Two quotes about crises:
Glenn Reynolds: “I’ll believe that there’s a crisis when those who insist there’s a crisis start acting like there’s a crisis.”
Handy little rule of thumb, that. If someone is trying to convince that something has to be done, take a look at what they’re up to and if those actions are consistent with what they’re trying to convince you. Professor Reynolds (an actual law professor, not just some lecturer) first coined it in relation to the whole global warmening/climage change mess, when he observed that some of the biggest proponents (in Al Gore’s case, in more than one sense) of the theory also had some of the biggest “carbon footprints” around. But it applies in so many cases.
On the other hand…
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief Of Staff.
Handly little rule of thumb, in politics. When a crisis emerges, when things go in the crapper, you can get a hell of a lot done while people are freaking over the crisis. You can use their panic as cover and push for things they’d never accept otherwise by somehow tying the stuff you want to achieve to fixing the problem, or just losing it in the shuffle.
The first quote is good advice for judging the sincerity of someone attempting to persuade you to a course of action. When Al Gore leaves his huge mansion, hops on his private jet, then takes an armored SUV to lecture you about how we all have to reduce our carbon footprints and in general end our rampant consumptionism, it’s pretty easy to tell why his eyes are brown.
The second quote is good advice if you’re trying to achieve your political aims by any means necessary. If you’re more concerned with getting your way than honoring any moral principles or maintaining any kind of integrity.
The predominance of the latter in the Obama regime is readily apparent in many ways. For example, the massive oil spill in the Gulf. Instead of taking over the cleanup or working with BP to fix it, they immediately broke out the blamethrower and started firing indiscriminately, trying to decide who to pin the fault on, instead of trying to fix the problem first, and piecing together the particulars later. Which is why they’re probably extremely unhappy with Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal, who has said that they can go to hell — he’s going to protect his state, even if he has to overstretch his authority.
Bobby Jindal is saying there’s a crisis, and is acting like there’s a crisis.
The Obama regime, meanwhile, is trying to figure out how to keep this crisis from going to waste. They’ve already figured out one approach — keep demonizing BP and “Big Oil.”
One wonders how well BP can work on fixing the problem with the Obama regime’s boot on their throats.
