Why Is No One Laughing?

Spectator.Org ^ | November 22nd 2009

[Steelfish]

Why Is No One Laughing? By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

WASHINGTON -- What would the mainstream media's response be if former governor Sarah Palin described China's economic growth to an audience of students in Shanghai as "an accomplishment unparalleled in human history"? That is what the most inexperienced president in modern American history said in Shanghai this week.

I wonder if any of the assembled journalists choked. President Barack Obama makes such unhinged pronouncements with the kind of frequency that if he were anyone else he would be set down by the media as a boobie. I take that back. Vice President Joe Biden is equally gaffable, yet no one in the mainstream press makes him out to be a boobie.

When he was tapped to be Senator Obama's running mate he was widely acknowledged -- from ABC to NBC and with all the like-minded newspapers in between -- as a foreign policy colossus. Both of these men, when untethered from their Teleprompters, are prone to gibberish. Actually I suspect that the President's Shanghai preposterosity appeared in the text rolling down his Teleprompter.

His speechwriters are as prone to the absurd as their boss. Nonetheless, President Obama is reputed in the media to be an orator of great gifts and anyway he is very charismatic. So apparently the journalists are insensate as the gaffes, the howlers, the jaw-dropping exaggerations roll forth. Sarah Palin is accorded no such dispensation

[Sherman Logan]

China's economic growth... (is) "an accomplishment unparalleled in human history"

Actually a defensible statement.

Certainly it has pulled more people (in raw numbers) above the absolute poverty level than any other economy. Its sustained economic growth is also quite unusual.

My browser choked on the link, but I suspect the author never bothers to explain why China's economic growth is NOT "an accomplishment unparalleled in human history."

I hate it when writers do that.

[Steelfish]

Try post WWII South Korea or Germany.

[FromLori]

umm maybe

Bankruptcy an Option, Says Mayor’s Fiscal Task Force

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/11/20/government/215committee112009.txt

Bing to seek council’s OK to sell $250M bond

http://www.freep.com/article/20091120/NEWS01/911200474/1320/Bing-to-seek-councils-OK-to-sell-250M-bond

Bing to seek council’s OK to sell $250M bond (Detroit)

S.F. commercial properties seek tax relief

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/11/22/MN2F1AMSFC.DTL

Auburn Union could face bankruptcy

http://auburnjournal.com/detail/135793.html?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&user_id=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&event_ts_to=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=1&sub_type=&town_id=

OFFICIALS: Morristown near bankruptcy, city council approves cuts

http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/70344352.html

Chamber proposes jobless fund solutions (Vermont)

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20091122/BUSINESS/911229994/1006/BUSINESS

Paterson: Layoffs loom if state’s deficit isn’t reduced (New York)

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/reduced-1268650-layoffs-enjoyed.html

Change public employee pensions

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091122/OPINION/911220327/1260/NEWS04

First Coast will see its share of aging Baby Boomers (Florida)

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-11-22/story/first_coast_will_see_its_share_of_aging_baby_boomers
County board scrambling to fix budget (Monroe)

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091120/NEWS01/711209983/-1/NEWS

West Virginia governor to approve pension rescue, new bonds

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5AJ3S120091120

Proposed Redding ballot measure an effort to stave off escalating pension costs

http://www.redding.com/news/2009/nov/22/proposed-redding-ballot-measure-an-effort-to-off/

Revamping Public Pensions: System isn’t sustainable

http://www.modbee.com/editorials/story/943508.html

Oregon board juggles ways to lessen retirement costs

A) Minnesota’s unemployment insurance fund remains in a deficit

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/11/19/unemployment-insurance-fund/

B) Mass. Unemployment Fund Running Out Of Money

http://www.wbur.org/2009/11/20/unemployment-trust-fund

C) Georgia unemployment fund is tapped out

http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2009-11-22/story/georgia_unemployment_fund_is_tapped_out

D) High unemployment depletes fund (Florida)

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/state/1118-unemployment-tax

E) Gov. Phil Bredesen says another tax hike to shore up Tennessee’s unemployment trust fund appears unavoidable.

http://www.whnt.com/news/sns-ap-tn—unemploymentfund,0,604969.story

F) Montana

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20091119/BUSINESS/911190305/Employers+face+jump+in+jobless+insurance+cost

22) GRAND RAPIDS OPINION
http://www.mlive.com/opinion/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/11/dissent_citys_fiscal_crisis_mu.html

ACDC Highway To Hell Lyrics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DixnDjsEta0

[FromLori]

ping not my post but a lot of info in here

[Nateman]

China learned from Hong Kong that freedom works. Zero is clueless.

[sten]

why so serious?

[wafflehouse]

A peek into the darkness

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

[Yardstick]

His speechwriters are as prone to the absurd as their boss.

---

Isn’t his speech writer 25 years old or something?

[EDINVA]

I am getting so sick of this clown going around the world praising his host country’s accomplishments while apologizing for the U.S. What, really, is wrong with him? But, more important, what’s wrong with the American people who continue to give him high personal (if not job performance) ratings?

[roadcat]

Try post WWII South Korea or Germany.

Yes! Also Germany after WWI - quickly bouncing back after a devastating loss where their people had lost hope, unfortunately following a leader promising hope and change. Unlike our current leader Germany had a leader with a plan. Our leader is taking us to the fastest economic ruin in human history.

[Sherman Logan]

SK fair enough. Although considerable outside investment from US and Japan provided assistance. China has more or less bootstrapped itself, as Japan did in the 19th.

Germany was already a modern economy, with all the education and attitudes that implies. All they had to do was replace Stuff, which the Marshall Plan helped with.

Building a modern industrial economy from the base of a peasant society is a whole lot more difficult.

I didn’t say the guy’s comments were accurate, only that they could be argued. They weren’t utterly ridiculous as the author implies.

[Sherman Logan]

I’ve never said China is a great place to live and work.

But their economic performance since they largely threw the command/control model overboard has been amazing.

Which proves that market economies work effectively under even conditions of political unfreedom and extreme cronyism.

Why we are in the process of throwing all that away ourselves because of one or two bad years is beyond me.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I would kind of give the invention of fire priority over the Chinese economy.

[Sherman Logan]

LOL

[Vermont Lt]

And there is that whole wheel thing. That was pretty popular.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Maybe the invention of tools?

[Sherman Logan]

I think Obama was pretty clearly talking about Chinese economic performance relative to that of other countries. He wasn’t claiming it was the greatest accomplishment of any type in all history.

If he were, invention of language should certainly be in the running.

[Sherman Logan]

I think Obama was pretty clearly talking about Chinese economic performance relative to that of other countries. He wasn’t claiming it was the greatest accomplishment of any type in all history.

If he were, invention of language should certainly be in the running.

[Vermont Lt]

Way too broad. Perhaps the stone hammer? Or the bow?

This could go on forever.

I guess thats why its better to just take Obama at his word and go back to work.