Bill Dyer (a/k/a Beldar) has refined the gold from the Palin/Biden “debate”, discarding the dross.
At least I hope what he’s found is the gold mine. Drill, baby, drill. *heh*
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?
Unintended Consequences
Probably. (As Napoleon is said to have opined, “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.)
In the last few weeks, Congress has once again validated two aphorisms:
The eight most dreaded words in the English language are, “I’m from the government; I’m here to help.”
and
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”- Mark Twain
(Perhaps I should add another Twainism to the list of aphorisms Congress has recently validated: “There is no native criminal class except Congress.”)
Anywho…
The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 that was signed into Law by Dhimmi Kahtah had ostensibly good intentions: allow folks who were being redlined (supposedly because of race but actually because they were BAD RISKS) to obtain mortgages for homes. Eventually, this led to
Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, passed during a lame duck Repugnican’t presidency by a Dhimmicrappic Congress, ” …required the Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly known as Fannie Mae, and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, commonly known as Freddie Mac, to devote a percentage of their lending to support affordable housing. This in part, contributed to increased Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pooling and selling of such loans as securities , (i.e. securitization), and expanded the secondary market for those loans.”*
In part. The 1992 act required “a percentage” of Freddie/Fannie lending to support so-called “affordable housing” but it was in the hands of the Clintoon Administration that the practices accelerating the downfall of mortgage lenders reeally took off. Contra Bubba’s recent disclaimers, “In early 1993 President Clinton proposed new regulations for the CRA which would increase access to mortgage credit for inner city and distressed rural communities.[7] The new rules went into effect on January 31, 1995… “*
And so it goes.
More recently,
“In 2002 there was an inter-agency review of the effectiveness of the 1995 regulatory changes to the Community Reinvestment Act and new proposals were considered. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Office of the Controller of the Currency put new regulations into effect September of 2005. The regulations were opposed by a contingent of Democrats because the action ‘undercuts the statutory purpose of the Act for institutions to meet the needs of low and moderate-income persons and communities by OTS.'”*
So, Dhimmis conspired to leave the CRA free to wreak havoc on our financial system by appealing to two base traits shared by many humans: risk avoidance (after all, don’t make those loans to people who might default and you KNOW the Feds are gonna squeeze your privates for “discrimination” or some such bullshit) and greed (“If I have to make these crappy loans, I might as well get as much as I can out of ’em before they go toxic”).
Let me leave you with this video. Watch the whole thing. Yes, the whole thing. Get a cuppa joe or two to help you sit still that long if you’re AADHD or whatever, but WATCH IT!
Now, go watch this one, too.
Do note, America’s Third World County isn’t participating in the CRA-Freddie-Fannie-Wall Street kerfuffle. Sure folks elsewhere are losing their shirts, but around here, the banks are solid (don’t ask about St Louis or KC, though–those places on on another planet far, far removed from America’s Third World County), business and life goes on.
NOTE: I did use Wikipedia for the citations, despite its notoriously uneven content. The key to using Wikipedia wisely is filtering. One must learn a great deal from elsewhere about a subject so that filtering out the B.S. and outright stupidity that frequently creeps into Wikipedia articles–Jerry Pournelle has given up on correcting misstatements of verifiable fact in the biographical Wikipedia article on himself, for example–becomes simply an exercise in doing ones own homework. When, as here, I find a Wikipedia article worth citing because of accuracy and concise treatment, I’ll use it. But that doesn’t happen all that often.
Trackposted to Diary of the Mad Pigeon, , Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Stop the Presses! Joe Biden Claims to Have Independent Thought!
*heh* One of the highlights of the veep “debate” was Biden trying to play “Me too!” when Palin riffed on McCain’s openess to her independent thinking on some issues. I could swear I heard Mr. Plagiarism claim The Obamassiah valued his counsel for his independent viewpoint, or something along those lines. Was so shocked I neglected writing it down immediately.
While I really, really do wish Palin had dealt directly with a couple of questions, her method of avoiding them was magnificent. “I’m going to talk to the American people”–great line, especially since it came off as authentic.
Didn’t like her “global warming” response, though it beat Joe “I’ll Repeat Whatever I heard Last” Biden’s dumbass certainty.
Did NOT like her softness on Dhimmicrappic reponsibility for Fannie n Freddie.
1. Every. Single. Piece. Of Frannie and Freddie legislation has been Dhimmicrappic policy pushed by Dhimmicrappic legislators (and weakly, if at all, resisted by Repugnican’t legislators) and
2. signed into law by Dhimmicrappic administrations.
3. Almost all the calls for more stringent regulation and oversight of Fannie and Freddie have come from Repugnican’ts and
4. darned near all the roadblock and rhetoric done to stymie more stringent regulation and oversight of Fannie and Freddie have come from Dhimmicraps.
5. The chief beneficiaries of mismanagement and fraud at Fannie and Freddie have been people like Franklin D. Raines (D-Corruption, D.C.) and Jamie Gorelick (also, D-Corruption, D.C.).
6. Top piggies at the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac corruption trough? #1 Dodd, Christopher D $165,400; #2 Obama, Barack D $126,349. Gee, at $31,587.25 per year, in only 4 years of part-time Seante “work” The Obamassiah has nearly overtaken “Piggy” Dodd’s couple of decades plus… And that’s not even counting the fact that he only worked part time at the job for a couple of years before taking virtually ALL time off to run for president.
7. Way, way down on the list? #70 McCain, John R $21,550, averaging not quite $900/year for his Senate years.
Would have been nice if those notes had been in her briefing.
But aside from those three weak points, the rest of her showing tonight was pure gold. Connected. “Say it ain’t so, Joe”–yeh, I was waiting for it.
Biden? I almost went ballistic when the “lawyer” royally screwed up Article I of the Constitution (Article I, Section 3), but then he cheated his way through law school, anyway, didn’t he? What. A. Maroon. Wish Palin had had the assurance to call him on that, but her response was actually better.
I was ticking off factual misstatements by Biden and lost track. Fortunately, I decided to stick around and listen to the talking heads and Fox had Fred Thompson and later Karl Rove to list ’em for me. If Only I’d taken notes. *heh* As usual, Biden was full of it. Oh, and lied through his teeth about his “No coal plants here in America” comment. Just flat out lied.
All-in-all, a good showing from Palin. Joe was sweating and I rather wish we’d had another half hour with him under the lights, since he looked like he was starting to lose it toward the end. Would have been fun to watch him with more Bidenisms than simply the many factual misstatements, the one verifiable, outright bald-faced lie and his “Bosniacs” in reference to the people of Bosnia. (How much do you wanna bet no Mass Media Podpeople will mention the “Bosniacs” reference?)
Update: Ace has Biden’s 14 Lies
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Hard Left Turn Away from Current Events
From slightly off-the-wall territory, seeing this video of Joe Biden at Nuke’s place sent me down a rabbit trail. (Some might say down the rabbit hole. *heh*)
Let’s start with the premise that p-sychology is about as scientific as voodoo and p-sychs might as well wear dreadlock wigs and shake chicken bone rattles as inflict any one of the current fads in p-sych on their unwitting victims. Still, voodoo does help some folks deal with life, and so does p-sych. Seriously. It’s not all bad, and some perceptive p-sychs can actually do genuine good despite their training.
That said, I do find some personality theories/p-sych models interesting and even useful constructs for viewing the world. Without much comment, here’s a list of some p-sych thinkers I find intriguing, even sometimes useful:
Roberto Assagioli–Psychosynthesis
Viktor Frankl–Noetic counseling (more useful than most, IMO)
Medard Boss–Daseinsanalysis (useful framework)
William James–known as a Pragmatist who attempted to present psychology as a natural science (failed, IMO), but his “Varieties of Religious Experience” is a p-sych tome that’s a very interesting read.
Ludwig Binswanger–a pioneer existential p-sych
It’s interesting to me that while James attempted to cram p-sych into a natural science mold, Medard Boss–who attempted no such thing–came closer to actually providing some sort of falsifiable model of personality (close but no cigar–still, he wasn’t trying to do so). No, I’ve never heard a p-sych professor claim this, but then I’ve yet to meet a p-sych professor who had much understanding of scientific modeling. (OK, OK, one.)
There. A throwaway post having not much to do with anything at all, just one of those voices in my head (or two or three) clamoring* for an opportunity to speak… *heh*
Addendum: I guess this’ll be a kind of catchall post. Here’s an unrelated thought found while reading about eating pine bark:
It has been my frequent observation that many writers merely regurgitate what they have read elsewhere, rehashing over and over the same errors so much so that eventually the error becomes embedded in nearly all literature on the subject and is thought of as the gospel truth even by those considered an authority on the subject.
Well, of course. Glad someone else has noticed that as well. *heh* “Conventional wisdom” often isn’t, of course. Oh, it’s conventional, all right, just often not very wise. I’m reminded of self-described “conservative” writers touting “traditional values” who, when asked to define them, often stumble and mutter a bit about “family and religion or something” demonstrating that all they’re really doing is parroting someone else’s catch phrase. And even when they can delineate what they really mean by the term (indicating they’ve given it some thought) just as often they’ll reveal a stunning lack of historical knowlege while doing so.
Ditto with ideologues of other persuasions (heck, anarcho-tyranist lefties often can’t even define their terms at all, because, often, all they have is parroting-points).
Off to catalog stands of pine trees in America’s Third World County, now…
* I always seem to have to pause and think to differentiate between “clamor” (make an outcry, hubbub, commotion) and “clamber” (climb awkwardly, scramble, struggle gropingly), although here either would probably have worked. 😉
Time for Some Campaignin’
Condemn Racism: Vote McCain/Palin
SEE THE UPDATE BELOW!
I’m growing weary of (read, “getting royally pissed off by”) Mass Media Podpeople, Academia Nut Fruitcakes, leftard politicians *spit* and others of their ilk telling me that because I strongly disagree with The Obamassiah’s policy statements, even more strongly dislike his lies and deliberate, slanderous distortions, false accusations of lying against people who simply reveal his record, lack of basic historical-political (apparently no idea of Russia’s role in the Security Council), geographical (“been to 57 states” [with one more in the Continental states to get to] but not “allowed” to go to Alaska or Hawaii–at that time–IOW, thought the U.S. to be comprised of 60 states!) and cultural (“clinging to guns and religion”) knowledge, and contempt for middle America, and more–because of all that, I am a racist.
*throws the bullshit flag*
The Loony Left Moonbat Brigade (weak swisher-sister inheritors of the Red Brigade) wants an unqualified liar, slanderer, communist and apparent racist to be elected on the Affirmative Action/Racial Quota ticket. Now, if that’s not blatant racism, what is? As Paul Jacob said in a recent Common Sense episode (no, I didn’t listen, but I read the transcript*):
…would it not be racist, condescending, unjust, and downright stupid for us voters to treat a black man’s qualifications for the job of president as irrelevant, just to prove we’re not racist?
Indeed it would be racist to do so, and so it is the leftards who accuse non-racist folk like me of being what they themselves are: racists.
Ahhh, play on false guilt to enable expansion of the “feddle gummint’s” plantation. Sneaky, dishonest and sure to play well with the sheeple.
*sigh*
So here’s the only response people who despise racism can make to this sort of racist Affirmative Action/Racial Quota campaign: Vote McCain/Palin.
UPDATE: Another example of racism, bias and The Hivemind in the tank? See Michelle Malkin (h.t. The World According to Carl) for the story. Malkin suggests calling the organizers of the debate (202-872-1020) or emailing Janet H. Brown (jb@debates.org to express your views. Here’s what I emailed:
Dear Ms. Janet H. Brown:
Are you aware of the strong conflict of interest Gwen Ifill has that seriously impairs her appearance of impartiality in tonight’s scheduled Biden-Palin Vice Presidential debate? You are aware, are you not, that she has an hagiographic book about Barack Obama (“The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama”) scheduled for release on January 20, 2009? The publisher’s blurb, including such comments as, “THE BREAKTHROUGH is a remarkable look at contemporary politics and an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy,” alone should be enough to cast serious doubt on Ifill’s capacity to be an impartial moderator.
May I respectfully suggest replacing Ifill before the reputation of your organization suffers irreparable harm, and that, in the future, a better job of vetting moderators be done?
(Alternatively, I do like the suggestion of some that Governor Palin open her remarks by congratulating Ms. Ifill on the upcoming release of her book and ask her to tell everyone the full title… Oopsie. :-))
*re: NOT listening to radio talk, etc. Try it. Stop only listening to so-called “news” and commentary on radio and TV. Find the transcripts and read what was said. It’ll be an eye-opener. Absent vocal (and with TV, visual) distractions, content becomes king, and often better understanding of what was said ensues. Heck, when something reads a bit hinky, diagram the sentence(s) out and note the actual relationships of words. Yes, sometimes listening can reveal more, but at the very least read what was said as well. (*heh* Anyone who didn’t twig to Clinton’s manipulation of the truth when he said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman. *pause* Miss [yes, that is what he said, and not one single feminista objected to that any more than they did to his sexual predation] Lewinsky,” just wasn’t paying attention. Indeed, every. single. time. he uttered that lie, he placed that very significant pause in exactly the same place. Think about it. So yes, sometimes listening can be helpful. See here, the last 35 or so seconds.)
Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Pink Flamingo, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Wolf Pangloss, Democrat=Socialist, The World According to Carl, and Shadowscope, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
“America’s future has been intellectually housebroken”
Worth a read. And perhaps a re-read. Over at The Weekly Standard, David Gelernter takes a few hundred words to consider at least a part of the Obama phenomenon in, “Obama in Leftland”.
Members of the CR [Cultural Revolution] generation who had mainstream, establishment educations have been trained like pet poodles to understand where romping is allowed and where it is forbidden. The permissible range of thought on such topics as protected minorities, protected species, protected psychosexual deviations, et al. is clearly spelled out from kindergarten onward. Young teachers in the 1970s proudly acknowledged their political biases: They were the New Left in action, on a long march through the institutions. But many of today’s young teachers-in consequence of the long march’s brilliant success-don’t even realize that they are left-wing ideologues. As far as they know, their ideas are innocuous and mainstream-just like the New York Times!
And that also, by the way, explains a great deal of how such an ignorant guy has advanced so far in the political process: a huge number of Americans are not only blindly illiterate about history in general and American history in specific (“blindy” here = “ignorant of their illiteracy”) but also have huge swaths of knowlege “forbidden” to them by social constructs. The strictures of leftist politically correct “paper training” keeps the puppies of our society eternally dependent on the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind for direction.
God (oops!–there’s that forbidden Person!) Marx forbid that the public should ever hear of “fairness” couched in any terms other than class warfare and taking from people who earn money to give to people who do not! Marx forbid that people should be hired and fired based on their abilities and performance rather than the color of their skin! Marx forbid that America’s history and culture, with its roots in principles of freedom, individual liberty and responsibility, strong families and private property ownership be understood and embraced by the masses, when Government needs your home (Kelo), Government needs your children (prisons for kids–a/k/a “public schools”) to train up as enstupiated sheeple and Government needs your money to give to someone else! Marx forbid that “freedom of speech” mean anything other than freedom for such as Obama and his (IL)legal brownshirts to play their thuggery upon the heads of any who dare speak the truth about The Naked Emperor-Pretender. (The major problem with that allusion is not that folks won’t get the reference but that The Obamassiah is more of a suit of clothes pretending to be a man than a naked man pretending to be clothed, but I’ll allow the strained analogy to stand anyway, because I’d very much like this empty suit to be stripped bare… and reveal that there’s no “there” there.)
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