One of the most compelling editorials resonating in both sports and politics today is Lisa Schiffren’s American Thinker article of December 8, “Tiger, Barack, and the Law of Transitivity.”  Her review of sex, golf, and politics, that examines celebrity worship and the cost of betrayal, is well worth a close read if not serious contemplation.

Schiffren begins, “As a rule, the revelation that a married athlete (or actor, or rock star, or politician) has conducted extramarital affairs with a bevy of "party girls" may titillate, but rarely has the power to shock.  

"In those realms, these things happen.  Entitled men. Willing women.  Deceived wives.  What’s new?

“We are interested because Tiger Woods, who may legitimately be the best golfer ever, had been turned into an all-purpose icon: a man of personal rectitude, a lovely smile, apparent openness; a family man, with a lovely wife and two adorable babies. And of course, he was our first living embodiment of the collective hope for racial reconciliation.  Who knew that the early reports of his betrayed wife Elin swinging at him with a golf club constituted literal icon-smashing?”

“We are staring because we’ve been had.  Betrayed. We see now that the image was all a fraud.  The talent was real.  But the things that made the public like Tiger personally — the low-key demeanor, manners, and sweet smile of countless sports-page photos, magazine covers, political analogies, and most important, product endorsements, was an act.  That would be betrayal enough.  But it wasn’t just Woods’ act. The larger lesson here is about how much artifice — sustained, deliberate deception — goes into the construction of a public persona when there is profit to be made or power to be had,” Schiffren wrote.

It is well worth the time to read the entire article (click here) and while the story brings sadness, the disgust comes “Because anyone with four functioning braincells gets that if this comprehensive charade can be sustained for a decade as Woods and those around him amassed billions, it can happen elsewhere.  It can happen right in front of our eyes.”

Conspiracy– what conspiracy?  Consider that in practical application conspiracy is no more than the coalescing of common interests purposed for profit or power.

“If I were watching the public’s disgust with the newly revealed Tiger Woods from an office in the West Wing,” Schiffren writes.  “I’d be concerned.  Because Barack Obama is about as completely manufactured a political character as this nation has seen.  His meteoric rise, without the inconvenience of a public record or accomplishments, and the public’s willing suspension of critical evaluation of his résumé allowed his handlers and the media to project whatever they wanted to on his unfurrowed brow.

“Ironically, the parallels have nothing to do with race. The Obama campaign did explicitly attempt to borrow from the then-universal Tiger Woods appeal to allay any discomfort voters might have had with a mixed-race politician. They constructed a persona that would make the American electorate comfortable with a barely-known, first-term senator with a left wing voting record, a deliberately obscured personal and professional past, and no traditional qualifications for high office.

“And while it doesn’t matter if another athlete is an adulterer, it matters a lot if the president is revealed to be an inexperienced, excessively ideological, and weak man who is naïve about the world and uncomfortable exercising American power during a time of war.  It matters if nothing in his training would have equipped the president to understand what it takes to stimulate job growth, or ameliorate a recession, or to end an overseas conflict successfully.  It matters that he is uninterested in the science behind global warming — and wishes to use the issue to amass power and reorder society.  It matters that he has no interest in the construction of policy,” She wrote.

Schiffren closes with a reference to a Jack Shafer (Slate media columnist) observation on Woods that “the impulse of the betrayed is to tear their fallen deities to shreds.”

It is happening in Tulsa, the Cosmopolitan Capital of Indian Territory where we know more about mixed race than Barack Hussein Obama ever learned in Hawaii or Indonesia or any Russian class his parents attended.  People are waking.  Many are angry at the hard Left turn to what they consider Marxism or Communism.

At a hobby group Christmas party Friday night in the Blue Dome District of Downtown Tulsa,one dedicated Liberal defended his man saying, “Nixon used deficit spending and the country survived it.”

The Conservative replied, “Not at this level and if Obama destroys the currency and America becomes the second Weimer Republic, we’ll hunt Liberals like we do rabbits.”

Hollywood or real – Capone-like corruption or the second coming of Christ: at some point there is accountability if an icon is found to be false.  Said more crassly, paybacks are a (female animal in heat every male within distance seeks to penetrate). 

 

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Edit Note:  The
hyperinflation episode in the Weimar Republic in the
1920s was not the first hyperinflation or the only one in Europe or even the most extreme, but it was the most
prominent case.  The photo above shows children playing with Weimar
Republic currency – paper of no value.

 

Dear friend,

The Republican Party in Oklahoma is near its breaking point.

Though the GOP wants you to believe that everything is fine, that they’re in control, and that they’re going to keep winning elections, recent events tell a different story.

In August, Gary Jones, GOP chair, said that if the Republicans are "working together collectively, I predict a sweep." But Jones may be too busy working on a lawsuit he filed over his lost elections in 2002 and 2006 to tend to his party – because significant cracks are showing in their armor.

Already Republican Sen. Glenn Coffee is throwing fits over the battle for who will succeed him as his party’s leader in the Senate, intimidating his fellow GOP senators and threatening to "burn down the house" if he doesn’t get his way.

But Coffee’s not the only one in the middle of the Republican crack-up.

Though Mary Fallin wants you to believe she’s the heir to the throne in the GOP race for governor, her Republican opponent is criticizing "career politicians" like Mary and railing against her "politics as usual" games in D.C.

Fallin’s open Congressional seat has drawn six Republicans trying to elbow their way through the field for their party’s nomination. They have multiple candidates facing off for the State Superintendent’s race, for Lt. Governor, for Treasurer, and for the Attorney General post. And they have only one statewide incumbent, who hasn’t even made up his mind yet about re-election.

So much for "working together collectively."

The Republicans don’t want you to see it, but the civil war that’s underway in their own party is too big to miss. And Democrats are poised to take advantage of their in-fighting.

Now, more than ever, we need your support. There is too much on the line in 2010 – from the Governor’s seat on down, we need to support the Democrats who have stepped up to lead our state into the future.

Now, more than ever, we need you to help us work together to make Oklahoma a better place. I hope you can help us by giving $10, $35, $50 or more – whatever you can afford – to keep pushing the Republicans apart and to help elect a Democratic team that will work for Oklahoma.

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Todd Goodman
Chair, Oklahoma Democratic Party

PS – Four years ago, Democrats in Oklahoma put our differences aside and nearly swept the statewide elections. We can win again – but we need you to help! Please consider giving $10, $35, $50 or more to help us secure Democratic victories in 2010!

Following is a letter from Ryan Leonard, Republican candidate for state Attorney General, concerning the national healthcare proposal:

Dear Friends:
 
We are all rightly concerned by the direction our nation is headed.  Our country is in the midst of the most massive "federalization" in its history, both in terms of out-of-control, irresponsible federal spending and efforts by this Congress and Administration to move authority towards the federal government and away from state and local governments and the people.  Many of the liberal proposals currently under consideration in Congress raise serious Constitutional and other legal questions, and as a conservative candidate for Attorney General, I want to alert you today to one (of many) issues that will require a strong, conservative Attorney General who is willing to fight for the people of this state and push back against an ever-encroaching federal government.
 
As you know, this week the U.S. Senate begins its debate on a national healthcare proposal.  The Wall Street Journal recently called the House-passed version "The Worst Bill Ever."  Like many in this country, I am opposed to socialized medicine (not to mention the $1.2 trillion price tag), and believe that we must make every effort to maintain the quality and accessibility to healthcare- the best in the world- that we currently enjoy.

While this important battle will continue to be waged in Congress, in my speeches across Oklahoma the past 6 months I have raised the very important issue- that seems to be lost on Congress- that nowhere in the United States Constitution does it provide the federal government the authority to require an individual to purchase health insurance, or be punished with a tax if he or she doesn’t.  This federal mandate and punitive tax are the hallmarks of the liberal pieces of health care legislation currently pending.  When confronted several weeks ago about the "constitutionality" of the pending health care proposals, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded "Are you serious?"  To dismiss such a legitimate, and fundamental, question that goes to the very heart of the debate is illustrative of the extent that liberal interests will go to achieve their ends of growing government.  In the 1990’s I spent four years working for former U.S. Senator Don Nickles in Washington, D.C. and know from personal experience that whether or not a bill is "constitutional" is rarely asked by those seeking to expand federal power.  In the case of the current health care proposals, this fundamental question is being ignored altogether, to the detriment of the rights of the people.
 
The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."  James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 4, "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined.  Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite."  Plainly, our founding fathers envisioned a strong federalist system, with certain, enumerated powers vested in the federal government and the remainder of authority- necessarily including personal health care choices and the regulation of health insurance- to be vested with the people and the states respectively.
 
"Health care reform" is but one of several issues under consideration by this Congress that threaten to disrupt the critically-important balance of power in this country, moving more rights away from the people and state governments. "Cap and Trade," aside from the grave economic dangers it poses to Oklahoma and the entire country, has legal problems ripe for challenge, and other proposals threaten our 1st and  2nd Amendments freedoms (I will address these in future newsletters).  Simply stated, the Constitution is under attack, and depending on what legislation ultimately emerges from Congress, the Attorneys General of the various states will likely find themselves on the front lines of momentous, constitutional legal battles.  It is critical in 2010 that Oklahoma elects a conservative Attorney General who has the will to engage in this important fight to preserve our constitutional freedoms.  

There are so many things to be thankful for here in the Cosmopolitan Capital
of Indian Territory.  Personally, I first thank God and America’s
founding fathers who followed their faith to these shores and built
the most prosperous, charitable, just, and free society ever to exist
in the human experience.  I thank all in military service for their
sacrifices in defending freedom.  I thank my family; the six
generations of Oklahomans that by hard work built personal
profitability and provide for each other.

I thank Tulsa Today readers. Since 1996 we have talked here by e-mail, phone, at meetings and on the streets of Tulsa.   

Those thousands of daily communications small and large discussions
with occasional rants and raves have made us better reporters and the
publication a better reflection of our community.  I am grateful for all who have helped program, photograph, write, edit and produce
this interactive independent news service.  Some are now long gone to
other careers, but I remember each and thank them for their important
contributions.  We would not exist without them and loyal advertisers.

Come to think about it, I am also grateful this Thanksgiving for food and football – including my personal choice for the best coach in college football history, Bob Stoops, Oklahoma University.  Ok fine, so Tulsa University and Oklahoma State University fans may disagree around the table this holiday, but that makes life interesting.  (I am also a Minnesota Vikings fan, but that is a story for
another time.)

I welcome registered users to add your Thanksgiving Day message below (it’s free and easy to join).  Have a great holiday.

It sounds good when politicians praise it and lame journalists write
it, but there is always a compelling case for some great authority to
“do something.”  Yes, with tears cascading upon the keyboard, writers of
ideological aggrandizing concoct in the name of “fairness” that
something must be done by government to “fix it.”  The “it” varies and
is usually a good sounding thing, but the specifics don’t really matter
in promotion. 

The point is the divide of outlooks.  The Left believes in a system approach.  They wish to manage all things and manically believe the perfect world – fair for all with peace, love, and universal healthiness and happiness – can be created from the top down by government. This occurs only if the regime controlled all money and means of production with the ability to direct our individual activities in the communal best interest.  This is the lie of “progressives” because there is no progress in this position.  Totalitarian control is an old lust for power abounding throughout history and, in every case, a failure.

The Right believes that individual liberty, creativity, productivity, and innovation, when applied with honor, can over time accomplish the greatest good for the individual, community and nation.  Radicals that founded America based their organization of the nation on these principles.  This was the greatest “progress” in the history of human society.  The Constitution of the United States of America limited government and guaranteed certain unalienable (can not be separated) rights to individuals.  History proves America’s success (in contrast to totalitarian efforts) by our economic growth and prosperity – at least until recently.

Fix It Failures

The “it” in housing was to help more people own homes. To “fix it” government programs pushed families into homes they could not afford and mortgage brokers to create fraudulent financial instruments on the open market.  Government regulators failed by deliberate corruption or criminal inattention to manage when clear signs of coming disaster first appeared. Both DemoRats and RepugNants were responsible.  Thus the “housing crisis” soon became the“financial crisis.”  

Will Congress or the Court hold hearings, assess responsibility, and demand accountability?  If they don’t … the citizens of America should.

The “it” in the financial markets featured highly educated fools in their own self-interest begging less knowledgeable elected officials with false claims that the “sky is falling” and all life as we know it will end unless they were immediately empowered with unlimited funds from government.  (Remember, no government ever makes money. Government can only take money from the people who actually earn it.)

The truth is that no business is too big to fail.  In a free market, former workers and management feed off the carcass of failure, then flee in freedom to create new businesses with innovation born of their past experience and training to survive, build and prosper, or not, anew.  This is the simple cycle of life – birds,bees or business – it all works the same.

The “it” of General Motors is even more transparent. They failed for many reasons, including product and marketing, but most significantly, from union demands that had escalated beyond reason over many decades.  The cost of union benefits killed General Motors and it would have been most fitting and good for the economy if the company had ended.  But Barack Hussein Obama’s election was strongly supported, if not corrupted, by both union money and thugs thus … Government Motors.

The “it” of the environment is truly pointless propaganda. Everyone (even a capitalist pig) wants a clean healthy environment.  No one wants to live in Chairman Mao’s China where you can not breathe the air or drink the water.  By emotionally escalating to “crisis” our natural love of growing things while demonizing man, the industrial environmental complex’s frequently fraudulent fellows (Al Gore and others) seek only fulfillment of personal greed.

There is no global warming – the earth has been cooling for the last decade – and climate change happens by nature.  Seizing tax money to support feel-good unproven if not unattainable goals, the environmental fanatics will destroy business for no positive purpose.  The “Cap and Trade” bill is a “Kill by Tax”proposal costing anyone who owns a light switch. That is not progress outside the environmental industry, unless you disagree with the right of individuals to own private property.

The “it” of health care reform is not healthy nor is it reform.  In Oklahoma, we have had national health care for decades.  It is called Indian Health Care and how it serves the people of each Indian Nation can be documented if there are any good investigative reporters left in America.  So how is that working for ya? 

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said you should "never let a serious crisis go to waste.”  His brother Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, President Obama’s health policy advisor at the Office of Management and Budget suggested that health care should be proportionally applied with the greatest benefit to citizens between age 15 and 50 years.  That would be rationed health care — delayed and denied in service to the greater good. That policy perspective is contrary to the Constitution which guarantees the individual right to life, liberty and property which cannot be denied without due process. 

Again, the Obama Administration is of the Left and they believe in system management of all things for the greater good.  That is Marxism, which is just Communism with fewer guns.  As a group, they have spent little to no time in free-enterprise working for a living.  They don’t know the challenges of small business.  They have prospered primarily by bureaucratic power-gathering and system development – community organizing if you like.

Obama said in a broadcast on Chicago Public Radio in 2001, “The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth … The tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change.”

Redistributive change can only be brought about in America by the collapse of the economy, which can happen when our currency ceases to be “good as gold” and becomes worthless.  It will be worthless when other countries and financial institutions decide they do not want to purchase the debt load of America’s massive spending.  At that point, it will take a wheelbarrow full of money to purchase a loaf of bread and you will need to grow your own vegetables to feed your family.

Then the“fix it” call will go out to some worldwide body like the United Nations to act in crisis and establish a new currency – a world currency.  Then we are paupers.  Then we are slaves.  Then America as we have known it is over. 

All hail Barack Hussein Obama as he may then be able to establish the redistributive change he, the heretic Jeremiah Wright, Marx, Lenin and others have so long worked to accomplish. 

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About the author:

David Arnett began a career in professional journalism in 1985 and has
published Tulsa Today since 1996 – online years before Al Gore invented
the Internet.  He has won two national awards as a First Amendment Publisher. 
Arnett is a Conservative Media Critic, Antiauthoritarian Conservative and a proud
pain in the political derriere of the disingenuous. This analysis may be
reproduced without charge with links to the original source. Arnett is available
for interview and speaking engagements.