Dear Facebook Friend - Election Edition

Obama's Logic

What is the logical outcome of Barack Obama's philosophy: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that!  Somebody else made that happen!"?

The good news is, we don't have to guess.  At the heart of Marxist-Lenninist theory is "egalitarianism":  the idea that free markets unfairly and unevenly distribute wealth in a society, thus requiring the state to seize the wealth and effect a more even distribution.

Seizing wealth is a tough sell in a society which believes that the people who earned it have a proprietary interest in it.  But if the society can be convinced that wealth really belongs to all members in equal measure, regardless of contribution, then the Marxist-Lenninists will have the critical mass for their revolution.  

The bad news is, the revolution has always been bloody and has never produced  anything except egalitarian misery.

In a totally unrelated thought:

 

Obama Jumps The Shark

Obama campaign Jumps the Shark

scolding businessmen:

"You Didn't Build That!"

"Jumping the Shark", a term which has come to denote the beginning of a downhill slide in the quality of a TV series, originally referred to a Happy Days episode in which the character Fonzie jumped over a shark while waterskiing.  Critics claim that from that point on, the show descended into campy mediocrity.   

The Right asserts: 

• Obama's campaign has "jumped the shark" by scolding business people, "You didn't build that!"

The Left asserts:

• Obama was not actually waterskiing at the time
• The Right is taking his being pulled by a boat "out of context"
• If Obama was being pulled by a boat, it's only because Republicans have let the roads and bridges fall apart 
• Further, if Obama had seen a shark while being pulled by a boat and jumped over it, it's only because he is so kind to animals
• In any case, that was an underrated Happy Days episode
• Mitt Romney waterskis too and has a really expensive boat
• Look, the Koch Brothers! 

(Cautionary tale:  Although the aforementioned Happy Days episode is recognized as the turning point in the series, it dragged-on another six painful years...)  

Ignite!

• How many know that Denver, Colorado has an active anarchist movement?  
• How many know that Denver has an active Occupy movement?
• How many realize Occupy and anarchists are one?*  
• How many know that there is actually an anarchist newspaper in Denver?  (called "Ignite!")  
• How many know that anarchist movements have particular animus towards Police?  
• How many know that Police were the intended target of the booby trapped apartment?  
• How many realize that this mass murder had no other motive other than anarchy and killing Police? 
• How many realize that Batman has always had an anti-anarchist theme?*
• How many realize Barack Obama got his start as a Community Organizer Occupying banks? (Sorry, this is "Obama's Mob" )*
• How many realize Barack Obama supports the Occupy movement?*      
• How many realize we are now several days into this, and no Pop Media outlet is pointing any of this out?

* UPDATED From The Original

Mitt Romney Is Batman

There's a new Batman movie coming out and I hear Rush Limbaugh has compared Mitt Romney to Bruce Wayne/Batman.  Ergo, it is time to revisit one of my favorite mash-ups.  (Apologies to Herman Cain fans, but he had already dropped out when I made this.)

Grand Ayatollah Roberts

When Obamacare, arguably the most invasive legislation in the history of our nation,  passed the Senate with not a single Republican vote, I likened it to being raped and posted the "Stages of Adjustment" a rape victim goes through.  Here are a few examples:

SHOCK—Numbness - Offering information to the survivor during this stage is not helpful, as s/he will likely remember very little, if anything, about what occurs during this time period

DENIAL—“Not me, I’m fine.” “This can’t have happened!” “It’s not that bad.”  Not yet able to face the severity of the crisis, the survivor spends time gathering strength. The denial phase serves as a cushion for the more difficult stages of adjustment that follow.

ANGER—Rage, Resentment… “What did I do?” “Why me?”
A survivor’s anger may be the result of having experienced a loss of strength or loss of control over her/his life. The anger may be directed toward the offenders, a doctor, the police, or anyone else, including her/himself.

The list goes on to include the later stages: PLEA-BARGAINING, DEPRESSION, ACCEPTANCE, and ASSIMILATION.  Here's the full list. 

If you felt abused by the original passing of the bill, it might feel like you've had to deal with a second assault, as if the judge made you re-enact the rape in the courtroom. 

Moreover, this SCUTUS ruling is akin to trying a rape case in a Sharia court.  According to Islamic Sharia law there must be four male eye-witnesses in order to convict a rapist.  Lacking those four eye witnesses or a confession, the rape victim is found guilty of fornicating or adultery and given 100 lashes or stoned to death.  Yes, that's right, the victim is guilty despite eye witness testimony.  John Roberts would fit right in there.  Maybe we should just call him Grand Ayatollah Roberts? 

(Note that this case even had its four male eye-witnesses! Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, and Alito.  Nevertheless, the Grand Ayatollah prevailed.) 

The Tragedy of ObamaCare

Forget the politics. What matters to me, and should matter to everyone, is that ObamaCare has always been a shit-sandwich and it remains so today.  The only two things we learned from today's Supreme Court ruling, we already knew: ObamaCare was deceptively sold, and anyone looking for salvation from the Supreme Court is looking in the wrong place.

The debate all along on healthcare was flawed. The debate focused on the visible: your costs, your choices, your doctor, your insurance, and the constitutionality of the mandate. That’s understandable. Voters relate to what they can see. But what makes modern healthcare so dynamic is not the visible, and that is what will atrophy under a federal top-down system.

Virtually all the advances in healthcare we have come to take for granted: X-Rays, MRIs, arthroscopic surgery, pharmaceuticals, surgical devices, implanted defibrillators, and all the high-tech gadgets and substances one sees in a hospital, are produced by private industry. The more involved the federal government gets, the harder it becomes to make and improve these things. We won’t notice the slowing pace of advances right away. It will happen slowly and inexorably. Years from now, we won’t even realize we are dying from routine diseases which a private health system could have cured.

None of this was necessary. Every problem we have with health insurance today is already caused by government: It comes through your employer because of tax laws that allow deductibility only for employers. You can’t buy insurance across state lines due to a law called McCarran Ferguson. Medicare rate controls guarantee high inflation for non-Medicare patients. There are no limits on malpractice awards. State monopolies force residents into high-cost plans. You can’t even be charged with theft if you drive up to a hospital in a Ferrari, demand to be treated, and then refuse to pay!

ObamaCare was never about fixing those problems. ObamaCare has always been about control and power for the Democrat Party. Democrats know that once the government controls your healthcare, they control you.

This has been and still is the tragedy of ObamaCare.

Why Exercise?

We keep hearing about the shrinking workforce, or what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls, “The Labor Force Participation Rate”.  Since Barack Obama was elected, the size of the workforce, that is the number of Americans working or seeking work, has dropped precipitously from 66% to 63.6% (source: BLS*).  This is the first time since such measurements were made (1948) that the rate has gone down like that.  Why?

Here’s a thought experiment:  Suppose a law was passed that guaranteed everyone an average lifespan, but no more.  Medical professionals would annually predict the overall average life expectancy, and that would be it.  The sick would have their lives extended up to that average age by every means available.  Everyone, sick or healthy, would be terminated when they hit the average life expectancy age.   In other words, you would would be guaranteed the exact same lifespan as your drug addicted, cigarette smoking neighbor, regardless of your health condition. 

What do you suppose would happen to the fitness craze?  Would Americans spend hours running, weight lifting, cycling, and eating healthy foods knowing the longest they could possibly live would be…average?  What would be the marginal advantage of staying healthy?  What would happen to cheesecake consumption rates for those over, say, 60?  In other words, what would happen to the “Fitness Force Participation Rate”? 

  

Also, what would happen to the average lifespan over time, would it go up or down?

* Bureau of Labor Statistics - Labor Force Participation

Brett Kimberlin - A Limerick Poem

In honor of "Blog about Brett Kimberlin Day"

Here's a brief summary:  Brett Kimberlin is a convicted violent criminal, most likely a murderer, and now a free man who has become a violent and dangerous leftist activist who gets funding from leftist sugar-daddies like George Soros and Barbara Streisand.  His latest terrorism is focused on bloggers bent on exposing his past, his current activities,  and his leftist ties.  He is a menace to society, a menace to the 1st amendment, and must be stopped.

Some links:
The original expose' by LC (important)
Who is Brett Kimberlin? (a short video)
More Here... (good)
What is Brett Kimberlin up to now? (scary)

The First Composite President

Whatever You Want Him To Be...
Wanna close Guantanamo?  He does too.
Wanna keep Guantanamo open?  Yup, him too.
Wanna kill terrorists?  He does too.
Wanna try terrorists like citizens? Yup, him too.
Do you hate rich people?  He does too.
Are you rich? Yup, him too.
Are you black?  He is too.
Are you white? Yup, him too.
Do you love your country?  He does too.
Do you want to fundamentally transform your country?  Yup, him too.
Etc. etc. etc.

Shit Romney Won’t Say – Part I

Politicians rarely speak their mind, or at least their whole mind.  Their job, which is to be liked by as many people as possible, is antithetical to speaking in absolutes.  Here is a quote from the man many regard as our greatest President, Abraham Lincoln:

 

"I think slavery is wrong, morally, and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio" (September 17, 1859), p. 440.

“I should not object if it should gradually terminate…”  Huh?  Why not: “If elected, I will emancipate all slaves.”?  Note that the above quote was about a year before the election of 1860.  If you compare Lincoln’s rhetoric on either side of the campaign with his statements right before the election, there is a marked difference in tone.  Abe Lincoln, our greatest President, adopted a more moderate tone during his campaign.   Apparently, Lincoln had an Etch-A-Sketch.

With that in mind, here are some things Mitt Romney won’t say during this campaign.  All I know is, I find these things to be axiomatic, and I can say them even if Mitt won’t:    

·   Barack Obama did not inherit this mess.  In fact, he is largely responsible for the Financial Crisis of 2008!  No, he didn’t do it singlehandedly;  he had lots of help.  But, I defy you to find a single human being who was present at more stages of this economic cluster-fuck than Barack Obama.  From his college days, to his Community Organizer days, to his ACORN days, to his Non-Profit days, to his State Senate days, to his U.S. Senate days, all the way to his Presidency, he has been an effective proponent of the very policies and philosophies which crashed the financial system in 2008 and have kept us from escaping the malaise.  To wit:  Marxist student?  Check.  ACORN activist against bank lending standards?  Check.  Community Reinvestment Act?  Check.  Supported Subprime Mortgages for anyone?  Check.  Fannie and Freddie’s biggest money recipient by rate?  Check.  TARP?  Check.  Continued support for the re-distribution of credit?  Check.  Continued war on bank lending standards?  Check.  Continued support for Fannie and Freddie? Check.  Supported Fed Chairman Bernanke all along?  Check.  I could go on for pages.      

·   Barack Obama had nothing to do with getting Osama bin Laden.  In fact, the bin Laden raid happened IN SPITE OF Barack Obama!   As a candidate for Senate, a U.S. Senator, and then President,  Barack Obama opposed every single policy which led to the eventual location and termination of Osama bin Laden.  To wit:  Opposed interrogating terrorists?  Check.  Opposed imprisoning terrorists?  Check.  Opposed treating terrorists as military combatants?  Check.  Opposed wiretapping terrorists?  Check.  Opposed Guantanamo?  Check.  Opposed gathering any intelligence from terrorists?  Check.  Opposed waterboarding KSM?  Check.  My Labradoodle, who opposed none of those policies, did more to get Osama bin Laden than Barack Obama.   

·   Barack Obama is not a “nice guy”.  In fact, Barack Obama is an amoral person!  Morality is the difference between Economic Liberals and Economic Conservatives.   To wit:  Marx = Redistribution of Wealth is good for The Lower Classes.  Keynes = Redistribution of Wealth is good for Stimulating the Economy.  Progressives of both Parties = Redistribution of Wealth is good Politics.   All the above definitions focus on the benefit to the receiving class and none address the moral implications.  Redistribution of Wealth is immoral by definition because it amounts to THEFT.   Barack Obama, who may embody one or all the above ideologies, is an exemplary example of this amorality.   He cannot impose an immoral economic system and be “nice” at the same time. 

My real complaint is, not only will Mitt Romney not say this shit, he says the exact opposite.  In all three cases, Mitt Romney could avoid these topics, but instead he is on record saying:  “Obama did not cause the financial mess.”, “Obama deserves praise for getting bin Laden.”, and “Obama is a nice guy.”  It would be like Linclon saying: “Personally, I think slave owners are nice people.  Really, they inherited a bad system, and they deserve praise for failing to completely stop the abolitionist movement.”

Preposterous.   Still to come - Part II.       

Do High Taxes Slow Growth?

(This is my response to a piece which appeared in the Wall Street Journal April, 24th on the Opinion page.  The original can be found here.)       

Peter Diamond and Emmanuel Saez make a weak case in “High Tax Rates Won’t Slow Growth” (April 24).  Unfortunately, economic statistics are not like baseball statistics; they cannot be compared over long periods of time without significant adjustment.  In baseball, statistics are easily compared going back decades since the variables have mostly remained constant.  Not so with pre-tax income, overall growth rates, or any other economic statistics which have undergone infinite variable changes and need to be put in the proper historical context.  

For example, the authors begin by saying; “The share of pre-tax income accruing to the top 1% of earners in the U.S. has more than doubled to about 20% in 2010 from less than 10% in the 1970s.”  What the authors omit is that back in 1970 there were very few S Corporations and today there are about 5 million.  S Corp. income is reported on individual tax returns thus inflating the reported incomes of S Corp. shareholders.  Diamond and Saez do not indicate that they have corrected for this, and if not, their opening premise is flawed.

   

A similar flaw taints their main point, which is that; “…growth…averaged 1.68% between 1980 and 2010 when top tax rates were relatively low, while growth averaged 2.23% between 1950 and 1980 when top tax rates were at or above 70%.”  As I recently heard Charles Krauthammer point out, Europe and Japan were still smoldering ruins in 1950!  Also, India and China were not playing on the world stage, the U.S. had modest regulations, and Americans were known for their work ethic.   

I would prefer economists find a more unified measurement which would encompass all taxes, regulations, laws, and trade issues affecting economic activity.  Hard as that might be to do, we could then compare 1950 with 2012 just as we do in baseball.

The G.E. Rule is still Right

 I've written before about how G.E. is Right in not paying taxes:

You may have seen that GE, despite having a massively profitable year, will pay zero federal income taxes for 2010.  That’s right, less than you!  And this is the second year in a row.  I have no love for GE and its hearty embrace of crony capitalism, but they are doing the right thing by not paying any taxes. How can I say this? Because I believe no business entity should pay taxes, and that includes behemoth GE.

Let me ask you a question: How many people do you think would die of cancer each year if all cancer cells could be somehow trained to start growing on the tip of your nose? Every morning the first thing you would do is look in the mirror and see if you had any cancer. If you saw something, you would immediately have it removed. That would be the end of cancer, right? 

The price of runaway government today is like cancer in that it hides undetected until the symptoms begin. By then, it’s often too late. If every citizen woke up every morning and could see the true cost of runaway government on the tips of their noses, they would never allow it to metastasize, and that would be its ultimate demise.

Business taxes are a good example of this disease. The fact is, businesses don’t actually pay taxes. Citizens do. Businesses merely collect taxes and pass the cost along to the next entity in the supply chain until an ultimate “end-user” buys the product and pays the cumulative tax. Economically literate politicians, (an oxymoron) know this full well, but will never end stealth taxes unless forced to because they are a perfect way to ensure that the cancer they caused stays undetected. 

Today, Jeff Immelt addressed this issue, but claimed the reports were wrong, and asserted G.E. did pay taxes.  That's a shame.  Regardless of the facts, I'd have preferred he embrace my G.E. Rule, which states that no business should pay more taxes than G.E., which allegedly pays zero.  "The G.E. Rule" would solve "The Buffett Rule" along with a plethora of other economic issues:

• Unemployment would plummet

• Growth would flourish

• Capital would flood into the US

• Your pay would go up

• Your company would be able to compete with the Big Boys who currently get special treatment

• It would end the deduction for employer health insurance freeing you to make your own health choices  

• You could leave your job and your health insurance would go with you 

• Obama’s  Buffett Rule could be satisfied as it would end double taxation on dividends and  capital gains which could then be taxed at the same rates as income 

• Overseas profits could be repatriated instantly

• It would end taxation without representation for businesses 

• It would deal a serious blow to Stealth Taxes (more taxes would be transparent to voters once and for all)

• Most corporate lobbyists would be out of a job

• Crony capitalism would be seriously curtailed

• Prices on all goods and services would plummet 

• Stock bubbles, like the Tech Bubble of the 90s, would not happen as stocks would be rationally valued and taxed once at the individual level.   

• Companies, even Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, would pay dividends!

Of course your taxes would go up, but that would alert you to the TRUE size of government and how long would it be before you did something about that?

Jeff Immelt should be defending G.E.'s tax avoidance instead of denying it.  

Oil Speculation Explained

Oil Speculation Explained via Colombian Hookers

This Piece is not about Race or Racism

I thought about writing a piece about race and racism, but decided against it.  It’s just too hot.

If I had, I’d have written about the race prism through which Blacks and Whites can see the same event, like OJ Simpson and the Trayvon Martin shooting, in such different ways.

I thought I’d start by talking about my experience during the OJ Simpson trial:  Back then, I ran a company of about 100 employees split evenly between Blacks and Whites.  On the day of the OJ verdict, we put televisions in the lunchroom so that everyone could watch it live.  When the not-guilty verdict was read, the Blacks unanimously cheered and celebrated, while the Whites were unanimously depressed.  Then we all went back to work as if nothing had happened.  But, it forever changed my perspective on the racial divide. 

 

I thought about writing about that continuing dichotomy and the Trayvon Martin case.  How could the races see the same circumstances and come up with such disparate and unanimous conclusions?  (The Trayvon Martin case is mostly conjecture at this point, but nothing will change once the facts come out.  Trust me.)

If I had written about race, I’d have talked about how “culture” is the sum total of all the experiences of a group going back in time.  For instance, in the case of Blacks and Whites, I would have obviously pointed to slavery as the main cultural  point of departure in America. 

With that in mind, here’re some relevant facts from 1860, just prior to the Civil War:

• Virtually all Blacks in 1860 were either slaves, recently freed, or had slavery in their immediate ancestry.
• According to the US census, only 2% of Whites owned slaves nationwide in 1860.

It’s safe to say 150 years later, after multiple waves of immigration, and the civil rights gains of the 1960s, the cultures have not merged:

• Black culture, attitudes, and world-view in America are still 99% affected by a direct lineage to slavery.
• White culture, attitudes, and world-view in America are 99% detached from any direct lineage to slavery.

In other words, 99% of Blacks in America are the cultural descendents of slaves, and 99% of Whites are the cultural descendents of people who never owned slaves!   That does not put Blacks and Whites at opposite ends.  That puts them 200% apart; they occupy two different planes!

So what about discrimination, something Blacks have always dealt with in America? 

Unfortunately, discrimination is a human constant and not limited to White or Black Americans:

• Within African cultures, where virtually everyone is of shared ancestry, there is widespread discrimination and a caste structure.  
• In China, where virtually everyone is of shared ancestry, there is widespread discrimination and a caste structure.   
• In India, where virtually everyone is of shared ancestry, there is widespread discrimination and a caste structure.  
• I could go on about every single culture throughout history.

In other words, discrimination is a human constant and cannot be explained as racism.  That doesn’t make it any less real, but it does suggest that blaming it on race is intellectually lazy.

  

Why, I would have asked, had I written about this, did Barack Obama get a higher percent of the vote than recent White Democrats Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry?  Perhaps discrimination here is based on something other than race, just as it is around the world?  Perhaps we are similar to other cultures, only exceptional perhaps in that discrimination here can be overcome by ability and achievement?

      

I thought I’d write about all this, but then I decided not to.  This message is probably just too hopeful and too controversial, all at the same time.      

It's Likability Stupid!

"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."  This nugget of psychology, often attributed to Abraham Maslow, is particularly relevant to today's politics.

Two cases in particular:  

On one side is all the conservative hand-wringing over Mitt Romney's apparent victory in the GOP primary.  Conservative analysts are almost unanimous in their disdain for Mitt Romney claiming he is not a "real conservative" and will certainly lose a general election like other "moderates" John McCain, George H. W. Bush, and Bob Dole. 

In the telling of these analysts, Ronald Reagan's victories were all about ideology and contrast.  According to them, the American people got all analytical, just like them, and carefully weighed the policies of the candidates.  In the end, after all the analysis, they were won over by the sensible, logical conservative policies of Ronald Reagan.  Bunk.  

Reagan got elected because the American people liked him.  If ideology and contrast were the winning formula, Barry Goldwater would have been President too!  

On the other side, Barack Obama is making a similar error.  He got elected in 2008 because the American people liked him, not because they liked divisive rhetoric and class warfare.  Yet, with a dismal record on the economy, a long line of broken promises, low polls on ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, and foreign policy, his campaign is entirely based on three negative emotions: hate, envy and guilt. 

According to Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals", which is Obama's tactical bible: 

If the organizer begins with an affirmation of love for people, he promptly turns everyone off. If, on the other hand, he begins with a denunciation of exploiting employers, slum landlords, police shakedowns, gouging merchants, he is inside their experience and they accept him. 

Electoral politics is different from Community Organizing, and Obama may be squandering the one thing he had going for him, likability.  

The 2012 race will ultimately come down to a contest between two men who will fight it out, not on some ideological battlefield contesting the brains of voters, but rather the way it's always been done: over hearts.  

It's likability stupid!   

      

  

Inception

I was watching the movie “Inception” last night and was struck by the following quote: 

Cobb: “What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate.”

In case you haven’t seen the movie, “Inception” refers to the implanting of ideas by entering the subconscious during an induced dream state, and then manipulating the dream to get the implanted idea to take hold. 

The elements of inception are these:

• An induced dream state
• A willing subconscious
• A compelling dreamscape
• Active manipulation of the dream
• An idea to implant
• A strong defense against competing ideas  

Political liberals have either consciously or unconsciously understood this concept, and used it to make their ideas “resilient… highly contagious…. and impossible to eradicate”. 

Here’s how liberals have achieved inception success: 

• First they induce a dream state:  With their dominant position in entertainment, academia, and news media, liberals have unique access to the subconscious.  Whether sitting in a classroom, living room, or theatre, the captive subject is in a state of relaxed “suspended disbelief” where the critical mind is on standby. (How else could you believe in talking toys, Jedi Knights, or time travel?  The “willing suspension of disbelief” is one of the keys to entry into the subconscious, which is why it's key for hypnosis too.)
• Next they make the dream appealing:  Utopianism, Hope and Change, Free Stuff, Social Security, Social Justice, and Equality of Outcomes.  Who in their right mind wouldn't find a one-sided presentation of these ideas appealing?   
• Next, they manipulate the dream:  To advance their ideas, liberals employ bogus statistics, sophistry, and outright lies.   I realize this is a serious charge that requires some backup.  A full accounting would take years, so in the interest of brevity, I’ll just cite a few examples from...    yesterday:  
• The President stated that if the Supreme Court overturns ObamaCare, it would represent an “unprecedented, extaordinary” act because the law passed congress.  This is a lie:  The Supreme Court routinely overturns unconstitutional legislation.  In fact, that is its purpose.
• The President indicated The Supreme Court lacks credibility because they are “unelected”.  This is a lie: The Constitution deliberately insulates the Supreme Court from politics by creating a court of lifetime appointees.
• The President stated that if ObamaCare is found unconstitutional, that would be an act of “judicial activism”.  This is a lie:  Judicial activism is when judges find new rights and powers not specifically enumerated in The Constitution.
• Finally, liberals work very hard to destroy any competing ideas, regardless of merit.   Sarcasm, snark, propaganda, and fear, are just some of the tools utilized to make any competing idea toxic.  Perhaps the best illustration of this comes from the following quotes from Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”, the tactical bible for today’s liberals:

 

“One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other.”

“…Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

“…Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”

Ever since these ideas entered the community, in an organized manner, polarization and demonization have been the rule from liberals. 

Conservatives have a marked disadvantage when it comes to inception:     

• Conservatives do not have access to the subconscious.  Conservatives have almost no voice in the pop culture, pop academia, or pop media - the entry points into the subconscious.  
• If conservatives had access to the subconscious, they still could not easily make their dream appealing.   Personal responsibility, accountability, and hard work suck!  Moreover, these behaviors never offer immediate gratification.
• Conservatives are programmed to tell the truth. That's not to say they always do.  Nobody’s perfect.  But I would argue, this one characteristic is the defining difference between most liberals and most conservatives.  [UPDATE:  This is one reason Donal Trump is so unnerving to liberals;  he's co-opted their main tactics!]  
• Conservatives are pre-disposed to avoid gratuitously destroying their enemies.  Decorum, manners, honor, and tradition are all conservative concepts.  Liberals have no similar fealty to such antiquated notions of behavior.  [UPDATE:  Ditto above.]         

In order to deal with this imbalance, conservatives must find new ways to implant their ideas. 

Perhaps the best example of this today is Glenn Beck who has combined education, comedy, internet distribution, live performance, publishing, and even God to get his conservative message out.  Others in the fray are a few internet-based media-focused groups who also use comedy, news, entertainment and education, to get their messages out.

Conservatives do have a voice in some traditional media outlets like talk radio and cable news.  And thanks to the internet, a conservative revolution in news and commentary has already occurred there.  But, to a large extent all of this is currently preaching to the choir. 

What is still needed is a concerted effort to potentially reach everyone, and to do that, conservatives must produce more high quality general entertainment content.  Some of it is out there no doubt, but much, much more is needed.  Movies, music, comedy, and theater: only through more of this will conservatives be able to break into the vast subconscious that liberals currently have near exclusive access to.          

Until Conservatives figure out how to generate much more quality content in general entertainment, they will forever be losing to liberals in the war of inception.  For my part, I'm going to take a stab at a screenplay.  Maybe you should too?   

Magic Bullets Part IX

Ruth Bader Ginsburg unwittingly said a most ironic thing during the oral arguments this week regarding ObamaCare: 

"It's a choice between a wrecking operation … or a salvage job," groused liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "And the more conservative approach would be salvage rather than throwing out everything."

Apparently Justice Ginsburg has never tried to renovate a run-down building.  Anyone who has, knows that demolition and starting from scratch are always the most conservative ways to end up with a building that meets the need at the lowest cost.  The only reason to salvage a run-down building is for nostalgia or coercion.   

The healthcare bill known as ObamaCare was itself an attempt to salvage federal control over a mess of tangled laws and regulations dating back at least to the 1940s:

 

• WWII wage controls sparked the practice of employer provided health insurance, which killed the individual market.  Businesses could deduct health insurance for tax purposes, and to this day individuals cannot.
• The McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 effectively allowed states to prevent the purchase of out-of-state health policies, giving insurers state monopolies and further trapping individuals. 
• Then came Medicare, which placed half the medical industry under a socialized system and forced all the profits to come from the other half, driving up costs and largely creating the current “crisis”. 

In other words, “a salvage operation” is what got us into this mess in the first place!   At some point we must stop adding new construction on top of an old run-down building and commence with a “wrecking operation” and then construction of a new modern structure. 

The Supreme Court may give us that opportunity.  If they do, here are some Magic Bullet solutions to fix the healthcare market and solve each of the major problems we have today: 

Question:  Why don’t Americans buy their own health insurance, and why does everyone think health insurance is someone else’s responsibility?

• Re-establish an individual market by allowing individuals to deduct their health insurance expenses in the form of refundable tax credits.   (With refundable tax credits, lower income individuals who do not qualify for Medicaid, AND don’t make enough to pay taxes, would get a check.  This is only one of many ways to undo the damage from the uneven tax treatment which has gutted the individual market:  See The Healthcare Gecko )

Question:  Why is it that you can buy almost anything you want from another state except health insurance?

• Repeal The McCarran-Ferguson Act and allow health insurance to compete across state lines.  (Follow the “commerce clause” as it was intended!)

Question:  If Medicare was an outgrowth of everyone getting their health insurance at work (After all, how could we ask retirees to enter the healthcare market for the first time at age 65?) and it shortchanges providers, is rife with fraud, and is bankrupt, do we need it anymore?

• Repeal Medicare and phase it out for younger Americans who will be accustomed to insuring themselves in the new individual interstate market. 

Question:  Why is it that if you walk into a grocer and steal food, it is an obvious crime.  Yet, if you drive to a hospital in a Ferrari, demand to be treated by a team of doctors, and then refuse to pay, it is not?

• Make theft of Medical Services a crime. 

Question:  How can we prevent insurance companies from dropping coverage for high risk individuals? 

• How do we prevent car companies from selling dangerous or inferior cars?  Of course we can’t, but the market, the courts, and some level of regulation do the job quite well. 

Question:  What can be done about pre-existing conditions? 

• Medicaid must be a viable option for those who become ill while uninsured, or refuse to obtain insurance until after they become ill.  Part of Medicaid’s role should be insurer-of-last-resort, but it should not be free to those who can pay.  

Question:  What about the poor? 

• Once an individual interstate market is established, Medicaid will be less burdened and easier to rebuild into a better safety net. 

Question:  What about quality, cost, and availability of healthcare?

• A vibrant individual interstate market is the only way to insure high quality, low cost, and abundant healthcare services in the future.     

Of course, there is a limit to the building analogy when it comes to laws.  Unlike buildings, laws don’t exist as distinct stand-alone entities.  They are more like electricity grids with tentacles going into every aspect of our lives and interactions, and each branch has a vocal constituency demanding it be preserved as is.  Laws almost never get repealed. 

The wrecking operation is going to take a political revolution.  As for the new construction, the market will do that overnight.    

A Tragedy No Matter What

Here are the pertinent facts that we know about the tragedy in Florida:

• A seventeen year old boy is dead
• The shooter claims self-defense
• Six witnesses saw or heard part of the struggle
• It is unclear if anyone saw the entire event
• More than one witness corroborated part of the shooters account 
• It is unclear if any witness contradicted the shooter's account, though at least one had their positions reversed during part of the struggle  
• The police on the scene recommended charging the shooter
• The state did not initially charge the shooter
• A Special Prosecutor has been assigned to the case
• The State is collecting the facts and preparing the case for either a Grand Jury or the Special Prosecutor to make a recommendation

Here's what we know about the tragedy in Washington:

• The dead boy was black and the shooter was "white hispanic" (according to the NYT) and may have said "fucking coon" or "fucking goon" while in pursuit.  This has given the incident racial overtones, and before all the facts were known, the President made comments reinforcing that perception    
• The New Black Panthers have put a bounty on the head of the shooter and the President has said...nothing
• Spike Lee, a supporter and financier of the President's tweeted the address of an innocent couple claiming it was the shooters, endangering the couple and forcing them to flee their home while the President said...nothing
• Congressional Black Caucus members have used racially charged rhetoric and made irresponsibly accusatory statements from the floor of Congress and to the media, while the President has said...nothing
• Black leaders like Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson have incited anger and used violent rhetoric in promoting this as a racial incident and the President has said...nothing
• Death threats have been issued to the shooter, friends of the shooter, the family of the shooter, and witnesses who've come forward corroborating the shooters account, and the President has said...nothing  
• Angry protesters ransacked a store, and the President said...nothing
• Social media accounts have sprung up calling for the murder of the shooter, and the President has said...nothing

It may take a Special Prosecutor, a Grand Jury, and a trial to sort through the Florida tragedy, but justice will eventually be served.  

Meanwhile, the Washington tragedy proceeds apace until possibly the November election.  

Photo Journalism

Trayvon in a Hoodie...According to the Pop Media

The War on Women

In case you missed this (and hoping you will share it): 

Cluster Fluke

Sandra Fluke (rhymes with duck) and Slutgate have done Republican's a huge favor.  Huge.  There are at least four levels on which this episode has exploded in the faces of the Democrats:

• On one level is the blatant hypocrisy of the whole thing as demonstrated first by liberal analyst Kirsten Powers in this piece, and then in this video by SHE-PAC,  and also in my own take in this cartoon.  
• On a second level is the very substance of Fluke's testimony which has been debunked and exposed by numerous pieces such as this:  Birth control pills cost $9.00 per month, NOT $90.00 as Fluke testified.  (Abstinence and condoms are available for free!)  And this piece on the weight of her testimony.  
• On a third level, it turns out Sandra Fluke (rhymes with duck) is no fluke (rhymes with duke), and was likely brought in to testify by former White House communications czar Anita Dunn, famous for her effusive praise of Communist icon Chairman Mao.  Fluke, Dunn, White House, and CBC
• On a fourth level is yet more hypocrisy regarding the supposed "Republican War on Women".  Unfortunately, wars usually have casualties and on that score, Democrats have no peer:  
• Juanita Broaddrick was sexually assaulted (raped) by Democrat icon Bill Clinton when he was the top law enforcement official (Attorney General) of Arkansas.
• Kathleen Willy, Paula Jones, and allegedly others were also sexually groped/assaulted by serial offender Democrat Bill Clinton, some while he was President. 
• Mary Jo Kopechne was killed in a car driven by a drunk Democrat Senator Edward Kennedy who left the scene while she drowned.  
• Mimi Alford was sexually used and objectified by Democrat President John F Kennedy, as well as other Democrats including Democrat Edward Kennedy.  
• Democrat Al Gore's masseuse, among others, was crudely propositioned by him, resulting in the global cooling of his marriage to Tipper.
• Elizabeth Edwards, ex-wife of Democrat Senator John Edwards, and now deceased, was publicly humiliated by him as he fathered a child with his mistress while she was battling cancer.

Political analysts were agog at the skill with which the Democrats had turned a huge negative into a big win by twisting the narrative into something called "Women's Rights" and "The Republican War on Women".   Now those same analysts are agog at how Sandra Fluke and Slutgate has blown-up in their faces.  

Like everything in politics, the lessons learned won't be revealed for some time.  But as of today, this sure looks like a Democrat Cluster Fluke (rhymes with...well, you know). 

Sandra Fluke is no Slut

Rush Limbaugh has apologized for calling Sandra Fluke a Slut and a Prostitute.   That’s good, because she is neither. 

Sluts hurt no one.  A slut will take on all comers and ask nothing in return.  You gotta admire sluts; they are the most charitable people you’ll ever encounter.  I assure you, if you ever encounter a capable slut, you will leave with a smile on your face.

 

Prostitutes are also admirable.  They offer a service at a market price, and no one is mandated or coerced to purchase it.  Prostitution is the purest exchange of values and the oldest.  Like all properly functioning markets, prostitution only survives if both sides see it as a win-win.  I assure you, if you ever encounter a capable prostitute, you will leave with a smile on your face.

Sandra Fluke is no slut or prostitute.  She wants to have unlimited sex at your expense.  You are not a party in the fun as with a slut or prostitute.  You only get to pay for it via a government mandate.  You get all the expense and none of the fun.

  

Sluts and prostitutes have more integrity in their pinkies than Sandra Fluke has in her entire body.  Sandra Fluke is the lowest of the low: she is a Marxist.  I assure you, if you ever encounter a capable Marxist, you will be poorer, less free, and you will not leave with a smile on your face.  

Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot

Warning: Some Rough Language

Romney The Weak?

I keep hearing about how weak Mitt Romney is as a Republican front-runner.  Despite steady victories, strong second-place showings, winning the popular vote, winning the delegate count, and having the deepest organization, the perception is he is weak and has not inspired the Republican base.  This is a valid observation when it comes to a primary, but is utterly meaningless when it comes to a general election against incumbent Barack Obama.

There are three kinds of voters in a general election:

• one third will vote Democrat no matter who's on the ticket
• one third will vote Republican no matter who's on the ticket
• and one third will vote for the person they like the most

In a highly polarized general election, the third group is the only one that matters.

However, in a primary, the third group does not vote.  Thus, primaries tell us nothing about the relative general election strengths of a nominee.  

Regardless of who gets the Republican nod, the first two groups will be highly motivated and will show-up to vote in November.   How will the the third group treat Romney and will they like him?

All you need to do is watch the left, and they are really scared of Mitt Romney.  Here's why:

• Last time around, Barack Obama won the votes of white women. 
• White women never warmed-up to John McCain.  (or Sarah Palin)
• This time around, Obama needs those white women again.  
• Apparently, white women like Mitt Romney. 

Democrats are currently engaged in building a myth around a "Republican War on Women".  The first group has bought into it hook, line, and sinker.  The second group isn't buying it at all.  And the third group will not buy the notion of Mitt Romney as a misogynist.

We always hear about "swing states" but really this will come down to "swing voters", and in 2012, they will be white women.

Mitt Romney cannot be painted as a misogynist, and white women are already warm to him.  Mitt Romney will be the Republican's strongest candidate with these swing voters.    

Farrakhan - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, when Louis Farrakhan is in the news (He made a 3 hour speech in Chicago yesterday and blabbed on about a bunch of imaginary things) because it gives me a chance to re-post this from August 2010...

Now that President Obama has come out in favor of the mega-mosque at ground zero , it opens up an opportunity to combine some of the Prez's most important priorities into one neat solution:

Recall that the head of NASA, Charles Bolden,  revealed to Al Jazeera that Prez Obama has directed NASA to make it's "Primary Mission" outreach to Muslims.  Recall also that Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam (Obama is a supporter and ally) believe that there is a spaceship called the  "Mother Wheel" which orbits the planet and...well, nevermind. 

So let's see, we need a giant place for Muslims to worship, check, we have the full resources of NASA, check, and there is already a giant muslim spaceship circling the planet, check mate.  Hmmm, I love it when a plan comes together!

I also get to post this from March 2010 again, since the pull-quote from Farrakhan's rant was about how Obama is in grave danger from racist assassins...

Have you seen the many references to the mortal danger President Obama is in from potential assassins? The latest piece appeared today in the UK Guardian . I’m not surprised we are seeing these stories because racist whackos could be an additional threat for Obama, but make no mistake about it, Presidents face danger as all modern ones have found out.  That said, Barack Obama is statistically much safer than even George W Bush was!

The tragic fact is that virtually every modern president has been the subject of some kind of assassination attempt. Every one. That’s not to excuse it, but to highlight that danger is part of the office. The job is not for the faint-of-heart. Some nut is going to try and fly a plane into your house (Nixon, Clinton, Bush 43), or blow you up (Kennedy, Bush 41, Bush 43), or just try to shoot you (Truman, Kennedy, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 43). And that is all of them post-WWII!

But, going back all the way, your chances of actually taking a bullet are almost twice as bad if you are a Republican. Five have been Republicans, (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Ford, Reagan) and three have been Democrats (Jackson, Truman, Kennedy).

As far as actual assassinations, three were Republicans (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley) and only one was a Democrat (Kennedy). In short, your chances of being killed are three times worse if you are a Republican! Moreover, Kennedy, the only Democrat was a tax-cutting supply-sider. If you look at it that way, Barack Obama will die in his bed as an old man. Now, if he could only quit smoking…

The Coming Civil War – Who, What, Where, When, and Why

Are we becoming Greece? Perhaps, but I believe there is a better example somewhat closer to home – The Civil War of 1861-1865.

No, I’m not saying that half the country will soon secede, or that we are headed for mass casualties. This will be different. But, it will also be the same in many respects.

•  Did you ever wonder why the South waited until 1860 to secede? Why not 1858 or 1863?
•  What was the precipitating event that made push come to shove at that exact moment?
•  Why was it that our political system could not resolve those issues peacefully?
•  What was it about slavery and states rights that rendered the political system useless?
•  Is it even remotely possible that we have some of the same types of issues today?

Again, I’m not suggesting that violence is a given. After all, there have been bloodless revolutions throughout history. But, if there is going to be another civil war, peaceful or otherwise, here is the Who, What, Where, When, and Why, using 1860 as a roadmap.

Why?

     1st parallel: Entitlement Economics

When you think about it, The Civil War was fought nominally over slavery and state’s rights, but at its core the issue was economics. The South did not secede from the union because they liked abusing Africans and wanted to continue doing so! They seceded because they were married to an economic system based on slavery. To the South, slave labor had become an entitlement, and they were afraid of losing it.

For generations, slaveholders and their economic counter-parties had enjoyed outsized living standards based on their slave labor entitlement. As they saw it, these plantation owners were not doing anything particularly radical for their time. Slave owning had been going on uninterrupted throughout history. It was their birthright, and it was legal. They didn’t create the system. They were born into it.

The economics and morality of our entitlement system today are essentially the same as the slavery entitlement in 1860. Have you not heard credible analysts say we are enslaving our heirs? That is not to imply any equivalence with the treatment of black slaves, only that we are making a similar claim on the labor of others. Has it not occurred to you that this is as morally wrong today as it was then?

Despite the above, how many times have you heard your contemporaries say: “I paid into the system, I played by the rules, and I broke no laws. Now you want to tell me the money’s run-out, and I have to sacrifice?”

How is that different from what the Southerners were saying? “Slavery is legal, I didn’t invent the system, my family fought for this country, and we played by the rules. Now you want me to sacrifice, and give it all up?”

Put in those terms, our issues today are eerily similar. Slave owners were living an unsustainable lifestyle off the labor of their slaves. We are living an unsustainable lifestyle off the future labor of our heirs.

Mandate Mania!

That stupid Constitution of ours is so obnoxious!  With all its checks and balances and limitations on what one man can do, it’s enough to drive an aspiring dictator crazy!  Luckily, we’ve found a nifty way around all that, and it’s called “The Mandate”.

How cool is The Mandate?  Take The Mortgage Mandate from the 90’s.  This was a mandate on banks to provide mortgages to anyone who could fog a mirror.  No obvious tax increase needed.  No contentious new laws passed.  There would not even be any resistance from the banks, once they were promised two escape hatches:  Fannie and Freddie.  

The Mortgage Mandate was pure genius.  It delivered millions of votes for Democrats, didn’t cost taxpayers a dime (initially), didn’t raise any suspicions at the time, and when it finally blew-up, the stink all landed on…Republican, George W. Bush.  It was the perfect crime!        

Bill Clinton knew that he could not provide subsidized mortgages to his voters the Constitutional way.  No, that would require a huge tax increase and legislative (bipartisan) action.  That would have been way too messy, and could easily take longer than sex with an intern.  But, through the magic of The Mortgage Mandate, it was a discreet quickee, all done behind the back of that annoying document from Philadelphia.  

Ditto Obama’s brand new Contraception Mandate;  Barack Obama knows the key to his reelection is white women.  He kicked butt among white women last time and, this time around, it’s just not clear that they hate Mitt Romney as much as they did John McCain. 

Obama really needs white women.  He needs white women more than Otis Day and the Knights.  So, what better way to win support among white women than the promise of government subsidized orgasms?  That’s right, under Obama’s free birth control mandate, every woman can have unlimited sex at no cost to herself!  How cool is that?  Who would vote against that? 

Well, the fans of that pesky document from 1787 for one, but they didn’t vote for Obama in the first place.  Also, strict Catholic white males who are similarly useless to an Obama re-election campaign.  And who get’s to pay for this?  Nobody.  It’s magical and free! 

This whole debate about the so-called “individual mandate” is another matter entirely.   Regardless of how one feels about the constitutionality at the state or federal level, at least the individual insurance mandate is a tax levied on voters, despite Obama’s denials.   The Mortgage and Free Sex Mandates do a handy end-run around those pesky balloteers, as do nearly all the other mandates in that monstrosity known as Obamacare.  The Obamacare Mandates make The Mortgage Mandate look insignificant in comparison.      

I used to believe that the Supreme Court would never let us slip into anarchy; that they would ultimately defend the Constitution and preserve The Rule of Law.  Experience has taught me otherwise.  The People are the last line of defense, but tragically, The People can be cheaply bought for the false promise of free McMansions, Free Sex, and Free Healthcare.   

(If you got here by searching for Kate Upton, my apologies.)