Intergalactic Source of Truth

Pastor Manning strikes again.

2012-01-29T19:37:00.001-06:00

Precisely the wrong candidate.

2012-01-28T00:42:00.002-06:00

Mark Levin said shortly after the election of Barack Hussein Obama that he was the precisely the wrong man to be president at this time in our history. Not to casually extend this idea, I still think it's applicable to Mitt Romney.

It's already clear he's no particular intellectual center. Mark Steyn's apt selection of a Romney response also reveals how little fire Mr. Romney has in him.

Running on platitudinous generalities, Mitt certainly betrays little sense that he grasps the scale of the crisis.

After a fiery assault by Rick Santorum on Romney's support for an individual mandate in health care, Mitt sneered back at Rick that "it wasn't worth getting angry over." Which may be a foretaste of the energy he would bring to any course correction in Washington.^[1]

At a time of great national moral and intellectual confusion, it sad that a man who's got a realistic shot at the Republican nomination and victory in the general election has so little substance to him.

He's arguably not a Democrat, has considerable business sense, and has a strong desire to be president. Is there anything more?

Four more years of radicalism and hatred of America or drifting, genial decency.

Notes
^[1] "Obama Promises More Of The Unaffordable Same." By Mark Steyn, Investor's Business Daily, 1/27/12.

Semantic confusion.

2012-01-27T10:32:00.002-06:00

Confucius thought it important that men call things by their correct names lest they be unable to correctly order their affairs. Yet, ours is an age that is awash in semantic confusion, much of it deliberate, as witness (a) the concerted effort to pass of National Socialism as a phenomenon of the right and (b) the fervor with which illegal immigrants are deemed mere "undocumented immigrants."

As one wit has it, the latter abomination is like referring to drug pushers as "undocumented pharmacists." By the same token, foreign mechanized infantry incursions from Tegucigalpa into Baja Oklahoma would be "coordinated tourism."

You see the problem.

This semantic confusion goes to the heart our difficulties. The economic system is the lungs and backbone of our nation yet within the nation vast contending forces organize to effect political adjustments and tinkerings galore while beset with a complete lack of understanding of present realities before they even pull on their socks in the morning.^[1]

Here's an excellent observation on something so basic as "capitalism," supposedly the fundamental engine of our prosperity and security:

To attribute the failure of public policy to capitalism is disingenuous as it provides justification for an increased role of the state into the private affairs of individuals.

Mises saw through such deception almost seven decades ago when he wrote,
As a rule, capitalism is blamed for the undesired effects of a policy directed at its elimination. The man who sips his morning coffee does not say, "Capitalism has brought this beverage to my breakfast table." But when he reads in the papers that the government of Brazil has ordered part of the coffee crop destroyed, he does not say, "That is government for you"; he exclaims, "That is capitalism for you."^[2]

An earlier post to the same effect: here.

Notes
^[1] As for heart, it seems to have gone out of our public life, as witness the enthusiastic response to Newt Gingrich's exhibition of a few moments of disdain for media hypocrisy.
^[2] "Mr. Rubenstein, You're No Adam Smith." By James E. Miller, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1/27/12.

Flying blind.

2012-01-27T00:57:00.002-06:00

In fact, judged by the data I have seen, this strong left-wing media bias exists throughout most of the Western world, not just in the Scandinavian or Nordic countries. If this allegation is correct, this represents a major systemic problem for Western societies.

The mass media are the eyes and ears of modern societies. If they do not function properly, citizens will find it very hard to maneuver rationally and deal in a sensible manner with the challenges they face.^[1]

They do not function properly because of the pathology of the left.

Fjordman's article recounts his disgraceful treatment by the leftist Norwegian media, in which ardent leftists and unrepentant communists play a significant role. Yet it is they who vilify Fjordman and do not have the integrity to publish a reply to their calumny.

Notes
^[1] "Multiculturalism and Hypocrisy." By Fjordman, Gates of Vienna, 1/25/12.

Mirror image.

2012-01-26T00:05:00.000-06:00

Given a society of freely choosing individuals, the market is that which exists as a consequence . . . .

In a word, the free market is individual desire speaking in exchange terms … When the desires of people are depraved, a free market will accommodate the depravity. And it will accommodate excellence with equal alacrity. It is "servant alike to good … and evil.”

It is because the free market serves evil as well as good that many people think they can rid society of evil by slaying this faithful, amoral servant. This is comparable to… breaking the mirror so that we won’t have to see the reflection of what we really are.

The market is but a response to — a mirror of — our desires.

Instead of cursing evil, stay out of the market for it; the evil will cease to the extent we cease patronizing it. . . .

To slay this faithful, amoral servant [with government coercions] is to blindfold, deceive, and hoodwink ourselves…denying the market is to erase the best point of reference man can have.

Let Freedom Reign, By Leonard Read, quoted in "Amoral markets versus immoral coercion." By Gary Galles, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1/25/12.

Liberia travelogue.

2012-01-25T23:38:00.001-06:00

Money quotes:

Gen. Butt Naked: "Yeah, most of my boys . . . they would drain the blood from innocent child and drink it before going into battle." (0:28)

Shane Smith, narrator: "But [Charles Taylor's] so corrupt that, soon after, there's a bunch of warlords fighting for control over Liberia, the country evolves into civil war and things go from bad to severely fucked up." (3:27)

U/I thug: "If I grab you, I will eat you . . . raw." (3:43)

The Vice Guide to Travel – Liberia – Part 1.

Coercion in aid of delusion.

2012-01-25T23:34:00.001-06:00

I am a believer in the power of liberty — voluntary relationships — to bring out the best in individuals and, therefore, society. But that well-founded belief makes it painful to see markets (willing exchange) blamed for virtually everything someone can think to object to, in favor of coercion of some by others via government, inspired by some utopian vision that cannot actually be achieved by that coercion.

"Amoral markets versus immoral coercion." By Gary Galles, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1/25/12.

Low down on the Girl Scouts.

2012-01-24T08:31:00.000-06:00

Don't buy the cookies.

Gingrich as fighter.

2012-01-23T23:34:00.001-06:00

The burst of popularity enjoyed currently by Gingrich stems not from belief but from plain observation. What people have observed is a willingness on Gingrich's part to use pugnacious language against Obama. Romney does not use pugnacious language; he exercises the suicidal false politeness that has lamed the GOP repeatedly in presidential elections. In Gingrich, whether accurately or not, people see a fighter and this sight is so rare that they respond to it quite immediately. . . .

. . . A large part of the GOP primary voting clientele is fed up with blandness. . . . Blandness is real . . . and it really is a liability in a Time of Troubles.

These words are not an endorsement of Gingrich, but neither are they a defense of Romney; they are a defense of voter disgust at the unwillingness of GOP establishment types to wage the culture war, as it ought to be waged.

~ Thomas Bertonneau.

Commenting on "Why do people hate Romney?" By Lawrence Auster, View from the Right, 1/23/12.

Watch out for liberal slobber.

2012-01-23T22:45:00.000-06:00

This is classic Alinsky — to advance socialism, you first collapse capitalism. This is the change in Obama's "Hope and Change."

"Gingrich And The Battle For American Exceptionalism." Editorial, Investor's Business Daily, 1/23/12.

At last.

2012-01-23T21:21:00.000-06:00

The Founding Fathers of America are the source from which we draw our understanding of America. He [President Obama] draws his from Saul Alinsky, radical left-wingers and people who don't like the classical America.

~ Newt Gingrich.

Mr. Alinsky political radicalism is only part of the problem. He included an "over-the-shoulder acknowledgment" "to" Lucifer, "the first radical known to man," at the beginning of his Rules for Radicals.

Whatever lessons can be gleaned from another's successful "rebellion" it is a depraved man who holds up for study and emulation Lucifer's rebellion against "the establishment," viz., God, which earned him his suzerainty over Hell.

Only a depraved man could include praise at the outset of a book for the most loathsome entity known to Western man, and only sick individuals would draw any inspiration from such a book.

Would an acknowledgement of Stalin's talents as a rebel or Hitler's radicalism be received so blithely?

"Gingrich And The Battle For American Exceptionalism." Editorial, Investor's Business Daily, 1/23/12.

NOTE:
I've mistakenly stated in the past that Alinsky "dedicated" his book to Lucifer. I was in error. He included some personal acknowledgements, a quote each from Rabbi Hillel and Thomas Paine, and then his OTS acknowledgment "to" Lucifer, a/k/a Satan.

Pearls of expression – XXX.

2012-01-23T10:36:00.000-06:00

It may be the benchmark of civilization that in its ascendency it makes satire of public policy and in its decay makes public policy of satire.

~ George Pal.

Commenting on "Welcome to Britain!" By Baron Bodissey, Gates of Vienna, 1/21/12.

Touches all the bases.

2012-01-22T22:43:00.002-06:00

H/t: Small Dead Animals.

God-like powers.

2012-01-22T19:00:00.000-06:00

The conceit of modern public finance is that people with good political skills can do a better job of deciding which banks are solvent than the marketplace.

How do they do it?

"A Real Stress Test: Could Any Major Bank or Developed Nation Survive?" By Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 1/20/12.

Romney slobbers over regulation.

2012-01-22T16:18:00.002-06:00

Two years ago Romney told The Hill that Republicans “like modern, up-to-date dynamic regulation that is regularly revised, streamlined, modernized and effective.”

"Modern" = unmoored from the Constitution.

"Up-to-date" = modern.

"Dynamic" = frequently changed per bureaucratic whim.

"Regularly revised" = dynamic.

"Streamlined" = easy to administer.

"Modernized" = up to date.

"Effective" = generates revenue; diminishes liberty.

The mental sloppiness of this aside, Mr. Romney may have a good understanding of what it is that "Republicans" -- at least the eviscerated, bloodless, spiritless ones of the present age -- like but, if so, they are far removed from people who are capable of living life without efficient and dynamic regulation of every aspect of their lives.

Free people don't like regulation and have every reason to fear it. They don't want clear, concise regs that are easy to administer and to understand. They don't want regulations, period, and they shouldn't give their support to someone who fawns over the very mechanism of contemporary state control.

"The Case Against Mitt Romney." By Steve Baldwin, Steve Deace, 1/19/12

Oversight.

2012-01-21T20:35:00.001-06:00

Don’t you find it strange that in neither of his two autobiographies does Obama even mention his FIVE YEARS as head of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge? Why?

~ Brian W.

Comment on "Barack Obama’s review of William Ayers' book." By Zombie, zomblog, 10/18/08.

Capitalism or "capitalism"?

2012-01-21T03:05:00.000-06:00

US capitalism — fettered by zombies…managed by incompetents… regulated by bureaucrats — no longer makes people rich. It has cut the real hourly wage of a non-high school grad by 47% over the last 32 years. No wonder Americans don’t like it.

In the emerging world, on the other hand, real wages double every ten years or so. They like capitalism. They want to practice it.

"How a Deficit in Capitalism Helped Engender the Financial Crisis." By Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 1/20/12.

Communist tactics.

2012-01-19T01:10:00.002-06:00

We must be ready to employ trickery, deceit, law-breaking, withholding and concealing truth. We can and we must write in a language that sows among the masses hatred, scorn, and the like towards those who disagree with us.

~ Vladimir Lenin.

Quoted in "A Century of 'Bolshevism.'" By Bruce Walker, The New American, 1/5/12.

Socialism's price tag.

2012-01-18T10:17:00.001-06:00

Already, most of the big banks in Europe and America are probably insolvent. Without artificial support from the authorities, they would probably be unable to survive a crisis. Trouble is, the authorities have no real support to give. Most of the nations of the developed world are insolvent too.

Governments borrowed to pay for grandiose, juvenile schemes. In the U.S., the dynamic private sector was deprived of cash and every negative aspect of resentful black culture subsidized and protected, all with results that are simply a disgrace.

The uber-liberal political class thought they could ignore human nature and ride the rainbow pony into the sunset. If a few constitutional protections got trashed in the process, well, the goals were ultra noble and what matters but the nobility of it all.

Apart from the secondary costs, such as crime and urban devastation, it turns out there was an actual price tag. Eventually actual numbers got recorded in the ledgers. The numbers said, "Game over."

Depending on a lunatic uncle to come up with yet more loans turns out to have been a bad idea.

Mr. Obama and each and every Republican candidate for president ought to be talking like Ron Paul talks. It's a measure of our predicament that Paul is the only one with a sense of urgency about subversion of the Constitution and the danger of a central bank.

"Unsolvable insolvency." By Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 1/18/12.

Desperate contest.

2012-01-17T11:37:00.002-06:00

The defense secretary and the secretary of state were each eager to out-deplore, out-lament and out-bewail the other, playing for the cameras a ferocious game of “can you top this?” Mr. Panetta said what the Marines did was “utterly deplorable.” It’s hard to get beyond “utterly,” but Mrs. Clinton called in her crack linguistics team at the State Department—where plain speech is utterly frowned on—and she soon pronounced herself in “total dismay” on hearing the news, and was sure that the “vast, vast” majority of “American military personnel” would never, ever do what those awful Marines did.

"Total dismay"? Total dismay is what you experience when you come home and find a burning 747 where your home, wife, and children used to be.

Or when a cryptomuslim who traveled to Pakistan as a youth on a passport yet to be identified, had an undercover communist operative as his mentor, kicked off his campaign for the Illinois senate in the living room of two communist terrorists, had a 20-year relationship with a Farrakhan-worshipping pastor who calls on God to damn America, has a forged birth certificate, and won't salute when the national anthem is played gets elected to the presidency.

THAT, Muchachos, is @#$%g total dismay.

The Honorable H.R. Clinton, however, would be "totally dismayed" if she broke a fingernail or her soup was cold.

"Another grovel, not a rebuke." By Wesley Pruden, Washington Times, 1/17/12.

Calling Mr. 9mm.

2012-01-17T11:24:00.003-06:00

Once society becomes more complex than a modest tribe or small town, once its affairs extend beyond the immediate visual horizon of the citizens, they become clueless. Most don't have the brains, and almost none the time or interest, to monitor sprawling bureaucracies and distant wars.

Grifters and the Tweedledee Men will soon drive our ship onto the rocks at which point the immediate visual horizon will become like a landscape in a Steven King novel (From a Buick 8) in which delicate matters like social justice, structural racism, and the Paperwork Reduction Act will diminish in importance and Mr. 9mm, with whom so many horizon-challenged citizens are well acquainted indeed, will teach many valuable lessons.

No viable force or visible trend of the present hour appears to be capable of preventing the shipwreck. Like Mr. Italian Cruise Ship Capitano, our guys are steering hard to port to get us to the rocks.

A nation that tolerates and sustains a press that got all hot and bothered over Herman Cain's alleged dalliances or hideous patriarchal utterances when racial, cultural, fiscal and constitutional catastrophe threatens deserves nothing less than the rocks.

"More candidates." By Fred Reed, Fred on Everything, 1/17/12.

Voting for tapioca.

2012-01-17T11:23:00.000-06:00

The elections are supposed to indicate the presence of democracy, but they do not. Elections do not determine policy but only the division of spoils. An election in which candidates take no positions becomes a high-school popularity contest. The way to have elections without having a democracy is to let the people vote, but not on anything.

"More candidates." By Fred Reed, Fred on Everything, 1/17/12.

Alternate reality.

2012-01-17T10:07:00.001-06:00

Beginning with Carter, and escalating with Clinton and Obama, the Democrats have moved steadily to the right . . . .

"Otohbotoh Obama." By Sam Smith, Flotsam & Jetsam, 1/16/12.

ADDENDUM:

Serious people in the Democrat Party left long ago. The only ones remaining are office-seekers, rent-seekers, useful idiots, and communist apparatchiks.

~ Art Chance comment at "Can Real Liberalism and the Democratic Party Be Saved from the Radical Takeover?" By Barry Rubin, PJ Media, 1/15/12.

Ceaseless ideological treachery.

2012-01-17T01:25:00.001-06:00

Vox Day argues you should support Ron Paul and that it doesn't matter if you're a liberal Democrat who bought the Obama hope and change deal or if you're "a conservative Republican who is still reeling with the shock from eight years of ceaseless ideological treachery by George W. Bush."^[1]

I have gnashed my teeth over Mr. Bush's prescription drug idiocy, massive overspending, duplicitous switcheroo from "WMDs" to "nation building" in Iraq, flaccidity on massive illegal immigration, cluelessness on the source of Islamic terror and obscurantism (hint: the Koran), and slobbering over visiting Saudi firemen intent on sowing subversion in our great land. It was anger on an issue-by-issue basis but the phrase "ceaseless ideological treachery" just sums it up too perfectly.

What's a cause for real despair is the realization that Republicans nominated Mr. McCain, who was the poster boy for political chameleons and who had positive disdain for conservatism. Nor could he bring himself to say an unkind word about Muslims.

And now Republicans appear to be about to nominate another RINO with only newly-discovered conservative values, we should be so lucky, and an inability even to explain the salutary function of Bain in the capitalist scheme of things. (That America long since left capitalism behind it is an idea that he would simply be unable to grasp, and good luck expecting him to articulate any arguments against the over-regulation of the economy.)

In four elections, Republicans have nominated or given strong support to putative Republicans without an ounce of understanding between them of limited government -- or any demonstrated hostility to illegal immigration.

Pee Wee Hermans all -- without the sense of humor or humility.

Notes
^[1] "Ten Years Later." By Vox Day, Vox Popoli, 1/16/12.

H/t: Hawaiian Libertarian.

Juggernaut.

2012-01-16T21:12:00.001-06:00

Basil points out that Romney, with a mere 1,137 delegates left to nail down the nomination, is unstoppable.

Get down to election HQ and get your Romney yard signs. We must bow to the inevitable.

"Stop Romney? Unpossible!" By Basil, IMAO, 1/16/12.

All fall down.

2012-01-16T20:42:00.002-06:00

Thus, we also approach the dreaded inflection point for the credit default swaps. Nobody believes that this Mount Everest of jive bond "insurance" can actually pay out, since the first instance of any attempt will bankrupt everybody.

"What Gives." By James Howard Kunstler, Clusterfuck Nation, 1/16/12.

Ho hum.

2012-01-16T13:47:00.000-06:00

Greece remains in mortal peril, along with the bureaucratic pipe dream known as the European Union.

"Back with a Vengeance: the EU Debt Crisis." By Arnold Ahlert, FrontPageMagazine.com, 1/16/12.

Lord Macaulay's crystal ball.

2012-01-14T23:00:00.002-06:00

Lord Macaulay thought the U.S. Constitution was "all sail and no anchor" and doubted that our experiment in republican government would turn out well due to its vulnerability to having political power exercised by the people without the conservative, restraining hand of an aristocracy.

All the more depressing is the fact that the people he had in mind was the artisan class, which he believed would inevitably experience hard times and turn to soak the rich demagogues.

For a dose of clinical depression, consider that he'd never heard the words "welfare state" or thought it conceivable that the franchise would be extended to the underclass with zero interest in self-improvement, productive work, self discipline, or patriotism.

For with you the majority is the Government, and has the rich, who are always a minority, absolutely at its mercy.

The day will come when, in the State of New-York, a multitude of people, none of whom has had more than half a breakfast, or expects to have more than half a dinner, will choose a Legislature. Is it possible to doubt what sort of Legislature will be chosen?

"Lord Macaulay on American Institutions and Prospects, 1860." American Digest, 1/12/12.

The propositional family.

2012-01-14T21:50:00.000-06:00

Pictures of homecoming have always affected me powerfully.

H/t: Bird Dog at Maggie's Farm.

Somebody tell Leon.

2012-01-14T21:35:00.001-06:00

As long as civilians reject the sentiment displayed by Marines taking a whiz on dead Afghan irregulars we should avoid engaging in anything resembling a war.

Turtleback comment on "Make The Military Leaner, But Also Make It Much Meaner." By Mark Steyn, Investor's Business Daily, 1/13/12

Ideal future, contemptible present.

2012-01-14T18:16:00.003-06:00

[L]iberals understand there to be no limit, no stopping point, to the process of social reform. What has happened and is now happening, however many improvements there might have been, is totally unsatisfactory, and awaits the incipient onset of a gnostic New Age, in which every sordid thing that has come before will be repudiated and destroyed.

Kristor comment on "Small moves away from liberalism are not going to turn around the society as a whole." By Lawrence Auster, View from the Right, 1/12/12.

Pearls of expression – XXIX.

2012-01-13T00:56:00.001-06:00

Every component and institution of the ruling elite, every value it promotes and enforces, in every Western country, seems hypocritical, malignant, the whole thing reeling toward the ash-heap of history.

* * * *

The vaunted globalization has merely built channels for global contagion by biological and financial viruses. Transfer of wealth from the North to the South and of technology from the West to the East was accompanied by a transfer of population in the reverse direction: perhaps the worst deal any civilization has made in history. . . . To evade admitting responsibility for this tide of ominous dysfunction, the rulers have instituted a regime of harassment of native White populations in the name of “security” and “tolerance” instead of dealing with the real sources of insecurity and intolerability.

"The Bee and the Lamb. Part 3." By Takuan Seiyo, New English Review, January 2012.

Pearls of expression – XXVIII.

2012-01-12T22:56:00.000-06:00

The West is suffering from yin toxemia. Yin – one of the two eternal opposing forces that make up the dynamic structure of all things in Creation -- is the female principle: passive, light and airy, acidic, expansive, yielding, and cold like water. Yin is the essence of liberalism, multiculturalism, lunatic (yin connotes the moon) “inclusiveness” that refuses to discriminate (i.e. to discern). It is pacifist rules of engagement in combat, pregnant lesbian sailors on submarines, deference to invading barbarians, prostration before Islam, capitulation to lawfare, compassion toward stone-cold killers, welfare for wastrels etc.

"The Bee and the Lamb. Part 3." By Takuan Seiyo, New English Review, January 2012.

2012 Republican plank.

2012-01-12T20:16:00.005-06:00

G. Murphy Donovan suggests the Republican Party should have a single platform in 2012 – "No more 'pie in the sky.' no more promises that can't be kept."

Domestically, that would mean no new social programs.

Internationally, "we might leave the Muslim world to the fate it has earned with 60 years of inertia and double dealing."^[1]

This is exactly right, especially with respect to our policy for the Muslim world. The Muslim world is moribund and utterly unable to pull itself out of medieval obscurantism and primitivism. It's wholly incapable of operating a modern economy. It's incapable of fostering critical thinking or a legal system that's predictable, coherent, systematic, or codified.

It's a world where rooting out "blasphemy," doctrinal innovation, backsliding, apostasy, and smart asses is the primary focus of all ruling theocracies. Muslim countries of the Middle East are barbaric places where riots, arson, and murder are used against religious minorities unless, ironically, some heavy-handed, secular-minded dictator happens to prevent such gratuitous oppression.

Muslim countries export only oil, terrorism, and "refugees" and "immigrants" intent on subversion and degradation of the unfortunate European countries where they go.

In short, Islamic countries have nothing of value to offer Western countries and should be left to be Islamic to their hearts' content.

The Wall Street Journal some years ago had a story about an Oriental gentleman who was adept at baccarat and he ran up such a mound of winnings that the casino became concerned. The management consulted with their own advisers who counseled that the odds were never in favor of the player and that the correct course was just to let the man play as long as he wished. I don't recall the outcome, but it's the same approach we ought to take with respect to the Islamic world. Just keep on being Islamic without assistance from or intervention by us. They can then experience the full force of the glories of Islam.

Subtly in the background there should be the most delicate of hints. As a wonderful gentleman stated in a YouTube video that was unfortunately taken down, "You think you can get crazy, m___________s. We can get crazier!"

He was probably not the holder of an Ars Baccalaureum degree, I'm guessing, but you couldn't swing a cat anywhere inside the HQ of the U.S. Department of State next Tuesday and hit anyone with more understanding of foreign policy and human nature than he has.

But I digress.

Notes
^[1] "A One Plank Platform, Please!" By G. Murphy Donovan, New English Review, January 2012.

Zombie Constitution.

2012-01-12T11:37:00.000-06:00

First and foremost, the traditional constitutional order in America is dead, and has been for some time. When most federal judges rule something unconstitutional, what they mean is that it is non-liberal and thus unacceptable.^[1]

~ Daniel S.

No state bar association or state or federal court concerns itself with this evisceration. As one lawyer observed to me on two occasions, what matters is that you have the POWer to do something.

Notes
^[1] Observation published at "Federal appeals court declares Oklahoma sharia ban unconstitutional." View from the Right, 1/12/12.

Irony.

2012-01-12T10:27:00.003-06:00

H/t: Moonbattery, with accompanying article describing the essence of pouring money down a rat hole.

How's that working for you?

2012-01-11T12:32:00.003-06:00

Anyone who's ever heard of the 20th century like totally knows that the surest way to improve the lot of poor people or people with a superb sun tan is to get rid of white people.

National liberation, black rule, universal franchise, reparations.

"The Formula."

Free everything awaits all on the right side of that little political agenda until, that is, the issues of scarcity, resource allocation, prices, and personal discipline become part of the equation. Well, actually, they're always part of the equation and they only ever enter into the consciousness of the majority of people when they're pounded in, one gram of reality at a time.

Reality intruded in Johannesburg when university authorities ~~organized a wild melee with fatal consequences for one would-be student's mother~~ arranged for students hoping to win a small number of yet-unfilled seats to physically gather and compete for them on a first-come-first-served-basis.

What could go wrong?

The rush at the university's gates, two days after the governing African National Congress celebrated its centennial in a lavish, weekend-long party, underscored the deep frustration many people here have with the slow pace of progress almost 18 years after the end of white minority rule.^[1]

"Ah, yes," as Chris Plante would say. That elusive "progress." Where oh where does it go? It's a mystery.

After the inevitable disaster at the university's gates had unfolded, one hopeful asked "What are we supposed to do?"

One thing would be to abandon fairy tales and leftist/racist bullshit. White South Africans who ran the old S. African government were racists but they knew S. African blacks, who are, as we speak, now cheerfully murdering white farmers at an impressive rate. Say what you will about the crimes of white S. Africa, it was an orderly society with the most productive economy in all of Africa. Black Africans at one time flocked to S. Africa for a better life after assessing the relative merits of where they were in black-ruled Africa and the white-ruled hell hole of pre-"liberation" S. Africa.

Realism will return to the world one way or another. S. Africa is turning into a third-world slum and Chinese in Zimbabwe are this very day happy to administer motivational beatings to Zim workers.

But, but, they're non-white communists who themselves have suffered under the yoke of Western Imperialism (and a smidgin of Japanese imperialism)! How can this be?

This also illustrates how getting rid of the white man is all that stands between the black man and a decent life.

Notes
^[1] "Fatal Stampede in South Africa Points Up University Crisis." By Lydia Polgreen, New York Times, 1/10/12.

H/t: View from the Right

Christian tinder yearning for the spark.

2012-01-11T11:15:00.002-06:00

But the Hammerman Jew has signed onto the non-Jewish, wholly liberal conceit that it is not what someone believes but the existence of any beliefs that is the threat to world peace in general and the safety of the Jews in particular. Only those who have beliefs, the argument goes, can become so emboldened in those beliefs as to be willing to burn down a mosque or bash a gay or, by extension, start a pogrom or support a holocaust.

The way to prevent the next holocaust, then, isn’t to stand up for good and rightful values, it is to join with those with no values, allied with them in their war against belief.^[1]

Mr. Sayet focuses on this priceless quote from Rabbi Joshua Hammerman:

If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants…^[2]

If that isn't deranged thinking -- from an educated, intelligent man, no less – I don't know what deranged thinking is. As a present-day, absolutely-no-kidding threat to Jews we have:

Hair-trigger Christians on the knife edge of running amuck.

Next stop – Pogrom MCCLXVII^III.

Notes
^[1] "The Hammerman Jews." By Evan Sayet, FrontPageMagazine.com, 1/11/12. A witty and insightful article!
^[2] Id. Immigrants can only be banished indiscriminately. At least the Rabbi got that right.

Shorn of the partickalers.

2012-01-09T19:22:00.001-06:00

The US empire is doomed. Just like all the others that went before it. . . .

. . . We’ve seen this movie before. . . .

What we know for sure is that the US is going broke.

"World’s Biggest Zombies." By Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 1/9/12.

Might could be.

2012-01-08T22:26:00.001-06:00

There is a wealth of irony in the Chairman's [Mr. Bernanke's] supposed expertise on the Great Depression, as his policies have backfired on "fixing" the Great Recession.

"Why Bernanke has Failed, and Will Continue to Fail." By Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds, 1/9/12.

"Sanity" as currently defined.

2012-01-08T12:54:00.001-06:00

H/t: Leonidas.

This would be the government "for" the people part.

2012-01-06T16:46:00.001-06:00

No modern central banker can seem to resist the urge to “cure” insolvency with more credit — credit that comes not from a store of accumulated capital, but from the mouth of a printing press.

"How Central Bankers Attempt to 'Cure' Insolvency." By Eric Fry, The Daily Reckoning, 1/6/12.

The blight of government.

2012-01-06T15:59:00.001-06:00

[Big government] meddling more often than not works to distort markets, limit competition, protect corporate giants and sacrifice everyone's well-being.

"A Perfect Kodak Moment Of Creative Destruction." Investor's Business Daily, 1/5/12.

Pearls of expression – XXVII.

2012-01-05T13:30:00.000-06:00

I take issue with the notion that we are responsible for consoling the unemployed, lest they riot. There is no circumstance under which the initiation of force – said rioting – is appropriate. It is THEIR responsibility to behave like men, not mine to placate them like boys.

~ Walter Hudson.

Response to commenter on "Building a Better Burrito with Healthy Immigration." By Walter Hhdson, PJ Media, 1/4/12.

Leftist fidelity to meaning.

2012-01-05T02:11:00.000-06:00

When modern Leftists, utterly convinced as they are of the rightness and goodness of their cause, speak of “democracy”, they do not mean popular participation in the political process. For them, democracy is just another word for the unquestioned hegemony of Leftism.

"The Hungarian Resistance." By Svein Sellanraa, Brussels Journal, 12/31/11.

Immigration realities.

2012-01-04T21:48:00.001-06:00

If you watch these [cable TV] shows you might even begin to believe that MS-13 is a transnational criminal gang known for savagery beyond the call of duty, much of it directed at their fellow undocumented citizens.

And if you followed that thread, you might leap to the conclusion that not all immigrants are as benign as your maid and your pool boy.^[1]

But the really, really smart people only see immigrants who are maids and pool boys so the concept of less than congenial, hard-working, law-abiding foreigners is quite alien to them.

Schlepps, schlubs, drones, nimrods, and other bitter clingers are the ones who have to live cheek by jowl with the MS-13 types and enjoy the full open-border, multicultural experience.

Notes
^[1] "Watch out for those Krauts!" By Jack Cashill, World Net Daily, 1/4/12.

Not the same sheet of music.

2012-01-04T10:01:00.002-06:00

How widely known is it that black feelings towards socialism mirror white feelings towards capitalism, and that a majority of blacks both react positively to the idea of socialism and react negatively to the idea of capitalism?^[1]

Thus, blacks do and will skew American politics toward statism and will do less to preserve liberty because the majority are indifferent to the issue of government coercion. Black will want to live off of others, whites of course, and have less desire to compete in the market place.

Is that a fair conclusion?

Yes, it is. Just so you don't think I'm hiding behind a weasel "question."

And where do you stand on this? We're all the same regardless of the color of our skin?

To which I say, skin color very much is a significant indicator that there is a very real difference between blacks and other races:

[Last year] in Manhattan, police arrested a group of black teenagers who specialized in beating up Asian women in their fifties to seventies. The boys acted as lookouts; it was the girls who attacked. ^[2]

Just an anecdote, it's true, but does any sane person doubt that it's well and truly representative? You don't have that kind of behavior to fear from whites, but you do from blacks. Right? Conclusion: many blacks in our country are horribly different from the rest of us.

Let's cut out the "rainbow pony" garbage and talk about what's real: black hostility to the essence of America – political and economic freedom – and to other races. Not all, but a whole lot of blacks. Those black teenagers sprang out of an authentic, real, no-holds-barred black culture. They are the face of the civilization-killing "black undertow." (H/t: Paul Kersey.)

Notes
^[1] "Capitalist whites, socialist blacks, libertarian youths." The Audacious Epigone, 1/1/12.
^[1] Jared Taylor, quoted in "As I proudly stand up next to you?" The Audacious Epigone, 12/28/11.

Unhappy New Year.

2012-01-03T00:52:00.001-06:00

No. not my wish for you but the new year that we are going to get:

Meanwhile, the US is sitting pretty. For now. Money is fleeing China and Europe for the perceived safety of the USA. Whatever else may happen, there’s one thing investors can count on. Ben Bernanke and his merry band of price fixers will print the money necessary to pay off bondholders.

But America is dangerous too. It has a doomed currency...an out-of- control military...and a dysfunctional Congress. Sooner or later, it will blow up too.

I don't agree that the military's the problem. Ten tons of Joint Chiefs' "recommendations" for occupying Iran or Venezuela amount to precisely nothing when the president wants something else. McArthur wanted to turn portions of China into a parking lot and ended up retired.

But "dysfunctional Congress" works just fine. Why? Because We're dysfunctional.

We still won't recognize Islam for its fundamental hostility to our core values of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the rule of law, secular government, and rationality. We tolerate massive illegal immigration, a constitutionally unqualified president with an obviously forged birth certificate, and a federal government that is to the constitutional idea of the federal government as a giraffe is to a Chihuahua. We lap this up.

We tolerate a Supreme Court that couldn't find the Constitution in a box of Cracker Jacks and is like the aforementioned Chihuahua when it comes to safeguarding the liberties of Americans instead of the pissed-off pit bull that we should have. Not what we deserve to have . . . because Americans have abdicated their citizen's responsibilities in favor of computer games, sports, and a fluff culture that denigrates our ancestors and probably makes Madonna barf.

We chip away at free speech and our right to keep and bear arms and we pander to the black underclass and hostile, rejectionist black intellectuals. We don't, in short, know who we are or what is decent, fine, and worthy of protection in our lives and nation.

But I do sincerely wish you all the best in this new year.

More than that, I wish for Americans to wake up. We don't have to become historians or a constitutional experts. We just have to start getting pissed when foreigners, barbarians, parasites, liars, and corrupt politicians tell us how great it is that we're being robbed, sidelined, and set up so our descendants, soon to be awash in a sea of hostile foreigners, can pay the bill for the looting that's been done in the name of "democracy," "equality," "human rights," "feminism," "fairness," a "living constitution," multiculturalism, libertinism, affirmative action, and anti-racism.

"Avoiding the Danger Zones in the Year Ahead." By Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 12/30/11.

Dream woman.

2012-01-02T22:05:00.000-06:00

Sarah Connor: Forget about it [your bullet wound]?

Are you crazy?!

Take that off.

"Terminator."

Nitrotoluene-fueled madness.

2011-12-30T23:32:00.000-06:00

At the deepest levels within our governing structures, we are committed to living beyond our means on a scale no civilization has ever done.

"New Year Looks No Less Dysfunctional Than The Old." By Mark Steyn, Investor's Business Daily, 12/30/11.

Kwanzaa, celebration of black separatism.

2011-12-30T13:51:00.003-06:00

[Kwanzaa] is a holiday for Blacks to separate themselves from the rest of America.^[1]

Kwaganja is celebrated by our president.

Plainly proving that he is incapable of distinguishing the sacred from the profane. Or at least that he has no feel for what is asinine, cheap, tawdry, or plastic banana.

And this fake festival illustrates just how far some blacks will go to swallow utter crap in order to separate themselves from whites and slobber over collectivism, the collectivism that entails living large yourself and having whites finance it.

Prole Disney World.

Shamzaa appeals to the kind of people who name their children Lashanda, Da'Rick, JeMarcus, Latrina, Quantavios (of the Ninth Legion?), and Shitavious.

And to Mr. Obama, Uniter of the Tribes. Shaka 2012.

Ok. Maybe not Shaka. Kill the video buy.

Notes
^[1] "The TRUTH Behind Kwanzaa." By Mr. Minority, Mr. Minority, 12/18/11.

More anecdotal on black GIs.

2011-12-30T11:21:00.004-06:00

In the 1970's I was in Germany and remember a German woman telling me "If a German's car breaks down, no German will stop to help, only African-American [?] soldiers stop and help." I remember the overall attitude of Germans as friendly and favorable to African-American GI's, but also remember being told by Germans that they feared and loathed French colonial troops, particularly Moroccans, who raped and assaulted German women in the postwar years. I have read German accounts of the immediate post-war years in which it was stated that African-American GI's treated the Germans better than many Caucasian American soldiers who oftentimes acted with snobbery and arrogance.

~ Robert Miller.

"A critical examination of the Potsdam Accords and Morgenthau plan," Amazon.com, August 7, 2006, a review of "Gruesome Harvest: The Costly Attempt to Exterminate the People of Germany."

Gotta love them Moroccans! And those alert French officers, come to think of it.

Threat assessment.

2011-12-30T01:42:00.001-06:00

I remember what it was like being stationed in ROK during the early 70's. The only thing I was afraid of was my black countrymen. You mistakenly wander into their part of town-one of their clubs-or anywhere they congregated and you faced getting badly beaten by them.

~ Anonymous.

Comment on "Freedom Failed: Birmingham's Edge 12 Movie Theater Closes Early on Christmas Because 400 Black People Riot." By Paul Kersey, Stuff Black People Don't Like, 12/28/11.

Kiddie culture.

2011-12-30T01:19:00.000-06:00

Worship of the young at the expense of the old, indeed, the invention of whole categories of young - teens, pre-teens, teeny-boppers, bobby-soxers - has always been characteristic of twentieth-century mass culture, the purpose of which is simply to create a consumer market aligned with hormones, an unbeatable combination, if the number of fortunes it has generated is any proof

If our culture seems shallow one of the reasons is that it massively caters to the juvenile. Kids vote, consume, and drive music and sports culture.

If adults seem like they got sidelined, consider how society has been affected by people who make fortunes out of pandering to kiddies and amplifying every juvenile impulse of spasm.

Do kids have a rebellious streak during adolescence? If so, then celebrate rebellion with all the technical and persuasive power available to Hollywood and Madison Avenue.

Do kids find adults to be drones with their demands for taking responsibility and self control? Then paint every adult as a nimrod.

"Walter Block: The New Is Not Necessarily Better Than The Old." By Lila Rajiva, The Mind-Body Politic, 12/28/11.

Perish the thought.

2011-12-29T12:44:00.001-06:00

All but two of the ten victims [Missouri River Front Times newspaper] interviewed were white (one was black and one was Latino), and all of the players were black. But Knockout King [a "game" in which vulnerable victims are attacked by young blacks] does not appear to be bounded by race.

"Mall Mayhem and Race Reality." By Arnold Ahlert, FrontPageMag.com, 12/29/11.

The tax on stupid.

2011-12-29T00:04:00.001-06:00

Governments grew tremendously in the 20th century. Because they are essentially parasitic luxuries. As a society grows richer it can afford more illusions, more waste, more re-distribution of wealth, more regulation, higher taxes, and more unproductive government employees.

"What Government Really Is." Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 12/23/11.

Some sort of statistic.

2011-12-28T21:40:00.016-06:00

The following contains a statistic I ran across toady. It has no significance and is quite meaningless. Nothing can be deduced from it. It has no implications. Business should proceed as usual. Ignore the commentary too. It's quite superfluous.

All this ranks with the number of egg sandwiches consumed by the Guardia Civil and the percentage of used tires
in asphalt paving.

The size of Sophia Loren's melons in the movie "El Cid" and their effect on Charlton Heston are more interesting. And Cary Grant didn't even have to drag a @#$%g 50-ton cannon over the Himalayas to check them out. You'd smile too.

Anyway.

In most of the civilized world, although Muslims are small in number, they are over-represented in the prison system.

As so it is in Spain where although Muslims are only 2.3% of the population they represent 70% of the prison population.

According to Islamic Commission of Spain and Ministry of Justice reports in 2009, about 72% of all Muslims in Spain are immigrants without Spanish nationality. These Muslims do not have any connections to Spain's culture, nor do they feel they want to belong to Spanish society. They live in segregated communities that encourage behavior that runs completely counter to Spanish values.

Let's all go back to sleep now.

It's ok.

"Muslims In Spanish Prisons." By Bernie, Plank's Constant, 12/20/11.

Richard Holbrooke, egotistical swine.

2011-12-26T17:47:00.003-06:00

Few writers can match Julia Gorin for her grasp of Balkan politics and the disgraceful U.S. betrayal of the Serbs in aid of drinking Muslim bathwater.

I refer to the betrayal engineered and relentlessly pursued by Richard Holbrooke -- an official who served as a U.S. diplomat courtesy Bill Clinton. See Gorin's outstanding post on Holbrooke.^[1]

We have no idea what is done in our name. Whatever interests Holbrooke, Albright and Clinton were serving in the Balkans (or East Timor), they weren't U.S. interests.

We act like a hollowed out nation. Exhibit bleeping A: our affirmative action president who

is constitutionally unqualified to order that the rug of the Oval Office be vacuumed,
soared from the socialist and rejectionist fever swamps of radical black Chicago politics, and
can't order a cheeseburger without a teleprompter.

Our fierce junkyard dog press won't investigate his shoe size and it appears he arguably has a a shot at being voted back in next year.

(Cue Marty "Walk This Way" Feldman looking off to the side.)

In this non-nation there are, so it appears, "independent" voters who even now are earnestly stroking their chins and contemplating the dangerous possibility that one of the Republican presidential challengers to The One might not be as sound on fiscal and economic matters as Mr. Obama.

Oh, yes! Apparently that's a close judgment call that keeps these people in the "independent" column.

How about "moron" column?

I 'm a a long way from the Balkans at this point in this post but my name is Col. Bunny and I approve this message.

Notes
^[1] "IN MEMORIAM: A Year in the Death of Richard Holcrooke." By Julia Gorin, Republican Riot, 12/26/11.

NOW is it clear?

2011-12-26T14:36:00.002-06:00

No question that Germany want the global market to do the heavy lifting.....realign the credit of nations within the EU, and come to some valuation of the Euro in reference to the dollar, the yen, the yuan, etc. Angela is probably the happiest leader in the EU, seemingly having maneuvered the union into bowing to the frugality of the ECB, and handing the defaulting nations over to the tender mercies of the IMF. The Euro-zone bond and the ESM are nowhere in sight, the EFSF capped at about twice the cost of Greece alone, and having the hat passed to contribute a finite sum to the IMF.^[1]

~ John Mcrae.

I'm not making fun of Mr. Mcrae, btw. At ALL. For all I know this is the entire sense of the matter.

It does illustrate the difficulties involved in trying to form a sensible opinion of the E.U. these days. All I know for a fact at this point is that (1) the E.U. is a bunch of vicious, officious, undemocratic pricks who yearn to turn Europe into an Islamic slum (with or without the original aborigines of Europe) and (2) Europe is one or two light years away from letting go of the government titty.

Voluntarily letting go, that is. Having it wrenched from their fingers is another matter.

Thanks for that visual, Col. Bunny!

Notes
^[1] Comment on "What Merkel Is Thinking. Is democracy compatible with the euro? Get ready to find out." By Homan W. Jenkins, Jr., Wall Street Journal, 12/24/11 (subscription).

The eternal un-Christmas.

2011-12-25T11:08:00.003-06:00

As you celebrate Christmas today in the comfort and security of your Western home, take a moment to consider what Christmas isn't:

Now, let us have a closer look at what the Koran says about the infidels:-
Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them(2:191)
Make war on the infidels living in your neighboorhood (9:123)
When opportunity arises, kill the infidels wherever you catch them (9:5)
Kill the Jews and the Christians if they do not convert to Islam or refuse to pay Jizya tax (9:29)
Any religion other than Islam is not acceptable (3:85)
The Jews and the Christians are perverts; fight them (9:30)
Maim and crucify the infidels if they criticise Islam. (5:33)
The infidels are unclean; do not let them into a mosque (9:28)
Punish the unbelievers with garments of fire, hooked iron rods, boiling water; melt their skin and bellies (22:19)
Do not hanker for peace with the infidels; behead them when you catch them (47:4)
The unbelievers are stupid; urge the Muslims to fight them (8:65)
Muslims must not take the infidels as friends (3:28)
Terrorise and behead those who believe in scriptures other than the Qur’an (8:12)
Muslims must muster all weapons to terrorise the infidels (8:60)^[1]

Col. Bunny here. Dear Friends, if Muslims get their way, either you won't be around to celebrate Christmas or Christmas won't be celebrated where you live.

There is time for us to deal with the mortal threat of Islam in our midst and in the world but we all have to wake up and man up.

Thankfully, I can still wish you a Merry Christmas. And I do.

Notes
^[1] "The text of the Koran is undeniable. How can you be Muslim and still support our Constitution?" By Infidelsesto. Infidels Are Cool, 12/28/06.

Exhibit O – sneaker riots.

2011-12-23T23:50:00.007-06:00

A counter-truth to the official American truth is slowly building up in our collective consciousness: it is that a large part of the black population are not our fellow citizens in any real sense . . . .^[1]

Prior exhibits:

Exhibit A – black criminality.
Exhibit B – black illegitimacy.
Exhibit C – black welfare dependency.
Exhibit D – low black academic achievement or black hostility to "thinking white."
Exhibit E – black dependence on affirmative action and bogus claims of white/structural racism.
Exhibit F – black political support for communist, socialist, progressive, rejectionist politicians: Jeremiah "God damn America" Wright.
Exhibit G – black racism: James ("Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy") Cone.
Exhibit H – the inevitable decay and corruption of cities that become black-majority cities.
Exhibit I – our first black president who refuses to salute when the national anthem is played.
Exhibit J – vile black rap music.
Exhibit K – black refusal to cooperate with police.
Exhibit L – black embrace of Islam and its one particularly laughable variant.
Exhibit M –black adulation of gangsta culture.
Exhibit N – blacks calling themselves "African Americans" and giving their children ridiculous names, the more euphonious to them to the degree that they are decidedly not European names.

Notes
^[1] "Hundreds break into Georgia mall in middle of night to get sneakers." By Lawrence Auster, View from the Right, 12/23/11.

Pearls of expression – XXVI.

2011-12-23T19:17:00.001-06:00

A total restructuring of Greek debt is not an option and nobody is planning it,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker reiterated yesterday. A few days earlier, the French Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde, declared, “A restructuring of Greek debts is absolutely out of the question.” Likewise, German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, is on the record saying, “A debt restructuring is not under consideration and is completely speculative.”

These vehement official declarations can mean only one thing: A debt restructuring is absolutely certain and everybody should be planning on it.

"Where the Wildest Things Are." By Eric J. Fry, The Daily Reckoning, 6/11/11.

Pearls of expression – XXV.

2011-12-23T18:58:00.003-06:00

Despite these self-evident observations, the EU will continue fighting against the inevitable for a while longer. “We will try to solve the Greek problem by the end of June,” says [Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude] Juncker. Conveniently, Juncker specified only the month, but not the year.

"Where the Wildest Things Are." By Eric J. Fry, The Daily Reckoning, 6/11/11.

Mr. Fry is always witty. Some other gems in the article.

Guardians of Liberty Watch.

2011-12-22T11:20:00.001-06:00

Yahoo's top searches of 2011:

1. iPhone
2. Casey Anthony
3. Kim Kardashian
4. Katy Perry
5. Jennifer Lopez
6. Lindsay Lohan
7. American Idol
8. Jennifer Aniston
9. Japan earthquake
10. Osama bin Laden

"Top 10 Searches of 2011 on Yahoo, Facebook, Bing, Ask." By Ned Potter, abc NEWS, 12/1/11.

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff legal expenses.

2011-12-21T01:44:00.002-06:00

Please help Ms. Sabaditsch-Wolff with her legal expenses incurred in her defense against criminal charges brought against her in Austria for her truthful criticisms of Islam.

If you wish, a web site for you to contribute is here.

Thank you for any help you can give her. Free speech must be preserved in all Western countries, though the Austrian government disagrees vehemently with this idea.

H/t: Gates of Vienna .

Bottom line on black culture.

2011-12-16T15:00:00.000-06:00

Young black and Hispanic men and women have every reason to value themselves. We are lawyers, doctors, educators. The problem is that we are immersed in a culture that has given up on education, morals and manners. We are fighting against a culture that glorifies and promotes violence and drugs and has no regard for authority.

Take a look at what types of crimes are being committed and where. It's time to place the blame where it belongs. The animals should be held accountable for their actions--and preferably isolated in cages where they pose a risk only to themselves.^[1]

And it's up to blacks to make the case for what is majority black culture and minority black culture.

After half a century of whites bending over backwards and contorting our culture and legal system to accommodate black sensitivities and supposed "disadvantages," my reservoir of good will is bone dry. "Under-privileged"? My foot. For starters, how about "under-motivated"?

Works for me.

I see the massive black criminality, black rejectionism, and black desire for revenge and am utterly indifferent to the laughable argument that somehow white racism, structural racism or the "legacy of slavery" is to blame for black failure. Oh, wait! They all keep the black man down. The burden of proof is on blacks to show that their disgraceful culture is not due to problems within themselves, of which Exhibit A is their distorted thinking.

Foreign blacks appreciate this country in ways that American blacks do not. A former Haitian student of mine knew whereof she spoke when she said in essence that our criminal justice system would be a dream come true for Haitians. Every last black in this country ought to kiss the ground he or she walks on in sheer gratitude for being a citizen of this country. However.

President Obama will actually salute when the national anthem is played before that happens. At least it's a theoretical possibility.

I say what's described above is the majority black culture. Ninety-six percent of blacks support the political party that guarantees and enables black welfare, stupefying rates of black illegitimacy, and affirmative action dependency, as well as black academic failure (think Atlanta school system test scores) and the school horrors that go with it. Black support for thieving politicians is guaranteed. Black ostracism of or retaliation against snitches in their communities is a given.

Whites stepped up to the plate after the 50s. Time for blacks to do the same now. Starting with the wholesale rejection of the likes of Louis Farrakhan and James Cone ("Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.") and his acolyte, Jeremiah "God damn America" Wright.

However . . . .

Notes
^[1] "Blame perps, not cops: Politicians who endlessly protest stop and frisk are giving short shrift to the disease of youth violence." By Renee Barrett, New York Daily News, 12/15/11

H/t: Lawrence Auster, View from the Right .

Pearls of expression – XXIV.

2011-12-16T14:55:00.001-06:00

As in Greece, IMF programs are antigrowth, imposing austerity on the private economy, not the government.

"And the Crisis Winner Is? Government. From Greece to Washington to New York state, there's no effective mechanism to control spending." By David Malpass, Wall Street Journal, 12/16/11.

Alternative post title: The Madness Continues.

Muslims on display.

2011-12-16T13:56:00.001-06:00

Egyptian flavor.

Note the official complicity.

And we supply Egypt with foreign aid because . . . ? So it won't fall into the hands of the Salafists and descend into the depths of depravity?

That must be it.

Tremble o ye nations.

2011-12-14T23:02:00.000-06:00

We're Americans. We see farther.

~ Madeline Albright, Former Secretary of State.

H/t: "The Continuing Tory Revolution." By Thomas Fleming, Daily Mail, 10/28/11.

Perspective.

2011-12-14T20:06:00.001-06:00

A Timelapse Journey with Nature: 2009-2011 from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.

H/t: American Digest.

Pseudo capitalism.

2011-12-14T15:04:00.002-06:00

Leftist gall is never more in evidence than when leftists juxtapose nasty, rank socialism with existing faltering, corrupt, or white oppressor "capitalism."

What we have is a far cry from capitalism, much the same way that the sun is quite different from the flame of a candle. There are certain similarities but these days you won't get much of a tan from lying next to the candle of "capitalism" but you'll get a three-alarm sun burn if you spend much time basking in the rays of our sun of pseudo capitalism.

The left thus takes the position that the misery you're experiencing and the decay of the country you see resulting from a highly socialized economy is best ameliorated by more socialism.

Capitalism's primary characteristic is that capital is put at risk for a gain/loss. If risk is off-loaded onto the Fed's bottomless balance sheet and the taxpayer via government-funded bailouts and guarantees, then capital is not actually at risk. Thus what we have isn't capitalism, but cartel crony-capitalism, a phony version of the real thing which guarantees private banking profits and socializes banking losses.

"If Being Totally, Disastrously Wrong Were a Virtue, Bernanke and His Fed Mates Should Be Sainted." By Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds, 12/13/11 (emphasis in original).

Shorn of the particulars.

2011-12-13T10:04:00.001-06:00

Some interesting insights from someone who knows what living in a totalitarian society is like:

[Front Page Magazine]: What don’t you like about contemporary America?

[Leon Weinstein]: I don’t like borders that are open to illegal immigrants, smugglers and terrorists. I don’t like educational institutions that have no competition and can’t fire or stimulate teachers, and stagnating because of that. I don’t like tenure in Universities. I don’t like Unions that force jobs out of the country. I don’t like minimum wages. I don’t like that Congress can take away any share of the money we, productive citizens earn, and imprison us if we don’t pay. I don’t like growing debt and inability of our government to slow this process down. I don’t like the fact that those who receive entitlements can vote and eventually will vote us into a socialist country. I don’t like politicians that want to fundamentally change this best country in the world …. I just started. Do you want me to continue?

~ Leon Weinstein, the author of the new book, Capitalism 101.

"Capitalism 101." By Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com, 12/13/11.

Pearls of expression – XXIII.

2011-12-11T00:35:00.001-06:00

In Europe, the political class is beginning to understand that the social democratic state created to guarantee permanent stability risks plunging the Continent into the worst instability since those happy-go-lucky days of the 1930s.

"Obama Puts Class Warfare At Center Of 2012 Campaign." By Mark Steyn, Investor's Business Daily, 12/9/11.

Some perspective from Louis CK

2011-12-08T09:44:00.001-06:00

The gelded age.

2011-12-06T14:38:00.000-06:00

It is therefore just possible that the [British] rioters will, in the long run, have done a service to the country by awaking it to its past follies. But no one ever made much of a mistake by overestimating the pusillanimity of the British political class.^[1]

With this excellent comment by John:

The author mentions just about every factor in the the riots except probably the most crucial one, namely, that Britain has been overrun by Third World immigrants, and their descendants. They were rioters vastly out of proportion to their numbers in the general population.

This article is like an medical paper on malaria that covers every aspect of the disease except mosquitoes.

Notes
^[1] "Barbarians on the Thames. A postmortem of the British riots." By Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal, Autumn 2011.

Cue the fat lady.

2011-12-05T17:40:00.002-06:00

The Great European Debt Bubble has already burst . . . .

It's Your Choice, Europe: Rebel Against the Banks or Accept Debt-Serfdom." By Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds, 12/5/11.

L'Italia.

2011-12-05T14:45:00.002-06:00

I just think of the story of traffic lights in Italy. In Milan they are an instruction, in Rome a suggestion and in Naples, fairy lights... that is what will happen with {European] fiscal union.

~ Elaine Turner.

And, I'm taking a stab in the dark here, the Milanese pay the freight everywhere. Just like the Germans will be handed the bill for any European fiscal union.

Not in any balance sheet footnote that I've ever seen.

2011-12-02T15:14:00.002-06:00

The U.S. supposedly “owes” China a trillion dollars or so, but China has likely taken at least that amount from the U.S. in intellectual property theft (industrial patents, computer software, and entertainment) as well as the sale of counterfeit brand name goods.

The same unregistered reciprocity exists with the couple of trillion or so the U.S. owes India and Saudi Arabia. India has benefited massively from the public U.S. university system and the private offshoring of technology jobs, and Saudi Arabia has been able to hold a stable grip on its repressive power largely with the implicit backing of U.S. foreign policy and military.

I'm hard pressed to think of U.S. political leaders who act like they think the United States even has national interests. Donald Trump sure knew what a foreigner-administered screw job looks like but since 2001 we've had a president who kisses Saudi princes on the lips and holds hands with them and another president who bows and scrapes to Tokyo doormen and some kind of a sheik wearing a dress.

China hasn't just welcomed U.S. manufacturing to its shores but demanded that tour companies hollow themselves out as a condition of doing business there by transferring the company crown jewels to Chinese competitors. Not to mention the massive Chinese espionage effort mounted against us inside our borders.

And while we're taking a fresh look at things, let's ask why it was that we ended up moving so much precious manufacturing capacity and intellectual property to China – a murderous, corrupt communist dictatorship that is a dangerous strategic competitor of ours -- instead of to a friendly democracy like INDIA.

Why did we end up handing the gold to an enemy? With all that China does to maintain Iran and N. Korea, is there anyone who seriously thinks that China is friendly to us?

"Unleashing the Future: Advancing Prosperity Through Debt Forgiveness (Part 5)." By Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Of Two Minds.com, 12/2/11.

Mr. Y gets a bit dreamy and fluffy there when he thinks of how life can be if we abandon the present absurd path. People "being able to new opportunities and definitions of the good life involving working together creatively to build a better, more just world" and any mention of the word "reinvent" are clues that the person in question is in danger of floating off the surface of the planet.

His view on the nature of the present problems are well worth reading, however.

Pearls of expression – XXII.

2011-12-01T10:50:00.000-06:00

I would rather hand-feed a wolverine than take any advice, economic or otherwise, from Andy Stern.

~ Sean Peake.

Comment on " China's Superior Economic Model." By Andy Stern, Wall Street Journal, 12/1/11.

Mr. Stern is the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Pearls of expression – XXI.

2011-11-30T12:31:00.001-06:00

I love your analyses and writing Dr. Rubin, however I wish at the end of your articles you would include the number to a suicide hotline.

Bob from Virginia.

Comment on "Radical Chic Catastrophes: When Romanticism Trumps Reason." By Barry Rubin, PJ Media, 11/28/11.

Post-1960 in two sentences.

2011-11-30T12:29:00.000-06:00

The rules in the West are that criticizing yourself is the best thing you can do, so you’d better do this a lot, and you can never overstate your own guilt, even if you bend the facts to do that – that’ll just prove you more noble, but criticizing anyone else, even if you rely on cold hard facts, is racism and phobia. The rules in the Muslim world are that criticizing yourself is almost unheard of and in certain contexts could be considered blasphemous, which is punishable by law or fatwa, but criticizing the infidel is natural since infidels are evil by definition.

Pnina.

Comment on "Radical Chic Catastrophes: When Romanticism Trumps Reason." By Barry Rubin, PJ Media, 11/28/11.

Don't miss the whole comment of which this is also particularly choice:

The idea that conquest and imperialism are bad are Western notions, and relatively recent ones. In the Muslim view conquest and imperialism are bad if carried out by infidels. If Muslims do that they just spread the light and law of god, so it’s actually one way they express their love for the rest of humanity.

Job no. 1.

2011-11-29T19:36:00.002-06:00

Not that the GOP did anything to take the white working class away from Democrats, it just fell into the GOP lap [because the New Deal Coalition fractured and was abandoned by the Democrats]. Since the GOP wouldn't know how to do that if they had wanted to try, it's, "Huh, new voters!" with a shrug of the shoulders and back to what they really want to think about: how [to] get the black and Hispanic vote.

Ginta commenting on "Edsall: the Democratic party has given up on the white working class, and thus on the hope of reviving the New Deal coalition." By Lawrence Auster, View from the Right, 11/29/11.

Paul Weston on the E.U.

2011-11-27T20:13:00.001-06:00

We are watching a genuine dictatorship in the making.

~ Paul Weston.

Shock troops for statism.

2011-11-26T17:03:00.001-06:00

By 1980, half of all delegates to the Democratic convention worked for the government.

"'The New Tammany Hall'." By Matthew Kaminski, Wall Street Journal, 11/26/11.

Sell outs.

2011-11-26T14:07:00.001-06:00

Of course, having Republicans elected as mere foils in a progressive system is, I think, a Pyrrhic victory, but hey, at least we can gloat that “our side” is in charge for a bit — even if “our side” differs from “their side” only to the degree with which they sell out the principles upon which this country was founded in order to enjoy the spoils of power.

"Losing more slowly: an OUTLAW’s lament." By Jeff Goldstein, protein wisdom, 3/12/09.

Pearls of expression – IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.

2011-11-26T14:06:00.001-06:00

. . . John Ash's "Grammatical Institutes" (1763), for example, contains this marvelous explanation: "A Parenthesis (to be avoided as much as possible) is used to include some Sentence in another."

"Grappling Grammarians." By Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal, 11/23/11.

Modern government.

2011-11-25T17:19:00.002-06:00

The whole idea of modern government has been to promise the voters things you can’t afford to give them...and then borrow money to fill the gap.

Now coming to a screeching halt. End of the New Deal or, perhaps, even just the post-JFK paradigm: do what the @#$% you want and @#$% the consequences, @#$% the Christers, @#$% the culture, @#$% all that European civilization has been able to accomplish. @#$% that irrelevant @#$%. Get the @#$%g votes and the money.

Ok. So that's just a little juvenile. As to expression, that is. Should that be stated with more sophistication and maturity to make it sound better? More palatable?

What I really do love about the soon-to-be-reborn U.S. is that it won't be able to finance the pathology of the underclass. Ten tons of commentary couldn't shut down that little experiment but the iron laws of arithmetic will.

Yes indeedy.

"Fulfilling Empty Promises by Turning on the Printing Press." By Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 11/25/11.

Not an ungood summary.

2011-11-24T23:35:00.000-06:00

[T]he root cause of the horrors we experience almost daily lies with democracy itself, not just liberalism.

First, let's note that every modern, Western-style democracy on the planet suffers from the same set of pathologies: (1) runaway unsustainable government spending; (2) excessive tolerance for criminality, especially nonwhite criminality; (3) uncontrolled legal and illegal immigration from Third Word countries; (4) curtailment of the civil liberties--hate speech laws, laws against firearms etc; (5) an ever expanding administrative state that seeks to dictate every aspect of life, from the car you drive, to what kind of toilet you can own.

~ Alexis Zarkov at View from the Right.

New York Times prime directive.

2011-11-23T21:40:00.002-06:00

Barry Rubin’s article today on the Egyptian crisis is infinitely clearer than the New York Times’ lead article on the same subject, showing again how the Times’ prime directive as a newspaper is not to inform but to conceal (that is, to conceal the unpalatable truths about the leftists, enemies of the West, unassimilable minorities, homosexualists, and criminals whose interests and power the Times seeks to advance).^[1]

This is an example of an unassimilable minority.

And this. (Nothing will ever satisfy this scum.)

And this.

And this.

And this.

Notes
^[1] "A better explanation of what’s happening in Egypt." By Lawrence Auster, View from the Right, 11/23/11.

The incomprehensible State.

2011-11-23T18:22:00.002-06:00

But what if the State itself, is the “worst of all evils?” What if the State is genetically predisposed to malevolent mutations? What if even the “best State” – the one that begins its life, nobly, as a constitutionally constrained republic, dedicated to protecting and promoting “life, liberty and justice for all” – is really, at all times, on the road toward the most evil, militaristic expression possible?^[1]

The web site Freedom, Democide, War and a trainload of books, articles, and films point out the danger of government.

The Framers knew of the slaughter and other hideous abuses of ancient and modern states but even they could not envision the coercive and murderous powers that states have been able to acquire in the last 200 years. They'd have appreciated the dangers instantly but their descendants cannot.

But, today, bottom line, it's useless to call attention to the danger of government.

Some do see the problem but the reigning liberal infection, backed by the also-enhanced propaganda powers of the state, simply will not see it. The liberals' answer to the question posed by Mr. Bowman is that there is no need to worry about state power so long as educated people motivated by compassion can order the affairs of state and beat back selfish, materialistic, and "right-wing" producers.

To the liberal, there can never be a danger of runaway state power and those who seek to limit state power do it only to safeguard arrangements that exploit honest and virtuous workers.

The truth is that each and every citizen has a vital interest in preserving and refining limits on political power but it's become pointless to raise this in any debate. Supreme Court nomination hearings are a case in point. The horrendous federal-state implications of the Roe v. Wade decision should be the primary focus of inquiry during such hearings but the only thing that needs to be established in those hearings is whether the nominee will leave Roe v. Wade alone. End of inquiry.

Reverse the Supreme Court's attack on federalism?

Preposterous! Sacred stare decisis must protect even usurpations. Which is why it's sacred today.

The road is clear for the American state to fly further down the road to soft tyranny and then on to hard tyranny. The Constitution would have prevented this but we were unworthy of it. We did not inquire sufficiently into the nature of the state.

Notes
^[1] "Freedom: The New and Future Experiment... Part II ." By Joel Bowman, The Daily Reckoning, 11/21/11.

Authentictitty.

2011-11-23T16:26:00.000-06:00

For instance, 1966’s top-grossing movie was an adaptation of James Michener’s Hawaii, with Julie Andrews as a New England Congregationalist missionary disembarking in 1820s Honolulu. (It didn’t hurt box-office receipts that—strictly in the interest of anthropological accuracy—the ship is greeted by a bevy of bare-breasted native beauties.)

"The Descendants: A Step Down From Sideways." By Steve Sailer, Taki's Magazine, 11/23/11.

But you would be wrong.

2011-11-23T16:24:00.002-06:00

Newt Gingrich is now leading the Republican pack. The man’s think tank got $35 million from the health industry. You’d think that $35 million would pay for a lot of thinking.

"Cutting Federal Spending…One Way or Another." By Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 11/22/11.

I find Bill Bonner and Eric Fry at The Daily Reckoning to be entertaining and insightful commentators on matters financial and political. They have a daily newsletter that I read with interest. Ditto for the daily article from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Recommended.

Bombshell.

2011-11-22T18:23:00.001-06:00

Revised King speech.

2011-11-22T13:57:00.002-06:00

Lawrence Auster at View from the Right has a choice rendering of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech rendered in the race-neutral language of today's media reporting of black criminality.

Mr. Auster does this to call attention to "the current reality, in which the blackness of blacks is relentlessly pushed into our faces when it advances blacks' interests or blacks' collective ego, but is covered up when it does not . . . ." Commenter Paul Kersey describes this as the essence of Black-Run America.

Blackness is covered up, in case you were wondering, in the case of black educational failure, black illegitimacy, black criminality, black welfare dependence, black dependence on affirmative action and litigation extortion, black racism, black rejectionism, and black political failure, which includes fervent embrace of blackness and virulent socialism.

New and improved.

2011-11-22T13:37:00.000-06:00

Multiculturalism and liberalism has just left our society with infinitely complex new racial feuds.

Anonymous commenting on "Roebuck disliked his own." By Oz Conservative, 11/14/11.

H/t: View from the Right.

Pearls of expression – XIX.

2011-11-22T11:59:00.000-06:00

Hampton House [a lodging house] was, after all, practically the poster child for the "socially irresponsible" business. Thanks to its enviable location and an aversion to capital maintenance rivaled only by Alcatraz, it was able to rake in enormous profits even while operating at less than half capacity — and this despite a business philosophy that saw employees as liabilities, managerial competence as a luxury, and customers as a necessary evil.

"In Defense of the Market's Worst Producers." By David Greenwald, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 11/22/11.

Rented mule phenomenon.

2011-11-21T21:00:00.002-06:00

In the world of Liberal Land, you can just take for granted all the benefits of the existing society, and then simply tack on your new, wonderful ideas that will make things better.^[1]

The discerning mind of Thomas Sowell at work.

Years ago, I heard Don Imus speak of beating something like a rented mule. This refers, of course, to mistreating something in which one has no ownership interest.

It's a good way of thinking about the liberal approach to government. All liberals, progressives, or communists think about – when it isn't power and boodle – is how loopy schemes to put lemonade in water fountains and get surgeons to offer bypass operations for $199 can be implemented through legislation or bureaucratic regulation. The "liberty cost" or the destructive economic or social effect is never an issue.

Give the government an iota of additional power. Great! Do it 10,000 times. Lessons learned from 20th-century totalitarian murder and theft? Zilch.

All that matters is the imagined good to be obtained and the beauty of the abstraction. Experience counts for nothing and the idea that a mule can only be beaten so much or that one's own nest cannot be fouled indefinitely never, ever enters the progressive's mind.

Maintenance, preservation, safeguarding?

Alien concepts.

In marital terms, it's the equivalent of a man's chasing every woman he fancies. What matters is that if he fancies someone he can pursue this other women to his heart's content. That he might come home one day to find his golf clubs wrapped around a tree and the house empty is simply inconceivable to him. All actions he might wish to take are cost free.

Notes
^[1] "Liberal Land: Where The Thinking Is Illogical And Bizarre." By Thomas Sowell. Investor's Business Daily, 11/21/11.

Open, sensitive, stupid, loony.

2011-11-19T23:42:00.000-06:00

The white Christian population cannot understand that its fixation on openness and sensitivity is a form of madness.

"A Fatally Misled Civilization." By Paul Gottfried, Taki's Magazine. 10/23/11.

Pearls of expression – XVIII.

2011-11-19T18:14:00.001-06:00

Because if [the idea that the Other, e.g., a Muslim, is "not . . . a contemporary liberal] were so he [the Other] wouldn't be a human being at all, since contemporary liberalism is the true and perfect and obvious expression of humanity. That would be crazy and irrational. It's the sort of thing Republicans and conservative Christians think. It would mean that Auschwitz or something like it is a good idea.

~ Jim Kalb commenting at View from the Right, 9/11 quoted here.

Success as a political blogger.

2011-11-18T16:11:00.001-06:00

Dr. Tanni Haas advises that her book Making it in the Political Blogosphere has been released.

It "focuses on two central questions: what [successful political] bloggers have done to become so successful, and what others can do to achieve similar blogging success."

Dr. Haas is Leonard & Claire Tow Professor and Full Professor, Department of Speech Communication Arts & Sciences at The City University of New York – Brooklyn College.