Why Did Obama Call His Grandfather a “House Nigger”?

In “Dreams From My Father”, Obama wrote this passage about his grandfather:

What Granny had told us scrambled that image completely, causing ugly words to flash across my mind. Uncle Tom. Collaborator. House nigger.”

The reason for the ugly condemnation gives us important insight into our President’s psyche and supports the theme of Dinesh D’Souza”s political documentary, “2016: Obama’s America”. D’Souza believes that the key to understanding Obama is to understand his deep-rooted anti-colonialism. The angry “house nigger” slur comes from that place in Obama. His grandfather had committed the heresy of admiring parts of Western culture. Dinesh explains,

From Obama’s point of view, Onyango’s unforgivable heresy was not merely his admiration of the British, but how this man contemplated the differences between Western and African ways.

When Onyango returned home to his village after his confinement, he began to ponder the question of how the British, from their tiny island, were able to conquer so much of the globe. Here I must quote Sarah Obama on her husband: “He respected the white man for his power, for his machines and weapons and the way he organized his life. He would say that the white man was always improving himself, whereas the African was suspicious of anything new.”

Read the enlightening article here.

This story reminds me of two other stories from Obama’s life. First, when Obama discussed his first job, he characterized himself as being ashamed to be working in a capitalist enterprise. He said he was “working behind enemy lines”. He wondered if he was a “sellout”. He soon left the business world for good and became a community agitator in Chicago….. where he did things like organize anti-capitalist demonstrations against banks, essentially forcing them to give home loans to people who could not pay back the loans. In this way, he helped create the economic mess he “inherited”.

Second, when young Barry Soetero lived in Indonesia, his stepfather took a good paying job with an American oil company. This angered Barry’s mother who did not want her husband working for a capitalist enterprise that was ‘exploiting’ Indonesia (by offering high paying jobs and improving the Indonesian standard of living???). Barry’s real father had similar anti-capitalist views. The acorn did not fall far from the tree. The fact is that the entire forest Barry grew up in had anti-capitalist views.

The Real Unemployment Story

One of the great unanswered mis-representations of the election season is the unemployment picture given by the media.  I would be willing to bet that most of the nation actually believes that the unemployment figure is hovering around 8%.  The real number is closer to 11% (and 19% if you add “under-employment” — part-time jobs that are placeholders for real work).  Lets all recall what Obama said about what would happen if he couldn’t turn those numbers around:

Lets hold him to it.   For more details on the dismal job numbers, take a look at the following news article in the Wall Street Journal:

Mortimer Zuckerman: Those Jobless Numbers Are Even Worse Than They Look

Honoring Citizen Producers

One of the important media developments in recent years is the explosion of citizen producers…. bloggers, videographers, etc.. Dissatisfaction with the (primarily leftist) “mainstream” media was the driving force for the change and the internet and the ease of creating digital media made it all possible. Here are a few examples of creative editorializing in ‘home made’ video:

Bill Whittle is masterful in telling short video stories. This story goes well with today’s quote from Clint Eastwood: “President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”:

The next two videos relate to the Democrat Convention. Peter Schiff, and other sane people, understand that corporations are groups of people who make goods or provide services for other people. If they can make a profit in their endeavors, then the producers can continue to provide goods and services while also providing for their own families by being paid for their productive activities. Other people, who own stock in the companies, millions of people, share in the profit, if there is one. Some people, with apparently very little understanding of how the world works, have this view of productive activity:

The second convention video features a very excited former Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm. At the very time when new and devastating employment figures were being released, Granholm was enthusiastic beyond all reason as she spun her tales about our great economic recovery as the lemmings cheered wildly. There is some appropriate, fun, and creative video editing here:

Many of us have images in our memory of many “in your face” lies that the teleprompter has directed our President to say. We may have thought that it would be entertaining to see some of the lies and contradictions strung together in a video. Someone who calls himself SnorkelDogg took the time to do that:

You may also enjoy this excellent analysis of Michelle’s convention speech, Michelle Obama Pants on Fire.

Who Is The Real Radical?

The battle is between those who believe in individual liberty and those who believe in a large and expanding government. Let’s face it, many Republicans believe in a large and expanding government, as demonstrated by their actions in recent decades. So the philosophical alternatives of strictly limited government and massive, growing government do not represent our real-world choices. Still, there are stark differences between the visions of the two parties.

Our founding documents were clearly designed to strictly limit the power of government over the lives of free men. That was the expressed goal, as described here. But “Progressive” politicians think they have a better idea. To them, government is the answer to lifes challenges, not freedom. With enough spending, with enough government programs, with the right people in charge, everything will be wonderful. This is the socialist utopian delusion.

George Will’s latest column explains the progressive belief that “society may be perfected through the instrumentality of government”. It is George Will at his best.

We regularly hear that the Tea Party folks are radical extremists. Will explains the real radicals.

“Recovery”, by the numbers…

Reality tends to be theme here at realitybatslast.com, so we put a lot of importance on showing it by the numbers whenever possible.  It is especially important to study the numbers when our fearless leaders at the DNC this week decide to make honesty and truth themes of their convention. Probably the core “truth” bantered continually by their speakers is the idea that we are much better off than we were when Obama took office.  For most Americans, this statement rings about as true as the pitch of a Chinatown street vendor trying to sell a ”genuine” Louis Vuitton bag for $20…

The writers at www.investors.com felt the same way and were kind enough to provide their readers with some of the facts:

Better Off? Let’s Count the Ways We’re Not – Investor’s Business Daily

 

Paradoxical Quote of the Day

Ben Stein:

“Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured…

but not everyone must prove they are a citizen.”

Now add this:

“Many of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens.”

Today’s Links…

Conservatives can explain their reasons; Liberals can tell you their feelings. Two recent columns have explored the idea that conservatives understand and honor their past intellectual leaders and liberals do not. At Powerline, Steven Hayward asks, Why Is There No Liberal Ayn Rand?, and at Pajamas Media, Ed Driscoll expands on the theme. Here’s a quote from the Driscoll column:

Everyone agrees that President Obama is not only a man but a symbol. He is a symbol of America’s decisive victory over bigotry. But he is also a symbol, a living embodiment, of the failure of American education and its ongoing replacement by political indoctrination. He is a symbol of the new American elite, the new establishment, where left-liberal politics is no longer a conviction, no longer a way of thinking: it is built-in mind-furniture you take for granted without needing to think.”

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Read: An Instance of Liberals’ Preference For Narrative Over Reality. Obama is his brother’s keeper only in the “other people’s money” sense.

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“The events of the last 44 months are no accident. The state of the current economy does not represent the unintended consequence of a well-intentioned leader “in over his head….” John McLaughlin analyzes the Battle of Ideologies here.