The Other McCain

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

Economic Growth Causes Consumer Spending, Not the Other Way Around

Posted on | December 1, 2010 | 2 Comments

Regarding Keynesian economics as self-evidently false, I seldom bother explaining in detail what’s wrong with it, preferring instead to mock it, e.g., “Aggregate Demand! Aggregate Demand!” It is nice, however, when economists provide us with the detailed analysis of specific errors of Keynesianism, in this case a five-minute video examining the relationship between consumer spending and economic growth:

Let me go ahead and declare that Hiwa Alaghebandian is to free-market economics what Kim Kardashian is to . . . well, whatever it is that Kim Kardashian is famous for.

Meanwhile, back to the Keynesian fallacy:

“Keynesian policy is based on the fallacy that you can become richer by taking money out of one pocket and putting it another pocket, but this is a zero-sum game that appeals to statists and other redistributionists,” added Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute. “Real economic growth occurs when we figure out ways to increase national income, which is why good policy means reducing the burden of government.”
— Dan Mitchell, Cato Institute

Mitchell has produced his own video, explaining why the best way to balance the budget is to focus on reducing spending:

Dan Mitchell is to free-market economics what John Holmes was to . . . well, whatever it was that John Holmes was famous for.

RELATED: Why the Spending Stimulus Failed.

Category: Economics

Charles Johnson, Wrong Again

Posted on | December 1, 2010 | 16 Comments

From the “Not Exactly News” category:

My post yesterday, “Most of the Miseries of the World Were Caused by Wars,” was all I had intended to say about yesterday’s New York Times article, but my friend Donald Douglas at American Power evidently didn’t notice that post, and so has solicited further reaction.

Let’s start with that word “neo-Confederates.” The first time I saw that word was at the Web site of the League of the South, circa 1996, where the distinction was made between two types of League supporters, “neo-Confederates” and “Old Whigs.” 

The “neo-Confederates” were radicals, actively in favor of secession as a political goal — here, now, always — whereas the “Old Whigs” were more generally traditionalists, seeking to preserve and/or restore the constitutional republic while preserving the Union. Such was the coalition the League’s founders saw themselves attempting to forge into a movement, the diversity of opinion among themselves acknowledged at the outset.

The League of the South, it is important to remember, was modeled on various European movements, especially the Italian Lega Nord, founded in 1991, which advocates the independence (or at least, autonomy) of northern Italy. Such secessionist movements arose in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire. The breakup of Yugoslavia, for example, resulted in violent civil war, while the division of Czechoslovakia into the Czech and Slovak republics was accomplished peaceably. In general, these events inspired a sense among many political theorists that the permanence of large nation-states was now, or at least should be, an open question. Perhaps smaller would be better, and decentralization of power — up to and including the division of large nations into smaller ones — was seen as a favorable trend by these theorists.

This, then, was the general inspiration of the League of the South and, much like the Lega Nord — which employed the symbolism of the medieval Lombard League as part of its appeal to the historic past of regional independence — the LoS quite naturally invoked the history of the Confederacy.

Five A’s in ‘Raaaaacism’

Let the reader now examine “The New Dixie Manifesto,” which was originally published Oct. 29, 1995, on the front page of the Sunday opinion section of the Washington Post. Whatever you may say about it, it is not a “racist” or “white supremacist” document. And while you are at that site, you may scout around a bit more and find such essays as “Egalitarian Democracy: The Universal Wolf,” by League president Michael Hill. Agree or disagree with Dr. Hill’s anti-egalitarian philosophy, he is certainly not an ignorant yahoo, and you cannot indict him as a “white supremacist,” except under such a definition of that term as inspired my observation, “There are 5 A’s in raaaaacism.”

Despite the League’s high-minded origins — its European inspiration, its disavowal of any racialist purpose, the erudition of its founders (nearly all of whom held doctorate degrees in history or political science) — it was attacked from the outset as a “suit-and-tie Klan,” allegedly engaged in a stealth pursuit of horrible secret purposes.

This sort of attack tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once an organization becomes publicly stigmatized as “racist,” it will predictably be shunned by decent and respectable people not merely because they abhor racism, but also because they fear damage to their own reputations. Meanwhile, other people — indecent and disreputable — will flock to the “racist” organization, seeking validation for their own malignant views.

Thus, over time, however innocent of the accusation of racism the stigmatized organization may have been originally, it will tend to become what it has been publicly labeled, as more and more actual racists join up, and more and more non-racists leave.

This is what I saw happen in consequence of the attacks on the League of the South. As I discussed a year ago, there was an online fight in the summer of 1996 spurred by the attempt of a white separatist, Dennis Wheeler, to convince League members to adopt his own doctrines. Although I was not at that time a member of the League — this argument took place on an open e-mail listserv — I was drawn into the discussion as an ally of George Kalas, Gary Waltrip and others opposed to Wheeler’s racialism. Wheeler subsequently withdrew (or was kicked out) of the discussion.

‘Deny, Denounce and Repudiate’

Partly as a result of that online quarrel, and also because various leftists (e.g., “Crawfish,” a noxious gadfly named Ed Sebesta) were mining the listserv for “gotcha” materials, the League’s leadership decided later in 1996 to convert the listserv to a members-only list. Several of the members were concerned that the new policy would result in my exclusion from further discussions and so a friend — novelist Tito Perdue — offered to pay the fee ($25, as I recall) for my one-year membership in the League. That membership lapsed in late 1997, by which time I had moved to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and joined the staff of the Washington Times, where my new duties did not permit my continued participation in the League’s activities.

When the Southern Poverty Law Center decided to include me in a 2000 article attacking the League of the South, however, they described me as a League member. Of course, in such a circumstance, the target of the attack is expected to “Deny, Denounce and Repudiate,” as I have previously explained:

The key to these attack methods is the presumption of the target’s guilt. The accuser, having carefully selected the evidence to be discussed in the manner of a prosecutor making an indictment, demands that the target deny the accusation, denounce the bad-faith views involved, and repudiate the persons and organizations to whom he has been connected by the links-and-ties method. As anyone who has been targeted by such attacks can attest, it’s rather like being accused in one of Stalin’s infamous Moscow “show trials.”

The policy of my employers at the Washington Times, however, was not to respond to such a scurrilous racket as the SPLC and no such denial was ever made. Meanwhile, I was prompted to inquire into what had become of my friends in the League — I had been so busy in Washington, I hadn’t kept track — and learned that a series of schisms had developed. Kalas, Waltrip and others had quit or become inactive in the League, which had shrunk significantly from its peak membership circa 1996.

My experience with the League, and dealing with accusations of racism (against which I was not permitted by my employers to defend myself) taught me a lot about the nature, purpose and tactics of such attacks. It was a hard-won education in what many today recognize as Saul Alinksy’s Rule 12 — “Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It  and Polarize It” — and although the damage to my reputation is lamentable, I have adopted Rhett Butler’s attitude toward his own terrible reputation: “With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.”

All of this I recount by way of explaining my familiarity with the pedigree of the term “neo-Confederate,” originating with the League of the South. The term was subsequently hijacked by the League’s critics, who gave it a pejorative connotation suggesting racism, et cetera, and it has since been applied willy-nilly to a variety of persons and organizations that have never advocated secession. And the advocacy of secession is, after all, what “neo-Confederate” means.

‘The Sublimest Word’

We return, then, to the New York Times article. Read through it, and you will find not a single reference to the League of the South, nor does anyone quoted in the story advocate secession as a policy to be adopted in the present day.

In other words, there is nothing “neo-Confederate” to be found there, so that Charles Johnson’s application of the term is nothing but an expression of ignorance. (If only California would secede from the Union, so that Johnson could then be denounced as an anti-American foreigner — the Kim Jong Il of the blogosphere.)

The sources actually quoted in the New York Times article are officials of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization founded in 1896 and thus scarcely “neo”-anything. In defending the historical memory of the Confederacy, SCV officials are merely upholding the duty assigned to them by Gen. Stephen D. Lee in 1906:

“To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the cause for which we fought: to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier’s good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, and the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations.”

We live in an age where the concept of “duty” is scarcely acknowledged or understood, but I’m not going to let the New York Times (or Mark Potok or Charles Johnson) convince me that the fulfillment of duty is a bad thing.

“Duty then is the sublimest word in the English language. You should do your duty in all things. You can never do more, you should never wish to do less.”
— Robert E. Lee

It may be that you feel that the cause of Southern independence was so misguided and wrong that Robert E. Lee and Stephen D. Lee should be regarded as traitors and villains. You have the right to your opinion, and the members of the SCV also have the right to their opinions.

Likewise, you are free to endorse the attempt by the New York Times — and Mark Potok and Charles Johnson and others — to stigmatize, bully and silence those awful nasty Southerners whom you hate. But mark my words when I say that you endorse such tactics at your own peril.

One day the totalitarian thought-police may come for you.

Category: Racism, The Flemish Menace

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.01.10

Posted on | December 1, 2010 | 2 Comments

TOP NEWS

Wikileaks Head Makes Interpol’s Most Wanted List

WANTED: For Rape, Molestation and Sexual Coercion

Apparently can’t take “no” for an answer in bed either

White House, GOP Leaders Hopeful About Deal On Bush Tax Rates After Meeting
Something for everyone on budget, tax issues?

DoD Study Claims Few Drawbacks To Dropping DADT
Resistance to policy change is highest in Marines, other combat units


Russia Backs PRC Call For Renewed Six-Party Talks On Korea Crisis
Okay, anyone not see that one coming?



POLITICS

Food “Safety” Act Passed By Senate

ALL YOUR FOODZ ARE BELONG TO US

Tester amendment exempting farmers making less that $500K and selling only to locals passes, but has no equivalent in House bill passed last year

Supremes Review Court Order Requiring Release Of Cali Prisoners To Relieve Overcrowding
State warns that “people are going to die on the streets” if order upheld

Illinois House Passes Civil Unions For Same-Sex Couples

Wisconsin Teen Dies Of Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound

Deficit Reduction Commission Takes Aim At Mortgage Deduction



THE ECONOMY, STUPID

Google In Talks To Buy Groupon Online Coupon Site

Bernanke Tells Executives He’s Concerned About The Jobless
Yeah, suuuure.

Irish Minister Slams EU On Bailout
“Bite/The hand that feeds you/Bite/Off more than you can chew/What can you do?/You can dare to be stupid!”

FCC Investigates Level 3/Comcast Spat Over Peering Charges

Air Force’s Secret X-37B Space Plane Returns To Earth Soon

No Access To Wikileaks Behind Great Firewall Of China



SPORTS

Celtics Apply Beatdown To Cavs For Fourth Straight Win

Shaq helps take down his old team

Cavs make Rondo shoot, Rondo makes Cavs pay with 23 points, 12 assists

Woods Returns To World Challenge

Heat’s Big Men Put Up Little Results

Padres Lose Tejada To Giants

Jamie McCourt Rejects Divorce Settlement Proposal; Dodgers Ownership Left Unsettled



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS

Uma Thurman Stalker Jugged For Violating Protection Order

Stalking Uma Thurman. You fail at it.

Previously convicted for stalking & harassment, now doing 30 days under observation after phone calls to Thurman’s phone, office

Natalie Portman Says Her Masturbation Scene in “Black Swan” Is Disgusting (Video)
Hot grits scene apparently deleted, so how disgusting can it be?

Johnny Depp Talks To Patti Smith About Working With Angelina Jolie, Jack Sparrow, and Music

“Dancing With The Stars” Wants Lindsay Lohan

Tom Hanks Confirmed For “Triple Frontier”


Jim Carrey: “I’m Here To Do Extreme And Interesting Things”

Kara DioGuardi Writing Memoir About “American Idol”



FOREIGNERS

Russian President Medvedev Warns Of New Arms Race If Cooperation Fails

Apparently he was drunk and missed how the last one ended.

State Department Condemns Palestinian Claim That Western Wall “Not Jewish”

In related news, Turkish Foreign Minister laughs off Wikileaks, blames difficulties with Israel on the Jews

Ruling Party Sweeps Egyptian Parliamentary Elections
Oh, wait, not news…

EU, African States Urge Peaceful Sudan Referendum
Also on record as being in favor of fuzzy kittens, pretty girls, strong drink



BLOGS & STUFF

Protein Wisdom: Cantor Said WHAT?

Tim Cavanaugh: Disorganizing For America

Jawa Report: GOP Complaints Get Ant-Covered Jesus Pulled From National Portrait Gallery Exhibit

TigerHawk: Governor Christie, Free This Man!

GVDL: Oh, The Suffering This Poor Child President Has To Endure!

Althouse: Why Aren’t There Any Black Senators?

Megan McArdle: Health Care Union Drops Coverage For Kids



— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and Don’t Go Messing With the U.S. Marine Corps

Posted on | November 30, 2010 | 7 Comments

The Pentagon issues a study on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”  A military veteran points out that “opposition and skepticism is highest, a majority, among those in the Marine Corps, Army and combat units,” and adds:

[T]he report also represents a rather cavalier attitude at the top toward those troops who either have deep religious or moral grounds or effectiveness concerns for unease serving in close quarters and life-or-death situations with homosexuals. It, also, represents acceptance of the price in recruitment, careers and retention. None of those increase my faith in the politicized leadership of the armed forces.

Read the whole thing. My argument is Viscount Falkland’s maxim: “Where it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.” We are being asked to step into the great unknown, and assured that the negative consequences — if any — will be far outweighed by the benefits.

UPDATE: Welcome, Gay Patriot readers. You may be interested in my August post about the San Francisco v. Schwarzenegger court decision, “Equality Über Alles.”

In general, those who make equality the be-all, end-all of political virtue — latter-day Jacobins, as it were — are attempting an impossible task, pursuing an ideal that cannot be achieved in reality. Such attempts in the past have not yielded “social justice” (which is a mirage, as Hayek said), but rather have merely substituted new injustices for old. And in many cases, these innovations of so-called Progress have produced harm for the very people they were intended to benefit.

Specifically, it should be remembered that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was a compromise, reached in 1993, after a harsh negative reaction to President Clinton’s proposal to void (by executive order) the sanctions against homosexual conduct in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

From the beginning, both gay-rights radicals and their strongest opponents (including Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness) have said the compromise was untenable — as all compromises with radicalism tend to be.

This situation reminds me very much of an occasion when William F. Buckley was invited to debate the British feminist Germaine Greer at Oxford Union, but they were unable to agree on the formulation of the proposition to be debated. After a series of trans-Atlantic telegrams in which various formulations were proposed and rejected, Buckley became exasperated and wired back this proposal: “Resolved: Give ’em an inch, and they’ll take a mile.”

And in that sarcastic response, I suggest, Buckley perfectly summarized the implacable nature of radicalism, and expressed why it is the duty of conservatives to “stand athwart history yelling ‘Stop!'”

Buckley did not oppose feminism because he was “anti-woman,” and opponents of the Official Gay Rights Agenda ought not let themselves be intimidated by the accusation that they are motivated by “homophobia.”

Neither should gay people let themselves be bullied into support of the Official Agenda by identity-politics appeals to group solidarity. The leadership of the gay-rights movement are pursuing their own interests — i.e., fund-raising and political power — and their claim to speak for the interests of others should be regarded as highly dubious.

Category: Gays, Military

Good-Bye, Harry and Maggie

Posted on | November 30, 2010 | 1 Comment

When your Big Three morning show has got ratings in the cable-TV range, something’s got to give:

CBS News’ “The Early Show” ousted long-time anchors Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez on Tuesday to rescue the low-rated, third-place finisher among morning talk shows.
Starting on January 3, Erica Hill and Chris Wragge, who have been co-anchors of the Saturday morning telecast of “The Early Show” will take the weekday positions of Smith and Rodriguez, CBS News said. . . .
In the most recent week, rivals “Today” on NBC pulled in roughly 5.6 million viewers a day, compared with 4.6 million for ABC’s “Good Morning America” and 2.9 million for “The Early Show,” according to audience tracker Nielsen. . . .

Of course, nobody expects Eric and Chris to get higher ratings than Lauer on “Today” or Stephanopoulos on “GMA.” But CBS had to change something, and so it’s good-bye, Harry and Maggie.

Category: CBS

Asking Tip-Jar Hitters to Send Me to Cancun? Probably Not Worth Trying

Posted on | November 30, 2010 | 2 Comments

Chris Horner at The American Spectator calls to our attention the fact that the latest effort to coerce us into adopting the Kyoto protocols — the holy writ of the global-warming cult — involves bringing 15,000 participants to the Mexican beach resort of Cancun for two entire weeks.

(Video via Instapundit.) The overwhelming majority of these climate-change cultists are, of course, traveling at the expense of taxpayers. If they aren’t government officials, they’re university professors or employees of NGOs funded by tax-exempt “philanthropic” foundations.

Unfortunately, my quest to find a right-wing billionaire to fund my own personal 501(c)3 has so far been futile, and I doubt anyone’s going to hit the tip jar for $2,300 ($400 for airfare + $1,900 for two weeks at the Cancun Hyatt) so that I can go cover the shenanigans of these idiots. Funding such an expedition via PayPal contributions is not absolutely impossible — if 115 readers each kicked in $20, for example — but it is probably a bad idea because:

  • A. You don’t need a gonzo reporter to know that the global-warming crowd is a pack of fools; and
  • B. My wife would kill me.

So unless you’re willing to pay for me to take Mrs. Other McCain along on that two-week vacation investigative reporting trip to Cancun, let’s not even talk about it.

By the way, I’ve decided that “Make My Wife Happy” Day should be extended to “Make My Wife Happy” Week — just because. I’m actually planning to spend the whole month of December at home, after gallivanting all over America the past year while covering the Tea Party movement and political campaigns. Readers seemed to enjoy sending me off to California, Alaska, Massachusetts, New York, Florida and other scenes of political action, and I certainly enjoyed being in the middle of that action. But my travels imposed an enormous strain on the domestic front, a burden shouldered by Mrs. Other McCain. 

More than once I explained, when I asked my wife to pack the suitcase for another campaign sojourn that hadn’t yet been wholly compensated by tip-jar donations, “Honey, this is showtime. This is what the readers are paying for. They’re not going to pay me just to sit in the basement and snark at the news.” Sometimes I made that explanation while struggling to hold back tears. No kidding.

So now it’s “Make My Wife Happy” Week, and I thank those tip-jar hitters who have, so far, prevented my darling bride from stabbing me to death in my sleep.

But the rest of you guys need to hit the freaking tip jar. Because she’s still got a kitchen drawer full of knives . . .

Category: Global Warming, Mrs. Other McCain

‘Roman Polanski Has a Rival as the World’s Most Notorious Fugitive Pervert’

Posted on | November 30, 2010 | 11 Comments

That was a friend’s reaction on Twitter to the news that Interpol has issued a warrant for Julian Assange on sex-crimes charges:

The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, is tonight facing growing legal problems around the world, with the US announcing that it was investigating whether he had violated its espionage laws.
Assange’s details were also added to Interpol’s worldwide wanted list. Dated 30 November, the entry reads: “sex crimes” and says the warrant has been issued by the international public prosecution office in Gothenburg, Sweden. “If you have any information contact your national or local police.” It reads: “Wanted: Assange, Julian Paul,” and gives his birthplace as Townsville, Australia. . . .
In contrast to previous WikiLeaks releases, Assange has, on this occasion, kept a relatively low profile. His attempt to give an interview to Sky News via Skype was thwarted today by a faulty internet connection.
Assange’s reluctance to emerge in public is understandable. It comes amid a rapid narrowing of his options. Several countries are currently either taking – or actively considering – aggressive legal moves against him. This lengthening list includes Sweden, Australia and now the US – but so far as can be made out, not Britain.

(Hat-tip: Yid With Lid.) How nice of the Guardian to describe Assange’s “reluctance to emerge in public” as “understandable.” What part of “fugitive sex criminal” is so hard for these people to comprehend?

UPDATE: Maybe this explains something:

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Tells
TIME: Hillary Clinton ‘Should Resign’

Lesson to fugitive perverts: Don’t f*** with Hillary.

Category: Crime, Hillary Clinton, Yid With Lid

Best. Cable. Movie. Evah!

Posted on | November 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

Maybe you had plans for Monday, Dec. 6, at 9 p.m. ET. Jets vs. Patriots, or whatever. But whatever your plans were, cancel them now!

It’s an epic television event of global importance!

Category: Celebrities
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