Reflections From a Murky Pond

Have you thought about or wondered what President Obama’s top priority was? If so, you’re very much not alone; a large number of Americans can’t figure that out either and listening to Obama doesn’t really help at all.

Obama’s Top Priority

President Obama obviously never learned the basic life lesson which says that, if every thing is a top priority then nothing is. He also has obviously never learned that telling people whatever they want to hear will only work for so long. Sooner or later you actually have to accomplish something that the people want, preferably in a manner in which they want it.

Of course, given Obama’s upbringing and background, such as it is, it’s hardly surprising that he has little concept of how to actually prioritize anything at all. It’s not as if there’s any evidence presented to prove, or even strongly suggest, that he’s ever actually had the responsibility for accomplishing anything before in his life. 😉

As I’ve said before, America’s foreign aid philosophy and policies are and have been a hideous failure. They do very little but perpetuate problems and foster dependence, seeming more a perverse combination of “feel good” easy actions and animal husbandry than true aid to those in dire need.

As shockingly odd as it seems to me, it appears that the Obama Regime agrees with this premise.

Below is an excerpt from President Obama’s address to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals Summit on September 22, 2010.

And today, I’m announcing our new U.S. Global Development Policy – the first of its kind by an American administration. It’s rooted in America’s enduring commitment to the dignity and potential of every human being. And it outlines our new approach and the new thinking that will guide our overall development efforts, including the plan that I promised last year and that my administration has delivered to pursue the Millennium Development Goals. Put simply, the United States is changing the way we do business.

First, we’re changing how we define development. For too long, we’ve measured our efforts by the dollars we spent and the food and medicines that we delivered. But aid alone is not development. Development is helping nations to actually develop – moving from poverty to prosperity. And we need more than just aid to unleash that change. We need to harness all the tools at our disposal – from our diplomacy to our trade policies to our investment policies.

Second, we are changing how we view the ultimate goal of development. Our focus on assistance has saved lives in the short term, but it hasn’t always improved those societies over the long term. Consider the millions of people who have relied on food assistance for decades. That’s not development, that’s dependence, and it’s a cycle we need to break. Instead of just managing poverty, we have to offer nations and peoples a path out of poverty.

These are somewhat encouraging words coming from President Obama. It’s past time that the government of the US admitted that and either changed the policies and methodologies or scrapped the various programs of foreign aid entirely.

A Very Grim Caveat

I must sadly add one grim caveat to this post. I just can’t manage to raise my level of credulity – my suspension of disbelief really – far enough to lend any credence to Obama’s words. I don’t completely reject his words and intentions, but there’s little reason for I or anyone else to believe him.

President Obama’s promise to shift US foreign aid to a model that gets people in the Third Word “moving from poverty to prosperity” is just too far removed from – seemingly diametrically opposed – his domestic economic policies and those of his entire Liberal base for any sane individual to easily believe.

On Thursday, September 23, 2010  the Republican Party leadership released what they claim is their new covenant with we, the People of the United States of America. They described it as- and titled it A Pledge To America.

This Pledge, reminiscent of their 1994 Contract With America, was unveiled with limited fanfare during an event at a hardware store in Sterling, VA. It has prompted a mixture of scorn and fearful, hate-filled rhetoric from the Liberals and a mixture of responses ranging from disdain to provisional acceptance from the American people.

GOP Pledge to America

What I think is interesting and quite telling is that the vitriol spewing from the Left seems to be because they believe the GOP but the lack of enthusiasm for the GOP’s Pledge seems to be because the Right and the Center don’t believe them.

The primaries for the 2010 Congressional Mid-Term Elections are over and included some results within the Republican primaries that many are describing as upsets such as Christine O’Donnell’s primary victory in Delaware. Yet, upsets or not, these are the candidates we, the People have chosen to array against the Liberals in these elections.

The primaries are a proper time for internecine struggle but those times are now past, their issues decided. It is time now for we, the People to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers and sisters in arms and present a united front to America’s enemies. We must move and fight as one if we are to be victorious.

Cuneum Formate! Porro!

In the words of many, many centurions of days gone by, “Cuneum Formate! Porro!” These are the ancient commands of the Roman Legion that meant to form a wedge formation and attack the enemy.

Gamers, as in the D&D sort, aren’t like they used to be. The advent of Live Action Role Playing (LARP) changed everything, especially the gender mix and the overall aesthetics. 😉

Dungeon Master Girls – They’ll Melt Your Polyhedrons

Perhaps the most disturbing part of this is the fact that Emily Morris’ and Mike Damanskis’ parody is actually less surreal and bizarre than the actual video for Katy Perry’s California Girls.