Thursday, February 17, 2011
You can call a cat a dog but he still won't bark
Words matter. At least the meaning of words matter. The American version of English we often times distort or even completely reverse the meaning of a word. Bad becomes good. Hot and cool can mean the same thing. Context matters. So do culture and location. But we mostly manage to communicate with each other pretty well despite the various definitions of many words.
Then we have politicians and their often too happy to comply media. They can say or do one thing then look you in the eye and insist they never did that. And they believe themselves. Case in point, Obama releases his budget and declares that it is in primary balance as of 2015. In primary balance means they aren't counting interest payments on debt. Really. He says it balances and he believes it balances. It's just that pesky interest payment of several billion dollars a year that he ignores.
Another case? This administration continues to insist that the stimulus worked as planned and saved or created 3 1/2 million jobs. Yet no one can point to any of these jobs and the unemployment rate has stayed above 9% while hundreds of thousands of job seekers have simply given up.
Is Obama serious about cutting the deficit?
Spending cuts of 90 billion leaving a deficit of only 1.1 trillion?
Investing 58 billion on railroads? Does he really believe railroads are the future?
Using the word investment instead of spending does not make it an investment. Does anyone really believe that railroads will win the future? Seriously?
Buying a car is spending. Buying a bank is investment.
Investment implies a possibility of a return or something in return for the investment. Of course, an investment may also lose money but that is not the reason anyone makes an investment.
Government DOES NOT make investments! Governments can only spend. Period.
George Orwell said in 1984 that 62,400 repetitions constitute one truth.
I believe truth is not dependent on repetition. Our minds may think that way since learning by rote is merely learning by repetition but you will suffer sever cognitive dissonance if you believe something is true based solely on the fact that you have heard or read something repeated over and over.
Don't believe that? Try calling your cat a dog over and over again. Tell your family, your friends everyone you meet that your cat is a dog. You may convince yourself and some other people but.... That cat will never bark!
Government investment is simply spending.
My nickel.
OH
Then we have politicians and their often too happy to comply media. They can say or do one thing then look you in the eye and insist they never did that. And they believe themselves. Case in point, Obama releases his budget and declares that it is in primary balance as of 2015. In primary balance means they aren't counting interest payments on debt. Really. He says it balances and he believes it balances. It's just that pesky interest payment of several billion dollars a year that he ignores.
Another case? This administration continues to insist that the stimulus worked as planned and saved or created 3 1/2 million jobs. Yet no one can point to any of these jobs and the unemployment rate has stayed above 9% while hundreds of thousands of job seekers have simply given up.
Is Obama serious about cutting the deficit?
Spending cuts of 90 billion leaving a deficit of only 1.1 trillion?
Investing 58 billion on railroads? Does he really believe railroads are the future?
Using the word investment instead of spending does not make it an investment. Does anyone really believe that railroads will win the future? Seriously?
Buying a car is spending. Buying a bank is investment.
Investment implies a possibility of a return or something in return for the investment. Of course, an investment may also lose money but that is not the reason anyone makes an investment.
Government DOES NOT make investments! Governments can only spend. Period.
George Orwell said in 1984 that 62,400 repetitions constitute one truth.
I believe truth is not dependent on repetition. Our minds may think that way since learning by rote is merely learning by repetition but you will suffer sever cognitive dissonance if you believe something is true based solely on the fact that you have heard or read something repeated over and over.
Don't believe that? Try calling your cat a dog over and over again. Tell your family, your friends everyone you meet that your cat is a dog. You may convince yourself and some other people but.... That cat will never bark!
Government investment is simply spending.
My nickel.
OH
# posted by OH @ 1:39 PM 
