Category Archives: Social Commentary

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Starbucks

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Is it a cult?

“Fixing the debt” is hardly an uncontroversial imperative. There are, for example, economists who object to the “austerity” it requires. (Schultz could order baristas to write “F–k Krugman” on their cups–now that might have some impact.) There are also activists on both sides who argue, with varying degrees of sincerity, that going over the “fiscal cliff”– the “time-sensitive” part Schultz mentions– is better than “coming together” on one of the deals that’s being talked about. There are even those who note that going over the cliff is a way to “fix the debt,” since the “cliff” is made up of tax increases and spending cuts.

I’m not saying what Schultz did is or should be illegal, certainly not in a Citizen’s United world. If he wants to run a hybrid coffee-shop-political-organization, that’s fine with me. But maybe he should have made that clear to his workers when they signed up.

Why bother? What “right thinking” person would disagree?

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

The Battle Of The Narrative

How private citizens can fight ObamaCare:

…we should not let the government escape responsibility for problems they’ve created. This will becoming increasingly important as more ObamaCare problems emerge, such as patients being denied treatments by government-spawned “Accountable Care Organizations” (ACOs) or by government bureaucracies such as the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) and the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).

If we let the government shift responsibility for ObamaCare’s problems onto the residual private sector, those problems will eventually be used to justify a government-run “single payer” system. On the other hand, if Americans hold the government appropriately responsible, we stand a chance at adopting genuine free-market health reforms.

Of course, single payer was always the goal for these “liberal” fascists. It’s the usual drill of the Left; pass a law that effs things up, blame the eff up on “deregulation,” and then pass more laws to “fix” it (Dodd-Frank being an excellent example of the genre). Don’t let them get away with it.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Newtown

4 Comments

Some reflections:

One Rhode Island professor issued a call — later deleted — for NRA head Wayne LaPierre’s “head on a stick.” People like author Joyce Carol Oates and actress Marg Helgenberger wished for NRA members to be shot. So did Texas Democratic Party official John Cobarruvias, who also called the NRA a “terrorist organization,” and Texas Republican congressman Louis Gohmert a “terror baby.”

Nor were reporters, who are supposed to be neutral, much better. As The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg commented, “Reporters on my Twitter feed seem to hate the NRA more than anything else, ever. ”

Calling people murderers and wishing them to be shot sits oddly with claims to be against violence. The NRA — like the ACLU, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers or Planned Parenthood — exists to advocate policies its members want. It’s free speech. The group-hate directed at the NRA is ugly and says ugly things about those consumed by it.

As with most things that Leftists call people, when they call them “haters,” it’s projection.

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary

Totalitarianism And Mass Murder

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Want to know how it happens? It starts like this:

“I have always been opposed to the death penalty in all cases…”

“Even mass murderers [like Breivik] should not be executed, in my opinion.”

“GW deniers fall into a completely different category from Behring Breivik. They are already causing the deaths of hundreds of millions of future people. We could be speaking of billions, but I am making a conservative estimate.”

Once one is declared an enemy of the people, all becomes possible.