Will The Laws Of Economics Support It?

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by Smitty

The post is titled: “I’m Proud to Be a Freeloader: Taking is as Important as Giving in Collaborative Consumption”

No Right or Wrong Answer
It’s a problem I’ve been pondering in my own experiences with setting up a neighborhood tool share. So far my neighbors seem delighted to lend, but I am the only one doing the borrowing. It’s easy to start feeling like a freeloader, until you realize that the borrower is as valuable a part of the transaction as the lender is. Of course if I now refused to lend to neighbors as and when they reach out, that would be a serious detriment to the system (not to mention it would make me look like a dick), but as long as each gives or lends according to what they have, and asks, borrows and takes according to what they need, then it’s important not to put too many barriers up to reaching out.

The only way I can even relate to this is in a church setting. In a Christian context, one can argue that we are all theologically equivalent, freeloaders upon the grace of God. And yet, anyone truly moved by the Gospel is unlikely to be motionless. Freeloaders happen, but a church is likely to place positive peer pressure upon them to, you know, read the Bible and be productive.

Marx preached “the Kingdom of God, hold the God”. Marx may not really own the results, but the ideas he generated merit careful study and rejection for their appeal to anti-liberty forces since Das Kapital.

People don’t scale. What you can do with the neighbors on your block is not what you can do state-wide. Something like Favabank can work in your neighborhood. Something like it might even have a bit of traction in Sweden. But watch it utterly capsize at the full U.S. population, #Occupy my words.

Via Althouse

‘Everyone Sells Out in Iowa’

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DAVENPORT, Iowa
According to Michele Bachmann, that’s what her former campaign chairman state Sen. Kent Sorenson told her before he switched allegiances to Ron Paul.

Ed Morrissey is shocked — shocked! — to discover that Republicans can be bought, but it happens every day.

Remember when Tim Pawlenty was supposed to be the “conservative alternative to Mitt Romney”? And yet when Pawlenty dropped out, his campaign deep in debt, he endorsed Romney. Like that wasn’t about money?

Shane Vander Hart at Caffeinated Thoughts:

The principled thing for Sorenson to do would have been to see his commitment through to the end. . . .
I don’t know how much this will help Paul.  I would suspect not much.  What Sorenson did manage to do however is fatally wound the Bachmann campaign and damage his own credibility in the process.

Sorenson’s defection may have served the purpose of signaling to evangelicals in Iowa that, given the choice between Santorum and Bachmann, hers is the weaker of the two campaigns. A for the impact on Sorenson: “He just committed political suicide.”

Yeah. You can have a fine career in the GOP as a greedy opportunistic backstabber, but only if you maintain a public reputation as a Man of Principle and Integrity.

But why bring Ralph Reed into this, huh?

Nancy Pelosi, Victim Of Those Bad, Bad. . .Campaign Donors

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by Smitty

Big Government quotes Alexandra Pelosi on poor wee Princess Pelosi:

She would retire right now, if the donors she has didn’t want her to stay so badly. They know she wants to leave, though. They think she’s destined for the wilderness. She has very few days left. She’s 71, she wants to have a life, she’s done. It’s obligation, that’s all I’m saying.

Would that she could retire herself circa 2004 or so. So much idiocy could have been averted.

Fortunately, ‘sympathy’ is still in the dictionary. Princess Pelosi can find it there.

Arlen Specter, Stand-up Comic?

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by Smitty

NBC10 Philadelphia:

The longtime Pennsylvania senator performed stand-up at an open-mic night at the Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia on Tuesday, continuing a post-politics foray into standup.
“I’ve been in comedy now for 30 years,” the former senator told the crowd, reports the Inquirer.
Specter took shots at former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and others in his act. Former President Bill Clinton and current Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich were also targets of Specter quips.
“When I see Bill Clinton, I’m going to tell him that Newt Gingrich got applause and he didn’t,” Specter joked, reports the Inquirer.
But don’t ask about the joke involving the paraplegic who wanted to date the battered woman. The Inquirer reports “some of his jokes are unprintable in a family newspaper.”
The crowd roared with approval at Specter’s jokes, according to the Inquirer. Specter himself tells the newspaper that “humor is elevating” and he wanted to try it out.
Specter told the newspaper, “I might be invited back.”

I know, without having seen Specter, that he must be funnier than Bill Maher. But then, the contents of the World’s Youngest Blogger’s diaper bin is funnier than Bill Maher.

via The Examiner

Rick Santorum Gets ‘The Kind of Optics a Cash-Strapped Candidate Can’t Buy’

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DAVENPORT, Iowa
That’s how Alexander Burns of Politico sums up the elements that compose the last-minute “Santorum Surge” here in Iowa. The question is how high that surge will go, and the situation here in Iowa is so turbulent now that it is impossible for anyone to say. I spent hours driving to Pella yesterday for a Rick Perry event and I’ve got photos, videeo, etc., I’ve yet to upload. But as I was driving back — intending just to drop by the Santorum event in Cedar Rapids and shoot some quick photos for the blog prior to writing my American Spectator column about the Perry campaign — the news broke about the CNN poll.

In fact, I heard the news on the car radio, which I’d just turned to a Cedar Rapids talk-radio station when the host introduced his next guest, a guy named . . . Rick Santorum. And in making the introduction, the host mentioned the new CNN poll. Obviously, this news changed my plans:

Rick Santorum took time to shake the hands of everyone who attended his “Faith, Family & Freedom Rally” [in Cedar Rapids] Wednesday night, and stayed nearly an hour after the scheduled end of the event to answer questions from the Republican audience. Only then did he take time to talk to the press.
“People are trying to determine right now, ‘Who can we really trust?'” the former Pennsylvania senator told a small group of reporters at a brief impromptu press conference after the event. “I think it’s going to build. I feel very good that we’re not going to stop there and, hopefully, keep moving up the ladder.”
The Republican presidential candidate was responding to the latest Iowa poll by CNN and Time magazine that shows him now in third place in the Hawkeye State, moving ahead of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The poll confirmed the widespread impression of many Iowa-watchers that Santorum’s low-budget campaign is surging in the final days leading up to next Tuesday’s precinct caucuses. According to the CNN/Time poll, Santorum’s support has increased from 5 percent to 16 percent in the past three weeks, while Gingrich’s support has collapsed from 33 percent to 14 percent.
Santorum refused to speculate on how far “up the ladder” he might climb by the time votes are counted Jan. 3. “No, I’m not going to pick a number and no, I’m not going to tell you what place I’m going to finish,” he told reporters. . . .

Read the whole thing at The American Spectator. And let me ask you something: Why is Rick Santorum’s campaign “cash-strapped”? Don’t you people know how to click on the link to his Web site and give him money? I think you do. So go do it now.

Shorter Victor Davis Hanson: Postmodernism Sucks

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by Smitty

Read all of VDH’s America’s Two-Front War

What we have, then, is a war on two ends: the better off are hesitant to work more, given their fears that additional profits will either be more difficult to come by or not remain their own; the poor are hesitant to work more, given their expectations that entitlements will be extended and will be easier to come by. They both expect more government and they both as a result are not so eager to take risks and seek greater income in the private sector.

One of the reasons I like to refer to BHO as #OccupyResoluteDesk is that factoring his name out of the discussion serves to de-emphasize his importance in the analysis of the toilet bowl these United States currently occupy.

He is a false prophet of an anti-religion, whose chief reason for existing is the destruction of America. He’s an un-remarkable piece of work, selected, groomed, credentialed and escorted to his current position not because he has shred #1 of merit in the traditional sense; rather, that he’s a reliable tool for the task of demolition.

He is the totalitarian poster child for the return to a pre-Enlightenment patronage system, where the wealth stays in the hands of the Cool People, with occasional bread & circuses, and regular games for the proles. There is some wealth redistribution, but absolutely no power redistribution whatsoever.

His is the moment in time where the Ruling Class decided that it was time to finish the Progressive project, before technology rendered it completely unattainable. The Ruling Class still hold some sway, but, after Scott Brown, the ObamaCare vote, and a laundry list that fills half of this blog’s database, the Tea Party is still holding on.

Obama himself is irrelevant. The political awakening is.

Update: linked at The Rio Norte Line

Update II: Daily Pundit says

The Tea Party? Let it actually take control of the levers of power, if it can. Then we’ll see. Until then, though, it’s all Hoping for Change. Witness Barry Hussein’s latest rubber-stamped 1.2 trillion dollar bankruptcy grab.

SANTORUM SURGE: Finally, the Polls in Iowa Are Catching Up With … Me

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa
I’m inside a town hall meeting with Rick Santorum. About a hundred people here, and the big news today in Iowa is the CNN/Time poll showing Santorum surging into third place, with 16%, ahead of Newt Gingrich, who is now fourth with 14%, followed by Rick Perry (11%) and Michelle Bachmann (9%).

UPDATE: Erick Erickson isn’t happy:

As a pro-lifer myself, I have to throw up a bit in my mouth that Iowa conservatives are seriously considering Rick Santorum . . .

Yeah, if Perry finishes fifth in Iowa, the epitaph on the tombstone of his campaign will read: “Howdy. Thank you, Erick.”

UPDATE II (Smitty): Here is the CNN interview, Wolf Blitzer interviewing Rick Santorum, with a screencap of the poll results after:

CNN poll shows Santorum in third place in Iowa

UPDATE III: Here’s a photo of Senator Sanatorum shaking hands with Iowans before his town hall meeting here in Cedar Rapids:

Remember that the Santorum surge began Dec. 1, when there was an earthquake in Vanuatu.

UPDATE IV (Smitty): now a Memeorandum thread. What says the Blogosphere?

  • Catholic Bandita links Drudge’s touting of the “Wild Card”, Rick Santorum.
  • A Point of View has the observation, emphasis mine:

    It doesn’t matter what the main stream media thinks or says about Santorum at this point. The plain fact is that his conservative, catholic bona fides are there for all to see and are genuine. That Palin has praised him and he has signalled, through his praise of Palin, that he would support her policy and ethics may be the signal to the Palin supporters that Santorum is Palin’s proxy.

    While Sarah may fall short of a full endorsement, a bit of nudge-nudge, wink-wink could really get the tea party going, IYKWIMAITYD.

  • The Daily Caller:

    Despite lacking the money and resources enjoyed by many of his rivals, Santorum appears to be benefiting from his dogged campaigning throughout each one of Iowa’s 99 counties. The former Pennsylvania senator has also attracted endorsements from prominent evangelical leaders in the state, and is gaining traction among the social conservatives who tend to dominate the Iowa caucuses every four years.
    “Most of Santorum’s gains have come among likely caucus participants who are born-again or evangelical, and he now tops the list among that crucial voting bloc, with support from 22% of born-again compared to 18% for Paul, 16% for Romney, and 14% for Gingrich,” CNN polling director Keating Holland said in a statement.

    If money was paramount, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman would have done better in California, no?

  • Dan Riehl still likes Perry (and what conservative does not?) but isn’t inimical to Santorum:

    Frankly, I don’t want Santorum to prevail in Iowa, as I’ve already backed Perry and think he’s the best choice, given what they are. But I’m unwilling to throw out my principles to become the media’s anti-Conservative water-boy in some misguided attempt to try and make myself look smart, as opposed to a principled conservative, which is what I mostly am – first, last and always and most importantly of all.

UPDATE V (RSM): Here are Chris Moody of Yahoo News and Shushana Walshe of ABC News, covering the (unexpectedly!) surging Santorum:

Donald Douglas at American Power has more Santorum blogging.


Are You Sure That BHO Would Not Pursue War With Iran, Pamela?

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by Smitty

From CBS News:

A federal judge has signed a default judgment finding Iran, the Taliban and al Qaeda liable in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Judge George Daniels in Manhattan signed the judgment Thursday, a week after hearing testimony in the 10-year-old case. The signed ruling, which he promised last week, came in a $100 billion lawsuit brought by family members of victims of the attacks. He directed a magistrate judge to preside over remaining issues, including fixing compensatory and punitive damages.

Over at Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller reacts:

This was an act of war. Yet Iran has not been punished for its role in the 911 attacks. As this new information contines to emerge, the next President of the United States should remove this murderous regime. That should be a campaign promise.
We can be sure that Obama is going to do nothing about this, except maybe film another obsequious video reaching out to the bloody mullahs.

I’m not as sure as Pamela here. It would be totally in keeping with Obama’s cynical style to look at this judgement and decide that a formal declaration of war is in order, and then commence to clean house. If BHO asked for it, is Boehner going to do anything other than fall in line? Doubt it.

That way, he gets the 5% Saber-Rattling bonus in the polls, with another 10% Strange New Constitutional Respect bonus. Crazy? Sure, but you might find it equally bizarre that Newt Gingrich can’t make the primary ballot in his own state. Go figure.