Thursday, April 18. 2013
 Gun and Bible-clinging redneck New Yorker that I am, even I did not really object to the background check law in itself. Seemed harmless enough, but also seemed pointless to me because the bad guys never get background checks. Even Sen. Feinstein acknowledged it would do nothing for gun violence.
My issue was beyond the symbolic issue, it was the incrementalism. Federal registration for the good citizens. That's where people like Morning Joe don't get it: Morning Joe Host Shames Senators Who Killed Gun Reform: ‘We’re The 90 Percent And We’re Going To Win’
No you will not "win", and definitely not as long as politicians and celebs and rich folks get their own personal protection from armed guards. Peons like me do not have those perqs or the money to hire them.
Here's another interesting piece: Exploiting Families Of Sandy Hook Victims Backfires. Indeed an embarassing and disgusting display. Boob bait, but the bubbas weren't biting.
But here's the key piece. From Tim Stanley's Barack Obama can't pass gun control despite 90 per cent support. Truly, he is a lame-duck president:
Barack Obama is a lame-duck president. Nobody listens to what he says anymore, nobody is interested in winning his approval and nobody much cares if he thinks they have “let the country down”. This is typical for a second-term president who has lost all their leverage because they’re no longer running for office and everybody is patiently waiting for the day when he quits the White House. But Obama's difficult personality has doubled the size of the challenge. Gloating in victory, adolescent in defeat – the Prez doesn’t make it easy to work with him. Why should conservative senators give him a legislative victory after he has spent four years painting them as knuckle-dragging rednecks who hate women and the poor?
Whatever your position on gun control, yesterday’s events are a damning indictment of Obama’s presidency – a flash of style, lots of soaring rhetoric and, when the votes are actually counted, little show for any of it. America has four more years of this lame-duck president telling them that it has let him down. If only he could tear up the Constitution and rule by diktat he might save himself a little disappointment. Alas, American democracy is a stickler for rules.Barack Obama can't pass gun control despite 90 per cent support. Truly, he is a lame-duck president.
Photo is, once again, our dear friend Marianne's home protection Taurus Judge. No elderly woman with a disabled husband should be without one in her knitting basket, whether in town or country.
 A 'simulation', or sim, is a computer game that mimics every aspect of real life. Silent Hunter 4 places you inside a U.S. attack submarine smack-dab in the middle of World War II. Everything about the sub (and its enemies) is true to reality; the time it takes to dive, to surface, to get up to speed, to stop, the turning radius, torpedo speeds, reloading time; everything.
Luckily, there's a speed-up option so you don't actually have to sit there staring at the computer screen for eight days while you cross the Pacific Ocean. You'll see the speed-up used in a few places in the following video. It's to note that this video is mostly comprised of scenes taken directly from the game, most using the 'external camera' view. Click on the little symbol on the player's tool bar and watch it in full-screen mode.
But first, John Milton's 'On Time'.
Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more then what is false and vain,
And merely mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb'd,
And, last of all, thy greedy self consum'd,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss,
With an individual kiss.
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,
When everything that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With Truth, and Peace, and Love
Shall ever shine
About the supreme throne.
Of Him, t'whose happy-making sight alone
When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb,
Then all this earthy grossness quit,
Attired with stars, we shall forever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance,
And thee, O Time.
And now the intro.
Admittedly, that's not your average game intro.
But, then, it's not actually a 'game', is it? It's a sim.
In a game, you win or lose.
In a sim, you win or die.
Full article is here.
Wednesday, April 17. 2013
 Hurray for Earth Day: Emma Watson bares body for Earth Day
Any excuse will suffice to get nekked with cameras. I think Gaia makes her hot.
Playful fun: The Psychology of Submission - We pull back the covers on steamy bedroom power plays.
Tie me up, ladies, and have your way with me? Hmmm. Maybe...
PSA test leads to further procedures, harms: study
Queer Gardens, for college credit
If anybody calls my gardens queer, I'll slap you, bitch
This Slacker Doesn't Even Work Weekends
A real New Yorker. Beautiful life, working at 90 1/2.
Unsubstantiated accusations against my son by a former girlfriend landed him
before a nightmarish college tribunal.
More Columbia and Cornell co-eds seeking “Sugar Daddies”
They are termed "whores." Ancient profession. More kindly, "mistresses." Free market Capitalism at work. Everything has a market price including bodies whether dead or alive.
I have this problem all the time
If race is to be taken into account, what percentage should an individual possess?
I have 6.25% Redskin blood. Can I get anything free because of my historical oppression? I have not had my Neanderthal level checked yet, but it's probably pretty high too. Endangered species to boot, conservative Neanderthals who want to bring back cave dwelling in the Ice Age.
Cheap: The miracle of the marketplace brings tropical fruit from 2,000 miles away in Colombia to my local grocery store
Homeland Security Website: 'Learn How DHS Helps Keep Our Nation Safe'
You could close the whole dumb Bush boondoggle tomorrow and it would make no difference
What is California's biggest problem?
It's the weather! Maybe they would prefer Maine, where it's 37 degrees F this morning, and there is still a foot of snow on the ground.
Californians: Prepare For A 50% Hike In Pension Costs
The Wreck of the Euro:
...with the exception of communism itself, the euro has been the biggest economic catastrophe to befall the continent (and the world) since the 1930s. Politicians in Europe thought they were living in a post-historical period in which mistakes didn’t really matter all that much. They were horribly wrong, and the wreck of the euro is blighting lives and embittering spirits on a truly staggering scale.
It's done. Dead, but not buried yet.
Education fact of the day: DC charter schools now enroll 43% of the city’s students, with plans to expand further
Gun control bill in peril
The Men Responsible for Starving Egyptian Families - The ship is sinking, and the cry is, "Women and children last!"
...even if Maduro’s dubious election victory is allowed to stand, the Chávez revolution is in big trouble.
Tuesday, April 16. 2013
Bombs filled with ball bearings in my Boston Town. It's like a bad dream. What evil and/or insane person or persons did this to our gentle, Liberal town and our world-wide guests?
In the absence of information, it's a Rorshach of peoples' hopes and fears, and on the teevee, talking heads attempt to instill their prejudices to gullible low-info voters according to their preferred narratives. No info? A chance to write something onto their blank slates that might stick to their emotions.
Meanwhile, we have a mass murderer on trial in Philly, a knife-man attacker in a school, and 4 killed in Chicago just last weekend with illegal handguns. We know those details.
Evil exists everywhere and no laws can eliminate evil. Stay strong and calm and carry on. See human history. Our thanks to all of the first responders everywhere, and to all of the good civilians who pitch in when help is needed and run towards trouble instead of away from it.
We will never be free of trouble, but strong men and women will always run to the sound of the guns.
 Boston: Mr. Rogers Knows (Photo via Drudge)
Streetcars: an inconvenient truth
Florida Battles Slimy Invasion by Giant Snails
Escargots? Molluscs are tasty.
India's lions and tigers being eliminated by poachers
All about dark matter
When God Is Your Therapist
The poop trucks of Dubai
Legalize Polygamy!
Conn Carroll: Fracking revolutionized American energy as green energy failed
California's Blue Civil War: Knives Drawn in Education Fight
It's for the children
It's Time to End the U.S. Embargo of Cuba - The U.S. government has been tireless in pursuing a policy that does not look better with time
I agree.
Cass Sunstein: The Poster Boy for ‘Inside Every Liberal is a Totalitarian Screaming to Get Out’
Bowdoin: Putting the “Liberal” in Liberal Arts
Rob Woodall: Mitt Romney Was Right About '47 Percent' Statistic
Climate scientists struggle to explain warming slowdown
There's no slowdown, there's a stop. I suspect their data was largely wrong all along. A cooling trend is going to be an inconvenient truth because people tend to prefer warm weather. I like cold and snow and sleet in winter and warm in summer. In-between April is the worst, but we must be just happy to be alive.
Germany to Greece: So Sue Me
Will the EU lead to war? Financial war, at the least...
Former officer allegedly leaked U.S. military secrets to Chinese girlfriend
Monday, April 15. 2013
 Ugh. I think I'm going to have to give up my Internet connection for a while until I get well. At $120/mo, it's my biggest expense after rent. The reason it's so high is because I moved about a year ago and ended up behind the local cellphone tower, which, as it turns out, is very directional. My faithful Verizon Wireless wouldn't work, nor would a Sprint unit I tried. I hunted around and finally found a company that specializes in rural areas and I ended up with an actual box with a 3' antenna sitting on top of it. While slow and expensive, at least it works.
As I noted a month ago, I've kind of peaked-out at around 75% recovery after my tumor operation last summer and the doctors want to run a whole slew of expensive tests. You know how doctors and dentists are. Money's no object in their little worlds.
Between ditching the Internet and some other things, I can save about $250/mo, which should enable me to keep up with the hospital payments so the tests can continue until they figure out what's wrong. Thankfully, there's a nearby library that has a bunch of computers I can use for my webmastering maintenance job. I might also make the occasional post here, but I'd hate the idea of not being able to read and respond to the comments. That interaction is often the best part of blogging.
The cut-off date is Wednesday next week, so I don't have to make the decision immediately. If anyone would like to help out this poor wretched soul, my tumor operation link is here. Anything would be appreciated. Cutting off my Internet is going to be like cutting off an arm, but I've got to do something. Health is more important than anything else at this point.
I will, however, be (temporarily) leaving the online community with a flourish. I have a handful of pieces I've been working on for a while, including a review and manual for the greatest 'war sim' ever developed, an existential treatise on the meaninglessness of certain words ("smarter" and "truth" top the list), and the revelation of an amazing secret being kept from 38 million Americans. The right-wing bloggers have been pounding and pounding a certain false truth into you for a decade and, to their shame and disgrace, 38 million people have been kept from this great revelation. This article will help balance the scales. Look for it Friday as the week's 'capper'.
Also, another installment of History's Mysteries, this time dealing with that horrific Nazi swastika. Fun for the whole family. And, like the way I refer to my AGW opus as "the last article on global warming you'll ever need to read", similarly, I've written the last article on marijuana you'll ever need to read. Remember, legalized pot is considered a lefty issue by the right-wing bloggers, because pot was popularized by all of those smelly radical left-wing hippies back in the day, so it's perfectly understandable if they spin the argument against it. Hot Air (and Theo) ran an anti-pot video a while back that was so filled with outright lies, disingenuous lies, and lies by omission that it rivaled the worst of the AGW spewage.
And that's saying a lot.
So, there's your update. I'll just be posting a Computin' Tip later on today. The good stuff starts tomorrow and will run through next Tuesday. After that, I cannot say.
 Triple play: Because Satan Is a Yankees Fan
The Real Reason No One's Buying PCs Anymore: They've Gotten Too Good
Or...Did Windows 8 kill PC sales?
Paul LePage: Beretta, Colt and Magpul—Come to Maine
Senate Uses Doctors for Gun Control
NYT Admits Union Pensions Aren’t Sacred
Media Acknowledge Blowing Gosnell Story, Pledge Extensive Coverage
L.A. Times: "Immigration bill would spark surge of legal arrivals"
James Lovelock: A man for all seasons - The guru of Gaia is a maverick environmentalist who supports fracking and nuclear power. Does he believe the human race has a future?
The Left's Fantasy of Progress
Study: CA High-Speed Rail Will Lose $124-$373 Million A Year
Top Obamacare Adviser: Doctors Told to Focus on “Cost Value” and Volume… Not the Patient
GosnellGate: It’s the A-Word
Professor Yarbrough responds, re the Bowdoin expose
Jesus Never Said I Couldn’t Paint the Baby
The Decline of Obama - How to lose friends and influence.
Frank Bruni on politicians as love gluttons
Sultan:
Kermit Gosnell will be locked up. There will be a brief spurt of inspections. And then things will go on as before and the empowerment educators who wear "I Had an Abortion" t-shirts while they drive to the soccer games of their children in some placid suburb will sleep well at night knowing that somewhere in Philly, NYC and LA there are rough men doing violence to the wombs of desperate women and the lives of their unborn children on behalf of their ideologies and policies. Rough men in dark places doing he inevitable dirty work in the world they made.
Via Ricochet's The Price of Utopia:
Now is the time when we, as feminists, can show we're not afraid to confront the difficult and unpleasant realities of abortion -- the disturbing bloody images, the fact that sometimes women don't actually have a Very Good Reason to be seeking one, and even the unfortunate physical and emotional consequences that sometimes follow. Once we acknowledge that these things are there and real and unpleasant, we can continue to assert our right to do it anyway, and in doing this, remove their power over us.
Reminder: Obama supported infanticide
Huge gender gap persists in college degrees but gets no attention
Bernie Sanders: Warming is not a hoax
Californians Sign Petition to Ban and Confiscate Firearms
Capriles almost won in Venezuela
Thursday, April 11. 2013
Ben Carson steps down as Hopkins commencement speaker.
A sad day when somebody can feel unwanted for believing that marriage is for a man and a woman. Of course, it's their loss, not his.
 Remarkably Audubon-like photo of eagles sharing a meal from Smithsonian, via Am. Digest.
Heather MacDonald never ceases to amaze: Rigoletto, L’Elisir, and Clemenza - Considering three new Met opera productions
She does opera reviews too? She is too much. Well, she went to Andover so maybe that explains it. Yale, Oxford, and Stanford Law too. Here's her bio.
My year on Match.com - I'd done so many scary things in my life, but this might be the scariest. At the age of 58, I joined a dating site
What Really Happens When You Flush on an Airplane?
That plumbing requires serious engineering
The myth of Breast Feeding
Many Moms love to do it, but any health benefits seem to disappear when corrected for income and social class. Poor people breast feed less.
Wood: The fuel of the future - Environmental lunacy in Europe
Wood is fuel for barbarians like me and Sippican. It's just pre-fossil fuel for rednecks and Neanderthals.
Almost 100 million people aren't smart enough to enlist in the military
As Dr. Merc pointed out, precisely 50% of Americans are of below-average intelligence. Strange how it comes out to exactly half, isn't it? That's not fair.
The US equity market: It's not a rally, it's a credit bubble of epic proportions
David Stockman on The Federal Reserve: is "off the deep end"
What he says
Can the Weiner get up again?
He is an astonishingly obnoxious jerk.
War on Poverty: $15 Trillion Wasted
Not to mention the incalculable costs of the unintended consequences
How to milk the system: Lawyers & disability claims
Andy Kessler: The Pension Rate-of-Return Fantasy - Counting on 7.5% when Treasury bonds are paying 1.74%? That's going to cost taxpayers billions.
Gun Manufacturer to Leave Conn. After New Gun Control Law
Historically, CT was the center of weapon manufacturing
VDH unloads: Confessions of a Counter-Revolutionary
What he says about everything
New MSNBC promo: You have the right to health care, education, housing, and food at all times
Same as children and slaves
IRS: We Don’t Need a Warrant to Read Your Emails
Energy Journal: Shale Ripples Hit Middle East and Russia
Minority contractors ‘game the system,’ find havens in D.C. homes
Minority (ie black) shell companies profit by acting as contracting pass-throughs for service and manufacturing companies. Despite seeming fraudulent, it's entirely legal, encouraged in fact by the government. One easy way to profit from skin tone is to offer to be an intermediary conduit for white-owned businesses.
Wednesday, April 10. 2013
Powerline: The Philosopher king for the nanny state
If we the people need coercive paternalism because we're too dumb to pick our own food, then surely we are too dumb to be allowed to select our governmental representation. Therefore, I propose myself as Philosopher King. Why not me? I did study Plato in college. He invented an ideal, all-wise and altruistic totalitarianism. First thing I would do in the job would be to eliminate the position and fire myself, which is what my philosophy would require.
Well, that's what I would do if I did not happen to enjoy the power and perqs too much...
Point is, I think Bowdoin Prof. Sarah Conly is insane in the (probably) non-clinical sense. After all, is she exempt from bad choices herself? Who are the ubermenschen? Professors? God forbid.
Via Captain Capitalism's My Amazing Awesome Super Intelligent Friends, a big-time Millennial whine: My friends and I are in career purgatory:
By and large, my friends and my friends’ friends are all intelligent, educated, gregarious, and creative. They’re insightful and thoughtful. They’re critical and ambitious. So why do so many employers put them in positions that don’t take full advantage of what they’ve got to offer?
and
I’ve thought seriously about changing my LinkedIn profile blurb to something like, “My career goal is to gain a position that energizes, excites, challenges, and values me, so that I can continue to develop my skills and talents, and grow as a person.” I wonder if that would catch anyone’s eye?
Kate, we're all special, aren't we? But I think you're a little too special for my shop. Trust me, anybody who read that would gag.
Related, if you control for the obvious variables (hours worked, education, experience, etc), young childless women make more money than young childless men. So there is a wage gap, but it's not what people say it is.
 Image via Acculturated
Sidwell Friends School gets a juicy scandal
From London to Edinburgh in double the time of a stagecoach - in electric car
Girls and women who have Asperger’s syndrome
Obama, Plan B, Fear of Promiscuity, Sex and the Single Teen
The mysterious epidemic of worker disabilty
Gun policy and law enforcement: Survey Results
What Does Obama Think He’s Doing On Guns?
Bendectin, and silicone boobs
Watergate redux: Mitch McConnell seeks FBI investigation
Wash U. in St. Louis earns FIRE’s “Speech Code of the Month” Dishonor
When, if ever, is it right to use recent horrific crimes to push for political changes you wanted anyway?
Gabby Giffords and husband own firearms
Sultan:
Conservatism never wins. It loses. It comes to be associated with slick empty men and women who smile a lot and lie a lot. And that in the long run is far more devastating than the occasional senate candidate who says something horrible or idiotic. Candidates like Mitt Romney are more damaging than a hundred Todd Akins because they fix the image of a soulless party that cares about nothing and no one.
It is better to have the public think that the Republican Party stands for horrible and divisive things than to think that it stands for nothing. There are people who will vote for horrible things... but who will vote for nothing except in opposition to the something that the other party is selling?
The Navy's new Laser Gun
Tuesday, April 9. 2013
The World-Changing Margaret Thatcher - Not since Catherine the Great has there been a woman of such consequence.
Annette Funicello, RIP
CURL: Obama’s 1 percent lifestyle hits a nerve
More like the .00001% - how many of the 1% have two custom Boeing 747s, plus the Marine 1 chopper, on 24-hour call for work or pleasure? Did you know this:
As a security measure, Marine One always flies in a group with identical helicopters, sometimes as many as five. One helicopter carries the President, while the others serve as decoys. Upon take-off these helicopters begin to shift in formation to obscure the location of the President.
NWS predicts active hurricane season
It's generator-buying time
Elites Close Ranks Around Ivy League Intermarriage
American Elites Fleeing Big Cities for the Heartland
Well, they still seem to go to New York first to try to earn their stripes
The twisted ‘logic’ of diversity
The NBA gets an A+ for diversity
Boston's taxicab mess – and the oligopoly behind it
‘Billions and Billions and Billions’: Biden Has No Comment on Fisker Failure
Amazon tax an Illinois disaster
Toxic Government by Democrats: Baltimore
Williams: Minority View: Why is Black Unemployment so High?
Thanks to technology, Americans spend dramatically less on food than they did 3 decades ago
More Than 101 Million Working Age Americans Do Not Have A Job
Wasted, unproductive lives, with a burden of shame especially for men. It's heartbreaking. I blame Bush.
Public Sector Unions Reeling In Wisconsin
Free choice is good.
US Passes Saudi Arabia In Oil Production
What will happen to Europe? It seems almost certain that it will gradually descend into a sort of third-world debacle -- or, rather, much of California or most of Detroit today.
Monday, April 8. 2013
King of Fearmongers, and masters of direct-mail marketing.
 Photo: Dunkin Donuts wedding cake (via Laughing Squid)
Princeton gals: It's about class, not feminism
Medicate Your Children to Guarantee Compliance
Should the Modern Man Be Taking Testosterone? Testosterone deficiency is exceedingly less common than
marketing campaigns and "you only think you feel fine" culture would
have us believe.
Fascinating Documentary About Kasparov vs. Deep Blue
MSNBC — All your children are belong to us
"The Meritocracy As We Know It Mostly Works To Perpetuate the Existing Upper Class"
Getting a liberal arts PhD will turn you into a train wreck
Teamsters Face Pension Meltdown
Kentucky’s Runaway Pensions - Nonprofit groups have been living well off the taxpayer, too.
Democrats Starting to Worry about ObamaCare
Here Comes Obama's Raid On YOUR Retirement
War on Poverty: Despite the $15 trillion U.S. taxpayers have spent since the war on
poverty’s inception, poverty in America is largely unchanged.
Delingpole: An English class for trolls, professional offence-takers and climate activists
Jobs Report? What Jobs Report? Hey Look, Gay Marriage!
We are, however, thrilled that we don’t have a Republican in the White House, because if we did, the press would be incessantly yammering about this bad news until we were all sick of it. As it is, they are likely to say as little as possible about what appears to be a massive failure of economic policy and go back to covering the really important issues, like gay marriage.
If a Republican president got very busy on social issues at a time of economic stagnation and disappointment, there would be earnest hand-wringing of the “What’s Wrong with Kansas” variety about how American rubes were being diverted from their true economic interests by the skillful manipulation of emotionally charged social issues and identity politics. This would be taken as a sign of the cynicism of the ruling party and the clueless credulity of the hypnotized voters.
Sunday, April 7. 2013
Photo of somebody's camera bag - not mine. I don't have a camera bag because I mostly use little pocket cameras.
Prayers for the Warren family
Marriage and money
Find a Man Today, Graduate Tomorrow - "Susan Patton told young women to look for a mate in college. Liberals went crazy. My mom said the same thing."
They used to be called dormitories: 250 sq. ft. micro apartments in NYC
Discovery Of A 17th Century Spanish Shipwreck Yields Awesome Treasure
One culture must always win:
“When we make everything safe enough, nothing bad will happen, to anyone, ever again.”
The story of the prosecution of Amanda Knox
U.S. Army Lists Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism and “Islamophobia” as forms of “Religious Extremism”
Johns Hopkins’s and Planned Parenthood’s troubling extremism
Rockets From Gaza; Folly From the UN
Saturday, April 6. 2013
 Target apologizes for "Manatee Grey"
Nightmares drove NJ man to admit 1990 killing (h/t neoneo)
Identifying the Right “Depreciation” Tax Policy: The Most Boring – but Important – Article You Will Read Today
Freeman Dyson speaks out about climate science, and fudge
Everybody knows that Big Oil pays Dyson to utter this nonsense
AGW: The End of an Illusion
Lowest Labor Force Participation Rate Since 1979
It keeps getting worse
Dying Monopolies – The Post Office
Catholic Gonzaga University won’t allow Catholic students to form Catholic group
Most Democrats now believe ObamaCare won’t help and may hurt them
MF Global Trustee's Report Blasts Obama Bundler Jon Corzine
Shouldn't Crozine be in jail by now?
From Corrupt Pols Running America’s Biggest Nanny State:
In New York, the government has its finger in every pie, and politics is full of hypocritical blue swill about helping the poor and the needy. New York has a government that wants to do what it shouldn’t do, that can’t do what it ought to do, and that has been hijacked by a criminal class of political hacks. This is what blue model decline looks like.
Why Is North Korea Our Problem?
The gussying up of (Hillary) Clinton’s standing is one of the silliest political exercises of our time.
Smartest woman in the world. Went to Wellesley, after all. Fancy chick college, studied Alinsky.
Good growth in the Mexican economy
But it's illegal for Americans to emigrate to Mexico. Mexico does not permit immigration, but they may change their mind if they have too many jobs that Mexicans won't do.
The US Navy's Rail Gun
Hinderaker on entitlement reform:
That’s what the Left has come to: a reactionary force, determined to uphold an unjust status quo against even the slightest reform. Champions of the wealthiest segment of American society, out to screw the young. But it is hard to see a successful endgame: the entitlements simply cannot be sustained in anything like their present form. That is a mathematical proposition, not a political one.
Stats via Ace:
All rifles (that includes the AR-15) were involved in fewer homicides in 2011 than blunt objects, fists and knives.
1.5X more homicides were committed with blunt objects.
2.2X more homicides were committed with fists.
5.2X more homicides were committed with knives.
It's definitely time for a national fist registry
Thursday, April 4. 2013
It's from Peter Hitchens: How I am partly to blame for Mass Immigration.
Our friend AVI put up a comment here yesterday to the effect that Leftist forces are far more interested in undermining Western culture than they give a damn about the pawns they use.
From "Tyler Durden" on blaming the euro:
There are very few limits to what you can do to people in the modern interpretation of democracy. A version where only majority rule is required, but where there is no longer a respect for personal negative rights – as we know them from the American Constitution.
The easiest target will always be wealthy people, or even just working people and savers who did the right thing all their lives. As the bloated welfare states begin to collapse under their irresponsible promises, their crumbling value systems and their unsustainable demographics, it will be easy to convince more than 50 percent of voters that confiscating and stealing other people's money is OK for the greater good. Boston Consulting Group calculated that 28 percent of ALL private wealth is needed to meet just existing debts – not future obligations , mind you – and the money can only come from one place… Your pockets. Beware.
A lot of things have gone wrong over the past few years, but the seeds were planted many years ago. In the form of pressure for more people having the “right” to own their properties, even if they did not fulfill the traditional mortgage criteria – hence subprime. In the form of enormous “entitlements” to not just poor, but also middle-class people in the welfare states – hence ballooning deficits and debt. In the form of a Euro, a grand, political project with no practical foundation – hence crisis after crisis, with the dominoes stretching far into the distance.
For sure, a lot of financial institutions took advantage of the hands they were dealt. They are not without guilt and responsibility for the current mess. But the real problems lie not in people trying to take advantage of whatever conditions they operate under. The real problem lies in the framework that is created by politicians, preventing free markets to deal with excesses in the way capitalism always does.
Horowitz: This Is Columbia University
The Benefits of Moving Back Home
ObamaCare in Trouble? Exchange provision delayed, as lawmakers push to repeal another
Even Joe Klein: Obamacare Incompetence
Again? Government pushes banks to make subprime loans
Unbelievable!… Obama Is Pushing Risky Subprime Auto Loans, Too
Father Of Newtown Victim: 'I Applaud' The NRA's Proposals
For millions of Americans, “disability” isn’t just a medical diagnosis, it’s also a state of mind — a state of mind we subsidize, sustain, and encourage.
George Will:
Twenty-five years ago, President Reagan, paraphrasing Education Secretary William Bennett, said: “If you serve a child a rotten hamburger in America, federal, state and local agencies will investigate you, summon you, close you down, whatever. But if you provide a child with a rotten education, nothing happens, except that you’re liable to be given more money to do it with.”
It's Not Easy Being Green - As climate change worsens, the internal strains in the environmentalist movement are starting to show.
Good grief. These people are not living in reality.
VDH: Krugman’s California Dreaming - He sees a renaissance attributable to the decline of the state’s Republican party.
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Tell youngsters the truth: