Vox Popoli

German politicians steer for the iceberg:

Germany’s plan to cure its self-confessed economic failure by doing exactly the opposite to what modern economics would suggest is certainly a bold and novel idea. Jim O’Neill, the chief international economist of Goldman Sachs, remarked on television last week that German politicians are acting as if they had never seen an economics textbook, much less understood one.

Accordingly, the new German Government has decided to impose one of the biggest tax increases in postwar history and to target the extra taxes on the weakest and most sensitive parts of the economy: consumption, which will suffer a three percentage point increase in VAT, and housing, which will lose tax incentives for first-time buyers. In addition, to fend off accusations that the new consumption taxes will bear unfairly on poorer consumers, the Government will hit the rich as well, increasing the top rate of income tax from 42 per cent to 45 per cent.

This is lunacy, it is so fundamentally insane that it goes beyond mere idiocy in much the same way that Pluto’s orbit goes beyond Mercury’s. It is a fantastic exposition of the great myth of socialism, namely, that the government can do anything – ANYTHING – based on reason, let alone more efficiently and effectively than a free market.

I’ve made a nice bit of change being long dollar this year, but I was wondering how the Elliot Wavers could possibly be correct in anticipating Euro-Dollar equivalency. Now, I understand. If the economically suicidal Teutons keep this up, we may well see the return of the .88 EUR/USD before too long.

FilmGal takes some umbrage:

Why do so many Christians use the word “pagan” as a pejorative? Why is it so necessary to demonize us and single us out for scorn and ridicule for the benefit of your fellow followers of Christ?

My first answer would be because pagans have historically hated, feared and lethally persecuted Christians since the very beginning of Christianity. Second, I must point out that I was not demonizing pagans as the usage here is not pejorative, it is instead both descriptively and metaphorically accurate given the overly anti-christian aspect of the otherwise religion-friendly secular schools and the fact that Moloch was, in fact, a pagan god.

There is no insult inherent to the word pagan itself. The perceived insult lies in the accurate understanding of the Christian’s rejection of one’s religious beliefs. Also, your use of the term “demonization” is rather ironic here, considering that Christians regard pagans as being devoted to the worship of literal demons.

Thank you so much for telling the truth about what the whole education system has become in America. I pulled all three of my children out of the system 5 years ago and the truth about what they were indoctrinated in is evident today. They all were tainted with stinking thinking that I battle against everyday. They will all be required to read and discuss with me your commentary. Thank you for our greatest lesson in ” school ” today. I need all the encouragement I can get as I am doing this alone, being the only Christian in a large family that regards me as a freak.

My daily prayer is that my children will be educated and have great discernment to not accept the world’s lies so they can make a difference for Christ wherever God places them in life.

If your choice is to be a freak or to be a fool, I’d go with the freak option every single time. Don’t worry about what those around you think; the vast majority of the time they hold opinions unpolluted by information.

Bob Novak writes on Townhall:

Last Wednesday, leaders of conservative and moderate factions in the House Republican conference sat down to discuss a joint call for new leadership elections. No agreement was reached, and the events of the next 24 hours destroyed the budding coalition while exposing the ineffectiveness of current leaders. Abandonment of oil drilling in the Arctic failed to appease the moderate bloc, and the leaders pulled down the budget-cutting bill late Thursday.

Demands for new leaders are aimed at Rep. Roy Blunt, the elected House majority whip and acting majority leader. But critics who want Blunt replaced by Rep. John Boehner concede they have no solution for a malady that afflicts the Republican Party in the Senate as well as in the House. At the very hour that a handful of House Republican moderates torpedoed the budget bill, one Senate moderate stalled tax legislation in the Senate Finance Committee.

Actually, the Republican Party never has been so united ideologically, but the tiny moderate faction can provide the balance of power in the House and to a lesser extent the Senate. To frustrated conservatives, moderates look like the tail wagging the Republican dog. The events last Thursday suggest the folly of seeking ephemeral legislative victories by sacrificing principle.

This is why principle matters. Political pragmatism is ultimately not pragmatic at all. It is always the principled on both sides, the Ronald Reagans, Margaret Thatchers and the Hillary Rodhams, who are successful in effecting change. The pragmatists have the ability to take the reins of power, but once there, they have no ability to drive the horses anywhere.

It is not enough to win an election. If you don’t have any reason for winning it, your victory will be hollow, pointless and ultimately self-defeating.

QWERTY, we have a difference of definitions here. In my opinion, someone who supports abortion only in the case of rape and incest cannot possibly be considered “pro-choice” and the pro-abortion forces rightly consider that to be a predominantly pro-life position.

Since you clearly see things differently, then allow me to clarify my statement and say that no poll has ever shown majority support for unrestricted access to abortion.

Anti-abortion laws are regularly – if futilely – passed by state legislatures, and if my memory serves me correctly, every politician targeted by Emily’s List won in the last round of elections. The overwhelming majority of Americans rightly see the pro-abortion forces as the extremists, not the pro-lifers, with the exception of the two or three individuals who have shot abortion doctors or bombed abortion clinics.

As one NROnik wisely noted today, the idea that social conservatives hurt Republican electoral performance is a media theme repeated every four-year election cycle and an untrue one. In truth, it is usually when the Rockefeller Republicans/moderates/neoconservatives/pragmatists gain the upper hand that Republican popularity begins to recede.

From the London Times:

Yet it is hard not to feel that something serious is happening. Paris, Amsterdam, New Orleans and Birmingham are not the Balkans or the Middle East. If violence is in the air in the citadels of liberal democracy, alarms should be ringing…. Then there is the collapse of the concept of national belonging, the feeling that we are all in this together and that the distress of some of us is a matter for all of us. Far from being a means of integration, multiculturalism has become a path to segregation. There are fewer mixed neighbourhoods, more urban and suburban ghettos. The ties that bind grow ever weaker. The forces that divide become stronger year by year….

There is no shortcut that allows us to bypass the long, slow task of society-building; integrating minorities, creating a shared sense of history and destiny and cultivating a national conversation in which each of us has a voice. Otherwise the prospects are dark. When conversation ends, violence begins.

The rabbi is mistaken only in thinking that the state has a positive role to play in society. In fact, the two are inherently at odds, hence the need for society’s limits on the state. Once the state slips its restraints, it immediately begins destroying society. This is why all state involvement on societal organizations must be destroyed and those who further it removed from power and positions of influence.

The state is like an immune system. Kept to its proper place and performing its proper function, it can defend society against those who would destroy it. But once it begins attacking society’s vital organs, it is like a lethal leukemia that must be eradicated before it fatally weakens the victim.

Elements such as distributive entitlements, the public schools, women’s “rights”, paper currency, open immigration and progressive taxation can all be seen as “cancer-causing” factors that structurally weaken society. The elite are foolish to ride this tiger; it seems the fatal lessons of past utopian tyrants have been completely lost on them.

Last week: 10-4. Season: 87-43, .669. Fantasy 7-2.

Carolina Panthers over New York Jets
Indianapolis Colts over Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars over Baltimore Ravens
Chicago Bears over San Francisco 49ers
Atlanta Falcons over Green Bay Packers
Pittsburgh Steelers over Cleveland Browns
Washington Redskins over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Kansas City Chiefs over Buffalo Bills
Seattle Seahawks over St. Louis Rams
Denver Broncos over Oakland Raiders
New England Patriots over Miami Dolphins
New York Giants over Minnesota Vikings
Dallas Cowboys over Philadelphia Eagles

From the Washington Times:

Losing the governorship in the reliably red state of Virginia to Democrat Tim Kaine doesn’t help sagging Republican morale. It does hold a lesson: Don’t take your base for granted.

There are other factors at work in a national election, of course, but there does seem to be a certain pattern at work in Virginia that may be echoed in the next presidential election.

Virginia, a southern state, is less strongly Republican than states like South Carolina and Texas, but has an Assembly that is leans 24-16 Republican and a 60-40 House. However, like their counterparts in Congress, the Virginia Republicans have taxed and spent in a manner indistinguishable from Democrats, which has demoralized their conservative base and left them unenthusiastic about voting for the pragmatic and unprincipled politicians of their party. Now, Virginia has a Democratic governor.

This is why I expect Republicans to lose the next presidential election in a similar manner. Bush’s re-election was feeble in comparison with the Nixon and Reagan landslides; Democrats are fairly inoculated against an unlikely perception of eventual success in the Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism by their vote for the initial invasion and the economic future does not look promising.

Unfortunately, Ms Rodham is the most likely benefit of these developments as the Democrats have no other serious national figures. It is possible that one might yet appear, but when a party is willing to consider former comics to headline its Senatorial campaigns, the roster would appear to be on the thin side.

“Her lips quirked.” “He quirked a smile.” I’ve noticed this disgusting verbing of a perfectly good noun appearing more and more often in recent fantasy and science fiction; David Weber commits it countless times with all the joie de morte of a mass murderer on PCP in his Honor Harrington novels. Jim Butcher, whose books I otherwise enjoy, is also a serial offender, as is Laurel Hamilton if my scarred memory serves me correctly.

It’s just pure lunacy. These writers wouldn’t write “gooder” and they aren’t from the Umberto Eco school of inventing words for the sheer pleasure of inflicting intellectual torture on translators, so why are they so repeatedly insistent on kicking the reader in the teeth like this?

The OED has it thusly: NOUN 1 A peculiar behavioral habit. 2 A strange chance occurrence. 3 A sudden twist, turn or curve. DERIVATIVES Quirkish (adjective). Quirky (adjective)

Do you see a verb anywhere in there? Because I don’t. I tell you the truth. Every time I read that a character’s lips “quirked” or that she “quirks a smile” it makes me want to drive my fist right into those fictional lips.