30 January 2009

Why Is Our President Hanging Crepe?

All of us have heard quite a few discouraging words from our president in recent days. In spite of being elected on a wave of optimism, he seems bent on damping down our economic expectations. Why?

I first heard the term "hanging crepe" during my residency training in pediatrics back in the 60s. That was when all of us were trying to figure out how to best communicate with patients' relatives. The term was said to come from an old-fashioned way of letting the community know that a death had occurred in a home by putting black crepe over the door of the house, and by analogy, when dealing with medical problems, "hanging crepe" meant giving excessively pessimistic prognoses to your patients' relatives. This was a kind of protective strategy, I suppose, in that if the physician were correct, then he would be thought wise; and if he were wrong, then his actions would be thought brilliant, perhaps even heroic. Later this way of dealing with cases in which it was difficult to predict the outcome was subjected to searching ethical discussion, and other ways of handling these difficult cases were suggested.

I thought we had a problem with confidence which was supposed to be remedied by the injection of obscenely large amounts of money into failing businesses and the pockets of Friends of Obama (FOO). So then, why is President Obama trying to discourage us? Is this a lack of confidence in these methods of recovery? Is he trying to avoid the blame if they don't work? And of course, allow him to be elevated to "President-for-Life" if they do? Enquiring minds want to know.

No comments:

Downtown Billings in the SummerTime

Downtown Billings in the SummerTime
At The BrewPub on Broadway

Downtown Phoenix

Downtown Phoenix
Downtown Phoenix in the Winter Time

Good Cheese Here

Good Cheese Here
Vermont Cheddar & Minnesota Blue

TAKE TIME FOR PARADISE

TAKE TIME FOR PARADISE
Dehler Park, Billings MT, July 2008 This is what Bart Giamatti recommends for good mental health.

Me and Joan

Me and Joan
Early elderly and middle middle age: We May Know Something You Don't

Mrs America

Mrs America
Fortunately these girls had a good-looking mother

Rimrocks @ Billings MT

Rimrocks @ Billings MT
“In beholding old stones we may feel our anxieties about our achievements–and lack of them–slacken . . . Vast landscapes [and seascapes] can have an anxiety–reducing effect similar to ruins, for they are the representatives of infinite space, as ruins are the representatives of infinite time, against which our weak, short-lived bodies seem no less inconsequential than those of moths or spiders.”—Alain de Botton in Status Anxiety

Easter Sunday at St Patrick's Co-Cathedral

Easter Sunday at St Patrick's Co-Cathedral
12 April 2009

Pleasant Hillside at Hustisford, AKA The Grassy Knoll for you conspiracy buffs

Pleasant Hillside at Hustisford, AKA The Grassy Knoll for you conspiracy buffs
A Lot of Muellers Are Buried Here
Powered By Blogger