Who do you trust?

Whom to trust? The public is angry at big finance on Wall Street, whose greed and recklessness helped to cause the panic that tore holes through retirement accounts. It is angrier at a big spending, big regulating government that started the mess with its warping of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (It is as if we asked a heroin dealer to help wean an addict off his habit.) The public was angry with Bush, and is becoming even angrier, more quickly with Obama.

The people wanted tight-fisted sobriety and smaller government as antidotes to Bush’s deficits and new entitlement programs—and got instead with Obama even more reckless spending, mega-deficits, and bigger, more inefficient government. They wanted a more articulate explanation of American foreign policy, and instead got it turned upside down

— Victor Davis Hanson

This videoclip could be a metaphor for the US media and leadership, circa 2009, right down to the “being underwater” and the “stalled” and the “in the tank” parts. Except, of course, “remaking America” has pretty much stopped the laughter.

Once you’re done laughing check out Maxed Out Mama’s analysis of the brick wall we’re about to hit:

We are heading straight toward a brick wall; the entire government sector is supported by the private sector. All the promises and the fine rhetoric ignore the fact that the country simply cannot support its current government structure.

(H/T Melissa Clouthier, who has to re-assure a reader of hers that Yes, Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” really is all about promoting gay sex to all age groups, with sometimes detailed instruction.)

To quote more Hanson:

When schools cannot guarantee that their graduates are literate, know basic math, and have some sense of being American—the rights and responsibilities of citizenship—then those, rich or poor, who seek government assistance and violate the protocols will grow, and those able to pay sufficient taxes for them and who follow the letter of the law will shrink.

More on the recovery that is not adding up.

Oh, well…we may not have jobs, or a competent president, or a functional government; our students may not be able to balance a checkbook, or tell you what our constitution says; we may have people in leadership who are corrupt and spiteful, but at least everyone will know about fisting, and whether it is better to spit or swallow.

And apparently everyone will soon work for the government. They’ll need to hire a lot of folks to effectively spy on twitter and facebook.

But I am not trying to scare you, or anything

Related:
Micromanaging the little stuff, while they fail on the big stuff.
Ace: Interesting if O/T