Monthly Archives: April 2011

UPDATE III: Austerity à la America (US Vs. UK)

Britain, Debt, Economy, Europe, Government, Healthcare, Inflation, Military

In their agreement to fiddle with future spending, our politicians are like bank robbers who’ve planned a string of heists, but then decided, charitably, to spare one bank.

The reckless high rollers in DC are congratulating themselves for agreeing to cut about $38 billion from federal spending this year (Bloomberg.com). This minuscule “cut” claws back some parts of an enormous entitlement program that has not yet kicked in: Obamacare.

“According to the Treasury Department, the federal government spent more than eight times what it brought in in the month of March. Eight times.” (CNN)

And the more money you stuff down the feds’ greedy maw, the more it’ll spend.

“Heads between knees, arms over heads, hold that position. Pray if you’re inclined to. Brace for impact!” That’s John Derbyshire’s advice about the coming economic collapse in the US. (If you’ve escaped the debased dollar, all the better.)

UPDATE I (April 10): “Friday’s 348-70 vote to fund the government through the week”: Only “twenty-eight of the ‘no’ votes were cast by Republicans. Sixteen of those are members of the 87-member freshman class. Also voting no: Tea Party star and possible presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.”

That’s an abysmal showing for Republicans and Tea Partiers. Can someone please send a link with an exact breakdown, plus names?

UPDATE II: Two hundred and eight House Republicans voted “yes.” And that’s not a disgrace?

UPDATE III (April 12): Little mentioned in American media is that the non- Micky-mouse countries in Europe and the English have gotten religion on austerity. In his first 100 days in office, David Cameron had gone further than Thatcher did in cutting government. Yes, yes, that’s nothing very impressive, but it’s more than anything that has been done to tackle the debt in the land of the free and home of the brave. The Merkel (Angela) told “financier- philanthropist” George Soros—also an all-round radical and BHO surrogate—to jump when he tried to muscle her into printing and inflating her country’s currency to Weimar-Republic levels.

If our media made these contrasts, perhaps Americans would begin to think beyond the “rah-rah we’re the best” mantra.

No Furlough For Fondlers

Homeland Security, Individual Rights, Regulation, Terrorism, The State

Aren’t you relieved that the TSA child fondling professionals will not be furloughed, now that our overlords in DC have come together to screw us all royally? (Link) As a mother—as a human being with a heart—it is particularly hard seeing children, like the little girl below, subjected to the cruelty of strangers. Watching footage of this kid between whose miniature trousers a TSA goon is reaching—I can’t help but wonder: Where in all this is the effing FLOTUS? If Michelle Obama has experienced a gut reaction to the ordeal inflicted by her husband’s administration (begun under his predecessor) on travelers and their tots—she is not letting on. The First Lady, as you know, is in touch with her gut—and the gut of every kid in the country. The FLOTUS of the fat-based initiatives “cares” enough to decide what America’s bloated babes will ingest, but not enough to weigh-in when their bodies are being invaded by state workers.

By the way, WHERE ARE THE MEN in all this?

Libya: A War Of The Womb

Feminism, Gender, Just War, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Middle East, Neoconservatism, Political Philosophy, Sarah Palin, UN, War

The following is from my new, WND column, “Libya: A War Of The Womb”:

… “Libya is a war of the womb. A product of the romantic minds of women who fantasize about an Arab awakening. It is estrogen-driven paternalism on steroids. … In Libya, the casus belli for war consists of nothing but silly assertions. This “angels and demons” approach befits a children’s Disney production: Once upon a time an evil dictator was killing his noble people. Then Lauren of Arabia rode to the rescue. …

Power panted as hard for this latest war as did Palin – with one exception: Power was hot and heavy in the president’s ear. But bossy ladies on the left and the right are agreed: A good war must inspire. During an “On the Record” broadcast, with host Greta Van Susteren, Palin expressed her disappointment that the president’s war euphoria did not match hers. …

American foreign policy is something that could have been dreamed up on Oprah’s couch. Follow your feelings. Never say no to a rebel without a cause. American warriors, in arms and in armchairs, are convinced that repeating the word “rebel” enough times will transform the factions we are fighting for as a princess’ kiss transforms a toad. …”

Read the complete column, “Libya: A War Of The Womb.”

UPDATE II: Beck Bucks The System (If “Incoherent & Meandering”)

Glenn Beck, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, libertarianism, Media, Uncategorized

Yes, I’ve been critical of the irrational, illogical twists and turns in the thinking of Glenn Beck in recent months. (Here). “Skeptic” (the magazine) could use Beck’s conspiracy building tactics to fill an issue on irrational thinking. However, besides exuding goodness, Beck also radiates rebellion. Whatever one thinks of Beck, he is a rebel. And like all real rebels, he too must secede from the system. Glenn’s departure from FoxNews is an act of secession. FoxNews is the system. Beck is no longer able to abide by the ideological and disciplinary constraints imposed by the Republican establishment’s megaphone.

Beck has promised his jubilant adversaries that they were “going to pray for the days of 5:00PM,” intimating that a force of nature has been unleashed on the world. Or as the Judge put it, “Bigger, better and more Beck.”

Go Glenn! Of course, as I had hoped (see “Beck has Left the Building”), The Judge may stand to inherit the slot.

UPDATE (April 7) I: I hear here, and on Facebook, lots of cheerleading for one program, The Judge’s. Or Stossell’s—who is marvelous, but still very much within the remits of conventional, by-the-book libertarianism. I love them both to bits. But none of you so-called “independent thinkers” has noticed that these shows tolerate, 1) the must-have, establishment Tea Partiers, and 2) the Reason and other narrow-faction libertarianism. The shows are still within the, admittedly, wonderful box. Those who say Beck is part of the system are as insane as Beck (who is a good type of insane; a lovable goof, as Huggs put it). Beck is a natural secessionist.

I’m surprised that you’ve all fallen to your knees before (our) ideological correctness, dismissing Beck’s brave act of secession, b/c of his errors of thought. I have news for you: In the liberty-oriented community, people tend to huddle in atrophying intellectual attics, and quibble about detecting and expelling contrarians. Dare to dissent on this or the other point of purity, and keepers of the flame will take it upon themselves to read you out of the movement. This, naturally, makes for tribalism, not individualism. The bad, moreover, have a nasty habit of crowding out the good. Or as one wag once said to me (was it Randy Barnett? I can’t recall), “Quality is never the result of intellectual purges: the most creative and independent thinkers are the first to go.” That makes perfect psychological sense: those who remain feel more secure, group cohesion having trounced intellectual vitality.

UPDATE II (April 9): Larry Auster:

Glenn Beck’s announcement that he is going to “transition off” his daily TV program later this year, whatever that means, is about as coherent as Sarah Palin’s July 2009 announcement of her reasons for resigning from the governorship. Has anyone noticed that Beck, like Palin, is inveterately incapable of forming a cogent sentence, and that one of the reasons for this, as with Palin, is that almost everything he says revolves around himself?

Indubitably true.