Two related columns were written while Barely A Blog was down.
The most recent was “Israel’s sanity among savagery” (WND’s title). The “M.O.P.E (Most Oppressed People Ever) Are At it Again” came before.
If you were itching to have a go at me for either one or both, go ahead.
Election Briefs (March 4)
* Stretch out on the Freudian chaise lounge, and free-associate the word “McCain.” The first refrain to come to mind is POW. It’s the same reflex Rudy honed in his interlocutors after 9/11. You could sleep-walk the “Rudy/9/11” refrain. I don’t think I can take 4 years of the McCain mantra. It might be easier to abhor Obama.
* Care to hazard a guess as to the reason for the obsessive calls for candidates who aren’t winning to quit? What is it with the media and other members of the chattering class out there, who cannot tolerate discordant, fractious voices, or competition in government? Words such as “spoiler” should be scorned in this context. Ditto “to unify the party.” The idea that a campaigner should slink away with his tail between his legs so as not to steal votes from the bigger tickets, or sow confusion—that’s contemptible. The greater the political chaos, the greater the chance for real political change. Oh, I get it, the Media-Military-Congressional-Industrial Complex craves consensus. In this way, positions as gate-keepers of permissible opinion are secured.
Update: Media clucked about the need for Hillary to bow out for the reasons enumerated above. What do you know; she won big in Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island. The New York Times is still using moribund terminology to describe her gains. Apparently, she is barely keeping her candidacy alive. Let’s wait and see.
Although finality has yet to be reached on the Democratic front, the same consensus-seekers can at least rejoice in Huckabee’s quitting.
Choosing Forms of Slavery
‘No Tax’ then ‘Flat Tax’
Repealing the income tax is the fairest “system” possible. You own yourself, your labor, and the rewards therefrom, lock-stock-and-barrel. But if we have to choose between forms of enslavement, as we indeed do, then the flat tax is the best.
I disagree with the “Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation” for laboring to allay the “fears” of thieving politicians about the decrease in revenues a flat tax rate portends. Let the parasites live within their means.
Still, this information about the global flat tax trend from the CF & P Foundation is important–it relays the degree to which the US will be left in the dust if it doesn’t begin to play economic catch up. (But the band plays on, and the ship of fools keeps featuring the Huckster’s or Neal Boortz’s Fair Tax fatuity.
This from the CF & P Foundation:
“… The number will probably be higher by the time you are reading this, but as this article went to press, 24 nations have adopted some form of single-rate tax regime. These reforms have generated impressive results, including faster growth, more jobs, and increased competitiveness. While politicians generally are most concerned about losing tax revenue, they should not worry. Flat tax systems oftentimes generate higher tax revenues because of more income and better compliance.
The economic consequences of tax reform are positive, but the political implications also are profound. Governments are deciding – in part because labor and capital can cross national borders to escape punitive tax rates – that it no longer makes sense to discriminate against highly-productive taxpayers. Thanks to tax competition, expect the number of flat tax countries to continue to grow.”
US In The Red And Getting Redder
“It’s time we came clean about our economic system. The Chinese are honest about theirs; they call it “socialism with Chinese characteristic.” We call ours free-market capitalism, when in fact it is a Third Way system too: “Socialism with American characteristics.”
The picture of China to emerge from behind those pretty Chinese screens is complex. The embodiment of feng shui it is not. The trend, however, is unmistakable: China is becoming freer, America less free. The devil is in this detail.”
An excerpt from my latest WorldNetDaily.com column, “US In The Red And Getting Redder.”
Update: Charlie Rose was interviewing one of the establishment’s orientalists du jour. The latter referred to something another wise wag once said: India is an open society but the Indians are a closed-minded people; China is a closed society, but the Chinese are an open-minded people. Evidence of the latter is the Chinese’s rush to embrace free-market capitalism and a thoroughly western wired-up life style.
By the way, image if a Westerner dares to play to racial or ethnic type as this good fellow does.