Over the 30 years that I have been observing American politics, one thing is perfectly clear. When Republicans stand firm on their purported principles, they win elections. And when Republicans abandon their principles in the name of moderation, or centrism, or pragmatism, or appealing to independents, they lose elections. This is because Americans respond more positively to political leadership than they do to followership. Chasing the polls is a short-sighted game for fools and renders elected office pointless since there is no rationale for holding office if one intends to accomplish nothing while holding it.
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A Song vs The First Law
Like many George R.R. Martin fans, I have re-read A Game of Thrones in order to refresh my memory prior to the advent of the HBO television series. I actually wound up re-reading all four books, as you do, which should come in handy with the scheduled release of A Dance with Dragons later this summer. But since I’d so recently read four of Joe Abercrombie’s books, which have occasionally been compared with Martin’s series due to their similarly dark and violent nature, I thought it might be interesting to compare the similarities and differences between the two epic fantasy series.
Be careful what you wish
The Libyan rebels get a little more air support than they’d bargained for:
A NATO-led air strike killed 13 Libyan rebels, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday, but their leaders called for continued raids on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces despite the “regrettable incident.” NATO has conducted 363 sorties since taking over command of the Libya operations on March 31, and about 150 were intended as strike missions but NATO has not confirmed hitting any targets.
One wonders how many non-combatants have been killed by these so-called surgical strikes. I tend to suspect that the Libyans who are neither regime nor rebel supporters are probably less inclined to be as forgiving of such collateral damage as the rebel forces are.
The secular inquisition
In which Enlightenment secularism is once more proven to be a false dawn:
I never thought I’d have an opportunity to see a real-life heresy trial in 21st-century Australia, but that’s exactly what’s been going on this week in Melbourne’s Federal Court. Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt has been dragged before a judge and accused of thought crimes against the high church of political correctness. He’s being prosecuted and persecuted for the lese-majesty of challenging the cult of victimhood that dominates racial discourse in Australia.
The plaintiffs in this case claim to be aggrieved by several Bolt newspaper columns that cast doubt upon the authenticity of their Aboriginality…. These Aboriginal leaders seek not only an apology, but also a court order that would prevent Bolt from ever expressing similar views again.
It is remarkable to repeatedly see demonstrated how little value the modern secularists place on the Christian humanistic values to which they claim to more committed than the theists who first established them.
The boots are on the ground
Justin Raimondo notes an admission by Mr. Obama and explains why the USA is now invading its third Moslem nation in ten years:
Like all US wars since the Revolution, this one is about the internal politics of the US, rather than a real external threat to our security. The Clintonian wing of the Democratic party is determined to regain power, and Hillary’s push for war is the spearhead of the Restoration. The Clintonites are determined to outflank the Republican party in the foreign policy field, and eliminate the Democrats’ alleged “national security deficit” once and for all, albeit while swathed in a penumbra of moral righteousness.
The Republicans, who have presided over the most aggressive expansion of the American empire since the days of Teddy Roosevelt, are in no position to criticize this new crusade in the Middle East. They do so with the albatross of Iraq weighing heavily around their necks. Politically, it’s win-win for the Democrats, as they gear up to save what remains of their hold on power.
It is certainly amusing to see how Republicans and conservatives are contorting themselves into political pretzels, trying to explain why Iraq and Afghanistan were necessary defenses of American national security while Libya is not, while simultaneously attempting to claim that they are the champions of fiscal restraint and small government. The Pauls, Ron and Rand, are among the few sane Republicans these days, which no doubt is why they are considered “unelectable” and “crazy” by the conservative media.
Explaining Econ 101 to Krugman
The Nobel prizewinner finds himself in over his head:
There is, if you think about it, an immediate logical problem here: Republicans are saying that job destruction leads to lower wages, which leads to job creation. But won’t this job creation lead to higher wages, which leads to job destruction, which leads to …? I need some aspirin. Beyond that, why would lower wages promote higher employment?
Seriously? Krugman is seriously asking why lower prices promote higher demand? Unbelievable. Apparently the devotees of the Keynesian Cross have forgotten how to draw a basic SD curve. Because lower prices promote higher demand, ergo lower wages promote higher employment.
As for Mellonism, it was never put into practice… which brought about Great Depression I.
F—– by the Fed
The truth about the Fed’s “salvation” of the financial systemforeign banks and corporations finally comes out:
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s two-year fight to shield crisis-squeezed banks from the stigma of revealing their public loans protected a lender to local governments in Belgium, a Japanese fishing-cooperative financier and a company part-owned by the Central Bank of Libya.
Dexia SA (DEXB), based in Brussels and Paris, borrowed as much as $33.5 billion through its New York branch from the Fed’s “discount window” lending program, according to Fed documents released yesterday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Dublin-based Depfa Bank Plc, taken over in 2007 by a German real-estate lender later seized by the German government, drew $24.5 billion.
The biggest borrowers from the 97-year-old discount window as the program reached its crisis-era peak were foreign banks, accounting for at least 70 percent of the $110.7 billion borrowed during the week in October 2008 when use of the program surged to a record.
Bernanke, Paulson, and the various officials and the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury deserve prosecution for theft, at the very minimum. It was always obvious that they were milking the American taxpayer for someone’s benefit, but it can’t even be pretended that it was in the U.S. national interest anymore. The Federal Reserve isn’t a central bank, it is quite simply the greatest financial rapist in the history of mankind.
Marriage and the state
Conservatives once welcomed the state getting involved with marriage, despite the fact that it had very little previous involvement with the institution. The result? Instead of strengthening marriage, in less than 150 years, we will have seen marriage devolve from a religious sacrament between a man and a woman to a state contract of indefinite term that can be created by anyone between anyone:
The ACLU of Nevada is challenging Nevada law on who may perform marriages. Currently, the law allows clergy, judges, “commissioners of civil marriages,” and the deputy commissioner to perform marriages. This, it seems is not enough to satisfy the five individuals (shouldn’t that be an even number?) suing Clark County and the state. They would prefer the state allowed any person, regardless of religious affiliation, to be given the authority to solemnize a marriage. More exactly, they believe they have a constitutional right to this policy.
It is long past time for religious individuals to begin pushing for the separation of marriage and state-marriage. I haven’t thought about this long enough to have a solution in mind, but the need is clearly there. And it should be an object lesson to conservatives: Trust not in the State!
Alpha Mail: alpha watching
In which a woman interprets her friends’ fascinated reaction to a young buffoon:
Jill: Still bragging! This guy is out of control and he can’t swim for shit though he is totally talking like he can. His buddies were laughing at him behind his back. Its ok, a girls swim team just showed up, all business. They make him look like the chump he is. Girl power! Haha. I think he just joined the army, lmao, no wonder John is getting out, I would too after I saw this jackass joining.
Kari: Love the Douche Bags they let in! And most likely he’s an officer lmao!
Me: A kid with that kind of confidence will land himself a hottie.
As an added bonus, Susan notes how female hypergamy shapes modern film and fiction and confirms its trans-cultural nature in addition to sharing her thoughts on the USC rooftop sex scandal, complete with a video of a hilariously futile attempt by two women to somehow shame Tucker Max. Tucker’s effortless domination of the two women is an object lesson in Displaying High Value; note how they get increasingly bitchy, but submissive as the “debate” continues.
Obama is not eligible
It is becoming increasingly clear that Obama is not eligible to hold the office he is presently usurping. This nominal debate between two San Diego columnists clearly demonstrates that the pro-Obama side has no defense for its position that Obama is a natural-born U.S. citizen and therefore Constitutionally eligible for the presidency other than snark and nonsensical appeals to conspiracy theory. The claim that doubts about Obama’s eligibility might lead to another Holocaust even though the writer can’t figure out how that might come to pass is particularly noteworthy.
Question 2) Where is the controversy today?
WL: With the failure of the courts to allow any examination of the merits based upon forensicly obtained evidence, birthers have turned to various other ancillary investigative venues to obtain disclosure.
Recent documents substantiate that Obama only attended Columbia University for 9 months in 1982-1983, contrary to official accounts.
FOIA and other requests have been submitted to the State Department for passport and travel records.
The Selective Service and Social Security Administrations have been asked for documentation regarding Obama’s Connecticut-based social security number 042-68-4425.
Investigators have traced the number prior to Obama’s [ending in 4424] to Newington, Conn. resident Thomas Wood, deceased at age 19.
To date no government agency can explain how Obama obtained the Connecticut number when at no point in his child or early adult years was he a resident of the state.
Investigations continue into Hawaiian infant-death records for sequential relationships with Obama’s COLB record number 151 01961 010641.
The Nordyke twins have made public their long-form certificates with numbers ending in 37 and 38.
There are several infant-death candidates that may have had birth certificate numbers issued during the August 1961 time frame. These efforts hope to yield more information now kept from the public.DE: Today, birtherism is a matter of right wing political convenience. Besides the fact that the birther thing is one big ridiculous distraction from all the actual and very real problems currently facing our country and our world, it is useful for politicians as a dogwhistle. It isn’t 100% politically correct or fashionable to call someone a dirty stinking UnAmerican brown shit stain who hates Jesus and apple pie. That kind of talk is simply not allowed, but it’s possible to allude to that kind of thing. It’s very easy to thanks to the f**kwitted, evidence-free birther conspiracy theory. That’s why it’s beneficial for Donald Trump, a man who has got to be smarter than he looks, to imply that – golly gee willickers, guys, you know, hyuck, I just don’t know if Obama is an American or not since nobody from his childhood remembers him at all – excepting of course, for his kindergarten teachers.
In summary, while it is still possible that Obama is Constitutionally eligible, you have to be an ignorant fool to believe that he has offered any conclusive evidence on his own behalf. And when one considers all the actual evidence that has been amassed along with the mass of information being hidden from the public, the logical conclusion is that there is something very unusual about the man that likely goes well beyond his probable lack of Constitutional eligibility.
Whatever the truth turns out to be, one thing is perfectly clear. The man is a fraud from start to finish and will be a strong candidate for the most inept president in U.S. history. I will be extremely surprised if he can manage to obtain the Democratic nomination next year, much less the election.