By Kelly O'Connell ——Bio and Archives--October 27, 2013
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We're gonna spread happiness We're gonna spread freedom Obama's gonna change it Obama's gonna lead 'em. We're gonna change it And rearrange itThis is not far from the tales told in the book The Miracles of Chairman Mao. The book is described here,
The stories this compendium contains are so wonderfully bizarre that I must share a selection. Thus, a girl who had been deaf and dumb for years suddenly burst into song under the inspiration of Chairman Mao. In another case, a patient with a tumour weighing 45 kilograms was attended by doctors who had devotedly read their Great Leader's Little Red Book. The operation they conducted was inspired by Mao's statement, "Attack dispersed, isolated enemy forces first; attack concentrated, strong enemy forces later." Accordingly, the surgeons first removed the tissues surrounding the tumour before tackling the tumour itself. At hand to help them were the hospital staff, who carried portraits of Mao even as they offered blood to the patient. As for the patient herself, when she regained consciousness, she felt her tummy to find the tumour had disappeared. The first words she now uttered were, "Long live Chairman Mao! Chairman Mao has saved me!"
Between 1958 and 1962, China descended into hell. Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and overtake Britain in less than fifteen years. By unleashing China's greatest asset, a labour force counted in the hundreds of millions, Mao thought he could catapult his country past its competitors...converting a backward economy into a modern communist society of plenty for all. In pursuit of a utopian paradise, everything was collectivised, as villagers were herded together in giant communes which heralded the advent of communism. People in the countryside were robbed of their work, their homes, their land, their belongings and their livelihood. Food, distributed by the spoonful in collective canteens according to merit, became a weapon to force party compliance. Irrigation campaigns forced up to half the villagers to work for weeks on end on giant water-conservancy projects, often far from home, without adequate food and rest. The experiment ended in the greatest catastrophe the country had ever known, destroying tens of millions of lives.Dikötter mentions other unbelievable losses, including of the natural world. Up to half the trees in some provinces were sacrificed to the Great Leap. Thousands of miles of canals were created, many handmade by peasants, but because they were built without educated guidance, they were mostly unusable. Moreover, perhaps 40% of Chinese homes were destroyed. Says Dikötter, "We know that Mao was the key architect of the Great Leap Forward, and thus bears the main responsibility for the catastrophe that followed." Much like Mao's failed program, Barack's apparent failure with ObamaCare includes an inability to get the number right. Says Dikötter, "The planned economy required huge inputs of accurate data, yet at every level targets were distorted, figures were inflated and policies which clashed with local interests were ignored." ObamaCare has a similar problem, according to MNSBC, with a refusal to give accurate numbers of enrollees, and an overall failure to admit how bad the system is. Barack's administration is accused of lying, obfuscations, and incompetence--much like Mao! We ought to, in good conscience, recall how easy it is to harm innocent persons with well-meaning programs which end up being destroyed by unintended bad consequences.
"The permanent misfits can find salvation only in a complete separation from the self; and they usually find it by losing themselves in the compact collectivity of a mass movement. By renouncing individual will, judgment and ambition, and dedicating all their powers to the service of an eternal cause, they are at last lifted off the endless treadmill which can never lead them to fulfillment."Conclusion Although Barack has failed, Americans still need to pick up the pieces and begin to rebuild our shattered republic. Let us hope we can once again find the educated and principled leaders for this crucial task. And let Americans never again fall for the charms of a progressive ne'er-do-well who promises to take garbage and change it into gold.
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Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.