Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama's Gift (Jesus comparison?)
merican Prospect ^ | January 3, 2008 | Ezra klein

Posted on 01/05/2008 2:34:38 PM PST by Shermy

""...Obama's finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don't even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair. The other great leaders I've heard guide us towards a better politics, but Obama is, at his best, able to call us back to our highest selves, to the place where America exists as a glittering ideal, and where we, its honored inhabitants, seem capable of achieving it, and thus of sharing in its meaning and transcendence...""

(Excerpt) Read more at prospect.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: ia2008; insaneliberal; kausfiles; obama; overthetop
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-5051-63 next last

1 posted on 01/05/2008 2:34:39 PM PST by Shermy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Shermy

Writer of that needs to get his head out.


2 posted on 01/05/2008 2:36:43 PM PST by Baladas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

I suppose the next thing we will hear is Obama is the Anti Christ. Sarc


3 posted on 01/05/2008 2:36:57 PM PST by freekitty ((May the eagles long fly our beautiful and free American sky.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: okie01; weegee

“He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color,”

Obama, the master of platitudes, is like John Lennon, bigger than Jesus!

But at least according to the gospel of Lennon, the comparison was a joke.


4 posted on 01/05/2008 2:37:55 PM PST by Shermy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy
Here we go......

How do we defeat Oprah’s man-child?

5 posted on 01/05/2008 2:38:16 PM PST by roses of sharon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

Hildabeast is scary, but the enemy you know is safer than the one you don’t.

Obama should keep us all sleepless.


6 posted on 01/05/2008 2:39:39 PM PST by Mrs.Z ("...you're a Democrat. You're expected to complain and offer no solutions." Denny Craine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: roses of sharon

” How do we defeat Oprah’s man-child? “

Point out that Obama is the tool of the cheaper labor/uinion busting lobbies, and the financial/carbon trade/credit bailout interests.

Of course it will be worthless if Huckster or McCain becomes the Repub candidate, since they are fronts for the same interests. A get a hoot when I read some white liberal dupe opine that Huckster is a “populist”.


7 posted on 01/05/2008 2:41:21 PM PST by Shermy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
Writer of that needs to get his head out.

Fo sho, fo sho!!! Osama inspires us to lose wars. Who wants that?

8 posted on 01/05/2008 2:41:32 PM PST by Migraine (...diversity is great... until it happens to YOU...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: roses of sharon; Shermy

LOL, excellent.

This thing should have had a HUGE barf alert though!


9 posted on 01/05/2008 2:42:09 PM PST by F15Eagle (1Tim 1:4; Gal 1:6-10; 1Cor 2:2; Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:34-35; 2Thess 2:11; Jude 1:3)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

I’m a relative nobody, yet I have much more foreign policy and intelligence experience than either Obama, Hillary or Edwards (combined)! How is it that one of these individuals might be the next president and command the most powerful military in history and lead the world’s only superpower? How?!


10 posted on 01/05/2008 2:42:17 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Your "dirt" on Fred is about as persuasive as a Nancy Pelosi Veteran's Day Speech)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

Hagiography.


11 posted on 01/05/2008 2:43:24 PM PST by Uncle Miltie (Vote "Tax Hike Mike!" < / sarc>)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Uncle Miltie
The term "hagiography" has also come to be used as a pejorative reference to the works of contemporary biographers and historians whom critics perceive to be uncritical and even "reverential" in their writing.
12 posted on 01/05/2008 2:44:41 PM PST by Uncle Miltie (Vote "Tax Hike Mike!" < / sarc>)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: F15Eagle

Has Oprah’s kid even shaved yet?


13 posted on 01/05/2008 2:45:36 PM PST by roses of sharon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Shermy
JESUS WAS NOT A SOCIALIST!!!

Can government do the work of God (Charity)?

What I have read and understood from the Bible is that God and Jesus wants us to help each other by using our own time, treasure and talent and to give from our hearts ("Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." - 2 Corinthians 9:7). Nowhere have I found anything along the lines of "Go out and institute huge bureaucracies that will take money from some people at the point of a sword and give that money to other people as a politician sees fit."

Our Founding Fathers were Christian and very pious men. They founded this country under strong Judeo-Christian tenets and reflected on their religious beliefs on all their decisions. They wrote nothing into the Constitution of any type of government "aid" to help the poor, children or anyone else on purpose. They wanted a very limited government for good reason. Limited government is the best way to ensure that freedom will be preserved. The Scottish philosopher Alexander Tytler, who lived during the time of the American Revolution and writing of the US Constitution, summed these views:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure.

From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years.

These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

There are many interesting questions if citizens rely on government to do "God's Work."

If a government takes a portion of a man's wages and does good with it, has the man also done good? If a government takes away a portion of a woman's property and does evil with it, has the woman also done evil? When a rich man pays more in taxes than a poor person, is he more Godly? If the government then does evil, is he more to blame? A woman works for the government and uses other people's tax money and does "God Work" with it, is this government woman now a good/Godly woman? If I legally try to avoid paying taxes, does that not make me an "Ungodly" man?

Today, the US government (federal, state and local) takes nearly 50% of a middle-class person's paycheck after all taxes are factored in (income taxes, Social Security, sales tax, real estate taxes, gas tax, death taxes, phone taxes, highway tolls, sad etc.). Uncle Sam will spend more money in just this year (2004) than it spent combined between 1787 and 1900 - even after adjusting for inflation. I cringe at those numbers. The Founding Fathers wanted nothing like the tax-consuming monster that we have as a government today. I also think of all the good work that could have be done if people were allowed to keep more of their own money and give it to organizations/people that they believe in their heart are doing God's work. Maybe it comes down to trust. Will people do the right thing with their own money or must a government take a huge chunk of it to do the "right things?"

Except government rarely does anything right except for those tasks that were explicitly outlined in the Constitution as the Founding Father intended. I could cite many examples (such as where would you rather put $10,000 in retirement money - in Social Security or in your own 401k plan?) but the plight of black America illustrates this failure beyond comparison.

In 1965, the US government was going to wipe out poverty by the "Great Society" programs, in which to date over 3.5 trillion dollars has been spent. These federal programs were designed to "help families and children" or "buy votes" depending on your political viewpoint.

At the beginning of the 1960's, the black out of wedlock birth rate was 22%. In the late 1975 it reached 49% and shot up to 65% in 1989. In some of the largest urban centers of the nation the rate of illegitimacy among blacks today exceeds 80% and averages 69% nationwide. As late as the 1970's there was still a social stigma attached to a woman who was pregnant outside marriage. Now, government programs have substituted for the father and for black moral leadership. The black family and culture has collapsed (and white families are not that far behind).

Illegitimacy leads directly to poverty, crime and social problems. Out of wedlock children are four times more likely to be poor. They are much more likely to live in high crime areas with no hope of escape. In turn, they are forced to attend dangerous and poor-performing government schools, which directly leads to another generation of poverty.

Traditional black areas of Harlem, Englewood and West Philadelphia in the 1950s were safe working class neighborhoods (even though "poor" by material measures). Women were unafraid to walk at night and children played unmolested in the streets and parks. Today, these are some of the worst crime plagued areas of our nation. Work that was once dignified is now shunned. Welfare does not require recipients to do anything in exchange for their benefits. Many rules actually discourage work or provide benefits that reduce the incentive to find work.

The black abortion rate today is nearly 40%. Pregnancies among black women are twice as likely to end in abortion as pregnancies among white and Hispanic women.

The "Great Society" programs all had good intentions. Unfortunately, their real world results are that they have replaced the traditional/Christian models of family/work with that of what a government bureaucrat thinks it should be.

I could make an excellent argument that if the US government had hired former grand wizards of the KKK to run the "Great Society" programs, and if they had worked every day from 1965 to today without rest, they could have hardly have done better in destroying black America than the "Works of God" that the government has done or is trying to do.

I have visited many countries in which the government "guarantees" that everyone has a job, a place to live, education, health care and cradle to grave "government help" for all children and families. It all sounds great except that the people in these countries are/were miserable. They wanted to escape but were forced by their governments, at the end of a gun, to stay. The "worker's paradises" of socialist and communist counties are chilling reminders of letting governments do "God's Work."

The Bible clearly states that we are to help those in need. The question is "Who should help those in need?" I firmly believe that scripture and the historical evidence strongly support that individuals, private organizations and churches should be the ones doing the heavy lifting. Government help should be the last resort. "Charity," enforced by the government, is not charity, it is extortion. "Charity," delivered by the government, is not charity, it is a bribe which corrupts both the giver and the receiver.

Very Sincerely,

2banana

14 posted on 01/05/2008 2:49:03 PM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

Somehow I just can’t get by the image of his wife warmly shaking hands with abortion providers and that nagging little “Hussein..” name on his birth certificate.

There are a lot of stupid Americans, but I don’t think we’re stupid enough to elect this guy. He would be a gift to any Republican who opposes him.


15 posted on 01/05/2008 2:50:16 PM PST by farmer18th
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy
It doesn't take much for ol' Ezra to have an orgasm, does it?

I'll bet he found der Schlickmeister "charismatic", too.

16 posted on 01/05/2008 2:50:54 PM PST by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

He elevates us to that god-like plane where killing babies becomes a holy act of supreme bliss.


17 posted on 01/05/2008 2:51:14 PM PST by Arthur McGowan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Because our system encourages only megalomaniacs to run for President.


18 posted on 01/05/2008 2:52:05 PM PST by Arthur McGowan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

I don’t remember Jesus saying it’s OK to let botched abortion babies die outside the womb with no assistance.


19 posted on 01/05/2008 2:52:21 PM PST by toddlintown (Five bullets and Lennon goes down. Yet not one hit Yoko. Discuss..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
I’m a relative nobody, yet I have much more foreign policy and intelligence experience than either Obama, Hillary or Edwards (combined)! How is it that one of these individuals might be the next president and command the most powerful military in history and lead the world’s only superpower? How?!

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." ...... Winston Churchill


20 posted on 01/05/2008 2:59:53 PM PST by Polybius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: roses of sharon

I don’t know but she sure is treating him like some sort of “messiah”.

Since she apologized for islam in the wake of 9/11, I have no reason to trust Oprah’s politics either.


21 posted on 01/05/2008 3:02:29 PM PST by F15Eagle (1Tim 1:4; Gal 1:6-10; 1Cor 2:2; Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:34-35; 2Thess 2:11; Jude 1:3)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
Come into the light...all ye little moths to the flame.
22 posted on 01/05/2008 3:02:52 PM PST by Earthdweller (The liberal MSM...Buddies of Romney F Kerry and the socialist march to China)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

Barf Alert. When Obama comes out in his speech and says “we are going to save the world” I sense his muslim roots showing thru.


23 posted on 01/05/2008 3:15:41 PM PST by taxesareforever (Never forget Matt Maupin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

Reading this crap it sounds like the same things the msm say about Huckabee. Wait until its Huck against Hussein Obama. They will quickly turn on Huckleberry. I sure hope voters wake up in time.


24 posted on 01/05/2008 3:34:29 PM PST by cquiggy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: freekitty

Not quite.


25 posted on 01/05/2008 3:39:28 PM PST by oprahstheantichrist (Stop calling them "liberals," they're Bolsheviks!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: okie01

Sadly there are millions like Ezra out there. I recently went to an obama rally, and at least a quarter of the people there had tears in their eyes as he spoke of how he will “change” America, and give everyone an education, a job, a home, and health. They truly see him as the messiah who will grant them their Utopian dreams.


26 posted on 01/05/2008 3:40:57 PM PST by joshhiggins
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

RED STATE UPDATE on Hillary losing Iowa, and Obama winning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV0T_CeHNO4


27 posted on 01/05/2008 3:43:17 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cquiggy
"... it sounds like the same things the msm say about Huckabee."

The ONLY reason the msm is fawning over Huck is that they know they can squash him like a bug, and they fully intend to.

28 posted on 01/05/2008 3:46:01 PM PST by oprahstheantichrist (Stop calling them "liberals," they're Bolsheviks!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: farmer18th
"There are a lot of stupid Americans, but I don’t think we’re stupid enough to elect this guy. He would be a gift to any Republican who opposes him."

I'm afraid you are very naive. Don't forget that in 2004, Oprah pledged that if Obama were to run for president, she would quit her show in order to campaign for him full time.

Oprah is without question the most powerful woman in the world.

29 posted on 01/05/2008 3:53:36 PM PST by oprahstheantichrist (Stop calling them "liberals," they're Bolsheviks!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: joshhiggins
I recently went to an obama rally, and at least a quarter of the people there had tears in their eyes as he spoke of how he will “change” America, and give everyone an education, a job, a home, and health. They truly see him as the messiah who will grant them their Utopian dreams.

Can an unserious candidate win?

Sure, if the voters aren't serious either.

30 posted on 01/05/2008 4:51:22 PM PST by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: 2banana

Charity for the Greek CHARIS implies one gives something with absolutely no expectation of anything in return, an outward grace, including respect or thanks, completely void of anything of indebtedness. Institutional giving attempts to quantify the need in providing the gift, but in so doing implies a false economy which begs the question of true charity.


31 posted on 01/05/2008 5:01:53 PM PST by Cvengr (Every believer is a grenade. Arrogance is the grenade pin. Pull the pin and fragment your life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Baladas

Unless they are talking about the anti-Jesus.


32 posted on 01/05/2008 5:03:51 PM PST by svcw (There is no plan B.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Mrs.Z

I am convinced< the man has not a thought in his head, he dreams, some one wake him up and wake up the rest of his lemmings before we all go over the cliff


33 posted on 01/05/2008 5:06:50 PM PST by ronnie raygun (Id rather be hunting with dick than driving with ted)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

So......Obama is basically a motivational speaker? Kinda like Erin Brockovich or Mary Lou Retton?

Maybe Obama can plan his second career touring on those “Millionaire Inside” spectacles with the Learning Annex along side Trumpe and Robert Kyosaki. Obama can tell us how to bring out our ‘inner purple’.


34 posted on 01/05/2008 5:31:54 PM PST by bpjam (Harry Reid doesn't even have 32% of my approval)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy
"Obama's Gift"

Other folk's money and a new mommy for all.

35 posted on 01/05/2008 5:33:32 PM PST by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mrs.Z
Hildabeast is scary, but the enemy you know is safer than the one you don’t.

Obama should keep us all sleepless.


Yeah, he scares the living batcrap out of me. He can charm a corpse back to life. In another thread, I semi-joked that he was an Anti-Christ and some do agree with me.

If you put a gun to my head and said, "choose Hillary or Obama," I would have to choose the Hildabeast. Obama is a loose cannon and although Hillary is dangerous, she is more calculating, a computer in a pants suit plus I think she would be easier to shut down via Congress than Obama with his charm. His smile spooks me.
36 posted on 01/05/2008 8:12:56 PM PST by Nowhere Man (Is Barak "HUSSEIN" Obama the Anti-Christ?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

Ezra. Can you say sycophant? I knew you could.


37 posted on 01/05/2008 8:40:40 PM PST by isrul
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

Are we becoming an Obama-nation?


38 posted on 01/05/2008 8:50:56 PM PST by BikerTrash
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: oprahstheantichrist
Oprah is without question the most powerful woman in the world.

Like I say, there are a lot of stupid Americans.
39 posted on 01/05/2008 10:21:07 PM PST by farmer18th
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Shermy
They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment,

Funny, they just seem like utter bullshit to me.

40 posted on 01/05/2008 10:39:01 PM PST by montag813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: farmer18th
Like I say, there are a lot of stupid Americans.

Especially in Iowa and New Hampshire.

41 posted on 01/05/2008 10:39:39 PM PST by montag813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Shermy

My God, people really are this stupid.

And they wonder how Hitler got the German people to support his insanity.


42 posted on 01/05/2008 10:44:31 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Guns don't kill people, gun free zones kill people)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: svcw
"Unless they are talking about the anti-Jesus."

In a post here in the last few weeks, it was mentioned that Pope Benedict declared direct war on Satan. Something about having an army of the purest in heart and mind to fight and be successful against Satan. There are ancient Scriptures that are not in the Bible because they made no sense then. The Vatican has them. The Swiss Army has to keep security there. Things about Confucious and Mohammed are there too.

43 posted on 01/05/2008 11:28:55 PM PST by BobS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: BobS; Quix
"There are ancient Scriptures that are not in the Bible because they made no sense then. The Vatican has them. The Swiss Army has to keep security there. Things about Confucious and Mohammed are there too."

Uhh, what do you mean by "ancient Scriptures?" Old Testament stuff? Other Pauline epistles? If they're so heavily guarded, how does anyone know what's in them?

Quix, what is he talking about.....?

44 posted on 01/05/2008 11:43:26 PM PST by oprahstheantichrist (Stop calling them "liberals," they're Bolsheviks!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Kickass Conservative
"And they wonder how Hitler got the German people to support his insanity."

I think he got people to throw litres of beer at each other in bars.

45 posted on 01/05/2008 11:46:45 PM PST by BobS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: oprahstheantichrist

Old stuff. In Greek and old Italian and Aramaic. You need to at least have a Doctorate to study them.


46 posted on 01/05/2008 11:51:13 PM PST by BobS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Nowhere Man
"... he scares the living batcrap out of me. He can charm a corpse back to life. In another thread, I semi-joked that he was an Anti-Christ and some do agree with me.

If you put a gun to my head and said, "choose Hillary or Obama," I would have to choose the Hildabeast. Obama is a loose cannon and although Hillary is dangerous, she is more calculating, a computer in a pants suit plus I think she would be easier to shut down via Congress than Obama with his charm. His smile spooks me."

Thank you for you insight and discernment. Being from Illinois, I have seen this since 2004 and I'd begun to think everyone else is blind, many of them otherwise intelligent people. An emotional "worship phenomena." After four years of this, it's comforting to know it's not just me.

"Computer in a pants suit," that's good! Wait, I'd have to change my screenname. This would make Oprah the False Prophet!

47 posted on 01/06/2008 12:00:31 AM PST by oprahstheantichrist (Stop calling them "liberals," they're Bolsheviks!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: BobS
You need to at least have a Doctorate to study them."

They actually let scholars look at them?

48 posted on 01/06/2008 12:02:24 AM PST by oprahstheantichrist (Stop calling them "liberals," they're Bolsheviks!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Kickass Conservative
"My God, people really are this stupid."

Yep.

49 posted on 01/06/2008 12:04:10 AM PST by oprahstheantichrist (Stop calling them "liberals," they're Bolsheviks!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: joshhiggins

God have mercy.

Anyone read their Bible lately?

Daniel 9-10 or so . . . Ezek 38 . . . Revelation . . . Matthew 24 . . .


50 posted on 01/06/2008 12:37:28 AM PST by Quix (GOD ALONE IS GOD; WORTHY; PAID THE PRICE; IS COMING AGAIN; KNOWS ALL; IS LOVING; IS ALTOGETHER GOOD)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-5051-63 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson