240 Comments

1. Konyok:

Thank you, Richard.

Sometimes we need a voice from afar to remind of who we are and what our duty is.

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:00 pm 2. Leo Linbeck III:

Well put, W.

Our biggest use of design margin has come from single parenthood. It probably takes 1.5 people to raise children. Having two parents provides sufficient capacity and slack to accommodate the unknowns that are inevitable: losing a job, illness, bear market, etc. If only 5% of the childbearing women become single moms, there is enough surplus capacity for others to make up the difference.

But when 70% of children are born out of wedlock, there is negative slack. The result is a host of social and cultural pathologies: underinvestment in human capital, insufficient supervision of children, an epidemic of “momma’s boyfriend” rape, etc. Men revert to feral behavior, incarceration rates soar, and women are largely the victims.

Seems to me the only hope for breaking this cycle is to create stronger incentives for marriage. Some of these can be financial, but there will have to be social incentives as well.

The folks I know who work on this issue are mainly focused on fixing urban public education, and that is done by breaking the monopoly through expanding charter schools. This new generation of schools become surrogate second-parents for their students, while trying to reset the cultural norms for the next generation.

There is always hope, but it is a long road ahead. But at least we have kids, unlike our shrinking critics in the Euro zone…

L3

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:02 pm 3. steveaz:

Richard,
The “Globe and Mail” piece writes itself. Who, looking at America through the media presentation of her, couldn’t string together words to the same effect.

In the end, the false impressions are just that, and while I’m sure the G&M’s writers and editors won’t personally suffer for bundling them for their readers’ effect, their readers will pay some price down the line for being so fully misinformed.

I’m convinced that much of Europe’s media-product is designed to entice Europeans to return their Euro-dollars to the continent’s banks and their bank managers – which in Europe, means innumerable governmental patrons. This article is no exception.

I’ll end with a question. If America wasn’t tolerating Hugo Chavez in our hemisphere, and if we undertook to overthrow his dictatorship militarily, could not we just as easily be accused of being “hegemonic, militaristic and intolerant?” And wouldn’t that accusation garner as much despite and worry among the G&M’s readers as this article does?

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:06 pm 4. mika2k1:

America is the new Rome. America suffers from a crooked gamed commie government, from military Keynesianism, fake wars, production of overpriced military junk, oil whoring, from an economy based on pushing paper, cities designed for cars instead of people, from a political elite more concerned with a one world empire than nationalist interest.

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:17 pm 5. mika2k1:

And that’s just the start.

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:20 pm 6. dla:

Lets see, the US GDP is $14trillion. $700billion is 5%. Similar to a family with $4000/month income and an unplanned $200 bill (speeding ticket, etc.).

Is it fatal? No. Is it noticeable? Yes.

Perspective, it’s all perspective.

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:22 pm 7. Konyok:

America tolerates Chavez because America is a law abiding nation, not Mika2k1’s “new Rome.”

America does not need to intervene in Venezuela. When/if it becomes necessary, Chavez would collapse as easily as Noriega.

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:27 pm 8. mika2k1:

Law abiding countries don’t keep military bases around the globe.

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:35 pm 9. Konyok:

Sure they do, if the host country wants them to.

Do you think the Germans want us to leave?

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:38 pm 10. MG:

A more relevant question:

Within 10 years, industrial scale production of alternative liquid fuels will be displacing large quantities of oil imports.

At that point, whence comes the cash that keeps despots afloat?

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:38 pm 11. mika2k1:

Do you think the Germans want us to leave?
==

Everyone wants you to leave. The Cold War is over. Was over, more than 20 years ago. But you yankee imperialists can’t have that. That’s why you’re doing your damnedest to reignite another war with Russia. And in process you’re bringing the rest of the world towards Armageddon.

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:46 pm 12. 3Case:

“…with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez taunting and ridiculing the superpower with impunity.”

The image of a Chihuahua, a runt Beagle at most, taunting and ridiculing a St. Bernard comes to mind.

“Law abiding countries don’t keep military bases around the globe.”

Are you Benj’s brother? It’s only the 1st and the most ignorant statement of the month may have already been writ. Once upon a time, the concept of treaties was taught in schools. To type out that statement you must either be ignorant or evil…perhaps both.

Oct 1, 2008 - 8:46 pm 13. Konyok:

mika2k1,

Because I speak no Magyar, the first time I visited Hungary in 1993 I thought that the practical thing to do was to speak Russian. Mostly I drew hostile stares, but one time a woman spat on me. I soon learned that when I told them I was American everybody wanted to practice their English with me. It surprised me because at that time I felt about my country about the same way that you do now.
When I visit Eastern European countries today, they no longer treat me like a celebrity, but they are almost all friendly, and when the wine flows they bless George Bush.

Do you speak Russian in Budapest? No, I didn’t think so.

Drink Georgian wine, comrade!

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:06 pm 14. Robohobo:

“America is not yet in terminal decline, but it soon will be, unless it can get the special pleaders, snake oil salesmen and professional screamers to cool their jets.”

One of the best arguments I have heard for not voting in the Democrats – the original inventors of all that. Put NObama in the WH as POTUS and we are truly done.

Somewhere I read today the best bets for weathering the coming tough times are plays in canned goods and tasers. I would add rice, beans and ammo plus seed stock. Not the industries, the actual commodities.

I’m going to the local gun show and Costco this week end.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:07 pm 15. mika2k1:

Konyok,

Explain to me what’s Russia’s interest in giving nukes to farsi speaking Jihadis, when in 20 years Russia’s population will be reduced to 40 million?

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:13 pm 16. Alexis:

Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don’t. Why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat, I talk about the suckers and the mugs – it’s the same thing. They have their five-year plans, so have I.

–Harry Lime, The Third Man

One thing special pleaders, snake oil salesmen, and professional screamers have in common is a fundamental disrespect toward those they claim to help. Take, for example, the Colorado Democracy Alliance’s “Educate the Idiots campaign” targeting “minorities, GED’s, drop-outs” to be carried out by the local AFL-CIO. If the Republicans were smart, they’d hammer their opponents on this issue all the way to Election Day.

Any sane Democrat ought to understand that insulting voters is not an effective way to win elections. And even if there is disrespect, never ever ever put it in writing, for the next thing you know your memorandum may get the attention from Matt Drudge. One of the main reasons for Ronald Reagan’s popularity was how he could tap into disaffection against the condescension of know-it-alls who claimed to be on the side of working class Americans.

If you actually listen to the lyrics of the first song of the infamous music recital in Venice, this elitism is found loud and clear.

We’re gonna spread happiness
We’re gonna spread freedom

Obama’s gonna change it
Obama’s gonna lead ‘em

We’re gonna change it
And rearrange it
We’re gonna change the world

Think about what this says – “Obama’s gonna lead ‘em” while “we’re gonna change the world”. Who is “them” – the so-called “idiots” referred to by the Colorado Democracy Alliance? The American people?

Then there are these lines from the children’s chorus.

For our children
For our families
Nations all joined as one

Nations all joined as one??? This comment would look like the most brazen American imperialism imaginable to patriotic Mexicans, French, Swedes, Russians, Indians, Chinese and other nations with a strong sense of their own history. They don’t want to be “joined as one” with the United States, and expecting them to want such a thing is not wise.

It is not wise for any political campaign to treat voters with disrespect. Worse, if any political campaign succeeds in gaining power through systematic disrespect of the voting public, it is not wise to expect such an elected administration to keep the best interests of the voters at heart.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:14 pm 17. Eggplant:

Hey “mika2k1″ weren’t you just “American Muslim” in the previous thread? What handle do you use at Daily Kos?

Allah akbar! or should I say “Victory to the proletariat!”?

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:17 pm 18. Ben Franklin:

I wish someone would point to where the mythical American Empire exists. I hear that term thrown around a lot but it is clearly a fiction. As a figure of speech the main service it provides is as a signal that you can safely ignore the person who is using it.

Of course, if Obama is elected I will have to re-think my position since he seems to know of the existence of seven more states.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:19 pm 19. mika2k1:

Hey “mika2k1″ weren’t you just..
==

You are so off base, you should be embarrassed to post here.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:22 pm 20. Konyok:

Alexis,

I was struck by Obama’s protectionist rhetoric during the primary. He says that he will restore America’s reputation in the world, but he also wants to protect our middle class from competition in that same world.

To their great surprise, a possible Obama presidency would be a very short globalist honeymoon.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:26 pm 21. Konyok:

mika,

What do farsi speaking jihadis have to do with this conversation?
You referred to US war with Russia.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:28 pm 22. coisty:

Every other Western country will soon face a demographic crisis…One major causes of the current crisis are bungled social engineering efforts by Freddie Mac And Fannie Mae, which are highly policitized government supported enterprises

America’s changing demographics will lead to more social engineering. Just this week black and Hispanic congressmen refused to vote for the bailout not because it was socialism in action but because they weren’t going to get all their billions for ACORN etc.

Mass immigration, the McCain or Obama amnesty, plus the demographic momentum created by open borders will ensure that the percentage of the population claiming victim status will increase radically over the next couple of decades. Increasingly America’s vital human capital – whites and Asians – will see more and more redistribution of the wealth they create due to ethnocentric policies that politicians who wish to stay in office will be keen to promote. The ‘margin’ may be gone forever.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:28 pm 23. mika2k1:

I wish someone would point to where the mythical American Empire exists.
==

How many Ben Franklins need to fall from Theron’s purse before we know he belongs to Xerxes?

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:33 pm 24. shakespeare101:

mika2k1 – say what? We are re-igniting a war with Russia how? Our response to their Georgia agression was in line with previous Soviet satellite states and most of NATO. Would you like us to leave NATO as well? Regarding troops coming home, we sure could have used those troops stationed in Germany in the troop rotation in Iraq, and in fact IIRC we did decrease our troop levels by some 15,000 in South Korea. Many Germans and South Koreans did not want us to lower the troop levels in part because of the economic impact their removal would have on the local economy, but that is a poor reason to station them there if it is the only one. I personally do think we need to lower our footprint in Europe and place the troops in areas that better serve our geopolitical security goals. Europe needs to finance its own defense to a resurgent Russia. The reality is that it cannot take on the burden of a increase in defense spending given the socialist state and aging population.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:34 pm 25. mika2k1:

What do farsi speaking jihadis have to do with this conversation?
You referred to US war with Russia.
==

This conversation has everything to do with that. Iran Pakiland Syria Israel Saudia Turkey Iraq Georgia Stan Republics Eastern Europe etc., they all figure in the equation.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:38 pm 26. Konyok:

mika,

Of course they figure in the equation, but what you said seems more to be an argument for Russia’s decline, not America’s.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:42 pm 27. mika2k1:

Konyok,

Commie is as Commie does. Don’t think the two are all that different.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:45 pm 28. Konyok:

mika,

I’ve been to Matiushka Rossiya, I’ve been to Americhka. Believe me, no two sisters were ever so different under God’s heaven.

It almost sounds like you enjoy stringing words together, but are incapable of understanding what you yourself are saying.

My policy is that almost everybody has something to teach me, so I listen as carefully as I can. Now I think that I can safely conclude that you are an exception.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:52 pm 29. fred:

John Gray is writing for the British chattering classes, who tend to be quite Left of Center and quite anti-American. The media over there has an orgasm when they think they have something to run with: “Finally, those Americans are getting their just deserts!” We may have a “special relationship” with Britain, but isn’t a deep one. The people of the U.K., especially their educated elites, have no love for us. It is best we acknowledge that and live with the reality.

I would argue that one of the measures of our greatness is the fact that we have, since 9/11, absorbed some gargantuan challenges, from the earlier market/economy doldrums inherited from the late nineties, to 9/11, to war, to natural disasters, and now to a problem with government securitization of sub prime mortgages exposed by the bursting of the housing bubble… and still we can find a way, expensive no less and not without its own challenges, to absorb it and hope our productive economy can digest it over time.

Could Europe do all that we’ve done and met the challenges put before us? I hardly think so. Which is why I regard what Mr. Gray has snarkily composed with utter contempt.

I used to subscribe to The Economist and did not renew my subscription because the writing simply infuriated me. It oozed anti-Americanism. They were always finding ways to rub our noses in it.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:53 pm 30. Derek:

Bah, those toronto liberals have been hoping to see the US collapse for years.

What they don’t realize, or maybe they do, is that the US is transparent. If there is an economic issue, it is in the open, on all newspapers, everyone knows.

Does anyone in Canada, or Europe know that a major bank almost collapsed this week? Maybe some, but it’s under the radar.

What will happen with this mess is the US will go through some reshuffling, some bad times, but Europe and possibly the far east will suffer collapses and major social and economic turmoil.

When the eastern tigers of the 90’s collapsed, educated workers ended up back on their parents rice paddies. What is going on in the US is nowhere near that.

Derek

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:55 pm 31. mika2k1:

Konyok,

The same commie thieves siting in the Moscow are siting in Washington. The only difference is that the thieves sitting in Washington are the real pros, and therefore the subtlety.

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:56 pm 32. mika2k1:

sitting

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:57 pm 33. Derek:

major bank in Europe.

There is the potential of the European banking system collapsing, and the economies not being large enough to cover the losses.

Derek

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:59 pm 34. Alexis:

I don’t regard America as a “new” anything, for America is itself. Altogether too many critics of America refuse to see the United States of America as an entity with its own history and its own legacy. To call America a “New Rome” is as ludicrous as calling it a “New Byzantium”, a “New Caliphate”, a “New Persia”, a “New Athens”, a “New British Empire”, or a “New Cartagena”. (I do hope somebody notices the subtle linguistic joke I made about “New Cartagena”.)

So, if America is the “New Rome”, who exactly is our Elagabalus?

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:05 pm 35. Eggplant:

fred said:

“I used to subscribe to The Economist and did not renew my subscription because the writing simply infuriated me. It oozed anti-Americanism. They were always finding ways to rub our noses in it.”

I still subscribe to “The Economist” but I’m enjoying it less. I noticed a significant change in the magazine’s political slant after Bill Emmott was replaced by John Micklethwait as editor. My big problem with not reading “The Economist” is finding an alternative. “Newsweek” is utter garbage and “Time” is not much better.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:06 pm 36. Doug:

Trish reports from Bogata:

“Chavez himself, though, that’s a different matter. There’s only so much shitting you can do in your own bed.
Even in Venezuela.”

—

I’ve Debated Sarah Palin More Than 20 Times — Here’s What It’s Like

And when she does answer the actual question asked, she has a canny ability to connect with the audience on a personal level. For example, asked to name a major issue that had been ignored during the campaign, I discussed the health of local communities, Mr. Knowles talked about affordable healthcare, and Palin talked about … the need to protect hunting and fishing rights.

So what does that mean for Biden? With shorter question-and-answer times and limited interaction between the two, he should simply ignore Palin in a respectful manner on the stage and answer the questions as though he were alone. Any attempt to flex his public-policy knowledge and show Palin is not ready for prime time will inevitably cast him in the role of the bully.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:07 pm 37. Konyok:

mika,

Your English is really rather good. But, phrases like “… and therefore the subtlety” are not something that a native English speaker would type, not even as a typo. The construction sounds like a romance language or a Russian who is being very careful about the definitive article.
The use of the now archaic “commie” is almost, well, comic. English speakers almost always use that word in an ironic sense, like “Kill a commie for mommy,” or “looking for commies under every bed.”
Now, “thieves,” there’s an interesting word. You would say zhuliki, wouldn’t you? My guess is that you are Russian. Vy gbist tovarishch?

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:09 pm 38. Wadeusaf:

For the same reasons they failed to appreciate what President Reagan and Lady Thatcher were doing in the 80’s, I don’t think the Mail and globe will miss the mark, heck they won’t even hit the target board at this rate, on this bit of fancy. It is intellectually stimulating but practically of little value other than in preparing for the challenge.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:10 pm 39. Pat Patterson:

Better to be considered the New Rome than the Old Carthage. Plus I wonder at the validity of observation Mika2k1 made to a character that is fictional and in a fictional story, popular for golly gee whizz reactions among carless and dateless teenage boys. Sorry, no Theron unless the reference is to the arguments on Calvinism in Theron and Aspasio by James Hervey in the mid 18th Century.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:14 pm 40. Eggplant:

Alexis said:

“I do hope somebody notices the subtle linguistic joke I made about “New Cartagena”.”

Too subtle for me but I am enjoying your reference to Elagabalus. On that topic, there’s a couple new history books that I just read and can recommend:

“Chronicle of the Roman Emperors, The Reign-by-Reign Record of the rulers of Imperial Rome” by Chris Scarre. It’s the sequel by the same publisher (Thames & Hudson) to “Chronicle of the Roman Republic, The Rulers of Ancient Rome from Romulus to Augustus” by Philip Matyszak. I found Matyszak’s book more enjoyable than Scarre’s. Both books provide a nice broad brush treatment of Roman history without getting bogged down with detail.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:18 pm 41. whiskey:

Mika, since you asked, go onto my blog, where I posted on Putin’s “Last Man Standing” strategy. Basically, after Beslan Putin made deals with Iran and Jihad to provide nuke assistance and protection to the former, technical assistance to the latter, in exchange for not being attacked, and pointing his own long-term enemies at America.

Putin doesn’t have to be good, or even efficient. If he’s the last man standing. He WANTS Jihadis to nuke the heck out of America, so America nukes them back and Russia collects it’s empire. Back up to maybe the Rhine or possibly all the way up the Thames. Depending if the UK has any spine left or has gone Muslim as it appears to. Sharia is already the law of the Land in Britain now.

Meanwhile, China can’t keep Melanine out of it’s milk and food supply, killing thousands and poisoning millions. While the PRC embarks on a great colonial adventure in Africa. Europe is falling apart and into Sharia. Latin America is a mess, producing poor ignorant people and not much else. The US, is it. Not what we once were, but mostly because of PC stupidity.

Which is … a demographic reality caused by women. Women form the basis of PC, it gives them power, it’s why a Smith College student writes (Ace of Spades website has this) that Obama is her own personal Jesus and concludes “in the name of Obama, Amen.” Time Magazine has Obama up by 17 among women. All these nations, when women had rising incomes, social freedoms, and anonymity, embraced a largely female culture of uber-PC. Which is nothing more than a silly social code based on arbitrary taboos, wherein some have more status and others less. You could not construct a more perfectly appealing code for women. It’s why you see women at the heart of every uber-PC venture, and why men are the bastions of anti-PC, anti-Multiculturalism.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:20 pm 42. Joshua:

I guess I’m the one to do the honors of being the first to say John Gray is not wrong in his observation. He’s actually worse than being wrong: He’s right, but for altogether the wrong reasons.

In order for America to survive as a nation-state, the first prerequisite is that the nation-state model itself survives as the basis of world order, and as I’ve posted here, and on the old blog, and any number of other blogs many times, I’m not optimistic about its chances in the long, and perhaps even in the near term. The reasons are legion, but they boil down to one common theme: Discrete, coherent nation-states simply cannot survive prolonged contact with globalization. This is a recurring theme on John Robb’s blog (most recently here, where he argues that the ongoing series of financial breakdowns worldwide is a prelude to the nation-state collapse), though I would argue that cultural and media globalization is at least as corrosive to the “nation” half of the nation-state model as economic globalization is to the “state” half.

Since stopping this breakdown would require sweeping drastic measures worldwide that would make the proposed Wall Street bailout look like child’s play (shutting down the global economy and all global media, imposing some sort of customs regime on information flow across cyberspace, etc.) the Westphalian world order, and by extension America’s future as a nation-state, may indeed be on very thin ice. The question then becomes how well American society can adapt to whatever emerges to replace the Westphalian order. I’m not particularly optimistic on that front either.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:23 pm 43. mika2k1:

..I wonder at the validity of observation Mika2k1 made to a character that is fictional and in a fictional story..
==

There’s nothing fictional about johns pimps and whores. Nothing honorable about it either. Nothing that is, unless you happen to be a new Roman.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:27 pm 44. mika2k1:

My guess is that you are Russian.
==

I speak Russian. I’m not Russian.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:29 pm 45. Konyok:

I like Alexis’ statement of sui generis Americanism.

One of the mileposts for my recovery from socialism was the realization that an honest multiculturalism sets an honored place for American culture. Country music and corn dogs, skyscrapers and the austere beauty of the Federalist Papers, baseball and jazz. The American tapestry is rich with a native populist egalitarianism that is nowhere rivaled by any contrived *folk* romance.

America is America, and if we work our asses off she’ll always be great.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:30 pm 46. Uncle Jefe:

Euroweenies…piss on them.
In the time I spent living there, I saw what they saw, which is the media’s version of America. That is to say (at that time) Michael Jackson screwing around with boys (not that THAT narrows the timeframe down any…), David Koresh, Baywatch, etc…
Basically, Hollywood and the major networks’ portrayal of America.
In the meantime, I patiently listened as I heard recounted the many AMERICAN atrocities committed during WWII…a moral equivalency argument that truly took the cake…
And all along, they yearned for all things American.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:36 pm 47. Konyok:

Oh, Mika

I remember you now. You are the confused Lithuanian in Canada, aren’t you?

Why are you so concerned about the “commies?” You are a leftist yourself, no?

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:36 pm 48. Joshua:

Oh, and whiskey, the link to your blog doesn’t work (it’s missing the “blogspot” portion of the domain name).

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:39 pm 49. fred:

Ooops, I messed up. The article was in a Canadian paper, not a British one. Major screw up on my part. But, you know, more or less the same views dominate among the Canadian chattering classes as they do in Britain.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:39 pm 50. wretchard:

In order for America to survive as a nation-state, the first prerequisite is that the nation-state model itself survives as the basis of world order, and as I’ve posted here, and on the old blog, and any number of other blogs many times, I’m not optimistic about its chances in the long, and perhaps even in the near term. The reasons are legion, but they boil down to one common theme: Discrete, coherent nation-states simply cannot survive prolonged contact with globalization. This is a recurring theme on John Robb’s blog (most recently here, where he argues that the ongoing series of financial breakdowns worldwide is a prelude to the nation-state collapse), though I would argue that cultural and media globalization is at least as corrosive to the “nation” half of the nation-state model as economic globalization is to the “state” half.

The key organizing principle in the globalized world will be culture; once co-extensive with ethnicity but now a distinguishable in itself. Because modern nations have been around for so many lives of men, it’s easy to forget that they once didn’t exist. Nations were built: by history, leadership and cultural influences. The United States of America, for example, did not strictly speaking, exist before 1776.

Now I would argue that if adaptability and the capacity to self-reinvention is the key to surviving in the globalized world, the USA more than any other major culture has a fair claim to advantage. However, that ability to adapt is critically dependent on a shared set of values. These values are the organizing principle which allow the emergence of unity in apparent diversity.

‘Multiculturalism’ is the most destructive ideology in possible in a globalized world because it implicitly assumes the existence of nations to lend it stability; it postulates a dominant culture to lend the framework keep the multi-culti from collapsing on itself. Multiculturalism without a dominant culture would lead to chaos. In a world of nation-states, multiculturalism would just be supportable; even entertaining. In a globalized world it is a fast track to disaster.

In context of this post any ‘nation’ or cultural entity which wishes to survive must experience a new birth of freedom. Ridding ourselves of the ideology of the left — by debate, discussion and persuasion — is the key to staying alive. Drink the hemlock and perish from the earth.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:42 pm 51. fred:

Do you guys think that some of the architects of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act and the Justice Department’s 1995 interpretation of it might stem from any conscious adherence to the Cloward-Piven Crisis Hypothesis? That Piven woman, by the way, was a Canadian-born Communist who emigrated to this country and became an academic for the New Left.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:43 pm 52. mika2k1:

whiskey,

You make very good points. But,..

1/ Putin is too smart to be thinking expansion of empire.
2/ Russia is suffering from an AIDS pandemic and demographic collapse.
3/ I’d rather Russia on my team than Jihadistan, any day.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:45 pm 53. mika2k1:

You are a leftist yourself, no?
==

Only if by Leftist you mean to the right of Attila the Hun.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:47 pm 54. Alexis:

Eggplant:

Cartagena was originally Carthago Novo — New Carthage. Carthage was originally “Kart Hadasht”, which meant “New City”. (The Old City was Tyre.)

So, “New Cartagena” would be the New New New City. A copy of a copy of a copy of pre-Alexandrine Tyre. And the ancient phenomenon of Tyre as a heavily fortified island port city across from the Lebanese coast has a passing geographical resemblance to the modern island of Manhattan.

I’ll keep your book recommendations about Roman history in mind.

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:48 pm 55. bobal:

I wish someone would point to where the mythical American Empire exists.

I’ve asked to have pins placed on the map, so’s I can inspect the empire. But, so far, I’ve just been told it’s more subtle than that.

Oct 1, 2008 - 11:19 pm 56. Mad Fiddler:

Alexis,

is it not also true that Cartagena, Colombia, was the first major city developed by Spain to govern its holdings in the “new world?”

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:04 am 57. buddy larsen:

“…it’s more subtle than that”

Of course it is. It’s an empire of dreams. It’s every animal or face a daydreaming child sees in the clouds. It’s the sound of every far away mom calling you in for supper, and the banging shut of the screen door as she finishes her holler and heads back to the stove. It’s those two things and some other stuff too.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:07 am 58. bobal:

Buddy! You’ve been gone so long. Tell us, what’s going on with Wall Street, the markets, the coming chaos, and D.C.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:10 am 59. bobal:

And how chubby little Winston is doing.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:11 am 60. buddy larsen:

i think Cartagena does in fact bill itself as the oldest Spanish city in South America (St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest in the north). Matamoros, Mexico, sister city –twin city–of Brownsville, Texas across the river, means “kill the Moors” –clearly founded by non-PC Spanish veterans of the Moor Wars.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:15 am 61. Doug:

Geez, guy survives the Hurricane Sequelae, and you ask him about the Markets.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:16 am 62. buddy larsen:

ha ha –Little Winston –well, he’s not walking or talking yet, so we can’t be certain, but he seems to be enjoying life pretty grandly. About that World Situation stuff –man alive –i’ve lost count of all the impossible things before breakfast. Getting some hopeful glimmerings tho –emanating from that rank overgrown forgotten old-timey American character field.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:22 am 63. buddy larsen:

…let me re-phrase that to “western” character. First shock of recognition was the look on house minority leader Boehner’s face the other day when he more or less said, “What the hell, let it come.” Takes awhile to get used to that idea, but it’s grimly restful once done.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:39 am 64. Pascal:

RF: “The real question is why this information did not come front and center sooner.”

PF: The videos you and others have linked on prior threads give us the answer.

Democrats on high lambasted the watchdogs and closed down discussions that would let the news out, ostensibly protecting the underclass that would be put into housing at least temporarily. They painted the watchdogs as cruel, and news media (MinInfo) went along.

However, the Republicans and the finance industry didn’t fight very hard either. Increased business were converted into bonuses. MinInfo went along again.

Who is left standing by the old standards as the whole political machine has moved (Leftward?) towards more statism? The middle class and taxpayers. We had been given minimum information and MinInfo continues to do that.

For instance: how many know that the Dems added billions for psychiatric treatment and the Pubbies added billions for rural schools to the Senate “Bail-out” Bill? What the hell does that have to do with the financial institution failures? Heh-heh. I guess it’s none of our business, right? MinInfo continues its role.

Oct 2, 2008 - 1:58 am 65. ledger:

Konyok: “My guess is that you are Russian.”

Mika2k1: “I speak Russian. I’m not Russian.”

How interesting.

One could conclude you are a “communications consultant” or such. I hope Konyok did not blow your cover.

Oct 2, 2008 - 2:39 am 66. Pascal:

RF: “But something is clearly wrong.

…false article of faith that there exists an essentially unlimited margin of resources…

I once knew a guy who ruined his life because he wanted everything ‘just so’…”

PF: The Natural Laws of Thermodynamics dictate that every real system will have losses. It’s called natural entropy of the system. But human’s when not careful or when careless can pile on additional losses. The entropy cannot be unlimited or the engine will fail to produce any work.

The margins to which you and your correspondent refer would have to be unbounded — UNBOUNDED — when pols act as if they could care less if what they do will kill the goose that lays those golden eggs. Radicals have always threatened nihilism — but did anyone really believe them? Apparently THEY do; so maybe the rest of us should start.

The word we hear repeated relentlessly played a role in all this is GREED.

However, MinInfo and Republicans too never mention the role played by ENVY. Isn’t it long past time that those who still wish that the old standards be brought back into fashion made an issue of it?

ENVY is at the heart of the demand for “social justice.” That’s the one contribution which Rousseau added to the social contract that was absent from Locke’s. I think it’s clear that the American Revolution was successful while the French was not in large part because of that contribution of envy and the hatred that came with it.

ENVY for the home that others had sweated and saved for was what conceived the CRA to begin with. It took complete Democratic rule under Carter to foist it on the rest of us.

But ENVY was still unsatisfied with that. It had to wait for the next complete Democratic rule during Clinton’s first 2 years to institute the sub-prime rules which led up to today.

RF: “I once knew a guy who ruined his life because he wanted everything ‘just so’…”

PF: Utopians could be the ruin of us all.

I’ve asked before: What provision do Utopians make for practical jokers and misanthropes?

Nobody living in our PC world fitted to the lowest common denominator should be surprised by the answer.

Now convince justifiably wavering McCain voters.

Oct 2, 2008 - 3:07 am 67. 3Case:

Pascal,

Neither must we forget Schadenfreude while contemplating envy and hatred.

…then I passed through to your link. Nice work. I don’t understand misanthropy (as I don’t understand Schadenfreude).

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:03 am 68. Michael Hoskins:

The United States is (are) a place. America is an idea. The idea is free.

Re: The validity of the nation state. Accepting that major changes are afoot, we cannot be islands unto ourselves. We must live in communities of minds and lives similar enough to our own to have down time. If all my neighbors are radically opposed to me point of view, the required level of self protective vigilence is not sustainable.

Virtual connections with like minds is subject to interference; therefore I need some measure of geographic connection and space, if only enough to laager.

Subject to the above, I can accept a revised nation state model, whatever that might be.

As before, I like an the idea of a definition based on reunification of the anglosphere.

ta

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:46 am 69. Michael Hoskins:

MY point of view.

Additionally, since I desire the continuance of me, I would like my children to have a shot at mating with like.

The Anglosphere is geographically disconnected, but retains large enough enclaves to provide nesting and incubation areas for our ideas, industry and hopefully, reproduction.

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:49 am 70. Clioman:

Wretchard, in a comment in this thread, you wrote:

Now I would argue that if adaptability and the capacity to self-reinvention is the key to surviving in the globalized world, the USA more than any other major culture has a fair claim to advantage. However, that ability to adapt is critically dependent on a shared set of values. These values are the organizing principle which allow the emergence of unity in apparent diversity.

In Shield of Achilles, Bobbitt argued that nation states are being replaced by what he called market states. Surely market states would supremely able at self-reinvention, but your argument that self-reinvention must be anchored a cultural identity suggests that Bobbitt’s market states would not be very enduring — just as corporations seem to become increasingly short-lived in the ‘legal entity’ sense due to mergers, take-overs, break-ups, etc. The pursuit of profit is no substitute for a culture identity.

So, would you challenge Bobbitt’s argument on this basis?

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:55 am 71. RWE:

Where is the American Empire? Well, I like Buddy’s poetic description, but it brings to mind an old map on the wall in a certain very large five-sided building I used to work in.

It was a 1939 map of the world, pasted to the wall like wallpaper. And it was full of holes.

The holes were where pins had been stuck in the map, each surely marking some military action of years past. In some places it was obvious. The map was all but gone in places like the Marshall Islands, the sea around the Philippines, down around New Guinea. And there were odd marks in it that made you wonder. For example, a very few pins had been stuck in the middle of South America. What was going on there? What incredible human stories were marked by those pin-pricks?

But in the Year of our Lord 1992, with the USSR in ruins, and the USA astride truly the globe like a colossus, and cries of excessive power and absolute hegemony being heard, most of those pin pricks marked places where we walked no more. Ask Wretchard what the people of the Philippines thought of the American “occupation.” But when a few of their elites decided that they did not want us in Subic Bay or Clark AB, we left.

America is not a traditional empire because we choose not to be.

In 1992 they redecorated the place and tore down the map. Too bad, but maybe it’s job was done.

Oct 2, 2008 - 6:02 am 72. slade:

I still subscribe to “The Economist” but I’m enjoying it less. – Eggplant

Not a full-time or long-time reader but I started to notice the editorial encroachment late 2006 early 2007. I like the rgemonitor.com website. I haven’t fully explored it, but the focus appears to be more technically narrow, with political commentary as required. It’s a good starting point, but some of it feels like being back in school again, so if that makes your blood race, as it does mine, might want to approach with care.

Oct 2, 2008 - 6:13 am 73. NahnCee:

Ban Mika. Troll. Hijacked the thread. Stupid and provocative. Dump it and tell it to scurry back to SorosLand where it’s idiocy will be appreciated.

Oct 2, 2008 - 6:26 am 74. mika2k1:

Buddy!

As long as you have faith in America I will have faith in America. But what I’m seeing is extremely disheartening. The corruption is all pervasive.

Oct 2, 2008 - 6:52 am 75. mika2k1:

NahnCee,

I love you, but in this case you couldn’t be more wrong. What I’m saying is the truth.

Oct 2, 2008 - 6:54 am 76. Mark:

Wrichard writes:

“‘Multiculturalism’ is the most destructive ideology in possible in a globalized world because it implicitly assumes the existence of nations to lend it stability; it postulates a dominant culture to lend the framework keep the multi-culti from collapsing on itself.”

The reason ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ is so funny is that the viewer can assume dominant cultural values that provide an interpretive norm for the satire.

“Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony! . . . Help, help, I’m being oppressed!”

The irony in part is that the old stories (a nod here to Samwise Gamgee) do indeed matter, because they carry the code of the culture. A ‘mandate from the masses’ is no basis for a system of government.

If you want to destroy a culture, change the stories that the culture tells to itself. Out with Arthur. In with celebration of all the stories from all around the world. Out with patriotism. In with cosmopolitanism.

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:03 am 77. mika2k1:

The rot and corruption is all pervasive. It’s the gamed news media. It’s the gamed film and music industry. It’s the gamed political system. It’s the gamed taxes on the vanishing middle class. It’s the gamed financial system. It’s the gamed war contracts and fake wars. It’s the gamed urban sprawl and architecture for the car. It’s a corruption and rot that is all pervasive.

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:07 am 78. American Muslim:

And so ends your degenerate, unholy “Western Civilization”. Your corrupt government is paralysed while your depraved and cowardly citizenry scrambles for the scraps that remain. Your usury based enconomy is in shambles and on the brink of total collapse.

Only the total replacement of your political and economic systems by Sharia can save what little remains. You must pray that President Obama will move quickly in this regard.

It is over for you. The chickens have indeed come home to roost and you will suffer the consequences of your oppression of Muslims throughout the world.

You must act quickly. Embrace Islam now and live in peace in submission to the will of Almighty Allah (swt) or perish and vanish forever from the Earth.

Your grandchildren will be Muslim.

Allahu akbar!

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:23 am 79. mika2k1:

Go away, Habu.

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:27 am 80. slade:

It is not wise for any political campaign to treat voters with disrespect. Worse, if any political campaign succeeds in gaining power through systematic disrespect of the voting public, it is not wise to expect such an elected administration to keep the best interests of the voters at heart. – Alexis

To the extent that the campaign defines the man, the debate is closed. The rebuttal position is that Obama is “not like that”.

Interesting – if that’s the right word – that McCain is just the opposite – the man (and to a lesser degree the woman) dominates the campaign, to the chagrin of the handlers.

Obama seems to be using this “obscurity” about who he is as part of the “design margin” to get elected.

Obama – and his supporters – value the “oneness” of comity more than they can tolerate the messiness of conflict. Managing chaos versus allocating little slivers of peace, one song at a time?

2008 is so far outside my frame of reference that I guess I am not surprised at the eruption of apocalypse and apocalyptic theories.

This little sing-along reminds me of an old Hollywood technique that juxtaposes an innocent musical score with graphic visual violence.

Unless this country collectively “grows a pair”, we will be psychologically derailed by the bully pulpit of the pilers-on in addition to the special pleaders, snake oil salesmen and professional screamers.

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:33 am 81. Lamont Cranston:

Mikea2k1
You need a kick in the groin.

Lamont

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:36 am 82. Derek:

>adaptability and the capacity to self-reinvention

People like John Gray haven’t had a new thought in 40 years. The province he lives in is the destination for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, most of whom are funneled into government backed immigrant organizations that are often fronts for one side or other of the fighting factions back home. To even say that is deemed racist.

If I was to bet who is going to survive this mess, and a mess it is, I would bet on the US. Which society can handle a meltdown due to pension liabilities? Germany/France/Belgium? Or the US? Which society will function amid major downturns in manufacturing? Japan, Korea, China, or the US? Not talking about economic strength, but societies ability to absorb change and disruption.

All other societies, including Canada, don’t air their differences as openly, as vigorously and dare I say constructively as the US. In Europe, no one can talk about the demographic revolution without being charged with hate crimes. In Canada, there is no discussion period. The health system here is either collapsing or letting people die, and no one talks about it. It is not an issue in the current election.

I don’t know the far east, but I can’t see China as we know it surviving a major economic recession. Maybe I’m wrong.

The odd thing is that everyone will read about how awful the US is, all the while watching things fall apart around them.

Derek

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:48 am 83. mika2k1:

You need a kick in the groin.
==

It’s not about me. Or maybe it is. Maybe it is only my eyes that can see this.

Richard, why are you so afraid to speak out on this on your blog. It is still your blog?

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:49 am 84. Mad Fiddler:

I have myself occasionally been referred to as “that little prick of conscience…”

For all the aggravation and distraction, it seems useful – even when I can’t put my finger on any specific valuable idea being advanced – to have a gadfly buzzing about.

Horsefly?

Sure is something familiar about that mika2k1…

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:52 am 85. Konyok:

Like so many princesses struggling with so many peas, American conservatives seem to think that stamping their pretty little feet and threatening a fit of the vapors is all that it should take to win the culture war before retiring to their corner to sulk and mutter darkly about guns and dehydrated rations.

The election is 30 days away, that is just about the entire time alloted for campaigning in most parliamentary countries. It is time to get off of our asses, rise out of our passive defeatist pique and work to defeat B. Hussein Obama.

We complain about the bane of multiculturalism, but … we … do … nothing about it. The left has worked assiduously for decades to insinuate themselves into education, the media and the bureaucracy. We stand by, complain about it and then wonder why things just get worse and worse.

Every school board in America should have at least one resident conservative crank. Every school board meeting in America should have at least one conservative parent prepared to ask tough questions and demand standards. Every city council meeting in America should have a well informed contingent of conservative activists to ruin their appetite to declare immigration sanctuaries. Listen to Sarah Palin, this is how she got her start. This is how we steer our ship away from the shoals.

On the Belmont Club we love to discuss these big topics. This is great good fun. But, it is no substitute for taking responsibility for our own communities. One by one, encouraging each other on, we MUST overcome our passivity and fatalism to reclaim and restore those societal margins that Wretchard wrote of. The true power of our traditional margins is that they arose without a five point master plan, they are simply the cumulative effect of millions of people doing what’s right in their own lives. Our task is to argue wherever we can for what is sensible and right.

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:56 am 86. oMan:

Clioman: Interesting point about Bobbitt’s “Shield of Achilles” and whether market-states would be stable successors to nation-states. Insofar as they are like corporations, i.e. lacking a strong cultural basis, then I think they are unstable. As you say, big corporations have a precarious hold on existence. They are also extremely cowardly, full of CYA culture and oriented toward playing not to lose. Their internal culture is weak and beyond lip service to “community values” they really don’t understand or care for the lives of those they employ or serve. They may be necessary to the political model but they are in no way sufficient. As for a “nation” comprised of corporations and their interests: the mind boggles to imagine how it would function. It might make Congress look effective and honest by comparison. Just my very humble opinion.

Oct 2, 2008 - 7:57 am 87. mika2k1:

We complain about the bane of multiculturalism, but … we … do … nothing about it.
==

“Those that are kind to the cruel, are cruel to the kind.”

Konyok, it’s much worse than that. We allow our leaders to call it compassionate conservatism, when in fact the Open Border and Free Trade policy is just the same old scheme towards Empire.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:12 am 88. Mad Fiddler:

My sister married a guy from an island in the Mediterranean, close enough to Turkey, Lebanon, and Greece to have served as a stepping stone for questing armies since earliest times. The inhabitants have managed to survive – I suspect at least partly – by bending with the prevailing gales and currents.

My sister, her husband, kids and grandchildren visited the island last summer in a bunch. They’ve visited previously about once per decade.

One of the observations my sister has made, and which has been reinforced with each visit, is that the people of the island seem to base their impressions and expectations of Americans primarily on the images they get from Hollywood. Not newspapers. Not textbooks. Not travel. Not correspondence. Not tourists.

Hollywood movies.

So to them, we’re racist thug Godfather hippie gangster Rambo pimp’ho druggie smuggling cockaigne-snorting idiots who alternate between being intimidated by bullying women, and beating our submissive whinging sex-slaves.

Some years back, my sister accompanied her husband to meet his relatives, and was attending a party one night with the people of his home village. As she was being introduced to a line of folks, she recalls, everyone grew suddenly quiet. As it turned out, they were holding their collective breath to see how she – from RACIST AMERIKKKA – would react to a black African resident who had just come in. Without skipping a beat, my sister warmly greeted the man just as she would normally, and the party returned to its former relaxed mode.

Thanks, Hollywood.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:14 am 89. Alexis:

Mad Fiddler:

mika2k1 says he isn’t Russian, so I’ll take him at his word. He claims to be a Russian speaker, so he probably comes from eastern Europe. Although he could come from any among several Russophile subcultures that do exist throughout eastern Europe, he sounds like a young member of the Serbian Radical Party who has read too much Noam Chomsky and honestly believes the Milosevic/Seselj line that the United States is the new Nazi Empire.

mika2k1 probably doesn’t comprehend the general unpopularity of the Kosovo War in the United States nor does he comprehend how Serb American anti-war protests backfired horribly. He probably fails to understand how Saudi influence affected Washington decision making in those days. He is almost certainly unaware of how the persistent efforts of a Haverford religion professor and Muslim convert named Michael Sells and CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour were largely responsible for promoting war against Serbia.

But instead of bothering to learn about the people who pushed hard to involve the United States in the Balkans, mika2k1 appears to uncritically accept Noam Chomsky’s worldview and then seeks to post some trite remarks on the Belmont Club. Sadly, he is not alone.

Now, if Russia is (or was) the Third Rome, how can the United States be the “New Rome” without being the “Fourth Rome”? Can’t the USA be the “New Mongol Empire” instead? And who gets to be the “Fifth Rome”?

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:31 am 90. slade:

Thanks, Hollywood. – Mad Fiddler

Point taken but …

Reading, researching, looking for what you want/expect to see – or what will satisfy intellectual curiosity? Cognitive templates or blank slates?

Hollywood occupies a big space, but for the world to sit dumbly in a single theater requires a bigger explanation – one that speaks to differential development along the multiple vectors of culture, government, history, economic structures, law, and social institutions. The Rising Tide. I remember during the 1970’s when poverty in Africa was being complicated by Aids and the rise of black nationalist dictators. Lot of talk about The Rising Tide.

USA will continue to take it the shorts, as these adjustments filter through the lens of history, but Hollywood wasn’t the only gun taking aim.**

** Which is changing as we speak with cable independents replacing the blockbusters favored by a small group of Hollywood studios – think of them as the equivalent of the Big Five investment houses.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:39 am 91. bobal:

mika2k1 is an Amalekite.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:40 am 92. mika2k1:

Alexis,

1/ I hate Leftists. And I hate Leftists that hate the US and Israel even more.
2/ I speak of America’s oil whoring and a gamed media. That should tell you I’m pretty fluent as regards Saudi influences and jihadi agents like Christiane Amanpour.
3/ Rome was/is/and forever will be an evil political concept. Third, forth, fifth, new, old, it’s all the same.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:43 am 93. Alexis:

I think one major problem America faces is utopianism. Not only do utopians seek to impose their “perfect” solutions onto other people, but they turn against their own society whenever it doesn’t live up to their lofty ambitions. No society could ever live up to their ambitions, so they easily become “disillusioned”. Then they rant and rave, talking about how terrible their own society is all in the name of “making it better”, when all they actually accomplish is to create the impression that the USA is a warren of hideous monsters.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:45 am 94. mika2k1:

mika2k1 is an Amalekite.
==

Bob is a pagan worshiper.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:45 am 95. Pascal:

Bobal.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:45 am 96. Atadoff:

Don’t worry too much about what journalists say about the demise of US hegemony. The US is still the worlds only superpower. It is still the finest example of democracy and of the greatness of the human spirit in the world.

When 9/11 happened I like many others was glued to the TV. I watched with tears in my eyes the incredible strength and spirit of the people of New York as they responded to the disaster. I have closely followed the Iraq war and while I was against the initial invasion I have watched in awe the sacrifice so many of your young men and women have made on behalf of the people of Iraq. Be not afraid for your country. It’s people and spirit are as great and as strong as they have ever been.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:47 am 97. Alexis:

mika2k1:

What’s your alternative? What do you want for the future?

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:51 am 98. Alexis:

In reference to the real Rome (as opposed to later imitations), the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire partly because of the ideological influence of eastern Pharaonic ideas of rulership by god emperors. The United States of America is not ruled by any person who thinks he is a deified emperor. Hopefully, it never will be.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:56 am 99. buddy larsen:

i think Mika, having been pulled stretched and tightened ever tighter by antithetical ties to both Rus culture and Israel, has, as these two heart homelands continue calibrating Armageddon missiles at each other, begun to hum like a high tension wire in a hurricane, and the note hummed is as discordant as the difference between the normal and the ideal has always ever been.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:56 am 100. buddy larsen:

Konyok at 7:56 A.M. –so right, so right. Act, act act. Time is short. Barbarians lounge cooly at the gates.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:01 am 101. mika2k1:

What’s your alternative? What do you want for the future?
==

Alexis, my alternative is The alternative. Small, localized, decentralized, sustainable. Green renewable energy. Multi party representative democracy like Israel’s. Cities for people, and countries for its citizenry. In short, the United States of America, not the United State of America.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:05 am 102. mika2k1:

Buddy,

I don’t care for Russia. I do care about Jihadistan that is going to replace it.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:07 am 103. bobal:

mika2k1 has this idea of reading at night by the light of a solar panel, and tries to sell electric bikes that you have to peddle downhill to charge up the battery, but, I love him anyways.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:23 am 104. Ex-fetus:

mika2k1:

Law abiding countries don’t keep military bases around the globe

Please point out what part of the US code is being broken.
You can’t because there aren’t any laws against deploying US forces in Foreign nations.
Law requires a legislative body, an administrative (enforcement) body and a judiciary to tie them together. So there can be no “international law” until those 3 functions are international in scope.
Since that would require the entire planet being one ‘nation’, there can never be “international law”, since there being only one nation precludes the term ‘international’ which means ‘between nations’.
So “international law is an impossibility, a contradiction in terms.
Where we have today is a web of treaties. Treaties are NOT laws, nor even contracts, since there is no enforcement mechanism. Laws are not voluntary. If you think they are, drive your vehicle thru the front door of a police station and then light up your crack pipe.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:24 am 105. buddy larsen:

Yeh –his heart is in the right place, and with that, the brain can always repair itself.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:25 am 106. Habu:

The US certainly seems to be going through a tough patch right now. However it’s nothing we haven’t seen before and I would point out we’ve seen it in decades way before we were the worlds dominant power. And through all of those challenges and travails we have not only survived them but we’ve continued to develop.

It is almost impossible to look at our history and not find big challenges. Big Wars, foreign and domestic. Socio-economic dislocation. You name it and we’ve taken it’s measure, dealt with the challenge , overcome it , and moved forward. Although I would want Mr. McCain to prevail we may be on the verge of having our first President of a microscopic biological African ancestory. A man whose true faith may indeed see us challenged again by turning out to be one totally inimical to what is hugely a Christian nation. We won’t fall apart. There may be another civil war, more than likely regional, but no outside force is going to take us over.

Wall Street is coming unglued. Well, I would remind you that right after we beat the most powerful country on Earth that had sallied forth the most powerful armada the world had ever seen at that time we were broke. It took the business acumen of Robert Morris ( one of the signers of the Declaration Of Independence) to salvage the US’s debt problem which he did in large part with 1.4 million dollars of his own money, a huge sum at that time. He personally financed the Yorktown campaign which ended the Revolutionary War.

The point is we have tremendous resources both in material and more importantly creative people. But of all people we can best look to Calvin Coolidge for a saying he gave us which is the crux of the matter we discuss today:

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Calvin Coolidge

I do not know who this YouTube person is but he makes a fine point also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UebZT-9icao
I firmly believe as a concept, a country, and a great people we can define our own destiny. And never forget WE THE PEOPLE get a chance to change the political landscape every two years. We can handle anything.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:28 am 107. Konyok:

Buddy,

Your good humor and common sense have been sorely missed in this neighborhood.

The Club is nearly panicked by the financial crisis, the bailout and the apparent gains of the Obama campaign. (Check out the Sing for change thread for a look at the extent of the panic … )

Wretchard is right. (Heck, John McCain is right – “The fundamentals of the economy are sound.”) The hour is late and our wake up call is buzzing. It is up to us to reclaim our country. Not by freaking out, but by using the tools that our forefathers gave to us.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:29 am 108. Habu:

So Press On.

As an aside to the fortune of a single man who I mentioned, Robert Morris this will at least add to a good cocktail conversation.

Mr. Morris after spending a large fortune singulary paying off the US debt started speculating in land in the west..Buffalo,Pittsburg, you know way out west.

The speculation went bad and he got into cash flow problems. He was arrested on the charge of a small creditor and incarcerated for three and a half years in debtors prison. He was released in August 1801 and lived the last five years of his life in a small room in Philadelphia where he died in 1806.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:40 am 109. mika2k1:

Please point out what part of the US code is being broken.
You can’t because there aren’t any laws against deploying US forces in Foreign nations.
==

That’s the point.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:42 am 110. mika2k1:

mika2k1 has this idea of reading at night by the light of a solar panel
==

And your objection is?

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:43 am 111. Habu:

Yes Buddy, Possumtater has been pining for your insight, wit, and wisdom. We both greatly look forward to many more posts. We have never met but I’ve read you for what now five years, and I think any man in your company would be happy to be there.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:45 am 112. buddy larsen:

Konyok –you’re right –life’s tough but we will always own 100% of our own selves unless we make some special effort to discard same, or somehow perversely decide to act more fragile than we really are.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:55 am 113. James:

Let us take as given that the fundamentall wealth of a country is its “human capital” (though that is a horridly reductionist view of people), and not its natural resources or its trading position in the world. To first order that seems to be correct, as numerous examples show, though a really impoverished and infertile land doesn’t offer many opportunities.

Think about what traits are required to generate wealth: willingness to work, self discipline, willingness to sustain some reverses and start again, some education–and a certain amount of trust in your neighbor, so that you invest in your work rather than in fortifications or lawyers or burying coins in the back yard. Oh, and it helps a lot to have stable families: multiple fragmented households are expensive, and a larger proportion of the children of broken homes are criminal/destructive.

How much of these traits can we still rely on? Our pop/ad culture is based on “get it now” rather than self discipline, demagogues and PC-ites tell their favorites to blame all their troubles on someone else because they’re _entitled_ to prosperity, and hardly anyone trusts the government not to screw things up. And we know how many families are broken.

The traits aren’t gone, but they’re seriously eroded from what they were a few generations ago.

We’ve been through worse times: I seem to remember reading about some disturbances about 145 years ago. But I’m not sure Gray isn’t right about the trends, if not the reasons.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:58 am 114. Staring In Disbelief:

Today’s star of the thread, mika2k1, (BTW congrats dude) sounds more to me like a really depressed conservative than a Kosbat. As befalls most foreign observers of the American political scene, he may have equated America’s externally visible behavior (standing up for freedom and human rights) with an equally morally laudable internal political system (country first, honor, etc.). Wow, what a mistake. He is right in many (exceedingly narrow) ways when he damns Washington as being full of “pimpswhoresjohns, etc.”. American politics can be exceedingly messy to observe in action, especially during periods when the country is evenly divided on a big issue (e.g. Hamilton’s Federalism, Slavery and now looming Socialism). What he must come to grasp is something even many American natives fail to grasp – it is the final macro results that our system is optimized for, not the micro human behavior. People looking for a “government of patriots” will ALWAYS be disappointed. Humans will always disappoint in general, especially those drawn to the daily exercise of power. But it is their constant jostling (and occasional brilliance and courage) that ensure the macro system’s “optimal but not optimum” performance. Look for heroes in literature and in ordinary citizens (and soldiers). Courage and honor is always in short supply where governance is involved.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:00 am 115. buddy larsen:

aw, shucks, habu –same back atcha –say, i like old Silent Cal too –a lot –a much under-appreciated philosopher/president he.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:00 am 116. Roderick Reilly:

Every 20 years or so someone declares America’s day to be over.

The late 70’s were the last time that a lot of noise to that effect had been made, so perhaps 30 years per cycle.

We’re going back to the 70’s mentality now, and will suffer as a consequence, but 1) we’re not prostrate, despite the financial “meltdown,” and 2) we will be “back.” I put “back” in scare quotes, because the G&M comparison of our financial crisis to the Soviet collapse is ludicrous and infantile.

One thing we do have to watch out for is whether Obama will become our Gorbachev, and hasten our decline.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:02 am 117. Tom Holsinger:

No question that we’ve seen three centuries of continuous American decline. Europeans have been saying that the whole time, so it must be true.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:04 am 118. Konyok:

Our kind host tried to tell us a couple of weeks ago in his post Enthused:
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/09/18/enthused/

He said that it was a battle of inches.

Sometimes it seems that we’ve already ceded the fight and are conveniently mourning our loses before our opponents have finished playing. Poppycock!

We just saw people power in action – the House of Representatives voted down the first bailout bill because of the hellish flood of calls and e-mails from the public. Unsolicited calls and e-mails.
If every American reader of this forum sent an e-mail to the Presidential Debate Commission complaining about Gwen Ifill it might not accomplish anything right now, but it would nudge the game a bit in our direction. If we all e-mailed the Missouri governor or AG to complain about the Obama “Truth Squad,” well, you know what I mean …
We support politicians brave enough to speak out. We vote with our dollars.
Before even contemplating civil wars and such, first we type our fingers to the bone, we make our voices hoarse on the telephone. Then, if our opponents manage to stack the deck against us, we use political theater. If need be, we engage in civil disobedience. We put our bodies on the line for the nation that we love.
The last thing that we ever, ever do is take aim at our fellow Americans. We do not force our sons and daughters in the military and law enforcement to choose between their oath and their people.
Those *realists* that preach defeatism don’t have enough faith in the American militia. We are always late and you’ve got to convince us to even show up, but once we do, we faithfully kick ass.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:14 am 119. fred:

The transnational elites desperately want a prostrate America, because they have their own ideas of how to fill the vacuum. You aren’t going to like it or the results from it.

Why isn’t McLame saying anything about that 800 billion+ bill to transfer money from the U.S. taxpayer to the United Nations? That’s an outrage. Just one more item that the Messiah of Hope and Change won’t tell the Middle Muddle or his adoring useful idiots. But his fellow travelers know about it and it is vital that only they know about it.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:15 am 120. Pascal:

3Case: You got me thinking. Why did I leave out schadenfreude?

I think because it is unlike the other two I singled out. It is not an flaw that turns up in some people, but a natural response to witnessing someone hoist by their own petard. Schadenfreude is central to the warning “remember in your climb to the top, those you step on will be greeting you on the way down.”

In our world where justice is rarely witnessed but often desired, many find consolation in schadenfreude. I think it’s bad reputation stems from two things: overindulgence and Christian belief in that order.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:16 am 121. fred:

Konyok,

The Messiah of Hope and Change ropes in most of his dopes from the 18-30 year old group. How do you propose that we break the illegal suspension of academic freedom on our university campuses and school systems? The NEA and the college professors unions successfully stiff-armed David Horowitz’ academic freedom bills.

Do you have any ideas on how to break the balls of the Left in academia and media?

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:19 am 122. Konyok:

Yes, fred, you confront them. You expose yourself to ridicule and criticism and you confront them, just as Horowitz has and continues to do.

As to “McLame’s” 800 billion gift to the UN, can you explain to me why the socialists are just as split on the issue as the conservatives? Methinks it’s not as simple as you paint it.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:29 am 123. buddy larsen:

staring-in-disbelief @ 10:00 –excellently put. Often tried to have a similar thought meself but needed that keyword ‘optimimal vs optimized’ insight.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:30 am 124. Holdfast:

Derek – I think Canada, or at least most Canadians, will survive better than Europe. Although the chattering classes are very Euro, there is still a large reserve of tough, common-sense folks living outside VanTorEal.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:31 am 125. Habu:

I believe one issue that needs to be addressed and would aid in the accountability of our government is the situation in the House of Representative.

The last time there was an increase in US Representatives was 1910. It raised the number to what we have today 435. It was based on data from 1900 when the US population was only 76,094,000. We now have something in the vicinity of 305,000,000 a four fold increase and thus a huge dilution of each of our say in what goes on in Washington.

The next census will be in two years and I believe it is time to add Representatives. A century is a long enough period of stagnation and, as mentioned a huge dilution of each citizens import. That is one reason the Reps only pay attention to the big money.

A talking up of this point needs to begin now if it is to become an issue in 2010.

Too many Reps have established fiefdoms and simply ignore their constituents.

It would be a meaningful change.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:33 am 126. buddy larsen:

Konyok –i agree –Horowitz is an authentic American hero.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:34 am 127. fred:

Anyone explain to me how loading up that bailout bill to the gills with pork and provisions that have nothing to do with the actual problem is doing the peoples’ business?

And holding the financial markets, business’ credit lines, and our jobs hostage to their insanity is not malfeasance?

I’ve had it with these people.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:39 am 128. buddy larsen:

America has been too successful. What does “too” mean? How ’bout, it’s when we’ve become so successful at fighting oppression that we no longer oppress our true jerks and assholes –or even, at (cough) times, our own worst instincts –?

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:45 am 129. mika2k1:

..we’ve become so successful at fighting oppression..
==

How does being best buddies with Saudia and the islamofascists in Iraq square with being successful at fighting oppression? Why is it that every time Israel builds steam against the jihadi onslaught, America feels compelled to step in?

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:59 am 130. Konyok:

Here is something that Whiskey will especially like:

http://www.city-journal.com/2008/18_3_obama.html

An interesting treatise on Obama’s Oprah appeal …

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:00 am 131. Wolf Pangloss:

Cloward-Piven Strategy
Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis

From: The Cloward-Piven Strategy: Part I

Why is the liberal public policy record one of such unmitigated disaster? I mean, even the worst batter hits one occasionally. No one bats zero. No one that is, except liberals.

Prior to the Republican takeover in Congress in 1994, Democrats had over fifty years of virtually unbroken power in Congress with substantial majorities most of the time. With all the time and money in the world — trillions spent — they couldn’t fix a single thing, not one. Today’s liberal has the same complaints, and the same old tired solutions. Can a group of smart people, studying issue after issue for years on end, with virtually unlimited resources at their command, not come up with a single policy that works? Why are they chronically incapable?

Why?

When things go bad all the time, despite the best efforts of all involved, I suggest to you something else is at work — something deeper, more malevolent.

I submit to you that it is not a mistake, the failure is deliberate!

There is a method to the madness, and the method even has a name: the Cloward-Piven Strategy. It was first elucidated in the 1960s by a pair of radical leftist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven:

The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis…. …the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:01 am 132. Konyok:

fred,

I wouldn’t presume to argue that the bailout is good policy or not. I frankly don’t know. As to the pork, well that’s the way we do things around here.

What I can tell you is that we are given a choice between Obama and McCain. In my opinion, McCain represents the least worst option and even offers some hope of even being pretty good.

Given that choice, why do you parrot the left’s rhetoric?

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:03 am 133. American Muslim:

Islamic Sharia is the answer.

Embrace Islam now and live in peace in submission to the will of Almighty Allah (swt).

Your grandchildren will be Muslim.

Allahu akbar!

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:04 am 134. Alexis:

fred:

Most young people support Obama partly because Obama’s opponents are too demoralized to actively seek their votes, often too demoralized to even try to walk onto a college campus.

The main reason why college campuses tend to be so “leftist” isn’t because the majority of the faculty are that way. Most members of any faculty are inert and bend the way the wind is blowing. If a strong radical faction blows enough hot air, it can often get its way merely because college administrations usually try to avoid conflict. I regard leftist influence on college campuses to be a Potemkin Village.

I think the election could be decided on college campuses. If Obama has a monopoly over political activism on college campuses, all he needs to do is increase turnout. However, if Obama’s forces are nonviolently challenged every step of the way, their ability to get large margins on college campuses can be thwarted.

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:07 am 135. Pascal:

Konyok: How is Fred (me for that matter) in his last comment parroting Leftist rhetoric in general and precisely?

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:08 am 136. mika2k1:

Pascal,

Socialism driven by earmarks. That’s the way it’s done around here.

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:14 am 137. Konyok:

McLame?

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:16 am 138. Pascal:

Konyok: Ah. I missed the 10:15 reference.

Still, it is true that many of us here do not feel represented in this election. Yes you have voiced it; McCain is preferable.

Still. Obama’s fire or McCain barely visible frying pan? This Hobson’s Choice is worse than 2000’s and 04’s. Do you know what it’s going to take to bring an end to them?

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:29 am 139. El Jefe Maximo:

Something is, as Mr. Fernandez puts it “clearly wrong.”

Thinking on the idea that the “design margin” in the American experiment has been overtaxed, I wonder if this condition has become so perilous in part because Red State America and Blue State America have so little in common; and have collectively become less interested in accomodating each other. I’d be less than candid if I didn’t say that I’m repulsed at the very thought of somebody so far left as Obama sitting in the White House. Lots of people agree with me. On the other side of the coin, lots of people feel the same way about McCain. The differences of perspective are very real.

Not only have Red and Blue America become more obdurately opposed to each other, but outsiders are now demanding a role in proceedings, Have a look at Jonathan Freedland’s recent piece in the Guardian basically telling Americans “Obama or else.” I wonder, to what degree, interested foreigners are putting their money where their mouths are.

Maybe America’s day is not over, but this country’s badly divided — regionally, politically and culturally. Until we decide among ourselves how to proceed, I don’t see things getting better. I think Obama wins this election, but under these circumstances, why would he want to? In two years, the winner of this election will make President Bush look popular by comparison.

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:34 am 140. wretchard:

Clioman,

Markets are implicitly founded on a set of rules. At the minimum the participants in a market know how it is supposed to operate. Otherwise no exchange is possible. The knowledge of a set rules and the willingness to abide by them, constitutes a culture. It’s not an abstract idea. Back when al-Qaeda was strong in Anbar you couldn’t safely operate a simple bazaar. How could you have a market state, in which individual utility is maximized under it, with sharia governed society?

Every technological object that al-Qaeda uses, including the computers which the advocates of Sharia on this comment thread use, are products of an economic system founded on this culture. Adopt Sharia return to the 8th century. They may want to return to the 8th century — it’s their call — but they shouldn’t pretend their retro future will have spaceships, cabon nanotubes or quantum computing.

The Left is ultimately the product of past dominance of European culture. It has used a successful culture as a vehicle upon which to travel, like a louse is transported by a human being. After a while the louse thinks it is the human being, but on the day the human dies the louse loses its power of rapid transportation.

You can get rid of the Left by the simple expedient of letting it take power. It promptly destroys its host culture and in the end, itself. Some persons will seriously argue, for example, that the best antidote to the Left is letting them seize power since nothing so discredits Leftism as the act of actually carrying it out. Helluva cure though.

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:39 am 141. Pascal:

Mika,

Not entirely earmark driven. And socialism provides a facade for statists. When the Left brings in a program and the Right offers resistance but ultimately caves via compromise and payoffs (earmarks), those squeezed by the vise want to hear REFORM not “it’s only politics.”

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:39 am 142. Pascal:

RF:”but on the day the human dies the louse loses its power of rapid transportation.”

Too many lice are comfortable with that.

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:49 am 143. mika2k1:

Pascal,

The gamed two party system provides the political framework for socialism and statists.

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:55 am 144. Storm-Rider:

Konyok,

Beautiful thoughts in your post at 7:56am: “….Our task is to argue wherever we can for what is sensible and right.”

I would just point out that our most beautiful, sensible and right things; the things that made America great in the first place, are in our values. I want every American to read the Declaration of Independence over and over – write it 100 times on the chalkboard. Take a copy of the Declaration and Constitution to every school board meeting, and to work – every day – keep it in your pocket.

1. All men are created equal

2. Our human rights to life, liberty and creative pursuit of happiness are sacred – from God and therefore irreversible – not from the State and therefore reversible.

3. Liberty = freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion (religion non-subversive of liberty), freedom to defend life, freedom to own property creatively attained by the sweat of your brow, freedom to have privacy at home, freedom to petition government for grievances.

4. The entire reason for human government is to secure our essential human rights as listed above.

5. Just government power can only derive from the informed consent of the governed. All other government power is unjust, and subject to tyranny.

6. When government becomes destructive of our essential human rights as listed above, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish the government; i.e.: we have a right to revolution against government destructive of our essential human rights: alter = peaceful (much preferred) — abolish = possibly violent (not preferred but possibly necessary according to the founders).

Those six American Values will save us against every form of human tyranny and evil.

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:57 am 145. Pascal:

Mika: Ideological Corral

and Social Engineering. This last one is long overdue for a rewrite.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:04 pm 146. sgi:

Wretchard, but isn’t that exactly the objective of the leftist elite? To destroy American dominance, even at the expense of the American left, so that the internationalists can dominate?

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:06 pm 147. Pascal:

Mika: Ideological Corral

plus one other link (in the same glossary) describing how social engineering works that will turn up when or if it passes the moderation filter.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:07 pm 148. Konyok:

Moderation has always been one of America’s great strengths.

A continuous self autocorrecting reversion to the central tendency has proven useful both in maintaining federalism and in refreshing the national culture. Today we face financial and fiscal crises, but the messy details of legislation, like earmarks and pork have actually been one of our most effective prophylactics against political violence. Everybody comes away from the table too sated to fight.

The Missouri Compromise is an excellent example of how our country works. From today’s vantage we can easily condemn it as morally bankrupt, that is the luxury that we have. But, it staved off the Civil War for 20 years. Objectively, one could argue that those years were the critical period that the North needed to build its industrial advantage over the South. An earlier conflict could very well have ended in a Confederate victory and permanently partitioned North America.
The Compromise was the best that Henry Clay and his generation could manage. Are we any wiser or better today?

When Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984, the young marxist that I was nearly panicked. I sincerely felt that I personally faced an existential threat – that Ronnie Raygun was going to get my little ponytailed butt incincerated in a nuclear war. Well, the world turned a few times. Reagan’s tax reforms brought ever increasing levels of prosperity to this country. I finally focused on the Equality vs Freedom dilemma and chose the latter. The Evil Empire was overthrown and then the world turned a few more times.
The hysteria of the left when George W. Bush was “selected” in 2000 congealed around fears that he would institute a theocracy. (I remember vividly how some Dems referred to the “Taliban wing” of the Republican Party in those innocent days before 9/11.) Old leftie friends spoke of taking up arms and stockpiling food. What happened? Bush managed to get his “No child left behind” package passed and signed. Then 19 “martyrs” with boxcutters changed the agenda. Bush has carefully, cautiously, sensitively followed almost exactly the same war on terrorism strategy that a president Al Gore would have followed. True enough, Bush has appointed two decent supreme court justices. Now, we have what seems to me to be a structural financial crisis driven by demographics. We would most likely be facing the same, or worse crisis under a President Gore or Kerry.

So, what? Tweedle dee and tweedle dum? Yeah, that’s a warm, comfortable spot for anybody who never has to actually do anything or make decisions.

I don’t think that the president has a whole lot of discretion in governing this country. Optimistically, maybe 15%; if the president is paying attention to the intelligence and understands how dangerous the world is.
Sure, we elected the “last honest man” in 1980 and everything went to hell. We could have elected Perot in 1992 or 1996 and would have found ourselves on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
Hollywood periodically spins us the confection of the honest outsider who cleans up Washington and rules us wisely and kindly. We gobble it up like backward children.

The latest candyman in town is selling racial indulgences. Vote for him and the residual guilt of the Missori Compromise will fade away and we’ll build a bright, beautiful future in the fertile soil of a new politics of hope.

Of course, *the tell* appears when he sends his economic adviser to tell the Canadians that he’s just fibbing about renegotiating NAFTA. The Compromise is still there, just off to the right of Obama’s halo.
The Compromise is the reversion to the mean, the eternal moderation of American life. At every juncture, Barack Obama carefully and diffidently steps back into the safety of the Compromise.

Is there danger here? You betcha! Is he superhuman and inevitable? Nope, not in the least. We can still defeat him and if he wins we can stymie him at every step.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:08 pm 149. mika2k1:

Pascal,

Seems we’re seeing similar things. I’d also like to add that military welfare is socialism. And that’s biggest item on the budget.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:16 pm 150. Storm-Rider:

1. All men are created equal – equal before the law, i.e.: American equality – not government-forced economic equality, i.e.: Marxist equality.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:17 pm 151. squash:

knock knock unAmerican Muslim. Follow the white rabbit.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:18 pm 152. Konyok:

Storm-Rider,

If you believe those 6 things, then you should be able to understand that taqfiri rhetoric undermines all 6.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:19 pm 153. Mongoose:

McCain just pulled out of Michigan.

Lookin’ pretty grim folks.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:20 pm 154. buddy larsen:

Konyok, the Compromise, and it’s helper, the citizenry’s penchant for paying no attention at all to DC or the elites, unless it has to, and then temporarily. Let’s laugh fiendishly at all the leftist schemes that died aborning because, well, nobody noticed them.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:34 pm 155. Konyok:

buddy,

Never underestimate the power of ridicule. And I can’t think of a better candidate than Mr. Obama, if it goes that way.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:37 pm 156. buddy larsen:

“McCain just pulled out of Michigan” –maybe send this new VDH to your Michigander aquaintances. With a ‘please pass it on’.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:40 pm 157. Konyok:

Storm-Rider,

You mention American equality vs Marxist equality. I *assume* that you are speaking of equality of opportunity vs equality of result.

I give you Ward Connerly. He is a great American attempting a peaceful revolution. I’ve never heard a harsh word pass from his lips, despite the left’s constant demonization of him. Have you volunteered to help his efforts? No, I didn’t think so.

A little less talk, especially star-bangled quotations, and a little more action please …

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:40 pm 158. Habu:

Q. So Habu, you think increasing the number of members of the House of Representatives is in order?

Habu: Absolutely. It’s something we’ve historically done in order to maintain good representation.madison talked of it.

Q. Well how does that happen?

Habu:: Well actually James Madison gave us a host of great reasons in Federalist #10, one of which was, “to break and control the violence of faction.” Madison had earlier noted that the formation of factions was the primary reason for popular governments to fail. Today we have several hard core leftist factions such as the Congressional Black Caucus with no counter weight.

Q. So you think that by adding say 100 more representatives would make factions harder to form?

Habu:: I am in agreement with Madison , yes. Madison went on to say: “ Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people. The question resulting is, whether small or extensive republics are more favorable to the election of proper guardians of the public weal; and it is clearly decided in favor of the latter by two obvious considerations:

In the first place, it is to be remarked that, however small the republic may be, the representatives must be raised to a certain number, in order to guard against the cabals of a few; and that, however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number, in order to guard against the confusion of a multitude. Hence, the number of representatives in the two cases not being in proportion to that of the two constituents, and being proportionally greater in the small republic, it follows that, if the proportion of fit characters be not less in the large than in the small republic, the former will present a greater option, and consequently a greater probability of a fit choice.”
Federalist #10 is a seminal document to understanding some of the challenges we are facing today. But I have no doubt that Madison would say that a four fold increase in population with no concomitant increase in representation is a prescription for trouble.

Well Habu you’ve certainly presented something to be given great consideration.

Habu: The thanks is appreciated but Madison did ALL the heavy lifting. It is a sorrow so few know anything of the republics underlying thinking, but I suppose that is the arrogance of the ages. No one cares to read about how the foundation was built, they just want to make sure they get a corner office with a view and their name spelled correctly in the paper.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:48 pm 159. Pascal:

Storm rider @12:17 pm

Please seem my 3:07AM comment

That “Marxist equality” stems entirely from Rousseau’s invention of “social justice.”

ENVY is at the heart of the demand for “social justice.” That’s the one contribution which Rousseau added to the social contract that was absent from Locke’s. I think it’s clear that the American Revolution was successful while the French was not in large part because the latter made a place at the table for envy and the hatred that came with it.

Our Democratic radicals, with great help from GOP progressives, keep trying to foist upon us the failed concepts of that old French libertine that has so poorly served Europe.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:50 pm 160. Chucks:

I think a little interlude is in order.

To this post’s title question “Is America’s Day Over?”, I would respond thusly – “Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!”

I now return you to the regularly scheduled and (mostly) intelligent discussion. – Chucks, back to lurking

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:54 pm 161. buddy larsen:

Actually, American equality is classically an even narrower ideal –it’s Equality before the Law. Merely that. The rest is up to people to sort out, or not, for themselves.

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:55 pm 162. Konyok:

Chucks, were you channeling Joe Biden?

Oct 2, 2008 - 12:56 pm 163. Konyok:

Habu,
I’m digesting.
These megadistricts certainly don’t give us mere constituents much of a chance to, uh, liaise with our representatives.
I’m just wondering how manageable such a big legislative body would be. (Yeah, I can see how that might actually be an attractive feature for you … )

Oct 2, 2008 - 1:02 pm 164. Konyok:

buddy,

That reminds me that the OJ trial nears its end. It’s been such a crazy year, I can’t help but wonder whether the verdict might just play a role in the election.

Oct 2, 2008 - 1:17 pm 165. buddy larsen:

Chucks, America’s day is over every day, when the sun sets on western Hawaii.

“Hawaii?”

‘Fine, thanks. And yi?’

Oct 2, 2008 - 1:17 pm 166. Al_Batross:

“Multiculturalism without a dominant culture would lead to chaos” – wretchard.

As in the UK, where the dominant culture has been increasingly outlawed.

Oct 2, 2008 - 1:26 pm 167. Thomas:

Chucks was quoting from the classic movie, “Animal House”. An apt quote as the situation we find ourselves in today is very similar to that faced by the protagonists in that movie.

Oct 2, 2008 - 1:27 pm 168. Storm-Rider:

“Multiculturalism without a dominant culture would lead to chaos” – wretchard.

I would add that it is pretty great to live in a country where the dominant culture stands for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Dominant culture is not good enough; some dominant cultures are bad cultures, i.e.: totalitarian cultures – Nazi, Communist, Islamist. That is the lie of multiculturalism; that all cultures are equal.

All cultures are not equal, but all men are created equal – equal before the law in our culture.

Oct 2, 2008 - 1:58 pm 169. slade:

IIRC, the Tim Matheson character in Animal House became a Beverly Hills gynecologist and the John Belushi character became a Senator.

Oct 2, 2008 - 2:00 pm 170. Habu:

Konyok,

I’m sure you have but re read the Federalisy #10 by James Madison. There are also several excellent dilations on it on the Net. I simply restated what he said but he said a whole bunch more that was equally important.

No worry. We can always come back to it another day after perhaps some who have never read it have had a chance to re, and digest it.
Thanks for the congitat’in on it though. I know when I took Constutional Law it was the focus of about a months worth of examination.

Oct 2, 2008 - 2:26 pm 171. Konyok:

Then, Federalist 10 shall be our homework assignment …

Oct 2, 2008 - 2:32 pm 172. steveaz:

A great calm came over me today.

I’ve been pulling and tugging in my mind in opposition to the idea of an Obama Presidency ever since he was nominated earlier this Summer. Something changed in me today.

Today I went into town to do some banking, buy food, a heater for my little cabin, and a tank of gasoline for my pick-up truck and came home, well, relieved.

I can only describe the reason for this in one way: everything felt “normal.” The bank was full of folks seeking loans and cashing checks, a Mexican guy in front of me brought in a big wad of bills for the teller to put in his account. She put them in the bill-counter, and after the machine fluffle-fluffled his bills, she smiled and asked, “Is there anything else I can do for you, Sir.”

The grocery store was bustling with the season’s final raft of German and Dutch tourists – they’re probably on their way to LAX next to catch their Lufthansa flights back to the “old country.” Gas was about 30 cents cheaper than just a month ago. And two Navajo’s in a low rider dropped me a nod and a “How-do?” as they pulled up to the pump.

Is America going to “die,” proverbially or otherwise, if Obama gets elected for a term or two. I realized today that the answer is “No.”

It doesn’t mean that John McCain doesn’t deserve the office. He does, and he’s getting my vote. But if, in the tussle of media messages and urban political games, the final vote tally doesn’t give John McCain his just desserts, we’ll all just keep on keeping on in our old, normal way.

No matter how many times a politician utters the word “change,” he won’t stop Americans from doing what they do, how they do it when they do it, or who they do it with. And that’s what our economy is – the greatest, most dynamic and inventive force in human history is just 200 million people generating over a billion transactions among themselves every day.

Just try to stop it!

Oct 2, 2008 - 2:52 pm 173. Bob Murphy:

@Steveas
300 million, old man.
The youngsters have been busy.
Good thoughts.
And I agree about the basic things will keep happening.
But how long can our normal people’s lives continue to be normal under such a concerted assault from the ideologues in the schools, universities, media et al?

Oct 2, 2008 - 4:06 pm 174. buddy larsen:

steveaz, me too. I’ve been worried sick since summer of 2007 that calamity was abuilding. hell, now it’s all built. So, i can relax now. Right? wot the hey, it’s only money. and lifestyle. and liberty. and food.

Oct 2, 2008 - 4:20 pm 175. Eggplant:

steveaz said:

“Is America going to “die,” proverbially or otherwise, if Obama gets elected for a term or two. I realized today that the answer is “No.””

I agree with the sentiments expressed by Steveaz. The US has alot of inertia and it would be difficult for one bad President to screw it up entirely. My counter points are:

1) Beware of things slowly going to hell along the lines of a “boiling frog”.

2) One nuclear explosion can ruin your whole day.

If the Messiah wins, I’m going to get all of the family’s passports up-to-date (I’ve been slack about that). I’m also going to give the matter some careful thought about what triggering event should cause the family to cut-and-run. Einstein survived the Holocaust because he was smart enough to know when to cut-and-run. A whole lot of people did not survive because they thought they could hunker down and wait it out.

Oct 2, 2008 - 4:22 pm 176. I'm Just Plain Dumb:

If the big O wins, I see one guarantee. We will have combat in Pakistan, as he will feel the need to “prove” he is a tough guy.

Oct 2, 2008 - 4:41 pm 177. Bonzo:

Eggplant, if Obama is a devastation of such magnitude that you need to leave, you should go to a quiet place no one else will think of.

I can’t imagine America moving left of EUnuchstan.

The Russian stock market is down 55% in 4 months. China is not a place I would invest in. EUnuchstan is not debating Obama vs. McCain, they have nothing in their gut which approaches W or McCain.

America, as mucked up as we are, are different from those who would teach us….

As pathetic as we are, we are more free than the tools we call allies.

Oct 2, 2008 - 4:48 pm 178. slade:

300 million, old man. – Bob Murphy

Not all of that 300M are people generating over a billion transactions among themselves every day unless the kids are putting something extra in that lemonade.

In the spirit of “this too shall pass” consider the demographic in the 50-60 yr old category – the hardest hit.

Say you have a cool $1M in savings – down 20% in 2008 to $800,000.

Assume a future growth rate of 8% less 4% inflation or 5%. That will take 5 years to recover – on top of one to two years to pull out of the recession – say 7 years.

Case 1: If you’ve been lucky and/or responsible, that’s a paper money recovery.

Case 2: If it’s principle, that’s a loss of real money that will take around a decade to recover – no growth – just recovery.

How many 50-60 yr olds in this country? Beats me. It’s a demographic that’s skewed to the older – say 20% – that’s 60 million people.

How many in the Case 2 category? Beats me – say a third – that’s 20 million people.

Oct 2, 2008 - 4:49 pm 179. mika2k1:

Not to worry. Everyone in Washington has mastered photosynthesis.

Oct 2, 2008 - 4:57 pm 180. slade:

8% less 3% inflation or 5%

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:02 pm 181. mika2k1:

Well, not everyone. But those will be headed back home.

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:02 pm 182. slade:

In Washington photosynthesis is an art not a science.

It means being seen with the right Green lobbyist.

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:08 pm 183. mika2k1:

Not an art. That would imply they pretend being potted plants.

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:15 pm 184. slade:

Or planted pols.

Fertilize and water every two years.

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:22 pm 185. Habu:

Buddy,
Help me out. Possumtater asked me why they call already completed structures “buildings”

he said shouldn’t they be called “builts’?

I didn’t know.

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:38 pm 186. NahnCee:

SteveAZ – thank you. Me, too.

I’m reading the headlines that Europe is even worse off financially than we are, and that in fact France begged Paulson to step in and save AIG. And I had read previously that since his little escapade in Georgia, Russia has lost 6 or 9 billion in outflowing investment capital — I can’t remember the exact number, but it was a hefty chunk.

So who is supposed to replace poor old America when we fail? China? India? Don’t be ridiculous. Maybe Mika can get Canada and Mexico together to form an anti-United States of North America, but I just don’t see America failing real soon, and if we do who’s going to be above us on the food chain to notice?

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:48 pm 187. RWE:

Eggplant: I am not scared of what someone will do to me if Obama gets elected. I am very scared about what I will do the country.

I joined up, took the oath when it was not exactly popular to do and served for 25 years. I have invested in the stock market for over 20 years. I have twice watched the value of my investments drop enormously and still manage to generate big tax bills.

If Obama wins I will yank almost all that money out of the market. I’ll pay off my house and then tell my insurance company to stuff it rather than paying 4 times as much for far less coverage for my house.

As Gordon Sinclair, the Canadian said about us Americans “What if Americans said to hell with the rest of the world?” If Obama wins I think we are going to find out what happens if Americans like me say to hell with the rest of the world – and the rest of the Americans.

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:51 pm 188. fred:

The engine of job and wealth growth in our economy is the small business to the small corporation to the successful growth of those. The products, ideas, and business models that generate wealth and hiring.

If you strongly increase the capital gains tax rate, what you are doing is seriously tinkering with the most sensitive part of our economy. Big corporations are NOT net creators of jobs. Nor is government, but I’m sure Obonga and the Jackasses will try to divert money from DoD to his new “community organizer” corps. Only idiots think that one will have a bright future taking that kind of job.

If we do not increase the supply of energy for the intermediate term, the long term becomes a long shot. Kill the economy, how are you going to have the money to nurture those technological magic bullets the Jackasses talk about?

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:51 pm 189. mika2k1:

So who is supposed to replace poor old America when we fail?
==

NahnCee, you’re not going to fail. Israel has your back. The currency of the future is energy. And the future of energy is green and renewable. All you need do is start phasing out the subsidies going to Jihadi oil by way of a $1.4 trillion yearly US military welfare budget. The rest will take care of itself.

Oct 2, 2008 - 6:11 pm 190. Phred:

European bien pensants hold forth on the subject of American decline in the same way a virgin speaks about sex: with equal parts enthusiasm and ignorance.

Oct 2, 2008 - 6:17 pm 191. buddy larsen:

Yes, Habu, it should be ‘builts’ –and doctors and lawyers need to quit ‘practicing’ and just DO. And why is an orange an orange and a banana not a ‘yellow’?

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:26 pm 192. El_Heffe:

I remember a few posts back where Slade, I think it was, said that some of the major european banks are leveraged as high as 50 or 60:1 … then above we have derek that says “There is the potential of the European banking system collapsing, and the economies not being large enough to cover the losses.”

In light of that, consider this video …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqIFoBXGizc

what are we to make of this?

PS. BDS alert: dont let the first 2 minutes of this 9 minute video turn you off. watch at least the first 4 minutes before you judge.

Thanks to all for your time.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:33 pm 193. Eggplant:

Bonzo said:

“Eggplant, if Obama is a devastation of such magnitude that you need to leave, you should go to a quiet place no one else will think of.”

My thoughts exactly. The problem is finding a nice quiet place where I can find employment. Unfortunately the two are not really compatible. However if it boils down to “flee or die”, I will definitely flee.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:35 pm 194. El_Heffe:

found a BDS free version …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5ozAhwnlw

its 30 seconds long … watch it again if you dont catch it all the first time through.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:53 pm 195. Night Owl:

From the linked article:
“…In these circumstances, will the governments of countries that buy large quantities of U.S. bonds – China, the Gulf States and Russia, for example – be ready to continue supporting the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency? Or will these countries see this as an opportunity to tilt the balance of economic power further in their favour?”

If the US economy tanks catastrophically, all those foreign govts holding our debt, and invested in us, are just as screwed as we are. The smart people in those countries will do their damnedest to not let that happen. As long as we owe a lot, we have leverage. That’s the nice thing about allowing foreigners to invest in America- it’s in their interest that we succeed. And a side-effect of global economic inter-dependence is that we sink or swim together.

Oct 2, 2008 - 8:56 pm 196. trangbang68:

I think Governor Palin’s performance tonight was a resounding vote for we will endure. She was cheery,optimistic and a little cocky;very American traits. Biden personified the gloomy pessimism the left has wailed for decades.

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:14 pm 197. NahnCee:

Eggplant, I thought the inborn programming was supposed to be fight or flight. Do you really think if you stay and fight, you’re opting to die?

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:38 pm 198. ic:

Ah, those who laughed at us:

It took a weekend to shatter the complacency of German finance minister Peer Steinbrück. Last Thursday he told us that the financial crisis was an “American problem”, the fruit of Anglo-Saxon greed and inept regulation that would cost the United States its “superpower status”. Pleas from US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for a joint US-European rescue plan to halt the downward spiral were rebuffed as unnecessary.

We now know that it was French finance minister Christine Lagarde who begged Mr Paulson to save the US insurer AIG last week. AIG had written $300 billion in credit protection for European banks, admitting that it was for “regulatory capital relief rather than risk mitigation”. In other words, it was underpinning a disguised extension of credit leverage. Its collapse would have set off a lending crunch across Europe as banking capital sank below water level.

It turns out that European regulators have allowed even greater use of “off-books” chicanery than the Americans. Mr Paulson may have saved Europe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/3118994/Financial-Crisis-So-much-for-tirades-against-American-greed.html

Oct 2, 2008 - 9:43 pm 199. mika2k1:

El_Heffe,

Unless the US absorbs its trash from the European banks, they will call in the investment that they hold in US dollars, dump their bonds etc.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:00 pm 200. Eggplant:

NahnCee asked:

“Eggplant, I thought the inborn programming was supposed to be fight or flight. Do you really think if you stay and fight, you’re opting to die?”

When I talk about “flee or die”, I’m thinking about Islamic fascists taking out American cities one by one with suicide nukes. There would be no enemy to fight because he would be an invisible terrorist armed with a single Iranian or Pakistani nuke in a Ryder rental truck. The $64,000 question would be: Do I flee after the first city goes away or the second one or the third or …

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:00 pm 201. Habu:

Buddy,

And why oh why is a slighly oprnrd door a jar?

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:18 pm 202. Bob Murphy:

“Eggplant, if Obama is a devastation of such magnitude that you need to leave, you should go to a quiet place no one else will think of.”

My thoughts exactly. The problem is finding a nice quiet place where I can find employment

I’m ahead of you, guys, and my employment only requires internet access.

And it’s 800 yards to my front gate.

And I’m 1000km SW of the Wretch.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:21 pm 203. Habu:

a slightly opened door a jar

Folks I said it last night and I’ll say it again.WE CAN WIN THIS ELECTION just get out the vote. Volunteer if you can to drive older folks to the polls. Stay positive and pumped up. Nothing demoralizes the opposition more than seeing a confident, happy group

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:26 pm 204. Eggplant:

Bob Murphy said:

“And I’m 1000km SW of the Wretch.”

My first guess was you were “back of Bourke” but Bourke is 1000 km NW so I guess you’re not.

Albany in western Oz struck me as a nice place to hide. Nothing to do there though…

Different topic: Palin did fine in the debate. The MSM is spinning nonsense about the debate but anyone who watched it will see through the lies. I was hoping Biden would gaffe but he didn’t. Both VP candidates did well.

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:43 pm 205. bobal:

Habu and Buddy, how can one be in a pickle?

I have heard we are in a pickle nationally, which is why I ask.

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:39 pm 206. bobal:

Can it also be true that we’re in a fine pickle now?

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:43 pm 207. Gaffe Prices:

You know I’m kinda glad we’re talking about SOMETHING else, because after a few hundred posts of ‘WE’RE DOOMED, WE HAVE TO REVOLT AGAINST THE COMING INEVITABLE WAVE OF OBAMA/FASCISM!, the pessimism becomes so self fulfilling.

I know though, I hear you, I feel your pain. I sometimes feel the same way. Well, no I don’t, but I’ve been going through the same dark night of the left’s fabricated Zeitgeist, But Let me put it to you this way, I’m glad Sarah’s debate did so well for us, because in the days and hours before it, I WAS ABOUT TO LOOZE MY MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!

you see, Non Sea, I am the Drang und Storminator, and I, along with you, am here to “CHEER (clap) YOU UP!!”

We’ve got to get off this pessimism hamster wheel and not be behaving like those morbid nihilist nothing worshipping zombies who comprise the opposition; and who, no matter how much they drone on and on, are saying but one basic thing, and this is it:

“I CRAVE POWER, I AM INCOMPETENT, CORRUPTABLE, VAIN, PETTY, COVETOUS, AND BANAL. I AM TEDIOUS. I SEEK ENDLESS REPRISAL AND REVENGE, WHETHER REAL OR IMAGINED. I WANT YOU MISERABLE, RESENTFUL, DEMORALIZED, DISCOURAGED AND IN DESPAIR, LIKE ME! I CRAVE POWER!! DON’T YOU GET IT?”

and on and on. If they see us happy, and optimistic, it drives them frickin nuts.

I’m ready to put myself on the line. For instance, I’m risking being banned because the webmaster (peace be upon him) may in fact conclude that I am NOT in fact here to cheer you up, but to CHUMP (clap) YOU-UP! And that is indeed grounds for a right banning. We need much more creartive thinking! Its late and I’m a little giddy, and that usually probably means more and more typo’s, such as “bacuase” instesd of “because”. But hey, we’ve all been working hard and we feel we deserve better. Try this, its 100% effective, for your sanity: what cannot be accomplished though self or in colaboration with others, relegate to prayer. whether you believe in g-d or not, channel thoughts there. Your wants there. Because we do deserve better. And it helps our sanity prioritize what is worty of getting up and rejioning the god fight for, and what we can accomplish by not letting these looters abscond with our sense of humor, and we can smirk right back, and demonstrate just who has sold his soul, and who has not.

Habu said “we can still win this election!”

Damn right we can

Oct 3, 2008 - 3:49 am 208. El_Heffe:

mika2k1: “Unless the US absorbs its trash from the European banks, they will call in the investment that they hold in US dollars, dump their bonds etc.”

it seems to me that the time for a reconning for the global financial irresponsibility has come … we have our problems, they have theirs. but considering the problems that we already have, how is them dumping their US investments worse than directly handing them an infinite line of credit?

Oct 3, 2008 - 4:45 am 209. Gaffe Prices:

I’ll say it again, We need much more creartive thinking. FART! Like the kind of leadership palin put on display last night. She’s a real pro. So if we are a little rough around the edges, let us be inspired by someone who can get it done when given the chance to break through.

Oct 3, 2008 - 5:03 am 210. Gaffe Prices:

Oh, and another thing, I was watching an interview on PBS or C-span with Ton Wolfe, and the host put this trope-like qestion to Wolfe: Historians say the 20th century was the American century and the 21st century is the chinese century… and simply lets the “question trail off… as though Wolfe was supposed to follow through on this train of thought with further trope like indictments such as “American Era over… “”markets have failed… (the usual Carteresque ineptitude in the face of blah blah blah…
To which Wolfe mildly harrumphed and rolled his eyes and said “Whats to say that the next 800 years, or 1000 years (or whatever are not the American millenia? Or more? Nothing has been established to say that the unique human capital in American excellence has been surpassed and ther is nothing to say that it will”. He dismissed the very notion that there was any reason to for the automatic gainsaying of the unique and exceptional miracle that created America shows any signs of stopping, or that America has withdrawn or declined its status to anybody else in fairness to all those good spirired nations that, well, just haven’t had a chance to compete against (hand wringing, hand wringing) the, well lets just say it, Impeerial aspirations of America at the expence of every poor and well intentioned nation that surely has the same, well more, better, really, good intentions as (than) the United States, and so on. The best days are ahead.
Despite the fact that the Dreamkillers somehow got their hands on the megaphone

Oct 3, 2008 - 5:29 am 211. Never Yet Melted » How Did Things Get So Bad?:

[...] by little, suggests one of Richard Fernandez’s [...]

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:20 am 212. NahnCee:

Geez, Gaffe – maybe you should cut back a scootch on the Red Bull.

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:32 am 213. mika2k1:

it seems to me that the time for a reconning for the global financial irresponsibility has come … we have our problems, they have theirs. but considering the problems that we already have, how is them dumping their US investments worse than directly handing them an infinite line of credit?
==

How is it worse. Simple. It would finally establish the US functionally bankrupt.

Oct 3, 2008 - 7:28 am 214. Konyok:

I live in a modest condo in the center of a western US city. Most of my neighbors are Obama supporters. I have been working on them. No, I’ll never get them to vote for McCain, but I’ve got a couple of them turned to Nader and three or four might not vote at all.
Duplicitous? Yeah, maybe. That never stopped the other side.
Hope and Change are perishable commodities that easily wilt when hypocrisy is calmly exposed.

Oct 3, 2008 - 7:58 am 215. Eggplant:

Konyok said:

“Most of my neighbors are Obama supporters. I have been working on them. No, I’ll never get them to vote for McCain, but I’ve got a couple of them turned to Nader and three or four might not vote at all.”

Encouraging moonbats to vote for Nader is an intelligent approach.

Oct 3, 2008 - 8:19 am 216. Konyok:

Eggplant,

I fear that encouraging conservatives to despair is also an intelligent approach.

Oct 3, 2008 - 9:07 am 217. Charles:

If they do the money business right–they’ll flood the world with US dollars and then proceed to become energy independent –which will chop in half the US current account deficit.

ie the two together will balance.

Oct 3, 2008 - 9:11 am 218. buddy larsen:

well, the bill just passed –comfortably –meaning rightly or wrongly in terms of yea or nay on Keynesian excess, at least we bought some time to get our election over with –

Oct 3, 2008 - 10:29 am 219. Charles:

the current thinking is that if something similiar were done in 1929–that there would not have been any need for the new deal four years later–or even WWII 12 years later.

Oct 3, 2008 - 10:51 am 220. Charles:

that’s the working theory now.

don’t know how it will fare in the real world.

Oct 3, 2008 - 10:52 am 221. veracious:

@Buddy and Charles,

At best, the vote pushed the problem downstream at the expense of US and our future. I suspect this was demanded by the foreign money that directly owned the paper or owned the securities behind the paper.

Of note is the piles of paper in many forms, similar to an inverted pyamid; all resting upon the tip. Leveraging gone mad, a country that has hypothicated itself to the vanishing point.

Follow the white rabbit, for it is wise and knows a way thru the magical sources of credit and it’s benefits without harm or cost?

Does not the creditor, the creator of the money, from thin are, own the final destiny?

Oct 3, 2008 - 11:06 am 222. Gaffe Prices:

To: NahnCee,
point taken, also love your point about hypothetically removing U. S. from the equation. Like that would solve everything.
Still, thats no excuse for hiding my car keys, you’re oppresing me!>/i>

Oct 3, 2008 - 1:13 pm 223. Pascal:

After the bailout passed I remained still concerned about the role of envy and it’s exploitation by politicians and business in building the blocks that led to this crisis.

So I did a search to find any stories or editorials that dealt with it. I found
NOTHING recent.

But I did stumble upon Henry Hazlitt’s On Appeasing Envy first published in 1972.

Tocqueville went on to quote at length from the mutual recriminations of the king, the nobles, and the parliament in blaming each other for the miseries of the people. To read them now is to get the uncanny feeling that they are plagiarizing the rhetoric of the limousine liberals of our own day.

All this does not mean that we should hesitate to take any measure truly calculated to relieve hardship and reduce poverty. What it does mean is that we should never take governmental measures merely for the purpose of trying to assuage the envious or appease the agitators, or to buy off a revolution. Such measures, betraying weakness and a guilty conscience, only lead to more far-reaching and even ruinous demands. A government that pays social blackmail will precipitate the very consequences that it fears.

I hesitate to add my own poorly worded insights in order to update this clear thinking. Read the whole thing and pray that Wretchard can build a good follow-up.

Starting a new discussion might flush out the role played in all this by the exploiters of envy, jealousy, and covetousness all the while increasing their own powers and paying no personal price for their misdeeds.

Oct 3, 2008 - 1:32 pm 224. Pascal:

its not it’s

Oct 3, 2008 - 1:38 pm 225. slade:

If they do the money business right–they’ll flood the world with US dollars and then proceed to become energy independent –which will chop in half the US current account deficit. – Charles

Or a prolonged recession will tank the price of crude to $50/bbl.

Right now it is difficult to separate a slowing global economy with the immediate effects of the credit/liquidity crunch-moving-into-crisis stage.

Oct 3, 2008 - 1:53 pm 226. El_Heffe:

Or a prolonged recession will tank the price of crude to $50/bbl.

… and as the price of crude falls alternative energy becomes less economically viable (give or take subsidies).

Oct 3, 2008 - 2:09 pm 227. El_Heffe:

How is it worse. Simple. It would finally establish the US functionally bankrupt.

one way or another the piper is going to be paid. I’d like to see the boomers pay their share rather than pass it all on to my kids (their grandkids).

Oct 3, 2008 - 2:17 pm 228. Habu:

Konyok: A response to your 12:09 from the now moribund top thread.

I disagree. This country was founded in revolution. The Tories wanted to follow mother England, the rabble in arms, including what most non Marxist historians agree was the greatest gathering of minds ever assembled disagreed. It took debate between the Federalists and Anti Federalists fully thirteen years to produce the Constitution and even then it barely passed. You intimated as recently as last evening that you had never studied the Federalist #10. I do not know if that is so but the intimation that it was your homework is a strong endorsement that you have not. If allowed to extrapolate I would say that one who has never studied what is considered the lynchpin of the Federalist position has also never read any of the other Federalist or Anti Federalist papers. And I unequivocally state that a colloquy on this country and it’s founding cannot be a serious one unless at minimum those documents and the cotemporaneous notes by Max Farrand on the Convention have been read.

You are correct that, “Our republic is not founded on personalities, but on institutions and processes” but I would say, as do Washington biographers, including Joseph Ellis and James Flexner that this nation would not have been formed without the personality of George Washington. And the Constitution did not fall out of the sky but was constructed by personalities. We did indeed form a republic of laws but the vote to pass the Constitution was not unanimous on the first many ballots. New York refused to participate for three days. Additionally the other personalities that drove the process were very strong personalities. Patrick Henry was the leading Anti-Federalist; Alexander Hamilton preferred a highly centralized government while Jefferson did not. Needless to say Aaron Burr had some trouble with Hamilton. Adams and Jefferson disliked each other immensely until their dotage when they reconciled, but for more than a decade they did not speak to one another. Personalities played a pivotal role in the entire process right down to a fight about who would be on the Committee of Style, the Committee that would actually pen the document; and when they did put pen to paper they did not follow what had been agreed upon but rather changed various aspects to fit their desire.

I address the Nazi references as simply what people always use to highlight evil. Our civilization is encased in a very thin veneer of civility. Riots in this country of a severe nature are a fact. Where did the Union Army go immediately after the Battle of Gettysburg? To NYC to put down a race riot that had been going on for more than a week. LA in 1965, Rodney King, 1968 MLK riots. It is only the awareness of these events and the armed citizen that prevent events such as these from becoming even more widespread. It isn’t the police, they simply cordon off the area, allow the city to burn and then fill out after action reports. The Nazi continued grabbing more and more power because there wasn’t any résistance; people wanted jobs and bread and the Nazi gave them that and the rest is history..

To your observation that a month before the election people are posting, how did you put it , “revolutionary fantasies”. Would you have them engaged in talk only about what you want or do you support their right of free speech? Talk of revolution is not uncommon, and as for it being just before an election I would point out that we conducted an election in the middle of the Civil War, so we can talk and still get the job done, albeit with a good deal more difficulty; and it is not surprising given the entire global situation, the economy, and the opportunity a Marxist has to occupy the Oval Office that passions are particularly sensitive. I damn well think they should be given the goals of Marxists verses what we have been operating under since 1789. The two, a republic and a Marxist state should come to blows, not agree to dilute our freedoms. The Constitution is not a suicide pact it is a compact for freedom. And while I hate to quote Mao at the end of this contribution, “Power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. Our country came by our freedom using the force of arms. Today we use the ballot box and hopefully for all time. But freedom is a fragile thing and must be guarded, with guns, by free men.

Oct 3, 2008 - 2:21 pm 229. Habu:

Eggplant,
Turning voters is a great coup for you and you should be proud. I read you had worked on them and I was proud for you..good job.

(were you holding any gardening tools at the time, you know, hedge clippers, no wait that’s a Wall Street tool now, ah , how about a rake?)

Oct 3, 2008 - 2:34 pm 230. mika2k1:

Turning voters is a great coup
==

And very naive, considering the potted plants in Washington. The voters are irrelevant.

Oct 3, 2008 - 2:55 pm 231. Habu:

NEW STOCK MARKET TERMS
CEO –Chief Embezzlement Officer.
CFO– Corporate Fraud Officer.
BULL MARKET — A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.
BEAR MARKET — A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex.
VALUE INVESTING — The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E RATIO — The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
BROKER — What my broker has made me.
STANDARD & POOR — Your life in a nutshell.
STOCK ANALYST — Idiot who just downgraded your stock.
STOCK SPLIT — When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.
FINANCIAL PLANNER — A guy whose phone has been disconnected.
MARKET CORRECTION — The day after you buy stocks.
CASH FLOW– The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.
YAHOO — What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.
WINDOWS — What you jump out of when you’re the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR — Past year investor who’s now locked up in a nuthouse.
PROFIT — An archaic word no longer in use.

Oct 3, 2008 - 3:00 pm 232. slade:

I guess it’s time for a Heart Attack Burger.

Oct 3, 2008 - 3:28 pm 233. Gaffe Prices:

You can only call a revolution a revolution when the revolution was successful for the partisans who go on to win that revolt.

An unsuccessful revolution is called an uprising. A minor foonote in history.

If, for example, Obama loses the election in a manner such as McGovern, and they still say they were cheated, and want to go on the warpath, and then others who quickly tire of the anarchy, might decide to strike back in the name of, justifiably, restoring order. And for the purpose of rehabilitating this dysfuctional democratic republic, then you’ve got a minor, or a major, civil war. Sore Loserman, Part 2

The conditions of the American Revolution were so unique, that this is the reason its the only revolution that matters. We lived an ocean away and did not have to engage in civil war to throw off the tyranny of a home government. We did have to win it militarily. We can talk about a revolution in the abstract, but it is easier said than accomplished.

Oct 4, 2008 - 12:12 am 234. Gaffe Prices:

To NahnCee:

point taken, I needed that, thanks. Are you trying to say I hide the car keys from myself? Man, are you paranoid!
Fart!

Oct 4, 2008 - 1:31 am 235. whit:

Putin also thinks the US is fini. Funny thing though, Russian stock markets have dropped 50% in the last month or so. Russia is hemorraging capital to the US treasury. He should control his schadenfreude.

There may be a silver lining in this economic disaster. The US may not have the money to become a socialist democracy like ala the Euros.

Oct 4, 2008 - 3:58 am 236. Hope Muntz:

An empire is defined by conquest and colonization. By that definition, the US is a ‘reverse empire’, since we are constantly recolonized by mass immigration. By contrast to the USSR, we have withdrawn from most conquered territories, such as Japan and the Phillippines, rather than establishing ‘Moldovas’–and even our longstanding territories like Puerto Rico have remained both uncolonized and politically free to disassociate from us–a step they have refused to undertake.

In terms of ‘empire’–compared to the British Empire of the 1800s or of ancient Rome–we have footed all the expenses of being the ‘world’s policeman’ with few of the economic or hegemonic advantages. No wonder that Canadian newspapers feel free to reprint nonsense from leftist British academics predicting our imminent demise. These people are reacting not to ‘hard power’ but merely viscerally to what Mitterand once called ‘Coca-Colonization’, the ubiquity of Hollywood films and fast food. Since the empire they rail against never existed in the first place, it presents the easiest of targets, far safer than tackling Russia over Georgia, for example.

Oct 4, 2008 - 7:32 am 237. NahnCee:

So if America goes bankrupt and we have to re-arrange our laws a little bit and drive last year’s car for a couple of years, while the rest of the world is sinking into unemployment and depression and actively starving, who is still the biggest fish in the pond and the most successful nation on the foodchain?

I just don’t see this claim of America being over as anything more than a juvenile playground “nanner nanner nanner” which makes no difference in real life.

Oct 4, 2008 - 10:51 am 238. Steve R.:

Mika2k1 REALLY NEEDS TO STUDY WORLD AFFAIRS INSTEAD OF SIMPLY SPOUTING EMOTIONAL OPINION.

Oct 5, 2008 - 10:14 am 239. Charles:

I think the best days of the USA are ahead yet.

Oct 8, 2008 - 8:03 pm 240. warren:

Mika makes a lot of sense. Please listen to him.

Oct 28, 2008 - 4:09 am

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