Given Barack Obama's penchant for tearing down America and Americans at every possible opportunity, do not be surprised if the Anointed One delivers an apology for the 4th of July.
An Obama Independence Day apology speech might sound something like this:
My Fellow World Citizens:
Two hundred thirty three years ago, on July 4, 1776, a small band of angry white Christian males declared their independence and established a new nation, one that was supposed to bring hope and comfort to human kind all across the world.
Is the CIA trying to spread lies about Michael Jackson's death?
On 29 June 2009, the Los Angeles coroner's office dismissed as "inaccurate" claims made in Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper (UK) that Michael Jackson's autopsy revealed he was emaciated and almost bald when he died.
The Sun claimed Michael Jackson's "hips, thighs and shoulders were riddled with needle wounds."
Rupert Murdoch's newspaper claimed to have been given leaked results of Jackson's autopsy.
LA County assistant chief coroner Ed Winter said "I don't know where that information came from, or who that information came from. It is not accurate. Some of it is totally false."
Our philosopher-king prevaricates on behalf of us all.
For much of the Bush administration, the media splashed stories of neoconservative conspiracies and cabals. Exposés about mostly Jewish liberals-turned-conservatives charged that they were adherents of the philosopher Leo Strauss and embraced the Platonic notion of the "noble lie."
In his Republic, Plato outlined an elaborate, ranked utopia, a good city ("Kallipolis") run by a sort of benign natural selection. The philosopher-kings sat atop hierarchies in which occupations were assigned for the citizenry. To justify arbitrary selections, the rulers would make up "noble lies" about divine edicts, making clear that the occupations chosen for lesser folk were god-given.
Once the inferiors understood that there were divine sanctions behind their lot in life, they would feel happier. And society at large would benefit by each worker's having the proper aptitude for his occupation. The larger point Plato was making was simply that sometimes an all-knowing elite must hedge on the truth to convince the ignorant public what is good for it.
Former President George W. Bush has been remarkably reticent since Barack Obama took office, saying that the new commander in chief "deserves my silence." Apparently, that's no longer the case. At a speech in Erie, Pennsylvania Wednesday night, Bush broke his vow in all but word.
"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."
ABC News has pointed out that it was the Bush administration that sent terrorists to therapy -- a Saudi jihadi rehabilitation camp -- with "decidedly mixed success."
Bush's critique extended to Obama's domestic policy.
"Government does not create wealth," Bush said. "The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States."
A half century ago the CIA could bring down an Iranian prime minister with a few rent-a-crowds, well placed payments to key generals and a pliable replacement.
Could it do the same today?
Not likely, but events in Iran have often contradicted the prognostications of Westerners, especially at the CIA.
In August 1978 America's premier spy agency assured President Jimmy Carter that Iran was "not in a revolutionary, or even pre-revolutionary situation."
Right. Six months later, chanting "Death to America," Islamic revolutionaries drove the U.S.-backed shah into exile.
