The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

How To Read LGF Without Getting So Much Funk In The Browser

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

I haven’t actually navigated to Little Foot Greenballs since the last time Instapundit linked Chuckles, which has been forever in Internet time.
This post showed up in the Google Reader’s Recommendations section, which was worth a screencap and a post. Sorry, no link. I neither subscribe to the guy nor recommend reading him regularly. Charles seems petty and delusional in this brief excerpt. There may be a future for him in writing Obama speeches.

Category: Charles Johnson

Excellent Bits From Protein Wisdom And The Ace Of Spades

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

Sophistry:

. . .language divorced from its anchor (intent) and set to semiotic drift results, predictably, in cynical, self-serving, largely recursive narrative enclosures, with desire — a will to power — coming to stand in for meaning, creating illusory “truths” out of self-interested consensus. That is, mob rule.

Or, as Ronnie James Dio put it: “If you listen to fools, the mob rules.” The good news is the fools seem dimly aware that we’re onto them. The bad news is that this vague feeling does not prompt them to pursue wisdom.

Ace nails it here:

Tied for first place as far as “Things that Give Obama Away as a Man of the Left” (Tied with everything else he thinks and everything else he does) is his favorite “explanation” for the public disagreeing with them: That they’re ignorant.

This has a long history on the left as the go-to explanation for the public rejecting socialism. The earlier, more Marxist version of the idea was to claim the public had a “false consciousness” imposed on them by a manipulative capitalist media; the public, in this telling, were unwitting dupes, who didn’t understand socialism was in their best interest because the corporate masters who control the debate fed them a steady diet of lies. Anything to keep the wealthy and powerful in their positions of wealth and power. Anything to keep the Common Man from realizing he could be his own King.

The overarching irony here is that the real assumption of Common Man royalty is delivered by liberty, not socialism. Locke trumps Rousseau, barring actual wolves at the gate.

Category: Ace of Spades, Protein Wisdom

Hanging With Breitbart

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 3 Comments

We must all hang together or surely we shall all hang separately, so this evening I’ll be hanging out at a reception in Washington, DC, to celebrate the publication of Andrew Breitbart’s new book Righteous Indignation. Let’s hope Martin Bashir doesn’t show up to pester the guest of honor.

Breitbart points out the obvious: “You’re trying to insinuate that I’m a racist here, which is what MSNBC does to conservatives every single day.” What Bashir is doing is engaging in what I call the mala fides attack: Rather than discussing policy or politics, let’s just accuse the other side of acting on malicious motives.

In point of fact, it doesn’t make an iota of difference whether Breitbart is a “racist,” define the term however you will. If tomorrow, it were revealed that Breitbart is in fact the Grand Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, that disclosure would have no relevance to whether his statements about politics or policy are true or false. By attempting to depict Breitbart as a racist, however, Bashir seeks to pre-emptively discredit Breitbart, so that the MSNBC audience is given the clear message: “Don’t believe anything he says — he’s one of Them!”

And this is what liberalism has been reduced to: The politics of demonization, the argument that you should vote Democrat not because Democrats have better policies, but because Republicans are bad people. So you’re paying over $4 a gallon for gas, you’re unemployed, you’re underwater on your mortgage and there is no near-term prospect for improvement — but you can congratulate yourself on your moral superiority, because at least you never voted Republican!

Category: Andrew Breitbart, MSNBC

Why Rove Is a Trifle Overrated

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

Karl Rove enjoys sounding like the big insider, and maybe he is, emphasis mine:

The GOP needs to push back now—thoughtfully and aggressively. Yet in conversations with Senate and House Republicans, I was amazed to find they weren’t talking to each other. Though the Senate and House GOP leadership may be, congressional Republicans need to settle on a common negotiating posture sooner rather than later.

If congressional Republicans wait until June to offer their proposal, they’ll have fallen into the Democratic trap. Mr. Obama will beat them like a drum, blaming them for any hiccups in the markets and every bit of bad economic news, all while demanding a clean debt ceiling.

It’s not enough for the GOP to insist on a vote on a balanced budget amendment. Even if the amendment were to muster the two-thirds vote required in Congress, it could take years to be ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures. Robust spending and deficit caps requiring rescissions and cuts if spending or deficits breach historic norms would be better and effective almost immediately.

His first quoted point may simply mean that the GOP aren’t talking to him. And should they? Perhaps.
The point that a balanced budget amendment is of little immediate value is slightly better, but still wide of the mark. Let me put it like this: why would the Congress honor a 28th Amendment any more than it has the 10th? Dass ist die Frage, Mr. Rove.
Karl would be more impressive if his analysis started around P. J. O’Rourke

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

What we need from the GOP is the sober realization that the current crisis means that the Progressive State of America is done, a thousand times done, and, again, stick a fork in it. You’re worried about the GOP falling into the Democrat trap, Rove: the Tea Parties recognize all of this for the usual Ruling Class kabuki. Thanks, Karl.

Hot Air notes a Politico article saying, in essence, that the GOP bark has been upgraded from Yorkshire Terrier to Dachshund. Go, doggies, go!

Category: Karl Rove, Republicans

Unborn, Businesses: Is There Anything The Nihilistic Left Will Not Abort?

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

Stacy mentioned the myopia of the Left with respect to providing future voters earlier today. Down in the land of Nikki Haley, there is a similar outburst of nihilism afoot, attempting to abort Boeing’s efforts to build planes.
Karl Marx famously said “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” The practical implementation of this has been “If I can’t have it, you can’t have it.” Thus is the Decalogue’s admonition not to covet converted from sin to Lefty ‘virtue’.

By challenging Boeing’s right to build aircraft in South Carolina, labor’s bureaucratic allies in Washington are threatening the ability of states to compete for new jobs and investment—and risking the economic recovery to boot.

In 2009 Boeing announced plans to build a new plant to meet demand for its new 787 Dreamliner. Though its union contract didn’t require it, Boeing executives negotiated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers to build the plane at its existing plant in Washington state. The talks broke down because the union wanted, among other things, a seat on Boeing’s board and a promise that Boeing would build all future airplanes in Puget Sound.

Labor isn’t doing anything noble. This action is the antithesis of guts:

The NLRB obliged with its complaint yesterday asking an administrative law judge to stop Boeing’s South Carolina production because its executives had cited the risk of strikes as a reason for the move. Boeing acted out of “anti-union animus,” says the complaint by acting general counsel Lafe Solomon, and its decision to move had the effect of “discouraging membership in a labor organization” and thus violates federal law.

It’s hard to know which law he’s referring to. There are plentiful legal precedents that give business the right to locate operations in right-to-work states. That right has created healthy competition among states and kept tens of millions of jobs in America rather than heading overseas.

This is another brick in the wall of the mausoleum of American manufacturing. These unions, apparently, won’t be satisfied until they ensure that no aircraft are built in America. The notion of the union members, to paraphrase WFB, ‘starting their own goddamn aircraft company’ and competing with Boeing, rather that parasitically draining it seems to escape the discussion.
I suppose if you’re Airbus, you might use the union as a proxy to attack a competitor, but there isn’t any evidence of ought but bloody minded idiocy at work in the minds of these union twerps.
It’s great that Sarah Palin likes to use her and her hubby’s union history. However, the scorched earth approach taken by these unions cannot be reconciled with any notion of recovery. Union labor is overpriced. Hating capitalism and destroying commerce will nearly achieve a Pyrrhic victory, but, just at the last second, deliver self-destruction instead. Just as they’re doing on the demographic front, it seems.

More at Hot Air.

Category: Hot Air, Unions

At the Old Ball Game!

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

My son Jim, 18, hoists son Emerson, 10, atop his shoulders and son Jefferson, 12, joins in a thumbs-up Wednesday night at Camden Yards after the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Minnesota Twins 5-4. Jim got four free tickets from his boss, and the seats — Section 26, Row 17, behind the home-team dugout — were excellent.

It was also an excellent game, with Baltimore getting home runs from Matt Weiters and Vladimir Guerrero, plus two RBIs from Adam Jones, to build a 5-1 lead after the third inning. The Twins battled back, led by Danny Valencia, who helped Minnesota pull within a run in the eighth inning. Orioles reliever Koji Uehara managed to work his way out of that jam, and then Baltimore’s ace closer Kevin Gregg shut ’em down in the ninth.

So I did The Dad Thing yesterday, and you probably ought to hit my tip jar as encouragement.

Category: Family, Sports

Over-Caffeinated Humor Break

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Follow if you dare:

I Am Seeking to Destroy My Deep-Seated Cynicism and Ironic Detachment Via a Strict Regimen of Self-Inflicted Enthusiasm!

Category: humor

What I Would Argue Is That This Shows the Federal Reserve as Antithetical to the Constitution

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

Senator Sanders (D-upe) underscores that from the mouth of bozos truth occasionally escapes:

“You can argue that the chairman of the Fed is more important than the president of the United States, but very few Americans understand what the Fed does,” says Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who successfully pushed for the Fed to disclose more about its secretive bank lending. Addressing the press, Mr. Sanders says, will be “a step forward.”

Here, in a graph, is what the Federal Reserve does, Senator Sanders:
As the economy continues its slow-motion capsize, keep in mind that the centennial of the Federal Reserve is coming the year after next. Can we bring about its demise? Why yes: yes, we can. Thomas Sowell on the Fed:

When someone removes a cancer, what do you replace it with?

Via GaltsGirl on Twitter, here is some intriguing Fed news:

In terms of the larger trends, the fundamentals that have caused so much pain and economic woe over the last ten years or so remain intact. If anything, they’ve gotten worse. We’ve gotten currency debasement, not just in the U.S., but especially in the U.S. dollar, which is not just any currency, but the world’s reserve currency.

We’ve got a truly mind-boggling expansion of the reach of government into all aspects of society and the economy, with all that that implies in terms of regulation, taxation, controls over investments and finance, impact on personal liberty, and so forth. By recognizing this destructive trend for what it is, investors can position themselves to avoid the worst, and to profit by betting on things like the continuing debasement of the dollar.

So that’s the big picture.

There is growing evidence that in the next month or two, we will head into a very dangerous period. The Fed has been extremely supportive of the U.S. government’s insane spending, polluting its own balance sheet by buying up toxic loans by the hundreds of billions and by pumping enormous quantities of cash into the money supply.

You don’t have to look very hard to understand why we have seen some small recovery in the economy, much of which has been driven by the financial sector that has been the recipient of so much largess – it was bought and paid for by the government, working hand in glove with the Fed.

But there is about to be a fundamental change in this arrangement. It appears that the Fed has decided that it’s time to take a step back from its monetization – or quantitative easing (QE), as they now term it – in the hopes that the market will step in to fill the large gap it will leave.

Unfortunately, there is going to be massive pressure to do whatever it takes to support the reality show Obama II: It Just Gets Creepier.

Category: End The Fed
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