Memo to Barack: learn your basic history, boy

I'll write more on his "Socialism be comin' and y'all ain't gonna stop me" speech tonight, but for now I'll debunk his historical ignorance. It's along the same line as Al Gore claiming he sponsored legislation that led to the creation of the Internet.

Sayeth Barack:

As for our auto industry, everyone recognizes that years of bad decision-making and a global recession have pushed our automakers to the brink. We should not, and will not, protect them from their own bad practices. But we are committed to the goal of a re-tooled, re-imagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it. And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.

His major lie there is denying that "giving" (meaning taking money from you and me to give to others) tens of billions of dollars to each of the Big Three is protecting them from their stupidity. Why should they bother to perform better when the American taxpayer will be forced

But the sheer ignorance is the last line of the paragraph: "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it." Uh, look again, Barack, but an American did not invent the automobile. Look it up: if you want to talk about steam engines, the Scots did it. If you want to talk strictly about internal combustion engines, it was various Europeans until the German Carl Benz invented the first practical one.

It doesn't matter that he had paid speechwriters. He should have seen that gross historical error right away. I did, and I'm hardly an expert. Yet in the early 1990s, before college (let alone home) Internet access took off, I still had read enough to lay out the basic auto history for some Canadian idiot (Neil of Ontario, are you still around?). What sparked things was his Barackian claim was that we should move toward electric cars, since after all the first cars were electric.

From the Free Eidelbus Dictionary of Political Terms:

Main Entry: Barackian

Pronunciation: \bah-rack'-ee-yuhn\
Function: adjective
Etymology: derived from the name of politician Barack Obama
Date: early 21st century

On the surface seemingly true to most people but is in fact materially false. The noun being described is typically a false claim about a historical fact, made to sway the ignorant and/or uneducated.

— \Ba-rack-is-m\ noun

Never mind George Santayana's particular phrasing: when people are utterly ignorant of the past, how much worse will we all be when they wield power (either by majority vote or as elected officials)?

My preemptive rebuttal for those who think I meant "boy" as a racial insult: read this, shove your race-baiting up your asses, then come back when you learn that behind every blade of grass does not hide a racist.

Obama again demonstrated his childish ignorance. Maybe if he had paid attention in school, instead of dreaming about being president, if he had read a book or two instead of "community organizing," he could have immediately corrected his speechwriters. But keep vigilant, people: this will be among the least of his rewrites of history.