Who You Gonna Trust? (Surely not your lying eyes.)

American Spectator ^ | April 22, 2010 | Geoffrey Norman

[IbJensen]

There has been a lot said and written in the last couple of days about a new poll showing that only 20% or so of Americans "trust the government." The news is being gravely received and treated as further and redundant proof that the country is in a bad way.

To me, though, it sounds like pretty good news. We need more distrust of government for the very good reason that government is pretty much an untrustworthy enterprise. If more Americans had been inclined to distrust the government five, ten, twenty, or more years ago, we might not be in the fix we are in today and our distrust might not be so bilious.

Wouldn't it, for instance, have been a good thing if we had distrusted the entire Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac contraption which was the foundation of the housing bubble that, when it burst, led to the economic distress that has so many of us feeling distrustful and worse? If we had been a little skeptical of the government's claim that Fanny and Freddy were not backed by the full faith and etc. of the government and would not be bailed out if they got into trouble, then they might not have grown so fat on preposterous mortgages that they had to be bailed out using the full faith and etc. And we might all have jobs and more money today. But the people who ran those Government Sponsored Enterprises -- and got hog-rich doing it -- assured us that all was well. And we trusted them.

We can't claim innocence. This wasn't a "fool me once, shame on you," thing. By the time of the housing crash, we all had plenty of reason to know better. Still, we go on trusting, so shame on us.

[IbJensen]

Once we get the VAT, maybe we'll look back at that 20% figure and wonder how it could ever have been that high.

I guess Obama can create jobs.

Psychiatrists' ranks will be increasing as Obamamania continues to sweep our nation into his gutter. He may feel at home there, but most of us don't.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Psychiatrists will soon work alongside social workers, school teachers, librarians, artists, musicians, actors and many other professions in the farm fields, as they do in Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, Venezuela and other socialist nation-states. I will be sipping rum-based cocktails on my veranda and chortling at the news from home.

http://www.LivingInThePhilippines.com

[Windflier]

I will be sipping rum-based cocktails on my veranda and chortling at the news from home.

Really? You'd chortle while your fellow Americans on the mainland endured what you just described?

I find that hard to believe.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I'd chortle that they didn't have the stones to march on his house and remove him. I'd chortle that those who thought they were safe from his depredations (the so-called “intelligentsia”) will be his first victims (aka useful idiots). I'd chortle that the twenty-somethings that voted him in will likely be drafted into his thug army to be lorded over by gangsta disciples, black panthers, ACORNs and crips/bloods. I'd chortle as the leeches show up for “free” health care to find there aren't any more doctors (they all left or retired) and they'll be seen by Cuban style “barefoot doctors” that know less than a pharmacy technician. Either we man up and change this regime or quit complaining. I have the option to get out of Dodge, and I'm seriously considering it. I've read way too much history to stick around and see this place become Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia!!

[huldah1776]

Aren’t the Philippines being invaded by the terrorists, too, or is that battle over? Just wondering. It is beautiful, but a little to close to Asia for me. The closest I would get is Palin’s backyard or southern Australia, and for some strange reason, Siberia always enchanted me. :)

[2ndDivisionVet]

There are thousands of islands in the Philippines and all the Islamic trouble is way down in a few Southern islands that are hard to get to and way off the beaten track. When you read those stories of kidnappings, it’s missionaries and the like who should’ve thought twice before going in there. Most of the Philippines is heavily Catholic and very Marian (which is one thing Mrs. 2ndDivisionVet likes).

[Windflier]

Must be nice to have an “option”.

I, myself, don’t have that luxury, and will either wind up living on my feet in liberty and freedom, or dying on my feet to defend it.

[2ndDivisionVet]

So you won’t be getting any retirement, Social Security, 401k, or the like? That’s all you need. Depending on the location, $500-1,500 a month is more than enough to live like a King/Queen. Nice house, servants, plentiful food, Internet, medical/dental, etc...

[huldah1776]

I’ll add it to my survival agenda. Thanks! Does it snow there? LOL

[Windflier]

So you won’t be getting any retirement, Social Security, 401k, or the like? That’s all you need. Depending on the location, $500-1,500 a month is more than enough to live like a King/Queen. Nice house, servants, plentiful food, Internet, medical/dental, etc...

No, I'm not expecting to collect any sort of gov't money, and I have no pension.

But, even if I did have a healthy retirement secured, I'd rather stand and fight for my country, should it come to that. Better men than I, gave the last full measure of sacrifice so that I could live in freedom and liberty. I owe it to them, and to my children's children to do the same.

[CPT Clay]

Sure you can trust the govenment.

[Windflier]

Sure you can trust the govenment.

Did ya hear that HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebellius said that the state of Florida "can't opt out" of Obamacare after they voted to do just that?

Someone needs to tell that pin-headed, left-wing, fruit loop that we have "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

We own the government - they don't own us.

[Just another Joe]

I will be sipping rum-based cocktails on my veranda and chortling at the news from home.

You and me both, vet.
And it looks like it may be in the same country from your link.

JaJ

[Randy Larsen]

You make an excellent point!

While you chortle, I hope you will be helping those of us doing the fighting...

[sergeantdave]

“If more Americans had been inclined to distrust the government five, ten, twenty, or more years ago, we might not be in the fix we are in today...”

So very, very true. Ten or 20 years ago it was impossible to interest conservatives in attending local council or county meetings. It was like trying to get nuns into a strip bar. But half a dozen Marxists always managed to show up. Conservatives left the playing field and allowed the leftists to play the game their way.