The Rant

    Stand by your man .  

     Perhaps President for life Obama should eat the traitors at the New York times for their lack of loyalty and  unwillingness to agree with his policy.   Perhaps the left is taking a second look at its argument that Obama is qualified to be President of the most powerful country on earth, because he ran a good political campaign. 

While I'm gone, you can read this interesting article about how Obama is struggling with his communication skills.  Who woulda thunk.  Meanwhile, if you are beginning to panic, you can prepare for catastrophe with this book . 

Or perhaps Ray Guns?   Coming to your local war soon .  Photon torpedoes next.  

     What if Senators Frank, Dodd and Grassley did the honorable thing .  Hint see the "suicide bunny" tickling Atlas on the right. 

    Who in their right mind would put a provision in the "Stimulus" Bill guaranteeing bonuses to executives of bailed out firms?   Chris Dodd did.       Good thing they rushed the bill through on the weekend in secret meetings at night so that no one could read the bill.   That represents a new kind of responsibility and transparency.  Opaque transparency.   Dodd's excuse is that it was done by one of his staffers and he didn't have time to read it either.  Great. 

    Barney Frank is against rewarding incompetence .   I agree with him on this point.  But Barney was on the banking committee that created many of the incentives to loan to unqualified borrowers which helped to lead to this financial meltdown. Bush was often assailed as being an idiot and incompetent.  But Iraq is doing pretty well .  The United States is struggling.  My worry is that Obama fails the competency test. Does he really have any idea what he is doing?   His plans for reviving the economy do not seem to have any consistent strategy to me. Instead, he simply borrowed a trillion more dollars and redistributed to various Democrat pet projects.   So either he does not really understand economics very well, or he really doesn't want to revive the economy.  Either option is disturbing. 

    Atlas Shrugged is on the Amazon best seller list again.  Will Atlas Shrugged prove prophetic?  People do make choices based upon incentives.  If Democrats want to demonize success and wealth, perhaps some people will opt out and "go on the county."  Why should people take risks with their money and work hard, only to have it taken and redistributed to government workers and various citizens with political pull, who do not have to work so hard or face competitive pressures.  As a Soviet worker said, "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." 

Well I see no point in arguing about what is the true meaning of "fascism" when everyone  seems to define it as including anyone but me.   I am still working my way through the Goldberg book and I find it to be quite intelligent, and well worth reading. Just delete the word "fascist" everywhere you find it and read it for the points he makes about the ideas that have won so much popularity among vast segments of the intellectual classes the past 100 years.   Frankly, I have little trust in what "professors" in the current university classes have decided, as their thinking represents the problem to me.      I tend to look at politics on this axis. On the one had are those who prefer freedom, free markets, and regard government as a necessary evil to be kept in check and minimized.  Government is dangerous because people are fallible and greedy and not to be trusted with too much power.   Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  On the other ...

Michael Winship Oh, What a Lovely Class War! http://www.truthout.org/031109A Michael Winship, Truthout: "My goodness, how they howl when the proverbial shoe is on the proverbial other foot. You'd think the Red Army had just left Moscow and was preparing a frontal assault on the Federal Reserve. So what are conservatives, Wall Street and financial television commentators shouting? Socialists! That's right. Spread the word: Socialists are swarming over our nation's Capitol and making off with the means of production, otherwise known as campaign contributions and the federal budget. You got trouble, my friends."

Ok If you have not caught the last few nights of the Daily and what fun they have been having with Mad Money's Cramer , you have really missed something. The Morning Joe decided to stick his nose in the dust up, and he got spanked. And if you haven't been watching, you don't understand why its fun to be a left wing commie. I suggest watching Morning Joe tomorrow to see if he is smart enough to IGNORE the fun at his expense.

What grade should Obama get for his accomplishments thus far?  Taken from MSNBC, which is not usually a  Republican front.  Seems a little early for report cards, but here is the results as of 9PM.  

On the other hand, since Religion and Politics deal with values, which at bottom are more a matter of feelings than logic, I suppose I can understand how calm rational discussion might be difficult. 

   Isn't it interesting that Religion and Politics are taboo topics in polite company?  These are very important to many people, but discussing them only seems to provoke anger in most people.  The exception seems to be that people of similar opinions can discuss with one another how much they hate, desipise, and laugh at those of different beliefs.   Apparently, religions and politics are not subjects that most people desire to consider in a calm, cool, rational manner.  Rather, for most people, religion and politics are emotional topics.  They are the subject of Faith.  People have faith in their religion.  More surprisingly, (at least to me) they have Faith in their politics.  Faith and Reason are like oil and water; they do not mix.   I am not restricting my comments to stupid people or any particular party.  My observation seems true to me of very intelligent members of various parties (although there does seems to be a tendency to judge members of parties to which you do not ...

Obama told the New York Times he was contemplating reaching out to the "moderates" in the Taliban.  Good news for the women of Afghanistan.   Remind me again why we are still  in Afghanistan.  We are on a Mission from God to convert the Afghani people to a Western, rational, scientific point of view? 

Tea Party in Orange County . Some are not happy with the Governator.  

"I have watched with mild amusement this week the self-immolation of the Republican Party as it bows before the altar of Rush Limbaugh, begging for mercy, pleading for forgiveness, breathlessly seeking guidance and wisdom from The Oracle....." By why did the head of the RNC apologize to the Bloviator ?

The house is burning down. Is it a good time to be watering the grass ?   We thought we were getting someone smart, cool, above partisanship.  Instead, we get: Democrat Spending Gone Wild, Confused, weak Foreign Policy.  Do we really want to rev up the war in Afghanistan?  Haven't we built up enough debt on foreign adventures?    Instead of a careful background check, Obama received Fanboy gushing from the major media.  No wonder it  is losing audience.   In tumultuous times, can you really trust the major media to tell the truth about the Democrats and Obama?  Doubtful.  It will take a little while longer for the majority of Americans to realize they have been suckered.  Meanwhile, since Obama targeted him, Rush Limbaugh's ratings have doubled.  Good strategy by Begala and Carville.   Could this possibly be another Right Wing Conspiracy? 

I have nothing against trying to improve things.  OUr current medical system is not very rational, and could definitely use improvement.  But planners need to consider the incentives that their systems create.    For example, many critics think that the welfare for families with dependent children had the unintended consequence of breaking up families, since mothers got more money if they were single.  No one intended it, but it happened.  Economics is not particularly moral any more than physics or engineering. It is simply reality, especially with regard to human beings and their motivation.    Similarly, it seems to be inevitable that if you provide services by means of a government monopoly, since there is no competition, there is little incentive for efficiency.  Inefficient private companies go broke. Cruel, but practical.  It is nice for the Democrats that they control the government right now, but was it really wise for them to exclude the Republicans from the process of drawin...

Ah, it is so nice to dialogue with a friend about public policy.   The problem for Democrats (and those further to the left) is that most of the points made by Libertarians are simply basic economics.  Fighting basic economics is like trying to jump to the moon.  You can win for a short time, but eventually you will be pulled back to earth.   Eating the Rich. Hating the Rich. Hating Corporations.  Such passions may feel good to certain types, but it is the rich, sad to say, who own businesses, hire workers, and keep the economy afloat.   Poor people can spend government handouts, but they are unlikely to start new businesses and give much of a boost to the economy.   Competition may be annoying and force one to work hard, but monopolist enterprises run by public employees are not known for being efficient.  If the entire economy is run by government employees, we can look forward to boom times as seen in North Korea and East Germany.  As we will find out this year.