I Love Quicktime 'harch

Here's a suggestion for the good Quincy, IL Teaparty folks the next time the Secret Service gets uppity, emulate Empress Nympho's "selection" scene. When I saw the first video below, I couldn't help but think of the second. Needless to say, I found the whole episode pathetic, but then, that's what we've come to expect, isn't it?

But This Time Will Be Different, SPQR Edition

Despite several millenia's worth of accumulated evidence of failed government Utopian programs, everything from the Tower of Babel to the Great Society and beyond, my liberal friends seem wedded to the notion that this time will be different, and that "Universal Health Care" and all the other "progressive" causes de jure will prove to be completely benign, wonderfully efficient government programs with absolutely no unintended consequences. Lost are any notions of personal rights and responsibilities. Gone too, are quaint ideas like limited government. No, we must all shoulder our burdens and march off together into the Glorious Future, and like those on the Bataan Death March, dissent for us is not an option.

We can quote Nock:

If we look beneath the surface of our public affairs, we can discern one fundamental fact, namely: a great redistribution of power between society and the State. This is the fact that interests the student of civilization. He has only a secondary or derived interest in matters like price-fixing, wage-fixing, inflation, political banking, "agricultural adjustment," and similar items of State policy that fill the pages of newspapers and the mouths of publicists and politicians. All these can be run up under one head. They have an immediate and temporary importance, and for this reason they monopolize public attention, but they all come to the same thing; which is, an increase of State power and a corresponding decrease of social power.

It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus what it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn. Therefore every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society with so much less power; there is never, nor can there be, any strengthening of State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social power.

We can quote De Tocquville on the rise of tyranny in democracies:

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

We can even hope the words of Thomas Paine might have an effect:

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Unfortunately, all would be to no avail.

We could go on to economics and discuss Hayek, Friedman, and Von Mises. We could even talk about Keynes' own misgivings later in life. None make a difference. We can point to The Federalist Papers, but might as well be be pointing to rolling papers and have as much effect on rational thought. We can show failed program after failed program. No, for our liberal friends, Hope does spring eternal, and this time will be different.

For we who see a doubling of the money supply, and know that inflation looms; for we who see a feckless foreign policy, and know the we face another generation of worldwide anarchy; for we who see yet more taxes, fees, and regulation, and know that our economy languishes as a result; for we who see faith in the collective, but know that the individuals making it up are flawed; for us is reserved the special hell of knowing the future, but being unable to change it. Because we know that this time won't be any different, our hope, like that of the last Legionnaire on the Rhine, is to forestall the coming collapse.

Uncle Ted: no, not THAT Ted

Am I weird for having the same opinion? When we delegate our protection to others, we give up our liberty. This young mother, whose father was a deputy sheriff, learned too late that she did so at her peril. Ted is correct, you have a right, in fact a responsibility, to protect yourself and those whom you hold most dear. I don't ever want to have to attend a trial and hope for justice if one of my loved ones is lost at the hands of another. Do you?

A Hero's Welcome

QOTD

From Glenn Reynolds:

Drunken sailors generally spend cash that they’ve already earned themselves, rather than running up debt to be paid by others. If our politicians started spending like drunken sailors, it would in fact represent a dramatic improvement.

Having had, shall we say, experience with drunken sailors, I'll vouch for the point's veracity.

Seems Hayek was Right

What a shock.

Hope and Change

The Anti-stimulus.

May 25th, 1961

The race to the moon defined my youth and set the direction of my adult life. America then seemed to be about what we could do. Today it seems to be so much more about what we can't do. I grieve for what has been lost, but even more for the society that refuses to see it.

QOTD

From Jeremy Clarkson, one of the boys on Top Gear regarding the Honda Insight:

And the sound is worse. The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.

I haven't driven one yet, but from what I've seen so far, I haven't been impressed. I was impressed by the drivability of the Prius. I still wouldn't want one for myself, but at least it is a decent car, and not merely a fashion statement.

QOTD

Again from the inestimable Mark Steyn:

Not to be too gloomy, but the country feels like it's seizing up. It's as if California and New York have burst their bodices like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi. If you're underneath, it's not going to be fun.

Read the whole thing.

You Can't Make This Up

Two shot at an anti-violence rally.

May 18

There's much that I could talk about today as we rush headlong into the abyss. Instead, let me note the irony that Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President the same date that the Supreme Court issued Plessy v. Ferguson thirty-six years later.

Payback Time

So, people are starting to notice that GM's new business plan includes moving a significant number of jobs offshore to China and are wondering why. It seems rather obvious to me. China, is receiving a quid pro quo for continuing to finance our government's debt. No other explanation makes sense.

Thanks for the Memories

68 years ago today, Bob Hope performed his first show for troops in Riverside, California. I often listen to his old radio show on XM, and his humor stands the test of time. A true patriot, even during the Vietnam years, he cared when few others did.

Two Guys I'd Like to Know

I think I'd get along well with both these guys. Our country, and theirs, is full of such men. It's been my privilege to know a number of them, and I would dearly like to add these two to the list.

Unsufferably Haughty

For one person alone to have the Government of a people in his hands, would be too great a Temptation. It tends to excite and draw forth the Pride of a man, to make him unsufferably haughty; it gives him too much liberty to exert his corruptions and it encourages him to become a Tyrant and an oppressor, to dispense with Laws and break the most solemn oaths. -- John Barnard, 1746

Sound like anything out of the news these days? H/T Instapundit

“When did it become the government’s job to intervene in the bankruptcy process to move junior creditors who belong to favored political constituencies to the front of the line? Leave aside the moral point that these people lent money under a given set of rules, and now the government wants to intervene in our extremely well-functioning (and generous) bankruptcy regime solely in order to save a favored Democratic interest group. No, leave that aside for the nonce, and let’s pretend that the most important thing in the world, far more interesting than stupid concepts like the rule of law, is saving unions. What do you think this is going to do to the supply of credit for industries with powerful unions?” -- Megan McArdle

Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that our President is completely and utterly craven?

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that in the best case scenario, we are in for a 30's type depression. You really don't want to know what I think is likely.

Never Again

I have had a life-long lust for a Corvette, and as I am in my peak earning years, was actually thinking I might just be able to sate the desire. No more. I will never buy either GM or Chrysler products again. Both firms should have been allowed to die a graceful death in bankruptcy court. Instead, they decided to suckle at the government teat and make the rest of us responsible for their irresponsibility. Now, instead of gladly supporting GM and its workers by buying one of their products I've long desired, I'm being forced to underwrite their mismanagement with my tax dollars.

I'll be driving my 13 year old Toyota pick-up a bit longer, and when the time comes, my next purchase will be a Ford. In fact, both the Fusion and Escape hybrids look pretty good to me and would meet my needs well. My son has driven the Escape hybrid at work, and says that it gets better mileage than his Focus. Not bad at all for something that can be taken into the boonies once in a while.

Is it Just Me...

or is the Obama administration shaping up to make the Grant administration look ethical, and the Carter administration competent?

1975

I've become quite fond of Bill Bennett's The American Patriot's Almanac. Today's entry contains the following quote from Cambodian Prince Sirik Matak in response to a letter offering him American sanctuary:

I thank you very sincerely for your letter and your offer to transport me towards freedom. I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion. As for you, and in particular for your great country, I never believed for a moment that you would have this sentiment of abandoning a people which has chosen liberty. You have refused us your protection, and we can do nothing about it. You leave, and my wish is that you and your country will find happiness under this sky. But, mark it well, that if I shall die here on the spot and in my country that I love, it is no matter, because we are all born and must die. I have only committed this mistake of believing in you.

As we appear to be on track to abandoning Israel, Taiwan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, it's worth considering the aftermath of our evacuation of Saigon thirty-four years ago today. In that war, we defeated the enemy on the ground and then abandoned our allies in the region. It took a generation for the US military to recover and for the world to trust our word again. One wonders what it will take the next time we make the same mistake.

Shut Up!

If only this didn't ring true: