Month: February 2011

“We are going after the rent-seeking corporations feeding at the public trough.”

by

Next Tea Party Target: Corporate America.

New polls show “companies could suffer when conservatives are told of their support for Obama’s agenda.”

How about that?

“For too long, big business elites have leveraged their special interest group politics to profit from the size and growth of government. The poll demonstrates that the days of easy money through back room deals are over.”

So sayeth FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe.

Well all right then.

About damn time.

“It’s never been a free market; it’s never gonna be a free market. That’s just the way it is.”

Jeffrey Immelt

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

George Orwell, Animal Farm

“. . . now, splendidly, everything had become clear. The enemy at last was plain in view, huge and hateful, all disguise cast off. It was the Modern Age in arms. Whatever the outcome there was a place for him in that battle.”

Evelyn Waugh, Sword of Honor

Three Times is Slavery and Treason: The Sequel

by

What is it about leftwing organizations and teenage sex slaves?

Not in my wildest dreams would I think I would have to write a post like this one ever again. Yet, here we are.

Planned Parenthood is clearly the target of a successful ACORN style sting. The investigators released one video, got the Planned Parenthood executives and supporters to go on record saying that the one incident was just a fluke and indicated nothing but one corrupt employee. Once the defenders had staked out their position in the ambush zone, the investigators spring another video. We can assume there are at least three tapes in the queue waiting to pop up and continue the story.

The really weird thing is that you would assume that the Planned Parenthood people would have been on their guard after the whole ACORN sting went down. I mean, how stupid can these people be?

I bet they weren’t even paying attention. They were probably all too busy down in the basement obsessively watching The Handmaid’s Tale over and over again.

Well, they better look up from their fantasies and start paying attention because they’re two strikes down. One more and they’re out of the game.

Food Prices and Revolution

by

ShrinkWrapped suggests that rising food prices have more than a little to do with the current situation in Egypt.

Keith McCullough, writing in Fortune, argues that bad monetary policy on the part of the US, and consequent loss of confidence in the dollar, is at the root of the increased prices.

Business Insider has charts on global food prices and a piece about 25 countries whose governments could get crushed by food price inflation.

Lots of information about supply and demand for grains, here.

Thoughts?

It is moments like this I am glad I do not have a TV.

by

Television is providing, as usual during momentous events, all noise and no signal, plus random images which may or may not be intelligible.

Today, while I was not watching TV, I finished John O’Sullivan‘s book about Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. It is a very good book, about an important period in our history. Reagan and Thatcher and John Paul II were heroic figures, and they are under relentless attack by the people who hold the commanding heights of the media, the academy and the entertainment industry. The relentless tide of their lies eventually effaces, and replaces the truth, though we do have other options these days and things may be getting better. (O’Sullivan figures prominently in Richard Brookhiser’s book about William F. Buckley, which I devoured last weekend, also very good.)

It was a better use of my time than watching blather about Egypt from people who don’t know any more than I do about it.

Blogs are a little better but not much. All kinds of conventional wisdom seems to bloom and wither and rebloom based on not much of anything. The only person I see who seems to have anything interesting to say is John Robb, e.g. this: this and this. But I don’t know if he is just guessing, either.

And just today, a book came in the mail, which I got for one cent + plus postage: To War with Whitaker: Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly, 1939-45, which I read a rave review of somewhere. I opened the package, opened the book at random, and saw this diary entry for 3 November, 1940:

“My name,” he said, “is Wingate, Orde Wingate. I am going south in five days’ time. I shall raise a revolt in Abyssinia. First I shall go to Khartoum — the Emperor is there. Then I shall drop behind the lines and stay there till, with the aid of the Abyssinians and my small force, we can overthrow the Italians. Now I want you to come as my secretary — you can type, do shorthand, cope with signals?”
 
I nodded.
 
“Can you ride, and speak French?”
 
I nodded again.
 
“You might have to be dropped by parachute — you wouldn’t mind that?”
 
“Not if I am supplied with the right kind of underwear,” I laughed.
 
“Lady Ranfurly, I must have an English secretary. There are none to be found in the Middle East. Will you come and help me? Can you be ready by Tuesday? You will be back in six months.”

Who could turn down a job offer like that? I will soon find out what happens. This one is going to the top of the pile.

The only thing that compares to the benefits of not having a TV is deactivating a Facebook account. One month Facebook free. I liked it, I like my FB friends. But it was taking up way too much time.

u r doing it wrong

by

I am going to be honest with you, unilke 99% of bloggers out there and admit I don’t know what in gods name is going on in Egypt. I assume the people don’t want Mubarak in there any more but I am totally ignorant as to what sides there are, what options there may be and who heads the opposition. I have seen a lot of footage however.

I also know nothing about my car. If it breaks I am screwed and completely at the mercy of a mechanic. I also don’t play professional football. My body would surely break in two the first time I got hit by someone like Brian Urlacher or Lance Briggs.

So what do you get when you combine Egyptian riots with someone who thinks they can be a professional at something they really have no clue at? Dudes on emaciated horses with short weapons getting their asses kicked.

I cannot fathom how some guy who has no experience with riding a horse in riot type conditions would just mount up and head into the fray and think that is a great plan. The riders had no protection on the horses, and the horses surely had no experience with riot control. The riders were taken down in a millisecond as were the horses at times. I am positive the horses were not shoed properly, and I imagine these horses were completely out of condition as were the riders. I have seen other footage of horse mounted guys riding past TANKS, as well as one dude on a camel riding past a tank.

Hopefully the riots will calm and everyone will be OK, but this dog ain’t gonna hunt.