Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Why I Joined the NRA

Monday, April 29th, 2013

When the news broke that Lance Armstrong would cop to doping, some commenters started to call the organization that he founded, the LIVESTRONG Foundation, into question.  Bloggers, talking heads, and bloviating pundits love to demonize both people and organizations. 

It’s true that some people and organizations are thoroughly bad and have no redeeming qualities, but you don’t get any Internet buzz by calling them evil.  The demonization industry depends on hiding or denying the good side of its targets.

At the time of Armstrong’s confession, I briefly commented that he was both a hero and a villain.  His bad deeds didn’t cancel the enormous service that LIVESTRONG has provided to cancer survivors.  I didn’t mention that I also made a contribution to LIVESTRONG that day.  One reason I donated was to make a tiny but useful (to LIVESTRONG) statement that the demonization industry can be ignored.

Ultimately, it was one of MSNBC’s ample stable of resident fools, Lawrence O’Donnell, who convinced me to join the NRA.  The demonization industry (of which Obama is the honorary President) has made the NRA its favorite target.  And there are times the NRA has made the demonizers’ job too easy.  Then O’Donnell claimed that

[the NRA is] in the business of helping bombers get away with their crimes [because their] effort to guarantee that American mass murderers are the best-equipped mass murderers in the world is not limited to murderers who use assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

I knew I had to join and make my tiny but useful (to the NRA) statement.  I don’t know if O’Donnell decided to be utterly ignorant of what the NRA actually does or if he decided to cynically ignore it in order get some cheap pub from equally ignorant/cynical fans.  In the end, it worked – both for him and, in a small way, for the NRA.

I don’t think I’m demonizing MSNBC or O’Donnell.  I honestly don’t know of any redeeming qualities possessed by either one.

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No More Monuments

Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

Every time someone speaks or writes the name of the evil little worm who turned our attention to Sandy Hook Elementary School, a stone is added to his monument.  One day, another evil little worm, who is as willing to violate gun control laws as he to violate laws against murder, will decide he wants a bigger monument.  God help us all.

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Campaign Images

Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

Where political angst meets Photoshop (feel free to click on an image and grab the original – make yourself a bumper sticker or post to Facebook)….

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Romney v. Big Bird

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

People seem to be all excited about Romney’s pledge to cut funding for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).  Perhaps he should have said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which in turn helps fund PBS. Funding for PBS is rather tangled.  For example, much of its support comes from member stations which also receive funding from the federal government via other, less visible avenues.  I suspect Romney picked PBS because more viewers would understand what he was talking about.  But eliminating CPB would be a good start.  Why?  There are at least two reasons. 

First, there is no Constitutional warrant for the federal government to provide financial support for either the arts or journalism.  There are lots of really rich Americans who, according to Obama, are paying practically nothing in taxes.  They could easily increase their support for the arts; there is no need for the feds to be a part of it.  Besides, being generous and visible patrons of the arts might make the 1-percenters smaller targets in the class war Obama and the Democrats promote.

Government funding of journalism (or what passes for journalism in PBS-land) is a much more troubling than propping up Big Bird or Great Performances.  The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press because the Framers – wisely – didn’t trust government.  While they created a system of checks and balances within the government, the only check on the government as a whole was intended to be a free press.  It is obvious that a press beholden to government handouts is not free.  It is equally obvious to anyone who watches or listens that PBS and National Public Radio (NPR) know not to bite the hand that feeds them and the fail to act as watchdogs on the whole of government.

The second and much greater reason to get rid of CPB lies in the nature of the beast itself. CPB describes itself as “a private corporation funded by the America people”.  It should be obvious to even the most ardent supporters of Big Bird and Jim Lehrer that this is fundamentally wrong.  After all, what do you suppose they would say if the “private corporation funded by the America people” were Caterpillar or Shell Oil?

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“There aren’t enough rich people”

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

Dr. Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University.  This means that (a) he has a proven track record as an economist, and (b) he is in a position (in Fairfax, Virginia) to keep an eye on the corrupt enterprise that is our national government.  In this column, he explains why the standard approach to staving off national bankruptcy – soaking the greedy rich – won’t work.  As the title says, there just aren’t enough rich people with enough money.  [Read the whole piece here.  While you’re there, read some more of his stuff.  It may cure you if you’re addicted to CNN and Time magazine for information about economics.]

This year, Congress will spend $3.7 trillion dollars. That turns out to be about $10 billion per day. Can we prey upon the rich to cough up the money? According to IRS statistics, roughly 2 percent of U.S. households have an income of $250,000 and above. By the way, $250,000 per year hardly qualifies one as being rich. It’s not even yacht and Lear jet money. All told, households earning $250,000 and above account for 25 percent, or $1.97 trillion, of the nearly $8 trillion of total household income. If Congress imposed a 100 percent tax, taking all earnings above $250,000 per year, it would yield the princely sum of $1.4 trillion. That would keep the government running for 141 days, but there’s a problem because there are 224 more days left in the year.

How about corporate profits to fill the gap? Fortune 500 companies earn nearly $400 billion in profits. Since leftists think profits are little less than theft and greed, Congress might confiscate these ill-gotten gains so that they can be returned to their rightful owners. Taking corporate profits would keep the government running for another 40 days, but that along with confiscating all income above $250,000 would only get us to the end of June. Congress must search elsewhere.

According to Forbes 400, America has 400 billionaires with a combined net worth of $1.3 trillion. Congress could confiscate their stocks and bonds, and force them to sell their businesses, yachts, airplanes, mansions and jewelry. The problem is that after fleecing the rich of their income and net worth, and the Fortune 500 corporations of their profits, it would only get us to mid-August. The fact of the matter is there are not enough rich people to come anywhere close to satisfying Congress’ voracious spending appetite. They’re going to have to go after the non-rich.

They’re coming after you and me.

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Senator Schumer strong-arms Apple

Friday, July 16th, 2010

I’ve always had the impression that New York Senator Charles Schumer is little more than a publicity hound, and most of what he does just confirms my suspicions.  Yesterday (Thursday), for example, he boldly and courageously demanded – well, requested – that Apple do something about the iPhone 4’s “death grip” problem.  He also want to know what Apple was going to do about the iPhone’s habit of inflating signal strength by showing too many bars on its display

Apple announced on Wednesday – the day before Schumer wrote his letter – that they would hold a press conference today (Friday).  Most of the world seemed to understand that Apple would address both issues.  It seems the Senator from New York either didn’t know that the most anticipated public utterance since King James’ hour-long preen on ESPN was going to happen today, or he couldn’t figure out what King Jobs would want to talk about.

Or maybe he’s just patting himself on the back for getting such a speedy reply from Apple.

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Obamanation: No limits

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

Does anyone else appreciate the extreme irony of referring to the feudal lords that infest the Obama administration as “czars”?  It was, after all, Czar Nicholas II that Obama’s Marxist heroes overthrew and assassinated in 1917-1918. So, it would be much more appropriate to refer to Obama’s deputy dictators as “Commissars”. For example, consider this Q&A between Katie Couric and BP Extortion Escrow Czar/Commissar Ken Feinberg:

Couric: Will BP have any jurisdiction over which claims are actually paid out or will that company just hand over the money?
Feinberg: That company has no say on the claims that I declare to be legitimate and eligible. [emphasis added]

Evidence? Courts? Accountability? Of course not, not in the brave new world of Obamanation. If one of Obama’s minions “declares” that a claim is “legitimate”, “that company” will be forced to pay it. I can see former ACORN activists lining up with bogus claims right now.

The money in question, of course, is the promised $20 billion that Obama extorted from BP under threat of ordering his fellow travelers in Congress to pass possibly unconstitutional legislation to accomplish the same end. It’s worth remembering that our Bigot-in-Chief didn’t even want to talk to the BP CEO because “when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he’s going to say all the right things to me. I’m not interested in words. I’m interested in actions.” Count among the words that Obama is not interested in the ones found in the Constitution.

[It’s also worth remembering that Obama’s bigotry has always extended to white people in general, and his white grandmother  – “a typical white person” – in particular.]

Make no mistake – BP is absolutely responsible for all costs associated with the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The company may well face criminal charges related to gross negligence or willful misconduct. If their actions were criminal, BP people should spend some time in jail. It is in part for such things that the law – and the Constitution as the supreme law of the land – were intended. But mere law is not enough for this President.

There was a time when we Americans believed in the rule of law. Then we made the grave error of electing a Marxist ideologue who sees the law as either a weapon for his personal use in accomplishing his objectives or an obstacle to be circumvented.

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