Contributed by: filbert Monday, August 08 2011 @ 06:47 AM CST
So we’re told that the downgrading of the United States government’s credit rating by Standard and Poor’s is because of the Tea Parties.
Uh, yeah.
That’s exactly like the alcoholic (who just spent a drunken night at the casino maxing out his credit card while losing all of his money on “sure thing” plays and burning out his liver with twenty straight shots of tequila) blaming his alcohol poisoning/hangover on his family who are doing the intervention on him to try to save his life.
EXACTLY like that.
The problem isn’t really the credit card debt at all.
The problem is the trip to the casino.
The entire welfare state mentality of the “progressives” is the problem–the idea that you can buy a better society with somebody else’s money. It works, just like alcohol works at first to make you feel better. But eventually, inevitably, the hangover comes, if you go too far with the alcohol. The problem is that for the “progressives,” “too far” is never far enough. There is no problem that can’t be solved with another hit from the bottle. It never enters their mind that at some point, the bottle is empty, and there’s no more money in their pockets to buy another. Because there will always be somebody else who will give them another bottle, or give them the money to buy another fifth.
Won’t there?
The sob story has always worked in the past for the “progressives.” You see, they have a system, a sure thing to beat the casino and hit the jackpot, and all they need is a bit more cash and a bit more time to make it work, and besides they have all those kids at home to feed, and you wouldn’t want kids to go hungry, would you? And until now, they’ve always found someone who will believe them.
The Tea Party people have finally stood up and said: No, you don’t have a system that works. You’re a drunk, and you’re addicted to gambling. You need to get sober, and you need to stay out of casinos. For the rest of your life. Or it will kill you.
The only sure cure for what ails this country–and the entire world–is freedom, and its necessary corollary, personal responsibility. But the drunk “progressives” aren’t ready to hear that, yet. Which means that things will get worse before they begin to get better.
Contributed by: filbert Saturday, August 06 2011 @ 08:59 AM CST
Politics is too important to be left to the politicians.
(Or, “politics are too important to be left to the politicians,” if you consider “politics” to be a plural.) You can find both on the Intertubes. Both are equally true.
Contributed by: filbert Friday, August 05 2011 @ 07:48 AM CST
From Inside Higher Ed,[*1] something that needs to be said and repeated again and again:
Anger and indignation are aggressive defenses; they suggest the angry person cannot support his or her position with evidence or carefully reasoned argument; it is an unambiguous red flag. Anger, indignation and character attacks are used to enforce adherence to “sacred values” and for that reason they have no place in a community of scholars.
We are very gifted in the art of analyzing the behavior and motivations of other groups and institutions. Furthermore, we are intensely trained in the tools used to conduct complex inquiry; yet, we rarely bring those tools to bear on our own activities.
And not just in the context of academe, either . . . although after a while, anger at someone who simply refuses to comprehend what you’re saying in the first place becomes a natural human reaction. That’s where many on the intelligent right are today with the “progressives.” They simply don’t seem to understand–and don’t seem to want to understand–what we keep trying to tell them about how the world really works, vs. how they want the world to work. This gets really, really frustrating after a while.
Sounds like a 500 point, 4.3% drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in one day. As Ace points out, the Dow is down 6% since Tuesday. Thats . . . um . . . three days ago.
What could possibly have happened–say–last weekend, perhaps–to tip the applecart over at just this exact time?
The only good news coming out of today is that — for now — the world’s investors have (improbably) flocked to U.S. Government securities as the only remaining relatively safe refuge. So it’s possible that the other shoe may not drop immediately.
But look at the cash burn rate of the Federal Government. Look at the unfunded obligations of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in the next few years. The other shoe is dropping. It is dropping NOW. And thanks to Obama, the Democrats, and yes the Republicans in Washington, when the other shoe hits the American public on the head, it is going to hurt.
A lot.
The Federal government’s budget needs to be balanced. Not next year. Not in ten years.
Half-measures and politically-determined tactics designed only to win the next election won’t cut it any more. But nobody in Washington, D.C. seems to realize that. And what’s worse, it seems that most people outside Washington don’t realize it, either.
But reality has this really nasty habit of whapping inattentive people upside the heads, and doing it very, very vigorously.
Contributed by: filbert Tuesday, August 02 2011 @ 09:46 AM CST
The Lazy, Uncategorized version:
Debt-ceiling bill passes the House [*1] — “By a margin 269 to 161, with 66 Republicans voting no and 95 Democrats voting yes, the House passed the debt-ceiling increase with the accompanying package of cuts.” Note that “cuts” in Washington, D.C. aren’t really cuts at all, in the sense that you and I would consider a cut. If your employer chops your salary by 5%, that’s what we in the real world call “a cut.” If your employer raises your salary by 5%, that’s what we in the real world call a “raise.” But in the fantasyland that we call Washington, D.C. it would be a “5% cut” if you expected a 10% raise and only got a 5% raise instead. Keep that in the front of your mind the next time you hear somebody complaining about the eeeeevil Republicans and their plans to barbecue and eat Granny.
The New Tone: Biden Says Tea Partiers “Acted Like Terrorists” [*6] — Strangely enough, a lot of Tea Partiers seem to be of the opinion that the Terrorists are currently in charge of the Executive Branch . . . they’ve certainly put terror into the heart of a lot of good, decent Americans . . .
Budget talks in a word: ‘Ridiculous,’ ‘disgusting’ and ‘stupid’ top poll [*13] — Actually, I think you can use those words to refer to almost all of the media’s coverage of the issue, too. Which is a huge part of the problem. Most of the media, along with a large segment of the politicians, are economically illiterate.
Dems Plan Pivot to Jobs [*22] — The only thing Washington Democrats know how to do regarding jobs is how to destroy them . . . so pardon me if their renewed attention to the issue fails to fill me with breathless anticipation . . .
