House of Eratosthenes

Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, who befriended President Obama’s parents when they were university students here, has been in office for less than three weeks. But he is so incensed over “birthers” — the conspiracy theorists who assert that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and was thus not eligible to become president — that he is seeking ways to change state policy to allow him to release additional proof that the president was born in Honolulu in 1961.
:
But on the matter of the birthers, Mr. Abercrombie grew serious. “I’m going to take care of that,” he said, though he acknowledged that they would be difficult to convince.

Riiiiiiggghhht. Because as we all know, anytime anybody says they want to see evidence of something, that automatically means they’ll never be convinced. The people who already have their minds made up are the open-minded flexible ones. Uh, er, or something.

How’d that work out Gov. Abercrombie?

Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie will end his quest to prove President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii because it’s against state law to release private documents, his office said Friday.

State Attorney General David Louie told the governor he can’t disclose an individual’s birth documentation without a person’s consent, Abercrombie spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said.

“There is nothing more that Gov. Abercrombie can do within the law to produce a document,” said Dela Cruz. “Unfortunately, there are conspirators who will continue to question the citizenship of our president.”

At the risk of damaging my reputation for humility…I’m going to quote myself again. From an off-line:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t know anything about Obama that is exculpatory or positive.

By “know,” I mean, achieve a state of awareness such that I can personally vouch for it, or some solid evidence that supports it. I “know” He is not a socialist or a communist only in the the same way I “know” He was born in Hawaii; legions of vocal people are lining up ready to make fun of me if I fail to accept it, or hesitate to accept it, or dare to believe something else.

I “know” Obama loves America the same way. Also, I “know” He was napping or tuning out when that bigoted pastor of His was oozing that communist America-bashing drivel for twenty years. I “know” He’s a Christian and not a Muslim this way too. I am to accept all these things without reservation, as if I had some personal background in it. Some of these propositions not only fail to find support in what logical, normal people refer to as “evidence” — they suffer from real problems created by the evidence. Obama believes in free markets, Obama possesses a deep and scholarly understanding of constitutional law, Obama is a brilliant public speaker.

I do see some solid evidence that Obama is sharp and effective in some of the things He tries to do.

But that stuff isn’t helpful to anybody but Obama’s closest friends. Or, over the longer term, to anybody but Obama.

I suppose this isn’t all Obama’s fault. He does have His own bubble of hyper-charisma around Him, it’s not entirely within His control. Whenever something unflattering is spread around about Him, His followers or groupies or toadies, call ’em what you will, climb all over each other to whip up the peer pressure to make it all go away. Which doesn’t by any stretch mean the ugly insinuation about Him has any truth to it.

I’ve pretty much made up my mind He was born in Hawaii, just speaking for myself…but do I think people are unreasonable when they show skepticism? Do I think true hardcore “birthers,” the people who are equally convinced He was born in Kenya, are unreasonable? Or out-and-out nuts?

Mmmm…no…sorry, I can’t make that call. I wasn’t in Honolulu in August 1961. They haven’t seen any hard evidence one way or the other, just like I haven’t.

The issue is hyper-credulity. The pro-Obama people, in fact the hard loyal left in general, may want to be given all the props & recognition & accolades for master-debating…for assertion, for rebuttal, for the highbrow intellectual smackdown. But that is not what they have been doing. Engaging in rhetorical battle, on an idea-against-idea basis, is not what they do.

They offer an idea, and if you are acceptable to them you will be absolutely credulous. You will accept whatever it is without a whiff of question or suspicion or skepticism. If you do not do this, you are unacceptable and trust me, that is where the argument is going next. You’re stupid, you’re indecent, you’re sexist, you’re a homophobe, you’re a racist, you’re a xenophobe.

Go on, find me an exception. One single dedicated leftist who has ever been told something besides “I believe that 100 percent”…and his response to that, in turn, was something along the lines of “that’s quite reasonable of you my good man, allow me to provide some further foundational support” as opposed to “why, you redneck asshole you.” Just find me one example.

They debate facts when it seems the facts are on their side. When it goes the other way they pull the switcheroo. That’s the way it works and it isn’t all Obama’s doing. So He doesn’t get all the blame.

But I must say. It is a little bizarre that every little thing we know about Him, once you strip away the bad stuff we know — and as a general rule, we know all that for certain — everything that’s left is just peer-pressure wild-ass speculation being rammed down our throats by enthusiasts who, as I said, are ready to spread ridicule upon anyone who believes something else.

And it can’t be good for us.

It also can’t be good that we’re re-defining open-mindedness to mean what closed-mindedness is supposed to be. Obama’s a Christian, that’s it dad-gummit, if you don’t believe it uncritically then you’re crazy stupid.

Nor can it be good that we’re re-defining closed-mindedness to mean…you’re just not buying it yet. Yeah, I think it is this bad. We have long ago begun to look at people who are still absorbing information as people who are not, and vice-versa.

Gov. Abercrombie was set on proving something once and for all, so that everyone would be forced to accept what he wanted them to accept. He failed. Also, I notice he failed due to things that would have been easily anticipated by anyone who’s paid the slightest bit of attention to the issue. Which means, if he’s been on the up-and-up here, he never was in a good position to be lecturing anybody on the facts.

But now that he’s failed, everybody is supposed to find that convincing and if they don’t, that’s even more proof how crazy & stupid they are.

In some ways, I think liberals’ ideas are not nearly as destructive as the methods they use to sell those ideas. Peer pressure is what you do in high school. It really isn’t the way the grown-ups in our nation need to be deciding things right now.

But he is so incensed over “birthers” — the conspiracy theorists who assert that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and was thus not eligible to become president — that he is seeking ways to change state policy to allow him to release additional proof that the president was born in Honolulu in 1961.

Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie will end his quest to prove President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii because it’s against state law to release private documents, his office said Friday.

So, to go over the possibilities

EITHER … he found that Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii and, out of friendship with the family joined the alleged conspiracy

OR … he found out that Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii, and wanted to say something but the law forbade him to say anything about it

OR … he found out that Obama WAS born in Hawaii, but Obama didn’t want to let people know for some reason, and he agreed or didn’t release it out of deference to his friend’s wishes.

My personal opinion is that there may be something embarrasing in the records about someone in the family that they don’t want made public.

Either that or there is significant ambiguity in the records that the question can’t be answered difinitively by existing documentation.

But, as I’ve said many times, it doesn’t matter. He got approved, elected, and there he is, Mr. Leftist Activist President. We gotta deal with him as president regardless. We can make new laws that specifically require sufficient documentation to run in the future… but with this guy, that ship has sailed.

But I don’t have a problem with people who have honest questions over it.
- philmon | 01/21/2011 @ 21:43
I vote for #3.

I think Abercrombie envisioned this glorious victory….sheepish birthers crying in their beers, triumphant Obamatons dancing in the streets with copies of the just-released argument-ending long form. And then he found out (he should’ve known already) the law requires Obama’s signature, and Obama didn’t want to sign.

Why doesn’t Obama want to sign. Simple enough: He’s always come out ahead on this thing. Simple calculation in His mind.

But Abercrombie ends up with egg on his face. So the solution, again, is simple enough. Give a wonderful speech and put the blame on the other guys.
- mkfreeberg | 01/21/2011 @ 21:57

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Abercrombie Gives UpFriday, January 21st, 2011

Abercrombie Gives Up
Friday, January 21st, 2011