History

Quote of the Day

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From commenter “OldSalt” in this discussion at Belmont Club:

One of the major irritants I have about 9/11 is the defacto blackout on all newsreel coverage that day by the MSM. It’s a crime. American’s need to see the result of the failure of deterrence, of the failure of their government to adequately protect them by developing an adequate military, and by projecting power forward to any location that doubts American resolve (e.g. Georgia, for one example, Venezuela for a second example). All the “military power” in the world is useless and wasted if those holding the reigns have insufficient resolve or courage to deploy it, and deploy it sufficiently to “sell it” to the world.
 
Americans need to see the results of true American failure. They need to see American’s just normal and “ordinary” as themselves making the extra-ordinary decision forced upon them, i.e. to jump to their deaths from 100+ stories to avoid the suffering of burning to death. That was the choice that our politicians left them, when they failed to do their job. (I hold the Clinton Administration and their hold-overs, and the then-Democrat Senate for failing to approve nominations 9 months after the election, primarily responsible. However, there is certainly enough blame to go around, and to cover 20 years of “pretending” by both parties.)
 
I wish to GOD to see one of the networks grow gonads and put the entire 9/11 day of media coverage on the air. My God, the men going to war today weren’t even teenagers in some cases, and they deserve to know the full context of why the are going to war! However, the liberal MSM knows that the factual media coverage immediately begs the question of “why did it happen?”, “who could or should have prevented it?”, and truthful answers to those questions would be certain to impact the “future political viability” of some of the MSM “journalists” favorite politicians. And so, the blackout continues, even on the so-called “right wing” Fox. Not even profit moves their decisions; it’s an absolute blackout.

9/11 Plus Seven Years

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(This is basically a rerun of my post from this day in 2006. Some new links added this year are at the bottom of the post.)

I am increasingly worried about our prospects for success in the battle against those who would destroy our civilization. America and the other democracies possess great military, economic, and intellectual strengths–but severe internal divisions threaten our ability to use these resources effectively.

Within days of the collapse of the Towers, it started. “Progressive” demonstrators brought out the stilt-walkers, the Uncle Sam constumes, and the giant puppets of George Bush. They carried signs accusing America of planning “genocide” against the people of Afghanistan.

Professors and journalists preached about the sins of Western civilization, asserting that we had brought it all on ourselves. A well-known writer wrote of her unease when her daughter chose to buy and display an American flag. Some universities banned the display of American flags in dormitories, claiming that such display was “provocative.”

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Vote Harvesters

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From Creation Myths:What Barack Obama won’t tell you about his community organizing past [h/t Instapundit]:

Kellman had hired Obama to organize residents of Chicago’s South Side…Roseland and the northern edge of Riverdale, the neighborhoods to which he was assigned, had been decimated by the collapse of the steel industry…    “His assignment was to operate in the classic style,”…

Community-Organizers come from outside of the community. An outside organization hires,trains and dispatches (assigns)  them to a community in order to mobilize the community to seek the kind of solutions that the organization wants.  Communities  don’t ask for these people to be sent, they show up and start taking over. Ultimately, the organization seeks to harness the political power of a community for the elitists’ own ends.  

The article sugarcoats Alinsky’s ideology and  methodology. Alinsky advocated a ruthlessly  pragmatic  model  which sent “community organizers”, modeled on the communist concept of agitators, into local  communities  to  exploit  local concerns to build a political movement that would eventually destroy the old order.  

Even without Alinsky’s philosophy, it’s clear that community organizers represent a foreign influence on a community. They do not represent the people of a community coming together to solve problems or petition the government. They represent a tool by which a radical elite harvests votes and power from  vulnerable  communities.  

They represent the antithesis of traditional American bottom-upward political actions.  

We Did Not “Carpet Bomb” Hanoi!

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G*damit! So, I’m listening to the Republican convention in passing and in the little video revealing McCain’s life story, they say that McCain’s father ordered the “carpet bombing” of Hanoi.  

Jeebus! Where to start. First of all, McCain’s father was an Admiral and any wide-area  saturation  bombing would be carried out by the Air Force. [update: see first comment]

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Thatcher’s Economy

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[T]he British economy began its long boom, combining economic growth with price stability. Loss-making industries were closed down or reduced in size. Manufacturing industries shed labor, often while increasing output, as they restructured to meet foreign competition. New companies or entrepreneurs from academic and non-industrial backgrounds established new industries in the financial services, information, and high-tech sectors. Privatization transformed inefficient state-owned industries into dynamic private sector enterprises. New financial instruments allowed entrepreneurs to take over sluggish low-earning companies and put their assets to more profitable uses.
 
In general, Thatcher’s British economy, like Reagan’s revived U.S. economy, was characterized by change, profitability, growth, the better allocation of resources (including labor), and the emergence of new industries—indeed of an entirely new economy—based on the information revolution.

John O’Sullivan. RTWT.

We are so far into the era of the Big Lie about Mrs. Thatcher and what she accomplished, that it is good to refresh our recollections from time to time.