The Cow and the Ice Cream
A perspective from a teacher and a class of students in Nashville:
THE COW AND THE ICE CREAM
ONE OF THE BEST EXPLANATIONS OF WHY OBAMA WON THE ELECTION AND IS PUSHING FOR HIS HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION:
“We are worried about “the cow” when it is all about the “Ice Cream”
The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third
grade this year.
The presidential election was heating up and some of the children
showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class
president.
We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and
the class would vote.
To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class
members.
We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have.
We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked
to run for the top spot.
The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates
were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got
lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia’s mother.
The day arrived when they were to make their speeches.
Jamie went first:
He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He
ended by promising to do his very best. Everyone applauded and he sat
down.
Now is was Olivia’s turn to speak:
Her speech was concise. She said, “If you will vote for me, I will
give you ice cream.”
She sat down.
The class went wild. “Yes! Yes! We want ice cream.”
She surely would say more. She did not have to. A discussion followed.
How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn’t sure. Would her
parents buy it or would the class pay for it? She didn’t know.
The class really didn’t care. All they were thinking about was ice
cream.
Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide.
Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and
52 percent of the people reacted like nine year olds: They want ice
cream. The other 48 percent knew they’re going to have to “feed the
cow and clean up the mess.”
Remember, the government cannot give anything to anyone —
that they have not first taken away from someone else.
A good use of Moveon.org
I received yet another email from Moveon.org
Wait. Some explanation is in order. I got unwittingly subscribed to MoveOn.org after subscribing to Barack Obama’s site during the campaign.. I donated $5 to Obama’s campaign in the beginning because he sounded interesting and on the Democrat side, I thought he was by far the best choice. But ever since donating, I got put on the MoveOn.org distribution list.
So anyway, I received the following email
Dear MoveOn member,
Right-wing mobs aren’t just disrupting congressional town halls—their outlandish lies are now making their way into mainstream news coverage, too.
We need to set the record straight. The majority of Americans support real health care reform. And no wonder, given the incredible cost of inaction.
In Michigan alone, 620 people lose their coverage every day. And for those with insurance, yearly premiums will hit $22,579 in a few years if we don’t act.
We can’t let right-wing extremists ruin the biggest opportunity in a generation to get real reform. Can you send a quick letter to the editor of The Detroit Free Press—or another local paper—about the urgent need in Michigan for Congress to pass health care reform with a real public option?
Ugh. So instead of doing the right thing and just unsubscribing to the email list (which would probably help keep me more healthy in terms of blood pressure, heart attacks and apoplectic shock), I decided to use their email system to give my voice.
Here’s the email I sent through their system.
Subject: The government needs to stay out of our healthcare
The American public is overwhelmingly opposed to government involvement in our healthcare.
Obama was touted as the great unifier, but clearly he’s overstepping his bounds by ignoring more than half of this country’s citizens views and charging ahead solely on party lines.
There are much bigger problems for our Congress and President to focus on rather than imposing Socialist policies that will cripple our already fledgling economy.
The White House needs to stop asking neighbors to turn in other neighbors, stop the marketing assault on our public and turn to policies that enable individual liberties.
Thank you for your time.
But, come on, really. Surely MoveOn.org will end up filtering emails like these and would NEVER allow my letter to get through. In fact, I bet they report me to the IRS or something, or send some Union thugs my way or otherwise make my life hell. I expect them to fight dirty, I really do.
Who knows. Maybe my use of their system might convince one or two people on the back end?
You can write a letter through MoveOn.org, too! Just follow this Write A Letter link and compose it up!
Posted in Government at work, Politics, Socialism | 
detroit free press, moveon.org, obama | 
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In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.– John Adams
Economics 101
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but failed an entire class this spring. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that.
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