Zombie Zakaria Has Some “Ideas” For You

Affirmative Action, America, Education, Europe, Government, Labor, Multiculturalism, Outsourcing, Political Economy, Science, Technology

Fareed Zakaria: is there anyone more inane and wishy-washy than he? Zombie Zakaria’s “Restoring the American Dream” presentation is in the tradition you’ve come to expect from this CNN pundit.

Thus, Fareed vows to “bring you solutions” to “the hollowing out of the middle class” by growing the state’s role in R & D, for, as he concludes, “Almost all of the science and technology research that we take for granted now came out of the Defense Department spending post World War II.”

But surely, and logically, we cannot assert that because the DOD (the Department of Defense) gave rise to certain technologies, without it these inventions would not exist, as ZZ claims? It might be the case that sans state intervention, there would be even more innovation than with it.

This guy’s “ideas” are festooned with similar falsehoods.

Another of ZZ’s lessons comes courtesy of the super-productive German workforce.

“Despite some of the highest wages in the world, strong unions, lots of regulation, Germany has maintained a very powerful manufacturing base, employing millions,” ZZ opined. “It has held in good stead during this economic crisis. Germany’s unemployment rate has actually fallen for the past 15 months straight, an unbelievable record in this economic climate.”

As ZZ narrated the above passage, images of industrious German factory workers flashed on the screen, and were contrasted with the long lines of the unemployed in America. Guess what the American assembly and unemployment lines look like? You are right: By comparison, the German workforce so famous for its industry looked relatively homogeneous.

Still, ZZ hopes to apply efficiencies learned from the German cohort to America’s increasingly third-world, imported, underclass of workers. (“The United States,” we are told, “now ranks 52nd in the world in quality of science and math education.” It used to have “very high levels of performance in math and science.” What happened other than suffocating unionization in education, third-world immigration, and affirmative action?)

As Fareed and his well-to-do, high-achieving (indubitably high IQ) guests conclude, and I paraphrase, opportunities are indeed boundless if somebody has the smarts and the motivation; everybody can be the designer of an iPod or a programmer at Google; this essentially, is not a rarified group. Any one can get to be at “the top end of America.”

ZZ’s smart panel, which can never be called an interest group plumping for government/taxpayer subsidies (no never!), included Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola; Lou Gerstner, who has run R.J. Reynolds, American Express and IBM; and Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO of Alcoa, the aluminum giant.

All were agreed that laborers are interchangeable in as much as potential is concerned, and if given the right conditions by government.

I have advocated in my writings for “a natural shift from a credit-fueled, consumption-based economy, to one founded on savings, investment and production.”

ZZ favors only a shift from consumption to investment; massive federal-government investment.

UPDATED: Propaganda Central

Elections, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Politics, Propaganda

This time the CNN gig went not to Soledad O’Brien, the Agony Aunt of the “Black In America,” “Latino In the Same Place,” and plain “Boring in America” propaganda series, but to a like-minded brother (talk about lack of intellectual diversity!)

The gig: conveying to CNN’s dwindling audience how dangerous the tea party truly is.

The end product: “Boiling Point: Inside the Tea Party,” an amateurish production featuring a badly written script, a sinister sound track, and a lot of edgy adjectives in the service of a not-so-subliminal message: RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.

From comedian Jon Stewart to the MSNBC desperadoes, to CNN’s race hucksters—the liberal media is adamant to do all they can to ward off the inevitable Republican victory (however futile that may be, as “there is no returning America to a place of financial safety”).

UPDATE (Nov. 1): I missed the left-liberal’s slur hereunder, in the Comments Section. I thought his spelling was remiss. But I had to cut out all the sexual insults he levied at my appearance to come to the gist of the one valid argument he came up with. Shows you how committed I am to argument here on BAB. Of course, humanity’s detritus considers it their right to post their bile on private property, which is what BAB is. Indeed, BAB Posting Policy does demand a valid email address. honestperson@aol.com: Is this not a valid addressed? As I said, I’m so committed to argument, that this kind of dreck can get the better of me.

UPDATED: The Comedy Central Campaign (The Monochromatic Face Of Morons)

Elections, Glenn Beck, Hollywood, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Political Correctness, Pop-Culture, The Zeitgeist

The media meme is providing wall-to-wall coverage of the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert comic relief. The consensus is that the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” held by the two smarmy entertainers was all good. In contrast, naturally, to Glenn Beck’s middle America rally.

TIME magazine found statist clown Stewart “earnest and eloquent” as he preached from his perch of sinecure: “we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.”

And what do you know? The very same parrot press that was unable to gauge how many people attended Glenn’s rally; never contested the turnout at the Stewart event.

The magazine’s adoring description of the fun attendees conjured Pat Buchanan’s astute observation not so long ago about Americans: a silly people living in serious times.

“Attendees came decked out for the season, sporting zombie face-paint, Waldo costumes and Richard Nixon masks; a coven of Christine O’Donnells strolled by as Darth Vader snapped a picture with a conservationist toting a massive replica of an Arctic tern. To catch a glimpse of the proceedings, crowd members staked out space atop port-a-potties or climbed trees. Others hoisted Shepard Fairey-style Team Sanity placards and meta-ironic signs advertising their views on abortion, taxes, beards, Lost, Lyndon LaRouche and lunar prisons. ‘God Hates Rallies,’ declared one missive. ‘God Hates Snuggies,’ went another. Still a third: ‘I am pretty sure God Hates Us All Equally.’ There was a yellow Gadsden flag — the ubiquitous Tea Party emblem — but instead of ‘Don’t Tread on Me,’ it read, ‘OMG, Snakes!'”

Whereas tea party protesters have been described invariably as angry, ugly, racist, and not diverse; these equally monochromatic morons were “the stars of the show.”

To help you understand why American kids will become a drag on the country’s economy for years to come, meet rally attendee “Marsha Eck, a 54-year-old teacher from South Bend, Ind.,” who “expressed hope that the gathering could provide ‘a model for a new kind of conversation.'”

Or the “trio of teenagers from Downington, Pa., who came with their high-school civics class and wore matching lime-green t-shirts so that their teacher could spot them,” and who “explained that the rally was important because ‘everybody is yelling but nobody listens to each other.'”

Look, I know that in America, people who do stupid, venal, or ill-conceived things will generally suffer no setbacks. But, for my money, Jon Stewart’s stuttering attempt at politicking are mistaken. He had managed to keep his comedic hat on until now. This strength he has now forfeited.

UPDATED: The Monochromatic Face Of Morons. Monochromatic of mind, that is. Larry Auster has it:

FedAir

Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

Writes Rep. Ron Paul: “Official core inflation for the US is only 1.14%, but that excludes such crucial day-to-day goods such as food and energy. Real inflation certainly is higher, maybe much higher. John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics calculates true inflation at a whopping 8.48%! But manipulated inflation statistics give the government cover when they again deny seniors a cost of living increase in their social security checks. They also serve to convince the public that further expansion of the money supply will boost the economy without causing any real pain, which has essentially been the core argument of Greenspan-Bernanke fed policy for the last 20 years.”

All the while “[t]he Federal Reserve continues to insist that inflation is too low, even while the monetary base remains at record levels, and food and gas prices continue to climb.”

And, “As the Fed continues to drive down the value of the dollar, the government accuses China of deliberately devaluing its currency, and the House has passed legislation aimed at punishing China for this alleged devaluation.”