want this half black President talking to my half black grandaughter because he’s half black….
Seriously.
You know it. I know it. It can’t be denied. It is there. A fat fucking fact.
When it smells like a bigot, looks like a bigot, walks like a bigot….
well you know the rest.
It is so sad because it only represents a small portion of Texans. The people of our state are far cooler than those that play games like this.
Yeah, he’ll never hit the big-time.
Good grief. People like you do more harm to race relations in this country than any so-called “bigots” you claim are out there. You fan the flames of hate and then blame someone else while everything burns.
“If you are SO adamant about keeping “politics†out of the classroom, then stand up with ME and DEMAND that religion be kept OUT OF THE CLASSROOM IN ANY FORM! Including prayer, distribution of religious related material and other forms of possible “brainwashing.†Because THAT does NOT belong in the public schools, either.”
Chuck, I’m an atheist. What makes you think I’d be against that?
I won’t get into a pissing match with anyone who thinks that John McCain and Sarah Palin would be a better leader than the one we have.
Speaking of pissing, one of your leaders, Pastor Steve Anderson, thinks American men have become too effeminate because more and more are pissing sitting down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Q_3Dg9ayc
It is this sort of shit that will stop the Libertarian movement from moving forward.
Back off JEJ. He is a victim and sees only victims. Even so, we are his victims when he comments. It’s a big, beautiful vicious cycle.
“Yeah, it’s all post-racial until someone needs to call you a racist.”
I see what you mean now.
Trey -
I sincerely hope that you will seriously consider making an appointment to visit with a mental health professional. And if you won’t do that, then please, for everyone’s sake, take the time to review the following link :
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/03/ruiz/closed.minds
“What they say isn’t important. What we say — as individuals — and what we do — as individuals — is far more important.”
That’s the best line of the whole piece. I’m moving to Plano to vote for Trey for school board.
And the Amanda begins with the JEJ bashing.
So freaking typical. Get a freaking life. You are a victim of your own self aggrandizing.
Aren’t you the preacher of staying on topic? Stop making this post about me.
I don’t deserve it. I am a VICTIM……….jeebus freaking xist
Isn’t it interesting that those who want to have the government control everyone’s lives see themselves as “open minded” while those of us who want the government to stay out of our business and let us run our own affairs are seen as “narrow minded” or even shallow and controlled by others? It is sophistry carried to its zenith. If you have a capable mind and can survive in the world without having the government tell you what to do every step of the way, isn’t that kind of independence laudable? I know that the only thing the liberals who speak here will be able to do now is call me a racist and say I am dumb…I guess it is easier than defending their own cognitive shortcomings.
Philip J. Hubbell, the “close-minded” brand is usually levied at social conservatives and Christian Right types, not libertarians.
I’m not saying that liberals are, in fact, open-minded — you could stretch Liberalism’s sacred cows to the moon and back, twice — but. yeah, the Christian Right types (not just Christian and conservative per se; you know who I mean) are a pretty narrow-minded lot.
Wanta bet someone on the blogasphere somewhere is claiming ‘inside’ infomation re: the ‘damning and dangerous’ opening lines of President Obama’s ‘speech’ in which he or she claims the President says the following:
“As someone who has watched home-schooled children taught that a lesbian doctor doing abortions is in opposition to the words of Jesus, I want to talk to my new America’s children about national healthcare that will make having teenage children once again affordable whether within a newly santioned Christian same-sex union or the other marriages I first recognized in Mohammed Allah’s eyes.”
I find people who think the government should have more power and that we don’t have a right to the fruits of our labor, or that social justice is giving hacks in Washington the power to redistribute wealth to be pretty narrow minded. And this Obama worship is little more than a new state religion and it has even infected to press which used to be the watchdogs of government abuse…now they are the cheerleading section.
I am broadminded enough to make my way in the world without the government telling me what doctor to see or how to spend my money….
the orthodoxy of liberal thinking is pretty fixed. Political correctness demands people even curtail their language and not use certain words lest they offend the god of victimology…..sounds an awful lot like the kinds of things liberals accuse and condemn the christian right of doing.
You right-wingers are insane. I have taken the pledge to be President Obama’s Servant, and I am proud that I did.
Won’t you pledge to be a Servant to Obama too? Take the pledge!
Anyone who does not want to take the Pledge to Serve Obama is a RACIST!
Ashton Kucher and Demi Moore and that guy from the Red Hot Chili Peppers pledged to be Servants to President Obama, and you should too! It’s Cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqcPA1ysSbw&feature=channel_page
Serve President Obama with ALL your Heart, Soul, and Mind! If you don’t, you are RACIST!
So Phillip
When George W. was President, did YOU tell the government how to spend YOUR money?
Did you tell them how much to spend on Medicare, the Iraq War, etc?
Did you tell them how much of my money to spend too?
What part of the Health care bill is going to dictate which Doctor you see?
What part is going to make end life decisions and force them upon you?
Since you are currently paying for the healthcare of all illegals, I assume you choose to do that?
If Trey,as he told me, wants an across the board abolition of elected officials speaking to schoolchildren, regardless of party, office or theology, then I can agree on that.
And he apparently agrees that any and ALL forms of religions need to be verboten in the public schools.
I certainly agree to that!
And we the only ones?
Meanwhile, just to stir the pot, how come we learn, on a daily basis, more and more and more about the Bush Administration’s utter incompetence and blidness to the scores of crime being committed by its 1) regulators, 2) contractors in Iraq and at foreign embassies; and 3) the Vice President himself?
Bush had 8 years to produce this gigantic mess. Obama has had 8 months to begin (remember the word in BEGIN) to reverse the tide. His enemies have been expecting the miracles – not the people.
“Bush had 8 years to produce this gigantic mess. Obama has had 8 months to begin (remember the word in BEGIN) to reverse the tide. His enemies have been expecting the miracles – not the people.” chuck bloom
Did Bush nationalize the banking industry?
Did Bush nationalize the auto industry?
Did Bush advance nationalizing 1/6 of a private industry with health care “reform?”
Did Bush push for Cap & Trade?
Did Bush appoint unrepetent communists as Czars?
Was Bush an unabashed socialist?
You “blame Bushers” are really pathetic.
Uh, Keith, to answer your first question: Yes, it WAS George W, Bush and his Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson that brought you TARP in order to save the butts of Mr. Paulsen’s buddies, the big bad bankers of Wall Street.
Second, a “loan” is not a nationalization. Chrysler is now OWNED by Fiat, not the government, and GM is still owned by its shareholders, whose stock is now worth MORE after the guided bankruptcy and loans given to it.
And exactly WHAT was Bush? Other than incompetent? Conservative? Hardly! Liberal? No, but more moderate than Cheney and others.
And if nationalizing 1/6 of the health care industry is true (which means nothing since there is NO definitive bill yet), that means 5/6th is still private enterprise. Ooh, MORE than 80% is private. That sounds like alot. Of course, there’s that pesky Medicare that SOOOOO many people cling to and it’s … oh my GOD! it’s government run! And people WANT IT!
Explain THAT!
You bitchy birthers Birchers would NOT know a real socialist if he bit you on the ass! And Obama ain’t one! They’ve got them in Italy and France and we are SOOO far from that, it isn’t even the same political game we’re discussing.
Of course, y’all are the same people who don’t know shit from Shinola when it comes to history and facts (I forgot, who is Hitler AGAIN?!?!) Do everyone a favor and turn off Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity (these are entertainers for ratings, not the truth) and turn on your brains … for once!
You “blame Obama and hate him because … HE’S BLACK!” folks are pathetic.
No ..Bush destroyed the economy by going to war with a country that had nothing to do with 9 11.
He left the country in the biggest mess it has ever been in.
Now the Republican party is eating itself. Failure doesn’t do them well.
Jack was that country Iraq per chance? The Iraq that invaded Kuwait, was handily ejected and then given specific terms to live by following their defeat?
The Iraq that ignored UN sanctions, shot at our aircraft enforcing the no fly zones and attempted to have a former US president murdered?
The country that, if they really didn’t ship WMDs to Syria, certainly had the chemists and scientists on the payroll to rebuild their WMD arsenal once Saddam successfully paid off the UN?
Iraq was an open sore, and while the timing of finishing the job that was started in ’91 is debatable, like post WW1 Germany it was inevitable that eventually US forces would have to go back in.
“Now the Republican party is eating itself. Failure doesn’t do them well.” JEJ
Actually Jack, it’s the Democratic party thats imploding, blue dogs vs the communist wing.
Love the rational, calm, on topic comments from the left side of the aisle.
Just, awesome.
Love the rational, calm, on topic comments from the right side of the aisle.
Just, typical.
“Uh, Keith, to answer your first question: Yes, it WAS George W, Bush and his Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson that brought you TARP in order to save the butts of Mr. Paulsen’s buddies, the big bad bankers of Wall Street.” Chuck Bloom
Chuck it was conservatives that held Bushs feet to the fire over his amnesty scheme,it was conservatives who fought his attempt to place Harriet Meirs on the SCOTUS, it was conservatives who rejected his plan to turn over port security to the UAE.
Conservatives rejected Bushs big spending just as they reject Obama doubling the debt, except now the difference is we’re “racist” for opposing the half white president.
As I understand it, the government now owns 60% of GM; if thats not nationalization it’ll do until nationalization gets here.
I never said Obama wanted to nationalize 1/6th of the health care industry, I said health care is 1/6th of the national economy. If Obama gets his way as people change jobs, their only option would be government health care.
WW2 bomber pilots had a saying-”if you’re receiving flak it’s because you’re over the target”-you’re birthers, Birchers and accusations indicate a nerve’s been struck.
I read your article in the DMN. I thought what
you had to say was the best worded comment on the subject. I agree w/what
you said about not letting a child feel like anyone is such a “leader” over all. Like
your referance to the “Wizard of Oz”. You got a lot of neg. comments on there, but
you also got a lot of positive feedback. I used to be liberal all the way, but I’m
changing in my old age! I hate to think I’m turning into my parents! I have just had
a bad, uneasy feeling about Obama ever since he started to run for POTUS. In the past, if I heard the basics about him, I would have thought “He’s for me!”. I
just can’t get past this feeling I have about him, & as time goes by, I trust him way less, now not at all. It isn’t because I am racist. I thought a black, or any really different kind of POTUS would be great. Not his kind of different! I have even wondered if he’s the anti-christ. Any way-I wanted to let you know I thought your comments made the most sense & put a lot of people’s feelings into words that made the most sense. Thanks-I plan to read a lot more of your work and tell others about you.
Thank you, Star Archer. You are most kind.