Tell me that PBS doesn’t offer a more intelligent debate than do the cable channels, and their panels of pathetic entertainers. Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies is a serious, scholarly immigration restrictionist—more so than anyone I’ve seen on cable. Judy Woodruff does a good job.
Category Archives: Media
UPDATE II: News You Missed (Taxpayers Vs. Tax Consumers)
The ostrich press, “Bloomberg, CNN, New York Times or anywhere in the US print or TV media,” did not report it. VDARE did:
“On Thanksgiving eve the English language China Daily and People’s Daily Online reported that Russia and China have concluded an agreement to abandon the use of the US dollar in their bilateral trade and to use their own currencies in its place. The Russians and Chinese said that they had taken this step in order to insulate their economies from the risks that have undermined their confidence in the US dollar as world reserve currency.” …
“The American financial press finds solace in the episodes when sovereign debt scares in the EU send the dollar up against the euro and UK pound. But these currency movements are just measures of financial players shorting troubled EU-denominated debt. They are not a measure of dollar strength.”
UPDATE I: The custodians of the Irish state are still better than the filth that gathers to rule us from DC. The American governing class has been unique in working against the economic interests of its countrymen and their country. (Treason?)
News comes that, “Ireland [will] endure the toughest cuts and tax hikes in its history as an unavoidable price for saving the debt-burdened nation from bankruptcy, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan told lawmakers as they prepared to vote on a brutal 2011 budget.”
“Lenihan’s plan — the harshest yet of four emergency budgets unveiled since 2008 to combat a runaway deficit — contains euro4.5 billion ($6 billion) in spending cuts and euro1.5 billion ($2 billion) in tax rises.”
Lenihan said income taxes would be broadened to bring tens of thousands of low-salaried workers into the tax net for the first time, while welfare payments would be cut across the board. Spending on capital projects — chiefly jobs-intensive building of roads and public transportation networks — would be cut by euro1.8 billion ($2.4 billion).
“Lenihan said Ireland had no choice but to slash spending and raise taxes immediately because the country this year is spending more than euro50 billion on regular government and at least euro45 billion to bail out its banks — yet collecting just euro19 billion this year in taxes. The staggering imbalance means an underlying deficit this year of 11.6 percent that, when bank-bailout costs are included, balloons to a modern European record of 32 percent of GDP.”
[SNIP]
I like the Irish idea of tax hikes on the poor a lot. Really. The cost of the welfare state must be felt by those who demand its spoils. Making the rich bleed for creating wealth will not ween the poor off welfare.
UPDATE II: The state has bifurcated the population into taxpayers and tax consumers. The so-called poor don’t really pay taxes as they receive in the form of assorted transfer payments from the government more than they contribute. They are net tax consumers.
The so-called rich pay all the taxes. Making the poor pay might just turn them against all the stuff they believe they are owed.
The "Real Rush" Joins The Blogoshpere
Celebrity, Communism, Film, Hollywood, Intelligence, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Pop-Culture
My good friend and WND colleague Erik Rush has joined the blogosphere. Erik is the author of the column titled, “The Other Rush.” But he’s the “Real Rush” to me. Erik’s is a great-looking blog. I’m looking forward to checking it out daily.
Beings super squeamish, however, I almost fainted at the image Erik has posted of a Hollywood celebrity undergoing the mandatory commie programming. From the spouse this photo will elicit the kind of laughter he lets out when we’re watching one of our a favorite programs, “1000 Ways to Die.” (Mr. Rush likes it too.)
Or “Thinning The Herd,” as we call it. (You just know that the writers and editors of “1000 Ways to Die” would have adopted that title, but there’s just so much these good folks can get away with.)
Alas, as fabulously brutal and graphic as Erik has been in “Why Entertainers Go Left: The Real Story,” I’m less inclined to the school of thought that holds liberalism to be a mental disorder, or a condition developed under duress. Sadly, because it has such strong emotional appeal—the masses seem to experience a rush at the ideas of collectivization and confiscation—left-liberalism is probably the default position of humanity. A hostility to reason and reality guarantees liberalism’s top-dog position in political philosophy. This, of course, relates strongly to intelligence, but, dammit Erik, that’s too much to brood over on the Sabbath.
I strongly recommend Erik’s important new book, with this unbeatable title: “Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal – America’s Racial Obsession.” When I catch my breath, I will treat you to a Mercer Interview (click the Interview Category in the Search Window for a sample) with Erik about “Negrophilia.”
Beck’s Left The Building
Glenn Beck, Media, Pop-Culture, The Zeitgeist, Uncategorized
Glenn Beck believes that the blackboard has made him a philosopher king, a teacher. Most of the Glenn Beck Show, unfortunately, is now devoid of useful information. it wasn’t always so. I was, as you recall, a big Beck fan. Since I require information—news, data—I opt for Hardball. A horrible prospect, I know, but Chris Matthews’ currency, however debauched, is the news of the day. The same cannot be said for the Beck hour. Hardball also gets me the progressive perspective. I have to keep abreast of Left-liberal thinking on the issues, since it is never intuitive.
From Beck you get the following:
Sighs.
Nods.
Lots of self-affirmation (Glenn said this and that years ago).
More ego announcements and exhortations to TiVo upcoming segments
Mention of George Soros (who also recognizes Glenn for the threat he is)
Today Beck was pushing for an answer his rapt audience was unable to give him because, mercifully, they do not “think outside the box” like he does (he kept trying to get them to be as “creative”). Beck asked those present in the studio what could transpire when Germany, forced to bailout out Europe, felt backed to the wall. Of course, knowing how he thinks (and he has maligned the Europeans in the past), I knew that what Glenn wanted to hear was this: given their history, the productive and pedantic Germans could well turn to fascism if forced into an economic corner.
In the past, Beck has attempted to provide historical information. Now he only alludes to the need to know history so as not to repeat it, study it, buy books about it (his).
Other repetitive themes:
Dark times are ahead (well, dah!)
Help your neighbors.
Pray
Be true to yourself.
Be honorable
Sign up for my …
I don’t watch Oprah. Why would I watch her conservative, male counterpart? I want the old Beck back but that bloke has left the building and is levitating high above it.
I guess Judge Napolitano, on at 5:00PM at Fox Business, makes up for it all.