Contributed by: filbert Friday, July 02 2010 @ 12:32 PM CST
a) we are a nation made up of a bunch of mad, bad, and dangerous-to-know types who you REALLY do not want to piss off, and
b) no, really, REALLY, you do not want to piss us off, or we will hurt you very, very, very badly.
This foreign policy will, it is true and unfortunate, require the occasional loud, messy destruction of people who have successfully pissed us off (by, say, flying commercial airplanes into skyscrapers, or sawing off our journalists’ heads, or kidnapping our citizens and holding them on trumped up “spying” charges–or possibly even sinking one of our most valuable trading partner’s warships, or highly placed “elected” officials who consistently threaten the genocide of an entire religion, to which many of our citizens belong–things like that). This destruction will occur with our complete understanding that there will be some unfortunate collateral destruction of anyone else, guilty or innocent, who happens to be close enough to those who have pissed us off to be caught within the blast radius. What can you say? The real world is a bee-atch. This is quite cold-bloodedly intended to convince those innocent people near the guilty parties to give them up to us expeditiously to avoid any such regrettable collateral unpleasantness. (It is also, not coincidentally, almost exactly the observed foreign policy of, say, Russia–except for the “deal straight and fairly with us” part, which Russia seems to forget all to often.) Awakening From The Collective Dream [*2]
All of collectivism’s dreams are crumbling to dust before the eyes of people who spent their whole lives clinging to them out of desperation, or arrogance. The alternative to ambition and commerce is not “social justice,” but widespread poverty. The absence of growth brings collapse, not sustainability. The Constitutional rights of free people cannot exist alongside “positive rights” provided through redistribution. Abandoning the security of our borders does not produce a melting pot of happy immigrants. The government cannot repeal the laws of supply and demand. The freedom to vote does not render all other freedoms inconsequential. Prosperity for millions cannot be designed by a central committee. Social justice cannot be created by administering controlled viral doses of injustice.
Something has bothered me for a while. The only way you can conceive of the Constitution as a “charter of negative rights” as Obama does is if your entire mindset is that of a feudal lord, who is chafing under the “unfair” restrictions upon your behavior that the Constitution mandates. The only people who are told “NO” by the Constitution are those in the government.
The Constitution is a positive delegation of certain powers from where they originate–the people–to the people’s servant, the government–with the instruction that the government use those powers on behalf of the people. Obama’s view, and the view of those who think like Obama, is entirely, totally, 100% backwards. He, and they, believe that the government holds all power, and allows the people to do only certain, approved things. This is, precisely, the definition of tyranny.
Do Liberals Really Care About The ‘Human Condition’? [*3] — Yeah, they care. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all they’re intellectually capable of doing. History provides ample evidence that they SUCK at designing policy programs to actually deal with the “human condition.”
Crystal Balls [*4] — Or: Is Economics a “science?” Is any “social science” in any meaningful sense scientific?
Video: The Rahn curve and the albatross of too much government [*5]
Two overarching reasons explain the failure of Obamanomics. First, administration economists and their outside supporters neglected the longer-term costs and consequences of their actions. Second, the administration and Congress have through their deeds and words heightened uncertainty about the economic future. High uncertainty is the enemy of investment and growth.
Why Obamanomics Has Failed – Annotated [*7] — The above, with bonus additional annotations and factual support. It doesn’t work. It’s not going to work. We need to go a different direction. We need to try a little liberty instead. Bottom-up beats top-down every time you give bottom-up a fighting chance.
No Easy Way to Fix Social Security [*8] — Well, actually, yes, there are easy ways to do it. Not politically palatable, perhaps, but it ain’t rocket science, either. Social Security is a bit like a river that’s flooded out of its banks. Return it to its proper course, and the problems diminish correspondingly. But right now what we’re trying to do is put all the houses in the flood plain up on higher stilts. (Of course, we probably shouldn’t have built the houses in the flood plain in the first place, but what’s done is done, right?)
CBO Reveals Magnitude of Reform Needed for Sustainable Fiscal Future [*9]
The Alinsky/Goldwater Axis [*10] — I wonder if Alinsky would approve of the leftists who are using his playbook to take over all of society . . .
Hayek on the Anti-Liberal Timber [*11]
“It is true, of course, that in Germany before 1933, and in Italy before 1922, communists and Nazis or Fascists clashed more frequently with each other than with other parties. They competed for the support of the same type of mind and reserved for each other the hatred of the heretic. But their practice showed how closely they are related. To both, the real enemy, the man with whom they had nothing in common and whom they could not hope to convince, is the liberal of the old type. While to the Nazi the communist, and the communist the Nazi, and to both the socialist, are potential recruits who are made of the right timber, although they have listened to false prophets, they both know that there can be no compromise between them and those who really believe in individual freedom.”
-F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
Is Eating Fruits and Vegetables an Economic Activity? Does It Matter? [*12]
How did four Supreme Court justices wind up arguing against the Constitution? [*13]
Troubling COPPA Filing by Common Sense Media [*14]
Automatic Enrollment Builds Retirement Savings – Period. [*15]
What’s the Best Reading on the Founding? [*16]
Republicans Gaining Fast [*17] — Unfortunately, history shows that Republicans have this annoying habit of pissing potential political success down their collective legs . . . but if it’s actually true that Republican and Democrat party affiliations are now actually equal, then many polls are actually showing Democratic popularity as higher than it actually is. And since Obama’s popularity is under 50% already . . .
‘If You Develop A Love Of Liberty Lasting Longer Than 4 Hours, You Might Actually Be A Conservative’ [*18]
Concealed Carry on Campus? [*19] — The Constitution: Void where Prohibited (or deemed inconvenient). Is that the country you want to live in? Oh, wait, you’re not allowed to answer that question.
My Warning To The Establishment GOP [*20] — A Declaration of Independence, if you will . . .