Obama Struggles with the Idea that People Might be Real

American presidents, legitimate or not, have perhaps the best personal psychology teams in the world. That Obama entered the White House as a sociopath was apparent. Narcissism trumped reality to an extent generally only seen in third world dictators. Although beyond cure, it's possible that some sense of humanity may be awakening.

The facade of emotionless, staged self-confidence appears as though it may be breaking down a bit. When he attempts a personal connection with his audience and claims to have been “frightened”, there is something in his eyes that suggests he might know what being frightened actually feels like. Don't get me wrong. Sociopaths are manipulators who study and mimic the behavior of others. In order to fit in, they are forced to spend their whole lives learning and practicing the ruse. They're good at it. So it's possible to be fooled, especially just looking at YouTube clips, into thinking that their theatrical behavior is genuine. I'm not suggesting a miracle. I'm not claiming that he's seen the light. But maybe there's a glimmer, even if only appearing momentarily on the periphery.

To be sure, even if at times his behavior hints at understanding emotion, we're not far from the starting point. He still tends to call attention to himself, how he feels, and what his struggles are as a way of connecting. His references to others, like staged examples of ObamaCare winners, are intended to reinforce the fantasy of Barack Obama's success as a ruler. Empathy is impossible for a sociopath, so it makes no difference whether or not the examples are real. It comes as no surprise that vast differences have been discovered between his success stories and the actual experiences of his props. They are irrelevant. All that matters is his own delusion-enhancing experience in the moment.

Any naiveté that may have allowed him to believe (if it existed at all), intellectually, that ObamaCare could be a good thing is most certainly gone now, unless paranoia has him believing that every concrete fact is part of a conspiracy against him (personally) or that actualization of his grand plan in the form his critics predicted is merely another hallucination. Here we are, at the end of a stand-off in which the großer Führer demands its continuation. In the real world, the loss of health care combined with a downward spiraling economy will be devastating to “the masses.” But what does it matter?

It might matter to Barry Soetoro, a.k.a. Barack Hussein Obama II. This may seem an odd analysis, but if I were a sociopath, I would be searching for my lost humanity, of the point of blockage in order to knock it out. (At least it seems logical to me. The mind is an amazing thing.) We can ask, if it is possible, at what point could the mass misery that he causes will Barry be able to feel pain? A bit optimistic perhaps from a psychological perspective. Maybe he's simply finds suffering curious and expects higher intensity and a larger sample may give him a better look. Is it real? And if it is, what is it like to be truly human? Perhaps it just provides more opportunity to study the behavior of others who actually feel, in an habitual effort to appear normal.

Lack of empathy is far more serious than just not being a good guy in one's heart. We all naturally understand others, our fellow human beings, by understanding ourselves. Feelings of love and pain and embarrassment and everything else are real to us because we experience them. We have a deeper sense of others, even that they are real, because they behave in ways that are familiar to us. To be unable to make this connection can take a man to a psychologically “scary” place (even if it's great logical, possibly life-threatening uncertainty rather than normal emotion) in which others, people, entities which should be like you are not. (And now you have a hint why the left is so driven to force you to be like them.) To cause pain is to ask about its reality. Do they continue to scream? Or do they, or some great bored cosmic jester, eventually get tired and admit that “life” as we know it is nothing but a crule hoax?

New Study Proves that Just Imagining You're a Vegan Cures Male Baldness

Nu-uh!  (Ha Ha ... you fell for it.)

Famed Self-Made Author, Speaker, and Voice Actor Al Gore to Sell Weather Blessings in International Government Sponsored Private Sector Entrepreneurial Research Charity

By Roger F. Gay

It's just another small business with a great idea, blossoming with aspiration before its first product hits the market; A red, white, and blue demonstration of how the little guy with a dream constantly renews America and makes it great and strong. But just a little different. The anticipation of the masses has been palpable, waiting to find out what the undisputed king of America's AlTrueistic™ spirit and real-world Doctor (Who) will come up with next. It's a moment that feels like a tipping point in history.

What has been unveiled for this exclusive article is the culmination of many years work in which Al Gore himself has slaved over Bunsen burners and smelly chemical filled flasks dressed only in a drab white lab coat and socks, as well as hitchhiking around Europe on weather balloons, delving into cosmic questions and the great secrets of the Planet Earth™.

Gore, Inc. may begin selling “Weather Blessings”™ on the open market. According to a friend of a daughter of a janitor who works near one of the towns where Al Gore has a carbon-spewing mansion, a “Blessing” consists of a properly stamped certificate from an authorized distributor promising the bearer one “nice day.” “Nice days” may vary in character depending on local conditions and no specific warranty is stated or implied. Gore, Inc. is not liable for any damage resulting from the purchase, possession or use of a certificate or what will happen to target customers if they don't buy.

The initial $50,000 price tag seems out of reach for most ordinary consumers, but high market entry prices are often necessary to recoup large investments in research and development as well as business start up costs. Sales are often successful when cutting edge firms are first to market with important innovations. Long term plans call for lower prices so that everyone will be able to afford nice days and possible distribution to third-world countries organized by United Nations NGOs.

Although the “research” and “charity” classifications may seem to suggest special tax considerations and potential government grants, it is rumored by one source that Al Gore has personally assured a large group of would-be investors that his newest socially responsible scheme will be entirely privately funded in the foreseeable future. One source thought that most of the wealthy widows and orphanage fund-raisers didn't even notice the additional mumbling in the hallway as Mr. Gore added, “at least until that cheap prick Obama is out of office … little bastard and his measly $half billion. What's that? I was Vice President for God's sake.”

A spokesman for Gore, Inc. is said to have said that this venture is indeed a watershed and assured anyone he could get to listen that this time, at least for the foreseeable future, the operation will run entirely without theft of public funds or government force. “The marketing all comes down to Al Gore's charisma and his ability to portray new social values in interesting ways.” “And think of the children,” he added, obviously becoming a bit emotional. “Now that they're all scared shitless that like the Earth is going to suddenly turn into a burning Hell, what are you doing to reassure them? Are you part of the problem? Huh! Huh! Are you! Come on, open your wallets right now. Give me your money! And say thank you for the awareness campaign.”

So emotional the plea, said the source, that the spokesman's nose was noticeably red, and it probably had nothing to do with the needle marks running up and down his arms. “These guys really believe in their cause, still working like that even with apparently serious health problems.”

Project Seeks to Solve Every Imaginable Problem

I am putting out a proposal today for a 10-year fully government funded project seeking to find a solution or solutions to every imaginable problem. The project will not merely focus on problems that we can imagine today but reach far beyond that to problems that we have not yet imagined and those we are not likely to imagine for at least decades without such a project.

We can imagine one day coming to grips with every conceivable problem. As the journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step, the journey toward a perfect world starts with this project.

One day, we won't fear wars or meteor showers, weather or democracy, politicians or blood-sucking aliens. No one will mind if someone puts Christmas decorations on the Court House lawn if it makes them happy. One day we will live in a world where everyone will be able to see whatever movies they wish and listen to whatever music they like in an affordable way, and for some as yet unknown reason everyone in the entertainment business will be happy about it.

Aside from those problems that haven't been expressed yet, because no one has yet been funded to think of them, the project will deal with the familiar. We imagine a world free of hunger and thirst, where everyone has a choice of red meat or vegetarian, red wine or white. Days will not be filled with labor unless that's what you want. "Conflict" will be a game.

The product of the project will be a plan for the future. The implementation phase will of course be much more expensive than the planning stage. But then, a perfect world is worth any price.

Hooray for selfishness!

For "Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff, Atlantic Unbound

By Roger F. Gay, April 1999

The question struck at the heart of life, the universe, and everything. It struck me that the answer to the question would provide an understanding of the nature of humanity and its relationship to the cosmos. The thought of holding the key to such fundamental knowledge began to swell within me until I was obsessed and finally compelled to act. Thus, the great journey to enlightenment began.

It took some time to talk my way onto what was said to be a cruise ship as a maintenance hand. The journey to the shore of Japan wasn't so difficult, even with the difficulty I had communicating with what I believed to have been a mostly Tasmanian crew. But I was impatient. It was rather simple to find passage to the mainland but travel by oxcart into the mountain region of Tibet was a bit arduous.

Finally reaching a small village in the foothills I anxiously jogged from building to building in search of someone who understood English. Through a door under a sign that I was assured said "Rent-a-Monk" in Tibetan I found my man. He was more insightful than I expected. I had only mumbled a few quick words through my heavy panting breath when he looked at me and said, "So, you're looking for an interpreter."

Still out of breath, I barely nodded and huffed something that almost sounded like "yes" before he added, "You want to ask the master about the key to the universe."

Stunned, I could huff and puff no longer. My jaw dropped as I sensed the awesome spiritual power of the place well before I had reached my destination, the heart of wisdom and insight, the great master. Again, I nodded and uttered something hardly audible.

"I will take you," came the answer. "One hundred dollars please, American." An offering possibly. I bowed slightly and stuttered something about my sincerity, the honor, and respect. He smiled as he accepted the offering as though he understood all without the need for words. I had passed the first test.

Luckily, there were two donkey-looking creatures, one for each of us. The trip into the mountains wasn't so hard. On the way, the holy monk explained that the uninitiated imagine the great master being at the very top of the mountain. He's not. The view is a spiritual one, an inner view, not part of a common scenic tour in a state park. Oh, how little we Americans really understand.

Not being on top of the mountain blocks the physical view in the same way our emotions block the truth from being understood. That is why the great one is not on top of the mountain. He knows he must overcome it. That is wisdom.

It was surprising how short the trip was. We had only been traveling about twenty-five minutes when I could see a shack ahead of us. The monk nodded at me and grinned. "Soon your question will be answered," he said. The anticipation tore at my brain such that I hardly noticed the meager coverings on the back of the donkey-looking thing tearing at my rear.

The second test of my spiritual enlightenment was built into the surroundings. The hobble was tortured by years of apparent neglect. The chickens and other animals roamed freely, leaving their droppings in and outside the building and they had pecked at one another leaving each with a rather unhealthy and unkept appearance. Should I offer to rebuild the place in payment for what I was about to receive?

I felt that finding inner peace and ultimate knowledge required ignoring the surroundings and decided not to mention them, wondering at the same time if I was merely bending to the western convention that it might seem rude. I had so much to learn. Although I had no real experience with meditation, I did my best to lift my spirit from the plane of the physical surroundings. I was rewarded several times over. My anticipation exploded in a sudden vision. "There", I shouted. "He has materialized from the spirit world."

The monk peered at me and said that it was a man who had just walked out from behind the shack. I sensed somehow that I understood his message. He was telling me that I must understand everything in my own conventional way. There was no hope that I could move through so many spiritual levels all at once. I bowed slightly toward the great master, feeling overwhelmed, fearing that looking directly at him might fill me so quickly with brilliant energy that it would burn my soul. Out of the corner of one blurry eye I was confronted by the third test.

He didn't look at all like a Far Eastern version of Moses after years of wandering. His mode of dress seemed quite conventional compared to what I had seen in the nearby village. He didn't even have a beard. It looked as if he'd shaven that very day. The stainless steel knife with a fake pearl handle strapped to his belt was obviously store-bought. Why does the physical expression of spiritualism need a knife anyway, I wondered?

I bowed again to regain my sense of perspective. It didn't matter. I recalled the counseling given just moments ago by the monk. Not too fast, I realized. This was only a physical projection for my benefit. I began breathing deeply with my eyes closed, pulling myself deeper into that transitional state of meditation that I had suddenly become aware of. It didn't matter. All that matters is the question.

With that realization, I knew that I had passed the third test. No one had to tell me. The thought that if it was truly a vision for me in particular that he might be in a business suit or robes or something crossed my mind only dimly. That didn't matter either. I could overcome it. I was truly ready for the answer.

The monk jostled my shoulder and I awoke into what seemed rather like a consciousness state. I had barely been aware of the verbal exchange that had taken place while I had been preparing myself; probably a ritual greeting that I would not understand without full initiation.

"What is your question?" asked the monk.

The time had come and I was ready. I even expected the opportunity to state my question as a matter of spiritual cleansing. Obviously, he already knew the answer. He must therefore have already known the question.

The monk translated as I spoke. "Someone in the Atlantic Unbound forum asked for an alternative for the word selfishness," I began, "without the negative conn…"

It was just as I expected. The great master was chuckling and the monk along with him. I knew there was no reason to continue stating the question. I felt cleansed. I even somehow knew that in this primitive part of the world, far from any connection to the Internet, there would be no need to explain what Atlantic Unbound is.

The great one raised an arm and responded with what my western cultural references could only interpret as enthusiasm. Like any great wisdom, his commentary was short. I don't recall breathing as I waited for life as I had known it to cease. I felt the dizziness of a man perched on a great precipice of his own miraculous rebirth.

The monk looked at me. The calm in his face reassured me. His words began to pour over me.

"He said that you should mind your own business."

I almost fell off the donkey-looking creature but fell into that partial state of meditation instead. It was becoming much easier now and felt quite natural. In the presence of the great master I had learned quickly. I faced the exchange of one hundred dollars, American, not as a test, but as a ritual; not as an inquiring visitor, but as an initiate. The money no longer matters. I have the answer.

I tried to contemplate the full breadth of the answer as we rode back to the village but understood that twenty-five minutes would not even be enough time to realize the number of dimensions it involved. The negative connotation had been removed; not by simply declaring independence from humanity as if it doesn't exist (as with alternatives that begin with "self-") but by fully confronting the rest of humanity and rejecting the urge to get involved in those things that don't matter to you - in a good way. Thus, the individual is FREE to deal with their own needs.

I had a new clarity of thought. Less than an hour earlier I was worried about the state of a man's shack and whether he'd shaved this morning. It didn't matter. It was none of my business. With this new found knowledge, nothing seemed too great a challenge. World peace. An end to world hunger. I had been reborn.

What do the Serbs want in Kosovo, I wondered? There's plenty of room for them in Serbia. And the Chinese bothering about Taiwan? No reason. I easily imagined the return of traditional state sovereignty in the United States, a world at peace, the troubles of humanity erased.

I'm downloading my final contribution to the Atlantic Unbound forum from a marvelous pay phone with Internet access. The answer has changed me so completely that I know that I cannot return to my previous life. I've decided to live in the foothills of Tibet continuing the process of enlightenment. Should you ever come in search of me, remember to bring one hundred and fifty dollars, American. :)

The Tea Party and The Illusion of Fiscal Conservatism

The question is raised: Is there a place for social conservatism in a conservative political movement? While it seems that many (informal personal polling) take the question seriously, and most often say yes – the more the merrier – there's influence in numbers – a few shrug it off as part of a vast left-wing media conspiracy to split the coalescing conservative movement. Ignoring the question won't answer it and could easily weaken conservative influence before 2012.

The fiscal conservatives of the T.E.A. Party tend to insist that neither political conservatism nor social issues matter. T.E.A. is an acronym for “Taxed Enough Already,” and despite a very strong focus on Constitutional issues and over-reaching federal power expressed among its mass of participants, founders and organizers press to limit their scope to purely fiscal concerns. This they assert, is the big enchilada, large tent conservatism that is needed. Money is the root of all political evil and keeping taxation and spending under control is the final solution.

The political conservatives in the bunch (the old-fashioned Constitution thumping classic political liberals – or in ObamaSpeak: “domestic terrorists”) can very well ask; Haven't we been down this road before? Isn't “liberal tax and spend” verses the “conservative” lesser of two evils a bit too reminiscent of “business as usual”; the usual business that got us into the great mess we're in today? This is a crowd worth considering. Their independent-mindedness stems from a love of country that far outweighs party loyalty. Many of them would gladly support a third party or not vote in protest in a continuing effort to break the old business as usual cycle. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me a dozen or more times and I might have to vote differently!

Real tension has been building around the divisions of varying conservative identities for decades. The great emergencies for Democrats today are nationalized medicine and global warming. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, one of the great emergencies for both parties was that lazy, irresponsible people were weighing down the welfare system. Poor people simply didn't have the right moral character and needed the federal government to step in to “enforce personal responsibility.” (Fathers through the mid- 1990s followed by mothers in the late 1990s.)

To meet the challenge, socially conservative rhetoric was employed to expand the role, power, intrusiveness, size and cost of the welfare establishment and expand welfare entitlements. (That'll teach 'em!) A new era of bipartisanship emerged as both parties focused their zeal on “doing something” at the federal level; completely abandoning any thought of states' rights, privacy, and Constitutional limits to government. To be fair, it wasn't just poor people who needed forceful moral guidance from the new army of bureaucrat crusaders. For the first time in American history, the reach of the “welfare state” was expanded beyond its traditional boundaries (those in need) and into the general population. Fundamental changes in the relationship between government and the people went unnoticed by the mass media and through the 1990s, great battles ensued between the parties over repackaging and taking credit for reforms.

Social conservatism had become the perfect compliment to social liberalism in American politics and fiscally conservative rhetoric the perfect wood from which to build the bridge. Every expansion of government, along with its fancy price-tag was justified because in “theory” it would save tax-payers money. Poverty was a result of poor moral foundation and Bigger Government could fix that. Of course, it didn't work out according to the theory – something many “skeptics” concretely predicted on the basis of observable facts and figures. The media beating those skeptics received make the global warming debate seem quite civilized in comparison. Critics were considered enemies by both partisan camps, and what a filthy beneath human scum type you were to oppose Big Brother this time – right down there with the immoral, low-life deadbeats moral reformers aimed at reforming.

When the facts supporting the morally fiscal “theory” were proven false by their own history, it didn't matter. It's the principle that counts. But like the fiscally conservative theory that yielded unnecessarily higher costs, the adjoining socially conservative “family values” theory yielded an opposite as well – the legal destruction of marriage.

Pushing social issues onto the federal agenda is always a bad idea. The Constitution does not include social issues in federal jurisdiction. Government is structured for the exercise of different types of power and particular treatments by courts for issues at federal, state, and personal levels. Allowing federal take-overs of state (and private) issues is a formula for destruction. Everything becomes arbitrarily politically defined and manipulated. In the case of marriage, this is exactly what the unmitigated social / fiscal conservative perspective delivered.

Marriage was, legally, a sacred, protected private institution. Under the cover of welfare reform, it was legally destroyed through successive unconstitutional intrusions into marriage and family law. The institution of marriage was transformed (legally) into a politically defined element of a federal welfare program; and generally redefined as a public rather than a private issue. Once this was accomplished, its protected status disappeared and courts began ruling on it as they would any other aspect of government programs.

Republicans blamed the destruction of marriage on "activist judges," but the real problem with judicial activism was that judges had not been active enough in fulfilling their oaths to protect the Constitution by protecting the American people against the intrusion. Applying "equal protection," courts extended the new social policy entitlement of marriage to same-sex couples. This was not an extension of a civil right to traditional marriage. In a legal sense, traditional marriage no longer existed. The overall effect was to deny the legal status of traditional marriage to everyone.

You can call me a skeptic when it comes to solutions formulated by the same minds that created the problem, or in this case a similar coalition of self-defined social and fiscal conservatives. It was clear that the movement to restrict marriage to “a man and a woman” was nothing more than a funeral procession for traditional marriage; because government entitlements are subject to equal protection. This guaranteed that forcing courts to decide, without first reversing the federal intrusion, would produce rulings that bans against same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. Watching the spectacle, it was obvious that resurrecting "traditional marriage"; that is restoring the civil rights associated with family and protection against arbitrary government intrusion, was not the goal of the movement. Nothing was done to address the underlying legal issues. In fact, it can be said that the real political, legal, and moral issues were carefully avoided.

We have experienced one of the most significant transformations in the relationship between the people and the government in our history. And now, without a moment of national reflection on the specifics, we've moved on to other emergencies – the de facto plan apparently being that we'll all just get used to living with another big mess. If the same minds get together to tackle Cap-n-Trade, health care reform, and government take-over of the economy, the mess will definitely get bigger.

A serious conservative revolution cannot be designed from a formula for a return to business as usual. Merely using different rhetoric to expand government and increase its arbitrary use of power is not sufficient to define a philosophical difference from the political left. The genuine grass-roots conservative movement is defined by the mass of participants who have a very strong focus on Constitutional issues and over-reaching federal power. Without that translating to the expulsion of Big Brother from American soil, there is little reason to suspect that conservative unity will be maintained for long; nor would the movement have any appreciable effect if it did. We really need a return to Constitutional rule to limit the destructive power of government; and that requires (by definition really) a conservative movement that meets in a politically conservative tent.

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