Senator Obama responds to McCain’s assertion that he’s a socialist thusly: “By the end of the week he’ll be calling me a communist because I shared my toys when I was a kid.”

Subsequently he was glib about McCain’s supposed attempt to make selfishness a virtue. See? When you want to give away someone else’s goods, you’re being generous. When you want to protect people’s rights to enjoy their goods, you are being selfish.

We don’t think Obama is a socialist (well, a moderate socialist anyway) because he wants to share his goods. We think he’s a socialist because he wants to share goods that aren’t his. And when he’s called on it, he likens it to sharing his toys – not his cousin’s toys, not his neighbor’s -- his toys.

We don’t give a hoot what you do with your stuff, Senator. (A few suggestions do come to mind, however.) That’s not what makes you a socialist.

It’s what you want to do with other people’s stuff. Stuff that isn’t yours. Toys and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that aren’t yours.

Attention Obama supporters: You like him because he’s not threatening to go after your stuff.

Now.

If other people’s stuff turns out not to be enough. That may change.

Then he’ll be coming after your stuff. And, quite obviously, he thinks its his. It is by his good graces that you have anything.

Note: In the most technical sense of the word, Senator Obama is not a socialist. He doesn’t advocate government ownership of the means of production. But, given that he clearly believes that whatever is produced is government’s to distribute as it sees fit, there isn’t a significant enough difference.

No, Obama and his compatriots are not socialists. They are civilized barbarians, using the power of the state to plunder their neighbors and distributing to their followers the spoils of their “wars”.