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What She Really Said,

Or… Reading Between the Lines 101

By Jeff “Mario” Smith, Guerilla Reporter

December 4, In the year of our Lord 2006

In LEFTington’s Heraldo-Liberal today, there is an editorial by one Kari O’Conner, architect. Ms. O’Conner’s article has to do with what she says is the “selfish use of land”. I am not sure how Ms. O’Conner became the self-anointed goddess of selfishness, but it was entertaining to read her leftist views.

The following is a breakdown of what she said with guerilla reporter commentary as to what she really said. Your assignment grasshoppers, is to study this between-the-lines example, find another article of your choosing, and do the same thing. Your article must be about one of these subjects: global warming, sustainable development, education, eminent domain, the global community, gun control, separation of church and state, or civil liberties. You will be graded on your ability to read between the lines and see through the propaganda, agendas, and misinformation.

Here is Ms. O’Conner’s secular humanist worldview rant cleverly disguised as an “article” in the opinion section of LEFTington’s Heraldo-Liberal news rag interspersed with commentary. Enjoy.

“The amount of urbanized land used for development increased by 45 percent between 1982 and 1997, while the population grew by only 17 percent, according to a Brookings Institute Survey.”

What she really said: People are taking up too many resources. We need these resources for our horses, and snails, and puppy dog tails.

“U.S. Census Bureau figures indicate that from 1993 to 1999, the median new-house size grew 12 percent despite a shrinking average household size of 2.61 people.”

What she really said: This is so unfair. We’re only people, just another form of life created out of the big bang. We are just evolved more than the horses and snails. We don’t deserve more space.

“The same figures for 1999-2005 show the median size of new single-family homes growing from 1,928 to 2,461 square feet, a 28 percent increase in just six years. In the same period, the average family size was shrinking to 2.6 people.”

What she really said: We are having smaller families and taking up more space. This space could be used by the animals and we could slow global warming if we used less energy to heat and cool our spaces. We should be downsizing.

“Compared to the United Kingdom, Demographia reports, "the median new single-unit house in the United States was nearly three times as large as the average new house size in the United Kingdom."

Now we are getting somewhere. It is apparent that Ms. O’Conner wants us to be more ”Euro”. Oui oui!

What she really said: We need to be more like Europe, as they are so much more “evolved” than we are. I mean, they are so much more socialist and their wine and cheese are so superior. Don’t you just love that french accent, or the superior intellect of a Brit? And aren’t those Irish such good drinkers? Ahh, the Italians, if only Mussolini were still in charge. And those Germans, who really know how to make a pompous car, wow! And let’s not forget the Swedes who gave us our Volvos. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Spaniards and how well they deal with our friends, the muslims who have the religion of peace.

“Americans are also supersizing retail space. In the last 30 years, the amount of retail space has grown from 5 square feet per person to 20 square feet, Kathy Schalch reported on National Public Radio's Morning Edition in 2001.”

What she really said: NPR is the only truth teller you know. That Wal Mart is so evil. They take up so much space and they don’t support the labor unions we need so badly for the demonrat party. And I heard, this year, they are allowing that militant Christian group, the Salvation Army, to ring bells there. You know, if they wear a uniform, they have to be evil.

“Compare that to the United Kingdom at 10 square feet of retail space per person reported by Will Hutton in the Observer in 2002. That article also says the United Kingdom's per-person retail area is five times the European average.”

What she really said: It isn’t fair for America to use its prosperity to have a better lifestyle. So what if we have more space than Europe! We don’t need all these choices. It just isn’t fair. There are children starving with flies on their faces somewhere. The UK is just so much more evolved than we are. And, oh those french!

“It looks as though we believe that new, more and bigger will make us happy. Yet studies indicate that wealth or possessions beyond the basic necessities do nothing to add to our happiness.”

What she really said: Studies are all true you know. Why I read this study that if we don’t stop using the internal combustion engine, by 2040 the ice caps are all going to melt and we will all need arks, er, uh, I mean boats, even in Kentucky. That Ark thingy is a myth you know!

“It is our ability to enter into meaningful relationships with one another that add the greatest pleasures to life. According to the World Happiness Institute, people today are about as happy as their grandparents were in the 1940s, when we had smaller homes and less shopping space.”

What she really said: See, here is another study! We need to listen to these studies you know. If it weren’t for the World Happiness Institute, we would not know how to be happy. We need them. We were so much happier during WWII!

Suspiciously missing from her 1940’s reference is WWII and the fact that we, as a culture, supported the war effort and willingly made sacrifices for the cause, including cramped living space.

“In fact, many of us are stretched to our human limits, isolated in our cars and trucks as we swim through seas of asphalt parking lots.”

Now, this socialist is correct here. We are stretched to our human limits, but it has less to do with over-development than it has to do with all our socialist tax and spend programs drowning us in debt and forcing us to have two people working while the government schools steal the minds of our children, our Christian faith is outlawed in public, and our Constitution is relegated to the trash heap.

What she really said: We need to ride buses and be friends and save the environment and ride bikes everywhere. We have murdered animals through all this development you know!

"We have constructed a set of circumstances, a culture, which is actually toxic for us," said Dr. Peter Whybrow, director of UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute and author of American Mania: When More Is Not Enough, at a UCLA conference in 2004. "It doesn't fit with our neurobiology, and it doesn't fit with our evolutionary behavior. Because we have gotten so complex and so big, we have to, as a society, think how we will develop systems which provide the infrastructure in the communities we need to teach the next generation of people ... The simplicity movement is the beginning."

What she really said: Those people in Californication are so much more evolved than we are. They have Hollywood you know. We need to modify our evolution. Darwin left that part out. He was too busy finding out why there is no Creator to look to the future.

“Our addictive behavior confronts me when I hear politicians, developers, builders, churches and hospitals speak about their genuine need to provide for future generations, which requires them to consume more of our cultural identity and precious resources, including the land that sustains our horse farms and has the food-production capacity to sustain our population.”

Here you go, those Christians and health-care providers take up too much space and it is the horse farm that is going to save us. Wait a minute, why do they call it a horse farm anyway? Shouldn’t it be called a Horse Retreat? I mean, they aren’t growing anything there to feed us, or are they? Why do they need so much space? All they do is entertain us by racing each other with short little Spanish people on their backs. And they sure support the illegal alien fiasco!

Oh, that’s right; it makes us feel good to see all these horse farms around LEFTington when we have friends visit. We can take a ride, not on one of these million dollar horses mind you, and show them all the pretty fences and pasture. I like horse farm beauty as much as the next guy, but don’t tell me it is necessary or that I have to be taxed to keep it there! Give me a break! This gal talks about food production in the same sentence as horse farms. What is she eating?

What she really said: Those darn Christians take up too much space, and those big churches, why do they need those things anyway. And hospitals, why don’t we have such big hospitals for the animals? Oh, that’s right, we do have that Equine Center, sorry! More horse farms, we need more horse farms to stay alive!

“Are we seriously choosing to be like the alcoholic who has a liver disease but continues to drink? Or will we heed the fact that if everyone in the current population lived as the average American does, we would need 5.3 Earths to sustain our lifestyles? Will we understand that it is time to think of growth in a different and sustainable way?”

What she really said: Americans are the cause of all the world’s woes. We are selfish and fat. We need to “sustain” socialism before this capitalist society kills us, and everyone else.

“We need a cultural shift away from associating our happiness with our ability to thoughtlessly consume. In Whybrow's book, 19th-century philosopher Adam Smith is studied in an effort to explain how "the desire to be accepted by the community placed constraints on the addictive desire to consume endlessly and compete recklessly."

What she really said: That “propensity to consume” is so evil. Americans are such pigs. We need to share our wealth with those who did not work to attain it like we did, and support their communist and socialist nations.

“It is time for us to align our actions with our values.”

What she really said: We are of European descent and we need to be more like they are today. Our core values are European. We all should drive Volvos, Saabs, and Volkswagons when we aren’t riding our bikes or riding buses and trains. We need better wine and cheese, a shorter work week, longer vacations, and more muslims in our population. We need to quit reproducing like they have in Europe. Thank the universe that abortion is still legal! We should import more illegal aliens, especially those muslims, to support Social Security. Oops, that’s right, illegal aliens don’t pay taxes.

“We value a healthy, vibrant, attractive city balanced with a beautiful and productive agricultural perimeter. We must do so by maintaining our existing urban service boundary.”

What she really said: We just have to keep all those insolvent horse farms solvent. We simply must tax the people more to sustain them. It is imperative for our future if we are to remain the “Horse Capital of the World”. We must demand smaller houses packed in closer together and more multiple family housing units.

“We can have a community that accommodates growth with mixed use and higher densities; that has adequate infrastructure to accommodate future growth in the interior; that creates opportunities for people to interact with one another, that allows us to move about without a dependence on automobiles; that has jobs, schools and services close to where we live; that has a human-scale built environment with well-integrated design; that maintains our equine culture and provides us with nutritious locally produced food.”

What she really said: We need to live in a crowded city, get rid of the internal combustion engines, build more high-rise apartments, and let the horses have the space; after all they deserve it more than we do. Oops, I forgot, we need some real farms too, for food you know.

“As a community, we only need to envision it, see it as our goal, work to make it a reality and find honor in the possession of less.”

What she really said: Visualize while you meditate and don’t forget the incense. Live simply so that others may simply live. You have to believe me. I was educated in a liberal arts university and I know what I am talking about. I learned my lessons well from my professors.

As Theresa Fritz Camoriano said to me about this socialists article, "What she really said is that the government should use its force to impose her priorities on the rest of us – for our own good, of course." And a hearty Amen to that, which is why I labeled Ms. O'Connor a socialist to begin with.

There you have it grasshoppers, your first class in “Reading Between The Lines 101”. Now, go out and look for what is really said in all that you read. Be wary of those that say they are “community activists” for a simple rearrangement of two letters, s and y, produces “communist activity”. Always question those who are “educated” in our government institutions of indoctrination in collectivist thinking and global living. Watch out for those who claim to be an expert on anything, especially if there is a “PHD” after their name.

If you want truth, and you should, you will have to read through these mainstream media mind-control articles, news reports, and editorials. You will have to seek it if you want it, and in most circumstances, except for the most mundane, it will not be found anywhere in the mainstream. You will have to be able to decipher that which is presented to promote a specific agenda and that which is pure bunk meant to control public opinion. Opinions aren’t bad in and of themselves, but they are meaningless if they are not formed from a concrete foundation of truth. Unfortunately, what is promoted, more often than not, is opinion that is based on misinformation, omission, and many times, outright lies. It is not easy, but if you truly desire to live free, you will have to seek and find truth. It begins here.

Veritas vos Liberabit!

Heraldo-Liberal [Herald Misleader] article:http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/editorial/16146883.htm

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