“Homeboy” is a disrespectful “black” term, just like “baby mama.”
(I, incidentally, disagree; I’m just translating the analogy.)
Do you personally feel Obama should be expected to treat George as a brother?
By my math, this half-brother of Obama’s is 21 years younger than Barack. Kind of hard to see where there would’ve ever been any connection between the two.
We aren’t talking about Sr.; we are talking about Jr. Jr. has considerable to give - he’s earned millions. Unsurprisingly, Obama Jr. is a lot less generous with his own money than with mine.
This, of course, is quite straightforwardly false. Down payments on a house and college tuition is about as far from stiffing someone as can be imagined.
Actually, yes she is, so you might want to take your own advice and read for comprehension (if possible).
This part is wrong, too.
So she is complaining about not getting enough money, and the reason she didn’t sue seems to be because she realized she didn’t have a leg to stand on.
Oh, and another litle thing that I found terribly, terribly unexpected -
Imagine my surprise.
Regards,
Shodan
Maybe in your world. In my world it has not racial connotations at all.
So I guess I have to ask, Sqweels What do YOU mean by ‘You People’?
That’s why I said it’s up to how Barack views it. For instance, one of my cousins is adopted…he has no genetic connection at all to our family. He is treated no different than anyone else in the family despite this.
You are projecting YOUR feelings about the situation. Perhaps to you ‘a coincidental genetic connection’ is unimportant (it obviously isn’t important from your posts). Nothing wrong with that…different strokes and all that. However, not everyone feels the same way (I don’t). So…it’s really up to how Barack views things as to how much weight or responsibility or emotion he gives to the relationship. Myself, I don’t judge other people by my standards…and I (try) not to project my own standards onto others.
ETA:
Yes…he IS his brother. That’s how I see it anyway. How Barack sees it is his own concern…
-XT
Incorrect. You’re making a false comparison between what a father should be expected to leave his children and what half-siblings who don’t even know each other should be expected to share. Parents have responsibilities to their children. No one has any responsibility to an abandong parent’s other children. Obama isn’t that rich, by the way. His net worth is about $1.3 million, and that’s mostly from his book sales. He’s never been rich.
No, that’s just basic parental responsibility and not generous at all for a multimillionaite. He left her ten grand in his will and left Cindy millions. He stiffed her.
Actually, no she isn’t. You’re making things up. She aid it didn’t make sense (which is true), but she isn’t whining about it.
Learn how to read, will you. All that says is that her son (not her) asked to see the will. It does sound like it was tampered with.
This woman certainly has every right to feel she got stiffed by her father (either that or Cindy altered the will…not impossible since she DOES have a history of addiction and theft). Barack got nothing from his father, so there’s no comparison. You’re comparing an unequal inheritance to a philosophical question about what kind of responsibility a person has to a half-sibling he doesn’t know. It’s a fraudulent comparison.
Imagine that your mother was artificially inseminated using sperm from a sperm bank. You later find out that there’s somebody else in the world that was conceived using material from the same donor. Should you be expected to treat that person as your sibling?
Interesting, I would think it fairly amazing if Barack manages to not be resentful of his half-siblings. I am fortunate to have grown up in an old fashion stable nuclear family. I occasionally felt like I was the minority among my friends in school in that I had a “normal” family.
Some of them really had major issues with their Dad’s that went off and started a new family, especially those where the Dad was nearly never seen.
My Dad came from a broken home and he has half and step siblings. We were never close to any of them. I don’t really feel like they are a part of my family. Definitely not as close as my cousins.
Most people would feel some level of responsibility towards close blood-relatives, even those they never heard about before, I think. At least, I would. If I were to discover that I’ve a Czech half-brother (I pick this example because it’s a remote possibility) in need, I’d probably be willing to help to some extent.
I suspect that many people (and electors) would be shocked if a wealthy individual was unwilling to help a half-brother living on one dollar/day.
That would be the first time I would heard about an African community where receiving help from relatives is frowned upon.
If you continue to split the hairs fine enough you will eventually come up with a situation where it becomes ridiculous. Since this really isn’t the case with Obama I don’t see the need to go into every permutation of what is or isn’t a sibling, ehe? Again, it would be up to the individual and how they viewed the situation…MMV and all that.
Well, as I said, MMV. Ultimately it’s going to be up to the individual and how they perceive the situation. I can tell you, in my extended family there has been a LOT of this kind of thing (due to jail, drugs or just people walking away or going their own way). By and large though family is family, so even in Barack’s exact situation they would be considered brothers…and an effort would be made by mi familia to retain contact with both the father and the brother. And to offer aid if needed.
However, MY family isn’t everyone else’s family, and I fully realize that a lot of people look on things differently. Like I said, my wifes family is completely the opposite, and even my mothers family isn’t like my dads side of things (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding, except with loud hispanics).
-XT
I think that IS the case with Obama. There is no familial relationship here other than a mutual sperm donor. Barack never really even knew the donor, much less the other offspring.
Is there any indication that he’s unwilling?
And while I agree that a certain (though not unlimited) amount of assistance would be obligated if the brother asked, I’m not nearly as confident that it was Obama’s responsiblity to offer. Especially since it apparantly would have required hunting the guy down.
Do you feel that a moderately wealthy person is obligated to find all their poor relatives and offer financial assistance unasked?
I’m aware that it’s a common tactic to create analogies to ridiculous situations. Could you point out where my analogy fails?
His choice as I said and I for one wouldn’t fault him for it. Judge not lest ye be judged and all that. 
Besides, all that ‘brother’s keeper’ smacks of old school communist theory and gives me the willies.
-XT
Because it’s not the same situation. Obama’s father wasn’t a sperm donor…he was married to his mother at the time. The fact that they separated later and his father chose to leave and not look back doesn’t mean that there was no relationship between father and son…or later the half brothers.
Besides, I didn’t say your analogy failed…I simply said I’m not going to get into the game of justifying increasingly divergent permutations of lines of decent. I figure we could just stick to the REAL situation, instead of going off on tangential possibilities, ehe? YMMV of course and you are of course free to make all the analogies you wish. Knock yourself out.
-XT
And this is the reason why I felt the McCains are revelvant. Would this thread still exist if it was Michelle’s half-brother and not Barack’s?
From the many posts that have tried to link Obama to the acts, words and deeds of people that he had the thinest of ties to, I have to say yes.
I think we would be questioning why Barack didn’t help is brother-in-law and the same cast of characters would be here…on both sides.
So then it becomes, is it a matter of degrees? Does one’s responsibility to a half-sibling, depend on how much money you have, or does one have a responsibility to make sure every sibling, regardless of familiarity; are content with their lot in life?
But there WAS no relationship between Obama and his father. His father left when he was two. He never knew his half-brother at all.