Irony becomes Ironic

Belmont Club » “A crisis of globalization”

It is supremely ironical that the response of some liberal ideologues is to simply to take the axe to what others regard as the safest tree in the forest.

I'm convinced that Irony is dead. It was taken out by the bullet meant for God. Instead, irony got plugged right between the "I" and the "Y". Oh, Irony is still allowed to operate in small and discrete matters -- it's the free ride when you've already paid, they say. But that future "free ride" for which you pay and pay and pay, but in the end ain't free and ain't even a ride? Where the whole outing turns into a long hike to a labor camp? That's an unintended consequence.

There is an Irony at the center of the Free Enterprise system: that people peacefully seeking a better life for themselves help produce a better life for everyone in society. There is an Irony at the center of Socialism: That smart, talented people who acquire power to use for the betterment of Society end up spreading misery. Now both these outcomes should be commonplace observations by now -- like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. The only reason the results are ironic is we have to forget the last time it happened -- because the knowledge must be suppressed to allow the Social Welfare state to expand. So instead of being a literary construct, Irony, seemingly safely entombed in its mausoleum, has become a world historical force. I mean, ain't it ironic?

Blame and Borrow Obama

Of course the media Pundits won't tell, but President Obama was quite ungracious in his speech tonight. He takes all the credit for a trillion dollars worth of wonderful spending that is in "The deficit we inherited." Apparently, if it weren't for George Bush's foresight, President Obama could not fix every problem in sight (and a lot of problems that you can't even see). Of course the Democrats were running Congress, which appropriates the money, when the deficit was created and Obama pretty much doubled it, so they inherited it from themselves.

The G.I. Bill got a big applause, as did graduating from high school (which is now a Patriotic Duty). A rather protectionist passage got big applause, while they sat on their hands when he mentioned the benefits of trade. He said the US invented the automobile: Karl Benz is now an American. That's the kind of history screw up that would have gotten Bush in trouble and got every German complaining in unison.

I'd give the speech a c+.

Personally, I think it was the influence of Andrea Mitchell.

Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs

In reality, the economic problems of the Chinese are - as are the problems of all exporting nations around the world...the result of the loathsome Alan Greenspan creating all the unholy mountains of excess money and credit when he was chairman of the American Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, which he infamously did to finance The Greatest Sin Of All (TGSOA), which is to allow the monstrous enlargement of government and to pay for huge increases in government programs, and for which Greenspan deserves to die in prison, alone, sick, vomiting up blood and hearing my voice ringing in his ears, "Suffer, you miserable bastard, as you have made so, so many billions of people suffer by your insane expansions of the money supply!"

And how did the horrid Alan Greenspan do all of that? Easy! His creating all that money and credit meant that all those trillions of new Treasury-debt dollars originally sprang into being as loans to the government, which it spent, and from there the dollars eventually went to pay for a trade deficit that ranges around US$800 billion Per Freaking Year (PFY)!

This meant that all those other countries had the trade surpluses that equalled our trade deficits, and all of those new dollars pouring into their countries necessitated similar monetary stupidity in those other countries, hurriedly creating more money to soak up those new dollars piling up in their banking system, increasing their money supplies in lockstep with us, lest their own currencies gain strength against the dollar and thus effectively raise prices to us, their huge, and essentially only, customer! Horrors! Hahahaha! We're all freaking morons!

In 1997 Alan Greenspan married Andrea Mitchell and came into frequent contact Katie Couric (Today's yesterday host) and the whole NBC news team. Before 1997, Alan Greenspan spoke of irrational exuberance in the stock market. After 1997, he became irrationally exuberant himself. This is what happens to a very smart guy who comes into Continuous Close Contact with a TV News Division (and one of their special op's people). Normal folk, who just watch them on the big screen (we've been undergoing screen inflation), will just become irrational.

A Flash from the Past

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israel-Hamas arms embargo urged

Amnesty International has called for a freeze on arms sales to Israel and Palestinian groups such as Hamas following the recent Gaza conflict.

In 1940, when Stalin's Soviet Union was still aligned with Hitler, the Communist and their front organizations in the US supported the Neutrality Laws which prevented arms sales to both sides. From the Wikis:

The legacy of the Neutrality Acts in the 1930s was widely regarded as having been generally negative: they made no distinction between aggressor and victim, treating both equally as "belligerents"; and they limited the US government's ability to aid Britain against Nazi Germany. The acts were largely repealed in 1941, in the face of German submarine attacks and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Meanwhile, Hitler was getting war material from Stalin. The fact that Hitler betrayed Stalin (before Stalin could betray him) no doubt helped turn opinion on the left.

The goal here is to make it harder for Isreal to defend itself. Hamas will continue to get all the arms it needs. Is the PLO a group like Hamas? The article does not say. They do terror, too, don't they?

Squander Taxes? Investor Goodwill? Why not! But beware the Tut-tut from Tutu.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Tutu urges Obama apology on Iraq

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has warned Barack Obama of the risk of squandering the goodwill he says the US president's election has generated.

In an article for BBC News, he says it would be "wonderful" if Mr Obama apologised for the invasion of Iraq.

Why don't he just issue a blanket apology? In fact, make it a quilt. We can do "an apology quilt" on the mall. We'll have a patch for everyone we've offended -- all six billion of them (lately we've even been offending me, which is hard to do!).

Keep your rights close. Keep your human rights lawyer even closer.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | 'No US rights' for Bagram inmates

The move has disappointed human rights lawyers who had hoped the Obama administration would take a different line to that of George W Bush.

So now we can send the Gitmo bad-boys to Bagram. Maybe put the plane on autopilot and have it crash into the mountainside. Oops. See, the autopilot never learned how to land. Said it didn't need to know. "Just show me how to fly into a mountain," is what it said. This autopilot was acting strange, but its lawyer wouldn't let us ground it. Sorry. 

And those US rights?  They're there for us, just like it says.

That's the Chicago way.

Enough of this Kabuki Krap.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Clinton urges N Korean dialogue

Hillary Clinton has warned North Korea relations with the US will not improve until it engages in dialogue with South Korea and ends its nuclear ambitions.

I would do more than urge dial-a-ogue. I would write it. I would have North Korea say: "I end my nuclear ambitions." I would then have them say, "I will now make nice-nice to South Korea!" And then I would give them a trillion dollars (trillion being the new billion). In this way I would get the six-pack party talks back on track. We'll have better beer that's less bitter and no more whine! Instead of plain pretzels in our logic I would use cheese stuffed Combos. And tell the Norks: no more playing poker with marked decks! It's just not fair and takes the fun out of it because they're winning all the time.

I would straighten that mess out. That's what I'd do.

Gee, it feels good to be in the opposition.