Paul A. Ibbetson
Stone soup: what liberals are cooking up for 2010
By Paul A. Ibbetson
Most of us have heard the fairy tale Stone Soup. This children's story in its many versions gives an account of a hungry traveler in a time of economic hardship who enters a village with nothing more than a cooking pot and a stone. Through creative manipulation, the villagers are made to believe that a simple stone can produce a wonderful soup. Little by little, the villagers add vegetables and other tasty tidbits to the stone soup until finally, and almost magically, they have a bountiful, scrumptious pot of soup to eat.
Now, many that tell this story attempt to dig up a positive moral to what transpired around the bubbling pot. Some say that the people came together and shared resources and that this story shows that by ourselves, we may be able to nibble on a single vegetable, but working together, we can enjoy tasty soup. However, the truth is much darker and speaks of manipulation and trickery.
Think about it for a moment. If we are to find a fundamental truth in the story Stone Soup, it is that there is a sucker born every day. Yes, the people of the village were tricked, duped, hoodwinked, bamboozled. Taking this story to its truthful conclusion, the shyster of this story was probably wanted in several counties for soup fraud and conspiracy to market false condiments. The deeper lesson from this story is that deception has almost no limits, or places that it cannot flourish, if it is crafted well.
Liberal democrats are about to hit some very hard political times. I have a feeling that votes are going to be about as hard to find in many political races as food was in this story. So, as was the case with the trickster that worked to fill a pot with the labors and fruits of others, the American people are going to be offered bowl after bowl of good liberal cooking all the way to the mid-term elections in 2010.
This dish starts with the rejection of the current reality that democrats will most certainly lose their majority in the House and many seats in the Senate. From USA Today on down the line, liberals are attempting to slice and dice the historic loss of Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts by saying that Scott Brown has a liberal aroma which mitigates the national implications of the democrats' defeat in one of the bluest of the blue states. This crushing defeat becomes part of a series of losses including elections in New Jersey and Virginia that democrats said were nothing more than local discontent. I can hear the falsehoods clanking at the bottom of the pot, and soon you will be asked to submit your contribution.
The largest of these salt-covered lies will be that Americans have given the President a mandate to do whatever he wants with this country and will not hold him or supporting members of congress accountable at the polls for the atrocious actions that have been heaped upon this nation from Washington. The President's State of the Union address in all its arrogance and condescension has more than filled the nostrils of the nation with the truth of the distasteful dishes this president still wishes to place on our plates. Only the "Stone Soupers" fail to smell what the "Barack" is cooking at this stage of the game. The question is whether people are going to order something better for this country or simply lie back and leave it to the cooks that are currently in the kitchen. If voters decide to go with the latter, they had better be prepared to relinquish everything they hold precious into the bottomless bubbling pot of a new American reality.
© Paul A. Ibbetson
February 4, 2010
Most of us have heard the fairy tale Stone Soup. This children's story in its many versions gives an account of a hungry traveler in a time of economic hardship who enters a village with nothing more than a cooking pot and a stone. Through creative manipulation, the villagers are made to believe that a simple stone can produce a wonderful soup. Little by little, the villagers add vegetables and other tasty tidbits to the stone soup until finally, and almost magically, they have a bountiful, scrumptious pot of soup to eat.
Now, many that tell this story attempt to dig up a positive moral to what transpired around the bubbling pot. Some say that the people came together and shared resources and that this story shows that by ourselves, we may be able to nibble on a single vegetable, but working together, we can enjoy tasty soup. However, the truth is much darker and speaks of manipulation and trickery.
Think about it for a moment. If we are to find a fundamental truth in the story Stone Soup, it is that there is a sucker born every day. Yes, the people of the village were tricked, duped, hoodwinked, bamboozled. Taking this story to its truthful conclusion, the shyster of this story was probably wanted in several counties for soup fraud and conspiracy to market false condiments. The deeper lesson from this story is that deception has almost no limits, or places that it cannot flourish, if it is crafted well.
Liberal democrats are about to hit some very hard political times. I have a feeling that votes are going to be about as hard to find in many political races as food was in this story. So, as was the case with the trickster that worked to fill a pot with the labors and fruits of others, the American people are going to be offered bowl after bowl of good liberal cooking all the way to the mid-term elections in 2010.
This dish starts with the rejection of the current reality that democrats will most certainly lose their majority in the House and many seats in the Senate. From USA Today on down the line, liberals are attempting to slice and dice the historic loss of Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts by saying that Scott Brown has a liberal aroma which mitigates the national implications of the democrats' defeat in one of the bluest of the blue states. This crushing defeat becomes part of a series of losses including elections in New Jersey and Virginia that democrats said were nothing more than local discontent. I can hear the falsehoods clanking at the bottom of the pot, and soon you will be asked to submit your contribution.
The largest of these salt-covered lies will be that Americans have given the President a mandate to do whatever he wants with this country and will not hold him or supporting members of congress accountable at the polls for the atrocious actions that have been heaped upon this nation from Washington. The President's State of the Union address in all its arrogance and condescension has more than filled the nostrils of the nation with the truth of the distasteful dishes this president still wishes to place on our plates. Only the "Stone Soupers" fail to smell what the "Barack" is cooking at this stage of the game. The question is whether people are going to order something better for this country or simply lie back and leave it to the cooks that are currently in the kitchen. If voters decide to go with the latter, they had better be prepared to relinquish everything they hold precious into the bottomless bubbling pot of a new American reality.
© Paul A. Ibbetson
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