Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Peekaboo civility and a definition of what is "rational" from the White House

It was just over a week ago that President Obama and the White House were calling for a return to civility and calm rhetoric in American public discourse.  Now the White House is calling the mental health of those who don't believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii into question, suggesting that such people are irrational.  White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, during Monday's White House briefing, said, "I think rational people have - have long ago, many when they first saw and heard the president, come to the conclusion of his citizenship."  See here.

But as Dr. Kreeft has reminded us, "Usually, people seem to choose what to believe not by looking at the evidence but by looking at ideological labels, especially 'liberal' or 'conservative,' or by asking which group of people they want to be associated with, or by vague feelings and associations evoked by an idea within their consciousness, rather than by looking at the idea itself and the reality it points to outside their consciousness."  Isn't this exactly what Mr. Gibbs is suggesting happened?  He suggests that many people, "when they first saw and heard the president," came to "the conclusion of his citizenship."

Well gosh darn, that's a really rational approach.  I saw and heard Barack Obama speak and came to the conclusion that he was a U.S. citizen.  And this even though his birth certificate cannot be produced.

Not only does civility come and go at the White House, so does rational thought.

3 comments:

Michelle said...

So here's a summary of what the White House is saying: Obama is a citizen because some people just "feel it," his birth certificate exists but it cannot be produced, and if you don't believe this hogwash, you are insane.

Got it.

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

Now it is being said that the Governor of Hawaii admitted there is no birth certificate:

http://www.americanthinker.
com/blog/2011/01/friend_says_abercrombie_to_
him.html

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=254401

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