XPost: alt.politics.usa, alt.tv.pol-incorrect, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: alt.politics.obama   
   From: emoneyjoe@iglou.com   
      
   On Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:18:01 -0600, FirstPost   
    wrote:   
      
   >On Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:50:13 -0500, Ubiquitous    
   >wrote:   
   >   
   >>By David Catron   
   >>   
   >>The CEO of Whole Foods can’t seem to make up his mind.   
   >>   
   >>As a general rule, I avoid “healthy” food whenever possible. I try to   
   >>eat things with extra fat and lots of additives. This is a conscious   
   >>strategy that should assure that I keel over before being left to the   
   >>tender mercies of Medicare after the Obama administration has   
   >>transformed it into a system that rations care based on a Byzantine   
   >>formula that purports to measure how many “quality” years of life a   
   >>patient has left. Moreover, if I consume enough chemical additives, I   
   >>can save my family some money by arriving at the funeral home   
   >>pre-embalmed.   
   >>   
   >>For a brief period this week, however, I was on the verge of bestowing   
   >>my custom on Whole Foods Market, despite its deplorable policy of   
   >>“selling the highest quality natural and organic products available.”   
   >>Why? Because it seemed that the grocery chain’s CEO, John Mackey, was   
   >>that elusive creature for whom Diogenes searched so fruitlessly — an   
   >>honest man. Mackey is currently promoting his new book, Conscious   
   >>Capitalism, and has therefore subjected himself to a series of media   
   >>interviews, including one recently broadcast on NPR.   
   >>   
   >>During that interview, he was asked if his opinion of Obamacare had   
   >>changed since he wrote, in the Wall Street Journal, “All countries with   
   >>socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait   
   >>in lines to receive scarce treatments.” He answered as follows:   
   >>“Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism. Socialism is where the   
   >>government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government   
   >>doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it — and   
   that’s   
   >>what’s happening with our health care programs and these reforms.”   
   >>   
   >>One can imagine the gasps with which that “clarification” was received   
   >>by the people on the set of Morning Edition. And it must have caused the   
   >>Obamazombies among his Whole Foods customer base to react as if they had   
   >>discovered lamb chops lurking among the bean sprouts and bottles of   
   >>carrot juice. As the good folks at NPR gleefully noted in an update,   
   >>“Many of you wrote in to tell us you were taken aback by Whole Foods top   
   >>executive John Mackey characterizing the health law as fascism in an NPR   
   >>interview, and apparently, he’s feeling a little sheepish.”   
   >>   
   >>This was their way of gloating about the belligerence with which he was   
   >>questioned about his heresy by Norah O’Donnell on CBS This Morning. His   
   >>response to her interrogation was disappointingly craven: “Well, I think   
   >>that was a bad choice of words on my part … What I know is that we no   
   >>longer have free enterprise capitalism in health care, it’s not a system   
   >>any longer where people are able to innovate, it’s not based on   
   >>voluntary exchange. The government is directing it. So we need a new   
   >>word for it. I don’t know what the right word is.”   
   >>   
   >>OK, Mr. Mackey, if it’s not socialism and it’s not fascism and it’s not   
   >>capitalism, what precisely is it? The humbled Whole Foods magnate made   
   >>another attempt to arrive at acceptable nomenclature on Thursday while   
   >>prostrating himself before the thought police at HuffPost Live: “I   
   >>regret using that word now because it’s got so much baggage attached to   
   >>it.… Of course, I was just using the standard dictionary definition.… I   
   >>think I’m going to use the phrase government-controlled health care.   
   >>That’s where we’re evolving to right now.”   
   >>   
   >>There is, of course, a reason the word “fascist” has “baggage attached   
   >>to it.” As Mackey gratuitously (or perhaps not) explained to O’Donnell,   
   >>“That word has an association with dictatorships in the 20th Century,   
   >>like Germany and Spain and Italy.” He might have added that an important   
   >>feature of these regimes was “government-controlled health care,” as he   
   >>has now decided to call it. Another distinctive feature that they shared   
   >>was a conspicuous dearth of free expression, particularly where   
   >>unpopular government programs were concerned.   
   >>   
   >>Mackey is, of course, not alone in using the “F” word in relation to   
   >>Obamacare. In fact, as Jeffrey Lord noted yesterday, constitutional   
   >>expert Mark Levin used it in a discussion about a new executive order   
   >>that will “clarify the Affordable Care Act” to encourage doctors to ask   
   >>patients if they own guns: “There are some things in his executive   
   >>orders that are un-American. In some ways they’re even fascistic.   
   >>Doctors are private citizens. Do we really want doctors reporting to the   
   >>federal government.… How is that going to stop any crime?”   
   >>   
   >>Levin normally uses the term “tyranny” when he discusses the policies of   
   >>our recently re-elected President. And perhaps that is the best term.   
   >>Obamacare goes far beyond what Mackey calls “involuntary exchanges   
   >>directed by the government.” It is part of a larger and far more   
   >>insidious project that seeks to stamp out free expression as well as   
   >>free enterprise. It is a project that permits the HHS secretary to issue   
   >>illegal gag orders to private companies and encourages Americans to   
   >>browbeat their fellow citizens into recanting when they hold verboten   
   >>opinions.   
   >>   
   >>Interesting how that word, “verboten,” spontaneously springs to mind   
   >>when thinking about this episode. And, oddly enough, the most virulent   
   >>of those 20th century fascist dictatorships to which Mackey referred   
   >>while groveling to the media bullies was led by a vegetarian. I think   
   >>I’ll stay away from Whole Foods after all.   
   >   
   >One does have to question the "common sense" of any apparent   
   >conservative that chooses a vocation that obviously caters to a mostly   
   >liberal/progressive customer base.   
   >Particularly one who thinks they can criticize the ideology of that   
   >customer base without seeing their business suffer repurcussions.   
      
          You mean, truth hurts.   :-)   
      
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