November 18, 2010 4:24 PM
Newsweek: Obama as Shiva
Holy Cow! no pun intended!
This is beyond ridiculous. The Propaganda Press doesn't seem to care that their readership is shrinking. Like with the We're All Socialists Now cover, still seeking to be relevant and interesting and failing miserably. We may run your covers on our blogs and laugh at them, but we will not buy your magazines. Which explains why Newsweek recently sold for $1 - yes, one dollar.
And, btw, now the presidency is too big for one man? Nooooo, it's just too big for Obama because he is not restraining his desire for dominance and control.
On this subject, a timely and intelligent piece in Imprimis (free subscription) by Mike Pence:
The Presidency and the ConstitutionTHE PRESIDENCY is the most visible thread that runs through the tapestry of the American government. More often than not, for good or for ill, it sets the tone for the other branches and spurs the expectations of the people. Its powers are vast and consequential, its requirements impossible for mortals to fulfill without humility and insistent attention to its purpose as set forth in the Constitution of the United States.
Isn't it amazing, given the great and momentous nature of the office, that those who seek it seldom pause to consider what they are seeking? Rather, unconstrained by principle or reflection, there is a mad rush toward something that, once its powers are seized, the new president can wield as an instrument with which to transform the nation and the people according to his highest aspirations.
But, other than in a crisis of the house divided, the presidency is neither fit nor intended to be such an instrument. When it is made that, the country sustains a wound, and cries out justly and indignantly. And what the nation says is the theme of this address. What it says--informed by its long history, impelled by the laws of nature and nature's God--is that we as a people are not to be ruled and not to be commanded. It says that the president should never forget this; that he has not risen above us, but is merely one of us, chosen by ballot, dismissed after his term, tasked not to transform and work his will upon us, but to bear the weight of decision and to carry out faithfully the design laid down in the Constitution in accordance with the Declaration of Independence.
* * *
The presidency must adhere to its definition as expressed in the Constitution, and to conduct defined over time and by tradition. While the powers of the office have enlarged, along with those of the legislature and the judiciary, the framework of the government was intended to restrict abuses common to classical empires and to the regal states of the 18th century.
Without proper adherence to the role contemplated in the Constitution for the presidency, the checks and balances in the constitutional plan become weakened. This has been most obvious in recent years when the three branches of government have been subject to the tutelage of a single party. Under either party, presidents have often forgotten that they are intended to restrain the Congress at times, and that the Congress is independent of their desires. And thus fused in unholy unity, the political class has raged forward in a drunken expansion of powers and prerogatives, mistakenly assuming that to exercise power is by default to do good.
Even the simplest among us knows that this is not so. Power is an instrument of fatal consequence. It is confined no more readily than quicksilver, and escapes good intentions as easily as air flows through mesh. Therefore, those who are entrusted with it must educate themselves in self-restraint. A republic is about limitation, and for good reason, because we are mortal and our actions are imperfect.
The tragedy of presidential decision is that even with the best choice, some, perhaps many, will be left behind, and some, perhaps many, may die. Because of this, a true statesman lives continuously with what Churchill called "stress of soul." He may give to Paul, but only because he robs Peter. And that is why you must always be wary of a president who seems to float upon his own greatness. For all greatness is tempered by mortality, every soul is equal, and distinctions among men cannot be owned; they are on loan from God, who takes them back and evens accounts at the end.
It is a tragedy indeed that new generations taking office attribute failures in governance to insufficient power, and seek more of it. In the judiciary, this has seldom been better expressed than by Justice Thurgood Marshall, who said: "You do what you think is right and let the law catch up." In the Congress, it presents itself in massive legislation, acts and codes thousands of pages long and so monstrously over-complicated that no human being can read through them--much less understand them, much less apply them justly to a people that increasingly feel like they are no longer being asked, but rather told. Our nation finds itself in the position of a dog whose duty it is not to ask why--because the "why" is too elevated for his nature--but simply to obey.
America is not a dog, and does not require a "because-I-said-so" jurisprudence; or legislators who knit laws of such insulting complexity that they are heavier than chains; or a president who acts like, speaks like, and is received as a king.
The president is not our teacher, our tutor, our guide or ruler. He does not command us; we command him. We serve neither him nor his vision. It is not his job or his prerogative to redefine custom, law, and beliefs; to appropriate industries; to seize the country, as it were, by the shoulders or by the throat so as to impose by force of theatrical charisma his justice upon 300 million others. It is neither his job nor his prerogative to shift the power of decision away from them, and to him and the acolytes of his choosing.
Is my characterization of unprecedented presumption incorrect? Listen to the words of the leader of President Obama's transition team and perhaps his next chief-of-staff: "It's important that President-Elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one." Or, more recently, the latest presidential appointment to avoid confirmation by the Senate--the new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau--who wrote last Friday: "President Obama understands the importance of leveling the playing field again."
"Take power. . .rule. . .leveling." Though it is the model now, this has never been and should never again be the model of the presidency or the character of the American president. No one can say this too strongly, and no one can say it enough until it is remedied. We are not subjects; we are citizens. We fought a war so that we do not have to treat even kings like kings, and--if I may remind you--we won that war. Since then, the principle of royalty has, in this country, been inoperative. Who is better suited or more required to exemplify this conviction, in word and deed, than the President of the United States?
Read more at Imprimis
Hmmmm... interesting contrast: Newsweek and Imprimis. And conservatives are supposed to be stupid?
Posted in Continuing chaos, Media Bias, Obama Nation | Permalink
Comments
I'm not Hindu- but this is pretty offensive...I guess all religions are fair game to ridicule (except Islam)
Posted by: priest's wife | November 18, 2010 5:10 PM
I didn't take the pic as ridicule, but, rather, that Obama is capable of doing anything and everything.
My theory on why the press doesn't seem to care about ratings is that they know the government will bail them out by using the fairness doctrine. They're beyond shameful
Posted by: Cathy | November 18, 2010 9:43 PM
Actually Shiva is the god of opposites, of both creation and destruction. A simplistic example of this concept relates to the seasons: fall and winter are seasons of "destruction" and spring and fall are seasons of "creation." The image of Shiva is blocked on my screen but Shiva is typically shown beating the drum of creation while surrounded by the flame of destruction. I'm not Hindu but I am a docent and do many religion-related art tours at a major museum.
Posted by: judithod | November 18, 2010 9:48 PM
Actually Shiva is the god of destruction. Openheimer proclaimed "I am death" in reference to Shiva before he proceeded to hand over the the atomic bombs that destroyed hiroshima and nagasaki. Newsweek has decided that Obama is destroying this country. That would be pathetic because this country has been on the road to destruction for a long time.
Posted by: Van buren | November 19, 2010 7:43 PM
Actually, judithod had it right -- Shiva represents both creation and destruction, though often in different contexts. (Sometimes the context is paradoxically the same, though.)
The correct Oppenheimer quote is: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." This is his translation of a passage from the Bhagavad Gita. Oppenheimer noted that this was the passage in which Vishnu tries to impress the Prince in order to convince him to do his duty. The quote was uttered during the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb, not when Oppenheimer "handed over" the bombs to the government.
It is quite a far stretch to claim that Newsweek is attempting to suggest that Obama is trying to destroy the United States. Their clumsy use of someone else's iconography is clearly meant to support the thesis of an article that suggests the President of the United States has too many things to do, too many responsibilities, and it's too much for one man and one job.
Posted by: Rob Poole | November 22, 2010 2:42 PM
