Barack Obama In Berlin And Beyond: The Second Coming Of The Great Jelly Doughnut

In what was one of the more humorous political gaffes in American history, President John F. Kennedy traveled to Berlin in 1963 and, in a typically liberal attempt to express solidarity with a suffering people, proudly proclaimed: "Ich bin ein Berliner." This drew a great deal of laughter and applause from the crowd, which Kennedy may have been wondering about until he was informed afterward that the correct translation for "I am a citizen of Berlin" is "Ich bin Berliner." By adding the ein to his statement, Kennedy uttered a phrase that could mean either "I am one with the people of Berlin" or "I am a jelly doughnut." Either way, it was a poor attempt at populist rhetoric (as are most attempts at such rhetoric), and is a tactic that has become synonymous with modern-day leftist politics (though, in fairness, John Edwards is right in saying there are two Americas. Unfortunately, the America he lives in is not the one where people get $10-$15 haircuts, make public appearances without applying hours of make-up, and remain faithful to their spouses for life).

Enter Barack "Citizen of the World" Obama, who a few weeks ago made a tour of Europe where he was greeted with a hero's welcome at every stop. Of course, the people of Europe don't vote for President of the United States (thank God for that!) and Obama is not in fact President of the United States (though given the people he surrounds himself with, such presumptuous behavior should surprise no one). Like Kennedy before him, he attempted to show solidarity with the people of the world. Unfortunately, his display showed a definite lack of solidarity with the people of the United States of America.

Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy engaging in deep theological and philosophical discussions. I do also enjoy lighthearted discussion, but I have little tolerance for people who present themselves as having all the answers yet refuse to share any of them. This tends to apply to most politicians, though people like Barack Obama tend to elevate the "intelligent fluff speech" to an art form.

It frustrates me to no end that we live in a day and age where people are so intellectually lazy that they demand all of life's difficult questions be answered in a convenient 10 second soundbyte. Like George Costanza, these intellectual sloths are drawn to toilet humor because they like things they don't have to think about too much. When discussing religion, they insist on using an arbitrary interpretation of select passages of the Holy Bible that is based on nothing more than personal experience and completely ignores the context in which the passages were written or the 2000 years of wisdom that have gone into interpreting such passages. When discussing politics, they prefer pre-selected Youtube questions to a classic Lincoln-Douglas debate, and obliging politicians have complied and in the process reduced political discourse to a pitiful pre-Kindergarten playground banter. And in their personal lives, they adopt a "live and let live" mentality devoid of personal accountability because they don't want to offend anyone and demand not to be offended themselves.

I apologize if this comes across as belittling or condescending to anyone; but in a day and age where people speculate about the vast potential of the parts of the human brain we are unable to use, is it too much to ask that we first concern ourselves with mastering the use of those parts of the brain we actually do understand?

One of the greatest weapons the devil has in his ongoing war against humanity is our own ignorance. He has worked overtime to ensure that we remain ignorant to his evil machinations, and we must grudgingly admit that he is very good at his job. Ignorance is the same weapon employed by the Saul Alinskys of the world, and continues to be employed by their disciples (including one Barack Hussein Obama).

We have brains, people. Let's use them. Unless, of course, we are content to let others believe that we think of ourselves as jelly doughnuts. God bless!


In Jesus and Mary,
Gerald