January 2012
25 posts
Why did Obama criticize personal ambition in his State of the Union speech?
Sometimes the questions from Quora can be downright strange. The quote the asker is referring to:
“These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.”
This one’s easy. When you are trying to indoctrinate people into becoming part of the socialist proletariat, you have to be careful with your words? Oh wait, Ayn Rand called and wants her insane philosophy back.
If I say you are consumed with eating pie, that does not mean I’m anti-pie, it means you are eating too much pie. It means you are hurting your health and ignoring your family for the glory of Banana Cream. Gluttony in any form is bad for you, no matter how delicious it is.
Personal ambition, like all good things, must be used in moderation.
See There Will Be Blood or 1997-2006 United States Housing Bubble or Napoleon Bonaparte or McCarthyism or Watergate to realize why all consuming personal ambition can be a detriment.
Also look at Martin Luther King, Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi or Winston Churchill or Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Entrepreneurship or Conscious Capitalism or Free Marketsto see how it can be a good thing.
(Not that any of those people or concepts could or should be compared to each other individually, other than to say they all were outcomes of great personal ambition.)
He wasn’t criticizing personal ambition, he was simply stating that one of the things that makes America great is our ability to work together to make things better. This isn’t some subtle promotion of socialism, it’s a way of talking about how awesome things can be accomplished when people team up for a greater purpose. (See Amish barns, Community Service, The Moon Landing, WWII, Democracy, Etc…)
No man is an island. If anything, it was a subtle dig at the banking industry who put self interest ahead of the entire economy. That’s a stretch though.
Personal ambition is great, and you can get really far with it, but $20 says no matter how far you go on your own, there were people along the way who helped.
He wasn’t busting out his communist flag.
He was praising the shared sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.
He’s not a cartoon villain out to destroy America, and the sooner you get that, the more reasonable the discourse can be.
Could Newt Beat Obama?
Sure. Hypothetically, say Obama hires some burglars to break into GOP HQ and steal some things, then covers it up, has an affair in the Oval Office, and then eats a baby on live television. Newt then has a shot against an incumbent president who is a proven monster campaigner.
However, barring that, too many people really, really hate Newt. He’s great for the base, but he’ll get murdered in the general, where he’s a household name, and a name that a majority of Americans have already made a decision about. Check out this fun chart from Talking Points Memo.
OVER HALF THE COUNTRY has negative feelings about him.
He has nowhere to go but down. While he and his PACs can assist in making more of America dislike Obama, Newt can’t make them stop not liking him. If Obama is under the 50% positive threshold, it only works if America hasn’t already made up their mind about the other candidate.
Newt has a laundry list of things that make him vulnerable.
- Newt left two wives when they were REALLY ill, to be with his mistresses.
- Newt received massive amounts of money lobbying for institutions he attacks on a daily basis.
- Newt has a $500,000 credit account at Tiffany’s.
- Newt is a angry, angry man.
- Newt is out of touch with Independent voters, pushing hard right on issues that they don’t like. They just want results and jobs, something he has no real solutions for.
- Newt says he’s an outsider, but he used to be the ultimate insider. The 527s, PACs, Obama will have a field day with his history of insider baseball.
- Most importantly, Newt didn’t kill Osama Bin Laden.
Who would you trust if you were an independent? The guy who left 2 wives at the for worse part of their vows? Or the guy who killed Osama Bin Laden, who has a lovely family and has been married to the same person forever?
He is my favorite candidate for all those reasons. Mitt Romney is somewhat inoffensive and harmless, the GOP John Kerry, so he doesn’t nurture the pure unadulterated visceral disdain and hate that Newt will bring to the table.
Newt, you complete me. Keep on truckin in Florida!
If Newt Gingrich wins the GOP primary, can he beat President Obama in the general election?
What are the best jokes about the Wikipedia SOPA blackout?
J███ Wales, a █████, █ Bishop and a ███ █████ walk ██ █ ███ ██ █████ then ██████████ and █████ is all ███, so the █████ kicks ██████ and all the citizens █████████████ in a ███ of █████. The MPAA is a bunch of ███████████████ Dodd █████ ████████ lickers. Your internet ███ ██ █████, how can the Leprechaun check █████?
I ███ the terrorists just ███, guess ███ ██ goat █████ █████ porn █████ █████ ever again!
Tweet ██ █████ █████ers.
What are the best jokes about the Wikipedia SOPA blackout?
Do most people have a fear of setting foot in the American South?
The only reason I fear the south is that my inlaws live there. I kid.
The South is not Deliverance, just as The East is not The Warriors, nor is the Midwest Deadwood, nor is the West Boyz in da Hood.
New York is not a Woody Allen movie, and LA is not a Steve Martin movie.
Are there people who suck in the South? Yes. Yes there are. However, if you are looking for puritanical intolerance, you are also welcome to stop by sunny Colorado Springs, CO, home of Focus on the Family. Every state in the union has people who suck, however the key is to just hang out with the people who don’t.
Are there areas of Alabama that are culturally backwards? Yes. They also have have http://www.spacecamp.com/ and one of the formost centers of Space Science in the world.
Does Mississippi reek of intolerance? Sure, in some places. They too have deep ties to NASA and a large scientific community.
South Carolina created Stephen Colbert, the next president of the United States.
Louisiana has one of the most epically fun cities in the entire world, New Orleans.
There are hot beds of xenophobia and intolerance all over our great land. If you look at the Southern Poverty Law Center hate map, you’ll find the state with the most hate groups is California.
If you compare that to census data, something becomes more apparent.
Hate Groups per Capita
The redder the state, the more hate groups per person there are, the bluer the state the fewer hate groups there are. Alaska and Hawaii have 0, so they aren’t included in the tally. Kansas has Westboro Baptist Church, so they should be redder.
SPLC also has a stand against hate map that shows specifically where all the hate groups are. The green areas are the level of commitment from local areas to stand against hate, the red dots are hate group locations.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-inv…
So if you are that worried, I’d avoid 3/4s of the United States.
Do most people have a fear of setting foot in the American South?
Hey, Moms & Dads, PIPA Will Hinder Your Ability To Parent →
google.com
SOPA may be off the table in Congress for now, but PIPA is still a threat to your free speech and your ability to protect your children. Here’s a bit from my last post about these harmful bills…
Think this doesn’t apply to moms and dads or that “censorship” just fights terrorism and porn? Think again. Imagine a product or a service causes your child harm and you want to warn other parents on your site or rally others to your cause. Now, imagine not being able to do so. And that’s just one scenario in which parents need absolute freedom to say and write what they want.
How can this happen? From Wikipedia…
Policy analysts for New America Foundation say this legislation would enable law enforcement to take down an entire domain due to something posted on a single blog: “Yes, an entire, largely innocent online community could be punished for the actions of a tiny minority.”
And to be clear, corporations would be the ones pulling the trigger. For example, maybe some kid in Oklahoma makes a Harry Potter gif for his Tumblr blog and Warner Bros. claims that’s an illegal use of their property, the studio can have all of Tumblr shut down.
If you’re anything like me, you depend on the online parenting community for information. And I understand the motivation behind the bill, but this is the wrong way to handle it. As the day goes on, more and more in Congress are understanding that and withdrawing their support.
Make your voice heard by signing the petition at Google or risk having that voice taken away. Without irony or humor I’ll add that you should do it for your children. Because if you don’t protect their rights, no one will.
“When the public’s right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.”
—MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd, back when he cared about that kind of thing.
SOPA Fight!
- Chris Dodd - Paid by MPAA: [the SOPA blackout protest] is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests. A so-called “blackout” is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals.
- Chris Dodd - Paid by Taxpayers: When the public's right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.
Are there going to be any deaths as a result of Wikipedia going dark for 24 hours on January 18th, 2012?
If you are going to wikipedia for a medical emergency, you are doing it wrong.
Instead, pick up the 20th century creation, “telephone”, then press the numbers 9-1-1 (9-9-9 in some countries), then speak to the nice helpful people on the other end of the line. Follow their instructions.
If you don’t have a phone, you probably don’t have access to the internet anyways. If you are part of the .00001% who has internet, no access to phones, and use wikipedia in emergency situations, an alternative is WebMD.
After you go there, and self diagnose and fix your emergency, please go here and use their services as well.
Are there going to be any deaths as a result of Wikipedia going dark for 24 hours on January 18th, 2012?
“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”
- The White House, responding this morning to a petition on SOPA and online piracy
But will you veto SOPA?
