Musings …

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  • Romney’s Libya Charge Caught Him in the “Pathological Liar Trap”

    When Governor Romney prematurely weighed in on the press release made by the embassy in Libya and intentionally and blatantly misrepresented the meaning of the statement, he was just continuing a pattern of lying and intentional misinterpretation that has been going on for a long time, perhaps all his life. The problem is that lying becomes a habit!

    The statement was condemning the “continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

    Voices were heard suggesting that the language of the release could have been better. Perhaps bad or evil or vicious could have been used instead of misguided, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with the language, “we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.” No one, except someone wanting to dig for out of context implications, would have thought the statement was anything other than a call for general respect. Besides, the misguided individuals were the filmmakers and the Florida minister. The language was actually intended to soft-pedal any insult to Christians.

    It is an unconscionably disingenuous stretch to analyze the statement, “we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions” to mean to “sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” The disingenuous stretch is to intentionally misinterpret the all to include the religions of those who waged the attacks. But it is unpardonable to leap from “hurt the religious feelings of Muslims” to “sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” These don’t share the same universe.

    But hasn’t there been a continuing pattern of lies and intentional misinterpretations?

    Just to name a few:

    “He just made it worse”
    The work requirement in the welfare law
    “You didn’t get there on your own”
    Apologizing for America

    The grotesque misinterpretation of John McCain’s remark during his own campaign, “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose,” as if the President was saying that about himself.

    The list goes on and on until Tuesday night’s:

    “Sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

    When lying is a habit, the liar can’t tell what the truth is any more, how the truth fits into reality, until he falls into the “Pathological Liar Trap!”

  • Obama is now ahead with men! And it’s not just a bounce. It’s a big deal!

    Men now favor President Obama by one percentage point over Governor Romney, 48% to 47%, according to a three day CNN | ORC poll taken immediately following the Democratic Convention. Although well within the 3.5% margin of error, it is a whopping improvement over last week’s results: Romney decisively by 12, with 55%.

    In last week’s poll the uncommitted were 2%, but are now 5%. Where did 3% of the committed go? Considering the overall trend from last week to now, they went from “Sure about Romney” to “Maybe Obama.”

    I think it is a very difficult thing for a man to change his mind about who is a man, a real man, and who is not. Especially since a man’s judgement of other men’s masculinity is so much a reflection of his own, a man finds it particularly hard to admit to himself, “I really can’t tell who the real men are!” A man could only change his mind begrudgingly, and once changed, not change back.

    This evolution has likely been brewing for a long time and the Conventions just sealed the deal.

    Although men tend to favor Republicans, perhaps Romney just doesn’t impress them as being manly any more, or perhaps he never did and just got the benefit of the doubt.  But, everything about President Obama is manly. Always cool, conspicuously so under fire, he can and has taken big risks. He keeps to his positions, we understand changes, and can often sense where he is going before he declares a modified or new position.

    This trend will hold and it will grow as the President continues to be the man he is and Governor Romney continues to be the man he is not!

    Proof: Governor Romney’s hysterical response to the attacks on us in Egypt and Libya.

  • Voter ID after the Election

    There has been no shortage of attention to programs in various states to establish voter ID requirements, and the nefarious purpose of those requirements. But has there been any attention to how those ID’s will be used after the elections?

    The paranoid cynic in me says that the proponents of these requirements anticipate using these requirements to limit services to those who don’t have ID’s. But I find it hard to give them credit for the ability to think past any immediate purpose. It’s not the way their minds work. So I don’t think they have anticipated this.

    But after the elections are past and ID requirements are in place one doesn’t need to be paranoid or a prophet to know that they will look for ways to use them to the detriment of those who don’t have them.