Empathy vs. Contempt September 19, 2012 +YOU+ BALANCE THE BUDGET Mark Klein: “It wasn’t so hard after all. Took about five minutes and I’m running a surplus after 2014. (Of course, I had to reduce military spending). As soon as I’m elected emperor and don’t have to get buy-in from everyone else I will be happy to fix this little problem.” Mike Hanlon: “Nice link Friday to the Budget Control site. To answer your question about the Daily Bible Guide ad at the top: The site’s developers have essentially sold that space to a company called LifeStreet Media, which in turn rotates various companies’ ads into that space. If you press the F5 key on your Windows keyboard (to reload the page) a few times, you’ll see some of the other ads. If a visitor to the Budget Control site clicks on one of the ads, the advertiser pays LifeStreet Media for the click and LifeStreet shares the fee with the owner of the Budget Control site. This is a pretty common online business model: Google is the leader with its AdSense program. It chooses the ads that appear on a site you visit by cross-referencing recent Google searches you’ve done in an attempt to make them more relevant. The results can be helpful, funny or a little creepy. Like this.” HAIKU Reader Gary Diehl sent three Mitt Romney limericks which didn’t strike me as suitable (even though Mr. Romney did just grab $7 million from Nantucket). Actually, they were quite tame, which as any adolescent boy can tell you is exactly what limericks are not meant to be. For example (emphasis added for those who don’t know how to read a limerick): Party FAITHfuls will always believe him that’s of COURSE very easy to tell. But the WEBS that he weaves are most TANGled indeed and his rhetoric’s starting to SMELL. I mean . . . really? Where is the prurience? It barely scrapes the sophomoric. Still, not to be rude, I responded, “LOL — what’s next, haiku?” To which he responded — rather magnificently, I think — with these 17 syllables: Excitement builds up The candidate takes the stage Click factcheck.org BIG DIFFERENCE Candidate Barack Obama was recorded at a 2008 fundraiser with the now famous “they cling to guns or religion” line, but before you let anyone write off Mr. Romney’s recent remarks as no different, notice two differences. The first, for the record, is that Senator Obama immediately apologized. But the really big difference is that, as you’ll see if you read the few paragraphs into which this phrase fell, his remarks were filled with empathy for the plight of some folks who’d had a particularly rough go of it. He was talking about how to try to persuade them that he really would get them health care (which he has), that he really would lower their taxes (which he has), that he really would ask those at the top to pay a little more (which he is asking). He feels their pain and seeks to rekindle their hope. Contrast that with Mr. Romney, who writes off 47% of the electorate as, basically, contemptible. Empathy versus contempt. Big difference.