My thanks to D=S for pointing this one out.
WATCH THIS VIDEO!
Although I’m still ticked off with Fred for not fighting for the nomination, what he has to say is important, as usual.
People of the Light?
Not talking about Mass Media Podpeople whenever “people of the light” are mentioned.
See Orson Scott Card’s article at The Rhincerous Times of Greennsboro, NC. A taste:
Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
by Orson Scott Card
October 20, 2008
An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:I remember reading All the President’s Men and thinking: That’s journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.
This housing crisis didn’t come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.
It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.
What is a risky loan? It’s a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.
The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can’t repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can’t make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.
They end up worse off than before.
This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them…
…It’s not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.
If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices…
More, much more, at the LINK.
Interesting that it would take a lifelong Democrat to upbraid the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind so unequivocally. Maybe, if there remain even a few more–a remnant of honest, decent men and women–such people in the Democratic Party (and hopefully a few in the Replublican Party as well), just maybe there is hope for the republic of the Foun ders that once was.
I’ll not hold my breath, though. Rather, I’ll use it to cheer such folks on. Way to go, Card!
h.t. Jerry Pournelle’s mailbag
Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, , Faultline USA, DragonLady’s World, The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
I Am Joe
Join in, everyone. Iowahawk shows us how.
I am a Wal Mart schlub in flyover country who changes my own oil and unclogs drains without a license. I.. drink beer and toss the [frisbee*] in the front yard with my kid, and I figure I can fend my way without handouts from some Magic Messiah’s candy bags. Most everyone in my family and most everyone I grew up with is another Joe, and if you screw with them, you screw with me.
What the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind’s Chosen One and his Obamabot minions have chosen to do with their attacks on “Joe the Plumber” for asking the questions that revealed The One as a raging socialist is nothing short of declaring war on free political speech, on the middle class itself, on The American Dream.
It’s time to answer their declaration of war with the “I am Spartacus” of the 21st Century:
I am Joe, and when you screw with Joe, you screw with me.
Whatever you vote for, it is time to vote NObama. NObama is a vote FOR free speech, a vote FOR middle class values and a vote FOR the American dream, not Karl Marx’s (and Obama’s) Americas of class warfare, rampant socialism and the neutering of economic freedom.
BTW, I echo Iowahawk’s injunction:
…If you want to use it [the graqphic] as a bumper sticker, please feel free to download the image and apply with duct tape. If you want, office supply stores sell blank bumper stickers that you can put in your printer. PLEASE do not patronize any merchandise vendors (Cafe Press, etc.) who are trying to make a buck off this, unless EVERY LAST RED CENT of the proceeds go directly to Joe Wurzelbacher.
(*Yes, I changed a word and cut two to make the diatribe fit me more closely.)
Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, A Blog For All, NN&V, and Democrat=Socialist, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Beautiful Nonsense
This post is entirely out of order, a “response” to a post one of the voices in my head has scheduled for posting tomorrow. (And “they” say I’m crazy. They’re the ones who’re in my head! :-))
First, what I think (and hope!) is a one-minute fair use excerpt of Bryn Terfel singing a piece of beautiful nonsense powerfully and beautifully:
(Or CLICK HERE and play with your own media player)
Sure, it’s nonsense. A paean to a shade tree. Trivial lyrics. So? Unlike the nonsense songs that are common top 40 fare, it’s at least
a. beautiful music
b. beautifully performed and
c. the lyrics are not actively harmful
Those are all hallmarks of a really good song. And those are all things missing, by and large, from popular music today. I wonder why?
Go buy and listen to some Terfel of your own. It’ll be good for you.
(Completely inconsequential, niggling complaints after the jump.)
Speaking the Unspeakable
OK, someone has to say it: Anyone who is undecided at this point about who to vote for come November for Senator, Representative or President is an idiot or profoundly lazy or both.
Local races could be either easier or harder to decide, but the national offices? [Assuming–a radical and possibly unwarranted assumption–voters have the basic intellectual capabilities to do their homework on candidates and issues] Either folks have been doing their due diligence and studying the candidates and issues or they’ve been slacking off and don’t really deserve the franchise at all.
There. Now I’ve said that the “Emperor of the Undecided Electorate” is walking around in blissful, lazy, naked cluelessness can we move on to a discussion about how to alleviate the problem of stupid, lazy, dumbass so-called “undecided voters”? (Personally, I think a quick civics exam at the polling place followed by handing those that don’t pass a ballot that WILL NOT PROCESS is a good place to start…)
The Voices in my Head
..say to post this. I’ve learned to not argue with them about some things.
1. Practice conception control. The unborn will bless you. *heh*
2. THE most effective conception control practice:
IOW, Just say NO!
Are we clear now?
A Comment on Dealings with Iran and Other Rogue States
The ONLY “negotiating” that remains to be done with Iran (or any other rogue state) seems to me to be to set those puppies down and say once, and once only,
Meddle thou not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and good with ketchup
After that, their fate would be in their own hands.
Just a thought, Condi…
Principle vs Pragmatism?
The danger of arguing the pragmatic against the principled is that pragmatism always depends upon fallible human prognostication: it’s a gamble. Sometimes things break with the odds as the pragmatic sees them. Sometimes not. A lot can depend on knowing enough up front. Only hindsight can be 20-20, though even with hindsight the human tendency to rewrite history to favor whoever has the power to do so–and thus fake a better outcome than truly exists–is always a problem as well… *sigh*
The problem with choosing principles over pragmatism is even more complicated. First, in today’s society where often principles are argued against simply because they are about right and wrong and post-rational post modernism sees “right and wrong” as meaningless–except where “principles” of post-rational post modern are concerned, of course–simply asserting principles exist can be dangerous for the asserter. The minefield of such meaningless stances as “Right to Choose”–which means the right to deny a child the right to choose whether it wantsd to be born or not–is fraught with peril.
And that’s just the fetid grounding of today’s social setting. Political? Simply defending principles such as freedom of political speech by citizens in the face of McCain-Feingold* is literally dangerous to a citizen’s continued existence outside of iron bars.
Nevertheless, sometimes it’s profitable to at least ask, “Is what we’ll gain by this pragmatic decision–even if it works as planned–worth what it will cost us in the long run?”
Now, that sounds rather like meta-pragmatism, doesn’t it? *heh* Well, that’s how principles work.
Specifics:
Wall Street/banking bailout.
Short term gain: stabilize the economy.
Medium-term gain: the “feddle gummint” could reap over $2Trillion on the “investment” of $700Billion. (Yeh, read Andy Kessler’s WSJ article at the link. He could be right about the medium-term outcomes.) Now, if (BIG “IF”!) that potential gain were to actualize and be applied only toward federal debt or even to set up an inviolate Social Security fund, untouchable for expenditures apart from retirement payments to those who’ve paid into the system, I’d not be as concerned about
Long-term loss: free markets. Bailouts of those who supporedt alien invaders with junk loans. Greedy, avaricious, thieves who profitted from losses they caused with their bad management of other people’s money (and yes, that specifically includes all the politicians who actively pressured lenders to throw bad money after good in mortgages to people who could not pay for them).
Since any “profits” that the federal government coffers might gain from the bailout will, if history is any guide at all, simply be wasted on more unconstitutional spending rather than be used for commonsense things like reducing the debt load, that leaves only the short-term gains to balance the long-term losses to a free market.
Even a pragmatic person might see that violating principle here could be too costly, no?
Addendum: Maybe we could push for an amendment to the Constitution requiring a personal response to “I, Pencil” from every “feddle gummint” bureaucrap and elected official before allowing them to suck at the public teat. Perhaps then we’d be able to weed a few out who have less understanding of free market principles than a head of cabbage does. Perhaps. (I suspect most would simply crib from a Cliff Notes dumbing down of the already simple little didactic story.)
THIS is an open trackbacks post. Link to THIS post and track back. 🙂
If you have a linkfest/open trackback post to promote OR if you simply want to promote a post via the linkfests/open trackback posts others are offering, GO TO LINKFEST HAVEN DELUXE! Just CLICK the link above or the graphic immediately below.
Expose Yet Another Obama Lie
Frankly, I’ve stopped keeping track of all the times the Obama campaign has labeled a McCain ad that simply cites verifiable fact as a “dishonorable lie”. BTW, by “verifiable fact” I mean on-the-record votes and/or statements by Obama or Biden or videographic evidence (like that below) that does not–as the Obamabots are wont to do (can anyone say “Charlie Gibson” or, well, “Obama”?)–take mini-bites out of context in order to manufacure a lie. You judge for yourself: what does Joe Biden say below?
The McCain camp interpreted Biden’s clear statements, “We’re not supporting any coal here in America,” [emphasis added] and “No coal plants here in America,” to mean, “We’re not supporting any coal here in America,” and “No coal plants here in America,” and Obama responded with,
This is yet another false attack from a dishonorable campaign. Senator McCain knows that Senator Obama and Senator Biden support clean coal technology. Senator Biden’s point is that China is building coal plants with outdated technology every day, and the United States needs to lead by developing clean coal technologies.
Of course, Obamabots can explain the clear and unequivocal discrepancy. After all, in Obamaspeak, “clean coal technology” obviously means, “No coal plants here in America,” right?
More lies and deception from Obama labeling truth in advertising as… lies and deception.
Professing lies to be truth and truth to be lies, calling evil good and good evil: can here be any better description of evil itself?
Spread the truth. Go viral with this, if you will. And someone, please, anyone with the time and intestinal fortitude to stomach this stuff, keep track of the number of times Obama and his minions call the truth a lie and their lies truth. I have literally never seen such massive brazen lying outside of open memebrs of the Mass Media Poepeople Hivemind before now. The only things I can think of that come close to Obama’s Potemkin Village world would be a collection of all the examples of Hitler and Goebbels implementing The Big Lie, “lies so ‘colossal’ that no one would believe that someone ‘could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously'”*.
And no, before someone who’s woefully subliterate reads the sentence above and accuses me of calling The Obamassiah “Hitler,” please re-read that statement. I did no such thing. All I did was note an uncanny similarity to a particular propaganda technique exercised by Hitler and Goebbels. Especially significant is their pattern of accusing opponents of lying–especially when their opponents spoke easily-verifiable, truthful fact… which is the specifically Hitlerian use of the Big Lie the Obama campaign–including The One himself, does time and time again. (Goebbels’ use was usually to tell an outrageous lie to counter a truth, ofen doing so in an anticipatory fashion, more than simply accuse a truthful speaker of lying–and this, of course, is something Obama himself often does–e.g., attempting to stampede senior citizens with outrageous lies about McCain’s Social security policies.)
Spread this truth: The Obamassiah and his minions only lie when their lips move, when they breathe and when they demonstrate their uncanny ability to make colonic reverse peristalsis appear to be speech.
h.t. on the video stuff to Powerline.
Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, , A Blog For All, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Allie is Wired, Democrat=Socialist, The World According to Carl, and DragonLady’s World, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
READ IT!
Sure, it’s one of those terrible things the “mass man” avoids like leprosy (a BOOK! EVIL–Requires… THINKING *gag*), but those who don’t read it will be doomed to suffer the consequences of not knowing why they’re being inundated by the evil of avoidable stupidity.
Ortega y Gasset’s “Revolt of the Masses“.
No excuses. If you were completely illiterate, you’d not be reading this exhortation to read the thing. *heh* It won’t even cost you a dime to read, since the whole thing’s posted online in a very accessible translation. (Heck, even though it is Ortega y Gasset, I’m not willing to brush off my now–thankfully!–rusty Spanish skills to read it, since I’m boycotting the language as a result of the massive Spanish-speaking, Mexican government sponsored, alien invasion of this country.)
All it will cost you is time and effort. Amittedly, Ortega y Gasset can be a dense read at times. Dense in terms of concepts that must be actually thought about to be understood and/or argued with.
And if you do read the book, you will argue with Ortega y Gasset at times. If you are careful in your argument, you will usually only lose gracefully. *heh*
Just read Revolt of the Masses“. Do it for your grandchildren.
Ortega y Gasset’s thoughts may be disturbing to the faux hyper-egalitarian (really illegitimate manipulative elitist dishonestly masquerading as egalitarian), leftist mentality that now permeates our society, but only–really–because it reveals its vacuity:
“…the man we are now analysing accustoms himself not to appeal from his own to any authority outside him. He is satisfied with himself exactly as he is. Ingenuously, without any need of being vain, as the most natural thing in the world, he will tend to consider and affirm as good everything he finds within himself: opinions, appetites, preferences, tastes. Why not, if, as we have seen, nothing and nobody force him to realise that he is a second-class man, subject to many limitations, incapable of creating or conserving that very organisation which gives his life the fullness and contentedness on which he bases this assertion of his personality? “
Reading Ortega y Gasset again reminds me of James Burnham’s view of modern faux liberalism (as opposed to truly liberal precepts)
“Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.”
The two are not in ful agreement, but each sees and describes significant aspects of our sick, sick society.
Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Leaning Straight Up, A Blog For All, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Allie is Wired, Democrat=Socialist, and Shadowscope, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.