We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
But since you already stocked up on batteries, ice-melter, snow shovels, bread, milk, beer, spinach, and eggs for last week's Blizzard of the Century, you'll probably be all set.
The meaning is entirely symbolic. If Greece quits or is tossed out of the German EmpireHoly Roman Empire EU, the unraveling could expand to other screwed-up countries.
The p.c. style of politics has one serious, possibly fatal drawback: It is exhausting. Claims of victimhood that are useful within the left-wing subculture may alienate much of America. The movement’s dour puritanism can move people to outrage, but it may prove ill suited to the hopeful mood required of mass politics. Nor does it bode well for the movement’s longevity that many of its allies are worn out. “It seems to me now that the public face of social liberalism has ceased to seem positive, joyful, human, and freeing,” confessed the progressive writer Freddie deBoer. “There are so many ways to step on a land mine now, so many terms that have become forbidden, so many attitudes that will get you cast out if you even appear to hold them. I’m far from alone in feeling that it’s typically not worth it to engage, given the risks.” Goldberg wrote recently about people “who feel emotionally savaged by their involvement in [online feminism] — not because of sexist trolls, but because of the slashing righteousness of other feminists.” Former Feministing editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay told her, “Everyone is so scared to speak right now.”
That the new political correctness has bludgeoned even many of its own supporters into despondent silence is a triumph, but one of limited use.
Doesn't dying suck enough, unless you are in terrible shape?
Tomasky is in favor of death tax. He'd like the government to take most or all of your estate when you croak, and makes a moral case for it.
Leviathan will eat all he can, and it is never enough for him and never will be. There should be no death tax. Family, and free choice in saving and spending, trumps government. I can make moral cases in opposition to Tomasky. For starters:
- That money has already been taxed once. Why a double jeopardy?
- One reason people work and save is to provide for family and future. Isn't less dependency on government a good thing? In my view, more wealthy families are a good thing. The more, the better. They invest, and if they are not financially successful on their own, at least they do not become dependent on everybody else.
- Who is the government to tell me how much is "enough"?
- Despite Tomasky's dismissal of the loss of family farms and family businesses to pay taxes, I have seen it happen, and sadly. A damn shame.
- Very wealthy families (eg Kennedys, Rockefellers, Kerry-Heinzes, Clintons, etc) find ways around it. Middle class people with small businesses, farms, or small collections of real estate or gas stations, cannot.
Add your own arguments, for or against, in the comments.
Over the last decade, the Continent seems to have developed a certain psychological ease with the routine murder of Jews. What remains of Jewish communal life in Europe now takes place behind reinforced doors and barbed wire, and the actual extinction of an entire identity group's presence is discussed as calmly as the long-range weather. Forty-five per cent of British Jews say Jews have no future in Britain, and 58 per cent says Jews have no future in Europe.
The (post-war) matter was complicated by the fact that Europe was no longer simply Christian. Christianity had lost its hegemonic control over European culture over the previous centuries and had been joined, if not replaced, by a new doctrine of secularism. Secularism drew a radical distinction between public and private life, in which religion, in any traditional sense, was relegated to the private sphere with no hold over public life. There are many charms in secularism, in particular the freedom to believe what you will in private. But secularism also poses a public problem. There are those whose beliefs are so different from others' beliefs that finding common ground in the public space is impossible. And then there are those for whom the very distinction between private and public is either meaningless or unacceptable. The complex contrivances of secularism have their charm, but not everyone is charmed.
Read the whole thing. He does not really address Islam's wars not just against the West, but elsewhere too. He makes the point that "multicultural secularism is the heir to Christianity in the West."
We linked about the failing Scandinavian welfare states this morning. We all know that everybody from China to NYC considers them contented blond cattle, weak wards of the State. Until the recent Muslim invasion, they were homogenous, all cousins.
Clearly, the Viking spirit is long gone, and the testosterone levels have dropped to the point that their males are now considered the least masculine and most risk-averse in the world - and that includes the Italians.
America is not Europe. America has no history of respect or trust in government, a history of defiance of the State, no history of serfdom, no homogeneity at all. And except for the (fortunate, in retrospect) Africans sold by their brethren and the Muslim slavers into slavery to Americans, America's traditions are based on its eager settlers, pioneers, and immigrants and are all about "leave me alone."
JFK spoke for all immigrants with his "Ask not..." speech, which stood in bold contrast to the Euroland of his time and, perhaps, in contrast to some of America today. As we say, America was not made for sissies, but for the few and the brave. Not for farm animals.
In the past week I have seen that spirit alive and well in three Hispanic immigrants and one Haitian, These four are here to try to mold their dreams and want nothing from anybody - just freedom to do their thing. In these people, I see my Polish grandfather's immigrant spirit.
He worked in an aircraft engine factory, saved every penny for 20 years, raised three sturdy athletic kids on beans, learned to speak, read and write English at night school, bought a farm, and the tough old SOB farmed it until the day he died at 82. Dairy. Also, chickens and eggs. Dug a big farm pond (pre-EPA) with a neighbor's bulldozer and filled it with catfish and white ducks and geese for special-occasion dining. Grandma would grab them, chop their heads off, gut them and feather them, and throw their feet and heads to the barn dogs to fight over.
Plenty of people, including our European forefathers, wonder if we are nuts not to want the soft life. They just don't know what they are missing. They are the benighted ones whose lack of vigor and pride are repeatedly proven. They won't even stand up for their culture anymore.
Obama’s legacy is one of means, not ends. He has laid the groundwork for a political order less answerable to voters. His delay of the Obamacare employer mandate by fiat, his provision of working papers to immigrants by executive order — these are not applications of old tricks but dangerous constitutional innovations. After last fall’s electoral rout, the president claimed to have “heard” (presumably to speak on behalf of) the two-thirds of people who didn’t vote. And he has forged a partnership with the country’s rich — not the high-earning professionals calumniated in populist oratory (including his own) but the really existing Silicon Valley and Wall Street plutocracy.
Rush said today: "Just two Muslims with guns dominated the world news, and scared the media out of their minds, for almost a week. That, my friends, is called power."
It is amazing how fearful the American MSM is of, of Muslims. The New York Times males have their panties messed up. Man up, pussies. I advise 12 ga. shotgun, not rifle or handgun. When lunatics in the vicinity, steady aim is difficult except for the pros.
He went on to explain that those two are not the real news, that the real news is the millions of Muslims all around the world who remain silent, support, or applaud their war on Western civilization. Not to mention their apologists and the scaredy-cats in the West.
Has any Muslim organization in the world condemned these sorts of evil ones yet? Not one.
Unlike some hysterics, I have no big fear of the batshit lunatics. Unlike the French, we regular Americans are well-armed. Unlike past free-world threats, these are snakes, not formidable armies. Slippery, though, because Islam advises them to lie to nonbelievers so, if in the wrong place at the wrong time, these snakes can bite. They need killing, same as a rattlesnake in the barn.
This idiotic war has been going on for a long time, since around 600 AD. We are on the side of the crusaders, defending the foundations of Judeo-Christian civ. It ain't perfect, but it's OK. The French may need a Charles Martel, but most of the West just needs a St. Patrick to eliminate the snakes. Send them packing back to whence they came along with their loony cult and their hopeless, ignorant, pedophile, goat-f-ing, wife-beating, bloody, desert culture where their fun was in killing eachother and nobody really cared what they did until WW1.
My only problem with all of this is that I have some Muslim friends and colleagues who I respect - and vice-versa - and whose company I enjoy a great deal. They have zero interest in killing me for my Christian faith and I believe it because we've talked over (many) beers in NYC pubs. In fact, in my heart I would rather bring them to Christ than they are interested in bringing me to their Mohammed prophet.
For me, live and let live - but if you want to harm me, I will kill you and I have the means and the heart to do so with no remorse.
Europe dreams that it has entered a post-historical paradise of international peace and social tranquillity resting on blue model social capitalism and the cooling of religious passion. In reality, every year the foundations of Europe’s peace and order are eroding. The great achievements of European civilization and culture have to be defended, and at the end of the day you can’t defend something unless you believe in it.
...with Wolf Blitzer of appeasement-oriented CNN already muttering about Charlie Hebdo occasionally going “over the line,” as Pundit Press notes today, and Ed Morrissey paraphrasing at Hot Air that the Financial Times thinks that “Charlie Hebdo kinda asked for it, y’know?”, tomorrow’s news stories write themselves, don’t they?
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith went on an editorial rant against those rushing to judgment and suggesting that the terrorists who massacred twelve people at Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday might be — gasp — Muslims.
We linked about the failing Scandinavian welfare states this morning. We all know that everybody from China to NYC considers them contented blond cattle, weak wards of the State. Until the recent Muslim invasion, they were homogenous, all cousins.
Rush said today: "Just two Muslims with guns dominated the world news, and scared the media out of their minds, for almost a week. That, my friends, is called power."
Unlike some hysterics, I have no big fear of the batshit lunatics. Unlike the French, we regular Americans are well-armed. Unlike past free-world threats, these are snakes, not formidable armies. Slippery, though, because Islam advises them to lie to nonbelievers so, if in the wrong place at the wrong time, these snakes can bite. They need killing, same as a rattlesnake in the barn.
It's been smoldering for years, but Jihad is not smoldering anymore in Europe. 