Our armed forces personnel, living as they do in an environment run 24-7 by the government, have some very colorful ways of describing that state of affairs that only a government-run feedback loop can create, and which is perhaps symbolized best by a five-spiral crash. The mildest of these is the acronym snafu, and we won’t go into it any further for I am a Christian pastor. But I will say that recent weeks have seen some references to such vivid descriptions in reference to the Obamacrash rollout.
I have elsewhere described the threat to our liberties and health care that such a program presents, and I have also, from time to time, described how the economic literacy that undergirds such an ambitious scheme rivals that of an underachieving mollusk. It is not my purpose here to go over such self-evident things again, but rather simply to exult in the moment. Such a government-managed cropper as we have witnessed in the website fiasco does call for some celebration, and I do confess that I feel inspired. Now I am not guaranteeing that a penetrating insight won’t come out from time to time as I go. Sometimes I just can’t help it. But in the main, my purpose here is to try to provide a verbal equivalent to that Times Square photo after the Second World War, the one with the sailor kissing the girl.
The only fly in the ointment that I can see is that Obama’s insufferable conceit is of such a nature that that it is next to impossible that he will recognize that he had anything to do with this debacle. But other than that, this rollout is nearly perfect, and this one small flaw stands to remind us quietly that we were not put into this world for pleasure alone.
Over half a billion dollars! Years to develop the site! The earnest well wishes of do-gooders and fuss-budgets everywhere! The inexorable will of the progressive imperative! The five spirals! The glory! The crater!
I hear some muttering. It is a health care program, not a web site. It is much more than a web site. Right, and this is what we call an a fortiori. If you can’t build a small rectangular box with popsicle sticks and library paste, why do you want us to entrust you to build us a hospital for all America? You might try to do it with all your left-over popsicle sticks, and with that half a billion spent I suspect you have more than a few.
One searches in vain for an explanation. Maybe the servers are all in a bunker deep in the mountains of West Virginia, and maybe they are powered by a hundred thousand squirrel cage wheels, and maybe the squirrels got tired. Maybe. Or maybe they unionized and objected what was going to happen to their Cadillac plans under Obamamalware. I don’t think we should take any theory off the table, really. Let’s put Steven Hawking on it. He’s kinda creative.
In the meantime, this reactor scram meltdown cost over 600 million dollars. There are about 300 million Americans, which means that my share of this is two dollars, give or take. I just want to say that it has been worth every penny. These are matinee prices, people!
…..”and this one small flaw stands to remind us quietly that we were not put into this world for pleasure alone.” Almost a throwaway line in an enjoyable post. Sanctification matters. It often sucks, but it matters.
My search for ‘A fortiori’ led to a Wikipedia entry that uses Paul as an example. Was that you?
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But the “government” didn’t build the website.  It was built primarily by a publicly-traded IT firm called CGI Federal who has served both the government and commercial sectors.  As anyone who works in IT will tell you, software can only be as good as the requirements that are provided, so some responsibility may lie with HHS.  However, it’s clear that testing for scalability of the site for high volume was not done. That responsibility lies solely upon the architects of the site and isn’t necessarily something government bureaucrats would even know to discuss. Â
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James – all depends on whether CGI quoted a sufficient amount of testing and schedule or not. If they did, then if HHS wouldn’t pay or wouldn’t allow the schedule, it is HHS’s fault. If CGI was allowed time and money for testing, they were incompetent or dishonest.
James – Yes, the government did “build the website”. As someone who has spent the last 7 years building systems working for a subcontractor for the government (I won’t mislead you – they are not IT systems but are close enough that the example is still valid), nothing is done but what the government specifies to be done. The servers would have been specified right down to composition of the case. Protocols, programming language, security schemes…you name it, it was specified. And if it wasn’t specified, the contractor would have formally asked for clarification. Sorry James, ALL the responsibility lies… Read more »
Private or not, it also matters whether the publicly-traded IT firm CGI Federal is in bed with your government. Crony “capitalism” is socialism that gives capitalism a bad name.
Sadly, it is the nature of “we the people” who who forever believe in the government as Santa Claus. Â WE are the problem.
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God Helps Us
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While on the subject, How are my brothers and sisters responding to the requirement to get health insurance? Are we to be the first in line to sign up? Are we to wait as long as we can and when we run out of options then sign up? What should our response be that would bring the greatest honor to Jeasus?Â
Thanks
Jesus, Sorry, my bad.
PRAY-TV…Â
Seems to me this is an answer to prayer, not to the God of America but to the God of the Bible who delights in confusing his enemies. We in Australia just had federal election where the incumbent left couldn’t get anything right, right down to some crazy Asian kid photobombing the Prime Minister, and a makeup artist tweeting what an impolite man he is, which went viral. I was feeling the same way you are now. Best entertainment ever.Â
Situation Normal; All Fouled Up. At least that’s how it was presented by my Air Force Dad.
It’s pretty amusing when conservatives have spent four consecutive years trying to ensure that the rollout of the Affordable Care Act would be screwed up, and then act all outraged about the waste when it works out the way they were hoping it would.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/28/opinion/carroll-gop-obamacare-hypocrisy/index.html
The squirrels-in-West-Virginia bit reminded me for some reason of Elijah taunting the priests on Mount Carmel. More than a passing similarity, I think; the almighty state is the Baal of the left, and he has failed to bring the fire they were counting on.
Jonathan, I am sure it was just a slip of the tongue (keyboard?) but you accidently referred to Obamacare as the Affordable Care Act, when I am sure you meant to be truthful and call it by its rightful name: The Unaffordable Care Act. But to get to the heart of your comment, despite every conservative plus a whole bunch of Republicans voting against it initially, it is all screwed up because of conservatives? Despite the fact that they repeatedly voted for its repeal only to have that blocked in the Senate, it is all screwed up because of them? … Read more »