January 17, 2013

The use of children in politics — if you find it persuasive, you'd better sharpen up.

Drudge is doing propaganda here:



But it's very heavy-handed propaganda deployed to critique propaganda. You won't slip into falling for Drudge's propaganda, because it's so obvious. It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin, but Obama is using a form of propaganda that should be considered not merely ridiculous but repulsive. For us today to see Hitler and Stalin using children is to easily perceive the absurdity of promoting a political agenda juxtaposing it to a lovely, innocent child.

Who falls for that? No one should! The implicit argument the political leader makes, in all 3 of these pictures, is: I'm making the country good for the sake of the children. The child can't vouch for the policies. The child hasn't competently requested anything. The child is merely a prop representing goodness, innocence, and the future.

I've had a "using children in politics" tag for a while. I've made it part of my work here on the blog to notice this phenomenon, to help you see it, and to build widespread resistance to it. Remember the "children of the future" blaming us? The children taught to chant "Hey hey, ho ho, Scott Walker has got to go"? The children delighted by the "Voter Report Card"?

Drudge links to a collection of "Tyrants Who Have Used Children as Props." It's not hard to dig up these things. All politicians pose with children.



Baby-kissing is a campaign cliché.



It's a way of saying: I'm a real person. I'm normal and empathetic.

No reason to condemn that. It's too late to reject the kind of old-fashioned political kitsch that goes in the same category as eating regional food. You know, what Bob Dylan was singing about in "I Shall Be Free":
Now, the man on the stand he wants my vote
He’s a-runnin’ for office on the ballot note
He’s out there preachin’ in front of the steeple
Tellin’ me he loves all kinds-a people
(He’s eatin’ bagels
He’s eatin’ pizza
He’s eatin’ chitlins
He’s eatin’ bullshit!)
Don't you eat the bullshit!

220 comments:

1 – 200 of 220   Newer›   Newest»
Pettifogger said...

I agree that the poses with babies and children on the campaign trail are intended to humanize. That's different and less objectionable than posing with children in support of a specific program.

So in this sense, Obama's gun-control photo op is worse than the pictures of Stalin and Hitler. Stalin and Hitler probably weren't campaigning as we understand it, but they were trying to humanize themselves. It was just a bigger stretch than Bush's or Obama's campaign pictures.

cubanbob said...

Big difference between a politician missing babies and using children as communist style agit-prop. Hmm, hmm good! Barack Hussein Obama!

Brennan said...

I could care less about the propaganda with children. The real problem here is the use of feelings and emotion to enact policy that hasn't worked, won't work, and will waste money that could feed, clothe, and care for children pursuing policies that progressives know WON'T WORK.

This is crooked politics.

Æthelflæd said...

No, it is not a ridiculous comparison. It forces people to face the dangerous and ridiculous nature of the propaganda techniques Obama is using. I know plenty of people who swoon when the "it's for the children" card is played.

Herb said...

Of course Obama wants to make sure you can get an abortion whenever, where ever you want and paid by tax payers. Protect the children? really?

traditionalguy said...

So first we disarm all of the parents and then we play pretend that Obama I's Tyranny will keep the children safe from Southerners Gone Wild.

Nice myth. Man-Ti Teo would fall for it, no questions asked.

Dante said...

But it's very heavy-handed propaganda deployed to critique propaganda. You won't slip into falling for Drudge's propaganda, because it's so obvious.

That's odd. I didn't think it was so heavy handed myself. Both Hitler and Stalin confiscated guns, then went after their own population. It's a reminder that an unarmed population is subject to tyranny.

Can't happen here? Why not? Who knows what the country will look like 100 years from now with facial recognition everywhere, with drones all over the place, and with so many laws you can't do anything.

You won't be able to eat what you want, drink what you want, walk across the street where you want, and certainly, most assuredly, you won't be able to write anything negative about the government without being put in jail.

Don't think so? The government will simply rewind its tapes of you and find you drinking a big gulp, smoking a cigarette in an illegal place, and they will destroy you.

DADvocate said...

Obama genuinely cares about the children. He needs them to grow up and pay off his trillions in debt.

edutcher said...

Dolf loved kids, dogs, and big blondes, so that got him in good with most guys

OTOH, it's also reminiscent of the human shield tactics of the VC and the PLO.

Æthelflæd said...

The Weimar Republic started the gun control regulations that Hitler finished. They did it to disarm the commmunists and Nazis, ironically. More good intentions gone awry.

TMink said...

I hate swallowing bullshit. It leaves the worst taste in my mouth and makes me feel so stupid.

Trey

Palladian said...

Big difference between a politician missing babies....

They need to work on their aim.

Levi Starks said...

The only time Democrats won't use children as a prop is at a pro choice rally.

Colonel Angus said...

I'll say it again. This guy supports women having the unrestricted right to murder their unborn children so the sight of him surrounded by children as props to push his agenda is nothing short of sickening.

I've had little use for Presidents since Reagan but this guy is especially reprehensible.

Joe said...

Drudge should have gone with this Stalin image.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I wonder if the kids afterwards feel cheap and used.

Æthelflæd said...

Seen on Twitter: "I'm going to guess he wasn't surrounded by children when he spoke against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in the IL legislature."

Scott M said...

and care for children pursuing policies that progressives know WON'T WORK.

You give them far too much credit.

cubanbob said...

Pretty cynical of the abortion party doing it for the sake of the children.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Traditional Guy:

Interesting that you bring up Manti Te'o on this thread about people using children to advance their political agenda arguments.

I wonder if this blog's own Manti Te'o will chime in. Hint: She also has imaginary people in her life, which she uses to justify her retarded political views.

sakredkow said...

You won't slip into falling for Drudge's propaganda, because it's so obvious.

You don't even know your own readers.

Synova said...

I don't think there is anything untoward about appearing with children, kissing babies, or having your own kids on stage with you. (And certainly having your own kids on stage with your or talking about your family does not make them "fair game" to political opponents.

But giving out awards to special olympians or meeting with a group of kids who come to the white house and take a picture with them... I do think that gathering the kids around for something that is not about *them* but about a separate political cause and you gather the kids around because they work like human shields for your political purpose... that's sort of icky. If it's Piers Morgan or any of the others that answer the "great debate about guns" with "tell that to the dead children in Sandy Hook, you monster!" or the president who has these kids around him when he makes his announcements... that's a little bit different, isn't it?

And really... pointing out that Obama's daughters go to a school with many armed guards (and not just "mall cops" either) isn't involving his daughters in any personal way. It's not criticizing THEM at all.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Too bad those children are too young to understand that Obama is robbing them of any chance to live anywhere close to the standard of the Boomers

He's already spending most of their income before they've even started earning it.

For stuff we need now, don't cha know.

We need it!

Need, need, need, need, need.

Now!

He loves them that much.

garage mahal said...

You know who else held babies and proposed strict gun control? Reagan.

Reagan is like Stalin!

Known Unknown said...

I can't believe we have four more years of this shit.

machine said...

Too bad the ACA doesn't cover ODS...

bagoh20 said...

Why do kids even have any gravitas at all anyway. They're all chicken hawks. All of them, except a few in Hollywood, avoid paying their fair share of taxes. They are mostly loud, obnoxious, and have poor grooming and sanitary habits. They eat boogers and often wear shorts. I don't want to be see with them in public. I'll vote for the first guy to disassociate himself with their whole organization. Wake up people. They plan on taking over the whole world soon. They've done it before.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I have developed a strong negative* reaction upon seeing pictures of Obama, particularly in a suit, particularly with his skinny hands up in the air making some point in his annoying voice that I probably vehemently disagree with--and yet-seeing that picture of him in a casual shirt cuddling that baby like a daddy does still makes my lizard brain go Awwwwwww, isn't that sweet, look at that nice daddy-man caring for that baby which is the point, of course, but then my non-lizard brain reminds me of what I know about the guy and optics and manipulation.

*because I'm a racist

Chip Ahoy said...

Once I overheard a friend on the phone buying a house in San Francisco. I'm glad I remembered that just now and got it down in writing at least once because that was very odd, as if ordering a pizza. Tru fax.

And now I'm hearing the most cynical thing imaginable and imagining that normal.

"Get me a bunch of kids. And do I have to say it? A couple white ones, a black one, a brown one, at least one girl ... okay curly hair! And one 'em blond, a blond boy, yeah, make it a blond boy, and have the girl in a little doll dress with those strap shoes."

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Repulsive...

Thats strong for Althouse...

But why not go into it?

Its repulsive... that should be enough.. move on.

When something is repulsive you want to look away.. to avert your eyes.

test said...

"particularly with his skinny hands"

My point is that any discussion of Obama's "skinniness" and its impact on the typical American voter can't avoid being interpreted as a coded discussion of race.

Timothy Noah

DADvocate said...

I don't eat bullshit, but Obama's been feeding me a lot for the past 5 years.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Its tempting...

If you use kids that way ... why cant I use them this way.

Did Obama have the decency to pay these kids... at least a per diem... per fume, bad aroma.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Marshal, exactly. I have a dark vein of intolerance. I'm septic with unappeasable hatred, to bastardize a comment someone made about Sherman Alexie. Getting that out there to save the usual suspects the trouble of pointing it out the rest of you from the resulting thread-clutter.

Æthelflæd said...

Garage-

While president, Reagn worked WITH Congress to pass the Gun Owners Protection Act. After his presidency, while senile, he supported the Brady BILL. No executive orders in there.

Original Mike said...

"It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin"

Says you!

Brian Brown said...

So the President who regarded his daughters possibly getting pregnant as "punishment" is doing it for the children.

Too funny

traditionalguy said...

Presidentmomjeans... Sorry about my thread creep away from using kids as props for the FATHER figure's greater glory.

That seems to me to open the door to discussing popular myth making for some super man's greater glory.

Today's shrinking media has staked out a myth making niche to replace doing the time consuming investigative reports of yesteryear.

Incidentally, the South Gone Wild Racists Dunces Using Guns Myth is a re-cycled myth.

The media cannot even spend the time it takes to write new myths anymore.

edutcher said...

Original Mike said...

It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin

Says you!


Keep in mind, he has more "flexibility" now.

AllenS said...

It appears that the majority of voters in this country eat bullshit and think that it tastes pretty damned good.

Original Mike said...

Reagan missed an opportunity. He should have called SDI "The Children's Missle Defense Shield".

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Traditional Guy,

Not thread creep at all, the Te'o parallel deserves to be explored.

On the one hand, Manti could be analogized to the gullible voters (and media, heckuva job with the layers of factcheckers)buying the bullshit propoganda Obama is shoveling. If you believe he (Te'o) was just gullible and not involved.

On the other, as I suspect, Te'o was in on the deception, for sympathy, for publicity, or as a beard, then it's just an excuse to make fun of Allie/Inga/Manti.

Either way, I approve.

Colonel Angus said...

After reading Lord of the Flies, the cuteness of kids lost some of its luster.

Chip Ahoy said...

As to Drudge's own propaganda, the screengrap featured here has the item that follows,

Flashback: Tyrants who have used ... but omits the item that follows that on Drudge:

Hospital to stop delivering babies because of Obamacare.

So where exactly in general Liberal psyche does deep abiding care for children begin?

I have the weirdest answer to that outside of politics. And I mean weird. I got the idea from a book. And the answer is about five years old. That's when the deep abiding care begins.

Know why?

Goes like this: it takes about that long for a child to make its first moral decision.

Before that the child is meat, to put it bluntly. A thing strictly between man and woman on Earth. But at the moment of the child's first moral decision the child becomes imbued with eternity potential.

It can be visualize as divinity being unable to take residence within the child until it faces a moral quandary and makes a decision one way or another. That is the signal that cues divinity and makes it possible to attune with the child. Only then does the child have eternity potential. In fact, that's the only thing that has eternity potential. It does happen that some damaged children never do make a moral decision.

For most kids that happens at about five years. By this cosmology then, for me it happened at three and half years and involved a Wonder bread sandwich and Velveeta cheese. A momentous occasion.

This concludes the very weird answer to that.

rhhardin said...

Males didn't vote for Obama.

It needs a specifically feminist message: girls, sharpen up your game.

What works in social patterns for women doesn't work out in politics.

The reason they didn't let women vote wasn't oppression.

machine said...

Good thing the NRA won't use children to further their agenda either...of feelings/emotions...oh wait...

rhhardin said...

Vicki Hearne (in _Bandit_) identifies the specific female failing, corresponding to male skepticism, as foolishness.

Women think somebody means well.

Males see him as a fraud from the start.

virgil xenophon said...

@AllenS/

Not only that but they like it so much they're eatin' it with a spoon--dribble by dribble on a daily basis..

Colonel Angus said...

As far as gun control is concerned, I worry more about the great unwashed who covet my property than the government. For starters the US military evident is unable to defeat a bunch of 11th century goatherders in Afghanistan so I doubt they would be much of a match for 100 million armed citizens here.

But its my fellow citizens who worry me more as leftists like Obama thrive on class warfare agitprop convincing the less fortunate I didn't really build my wealth.

500,000 Tutsis were hacked to death in a little over three months. Im sure if they had a second amendment, the story might have been different.

Original Mike said...

"Who falls for that?"

Frankly, I think Obama does.

Quaestor said...

Dante wrote:
I didn't think it was so heavy handed myself. Both Hitler and Stalin confiscated guns...

I do not think either Drudge or Ann intended such a specific critique, though what you have written about Stalin and Hitler is true (in Stalin's case most firearms in private hands had been confiscated by his predecessors in power, both communist and tsarist). Drudge used a heavy hand for a purpose, to point out the fundamental dishonesty at work when politicians use children as props.

In Obama's case political child abuse (i.e. political abuse involving children) both and old story and a basic tactic. He may have used similar methods getting elected to the Senate, though I know of no instance. But do you remember this bit of demagogic kiddie porn from 2008? Should have been a warning to the wise.

Larry J said...

How many of those same children were writing letters to Santa Claus just a few weeks ago? Just because a kid writes a letter, it doesn't mean he understands much of the world.

Skyler said...

Ann put forth, " It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin. . ."

Really? I'm not so sure.

Robert Langham said...

At least he didn't use a puppy!

Darrell said...

Obama can't use a puppy anymore--after our elite press finally read his book.

Æthelflæd said...

"It needs a specifically feminist message: girls, sharpen up your game."

Which is why I think the NRA ad was smart. Make it about the children. Whaddya mean Obama thinks his kids are worthy of protection but mine aren't?

Lindsay Peet said...

In "The Dead Zone" movie the politician holds up a child towards the end of the movie.
But then he's using it as a shield against an assassin's attack, so that's completely different.
I think.

Bilwick said...

"Statism--it's for the kids!"

(We're the Hive*, and we approved this message.)

http://www.sobran.com/hive/hive.shtml

Pastafarian said...

Althouse: "It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin..."

Why is it ridiculous? Because Obama is such a nice polite young man? Because he hasn't slaughtered millions? Maybe Hitler hadn't yet slaughtered millions when that photo was taken.

Up your game, Althouse.

You know why we've never had a genocidal dictatorship here in the US? A well-armed citizenry. We're not morally or intellectually superior to the Germans, who produced Beethoven, Bach, Einstein, Bohr, and Kepler. There's only one thing preventing an American Hitler from springing up some day; and it happens to be the one thing Obama and his supporters would most like to be rid of.

Hitler, Stalin, and Obama are all pro-gun control. (And statists and fascists who bypassed their equivalent of a congress to impose their policies.) There are quite a few shared traits to consider such a comparison so "ridiculous" that you can assert this with no argument to back it up.

ricpic said...

J.J. Gittes: He's gonna get away with it. He's got a 51, 52% approval rating, Congress a 15%. After all, he's a likable guy. And now they see he loves children. Yup, he's gonna get away with it.

Lieutenant Escobar: Forget it Jake, it's Democracytown.

Original Mike said...

"There's only one thing preventing an American Hitler from springing up some day"

The Constitution.

Æthelflæd said...

Yo, Pastafarian.

Æthelflæd said...

The Constitution is a piece of paper that can't do anything if people won't fight for it.

garage mahal said...

Maybe Hitler and Stalin were just senile like Reagan too!

Original Mike said...

It's an old piece of paper, like one hundred years or something.

jacksonjay said...

Another scolding by the schoolmarm! I must enjoy this because I keep coming back!

Quaestor said...

Chip Ahoy wrote:
For most kids that happens at about five years. By this cosmology then, for me it happened at three and half years and involved a Wonder bread sandwich and Velveeta cheese. A momentous occasion.

Was the decision related to moral concept of ownership? Did tiny Chip Ahoy discover an unattended cheese food product sambo and was thus tempted to abscond with same? Or was the calculus more subtle, something which presaged a budding culinary aesthetic? Something like dare I corrupt these wheaten slices with this mere gelatinous curd posing as a member of the venerable order of cheese? Or did toddling Chip reflect on the ethical dimensions of the industrial practice of bleaching away the virtues of the staff of life only to replace them with synthetic equivalents?

Æthelflæd said...

Even when he was senile he knew it needed to go through Congress and not just pass by imperial edict.

garage mahal said...

You guys are starting to sound like the union crybabies. "I want this I want that! My rights!"

Too bad. You'll get what we can afford to give you.

Charlie Martin said...

The problem is that people have been fed nothing but bullshit for so long they believe it when they're told it's steak.

betweenthelines said...

The Department of Education has shotguns ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/17/why-u-s-education-department-has-27-12-gauge-shotguns/ )
...must be FOR THE CHILDREN.
Permit arming the real first responders: teachers and staff.

traditionalguy said...

Garage my friend...Reagan was a Guardian style President like George Washington had been. He did save us from Communist Myths and USSR's planned nuclear war in Europe.

Reagan thought registering guns would also save us. So he got that one wrong.

But how you equate Reagan with occult inspired mass murderers and stone cold murdering Tyrants that aimed to conquer the world or destroy their own useless people trying is beyond me.

You must be kidding, right?

garage mahal said...

Guns, like unions, were probably needed back in the old days. Now, we don't really need them anymore. Times have changed!

lemondog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lemondog said...

Unabashed Baby Kissing

Æthelflæd said...

Right, rapists, thieves, murderers and wannabe tyrants are a thing of the past! Welcome to Utopia.

Piers said...

bagoh20 wins this thread.

Darrell said...

Children, like unions, were probably needed back in the old days. Now, we don't really need them anymore. Times have changed!

Future Garage Mahal

TMink said...

Jesus used a child as an example:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

I see this as different from the examples in modern politics, but then that is my Savior we are talking about. 8)

Trey

Æthelflæd said...

Govt. Employee unions are some of the wannabe tyrants and thieves.

Piers said...

Chip Ahoy a close second.

jacksonjay said...

Garage says Reagan was senile!

Well he is right! That is what makes the mention of Reagan supporting an assault weapons ban so hideous!

The letter opposing assault weapons that Reagan signed onto was released in May of 1994! Reagan announced his Alzheimer diagnosis in November of 1994! Are we to believe that Reagan knew what he was endorsing?

Who uses an Alzheimer patient to make a partisan political point?

TMink said...

Garage wrote: "Too bad. You'll get what we can afford to give you."

You forget, we are heavily armed.

Trey

President-Mom-Jeans said...

And which Amendment explicitly mentions the right for involuntary collection of union dues against people's wishes?

I'll wait for you to get back to me Garage. Or not, you could always just kill yourself, with a gun or otherwise.

Idiot.

Æthelflæd said...

Bagoh20 has been watching Children of the Corn again.

n.n said...

I can accept "using" children to maintain or create a perception of an individual's humanity. I cannot accept using children as props to argue the validity of a policy. A policy which neither addresses the causes nor serves to mitigate the risk of committing a crime that purportedly justified its existence.

This is simple emotional extortion in order to obfuscate a policy presented with ulterior motives.

In case anyone thinks this is still irrelevant, their obsession to normalize elective abortion undermines any of their claims to moral fitness. If they do care about children, and they do, it is selective. Their principle interest, and Obama's interest, in children surviving abortion is exploitation to acquire democratic leverage.

Dante said...

Guns, like unions, were probably needed back in the old days. Now, we don't really need them anymore. Times have changed!

Don't own one then. Stay out of my rights, though. And stop demanding people who work pay for stuff you want.

Colonel Angus said...

"There's only one thing preventing an American Hitler from springing up some day"

The Constitution.


That didn't stop Lincoln. It's not a blatant usurpation of power you would see but some kind of cataclysmic even where the Constitution is shelved for 'national security'. Hitler did so after the Reichstag fire. Liberals believed Bush did the same thing after 9/11.

But again, I worry more about the great unwashed than Uncle Sam. For now anyway.

Crunchy Frog said...

On the other, as I suspect, Te'o was in on the deception, for sympathy, for publicity, or as a beard, then it's just an excuse to make fun of Allie/Inga/Manti.

Hmm, I didn't consider that possibility. "I got a girl back home," is an awful convenient excuse as to why you don't have a girl on your arm.

We now return this thread to it's regularly scheduled programming.

rhhardin said...

The MSM discoverd women with Jessica-in-the-well.

They discovered huge ratings, continuing coverage, and the loss of male audience, but huge female numbers tuned in all day.

It was the beginning of the pretty white girl in danger media meme.

A lot of the Jessicas were in fact Jessicas, was the weird thing, until Jessica in the airplane ended the name's reign.

Roy Lofquist said...

Dylan has always been one of the better bullshit detectors.

Methadras said...

Urkel uses his agitprops wisely.

Colonel Angus said...

You guys are starting to sound like the union crybabies. "I want this I want that! My rights!"

Too bad. You'll get what we can afford to give you.


Your post might actually make sense if you can show what union rights are enshrined in the Constitution.

Æthelflæd said...

Colonel Angus said, "But again, I worry more about the great unwashed than Uncle Sam. For now anyway."

Partners in crime.

Amartel said...

Obama's child army propaganda (this is not the first time) is so shameless and stupid (to say nothing of hypocritical) that I cannot find fault with Drudge pointing it out satirically.
Godwin's law is going to be severely tested over the next four years.

Anonymous said...

garage,

Guns, like unions, were probably needed back in the old days.

Unions were never needed. As you pointed out, they're for crybabies who don't want to work hard.

Guns, however, are always needed. The violent impulse of criminals and politicians (but I repeat myself) are best kept in check by good citizens. Armed good citizens are the biggest fears criminals and politicians have.

Anonymous said...

President Mom Jeans.......so weird. Don't you think it's odd to be to so fixated on one commenter here?

CWJ said...

Quaestot,

Yeah, I remember the children's choir thing. In fact, that's not the only instance since the same YouTube section has the infamous "um um um Barack Hussein Obama" video.

Quaestor said...

ricpic wrote:
J.J. Gittes: He's gonna get away with it...

The time is ripe for a neo-noir literary movement. Crime thriller are all very technical these days, very scientific -- forensic anthropologist exposes decades-old murder from few scraps of bone -- medical examiner reveals "accidental" celebrity death to be no so accidental -- profiler tracks psychopath to his lair -- and you can see the resolution coming a mile off, the writer being more expert in some narrow professional field than the idioms of detective fiction. What we need is a new Philip Marlowe or a reincarnate Sam Spade to dig the truth out of the filth our "lord and saviour" piles on our heads daily.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

There she is!

I knew Manti would show up sooner or later.

Did any of your imaginary children get Leukemia too?

Known Unknown said...

Persuasive?

Colonel Angus said...

Unions were never needed.

I would disagree. First and foremost they created safe working conditions at a time when factory work was as hazerdous as combat. Fair wages and treatment as well.

Today its less about workers rights than empowering union bosses. Pendulum swung too far in the other direction and rather work as partners with the employer, they would rather let the company die off. But the bosses don't care, they got theirs.

Known Unknown said...

The only time Obama has come close.

Known Unknown said...

I would disagree. First and foremost they created safe working conditions at a time when factory work was as hazerdous as combat. Fair wages and treatment as well.

Today its less about workers rights than empowering union bosses. Pendulum swung too far in the other direction and rather work as partners with the employer, they would rather let the company die off. But the bosses don't care, they got theirs.


I concur with the Colonel. I have no problem with the existence of private unions. The public ones are less favorable because their management are the taxpayers.

Seeing Red said...

Althouse: "It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin..."



FORWARD!

The people he hung around with didn't have a problem with them. Some even wanted to emulate them.

Sigivald said...

I don't care about photo-ops.

I do care about "for the children!" as a justification for legislation or executive action.

Especially when there's no reason whatsoever to believe the actions taken will do more good than harm - ignoring, arguendo, the issue of human rights vis-a-vis effective self defense - for children or anyone else.

"For the children!" is a lousy reason to push for the same wish-list your side has been pushing for 20 or 30 years.

(See "because terrorism!" and the Patriot Act wish-list; most of it was not especially objectionable, but most of it also had almost nothing to do with the alleged reason either.)

Chuck66 said...

Nobody tops Bill Clinton when it comes to using people as props. When he announce some new gov't program, he brought on stage with him a:

-Lady
-Black
-Elderly
-In a wheelchair

If this was today instead of the late 90s, she would also have been a lesbian.

bagoh20 said...

"Bagoh20 has been watching Children of the Corn again."
And:
Orphan
Eden Lake
The Others
Case 39
The Ring
The Omen
Them
Insidious
The Good Son
Let Me In
The Children
Babysitter Wanted
Hard Candy
The Uninvited
Dark Water
Village of the Damned
Pet Sematary
The New Daughter
The Unborn
Bless the Child
The Grudge
Sinister
Annie

How do you parents sleep at night?

Chuck66 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
garage mahal said...

Unions were never needed.

You know who else thought unions were never needed?????

Chuck66 said...

When you go back 100 years ago and look at the number of workers killed in industries such as mines and railroading, you can see why unions and gov't safety standards were needed.

Today unions do things like promote abortion and the gov't does things like require free birth control. That shows that unions and new gov't regulations are not needed when they are down to those issues.

Quaestor said...

garage mahal wrote:
You'll get what we can afford to give you.

It attitudes like yours that will finally push this to a violent conclusion. When it comes Obama will call on the military to retrieve his bacon from from the fire, which will in turn trigger mass mutinies and insurrections. Then... well, Obama and his myrmidons will discover the real meaning of the Second Amendment.

Brian Brown said...

garage mahal said...

You guys are starting to sound like the union crybabies. "I want this I want that! My rights!"

Too bad. You'll get what we can afford to give you.


It speaks volumes about your intellect that you think this is both apt and clever.

Anonymous said...

I sleep fine Bagoh, because I only have imaginary children, it's my grandchildren that scare the bejesus outta me :)

President-Mom-Jeans said...

I believe it was liberal hero Oliver Wendell Holmes who said "three generations of imaginary imbeciles is enough."

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Saw the pic of Obama kissing the kid in Ann's thread header.

First thought: I'll bet the parents carry that image in their hearts till the day they die. Lord Obama blessed my child. Oh fortunate, fortunate. A personal and intimate blessing, so much more meaningful than just having been present in a crown when the Master spoke.

Second thought: from Alan Moorehead's "The White Nile," chapter dealing with The Mahdi, Khartoum, and Gordon. "People would drink the Madhi's bathwater in the belief that it would confer good fortune on them."

Dante said...

I concur with the Colonel. I have no problem with the existence of private unions. The public ones are less favorable because their management are the taxpayers.

Public Unions/Private Unions both are fine and make sense within the confines of Capitalism. But, no union monopolies.

Anonymous said...

President Mom Jeans, this will be my last comment to you in this thread, I'm not real, I am a reading bot and I know where you live......

SH said...

Joe said...

"Drudge should have gone with this Stalin image."

Great find. Thanks

sdharms said...

Obama using children to advance the impression that he is doing good for the children is also ironic. His spending has ruined their future, and the future of this country. He believes in abortion -- and many "babies" are not present today because of his beliefs.

Anonymous said...

"CBS's Schieffer Likens Obama Taking on NRA to 'Defeating the Nazis'... "

Glad that moron Schieffer brought up the Nazis for comparison.

The little toothbrush moustache guy took the guns from the law abiding German people. For the children, no less. When the little guy's Nazis were the only one who had guns... The rest was history.

Known Unknown said...

Bagoh forgot this gem.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Awww, poor Manti is offended.

Boo fucking hoo.

Your lies and faux outrage is just as transparent as King Putt's.

Obama's shameless exploitation of children as a background prop for his power grab (multicultural rainbow of course, but he left out an Asian and a transgendered child)is offensive to anyone with critical thinking skills. But people are stupid and emotional, at least the democrat base.

Woe to the republic.

Unknown said...

garage mahal said, "Guns, like unions, were probably needed back in the old days. Now, we don't really need them anymore. Times have changed!"

I'll believe that when the police are no longer unionized and carry billy clubs instead of firearms.

Colonel Angus said...

I concur with the Colonel. I have no problem with the existence of private unions. The public ones are less favorable because their management are the taxpayers.

Well in part because as an actual taxpayer, I was never invited to be present when negotiating salary and benefit contracts.

Known Unknown said...

"CBS's Schieffer Likens Obama Taking on NRA to 'Defeating the Nazis'... "


Ummm, does this mean that Bob Schieffer is not an objective journalist?

Fernandinande said...

"It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin, "

Not really, since they all have the same mentality, but if the the comparison is inapt it's not Obama's doing.

garage mahal said...

Well in part because as an actual taxpayer, I was never invited to be present when negotiating salary and benefit contracts.

Yea, and I, as an actual taxpayer, was never invited to be present when negotiating the hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, contracts, and incentives that are handed out to private corporate bosses.

Original Mike said...

"Obama using children to advance the impression that he is doing good for the children is also ironic. His spending has ruined their future, ..."

Why spending hawks can not use this fact to their advantage is beyond me.

Seeing Red said...

--Yea, and I, as an actual taxpayer, was never invited to be present when negotiating the hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, contracts, and incentives that are handed out to private corporate bosses.--

Once could argue 1 voted for your congressman to do that vs. the bureaucracy.

Colonel Angus said...

Yea, and I, as an actual taxpayer, was never invited to be present when negotiating the hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, contracts, and incentives that are handed out to private corporate bosses.

It's a travesty isn't it?

Quaestor said...

garage mahal wrote:
I... was never invited to be present when negotiating the hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, contracts, and incentives that are handed out to private corporate bosses.

Something tells me that even if you had been invited and were present you wouldn't have objected. Ahem.

Colonel Angus said...

Yea, and I, as an actual taxpayer, was never invited to be present when negotiating the hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, contracts, and incentives that are handed out to private corporate bosses.

For someone who certainly seems to favor big government, your implied disdain for this practice is ironic.

Amartel said...

Powerline blog has an apt photoshop of the Obama child army propaganda, with a little arrow pointing to each kid indicating "$54,000 in debt."

Rusty said...

The lefties gloat and the executive mandates accomplish nothing at all.
Do you feel safer?

Alex said...

You don't even know your own readers.

Says the douchebag who only trolls non stop.

Brew Master said...

garage mahal said...
Well in part because as an actual taxpayer, I was never invited to be present when negotiating salary and benefit contracts.

Yea, and I, as an actual taxpayer, was never invited to be present when negotiating the hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, contracts, and incentives that are handed out to private corporate bosses.


The irony will be lost that the cure for both situations is the removal of as much power from all levels of government. But that won't sink in now will it?

Known Unknown said...

Yea, and I, as an actual taxpayer, was never invited to be present when negotiating the hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, contracts, and incentives that are handed out to private corporate bosses.

Big government gonna be big governmentin' !

Colonel Angus said...

The irony will be lost that the cure for both situations is the removal of as much power from all levels of government. But that won't sink in now will it?

This is exactly why I will never understand liberals. They desire an all powerful government then complain when they get one.

garage mahal said...

Big gummint can tell a legal private business precisely how they can conduct business with a private union. Why is anyone surprised that wouldn't be the end of big gummint being big gummint?

Oh well.

Æthelflæd said...

Bagoh20, I haven't slept in eighteen years. Well, except with one eye open.

bagoh20 said...

"This is exactly why I will never understand liberals. They desire an all powerful government then complain when they get one."

Let me try and help you:

They're stupid.

Lawyer Mom said...

Obama's kiddie campaign against guns reminds me of LBJ's "Daisy Girl" ad. It only aired once.

Æthelflæd said...

One child had a habit of creeping silently into our bedroom to tell us she had a nightmare. She wouldn't make a sound, and you would awake with skeletal fingers on your arm, and this creepy child in the moonlight staring down at you. Oh, that's my daughter. Heart rate through the roof. No more sleep.

TMink said...

As a conservative I find the Obama/Hitler/Stalin comparisons tedious and insultingly inadequate. Stuff like that makes conservative ideology look ridiculous because the claim, made by people who identify as conservatives, is ridiculous.

Obama is Carter on steroids. That is an apt and accurate description. The others are so hyperbolic as to be alien.

Trey

grackle said...

For us today to see Hitler and Stalin using children is to easily perceive the absurdity of promoting a political agenda juxtaposing it to a lovely, innocent child. Who falls for that? No one should!

Hey, it's just propaganda – and just a small part of the flood of propaganda that all of us must internalize.

Who falls for it? Well, just about everyone. Propaganda works very well. It shouldn't but it does. An individual must consciously fight against it for it to be neutralized but few do. Indeed, few are even aware they are being manipulated and much of it is disguised as "news."

Known Unknown said...

--Yea, and I, as an actual taxpayer, was never invited to be present when negotiating the hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, contracts, and incentives that are handed out to private corporate bosses.--

So now you're complaining of crony capitalism?

Original Mike said...

Trey needs to get his sense of humor back.

garage mahal said...

So now you're complaining of crony capitalism?

If 100% of that was taken away it wouldn't bother me a bit. Most of the money goes to sectors I have no use anyway.

Dante said...

Yea, and I, as an actual taxpayer, was never invited to be present when negotiating the hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, contracts, and incentives that are handed out to private corporate bosses.

Now you are talking! All this taxation is forced spending. On whatever the government wants. That's what happens when you give all that power to the government.

bagoh20 said...

What can you do if your toddler won't limit his magazine to 10 rounds? You can't put him jail. He/she can just laugh at you maniacally while she slides in cartridges 11-30. "Time out? No, I don't think we'll be doing that anymore Dad."

Maybe Sandra Fluke has a point.

When the kids find out what we are doing to them, we are gonna get wiped out. If it wasn't for Fox News, they'd never find out. Stop Fox Now!

jr565 said...

Pettifogger wrote:
I agree that the poses with babies and children on the campaign trail are intended to humanize. That's different and less objectionable than posing with children in support of a specific program.

that's true. Every time a president is enacting a program and he's flanked by kids, you can tell there's some serious propaganda going on.

It's cynical and cheap, but sometimes if you agree with the program its neutral.

Tough I can't totally flat Obama on this. He's joining a long list of presidents doing the exact same thing.

We have to do it for the children!

By the way, lets have.a president do it for the children when it comes to abortion. We need to take emergency measures to help the children from being murdered.


Here's my idea. The president is surrounded by kids on a stage as he lays out his plans to protect the kids from abortion. Slowly the lights go out on portions of the kids so it looks like they are no longer on the stage. Till finally the only light left is pointing at the president and he's all alone on the stage. Get. It? the kids aren't there a yore because they were able rted. The president needs to do something to help them from disappearing!
Cynical? Exploitative? sure. But if Obama can do it for guns why can't the right do it for aboetion, especially considering millions of fetuses are aborted every year versus maybe a few hundred dying in school shootings, and that's overly generous.

Plus, its theatric. Obama using the kids is just boring. If you're going to do political thater, might as well make it dramatic.

bagoh20 said...

"Most of the money goes to sectors I have no use anyway.".

Garage just had an epiphany - half of one anyway.

Baron Zemo said...

You might not want to eat the bullshit but I think you like "The Dirty Sanchez!

Well at least more than you like Tim Tebow. Just sayn'

Baron Zemo said...

That was for the childrens....

Colonel Angus said...

Big gummint can tell a legal private business precisely how they can conduct business with a private union. Why is anyone surprised that wouldn't be the end of big gummint being big gummint
Oh well.


The solution is smaller government but to acknowledge such a solution would require a conversion from being a liberal.

It's been done before so its probably not as painful as you might imagine.

Colonel Angus said...

If 100% of that was taken away it wouldn't bother me a bit. Most of the money goes to sectors I have no use anyway.

Keep going garage, you might find out that you don't have use for a good chunk of Federal spending .

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

"It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin, "

Yes. Compare and contrast, but not equate.

Hitler and the National Socialists are generally thought to be Fascist; private ownership but government control of the means of production.

Stalin is generally thought to be a Communist; government both owns and controls the means of production.

Both were totalitarians who used powers of government as an instrument of terror to keep the People subjugated.

Obama is more Communist than Fascist, willing to accept some private ownership of property but with an end objective of abolishing private ownership.

Obama is a totalitarian. He understands and uses the power of the State, arbitrarily applied, as an instrument of Terror to destroy the Rule of Law. His objective is to replace a State subject to the People with a State sovereign over the People.

However Obama's domestic use of Terror is thought not to extend beyond confiscation of private property and incarceration of citizens. Murder and assassination are generally believed limited to drone strikes and other acts of war on foreign soil.

roesch/voltaire said...

Sometimes children do matter and should be part of the visual dialog-- like when twenty of your school mates have been gunned down before your eyes. And sometimes they are used to evoke a "volk" feeling that gets you to ignore that Jewish and Gypsy children will be killed in state sanctioned ovens. There is a difference and Althouse is right to say that Obama's use of children should not be compared to Hitler's....

garage mahal said...

The solution is smaller government but to acknowledge such a solution would require a conversion from being a liberal.

I doubt there is one elected Republican in Congress that would take that deal.

bagoh20 said...

"Sometimes children do matter and should be part of the visual dialog."

Yes, like in the abortion debate. Let's do that.

Colonel Angus said...

R/V

To repeat, don't you think using children as props by a President who supports the unrestricted right of a woman to kill them in the womb is a bit unseemly? As part of the visual dialogue that is?

Because I can't help think while he's giving out hugs to the little tykes he's saying 'you know if your mommy wanted you aborted I would have 100% supported that. Just ask Sandra Fluke.


Colonel Angus said...

Garage, its not a GOP vs Democrat issue.

bagoh20 said...

I think Obama's effective use of children in politics is unparalleled in history. He got millions of them to vote for him.

Dependent, scared, fairytale believing children.

He also made very good use of the teenagers who believed he was moderate, post-racial, not an old crazy guy, or like dad.

We need to change the voting age to be based on maturity rather than time.

Quaestor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cedarford said...

Colonel Angus - "500,000 Tutsis were hacked to death in a little over three months. Im sure if they had a second amendment, the story might have been different."

It would have facilitated a faster genocide if both the Tutsis and the Hutus had a 2nd Amendment tradition and the notion of the Armed Hero Citizen.

The lack of firearms slowed the pace enough to allow 40% of the Tutsis to escape.
Had they faced Armed Hero Gunowners on the Hutu side, outnumbered 7 to 1 - along with organized Hutu-controlled government troops and radio that could direct gun-wielding masses it would have allowed the Hutus a more complete wipeout of the minority.

Generally, the last thing a prosperous and powerful minority wants is an armed and resentful citizenry. Such minorities - Jews in Europe&Russia & Muslim countries, overseas Chinese in Asia, rich and powerful African minorities have tried doing all in their power to stop any sort of "2nd Amendment Right" - preferring to stake their safety on gaining the favor of the strong central authority through money and guile and doing skills the gen population lacks.
In America, strong overall support by blacks and Jew for strong and large goverment that enforces laws for keeping guns out of the hands of the majority - stem from historical memory of what "Armed Hero peasants and Klansmen" do




Quaestor said...

There is a difference and Althouse is right to say that Obama's use of children should not be compared to Hitler's....

Are you truly this dense, or are you trying to pull a fast one? Ann has neither said nor implied what you have so blatantly mis-attributed to her. Ann's point about comparisons refers to comparisons of Obama to Hitler and Stalin as national leaders and moral actors, and not to this specific instance of the cynical use of children as political props in which Obama comparable to every politician who has used children in this way (this class includes Hitler and Stalin, btw, which ought to give any political figure cause to reflect on the company he keeps when doing such an odious deed).

Original Mike said...

"We need to change the voting age to be based on maturity rather than time."

Impractical. Changing the voting age to 30, however, would be a step in the right direction.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Annnnnnnnd here comes Cedarford to bring it around to the joooooooooooos and their "money and guile."

You must be really excited about that secretary of defense nomination.

What a sad man you are. I use "man" in the loosest of terms. Like Sandra Fluke level loose.

Patrick said...

bagoh20 wins this thread.

Chip Ahoy a close second

Pretty much how it happens here all the time.

Æthelflæd said...

Cedarford, I would take my odds against 7 to 1 with a gun in hand rather than a machete, even if the other seven had guns too. What heavily armed populace has been a victim of that kind of genocide?

Anonymous said...

The child doesn't represent "innocence" or the "future" to Obama. A child represents future government cash flow to this jack@ss pResident.

traditionalguy said...

Hitler's guys had a big plan to have many babies ASAP among SS fathers and German farmer's daughters.

After all once the 200,000,000 Russian Slavs and Eastern European mongrels were worked or starved to death, there would be a need to repopulate that third of the world before moving on to do the same in North America.

And the nuclear fusion bomb was first available to the Germans, but they threw out the Jews who figured it out. But the race to produce one first was a race to beat Hitler's plans for us.

The Japanese who were scheduled to be beaten second only got bombed because The Russian Army got to Berlin and the American Army got to the German's Atomic Weapons Development centers in April 1945.

ricpic said...

Roeschi is anxious that we don't confuse Obama with Hitler. Obama good fascist. Hitler bad fascist. Got it?

bagoh20 said...

Cedarford's M.O. is like liberals in that he takes a well known truth, labels it a myth, and then makes up a myth to replace the truth. The fact that we know something to be true is supposed to be the tell that it's false, or something. He's a really smart guy, because he knows stuff normal people don't. I'm in no position to argue - I fall for the easy stuff: sky is blue, children are evil, Obama's a dick.

Cedarford said...

Shana said...
Cedarford, I would take my odds against 7 to 1 with a gun in hand rather than a machete, even if the other seven had guns too. What heavily armed populace has been a victim of that kind of genocide?

====================
Shana - you would just die faster and maybe less gruesomely.
As for the general way of warfare, since time immemorial, a smaller heavily armed force - civilian, tribal, military - almost always loses to a far larger opposing force.

What is done in victory over the well-armed Apaches, Maronite Christians, Tutsis, armed Red revolutionaries in Indonesia, Haziris of Afghanistan, white colonial settlers in Africa..is a function of avenues of retreat to safety and whatever goodwill and mercy the victors have in them.

jr565 said...

"It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin, "


Except where there are similarities of course. Hey, it didnt stop the left when it came to Bush

garage mahal said...

I'm in no position to argue - I fall for the easy stuff: sky is blue, children are evil, Obama's a dick.

Romney is leading in the polls.

Romney will win most definitely....

bagoh20 said...

Governor Scott Walker.

garage mahal said...

Sorry, I made no predictions whatsoever. Why not? Polling.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

"I made no predictions whatsover"

What about that "indictment coming any day now?" I seem to remember that prediction.

Are you so stupid you forgot, or just lying as usual?

Assclown.

garage mahal said...

What about that "indictment coming any day now?" I seem to remember that prediction.

Then you should be able to easily link to it, svelty swimmer boy!

Darrell said...

Romney is leading in the polls.

Romney will win most definitely....


So. Even Garage admits that Romney won.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Why yes, yes it is you stupid fat fuck. A trip down memory lane to August 20th, 2012.

garage mahal said...
Hey, how's that indictment for Walker coming along?

I would say pretty close, prosecutors are now investigating the statehouse, as in Walker's administration. Don't worry, you'll be whining soon.

8/20/12, 2:45 PM

dreams said...

I think Obama is evil, time will tell just how evil.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Well Tubby? It is now mid-january January, is that "pretty close?"

Kirk Parker said...

Imaginary children.

garage mahal said...

It is now mid-january January, is that "pretty close?"

Walker is the only governor in the nation with a legal defense fund. He has stuck hundreds of thousands of dollars into it. And the John Doe is still open. That would leave me to believe Walker feels he needs money and lawyers to defend himself against charges.

TIP: When you put "quotation marks" around a sentence and attribute it someone, that means you are quoting somebody. Which in this case was incorrect, and you look like an incompetent idiot.

Megaera said...

Hey, anybody remember that great photo of Saddam Hussein w/ the kiddy on his knee? Humanity personified -- until you looked a little closer at the kid's expression and body language.

Megaera said...

Hey, anybody remember that great photo of Saddam Hussein w/ the kiddy on his knee? Humanity personified -- until you looked a little closer at the kid's expression and body language.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

So you didn't make that prediction?

Suck it fatboy, your fantasies of Walker getting frogmarched out were dashed.

No predictions whatsover?

You are goin to tell me that now that the post I just pulled out of the wayback machine is not a prediction? That is as big a lie as when you claimed to weigh 200 pounds.

God, can't you admit anything? You made a prediction about Walker getting indicted, and were wrong.

garage mahal said...

So you didn't make that prediction?

I didn't say what you quoted me as saying, you fucking idiot!

If/when the judge clears Walker, which he could have done at anytime, I will be wrong.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

I can admit that I was incorrect in putting the quotes around any day now. That actually was one of the many commenters on this site taunting you for your feverish liberal wet dreams about Walker, hilariously so.

If/when the judge clears Walker? You are still hanging on to that huh? You really are a til the bitter end true believer aren't you fatass?

Baron Zemo said...

I agree with garage.

That presumed innocent until proven guilty is a bunch of bullshit.

He is not innocent until the judge clears of the indictment that never happened err....and the charges that were never brought err...or something like that there!

I am with you dude.

(Although you did kinda predict that the Packers were gonna be in the Superbowl)

garage mahal said...

He is not innocent until the judge clears of the indictment that never happened err....and the charges that were never brought err...or something like that there!

Even Walker is innocent until proven guilty. I suppose.

test said...

garage mahal said...
I didn't say what you quoted me as saying, you fucking idiot!


Garage is very careful to parse his languge so he can claim never to have said what he intends others to believe. It's the First Rule of Propaganda.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Alright lardass, so when is pretty close? Sometime in 2013? Later than that?

I haven't heard you running your fat mouth about John Doe or secret servers lately? What happened?

Tell us, oh oracle of obesity, when that Scott Walker frog marching is goin to occur?

bagoh20 said...

I have watched on here for two months now as every time a lefty is out of ammo they go back to the election, as if being on the right side of coin toss makes their foolishness turn into genius. Like a guy who puts his life savings on the lottery and wins is suddenly a financial genius.

Although I wasn't for a long time, I eventually became a supporter of Romney after I learned what kind of man he was, and has been his whole life. I then became a cheerleader because the outcome mattered. I still think the lottery is a bad bet, Obama is a bad bet, but I can't stop the country from betting their children's future on Mega millions, even if it does make some people proud of being in that camp, because hey, a lot of people blow their money on the lottery, so it must be the smart thing to do. Be proud Honey Boo Boo, Idiocracy is a democracy.

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