LESSON IN HUMILITY

PAUL RAHE: The Party Of The Living Dead. “A few days ago, in India, Barack Obama gave a three-minute speech in which he referred to himself 118 times. That speech is emblematic of his entire administration. . . .

ME

Me

Been here all along… true conservative… if not Scott Walker, why not me?    

APPEASER

spoons made me fat

“ If guns kill people, then spoons made me fat.”

the divine spark that guided man

Language being meaningless today with phrases like “have a conversation,” and “be on the same page,” here are some meaningful words about Zane  Grey.  “…in the course of evolution, Nature, in order to counterbalance the primal instinct, provided man with conscience.  This was the sublime touch, the divine spark that guided man from his lowest depths of savagery to heights of nobility when occasion demanded.  He believed in the basic decency of people.  His faith in their ability to progress was indicative of his belief in the power of conscience over primitive inheritance.”  Has a century of ‘progress’   proven him wrong?  It’s 2015. 

OBAMA'S OATH

PRESIDENTIAL OATH:

OBAMA- “I swore an oath on the steps of this Capitol: to do what I believe is best for America.”  From State of Union 2015.

ALL OTHER PRESIDENTS- “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  As specified in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution.

KEY DIFFERENCE:  Obama – “…what I believe is best for America.”

                                    Constitution – “…preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  

WHAT A DIFFERENCE!  AN AUTOCRAT/KING/DICTATOR/TOTALITARIAN IMPOSING HIS VIEW ON A SUBJECT NATION.  OR, A PUBLIC SERVENT BEING BOUND BY LAWS THAT APPLY TO EVERYONE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.

MEMORY TEST FOR OLD GEEZERS

“During World War II, when men like my grandfather went off to war, having women like my grandmother in the workforce was a national security priority – so this country provided universal childcare.”  From State of Union 2015.

Any geezers remember government “provided universal childcare”  during WII?  Never was, didn’t happen.  But our president/monarch knows there are few alive to remember the facts and fewer younger people who have learned any history.

Have a nice 2 more years.

ANOTHER BLOVIATION

            Swan Song

A laundry list of impossibilities, a pack of lies and contradictions, a swan song for a President ( still in office 2 years) but at the end of a Democrat majority run-on the Congress.  Who could have known listening to the big “O” last night? 

Sad /Happy

            Sad /Happy

Major league sports are so rigged and so rotten at the core. Sad fact.  The richest 1% possess  ½ of the world’s wealth. Happy contrast. The sad fact is that it wasn’t always as bad as now. The happy fact is that it has always been so in history. What can be done? Well, Obama will dictate a solution to the money;  only spectators can boycott  sports. 

Meaningless

            Meaningless

So many words and too many actions today are meaningless.  A home improvement program spokeswoman talked of her attempt to “build and render spaces.”  Duh? Each business and hobby possesses its unique jargon, granted, but starting at the top of  political space in Washington with the big “O,”  the spiral is ever downward.   

The absurd faith in government

The absurd faith in government

 (Don Boudreaux)

“The chief difference between free capitalism and State socialism seems to be this: that under the former a man pursues his own advantage openly, frankly and honestly, whereas under the latter he does so hypocritically and under false pretenses.

People of an unreflective or a romantic bent are deafened by happy talk, misled by pretentious titles, blinded by lovely costumes, and overawed by magnificent stage sets.  Such credulous people hear government officials proclaim grand, good, and selfless goals, and they see these officials working away amidst glorious marble columns in statue-laden buildings that line wide boulevards, and thereby childishly conclude that the motives of these officials are higher than – and the results of their labors superior to – those of business people who make little or no pretense of being “public servants” or of spurning personal gain in order to work for the “common good.”  This absurd faith in government, of course, only grants those wielding state power the cover and freedom to be far more greedy, rapacious, irresponsible, and destructive than anyone can possibly be in competitive private markets.”

… is from page 264 of the 1997 Johns Hopkins University Press edition of H.L. Mencken’s insightful, frank, and (of course) immensely entertaining 1956 collection, Minority Report:

Symbols not acts

            Symbols not acts

Poor, poor us…with a John Kerry 1., speaking French in France, 2., allowing us taxpayers to pay for James Taylor to sing “We are friends,” to France and 3., giving France a “hug” (how Hollywood) in friendship.  Is each of the above acts an act or just a symbol disguised as an act of solidarity? Each is not an act; an ACT would have been an arm-in-arm march with millions through the streets of Paris. Poor, poor us…

Je Suis Chicken

http://cdn.pjmedia.com/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jesuischicken.jpg

A wonderful life

            A wonderful life

Mitt Romney has contacted friends, operatives and donors for money to make a 3^rd presidential bid. Could we all have so much time and talent on our hands? It’s a wonderful life - the life of the rich and powerful. But I digress to make you feel better with words from a local, urban mayor about the future: “It’s a corner turning for the city.”   

ARE BUREAUCRATS AND POLITICIANS ANGELS?

(Don Boudreaux)

… is from page 206 of Michael Huemer’s brilliant 2013 book, The Problem of Political Authority:

First, given the existence of a powerful government, the people who are most likely to wind up in control of that government are those who (a) have the greatest drive for power, (b) have the skills needed for seizing it (for example, the ability to intimidate or manipulate others), and (c) are unperturbed by moral compunctions about doing what is required to seize power.  These individuals are not in the game for the money.  They are in it for the pleasure of exercising power.

One myth, as dangerous as it is common, is that because power exercised by democratic governments seldom is as arbitrary, as total, and as gruesome as is power exercised by totalitarian governments (Uncle Sam is not the North Korean state), power exercised by democratic governments is not really ‘power’; instead, it is on most occasions merely the carrying out of The People’s will.  Such ‘power,’ therefore, (the myth holds) is not to be feared.  It is, indeed, to be celebrated as The People acting in unity, as one, in furtherance of their common interests.  (If you read a lot of “Progressive” literature, as I do, you’ll discover that by far the chief abuse of power on the domestic front that “Progressives” fear is the state’s failure to intrude into private market relationships as heavily and as thoroughly as “Progressives” think appropriate.  Perversely, “Progressives” see as the greatest instantiation of abusive power in democratic societies the alleged success of oligarchs and corporations bribing government officials not to exercise power that The People, in their wisdom, really want those officials to exercise vigorously and widely.)

But of course actual, flesh-and-blood, self-interested individuals exercise government power, even in democratic societies.  That their power in democratic societies is seldom, if ever, as absolute as that possessed by the likes of Stalin or Mao or Castro emphatically does not render that power sweet and good.  It is still to be feared, not least because it is widely mistaken, both by those who hold it and by many who are subject to it, as being justified and guided in all of its detailed applications by the good and glorious voice, and attentive supervision, of The People.

If a mayor

            If a mayor

Speaks about a “complex matrix” and his “year formation for me,” what are the chances he is a liberal democrat whose mouth is moving before his brain is engaged?  100%. These pretty good odds tell you not to bother to bet for a Republican who jokes that Hitler went to Paris with more determination than Obama for the recent millions strong solidarity march, the poor, misguided truth speaker and must apologize or liberal, politically  correct politicians will destroy him.  

WHERE SOCIALISM ENDS - SCANDINAVIAN STYLE

 The dead-on satire of Scandinavian mores “Together” is a 2000 movie by Sweden’s Lukas Moodysson set in a multi-family commune in 1975, when the groovy Social Democratic ideal was utterly unquestioned in Sweden.

In the film’s signature scene, a sensitive, apron-wearing man tells his niece and nephew as he is making breakfast, “You could say that we are like porridge. First we’re like small oat flakes — small, dry, fragile, alone. But then we’re cooked with the other oat flakes and become soft. We join so that one flake can’t be told apart from another. We’re almost dissolved. Together we become a big porridge that’s warm, tasty, and nutritious and yes, quite beautiful, too. So we are no longer small and isolated but we have become warm, soft and joined together. Part of something bigger than ourselves. Sometimes life feels like an enormous porridge, don’t you think?”

Then he spoons a great glutinous glob of tasteless starch onto the poor kids’ plates. That’s Scandinavia for you, folks: Bland, wholesome, individual-erasing mush. But, hey, at least we’re all united in being slowly digested by the system.

they cause the very problems they try to solve by impossible means.

Why are there more payday loan businesses than Starbucks and McDonald’s combined?  Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown doesn’t know.  Why? Because their elitist, liberal, ideological policies,  unremittingly imposed upon us citizens, cause this phenomenon. Yes, they cause the very problems they try to solve by impossible means. 

The play’s the thing

            The play’s the thing

Did you know that voting your conscience is now a “theatric”?   So says our House Leader, John Boehner.  If you hoped for change yesterday in Washington, you better be ready to accept the freedoms imposed by the new Republican regime.  Following your informed conscience does not mimic a theatrical performance.  It should not warrant punishment, i.e. committee assignments removed from dissenting voters. It should not be treated as a negative freedom. Who really should receive an award for disingenuous acting on the political stage of the House of Representatives? Good grief!    

What you hear is nonsense.

What you hear is nonsense.    

How complicated can it be not to notice that every word nowadays makes no sense. 1^st I hear an ad from ‘my solar’ claiming that “local is accountable & we finance.”  No connection between 2 phrases but sounds good.  2^nd an ad for the GED pep talk center from the American Council on Education saying simple nonsense. Conclusion?  Words have no meaning anymore, but if you spew them fast and furious enough, they count for something?  In contrast, America still can hear from our “Moses of manhood,” Earl Pitts.  Thank God for his breath of fresh air.     

Freedom as imposed by politicians

Freedom as imposed by politicians:

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.  Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve.

  H.L. Mencken’s indispensable 1956 collection, Minority Report

Happy New Year

            Happy New Year

I  planned to watch the ball drop from Times Square in New York, but no ball drop was covered – just noise, confetti, music, fireworks and kissing.  To add to the start of 2015 is my realization that everything American is now overload for eyes with nothing leftover for the brain.  TV, TV commercials, movies, media, etc. Getting older sure has its advantages.