Respecting Tradition
Watch how these children on a playground at one of our military bases respond to the playing of “Colors,” which signifies the American flag coming down for the night.
These figures are from 2011. Does anyone want to guess what the figures are now?
Americans who were recipients of means-tested government benefits in 2011 outnumbered year-round full-time workers, according to data released this month by the Census Bureau.
They also out-numbered the total population of the Philippines.
There were 108,592,000 people in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2011 who were recipients of one or more means-tested government benefit programs, the Census Bureau said in data released this week. Meanwhile, according to the Census Bureau, there were 101,716,000 people who worked full-time year round in 2011. That included both private-sector and government workers.
That means there were about 1.07 people getting some form of means-tested government benefit for every 1 person working full-time year round.
The Ineptness Of Obama Leaves America Staggering
This is a brilliant and painful analogy by Charles Hurt in the Washington Times.
That was America standing behind President Obama in the Rose Garden this week as he stammered, and droned on and on, trying to explain away the epic disaster that Obamacare has become even before it has begun.
“About three weeks ago, as the federal government shut down,” he began.
Expectant and hopeful, America stood tall on the steps behind him for as long as she could. She was proud and gazed at the nation’s new top health care provider proudly. But as the excuses and mistruths mounted and the barrage of words rolled on and on and on, she could not help but to begin to waver.
“… hasn’t worked as smoothly as it was supposed to,” the president said.
She began to sway slightly.
“Health insurance for what may be the equivalent of your cellphone bill or your cable bill — and that’s a good deal!”
She tried valiantly to keep her footing.
“This product is good.”
She blinked and breathed deeply. Looked around.
“Exceeding expectations!”
She was so proud of him that she wanted to stand tall and not flag.
“… to lift from the American people the crushing burden of unaffordable health care,” he said.
Her eyes widened. She looked to her side. There was the light.
“… to free families from the pervasive fear that one illness “
She staggered. Her knees weakened and her mind closed. She started to fall back.
The sad truth is that the embarrassing and calamitous scene we saw unfold in the Rose Garden was a perfect representation of what has become of not only Obamacare but of the entire Obama presidency.
The ineptitude is painful to watch. The arrogance is truly suffocating. And the coolness that was once Mr. Obama’s hallmark has turned into brittle anger that he barely conceals.
He began his oily salesman’s pitch by invoking the government shutdown, as if that had the slightest thing in the world to do with the implosion of Obamacare. It is hard to know, at this point, if he is intentionally being dishonest or if he has simply become delusional. Later, he inexplicably blamed Republican opponents in Congress.
In truth, all the blame rests with Mr. Obama, standing there in the Rose Garden, trying to explain it all away. And behind him was America, wishing so desperately for him to succeed. But reality overtook her and she crumpled.
Mr. Obama stopped his speech and turned around. The daylight had left her eyes as she had gone limp.
He put out his hand.
“I gotcha,” he said. But it was the people around her holding her up.
“You’re OK,” he said, though it was abundantly clear that the woman could no longer stand.
Welcome, America, to Obamacare.• Charles Hurt can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @charleshurt.
The American Folklore Map
Artist William Gropper created a U.S. map and placed characters from folklore into the appropriate areas. The U.S. Department of State gave these maps out abroad beginning in 1946.
The “folklore” on display in this richly illustrated map is a soup of history, music, myth, and literature. Frankie and Johnny are cheek-by-jowl with a wild-eyed John Brown; General Custer coexists with “Git Along Little Dogies.” Utah is simply host to a group of “Mormons,” in which a bearded man holds up stigmata-marked hands to a small group of wives and children, while a figure labeled “New England Witches” flies over New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
The map actually got Gropper in hot water with Joe McCarthy and he was called to testify about his political associations in 1953, but pled the Fifth.



