Liberalism Contains the Seeds of its Own Destruction

Europe's famed and admirable liberalism and tolerance are being snuffed by militant Muslims.  It's a case of tolerance taken too far, to its logical extreme:

Tolerating intolerance kills tolerance

Having tolerated Muslim intolerance, Europeans are now horrified to see rightwing political movements gaining ascendancy:

Socialists' long-standing support for European unification, religious tolerance and integrating immigrants has made them vulnerable to right-wing populists like the Sweden Democrats, Geert Wilders' Dutch Freedom Party or France's National Front. (Reuters - Anti-Immigrant Europe)

Angry, bigoted Muslims, the recipients of European tolerance, repay their liberal benefactors by spewing intolerance of anything outside their narrow, bigoted ideology.  Europeans are growing weary of it and voting rightwing as a result.

The People Get It

"People in Europe have grown comfortable in the decades since World War Two and now they see that level of comfort threatened," Grabbe said. "The result is that tolerance is no longer held dear as a European value, even in countries that used to be proud of being open and liberal." (Reuters - Anti-Immigrant Europe)

I am not bashing Europe. They have way too much socialism for my taste, and they fund it by confiscatory taxation while having us carry their defense burden. But it is their choice. They have built a nice, peaceful life for themselves, and it is being ruined by liberal immigration policies.

An Example from Nature by Dr. Michael Savage
Michael Savage best explains it best by taking an example from nature (I’m paraphrasing from memory). A society should be like a strawberry, luscious and juicy and sweet on the inside, but with barbs on the outside to keep the predators away. Yes, many varieties of berries have barbs, they are just so fine that they don’t bother humans eating them, but they do repel the pests that try to eat them on the vine.

Europe is a beautiful continent and the people are wonderful. They are way too collectivist for my tastes, but it’s their society, not mine. If they want to hold on to the world they have built, they need to put some barbs on their berries.

NY Time - Swedish Anti-Immigration
Reuters - European Socialist Crisis

Alan Grayson: Unbalanced Liberal Liar

Florida Congressman Alan Grayson (D-ing Dong), is bat guano crazy.  He is in danger of losing his seat to respected businessman and state legislator Daniel Webster, and it's causing him come completely unhinged.

This brainsick ranter has taken to calling Webster "Taliban Dan" because of his conservative Christian beliefs, which he has NOT tried to enact into law.  Politico calls it a blatant lying smear.  The Orlando Sentinel gets to the crux of the wackadoo charges leveled in Grayson's communist propaganda disguised as a campaign ad: 

• One says "Dan Webster wants to MAKE DIVORCE ILLEGAL," a reference to a bill Webster sponsored in 1990 that would have given couples the option of entering a covenant marriage, which would have allowed divorce only in cases of adultery. The legislation failed.


• Another says "Dan Webster voted to deny abused women health care," referring to a vote against legislation that would have prevented insurance companies from listing domestic violence as a pre-existing condition.

• And a third says "Daniel Webster wants to force raped women to bear their attackers' child," citing a 1990s newspaper story in which the then-state representative said he opposed abortion even in cases of rape and incest.    (Orlando Sentinel)

In the first case, Webster supported a voluntary marriage option, in the second he voted on an issue that is far from the egregious wrong Democratic demagogues claim it is, and in the last case he expressed a personal belief but apparently never attempted to codify it into law.  Grayson is flailing.

Another Grayson Smear
Factcheck.org slapped down another Grayson smear, where he falsely claimed Webster was a Vietnam draft dodger.  Of course, like most of what come out this dishonest slobberer's mouth, it's not true.

Records show that Webster was deferred from military service five times due to academic study from 1967 to 1970 (once in high school and four times while he was in college at the Georgia Institute of Technology).


Once he completed his undergraduate degree, he was given the classification 1-A  (which means he was available for military service) and was asked to report for a physical examination. The documentation shows that on the date of his physical, July 26, 1971, Webster was rejected and given the classification of 1-Y, which means that he was "qualified for service only in time of war or national emergency." (Factcheck.org)

Now, Grayson could go after Webster for the student deferments, but asshat Alan never served either.

Nutball Grayson is unbalanced, slanderous, and off his meds.  He's the perfect poster boy for a desperate, grasping, Democratic Party.

LATE BREAKING UPDATE!
Grayson Down 7 Points to Dan Webster!  Central Florida voters realize they have a turd stuck to their shoe, and the stench is killing them.  Looks like they're fixin' to scrape off Alan boy...


* - I snagged the picture from http://draft.blogger.com/

Sharia and The US Constitution: Incompatible

Jihad in America

Muslim Murderers have threatened an American reporter, who is now in hiding right here in America.  It disgusts me to think we now have citizens of this great nation cowering in fear of these human stains on humanity.  Mark Steyn wrote a good update on the situation, starting with his assessment of the Florida preacher who threatened to burn korans.

Another one of Obama's famous "teaching moments"? In this case teaching us that Islamic law now applies to all? Only a couple of weeks ago, the President, at his most condescendingly ineffectual, presumed to lecture his moronic subjects about the First Amendment rights of Imam Rauf. Where's the condescending lecture on Pastor Jones' First Amendment rights? 

When someone destroys a bible, US government officials don’t line up to attack him. President Obama bowed lower than a fawning maitre d’ before the King of Saudi Arabia, a man whose regime destroys bibles as a matter of state policy... (Mark Steyn - Mollifying Muslims)

The eternal flames of Muslim rage, constantly flaring out of control, is getting old.  The angry ones in this country (and they are a minority) need to get over themselves.  This is the land of lampooning, and nothing is sacred here.  No religion enjoys special status or privilege.   

Imagine...

For indelible culture contrast, imagine the worldwide body count in reaction to a hypothetical NEA-funded project entitled “Piss Mohammed, ...” .(Diana West - Constitution trumps Islam)

 Islam is All the Rage!

As we have witnessed in Cartoon Rage, Pope Rage, Commode Quran Rage, “Fitna” Rage, More Cartoon Rage, etc., “respecting” Islam in fact means exempting this religious-political ideology from “slander,” “defamation,” any mockery, criticism, analysis, resistance, denunciation, or rejection — or else. And we all know what “or else” means — or else murder and mayhem will convulse some region where Muslims live, leaving behind a permanent threat of death to non-repentant “offenders.”  (Diana West - Constitution trumps Islam)

Diana West concludes, "What Islam is demanding, then, is a separate speech code for itself."  This is a great idea...  for Algeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the armpit-of-the-world countries.  But not here in America.

The First Cut is the Deepest

Ezra Klein criticizes the GOP's Pledge for America as being short on details, and it is.  But it's meant to be a manifesto more than a line-by-line laundry list.  Also, with the Democrats floundering, the GOP sure doesn't want to give them anything to grab on to.

Detroit News concludes that, yeah, there's nothing new in their message:  It's a much-needed back to basics.

"Oh yeah?  Wacha gonna cut?  Huh?  Huh?"  Shout the screaming lefties.  Obama, like all good liberal demagogues, slyly suggests that they want to kill old people and starve children.  It's lefty propaganda, but there is a grain of truth.

No Easy Cuts 
There are no easy cuts, so those of us who want to shrink government need to do some thinking.

The Left Way:  The Center for American Progress, a progressive organization, has taken their stab at balancing the budget.  The document, A Thousand Cuts, seems designed more to scare people off of the small government path, but at least it is a serious and sincere effort.

The Right Way:  Paul Ryans Roadmap.   It's a thing of beauty, and it's been scored by the CBO.  As a bonus, the website is attractive and easy to navigate.  Most important, the roadmap is not the end of the discussion.  Ryan himself portrays it as a starting point for a national dialogue, and Americans are ready for such as discussion.   

You can also go read the Pledge to America...  If you can find it.  Google it and every hare-brained commentary on it will show up ahead of the GOP's official site.  Then, when you finally find it, it's a damned pdf document that's 10 bajillion gigabytes and takes forever to load.   The Republicans, God bless 'em, are so inept and rolling stuff like this out.

How to Run a Country: Australia

We need government, and we need it to work.  Australia provides an example of how to do it

Tea partiers have been cast as government-hating anarchists.  Wrong!  We realize we need government, and we know that it takes tax money to run that government.  We also know that we're not getting a good return on the dollars we send to DC and to our state capitals.



How I learned about Australia

Magpie is a pleasant liberal blogger from down under. We had some civil back in forth at another blog over what's going on in America.  As I was boisterously railing against too much government interference, Magpie responded by saying Australia has health care for all and that it is far from a socialist country. Hmmm... I thought. And then I googled. 

His example of Australia was an excellent one!

Australia is the gold standard of how a country should operate. It is ranked #3 in the world in The Heritage Foundation's Index of economic Freedom. (Heritage Foundation - Index of Economic Freedom)  Only Singapore and Hong Kong are higher (but who wants to live where you can get sick breathing the air or get caned for chewing gum in public?).

Australia has a relatively small and efficient government, low corruption, and light but effectively enforced regulations on the economy and banking. It is an excellent business climate, and that translates into Joe Biden's favorite three-letter word:  J-O-B-S.

We here in the States are being crushed by bloated, wasteful governments (federal, state, local) that bring us expanding debt, diminishing freedoms, unguarded borders and poisoned eggs . They incentivize banks to loan money to people who cannot pay it back, so we transfer billions to fannie and freddie. They encourage reckless consumer spending, and we have laws in place that guarantee Wall Street that the taxpayer will bail them out (to the tune of trillions) when they shoot craps at the casino.

I wish to God we were like Australia! They pay much higher taxes than we do, but their government provides a great return on taxpayer money and doesn't stifle freedom in the process.


 It is a myth that free markets mean no rules

It is a myth that big biz doesn't like regulation; they help shape it to benefit themselves and to keep competition down. This is government-sponsored perversion of the rule of law.

The Heritage does a nice job evaluating countries based on a balanced list of criteria:

"Studies in this and previous editions of the Index of Economic Freedom demonstrate important relationships between economic freedom and positive social and economic values such as per capita income, economic growth rates, human development, democracy, the elimination of poverty, and environmental protection."

If a nation is denuded of natural resources with the rich trodding on everyone else, it is not going to score high.

Here is its benchmark on Business Freedom:

"Business freedom is a quantitative measure of the ability to start, operate, and close a business that represents the overall burden of regulation as well as the efficiency of government in the reg-ulatory process."

Australia beats us in all these categories, so it's no mere coincidence that they enjoy lower unemployment than we do. 

Australia is a country that both liberals and conservatives happily brag about.

Weekend Wrapup

Our government has been a farce for years, so it was only fitting that the clownish Democrats would invite fictional TV personality Steven Colbert to testify before the ignominious body.

Stink Bugs Invading DC? 
We already knew that!  And we're fixin' to vote a whole swarm of them out this November!

Smelly, pesky bugs known as stink bugs have been swarming the Washington, D.C. area -- and when you try to kill them, they just smell worse.

No kidding!  Lisa Murkowski and Charlie Crist come to mind...

Why California Is Broke:
The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out, bites the Governor and attacks his dog. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and then realizes he should stop; the coyote is only doing what is natural. He calls animal control.

Animal Control captures coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.

He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.

The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.

The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote awareness" program for residents of the area.

The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.

The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack somehow and for letting the Governor attempt to intervene. Additional cost to State of California: $75,000 to hire and train a new security agent with additional special coyote training.

PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files suit against the State.

Arizona:
The Governor of Arizona is jogging with her dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks her dog.  The Governor shoots the coyote with her State-issued pistol and keeps jogging.

The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.  The Buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that's why California is broke and Arizona is not.

I Love The Internet!

The internet has its nutty side, and a sleazy underbelly, and it's a famous time waster.  But the internet also has a noble side. 

It always delights me to stumble upon a hidden treasure, or better yet, a polite person willing to help others.

Awhile back I picked up Morris Kline's "Calculus, an Intuitive and Physical Approach."  The late professor was an amazing teacher.  He eschews the rigorous method so adored by math purists, and instead explains the calculus using examples from the physical sciences.  It's a wonderful reference, and he wrote it back in the academically stodgy 60's!  I highly recommend it for anyone needing a brush up or as a tool to help a student.

Anyway, the book has exercises at the end of each chapter, but no solutions!  The foreword hints at an answers edition for teachers, but my search for it was in vain, until one day I googled it and found the answer to my prayers in the Review section of Amazon.com.


Thank You Pheriwinkle!
Pheriwinkle from San Francisco explained in the Amazon Review section for the book how he had written to the publisher requesting the solutions manual and they e-mailed him a free pdf copy.  They told him he could distribute it freely, and he did.  He posted it on his website.  If you too have been looking for this manual, you can find it here.

Pheriwinkle's real name is Kevin Wong, and he has a cool web site that explains how to use your computer keyboard to type out ancient languages.  You can check it out here.

Other Fine Stuff on the Innerwebz
Did you know you can take college courses for free from such world famous universities as MIT, Tufts, and Stanford?  No credit is given, but knowledge is priceless...  Education Portal.com

I am also a big fan of Google Books.  They don't have everything, but you can find many old classics there, and the value of an electronic copy is you can scan for words and phrases.  For those of you with an Austrian School bent, The Ludwig Von Mises Institute has an abundant offering of free on-line libertarian literature.


Pay it Forward
I was so pleasantly surprised that Mr. Wong went out of his way to share a treasure he had found when most people (including me) would have greedily hoarded it to ourselves.  Thus inspired, I decided to pay it forward.

Have a happy weekend!

Liberals' Last Stand: Americans are Stupid

Alas, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. We should have been carried away to a liberal utopia amid billowing clouds of fluffy hope and change by now...

It’s the damned people...

Others are aiming their sound and fury at the American people. According to Maureen Dowd, “Obama is the head of the dysfunctional family of America — a rational man running a most irrational nation, a high-minded man in a low-minded age.

The country is having some weird mass nervous breakdown.” Jonathan Alter argues that the American people “aren’t rationally aligning belief and action; they’re tempted to lose their spleens in the polling place without fully grasping the consequences.” And Slate’s Jacob Weisberg has written that “the biggest culprit in our current predicament” is the “childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.” (Peter Wehner - Contentions)

Wehner goes on to list the hobgoblins that inhabit the fevered imagings of the New York Times and MSNBC crowd, bogeymen such as the founding fathers, Glenn Beck, and Vast Righwing Conspiracies.

For liberals crying that Wehner is mischaracterizing them, along comes leftwing wackadoo Michael Tomasky to corroborate Wehner’s findings...

I expected some anti-Obama backlash. I never thought his election meant we'd "moved beyond race" or the rest of that nonsense. I anticipated that a segment of the population would simply be pissed off that he was in the White House. But I really didn't think it would be like this.

I did not expect to see this much hatred, this depth of conviction that the president of the United States is an enemy of his own country, this intensity of bigotry directed at American Muslims, this degree of belief in obvious and poisonous lies.

And it's not isolated. At all. About 30% of Americans call themselves tea-party supporters. Given that the tea party movement is almost all white, and that the country is about 70% white, this means that around 43% of white Americans subscribe to this basic view. That's nearly half.

Oh boo hoo! Cry us a liberal river of tears, Michael. We’re racist because we won’t stand idly by while red statists flush our nation down the toilet? 100 years of progressivism brought us here, and you are stupid enough to cry for more.  Good thing Tomasky blogs at "Comment is Free."  Only the foolish would pay for such twaddle.

We’re spoiled brats, according to Obama hopium smoker Eugene Robinson.

Americans are in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue. Voters appear to be so fed up with the Democrats that they're ready to toss them out in favor of the Republicans -- for whom, according to those same polls, the nation has even greater contempt. This isn't an "electoral wave," it's a temper tantrum.

There we are America! The problem is we are too stupid to see that the cure for overspending and government failure is more spending and more government.

This is the problem with progressivism: It’s “my way or the highway” with these people. If you don’t start goosestepping you’re a racist moron. Do they really think insulting half the country is a winning strategy?

The left has another problem: If you promise people all that stuff, you better deliver; the dependent class is still waiting with their hands out. You can’t eat hope and you can’t feed your family with Obama’s change. Of course, they’ve been promising but not delivering for decades. And the things they have delivered are bankrupting the country. Progressives are trapped rats, and all they have left is to lash out at patriotic Americans.

Where's Molly?

America is sick.  We The People are not sick, but the body politic is, and our nation suffers from a Carteresque malaise.

We suffer from a few cancerous growths, and termites and rodents have eaten away much of our constitutional foundation.  A bipartisan gang of chiselers has turned our federal government into a criminal enterprise that hands out taxpayer money in exchange for votes, but we're wise to their depredations and we're fixin' to clean house.  Literally.

In Obama's America, Journalists hide from Muslim extremists
The story of journalist Molly Norris, now in hiding from Muslim murderers, saddens me.  It is disgusting that this should happen here in The United States of America.

The FBI told her she had to because otherwise it couldn't protect her against death threats from Muslims she'd angered. Earlier this year, Norris started "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" to protest radical Muslims' violently stifling freedom of speech and conscience. (Washington Examiner)

Meanwhile, our perfidious press, who tore at George Bush like a pack of ravenous wolves, is pissing down its collective leg in fear.  Not a peep from these supposedly brave defenders of free speech.  

New York Slimes, Washington Compost, San Fran Sicko Cornicle, El Lay Times, Atlanta Urinal and Constipation... You Suck!!!  You all suck!!!  and the quicker you all go bankrupt the better! 
 
The FBI should be tracking down and killing those threatening her, not telling her to go into hiding.

So we can't protect people in this country anymore?  OK.  Why then did we just grant asylum to Mexican journalist Jorge Luis Aguirre?  Nothing against Mexicans, and lord knows we need real journalists to pick up the slack for the media personalities who have given up real reporting. 

Thank God Mr Aguirre is safe from murderous drug lords, but this reveals a gross inconsistency.  The FBI cannot protect an American citizen from Muslim murderers, but it grants asylum to a foreigner threatened by drug gangs.


Welcome to Obama's America...

Tea Party America: Free Markets, Free People

The Tea Party movement scares the establishment, including country club Republicans and big business

But if you look at the past half century or so you have to think: How come even when Republicans are in charge, even when they're dominant, government has always gotten larger and more expensive? It's always grown! It's as if something inexorable in our political reality—with those who think in liberal terms dominating the establishment, the media, the academy—has always tilted the starting point...  (WSJ - Peggy Noonan)

The 1900's:  A Progressive Century
The 20th century saw the founders' constitutional republic grow into a monster, gobbling ever more money and personal freedoms.  Sure, some good things happened:  Womens suffrage, civil rights, taking care of the elderly.  But we also got a pay-for-play government of czarist fiat and special exemptions.  America's ruling oligarchy makes money crafting dense bureaucratic sludge and then selling indulgences to the moneyed class who don't want to eat it.

The 21st Century:  A Tea Party Nation?
Big Business is scared of the tea party, because we know their big government crony crapitalism has nothing to do with free market capitalism and the rule of law.  Progressives are pro-big business; tea partiers are for free markets and free people.  We want a capitalism ruled by the invisible hand and continually cleansed and purged by Schumpeter's creative destruction.  Big business wants to gorge itself on government money while hiding from competition behind government-constructed ramparts of bureaucracy.
 
Here are some excerpts from the Wall Street Journal that should make all tea partiers proud and happy.

some executives and lobbyists say they are growing spooked by the populist rhetoric they are hearing from some tea-party Republicans.

Some candidates have said they want to take aim at a $30 billion annual package of tax breaks for a range of businesses—among them Wall Street firms, the timber industry, fast-food restaurants and the owners of NASCAR racetracks.

Good!  They should be scared.  Government has no business handing out taxpayer money to any of those businesses.

Trent Lott:  Poster Boy for Country Club Republicanism

"They may view some of the tax incentives as some type of corporate welfare," said Trent Lott, the former Senate Republican Leader and now a lobbyist. "But if you care about jobs and the economy, you have to give people incentives."

It's all corporate welfare, Trent!  You're exactly the kind of Republican lawmaker we're glad to see gone!  And Lott is oh so wrong about "giving people incentives."  We have aspirations and we bring them to the marketplace.  We produce goods and services useful to our fellow man, and we are rewarded.  Nobody needs motivation!  We want to feed ourselves and our families, and make a better life for ourselves, that is motivation enough.

Here  is Idaho State Rep. Raul Labrador, a tea party favorite for election to US Congress...

Mr. Labrador said he opposed all government programs that help one segment of the business community over another. "I'm against all of them," Mr. Labrador said in an interview. "I don't think the government should be picking winners and losers." 

He included tax breaks for particular industries. "We should have taxes low for everybody, and not just for a particular industry or segment," he said.

Mr. Labrador understands that the rule of law is not a Swiss cheese, but a simple set of rules that everybody in the marketplace must follow, no exceptions!  May God bless us with many such politicians

Free Market Conservatism will win this battle
We will win this battle, my friends, and here's why:  We stand for the power of people, they stand for an ever increasing power of the state.  We throw our bums out, they refuse to.  We have an overarching philosophy of Hayek and the founders, they have Chomsky and Michael Moore.  It's no contest.

 
WSJ - Tea Party's Rise

What The...???

My favorite Word Verification words of all time
You know, those weird shaped words you have to type before posting a comment on someone's blog?  Some almost look like real words, other are mutated words, and some are just funny.

Here are my favorites so far:

Criery - This as I was responding to another lefty blog rant about how racist white conservatives hate the president

angsigh - Joe Biden talking about "Recovery Summer" as I look for a job...  Angst, Anger!  Sigh...

squent - If I close my eyes half way...  It almost looks like a real word...

crumshitz - Pelosi, Obama, Biden...  Needs no further explanation

Dinglam - Showed up appropriately in a British libertarian blog complaining about the latest actions of the EU overlords.  Appropriate because the word conjures images of a bedlam run by dingbats

Canda - Is it a country, or is it a big, cute bear?

Someone posted my "Liberals are Afraid of Conservative Women" on a weirdo alien conspiracy web site, and it produced some entertaining, and vulgar comments.  Don't go there if you're easily offended.

Here's my favorite (clean) comment.  I'd never heard someone called a "pie wagon" before:

Because all the Liberal fat dowdy pie wagons are jealous.
They'd be much more happy if every woman looked like Fred Flinstone/Elana Kagan...it's all about everything "even" and "Fair"...it's why they hate sports...cause someone wins...it's why they hate hot chicks, cause she's hotter than somebody else...all the losers and cow faced skags feel sad when somebody scores a win or is pretty. They want everyone and everything to some sort or gray homogenized pablum

Have a happy Monday!

A Civil Religion

Build it or We'll Keeeeeel You!

Imam Ralph came right out and said it to Soledad O'Brien when she asked him about the possibility of moving the mosque site: 

Rauf gave a reply that boils down to a threat. Rauf said that if his Cordoba House does not get built on his chosen site near Ground Zero, “The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack.”

As for the message Rauf’s words might impart to the many Americans who oppose his project, his warning doesn’t sound like bridge-building. It sounds like blackmail. (Forbes - Claudia Rosett)

"Tolerance should be given to all religions that tolerate others, so long as their dogmas contain nothing contrary to the duties of citizenship."  -- Jean Jaques Rousseau

Doctor Zudhi Jasser, Former Navy Lt Commander and founder of  American Islamic Forum for Democracy opposes Rauf's efforts and believes the mosque should be moved for the good of all.  He espouses a very American ideal:

But, I think what unites us is the freedoms and liberties our Constitution gives us..." (CBS News)

A Civil Religion

Our founding fathers consciously chose to put no religion above another, but to instead foster a civil religion, in the spirit Jean Jaques Rousseau.  In his chapter on Civil Religion, Rousseau put all religions into one of three categories:

• "The true theism, what may be called natural divine right or law."  This is religion at its most elemental; man worshiping God without intervening pastors, altars and dogmas.  It is the God upon which our country was founded.
• State Religions, including theocracies. Think the Pantheons of Rome, Greece, Iran, and the ancient Israelites.
• Religions which conflict with the state. He placed Roman Catholicism in this category. He described such religions as one "which gives men two codes of legislation, two rulers, and two countries, renders them subject to contradictory duties, and makes it impossible for them to be faithful both to religion and to citizenship."

He praised the adherents of "Mahomet" for having crafted a religion of the second category, where there is no contradiction between political and religious morality.  How things have changed since 1762!  Muslims have burst the bounds of their own homogeneous societies and have now displaced Catholics as the disturbing influence pitting the pious against the state. 

The philosopher also recognizes the salutary effects of personal morality on society: "it matters very much to the community that each citizen should have a religion."   And it's no business of the state "provided they are good citizens in this life."

The US Constitution:  A Civil Profession of Faith

There is therefore a purely civil profession of faith of which the Sovereign should fix the articles, not exactly as religious dogmas, but as social sentiments without which a man cannot be a good citizen or a faithful subject.

Theological Intolerance is Incompatible with a Free Society

By theological intolerance, he means being intolerant of those who do not share your religion.  This quote is best understood by imagining it coming from an intolerant religious bigot:

It is impossible to live at peace with those we regard as damned; to love them would be to hate God who punishes them: we positively must either reclaim or torment them.

Rousseau then explains why...

Wherever theological intolerance is admitted, it must inevitably have some civil effect; and as soon as it has such an effect, the Sovereign is no longer Sovereign even in the temporal sphere: thenceforce priests are the real masters, and kings only their ministers.  

This is the standard to which we must hold every American.  Muslim, Christian, Atheist.  It matters not what your faith is, so long as it is compatible with our civil religion. 

(Rousseau - Social Contract, Book IV, Chapter 8, Civil Religion)

Thankful for Free Computer Stuff

Yes, I am thankful for God, and America and those who defend us, but I'm also thankful for free computer stuff. You don't need to buy an anti-virus program, spyware remover, or other useful utilities. You can get them all free, and legally.

My computer's performance was straining under the detritus and remains of various compilers, database engines and SQL servers and other toys I had played with at one time or another. You can get rid of a program, but some of it always sticks to your computer's innards. My computer had indigestion; it needed a purge. So I blew a perfectly good day off reloading the factory image and setting it all back up again.

"There's gotta be a better way," I thought to myself.

Back it all up for free
Well, there is. Here's a cool idea that is just hitting the everyday home computer user: disk imaging. You make a complete copy of your computer hard drive that you can use to restore your computer in the event of a catastrophe. The restore disks or partition that come with a new computer essentially do the same thing, but using them wipes out all of the programs and drivers you loaded. Also, after restoring your computer with the factory disks, you have to decrapify your machine all over again, removing all that useless junk the manufacturers, who have a pact with the devil, have larded up your new machine with.

So once you've set up your computer just like you want it, clean out the useless stuff, run defrag and do a virus and adware scan. Then make your restore disk and the disk image. I used a free version of Macrium Reflect. You've now saved your personalized computer settings.

Disk images can be big, so I recommend having an external USB drive to do your backups. The next time your computer is acting sick, don't reach for the factory restore disks, use the rescue disk and image you made. This restores your computer to like new condition without trashing your printer install, your games, and other software you've installed yourself. Be sure to back up your personal files, pictures, etc. Restoring a disk image will wipe everything out!

Free anti-virus and anti-spyware


I use AVG's free antivirus, as well as Spybot and Ad-Aware, all free.  You can find all the free stuff at a trusted site like www.download.com. It is run by CNet, which is a reputable internet and computer web site. Don't look for free stuff via Google or Yahoo. Many downloads purporting to be an antivirus programs or spyware removal tools actually put viruses and spyware on your machine. So start from a trusted source like CNet.

So how does a conservative, free-marketeer enjoy, and even justify free stuff when I know there is no such thing as a free lunch? Easy. Companies give away the stripped down versions, and charge for the luxury models. You will have to put up with scanty help, few bells and whistles and many ambiguous messages trying to scare you into buying the full version.

For free, it's all worth it.

A Shrinking Middle Class?

Sicko libtards are gleefully clicking their heels over data showing America’s middle class may be shrinking

Reality Zone (not a libtard) is the rare liberal blog that has some rationality to it some of the time. He featured an article from lefty website Business Insider that seeks to prove that the middle class is being wiped out of existence.

It is lefty skewed, and there are a few statistical tricks in there, but its factual foundation is fairly sound. Typical of the genre, it offers no solutions, other than to punish businesses for moving overseas.

It is also rife with trite talking points...

"The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job."

Since Jefferson's passing, when has this ever not been true?

China can't keep  its workers down forever
The article asks how we can compete with low wage countries. Well, we do! US Manufacturing has grown for the 13th straight month.  Daniel Ikeson at CATO has the details.  We have better infrastructure and more educated workers. As these third-world labor pools become more educated and developed, their labor costs go up, and their competitive advantage, like ours, must come from efficiency.

Another thought occurred to me as I was scrolling through the slide show. These Americans who have saved nothing and live paycheck to paycheck, etc... are the same ones who have been on an unprecedented 30 year spending binge, gorging themselves on big cars, bigger houses, XBoxes, you name it. These are people who use a credit card to pay for a vacation instead of saving up for it.

It also strikes me that Keynesian liberals think the solution is for us to spend more, when that is what got us here in the first place, on a personal and a government level.

They also schizophrenically lament the fact that home prices are too high while simultaneously funding programs that keep the bubble inflated. Keeping homeowners from going underwater and making housing more affordable are mutually exclusive goals, proving again that government has no business manipulating markets.

Once home prices find their bottom, more people will be able to afford them, inventory will go down, and prices will rise. All without the nanny state cajoling it along.

Do you want a jobs program, or do you want a jobs economy?

As for the middle class, we need jobs, and only a booming economy can provide that. Here’s a quick story about Milton Friedman’s visit to an Asian country's job site where they were building a canal:

He was shocked to see that, instead of modern tractors and earth movers, the workers had shovels. He asked why there were so few machines. The government bureaucrat explained: "You don't understand. This is a jobs program." To which Milton replied: "Oh, I thought you were trying to build a canal. If it's jobs you want, then you should give these workers spoons, not shovels." (Moore - WSJ)

Liberals are Afraid of Conservative Women

What is it with liberals and strong, beautiful women who bravely articulate their conservative Christianity?

Liberals tend more towards angry, man-hating hags who curse like sailors and have all the charm of a hungry badger.  Or women who look like men.  Gotta hand it to the liberals, they are not afraid of swapping gender roles.


So what are liberals afraid of?
Are they afraid of a sexy woman who doesn't leverage her God-given beauty for some sleazy purpose, but instead makes her sexuality the exclusive domain of her husband?  Do all liberals wish gang rape upon these women, as Sarah Bernhardt does?  There's a vulgar stream of liberal invective against conservative women, and it says much about the hatred that rots the soul of liberalism.

The Female Liberal Apotheosis
A different O'Donnell, Rosie, is the apotheosis of the liberal woman.  She's stubbornly ignorant (fire has never melted steel, Christians area bigger threat to America than muslims), angry, and her perpetual sour countenance does nothing for her looks.  She's the liberal female trifecta!

Liberals have brought us the dimmest dimbulbs to ever darken the Senate chamber in Patty Murray and Barbra (call me senator) Boxer.  Diane Feinstein is a smart, serious woman, but she's a war profiteer.

Rosie O'Donnell, Whoopie Goldberg, Margaret Cho and Sandra Burkhard were very funny comedians before galloping liberalism rotted their brains.

Me, I'm satisfied with my sexy, Christian wife, because I know she loves God more than me.  And I love how conservative women have been at the vanguard of the tea party movement.

As for liberalism, Michael Savage is right:  Liberalism is a mental disorder.

Islam is Incompatible with Classical Liberalism

 "It's time for the tolerance of intolerance to end" -- Abigail Esman

Name a liberal Muslim country

Ha Ha!  That was a trick question!  There's no such thing.  First, some definitional clarity:  The word liberal has taken on negative connotations here in the US, largely because of the loud doctrinaire authoritarian statists who call themselves liberal.


Classical Liberalism is a good thing, and traditional Islam is incompatible with it

The Western World was founded upon a Classical Liberalism that celebrates a diversity of thought and speech.  Our Constitution enshrines its values by denying the state the power to squash things Christian conservatives have a great distaste for, like homosexuality and atheism.  But we believers are also free to believe, speak out and worship, so it is a true marketplace of ideas.

The same could be said of Europe up until a few years ago.

What do Abigail Esman, Pat Condell, and Christopher Hitchens have in common?

They're all European liberals, classical liberals who love and celebrate European culture in all it libertine glory.  What else do they have in common?  Unlike the pseudo-liberals in this country, they have taken notice of the sinister forces of Islam snuffing liberty in every corner of the world they infest, and they are ringing the alarm bells. 

Unlike American Dhimmicrats, these liberals know that Islamic "culture" is a threat to human rights and Western values wherever it casts its dark shadow.

Abigail Esman writes movingly from a liberal perspective about how Islamist bigots have wrecked Holland's traditional freedoms and changed the society for the worse. Theo Van Gogh was killed for insulting Islam, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali barely escaped with her life.

Liberalism let them in, and is now suffering a slow death because of it. European liberals are horrified to find themselves caught between far right nativist parties and hordes of foreigners determined to destroy traditional Dutch society.

Europe hosts some 15-20 million Muslim immigrants and their descendants, and they are radicalizing at an alarming rate. The children of immigrants, born on European soil, are eligible for visa-free travel into the United States (Forbes - Abigail Esman)

We have been blessed with a good Muslim community here in the US.  The vast majority are living the American dream as doctors, military officers and business owners.  How long will it be before their radical cousins from across the pond reach a critical mass here and wreck it for everybody? 

Here's Abigail in her own words.  It's only a few minutes long and it's definitely worth a listen...

Why do Democrats Like Taxes? Because They don't Pay Them!

I know, it's an old joke, but it keeps coming back around...

We know most Democrat voters pay no taxes, but it appears that the same can be said of the Democrats they vote for. 

Another year, another gang of tax cheats in Obama's administration and the Democrat-controlled congress have made the headlines.   Well...  actually, the back pages.  Only Republican malefactors make headines.  Anyway, ace reporter T.W. Farnum of the Washington Post found the following...

41 White House Tax Cheats

Privacy laws prevent release of individual tax delinquents' names. But we do know that as of the end of 2009, 41 people inside Obama's very own White House owe the government they're allegedly running a total of $831,055 in back taxes.

638 Congressional Tax Cheats

In the House of Representatives, 421 people owe a total $6,524,892. In the Senate, 217 owe $2,774,836.

In the IRS' parent department, Treasury, 1,204 owe $7,670,814.

At the Labor Department, where Secretary Hilda Solis' husband had some back-tax problems before her confirmation, 463 owe $7,481,463.

Eighty-one workers for the Federal Reserve System's board of governors owe $1,076,733.

Over at the Justice Department, which is so busy enforcing other laws and suing Arizona, 1,971 employees still owe $14,350,152 in overdue taxes.

Then, we come to the Department of Homeland Security, which is run by Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona who preferred to call terrorist acts "man-caused disasters." Homeland Security is keeping all of us safe by ensuring that a Dutch tourist is aboard every inbound international flight to thwart any would-be bomber with explosives in his underpants.

Within that department, there reside 4,856 people who owe the tax agency a whopping total of $37,012,174.

And they're checking our pockets for metal and coins?

This is a corrupt, decadent government that not only steals our freedoms, but steals our money as well. 

El Lay Times - 41 WH Aides Owe Taxes

Conspiracy Nation

I spent part of 9/11 arguing with some 9/11 conspiracy kooks.  I didn't waste a whole lot of time because it is a descent into madness. 

It's the fault of the Jews
Antisemitism is an indelible stain upon all of Christendom, and "The Jews were behind 911" is just another sour note on the scale of a millennia-old theme.

The "Mossad did it" theory has Jewish men filming before the attack and then dancing in jubilation when the destruction occurred.  It's not even worth wasting space on the supposed details.  Various disconnected events are hodge-podged together to make it all fit.
 
Plausibility and Motive are Not Proof
Could Israel have been behind the attacks? Sure, anything is possible.  The supposed motive is that Israelis would benefit from us feeling the sting of terrorism that they know all too well, causing us to sympathize with them and subsequently go on a global jihadi safari, killing all their enemies for them.

Sounds nutty, but plausible.  The problem for the wackadoos is that plausibility and motive are not proof.  If you're interested in a reasoned analysis of this nutball conspiracy, this Wiki at 911Myths.com does a good job breaking it down and exposing its holes and internal inconsistencies. 

Let's Try Out Some Liberal Logic
Washington bureaucrats, especially Democrats, profit from this recession. It increased their power and allowed them to worm government into more corners of society.  Millions depend to democrats to ladle out benefits and special monetary favors as "Stimulus."  Ergo, the Democrats purposely crashed our economy to increase their power.

George Bush Did It
Could there have been a US government conspiracy? Sure. But once again, there's no credible evidence, and that's strange in a country where nothing is kept secret anymore.

"Oh yeah, how do you explain Building 7?!  Huh?  Huh?"

My simple answer is "I don't have to explain jack!  You're the one with the nutball theories, you tell me!" 

If you do decide to engage the barking tards, www.Debunking911.com is another excellent resource.  I highly recommend it.

As a bonus, here are a couple of past Western Hero articles concerning conspiracy theories:

No Conspiracy, Just Global Oligarchy

No Conspiracy, Just Greed

Beheading Western Civilization

Muslim cleric calls for beheading of Dutch politician

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A well-known Australian Muslim cleric has called for the beheading of Dutch anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders, a newspaper said on Friday.

Islam has decapitated itself, outlawing all rational thought, and now it seeks to do the same to the west.  Particularly sickening about this news clip is that this wasn't a Saudi cleric or a Pakistani, but an Australian.

Liberal atheist Susan Jacoby wonders where all her fellow liberals have gone on this issue...

I am an atheist with an affinity for non-fundamentalist religious believers whose faith has made room for secular knowledge. I am also a political liberal. 

I am not, however, a multiculturalist who believes that all cultures and religions are equally worthy of respect. And I find myself in a lonely place in relation to many liberals, political and religious, because I cannot accept a multiculturalism that tends to excuse, under the rubric of “tolerance,” religious and cultural practices that violate universal human rights.

I am sure she is no fan of intolerant Christians, either.  But notice the words she chooses:  Religious and cultural "practices."  Not beliefs, but practices.  It's an important distinction.  You are free to believe space aliens walk among us in disguise, but if you start shooting people in a quest to hunt them down, we will lock you up.

Anyone who's argued with misguided liberals on this subject know the routine.  They will drag out every instance of intolerance in this country going back to slave trading before the founding of the nation.

Yes, I reply, but we've mended out ways.  We don't tolerate such intolerant acts anymore, thank God.  We prosecute crimes against women and gays; Muslim states sanction and celebrate it.  And the fact that libs have to invoke Tim McVeigh (an atheist) and horrible incidents from a distant past to make their vapid point that America is no better than a Muslim country, shows just how intellectually bereft they are.  It also displays a disturbing streak of self-loathing.

So all you liberal women out there!  Put on a pair of shorts and a halter top and stand in downtown Riyadh or Karachi and shout your support for their Muslim culture.  Bring a transgendered friend to keep you company!

Never Forget

I got home at around 10:30 pm on 11 September, 2001.  I stayed behind in a command post as they evacuated non-essential personnel from the base.  My wife and kids (Kindergarten and pre-schooler at the time) were still up.

"Did you see what happened, Daddy?"

"Yeah"

"Are you sad?"

"No.  I'm just angry."

Nine years later, I'm Still Angry...




Andrew McCarthy, God Bless him, speaks for tens of millions of Americans when he explains why he's tired of being lectured by sanctimonious passive-aggressive Muslims and the liberal elites who enable them.

For the better part of two decades, Americans have been murdered by Islamists and then lectured that they are to blame for what has befallen them. We have been instructed in the need for special sensitivity to the unceasing demands of Islamic culture and falsely accused of intolerance by the people who wrote the book on intolerance.

Americans have sacrificed blood and bottomless treasure for Islamic peoples who despise Americans -- and despise us even more as our sacrifices and gestures of self-loathing intensify. Americans have watched as apologists for terrorists and sha ria were made the face of an American Muslim community that we were simultaneously assured was the very picture of pro-American moderation.

Americans have had our fill. We are willing to live many lies. This one, though, strikes too close to home, arousing our heretofore dormant sense of decency. Americans have now heard President Obama's shtick enough times to know that when he talks about "our values," he's really talking about his values, which most of us don't share. And after 10 years of the Council on American-Islamic Relations's tired tirades, we're immune to Feisal Rauf, too.

We look around us and we see our country unrivaled by anything in the history of human tolerance. We see thousands of thriving mosques... (Andrew McCarthy - NY Post)

Bonfire of the Sanities

Terry Jones and imam Ralph are two sides of the same coin

Screecher Terry Jones of the Church of "Jeehad Ain't just for Muzzlims" is an ass-tard.  And his followers are brainless tardlets.  They are giving Asshat Church leader Fred Phelps a serious challenge in the competition to drive sane people away from the cause of Christ.

It ain't just about the troops
General Petraeus says it is, and I believe him.  I hate to find myself on the same side as President Obama and his administration, but this is a needless provocation, and now it looks like the pyro freakshow may be cancelled.  That's a good thing, but I don't want it called off for the wrong reason.  A great nation should not allow its actions to be dictated by bug-eyed nutbags screaming rage from the vermin-infested toilets they call home. And anyway, hasn't the Muslim Rage-ometer already been pegged for years now?

It's about our democratic experiment
We enjoy a variety of beliefs and cultures in this country and they are not all compatible.  We don't go around flagrantly denigrating the beliefs of others, unless we're Hollywood or the Democratic party.  It's part of the social contract.  Unless some big issue bubbles to the surface, we pretty much leave each other alone and try not to offend.

This act violates that tacit contract.  It is meant to incite hatred and raise money.  Like the Ground Zero mosque, it is legal but irresponsible, and sure to burn bridges not build them.  Actions such as these, and the enraged reactions they engender, only hasten our slide into third-world bedlam.  This is America, not Pakistan or Paris.

Our Culture is Superior
Think about it.  We peacefully state our opposition to that mosque, while Muslims worldwide threaten to riot, kill and burn and bomb all over a book burning.  This is why we can say with certainty that our culture is superior, despite small infestations of zealous firebugs.  

Want More Proof?

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told CNN that the discourse surrounding the center has become so politicized that moving it could strengthen the ability of extremists abroad to recruit and wage attacks against Americans, including troops fighting in the Middle East.
(AP-Google)

Somebody has to be the adult and do the right thing, and of course that's us. 

Nevermind that maybe some in this country think our American values are under attack.  We can't expect the diaper rash ranting children with knives and guns and torches violently defending the "religion of peace," to grow up...

We don't scream like a pack of human hemorrhoids every time someone has the temerity to disagree with us.  We believe in God but we know we are not His Flaming Sword of Vengeance.  He said "Vengeance is Mine," and we believe Him.  We have a constitution and we hold ourselves to it.  We will also use that constitution to snuff any European-style Sharia when it dares rear its misogynist head here in the civilized world.

So a miniscule assembly of dingbats will burn some Korans, and cash will flow into Imam Ralph's Victory Mosque as a result. 
 
I'm beginning to understand atheists...

Time to Throw the Neocons Overboard

Neocons are Progressive community organizers on a global scale. It’s time to pitch then overboard if we want to advance the conservative movement

Operation New Dawn, its name suggesting a skin cream or dishwashing liquid, now begins. (What ever happened to the practice of using terms like Torch or Overlord or Dragon to describe military campaigns?) (Andrew Bacevich - Obama Wants Us to Forget Iraq Lessons)

Professor Andrew Bacevich, who lost a son in the Iraq war, has consistently provided readers a clear-eyed view of American foreign policy. In his latest article, he shows how good intentions can reap unintended (and undesirable) outcomes.

Every time we thought we had “solved” something in the Middle East, another problem cropped up. Taking out Mossadegh let the Shah of Iran back in, angering the Islamists, who then took power 20 years later. Taking out Saddam destroyed the firewall protecting the Middle East from the Iranians. Wouldn’t it have been better to let Saddam take Kuwait?

"But he put his own citizens through giant shredders!"  The neocons shout.

"But women had relative freedom in Iraq and he brutally squashed all that Sharia nonsense," retort the realists.

See? We put ourselves in the position of weighing the pros and cons of remaking the lives of others. We have no business doing that, most especially when the people don’t want our help.

You can’t help those who don’t want your help
“Nation building” only works when the nation you are building wants to be built, like the European nations after World War II, Japan, and later South Korea. We took a relatively light touch in Central America during the Reagan 80’s, and the situation there is materially better because of our efforts.

Rock-ribbed conservative David Freddoso goes even further than the more liberal Bacevich, declaring that nation building in Iraq was not worth it. I can’t go that far.

We did not achieve “nothing.” No matter how ill-conceived the invasion may have been, troops on the ground made the best of a very bad situation. We took out a dictator, killed a lot of bad guys, and at least gave Iraqis a chance to chart a new course. That in itself is quite an achievement, more so for the US Military (especially the US Army) than for our government or any politician.

I do agree with Freddoso on this...

The question we need to ask is whether we really want to do something like that again. It’s a question that Republican candidates for Congress should be asking themselves right now

As someone who has been there as a bit player in a supporting role, my answer is no, we should not do something like this again.  It's time to pitch the neocons overboard.  Hard.  On their heads.

Neocons, like progressives, have Utopian dreams of solving problems, ignoring the stubborn fact that in this vale of tears, nothing is ever “solved.”

Dhimming the Lights in Olde Europe

Who cares if a Muslim scrawls on the side of a Catholic cathedral?  Europeans sure as hell aren't using it.  Europe's Churches are hollow tombs waiting for the continent's death rattle.  





The Astute Bloggers have a post about a Muslim stone mason carving “Allahu Akbar” on the side of a French Cathedral he is helping restore. God-fearing conservatives posted their outrage at Europe's increasing submission to Islam, but I take a different view.  He should tack on some minarets while he's up there.

Europeans have done it to themselves
They hate God, they hate children, they rail against the United States about how we’re destroying the world and wrecking their European culture by our global dominance and our crappy fast food. Yet that same culture collapses like a soggy house of cards in the face of angry Muslim bigotry.

They won’t f**k and they won’t fight. They are done as a society, and they deserve to be.  Europeans are a bigger insult to the Catholic Church than that Muslim man who calls the Cathedral he is restoring a “sacred place.”

Europe will be a Muslim continent in 50 years

Europeans refuse to breed; Muslims are cranking them out like crazy.

It saddens me to say this, I lived there for three years, but Europe is done, strangled by its tolerance of intolerance, child hatred, and liberal immigration policy.

Charles Martel and Jan Sobieski are crying in their graves. What Islam failed to do by the sword they will surely do by demographics.

And who cares? A flabby, flacid people unwilling to propagate their race and advance their culture deserve to die out. The gene pool will be improved at Europe’s passing.  America, Canada and Australia will continue to carry the torch.

Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu, Ta Ta.

Free Markets: Dispatches from Left Blogistan

As you all know, I frequently travel the twisted and slippery trails of Left Blogistan, trying my damnedest to bring enlightenment to the ignorant. Fredd sez I'm wasting my time, and he's probably right.

There's an overabundance of economic ignorance on the left, and that is where I end up fighting most of my battles (the "blame Bush for everything" blather is so incoherent it's not even worthy of arguing).

The left seems particularly enraged over free markets and the fact that Uncle Sam can't hold down greedy employers and force them to pay exorbitant wages and benefits that totally ignore market forces.

Here's the crown jewel of progressive ignorance quote:

As for sleazy, scumbag, anti-American "Right to Work" states stealing work from northern states, well, I say there shouldn't be sleazy, scumbag, anti-American "Right to Work" laws in the first place, so for me it's a moot point.

This kind of thinking is what led to fascism in Europe

Ein volk! Ein Reich! Ein Union!

In a free market, businesses and people are free to go where they want. Progressives would put them under the boot heel of the state and their crony crapitalist-syndicalist lackeys.

The unions priced themselves out of the market while the business owners got fat and lazy. They blew it and now they are seeing the consequences.

Progressivism is Anti-American
My liberal interlocutor went on to declare “Right to Work” laws unconstitutional, and that goes to the heart of modern-day progressivism:

Dragooning free people into labor unions “for their own good,” is perfectly legitimate. But declaring we all have a right to work without joining The Peoples’ Auxiliary of the Democratic Party is unconstitutional.

They are nuts, folks. They’ve come unhinged...

Michael Savage is right. Liberalism is a Mental Disorder

How Government Grows

Insanity:  Big government uses a failure of big government to justify more big government.  

Steve Chapman observes that the FDA is using the salmonella outbreak to plead for more power (and taxpayer money).

We should have seen that coming. In the private sector, entities that fall short of doing their jobs find themselves forced to shrink. In the public sector, the opposite is typically true. Failure is an option, and often a beneficial one.


The Federal Reserve Board and Treasury facilitated the 2008 financial crisis? Then obviously we have no choice but to give them even more responsibility. The Securities and Exchange Commission let Bernie Madoff rob investors? A bigger SEC will be a smarter SEC.

Poisoned Eggs in Left Blogistan

It's not so much the taxes we pay that irks us.  It's that we get incompetence, failure and malfeasance in return.  A rightwing insurrectionist from Denver named manapp99 sums it up nicely.  Enjoy!


No one minds paying taxes for services. What bugs the shit out of most sane people is paying for services and not getting them.

We paid for food inspections and still got poisoned eggs, beef, spinach etc.

We paid for oil rig inspections and still got a huge blow out in the gulf.

We paid for the SEC and still got Bernie Maddoff even though they were warned about him in the 90's.

We paid for border patrol and still got 20 million illegals.

We paid for public schools and still have an increasingly poor educational delivery system.

We paid for our congress men and women to regulate the investment houses and still got the global meltdown.

We pay for fair laws and adequate police protection and still get cops beating up citizens such as we had here in Denver recently.

We also get massive government failures that have no end in sight like the war on drugs.

We pay for thousands of overlapping intelligence agencies and still get failures on intel in Iraq and Iran.

We pay for a fair legal system and still massive unfairness such as the powder to crack cocaine laws.

We have paid millions of government workers to fail at their jobs and can't even fire them due to the public service unions.

With all the failures of government to do the jobs they were paid for it is reasonable to expect that if we paid for government health care we would get similar results.

Imagine paying government to have your tonsils out and getting your testes removed.

It is not that far fetched for a government worker to mistake the two. After all they both begin with T and there are generally two of them. A small mistake in filling out form 1524 instead of form 1542 and your a eunuch. And guess what? You can't sue because the government exempts itself from most law suits.

When a cop makes a mistake and storms the wrong home (as happened in Denver a few years back) and shoots an innocent man, the government just takes some more of our, their customers, money and pays off the grieving family. No one in the government gets charged with murder, no one goes to jail and the innocent taxpayer (customer) gets punished monetarily.

Fight The Power!

The Power is now with the Progressive Statists.  "The Oppressed" have become the oppressors...


Molly Worthen at New Republic is exhibit A for what’s wrong with progressivism. Progressives just hate "outmoded" concepts like democracy and will of the people.  It's all so noisy and messy.

Here's how she describes the "problem:"

"the problem of democracy’s ignorant priesthood of believers, and the destructive feedback loop between culture warrior politicians and the self-appointed citizens defending inviolable but ill-considered first principles."

There are several things wrong with this ignorant, liberty-hating statement

1) Ill-considered first principles?  Like a good little deconstructionist, Worthen takes a jackhammer directly to the foundation of American liberty, hoping to cause a complete collapse of the structure. Progressives, like their ideological father and racist in chief Woody Wilson, hate our founding fathers, their founding principles and especially Lockean natural law.  They loath the constitution, and want to render it useless as a restraint on government power.

2) “Ignorant priesthood of believers” and “self-appointed citizens” is a direct slap and you and me. And the second phrase in particular is just ridiculous: We are citizens by birth or naturalization, not self-appointment. It rankles progressives that we the great unwashed don’t know how to shut up and obey our superiors. Their attitude is what brought to power the Mussolinis and Chavez’s of the world.

3) The feedback loop she calls “destructive” could just as easily describe the mechanics of progressive liberal thought.  It has leached into society, academe, and government,corroding personal initiative and traditional societal norms.  So it’s OK when they do it, but not when caveman conservative who believe in first principles do it.  What lazy and arrogant thinking...

Tea Parties and Town Hall Meetings?  Just Ignorant Rabble!

"democracies in general, and perhaps the United States in particular, are not very good at managing public conversations about complex issues."

"They demonstrated that the populist strain in American politics, newly revived, means that cluelessness in defense of delusions of liberty is no vice." 

"the most striking feature of the town hall meetings: the gross ignorance and anti-elitism of voters whose influence, while failing to halt the healthcare bill, did radically reshape it."

We may be ignorant ( I doubt it) but citizens understand that every decision made for us by a klatch of elitists is one more piece of freedom gone. Maybe we don't "understand the benefits," because the arrogant overlords who crafted the healthcare monstrosity are unable to explain it. Hell, they didn't even read it! How ignorant is that, defending something you haven't even read? No wonder we have no faith in the District of Criminals.

It’s not left versus right. It’s one-size-fits-all statism versus personal freedom

The real danger—and the real cunning—of “incivility” such as Palin’s is that it exempts her from dealing with complicated issues head-on. Her healthcare rhetoric shut down serious debate of the issue before it could begin, and implanted in her followers’ minds an immutable image of a threat that does not exist

But a threat does exist; it’s the threat of a zealous progressivism on the march, trampling all in its path as the parade of fools marches towards the utopian promised land. We precieve it, many can’t explain it, but we don’t like it.

Horrors!  Christian Conservatives are Indoctrinating Their Children!

"In recent decades, conservative evangelicals in particular have begun to stress the presuppositions undergirding their “biblical worldview,” and to encourage a defensive, intellectually self-conscious stance in their children. In this age of culture war and values voting, the Georgia study may suggest that families of all persuasions are doing the same."

Hell Yes!!! That’s exactly what I’m doing! I’ll be damned if I’m going to send pliant mush brains out into the world to be fodder for the progressive statist machine.

I have taught my kids to show respect to others, but to also question authority and to logically evaluate information presented to them.   It may be finally paying off.  My kids, in a backwards way, paid me a compliment the other day when they were talking about how it was sometimes difficult to discuss current issues with their grandparents.

“It’s just generational,” my teens concluded. “They come from a time when you were just supposed to shut up and listen to whatever your elders told you, no discussion.”

“You’re still supposed to do that,” I reflexively replied.

“Not us Dad. You raised free thinkers!”

There may be hope after all...