Betsy Speicher’s Facebook page links to a couple of must-read articles. First, Obama is appointing Cass Sunstein to the “Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.” The name of that position alone is frightening. But it gets a lot scarier when you learn that his latest book, “On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done,” argues that the state should take down what it determines to be lies on the internet.
Sunstein’s reasoning begins with a subjectivist attack on people’s ability to use reason:
In “On Rumors,” Sunstein reviews how views get cemented in one camp even when people are presented with persuasive evidence to the contrary. He worries that we are headed for a future in which “people’s beliefs are a product of social networks working as echo chambers in which false rumors spread like wildfire.”
So when a lie is posted on the internet, even in comments, the state has the right to order a web site to take the lie down. Perhaps Sunstein explains in his book how government bureaucrats can determine the truth better than bloggers. The one example he gives proves that he can’t see the truth and that his law would be used to stifle political speech:
He alludes on page 3 (and on page 13, and 14, and 45, and 54 – the book is only 87 pages) to the supposedly insidious lie that “Barack Obama pals around with terrorists.”
But Ayers was a terrorist, he still hates America, and Obama began his political career in Ayers’s home. There is evidence that Ayers ghost-wrote Obama’s autobiography, “Dreams From My Father.” Doubtless, if the media had given Obama the anal exam they usually give presidential candidates, instead of working not to see the truth about Obama, we would know much more about Obama’s relationship with Ayers, Wright and others. (And we would know about periods of Obama’s life that remain a mystery to this day.) Obama did pal around with terrorists — but the new czar of “Information” would use the state to punish bloggers who said so.
I tell you, 20 years ago this stuff could only be imagined happening in a communist dictatorship — or in a novel by George Orwell or Ayn Rand. Today it’s reality in America. It can happen here; it is happening here.
The other link is to an IBD editorial that shows how the Democrats’ health care bill will be a PC, affirmative action nightmare meant to work as “reparations” for the evils of the past.
UPDATE: Minor revision.
Good God. Obama appoints a Science Czar who co-authored a book that contemplates forced abortions and mass involuntary sterilization, a Pay Czar who wants to control “excessive” pay, and now a Speech Czar who wants to abrogate free speech. These are truly horrifying times we live in. Thomas Paine, where are you?
Thomas Paine, where are you?
Look in the mirror, Chuck.
There is not one jot of evidence in that article that Ayers ghostwrote Obama’s book. There’s just a series of literary parallels–parallels likely to be found in any cheesy political autobiography. Please don’t push poorly evidenced conspiracy theories.
Thre is an Ayn Rand quote about democracy as merely “multiplying the numbers of despots.”
I doubt she’d be too enthusiastic about this multiplying the numbers of czars we’ve been engaged in.
NS, Cashill has written a series of pieces that show so many repeats of phrases in Obama’s autobiography and Ayers’s writing that it seems too much for coincidence. The birth certificate controversy is a conspiracy theory, but cashill argument is plausible — and not much of a conspiracy, since it would involve only Obama and Ayers. It’s not unusual that a politician might use a ghostwriter.
I’ll have to reread the articles, then either defend the case or concede your point. Tuesday and Wednesday are busy for me, so I might not get to it until Thursday.
I’ll be interested in the conclusion you reach Myrhaf. I would not be surprised if Ayers did ghostwrite Obama’s book. Obama seems to me the kind of person who borrows many things about himself from others, a total Peter Keating.
During the elections there were videos going around that showed how he was copying Denzel Washington’s style and *exact wording* from Spike lee’s ‘Malcolm X’ movie. He imitated Denzel down to diction, emphasis, phrasing – everything. And his leftist audience ate it up. Its important not to advance conspiracy theories as NS suggests, especially those popular with conservatives. But, really, at this point would any right thinking person put any act of deception past Obama? The man is a monster in the making.
We can only hope that the courts will respect 1st Amendment rights against our current dictatorship.
“Thomas Paine, where are you?
Look in the mirror, Chuck.”
Yes. If not us, who? I only wish we had half of Paine’s eloquence. Or Jefferson’s, or Patrick Henry’s.
We too can attain to some level of elequence. Theirs came from a deep study of history, philosophy, and rhetoric. If we wish to write as well, we must study as well; we must examine, not only the principles of rhetoric, but the styles of the most effective English writers: Johnson, Burke, Addison, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, et al.
“’Tis not in mortals to command success, But we’ll do more, Sempronius; we’ll deserve it.”
-Cato by Joseph Addison
Chuck,
As you know, to the limit of our abilities we can fight back. This is a time for action. I am thankful for the good work that Myrhaf, Bill Brown, and all of the contributors to New Clarion are doing. And yes, you will see more contributions from me!
-GB