When I was young, I had a puppy that chased his tail. He never actually caught it so I often wondered why he bothered. Maybe it entertained him. Maybe it made him feel better. Or maybe he never bothered to think about how pointless it was. Now I realize he might just have been an environmentalist. Like the puppy, environmentalists chase their tails in the sense that their solutions either accomplish nothing or create the next problem, requiring another trip around the circle. Their current actions are never analyzed for effectivity or impact. Paramount is how the action makes them currently feel and motion is preferable to doing nothing even if nothing would give a better result.
When I speak of environmentalists, I speak of the extremists, not people who want clean air and water or might enjoy an occasional visit to a national park. Rather I refer to puppy-tail touting liberals that impose solutions creating the next set of problems. Obama's Cap and Trade is the latest in this line of idiocy but I thought instructive to look at environmentalism historically.
Modern environmentalism begins with Theadore Roosevelt who gave birth to the national park system. It seemed like a benign stretch of federal power. Later his cousin, FDR, founded the Tennessee Valley Authority. Its mission was to build dams to create hydroelectric power. It provided jobs for many during the height of the depression, raised the standard of living for many Appalachian poor, and drove demand for new consumer goods. Pollution from burning wood and coal diminished as people turned to cheap, reliable electricity to heat and cook. But now the environmentalists have discovered that fish populations have declined because the fish cannot get to their spawning grounds. The call now is to remove the power plants. This, of course, would increase poverty and push people back to wood and coal. Then what? Can you say, "Here puppy, puppy!"?
The Nixon administration founded the Environmental Protection Agency. This brings the force of the government and the hidden government agendas to environmental policy. Sulfur being emitted by burning eastern coal brings acid rain. Burning western coal would solve the problem. But this would affect local employment conditions. The EPA mandates the use of scrubbers on smoke stacks to remove the sulfur. Plants that cannot afford the scrubbers go out of business, affecting local employment conditions. Plants that burn western coal must also have the scrubbers even though they do absolutely no good. The cost is past on to you.
To deal with auto emissions CAFE standards were enacted, calling for lighter cars. Death rates climbed as survivability in these flimsy cars plummeted. For some environmentalists this is a good thing because human life is an empediment to a good environment. Air bags have helped curb the death toll but I wonder when they will start whining about the chemicals involved in making the bags. To further reduce auto emissions catalytic converters were mandated so "harmless" carbon dioxide would be emitted. Now they are all nuts about greenhouse gases.
Today environmentalists sow the seeds of their future complaints. Low-watt light bulbs contain elements to toxic to place in land fills. Cash for Clunkers took useful cars and placed in them landfills so "environmentally friendly" cars could take their place. Let's review how much damage hybrids do the environment. Cadmium is a key component in the batteries for hybrid cars. It is toxic to all living things and nothing will grow within miles of such a mine. Mines can be found in environmental sensitive places such as Brazil and the Great-Lakes area of Canada. The stuff is sent to China to be made into batteries. The batteries are then shipped to Europe to be made into engine assemblies. The engines are then shipped to the USA to make into cars. The amount of extra fossil fuel burned to produce and transport components for these cars versus a normal car far exceeds what the hybrid will save in its lifetime.
Now Obama joins the idiocy with Cap and Trade. C&T is supposed to mean that you cap the amount of greenhouse gases emitted globally. When a company want to exceed its cap, it must trade with another so the overall levels do not increase. But like all Marxists theories, it sounds great on paper but has no practical implementation. In Europe there is a market to buy credits when you want to exceed your cap. The money is sent to China where they are paid to dismantle on old, coal burning plant. But what do the Chinese do with the site afterward? Of course, they build a new, modern coal-burning plant. While CO2 emissions have increased steadily in spite of C&T, it has recently declined during Obama's War on Prosperity. Indeed, shrinking economies are the best way to reduce CO2 levels but who would want that? No one except Carol Browner, Obama's Global Warming Czar who belongs to the Commission for a Sustainable World Society which calls for rich countries to shrink their economies. I guess it makes sense for Obama to increase the number of poor in this country so he can increase the number of people he can hook on government unemployment and welfare. That way he can threaten them with starvation, like he threatens the elderly, if they don't vote correctly next time.
This week Obama went to the UN and did his usual apologies for the existence of America but he also promised to work with them on environmental issues. Now it's true the UN just wants to abscond our national wealth under the guise of environmentalism or whatever Obama will go along with but they are generally more inept than Obama at getting anything done so if anyone can gum up the puppy tail-chasing machine, they can; they gum up everything else. And they might even do it cheaper than the administration alone (It's pretty sad when the UN becomes a better bargain than the Federal Government). At least this will buy us some time until the 2010 election when Republicans can come back and, in Biden's words, "end our agenda". How's that for hope and change. And nothing against you dog lovers out there, but from now on, I am sticking to cats.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Little Dutch Boys and the Pied Piper
Reader warning is advised. If you are a child, childish, overly liberal, pregnant or may become pregnant, this story may not be right for you. Some portion may depict death. Please consult your doctor if death is not right for you.
Once there was a village nestled below a dike in the Dutch countryside. The village was called De Usaloompadoompadeedoo. (For this story we will just call it The Usa. De means "the" in English as in The Hague where liberals want to try Bush officials all the time for crimes against trees, fish and Islamic Freedom Fighters. And Usa, because Usaloompa...whatever, like many Dutch words is just too long since Dutch is a Germanic language. English is a Germanic language too and that is why liberals want us to change to Spanish, which is much easier to pronounce and has nothing to do with what Joe Biden called "Undocumented Aliens" pouring across the borders, collecting welfare goodies and voting Democrat to keep the good times rolling. But let's get back to the story).
One day a crack appeared in the mighty dike built above The Usa to keep the the ocean out. Water poured into the town, undermining the foundation of the great clock tower that had been a long-time landmark. The tower came crashing down, much to the dismay of the villagers. It was soon determined that illegal immigrants from Iceland had stolen a bunch of carts and smashed them into the dike. An Icelandic terrorist group, I'llkillya, claimed responsibility. They objected to the way the Dutch interfered with the flow of water from across the world by blocking it with dikes. Dikes were, of course, a way of life in the Netherlands but Icelanders had no dikes and did not see why the Dutch should have them either. Mayor Van Busch dispatched his bravest boys to the dike to stop the flooding. The Little Dutch Boys, as they were called, quickly stuck their fingers in the crack too stop the flow while the mayor tried to formulate a permanent solution.
Now here is where it got a little sticky. The Usa was divided into two groups. One group liked trees, love songs and sweet rain. They frequently gathered to sing a song called "Let it Be" from which they got their name, the Let-It-Be party or the L.I.B.'s The other group believed in self reliance and taking care of your own nest (nest meant your own house in Dutch). The Care-Own-Nest or C.O.N.'s thought they should round up the Icelandofacists and put them in prison. The L.I.B.'s thought they should talk nicely to the Free-the-Water Fighters to find out why they hated the Dutch so much. In the midst of the debate there was a new election and the L.I.B candidate won, Mayor Barrack Van Damma. (The mayor had a middle name but I am not allowed to use it because it was Icelanic in origin on account of his father's family coming from Iceland).
Mayor Van Damma decided that is was the responsibility of the country dwellers that lived nearest the dike to repair it and announced he was going to withdraw the Little Dutch Boys in 16 months without a plan for the permanent repair of the dike. (Don't ask me where the 16-month time limit came from. It just gave the Icelanders an idea when they could attack again). Then the mayor announced he was going to focus on a problem that the rest of village had not thought about. Now, the village courthouse was where many people, especially the elderly, gathered for entertainment. It was, after all, very funny how child molesters got off with a few hours of community service while people convicted of yelling at cats, trees or children were sent to prison for years. Studies had shown that people lived longer when they indulged in regular attendance in the courthouse. But like many courthouses, it was infested with rats. The rats would chew through villager's wooden shoes. The affluent would wear steel-plate shoes lined with soft fur to avoid being bitten. But these shoes were very expensive and Mayor Van Damma did not think it fair that poor villagers could not afford them. But the village could not afford to buy steel shoes for everyone.
One day a piper from the far-away land of Montana named Maximus Backamus came to The Usa and promised to drive away the rats. When the mayor asked how much it would cost, the Pied Piper, as Max was called (I think pied refers to the shape of his face or something) assured the mayor that they need not worry about it since his piping will not only drive out the rats but cause sweet rain to fall endlessly on the village. Enthusiastically, the mayor reported to the L.I.B. dominated village counsel that signing the contract will cause sweet rain to fall and the poor will vote L.I.B forevermore. Many of the C.O.N.'s were concerned about the details of the contract and its huge cost. The L.I.B.'s accused them of being prejudice against the Mayor because he had big, floppy ears. Now the mayor was the first person with big, floppy ears to hold the office (although a previous L.I.B mayor, Wilhelm Van Grabanintern, claimed he was an honorary big-floppy earer) but the C.O.N.'s insisted their objections had nothing to do with ears.
Villagers protested the contract en masse but the counsel and the mayor approved the contract (without reading it; go figure) and the Pied Piper went to work. The rats left the courthouse (well a lot of them at least) but they did not leave The Usa. Instead, they infested the homes and businesses across the village, multiplying and tormenting everyone. When the baker complained that the rats were eating all the bread, the mayor simply took over the bakery and fired the baker. Somehow, that didn't fix anything and soon The Usa was broke from paying so much money to the Pied Piper. So the mayor decided to distract everybody by pointing out that while many of the Dutch boys holding up the dike were heroes, some of them were offending Icelandic Free-the-Water Fighters by pushing too hard against the water behind the dike. The C.O.N.'s insisted that the harsh finger-indention techniques were warranted to keep the ocean waters out and had been approved by Mayor Van Busch (After all, not a drop of water had come through the dike since the flood). But the L.I.B.s insisted that some boys had pushed so hard that they had contorted their face and contortion was illegal.
Unfortunately, the L.I.B.'s just said, "We are the ones in power." They threw half the Dutch boys in jail for what L.I.B.'s called their "dam crimes" and violations of "hydro-rights" while the other half was sent home with the Mayor's public thanks but told privately by the mayor's henchmen not to carry guns, display the Dutch flag in public or send emails about fish or they might be arrested. Meanwhile, I'llkillya had smuggled a giant bomb into the country and mounted it onto the dike. It exploded in a giant BOOM! The ocean poured into The Usa, wiping it from the map.
Now I you may not have heard this story before since Foxnews was the only outlet to cover it. But I am sure that if you had been made aware of the plight of The Usa before it happened, you would have done everything you could to prevent it. Well, maybe you still can.
Once there was a village nestled below a dike in the Dutch countryside. The village was called De Usaloompadoompadeedoo. (For this story we will just call it The Usa. De means "the" in English as in The Hague where liberals want to try Bush officials all the time for crimes against trees, fish and Islamic Freedom Fighters. And Usa, because Usaloompa...whatever, like many Dutch words is just too long since Dutch is a Germanic language. English is a Germanic language too and that is why liberals want us to change to Spanish, which is much easier to pronounce and has nothing to do with what Joe Biden called "Undocumented Aliens" pouring across the borders, collecting welfare goodies and voting Democrat to keep the good times rolling. But let's get back to the story).
One day a crack appeared in the mighty dike built above The Usa to keep the the ocean out. Water poured into the town, undermining the foundation of the great clock tower that had been a long-time landmark. The tower came crashing down, much to the dismay of the villagers. It was soon determined that illegal immigrants from Iceland had stolen a bunch of carts and smashed them into the dike. An Icelandic terrorist group, I'llkillya, claimed responsibility. They objected to the way the Dutch interfered with the flow of water from across the world by blocking it with dikes. Dikes were, of course, a way of life in the Netherlands but Icelanders had no dikes and did not see why the Dutch should have them either. Mayor Van Busch dispatched his bravest boys to the dike to stop the flooding. The Little Dutch Boys, as they were called, quickly stuck their fingers in the crack too stop the flow while the mayor tried to formulate a permanent solution.
Now here is where it got a little sticky. The Usa was divided into two groups. One group liked trees, love songs and sweet rain. They frequently gathered to sing a song called "Let it Be" from which they got their name, the Let-It-Be party or the L.I.B.'s The other group believed in self reliance and taking care of your own nest (nest meant your own house in Dutch). The Care-Own-Nest or C.O.N.'s thought they should round up the Icelandofacists and put them in prison. The L.I.B.'s thought they should talk nicely to the Free-the-Water Fighters to find out why they hated the Dutch so much. In the midst of the debate there was a new election and the L.I.B candidate won, Mayor Barrack Van Damma. (The mayor had a middle name but I am not allowed to use it because it was Icelanic in origin on account of his father's family coming from Iceland).
Mayor Van Damma decided that is was the responsibility of the country dwellers that lived nearest the dike to repair it and announced he was going to withdraw the Little Dutch Boys in 16 months without a plan for the permanent repair of the dike. (Don't ask me where the 16-month time limit came from. It just gave the Icelanders an idea when they could attack again). Then the mayor announced he was going to focus on a problem that the rest of village had not thought about. Now, the village courthouse was where many people, especially the elderly, gathered for entertainment. It was, after all, very funny how child molesters got off with a few hours of community service while people convicted of yelling at cats, trees or children were sent to prison for years. Studies had shown that people lived longer when they indulged in regular attendance in the courthouse. But like many courthouses, it was infested with rats. The rats would chew through villager's wooden shoes. The affluent would wear steel-plate shoes lined with soft fur to avoid being bitten. But these shoes were very expensive and Mayor Van Damma did not think it fair that poor villagers could not afford them. But the village could not afford to buy steel shoes for everyone.
One day a piper from the far-away land of Montana named Maximus Backamus came to The Usa and promised to drive away the rats. When the mayor asked how much it would cost, the Pied Piper, as Max was called (I think pied refers to the shape of his face or something) assured the mayor that they need not worry about it since his piping will not only drive out the rats but cause sweet rain to fall endlessly on the village. Enthusiastically, the mayor reported to the L.I.B. dominated village counsel that signing the contract will cause sweet rain to fall and the poor will vote L.I.B forevermore. Many of the C.O.N.'s were concerned about the details of the contract and its huge cost. The L.I.B.'s accused them of being prejudice against the Mayor because he had big, floppy ears. Now the mayor was the first person with big, floppy ears to hold the office (although a previous L.I.B mayor, Wilhelm Van Grabanintern, claimed he was an honorary big-floppy earer) but the C.O.N.'s insisted their objections had nothing to do with ears.
Villagers protested the contract en masse but the counsel and the mayor approved the contract (without reading it; go figure) and the Pied Piper went to work. The rats left the courthouse (well a lot of them at least) but they did not leave The Usa. Instead, they infested the homes and businesses across the village, multiplying and tormenting everyone. When the baker complained that the rats were eating all the bread, the mayor simply took over the bakery and fired the baker. Somehow, that didn't fix anything and soon The Usa was broke from paying so much money to the Pied Piper. So the mayor decided to distract everybody by pointing out that while many of the Dutch boys holding up the dike were heroes, some of them were offending Icelandic Free-the-Water Fighters by pushing too hard against the water behind the dike. The C.O.N.'s insisted that the harsh finger-indention techniques were warranted to keep the ocean waters out and had been approved by Mayor Van Busch (After all, not a drop of water had come through the dike since the flood). But the L.I.B.s insisted that some boys had pushed so hard that they had contorted their face and contortion was illegal.
Unfortunately, the L.I.B.'s just said, "We are the ones in power." They threw half the Dutch boys in jail for what L.I.B.'s called their "dam crimes" and violations of "hydro-rights" while the other half was sent home with the Mayor's public thanks but told privately by the mayor's henchmen not to carry guns, display the Dutch flag in public or send emails about fish or they might be arrested. Meanwhile, I'llkillya had smuggled a giant bomb into the country and mounted it onto the dike. It exploded in a giant BOOM! The ocean poured into The Usa, wiping it from the map.
Now I you may not have heard this story before since Foxnews was the only outlet to cover it. But I am sure that if you had been made aware of the plight of The Usa before it happened, you would have done everything you could to prevent it. Well, maybe you still can.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Lessons of 9/11
Another anniversary of 9/11 got me thinking of the lessons of that day. President Bush declared in 2001 that 9/11 was an attack on freedom. He dedicated himself, successfully, to the protection of the American people and to the protection of their freedom. I have since pondered why he was so successful and whether we will continue.
First you have to recognize that 9/11 was a continuation of a drama that has played out throughout human history. The desire for freedom is innate to the human psyche, but so is the malevolent desire to dominate. Even our nation as it strove for the former has committed the sin of the latter. Our forefathers founded a nation of freedom on the back of slaves. But we have since repented and deserve forgiveness as we overcome racism. But as we turned from the slavery of the 19th century to the isolationism of the 20th century, we discovered the struggle continued on the world stage. After two world wars we realized that if we do not direct world events, someone else will. Communism rose immediately in the last half of the previous century as then new enslaver. When the Cold War ended abruptly, Saddam Hussein took Kuwait much as Hitler took Poland. We acted to dislodge him to prevent another world war but our actions angered Islamofacists who acted against us on 9/11. This struggle will never end. We can retreat and let someone else force us into another world war or we can continue to play the manifest role we have as the word's only super power.
Our success in changing two governments in the Middle East and dismantling Al Qaeda is owed to a strong military and intelligent agency. They also have the most technologically advanced tools developed by unleashed innovation. Innovation is fostered by capitalism which allows people and corporations to profit from their innovation. Both organizations are motivated by strong patriotism, a long-fostered characteristic of our nation.
Unfortunately, the current administration is assaulting our nation. Its takeover of businesses, badmouthing them, taxing them and regulating them to death will slow the progress of innovation. The refusal to wear the American flag on the lapel and suspicion of patriotism undermines the moral of the the military. Saying that people went into the military because they could not get a regular job in Bush's economy is insulting. Prosecuting intelligence agents for protecting us will bring this to a halt. We can't even call the replacement for the World Towers the Freedom Tower because it offends people. What's up with that? Peaceniks cry for us to play nice and leave the world alone. This will leave malevolent forces to wreak havoc on the world stage. The oppression of Viet Nam and North Korea left in the wake of listening to these "do-gooders" will become the global norm until a mushroom cloud vaporizes another group of liberals in LA, NY, Chicago or Washington.
The Federal government itself has become the oppressor of 9/11. As Islamofacists want to force their morality on us, Liberals lecture us that providing health care for everyone is our moral obligation and proposes the government force us to do it. Forcing someone to do something they do not want to do is the essence of slavery unless you return something of value back the them. Taxing you to protect you from terrorists is not slavery, but taking your money to give to someone else is. Taxing the "rich" to support someone else is no different than forcing black slaves to work to support white masters. (By the way, protecting America, unlike Obama care, is almost deficit neutral. How much revenue has the government raised on the rising stock market since 9/11 and the two wars versus doing nothing and letting the economy continue to tank?)
While liberals bad-mouth our forefathers as dead, white slave-owners, I forgive them their sins and thank them for gifting us a republic with the right to vote for our leaders. The tea-party movement drives Liberals nuts but in spite of the insults hurled at them from public officials, estimates indicate 2010 could shift Congress by 100 seats or more. And if they don't get it, we will shift again until someone figures out that moral obligations are a matter of conscience, not a Federal issue, profit is not a dirty word, and "God Bless America" is not racist profanity.
First you have to recognize that 9/11 was a continuation of a drama that has played out throughout human history. The desire for freedom is innate to the human psyche, but so is the malevolent desire to dominate. Even our nation as it strove for the former has committed the sin of the latter. Our forefathers founded a nation of freedom on the back of slaves. But we have since repented and deserve forgiveness as we overcome racism. But as we turned from the slavery of the 19th century to the isolationism of the 20th century, we discovered the struggle continued on the world stage. After two world wars we realized that if we do not direct world events, someone else will. Communism rose immediately in the last half of the previous century as then new enslaver. When the Cold War ended abruptly, Saddam Hussein took Kuwait much as Hitler took Poland. We acted to dislodge him to prevent another world war but our actions angered Islamofacists who acted against us on 9/11. This struggle will never end. We can retreat and let someone else force us into another world war or we can continue to play the manifest role we have as the word's only super power.
Our success in changing two governments in the Middle East and dismantling Al Qaeda is owed to a strong military and intelligent agency. They also have the most technologically advanced tools developed by unleashed innovation. Innovation is fostered by capitalism which allows people and corporations to profit from their innovation. Both organizations are motivated by strong patriotism, a long-fostered characteristic of our nation.
Unfortunately, the current administration is assaulting our nation. Its takeover of businesses, badmouthing them, taxing them and regulating them to death will slow the progress of innovation. The refusal to wear the American flag on the lapel and suspicion of patriotism undermines the moral of the the military. Saying that people went into the military because they could not get a regular job in Bush's economy is insulting. Prosecuting intelligence agents for protecting us will bring this to a halt. We can't even call the replacement for the World Towers the Freedom Tower because it offends people. What's up with that? Peaceniks cry for us to play nice and leave the world alone. This will leave malevolent forces to wreak havoc on the world stage. The oppression of Viet Nam and North Korea left in the wake of listening to these "do-gooders" will become the global norm until a mushroom cloud vaporizes another group of liberals in LA, NY, Chicago or Washington.
The Federal government itself has become the oppressor of 9/11. As Islamofacists want to force their morality on us, Liberals lecture us that providing health care for everyone is our moral obligation and proposes the government force us to do it. Forcing someone to do something they do not want to do is the essence of slavery unless you return something of value back the them. Taxing you to protect you from terrorists is not slavery, but taking your money to give to someone else is. Taxing the "rich" to support someone else is no different than forcing black slaves to work to support white masters. (By the way, protecting America, unlike Obama care, is almost deficit neutral. How much revenue has the government raised on the rising stock market since 9/11 and the two wars versus doing nothing and letting the economy continue to tank?)
While liberals bad-mouth our forefathers as dead, white slave-owners, I forgive them their sins and thank them for gifting us a republic with the right to vote for our leaders. The tea-party movement drives Liberals nuts but in spite of the insults hurled at them from public officials, estimates indicate 2010 could shift Congress by 100 seats or more. And if they don't get it, we will shift again until someone figures out that moral obligations are a matter of conscience, not a Federal issue, profit is not a dirty word, and "God Bless America" is not racist profanity.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Lessons From the Kennedy Family
When I first heard that Senator Ted Kennedy died, I felt like singing that old classic from the "Wizard of Oz" -- "Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is Dead." Fortunately, my better nature precluded this. But having said goodbye to Senator Kennedy, I think it is time to reflect on lessons he and his family have taught us. Not those sappy, milk-toast fawnings you get on TV but some real gems.
Gem 1: To avoid consequences be a liberal politician with a liberal constituency.
Of course, I am talking about Chapaquitic. Many have been frustrated that he got away with murder or something close to it. But liberals to not care about what sins their people commit as long as they say warm, fuzzy liberal stuff. The American people fortunately do not have the same attitude, which kept Ted Kennedy out of the White House. This week Van Jones, Obama's Tsar for green jobs resigned for public statements about Republicans that included obscenities, belonging to a group that thinks President Bush was complicit in 9/11, belonging to another group that called for violent overthrow of the government and oh, ya; he proclaimed he was a communist. Yet he got in to the administration because they did not care about any of that because he was saying warm, fuzzy liberal stuff. Not even the main-stream press said anything until the resignation because Liberals do not care! Just don't interrupt them with facts while they are chanting "Love and peace, my hair is full of grease..."
Gem 2: Don't force the elderly into back-ally health care clinics.
Senator Kennedy was old with a fatal disease. Yet he rejected President Obama's advice to take a pain pill and just die. Ultimately, the health care he consumed was for naught but it was his choice. Senator Kennedy bemoaned attempts to make killing unborn babies illegal. Women would be forced into back-ally clinics to have abortions anyway. If he was so sure that women would endure risky, illegal measures just to rid themselves of inconvenient children, imagine what the elderly will do to dodge the Obama death panels. The Kennedys know well what happens when you make an activity illegal. During Prohibition, Joseph Kennedy (Ted's father) made moonshine and worked with the Mafia to distribute it to a public desperate for booze. This made him rich and the family has lived off the proceeds ever since. He became ambassador to Britain and might have even become president if he hadn't supported some German politician named Hitler. At least his kids had the sense not to do that. Imagine what San Francisco, whose job it is to elect the wackiest socialists, would have to do to outdo a Nazi from Massachusetts.
Gem 3: Even after two generations of Kennedy liberalism poverty cannot be eradicated.
In 1964 the Kennedys applauded Johnson's War on Poverty. The goal was to eradicate poverty by 1980. Of course, we keep changing the definition of poverty, revising ever upward. America does poor like no other with TVs, cell phones, cars, refrigerators and, of course, cigarettes (just another way for your tax money to go up in smoke). Senator Kennedy championed the little guy but using methods that ultimately shafted the little guy instead. That is because he used the biggest guy on the block, the Federal Government. The government's fatal flaw is that it is all powerful. This makes is great for running the military and police but terrible for social programs. Because presidents in the past have used public jobs to reward cronies, laws have been passed to prevent the practice. The Clinton's were guilty of violating civil service laws when they fired the White House travel office and replaced them with friends from Arkansas. But how would you react if your boss changed every four years and he had virtually no power to fire you regardless of what you did. Some would work hard for reasons of integrity but over time your work place would become a magnate for people who wanted to collect a paycheck while playing computer solitaire all day or simply running a chess tournament (I did not make this up, I observed this in a government facility I once visited). So there you have it, the government "worker". If a charity were tasked with helping the poor and its workers did nothing at work, abused the charity's credit cards with impunity, stole or allowed others to steal from the charity, you would stop contributing. Try doing that with the Federal Government and you hit the fatal flaw, the power to take your money anyway. Charities that perform as abysmally as the government eventually die but the government lives on and continues sucking money from the little guy in the form of higher taxes and ever larger bureaucracies. This takes from charities that would actually help the poor and even worse, the government has the power to regulate is competition out of existence. Whether it's two generations or twenty of Kennedys coming after your money (funny they are not giving up their trust fund to the government), the War on Poverty will never be won this way. Although Obama's War on Prosperity is going quite nicely.
So Goodbye, Teddy. They say you were one of a kind and for our sakes, I hope so. Say, can we donate is body to science? If we could just discover what gene causes whaco liberalism, I might become a supporter of tax-funded abortions in certain cases.
Gem 1: To avoid consequences be a liberal politician with a liberal constituency.
Of course, I am talking about Chapaquitic. Many have been frustrated that he got away with murder or something close to it. But liberals to not care about what sins their people commit as long as they say warm, fuzzy liberal stuff. The American people fortunately do not have the same attitude, which kept Ted Kennedy out of the White House. This week Van Jones, Obama's Tsar for green jobs resigned for public statements about Republicans that included obscenities, belonging to a group that thinks President Bush was complicit in 9/11, belonging to another group that called for violent overthrow of the government and oh, ya; he proclaimed he was a communist. Yet he got in to the administration because they did not care about any of that because he was saying warm, fuzzy liberal stuff. Not even the main-stream press said anything until the resignation because Liberals do not care! Just don't interrupt them with facts while they are chanting "Love and peace, my hair is full of grease..."
Gem 2: Don't force the elderly into back-ally health care clinics.
Senator Kennedy was old with a fatal disease. Yet he rejected President Obama's advice to take a pain pill and just die. Ultimately, the health care he consumed was for naught but it was his choice. Senator Kennedy bemoaned attempts to make killing unborn babies illegal. Women would be forced into back-ally clinics to have abortions anyway. If he was so sure that women would endure risky, illegal measures just to rid themselves of inconvenient children, imagine what the elderly will do to dodge the Obama death panels. The Kennedys know well what happens when you make an activity illegal. During Prohibition, Joseph Kennedy (Ted's father) made moonshine and worked with the Mafia to distribute it to a public desperate for booze. This made him rich and the family has lived off the proceeds ever since. He became ambassador to Britain and might have even become president if he hadn't supported some German politician named Hitler. At least his kids had the sense not to do that. Imagine what San Francisco, whose job it is to elect the wackiest socialists, would have to do to outdo a Nazi from Massachusetts.
Gem 3: Even after two generations of Kennedy liberalism poverty cannot be eradicated.
In 1964 the Kennedys applauded Johnson's War on Poverty. The goal was to eradicate poverty by 1980. Of course, we keep changing the definition of poverty, revising ever upward. America does poor like no other with TVs, cell phones, cars, refrigerators and, of course, cigarettes (just another way for your tax money to go up in smoke). Senator Kennedy championed the little guy but using methods that ultimately shafted the little guy instead. That is because he used the biggest guy on the block, the Federal Government. The government's fatal flaw is that it is all powerful. This makes is great for running the military and police but terrible for social programs. Because presidents in the past have used public jobs to reward cronies, laws have been passed to prevent the practice. The Clinton's were guilty of violating civil service laws when they fired the White House travel office and replaced them with friends from Arkansas. But how would you react if your boss changed every four years and he had virtually no power to fire you regardless of what you did. Some would work hard for reasons of integrity but over time your work place would become a magnate for people who wanted to collect a paycheck while playing computer solitaire all day or simply running a chess tournament (I did not make this up, I observed this in a government facility I once visited). So there you have it, the government "worker". If a charity were tasked with helping the poor and its workers did nothing at work, abused the charity's credit cards with impunity, stole or allowed others to steal from the charity, you would stop contributing. Try doing that with the Federal Government and you hit the fatal flaw, the power to take your money anyway. Charities that perform as abysmally as the government eventually die but the government lives on and continues sucking money from the little guy in the form of higher taxes and ever larger bureaucracies. This takes from charities that would actually help the poor and even worse, the government has the power to regulate is competition out of existence. Whether it's two generations or twenty of Kennedys coming after your money (funny they are not giving up their trust fund to the government), the War on Poverty will never be won this way. Although Obama's War on Prosperity is going quite nicely.
So Goodbye, Teddy. They say you were one of a kind and for our sakes, I hope so. Say, can we donate is body to science? If we could just discover what gene causes whaco liberalism, I might become a supporter of tax-funded abortions in certain cases.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)