Tuesday, June 15, 2010

INFANTILISM REVEALED

According to an article in USA Today President Obama says the Gulf oil disaster "echoes 9/11" because it will change the nation's psyche for years to come, according to an interview with POLITICO, a news outlet.

"In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11," the president said Friday in the Oval Office interview. "I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come."

While I understand that the oil spill is terrible, and I understand that the thrust of President BO's remarks had to do with some of the emotional reactions of 9/11 compared to that spill, I suggest that the two are so far apart in their meaning that the comparison is infantile, at best.

Let's compare them.

In 9/11 people were killed. In the oil rig explosion people were killed. Same thing, right?

Let's see: 11 people equals almost 3,000 people...do I have that right?

The unnecessary death of 11 people is awful...terrible...gut-wrenchingly sad.

But compared to the unnecessary death of 3,000?

OK, OK, let's look at it another way.

In 9/11, terrorists from another country deliberately flew two passenger planes into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon, with a third unsuccessful in its attempt to hit, presumably, the White House.

Unless someone is holding something back, the BP Gulf oil rig exploded through some malfunction and/or incompetence.

Same thing...right?

Let's see deliberate attack by foreigners equals accidental explosion on foreign oil rig?

No, no, no...that won't work. Let's try again.

In 9/11 two privately owned buildings that cost $900 million dollars to build. The Gulf oil rigs - state-of-the-art that they were - cost about $500 million dollars.

In fifth grade math we learned that $900 million equals $500 million, right?

Must be New Math.

Look, I tried. I really tried.

But try as I might, I cannot come up with a fair comparison of the two terrible events.

Fortunately, we have a beloved leader whose wisdom is far greater than mine.

He has no trouble making the comparison.

See, his massive pre-presidential experience did not prepare him for real world events. He was used to dealing with EVERYTHING on a philosophical and/or theoretical level. It never occured to him that as President he would have to actually know what concrete steps to take in a real emergency.

Don't go all slimy on me, now. I am not saying, implying or suggesting that the BP oil spill is anything less than tragic or that it is somehow not important.

I'm just suggesting that on ANY level...ANY LEVEL AT ALL, it bears absolutely, positively no similarity to the events of 9/11...NONE.

And to make the comparison is, as President BO is about just about everything, infantile.

(Thanks to Debra for the inspiration for this post.)

17 comments:

WomanHonorThyself said...

I'm just suggesting that on ANY level...ANY LEVEL AT ALL, it bears absolutely, positively no similarity to the events of 9/11...NONE..amen Joe!..what a horror this tyrant truly is!

Trekkie4Ever said...

How right you are there is absolutely no comparison between 9/11 and the oil spill.

Yes, the oil spill is a sad devastation that will take years to clear up, and I will not discount the 11 deaths, but it should never be compared with 9/11.

tapline said...

And speaking of infantile, it doesn't take a third grader to know that nothing was done by "the one" when it came to curbing the spill, after almost two months??And where was congress when it came to monitoring this mess and perhaps to pass appropriate legislation to deal with it if we didn't have the right laws in place ??am I missing something???? the executive branch of government is not the only branch of government there is and if one isn't up tho the task the other should step in and do it....?I'm sure we will have all the answers tonight with cap and trade or a substitue as the only answer for this crisis! stay well

Unknown said...

Yes, this marks a new low for the president. Fortunately, I have Man vs. Food to watch instead of his "lie to the nation".

ablur said...

I am still trying to find something this guy is good at. He is a good speaker, if he has a teleprompter. He has mastery of the language, as long as the word isn't corps. He shows due respect to the constitution, when he destroys the freedoms it was designed to protect.

Now we find out that he can't compare two items without messing it up.

Sure looking forward to gone.

Joe said...

WHT: To think otherwise is absolutely unthinkable!

Leticia: I'm with you.

Tap: He is theoretical, nothing more.

bluepitbull: His speech was full of glittering generalities.

ablur: Letterman had a really nasty spoof of the president last night...Oh, wait! That was Bush. I though his term had ended.

Xavier Onassis said...

First, I feel compelled to point out that in that photo you posted, real human lives are being lost in a horrifying manner. People were dying in that ball of fire and you cheapen their lives by using that picture as an illustration for your self-serving blog post. You should be ashamed.

Second, 9/11 was a national security disaster of unprecedented magnitude that caused the United States to make a fundamental, strategic shift in the way we approached domestic spying, a citizen's right to privacy and annonymity, immigration, foreign policy.

The oil spill in the gulf is an environmental disaster of AT LEAST equal magnitude if not bigger. You so easily discount the lives of the 11 people who died. You are completely oblivious to the plant and animal life that has, until now, provided jobs and food for millions of people. The entire Gulf of Mexico is being turned into a Dead Zone and the currents will carry this polluted, corrupt filth into the rest of the world's oceans.

In the SAME WAY that 9/11 caused us to rethink every aspect of our national security policies, the disaster in the gulf will cause us to rethink every aspect of environmental regulations. No longer can the MMS and EPA be rubber stamps for greedy oil companies.

The federal government needs to come down HARD and increase regulation and oversight.

Unbridled capitalism DOES NOT WORK! Corporations are inherently corrupt. They are bloated with greed and have no obligations beyond filling their own pockets.

It's time to bring these thieves to justice.

Mark said...

"In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11," the president said Friday in the Oval Office interview. "I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come."

Considering the fact that Obama and his Liberal minions have a pre-9/11 mindset, I don't see how he can make such a comparison.

And, I don't think how I think about the environment and energy is going to change one iota. It was an accident. How does that effect our thinking of the environment and energy?

Joe said...

XO: "The oil spill in the gulf is an environmental disaster of AT LEAST equal magnitude if not bigger..."

Not even close, which is the point of my post.

I did NOT cheapen the 11 lives lost. I made a point of stating their significance. You, sir, if you read my post, are misrepresenting it at best and just plain fibbing at worst.

Furthermore, it is YOU who cheapens the lives of both the 11 and the 3,000.

Let me put it another way: The first 11 lives lost in the Twin Towers were exactly as tragic as the first 11 lives lost in the oil well explosion. The other 2,989 lives were more tragic.

As to the animal life lost...sad but not comparable to the loss of human life.

As to livelyhoods lost: BP is responsible and BP should pay...period. Not me...not you, BP.

"Unbridled capitalism DOES NOT WORK!" How would you know? It's never been tried in your lifetime. Besides, I have never, and do not now advocate "unbridled capitalism."

I very clearly stated in my post that the explosion on the oil rig was terrible ("...I understand that the oil spill is terrible..."). Does that, or does that not say it was terrible?

That picture sould server to remind a thinking person of the horrible assault on our soil by a bunch of outsiders.

I am most definately NOT ashamed, nor should I be.

Your belief, along with President BO's, that these two events are somehow equal is totally obnoxious and stinks to high heaven, demonstrating your (and his) lack of civility.

Joe said...

Mark: Well some people's (like XO's)minds are changed easily. Only I suspect that his (XO's) thinking was not so much changed as reinforced.

tha malcontent said...

Even the Top 3 Lefties Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Howard Fineman, all trashed the Comrades speech.
Chris Matthewssaid: "I don't sense executive command." And compared Obama to Carter!

Keith Olbermann said: "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days."

When the three stooges couldn't even agree with the Party Commander, you know that it must have been pretty bad!

Joe said...

Tha Malcontent: "When the three stooges couldn't even agree with the Party Commander..."

That's a good one!

Quite Rightly said...

Xavier hopes that, "In the SAME WAY that 9/11 caused us to rethink every aspect of our national security policies, the disaster in the gulf will cause us to rethink every aspect of environmental regulations."

It would be nice to know that the Obama administration has rethought our national security policies post 9/11. And it has. According to Obama-think, Islamic jihadism exists only as an innocent religious doctrine and anyone who who kills or attempts to kill Americans while shouting "Allah u Akhbar" is presumed to be a lone Tea Party nut job until proven otherwise. Likewise, a Muslim mega-mosque is welcome at Ground Zero and anyone who doesn't like that idea is labeled a bigot.

If Obama similarly "rethinks" our current environmental policies, future oil spills will be presumed to be acts of sabotage performed by oil workers anxious for unemployment, and BP looks forward to governmental praise when it erects statues of Tony Hayward and the BP board of directors on the grave sites of the workers killed by the BP rig explosion.

David Wyatt said...

Once again, right on target, bro. Joe. God Bless.

Z said...

WHAT? NO COMPARISON WHATSOEVER....
Man, how much more do we have to go through with this guy?
Joe, great post.

Susannah said...

He's trying to twist it for political gain...'we were all so changed by 9-11, we realized we had to do security differently...therefore, we will all be so changed by this oil spill [caused by dogmatism on the LEFT, I might add] that we will have to do energy differently. Let me introduce CAP & TAX, etc.'

Again - never let a good crisis go to waste.

Disgusting. And we see straight through you, BHO.

Susannah said...

BP! You watch "man vs. food"?? My husband & boys LOVE it!! Although they're usually grossed out by it. What is it w/ boys/men & eating contests? Machismo? Testosterone surges?

XO~ "People were dying in that ball of fire and you cheapen their lives by using that picture as an illustration for your self-serving blog post. You should be ashamed."

Yes, God help us, people died.

No. B Hussein Obama cheapens their lives by using it as an illustration for his self-serving POLITICAL IDEOLOGY!!! Who cares about our lowly little blogs? (Oh, right. I forgot. B Hussein Obama wants to regulate us, too.)

HE SHOULD BE ASHAMED!! But he won't be...doesn't have it in him. Clearly.

"Unbridled capitalism DOES NOT WORK! Corporations are inherently corrupt. They are bloated with greed and have no obligations beyond filling their own pockets."

Let's sub a few words just for fun...
"Unbridled human nature DOES NOT WORK! Human nature is inherently corrupt. Humans are bloated with greed and have no obligations beyond filling their own pockets."

Now, that's the truth, the whole truth, & nothing but the truth.

What we have in this nation is not an oil problem, not a greed problem, it's a spiritual problem. And Marxist-Islamo-fascist-sympathising-jihadist-softy-leaning presidential politics is not the answer.