Fw: The Dinner Roll ...

The Dinner Roll ...

Once upon a time I was invited to the White House for a private dinner with the President.

I am a respected businessman, with a factory that produces memory chips for computers and portable electronics.

There was some talk that my industry was being scrutinized by the administration, but I paid it no mind. I live in a free country. There's nothing that the government can do to me if I've broken no laws. My wealth was earned honestly, and an invitation to dinner with an American President is an honor.

I checked my coat, was greeted by the Chief of Staff, and joined the President in a yellow dining room.

We sat across from each other at a table draped in white linen. The Great Seal was embossed on the china. Uniformed staff served our dinner.

The meal was served , and I was startled when my waiter suddenly reached out, plucked a dinner roll off my plate and began nibbling it as he walked back to the kitchen..

" Sorry ' bout that," said the President. "Andrew is very hungry."

"I don't appreciate...." I began, but as I looked into the calm brown eyes across from me, I felt immediately guilty and petty. It was just a dinner roll. "Of course," I concluded, and reached for my glass.

Before I could, however, another waiter reached forward, took the glass away and swallowed the wine in a single gulp. "And his brother, Eric, is very thirsty," said the President..

I didn't say anything. The President is testing my compassion, I thought. I withheld my comments and decided to play along. I don't want to seem unkind..

My plate was whisked away before I had tasted a bite.

"Eric's children are also quite hungry."

With a lurch, I crashed to the floor. My chair had been pulled out from under me.

I stood, brushing myself off angrily, and watched as it was carried from the room.

And their grandmother can't stand for long."

I excused myself, smiling outwardly, but inside feeling like a fool. Obviously I had been invited to the White House to be sport for some game. I reached for my coat, to find that it had been taken.

I turned back to the President.

"Their grandfather doesn't like the cold."

I wanted to shout, "that was my coat!" But again, I looked at the placid smiling face of my host and decided I was being a poor sport. I spread my hands helplessly and chuckled.

Then I felt my hip pocket and realized my wallet was gone. I excused myself and walked to a phone on an elegant side table.

I learned shortly that my credit cards had been maxed out, my bank accounts emptied, my retirement and equity portfolios had vanished, and my wife had been thrown out of our home.

Apparently, the waiters and their families were moving in. The President hadn't moved or spoken as I learned all this, but finally I lowered the phone into its cradle and turned to face him.

"Andrew's whole family has made bad financial decisions. They haven't planned for retirement and they need a house. They recently defaulted on a subprime mortgage. I told them they could have your home. They need it more than you do."

My hands were shaking. I felt faint. I stumbled back to the table and knelt on the floor.

The President cheerfully cut his meat, ate his steak, and drank his wine. I lowered my eyes and stared at the small grey circles on the tablecloth that were water drops.

"By the way," he added , "I have just signed an Executive Order nationalizing your factories.

I'm firing you as head of your business. I'll be operating the firm now for the benefit of all mankind.

There's a whole bunch of Erics and Andrews out there and they can't come to you for jobs groveling like beggars.."

I looked up. The President dropped his spoon into the empty ramekin which had been his crème Brule.

He drained the last drops of his wine. As the table was cleared, he lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.

He stared at me.. I clung to the edge of the table as if it were a ledge and I were a man hanging over an abyss.

I thought of the years behind me, of the life I had lived. The life I had earned with a lifetime of work, risk and struggle.

Why was I punished? How had I allowed it to be taken? What game had I played and lost? I looked across the table and noticed with some surprise that there was no game board between us.

What had I done wrong?

As if answering the unspoken thought, the President suddenly cocked his head, locked his empty eyes to mine, and bared a million teeth, chuckling wryly as he folded his hands.

"You should have stopped me at the dinner roll," he said.

WAKE UP AMERICA !!!

21 comments:

Snarla said...

First tip-off: "I am a respected businessman..."

bendk said...

hahaha hoooooooly shit.

Paying a 3% tax increase=Someone stealing your wallet.

gruaud said...

crème Brule?

The nerve of that elite bastard.

XCowboy2 said...

You should credit the author. Richard Gleaves. First posted on RebirthofReason.com

gruaud said...

Watched your YouTube regarding this, XC2.

This website's purpose isn't to credit sources,
it's a museum of RW spam; although we do
dig down for sources eventually if it seems
pertinent.

ferschitz said...

Written by some rightwing think tank spewing out the usual talking points:

1. Only Republicans "work hard." Everyone else out there is incredibly lazy, worthless and should eat shit and die.

2. A democratic president is going "nationalize" all industries just because. The fact that BHO chose to bail out the US auto industry - which saved it's butt and the jobs of a lot of worthless union serfs who suck blood from the overpaid CEOs - just proves how this Democratic Admin is coming for your "factory" tomorrow. Of course, the fact that most US "factory" owners have sent these types of jobs off-shore to third world countries is completely irrelevant to this nifty little fairy tale being spun here.

3. Slacker Democrats never save for the future, and of course, all minorities are out to steal from poor benighted hard working god-fearing Republicans.

Some old shit, different day. Cry me a river.

gruaud said...

@ ferschitz

Actually, XCowboy2 above is the author of this little
parable.

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkQDJXhk25g

Ayn Rand fan, but what do you expect after
he goes all slippery slope on dinner rolls.

Anonymous said...

Weird. Just really weird. The persecution complex in these people is beyond crazy.

Anonymous said...

@ Xcowboy

So you're telling me that someone would actually want to claim credit for writing this crap? They're actually PROUD of this drivel?

Anonymous said...

On a side note... Judging by the figure the president is sporting, I don't think he eats much creme brulee.

ferschitz said...

Ok, I was wrong about this one being underwritten by a corporate think tank, but let's face facts. Where does Mr. Cowboy & folks like Jim Boyd get their talking points from?

They're certainly not thinking them up on their own. It's all coming from Fake "news" and the RushOHanityOLielyBeck crowd, who ARE paid by the corporations to spew this stuff out.

So... I stand both corrected and vindicated (ha ha).. or something. Really: same old shit, different spooge spewing it forth.

But, ok ok, some sort of acknowledgement that freaking out over dinner rolls is a bit of a different take on it. Ridiculously stupid, but, yes: different. No points awarded.

son of dad said...

first they came for the dinner rolls, but I like biscuits so I said nothing...

Erl said...

It's the ending that really does it for me. I mean, SUPPOSE President Obama is the incarnation of evil he's presented here as, and suppose that, by executive order, he's nationalized everything, and suppose that he's inviting the truly productive over to the White House for dinner and an illustrative show, then "stopp[ing him] at the dinner roll" would just get you arrested, tried, convicted of violating our new unconstitutional government and SHOT. Supposing this sort of evil, being awkward when it first manifests does diddly. I recognize that it's supposed to be a metaphor, but I reject that. Morality tales should be internally consistent.

Hibryd said...

XCowboy2 - Hey, maybe you could answer my commie liberal question.

A few RWD threads ago I wondered why your side, rather than argue the subjects at hand, completely fabricate entire stories and then argue about THEM. I mean, why the straw men?

You KNOW the only companies the government "interfered" with were on their deathbed and would not have survived without government intervention. So why are you imagining another scenario instead of explaining to us why every American car company (sans Ford) should have been left to die?

katz said...

Wake up, America!

Stop the president from doing something he was never going to do based on a story that isn't real!

Anonymous said...

It would be great to know why the rightwing makes stuff up and then freaks out about it. That has been the m.o. of the Republicans since 11/20/09. Plus I'd really love to know why the rightwing NOW thinks it's just fine to diss the Commander in Chief during a time of war??

We lefties were lectured ad nauseum by the right about how we shouldn't even offer constructive criticism based on facts about Bush because it would give "aid and comfort to our enemies."

What a bunch of double-standard, hypocritical b.s. the right engages in. Cannot take almost anything seriously coming from the right because it all based on lies, rumors, stories, fictions, fabrications and scare mongering.

The double standard would breath taking if it wasn't so typcial.

I would love to have a loyal opposition who provides insights and sound criticism of this admin. All we get is the party of NO! Republicans offer no ideas, no solutions, no feedback. It's simply: NO! What a bunch of crap.

Anonymous said...

Yes I am proud of my work- it was originally posted as "Dinner at the White House: a parable" not as "Dinner with Obama" - that's been grafted onto the original as has the "Wake up America!!" at the end.

The point of a parable is to point out a truth by exaggeration, metaphor or fable. The lilies of the field is a parable, so is the little red hen. A parable lasts and spreads if it identifies a truth in a clear concise way.

Am I proud of my writing? Absolutely. Proud enough to be distressed that this piece of mine has been spread all over the net- and passed around to millions by e-mail without attribution or credit. Ironically, my dinner roll is stolen every time the story is posted without credit. The first blogger who reprinted it and stripped my name off was the gateway to a torrent of intellectual property theft. In that way, the parable proves its own point- that a violation of property rights once invites and makes possible millions of further violations which one is powerless to stop.

Anonymous said...

@ Anon

If I had to bet, I'd say that whoever ripped off your screed here was probably a conservative who wanted to share your "wisdom" with all their conservative friends.

Personally I think you're better off without attribution. I'd be embarrassed if people knew I had written something so awful.

Female Swabbie said...

First was the Diner Roll. Now is health care. How much of a tax hike do we expect to take.
Its the Robin hood Syndrome all over. I've retired from the US military (Where I served proudly), landed a job with a salary I can live on (buying steak occasional - 1st time in 27 year), finally managed to pay off my college loans (Because I didn't qualify for Welfare and enlisted during the time of VEAP - 8400.00 college fund went about . that far) and NOW I HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT HUGE TAX HIKES TO COVER THIS STUPID NATIONALIZED HEALTHCARE, that will work about as well as it does in the UK. Why go to the drug store and buy asprins it costs money... call an ambulance, go to the hospital and get issued them free. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WAKE UP PPL.

That Other Mike said...

Swabbie: Look at it this way - at least you'll get free meds for your paranoid fantasies. You might become a productive member of society with time and some effort.

Anonymous said...

@ Female Swabbie

If you served for as long as you say, shouldn't you be on Tricare for life? In which case, your health care will not change one iota. It also means that you have lived a good portion of your life (and possibly will life the rest of your life) under a socialized, government run health care program.

As for "huge tax hikes", the taxes for this bill are a .9 percent Medicare Part A increase and a 3.4 percent tax on unearned incomes, both of which only affect incomes greater than 250K.

This program isn't what the have in the UK. Speaking of which, the people in the UK love their program.

This reform was about INSURANCE. It makes sure that everyone has INSURANCE. Get that in your head. If you can find me one person who has insurance and yet would rather got to the hospital to get "free" aspirin (as if such as thing exists, ever heard of a co-pay?) instead of the drugstore, I'll eat several hats.

And thanks for your service.

 
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