November 11, 2013

"I pledge to be a servant to our President."

From January 2009, offered today for your amusement/outrage/nostalgia.



Meade pointed me to that just now, and it made me laugh (and cringe). I knew I'd already talked about an Obama nostalgia movement — here, 3 days ago — but I see I was talking about it as far back as October 2011.
I know you may scoff and say that every single reference to the abstractions and fuzzy feelings of 3 years ago will only draw derision and intensify the pain. But there's so much pain... At some point, won't people want to take the drug that worked so well that other time. What intense pleasure! What brilliant hallucinations! It calls to you.
Ouch. At the time, the old video I highlighted was Michelle Obama's 2008 line "Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

Barack will never allow you to go back.... But what if you want to go back... back to the day when a line like Barack will never allow you to go back did not feel like a warning... but you can't go back... Barack will never allow you to go back... 

Writing this, I played an old song in my head:
I think I'm goin' back
To the things I learned so well in my youth
I think I'm returning to
Those days when I was young enough to know the truth

81 comments:

Anonymous said...

Betamax3000 will Never Allow You to Go Back to your Lives as Usual, Uninvolved, Uninformed. You Cannot Un-Know Betamax3000.

Anonymous said...

Naked Bob Dylan Robot says:

The Ability to Look Back to Feelings of Hope and Change with a Detached Observational Viewpoint was Expressed in the Following Lines:

"But the funniest thing was
When I was leavin' the bay
I saw three ships a-sailin'
There were all heading my way
I asked the captain what his name was
And how come he didn't drive a truck
He said his name was Columbus
I just said, 'Good luck'"

The Best Times, in Retrospect, Where When Still in Transit on the Boat; After Reaching Land Everything Falls Apart.

George M. Spencer said...

Pretty scary thing for a First Lady to say.

We Americans are a complacent people.

n.n said...

Is Obama their master or employer?

sonicfrog said...

I would LOVE to see someone follow up each of the celebs in this video and see how many of them did and or continue to do the things they pledged they would do.

Personally, I pledge never to watch that propaganda video again. The cult of personality that runs through the whole thing, even from the opening credits..... It's really annoying.

PS. I'm posting this on facebook to annoy my friends. :-)

Anonymous said...

Ashton & Demi, and Courtney & that Arquette guy, aren't known for sticking with their vows.

I didn't see this when it came out. It is unfortunate that Laura Linney and Jason Bateman are now in the category of people whom give rise to an immediate, negative reaction when I see them. Avoidance of their work is now preferred, because I can't see past the actor/actress to the character.

Anonymous said...

Call that scoffing? This is scoffing.

Levi Starks said...

What do you call it if it's involuntary?
Because it starting to look like we all are.

hawkeyedjb said...

What if I want to live my life as a free citizen, without any regard to what Barack thinks or wants?

Too bad for one of us, I guess.

rhhardin said...

American Prayer was the great Obama music, technically speaking.

It floats by staying on a fourth except for the chorus.

The chorus is trite as a result but the rest is magical.

pm317 said...

your amusement/outrage/nostalgia.

You left out ridicule. These fucking smug bastards rolling in their millions and with their beautifully made up faces and the corny lines they could deliver off of a teleprompter just like their 'master' should be laughed out of their intrusion into our lives. Just stick to your fucking acting and making millions. Inspire your charity with actions, not these stupid pronouncements to your dear leader.

Do they have any self awareness about what they look like, doing this?

Anonymous said...

"Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

A promise he has kept, especially to those uninformed lemmings whose pre-Obamacare insurance is off the cliff, and Obamacare insurance is nowhere to be seen. Informed yet?

pm317 said...

I would LOVE to see someone follow up each of the celebs in this video and see how many of them did and or continue to do the things they pledged they would do.

I was thinking about this. Like a true liberal, they think doing that video is service enough.

Anonymous said...

Althouse,

I don't know where you got the caption, but I hear it as:

"I pledge to be of Service",

not "Servant"

Irene said...

"The commands of government officials must be obeyed by all."

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Give it a few years. Along with Obama nostalgia, a kind of melancholy gee-he-was-this-cool-dude-who-fucked-everything-up sensibility, there will be AGW nostalgia, a sense that these-guys-were-worse-than-phrenologists-and-they-should-have-known-better. The next generation will view us with pity, like my generation looked back on the Victorians with condescension. Don't let me forget to mention that G.W. Bush will look wise,strong and courageous.

Ambrose said...

Of course they also made a pledge to each other which seems to have expired.

Anonymous said...

St. George said...
Pretty scary thing for a First Lady to say.

Sounds like Papa Doc's wife, yes? She goes off to Europe for grand tours while the masses can't make a decent living.

Paul said...

I don't think most people have the same concept of 'voluntary' as the government does.

You see income tax is 'voluntary'. Obamacare change of policies was supposed to be 'voluntary' in that you could keep your policy or doctor.

But we now now government's idea of 'voluntary' is the same as 'transparency'.

That is, it's a bunch of bull.

pm317 said...

The Drill SGT said...
-------------

It is at the end of the video -- they say it..

chickelit said...

The Drill SGT said...
Althouse,

I don't know where you got the caption, but I hear it as:

"I pledge to be of Service",

not "Servant"


Demi Moore says "servant" -- clearly -- at the end. Maybe she flubbed her line, but what an utterly backwards thing to say because it turns the whole admirable "be of service" pledge on its head. No American President deserves citizens as servants.

MayBee said...

Who was that Michelle Obama speech supposed to appeal to? What in the world was she talking about?

chickelit said...

The opening salvo of mood music has Spielberg written all over it. Was he involved?

pm317 said...

Why didn't Michelle Obama raise money from these fuckers for her "Let's move (aka steal you kids lunch) program" instead of stealing the money from food stamp cash in 2010?


The great food grab began in 2010, when President Obama, with Michelle and US Department of Agriculture honchos at his side, signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. At the time, he admitted taking cash from one pocket to feed the other.

Hagar said...

The "Iron Duke" of Wellington, not a notably subservient person, said, "I have taken the King's salt, and I am his servant for life."

lemondog said...

It is at the end of the video -- they say it..

@4:18-19.... so you don't have to endure listening to their tripe......

Hagar said...

Song for AA: "I am going back where I came from, to the Bonjour Tristesse Brassiere Company."

Hagar said...

Older and wiser.

Anonymous said...

yeah,

I was wrong

I heard the tie dyed guy say service very clearly and missed the difference at the end

lemondog said...

re: servants, a'la Instapundit, have they demanded O Repeal the Hollywood tax cuts?

George M. Spencer said...

Moore dropped out of high school at age 16, became a "pin-up girl" in Europe and posed for Oui magazine. At age 17, she married a man who was still married to his first wife....Wiki

"Nothing is so deceiving as a beautiful surface."--Tolstoy

PB said...

At the time I saw that, it made my skin crawl. It still does to see these folks defend out Liar In Chief at every turn, not matter how apparent the evidence is.

SGT Ted said...

"Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."


The proper response was and still is "Who the hell do you think YOU are?"

Unfortunately, not enough people knew the proper response.

cubanbob said...

Pledging to be a servant to a public servant. Marvelous.

pm317 said...

The proper response was and still is "Who the hell do you think YOU are?"
Pledging to be a servant to a public servant. Marvelous.

----

If we had a working press/media who were not 'servants' to their 'master' themselves, these proper responses would have been made.

D.D. Driver said...

Does anyone know if Demi Moore followed through on her promise to free 1,000,000 slaves?

pm317 said...

This kind of thing is going on still today -- 'Lori' is being ridiculed by NYT and its cohorts for not stepping up to 'sacrifice'.

cbinflux said...

So..., has anyone kept track of all those pledges? I suspect that they're 99% BS.

Lydia said...

Althouse on February 18, 2008: "The lovely and expressive Michelle Obama spoke in Madison, Wisconsin today. Yes, I was there. What did I think? I think she'll make a first-rate First Lady."

Ann Althouse said...

"Call that scoffing?"

I didn't claim to be scoffing at any point in this post.

hombre said...

It follows, does it not, that dim bulbs who work and play in a culture of idolatry, i.e., Hollywood, would idolize a black, politically correct politician.

pst314 said...

"But what if you want to go back... back to the day when a line like Barack will never allow you to go back did not feel like a warning"

I'd have to go back many decades to be so naive as to not see the menace in such rhetoric.

Surely, Ann, you don't want to recapture a naivete that allowed you to vote for a monster?

jr565 said...

"Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

How did people fall for this garbage? If a candidate or his wife ever told me this it would instantly cause me to not vote for him.
How arrogant. I guess I know what he and his wife think of the common man.
You know, the ones clinging to their guns and religion.

Text book example of elitism. I guess liberals think being snooty works for them.

pst314 said...

I'm with PBReader "At the time I saw that, it made my skin crawl."

It chilled me to the bone that so-called fellow Americans could embrace such blatant fascism.

AlanKH said...

Is Obama their master or employer?

Obama is THE Master. Gallifreyan birth certificate and all.

jr565 said...

"Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

And that's how OBama reformed health care. See, people buying what they wanted to buy didnt know any better. And he wasn't going to allow them to go back to their lives as usual, uninformed.He knew best what insurance they should buy.
If it was now more expensive, well it was better. Just go shopping on the website you losers!

Again, how did people with a modicum of intelligence not instantly run away upon hearing someone utter such elitism?

Big Mike said...

In the old days a young man could get out of a quarry town thanks to some intelligence and hard work. He could work his way through college because a year at college, counting tuition, books, and room and board in a dorm came to $1200 per year. Okay, it was in the mid-1960's but, no, I did not leave out a zero or two.

I think that would be a good America to go back to.

pm317 said...

Nostalgia -- Althouse day before Democratic primary in WI, 2008. Watch and weep. Althouse is not alone in having been taken for a ride. Some of the things she says in this video is laughable (I had not seen it then -- I didn't know about this site then).

Michael K said...

"What a charming first lady !"

Isn't it embarrassing when old stupid things you did years ago pop up ?

Anonymous said...

I'll be honest. I know most of you give Ann a lot of crap for voting for Obama. Part of me can't argue. I'm a big fan of schadenfreude.

Only problem is that the primary alternative was not much better. Nor do I think that he would have done any better than Obama. I'm not sure what the answer is. Part of me hates to vote anymore because all it does is to encourage these sociopaths to keep lying to us.

Anonymous said...

An excellent Byrds album, although without AM hits. I am so old I have this record in MONO.

pm317 said...

@Nunya, the alternative WAS far better, but of course she was not likeable enough for many, including Ann. For instance, Hillary would never have tried what Obama did with Obamacare. She got burnt once and she learned her lesson. BTW, her healthcare plan was much better than the boondoggle we are seeing now. And I don't think she would have made healthcare her focus -- she would have focused on economy and things would have been better. It should have been President Hillary and VP Obama but the narcissist chief didn't want to play second fiddle, lest his many demons come to surface (remember no vetting) and now the Dems are scrambling to hoist Hillary again.

jr565 said...

Only problem is that the primary alternative was not much better. Nor do I think that he would have done any better than Obama. I'm not sure what the answer is

Would Mccain have overseen 5 of the 6 biggest deficits in our history or passed Mccain care?

C'mon. Lets not kid ourselves.

jr565 said...

Remember when Althouse said Mccain lost her since he wasn't good on the economy and Obama was.
Back then Obama was pretending to be the tea party candidate. Remember when he actually voted against raising the debt ceiling because of our profligate spending?
All of those words were complete lies.
That is not how Obama governed at all.
He never concentrated on the economy, he instead concentrated on growing big govt.

How can you possibly say that Mccain would do the same as Obama?
With a Republican led House? Are you kidding me?

jr565 said...

Don't try justify voting for the loser because you think all choices were equally bad. No, there was a CLEAR choice and you chose WRONGLY.

Heartless Aztec said...

@Wayworn - It is an excellent album (Sweetheart of the Rodeo). Even better with the Gram Parson vocals restored. I'm so old I learned this song though I can only remember snatches of it now 50 years down the road a piece. Guitaring is a funny hobby...and so au courant dependent in keeping learned songs learned.

Birkel said...

Michelle Obama's line always felt like a warning to me.

Other warnings:
My policies will necessarily cause energy prices to skyrocket. (Not an exact quote.)
Clinging to their guns and religion...
God damn America.

The list would be very long.
Do others have suggestions?

jr565 said...

surfed wrote:
It is an excellent album (Sweetheart of the Rodeo). Even better with the Gram Parson vocals restored. I'm so old I learned this song though I can only remember snatches of it now 50 years down the road a piece. Guitaring is a funny hobby...and so au courant dependent in keeping learned songs learned.


Wasn't Going Back on Notorious Byrd Brothers?
Both are really good albums, mind you.

jr565 said...


The list would be very long.
Do others have suggestions?

"For the First Time in My Adult Lifetime, I’m Really Proud of My Country”
"This is the day the oceans will stop rising".
"We are the change we have been waiting for"
There are so many it's hard to choose, frankly.

jr565 said...

Or his discussion of transitioning from private insurance to single payer health care:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvg8qVKZYuM

By the way, this transition strikes me an awful lot like the transition from capitalism to socialism to capitalism (as envisioned by Communists)

jr565 said...

That should read capitalism to socialism to communism (as envisioned by Communists). The communists didn't see countries being able to change right to communism. First they needed to go socialist. And then communist.

jr565 said...

I pledge to protest until PResident Bush closes Gitmo and stops using drone strikes on innocent civilians.
I pledge to speak truth to power because the President shall not do those things in my name!

... Oh wait, Bush isn't president anymore?
Forget it then.

jacksonjay said...


Twitter was created for David Burge!

Long live Iowahawk!

kimsch said...

"Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

I was informed. I was involved. And the uniformed, uninvolved are who voted him into office in the first place.

Those of us that were involved and informed KNEW that was a warning. It's too bad people on the left would rather be thought of as misogynistic (voting against Hillary) than racist (voting for Obama) in the primaries. They brought this on themselves.

Clyde said...

It only took a few years for the former East Germans to start experiencing "Ostalgie." If people can look back to the good old days of the Stasi, they can certainly look back to a time when Obama seemed like a symbol of hope instead of the current avatar of dishonesty, incompetence and scandal.

It's a long way from a halo to a kick-me sign, but Obama has made the trip, on his merits, which is probably the first thing he ever did on his merits in his life.

Scott said...

I wonder how many of these celebs are thinking, "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

Progressives profess to love irony. How ironic it is to watch your favorite celebrities "pledge to be of service to Barack Obama." on the day our nation honors those who, in the Armed Forces, were of service to America.

cubanbob said...

pm317 said...
The proper response was and still is "Who the hell do you think YOU are?"
Pledging to be a servant to a public servant. Marvelous.

----

If we had a working press/media who were not 'servants' to their 'master' themselves, these proper responses would have been made.
11/11/13, 12:27 PM

Ya think a whore is going to piss off the client? At least whores I get, their in it for the money. But volunteer slavery? That I don't get. Really, to be the servant of the servant is to be really low on life's totem pole.

Wince said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wince said...

And they accuse the Tea Party of having balls on their chins.

Scott said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
William said...

I didn't make it through it. If some of the women had made their pledge naked or some of the men had nailed their testicles to the floor for emphasis, this would have been a more arresting presentation.......Obama's signature phrase will be "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it. Period." I know the one about the oceans beginning to fall is more grandiose, but it's the banality of this lie that gives it so much topspin.

David said...

How many of these pretty people do you think lived up to their own pledges?

chickelit said...

Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

Come to think of it, that may explain all the increased polarization, enmity, and impolicy in American politics. Thanks, Barack!

Skyler said...

Ann is a very intelligent woman. She is perspicacious in many ways and I delight in reading her unique way of seeing things in odd and sometimes absurd ways. I don't always think her odd and absurd ways are correct, but she makes an entertaining point most of the time.

But when it comes to politics and presidential elections, she is about as blind as one can be. I don't know how anyone can look on videos such as the one in this post and not be dumbstruck. The call for us to be servants to our public servant are horrifying. Ann is too busy looking for the meaning of carrots. She misses the forest for the trees. Or more like she misses the forest because of the unicorns that she imagines in it.

Someone as intelligent and insightful as Ann, a law professor, should have been leading the clarion call warning Americans of the danger of this cult of leadership. Those of us sounding the alarm are dismayed that we were ignored.

chickelit said...

Someone as intelligent and insightful as Ann, a law professor, should have been leading the clarion call warning Americans of the danger of this cult of leadership. Those of us sounding the alarm are dismayed that we were ignored.

I'd add that so-called cult experts like Crack Emcee should have been sounding fire alarms about Obama rather than obsessing about "magic underwear."

virgil xenophon said...

@ Skyler/
"...I dont know how..."

You should remember George Orwell's comment as an MP when he said of some extreme leftist Labor MPs quoting even more zany French "intellectuals" that: "Only an intellectual could possibly believe in such things; no ORDINARY person could ever BE such a fool."

People as "intelligent and insightful as Ann" are the VERY SORT of people who cheered Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini as the "progressives" of their time--as the people who "made the trains run on time."

viator said...

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
From each according to
his ability,
to each according to his need!

Rusty said...

Birkel said...
Michelle Obama's line always felt like a warning to me.

Other warnings:
My policies will necessarily cause energy prices to skyrocket. (Not an exact quote.)
Clinging to their guns and religion...
God damn America.

The list would be very long.
Do others have suggestions?

He's from Chicago.

Bruce Hayden said...

It was, to me, somewhat chilling, that the group psychosis was that extreme. I can usually ignore these people, since I don't watch much TV or movies. Still, it is almost as if they had all been shot with a mind control ray. I think that it is fairly clear though that many of them are dumb as rocks.

jr565 said...

El Pollo Rayan wrote:
I'd add that so-called cult experts like Crack Emcee should have been sounding fire alarms about Obama rather than obsessing about "magic underwear."

But Mitt Romney had a company that sold vitamins! Do you hear?! VITAMINS!
Obamacare Shoshlamacare. We're talking vitamins here!

Ken said...

I remember "Barack will require you to work. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

My response at the time was, "Dial it down a notch, Evita." Nothing has happened to alter my opinion since.

Let's move, indeed.