-By John Armor
It has been almost a year that little Barry What’s-His-Name, the Kenyan- Indonesian-African-American lad has been going to school as President of the United States. This is an interim Report Card to his political parents, the voters of the United States.
English Comprehension: Barry has the most extraordinary ability to speak in English than all but a small handful of students who have ever attended this school. However, this ability to speak in complete sentences, using words that seem appropriate to the subject at hand, is coupled with a near total lack of content in those speeches. A+ for delivery, F for content. As Benjamin Franklin observed, “Here comes the Orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.”
Social Studies: With Barry’s approval, one of his confederates, Little Harry Reid, spent $300 million to purchase the one-time services of Little Mary Landrieu to vote yes to put the Health Care Bill on the floor in the Senate. But, it turned out that Little Mary thought it was only $100 million. They paid 200% more than Little Mary was willing to go for. C for sizing up the situation. F for acting appropriately. As Oscar Wilde said, “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.”
Science: The very week that internal documents in a British university surface, showing that the scientists who most support global warming have falsified their data, Little Barry decides to take part in a meeting that assumes that those false data are true. Barry and his selected playmates persist in the view that science is decided by the number of scientists who hold a particular view, rather than which scientist has a theory which best fits the observed facts. F for comprehension of what science consists of. F for application of science in the real world. When Galileo was challenged on his theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun rather than the Sun around the Earth (the common belief of the day) he is reported to have said, “Eppur Si Muove” — “And Yet It Moves.”
Economics: Little Barry has shown a distressing tendency to equate borrowed money with earned money, that either can be spent for “investment” with equal effect. Even if there were no waste in the spending, and no fraud in the counting of the results, the radical difference between borrowing which must be repaid, and spending of present, real money, would remain. F for understanding the basics. F for application in the real world. Milton Friedman from Free to Choose: “You can be sure that we’ll all be able to find very good reasons why we should be the ones to spend somebody else’s money.” Ben Franklin from Poor Richard’s Almanack: “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
History: Little Barry has given several speeches in class about the conduct of warfare and the manner of ending a war successfully. Apparently, he has been neglecting his homework assignments. F for comprehension. F for application. As Vince Lombardi observed, and Winston Churchill also did before him, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Actually, that precise quote came from a John Wayne movie and was attributed to Lombardi.
There is no doubt, however, about Churchill’s position. Spoken in Commons, “You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory — victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”
Conclusion: Little Barry is not doing well here at the School. Not only do I fear that he will not be promoted at the end of this session, without serious private tutoring to fill in the gaps in his current knowledge, I do not think he can successfully complete the current year. The voters should come and see me, at their earliest opportunity.
Signed:
Miss Irmingard Sweeney, Sixth Grade, Unified School District of the United States of America
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John Armor is a graduate of Yale, and Maryland Law School, and has 33 years practice at law in the US Supreme Court. Mr. Armor has authored seven books and over 750 articles. Armor happily lives on a mountaintop in the Blue Ridge. He can be reached at: John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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