Tex has been throwing us some good stuff. I think I like this popular trend against the law. It's old school for moonshine country, as some of them seem to realize. It's also past the racial divide, which is nice for those of us who have fought together with brothers across the color line. Who still cares about that? Some. Not us.
'Pistol Packin' Papa' is a clear play off the 1943 hit "Pistol Packin' Mama," which you can hear here:
The law lacks defenders among those who are supposed to be its chief champions, except when it's rhetorically convenient. Doubtless that's one reason support for the law as such is wearing away.
As a not-so-serious part of their ongoing effort to get rid of Obamacare, House Republicans in May started a Twitter fight they called #ObamacareInThreeWords. Rep. Darrell Issa got things started with a tweet that said simply, "Serious Sticker Shock." Rep. Michele Bachmann added "IRS In Charge." Sen. Richard Burr tossed in "Huge Train Wreck."Extra points if you can relate the discussion to Plato's Statesman. Turns out that Plato was interested in the very same questions. It's only the last third of the dialogue, if you want to read it and haven't.
Democrats hit back, weakly, with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's "Good for America" and Rep. Gregory Meeks' "What America Needs." And then the White House stepped in with a killer line: "It's. The. Law." The tweet was accompanied by a photo of the president's signature on the Affordable Care Act, dated March 23, 2010.
Case closed: What part of "It's. The. Law" don't you understand? Just to add emphasis, in early June President Obama dismissed concerns that the national health care startup was not going well. "This is the way the law was designed to work," he told an audience in California. "Since everyone's saying how it's not going to happen, I think it's important for us to recognize and acknowledge that this is working the way it's supposed to."
Now, however, it appears the administration's bravado was all for show. At the same time Obama was expressing great confidence, White House officials were secretly meeting with representatives of big business to discuss ways to postpone enforcement of parts of the new law. And on Tuesday the White House announced that the employer mandate - sometimes described as a "crucial" element of Obamacare - will be delayed to 2015 from its scheduled start on Jan. 1, 2014.
If It's.The.Law. then why has the White House said in writing that it will not enforce important provisions of said law? And other parts will be delayed until [insert most recent revised date here]? Hmmm? It's what American needs, it's the law, and yet the Executive Branch will not enforce said law? [folds arms, pats foot, waiting for straight answer that will never come]
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
It's because, I think, they have read Plato and agree with the Stranger about the goodness of lawless governments provided they are run by the wise.
ReplyDeleteTheir only concern needs to be bypassing the electorate as much as possible, and governing by fiat:
STRANGER: The government of the few, which is intermediate between that of the one and many, is also intermediate in good and evil; but the government of the many is in every respect weak and unable to do either any great good or any great evil, when compared with the others, because the offices are too minutely subdivided and too many hold them. And this therefore is the worst of all lawful governments, and the best of all lawless ones.
The best response I saw to "It's. The. Law." was:
ReplyDelete"So. Was. Slavery."
Yeah, well, the Democrats still want slaves. Not much has changed.
ReplyDeleteThat's what Ymar keeps telling me.
ReplyDelete"Laws are for the little people".
ReplyDeleteLeona Helmsley.
Every once in a while the truth leaks out and upsets folks.
"It's because, I think, they have read Plato and agree with the Stranger about the goodness of lawless governments provided they are run by the wise."
ReplyDeleteIndeed. They're also quite sure they're truly wise, but you know what they say about that.
My father, an unbeliever, used to joke that the best system of government was a benevolent dictatorship, because that was the system employed by the Kingdom of Heaven. The problem, of course, is that only the Kingdom of Heaven can be run that way, as there is a shortage of Gods.
ReplyDelete