We Are All Pods Now
Were we Podded in Our Sleep?
I think I went to sleep about a year ago, just woke up, and realized that either I or the world has been changed, snatched as it were. [1]
Once upon a time, cars were just cars.
Like most Americans on the West Coast I began buying Japanese cars after a host of mishaps with American brands — chronic alternator failures on a Chevy S-10 pickup; a Chevy Malibu whose brakes lasted about 10,000 miles, and whose air conditioner went out every six months; a Dodge Dakota whose electrical system failed three times, twice on mountain roads — once in a rain storm, the other at night … and so on. Like millions of others, I reluctantly started buying either Hondas or Toyotas. But suddenly in this new pod world, I am noticing cars are now becoming political statements — and buying them a political act. Toyota has been demonized over what empirically seems to be an isolated accelerator problem. The subtext, however, is that the now number one automaker threatens U.S. union jobs and the now federal GM brand. Indeed, buying a GM product is becoming patriotic, at least more so than Ford, which did not participate in the federal bailout. Indeed, the evil GM Corporation of Michael Moore’s fantasies within a year has transmogrified into something akin to Social Security or Medicare. What will Palo Altoans or Carmelites do with those Priuses? A year ago, they were signatures of environmental caring, replete with Obama bumper stickers and fading “No blood for oil” slogans. Now, however, are not they anti-American, anti-union, anti-Obama administration, anti-consumer, pro-corporate greed fetishes?
Borrowing from Uncle Sam
Student loans will never be the same again. Apparently unnoticed in the health care fight was that the Obama administration simply absorbed the multibillion-dollar student loan program. Students will be delighted to see their interest rates, in a low interest market, perhaps go down a point or so — unconcerned that the resulting waste and inefficiency will in the long term devolve into something like Freddie and Fannie (e.g., the minister of student loans will now become a plum sinecure for retiring apparatchik politicians in the manner of Franklin Raines; yes, maybe the retiring NEA or NEH or Education head will accept a Student Loan czardom for the duration?)
An Empty Mailbox
Suddenly there are to be no more Saturday mail deliveries. The Postal Service is broke; unquestioned is any substantive move to freeze union salaries or lay off large numbers of employees. I doubt FedEx cancels Saturday service. The cynical public wonders whether, with 1/6th less service to the public, we can expect either a budget 1/6th smaller or a work force comparably reduced? No, of course not; it would be lunatic to think that. Did we all just sleep through no more private student loans and no more Saturday service?
The Evil Private Health Care Insurer
I expect both my Blue Cross and Health Net medical HMOs very soon to send me some sort of letter, either advising me about new tax exposure, advising me about new rate hikes, or advising me about reduced coverage. And in time I imagine the number of private physician groups will shrink, and the number of public clinics will expand. I’ve used both, and can attest in the former people are happy and competent, and in the latter more likely to be demoralized and going through the motions. In one a doctor wants to build a practice by expert care; in the other a doctor knows that whatever he does, he is still paid the same — survival, not competence, being the formula for promotion and pay raises. (And soon suing a GS-15-Step 10 Dr. for malpractice is no John Edwards picnic)
And just as California DMV employees now wear to work purple SEIU T-Shirts with “solidarity!” emblazoned on one side and “organize!” on the other, so too I expect that expression of progressivism with millions of new health care bureaucrats and loan officers. The only mystery is whether, when the bodysnatching process is over, the new alien health care plan’s outward stationary, cards, and logos will still look and sound like Blue Cross and Health Net?
The New Rules of Racial Tolerance
There is a new racial tension not present a year ago, one having nothing to do with the election of the nation’s first President of partial African ancestry. Instead, never in my experience have officials of the federal government, both in the campaign leading up to their governance and once in office, so deliberately chosen to polarize the country along racial lines.
In retrospect, it seems a sort of nightmare these now serial outbursts of our officials — “typical white person,” “clingers,” “cowards,”,police who “stereotype” and act “stupidly,” “wise Latina,” “white polluters,” framed by the President’s pastor and once spiritual Audacity-of-Hope mentor screaming “God D— America,” bookended by hyper-racial comments of a Harry Reid or Joe Biden about Negro accents and cleanliness.
And, of course, soon followed the slurs and smears of those in the media accusing almost every opponent at sometime of being a “racist,” a word that now has as much currency as a German Mark around 1929.
Opposition to health care, cap and trade, illegal immigration, everything I think soon, is being reformulated as antipathy to some sort of Civil Rights issues akin to the legislation of the 1960s. Almost daily now a major media columnist writes an essay alleging someone is racist, or there are subtle racist thoughts behind a type of opposition or protest. “Racist” is a 1950s sort of allegation, an instantaneous judge/jury/executioner/no-appeal condemnation. How Orwellian that the most racist members of American society, who built entire careers of fabricating evidence and defaming opponents — an Al Sharpton, for example — have become go-to national referees of suspected bias. How weirder that one just pledges allegiance to the new agenda, and suddenly one is both more likely to say something racist in Reid- or Biden-fashion, and yet it is not racist at all.
Israel — We Hardly Knew Ye?
A year ago, I thought Israel was a trusted ally. What happened? Did racists and bigots suddenly emigrate there? It used to be that both Democrats and Republicans supported the uniquely pro-Western, capitalist, democratic, and tolerant society surrounded by radical Islamists, autocracies, and terrorists. The rest of the world calculated oil, fear of Islamic terrorism, 300 million in the Middle East, and anti-Semitism; we alone valued consensual government, an enlightened society, and freedom as the basis of our support for a tiny state in a very hostile world — and protected the democracy against its countless enemies (there was a Holocaust once, after all, as the world slept).
But suddenly the U.S. government sends friendly videos to a theocracy that promises Israel’s destruction while snubbing the Prime Minister of the Jewish state? If a Middle East state leader wished to be courted by the United States by reverential protocol, an occasional bow, or kind words, then should not he be Iranian or Syrian, with the blood of American soldiers in Iraq on his hands? It is almost as if all the multicultural “anti-Zionist” campus and UN rhetoric of the 1970s and 1980s is now reified in Washington.
A year ago I had a vague idea that abroad to be democratic, pro-Western, capitalist, and friendly to the U.S. — a Britain, Colombia, Czech Republic, Honduras, Israel, or Poland — was considered good. And to be authoritarian, anti-Western, statist or communist, and anti-American was worse: a Cuba, Gaza, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, or Venezuela was considered, well, in the words of Robert Gibbs, “problematic.” No mas.
New Words, New Ideas?
A year ago I had never heard of “overseas contingencies operations” (what possibly could that mean?), much less “manmade disasters.” (Power failures? Overfishing? Oil spills?). And before January 2009 I thought Khalid Sheik Mohammed was an enemy monster, who had planned the murder of 3,000 Americans, beheaded Daniel Pearl, and promised more mayhem if let loose — not a civil rights, water-boarded symbol of suffering, to be tried in a civilian court a few yards from the scene of his mass murdering.
From Subversion to Thank God We Have All This
A little over a year ago, I think I had it straight: an evil Bush and the nefarious Halliburton puppet Cheney destroyed the Constitution by wiretapping, intercepting, the use of rendition, tribunals, Predator assassinations, and fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I knew this to be true because of serial Hollywood movies, outbursts at televised awards ceremonies, novels, documentaries, comedy routines, constant exposés in the media, the provocative rhetoric (“if they bring a knife to a fight, we bring a gun”) of statesmen like Barack Obama, and outbursts from the likes of Sen. Durbin that our own soldiers at Guantanamo were akin to Nazis or Pol Pot’s monsters.
But then I woke up and suddenly all of these anti-terrorism protocols, founded in such crime and hatred, had now evolved into necessary tools to keep us safe. Iraq is now good and the greatest achievement of the administration. Predator target killings have quadrupled; tribunals and renditions are legitimate. Afghanistan is no longer lost. We won’t see another Rendition or Redacted from Hollywood (Iraq movies now win Academy Awards!). Justice Department officials who sign off on targeted assassinations are still former sober and judicious Ivy League Law Deans and Professors. The New York Times no longer leaks information about our criminal government’s anti-terrorism efforts, and surely does not headline with IED of the day stories from Afghanistan. Wow, what a difference a year makes.
Go to Sleep, Wake up a Pod
I am catching on to this new year-old society; I think I am at least. Paying an underwater mortgage is sort of what wealthy and dubious people do; defaulting on one is proof of legitimate victimhood. There is no more immigration law — unless you are a foolish German, Russian, or Aussie who overstays his visa without claim on a proper -ism.
Budgeting for your private health care plan is proof of privilege; a maxed out credit card is better proof of corporate conspiracy. And paying no federal income taxes is evidence that you belong to the good 50% of Americans — or are mega-rich, savvy, and able enough to pay on your income instead at the capital gains rate.
There is no more interest on your meager passbook account; just on your mortgage: you pay the bank 5% for a house loan; they pay you a tenth of that at .5% for having $10,000 in your savings. They are dubbed “evil” by Washington and given more perks and latitude than ever before. You are to pay higher local, state, federal, payroll, and heath care taxes, with the assumptions that you will not help to pay down the debt and you, the greedy bastard, should pay even more taxes than you do.
Wake up, and get with it, reader: either you are a pod now — or everyone else is.
[1] Some things, of course, never change. The filibuster is always bad when a party is in power; good when out of power. Recess appointments in power are necessary antidotes to the shanghaiing of Congress; when out power, proof of anti-constitutionalism. Street protests are subversive when in power; and grass roots democracy when out.
Nearly three years still remain and America’s Agony is just beginning. We’ll need more than luck to redeem Her. If I believed in God I’d pray. I’m battening down the hatches in any event, and looking for the signs. Doesn’t it suddenly seem like all those millennial cultists were onto something after all? When VDH starts writing about body snatchers it might be time to pack a few MREs and oil up the gear. Something is slouching our way, its rumblings are unmistakable, but I still can’t quite make it out…
VDH: Wow. Now I can hardly wait for the coming elections this November! Of course, that presupposes that there’ll be federal elections as long as our present society remains docile and accepting of whatever our present federal administration wishes to do regarding non-existent loopholes, or non-existent shows of popular non-support of this administration’s acts and behaviors.
Well, at least I don’t need a passport to travel to Wisconsin or Iowa but maybe that’s coming, or maybe just a requirement for a government issued photo ID to be on our person at all times.
The future never has been predictable yet we’ve usually been able to kind of determine what government limits were; that ability seems to be lost for now. This is a brave new world and the old world seemed to have been a better place.
Here’s the thing college students must look out for: the bureaucratic snafu. Such as, being (a) disapproved for a loan, (b) satisfying demands for additional information, (c) receiving an approval or disbursement for less than the requested amount, etc. Of course, these screw ups occur with private lenders, but they’re much more likely to respond to student inquiries & to correct mistakes because the student is the customer. With a government agency, the system, the process, the bureaucracy will likely be unresponsive to the same inquiries and unwilling, unready or unable to correct mistakes. So the student won’t have the resources to pay tuition & fees, buy books, etc. and will be truly SOL.
It is scaarey, alright, Dr. Hanson – the rapidity with which the Chicago Machine spawn of Stalin’s Kremlin have applied the strategies of Marxist dictatorship: demonizing of opposition; ramping up bureaucracy; penalizing the bourgeoisie; controlling the press running up debt. Hell-bent to destroy capitalism and the two-party political system.
I have always been contemptuous of conspiracy thinking, but it is increasingly evident that the Axelrod-orchestrated endless campaign is tightly engineered to force as much raw Socialism into law, backed by a dedicated nomenklatura and swollen, permanently entrenched bureaucracy as possible within two years, and then remain as destructive as possible when they lose control of Congress.
Yet many in the right-wing punditry still dither: “Can he really be a Socialist?’ and “Doesn’t he realize…?
One thing is sure: this didn’t just ha[[en. This dministration knows exactly what it is doing, is not caught up in knee-jerk reaction, and will employ any means, however vile and deceitfully, against those who challenge them.
It is going to be a hair-raising year.
My wife and I went by the local Ford dealer here in North Florida not long ago. I mentioned that I wanted to buy American but wasn’t willing to buy from the Federal Government. The salesman told me that their business had tripled since the bailout. Perhaps there are more regional differences around the country than we see at first glance.
By George, I think you’ve got it Doc! I often feel, lately, that everyone will suddenly point and shriek at me.
Interesting questions VDH, but the answers are quietly lurking within like an 800# gorilla.
It seems lately that the populist rage – and despite having temporary leadership priveliges, liberals are still angry – is a lot like European rage against Jews over the centuries which reached a head in the 1940′s. Corporations are the new bogeyman, as are any individuals who accumulate wealth.
Do liberals have a “final solution”?
“Through the looking glass” indeed.
But remember, Alice eventually came back to reality, as too shall we, beginning in November.
Well, Professor Hansen you are right on target. Obama and his mobster cronies promised to change the USA and they did. It is all over; the only logical thing is to look for a place to live that is not as corrupt, amoral and narcissitic as the present USA. Fortunately I have a foreign passport which I obtained because my parents were not born in the USA. However I am not really sure where there will be a refuge from the coming storm of the New American World State and its religion of worship of the Obama. It is apparent that the mindless citizens of this new state have no idea of what is coming down the pike, they are too busy with their idiotic American idol, organized sports teams and absurd entertainment culture. America delenda est.
“Civil disobedience is the highest form of patriotism.”
Well, maybe not these days.
You know, I really miss those Bush-bashing, anti-war-for-oil protestors that used to hang out by the Mega-Lo-Mart every Saturday. Where did they go?
That does it. I’am going out and SAVING those baby seals.
You forgot “Iraq war is good, Afg war is good. Escalating our troop levels is good” and “increased war casualties are not newsworthy anymore.”
OK, so we were lied-to and now we’re screwed. But, even the best can’t screw 305 million and satisfy them all. Time to use VDH advice and go on the offense and damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
The Europeanization of the United States is accelerating at a rapid rate. Sixty years of peace and prosperity have given the populace access to the national treasury, where they may gain, as an assumed right, the wealth of the nation in exchange for a promise or a vote. The leftist wing has nationalized the wealth generators in a media driven audacious coup, without regard to consequences. Immediate gratification upsurps long term planning and effort.
If you are dreaming in a pod, then I share the same nightmare of being federalized. Perhaps it is because our people have forgotten the cost and respect and risks of freedom. How dare the enemy of freedom come from within the system. How dare they call neo-slavery as security, entitlement, and equality.
As my friend the rogue philosopher Billy Beck has so aptly put it, “All politics now is a dress rehearsal for civil war.”
Having come of age in Detroit in the 70′s, it’s amazing how much of what you lament here I have long taken for granted. Make of that what you will.
A year ago my General Motors stock was stolen. Today I find out my Health insurance may double in cost and limit the procedures covered. Tomorrow I look forward to putting what little money I have left in Baa rated government bonds. Next year the senate trials for impeachment should be entertaining.
#15 don’t: You’re a troll or an idiot or both. Now get lost, there are adults talking here.
Is it a possibility that lies and deceit could have been significant factor in bringing about the Orwellian nightmare we live in now? Obama denied ever hearing Jeremiah Wright say “G-d Damn America,” for example, not even once during their 20-year long association. Is there not at least a reasonable possibility that Obama’s denial was a lie? Or Obama’s insistence that the terrorist William Ayers was no more than a casual acquaintance who happened to live in the neighborhood might possibly be another lie? The list is long.
In light of the fact that this Orwellian nightmare isn’t a dream, but a cold, hard, deadly reality, may it be permissible to suggest that in order to survive, we question Obama, who has taken us to this point by his lies, and require him to provide clear proof of his citizenship and eligibility to be president?
If one had the good judgement to have been buying Ford all along, then there is not much new here.
Is it good news that Obama is still using GWB war and anti-terror tactics…or bad news?
Politicians, have been saying one thing and then doing another? I am shocked, I tell you, just shocked. The important thing, of course, is whether or not our tribe is in power. If not, the outrage is endless.
15. don
LBJ’s great society plans that are blooming. The first entitlement class. The fight at the mount of victimhood is fierce as the rewards from the public treasury are great.
Socialim kills insidiously.
About Cars:
I will continue to purchase the best non union built car that I can.
About Student Loans:
They can all go away. It is easy access to money that causes tuition and fees to climb without limits.
About immigration:
I will gladly pay a dollar more for a head of lettuce rather than 10K for an anchor baby.
About the post office:
Screw them. I usually send UPS. I am sure they could send me junk mail too.
About tolerance:
I tolerate anyone who will work. I, like millions of Americans, have had it with free-loaders.
Like the binge drinker or the out of control gambler, we will wake up one morning and face the consequences of our irresponsible behavior. When the United States no longer has a AAA credit rating the already astronomical debt will be untenable and massive taxes will only add to the problem, something the left has never understood. I learned about the Laffer curve in Econ 101 but I’m not sure if the leftists even acknowledge that such a thing exists. The bill will come due, I’m joining a militia.
We know there is a monster out there;
Lets split up and go looking for it. :)
…and panic when we find it. :(
People know that Hard Times are coming,
but they cannot admit it to themselves;
Like the twinge in the tongued tooth, it
will get worse, not go away, until we
do something about it.
Man, you are good, Professor. Like Sowell, Krauthammer, a few others, you clear away the brush and you appear to do it effortlessly. Nobody on the left comes close, but then, you have the advantage of telling it straight while they have to twist everything to fit their world view.
“Here’s the thing college students must look out for: the bureaucratic snafu….So the student won’t have the resources to pay tuition & fees, buy books, etc. and will be truly SOL.”
Now that the federal government dispenses the funds, how long before they dictate who gets them and how they can be used? Schools deny admission and assistance to students who check the wrong race/gender boxes; there are a hundred other ethnicity- and gender-based bureaucracies and “incentives” in the “healthcare reform”[sic] legislation. It’s very easy to imagine white men seeking loans to study engineering or hard science being turned down–while students planning Latina Lesbian Studies degrees are encouraged to borrow more for a second degree (why not? They only have to pay back 10% of their income, regardless of amount spent–and only for the 10 years if they take that cushy Department of Lesbian Affairs job after graduation).
Dr Hanson is such a fine writer, a fine thinker, too. We know what the problems are, we need to take the initiative and encourage formation of a war department. We need a daily assault on Mt. Obama. He is just winging BS at us daily, we need to deflect this stuff and send him our love. It is clearly obvious that this freak show is a white hating angry man with a white hating wife. I prefer to not assume dhimmi status to this absurdity. Dr Hanson, you’ve got the mandate, sic ‘em.
“The important thing, of course, is whether or not our tribe is in
power. If not, the outrage is endless.”
This sounds soporific. . . sleep, sleep, sleep. Nothing ever changes, there’s nothing to worry about. . .be calm, forget. It’s so much easier to put the chains on. . .
No one knows the future. . . why bother to wake up? The day may not come.
Chipster #3, students may find that their majors might affect the availability of student loans. There might even be a requirement for endorsement by an assistant dean who may require an essay on the virtues of president Obama.
There is a precedent. When I applied for a “National Defense Student Loan,” in January 1960, the first year that federal student loans were available, I was told that pre-med majors were not eligible. When I asked why, I was told that most of us never got into medical school. So, I left and walked around the block. I came into the student loan office again and was asked my major. English Literature, I said. OK, just fill out the forms.
I don’t think the future of student loans will be quite so benign.
Dr. Hanson, Your intellect is not worthy of such cynicism.
Mark Kirk, the republican candidate for Obamas old senate seat is refusing to comment on the repeal and replace strategy to stop Obamacare. Is this going to be a problem? We need to tell the McCain/Graham wing of the party that the days of “reaching across the aisle” need to stop. If Obamacare is not repealed and soon, our economy and our nation will be wrecked.
If there is one post that sums up my take on everything at this day and time, its this one. VDH just writes it better than I could. And for that I thank him !
Now that the government has taken over student loans, we will start to see the loans being directed toward favored constituencies rather than equally accessible by all applicants.
And of course there will be thousands of new government hires to administer the program.
Think the Democrat Media Complex podmasters are spinning now? In another year or so, when their economic house comes crashing down around their precious little spendy heads, Iran’s mullahs had better watch their backs.
There’ll be heapum domestic anger to be dissipated or redirected.
Re racial tensions: I wish more conservative commentators would talk about the anti-white racism that has become the foundation of the Democratic Party. The leading liberal complaint about the Tea Parties has been that they are composed mostly of white people. White people are demonized by the Democrats at every opportunity.
I’ve been pondering how this anti-white hatred works in the minds of white liberals. What is the mechanism or rationalization at work? I think I’ve got it figured out.
White liberals enjoy hating white people because it reaffirms their exceptionalism. White liberals are (in their own minds) superior. Enlightened. Highly intelligent. Special. Creative. Above average. Why, they’re not like the knuckle-dragging bigots that the mass of white people supposedly are and, by constantly screeching about it, they’re “proving” their innate superiority to all within shouting distance. And yet, the communities so many of them favor – Malibu, southern Marin County, and many others – are themselves lily white.
They get to give total free rein to their massive egomania while claiming that egomania as a sign of moral virtue.
The Democratic Party has positioned itself as the white-hating bigot party and any white person who continues to vote for them is voting for their own misery and oppression.
As usual VDH informs us with an historical perspective unique in the media. The point of the federalization of student loans is to allow the state to determine where and what will be studied by the masses. Education and training will be directed to the meet the needs of the bureaucracy in order to reinforce its control over the population.
Is it a possibility that lies and deceit could have been significant factor in bringing about the Orwellian nightmare we live in now? Obama denied ever hearing Jeremiah Wright say “G-d Damn America,” for example, not even once during their 20-year long association. Is there not at least a reasonable possibility that Obama’s denial was a lie? Or Obama’s insistence that the terrorist William Ayers was no more than a casual acquaintance who happened to live in the neighborhood might possibly be another lie? The list is long.
In light of the fact that this Orwellian nightmare isn’t a dream, but a cold, hard, deadly reality, may it be permissible to suggest that in order to survive, we question Obama, who has taken us to this point by his lies, and require him to provide clear proof of his citizenship and eligibility to be president?
If we are all pods now, I don’t expect any assent for this tactic, but just a mad shriek
from the pods on this blog, and I’ll just have to run for cover. If I’m lucky I’ll get away. But I can tell you, I am not a pod. The body snatchers haven’t caught up to me and turned me into one, not yet, and not ever. I would urge any and all others who still have their minds intact, to get after Obama on these grounds.
We are not all pods yet.
Yes, we are just waiting for the elections…but the problem with them is that they are too often stolen. I live in Washington state and was helpless last time watching the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s machine keep turning the recount screws in King County (Seattle) until she “won” by 134 votes.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
The death of God and the creation of new values.
Hand in hand we are the ones that we will overcome.
Auf Wiedersehen mein alter Freund Amerika, Auf Wiedersehen.
Thanks Dr. – tried to laugh, but it’s all too serious.
I Recently read “We the Living” by
Ayn Rand. It is a chilling, first-hand depiction (in novel form) of the Soviet transformation of Russian society. She saw this first-hand before emigrating (legally I assume) to America.
This stuff (HCR bill, etc) is straight out of the Soviet Playbook and nobody in the MSM will even acknowledge it! In Post-Bolshevik Petrograd (later Stalingrad), you could not work if you were not in the ‘Union’. Andy Stern (SEIU boss) was the most frequent visitor to the WH last yr.
You could not go to the university unless your ‘Social History’ was acceptable (i.e.- you weren’t a greedy capitalist before the revolution). Now some bureaucrats hidden deep within the machine will control Education funds for EVERYONE. It’s unbelievable what this admin has gotten away with.
When things got bad in terms of hunger, the govt. run food stores would issue bread only to those who had a ticket– given out by the university or a local union company. Therefore, only those who toed the communist line would get rations…
I’m not a terribly religious person, but I will be praying for our (formerly) ‘shining city on the hill’ tonight. May the enemies of freedom and liberty be hoisted upon their own petard.
“I doubt FedEx cancels Saturday service.”
You’re right, but that’s only because Fedex charges a lot more for Saturday pickup or delivery. The Post Office doesn’t.
For what that’s worth.
PS “don”, #15, try to be a more convincing troll next time; it’ll be more fun for the rest of us.
Re #8, John, “It is all over; the only logical thing is to look for a place to live that is not as corrupt, amoral and narcissitic as the present USA.”
No it isn’t. Obama is an unprecedented disaster, but all he’s doing is speeding the nation faster than it was already heading toward bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy = no money.
No money = no stuff.
The leftist welfare state is unsustainable.
Obama is not presiding over the creation of The People’s Republic of America.
Obama is presiding over the collapse of the welfare state; he’s actually *helping* to destroy it.
But only helping — the welfare state would be unsustainable, with or without Obama.
When we go bankrupt — or, if we are lucky, when we realize we are *about* to go bankrupt — the country will go into *survival mode*.
Survival mode will not include figuring out how to sustain the unsustainable programs that collapsed the economy to begin with.
Survival mode will be about surviving — and then revamping the unsustainable programs to make them sustainable.
This will happen, because it will not be a matter of choice.
Unless most Americans somehow forget that they once had their pick of different jobs, drove new cars, took vacations and wore nice clothes, and were treated like human beings at the doctor’s, and in their collective amnesia accept life in a decaying country *ruled* by more and more aggressive statists, this mess *will* be reversed.
In other words, this will be reversed. We may have to go bankrupt first, for the vast majority of Americans to fully wake up — but the majority will be wide awake, and they will be listening to leaders like Paul Ryan, not Barack Obama.
So quit worrying about the end of the USA, because it ain’t happening.
Instead, as soon-to-be Congressman Allen West would say, fix your baynets and get ready to charge.
Follow up to post #37:
This is who we are:
http://www.realamericanstories.com/sarah-palin/
Rejoice VDH, that “uniquely pro-Western, capitalist, democratic, and tolerant society” is allowing shoes and clothes in to Gaza for the first time in two years! Isn’t it wonderful for the United States to be allied with wonderful folks like that?
#36. Accusations of racism have been very effective at cowing conservatives. Racial paranoia is essential to keep blacks locked into supporting the democrats against their economic and freedom interests.
The liberals are a lost cause in this regard, and its time for conservatives to stand up to the media, speak candidly, and fight as hard for their agenda as liberals have been doing all these years.
It is the Great Leveling that the left has dreamed about for so long. We weren’t asleep, just busy trying to live our lives (the way things should be). But we did drop the ball. Back in 1945 the great sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein gave a speech in which he predicted that Socialism would come to America from an unseen direction, and through lack of vigilance and will. He was right. The signs were all around us for decades, but we didn’t connect the dots until it was (almost) too late. Lessons?
1- Whenever the bulk of a societies’ media starts to spout one side’s party line – that is a warning sign that a Gramsci type effort is underway.
2- Ditto for academia when grievance ‘studies’ become the core of the curriculum. This is an effort to divide society and sow discontent.
3- When the two parties start talking past each other – for whatever reason, the interests of society at large are no longer the main concern of those in power. While progressive Democrats were maneuvering, Conservatives (many of whom must have known what was happening) failed to warn us because they felt (perhaps rightly?) that the fallout would threaten them too.
4- A charismatic leader who wraps himself in a cloak of vague utopian dreams is another warning sign.
5- Too much prosperity can be a threat to Liberty, which must be corrected for.
6- No matter how good things seem, and how content you are, remember: there is someone out there planning assume power over you.
7- Sometimes you are most vulnerable in your moment of triumph.
We must keep these and other lessons in the forefront of our thinking after we’ve sorted this mess out starting in November. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Meanwhile, what have you done to defeat a Democrat today?
I believe this administration is trying to polarize the American people in all areas and at all levels, which they hope will turn into violence, allowing them to declare martial law, “to protect us all” and shut down the November elections. “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Right now they are pushing so many buttons in so many peoples lives that many are getting scared. BO has the whole nation focused on stopping the health care bill in one hand, and is pushing immigration reform with the other hand. Talk about a voting base! Why do you think they wouldn’t declare English the official language of the US? To keep the language barrier and have control. We must all always remember that BO is their “WEAPON OF MASS DISTRACTION!!!”
Precisely. B O is the perfect implement or tool of what VDH terms “postmodernism”. I saw the coming of the “rough beast” first in the 1960′s, witnessed its birth in the 1970′s, saw it grow into a the monster it has become.
This, at three major universities, heard time-after-time: students reciting their “postmodern catechism”: “IT’S JUST WHAT YOU WANNA DO THAT MATTERS NOT WHAT ANYBODY THINKS IS RIGHT OR WRONG ‘CAUSE THAT’S JUST THEIR OPINION!
When advised that this sentimental fable is prologue to dictatorship and the loss of the individuality they say they prize. . .that self-restraint and self-control and “a decent respect for the opinions of mankind” were the foundation of enduring individual and collective (societal) freedom, the students replied “That’s just your old-fashioned thinking. Nobody thinks that way any more.”
So there it is. The “Rough Beast” was born, And many of us witnessed the birth, thinking “It can’t possibly live and thrive; it is too perverse, too contra the sentiment (not the sentimentality) of basic decency, rationality, logic, and reason. . .and common sense.
But live it did. And strides among us. Ravenous. Insatiable. Maybe, re “1984″ eternal. Maybe the human species as developed in the context of Western Civilization is now subsumed under, or into, an alien life-form, and B O is its sign and cynosure. He, and what he represents, will not be easily overcome, readily defeated without greater sacrifice than most are willing to make, at least at this juncture. Perhaps the monster must consume more, much more, before those remaining become captains courageous.
I have never understood the attack on producers and capitalism. In order to pay for these programs you need a vibrant economy, at the very same time we are creating exploding public mandates we are telling producers how evil they all are, and punishing them to make things “more fair”. O has actually said fairness, or what he considers fairness is more important then revenue. So at the same time the most populace countries in the world, China and India are lifting themselves out of poverty with Capitalsm, we are demonizing it, and hamstinging it. Quarter on Quarter revenue according to the IRS continues to drop, Job losses continue as people scale back intended expansions of business. I wonder how much more that will occur as people who began making plans after September-November 2008, see those plans advance to the point where they can get out. Over the last month we have given those thinking over getting out a lot more reason to do so. It will be interesting to see the net change in doctors and medical businesses over the next few years as reality sinks in.
A possible corrective:
A council composed of retired public servants from both sides, with proven track records of Constitutional loyalty (not from the fringes of either party), directly elected by the citizenry for short terms, with no executive, legislative or judicial power – to guard against the undue accumulation of power and/or ideological bias within government.
Deeply aware of the vital importance of freedom of speech, association etc., it would scrutinize society at all levels – political parties, government agencies, financial institutions, industrial sectors, cultural institutions (academia, media, interest groups etc.) looking not for controversial or even subversive views – which should always be cautiously welcomed, but for sustained, deliberate efforts to distort political discourse against the pillars of American democracy (free markets, free exchange of ideas, freedom of religion, assertive military power.) When a concerted effort appears to be underway to threaten these pillars, the council would report its findings to the public, along with corrective recommendations. The public would then be empowered to vote directly up or down, or to propose amendments through some sort of Tribune.
The idea is not to regulate public activity, but rather to warn of potentially anti-Constitutional developments and let the citizenry decide what to do about it. If the majority don’t mind, so be it. If they object, they can address the problem before too much damage is done.
It might sound too intrusive or stiffling, but I stress that this council would have NO direct power of its own. It would be something like the Roman Censor meets Athenian direct democracy (albeit in a very narrow way.) I know that various senate committees exist today to perform these kinds of functions, but they don’t appear to have worked too well lately.
Likewise the citizenry would have no direct power to implement legislation, remove officials etc. except through the channel provided by this council. Of course there would be risks here too (namely the collusion of the popular majority with the council itself to go after specific targets), but short term limits, a good education system, Americans’ love of innovation as well as a healthy (though sometimes begrudging) respect for competition, and not last but not least, the Constitution itself would mitigate against that. Ultimately all political institutions are susceptible to corruption over the long term, but in the short and medium terms they can do much good.
At any rate, we need to start thinking out of the box again. I’d be interested to hear VDH, or someone like John Eastman or Andrew McCarthy or some of the other big brains at NRO weigh in on this type of scheme. Anyone else got any bright ideas?
When I look at President Barack Obama, I don’t see black. I see red.
My pick for President last go around wasn’t Barack Obama, but it wasn’t due to some racist DNA molecules or because I picked up some venomous hate for blacks sitting on a toilet seat someplace or became a hater some other way experientially.
Actually, my pick for a guy to run for President last time out wasn’t a guy at all. It was Condi Rice. I believe she’d preserve, protect and defend the Constitution with her life.
At this point in time, if Allen West asked me to work for him for President, I’d be reporting for duty tomorrow. If I had a son, I’d be overjoyed if he were exactly like West, skin color and all. On the other hand, say I was left of the Black Caucus, a full blown female racist, I could still call a spade a spade without fear of somebody calling me a racist. Because, the fact is, the race card has run its course. It’s thrown a shoe. The hate drug has lost its potency. Label it impotent. Partly, because people like Al Sharpton have so overused it.
But mostly because President Barack Obama along with Attorney General, Eric Holder, killed it. I can trace the exact day. May 15, 2009, the date on which they decided to drop an open and shut case of voter intimidation against the Black Panthers.
Over the last 14 months, they’ve proved themselves to be the racists of racists. I could site example after hateful example, but I’m not going to waste the ink. You all know them chapter and verse.
It’s a whole different world, though, when you call a politician a Communist.
I like to throw around the term “neo com”, but it just doesn’t have the same ability to engender knee jerk politically correct appalled reaction as using the word, Communist.
Which I can’t resist. Which I can’t refrain from because Obama is as Communist as a Lenin or Stalin. Obama simply hasn’t grown enough in his Communist ideology to start killing the opposition willy nilly. Obama’s only at the stage when he can support the wholesale slaughter of the unborn. But like they used to say, once you smoke marijuana, the trip to heroin, cocaine, yellow jackets, reds, blues, Amy’s and rainbows often doesn’t take long, just pack a change of underwear.
Of course, part of the reason I’m mad as a hatter at Obama is his crusade to financially run this country into the ground. In eight more months, our national debt will be 17 trillion dollars. Only if you use Obama math does the figure not scare you.
President Obama is going down in history as by far, unanimously, the worst President in the history of the United States. And on so many levels.
When I look at Zero, I don’t see black. I see red. Not even crooked accountants can straighten this administration out. Obama’s not just a Communist. He’s the most corrupt one alive.
OK…but been thinking…what if this is how the next few months go…
Dem Congresscritters back for easter break. Their locally-based political directors, contributors, friends, family tell them all this: “this HCR vote killed us! local tea party folks are up in arms… DO NOT take another vote like that this year or we’re toast in Nov!”…and for the “safe” lib seats….”Scott Brown was NOT a fluke. And don’t worry about the Repubs…we need to worry about primary opposition from the center.”
what big sweeping votes come up thru rest of the year? card check? dead. cap & trade? radioactive (east anglia)! immigration? really? california & sand states (all broke) good to go on that one? and if bush couldn’t bust a bi-partisan move on that one, what chance will BHO have?
so nothing happens. a few feints, then…nothing.
crickets chirp…the economy moves sideways w/fears of double-dip looming large
does tea party rage subside? don’t think so– once angered principled voters get riled, they don’t get bored and drift off like Hope & Change volunteers…
approaching Nov, Repubs have 2 mantras– fix the economy via spending cuts and REPEAL
they win– big time; one house, maybe both
they launch a campaign to force votes on spending cuts which, win or lose, put dems on the defensive
after that– other than tour military bases and making recess appointments– what does obama do?
what can he do?
2012– after pick your repub flavour wins WH– what the hell was THAT all about?
under what scenario can BHO/Dems seriously advance any major lefty agendas?
Yet, no matter how unpleasant are the facts Hanson enumerates, we should not ignore that they happen on a certain accepting backgroud – which is one of an acquiescing population, brought to this miserable state by poor education, mindless entertainment, and a massive, wall-to-wall leftoid propaganda carried by academia and the news establishment -
Talking about the MSM, did I dream today the story about rancher Kranz in Arizona, owner of a pretty farm run by his family since 1907, who was killed while defending his property?
CNN run the story in the morning, then… it’s gone, with a quatum phisics totalness so… I wonder why…
Politico also marvelled today what would be Obama’s next big fight… could it be an illegal immigration amnesty?
No Dems would say that is a bad idea to inject 10 million new citizens in the next few years in the national tissue… nice, good voters…
si se puede?
A powerful cartoon showing “Congressional Abuse” and what it is doing to Liberty in this country at http://drawfortruth.wordpress.com/category/liberty/
Buying GM is not PATRIOTIC.
Buying GM says to the feds: go ahead, takeover whatever you like; I’m sure you know best, dear nanny you; and all us chumps out here in free-market land be screwed.
Pod? What’s a “pod.” Is this somehow related to the “iPod”? I don’t get it.
I was the chief marketing officer for a private University and talked with the Financial Aid Director about this change. He told me that the loan money from the banks was the most simple process he used for cash flow to the University. Federal funds, of course, was the most difficult. Whereas most of the bank loan money would be in by the middle of September, the bulk of the federal funds did not come in until November. You can only imagine how this is going to affect cash flow at these Universities.
Does anyone think this move by this administration is not the beginning of the ‘takeover of the banks!’
#36 Django — The leading liberal complaint about the Tea Parties has been that they are composed mostly of white people.
It’s an observation, not a complaint. Moreover, it’s valid. For some reason minorities are under-represented. Whites tell themselves that this is all about the constitution whereas non-whites don’t seem inclined to agree (if they did, they’d be there. They’re not.)
Tea parties seem to be the exclusive province of socially conservative culture warriors, a group not known for their tolerance. Tea partiers are a smallish subset of GOP voters and I suspect this is the same loudmouth subset who also protests abortion clinics.
I’m waiting to be told I’m wrong, which will of course be even more depressing — instead one one subset of imbeciles, the GOP could be saddled with two (or more!)
“There is a new racial tension not present a year ago . . .”
The racial cold war started by O’s people will predictably turn hot this long hot summer as they see their ideas lose popularity.
When Socialists lose traction with the hoi polloi, they pull out the guns — and scourge millions.
Agree with JR at 43. The Obami thought they had a crisis they could take advantage of. Instead it is so big that it’s blowing up in their faces. Instead of moving a voting majority to embrace government dependency, the looming economic collapse will force us to value self reliance and responsibility. The whole socialist utopia fantasy is about to get a wooden stake through the heart.
What do courage, integrity, accountability, respect, fortitude, intelligence, all mean?
The standard of the meaning of these words – and one’s word – is so low in Washington, that they might as well not exist in the English language as compared to most people’s understanding.
The diminution of these words on the beltway, is equivalent to a fraud. And the victims of this fraud are most people in the country. Most people have been treated as chumps.
If those in Washington believe they can say anything, and hide behind a computer, voice mail, receptionist, or the media, they are finding out that the anger is so intense, for this abuse and disregard, that they are truly mistaken and underestimate the intelligence and principles of the people they represent.
May there be brighter days ahead. This has been a very dark and disrespectful period for this country.
“3. Chipster:
Here’s the thing college students must look out for: the bureaucratic snafu. Such as, being (a) disapproved for a loan, (b) satisfying demands for additional information, (c) receiving an approval or disbursement for less than the requested amount, etc. Of course, these screw ups occur with private lenders, but they’re much more likely to respond to student inquiries & to correct mistakes because the student is the customer. With a government agency, the system, the process, the bureaucracy will likely be unresponsive to the same inquiries and unwilling, unready or unable to correct mistakes. So the student won’t have the resources to pay tuition & fees, buy books, etc. and will be truly SOL.”
I think it will depend on what kind of a student you are – whether you are viewed as “unfairly privileged” versus the “right kind of student that need our help more.” And, eventually, on how willing you are to work for the government.
“3. Chipster:
Here’s the thing college students must look out for: the bureaucratic snafu. Such as, being (a) disapproved for a loan, (b) satisfying demands for additional information, (c) receiving an approval or disbursement for less than the requested amount, etc. Of course, these screw ups occur with private lenders, but they’re much more likely to respond to student inquiries & to correct mistakes because the student is the customer. With a government agency, the system, the process, the bureaucracy will likely be unresponsive to the same inquiries and unwilling, unready or unable to correct mistakes. So the student won’t have the resources to pay tuition & fees, buy books, etc. and will be truly SOL.”
I think it will depend on what kind of a student you are – whether you are viewed as “unfairly privileged” versus the “right kind of student that need our help more.” And, eventually, on how willing you are to work for the government.
@36 django:
In the past year, I’ve noticed this same, and rapidly accelerating, trend among my leftist friends and acquaintances to trash talk whites even though they ARE white.
It’s a dreadfully disturbing trend, and racist in and of itself. I, too, have come to the same conclusion as you have about why they do it. In my thinking on it, there has been no other explanation.
Well, except to be “cool.”
Edit: Or – out of fear. Fear of people of a different color, and hoping to achieve a favored status among them.
@53 misanthropicus:
RE: Rancher Kranz, yes killed on his property; hostile’s trail led across the border to Mexico … wouldn’t say he was ‘defending’ his property as reports indicate that he was mortally wounded and took off on his ATV before succumbing seems more like he either happened upon the assailant or perhaps it was an intentional ambush … insufficient info now to call it either way
Dr. Hanson,
As a test engineer most of my career, I have to conclude that Toyota is afflicted with a contageous malignency. Sudden “unintended accleration” passes across models and model years, independent of the fact that neither the physical linkages nor the software versions are interchangeable between models.
Curiously, this malignency kills only a few of the customers of each model year randomly, yet is undetectible in any of the remaining models. It won’t allow the brakes to work, shifting into neutral has no effect, downshifting, shutting off the ignition or applying the emergency brake all in any combination fail to overcome this menace.
Imagine trying to design such a “failure modality,” into all the Toyota models, that is as undetectable as this is proclaimed to be. One plaintiff’s attorny says “it’s a ghost in the machine.” NASA is called in to investigate, on the speculation that “rays” from space are responsible.
Occam says: It’s operator error.
Honda is next.
VDH:
Now that we have the fullest exposure of evil in our midst that we as a country have ever had, what are we going to do about it? Tolerate it? Tolerance is what brought us here in the first place, too much of it.
Tolerance is fine but like all things must be taken in moderation.
We are dealing with the devil here, the devil does evil and then starts accusing his ememies of being racist, immoral and greedy while he is he one actually doing these things.
Evil personified; muslims have been following the rules for radicals for decades, killing women and children, lying, cheating, stealing while accusing the west of being corrupt for defending themselves.
This is all a very old story. How long shall we tolerate it? How much time do we really have?
In retrospect, it may not have been a wise move to elect the quasi-alcoholic illegitimate Indonesian grandson of an African witch doctor as President of the USA.
Dr. VDH seems to have overlooked the nature of addiction. Obama and democratic cronies have not. Pushing thru the “Healthtcare Meth” program is not unlike getting the adolescent to take that first hit of meth. If you can just get them hooked they won’t want to go back. Thus the Obama challange to “just try and repeal….”. Half the american population are already “dependents” and Obama is the street corner “pusher”. The more you can hook the more supporters you have looking for the next “fix”. Too bad.
Professor Hanson,
You should have bought Fords. I have a 1983 F-100 that I bought new. 27 years and 250,000 miles later the alternator, and virtually every other major component, is original. Even the A/C still works great. Then there is my 1995 Taurus, 123,000, my 2002 Escape, 125,000. All have original alternators, engines, transmissions, etc.. Prior to that were other Fords dating back to 1961.
We did own one Toyota, a Camry with a defective engine that threw a rod through the engine block. It was one of the oil-coking engines that resulted in a class action suit against Toyota a few years ago.
#36 Shelby Steele says it is white guilt. That is true for some liberal intelects, but Steve Sailor has it right when he say it is “white moral preening.” Airhead libs want to impress each other with their moral superiority and righteousness. Bash America to a foriegn visitor, demonize an Ashcroft, Palin or Cheney, rip Israel, or any other “stupid things white people like.” to impress your fellow white brainwashed lib.
We are not a dumb nation, but brainwashing in school, colleges, TV and Hollywood, the media, and the Dem Party are too much for 50% of the population to overcome, including many new immigrants.That is why Baby Boomers are not like the the Greatest Generation that raised them.
Liberals learn their ideology when they are 19 and never change, never learn. They are grown up children. They defy nature, and live by an ideology.
Strange analogy, but true. Think about an 50 year old Elephant roaming the jungles or savanah. Does he stop learning at 19? No he grows wise from every new experience in his whole life. Libs defy nature, and live by an ideology of the mind.
VDH inspires me to email all my brothers and sisters and friends this post. DO THE SAME. This will shock the ^%$)@ out of a liberal.
PS From now on Democrat, leftist, liberal, progressive, left winger ALL mean the SAME thing. They voted for OBAMA and they must share his bed, so to speak.
Well, Dr., your transformation is proceeding well, but we still have a few barriers of resistance within your consciousness to crush!
Recall how we were told, in all seriousness, that stimulus money must not go to “White construction workers” – I don’t remember the news media jumping on that one to demand an explanation, and from all indications, it’s because we are expected to implicitly understand that this is the new order of things – remember, Obama wanted “Deeds, not words” as befitting a discussion of “Reparations”, which goes to the core of it – the traditional racial minority is now to be not only emancipated, but exalted – and “Representation” is the new measure of success; “Achievement” and such notions are merely conceptual tools of oppression! This is why the Asian students will be placed at the bottom of the university admissions list; they don’t match the preferred portrait of the victimized class.
As for the business world: Since it’s all but impossible to actually eliminate the concept of money, our new educrat-ruler class is going to try and do everything but.
All of this is the culmination of the next-generation’s day in the socialist sun, and the “Progressives” will publicly scoff at this notion, while privately worshipping the notion that “Money is the root of all evil”*. Such is the ideology that my peers have been devouring since their coming of age; in a book, Dr. Hanson asked, “Who killed Homer?”, but I knew the answer before even cracking the spine, for I went to college with them, and watched them shut down the school via protest, over the notion that the curriculum was “Too Euro-centric”. So the new generation openly hates our Western heritage, and wants to destroy it – and these same types now run our Federal government; it’s very sad. Oops, sorry, I almost crawled out of my pod!
* – (See “Atlas Shrugged” for a tremendous speech by Francisco D’Anconia dismantling the notion that “Money is evil” – Ayn Rand appears to have been villified by both left and right these days, but this work holds, especially these days.)
Which just showed you the ‘genius’ of this evil bunch, with regards to student loan tucked into the comprehensive HCR bill.
We will have a bunch of low level ‘future’ bureaucrats approving student loans on which subject to study. Who’s to decide “East African Pottery study” less important than theoretical physics? No offense to those East Africans who made pottery.
The most ridiculous thing I have ever seen was the young woman who was asked about the Census. She was asked about the what race are you question. She was asked about the term Negro. She looked indignant as she replied “how about slave?”…..
Yes, she was a young black woman.
It made me think how can you say something so foolish? Does she and others who think like her EVER think about how other races have suffered one way or another?
This is the education of the USA now.
I feel sorry for the people who feel something is owed to them because of what happened in past history.
It is mind boggling to know that many people will now suffer and they have nothing to do with the whole slavery issue. Most of us and our families were not even in the USA at that time.
I only see this administration and the progressives have worked a VERY long time on taking over. They worked their way into every facet of American life.
They must be stopped. And hopefully, in November all Americans will stop this in it’s tracks and the guilty parties will be impeached, jailed and ostracized. And given a one way ticket to whatever socialist country they want to go to. With NO money.
God Bless America
Hanging on my wall is a quote from “Democracy in America” writtten by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835 – “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” De Tocqueville was a perceptive observor who saw that the greatest danger to America was the urge to emulate European society. It took 175 years but, at long last, we are finally there. The agency chiefly responsible for bringing this about has been our news and entertainment media which has lulled us into a complacency once unimaginable in a free people. Dr. Hanson’s title here should read “We are all i-Pods now.”
BG (49):
I have never understood the attack on producers and capitalism. In order to pay for these programs you need a vibrant economy
You have to look at it through the eyes of a socialist. They never believe that the destruction of the economy will effect them, since they are the nomenklatura, the favored ones. They will run things and always have access to the best – the best goods, the best health care (they can always fly to somewhere else if necessary), the best information.
In the end, they don’t want innovation, since innovators are dangerous and tend to be independently minded. The rest of us are serfs to be controlled and kept stupid.
Wonder when we’ll start hearing of “toxic student loans” and “student-backed securities”?
When I was a teenager SteppenWolf Came out with a song named “Monster.”
“Once the religious the hunted the weary chasing the promise of freedom and hope came to this country to build a new vision far from the reaches of kingdom and pope.
Like good Christians some would burn the witches later some got slaves to gather riches but from near and far to seek America they came by thousands to court the wild.But she just patiently smiled and bore a child to be their spirit and guiding light…
And though the past has it’s share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But it’s protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it’s a monster and will not obey
The spirit was freedom and justice
And it’s keepers seem friendly and kind
It’s leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won’t pay it no mind
Now their vote is like a meaningless joke
You know they talk about law, about order
But it’s all just an echo of what they’ve been told
‘Cause there’s a monster on the loose
It’s got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin’
Our cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin’ the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can’t understand
America where are you now?
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster
America:
this is a shortened version but it says enough.
What I find so strange is that the people who used this song as an anthem are now the ones in charge; the monster was not defeated he just has new masters
This new administration has had to face much worse problems than any administration has in a generation. After a year, and with about three years to go in the first term, they have successfully transitioned from the listening, thinking mode to the doing mode. However, we all know that the doing mode can only last a couple of years in the first term so once they are sure the american economy has been revived and our foreign policy is back on track, things should slow a bit. I think that after they tackle our debt crisis they should get our renewable programs going full speed ahead. Our dependance on oil, specifically foreign oil is still our lurking enemy…..and if they dont grab that issue, the Republicans will shirk their own and grab that issue and the ten points in the next election…will they?
RE: Troll #15: Don
I realize he/she/it doesn’t technically violate any of the language in guidelines 1-5, but how does an obvious OFA troll like “#15: Don” get by with asserting his/her/its “hate” for “uppity” “colored people?”
If that comment stands, CNNMSNBCCBSABCNYTWaPoMediaMattersPuffHoSPLC will be attributing the statement to a “Victor Davis Hanson article” on “right wing Pajamas Media” by Thursday’s news cycle. Media Matters probably has the press release in the can as we speak. Marc Potok is probably already blaming PJM for stoking racist white male Christianist violence. And the prospect of playing “gotcha” with VDH, PJM & it’s sellout “neocon” impresario Roger L. Simon probably has David Shuster, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow enjoying a good circle jerk — as the hint of conservative blood in the water is among the most irresistible of aphrodisiacs to the Left.
On the subject of auto’s – If you like Ford’s you should buy a Ford because they make top notch vehicles. Personally I wouldn’t think any differently about a Toyota or Honda now than I did a year ago. I don’t know anything about Government Motors. Not interested. Any of these “fly by wire” vehicles are subject to problems. When the problems come the opportunists move in. 30 years ago when your engine raced you knew by visual inspection you had broken motor mounts. Now you have an abstract software issue.
The 4.5% spread on the interest rates only reinforces the notion banks haven’t changed at all. Nothing is being done to rein them in.
All of the middle east promises have been dismissed but pulling out will once again resurface as an urgent issue in the coming campaign.
Dear VDH,
I’m one of your regular readers and there is one area of change in your articles that I don’t think you have addressed (I may have missed it?). It is the way the progressives are seeking to build a culture of envy. Some call it an entitlement mentality, but I think envy is a truer description.
They cry it’s not fair! If other people are “rich” then they should not be able to keep it. They are selfish! Stuff and nonsense. It’s theirs not ours. They are free to spend, save, or give to whomever they please. People used to understand the need to shun envy, greed, and the other vices. People used to understand the value of developing virtue. Sheesh.
I’m just finishing A WAR LIKE NO OTHER.
I was surprised that it seemed Sparta wanted to end the fighting but Athens -the democracy no less- wouldn’t have it.
Sparta was fortunate to get that Persian money but then again England and France were lucky to get America, Vienna was lucky to get the Poles, Wellington was lucky to get the Prussians, and the Protestants were lucky to get Richeleu.
When Athens called up more fighters for Sicily it reminded me of George Bush and the surge. It could have gone either way.
I still don’t get calvary. Do people not want to kill the horses? Spook the horses and the rider falls. I guess they’re good for running away. Am I cruel to think about killing horses? Slashing horses? Stabbing horses? A guy with armour falls off the horse and he’s helpless. Right? Is it the stampede factor?
And the democracy lost. They killed their generals like the Japanese killed themselves leaving a dearth of leadership. That was odd.
I’ve yet to read the last chapter. Brutal war and I’ve read
about wars. (I thank God I’ve never participated)
And to think that they all might have spoken the same language. That’s odd. Killing each other. The book was a surprise. I used to think about Greece like the Greek God sequence in the movie Fantasia. Eating grapes. Girls posing topless for all sorts of statues and men wearing sheets and sandals.
Business is about ‘repeat customers’. I think Toyota will rebound. I’ve never had a car like my ’98 Camry. I have no sympathy for unions.
Racist. Racist. Racist. Divide and conquer. Some people make accusations and others are silent by nature. I hope the silent majority is on my side.
Damn media.
I am pretty sure that the post office is a non-subsidized entity that is self funded. Even if their delivery is sub-par, at least the model is sustainable and non-tax-based. It’s a shame that sort of logic wasn’t on the table for healthcare. A free ride is nothing to be proud of, especially when it’s unfunded.
You all may be correct about the commie fascist Obama dictatorship using student loans to reward those who follow the party line and punish those who don’t, but the old system was just corporate welfare that guarantees private lenders their profits.
US News and World Report
“Big Money on Campus” 10/19/03
“But for private lenders, the FFEL program is a no-lose game. The federal government guarantees repayment of defaulted loans. The loan program, growing each year, can be a hugely profitable business. Sallie Mae, formally known as the SLM Corp., earned $792 million last year, and its chief executive, Albert Lord, pocketed $33.6 million in salary, bonus, and stock option payments the year before. Its student loan business provided the lion’s share of Sallie Mae’s profits.”
So Victor the question is how do we (as in we the people) guarantee the deserving and yes perhaps some less deserving get equal access to higher education without government interference and without making the fat cats fatter?
VDH, why do you stay? I grew up in the Central Valley, but we transplanted to Texas 8 years ago, an impulsive decision we relish almost as much as we regret buying a house in SE Fresno instead of buying Microsoft stock when we received a small inheritance in 1992. Come join us. Texas may very well become the Last Stand.
Yes, Victor, a nightmare.
One from which I want to wake.
One in which I’ve been transformed into a whining, selfish, racist.
A dream in which a few wield the power to take our income, tax our energy while sneering at our knuckle dragging obstinacy to join the march off the cliff.
Gylippus. I like your idea. I like your optimism that this bad dream can be vanquished.
So RR is gone with BB?
24. sagman888:
“Man, you are good, Professor. Like Sowell, Krauthammer, a few others, you clear away the brush and you appear to do it effortlessly. Nobody on the left comes close, but then, you have the advantage of telling it straight while they have to twist everything to fit their world view.”
Sowell is a little long in the tooth but where can one sign up for the Hanson for President movement?
Essential vdh
To sort it out go back to the founding fathers and the federalist papers. Get it down to fundamentals and quit worrying about the color of the deck chairs on the Titanic. Problem solve the fundamental problems.—Ignorance of What, Who, Why, How America was needed for the real hope of mankind. Should the light that began in the world before 1776 be put out due to ignorance, laziness, stupidity…—essentially the 7 deadly sins of humans.
Then make the idiot politicians understand that their “core” beliefs will either get them elected or thrown out. Do something positive–join the tea party–vote the lack of integrity political bastards out! That includes J. McCain or any other Republican that is still sticking his finger into the wind to determine who, and what he is. America was never a get along go along country. Not now not ever.
“And in time I imagine the number of private physician groups will shrink, and the number of public clinics will expand.”
The doctors I know work 16 hour days. I don’t know any that work only 8 hours/day. If doctors are put on salary they will work 8 hr days and their union rules will outlaw excessive over time.
So, automatically there is a shortage of MDs.
Have you noticed that there are a lot of foreign doctors everywhere you look. Why are they here? To earn money because their home countries have National Health Care. So where will the foreign doctors go when their US pay is the same as it is at home? They will go home where everybody speaks their language and the girls are pretty.
So we will have a severe shortage of MDs.
Not to worry. The tech schools are graduating lots of PAs and NAs and Surgical Assistants. Obama assures us that they are good enough.
This is perhaps the best writing I have seen on this subject.
Here is the perfect movie analogy to the current, well, invasion : The Invasion – “We will watch each other and make sure we won’t fall asleep.”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s15PvvAt4lo
I can’t read anything that starts with “We” as I’m not the problem, and judging from the comments, I can tell it’s all of you. The online philosophers and philanthropists. Real change takes place in the real world, and starts with YOU. And I’m not talking about being well versed in legislative channels or being well informed of economic policy or how accurately you can pin down political ideologies and distill complex individuals into polarized extremes. I’m referring to the naivete that makes it obvious to any angst filled teen that the world is rotten at a fundamental level, not made any more palatable by preservatives and band aids.