America Was Never Meant To Be A Raw, Ripe Democracy

Conservatism, Constitution, Democracy, Federalism, Founding Fathers, Natural Law

In the context of last week’s column against democracy, it’s important to remember that, “the reason the American democracy has been more successful than others is precisely because “the fathers of the American Republic devised an instrument of government unparalleled as a conservative power for ordered liberty.” (“The Conservative Mind” by Russell Kirk.)

Everything in the American Constitution was wisely designed to constrain raw democracy. A “great part of that accomplishment results from the wise conservatism of the Federal Constitution,” which avoids “the peril of a single assembly,” recognizes “the rights of several* states and the necessity for limiting the power of positive legislation.”

However, warned Kirk, the father of American conservatism, “[I]f there is a weak point anywhere in this “artificial reservoir,” “the mighty force which it controls will burst through it and spread destruction far and near.”

(“The Conservative Mind” by Russell Kirk, p. 335)

And so it has.

* The meaning of “several” in this sentence is “individual,” I believe.

** Image is of the guillotine, French democracy in action

In Venezuela, There Is No Disagreement About SOCIALISM

Democracy, Foreign Policy, Neoconservatism, Political Economy, Socialism

This may come as news to the doctrinaire democrats (lower case “d”) who doggedly conflate the will of the people with liberty:

The Venezuelan mobs fighting against the forces of Nicolás Maduro are not fighting for “freedom,” as we classical liberals think of it; they are not fighting against socialism.

In Juan Guaidó, Venezuelans are simply looking for a better, kinder socialist.

Guaidó is a member of the Socialist International. Guaidó is a member of the Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) party, which has been an official member of the Socialist International since 2014.

MORE.

You mean you didn’t know that the Guaidó the US wants to go to war for is a socialist?

AGAIN: The masses as a rule, in the US and abroad, want more stuff, not less of it. If we quit the Disneyfied view of the world’s quarrels; perhaps we Americans will be less inclined to intervene in battles not our own.

One can only hope.

UPDATED (9/23/020): Obesity

Free Will Vs. Determinism, Healthcare, Psychiatry

Obesity Worsens Outcomes from COVID-19

Adults with obesity are at even greater risk during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Having obesity increases the risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
Having obesity may triple the risk of hospitalization due to a COVID-19 infection.
Obesity is linked to impaired immune function.^2,3
Obesity decreases lung capacity and reserve and can make ventilation more difficult.⁴
As BMI increases, the risk of death from COVID-19 increases.

The President Is The Quintessential Pro Wrestler. Let The Games Begin.

Democrats, Donald Trump, Elections, IMMIGRATION

President Trump is the quintessential pro wrestler. He will eat alive those empty Democratic suits, in the lead-up to the 2020 showdown. Should be fun.

(The entertainment element of the primaries and the election should sweeten the bitter pill that is Trump’s abject failure on immigration. Or, as Ann Coulter puts it, “The country is over.”)

The kick-off. Some off-the-cuff Trump quips about the 2020 Democratic candidates:

* Joe Biden has been dubbed “Sleepy Joe” and “another low I.Q. individual.”
* Bernie sanders is “Crazy Bernie.”
* Elizabeth warren is better known as “Pocahontas,” thanks to POTUS.
* Beto O’Rourke is “a flake.”
* “Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is a total flunky for Chuck Schumer.”
* Kamala Harris was credited with “having a little better opening act than others,” but “a nasty wit.”
* “Mayor Pete is not going to make it.”