Want to be depressed? Check out these charts.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Today’s chart that suggests just how doomed we are.
Category Archives: Business
Taking Ayn Rand Seriously
…by a surprising source.
No, Mr. President
…the problem is not America’s “laziness”:
What this is, is the opening shots in the inevitable decay of a Socialist economy. When productivity starts dropping and there are fewer resources available for redistribution, the leadership notes that the people aren’t working as hard as they used to. The obvious conclusion is that the people have gotten lazy, and the nomenklatura then start on a campaign to get people to work harder and more effectively. Look up some political posters from the USSR of the Twenties and Thirties for examples.
It isn’t true. What’s happening is that people are working more virtuously — in Socialist class-warfare terms.
Once you understand that the president’s world view is essentially Marxist (as he made quite clear in his presidential campaign to anyone who both understands such things and was paying attention), then the policies and actions become clear.
Tomorrow’s Climate “Briefing”
Lessons From The Battle Of BlogCon 2011
The Occumorons deserve derision:
…we learned that their personal hygiene leaves much to be desired – like, well, personal hygiene. We learned that their concept of private property is shaky at best; radio host Tony Katz hilariously schooled one shaggy gentleman on the air at length about who owned a particular chair the Occupier attempted to occupy. And we learned that they wear Guy Fawkes masks not because of any particular affinity for the noted radical Catholic terrorist but because some guy wore it in the movie V For Vendetta and it was apparently a really bitchin’ movie.
These are not deep thinkers.
But the most important lesson is that the Occupiers are a joke; they are nothing but coddled, Potemkin protesters who collapse at the first sign of resistance.
These clowns have been treated with kid gloves by gutless (or even sympathetic) politicians from Zuccotti Park to the Port of Oakland. They’ve been allowed to live in filth, dominate public spaces and generally descend into a festering petri dish of social, criminal and epidemiological pathologies by cowardly mayors and other enablers unwilling to do the most basic job of any government leader and keep order.
The mainstream media adores them, viewing them as advancing their shared left-wing agenda while also recalling the activist Sixties of legend. And, of course, the media helpfully covers up the ever-growing roster of outrages perpetrated by these nimrods. No accountability there. Even the cops are required to treat these geniuses with professional respect.
It’s been all up-twinkles for them – until now.
Not to paint a couple of botched protests as the Battle of Stalingrad, but when these idiots rushed into the midst of the assembled conservative new media folks gathered at BlogCon 2011, it was about the first time anyone ever took these cretins on en masse.
They ran into an impenetrable wall of mockery, and they had no clue what to do. They folded like a house of stinky cards.
The foundation of the success of the Occupiers is the tacit agreement by the elite to treat them with respect, to take their incoherent assemblage of bad ideas seriously, and to ignore the fact that the emperor’s new clothes are dirty, clichéd and have Che’s mug emblazoned on them.
The BlogCon folks didn’t.
They did not play along. They showed no respect. Instead, they went on the offense, kept on the offense, and turned the Occupiers’ strengths against them. It was awesome.
Read the whole report.
[Monday morning update]
“The whole world is laughing.”
[Bumped]
Trying To Keep The Euro Going
…is like trying to breathe life into a corpse. Or as the president might say, “corpse man.”
[Monday morning update]
How vulnerable is the US economy to an EU domestic crisis? Way too much.
[Bumped]
The Big Coercive Business
…that is Scientology.
I Hate This Phrase
No, NASA is not “hitching a ride” from the Russians. “Hitching a ride” implies that we are getting it for free. We are paying for taxi services, and because they are a monopoly provider, we are paying too much. But the problem isn’t buying rides, it’s that we’re paying too much for them, and not purchasing them from American providers. This is something that could be fixed within three years, but the Congress is cutting the funding to do so so that it can build a giant (in both size and cost) unneeded rocket that won’t fly for at least a decade.
[Update a couple minutes later]
I should note that the headline is probably not Ken Chang’s fault — copy editors come up with headlines. But I do think he should have pointed out that the same Dragon capsule that could start delivering cargo to ISS next year could also be delivering crew in the next three or four years.
The “Affordable” Care Act
…is already destroying jobs. Thanks a lot, Barack, Harry and Nancy.
Fannie And Freddy
…led the mortgage market collapse. What a shocker.
Wall Street banks are not blameless for the financial crisis. But they were only responding to the incentives set up by the federal government. Ignoring this history will help no one.
Well, a lot of statists would like us to ignore it, so they can avoid justice.