Friday, April 17, 2009

Phlegmatic Endtimer is...

Spengler! And who is Spengler? Spengler is not Uwe Parpart. Who is Uwe Parpart? Forget Uwe Parpart.

Asia Times Online :: Asian News, Business and Economy.
And Spengler is...


Saturday, April 11, 2009

Is this an exaggeration?

Barack Obama: President Pantywaist - new surrender monkey on the block :: Gerald Warner
President Barack Obama has recently completed the most successful foreign policy tour since Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.


Thursday, April 9, 2009

Our Collective Future

Belmont Club » Doppelganger
The Pew Research underscored to degree to which the middle political ground is vanishing rapidly. “For all of his hopes about bipartisanship, Barack Obama has the most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades. The 61-point partisan gap in opinions about Obama’s job performance is the result of a combination of high Democratic ratings for the president — 88% job approval among Democrats — and relatively low approval ratings among Republicans (27%).”
I view the United States as close to being a one party state, and that Party is the DC Power Party. They seek to centralize more power, not just in Washington DC but in the hands of a Credentialed Aristocracy. This Aristocracy is not yet hereditary, but it is headed that way. You notice the groups that are the biggest boosters of “Affirmative Action” don’t mind nepotism (think Hollywood and Politics). Those who rant the most about “conflicts of interest” don’t think the concept applies to them and their close family members. Andrea Mitchel married to the Fed Chairman? What could be wrong with that? And what is wrong with a Senator bequeathing his seat to his daughter or his son? Even affirmative action, in practice, favored the daughters of this emerging order over the sons of sharecroppers.

When President Obama speaks of bipartisanship, he speaks of uniting this Aristocratic group into a permanent governing class. Of course Republicans cannot totally go along because they represent the “pockets of resistance.” These are folks who see themselves firmly on the other side of the divide and whose children will be out of favor in the credential hunt. They would not object to an aristocracy of merit and accomplishment — which is attacked as greed and selfishness by the Credentialed, since this would give upper middle class kids a leg up (especially if the parents instill drive and ambition in their kids). Interestingly, they would have a leg up on the poor and working class kids but be a threat to the Patrician class, who would like to flow into power the way the river flows to the sea.

As long as this Aristocracy could acquire more power as a class, it could grow and welcome new members (in fact, offering membership was a tool for acquiring power). But now they are reaching their “limits to growth” and they will need to cement their leadership in place and pull up the drawbridge behind them.  President Obama hopes to sponsor one last great push for centralizing power, but after that the class cannot grow by acquiring more power since the limits of centralization will be reached. A situation of low growth and controlled growth nationally, administered from the center, will help the new class keep control — so society itself must reach its “limits to growth.”

In the latest economic crisis we find the relationships among the various actors obscured and the causes portrayed as beyond our understanding. More and more we will find that the actors in the various dramas are in some sense related. And being a part of the same Aristocratic Class will not be a reason for recusal. Why be a member of a select class and give up the advantages?

In this Credentialed State, a lot of power accrues to the gate keepers of entry into the Aristocratic class — those who will grant “The Patents of Nobility.” Demanding that the novice display Fidelity to the emerging order by signing on to some rather bizarre ideas makes a lot of sense: it shows they are willing to suppress their individuality in the service of the new class (early in the process this looks like a “counter culture” of free thinkers and then emerges as the autocratic PC of the narrow minded). Of course, you are expected to do more than mouth these ideas; you are expected to believe them.

What infuriates liberals (read progressives) are arguments that make these ideas look as nonsensical as they sometimes are. Hence the new cliche, “Shut up, they explained.”

Of course this noble class has international dimensions.  And given the "Obama bow" to King Saud, one has to wonder if he is, perhaps, the granter of the "Patent of Nobility" to President Obama. Is it possible?  Nah.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I say to you King Saud, tear down this wall!

BBC NEWS | Europe | Obama pledges new US engagement
"We can't afford to talk past one another and focus only on our differences, or to let the walls of mistrust go up around us."

The president said part of that process involved giving people a better sense of the US and rejected the stereotype that his country was selfish and crass.

"I'm here to tell you that it's not the country I know and not the country I love," he added.
Now he tells us. But doesn't that sound a bit crass? In anycase, check the box marked "Islam."

Next stop in the Apology Tour is Latin America, where he will say: "We are not the Selfish and Crass imperialist I told you we are!"

How about Trust and Money?

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan calls for trust with US
Pakistan's leaders have told visiting US envoy Richard Holbrooke there must be trust between the nations as "nothing else will work".
Wait. Wait. Wait. OK, we can stop laughing now. Trust, but wait for the Terror Attacks. 

Well, if we get rid of our nukes they might get rid of theirs.  Trust but self delude.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

What's wrong with this statement?

BBC NEWS | South Asia | 'Deadly air strike' in Pakistan
A number of foreign militants were among those killed in the strike at 0300 local (2200 Friday), security officials said.

But a Taleban spokesman said all the dead were civilians.

If George Bush were still President, this is how it would read: A small number of foreign militants were thought to be attending a meeting at the house... according to security officials who requested to remain anonymous. Witnesses at the scene said all the dead were women and children preparing to attend a wedding.

The BBC goes on to inform us:
The drone attacks are said to be part of a new US strategy to eliminate the Taleban and al-Qaeda leadership who are reportedly operating from Pakistan's tribal region next to the border with Afghanistan, says the BBC's Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad.
There's an idea: Kill the leadership, not innocents. Why didn't President Bush think of that?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Holy Cows ain't allowed on account of the Methane they produce.

Op-Ed Columnist - The Next Really Cool Thing - NYTimes.com
But what if this time is different? What if a laser-powered fusion energy power plant that would have all the reliability of coal, without the carbon dioxide, all the cleanliness of wind and solar, without having to worry about the sun not shining or the wind not blowing, and all the scale of nuclear, without all the waste, was indeed just 10 years away or less? That would be a holy cow game-changer.

In the meantime we can build coal fire plants and develop our oil resources instead of letting the Democrats systematically sabotage our economy.  Why not?  In ten years we can start replacing these sources of energy with fusion.

What Progressives like about wind and solar power and electric vehicles is that they are costly.  This will keep a huge regulatory bureaucracy up in running to administer the preferences required to keep them going.  Progressives are attracted to "Solutions" that enhance their power and control.