Parsing the Prez

"America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home," said president 0bama in his address regarding pulling troops out of Afghanistan.

A few points might be helpful in translating this for normal people:

• No, this doesn't mean that he doesn't realize that we already have a nation here; it means he doesn't like the nation that we already have here.
• Remember that he promised to "fundamentally transform" America when running for President; this is likely his realization that he isn't likely to get reelected, so this next year and a half will be all the time he has to pull down the current structures and rebuild America in his own image.
• Europe hasn't fully imploded yet, so he can still point to his friends as examples of mature folks who don't treat rich people as well as poor people. Once Greece defaults and takes Italy with it, he knows he's going to have an even tougher time convincing anyone that his new way forward is anything but a rabbit-hole to insolvency and serfdom.

So what he said is, if you like these United States of America, too bad for you.

Posted by Pygmalion 56

Parsing the Feds

parse -

transitive verb

2: to examine in a minute way : analyze critically

Our federal financial types are telling us that if we don't raise the debt limit so we can borrow more money, then we'll have to default on our current obligations. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says that interest rates would spike, stock and home values would sink, savings and investment would dry up, jobs would disappear, businesses would fail, and everything from tax refunds to troops' salaries would go unpaid.

Here's the translation for normal people:

We owe too much right now, so we'd better borrow some more.

It's interesting that paying down debt apparently hasn't occurred to anyone in DC.

I wish I could run my household like that. Of course, I wish I could tell my employer how much more he has to pay me every year as well.


Posted by Pygmalion 56