"Teeth Make a Bad Filter for Lies" Part II

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In the Friday, March 19, post below, I said, "No matter how many times someone lies through their teeth, the lie is still a lie; teeth make a very bad filter."

I am not one to use the word "lie" casually. I have friends who use it more freely than I do. If someone says, "I'll be there at 7:00," and the person shows up at 7:02, they might call that a lie since the original statement ended up being untrue. I don't use the word lie that way. Doing so is inflammatory and, depending on the circumstances, it could either harm the relationship or heighten the burden of proof required to end it.

To me a lie must be either a deliberate falsehood or such a pathological pattern of reckless statements that it becomes clear the speaker only means what he/she says for a matter of minutes and has no remorse when his/her actions belie what was said. For instance, when someone says something to sway people (to win their vote or loyalty or affection or money) with no intention of actually doing what they say, that is a person who uses empty promises as a stratagem, that's a person who lies. Once it is clear that a person is in the habit of manipulating people with words, the "L" word applies.

· That's why in the post below, I call it a lie when 219 Democrat representatives promise that adding health care coverage to 30,000,000 people will save taxpayer money rather than spend money we don't have and drive the nation deeper in debt.
· I consider it a lie when they claim that savings will come from cuts they don't yet have the nerve to make or from prosecuted "fraud" that they have not yet bothered to expose and prosecute. (They did not need this bill to begin enforcing the law.)
· I call it a lie when they say this new policy will not affect the vast majority of Americans who currently have health care. Insurance is a "risk club" everybody pays into it knowing they will either get care or "peace of mind," but when a law changes the rules of the "risk club" it will indeed change either the cost or the benefits. The 75% of Americans who were happy with their coverage, will indeed be affected as explained in this column by Patrick McIlheran. [link added 3-25-10]
· Along with Joe Wilson, I call it a lie when we are told the new healthcare will not benefit unregistered illegal aliens (The statement is only true if Obama succeeds in registering all illegal aliens. Joe Wilson's outburst was based not on the word "unregistered" but on the fact that he knew currently illegal aliens, who pay no taxes or premiums, will indeed get this new entitlement program once they "register" to receive it.)

Tom, shouldn't you wait and see if the above promises are broken before you call them lies? Perhaps, but I'm basing my predictions on past patterns. Does this president casually make promises he does not keep? Does he say things to please crowds and then forget he said them? If that happens once, it could be called a mistake. When it happens deliberately again and again, I call it something else.

Listen to the clip below, and you decide.

Is it a lie when we are promised open proceedings and no "secret deals" when in fact the only way the ponzy health-sham bill passed was through secret deals for democrats and their thug allies like the SEIU? Is it a lie when candidate Obama promises we will give citizens FIVE DAYS to read any bill on his desk before he signs it, but then as president he signs the most partisan, underhanded bill in history the day after his henchmen hand it to him?

Why does that matter, Tom? Isn't that kind of a 7:00/7:02 distinction (to use the example from your opening paragraphs)?

No. This is a huge difference. As you listen to the opening line of his remarks on the Youtube clip below, he is talking about "sunshine being the best disinfectant." Had the kept the promise he makes a minute later, everything we are learning this week about the bill would have been exposed in the five days BEFORE he signed it into law on Saturday morning, but instead it was forced through in one weekend (the first weekend of March Madness) and then it was hastily signed into law and applicable to some businesses the next day . All of this happened BEFORE the media and voters could really study it and digest the insider pay-offs and "slick" timing of the way the bill postpones all of the tough decisions until after the 2012 election (when I hope a different president will attempt to repeal it). By then, reversing this disasterous entitlement will be like pushing toothpaste back in the tube-- with a toothpick! That is why the broken five-day promise matters.

So much for sunshine being the best disinfectant.

Listen to what he says at 1:10 mark. The crowd cheers; Obama nods sincerely; but he evidently had no intention of remembering the line once it swayed the crowd. What do you call that? I'll say it again: "No matter how many times someone lies through their teeth, the lie is still a lie; teeth make a very bad filter... even when the teeth are in an Obama smile or a Pelosi horse laugh."


At the end of the clip, he reassures his cheering fans that the openness of the process he promises will be so "...you can decide if your representatives are representing you." But two years later, he twisted the arms of a dozen or more reps to go against the will of their constituents so he could further force this country into financial ruin while buying the future votes of an additional 30,000,000 cradle-to-grave Democrat entitlement recipients.

Look at the radical political past of the people who made this bad legislation. This isn’t about charity; it’s about power. [Case in point: acts of charity are not "a big f***ing deal" as Biden whispered to Obama before he signed the bill--that vulgarity reflects not charity but the unfiltered hubris of power.]

This sweeping bill is not about constructive change within a form of government; it’s a step by step take-over to a different form of government. And if it fails? If it leads to financial ruin? Even that will serve someone's purpose, for it will be from that desperate, fallen state that a weak and needy population will be all the more eager to follow "the one" who can save the day. Behind all such epic power struggles are two essential sets of characters: inspiring ego-centric leaders who make false promises and the gullible masses who believe them.


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Updates:
Kevin O'Brien column: "It's Far From Over."

Joe Conason is an example of what I mean by "the gullible masses who believe them." If he is right, if the caution I lay out in this post is wrong, I will be happy. But I think he is either gullible and blind to the pattern of lies and consequences...or he is merely among those willing to say anything to bring about the disastrous change.

Advice on how to RESPOND to this bad bill, and I do believe the secret of repeeling it will be in a proper response--not the "REACTIONS" we are seeing in some cases.

Teeth Make a Bad Filter for Lies

Originally posted Friday, March 19, 2010,
before the vote that will live in infamy
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When I was a little kid, my mom sometimes served Jell-O at the end of a meal. I'm not talking about some fancy congealed salad with floating fruit; I mean just plain Jell-O, stirred in a bowl, put in the fridge, and served from the same bowl like ice-cream.

It was fun food for many reasons, but perhaps the most disgusting thing I used to do with Jell-O was this: I'd fill my mouth with it, close my lips, and begin sucking it through my teeth, gradually breaking the wiggly substance down until it was a liquid. Then I'd swish the lumpy Kool-Aid around like mouthwash until there was nothing left to do with it but swallow. It tasted good. It was still Jell-O, just liquefied by passing through my teeth. If I had spit it out in a juice glass, however, no on in their right mind would drink the Kool-Aid—not even me!

Sometimes politicians do this same thing with unbelievable LIES. They know the truth is going to be hard to swallow so they all collectively decide to LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH, hoping the LIE will become something they can pass off as Kool-Aid to the gullible people who think big government is the answer to our problems. Don't drink the Kool-Aid, America!

No matter how many times someone lies through their teeth, the lie is still a lie; teeth make a very bad filter.

Is there any thinking American who can read the following quotation (in the context of everything we know about the past seventy years of Democrat tax-and-spend-entitlement programs) and not have that alarm go off in their mind, that alarm that lets us know when we are hearing a lie?

"Pelosi said a House vote may come as early as March 21 on legislation that President Barack Obama and Democrats say will cover 32 million uninsured Americans, curb medical costs and reduce the federal budget deficit." [Full article here.]

Obama campaigned on "Change We Can Believe In," but I refuse to believe a bold-faced lie no matter how many Democrat teeth attempt to filter it! They have been swishing the same lies through their chops for a year. It's now like luke-warm liquefied Jell-O, but when they spit it out into the congressional juice glasses this Sunday and tell the "no votes" to drink the Kool-Aid, I hope the needed majority picks up the glass, looks at the bits of gross stuff floating in it from all the people who were bought off, and has the guts to slosh it back in their faces.
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The Healthcare Tragedy

A friend of mine is running for congress. If elected, he will fill Congressman Pete Hoekstra's office.

Here's a picture of him and his family. My daughter's babysit his daughters who attend our school. The two oldest girls were flower girls in my daughter's wedding. (Seen in the sixth photo of this post.)

Here is what Bill said about yesterday's decision before it passed by the narrowest of margins. (If just four of the Democrats who swore they would not vote for the bill until the language was added to ensure no federal funding of abortion had kept their spine and promise, it would not have passed.)

On the Issues: The Healthcare Tragedy

The Problem: As I write this email [sent Sunday], the Congress of the United States, elected by you and me, is preparing to vote on a bill that if passed will be a national tragedy.

This bill will not reduce costs, improve the health care system or reduce our deficit. When has the federal government ever operated more effectively and efficiently than individuals making their own decisions in free and open markets? What this bill will do is place more of our individual healthcare decisions and our lives in the hands of bureaucrats in Washington D.C.

Wherever there is an industry or business that is inefficient ... you'll find a business or industry with government fingerprints all over it. Government-created monopolies, government-created regulation, government-created tax policy, set-asides or subsidies are what renders capitalism ineffective.

The freedoms endowed to us by our Creator and protected by our Constitution are slowly and methodically being taken from us. This is being accomplished almost voluntarily, without a single shot ever being fired.Through the proposed healthcare legislation, our elected officials are attempting to control an ever-larger percent of our economy.

In 1910 our government consumed about 8% of GNP (Gross National Product); in 2009 it was 44% of GNP. If the majority in Congress is successful this weekend, it will almost certainly exceed 50% of GNP. All of the wealth that politicians fight over the redistribution of in Lansing and Washington D.C. was created by the free enterprise system. We are now dangerously close to destroying the very system that has made America great.

The Solution: Successful business owners are inherently leaders; leadership is not simply self-proclaimed.We need to elect leaders who have experience creating jobs, prosperity, successful businesses and strong economies. Business owners are forced to live with the consequences of their actions on a daily basis. Business owners must make critical decisions everyday in order to survive in a world that has a 90% failure rate. Conversely, politicians live in a world where more than 90% of all incumbents continue to get re-elected. Over-spending and career politicians have gotten us into the horrible mess that we are in. More spending and career politicians are not the answer to getting us out of it.

Who should you support? Only one candidate...

Has a proven track record of success in the private sector, creating several different businesses and hundreds of West Michigan jobs over 25 years
Has successfully met 1,300 consecutive payrolls
Has been an Entrepreneur of the Year finalist with four different companies
Has proven he is a fiscal conservative with his actions, not just words That candidate is Bill Cooper.

Probed by a Preposition

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This is what I meant when I said the Democrats are not doing this FOR America--they're doing it TO America.
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At the heart of this issue is not only a political division and policy/process disagreements; there is a simple but crucial PHILOSOPHICAL difference between the ideologues pushing this reform and the majority of Americans who are firmly against it. Many of the people against it don't even know why they feel in their gut that it will be a disaster, but I believe the reason rests in this basic question:

What is a RIGHT? Nancy Pelosi has said she will not stop until we remove all doubt that health care is a right and not a privilege (quote is at the 1.30 mark of that clip). Obama himself has said the same. When asked by Tom Brokaw in a Presidential Debate in the fall of 2008, "Is health care a privilege a right or a responsibility?” Obama said "In a nation as wealthy as ours it should be a right."

Noting could be further from the truth. Rights have nothing to do with wealth. In fact, things based upon wealth (purchasing power), by definition, are privileges not rights. If it takes money to make something a reality, that thing is not a right. True RIGHTS are inherent and equally held by all.

It is only when a culture has lost its way in the big unfolding epic drama of life that they fear death and disease and believe that somehow wealth or status can banish it from a nation or a select citizenship. That will never happen no matter how much money we throw at it, but if we falsely call health care a RIGHT, liberals can take all manner of liberties in forcing upon their subjects. Health care is a privilege. Call it what it is. And when we can afford to extend some form of it to as many people as possible, regardless of their wealth, we could as a nation choose to distribute it to those who do not have it by charging those who do. But if we do that, let's call it what it is: redistribution of wealth, or socialism. That is not a swear word; it's a world view. If that's what the nation wants to do, let's talk about it in proper terms. But when you call goods and services that require wealth to purchase a RIGHT, you are beginning the debate on a false premise. If it requires money, it is not a RIGHT.

I used to teach English literature, and our 9th Grade text included Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," a story about some revelers at a rich man's home enjoying a masquerade ball while the world around them, beyond the walled estate, perished in a plague called the red death. I won't tell you how the story ends, but I will say it is a useful metaphor of a nation that believes health care is the shared RIGHT of defeating death and disease by pouring untold billions of dollars on them.

I'm not suggesting that it is wrong to try to cure the brokenness of our world; I'm not saying it's wrong to use wealth in that struggle; I'm suggesting the fact that it requires wealth proves it is a privilege not a RIGHT. When a nation mistakenly confuses PRIVILEGES with RIGHTS they are foolishly willing to go deep in debt to ensure they are equally shared (since they are "a wealthy nation"). But actually they cannot afford spread such privilege, so to pretend they can afford it; they borrow hundreds of billions of dollars from a nation like China, a nation that knows health care is not a RIGHT. How do they know this? Because there are more people in China without access to basic medical needs (who do not live within 200 miles of a hospital) than the entire population of United States of America. How arrogant is it for the "wealthy" to proclaim healthcare as a basic human RIGHT while they are indebted to nations whose people don't even have it as a privilege? As the U.S. becomes biggest moocher (taking on debts we can never pay back) in the history of the world, it cannot afford to begin making up RIGHTS that never existed.

No thank you, Pelosi and company, I content with the RIGHTS this nation was founded upon. Those are timeless RIGHTS; they existed millennia before we did as a nation; they have been denied and gained by countless tribes and nations through the centuries; but never were they purchased with mere money. The defining aspects of items most worthy of the Bill of Rights is that they do not come with a bill. They may require blood and sweat and tears to defend, but they do not require wealth or its redistribution to be equally held by all.

While looking for the Pelosi quote link, I found this. My thoughts were written before seeing it on TV or Youtube, but it does support my thoughts and is said with more authority from the judge.



If the Democrats continue to force this misguided legislation in crevasses where it's not welcome, if they keep probing with the prepostion and insist on doing things TO us whether we want it or not, the voters will kick and kick hard in November.

Here is what Pat Caddell of the Washington Post says about it.