This quote speaks for itself. Rahm Emmanuel, via WSJ video:
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is, an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before...This crisis provides the opportunity...to do things you could not do before..."
Wow, that's a dangerous statement. Seems like a pretty insightful look into Obamaland.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
John Murtha Receives Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. Navy; Marines Everywhere Puzzled
It was quite a shock to refresh Drudgereport last week and see that the Navy had honored Rep. John Murtha (D-PA.) for his "selfless devotion to the Nation’s sailors and Marines.” Murtha is a retired Marine colonel.
The Navy is, assuredly, within its rights to bestow awards like this as a matter of course. Rather, I want to examine whether or not they should have given one to Murtha by pointing out the ridiculousness of this whole situation.
For those ignorant on the subject, it all starts in November, 2005. In the town of Haditha, Iraq, an IED exploded, killing one Marine lance corporal. In the action following the IED attack, 24 Iraqis were killed. Later, a Time magazine article stated that the Marines randomly targeted civilians and noncombatants. Mystery surrounds the circumstances of the killing. The absolute truth will probably never be known. The Marine Corps charged eight of the Marines with crimes.
While charges against these Marines were pending, John Murtha took to the CNN-provided pulpit and threw [his fellow] Marines under the bus.
"There was no firefight, there was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
To attack this quote phrase by phrase:
"There was bo firefight." -Yes, there was.
"There was no IED that killed these innocent people." -Debateable
"Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them." -Here, Murtha makes a thinly-veiled attack on the Bush administration. He's obviously trying to score political points with the Left by throwing the Marines under the bus. And, in his mind, he can do that because he, too, is a Marine.
"...They killed innocent civilians in cold blood." -Liberals, the champion of the little man, are usually first to point out that the accused are innocent until proven guilty. But that logic only holds true for minorities, the poor and liberal politicians. If it's a military member, 'ehhhhh, just throw 'em under.' Easy Scapegoat. Murtha breaks two codes here: 1) He doesn't give the accused the benefit of the doubt and 2) he doesn't stay faithful to the Marines. Until they're guilty, they're still Marines and need the benefit of the doubt from a Congressman.
His award is for being "selfless?" Throwing Marines under the bus for political gain isn't selfless.
Within the Marine Corps, Murtha is a joke. A punchline.
In the Marines, the saying goes, "there's no such thing as an ex-Marine, just Marines." Yet, like any good rule, there's an exception: Lee Harvey Oswald. In many Marines' eyes, John Murtha has earned himself the infamous honor of being the second ex-Marine.
And oh yeah, charges have been dropped on almost all the Marines. But even if they were guilty as hell, Murtha was wrong to throw them under the bus. I don't know what the Department of the navy was thinking.
The Navy is, assuredly, within its rights to bestow awards like this as a matter of course. Rather, I want to examine whether or not they should have given one to Murtha by pointing out the ridiculousness of this whole situation.
For those ignorant on the subject, it all starts in November, 2005. In the town of Haditha, Iraq, an IED exploded, killing one Marine lance corporal. In the action following the IED attack, 24 Iraqis were killed. Later, a Time magazine article stated that the Marines randomly targeted civilians and noncombatants. Mystery surrounds the circumstances of the killing. The absolute truth will probably never be known. The Marine Corps charged eight of the Marines with crimes.
While charges against these Marines were pending, John Murtha took to the CNN-provided pulpit and threw [his fellow] Marines under the bus.
"There was no firefight, there was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
To attack this quote phrase by phrase:
"There was bo firefight." -Yes, there was.
"There was no IED that killed these innocent people." -Debateable
"Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them." -Here, Murtha makes a thinly-veiled attack on the Bush administration. He's obviously trying to score political points with the Left by throwing the Marines under the bus. And, in his mind, he can do that because he, too, is a Marine.
"...They killed innocent civilians in cold blood." -Liberals, the champion of the little man, are usually first to point out that the accused are innocent until proven guilty. But that logic only holds true for minorities, the poor and liberal politicians. If it's a military member, 'ehhhhh, just throw 'em under.' Easy Scapegoat. Murtha breaks two codes here: 1) He doesn't give the accused the benefit of the doubt and 2) he doesn't stay faithful to the Marines. Until they're guilty, they're still Marines and need the benefit of the doubt from a Congressman.
His award is for being "selfless?" Throwing Marines under the bus for political gain isn't selfless.
Within the Marine Corps, Murtha is a joke. A punchline.
In the Marines, the saying goes, "there's no such thing as an ex-Marine, just Marines." Yet, like any good rule, there's an exception: Lee Harvey Oswald. In many Marines' eyes, John Murtha has earned himself the infamous honor of being the second ex-Marine.
And oh yeah, charges have been dropped on almost all the Marines. But even if they were guilty as hell, Murtha was wrong to throw them under the bus. I don't know what the Department of the navy was thinking.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Pat Proxy Post: Student Senate Stupidity
This April 2008 column by Pat in his "The Right Stuff" feature, is a good one. Pat's criticism of his Student Senate throughout college led him to eventually join the senate and try to change it from within. I will encourage him to write a post specifically on his student senate experiences when he returns from Army OCS March 21st according to a letter received this past week. With further delay:
Angels, terror, thunder, drums. A kingdom come and a will finally done. The heavenly dictatorship will reign triumphantly “when the man comes around,” the Man in Black sang. Pascal’s wager was already seducing, and then Johnny Cash sang about it and set my credulous mind reeling. The house has the odds on you in this wager, though. Someone, somewhere, believes that Zeldamorph the killer cockroach will gnaw on you eternally if you don’t do ten daily jumping-jacks donning a hat made from aborted lamb fetus. Pascal’s wager advises you to do the Zeldamorph workout, just to be safe. I suggest you play the odds spare your dignity.
The enviro-jihad offers us a similar wager, albeit allegedly science-based: maybe Al Gore is right that the world is on pace to self-destruct in eight years, maybe not, but why not be safe and play your part in the sustainability game?
So the Luther College Student Senate voted to remove trays from the cafeteria under the pretext of being sustainable. Less convenience carrying food means less food consumed, means less carbon-spewing food-miles traveled, means less global warming. Perhaps a hungry track runner entering the cafeteria at 6:55 pm would object to the premise of the Senate’s wager. But if the Senate is right, maybe we will help stem global warming and next year April 12th won’t be the only track meet date canceled on account of the frigidity, rendering the track-lobby moot.
Student Senate is like a bad case of gingivitis. You didn’t know you had it, you don’t even know what it means, but one day you find out that it’s rotting the flesh of your upper gum line. If I really thought I could save the planet by reducing tray use, I wouldn’t wait for a Student Senate resolution to abolish trays. I would independently go “trayless” and lead by example.
But what does the individual know that the Senate doesn’t know better, anyway? The Senate declared last March (against my sole dissent) that it knows better than individuals how to solve smoking-station complaints outside the library and Marty’s: remove them. I contend that students who cannot bare two seconds of smoke are cunning enough to devise a plan of negotiation with smokers in their path on a case-by-case basis.
Senate has long admired action over results. Years ago the Senate voted to amend Luther’s sexual consent policy to require a verbal “yes” from both parties. So does that mean…? Yes, rape is (I’d venture) comme il faut at Luther. Last year Senate voted to add “perceived trans-gender differences” to the list of factors against which discrimination is forbidden. “Suspected sports team affiliation” has yet to be added.
Alexis de Tocqueville, a prophet if there ever was one, wrote in 1849 that the American experiment depended on the idea that “each man is the best judge of his own interest and the best able to satisfy his private needs,” non-smokers included. When people assume the government knows more than the individual, you have the tragedy of the Frenchman: “His detachment from his own fate goes so far that if his own safety or that of his children is in danger, instead of trying to ward the peril off, he crosses his arms and waits for the whole nation to come to his aid.”
And here’s where I’d offer you a different wager. If Senate knows best on your diet and your feeble negotiating abilities, if the Minnesota legislature knows best what type of light bulbs you should use, if Hilary Clinton knows best how to provide you with healthcare, if the US congress knows best that 20 year-old Iraq war veterans should not drink, if Barack Obama knows better than the taxpayer how to spend social security savings, then what will become of the individual’s survivor instinct? The socialist Spaniards shrugged and voted for appeasement when terrorists blew up their trains in 2004. I’d wager that the self-reliance of individuals like those on Flight 93 on 9/11 are our nation’s best defense against nuclear terrorism, a disaster that would be more environmentally devastating than 1,000 years of trays in the cafeteria.
The man’s not coming around and Zeldamorph’s not going to gnaw on you eternally. Whether global warming or nuclear terrorism will have wrought more damage on America by 2016, however, depends on the individual.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Pirates of the Contraction: The Curse of Social Manipulation
Apparently the Somali coast-line isn’t the hottest spot for pirates. There is plenty of plunder, pillaging, and general violence towards the good of the American people coming right out of Washington, D.C. We seem to be missing the archetype peg-legged villain but I’m sure Nancy Pelosi’s prosthetic face will suffice. Wait, there aren’t any talking parrots? Well, Pres. Obama seems to talk a lot and it sure sounds impressive, but in the end it doesn’t mean a damn thing. That should do just fine.The Sugar-Daddy-in-Chief and his two toadies in congress are pirates of the current economic contraction. The administration and congress are using the crisis to do one thing: sculpt the economic and social landscape in the U.S. to the liking of left-wing demagogues. This administration has no plan for economic recovery, they are simply using the fear and instability in the economy to essentially consolidate government power, limit freedom, and level the population.
Furthermore, the majority of the social manipulation underway is underhanded, elitist, and deceptive. Americans find unpalatable promises of socialist economic intervention and invasive government controls in health-care, the environment, schools, etc. Unfortunately, that's what's on the menu. The voters were offered absurd promises about tax cuts (nowhere to be found), slashing trillions from the budget (apparently by adding trillions in deficit, that's what I call creative accounting) and routing pork from spending (the 8,500 earmarks in the "stimulus" bill notwithstanding). Buyer's remorse somehow just doesn't seem to describe the feeling of being utterly sold out by one's political messiah.
Although pervasive and dishonest by reasonable standards, even the political hacks licking Obama's boots have some remote measure of candor. If the following quotes don't scare you, please go back to admiring the iconic pictures of Lenin, Chairman Mao, and the trés façionable Che Guevara image hanging in your urban studio apartment; return to sipping lattes, hating Sarah Palin, and being a general drain on society at large. You’re beyond saving. Drum roll please:
· The President’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before." Something tells me he's not proposing Obama give a speech without a teleprompter. Perhaps they simply want to restore American economic prowess, liberty, and limited government? Been there done that! Let's try the whole socialism thing instead.
· Craig Calhoun, NYU professor, author, and sociology scholar says Obama is using the stimulus bill to reverse a "40-year drift away from the more or less idealistic hope that government would make things better." I guess it doesn't matter if it works or not, just as long as government is the answer to what troubles us. Isn't it curious how left-wingers (and even some "moderate" Republicans) in government shout down anyone who suggests an alternative to bureaucratic solutions?
· William Galston, senior fellow at the left-wing Brookings Institution and former adviser to Pres. Clinton: "These are the principal building blocks of the domestic agenda he articulated." Obama touts the "desperate times, desperate measures" rhetoric as though he's a victim, forced to use massive government spending and oversight to fix the economy. But for those who know him, the reckless spending and social change was always on the to-do list, regardless of economic conditions.
A common thread runs through the fabric of the previous statements: there is more at work than just "fixing the economy". There is a pervasive, subtle, and deleterious agenda underlying the government's recent actions. They're planning on fixing a lot more than the banking crisis. These "pirates of the contraction" are determined to expropriate the fear and panic of the American people to carve out a new America. It's a perverse and hopeless project, but it bequeaths King Barack and his merry court more power and more control. But don't expect them to openly fight for it. Expect a subtle, little-by-little, delusive approach so that one day the American people will wake up overtaxed, under paid, with their freedoms snuffed out apparently to save us from ourselves.
I'll end on this note: this past weekend, my father-in-law and I were watching some mindless network news show. The consensus seemed to be that the American people were rejecting the stimulus/bailout/throw money from the Presidential Motorcade strategy to the poor because "it needs better packaging". The selling points for the spending as follows: unfathomable deficits, lack of accountability, rewarding bad lending/borrowing policies, bailing out financial irresponsibility, and a perverse fascination with "going green" in the midst of a crisis. Well, imagine that? It's a tough sell! Apparently, we just need better packaging. The fact is, you can say your food is escargot with flair and a fancy French accent, but in the end you're still eating snails.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
UFC 96: Rampage vs. Keith Jardine
Rampage Jackson will win tonight versus Keith Jardine. But, I will be rooting for Keith in a bad way. I really don't like Rampage.
Pat Proxy Post: Empowering County Botanists and Directors of Restroom Affairs
Admin Note: Pat is expected back from Army OCS on 21 March. This column of his originally ran in September 2007.
Minnesota has been up against it lately, what with floods, droughts, forest fires, a bridge collapse, and a surly foreclosure struggle. In the state where the “20th” 9/11 hijacker and was arrested 6 years ago for plotting jihad and a US Senator was arrested several weeks ago for lewd bathroom behavior, safety, morality, and hope have betimes seemed more imminent.
But Iowa’s darn corn keeps growing, its housing market keeps creeping (4.1% in 2nd quarter), and Winneshiek women remain the nation’s second longest-living. Such is our vantage on Maslow’s pyramid that our biggest threat in the north-east corner seems the ravaging Japanese knotweed invasion, for which Iowa DNR forester John Walkowick recommends you call your local county roadside vegetation specialist or county weed commissioner. Ah, but there’s the rub. Who knew we funded knotweed bureaucrats? Perhaps it doesn’t surprise voters who elected a local Soil and Water Conservation Commissioner in last year’s elections. Little use for work ethic, initiative, and self-reliance when we have government posts for our problems. But the government-first, Mr. Fix-it agitprop’s appeal fades when the hard rains start falling, so Iowa should spend its halcyon days learning from government’s struggles up north.
Government can solve some problems. It can build roads, for example. “But since problems are the only excuse for government,” PJ O’Rourke generalizes, “solving them is out of the question.” This is the problem of “state failure”, wherein the private sector outdoes the government in parsing externalities, coordinating projects, and pursuing comparative advantage. Minnesota’s implacable government, for example, fancied to solve traffic congestion and car pollution by dragooning taxpayers into funding a $715 million light rail transit system that profit-seeking enterprises dared not attempt. The project is done, but the problem unsolved. Traffic remains heavy (light rail transports mostly would-be bikers and walkers), operating losses soar ($12.65 million in 2006), and the tram has run over more people than have been shot as a result of MN’s conceal and carry gun rights law.
Minnesota also evinces government’s inefficiency in deciding where to focus its inefficiencies. Whether the money diverted from road and bridge repairs towards light rail could have prevented the 35W collapse is unclear. But for nebbishes in the 6th-highest taxed state’s government, endowed with a $34.5 billion general fund, to respond by proposing gas tax hikes and a $930 million light rail addition (lawmakers propose borrowing $80 million from county and local government highway funds) rather than prioritizing, is indefensible. Many states offer local governments low-interest loans to repair roads and bridges. But due to light rail’s precedence, “local governments often front money to MNDOT [by raising property taxes]” the Rochester Post reports, to speed up attention to their exigent road problems. Quite the procedure for these local communities to cajole state help for the nuts and bolts of things, so to speak, but not quite so hard for the Twins to land a $1 billion state grant for a new stadium last year.
Minnesotans have come to expect the government not only to solve their problems, but to pay for their mistakes. It should not come as a surprise in a state where 95% of the State Child Health Insurance Program matching funds actually go to adults over 18, but many think the government ought to ensure repairs for the uninsured victims of the recent floods. Flood insurance is federally subsidized and nearly anyone can get it in Minnesota for around $300 a month, whether they live in a flood plain or not. Most people in south-eastern MN hadn’t reckoned it necessary before last months floods. Yet just days after uninsured homeowner Jeff Strain lost his house, he said about the government’s monetary response, “I think it sucks…As far as government, I haven’t heard anything” (Pioneer Press). FEMA eventually made grants possible, and Richard Daigle, public information officer for the SBA clarified, “It’s not a government handout. It’s your money. FEMA is funded by taxpayers”. It’s yours, you earned it, and whether or not you buy our cheap insurance, it’ll be yours next time too.
Good for Minnesota for catching Sen. Craig in the bathroom, but who knew they posted undercover officers in bathroom stalls to watch for startling foot-movement? One wonders what other special posts our money funds. The Minnesota DFL’s response to the bridge collapse highlighted government’s misplaced priorities, and the floods revealed Minnesotans’ dependence on government. When tragedy moves south, Iowa’s response will be telling.
Minnesota has been up against it lately, what with floods, droughts, forest fires, a bridge collapse, and a surly foreclosure struggle. In the state where the “20th” 9/11 hijacker and was arrested 6 years ago for plotting jihad and a US Senator was arrested several weeks ago for lewd bathroom behavior, safety, morality, and hope have betimes seemed more imminent.
But Iowa’s darn corn keeps growing, its housing market keeps creeping (4.1% in 2nd quarter), and Winneshiek women remain the nation’s second longest-living. Such is our vantage on Maslow’s pyramid that our biggest threat in the north-east corner seems the ravaging Japanese knotweed invasion, for which Iowa DNR forester John Walkowick recommends you call your local county roadside vegetation specialist or county weed commissioner. Ah, but there’s the rub. Who knew we funded knotweed bureaucrats? Perhaps it doesn’t surprise voters who elected a local Soil and Water Conservation Commissioner in last year’s elections. Little use for work ethic, initiative, and self-reliance when we have government posts for our problems. But the government-first, Mr. Fix-it agitprop’s appeal fades when the hard rains start falling, so Iowa should spend its halcyon days learning from government’s struggles up north.
Government can solve some problems. It can build roads, for example. “But since problems are the only excuse for government,” PJ O’Rourke generalizes, “solving them is out of the question.” This is the problem of “state failure”, wherein the private sector outdoes the government in parsing externalities, coordinating projects, and pursuing comparative advantage. Minnesota’s implacable government, for example, fancied to solve traffic congestion and car pollution by dragooning taxpayers into funding a $715 million light rail transit system that profit-seeking enterprises dared not attempt. The project is done, but the problem unsolved. Traffic remains heavy (light rail transports mostly would-be bikers and walkers), operating losses soar ($12.65 million in 2006), and the tram has run over more people than have been shot as a result of MN’s conceal and carry gun rights law.
Minnesota also evinces government’s inefficiency in deciding where to focus its inefficiencies. Whether the money diverted from road and bridge repairs towards light rail could have prevented the 35W collapse is unclear. But for nebbishes in the 6th-highest taxed state’s government, endowed with a $34.5 billion general fund, to respond by proposing gas tax hikes and a $930 million light rail addition (lawmakers propose borrowing $80 million from county and local government highway funds) rather than prioritizing, is indefensible. Many states offer local governments low-interest loans to repair roads and bridges. But due to light rail’s precedence, “local governments often front money to MNDOT [by raising property taxes]” the Rochester Post reports, to speed up attention to their exigent road problems. Quite the procedure for these local communities to cajole state help for the nuts and bolts of things, so to speak, but not quite so hard for the Twins to land a $1 billion state grant for a new stadium last year.
Minnesotans have come to expect the government not only to solve their problems, but to pay for their mistakes. It should not come as a surprise in a state where 95% of the State Child Health Insurance Program matching funds actually go to adults over 18, but many think the government ought to ensure repairs for the uninsured victims of the recent floods. Flood insurance is federally subsidized and nearly anyone can get it in Minnesota for around $300 a month, whether they live in a flood plain or not. Most people in south-eastern MN hadn’t reckoned it necessary before last months floods. Yet just days after uninsured homeowner Jeff Strain lost his house, he said about the government’s monetary response, “I think it sucks…As far as government, I haven’t heard anything” (Pioneer Press). FEMA eventually made grants possible, and Richard Daigle, public information officer for the SBA clarified, “It’s not a government handout. It’s your money. FEMA is funded by taxpayers”. It’s yours, you earned it, and whether or not you buy our cheap insurance, it’ll be yours next time too.
Good for Minnesota for catching Sen. Craig in the bathroom, but who knew they posted undercover officers in bathroom stalls to watch for startling foot-movement? One wonders what other special posts our money funds. The Minnesota DFL’s response to the bridge collapse highlighted government’s misplaced priorities, and the floods revealed Minnesotans’ dependence on government. When tragedy moves south, Iowa’s response will be telling.
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