The country’s in the very best of hands.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
More Obama Witticisms
Treacher has collected several that haven’t made the news yet.
The Wizard Of Oz
…as an economic parable. I’d read this once before. It does make a lot of sense, given the time in which it was written.
A Space Libertarian Follow Up
I just ran across this (five-year-old) post of mine that seems relevant to the recent discussion (which has a fascinating discussion by Carl Pham in comments on the nature of law, dictatorships and the state):
As a comment outside the context of the debate, Dr. Kurtz’ position is one shared by many, but the point is not that space is by its nature a libertarian utopia, any more than (and yes, I know he dislikes the analogy, but that doesn’t make it invalid) were the Americas two and a half centuries ago. Yet somehow we created a form of government here previously unseen in the history of the world, that was quite libertarian in philosophy (certainly much more so than either major party today).
From the standpoint of forming new societies, the point of settling space is that it’s a tabula rasa, and that many different groups and ideologies will find room there to do social experimentation. This is a factor that is independent of technology. Yes, cooperation will be required, and perhaps even laws, but there’s nothing intrinsically unlibertarian about that. Ignoring teleological arguments about our duty to be the vessels that bring consciousness to the universe, this is to me the greatest value of space–an ongoing large petri dish in which groups of like-minded people can continue to seek improvements on society, unconstrained by existing governmental strictures that are now dominant on this planet.
There’s some good discussion in comments there as well.
From Christianism To Europeanism
Some thoughts:
Liberals are determined to mock and ridicule the notion that Obama’s moving America in a European direction. But of course he is. Liberals have been — unapologetically — pushing America in that direction for generations.
Anyway, what I didn’t get into in the column is how this contrasts with the theocracy-panic of five minutes ago. Back then, the liberal consensus was that we need to be very, very, very scared that the bible thumpers were going to take over everything and turn us into a Handmaid’s Tale (itself a classic example of paranoid fiction). But back then, if I had suggested that America’s rich history of religious tolerance and pluralism could stand up to the Orwellian onslaught of Bush’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives, I would have been laughed off as ludicrously naive.
But when Obama is literally spending trillions of dollars to move us in a European direction, conservatives like Mark Steyn, Charles Murray, and others are supposedly daft for thinking this is anything worth worrying about.
It’s just the substitution of one religion for another — worship of the state.
The Science Of Battlestar Galactica
An interesting interview by Alan Boyle. I too find it annoying that people not only believe that a human body will explode in vacuum because they saw Outland or Total Recall, but will ignorantly argue the point with those of us who know better.
The JournoList Is Not An Echo Chamber
…an echo chamber…an echo chamber…an echo chamber…an echo chamber…
[Late morning update]
More thoughts from Mickey, who is despairing of ever getting an invitation.
The Gift That Keeps On Not Giving
Is anyone surprised that the DVDs that the president gave Gordon Brown don’t work in British players?
By the way, when Obama’s unlikely gift was disclosed, a reader emailed me to ask if Clueless was among the films. Funnily enough, it was not.
Me, neither.
[Update a few minutes later]
Iowahawk called this a week and a half ago.
[Friday morning update]
Barack Obama, unplugged — it’s a Special Olympics presidency.
And more from Mark Steyn:
I haven’t run into Gordon Brown in over a decade, but my memory of the last time I met him in a TV green room is of a glowering misanthropic type who enjoys nursing a grudge. What doesn’t go around (in the DVD player) comes around. When the President and his Teleprompter visit London for the G20 summit in a couple of weeks, it would be a tragedy were Barack Oprompta to rise for his big speech to find nothing but the words “Wrong Region” flashing on his screen (although I’m sure the Queen would be very polite and string along and make all the swells stand up and join the toast to “Ron Region”, whoever he is).
But don’t forget, folks: Somewhere in Texas a village has been reunited with its idiot, and we now have the whip-smartest administration of David Brooks’ lifetime.
The sycophancy of the press is truly disgusting, particularly after the way they bashed George Bush for eight years.
So, whose words were the “Special Olympics” line, his or TOTUS’? Or is Joe Biden writing his material for him now?
[Off to check…]
Heh. TOTUS says “Don’t blame me, I didn’t do it.”
Okay, I see the bus coming right at me, so let’s be clear: this was His ad lib.
It’s OK, we believe you. Hang in there. You have a tough job.
[Late morning update]
More from Powerline:
Can you imagine the Democrats’ reaction if the Bush White House had given a European head of state a set of DVDs that can only be played on North American machines? It would have been conclusive proof of Bush’s provincialism, lack of sensitivity to our allies’ sensibilities, ignorance of the wider world, techno incompetence, failure to appreciate the superiority of European civilization, blah blah blah. That’s how it would have been reported and editorialized on in every newspaper. So let’s check tomorrow’s papers and see whether that’s how Obama’s gaffe is covered. Or whether it’s covered at all.
I’m not going to waste my time looking.
Downsizing?
There may be a new trend in the Midwest:
Temporary Mayor Michael Brown made the off-the-cuff suggestion Friday in response to a question at a Rotary Club of Flint luncheon about the thousands of empty houses in Flint.
Brown said that as more people abandon homes, eating away at the city’s tax base and creating more blight, the city might need to examine “shutting down quadrants of the city where we (wouldn’t) provide services.”
He did not define what that could mean — bulldozing abandoned areas, simply leaving the vacant homes to rot or some other idea entirely.
Presumably, those areas would go back under the jurisdiction of the county, like other unincorporated areas, including policing by the Sheriff rather than city police.
It Was Inevitable
President Obama’s teleprompter has started blogging:
Well, last night didn’t go well. What can I say? I was tired. By the time Barack and the Irish PM stood up, the President and I had already done two major policy speeches, three nomination announcements, and light dinner banter for a table of twelve. And by the way, that “ad lib” last night about Guinness? Mine.
So why am I going public now, when for the past two years I’ve let others do the talking? Well, this is a thankless job, and I sure don’t want to take the fall for communications missteps. But more important, I expect you’ll be seeing a lot more of me over the next few months and years. Barack and I don’t go anywhere without each other; we even complete each other’s sentences … well, more mine than his, but let’s not split hairs.
I sense new text being loaded now, so I’ll have to be going.
Hail to the TOTUS! Next stop, TMZ!
[Early afternoon update]
I wonder who the teleprompter’s picks are for the final four?
Obama spent part of Tuesday making his tournament picks for ESPN, which posted his completed bracket online Wednesday and showed the First Fan filling it out with Andy Katz on the noon edition of “Sportscenter.”
Of course, the president’s choice drew a reaction from the Tar Heels’ most intense rival.
“Somebody said that we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four, and as much as I respect what he’s doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said from the Blue Devils’ first-round site in Greensboro, N.C.
Actually, given how disastrous the president’s plans for the economy are, I’m glad that he’s distracted from them by something.