Like, the Great Society was like so... just Great

Here's my response to a some Carol Hunter editorial pablum on The Register's Editorial Page.

Yeah, let's have more huge government programs to steal wealth from the people who created it and "redistribute" it to the "poor".

Newsflash - the major heath issue for those mired in "poverty" is obesity.

Got that - OBESITY! Whoo-hoo! We've won that war.

Poor people are fat!!! Congratulations all around. You know, if you told someone in 1965 that poor people in this country would have weight problems - other than being emaciated - that person would have thought you were a nut. The majority of "poor" people in this country today own their own home, own a car, have air conditioning, more than 1 color TV. They live an upper-middle lifestyle compared to an American in the 1950s.

Of course, this is not enough. Progressives (what an ironic moniker for the reactionaries of the new century...) have been attempting to move the goal posts and redefine "poverty" as some "social justice" calculation of the "Gap" between the rich and the poor. You'll never read a piece in The Register that shows a person on hard times and focuses on the cavalcade of bad choices that got them there. No... it's society's fault and society (that's you and me kids) must pay. No thank you.

The Great Society threw billions of dollars down the drain and its main achievement was to dramatically increase the number of children raised by single mothers. Those children ended up in poverty and/or crime. Those children had children. And the dance continues. And, if Bill Clinton did not have the guts to support Welfare reform in the mid 1990’s things would have been much worse.

Again, no thank you.

Jebus, the Democrats have their dander up. They really think that the last mid-term election is going to undo all of the nasty Republican poor bashing of the last 27 years. Yeah guys, good luck with that mandate thing. We'll see how long it lasts after you roll back Bush's tax cuts. That is, if you roll back Bush's tax cuts.

Kill Him - He's Inauthentic

Just when you thought identity politics and animal rights couldn't get any goofier, check this out:

"Raising him by hand is not appropriate to the species but rather a blatant violation of animal welfare laws," animal rights activist Frank Albrecht told the mass circulation newspaper Bild, whose front page headline Monday read "Will Sweet Knut Be Killed by Injection?" Berlin Zoo is allowing Knut to be raised in such a way that the bear will have a behavioral disorder for the rest of his life, Albrecht believes. "In actual fact, the zoo needs to kill the bear cub," he adds.

He's not alone. Wolfram Graf-Rudolf, director of the Aachen Zoo, told the newspaper, "I don't consider it appropriate for the species that the little polar bear is being raised on a bottle." The animal will be fixated on his keeper and not be a "real" polar bear, he says.

Jeesh, poor little guy.

They should wait to kill him until he's full grown. He'd make a great rug at that point.

Anthropogenic Global Warming Crisis = Anti-Science

Don't believe me...? Listen to one of the cult's head oracles:

Self-evidently dangerous climate change will not emerge from a normal scientific process of truth seeking, although science will gain some insights into the question if it recognises the socially contingent dimensions of a post-normal science. But to proffer such insights, scientists - and politicians - must trade (normal) truth for influence. If scientists want to remain listened to, to bear influence on policy, they must recognise the social limits of their truth seeking and reveal fully the values and beliefs they bring to their scientific activity.

So, scientists "...must recognise the social limits of their truth seeking and reveal fully the values and beliefs they bring to their scientific activity."

Hey, let's all trade truth for influence! Everybody's doing it.

Welcome back to the Dark Ages, my friends.

BEDEVERE:
And what do you burn apart from
witches?
VILLAGER #1:
More witches!
VILLAGER #3:
Shh!
VILLAGER #2:
Wood!
BEDEVERE:
So, why do witches burn?
[pause]
VILLAGER #3:
B--... 'cause they're made of... wood?
BEDEVERE:
Good! Heh heh.
CROWD:
Oh,
yeah. Oh.
BEDEVERE:
So, how do we tell whether she is made
of wood?
VILLAGER #1:
Build a bridge out of her.
BEDEVERE:
Ah, but can
you not also make bridges out of stone?
VILLAGER #1:
Oh, yeah.
RANDOM:
Oh, yeah. True. Uhh...
BEDEVERE:
Does wood sink in water?
VILLAGER
#1:
No. No.
VILLAGER #2:
No, it floats! It floats!
VILLAGER #1:
Throw her into the pond!
CROWD:
The pond! Throw her into the pond!
BEDEVERE:
What also floats in water?
VILLAGER #1:
Bread!
VILLAGER #2:
Apples!
VILLAGER #3:
Uh, very small rocks!
VILLAGER #1:
Cider!
VILLAGER #2:
Uh, gra-- gravy!
VILLAGER #1:
Cherries!
VILLAGER #2:
Mud!
VILLAGER #3:
Uh, churches! Churches!
VILLAGER #2:
Lead! Lead!
ARTHUR:
A duck!
CROWD:
Oooh.
BEDEVERE:
Exactly. So,
logically...
VILLAGER #1:
If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,...
she's made of wood.
BEDEVERE:
And therefore?
VILLAGER #2:
A
witch!

And So It Begins

It just touches my heart. Our betters love our money us so much and know what's best for us. I'm sure that every dollar will be put into a reserved account and used only for smoking cessation programs and to deal with tobacco related health care costs.

Thank you for taking care of us. I for one welcome our new Democrat overlords.

Pseudo-Patrician Pompous Ponce

Mr. Kerry: "Do you think this should matter to me?" Mr. Fox: "I'm sorry?"
Mr. Kerry: "Do you think this should matter to me?" Mr. Fox: "Yes, I do, I do."
Mr. Kerry: "Do you think it should matter to everybody here, as a Senator?"

What an ass.

Planet Basu - Ethiopian Edition

She's baaaack and in fine form, crusading... oh, sorry, can't use that word... it's insensitive... uh, jihading for the women of Ethiopia.

Rekha's article is front page, above the fold and everything you'd expect it to be. She trots out the familiar, tired characters in the anti-Western freak show. Commercialism! Globalization! Cynicism! Oprah Winfrey!!! Oh yeah, Rekha actually sites Oprah as a positive artifact of capitalism. But of course...

This is Ethiopia at its best: pure, joyful, engaging - and gorgeous. Uncorrupted by fast food, trash TV and materialistic values, free of the pervasive, cynicism-breeding commercialism of the Western world.

It's where a drive through the highlands might include an encounter with a fleet of monkeys [a fleet of monkeys...? -ed] and baboons fleeing down a mountainside. Just miles ahead, you might run across a flock of majestic camels being herded through the street. Approaching a town's center brings the whimsical sight of a group of kids playing at a foosball table by the roadside.

Gee Rekha, sounds almost like Epcot!!!

I'll spare you the rest of the article. Short version - The United States should dole out more money to the Ethopias of the world with no strings attached by heartless cultural conservatives. Anyone surprised...? I thought not.

For anyone who knows the last 40 years of Ethopian history, it should come as not surprise that the country is a basket case. But not one hint of that in Rekha's piece. Historical perspective would only get in the way of feelings. No mention of the Marxist coup in 1974 that made Ethiopia a Soviet client state or the perpetual wars and corruption throughout the various governments that have come and gone in the last few decades. All of that pales compared to the destructive power of social conservatism in the United States.

For the record, Rekha has is precisely wrong. The long-term hope for the people of Ethiopia depend upon the facets of Western Civilization that Rekha views as pathology. "Globalization, materialism", yes... even "fast food" are the sign posts of successful, productive societies.

Maintaining Ethiopia as a sort of Rousseauian Noble Savage Theme Park with "fleets of monkeys... flocks of majestic camels [flocks of camels!!!??? geez Rekha] and other whimsical sights" will do not a whit to lower infant mortality and the brutal subjugation of women.

It will however assuage our guilt and make us feel better. There... ahhhh, I feel better already.

In The Words of Elton John

"Times are changing, now the poor get fat"

And it's not only the American "poor" that are getting rotund, it's also those poor, misunderstood souls unjustly held in Guantanamo Bay.

So now the big Gitmo scandal is that we're offering the detainees too much food!!! I think that there are some WWII POWs who would have a few choice words to say about this insanity.


If we keep looking for the mote in our own eye while ignoring the beam in the eyes of our enemies, we'll deserve exactly what we get.

They're Kidding, Right...

From today's Des Moines Register Editorial on voter ID legislation:

It's important to prevent fraud, but legitimate voters must not lose their voting rights in the process. The House bill risks making voting harder for poor Americans who might not be able to afford photo IDs.

Yeah, right. Requiring a photo ID is really a sinister right-wing poll tax.

What amazingly reflexive, reactionary idiots.

Academy Award Night

It used to be an annual tradition with me. I would watch the award show from start to finish. I've been watching them since I can remember - had to have been the early 1960s.

Have I changed? Has Hollywood changed? Both, I guess.

I leave you with this. The winner for "Best Song" was a lovely ditty called: It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp by that incomparable talent, Djay f/ Shug.

Oh well, last year it was a song tribute to that great humanitarian Che Guevara.

Geography Quiz

I have always loved geography. I had a world globe around since I could remember. Now if I could just make it pay...

Geography Genius
You scored 97% knowledge, and 0% confusion

Excellent! This is the highest score. You are very knowledgeable about the world. You didn't answer any (or many) of the questions with seriously incorrect answers. Great work. You are now ready to write your own Geography Knowledge test. Don't forget to vote on this test!




My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 73% on knowledge



You scored higher than 0% on confusion

Link: The World Geography Knowledge Test written by dowland2005 on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Comment on "Tribes and Societies"

I've got a full plate today doing demolition work in our master bathroom. So, I thought I'd post this comment I made on ShrinkWrapped to a post on "Tribes and Societies". Here's my comment:

This is an amazingly tangled web and you go great lengths to simplify and clarify it through your related essays.

It is simplistic, dangerous and wrong to believe - as many social utopian quasi-pacifists and hangers on in Europe, the U.S. and Canada do - that the way to deal with the violence inherent in the human condition is abdication of power and the renunciation of violence.

However, in their world view it all makes perfect sense. Individuals are naturally benign, empty vessels that can be molded by their culture. Power (or money, or firearms – name your poison…) is a culture artifact. Power is always corrupting and never so much when those with or in power leverage violence - no matter how just or justified.

The Islamo-Fascists - following in the footsteps of Soviet Union before them - use the harebrained, idealistic notions and faulty science of our progressive elites against us in a sort of sophist ju-jitsu. If power is the ultimate corrupting evil, those in power in our own culture must be brought low. The underdog must always be favored – no matter how heinous their actions or regressive and repressive their culture. Why…? It’s quite simple comrade - they’re the underdog and they’re fighting the power – see “power is evil” above.

Whether we are talking about individual men, tribes or nation states - the true measure of maturity and humanity of an individual or group is how and when it uses or refrains from exercising power.

Our elites can well afford their noble – and oh so self gratifying – philosophical pose because for the most part they are safe. They are safe and free to engage in self indulgent navel gazing or self gratifying spewing of their multicultural vitriol at the very folks who make their childish poses and behavior possible - their moral and intellectual inferiors in the Bush Administration or the military.

Our intellectual betters hate and pity these people, these cultural throwbacks, these Neanderthals from Kansas or Iowa or wherever, that are actually willing (not to mention proud!!!) to get their hands dirty or bloody in the defense of their family, their country or their culture.

How we deal with our aggressive and violent nature – particularly how we control, channel and yes… even embrace the aggressiveness of our young men – will define how we do as a species long term. The war we are in right now is just one of many natural experiments and I have great confidence that it will eventually all work out.

In the long run, I’m very optimistic about us hairless monkeys. In the short term, I fear that if we continue to coddle and enable the people who despise our culture (including the barbarians – foreign and domestic – already inside of the gates) that there will be a great reckoning and many, many people will die in the next 50 years or so.

Most of the dead will not be American or European. And most in our culture still care about these people, recognize their inherent worth, and would rather not seen them die at our hands. If you want to know what makes our culture worth defending by force of arms – that may just be number one on the list.

Not a Surprise Really

Silly Quiz: What Science Fiction Crew would you best fit in with...?

You scored as Serenity (from Firefly). You like to live your own way and do not enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you that you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.


Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? v1.0
created with QuizFarm.com
38%

"Sensitive"

Or "Gevoelig" in Dutch. Here's to one brave - and perceptive - cartoonist from the Netherlands.

H/T Michelle Malkin

Courage!

Two counter protesters face the Saracen Hordes in Paris! A French-American and Danish-American put their lives on the line for freedom of speech.

"Sons of adultery!" "Hey, you two sons of the whore!" Uniformed policemen join us and start rushing us, more and more quickly down the street (I don't want to run, I tell them), with a growing crowd quickening their steps. A police van's door opens. "Go! Go!" shouts a policeman to the driver, "Foncez!" as sirens wail and the van rushes ahead.

"Are you out of your minds?!" ask the two officers. "Do you know how many of them there were?!" "Somebody's got to stand up for free speech", replies the French protestor. After staying with us for 20-something minutes, they let us out. (As a departing farewell, I say, "You know, right before you came, we almost had them surrounded.")

That took no small amount of guts. And 10 out of 10 for style - "... we almost had them surrounded." Beautiful.

If these two men had been torn limb from limb by the crowd, I'm sure many in the Progressive camp would say it was their fault for provoking the Muslim protestors.

As a thought experiment, imagine if you will two black men peacefully counter demonstrating at a Neo Nazi march. Imagine that they are subsequently lynched by skinheads.

In your wildest imagination can you see anyone blaming our two theoretical black heroes for their treatment at the hands of white supremacist scum? Nor can I.

Let's give it up for the soft bigotry of low expectations that drives so much of what passes for thinking in the progressive world view.

Violence, Cowardice and the Metrosexual Castrati

I've added a couple of links to my Blogroll - ShrinkWrapped and Neo-Neocon. Both were born and raised in New York City. ShrinkWraped is a practicing Psychoanalyst. Neo is a therapist.

I find both balanced, thoughtful and very smart. And it doesn't hurt that both have taken similar journies as yours truly from Left to Right - at least on defense issues.

ShrinkWrapped has a great piece today that dovetails with my last piece on media cowardice.

The West is now reaping the benefits of disarming our young men, physically and mentally; now only barbarians have weapons and are willing to use them. There are plenty of barbarians ready to fight over a "diss" over a Cartoon or an accidental bump on the sidewalk; there are fewer "Real men" who are ready and able to fight for those things they believe in, in Europe and New York.

It was always easy for the liberal cognoscenti to applaud their own faux-courage in opposing freedom from barbarians for enslaved Iraqis; now they must either surrender their own freedom to the hyper-sensitivity of the barbarians or support the Men they have decried to protect them from the barbarians.

Exactly.

One day a couple of years ago, I was picking up my oldest son from some activity at Valley High School. Over the front entrance to the school was a banner with these words:

Violence is never the answer.

Poppycock. Balderdash. Stuff and nonsense.

A man - a good man who cares for his family, his country, the weak, the helpless and his culture knows that there are times when violence is the only answer.

What We Give Up for Love

Rekha Basu has a very nice column up about what she had to give up when she got married to Rob. You'll be surprised at what she let go... and moved by the end.