Very Insightful Take on the "Bush Hatred / Obama Love" Issue...

Excerpts:

"... They face (at least) two options:"

"Barack Obama is a sellout, “just Bush with a tan,” subservient to the same malevolent political and economic forces that Bush was.

OR the Bush administration was actually pretty reasonable to adopt these policies in the first place, and the Obama administration has been reasonable enough to recognize the fact.

Both options require the liberal to admit a mistake: either he was wrong about Obama, or he was wrong about Bush. But the first option requires the liberal to sacrifice his love for Obama, while the second option requires him to sacrifice his hatred of Bush. Either Obama was dishonest in the campaign or overwhelmed by baleful influences once he came to the Oval Office — or Obama, once he came to the White House and had the same information and responsibility that Bush had, came to more or less the same conclusions as Bush had."

"Unsurprisingly, Option #1 comes out the huge winner here. So powerful is the partisan mindset that I haven’t seen a single prominent liberal writer take Option #2. They puzzle through the “mystery” of “George W. Obama” and conclude that the contradictions between Obama’s ideals and actions compose “a subtle disaster for all those whose hopes once rested with him.” They would rather abandon their love of Obama than their hatred of Bush. To put it more sharply: they are so deeply committed to the nefariousness and malfeasance of the Bush administration that they would rather believe Barack Obama a failure, a liar or a dupe than believe that George W. Bush took reasonable actions in light of the circumstances...."

The Conservative Worldview...in 4-D

This speech by Mark Steyn is not only an excellent synopsis of his current book, "After America: Get Ready for Armageddon" but is also the best current testament of conservative values and views in our unique era of encroaching socialist, world authority, fanatic appeasing...nonsense.

Very witty, insightful and cogent.

OWS Sucks!

...in my humble opinion...

Two Excellent Articles

What Does It Mean to Be an ‘Intellectual,’ Anyway?

"...Yes, there are non-leftists who are sometimes described, perhaps grudgingly, as intellectuals. But when that label’s affixed to them, the people doing the affixing almost invariably feel a need to prefix “intellectual” with some word like “conservative” or “right-wing” – even if the person in question is somebody you or I might consider pretty middle-of-the-road. Meanwhile a left-wing intellectual is typically prefix-free: a left-wing intellectual is just an intellectual, period."

"To be sure, many people on the left dismiss the idea that anyone not on the left could be legitimately described as an intellectual. For them, intellectualism consists essentially of reiterating and fiercely defending their own lockstep ideology. Google “right-wing intellectual” and the very first hit you’ll get is a snarky post at the Democratic Underground website asking “Is there such a thing as a right-wing intellectual?” Google “conservative intellectual” and the top hits include items about “conservative intellectual collapse” and “conservative intellectual bankruptcy.”"

"The difference between the U.S. and continental Europe (Britain leans more our way) is that America has a vibrant network of non-left intellectual institutions – think tanks, magazines, websites like this one – and electronic media that are receptive to their ideas. In Europe non-left intellectuals are more on their own. And they are almost never, ever referred to by anybody as intellectuals."

"And why is this? Because being an “intellectual,” at least in the European sense, isn’t about being intelligent. It’s about belonging to a class of high priests whose role is to preserve and pass on its own sacred dogma. It’s not about contributing to a free exchange of ideas in the expectation that the best ideas will rise to the top, but about trying to demonize and intimidate opponents and stifle dissent. It’s about “speaking truth to power” – and the “power” is always democratic capitalism, and the “truth” always comes in various shades of red."

and...

Inequality: The Eternal Wellspring of Collective Power


"So, to repeat the question defenders of economic liberty have been asking socialists for over a century: what percentage of tax paid by the Evil Rich would be “fair?” It’s obviously not a tax burden equivalent to their share of income, because they’re paying two or three times that much now. Why don’t we isolate that number, according to some logical formula, and put it on the table for consideration?"


"The answer, of course, is that “inequality” is the eternal wellspring of collectivist power. It is the dragon that can never be slain, the Grail that can never be seized. It will always dance just out of reach… and there will always be socialists leaning over our shoulders and whispering that we must hand over more control of our lives, so they can get us just a little bit closer. They’ll never tell us exactly what “fairness” would be, because then we would know if we had achieved it. Blindness is an important tool of control."

Amnesty International and What's Left of It

I can't believe that I used to give money to these clowns. They were actually a bit more sincere in their mission back than. The treatment described in the linked article is often dished out to former defense secretary Rumsfeld as well. To folks like me, this stuff is just plain weird, but not entirely unexpected. The left in general has been feeling quite confident in the last decade or two, evermore “empowered” in feeling they can push the most bizarre schemes and knowing that many will back them completely.

It's a world where acceptance of the totalitarian worldview is in resurgence everywhere – whether two bit pseudo-dictators in Latin America, Muslim extremists spouting anti-Semitic rants at the U.N., or just garden variety classrooms with teachers inculcating their students with their own hatred for the democratic hand that's been feeding them.

Amnesty International, like a host of other NGOs, is obsessed with America and Israel. I don't think it's too far-fetched to imagine them existing in the early 40's and devoting most of their passions to the “crimes” of the allies while turning a virtual blind eye to Hitler and Japanese militarists.

Soooo typical leftism, 'sad to see Saddam Hussein gone and Starbucks so widespread.

Mark Steyn covers nonsense like this with superb precision and wit in, "After America..." – a book I'll, again, strongly recommend.

We've actually reached a point in our pathetic non-development where beheadings and mass genocide are either brushed aside or seen as mere equivalents to the non-lethal interrogation (water-boarding causes no physical harm of any kind) of the man who planned 9/11.

Another typical expression of the Jacobin spirit of our time; ...despicable. They have no honor.

(I realize that some will note that the linked article was posted by Fox News and will therefore see it as somehow irrelevant but...too bad).

Never Send a Theoretician to do a Pragmatist's Job

When considering all the negative attributes of the current Obama-nation (and his administration), they all boil down to a fervent allegiance to the theoretical as a standard for making policy.

In addressing the economy, social issues (i.e. healthcare), and even foreign relations, Obama and his staff of social planners view the U.S. as one large laboratory for the conducting of societal experiments and the imposition of theories.

To address genuine problems in a practical fashion using known solutions is beyond him / them. The economy is in a tailspin? Now would be a good time to go shopping for every item on the Democrat's wish list. Millions unemployed? What could be a better time to try to implement a massive healthcare grab.

Unemployment, economic growth, energy production, international tensions? -- throw the taxpayer's money at solar panels and tilt at windmills. Drill known oil reserves? -- not a chance ( a case in point).

Classic leftism. While not the gulag, citizens are none the less to become laboratory animals to test the dreams of eggheads who have produced nothing of value and have never participated in anything with practical or successful ends.

"Hope and change" doesn't pay the bills.

Mundane Crimes in Mundane Times

('Just wanted something to fill the space, at a time when there's plenty to comment on but little time to do so. The following may have been posted before -- long ago. This blog is usually not for posting poetry but...oh well...)

I passed a wealthy man on my left and a poor one on my right and realized that neither of them was of harm or help to me.

I passed a country club of leisure success stories and later a shanty town of broken sidewalks and destitution and realized that I had created neither (except within the fantasies of mock rebels who would blame the very weather on innocent bystanders).

I and my kind were accused of both crimes and lapses in morality for failing to obey the edicts of imposed guilt – but were later found guiltier still…for not feeling guilty (by those with less innocence than my own).

The world spun out its charms…and its fouler images, never reaching equilibrium ("equality") or the satisfaction that imposed order affords planners with mundane gripes against the hands that feed them.

The world remained quite normal and I collaborated with its non-existent scheme to side with no one while some well-paid philosopher kings demanded I hang my head in shame so they could pretend to occupy a moral throne above and beyond the simple things that have always been.

Excellent Insight and Prosaic Sarcasm by Mark Steyn

(sorry, the link hadn't effectively posted earlier)

[“]They're anarchists for statism, wild free-spirited youth demanding more and more total government control of every aspect of life – just so long as it respects the fundamental human right to sloth. What's happening in Oakland is a logical exercise in class solidarity: the government class enthusiastically backing the breakdown of civil order is making common cause with the leisured varsity class, the thuggish union class and the criminal class in order to stick it to what's left of the beleaguered productive class. It's a grand alliance of all those societal interests that wish to enjoy in perpetuity a lifestyle they are not willing to earn[“...]

[...“]It's the voice of youth, yet everything about it is cobwebbed. It's more like an open-mike karaoke night of a revolution than the real thing. I don't mean just the placards with the same old portable quotes by Lenin et al, but also, say, the photograph in Forbes of Rachel, a 20-year-old "unemployed cosmetologist" with remarkably uncosmetological complexion, dressed in pink hair and nose ring as if it's London, 1977, and she's killing time at Camden Lock before the Pistols gig. Except that that's three-and-a-half decades ago, so it would be like the Sex Pistols dressing like the Andrews Sisters. Are America's revolting youth so totally pathetically moribund they can't even invent their own hideous fashion statements? [...“]

The “99%”

Don't make me laugh. The whining spoiled brats of America's Occupy Wall Street crowd actually think that their hodge-podge of leftist stew represents 99% of what American's believe – pleeeeaze.

As usual, this crowd is demanding XY and Z with no regard for what actual fellow citizens want. While fellow citizens may have gripes with Wall Street, most are probably okay with our capitalist system (even though it's actually become a mixed system with increasing government control and collaboration). We can, of course find out what people really think on election day. I doubt if the Communist party or it's many socialist variations are going to be getting 99% of the vote (as they often do in Communist countries – where no one else is allowed to run).

My advice to these clowns; they can vote – even for communists if they choose. Then again, it may just be possible that they're really not the “99%” but just another extremist clique' seeking to impose their deluded will upon everyone else – that certainly wouldn't be a new thing.

(p.s. I'm well aware the exception. Not everyone at these demonstrations is without good cause to protest. Ironically, the Tea Parties were the first to protest the Obama – Democrats' collaborations with Wall Street and were merely mocked by the press for it. Exceptions aside, it's clear what mentality is dominating these groups; it's the pathological crowd we've seen whenever the closet authoritarian thinks his time has come)