This Word…It Does Not Mean…

[andysocial]

President Obama, in his weekend radio address:

They wanted to terrorize us, but, as Americans, we refuse to live in fear.

And, President Obama at the WTC site on Sunday:

Originally published at BunkBlog. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[theonides.livejournal.com]

yeah, except the President always stands behind bulletproof glass. Even on the day he got elected, they had glass up. This is President who's gotten 400 times the number of death threats that George Bush got. It would be stupid not to protect him. We have a history of political assassinations in this country. Of course, if he'd picked a crazier lefty for VP, that would protect him, too. Tea party people would be afraid to make it worse... that was Bush's best weapon against assassination: who wanted President Cheney? :)

[andysocial]

Oh, I'm not in any way saying that the President should take unnecessary risks, it's just a really really funny juxtaposition. It also serves as a visual shorthand for all the ways in which we are living in fear, as institutionalized law of the land, ever since 2001. Bin Laden could not have wished for a better outcome than our government eating our liberties while the rich entrench themselves further in the stratosphere and our poor become a permanent underclass with no hope of ever rising above the muck.

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

Uh, I had heard that Bush holds the record for death threats hands down with no one even close. Where did you get 400 times...?

[andysocial]

It wouldn't surprise me if every President gets the most death threats compared to his predecessors. We don't seem to be reaching any saturation point in crazy people.

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

It's nice that something in life is so open ended.

Wait, no, just sad...

[theonides.livejournal.com]

The Secret Service. Yeah, try Googling before assuming I'm wrong. Even the Drudge Report says Obama's death threats are up against Bush, by several hundred percent, and he's hardly an Obama propagandist.

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

I'm not one to defend him but, seriously, you're going to use this to point out him being hypocritical? If someone popped his noggin during that address it would do immeasurable damage to the countries morale. I think it's tacky to use examples of him being smart as fuel for hating on him. There's SO MUCH MORE we can use to barbecue the douchenozzle...

[andysocial]

Nah, like I said above, it's just a really amusing juxtaposition. As far as "we refuse to live in fear" all you have to do is go to any airport or near any national monument or major city downtown. All the assault weapons on display sure do look like a manifestation of something other than confidence.

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

Um, maybe it's a manifestation of how badass we are!

[andysocial]

In my years in the Army, the guys who showed off their weaponry were scared shitless almost to a man.