"
This week the feds took the first steps to ban trans fats. Why? Because trans fats are bad for you and you can’t be trusted to avoid them on your own. I bring this up not because it is such an outrageous illustration of my point, but to demonstrate how typical it is. This is what the government does, day in, day out."
That’s what makes the reaction to Obamacare so interesting. Several times now, the president has endeavored to explain that it’s not that big a deal millions of Americans are losing their health-insurance plans against their will. The people who had plans they liked didn’t understand that the plans they liked were no good — they were the actuarial equivalent of trans fats, don’t you know? The fact that the people who held them liked them, thought they were good, and wanted to keep them doesn’t count for much, because the government knows best.
The president can’t say it as plainly as he would like, because to do so would be to admit not only that he lied to the American people, but that he thinks the complainers are ignorant about their own needs and interests.
Jonah Goldberg National Review Online
35 comments:
Goldberg offers no remedy to stop something that's been going on for centuries.
He's selling outrage and laughing all the way to the bank.
The government isn't the only one who thinks we're stupid, or at least ignorant.
The blog Sultan Knish has been explaining the bizarre behavior of Obama and his followers as resembling a cult.
Shout out to Crack, except that Crack has succumbed to that other great cult that routinely ensnares black guys, the Great Racism Cult.
Humans will find religion, even as they reject the established, traditional religions of their fathers.
Government is the religion of the left, and particularly of women and the young. You would think that the great crash of 2008 would dictate the opposite. After all, it was caused by massive collusion between the financial industry and the Fed, and that collusion was as bipartisan as you can get. The expected result would be bitter cynicism about government, and the suspicion that the true role of government is to amass graft.
But, the Racism Cult merged with the Government Cult to produce Obama. Failure upon failure doesn't dissuade the cult. It's all the fault of wreckers and saboteurs... Koch Bros! Faux News! Insurance Companies! Call the cops!
S.T.,
It's as G.K. Chesterton warned: "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing — they believe in anything."
@bagoh
Yes. And, there is nothing to do but to laugh.
I've never understood why leftists - the political spectrum that ostensibly favors freedom of choice, freedom of speech, freedom of association, etc., - are so willing to shed freedoms in exchange for government control of every aspect of daily life.
"ostensibly" is the key word there Haz.
@Michael
The left long ago dumped its belief in those freedoms.
Freedom of choice is only for women, not for children and men. Freedom of choice for the fetus is the freedom to die, to never exist.
Freedom of speech has simply been abandoned because it causes hate, and must be suppressed in order for the oppressed to rise.
Freedom of association has been dead for a long time, replaced by the demand for quotas in every aspect of life.
Leftists fervently believe in government control of every aspect of daily life. The government does not "profit," and so its motives are pure.
Trans fats came into vogue when the same hand wringers yelled "the sky is falling" regarding butter. Well, butter is VERY LOW in trans fats. But corporate America started using much cheaper hydrogenated oils which were high in trans fats. The hand wringers were happy, until recently. You can't make this shit up.
No trans fats PLUS double, triple quadruple the cost of health insurance with higher deductibles and lower quality care.
It's a win win.
Bloomieism writ large.
Along with Progressive devices that tell the government our mileage, the democrats need to invent a scan-able GPS-tattoo blood monitoring device that allows them to check our slirpee/big gulp/trans fat consumption.
The people didn't just elect this government, they re-elected it. That's proof positive that on the whole the people are, in fact, stupid. The whole damned country shouldn't be allowed out of the house with responsible adult supervision. Now if we could only find some responsible adults willing to supervise....
April Apple said...
Along with Progressive devices that tell the government our mileage,...
Not just Progressive, every insurance company I know of is asking policy holders to use the devices now...hell Allstate even presumes it in their quotes for new policies and tells you the policy is more money if you decline it.
The hype is that you will immediately get a "possible" 5% and "potentially up to a 50%" reduction.
Anyone who believes that is gullible at best. Any one who works nights will be penalized...yes, driving late a night is considered high risk and thus must be punished!!
What about my record of 20+ years now of not a single violation, not a single accident, not a single comprehensive claim? They want to "adjust" that by a gizmo that reports where I come and go to?
F' these people.
Speaking of my clean record for 20 years...in that time I have had the privilege of paying approximately $32,000 for insurance on one vehicle....that has had no claims, none, zero, nada...and they want to put a device on it to check me out further?
By the end of next year, everyone's rates will go up if they don't accept the gizmo.
Mine just went up $320 per year for the Michigan No-Fault part of medical liability thanks to Obamacare.
Anyone who thinks insurance companies are not in bed, literally, with the federal regulators is dreaming. They got a free ride to higher rates for health care, and soon enough they'll get it for vehicle insurance as well.
Oh, BTW...I've checked, you have to pay for the gizmo monthly as well, after the first year on some plans and from day one on others. My device, if I elect to use it (same chance as snow cones in hell), will cost $7 per month after the first year. I could opt for On-Star or Sync but that is even more and starts immediately.
Eric the Fruit Bat said...
The government isn't the only one who thinks we're stupid, or at least ignorant.
He's spent his adult life trying to fight this trend, which is more than you or I have done.
The left vilify insurance companies.. (the big show for their stupid voters) but in truth, many of these insurance companies are in bed with the democrat party.
That's weak on Jonah's part. Some things should be banned, and he didn't even have a link.
In the case of trans fat, the article I read said that they'd already been largely dropped by producers voluntarily. Something tells me that the people getting the remaining amount will tend to be poor and/or children.
Couldn't care less. When did "trans-fats" ever make the food taste better. Mankind got along fine without "transfats" for thousands of years - so I can do without them too.
BtW, typical stupid Goldberg column, going after trivia and refusing to confront the left on the big issues.
Couldn't care less. When did "trans-fats" ever make the food taste better. Mankind got along fine without "transfats" for thousands of years - so I can do without them too.
BtW, typical stupid Goldberg column, going after trivia and refusing to confront the left on the big issues.
Funny we were all supposed to eat margarine in the 70s/80s cause it was healthier than butter, and now it turns out to be even worse.
Shouting Thomas said...
The blog Sultan Knish has been explaining the bizarre behavior of Obama and his followers as resembling a cult.
Radical Marxist Leftism is a cult. Period. If you like your ideology, you can keep it and worship it. Period. Unless of course you're a conservative or a member of the tea party, then you will be visited by the IRS and penalized and stuff. Fundamental transformation. You are watching it.
I am a lawyer who represents real clients seeking concrete remedies and sometimes that means fighting against over-reaching government. I’ve helped get zoning ordinances stricken, public nuisance suits dismissed, SALDOs modified, taxes blocked, bad criminal charges dropped, usage fees waived, household supervisions lifted and much, much more. Hell, one time I kept a kid from getting suspended from grade school for violating some stupid speech code.
And I’m hardly special. Just a work-a-day lawyer.
Jonah Goldberg is a popular entertainer flattering his audience. There’s nothing wrong with that but the difference between him and Jon Stewart or, say, Stephen Colbert is marketing strategy.
Eric the Fruit Bat said...
Jon Stewart or, say, Stephen Colbert is marketing strategy.
Even if I accept this as true, for your original statement to hold you'd have to believe Jon Stewart doesn't advance advance leftism. That's crazy.
His contribution may be different than yours, but it's meaningful.
Mad Men is meaningful. So is The Big Bang Theory.
I never said I'm better than Jonah Goldberg. If I could do what he does I would and make a lot more money.
You seem like one of those people who look at the world and see an apocalyptic struggle between the forces of leftism and the forces of the right.
I'm not one of those people, nor do I believe in Jesus or Satan.
We're all doing the best we can with what we've got.
Best regards.
BTW, margarine commercials used to claim it was "just like butter" - except is wasn't. It didn't taste anything like butter.
It should be banned just based on taste alone.
"We're all doing the best we can with what we've got."
I disagree. There is no proof of this. In fact, commenting on a blog is proof to the contrary. Is this really the best we could be doing. When the President is golfing, is he doing his best? Is he doing his best when he's lying to us?
You're right. I'll stop saying it.
It sounded pretty cool the first time I heard it. Thurgood Marshall said that's what he wanted as his epitaph.
For decades now I've divorced it from its original context and repeated it mindlessly and taken it way too far afield.
Now I know how the pilgrims felt.
"He did the best he could with what he had."
That was what Marshall actually said he wanted as his epitaph, IIRC.
See what I mean?
Doing your best is an unreasonable expectation. How about: "Hey, I showed up at least."
Jonah is referred to as Doughy Pantload.
Frequently it's a person's mind that matters most, a foreign concept to some people too often.
Is this really the best we could be doing?
That depends. Are you stuck in a public toilet with the shits and nothing else to do but play on your phone? This might, in fact, be the best you could do.
Signed,
The Voice of Experience
Exactly. Consider yourself lucky to have a phone to occupy you lol.
Post a Comment