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BARACK & THE OSCARS

Posted by dwlievert 9 years, 1 month ago to Government
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Recent dialogue surrounding our President has begun to include whether or not he is a "patriot." There has now arisen the questioning of where his loyalties lie - i.e., what are his true values when it comes to America and her "ideals."

One of Aristotle's insightful remarks was relevant in this regard, He postulated, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

Aristotle's observation serves to remind us that one's actual values are represented by, whatever protestations or professions might be claimed to the contrary, what one actually does as opposed to what they might say. What our President consistently does is obvious. What he says however, is tirelessly peculiar.

It is clear from past associations and behavior, what little of them to which we have become privy, our current President has brought to American politics a unique perspective - not just the obvious one for which the media is so incessant to remind us. I would term it a perspective of western values in general - and America's in particular, brought to us from one of its victims - one of the endless "Subjects" of western colonialism.

Of course his close associations with Reverend Wright, the Ayers, and Sharpton aside, his compelling rhetoric, at least on the surface, is sufficiently incoherent that one can only circumstantially infer such things - particularly when you actually try to listen and understand him.

Our President reminds me not just of Aristotle's timeless observation, but of another observation, one that at least in its brief history, seems to be describing something that is potentially equally timeless. It is called the Dunning-Kruger effect, in honor of its two Cornell University psychology professors, Dr. David Dunning and Dr. Justin Kruger.

Broadly speaking, the Dunning-Kruger Effect is defined as "a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than is accurate. This bias is attributed to a meta-cognitive inability to recognize their [own] ineptitude."

Two examples of this psychological affliction that I found cited on the internet was, "If I was just intelligent, I'd be okay. But I am fiercely intelligent, which most people find very threatening." - Actress Sharon Stone. And, "People the world over recognize me as a great spiritual leader." - Actor Steven Seagal.

Now I won't deny that I am a fan of the "early" Segal and Stone is certainly a fine actress. But seriously, "fiercely?" "Leader?"

That our President has firmly established himself as our chief narcissist is no longer in dispute. However, his recent rationalizations, which some are calling unpatriotic, surrounding the on-going 1200+ years of madness in Chaostan (Richard “Uncle Eric” Maybury’s term for the area stretching N/S from the Arctic to Indian Oceans and E/W from Eastern Europe to the Pacific) represents my final psychological “straw.” I cannot turn on the TV without a now ever-present fear that I will see and hear his incoherence.

However, I will have said TV "ON" tonight. It is "Oscar Night." The parade of left-leaning pretentiousness on display will be especially instructive tonight because of one of the movies nominated. I look forward to how American Sniper and its creative ensemble, led by Clint, will be “handled.”

In any case I wish to offer a new category for nominations. It would be along the lines of “best self-delusion by a highly-acclaimed star who never possessed an original thought in their life.”

And the Oscar goes to………….


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  • Posted by RonC 9 years, 1 month ago
    I make it a point to stop and think. Then judge a person or situation by what they do, not what they say. Language is, in great part, "social lubricant". People use it to slide by the tight spots in life. It's used to rally the masses around their great leader. Language can be art on the printed page, but it can also be the smoke and mirrors politicians manipulate and hide behind.

    Actions, on the other hand, are hard to spin. In my view inaction is also hard to spin. I built my 5 year plan at the time Obama and his minions crushed Joe the plumber. As a retired marshal artist I know the adversary protects their weakness and attack what threatens them. By saying "It sounds like socialism to me!" Joe was a threat.

    Looking deeper at his actions regarding energy, industry, race relations, taxation, terrorism, Islamic radicalism, etc.; he is simply a community organizer with a list of grievances, with no solutions, and no leadership skills except whining and bitching about what's wrong and waiting for someone else to take the lead. Remember, the pioneer (leader) gets all the arrows.

    He is a socialist, probably not of the Marx stripe but certainly of the western European redistributionist stripe. His business plan offers no means by which to restart and rehire the people now falling off the employment table. They don't count statistically, so they are of no concern. IMHO if your business plan calls for everyone to settle for what government can provide, which is less that we can create, then you have a lousy plan. American upward mobility is based on "MORE". I'm not interested in less. Or in another way, once you have tasted cream, skimmed milk has little to offer.

    Still, there are many people that would elect him for a third term if they could. It seems a nice turn of phrase and a reasonably good "Al Greene" are enough to sway the masses.

    I remember in High School POD class discussing the concept of power vacuum and who would replace the missing leaders. Then the conversation was about getting rid of Khrushchev. The theory was at least we know him and what to expect. Did our elected leader never finish high school?
    Something else we will never know, I guess.

    Still, by his actions, we have elected the sorriest President, certainly of my lifetime. And, we elected him twice.

    America is begging to be mooched.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 9 years, 1 month ago
    The Oscar goes to most of those winning the real Oscars that night.

    Every year during Oscar season, I have this recurring dream. I would love to see those statuettes, which actually are Crusader knights, suddenly self-animate, raise their broadswords, and chase those monkey suited ne'er-do-wells off the stage.
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  • Posted by RonC 9 years, 1 month ago
    Regarding Clint. He is authentic, and that's why they hate him. He produces films about topics he has a personal interest in these days. No market survey or PC. Sad to see they only got 1, for best sound. Oh, did anyone mention the box office receipts? Clint knows what the people like.
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  • Posted by samrigel 9 years, 1 month ago
    Oscars? Worship of the non existent fantasy world. Movies are simply books with movement. Some are good & some are bad. As for our, for lack of a better term, Narcissist-in-Chief Obama he governs the world he wants while living in the real world which totally screws up everything.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 1 month ago
    I believe that professional front men (inc politicians) lie with deeds on a routine basis. This is required in order to present an acceptable facade. The most common faux-deed is 'going to church on Sunday'. Whether or not you believe in a religion, you must profess to. Also, you must have a 'picture book family', complete with bright-eyed children neatly dresses. The lure of power is sufficient to produce this family.

    The most common failure of facade is 'the ability to keep your pants zipped' when attractive moth-women circle around your power nexus.

    It takes more effort to lie with deeds than with words, but I see it all around.

    Jan
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  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 1 month ago
    RE: Oscars
    Movies are an art form that combines several art forms. Literature, music, photography, to mention a few. Most movies are produced by left-leaning people and that's too bad. In addition there are perhaps one out of ten of them that are first-rate. But let's not be snobs. It's primarily entertainment and nothing more.While some films teach, educate and inspire, we can almost always tell crap by the title, or especially by the trailers. It is noteworthy that the only film to have a strong moral theme, American Sniper, was, while nominated in the major categories, went hardly noticed at the awards, which might tell you something about Hollywood politics.
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  • Posted by JoleneMartens1982 9 years, 1 month ago
    I say Kevin Bacon, if he had any thoughts of his own, it was provoked by one of the hundreds maybe even 1000s of characters he's played. I don't think he's ever turned down a script.
    However, I read in an article once that Keanu Reeves is one of the least prima donnas of the acting community, having lost a wife and child to a car accident, he wonders the world often giving all of his possessions away, and just living a meager existence. I don't know if there is any truth to that, but it strikes curiosity.
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  • Posted by $ puzzlelady 9 years, 1 month ago
    The Oscars? Just a selling scheme to assure the people's continued addiction to films, through which they can be milked. As for that art form, every film maker has an ideological agenda to inculcate cultural values and condition the populace to adopt those values.

    All the anti-heroes, "action thrillers" and gory movie violence that have escalated over the last few decades were just the leavening agent for our conscienceless acceptance of perpetual war and its accompanying gruesomenesses.

    As for Obama, I don't for a minute credit him with any original, personal agenda. He takes his marching orders from his puppetmasters. But he is a master of pragmatic posturing. Perhaps he should get the best-actor award.
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  • Posted by scojohnson 9 years, 1 month ago
    I'm the type of person that generally believes people will do the right thing if given the opportunity, but with BO, regrettably, I think I agree with most of the substance of the recent talk.

    Here's my points:

    1.) He acts like he's part of the 'downtrodden'. But he was raised by a white mother and white grandparents in Hawaii... hardly the disenfranchised urban black youth he likes to think he is with Travon Martin "looking like the son he never had, etc.". It's pandering, nothing more. Is that bad for a career politician? Probably not, he is the POTUS after all. I don't agree with his policies, but his methods of getting there are difficult to argue with in terms of effectiveness. He left Hillary crying on a curb in New Hampshire (and for that I was actually a little happy at the time).

    2.) He went to Harvard Law School and was a legal professor for Chicago University... again... hardly disenfranchised. If anything, he's the poster child for opportunity despite your skin color.

    3.) Do I think he's a traitor? No, I'm sure he loves America in his own way. However he is probably living a bit torn between the communist/socialist/Muslim family of his father, and the ultra-left-wing radical nut his mom seems like she was (albeit American). His mother was an agitator though and he could easily have absorbed some hate of his country from his upbringing.

    4.) If anything, he's behavior reminds me of the book "The Ugly American" I was forced to read in high school. He is the youngest of presidents though, and more affected by the liberalization of public schools than previous ones. We may see more of this. These days they teach the evil of America as seen through the eyes of poor countries trying to trade bananas for iPhones and conquered peoples as if colonialism never existed before America. Europe in particular likes to take a holier-than-thou approach, and the youngsters slurp that up... but take a walk through the Muslim ghettos of France or Germany or try to get a Greek or an Italian to work more than 4 hours a day.

    Do I feel sorry for the downtrodden around the world? not really, they all choose to live the life they have. The winners of those societies, unfortunately, do everything they can to come to America... so if they had a George Washington, he or she is probably already American... this is definitely the case for Mexico. Anyone that would otherwise stand up against the cartels and the corrupt government took the easy route and swam across the river and started a business or something.
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    • Posted by sumitch 9 years, 1 month ago
      Not to be argumentative, but I do think he's a traitor to this nation. I also think that the people that voted for him the second time who had the chance to see what he really is are also traitors.

      His violations of our constitution and his by passing our congress more than prove he has no respect for our laws. Also, I’m pretty sure he was rated as a guest speaker, not a professor, regardless of the lie he tells.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 1 month ago
    Why not? He's been acting all his life. Someone else wrote the scripts. Pelosylinni likewise except she writes her own scripts. No intellect there. If my name were P.T. Barnum I'd take credit for the both of them.
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