Monday, January 20, 2014

With Friends Like These...

In a speech addressing Americans' growing fears that the NSA is collecting too much information on too many people, Barack Obama stated that we really have nothing to worry about because "the folks at the NSA and other intelligence agencies are our neighbors and friends," much like the civic-minded folks who peep into women's windows at night and watch while they're changing clothes, just to make absolutely sure they're safe.

But as reassuring as it is to be reminded that the intelligence agencies are just "neighbors and friends," can't that description be made to fit, well, damn near everyone?

When John Wayne Gacy wasn't sodomizing and murdering young men while dressed as a demented clown, he was considered by many to be a good neighbor and friend.  Surely the members of Al Qaeda are someone's neighbors and friends. And charismatic Kool-aid salesman Jim Jones had scads of neighbors and friends in Jonestown.

Confusingly, when Hope n' Change thinks of our own real-life neighbors and friends, we think of quiet, hard-working, taxpaying, patriotic folks who happen to favor Tea Party conservatism. And yet these friendly, neighborly people are routinely described by this president and his party as terrorists, arsonists, racists, misogynists, and fascists.

All of which is to say that even Barack Obama doesn't believe that a group of "friends and neighbors" should be trusted without question, or that their collective actions should be free from judgement or repercussion.

Nor should their leader. Especially if he's neither friend nor neighbor.

21 comments:

Bruce Bleu said...

I am SURE that when George Soros was in Czechoslovakia HE was a fiend [sic] "and neighbor" to the Jews he was stealing from when they "went on a train ride". I used to have a Polish employee who spent time in Hitler's Youth and was also a neighbor to those he turned in to the Gestapo!

Duke Mantee said...

"And yet these friendly, neighborly people are routinely described by this president and his party as terrorists, arsonists, racists, misogynists, and fascists."

And don't forget, "bitter clingers."

Emmentaler "Like A Good Neighbor" Limburger said...

Oh let's be fair, now, @Stilton! Ă˜bama was a great friend and neighbor to Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn! An what about Tony Rezko, hmmm? PLease.

John the Econ said...

Once again, good call @Stilton. It's so easy to say such silly things when you're a megalomaniac at the top of the food chain, isn't it?

And don't forget the 100-million or so "friends and neighbors" who are currently trying to pick your pockets in the name of "inequality".

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

He doesn't know what his administration is doing, but he'll know every little detail of our lives.

DougM said...

June 2011
http://www.sondrakistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/obama-hnc-basiji.gif
Try to keep up, m'kay?

Colby said...

There was once a man named Judas, who was one of Jesus' closest friends... Y'all know how that ended.

Barry is the serpent in the apple tree; here to "enlighten" us and "help" us. Run for you life!

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Bruce Bleu- And speaking of rotten neighbors, let's don't forget how the infamous Stasi "secret police" of East Germany turned people against each other to rat out suspicious behavior. Much the way this stinking president tried to do when he encouraged people to go to "Flag@Whitehouse.gov" to report (ahem) friends and neighbors who were misrepresenting his positions.

That initiative failed - but it shows where Obama's head and heart are at.

@Duke Mantee- Yeah! That too!

@Emmentaler- You make a good point. Barry can be very neighborly under the right, America-hating circumstances.

@John the Econ- It all raises the question of whether we're still allowed to choose our own friends and neighbors, or whether the state will simply assign them to us (while making those labels meaningless).

And on a related note, I don't want to hear Obama tell me who my "friends" are when he spends so much time telling his minions that people like me are the "enemy."

@Woodsterman (Odie)- In fairness to Barry, I think he knows a lot about what his administration is doing, but cultivates plausible deniability.

And I don't want his royal Soetoroness to know all the details of my life, because I don't doubt that he'd be willing to use the information inappropriately.

@DougM- Either you were psychic in 2011, or Barry has been telling the same lie for years. Maybe both!

And readers, by all means check out DougM's posts over at Sondrakistan!

@Colby- Barry has given it to us up the backside so often that we can truly say "with friends like these, who needs enemas?"

PRY said...

"with friends like these," indeed!!

Interesting when bo's popularity was off the stinking charts, there was no whining concerning how Americans felt toward him, but now all that is history, and the problem is the old standby, RACISM! I would venture to say that there is NOT ONE reader of this page who,in the least, thought less of him because of his race. Personally, most of us saw him coming a mile away, and I could not think ANY LESS of him than I do presently! He ranks right up there with Castro, Hitler, Stalin, etc.

He is such a miserable human being caring for no one's goals or happiness but his own...and I hope his wife splits that mangy blanket first chance he gets. At least I would give her a bit of credit for having the sense to do that! Me, bitter? naaaaa! We and our posterity will have THIS bad taste in our mouths for a long time!

graylady said...

Friends are not necessarily neighbors.

I have a girlfriend who calls me daily offering any assistance I need (I am currently bedridden awaiting a spinal surgery consult) and a guy friend who once went to the store and bought Tampax for me. Need I say more?
As for my neighbors? I live in a neighborhood that has, in the last 3 years, become overrun with undocumented workers, ie. illegal aliens. I sleep with a 38 Special under my pillow and a loaded shotgun by the head of the bed. I have multiple deadbolt locks on each door, even the doors with storm doors covering them. My walker has an 8 inch knife attached by magnets for when I have to leave the house. I carry a tactical ballpoint pen on my purse.
And the Big O says, "I SHOULD TRUST THE NSA BECAUSE THEIR MY NEIGHBORS?"

It's No Gouda said...

Hmmm, the last time I heard from "friends and neighbors" they had decided that Uncle Sam needed me more than they did.

Bruce Bleu said...

SO, lamont defers to the ol' race card when his poopularity [sic] hits the commode. Answer me this... was the country NOT racist while his numbers were higher, and now magically, the country has become racist to cause his numbers to go down? What the hell logic does that portend? I honestly don't give an "airborne coitus" (think about it) what color a shithead is to consider him a shithead! Is EVERY black person who voted against the honky a racist (yes) because they voted for the most incompetent "affirmative-action" dumb-ass in friggin' human history...? DAMN STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!! There was a joke years ago about a 200 ton lump of coal shutting down the interstate on the way to Mt Rushmore to add lamont to the monument. I say it should be a 200 ton TURD!!!!!!! (Not that I'VE got an attitude about that NSA)

Pete (Detroit) said...

It's not the brownness of his skin that bothers me, it's the pinkness of his policies...

Graylady, when I was in college, I bought Tampax for the roommate's GF (dunno why he couldn't, out of town, or some such...). Sizes? who knew they came in SIZES?!?! and Kinds! Bitch of it was, if she had TOLD me what she wanted, I could have GOT it - guys are (koff - usually) actually fairly practiced at buying things w/ specs... but no, wandered the aisle twice, pondering, and finally effit and grabbed a box. She said they were close enough, and she REALLY appreciated it.
If they actually were NOT close enough, I never found out.
Anymore, no big deal - but yeah, that first time, in early 20s.. ermahgherd!

HEH! Capcha - "baptifm"

TrickyRicky said...

Who knew that Mr. Rogers was part of the Stasi? He was on PBS, I guess we should have known.

John the Econ said...

In the spirit of MLK Day and "having a dream", we had an interesting kerfuffle on my neighborhood's Internet group recently, where an individual took offence at another neighbor who had posted a message describing "black men" behaving suspiciously in the neighborhood. We encourage people to take notice of "suspicious" behavior in the neighborhood, as in recent years we've had a substantial uptick in the number of auto thefts and auto and home break-ins. All too often, reports of "suspicious behavior" precede reports of crime shortly thereafter.

It seems that this aggrieved individual would have found it more proper to describe these suspiciously behaving people as "African American", or not at all.

Never mind the fact that describing them as "black" is not only accurately descriptive, but culturally neutral; After all, how do we even know that these suspiciously behaving individuals derived from Africa? There are plenty of races present in America that appear "black", but have little to no connection to Africa. For example, I have many Indian (the subcontinent) friends who are more "black" than most of my black friends.

My solution to this was to suggest that to avoid such confusion and offense, that it just be assumed that any "suspicious" individual spotted in the neighborhood was "African American", unless otherwise noted.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@PRY- I had to laugh (that creepy laugh which scares small animals and babies) when Barry said his poll numbers are dropping because of racism. This raises two questions: since his numbers used to be higher, is he now more black...or are more people turning racist (and if so, why)?

How ironic that on MLK day the president puts more emphasis on the color of his skin than the content of his character.

@graylady- First let me say how sorry I am that you're having health issues, and express my hope that things will improve soon. Secondly, "yikes" to the description of your neighborhood and the precautions you're forced to take. I think you've made an excellent case that it takes more than mere proximity to make a true "neighbor."

@It's No Gouda- Friends and neighbors are funny that way.

@Bruce Bleu- While there is undoubtedly a bit of racism mixed into Barry's poll numbers, I'd suggest that the greatest effect comes from the pro-Black/anti-White racists who are propping his numbers up higher than they should be.

@Pete (Detroit)- It's one thing for a man to buy female hygiene products, and quite another to stand there in the aisle "browsing" for the right product (been there, done that). We are ill-equipped to know the difference between absorbent products labeled light, medium, heavy, Kill Bill, and tsunami.

@TrickyRicky- I could never quite trust a guy who hangs around with "Mr. McFeely."

@John the Econ- I like your suggested solution and believe it's already been adopted by many news organizations which will only describe a suspect's race if he's white...leaving us to make inferences the rest of the time.

Regarding your suspicious individuals, they might have been members of a roving chimney sweep gang. Then again, it's wrong to profile chimney sweeps unless you want to end up in a law soot.

Emmentaler "I Speaka Da Langwitch" Limburger said...

@Pete: apparently, that Captcha was generated prior to 1803, and is representing the archaic character for "long s"...

Bruce Bleu said...

John the Econ,
I remember there was a guy interviewed after the "underwear bomber" was caught, and he referred to the suspect, who was from Nigeria, and had NEVER BEEN IN THIS COUNTRY BEFORE, as an "african-american" because he was black!
The lunacy of "political correctness" drives me crazy. There are people (you noted) from India who are blacker than al not-so-sharpton. As I was taught in anthropology, it is the Negroid race, and in Latin-based languages "negro" is BLACK!
So, in essence, what is being done here is, a people group who have never been there, and may not be able to find Africa on a friggin' GLOBE expect the rest of us to refer to them as something OTHER than they are... BLACK. They can be irresponsible (76% of bastard babies), they can be LAZY (12% of population and 19% unemployed), they can be un-industrious about applying themselves, (eyez doan no howda do dat), and they can be downright STUPID ("the affraudable care act will drop your premiums by $2500 per year and you will get better coverage") but if we point OUT those things, WE are not making a valid point, but HATE all black people. Can there be NO other reason? They can call each other NIGGER, they can call "their" women "ho's" (whores), but I, however, if I call them niggers and whores I am a RACIST, and HATE them?
They say "we are NOT black", so maybe to accommodate them I could accurately call them "Darkies", because they ARE darker than me. Historically they used javelins for war, so I could call them "Spearchuckers". Just what would it take to please a people-group who recoil from being called what they are, negro? How about calling me a Caucasian-American or I get to call you a racist? The logical conclusion is, if someone wants to be offended at EVERY damned thing they hear, there just won't be ANY way to please them. So SCREW them, and the stolen car they rode in on!

Pete (Detroit) said...

Stilt - "Law Soot" - I think you been having too much coffee w/ Stan da Man. Also, in re feminine products, the tragedy is that they're clearly labelled - if we were given proper description it would be easy!

Emmentaller - eggzactly! and as the story WAS a baptism, of sorts...

Bruce, many years ago, I worked w/ a very charming, well spoken, intelligent woman w/ very dark skin. We would often eat lunch together, chatting pleasantly. Another co-worker called me on it. "What's up w/ that? you're usually not so friendly w/ the black girls..."
"Well, she's NOT 'black', she's Brazilian"...
Surprisingly, that distinction can be lost on some.

Bruce Bleu said...


Pete (Detroit)...
That woman you used to have lunch with... what connection is there between her color and how she groomed her "mommy parts"?

John the Econ said...

@Bruce Bleu, my personal favorite was during the riots in France a few years ago, when many of the American correspondents kept referring to the French rioters from North Africa as "African Americans".

A fine example of how brainless "political correctness" makes supposedly literate liberals.