Tryannies are Toppling across the Middle East--Could the US be Next?

Egypt has thrown off a tyrannical regime.  When will we topple ours?

I'm not talking about President Obama; He's just a cog in the machine.  I'm referring to this large bureaucratic regime, this clanking soul-draining monster, this federal, state and municipal steamroller that is built, fed and operated by the statists of all parties.

Egypt's situation is fundamentally different than ours, for we do not suffer under a military dictatorship, but read this excerpt and broadly replace references to "military" with "bureaucracy," and you'll see what I'm talking about...

The democratic wave that has finally struck the Arab world is, among other things, a civilian protest movement against the militarization of Middle Eastern life. Old Oriental despotisms, for all their unpleasantness, did not fundamentally assault the civilian nature of Muslim societies, where men of the cloth, letters, the bazaar, and small-town aristocracies defined the “good and noble.”

Robbed of ideology and military purpose (defeating Israel became a millenarian dream, like the ancient Arab aspiration to conquer Constantinople), Arab armies became instruments of political oppression and private enrichment. (Reuel Marc Gerecht - Weekly Standard)

The tyranny we groan and strain under is a bureaucratic one
FDR built a civilian statist army back in the 1930's and put it on war footing.  Government was supposed to wage war on poverty, ignorance and those on the outside attacking us and our way of life.  Instead, it now fosters poverty and ignorance and joins in the  multicultural jihad against our borders, language and culture (Yes, I got that from Doc Savage).

This out of control government that cannot manage its own finances nonetheless lectures us on what we should eat and how we should live.  It incompetently stumbles and bumbles its way through international diplomacy and blows hundreds of billions on intelligence, only to be surprised when a friendly dictator is toppled.  Meanwhile, domestic surveillance of innocent citizens increases.

Fighting Citizens is Easier than Fighting Criminals
Governments across the spectrum have found fighting crime and improving the lives of its citizens too challenging, so it now turns on them, spies on them, regulates and scolds them.  America's army of bureaucrats long ago turned on the people it was supposed to serve, and like the Egyptian Army, enjoys its perks and will not give them up willingly.

Real criminals with real guns are robbing and killing in Denver, but the Jefferson County DA goes after a kid with an airsoft gun.  This is just one story in an avalanche of government-sponsored outrages and abuse.  The EPA demanding dairy farmers treat milk spills as hazardous waste, and calling the dust they kick up "pollution" adds to the bonfire of regulatory stupidities now raging against the job-providers in this country. Our unemployment is government-induced.

Fighting criminals and protecting borders is hard; it's so much easier and satisfying to turn the power of the state against the people.  Government is everywhere.  They have robbed us of the private nature of our lives and our societies.

The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
-Plato

Entrepreneurial America

American needs to renew her entrepreneurial spirit.
They didn't call it that back then, but entrepreneurship is what built this country. People from all over the world risk it all to just to get here, and people born here take risks in the hope of improving their lives.

Big Business and Big Government hate free markets

Capitalism is about efficiency, and that means making more money with less people, which explains why job growth has been so sluggish while the stock market climbs.

Big Business is bureaucratic, as is Big Government, which explains their natural affinity for one another, and their mutual disdain for entrepreneurship and the little guy. Capitalism galloping along the wild economic frontiers is distasteful, unorganized, incomprehensible. It’s scary and dangerous, but that is where the growth lies.

The Messy Paths of the Free Marketplace

Carl Schramm, in his article The Messy Path to Job Creation, explains that the lion's share of job creation is done by small companies and new startups. Government "job creation" should avoid picking favorites and instead create an environment that is inviting to potential entrepreneurs.

Schramm also advocates...

...stepping up efforts to get the less-represented parts of our population into the mix.

Our goal should be to double the number of Americans who are serious about starting businesses...

Our entrepreneurial spirit is almost crushed. A stultified, soul-destroying bureaucratic mindset has gripped us, and it is killing us, our economy and society. We've got to shake it if we're going to make it in the 21st century. Government and education are two places for us to start in on immediately.

Government Bureaucracy Needs Entrepreneurship

our bureaucracies are not just cumbersome time and creativity sucks; they are expensive as well. Federal, state and local government can become significantly cheaper as we strip out the layers of bureaucracy, dispense with work rules developed in some cases back when carbon paper ruled the world, and restructure patterns of organization and management that date back even farther.

People who like low taxes and people who like big government can agree at least that by systematically making government cheaper we can have all the government we need at rates we can afford (Mead)

How? Privatize it! 

Management of the frequency spectrum and government social programs, automobile and drivers licensing, airport security, and the thousands of other petty bureaucracies... Turn it over to private companies on fixed contracts, and they will figure out ways to make these government functions more efficient.

What will happen to all those government employees thrown out of work? The good ones will form companies or join existing ones to bid on the privatized government work, doing much of it from home or satellite offices, allowing government to sell off real estate and save on maintenance and utilities costs.

We Don't Need No Education!

I watched Pink Floyd's The Wall the other night, and I was again reminded how much I hated school.

Mediocre, conformity inducing, alienating, time wasting: the school system trains kids to sit still, follow directions, and move with the herd. As the economy becomes more fluid, more entrepreneurial, it is clear that raising one generation after another of aspiring time-serving bureaucrats is not very effective. But isn’t it also a terrible waste of human potential? (Mead)

This "big box" approach served its purpose 50 years ago, but it's time for a new model. Mead continues...

Maybe there’s something more we can teach our kids than the bland pablum of the standard school curriculum; maybe there are ways we can organize learning so that it is more individual, closer to home, better integrated with the world of work — and more rewarding.

The way forward is not stacking bureaucratic remedies upon bureaucratic failures, but private enterprise and entrepreneurship in education. Open it up! Make every school a charter school and hand out vouchers to everyone. Teachers Unions? To hell with them. We need parents and student unions.  The good teachers will end up better payed, and the bums will be flushed from the system.

Introducing true entrepreneurship in schooling at all levels will allow the market to discover the needs of the consumer and tailor services appropriately. Monopolistic Bureaucracies are inherently unable to do that.

Free-market capitalism is messy, especially for the small startups. Failure rates are high, but the consumer benefits, and stiff competition builds better employees and better business owners.  Government should lower the regulatory and legal barriers to market entry, as Australia does, and confine itself to setting the rules and punishing violators.  Uncle Sam needs to stop picking winners and losers, because he almost always gets it wrong.

http://blogs.forbes.com/carlschramm/2011/01/19/the-messy-path-to-creating-jobs/
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/01/17/the-next-american-upgrade/

Ten Thoughts to Ponder

OD's The one smoking

It's Saturday, time for something frivolous... 

Here's another e-mail item, courtesy of  my old Air Force buddy, OD.  We fought the drug wars in South America with radios and rum...





Ten Thoughts to Ponder

Number 10:  Life is sexually transmitted.

Number 9:  Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Number 8:  Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich .

Number 7:  Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.

Number 6:  Some people are like a Slinky-not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.

Number 5:  Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals, dying of nothing.

Number 4:  All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Number 3:  Why does a slight tax increase cost you $800.00, and a substantial tax cut saves you $30.00?

Number 2:  In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

Number 1:  Life is like a jar of Jalapeno peppers--what you do today, might burn you tomorrow.

And a bonus...

Just put a deposit down on a brand new Porsche & mentioned it on Facebook. I said, "I can't wait for the new 911 to arrive!" Next thing I know 4000 Muslims have friended me and Homeland Security has my house surrounded.  The illegals who live next door sure got a good laugh.

Ho's with Dough

The latest batch of nude pictures, that she consented to, has left Kim Kardashian in tears

Life's questions...  How can someone who launched her career with a viral sex video be upset over some semi-nude photos?  

Why do the Kardashian girls, Paris Hilton, and other tartletts in the celebrity mags garner so much attention?  These girls are gutter skanks with money.  Their only redeeming social value is to show ordinary folk that the rich are not inherently noble or classy.

They are useful only for pointing out to our sons what a slut looks like and why you should avoid them at all costs.
   

Take away the money and Kim Kardasian would be a 300 pound couch queen eating ho hos all day while watching trash tv.  Her little thug baby daddy or whatever they call him would be in jail or bleeding in a gutter with his headcaved in because he started it with the wrong guys and the bodyguards weren’t there to step in.

Can Charlie Sheen get through at-home rehab?  Inquiring minds want to know.  My first though was, "Sure, as long as he's stocked up on coke, booze and slutty prostitutes..."

It takes a lot of money to live a liberal lifestyle, what with the retinue of moochers, bodyguards, lawyers, and rehab...  The hooting baboons who look to these Hollywood morons for guidance usually end up finding this out the hard way.
 

A sad social commentary is that this is not so much the cause of our cultural decay as it is a result, which feeds further moral decline in a depressing downward spiral.  Yes, there is nothing new under the sun.  Bad behavior has been around since the dawn of time.  The difference is that civilized society used to ignore it and marginalize it to dens of iniquity out of the public eye.  Now, we celebrate it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2011/01/31/2011-01-31_kim_kardashian_w_magazine_silver_paint_shoot_leaves_her_crying_on_kourtney_and_k.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/galleries/celebrity_sex_tapes/celebrity_sex_tapes.html

Progressives of All Parties are Destroying America

The progressives of all parties who hijacked the federal bureaucracy have just about destroyed us. Sure, they started with good intentions, but we’re now morally, intellectually and financially bankrupt.

WASHINGTON—The federal budget deficit will reach a record of nearly $1.5 trillion in 2011 due to the weak economy, higher spending and fresh tax cuts, congressional budget analysts said, in a stark warning that will drive the growing battle over government spending and taxation.

As a percentage of the nation's economic output, the 9.8% deficit would be the second-largest since World War II, behind only the 10% level in 2009.

"This report is a reflection of the gross mismanagement of our nation's finances," said Rep. Tom Price (R., Ga.). "It should make every American think twice about the latest calls by the president to increase spending at a time when Washington can clearly not afford to pay its bills." . (WSJ – Deficit)

We’ve spent ourselves to the brink of bankruptcy, but most sickening of all is that we have nothing to show for it.

Social Security is going broke…

New congressional projections show Social Security running deficits every year until its trust funds are eventually drained in about 2037.

This year alone, Social Security is projected to collect $45 billion less in payroll taxes than it pays out in retirement, disability and survivor benefits, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. (El Lay Times)

Obamacare will not save any money, and no, you can’t keep your coverage…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two of the central promises of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law are unlikely to be fulfilled, Medicare's independent economic expert told Congress on Wednesday.

The landmark legislation probably won't hold costs down, and it won't let everybody keep their current health insurance if they like it, Chief Actuary Richard Foster told the House Budget Committee. (AP – Medicare Official Doubts)

Meanwhile, HHS is handing out Obamacare waivers, 733 and counting …

Over at HUD, they’re having a party with our money and creating failure, which justifies requests for even more taxpayer funds…

Even by Washington standards, $26 billion is a lot of money.

That’s the amount spent by taxpayers annually to provide housing for needy Americans. But there’s significant evidence that some of the monies have been poorly spent for years.

A joint investigation by ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity found that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has struggled to combat theft, corruption, and mismanagement in the more than 3,000 public housing agencies nationwide it funds, and particularly inside the172 that HUD considers the most troubled. (Public Housing – Private Frustration)

Now who want to stand up and deny that the progressive house of cards is collapsing?

Mr Obama, You’re No Ronald Reagan

Liberals spewed hatred on Ronald Reagan for thirty years, now they are attempting to co-opt him 

I know, the Reagan Centennial was last Sunday, but I’m left with that feeling you get after attending a really good concert. Still basking in the sights and sounds, you’re left wanting more, so you pop in a CD or DVD to make the feeling last.

What spurred me to this latest outburst was all the stupid blather comparing Obama to Reagan. It’s another foolish indulgence of the Washington press corps, for really, there is no comparison.

Ronald Reagan’s communications were symphonic masterpieces...

...crafted and delivered from a deep and thoughtful well of study and experience. His rock solid words now resonate through the ages. “Tear down this wall!” …and the wall came tumbling down.

He backed up his words with action. He told the air traffic controllers to go back to work. They didn’t. He fired them. This put the world on notice that the American president meant what he said. Communists really were trying to make inroads into Central America, and Reagan defeated them by keeping our military profile low and helping freedom-loving Central Americans help themselves. The region in now freer and more prosperous as a result.

Obama’s speeches are cotton candy…

…top 40 bubblegum pop songs that catch the listeners’ ears with a cheap lyrical hook or a catchy tune, but are forgotten the next week. His award of an anticipatory Nobel Prize was a farce, and it was the apotheosis of Obama. All flowery words and billowy hope, but no substance, no action.

Reagan made history by collapsing communism and freeing tens of millions of people.  Obama made history by being the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to host and toast a tyrannical regime that imprisoned a  fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Reagan Encouraged Us, Obama Scolds Us...

Reagan believed in the American people and uplifted us; President Obama is perpetually disappointed in us. He, his wife and his cabinet scold us on eating habits, going green, police who act stupidly, people too cowardly to talk about race, and even how to sneeze properly.

President Reagan shrugged off criticism with a smile and a joke, President Obama encourages his fervid worshipers to punish their enemies.

Reagan believed in American exceptionalism. Obama compared us to Greece, and leads us there with his disastrous policies.

Progressive fanboys and fangirls love talking about how intelligent Obama is, but when pressed they can produce no evidence besides “he ran a successful presidential campaign,” or that he was titular head of some college newspaper.

“Amiable dunce” Ronald Reagan has left a rich legacy of writings in his own hand that prove beyond a doubt what an intelligent and studied man he was.

Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan...

Comparisons to the loser that Reagan defeated in 1980 are more appropriate. In fact, Jimmy probably rests a little easier knowing he’s now moved up to the second worst president.

Toby Harnden – You’re No Ronald Reagan
Five Myths about Ronald Reagan
http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-magazine-obama-loves-reagan.html
Time – The Role Model

Ironic Story of the Year

Muzzammil Hassan, founder of Bridges TV, a project to promote a positive image of Islam, cut off his wife's head in their place of business.

This happened two years ago in Western New York state. In the United States of America. He was convicted this past Monday.

This item should be given an award for Most Ironic Story to Get No Press Coverage. The newspapers that did cover it at the time danced around the whole "Islam and cutting heads off" thing.  Mark Steyn gave us this newspaper clipping in his insightful treatment of this case:

An upstate TV exec who set up a channel promoting Muslims as peace-loving people was stressed about his failing business in the days before he allegedly chopped off his estranged wife's head, a friend of the couple said today.

C'mon guys, it's happened to all of us... Bad day at work, you slam your pickup door too hard and bust the glass out of the side window...

The dog gets in your path to the front door and you give ol' Beauregard a boot. You're not purposely trying to hurt anyone or be mean. You're just upset about your financial situation, and there's your wife in the kitchen...

You're in a bad mood, you lose it and accidentally chop her head off. It could happen to anybody, nothing newsworthy! Nothing to see here, move along...