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REQUIEM

Below are the two final essays to be posted on Allegiance and Duty Betrayed. The first one is written by a friend -- screen name 'Euro-American Scum' -- who, over the past four years, has been the most faithful essayist here. He has written about everything from his pilgrimage to Normandy in 2004 to take part in the 60th–year commemoration of the invasion, to his memories of his tour in Vietnam. His dedication to America’s founding principles ... and those who have sacrificed to preserve them over the past 200+ years ... is unequaled. Thank you, E-A-S. It has been a privilege to include your writing here, and it is a privilege to call you my friend.

The second essay is my own farewell. And with it I thank all of the many regular visitors, and those who may have only dropped in occasionally, for coming here. I hope you learned something. I hope a seed or two was planted. But, even if not, I thank you for stopping by ... 25 March, 2010

11/10/2009

The Ant and the Grasshopper


OLD VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , ABC, CNN, and the rest of the MSM show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house while the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’ Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug-related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackled, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.

The entire nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

This makes me furious and yet I'm laughing through it all. How is that possible? ;)

Lou Barakos said...

This is the best version I've read. Thanks for posting!

Brian Spear said...

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

ROTFLMAO!!! You think that's far fetched??????

robmaroni said...

I'm laughing and crying at the same time. Is it me or are things really that bad? :>)

Cal Brindisi said...

It's so agonizing to watch our country being sold down the river just because a certain class of people want more and more power.

That's really the bottom line. The most prosperous country in history is being destroyed just because enough of a certain a class of people have been put in what amounts to absolute power.

J.L.T. said...

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus

ProudPodunkNative said...

Before this last election, I heard a lot of people say that they are hoping for a repeat of 1994, and the Republicans will sweep power from the Democrats. That didn't work last time and it won't work again.

Forget 1994. What we need is a repeat of 1776.

Anonymous said...

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO!

John Cooper said...

What if the ant had simply gone on strike and stopped working to support those who would destroy him?

Arlene Albrecht said...

Joanie, did you hear about the latest re: NY-23?

Is It Possible the Wrong Guy Was Sworn In on NY-23?

Boy, if this recanvassing comes out with a big surge of votes for Doug Hoffman, a whole lot of post-election analyses are going to have to be rewritten: "A recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections. In Oswego County, where Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, inspectors found Hoffman actually won by 1,748 votes — 12,748 to 11,000. The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections."

Note that Hoffman conceded the race on Election Night. This may get really interesting, or it may simply reveal that Bill Ownes won with fewer votes than we thought.

UPDATE: A few readers note that it would be really tough to make up a 3,000 vote margin in a three-way race among 10,000 absentee ballots.

John Cooper said...

Arlene--

A lot of those absentee ballots would be from soldiers of the Tenth Mountain Division over in Afghanistan, right?

Clark Kent said...

Joanie, did you hear that ACORN is suing the government for cutting off their funding? And just who is paying their legal fees? You and me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God, this is getting to be too much to bear.

John Galt said...

Update:

Owens May Have To Be Removed

Despite the fact that Bill Owens has already been sworn-in and has voted on crucial legislation in the House of Representatives, he may not have actually won the NY-23 Congressional Special Election.

Several errors were made during the initial vote counts. Over 2,000 votes for contender Doug Hoffman were not counted in the preliminary results, narrowing the current vote gap to less than 3,000 votes between Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Doug Hoffman.

The errors were discovered during the standard vote recanvas that has been underway since November 4th. The largest error occurred in Oswego County where the vote recanvas found a discrepancy of more than 1,200 votes in Doug Hoffman's favor. Another error, in Jefferson County contributed an additional 700 votes in Hoffman's favor during the recount.

The election was close enough even on election night that the New York State Board of Elections was unable to present a "clear decision" in the race according to John Conklin, Communications Director for the department. He said that the Board sent a letter to the Clerk of the House of Representatives in Washington indicating that they could not yet determine a winner and could therefore not certify the election until after the recanvas and absentee ballot count. Those final numbers will not be available until at least mid-December.

Nancy Pelosi was only able to legally swear-in Bill Owens because Doug Hoffman had conceded the election, indicating that he did not contest the initial, and now shown erroneous, results, something he may not have done if he had been aware of how close the election was.

joanie said...

I agree with all of the comments here and I share all of your frustrations (somehow that word just doesn't cover the depth of our anger anymore).

People have somehow been glossing over the 'procedure' that was used during the House vote.

Pelosi told the 'in danger (of not being re-elected)' democrats to hold off their votes until the last minute so that, if the bill garnered a sufficient number of votes to pass, the remaining representative could vote 'nay' and enjoy a higher expectation of being re-elected.

The message in that? Every member of the House knows full well that THE PEOPLE despise this bill. And yet they have the arrogance to call themselves the 'House of Representatives'?

They represent nothing but an evil elitist agenda, intent on subjugating the kind of Americans who made our country the most moral and prosperous country in the history of the world. And they intend to accomplish their takeover of our liberties by premeditatedly destroying the national morality and properity that it took two hundred-plus years of sacrifice to attain.

~ joanie

Barry up the road said...

I wish it wasn't spiders. I hate spiders!

joanie said...

I'm with you on the spider thing, Barry. :)

Vast Right Wing Conspirator said...

One year out from midterm elections, anti-incumbent sentiment is approaching its highest level in two decades, according to a poll released Wednesday by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

The survey found that 53 percent of Americans said most members of Congress should not be reelected, compared with just 34 percent who said most members should be reelected.

Fifty-two percent would like to see their own representatives reelected in 2010, while 29 percent want them out of office, according the Pew poll.

The last time voter sentiment was this negative was during the 2006 and 1994 election cycles — years in which the party in power suffered huge losses in midterm elections. In June 2006, 57 percent did not want to see most representatives reelected, while 29 percent wanted to see them stay in office. In October 1994, 56 percent of voters said they would not like to see most members of Congress reelected, while 28 percent would.....

Anti-Incumbent Sentiment Surges

John Cooper said...

"Fifty-two percent would like to see their own representatives reelected"

That must be a mistake. Oh, Pew Research. That explains it.

John Cooper said...

Joanie--

I just nominated you for Best Hidden Gem at the 2009 Weblog Awards site.