A few choice quotes:
He hates the communists. “Communism makes people lazy. Yah!”
And this is most telling:
“Joe”, he said, “People complain about how unequal things are with the rich executives in a capitalist society. But it’s just the same under communism–it’s the politically connected that have the money and the people that aren’t connected don’t have anything. I know. I lived it. Communism, it’s very bad.”
Oleg Volk discusses the ethics of weapon use. (h/t to Robb Allen)
For those that may not want to click on this figuring it’s just some pro-gun justification rah-rah article, give it a read. Oleg has a rather well-thought out line of reasoning.
Howard Nemerov was invited to speak at a local “tea party” with mixed reception.
From what I know of Howard, he isn’t what the organizers wanted… he’s pretty sick of it all:
Why should people believe a “conservative” will be any better than a “liberal” when a self-proclaimed conservative ran up the deficit during his time as president? It was the Republicans during the 2000-2004 time period that prepared the way for Obamanomics. They justified expanding government and federal spending, because it was for the “right” reasons. Now, they sit mute while the new administration makes their efforts look sophomoric, because they know that speaking up too loud risks drawing attention to their hypocrisy.
They know that the American electorate has demonstrated a resistance to learning the lessons of history. As “progressive” economist John Kenneth Galbraith observed:
Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.
[…]
We no longer have a two party system: We have the Democrat party, and the Democrat-too party, neither of which adheres to the goals stated on their party websites.
We’ve got mere weeks before Congress returns from their summer holiday–more travel expenses paid by us–and takes up issues like Cap & Trade and socialized medicine. If you have any ideas on how to refocus this movement on We the People, please send them along.
I’m starting to think that the better strategy now will be to vote for whomever has the best chance of unseating the incumbent.
Given my recent postings on the heathcare topic and the ensuing discussion, foo.c posts a video from CATO on the matter that punches holes in the President’s plan.
…it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the power of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and the Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Read the rest of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. Remember why this country was founded.
See how well “free” healthcare works for Canada?
A past company I worked for, the office/project I worked on was out of Ontario. One of the first things I asked my co-workers about on my first visit was about the health care. They weren’t excited about it, but felt it mostly kept them alive. One co-worker told me how her grandmother had to spend 3 days on a gurney in the hallway of a hospital because all the rooms were full.
Yeah… that’s just how I want my grandmother to be cared for. And my mother. And my wife. And my children. And myself.
But hey, it’s “free” right?
You get what you pay for.
George Newman in the Wall Street Journal today does a good job with some health care reform myths. I especially like this perspective on a “public” plan:
“We need a public plan to keep the private plans honest.”
But then why stop there? Eating is even more important than health care, so shouldn’t we have government-run supermarkets “to keep the private ones honest”? After all, supermarkets clearly put profits ahead of feeding people. And we can’t run around naked, so we should have government-run clothing stores to keep the private ones honest. And shelter is just as important, so we should start public housing to keep private builders honest. Oops, we already have that. And that is exactly the point. Think of everything you know about public housing, the image the term conjures up in your mind. If you like public housing you will love public health care.
Give the Newman piece a read. It does quite well at gutting the arguments for the proposed health care reforms.
Some people have a “quote of the day”. I saw this in someone’s signature and realized it’s a good anti-quote, because no you never hear it:
You never hear in the news, “200 killed today when Atheist rebels took heavy shelling from the Agnostic stronghold in the North.”
Roberta X goes off about the recent New Haven, CT firefighter racial discrimination lawsuit ruling.
This is the cold, dead hand of Woodrow Wilson’s Democratic Party, reaching out with the soft bigotry of low expectations. telling us, “that’s all they’re capable of, poor creatures.” Bullshit! Pure, unadulterated, triple-strength bilge and hokum! It’s 2009 and just about the only groups that have to be reminded of the countervailing examples all around ’em are unregenerate racists and liberals — but I repeat myself.
Like I said, most liberals aren’t.
Roberta X continues:
…But what still has my blood boiling is this burning desire to define tests down to achieve “balance.” It shows up in public safety jobs and the military these days but public safety is the most damaged by it — there are often different physical requirements for the boys and the girls, yet once they qualify, they do the same job. This is the worst sort of foolishness; if a fireman’s got to be able to carry X weight for Y distance under Z conditions, then a firewoman had better be able to do so, too, or she’s gonna have to leave someone to die that her brothers would’ve been able to save. Unfair? –It may have the effect of setting the bar higher for women than for men but it does not make it impossible, and it could be your loved ones or even you, left to burn by someone who only got in because the bar was lowered.
Some jobs take strength or stamina; some take great powers of concetration and fine motor control. Some — Supreme Court Justice, perhaps? — merely take good sitting-down muscles at both ends. And many jobs require some basic abilities that if you, personally, lack ’em, you had not ought to be doing that job. Not even if Justice Ginsburg thinks it would be “fair.”
Former Texas State Representative Suzanna Gratia-Hupp:
How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual… as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.
Rather an interesting litmus test, and it holds up.
Stuff From Hsoi 