Barack Obama's THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

Once upon a time in the heartland of America, an ant and a grasshopper were discussing the future on a bright spring day.

"I'm going to gather a little extra food each day and store it away for the winter," the ant said. "That way I'll have enough to last until next March, when the grass and seeds will start growing again."

"Oh, that's too hard!" exclaimed the grasshopper. "Besides, there's time to do that later. I'm going to take some time off to enjoy the summer and have some fun!"

So every day, the ant would work hard gathering food, carrying it past the grasshopper, who played his fiddle and paused only long enough to smirk or laugh at the ant.

"You work too hard!" he observed. "Who do you think you are?"

The ant answered "I'm someone who intends to survive another year!" and kept on going.

This continued all summer and into the fall.

Little by little, the food became scarcer and harder to find.

The ant didn't worry; if he didn't find enough food in a day, he would take a small amount out of storage to fill his plate. With careful rationing, he'd still have plenty to last until spring.

But the grasshopper grew hungrier and hungrier and became resentful of the ant.

"Who does that greedy little ant think he is, hoarding all the food?" he muttered to himself. "He thinks he's too good to share with those less fortunate than him!"

When the grasshopper's appetite grew too voracious to control, he petitioned the Deer Leader, a tall, lanky creature with protruding ears, whose job it was to make all the decisions the woodland creatures had to live by.

"Look at all the food that greedy ant has, Deer Leader, and I don't have ANY! If I don't get something to eat, I'll be dead by November! It's not fair!" he implored.

So Deer Leader paid a visit to the ant.

"It's not fair that you have so much, ant," he said, "while the grasshopper has so little."

The ant cried, "But I worked hard for every piece of food that I have! If you take it, all that work will have been for nothing!"

Deer Leader snorted derisively, "Then maybe you shouldn't have worked so hard!"

Angered, the ant asked "And why is it that the grasshopper had NO responsibility to work HARDER, instead of playing his fiddle all summer?"

Deer Leader snorted again, "What an insensitive question!"

Deer Leader seized half the ant's food and took it to the grasshopper.

"Here, grasshopper," he said as he dropped the food on the grasshopper's doorstep. "When the rich, greedy ants won't share, remember that Deer Leader will take care of you, because I CARE."

The leaves fell, and soon the snow did too.

As December faded into January, the ant, who had gathered enough food to last until March, and the grasshopper, who hadn't even gathered enough to last through November, starved to death, dying in fact on the same day.

And Deer Leader laughed and laughed and laughed, because their Outcomes were Equal, and in the end that was the only thing that mattered.

THE END

Barack Obama, on his decision to abolish my freedom to choose. (My comments in brackets.)

"Now, even if we provide these affordable options, there may be those -- especially the young and the healthy -- who still want to take the risk and go without coverage ... The problem is, such irresponsible behavior costs all the rest of us money. If there are affordable options and people still don't sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these people's expensive emergency room visits.

[Except that it is not a foregone conclusion that those without insurance will go to the emergency room. Some, such as I, will go to their family doctor and pay out of pocket. Others have a deep mistrust of all doctors and will choose to treat themselves. Some might even take care of their health and not HAVE to go to a doctor.]

... And unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek -- especially requiring insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions -- just can't be achieved.

[It's not my responsibility to offer up my liberty as a sacrifice just so you can achieve your agenda, Mr. President.]

And that's why under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance -- just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.

[Apples and oranges, Mr. President. I can CHOOSE not to buy auto insurance, by choosing not to drive a car. Do we really want to live in a society where the only option I have to exercise my freedom is to choose not to live?]

... There will be a hardship waiver for those individuals who still can't afford coverage ...

[So, I'm supposed to go crawling to some career bureaucrat on a power trip, throw myself on his mercy, and beg for an exception?]

... [W]e can't have large businesses and individuals who can afford coverage game the system by avoiding responsibility to themselves or their employees.

[Where did this responsibility come from? Is it in the Constitution? Or is it a responsibility because you SAY it's a responsibility?]

Improving our health care system only works if everybody does their part."

[I am a human being, endowed by my Creator with certain unalienable rights, such as life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness, not some cog in your death machine, Mr. President.]

Now, just a reminder of what CANDIDATE Obama said about the Individual Mandate:

You STILL don't believe the public schools are deliberately brainwashing children into socialism?

My friend (we'll call him Spongerob Tyrapants) called me a couple of days ago, alarmed at what he'd just heard on the Sean Hannity radio show.

At a Fay Boozman town hall, it seems, a woman related her child's story to the Congressman.

She and the child were getting their school supplies for the year. He (I assume it was a 'he'.) wanted a specific kind of pencils; she and the school supply list thought he should get a cheaper kind.

She came up with a good idea. If he earned enough money himself to buy the pencils, he could get them.

Which he did.

On the first day of school, however, the teacher let each child keep four of his or her own pencils and put all the rest into a community "pot." When someone lost or broke their pencil, they could pick any pencil out of the pot they wanted.

Private property, it seems, is not a priority for the Educational Establishment.

Call it Pencil Socialism. You have no incentive to keep track of your pencil, or to take care of it. If you lose or break it, hey, no big deal -- there's more in the community pencil pot. And under such a system, why on earth would you buy a good pencil instead of the cheapest one you can find?

And, sadly, that's not the only instance. There are examples here, here, and here. And I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[UPDATE:] Question is, what to do about it? I suggest having the child "lose" a couple of pencils a week, grab his or her own pencils out of the pot to replace them, and smuggle them home.

And NEXT year, buy some of those personalized pencils, and put things on them like "Socialism is WRONG!" or "Ron Paul 2012!" or "Redistributors go to HELL when they die!"

From our "God Is The State; The State Is God" desk...

Earl Durnell: "God" and "Government" are synonyms, and Barack Obama's my Own Personal Jesus.

Well, *yeah*, but it's not a good thing.

Breitbart reports on the possibility of Borg Queen Obama being a Vulcan.

What with all the "The needs (or in his case the WANTS) of the many outweigh the needs (or in his case the RIGHTS) of the few" positions, the similarities are definitely there.

So maybe he IS a Vulcan. Or at least he WAS, before he got assimilated and ascended the Hive Mind to the rank of Queen.

[H/T 2 Drudgey-poo.]

The Recession: Cliff's Notes.

Need a concise piece you can assign to non-policy-wonks to read to help them understand why Obama's economic plan will lead to drift and decay?

Print this out and give it to them.

[H/T 2 my friend R.]