Humor is often used to mask pain, to give hope, and to "momentarily extract ourselves from the misfortunes of existence."  In order to understand the joke, irony or satire, it is necessary to put the situation in context. 

Enter Stella Paul, author of the newly published gem of an e-book entitled What I Miss About America: Reflections from the Golden Age of Hope and Change.  Stella's pithy sayings capture the angst of Americans who are angry and terrified at what President Barack Hussein Obama has wrought during his first term.

A writer for American Thinker and PJ Media, Stella Paul explains in her e-book's introduction that "...ever since we entered the [Obama] Golden Age of Hope and Change in 2009, it feels as if the bounce and sparkle have left town.  What's moved in is fear and all its clammy cousins, like anxiety, panic, and dread.  We're afraid of the future [and we're] in debt and going broke and everybody's riled up and nervous."

Her hard-hitting aphorisms highlight Obama's continuing assault on American values.  Repeatedly, he has squelched the core values, the idealism and self-reliance of Americans.

And like so many other Americans who have "had a lifelong love affair with America [Stella is] not quitting now."  The stakes are simply too high. 

Each of her pointed observations begins with What I Miss About America and include simple nuggets of truth.  The hyperlinks are mine and are intended to remind the reader of how Obama has transformed America.

The words "Executive Order" not bringing on a panic attack

The American Dream wasn't Food Stamps and Disability.

A government that doesn't push junk science, junk bonds, and TSA agents who touch your junk

A president whose background isn't more closely guarded than the formula for Coke

A dollar that's worth 100 cents and isn't signed by a tax cheat

Search and destroy missions going after enemy guerillas, not successful business executives

Kids operating lemonade stands without the SWAT team getting involved

Small business owners taking a vacation every year, and the First Lady taking fewer than 32

Energy from Shell Oil, not from taxpayer-funded shell companies like Solyndra.

A president who would never, ever bow to the Saudi king, the Chinese premier, the Japanese prime minister or the mayor of Tampa

Defense officials saying "jihad" out loud, without looking scared as a 3-year-old in a haunted house

A president outraged by defamation of America, not of Islam

When it was illegal for Congress to pass any bill over 2,699 pages or weighing more than Barney Frank

Free Speech for everyone, even Jews, Christians, and straight white males

When we begged for mercy from God, not from Chicago politicians

Writing this line without the government reading it

After thoroughly enjoying Stella Paul's e-book, I was reminded of the intrinsic message in the following classic joke of how the Jewish people "made comedy from the most discouraging situations that history put before them:

The Lord makes it known that in two weeks' time he will submerge the earth under a second Great Flood.

Governments have different reactions:

1. The president of the United States has all savings distributed, lifts taxes, and suspends all fiscal measures.

2. The Russian government orders the distribution of all inventories of goods and declares an unlimited holiday.

3. The prime minister of Israel gives a speech in the Knesset: - 'Honorable Parliamentarians, we have just two weeks to learn to live under water.'

In the days before the Post-American President, we would all recognize the subtle humor of the joke.  Optimistic Americans, purveyors of capitalism, would initiate a spurt of growth and create a way out of the impending challenge.  Our leaders would lift taxes and eliminate fiscal restrictions which would result in a boon of ideas. 

The Russian leaders, on the other hand, would make sure that everyone suffered equally since this is always the end result of communism. With no particular desire to tackle the problem, the "unlimited holidays" would, of course, end as mobs of distraught people overwhelmed the street and chaos ensued. 

Sadly, the Israelis, knowing only too well that disaster always follows them, would decide that the impossible needed to be made possible if one were to survive.

The above scenarios were in tandem with the historical narrative of each nation.  But under the 44^th President, the enthusiasm and competitiveness that has always marked America has been squelched. In fact, Obama is most comfortable with the Marxist approach to governance.  American suffering will truly begin in earnest should this man be re-elected for a second term.

Stella Paul's timely e-tome is a warning, a reminder, an alarm that America is now under constant threat.  Daily, Obama chips away at our fundamental freedoms.  With only a few short weeks away to the election that will truly change the course of history, Stella Paul reminds us that if Barack Obama remains in office, "there's nowhere else to go" and the American dream that has sustained so many for so long will come to an end. 

Purchase What I Miss About America and pass it along to your friends, neighbors and relatives. It is an important wake-up call if you sincerely believe that "America is worth fighting for."

revised version

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com