Author: VD

WND column

Offense Wins Politics

Defense wins championships. That is the mantra of the National Football League, and it is a valid concept. Last year’s Super Bowl was decided when one of the best quarterbacks in league history couldn’t take the ball downfield against a gambling New Orleans Saints secondary. Superlative defenses are why nondescript quarterbacks such as Trent Dilfer and Jim McMahon own Super Bowl rings while Hall of Fame passers such as Fran Tarkenton and Dan Marino do not.

But politics is not football. And in politics, it is offense that transforms the nation.

The calm before the storm

In response to Dr. Helen’s question, the answer is an unequivocal “yes”.

Glenn just got Vox Day’s new book in the mail, The Return of the Great Depression, so I picked it up and started reading. It is not for the faint of heart or the economically hopeful…. I have noticed that house sales (at least in the lower prices) in our area seem to be picking up and people seem to be out buying again–or at least, they are in the stores. I wonder if this is just the calm before the storm or whether things are improving?

This graph on debt outstanding by sector should explain why things look superficially as if they are improving, while they are actually doing absolutely nothing of the kind. Keep in mind that Q2 2010 – in other words, now – marks the beginning of the end of the massive federal stimulus plan that has allowed the substitution of G for C over the last six quarters. But as the first graph shows, that substitution cannot continue indefinitely. It would require deficits that are multiples of Obama’s record-setting 2009 and 2010 deficits and it wouldn’t ultimately work any better than either the Bush or Obama stimuli did.

And this is an amusing aside from Dr. Helen’s husband:

SORRY, WE’RE STILL SCREWED: Reihan Salam says we’re heading into a decade-long economic buzz saw. “We are propping up the most rotten sectors of the economy and diverting talent that would otherwise shift into the new interrelated systems that are slowly emerging—and this emergence will prove very slow indeed once the inevitable tax burden required to prop up aging yet politically powerful sectors hits.” Let’s hope this is wrong, but it’s basically an explanation of why a powerful federal government, unconstrained by traditional limits, is a bad idea. Oh, well, at least I’ve got Vox Day’s book to cheer me up . . . .

At the Black Gate

Yes, I’m still posting there. This one is for the old school gamers. It’s an interview with Marc Miller, the designer of Fifth Frontier War, Azhanti High Lightning, and, of course, Traveller. It offers substantial evidence in support of the hypothesis that designing games is a natural talent rather than the result of experience and interest in playing games.

The Gay Old Party strikes again

It would seem there are more gay Republicans than genuine conservative republicans in the Senate:

“US Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and while many people in South Carolina and Washington DC know that, the general public and Graham’s constituents do not,” Gheen said in the statement. Though Gheen claimed, both in the statement and at the Tea Party rally, that he does “not care about Graham’s private life,” he again said that Graham must declare his supposed homsexuality “so the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret.”

I am convinced that, with very few exceptions, there is something intrinsically and fundamentally wrong with the psyche of anyone who genuinely wants to be a national politician. I have no idea what is or is not true about Lindsay Graham, but what sort of lunatic would decide that what the good conservative people of South Carolina really need to represent their political interests is a closet dweller?

What you do is only your concern if you’re a private citizen, but not if you’re a politician positioned as a family values conservative. People have the right to know for whom they are voting.

Expanding interest

It appears to be rather obvious that a lot of people are not buying into the recovery argument. I was surprised to learn today that six months after its release, The Return of the Great Depression is the #6#3 bestselling Kindle book in the Economics category and #37#10 in Business & Investing. That’s not bad at all for a book that has not been reviewed in a single mainstream news, business, or economics publication. And, much to my surprise, at $1.99 it’s not even the least expensive in the top ten as the Economic Report of the President by Council of Economic Advisers is free.

UPDATE: It would appear InstaPundit is the culprit. Thanks, Glenn!

Always call their bluff

Never forget that the smarter and more knowledgeable act put on by many atheists is inevitably nothing more than that, an act, and one that has absolutely no basis in empirical reality except for a three-point average advantage in IQ which is almost surely a statistical artifact of their insignificant numbers and self-selected identification. Do ANY of them, from the Antipope of Oxford on down, know even the first thing about history? Here’s a lovely example:

WorldNetDaily columnist Vox Day bends over backwards to argue that James Watson’s recent criticism is worse than the Spanish Inquisition’s threats of torture against Galileo. Seriously.

I wouldn’t think a great deal of bending is required in order to establish that simple fact. Seriously. Monty Python had it right, no doubt Galileo wasn’t expecting them! And, I wonder, to whom has James Watson been directing his criticism of late?

On a related note, Chad the Elder quotes David Hart’s piece on the decline of intelligent atheism: “The utter inconsequentiality of contemporary atheism is a social and spiritual catastrophe. Something splendid and irreplaceable has taken leave of our culture–some great moral and intellectual capacity that once inspired the more heroic expressions of belief and unbelief alike. Skepticism and atheism are, at least in their highest manifestations, noble, precious, and even necessary traditions, and even the most fervent of believers should acknowledge that both are often inspired by a profound moral alarm at evil and suffering, at the corruption of religious institutions, at psychological terrorism, at injustices either prompted or abetted by religious doctrines, at arid dogmatisms and inane fideisms, and at worldly power wielded in the name of otherworldly goods. In the best kinds of unbelief, there is something of the moral grandeur of the prophets–a deep and admirable abhorrence of those vicious idolatries that enslave minds and justify our worst cruelties.”

And now we have the spectacle of Dawkinsian atheism, which warns of how a revival of the Spanish Inquisition’s terrible witchburnings during the Thirty Years War, which cost Galileo, Bruno, and Sarah Good their lives at the siege of Jerusalem, poses an imminent threat to science.

NFL draft

It was certainly interesting. And for Vikings fans, a little disappointing, because I would very much have liked to see the Vikings draft Tim Tebow. Unfortunately, Denver’s unexpectedly bold move means that they may have to get by with Clausen, assuming that they go for a quarterback with the second pick in the second round. Obviously Tebow has some doubters, but as Cold Hard Football Facts points out, if you don’t buy into the “mechanics” voodoo, Tebow has been the best SEC quarterback since Peyton Manning and cannot possibly be as likely to turn out a bust as JaMarcus Russell was.

I trust passing accuracy, character, and championships a lot more than the dogmatic insistence on a model that has regularly produced the likes of Russell, Leaf, and Harrington. The scouts didn’t think much of one Francis Asbury Tarkenton either, and he only retired with every major passing record in the books. Bradford was probably the right pick for the Rams, but it was a high risk/reward pick that they had little choice regarding. Quarterback is simply so much more important than every other position in the modern NFL that if there is even a 20 percent chance that a quarterback is genuine long-term starter material, a team has to take it.

Which means Clausen even though I suspect he is a little prick of a prima donna. Which is all right, since he’ll be nicely suited to step into Brett Favre’s when old Number Four finally retires for real after next season. Or maybe the season after that. Prior to the Sheppard signing, I’d expected the Vikes to draft a cornerback, but despite Sheppard’s loss of elite status, he’s still a definite upgrade to the secondary once Griffin returns. I would like to see them pick up Clausen with 2(34) and Myron Rolle at S with 2(62), assuming he’s still available. And, since Pat Williams won’t be around much longer, it would be interesting to see them pursue a trade with Washington for Haynesworth.