Category Archives: The State

UPDATE II: Jackie Kennedy: enchantress (Style & Substance)

Aesthetics, America, Art, Critique, Etiquette, History, Human Accomplishment, Music, The State

Jacqueline Kennedy’s dowdy daughter Caroline Kennedy has released “never-before-heard audio recordings of interviews conducted with the former first lady in 1964, shortly after her husband’s assassination,” together with a book, “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life With John F. Kennedy.” We know Jackie Kennedy for her style, sophistication, sense of history, and love and knowledge of music and art. We now know something about her well-formulated opinions and astute observations, delivered in dulcet tones and exquisite English. (The other day I used “hermetically sealed,” which was common usage when I was, well, much younger. My husband wanted to know why I was using a term used in engineering!)

Discussions with the late historian Arthur Schlesinger reveal Jackie to be not only a dazzling conversationalist, but a forceful, if ever-so feminine personae.

Especially appreciated is Jacqueline Kennedy’s opinion about the sainted Martin Luther King (whose real worldview I discuss briefly—and unfavorably—in my book). All the more so given how irreverent she is in coming out and dissing a legend in the making. PC was not an issue back then. My book also quotes Kennedy on affirmative action: the man was conservative as few conservatives are today.

From a performance of Pablo Casals in the White House to Beyonce’s bump and grind: how far we’ve fallen. To be fair, Bush was also without class and culture.

UPDATE I (Sept. 16): STYLE & SUBSTANCE. Myron Pauli: Like many a libertarian, you refuse to address issues of culture. A comment such as mine, dealing with an impressive, classy lady—Jackie was certainly mistreated by her husband, but never responded like a tawdry tart, as is the custom nowadays—is reduced to the problem of statism. In a universe in which everything is reduced to the state, is there any place for observations about culture, human accomplishment, personality, etc?

I suggest to you that things would not be so bad if more women today had the class and classical education of a Jackie O. At the very least, women with a similar frame of reference would not feel so obsolete and voiceless.

UPDATE II: “Go, Jackie,” writes Lew Rockwell:

Funny how the media are trotting out Mrs. Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline, to try to smooth over her mother’s taped views: that LBJ was an integral part of the assassination plot (of course, but not mentioned in this article), that she didn’t admire Martin Luther King, FDR, or Churchill, that she rejected feminism, etc.

UPDATE II: Republican Thrust And ‘Perry’ (Perry Feels Your Pain, NOT)

IMMIGRATION, Outsourcing, Politics, Regulation, Republicans, Ron Paul, Taxation, The State

I thought the CNN/Tea Party Debate in Tampa, Florida, was far and away better than the Republican spat in Des Moines, Iowa, last month. Perhaps the network is desperate for the ratings Tea Party sponsorship affords because Wolf Blitzer worked it—even if the focus was placed on the Big Two, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.

Michelle Bachmann showed that, like her or not, she’s a force of nature. Would that the woman’s eloquence, attractiveness, and the fact that she is seldom fazed could be harnessed in the service of liberty. Like a bulldog, Bachmann latched onto Perry and refused to let go over the governor’s Body Snatcher Program—the forcible invasion of the bodies of little Texan girls. Perry was man enough to apologize for requiring the vaccination of girls as young as 12 against cervical cancer. But a man who would mandate such a thing should never be trusted. Perry is almost as shifty as Bush, although more intelligent than The Shrub.

Jon Huntsman generally came over as the most statist among the Republican contenders. A young man asked him poignantly, “How much of what I earn do you believe I should be able to keep?” Rep. Paul would have replied, “All of it.” Huntsman belabored an incoherent tax plot.

Huntsman managed, however, to brilliantly commandeer Ron Paul’s argument for divesting from Afghanistan. This in response to a question about what he intended to do, as president, for the women and girls of Afghanistan. Nothing, basically, was Huntsman’s retort. Unlike Fox News on whose website there are more images than words, CNN is sure to post debate transcripts by tomorrow, at which time I’ll excerpt Huntsman’s excellent thrust and parry over the need to bring the troops home, look after the homeland, and act as an example to the world by, once again, shining.

However, Huntsman, like most Americans (except for us immigrants), proved that he knows close to nothing about America’s labyrinthine visa programs. He advocated for fixing the immigration system so that the US could import many more brilliant, highly skilled individuals, as if there was a limit on, or an impediment to, such immigration.

THERE are no limits on the number of geniuses American companies can import.

America already has an “Extraordinary Ability” Visa. In exchange for my spouse’s exceptional abilities and qualifications, he was awarded the O-1 visa. And we, in short order, gained green cards.

The primary H-1B hogs—Infosys (and another eight, sister Indian firms), Microsoft, and Intel—are forever claiming that they are desperate for talent. But, in reality, they have unlimited access to individuals with unique abilities through the open-ended O-1 visa program.

I believe that before “Why Aren’t The H-1B Hogs Satisfied With The O-1 ‘Extraordinary Ability’ Visa?” was written, no immigration expert had made the simple point above.

That’s right: The O-1 visa program enables the importation of as many geniuses as a company can find, from every corner of the world. Yet, not even Ron Hira (Ph.D., P.E. Chair, Research & Development Policy Committee The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – United States of America), advocate for local talent, bothers to point this out in the course of his many media appearances.

UPDATE I (Sept. 13): Tom, the criteria for Sean were quite rigorous. As I mentioned in the article, the authorities do make it even easier for guys who’re more gifted than my guy; they are given green cards on the spot. “A one-of-a-kind Afrikaner RF engineer we know, who possesses a PhD, publications galore, patented software programs and products, and a company, was told to hop on a plane, family in tow.” He came and left; he and the family didn’t like the USA.

Super models can also get the O-1 ‘Extraordinary Ability’ Visa, I believe. And if they are wealthy and beautiful, why not? Heidi Klum has a unique talent or two—and has generated an industry for the locals.

UPDATE II: PERRY FEELS YOUR PAIN, NOT. JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: “Rick Perry, the anointed front-runner at least at this hour, would have us believe he is a country boy at heart, a down home country cornpone that can relate to the plight of the ordinary American. There’s another side to the Texas governor. ‘Politico’ reports that for years, Perry, who makes $150,000 a year as governor, has enjoyed additional lavish perks and travel mostly funded by wealthy supporters. Imagine that.”

“Texas donors have paid for the governor and his family to travel around the world sometimes on private jets, paid for them to stay at luxury hotels, resorts, vacation in Colorado ski towns, and attend tons of sporting events and concerts. Rick Perry has also accepted a wide range of very expensive gifts, including 22 pairs of cowboy boots, some of them costing $500 a pair. Somebody else even pays his cable TV Bill. Taxpayers pay his rent, $8,500 a month for Perry’s 4,600 square foot mansion in Austin. The governor and his family have been living in the five bedroom seven bath mansion since 2007 while the governor’s mansion undergoes repair. Four years? What sort of repairs are those, do you imagine?”

“It’s all copacetic down there in the lone star state which has some of the loosest ethics and campaign rules in the country. Nonetheless, it is tough to imagine supporters aren’t buying influence when they lavish those perks on the governor. Of course they are. Some donors have wound up with appointments to state commissions, million dollar state grants to businesses they are involved in.”

Perry’s camp insists it is all on the up and up. A spokeswoman told ‘Politico’ the governor fully discloses all gifts and travel in his financial disclosure statements. But that don’t make it cricket.”

Here’s the question — does Rick Perry’s lavish lifestyle, mostly paid for mostly by taxpayers and wealthy friends and donors, match his downhome, awe shucks country boy image?”

A Storm in a Nanny State

Democracy, Government, Homeland Security, Individual Rights, Journalism, Liberty, Media, Private Property, Propaganda, The State

Take this post to be part of the blog series, “What They Do In Dictatorships.” In a highly evolved Managerial State such as ours, where the population has been cowed into submission, storms—even—Category 1 storms—give rise to forced evacuations. Just about half the country has been terrorized, or threatened into fleeing. It’s called “leadership,” and subjects seem to apprecaite being coaxed from their homes by lazy bureaucrats and oink-sector workers who’d rather run themselves, than stick around and do the job taxpayers pay them to do: rescue taxpayers.

In “bad” dictatorships—Libya being the latest one the US and its allies have just voided of a dictator—people might have been left in their homes. OMG. The horror! But not in the US, because the American Managerial State is so much more efficient in encroaching on its citizens than are these tin-pot dictators, whom we have built-up into mega-monsters in our infantile, Disneyfied minds.

In any case, the crappy media in this country forms a cartel of cretins. Such is the nature of this monopoly that all news outlets can safely decide to hype one story—in this case, the storm that petered out—and none of these media see the need to hedge their bets, or moderate the level of hysteria on this most fickle of topics: weather.

Here’s the definition of a “Category 1 storm”:

They “usually cause no significant structural damage; however, they can topple unanchored mobile homes, as well as uproot or snap trees. Poorly attached roof shingles or tiles can blow off. Coastal flooding and pier damage are often associated with Category 1 storms. Power outages are typically widespread to extensive, sometimes lasting several days. Even though it is the least intense type of hurricane, the storm can still produce plenty of widespread damage and can be a life-threatening storm.”

SEALs Dead; Congressional Deadwood Still Kicking

Hollywood, Intelligence, Military, Terrorism, The State, War

The collective IQ that was lost when the Chinook carrying 22 Navy SEALs was downed by the Taliban yesterday was greater than the scrambled brains of 434 House Representatives (Ron Paul excluded; he’d raise that number).

Dedicate your life to the state, and chances are that life will be squandered.

Navy SEALs are incredible specimens, both intellectually and physically. Every interview with members of this elite unit, following the slaying of bin Laden, demonstrated the superman qualities SEALs possess. Some even look like cut-out images from an episode of “The Unit.” It’s a shame these magnificent action men give their talents over to an entity that is wanton about the wealth and the lives with which it is (foolishly) entrusted: government.

Alas, as I’ve pointed out elsewhere, action men like SEALS have few fulfilling options outside the army, given the monopoly over defense held by the military-industrial-complex. Compounding this state-of-affairs is the feminization of our society. In a healthy free society, men made of this stuff would be perfectly suited to raising militia and leading a revolution, alas… .