On False Prophets

Harold Camping's predictions about the rapture were deeply and profoundly wrong.  As wrong as you can get.  He didn't misunderstand anything, he didn't mis-speak, and he didn't fail to nuance his position properly. 

He was just wrong.  The world didn't end yesterday. 
These things happen. 

It happens to me sometimes.  Hit the "Prophecy" label at the bottom of this post, and you'll eventually find a good collection of my hits and misses. 

But my failed predictions don't hurt anyone but me.  (Well, the bad sports bets sometime impact the family and dachshund grocery budget, but you know what I mean.)

Harold Camping's followers spent around a million bucks on their billboard campaign and End Of The World merchandise.  That's "one comma zero zero zero comma zero zero zero decimal zero zero".  That's a lot of money. 
But Harold Camping didn't show up at anyone's front door and arrest them for not contributing.  He never withheld any money from someone's paycheck.  People were willing to give Camping their money because they believed in his cause. 
I had an interesting conversation in a Starbucks with a Campion disciple a couple of days ago.  Go here for what few details I had time to write about this lady.....

When I run into her again, I intend to be nice and polite, but I'm gonna have to ask how she feels about having supported Harold Camping and FamilyRadio.com.  Wouldn't you? 

Now, speaking of ripoffs and scam artists....  In 2008, Barack Obama told us that if he gave 3/4 of a trillion dollars to his campaign contributors, our economy would recover, and that unemployment would never go above 8 percent. 
We didn't give him the money for this project.  It was taken from us by force or threat of force. 

Barack Obama spent our money like a Middle Eastern dictator showering dollars on his loyal supporters.  Most of his "stimulus projects" had been on the government wish list for quite some time.  Others were invented on the spot.  My favorite was the one where Mark Penn, Hillary's failed campaign manager, got a couple of million to publicize the switch from analog to digital TV, long after the TV technology change had already received more publicity than Harold Campion could ever dream of. 

Here's Obama's chart, with reality drawn on it in purple.  We're still not below 8 % unemployment.

Barack Obama took SEVEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS of your money, and just handed it over to his peeps.  That's "seven eight seven comma zero zero zero comma zero zero zero comma zero zero zero decimal zero zero". 

Here's a more up to date chart showing Federal Spending vs. jobs. 

Are the people who claim government spending creates jobs....a....little...bit....superstitious?  Or gullible?  Or just not very smart?  Seriously.  Those are the only explanations at this point. 

This is the biggest ripoff in history.  This Keynesian Con Artist has taken us to the cleaners.  And we're going to come up with excuses for him, and we're not going to circle the White House with protests, and we're going to find a way to rationalize the total failure of our government. 

Almost exactly like FamilyRadio.Org's followers are doing today. 

Today the media is having a field day ridiculing Harold Camping, a ridiculous Baptist Witch Doctor who probably can't wait for his 15 minutes of fame to end. 

Where's the media outrage over Chicago's failed prophet? 

Here's some dude named John, writing at Powerline.  (John's excellent post got me started on this rant, BTW.)

The Obama administration's failed prediction of job growth has significant public policy implications. The most basic division between our political parties is their relative faith, or lack thereof, in the efficacy of federal spending. We are embarking on an election cycle in which Republicans will argue for reduced government spending, and Democrats will claim, against all the evidence, that cutting back on out-of-control spending will somehow be bad for the economy. But the Democrats' theory has been tested. It flunked. It would be nice if reporters and editors would find that failed prediction as newsworthy as the latest end of the world calculation.

So who is the bigger sucker?  My friend from Starubucks in the photograph above? 

Or these folks? 

The pic of Barack Obama with his flock of gullible sheep came from The Democratic Underground.