Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Myth Understanding



Breaking with the Whitehouse on a longstanding tenet of the Obama Administration, Harry Reid has declared that there are no unicorns.

And if that was all he said, we really wouldn't have a problem with it. But his actual quote was that millionaire job creators are "fictitious," and "like unicorns, they're impossible to find and don't exist."

Sort of like shovel-ready jobs, Harry?


But is it true that there are no millionaires anywhere who own businesses and hire employees? And which government study came up with this nugget of information on which Reid is basing policy? The answer is that neither Harry, Nancy, Barack, or any other Democrat has actually looked for a millionaire job creator (or job creation of any other kind), but that Harry heard a story on taxpayer-supported NPR that their team of crack journalists went looking for one and, amazingly, failed.

And so, despite Barack Obama's bitter salt tears, the myth of the unicorn has been put to rest, as has the myth of private job creation. Which allows the Democrats to share the financial facts of life and tell the American people where jobs really come from...

They're left by pixies under a trillion-dollar lettuce leaf.


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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well if that is the level of integrity a story needs to be considered empirical proof, then:

Having had spent a few mintues searching for evidence of Harry Reid's intelligence, my initially discoveries seemed promising, until under better lighting it turned out that this was just a few lingering dust bunnies under the couch.
Since we're apparently operating here under the premise that an anecdotal lack of evidence is evidence of a universal negative - it must be concluded that Harry Reid's intelligence is non-existent, and anyone who takes this man's opinions seriously is living in a world of illusion, fantasy and make belief.

Angry Hoosier Dad said...

Stories like this must make the MSM swell with pride at their decision to weld themselves to the Democrat Party no matter the cost. I wonder if any of them look back and think "Gee, I could have been a real journalist, not just a stenographer for a pack of lying turds". Oh well, you make your bed and lie in it.
As for Harry...when I was a lad we would call this guy a "retard", but that's insensitive (especially when "Democrat" means the same thing).

John the Econ said...

How strange. Over the years I have happened to be in the employ of several "millionaires". And I've personally helped those "millionaires" create countless jobs. (And not the "burger flipper" kind of jobs that the Democrats used to scorn, but now celebrate as achievements of their economic agenda) Although this personal experience is purely anecdotal, I know for a fact that my experience is not unique.

We've seen nothing yet. The class war is on, and it's going to get ugly. Such is going to be the narrative for the next 10+ months. Have you all read "Atlas Shrugged" yet? We're solidly in the middle. The crony capitalists continue to leech of the productive, the class warriors are amping up the rhetoric. And the Progressives are setting us up for their ultimate goal; rationalization for the power to seize the assets of the remaining productive citizens to obstinately "redistribute" to the "poor". (under their control and oversight, obviously)

That is what the next election will really be about.

Pete(Detroit) said...

John, I have made a point for some time to read "Atlas" ever four years to remind myself why my vote is important. In 2008, it was frightening, could have come right from the headlines.
Sad thing is, these days, we'd probably have some engineer try to take a coal (or wood) burning train through the too long tunnel, and suffocate everyone.
And it would be Bush's fault..

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Anonymous (top)- Applying Reid's same standards, I don't even need to look for evidence of his intelligence, because I heard that you looked and didn't find any.

@Angry Hoosier Dad- I must admit I've got a nagging curiosity about the original NPR story. How the blazes could they not find any millionaire job creators? Unless they were looking for some uber-wealthy guy who just hands out jobs without hoping to realize a profit. Of course, a guy that stupid wouldn't stay wealthy (or job creating) very long...because he'd be spending money exactly like our government does.

@John the Econ- Reid's statement really is both staggeringly stupid and mind-blowingly disingenuous. Like you, I have personal experience (as do most people, I'd imagine) of seeing it happen up close. A millionaire (boo! hiss!) hired me as part of a small team to work on a project that he'd funded with $1 million out of his own pocket. A handful of years later, that project was generating hundreds of millions a year in revenue, directly employed over 100 people, and indirectly many more than that.

Was that millionaire a job-creating saint? Far from it; he was a shrewd businessman who wanted to make as big a profit as possible (which he did), and "jobs created" was a natural and unavoidable part of the process.

Declaring class war on people like that can only end badly...and I think Obama and the Dems know it. Only the outcome we'd see as horrible, they'd see as success: the end of income disparity because everyone is poor.

@Pete(Detroit)- I'm overdue for an "Atlas Shrugged" reading myself. As is pretty much everyone in Washington DC.

Stan da Man said...

I guess they didn't consider George Sauron "creating" the "OWS" "jobs"...

Emmentaler Limburger said...

@Stilton: A rare Tuesday cartoon! Almost missed it!

@AHD: Let's just say that Harry's mental prowess are akin to Barry's bowling prowess and leave it at that.

Likely NPR is playing politically convenient "word games" and only looked at publicly-held companies. Though just about all of these were once small companies which built millionaires and billionaires who continued their habit of hiring to continue to build their business, their fountainheads are no longer these millionaires and billionaires, but a collection of shareholders. That the senile old gent from Nevada sucked this up and spat it back out without reviewing i with someone having at least two brain cells remaining to rub together... Well, folks, that's where we live. Career politicians do not NEED any pragmatic thoughts.

It comes down to the same thing for me every time: the founding fathers expected these guys to represent the ideals and desires constituency. They don't - they represent their own ideals and desires, and state as much all the time. It is also evidenced by the likes of Arlen Specter: the people elected a Republican; post-election, he chose to become a Democrat. I could go on. They are only interested in re-election, for the most part, and will do whatever they believe is required to achieve that lofty goal. We really need to throw them all out and make Congress both part time and term limited...

Emmentaler Limburger said...

On the "Please click responsibly" note, I hit "Publish" rather than "Preview". If the last is confusing, replace that are with an is, throw a t after that hanging i, and put an of their between desires and constituency...

In my defense, I am in an teleconference (where I'd swear some engineer just said he wanted to talk about his penis. Go figure.) and a webex conference which keeps stealing my cursor focus; all while typing here and working on a staffing model within Excel. Multitasking is the new leisure

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Stan da Man- Sandly, the only "shovel ready" jobs created by OWS would be latrine diggers. And although the service was much needed, none of the paid protesters was willing to do it.

@Emmentaler- Tuesday cartoons are rare, but with Harry Reid talking about unicorns I couldn't resist.

And you're absolutely right that the priority amongst politicians these days is getting re-elected, pure and simple. Well, impure and simple.

And I'm impressed by your multi-taskery, even if you're dealing with an engineer who thinks he's Anthony Weiner.

JustaJeepGuy said...

Applying Harry's standards even further, I've now seen TWO internet sources stating that Harry's intelligence is nonexistent, so that's unequivocal PROOF! So what if those two sources are posts in today's comments? Like the MSM, I've seen what I want to see, and that's all there is to it!

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@JustaJeepGuy- Wait! Now YOU'VE said Harry's intelligence is nonexistent, so that's THREE sources! I think we're on our way to a Pulitzer here...

badlarry said...

@ Angry Hoosier Dad

Calling Harry Reid a "retard" is rude and incredibly insulting to all retarded people.

Why are you lumping a useless waste of space like him in with the mentally retarded? They can actually be taught a trade and be useful to society, Mr. Reid on the other hand?

Peccable said...

Unfortunately, many of the millionaires quoted are donating to the Bamster's campaign. Wall Street is careful and money has no politics.

So Harry is right because they gave their money to the Donks.

Emmentaler Limburger said...

@Stilton & Jeep: Without mentioning the terms in question, you'll note that Stilton just bumped the count again. It now enjoys incontrovertible truth status, using MSM and liberal standards...

Pete(Detroit) said...

Didn't 'Jimmy the Greek' get fired over a comment about 'monkeys'? (switching topics to David Axelrod)

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@badlarry- I actually have a young friend with Down syndrome who works hard, is planning responsibly for the future (to the best of his ability), and who is enjoyable to spend time with - none of which is true about Reid.

@Peccable- Isn't it odd that for all of Obama's bitching about the evil rich, he only makes time to break bread with the ones who can come up with $38,500 for the privilege?

@Emmentaler- Generally, here at Hope n' Change the goal is just to report the truth rather than create it. Still, I think we've pretty accurately nailed down the question of Harry's intelligence (or lack thereof).

@Pete(Detroit)- I don't think Jimmy the Greek mentioned monkeys; rather he opined that black athletes had a natural superiority because slave owners had used breeding programs to make stronger slaves. And gosh, that opinion got him booted off the airwaves in a hurry - because as everyone knows, the preponderance of black athletes in football and basketball is entirely coincidental, and it would be racist to think that genes had anything to do with it.

All that being said, can you imagine the fallout if anyone compared Obama to a monkey (as Axelrod did to Newt), or referred to his supporters as "tribal" (as some other talking head did regarding Newt's supporters a couple of days ago)?

Grizzly said...

"[C]an you imagine the fallout if anyone compared Obama to a monkey [...]?"

It's been done. In fact, I've done it myself. Obama's most prominent physical feature is his big set of jug-ears. Cartoonists and the press frequently used to cast George Bush as a monkey or a chimp, but Obama far more resembles a chimp than does Bush. But most cartoonists are just too chicken to go for the easy.