GOP Sticks With Karl (Marx)

Barack Obama, Communism, Democrats, Elections 2008, Republicans, Socialism, Taxation

“To get a Democrat to admit to practicing socialism is a lot like frisking a wet seal.

To get Republicans to confess to their role in socializing America is an equally slippery affair.

The latter have been grandstanding about the plan of the wily pitch-man Obama to plunder taxpayers (the minority) so as to pay tax consumers (the majority). For the edification of GOP grandstanders, America has a tax system that energetically distributes income.

The progressive income tax is a good example of Karl Marx’s maxim, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” It is socialism by any other name.

Obama is an adherent of this socialism; as is McCain. And so is George Bush, who, as a campaign ploy, had promised to reform America’s steep tax system, but decided to stick with Karl.

Indeed, America, the cradle of capitalism, clings to Karl. Russia, the cradle of communism, has abandoned him in favor of a flat—and very low—tax on income. …”

Read the complete column, “GOP Sticks With Karl (Marx)“, on WND.com

The NYT’s Half-Truths & Wholesale Lies About South Africa

Affirmative Action, Africa, Crime, Democracy, Israel, Media, South-Africa

My VDARE.COM column is up. Here’s an excerpt from the column, which I had titled “The NYT’s Half-Truths & Wholesale Lies About South Africa”:

“Fourteen years and approximately 300,000 murders after black rule devastated my homeland, the New York Times is shocked to discover that South Africa is fast disappearing down the same hole into which Rhodesia, rest in peace, was dropped. [Post-Apartheid South Africa has entered an Anxious Era, by Barry Bearak, October 5, 2008)

I guess some latitude is in order. It took decades and piles of dead bodies before Robert Mugabe lost luster in the eyes of the American MainStream Media [MSM]. By the time the megalomaniac Mugabe was conferred with honorary doctorates (1984 and 1986) and a knighthood (1994), he had already done his “best” work: slaughter an estimated 20,000 innocent Ndebele in Matabeleland (1983), with whose leader, Joshua Nkomo, he refused to share power.

Western conventional wisdom was, well, no wiser.”

Read the complete VDARE column.

The NYT’s Half-Truths & Wholesale Lies About South Africa

Affirmative Action, Africa, Crime, Democracy, Israel, Media, South-Africa

My VDARE.COM column is up. Here’s an excerpt from the column, which I had titled “The NYT’s Half-Truths & Wholesale Lies About South Africa”:

“Fourteen years and approximately 300,000 murders after black rule devastated my homeland, the New York Times is shocked to discover that South Africa is fast disappearing down the same hole into which Rhodesia, rest in peace, was dropped. [Post-Apartheid South Africa has entered an Anxious Era, by Barry Bearak, October 5, 2008)

I guess some latitude is in order. It took decades and piles of dead bodies before Robert Mugabe lost luster in the eyes of the American MainStream Media [MSM]. By the time the megalomaniac Mugabe was conferred with honorary doctorates (1984 and 1986) and a knighthood (1994), he had already done his “best” work: slaughter an estimated 20,000 innocent Ndebele in Matabeleland (1983), with whose leader, Joshua Nkomo, he refused to share power.

Western conventional wisdom was, well, no wiser.”

Read the complete VDARE column.

Trash Trash ‘Joe the Plumber’

Elections 2008, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Political Philosophy, Taxation

The trashing of “Joe the Plumber” by the Left is uncanny. The defense Republicans offer of Joe is hopeless (like the defense offered up by the woman with the worst voice on TV and radio: Laura Ingraham.) When you have no first principles you are powerless to coherently defend a man’s right to his property.

Of course, proponents of natural rights suffer no such debilities.

Smear #1: “He’s not licensed”

State licensing is a guild system deployed to restrict entry into a trade, so as to keep the wages of a protected group artificially high. Licensing is ludicrous, especially in the case of trades.

Joe, who represents everything that’s good about America, says he doesn’t need a license to make a living. Unlike the ponces in politics, he is not forcing anyone to employ him. That’s the spirit. Don’t you hate those fat cats who want to control Joe’s destiny with meaningless stamps of officialdom?

Obama says no plumber earns so much as to worry about his tax plan. Hogwash. A plumber can look forward to earning a lot of money; they are never outsourced and are always in demand.

Smear #2: “His name isn’t even Joe!”

His name is Samuel Joe Wurzelbacher. I believe that in some parts of the US, people go by their middle names. Even if he were not “Joe,” why would that make him the object of derision and smears from parasites—politicians who’ve never done an honest day of work in their lives, and who live off others?

Smear #3: “He owes taxes”

The IRS is the criminal entity in the business of taking what is not theirs to take. In the process of preying on Americans, it has destroyed many lives. The 16th Amendment ought to be repealed. If generic Joe has taken on the IRS, he’s a hero. If he has held on to what is his for a little longer, well, then, he will soon be forced to hand it over.

The idea that a politician would make fun of his employer—Joe Citizen—is repulsive. Pitchforks anyone?

One more thing: The Republicans are grandstanding about Obama’s tax plans amounting to socialism. For the edification of GOP grandstanders, progressive taxation is socialism. In case Republicans don’t know it, we have a steep taxation system that distributes income. (Russia, I believe, has a flat tax.)

Although they could have lessened the socialism, they have not–life under the Republicans has seen a “slouching toward socialism,” perhaps not in direct taxation, but in borrowing and money printing. That’s how Republicans have funded their orgiastic spending. These stealth-like means are no different to taxation. One might argue that they are more destructive because more clandestine, allowing a greater increase in the national debt and deficit spending. The proof is in the Republicans’ record spending.