President Obama’s epic egotism is reaching such stratospheric heights that it now rivals that of even the mighty John Edwards, self-proclaimed Most Beautiful Man Alive™.

According to Fox News, the president has managed to talk about himself 1,198 times during a mere 41 speeches so far this year.

Not bad!

But, really, what better topic is there?

The choice is either to speechify about the myriad problems afflicting the US (boooorrrring!) or wax lyrical on an issue of which he never tires – his very own self.

This should come as no surprise, after all, from the man who saw fit to give Queen Elizabeth II an iPod stuffed to bursting with a variety of photos/songs/speeches, all of which centered around, erm, him.

Sure, he’s a member of pretty much the most elite club going, but one’s achievements are amplified by modesty and diminished by pride, a lesson that the 44th president has yet to learn.

Could it perhaps be that the popular worship of the president, led by the ever-faithful MSM, is contributing to his exaggerated sense of self?

Just try telling me that this shrine wouldn’t make you believe your own hype.

Enjoy it while you can, Mr. President, because nothing lasts forever.

Apologies all for my prolonged absence – getting married, changing jobs, moving apartments and turning 30 years old are to blame (and, just in case you were wondering, they were awesome, good, not so good and great, respectively).

And while I’m at it, forgive me also for flogging a dead horse with the above.

But, hey, if it’s acceptable for the Obama administration and all those affiliated with it to whine incessantly about racism (of the overt, covert, latent, imaginary and genetically-ingrained varieties), then who am I to stop the party?

So please follow the fool-proof chart and discover, much to your own amazement, the racism that you didn’t even realize resided within you.

You dirty, little racist-oppressor-colonialist, you.

But it still looks a little complex to me. Isn’t there a simpler way of displaying this information? What was it again?

Oh, yeah: white = racist.

Anyone disagree (white racists aside)?

PS – Click here to enlargify the image. Hmm, is that even a word? Magnify… enlargify… magnify… nah, enlargify’s way better.

President Obama doesn’t only bow to the Saudi king.

He’s now bowing to the theocracy in Iran as well, by spinelessly acquiescing to their demand to remove Dennis Ross from his position as US envoy.

And the president is choosing to do this at perhaps the most dangerous moment that Iran’s theocracy has faced in the thirty-year history of the Islamic republic.

His misguided touchy-feeliness empathy with the scumbag dictators of the world is now getting scary.

There are two things about Ross that don’t exactly please the mad mullahs.

One is that his new book, Myths, Illusions, and Peace – Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East, backs the possible use of military force against Iran.

And the other is that he’s Jewish. Which, in my mind, makes Ross the perfect choice for ambassador to Iran, never mind any lesser position.

Madeleine Albright, though nothing special in herself, was a masterstroke of an appointment for being female and Jewish – having her represent the most powerful country on Earth made Middle Eastern tyrants confront the two things they hate most in the same person. Awesome.

Obama is doing the exact opposite here.

More so even than acts of strength, acts of weakness on this scale are never forgotten.

Which is to say irresponsibly.

Some people think that the personal lives of politicians do not matter – that if they can discharge their duties satisfactorily while in office, then “trifling” matters in their private lives are of little account.

Wrong.

Insights into the hidden lives of politicians give the electorate a far more accurate impression of the person than anything else. The public image of politicians is so heavily stage-managed and contrived that it carries little real worth.

Indeed, if we are only to rely on their projected personas, then politicians all come from an assembly line of people who extol public virtue and private restraint, attend places of worship regularly, are married with children and have worked hard to achieve their position in life.

Politicians need to get with the now – this old cover has been well and truly blown.

Personal character defects can be manifested in moral failings, such as John Edwards cheating on his terminally ill wife. If he could treat the person closest to him like that, then how would he govern the rest of us from afar?

And they can also be seen in a dearth of financial probity, as with the Obamas.

As this article in the Daily News states:

“In 1999, the Obamas purchased a Chicago condo and obtained a mortgage for $159,250. In May 1999, they took out a line of credit for $20,750. Then, in 2002, they refinanced the condo with a $210,000 mortgage, which means they took out about $50,000 in equity. Finally, in 2004, they took out another line of credit for $100,000 on top of the mortgage.

“If we assume an effective interest rate of 6%, then they owed about $240,000 on a home they purchased for about $159,250.”

All that saved the Obamas from financial oblivion was blind luck.

Michelle Obama’s salary mysteriously nearly tripled just before hubby was elected to the Senate in 2005. That, combined with the start of the media infatuation with then Senator Obama, resulted in soaring book sales and a concomitant avalanche of royalties.

Their extreme financial good fortune continues to this day. Less than a week before entering the Oval Office, the president agreed a new $500,000 book deal to adapt “Dreams From My Father” for middle-school-aged children. Michelle has not missed out, either: she collected $63,000 in 2007 for her no-show sinecure.

And this is without even mentioning the (millions of) pennies that the Obamas saved through purchasing their house in Chicago with the involvement of convicted fraudster Tony Rezko.

The moral of the story is clear – when faced with financial difficulties, the Obamas’ personal solution was to simply borrow more money (or luck out). Every time. That same sophisticated belief is now federal policy. The Obamas did not exercise any self-restraint in their spending as private citizens and they are certainly not adhering to any limitations today.

This will be all too familiar to many of us who are currently besmirched by debt, the accumulation of which is sometimes sadly necessary. We all need to start living more within our means. But can we not expect better from the president?

I’m starting to develop thoughts that have never previously held any appeal to me.

I’m beginning to hope that our political system collapses. That it all comes down. Every last part of it.

Before I start sounding like the Unabomber, let me explain why (in great brevity): because it’s becoming increasingly evident that this incarnation of democracy is past redemption. The process of decay has been a long one, to be sure, but has hit warp-speed since January.

Corruption is endemic in politics, criminals are given positions that they shouldn’t even dream of, the desires of us plebs have never counted for less and the mainstream media has defaulted on its core mission, that of providing objective information about the government and its policies.

The latest instance of all this (at least, it was at the time of writing this morning – no doubt another case of malfeasance has since cropped up) is Kurt Conyers’ decision to kill a possible congressional probe into ACORN’s extremely dodgy dealings.

Having previously voiced support for investigating ACORN, Conyers has turned tail and fled, such is the might of the community organizers. Are we really still debating whether or not ACORN is shady?

Compared to monarchical/papal/feudal rule, democracy is but a pink, wailing newly-born. Its chances of outlasting those forms of government are looking slimmer by the day.

While many of our elected representatives have the intellectual prowess of Rep. Corrine Brown (that is to say, they’ve barely completed elementary school), many also attended the finest universities in the world.

Where they seemingly learned nothing.

The Wall Street Crash was exacerbated by (Republican) President Herbert Hoover’s enactment of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, thus guaranteeing himself one of the least enviable legacies around. Instituting protectionist policies and clamping down on free trade during an economic downturn is not clever.

And neither is forcing businesses to pay more tax, particularly at a time when they’re struggling to even keep afloat.

President Obama seeks to increase federal revenue by amending a tax system that is “full of corporate loopholes.” Does he not realize why these loopholes exist?

Because corporate tax rates in the US are so high. According to the OECD, the US has a combined marginal corporate rate of nearly 40 per cent (second only to Japan).

Whereas in, say, the Republic of Ireland it is 12.5 per cent.

This is veering between domestic corporate tax and the taxation on foreign profits that American companies are liable to, but President Obama cannot be oblivious to the simple truth that punitive taxation will cause business to flee these shores for fairer climes. So why does he persist?

He either thinks that the fundamentals of economics do not apply to him or he believes that it’s a no-lose situation: business will pay up or, failing that, they will leave, ceding their economic role to the government.

Perhaps President Obama might know better if he had ever poured sweat and blood into creating a business of his own.

UPDATE: I’ve just listened to a statement by the president and Tiny Tim. Aside from the hilarity of hearing Tim Geithner chide business for tax evasion, he let slip the real reason why this policy is being pursued – it’ll result in another 800 government (IRS) jobs.

Horoscopes, astrology, numerology, palm reading, tarot cards (awesome though they are), tea leaves, sacrificial entrails, crystal ball gazing, scattering of bones, psychics, witchdoctors, etc, are all BS.

They may make for good plot devices, but as far as relevance to the real world goes? Right up there with “climate change.”

But handwriting. Now we’re talking.

Having always had pretty atrocious looking penmanship, I’m a firm believer in the old saying that ugly handwriting is inversely proportional to intelligence.

Exhibit A – This, to me, is the handwriting of a sure-fire future psycho. In fact, I’d lock the culprit up now, as whoever it is must be guilty of something.

Exhibit B – Above, on the other hand, is President Obama’s signature. And it is beautiful.

Too beautiful. S.Weasel has the measure of it.

[* The post's title is a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson.]

[** I'm readying my hate-mail filters for the preceding blasphemy against the Environment.]

In normal times, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis’ buffoonery would have garnered more critical public attention.

But these are not normal times. These are the times of hope’n'change.

So, Hilda’s inadequateness goes largely without comment as we try not to drown beneath the flood of bizarre goings-on within the Obama administration.

But she’s doing her best to get noticed.

Hilda would ever so much like to repeal reporting regulations that allow union members to see how union bosses spend their dues.

Hmm. Can’t think of much good that could come of that.

There was an age when trade unions carried out vital work. It was, unfortunately, about 200 years ago, when factory owners had a penchant for shoving children, sorry “workers of advanced youth”, into machinery, chimneys, mines, etc. But those days are gone.

In the UK, trade unions now account for up to 90 per cent of donations to the Labour Party.

As far as single-issue pressure groups go, it’s pretty hard to beat effectively owning your own political party.

I’m just waiting for Hilda to get together with James Hoffa, though.

Together, there’s surely nothing they can’t accomplish.

Given last November’s election result, qualifications obviously have little relevance any more.

And why not? What do qualifications, y’know, those certificates of education, achievement and intelligence, actually tell us about someone that we cannot infer from that person’s smile, charisma and, dare I say it, skin color?

Quite a bit, now you mention it.

How can anyone deny that meritocratic systems work best? If it just so happens that every single lawyer at a given firm is white (or black or anything else), middle-aged and male, but are also all better qualified than anyone else, then I’ve no problem with it.

Ditto politics, business, teaching and everything else. No other consideration, social engineering included, should trump the ability to do the job.

In fact, why don’t we try an experiment with the next set of elections? What would be the result if voters were not given names, photographs or any other personal information about candidates, only their concrete record of achievements?

No doubt that, too, would somehow be construed as racist.

So that this post isn’t entirely theoretical, the US Supreme Court last week heard arguments in the case of Ricci v DeStefano, brought by a group of 20 firefighters (19 white and one Hispanic) against the city of New Haven, CT.

118 firefighters took exams in 2003 for promotion to the ranks of lieutenant and captain.

When the results for the 15 vacancies came in, 14 of the top-scoring applicants were white and one was Hispanic. No African-Americans (out of 27 who sat the tests) scored highly enough.

Uh-oh. Big problem.

The solution?

Clearly the most reasonable response, therefore, was to deny promotions to everyone. Which the city of New Haven promptly did.

But here’s the thing: when the most qualified people are denied positions that they’ve earned, we all suffer.

I’m weeping inside that this even needs to be stated.

Some things can never be repeated too many times.

One such example is how Michelle Obama, showing the common touch of Queen Marie Antoinette, idiotically stated that President Bush’s $600 personal stimulus was only good for buying a pair of earrings.

Now it transpires that Michelle was wearing a pair of trainers worth $540 while volunteering at a DC food bank, proving that her vanity is more than a match for that of her husband and creepy old Uncle Joe. Just ‘cos she’s hanging out with the bums doesn’t mean that she has to look like one, y’all.

Michelle, as with all other politicians plus spouses, is obviously not feeling the recession’s pinch (or is it a depression? Are we allowed to call it that yet?).

Unlike the rest of us, money just seems to be given to Michelle, regardless of trifling matters such as working to earn it.

Please do tell, Michelle: what is your secret?

She has consciously stuffed her considerable frame with nothing but empty platitudes, vacuous double-speak and orthodox political correctness.

[Editor's Note: Except when she blames Canada for 9/11 -- needlessly pissing off one of our good-guy friends! Oy! h/t Lyn]

She has already launched investigations into those who deport illegal aliens.

She has now gone a step further and declared illegal immigration itself “not a crime per se.”

Yes. It. Is.

You stupid, stupid, stupido.

Let’s use one of Obama’s favorite, cliched metaphors. My rational argument against illegal immigration is the scalpel.

Whereas Napolitano’s moronicness is the sledgehammer.

But a fat lot of good my scalpel does against her sledgehammer, which instantly bludgeons all opposition into oblivion.

How can you argue against willful ignorance?

Once you’ve done something for the first time, it’s always easier the second time around. And with that shallow justification, I again pimp out my blog to the Rule 5 Sunday extravaganza, brainchild of The Other McCain.

Carla Bruni. Singer-songwriter. Hot. Model. Hot. First Lady of France.

Did I mention that she’s hot?

She’s also cool. Not buying into the whole Obama cult of personality, Carla today decided to offer the president a rather formal hand to shake, rather than her exquisite, soft, slightly perfumed cheek to kiss. Sigh.

I’m not altogether surprised, given the track record of how she’s been kissed by other national leaders. If you want to see exactly how not to kiss a woman, ever, then click here. But be warned – it’s not pleasant.

Boy, must the Democratic Party be peeved right now.

Gold’n Plump has just preempted one of the major policy initiatives that the Democrats were saving for just the right moment.

That is, large financial concessions to self-designated victim groups.

$1.35 million, to be precise, is to be paid to 156 Somali workers (of a certain tolerant and peace-loving religion) who were either not granted 300 daily prayer breaks or told that they would have to touch pork as part of their job.

Those are truly unacceptable conditions.

When at work tomorrow, I’m going to go into my boss’ office and demand that he hears my confession and absolves me of my sin. When he refuses, not being a Catholic priest n’ all, I am going to sue the pants offa the company that employs him and me, in retaliation.

Ha!