Who's Your Daddy?

Now that Donal Trump is threatening  thinking about running for the White House next year (I know, I know - don't get me started), the birther question has arisen again. It could only happen in America.


Toni:


We have a bunch of ignorant racists over here who claim that Obama wasn't born in Hawaii (the 50th state) and therefore, he legally cannot be President. Quite where he was supposedly born is not clear, but you know, his father was Kenyan and Barak did a lot of traveling when he was growing up, so he must have been born outside of the States. Oh, and he has dark skin.

The argument centers round the certification of live birth that proves his birthplace. Despite the fact that many people in the US have these, and the originals are kept in official offices, The Donald and his minions are calling for the long form birth certificate. CNN and many other news organisations have viewed and verified the original document, Hawaiian officials have all confirmed Obama's story, but that's not good enough. He still wasn't born in Hawaii.


Here's a fine example of their twisted logic. The Donald is asking why no one at the hospital remembers delivering Obama. Hmmm...let me think. They probably deliver quite a few babies every day, and back in 1961 Obama didn't come out as a president in the making; he was just another baby. And given that he turns 50 this year, many of the staff on duty then have probably gone on to that big delivery room in the sky. The current governor of Hawaii however, was a friend of Obama's parents and claims to remember the birth and the celebrations. Not good enough for Trump, who doubts the governor can remember because it was 50 years ago. What? 


Mike:

Birthers?  Apparently my former countrypersons have gone barkers.

That said, the fact that the British are, as of this writing, happy to limit their speculation of Prince Harry’s heritage to a handful of “Harry is the love child of Princess Diana and James Hewitt” conspiracy theorist, is likely due to the fact that, as of this writing, it doesn’t matter.

If the unthinkable happened, and Harry was suddenly in line for the throne, would the British public rise as one and demand to know if he was really king material?  Or would they yawn and go back to complaining about the new tax on alcohol?

I’m afraid all we can do is speculate.  While there is a small, but practically unnoticed, group who think that this is, perhaps, likely, they have no reason—and, apparently, no real desire—to make a lot of noise about it.  It would stand to reason, however, that should the occasion arise, their numbers might increase and they could rouse the rabble enough to cause a constitutional crisis, or at least get a few more people bothered about who might, or might not, be ascending to the throne.  But would these people be so rude as to demand a paternity test on the Prince?  Again, we can’t know.

But assuming they did, and assuming the Royal Family complied, it would, as in the States, do little good.  Those who did not believe would continue to scoff even in the face of facts, so proving it one way or the other, in either the US or the UK, is totally moot.

Besides, the UK, like the US or any other self-serving government—would cover up any and all evidence that would prove the detractor’s to be correct.


That’s not to insinuate that they are right, I’m just saying…

Like daddy, like son?  You decide...

Honking Big Government

This week we take a look at what "government" means on either side of the Pond.

Toni:

There’s a lot of Americans upset about the government at the moment. Apparently, President Obama, and his supposed love of BIG government is pushing the USA towards socialism, communism or fascism, depending on who they’ve been listening to. (Rather sadly, most of these opponents probably couldn’t differentiate between the three but seem happy to bandy the terms around.) Apart from being mildly insulted that the UK’s health system is seen as the absolute worst thing that could happen to this country, the protests got me thinking about how government is viewed on each side of the Pond.

Having grown up with unlimited access to excellent, free healthcare it shocks me that some in this country go without routine medical check ups because they have no health insurance and others can be bankrupted by health care bills. Even though everyone agrees there’s a huge problem with healthcare in the US, Obama opponents see the status quo as preferable to government involvement. What is conveniently overlooked is that Medicaid (for some low income families) and Medicare (for the over 65’s) take care of millions of Americans and both are tax funded and government run. Sound familiar?

And I have more questions- Don’t people realize that law enforcement services are also tax funded and government run? And why isn’t state education such an outrage? Why is there no outcry against federal or state funded interstate highways? I understand that this country is made up of individual, autonomous states, but within that structure there is still government, and it’s often less efficient and more corrupt than the Federal government. (I live in Chicago - I know what goes on!)

I also get that this is a collection of very different states, and that’s the way people want it to stay. What I don’t understand however, is why it’s okay to have government involvement in some things, yet it’s seen as an attack on civil liberties (or a partnership with Satan) in other areas.

Makes no sense to me and I’ve yet to hear a decent explanation.


Mike:

Probably the best argument for limited centralized government is that was what the founding fathers had in mind. But this isn’t what people are reacting against; at least I don’t believe so. Although I no longer live in the US, I did grow up there and I think I understand where this resistance comes from.

As a flag-pledging, God-fearing, Boy-Scouting American, I knew—just as I knew that if Jesus came back to earth he would, by God, be an American—that communism was bad. Well, “bad” doesn’t quite cut it. “Better Dead Than Red” seems to sum it up nicely, though.

Big government is simply the government seeking to control all aspects of your life. And that—especially if you are talking about health care—is communism, pure and simple.

If you take Big Government to its logical extreme, you are talking about a totalitarian state, so there is a basis, however small, for the current vociferous opposition. Why the health care system seems to be regarded as the Maginot Line I can’t say, but possibly is it because it represents a large entity moving from capable private hands into the slimy embrace of the Nanny State.

I have to admit, if I were still in the US, I would be firmly in the “you can take my health care when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers” camp, but after living under a national health service for seven years without developing an unhealthy interest in Karl Marx, checking The Communist Manifesto out of the local library or referring to people I meet in the street as “Comrade,” I think the American public may be over reacting just a bit here.

The founding fathers could not have conceived of anything as abstract as “health care” in an era where medicine could be described as primitive, at best. I like to think, however, that if they could have looked into the future and understood that providing adequate heath services for the entire population was to become a possibility, they might look upon that, not as governmental interference, but as something any compassionate country would do for its citizens. Like seeing to it every child is offered an education.

Whipping up the Masses

This week we ponder whether Brits or Americans are better at Mass Hysteria.

Toni:

When it comes to mass hysteria, no one beats the Americans. Only this past week we have had two text book examples.

First we had parents and schools, primarily in the South, denouncing the President’s speech to returning school children as everything from “indoctrination” to “divisive”. Never mind that Presidents before him have kicked off the school year with such speeches, or that few had actually heard the speech when the fuss all started. Oh no, they weren’t having their children tainted by the words of someone they didn’t vote for– whatever the words might be. Apparently it’s up to parents what their kids hear in schools, even if they go to a state school. Given that Obama encouraged school children to stay in school, I’m hoping the more hysterical of the protestors are all feeling a tad shamefaced right now and perhaps reflecting on the message they ended up sending their offspring. Somehow I doubt it.

Next we had the President’s address to Congress on Wednesday evening. The speech was to highlight his proposals for badly-needed improvements to the nation’s health care system. Cue the Tea Party Express; a group of people who apparently don’t know how to read or listen for themselves and get all their information from Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, - the Right Wing Bigot Triumvirate. The Tea Party Express has been touring the country calling Obama’s proposals everything from “fascist” to “Afro-Leninism”, (both of which I heard with my own ears on TV). The name refers to the Boston Tea Party, which, back in 1773, embodied the “No taxation without representation” cause. Rather bafflingly, the current Tea Party go-ers largely appear to be senior citizens and thus, presumably claiming their Medicare benefits – from the government. Paid for through taxation. Not that I mind paying taxes to help other people, but I’m confused as to why no one else should be assisted in the same way. Indeed, they’re in a real tizzy about it.

Interestingly, the much-anticipated Swine Flu hysteria has yet to reach its zenith. That could be because much of the country is still basking in fairly pleasant temperatures and therefore it’s not quite on the radar. No doubt as soon as the barometer dips below 55 Fahrenheit across most of the country there’ll be the usual pulpit-style, frenzied cries of how and why the government isn’t doing enough.

And let’s not forget that the next American Idol season starts in January. Lord help us!



Mike:

I have to admit that the Brits don’t do Mass Hysteria as well as the Americans. The last really good mass hysteria they had in Britain was at Diana’s funeral. And I wasn’t even here for it so I can’t tell you about it. Since then they have had concerns, frights, momentary panics even, but nothing you could truly equate to mass hysteria on an American scale.

Whipping the populace into an uncontrollable frenzy just isn’t on. About the best they can do is convince waiting rooms to do away with shared magazines, newspapers and baby toys in order to keep us all from dying of Swine Flu. The media have also been good to the makers of antiseptic hand jell; last year I didn’t even know it exists, but now it’s everywhere. But people aren’t really hysterical over it, and they aren’t massing about it, either.

Besides, there’s little point in trying; they’d never top the Americans. Mass Hysteria is as deeply rooted in American culture as our love of firearms; it’s something we took to early and still take to readily. Remember Cotton Mather? Joe McCarthy?

Twenty people dead, an unknown number of lives ruined, and all because Americans are willing to be duped into believing that something imaginary is real and to react accordingly.

“Witches are out to steal your souls!” So we kill innocent people. “Communists are out to destroy the American way of life!” So we black list them and destroy their lives.

I also recall a sort of mass belief—though not hysteria—in angels. For a while, angles were everywhere and it seemed as if everyone believed in them, which seemed to make them real and convince more people to believe in them. Granted, this did not culminate in any unpleasantness but it might have if, at the height of this belief, a group of people were accused of trying to kill the angles.

It proves the saying, “When a myth is shared by large numbers of people, it becomes a reality.”

I’m not saying the British aren’t capable of doing something similar, I’m just saying they don’t seem inclined to.

It’s just not on.



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