Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Obamemnon and the NYC date

My sister in law asked me to blog about the Obama date in NYC...she said one news agency is now saying that the total cost was more like 250K, passed on to the American people.  

I'm the type who thinks the job of President is one that deserves a bit of extravagance.  A job that includes many perks.  I just take issue with the way Oh'bama's rhetoric fails to match his actions.  

Ben Shapiro has a worthy little article on the matter with a Greek bent on it.  The first two paragraphs are pasted below and followed by a link to the entire article. 


Obama Makes You Sacrifice for Him
by Ben Shapiro





Let us compare two historical situations. One took place several thousand years ago. The other took place on Monday.

According to legend, during the 13th century B.C., there was a Greek king named Agamemnon. He was bound and determined to attack and raze the city of Troy. When Agamemnon sought to launch his ships for Troy, however, the goddess Artemis sent a stagnant wind to stop Agamemnon's fleet. Agamemnon responded by calling out his daughter, Iphigenia, and sacrificing her to appease Artemis.

Fast forward to last Monday. In announcing the bankruptcy of General Motors, President Barack Obama spoke directly all those who would lose their jobs and their livelihoods. "I want you to know that what you're doing is making a sacrifice for the next generation -- a sacrifice you may not have chose to make, but a sacrifice you were nevertheless called to make so that your children and all of our children can grow up in an America that still makes things; that still builds cars; that still strives for a better future," he said.

Obama is fond of calling upon Americans to make sacrifices -- or rather, he is fond of forcing Americans into sacrificing themselves at a time and place of his choosing. Heroic sacrifice requires volunteerism, or at least an element of extraordinary choice; Obama's sort of sacrifice runs along Agamemnon-esque lines. He names the time and the place, and you are expected to put your neck on the altar.
 
 

2 comments:

  1. I think that Obama should make some sacrifices as he calls on the American people to make sacrifices in this recession. Exactly what, I don't know. I think the Obama's having date night is a great idea, but maybe they should consider how other Americans are sacrificing and keep the costs of their date night to a minimum. It just seems a little insensitive to me.

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  2. I had trouble reading the sectoin of the article you posted, but you did get me interested enough in it to go to the townhall blog and read the whole thing. It wasn't long and made it's point dramatically. I loved Mr. Shapiro's the fusion of the names: "Obamemmnon"!

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