The Full Text of the Inaugural
25 comments on “The Full Text of the Inaugural”
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Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many;
Read: Socialized medicine, and more money down th black hole that is the public education system.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
Tell that to Speaker Pelosi, who’s thinking she might prosecute Bush Administration officials.
We will restore science to its rightful place
I think we all know what this means.
this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.
Read: We need more government regulation of the markets, such as what Barney Frank & Co. did to the mortgage industry.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.
I’m sure that will work out just fine.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
We don’t have pots to p*ss in ourselves, but we’ll find plenty of foreign aid to dole out.
Yeah, this oughtta be a great four years.
[blockquote]Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many;
Read: Socialized medicine, and more money down th black hole that is the public education system. [/blockquote]
Read: socialized medicine [which will be a good thing for America] and badly needed reform of the public school system which is a necessary part of our society.
[blockquote]On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
Tell that to Speaker Pelosi, who’s thinking she might prosecute Bush Administration officials. [/blockquote]
If you’ve been reading the news lately, Greg, you know that Obama opposes her plans. Personally, I think they are guilty of the crimes she accuses them of committing, but that they should not be prosecuted because we have much bigger fish to fry at this point in time.
[blockquote]We will restore science to its rightful place
I think we all know what this means. [/blockquote]
Sure. Whatever. I have no idea what he means by this. Will you please enlighten me?
[blockquote]this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.
Read: We need more government regulation of the markets, such as what Barney Frank & Co. did to the mortgage industry. [/blockquote]
Read: we need more government regulation of the markets – NOT in the same way that Barny Frank and Co. has done to the mortgage industry.
[blockquote]To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.
I’m sure that will work out just fine. [/blockquote]
His quote sounds about as Christian as you can get. What would you prefer, Greg – that our approach to the Muslim world should be to fight them?
[blockquote]To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
We don’t have pots to p*ss in ourselves, but we’ll find plenty of foreign aid to dole out.
Yeah, this oughtta be a great four years. [/blockquote]
We, as a society, have plenty of money to give to the rest of the world. We do have a collective pot to p*ss in. As the richest nation in the world, we should be the most generous.
I’m excited (mostly) about the next four years. I’m concerned about what he might do regarding abortion, but I’m excited about everything else.
[b]Habemus Obama![/b] [he says as he ducks and runs for cover]
“We will restore science to its rightful place
I think we all know what this means.”
Sure. Whatever. I have no idea what he means by this. Will you please enlighten me?
– Embryo experimentation and the outlawing of ID in schools.
Since the U.S. Constitution and various court decisions require the separation of church and state, “intelligent design” has no place in public schools—thank God. Meanwhile, I and other people I know who were born after 1969 don’t much understand all the fuss about abortion.
It’s great to visit hear occasionally and see all the hand-wringing by social conservatives as their world view goes down the tubes. I’m opening a bottle of champagne tonight.
4, then neither do any other worldviews.
I believe the reference to science is more about the penchant in the previous administration to let political appointees edit scientific reports to reflect administrative positions, particularly in the area of environmental impact of mountaintop-removal mining and global climate change.
I think Greg pretty much nailed it. Socialized medicine will be the death knell of America.
#7 – just like it has been for Canada and many Western European countries? I don’t hear the bells tolling yet.
You’re not listening, Chuck. Europeans can’t even be bothered to breed anymore, and are thus importing the next generation to pay for their welfare goodies. The welfare state is sold with the idea that, as Obama said, we are our brother’s keeper, but the effect is that it’s all about me, me, me. Every election will be about who can outbid the other guy.
Couple that with the inevitable social control that will come along with socialized healthcare, and American freedom is at an end.
He who controls the means of health care controls who gets health care. Just ask the elderly in the Netherlands.
These posts sound like everyone here either has health insurance or is on Medicare. If you still do not like President Obama, you have four years to mull over what kind of shape your party left the country in – you gave him plenty of screw-ups to straighten out.
Mr. Obama said: “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.â€
Sadly, I understand that he intends to sign the so-called “Freedom of Choice Act†which will make it easier to ensure that unborn children have NO chance to pursue THEIR full measure of happiness.
Overall, I found the speech pretty bland, which surprised me. I thought he would have a lot more calls to action that would get the crowd into it. It sounded more like a civics lecture to me than an speech. Nothing much stood out for me, except that he didn’t say what he really meant, but used code as do all politicians, which leads to debates – as evidenced in the above comments – about what he really meant and what that means for Americans. On the other hand, the media hyped this speech up so much, it would have been hard for Pres. Obama to hit a home run speech. As it was, it was a nice soft grounder to right field.
With respect to the mistakes in the oath – oops! – a great blooper, but nothing to get into a twist about. I hope the news media leave it alone or treat it with humor.
My 2 cents for what they’re worth.
Charles #8 – I have several friends in Canada, and their health care system is terrible. They have to wait ages for appointments and treatments. I lived for 8 years in a country with socialized medicine. Except for emergencies and hospitalization, and only the poor and needy go for care to the government health care system. Most doctors have night hours as a sideline. That is the only way the doctors can make any money, and it is the only time you can get adequate care.
Re: #4 “Since the U.S. Constitution and various court decisions require the separation of church and state..” Actually, that’s not in the Constitution or, for that matter, the Declaration of Independence. And which court decisions are you referring to?
CharlesB, with respect, you’re completely out to lunch. I’m the CEO of a Canadian corporation in Toronto, I use the same health care facilities that everyone else uses. I like our health service, and I appreciate how it keeps the costs down in our organization; all we have to offer for health care benefits are (basically) dental, vision care and drugs. I have never had to wait unduly for either appointments or service. I did have a heart attack once while I was in the U.S., and the service there was top-notch; I’m not trying to put down the U.S. system. However, being wheeled in on a stretcher, in pain and extremely anxious, I still remember the first question was “And how do you intend to pay for this?”, and having to wrestle my credit cards out of my wallet. The systems are different, and have different strengths and weaknesses. I suspect that most of the balderdash I hear comes from a political perspective, and not direct experience. A huge majority of Canadians like their system, and with minor improvements, want to keep it as it is.
Denbeau, just out of curiosity, how long would it take you to get an MRI or a CAT scan in Canada? And if they found something serious, how long would it take to get surgery? I’ve heard it’s a long time, so I’m just asking.
Alli B,
My neighbor here in the U.S. went to an ER doubled over in pain. An hour later after proving they could pay but recieving no treatment, they went to another ER a few blocks away, and the next day she was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and treated.
Alli B, Although I’m in my 60s, I’ve been fortunate enough not to need either (yet). There can be a wait for low priority scans, but high priority scans are available in a short time frame, and emergency scans are available immediately. Canada certainly did lag in investment in diagnostic equipment, but that is now being corrected (my company is a private sector supplier to hospitals, so I have been delighted on many fronts to see the commitement to investment in new equipment).
The speech sounded like a downer to me. I heard he studied other inag. speeches for inspiration. It would have been good if he took the positive ones to heart instead of the Carter-esque one he used.
#20: it wasn’t a ‘come together’ speech, it sounded like he was still running for election. Maybe he is. But I fear his solution – more government debt – will only make the problem worse.
Denbeau, I’m only relating what my Canadian friends have said. I have no personal knowledge on the subject of health care in Canada, so I will defer to your opinion. Best regards.
I completely agree with Greg’s take above in Comment #1 and of course utterly oppose what Charles said in Comment #2. Both comments reflect mutually opposing and antithetical worldviews and philosophies of government, demonstrating just how incredibly divided and polarized our society rightly is right now.
It will be good to focus on those antithetical worldviews rather than the blinds and dodges of what the media hypes, which is race and other inanities, in the coming four years — I certainly hope that we have a party that will come to share the conservative vision of government soon.
It’s arguable that an insurance based system is, in fact, “socialized medicine”, run by insurance company bureaucrats instead of government bureaucrats. Argue the relative merits of each system if you will, but insurance aggregates assets and risk, which sounds pretty “social” to me. The fact is that as long as some group – government or insurance company – has authority over my health care rather than me and my doctor, costs will go up and benefits will be rationed.
Denbeau’s comments are consistent with what I’ve heard from Canadians over the years and many from other socialized countries as well. My own step-father, a yellow-dog Republican, praises the care my mother received in a Scottish hospital when she double-dosed on insulin over there. He tells about the doctor who imigrated from the United States to get away from the medical rat race here and simply practice medicine.
Rather than socialized medicine (or government insurance, which is what I understand is the system in Canada), I’m in favor of medical savings accounts and relegation of health insurance to catastrophic events, coupled with a return to charity care for the indigent (more-or-less how it was 50 years ago). But if you are going to criticize other national systems, at least compare them to how things really are in the U.S., not how they are if you have unlimited funds to spend in the hospital.