Posted on 06/17/2010 7:44:44 PM PDT by ancientart
According to the First Law of Cartoon Physics, “when a body is suspended in air it will remain suspended until it becomes aware of its situation.” (See William Geoffrey Shotts at gshotts.com.) I would add as a corollary that, a few seconds after the body in question notices that it has run clear off a cliff, it will begin to fall. Wile E. Coyote demonstrated this numerous times in his campaigns against the Road Runner.
My high school physics teacher hated cartoons precisely because they taught so many wrong lessons about the physical world. He was right of course. Nonetheless, cartoon physics describes the political world pretty accurately. The Obama administration has managed a feat beyond the imagination of Mr. Coyote. It has run over the edge of several different precipices at the same time. So far it has managed to remain suspended by resolutely refusing to look down.
Consider the administration's economic policy. When Obama took office the world was falling into a severe economic crisis. His response was to push a $700 billion stimulus package through Congress. Whether government spending can stimulate real economic growth is a debatable point, but this legislation went chiefly to protect government jobs against the effects of the recession. All that did was to make sure that millions of government employees don't have to look down, just yet.
The recent jobs report suggests that there is no ground under the feet of this policy. A total of 431,000 jobs were created in May, but 411,000 of those were temporary census jobs. Government jobs have to be paid for out of the proceeds of the private sector. The private economy created less than half the jobs necessary to absorb natural growth in the labor force. When it come to employment, that's what running off a cliff looks like.
ObamaCare is another mad dash off yet another edge. The bill arranged for new revenue to kick in years before full benefits were paid out. That had no purpose other than to conceal the true costs of the bill. Even with the fraudulent scheduling, the Congressional Budget Office has revised the cost of the bill over the first 10 years to more than a trillion dollars. It gets better. The administration promised that it could cut hundreds of billions in wasteful health care spending while actually improving health care delivery. But that was based on a single Dartmouth study. The New York Times reports that the study fails to support either half of that promise. Now they tell us.
The Democrats think that we just aren't running fast enough. The congressional leadership is pushing through an energy bill that will increase the costs of everything produced with energy, which is everything produced. That means more money siphoned out of the private sector and into the hands of government, which is less money for hiring, investing and otherwise generating economic growth.
In the wake of the oil spill, the president announced a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. That decision, the administration claimed, was supported by a report produced by 15 experts. Only it wasn't. After the scientists signed the report, the administration added language recommending its moratorium. That's cooking the books. Worse, it is likely to have a devastating effect on a regional economy already in shock and is likely to increase the risk of another oil spill. Idle floating rigs or rigs moved to other places where oil can legally be pumped are scarcely safer than operating rigs.
Wile E. Obama, super genius, has mastered the first law of cartoon physics. He can run off the lip of a canyon and remain blissfully suspended. For a while. It's tempting to be entertained by that, especially with elections months away. Unfortunately, he is carrying the American economy with him. We are about to notice that there is nothing under our feet but air.
Kenneth C. Blanchard Jr. is a professor of political science at Northern State University. His columns appears occasionally in the American News. Write to him at the American News, P.O. Box 4430, Aberdeen, S.D., 57402, or e-mail americannews@aberdeennews.com. The views presented are those of the author and do not represent those of Northern State University.
bookmark to read later.
Yeah it makes a great mental image, as long as he doesn’t take our country with him....
the fraud
and with an Acme Umbrella failure!
Perfect
It did? Then Americans in general are even more stupid than merely-deluded Obama voters. The whole point of the humor on these cartoons is that they do not reflect real physical experience, only the denial of perception -- soon to be brought up really short on the extremely hard anvil of reality.
The comment by Jay after the article? He must be a super human to continue to imbibe unimaginable amounts of Obama koolaid. It is not without side effects as he is nearly unconscious and obviously blind.
This is great writing!
And, of course, deadly accurate.
Typical professor or Johnny come lately...doesn’t see that it’s on purpose, and doesn’t see that it’s nefarious. Duh.
The treachery is that it will be too late unless folks get a backbone to say that this president IS doing it on purpose and to not let his black skin scare them from saying it. Why do you think the Center for American Progress picked this Manchurian Candidate? Because they knew folks would be hard pressed to criticize because they’d be called racist.
Me too!
“Then Americans in general were even more stupid...” Read the story again. At least back then in high school they taught physics.
and is taking us with him...........
No time frame given. In my day, even after many of these cartoons were produced, we were still taught real physics. What’s your time frame?
Here’s hoping they’ve got the wind at their back and wet, slippery clay beneath their feet.
If the goal was to tear up a maximum number of roads in the country, then my wife and I can attest that it is a great success. We are just completing a U.S. tour by car and the number of highway projects underway is astounding. It almost seemed that the bigger the city, the greater the disruption.
OLD MAN AND AN ARROGANT YOUNG GUNSLINGER
(Been around before - but still enjoyable and think of this young gunslinger as today's cocky democrat)
Cheers!
I just hope the entire administration runs off the cliff. No stragglers.
“So far it has managed to remain suspended by resolutely refusing to look down.”
True dat!
Nicely done.
The missing element is the MSM, which has been holding him up, and is apparently in the process of cutting the strings.
Very good article. Blanchard. I wonder if he’s from South Louisiana. That’s a common name down there.
Thanks for posting.
Okay, I took a pain pill last night and I’m still really groggy; however, shouldn’t that be Roadrunner in that cartoon and not Bugs Bunny? LOL.
IIRC this screenshot is from To Hare is Human...
Cheers!
IIRC this screenshot is from To Hare is Human...
Cheers!
I hope it is a very, very long fall......
>If the goal was to tear up a maximum number of roads in the country, then my wife and I can attest that it is a great success. We are just completing a U.S. tour by car and the number of highway projects underway is astounding. It almost seemed that the bigger the city, the greater the disruption.
Quite intriguing. The “right to travel” that is implied the Constitution may be under attack here. Like CS Lewis’s observation that the tyrant who believes he is “doing the right thing” does so with the approval of his conscience and with a nigh insatiable drive (i.e. delusion + “righteous quest”) shows a twisted view, as well as Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” I would not be surprised if the goal here is to constrict movement of the people while being “an improvement of the roads to improve traffic.”
If you add these “aggressive road repairs” to the proposed “internet ‘kill switch’” you see that this could be the set-up for shutting off inter-regional (read intercounty, interstate, and international) communication... something that could give him the upper edge (like the element of surprise) in a conflict against the American people. All that is needed is a spark.
Professor Blanchard is originally from Jonesboro, Arkansas. He’s been teaching is South Dakota for more than 20 years after doing graduate work in California. He is one of the major contributors to the South Dakota Politics blog:
http://southdakotapolitics.blogs.com/south_dakota_politics/
He comments on more than South Dakota politics. Great professor with a great sense of humor.
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