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OPINION

Comments about Mao taken out of context

Thursday, November 12, 2009
(Updated 3:05 am)

I love it when Republicans step in it. I’m referring to the letters about President Obama’s staff and their endorsement of Mao. Untrue. If you want to know exactly what Anita Dunn and Ron Bloom had to say, go to YouTube and hear it in their own words. (Robert Simpson and Phyllis Lambeth have been watching Fox News way too much.) Then, like Glenn Beck, you, too, can take their comments out of context. Plus, you must keep in mind that these two czars are without authority over anyone or anything. They are simply advisers to the president. Dunn also praised Mother Teresa. I suppose she’s also a communist. I am certainly glad that the chairman of the Alamance County Republican Party doesn’t have any authority either, only the ability to promote more hate. These folks that make things up about the president need to just shut up.

Bob Carter
Greensboro

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lilbean

November 12, 2009 - 3:18 am EST

" please keep in mind that these two czars are without authority over anyone or anything"
they are also not accountable to anyone or anything. mr. carter may be comfortable with communist having free reign in the whitehouse, i am not. and make no mistake mr. carter, they are communist. funny thing about communism, no middle class. there's the political elite, and then there's the rest. its really starting to get interesting, hope your paying attention.

J D R

November 12, 2009 - 4:09 am EST

Personally I think this "fear" of Communism is both excessive and mindless.

... as for the Middle Class, I have watched it being disappeared by the past 40 years of excessive capitalism.

Sawdust

November 12, 2009 - 9:26 am EST

I think that is a foolish belief. I think we have it made today, more so than any other country at any point in history. We don't have to carry the laundry down to the creek on laundry day, even thought those who settled the country did just that at one time. Large portions of the world's population do so still, and some have to strip down because they're wearing the only clothing they own. I throw mine in the machine until it's full, then turn it on and go back to whatever I was doing.

People don't starve to death in this country, just doesn't happen. They're dropping like flies in some parts of the world, if they don't get shot by warring tribes first. If I get hungry I can fix a sandwich, cook a full meal and have some friends over, or go to a restaurant. That's what capitalism did for me. That and a lot more, from transportation to communication to a place to live. Sorry it hasn't treated you so well. Want a donation?

J D R

November 12, 2009 - 10:11 am EST

No one is denying that capitalism has not served us well, Sawdust, but look at the growing underclass .. most of those people - typically the highschool goof-offs or those without disciplining parents - would have had a furniture or textile factory to work at for life at for a moderate wage .. those opportunites are gone.

Sawdust

November 12, 2009 - 11:45 am EST

Well, those folks might, just might, maybe, as a last resort, consider staying in school and becoming qualified to do something besides running a loom in a cotton mill. Just sayin'. They might consider not bringing any children into the world until they are married and can afford to raise them, in that order. They might consider avoiding trouble with the law, as that does tend to limit one's desirability as an employee. That would apparently never occur to you or any other Obamaroids. No, the Great One will take care of your every need. Not from his own pocket, of course.

As far as I can see, the "growing underclass" is mostly a by-product of the vaunted "War on Poverty", which replaced the father with a gummint check. I recommend Ann Coulter's "Guilty", especially the chapter on children growing up without a father in the home, and all the societal ills caused by it. A real eye-opener. The welfare mentality is self-sustaining.

J D R

November 12, 2009 - 12:16 pm EST

There certainly is some validity to the War on Poverty adding to the troubles you list ... but that war stopped being waged in the early 1970's (Nixon signed the last new entitlement program until Bush signed Med part "D") .. and "welfare as you like to criticize" ended in 1996 when Clinton signed the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 which dropped enrollment by 60%.

There are still some left-over programs, WIC and Food Stamps for example, but I think mostly you're kicking a dead horse.

Sawdust

November 12, 2009 - 3:30 pm EST

But the lingering effects are still with us, and will be for the rest of my life. Self-sustaining, like I said.

J D R

November 12, 2009 - 4:41 pm EST

... but spreading lies and half truths and simply saying stuff that does not advance the discussion will only self-sustain piles of crap.

Sawdust

November 12, 2009 - 6:23 pm EST

I'm just trying to point out the most serious and longest lasting effect of the WOP, what is commonly known as the "welfare mentality", or "victim mentality". There are families, we can quibble about numbers, but there are some families who grew up with the idea that they are owed something just by virtue of their presence in this country. These families tend to have higher rates of illegitimacy than the national average, which in turn leads to a higher crime rate, the inevitable consequence of replacing the father with a government check. A never-ending cycle.

Women have, and have always had, a civilizing effect on men. Before she gave the man what he wanted, which was always sex, he had to prove to her that he was a responsible adult, worthy of her time and affection. Young men had to, quite simply, grow up. When the gummint became "who da baby's Daddy is?", at least financially, young men no longer had to grow up to get what they want. And that little bit of history is going to be with us for a long time. We have children in men's bodies, Crips and Bloods. All you have to do is look around. There are streets in Greensboro down which you would not want to walk, daylight or dark. If the folks populating those neighborhoods bothered to vote, for which candidate did they vote? Self-sustaining, like I said. For a long, long time.

J D R

November 12, 2009 - 7:22 pm EST

I do not wholesale disagree .. and will respond later when I have more time.

dcolin

November 12, 2009 - 3:00 pm EST

Bull Shit

Sawdust

November 12, 2009 - 3:31 pm EST

Another well-reasoned and insightful comment by an Obamaroid. Thanks for your contribution. Now go out and play in the traffic.

J D R

November 12, 2009 - 3:43 pm EST

I agree with Sawdust, Colin.

Surely you can express yourself more clearly.

dcolin

November 12, 2009 - 5:28 pm EST

More Clearly,

Surely you jest.
No?

J D R

November 12, 2009 - 7:20 pm EST

You're correct .. I should have said, to use the corporate phrase, With More Purpose.

lilbean

November 12, 2009 - 6:03 pm EST

"growing underclass". why is it growing jdr? take a look at havana. your future is their history.

dcolin

November 12, 2009 - 6:04 pm EST

"People don't starve to death in this country, just doesn't happen."

True enough.

Either do the:
Dutch
British
French
Germans
Swedes
Danes
Norwegians
Finns
Greeks
Italians
Swiss
Irish
Israelites
Cubans
Australians
Japanese
Dutch
Belgians
Austrians
Should I stop.

They all have some form of govt supported ( evil socialized ) health care also.

Sawdust

November 12, 2009 - 7:25 pm EST

What does that have to do with the price of beans?

dcolin

November 12, 2009 - 8:56 pm EST

Absolutely,

My point exactly.
Go back and read what you said.

Now don't get nasty.

I am trying to be civilized.

ravencottage

November 12, 2009 - 6:00 am EST

Since actions always speak louder than words there is no need to make anything up about the President.

Sawdust

November 12, 2009 - 9:31 am EST

Why would anyone be the least bit surprised that Obama would surround himself with socialists, communists, and Marxists? He has made no secret of the fact that they are the type he has always gravitated toward. He believes in the economic theory of spreading wealth around, by whatever name you call it. The surprise would have been if he had surrounded himself with people who love freedom, praise freedom, do everything they can to promote liberty. You don't hear much of that kind of talk from the Obama administration.

dcolin

November 12, 2009 - 3:03 pm EST

"socialists, communists, and Marxists?"

Besides being redundant.

I thought many were ex wall street bankers?

Enlighten me

neocon

November 12, 2009 - 6:20 am EST

"If you want to know exactly what Anita Dunn and Ron Bloom had to say, go to YouTube and hear it in their own words"

I have...several times. Dunn praises Mao as one of the two people she 'turns to most' for inspiration. It's not 1970 anymore. There are other media outlets beside NBC and NPR. Sucks for you Obama apologists, huh?

rcarter

November 12, 2009 - 8:12 am EST

neocon: Have you ever heard of "irony"? Look it up. Your boy Newt has also quoted Mao in the past. He has to be a communist, right?

J D R

November 12, 2009 - 9:13 am EST

Santa Claus wears a red suit ... must be a Communist
.. has long hair and a beard ... must be a Pacifist
What's in the pipe that he's smoking?

neocon

November 12, 2009 - 9:24 am EST

There is absolutely no hint of Anita Dunn being ironic in her praise of Mao. That dog won't hunt.

This is what we get when the communist sympathizers Zero has surrounded Himself with forgets there is a camera and mike present...they let their true feelings slip out. And instead of admitting their fondness for communist dictators, their apologists rush in with excuses like 'they were being 'ironic'.

neocon

November 12, 2009 - 9:25 am EST

BTW, Newt is not my boy. He's far too liberal for my taste.

dcolin

November 12, 2009 - 2:53 pm EST

Bull Shit

neocon

November 12, 2009 - 5:58 pm EST

No, REALLY!...Newt is a liberal!

brian444

November 12, 2009 - 1:07 pm EST

Actually, I know a lot about irony. Its application here fails in either case to compromise the consonance between czars and commies. (There's irony for ya!)

Dunn is, as neo says, simply unironical: her admiration for Mao is straightforward, if selective. Bloom's "irony" is best classified as what Wayne Booth calls, in A Rhetoric of Irony, "unstable irony" wherein irony's normative function in clearly inverting meaning (as in saying today, "great weather," when the opposite is meant) fails to operate. In unstable irony, the presence of destabilizing linquistic cues (Bloom's set-up on "we get the joke") leaves the subsequent speech perspectivally ungrounded: we don't know where the speaker is "coming from," and thus lack a clear sense of the meaning he is communicating. As best I can determination, Bloom is crediting Mao with a clear insight (that political power grows out of a barrel of a gun) that we might like to ignore. But it's hard to say. In no way, however, is irony used to overturn the truth-value of Mao's claim.

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