COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, May 30, 2008

This is What I'm Talkin' About! Rationing and Taxation




May 30, 2008

Moving Toward Energy Rationing


By Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- I'm not a global warming believer. I'm not a global warming denier. I'm a global warming agnostic who believes instinctively that it can't be very good to pump lots of CO2 into the atmosphere, but is equally convinced that those who presume to know exactly where that leads are talking through their hats.


Predictions of catastrophe depend on models. Models depend on assumptions about complex planetary systems -- from ocean currents to cloud formation -- that no one fully understands. Which is why the models are inherently flawed and forever changing. The doomsday scenarios posit a cascade of events, each with a certain probability. The multiple improbability of their simultaneous occurrence renders all such predictions entirely speculative.

Yet on the basis of this speculation, environmental activists, attended by compliant scientists and opportunistic politicians, are advocating radical economic and social regulation. "The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity," warns Czech President Vaclav Klaus, "is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism."

If you doubt the arrogance, you haven't seen that Newsweek cover story that declared the global warming debate over. Consider: If Newton's laws of motion could, after 200 years of unfailing experimental and experiential confirmation, be overthrown, it requires religious fervor to believe that global warming -- infinitely more untested, complex and speculative -- is a closed issue.

But declaring it closed has its rewards. It not only dismisses skeptics as the running dogs of reaction, i.e., of Exxon, Cheney and now Klaus. By fiat, it also hugely re-empowers the intellectual left.

For a century, an ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous knowledge class -- social planners, scientists, intellectuals, experts and their left-wing political allies -- arrogated to themselves the right to rule either in the name of the oppressed working class (communism) or, in its more benign form, by virtue of their superior expertise in achieving the highest social progress by means of state planning (socialism).

Two decades ago, however, socialism and communism died rudely, then were buried forever by the empirical demonstration of the superiority of market capitalism everywhere from Thatcher's England to Deng's China, where just the partial abolition of socialism lifted more people out of poverty more rapidly than ever in human history.

Just as the ash heap of history beckoned, the intellectual left was handed the ultimate salvation: environmentalism. Now the experts will regulate your life not in the name of the proletariat or Fabian socialism but -- even better -- in the name of Earth itself.

Environmentalists are Gaia's priests, instructing us in her proper service and casting out those who refuse to genuflect. (See Newsweek above.) And having proclaimed the ultimate commandment -- carbon chastity -- they are preparing the supporting canonical legislation that will tell you how much you can travel, what kind of light you will read by, and at what temperature you may set your bedroom thermostat.

Just Monday, a British parliamentary committee proposed that every citizen be required to carry a carbon card that must be presented, under penalty of law, when buying gasoline, taking an airplane or using electricity. The card contains your yearly carbon ration to be drawn down with every purchase, every trip, every swipe.


There's no greater social power than the power to ration. And, other than rationing food, there is no greater instrument of social control than rationing energy, the currency of just about everything one does and uses in an advanced society.

So what does the global warming agnostic propose as an alternative? First, more research -- untainted and reliable -- to determine (a) whether the carbon footprint of man is or is not lost among the massive natural forces (from sunspot activity to ocean currents) that affect climate, and (b) if the human effect is indeed significant, whether the planetary climate system has the homeostatic mechanisms (like the feedback loops in the human body, for example) with which to compensate.

Second, reduce our carbon footprint in the interim by doing the doable, rather than the economically ruinous and socially destructive. The most obvious step is a major move to nuclear power, which to the atmosphere is the cleanest of the clean.

But your would-be masters have foreseen this contingency. The Church of the Environment promulgates secondary dogmas as well. One of these is a strict nuclear taboo.


Rather convenient, is it not? Take this major coal-substituting fix off the table and we will be rationing all the more. Guess who does the rationing?
ht: bobal

______________________

Although Communism is all but dead, the mentality isn't. The anarchist, socialist, communist malcontent character flaw parasite has been selected for (selected for, get it?) and is alive and well. What Krauthammer points out is that once again the parasite has hitched a ride on the latest and greatest trends of the world. The parasite has been around forever. Here's a two thousand year-old reference to them when coincidentally they were also into the Gaia worship thing.

Romans 1:25 - They exchanged God's truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

131 comments:

  1. As energy prices continue to rise and cause food prices to double and triple, the American public will get pretty cranky as American resources in Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, and in the Gulf of Mexico remain untouchable by political fiat.

    The commie-green movement will triumph until 30% of Congress is sent home by a pissed off electorate that want ANWR's oil.

    The enviro movement may be the only things that gives the incompetent, corrupt republicans another shot at running the country.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm rezoning some land, in a university town, even if it is in Idaho. At least three public hearings, where you, dear citizen, are encouraged to make your opinion known, even though it's none of your damned business. I'll make this prediction, the idea it's wrong to do so because of global warming or climate change will rear it's ugly head. Maybe even the Giant Palouse Worm will make a cameo appearance. In the end though, I bet I get what I want. We just elected a pro-growth city council, and we're 'open for business'.

    We didn't pay Russia all that money for Alaska just for the caribou, just to turn it into Seward's Folly. D-Day is right, at some point we will drill Anwar, and shoot the caribou too, for food, when the tummy rumbles.

    ReplyDelete
  3. All CO2 eventually ends up as rock on the ocean floor.

    Ironically, if the human race survives long enough it will, eventually, be desperately digging for fossil fuels to burn to put enough CO2 into the atmosphere for life to continue a few more years.

    Madness

    ReplyDelete
  4. Krauthammeer's outlook is just about exactly mine. Especially this last--

    But your would-be masters have foreseen this contingency. The Church of the Environment promulgates secondary dogmas as well. One of these is a strict nuclear taboo.


    Rather convenient, is it not? Take this major coal-substituting fix off the table and we will be rationing all the more. Guess who does the rationing?

    And it was these morons who nixed nuclear in the first place. Substituting the dirtiest for the cleanest.

    Rufus is right, total madness.

    Whit was prescient in pointing out long ago the potential for just this outcome. Control, control, control.

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  5. By the way Rufus, you can help send Susan Saranwrap Sarandon to Canada, by voting for McCain, cause she's goin' she says, if he's elected.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bitch won't keep her word.

    She promised the same thing in 04', I believe. :(

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  7. Rush spent most of his show talking about Sen Cane being the same as the most liberal ever Barry on almost all the signature issues.
    ...and the pubs going down in flames after eight years of compassionate "conservative" leadership followed by liberal Cane.
    Figures the party will have to nearly die so that conservatives can take it back.

    ReplyDelete
  8. There was a poll where they explained what a carbon trade would mean, and the vast majority did not want to spend one additional cent in taxes to save the world from global warming.

    ReplyDelete
  9. A lesser light said, Although Communism is all but dead, the mentality isn't. The anarchist, socialist, communist malcontent character flaw parasite has been selected for (selected for, get it?) and is alive and well. What Krauthammer points out is that once again the parasite has hitched a ride on the latest and greatest trends of the world. The parasite has been around forever. Here's a two thousand year-old reference to them when coincidentally they were also into the Gaia worship thing.

    Romans 1:25 - They exchanged God's truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.


    On the contrary, it is written (Acts 2:44-45) And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. In another place it is written, (Acts 4:34-35) Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

    I answer that the communitarian economic system practiced by the early Christian Church is clearly described as ideal, while the rugged individualism of Reaganomics is condemned by such language as "the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).

    ReplyDelete
  10. Doug, the only difference I can see is Iraq (maybe,) and Biofuels.

    Iraq's about finished, and it's time to come home, anyway; and, on biofuels Obama's on the Right Side, and mccrazy is in the pocket of the Sauds.

    google: John McCain/Dutko Worldwide

    Dutko worldwide/saudi arabia

    dutko worldwide/exxon

    etc.

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  11. Even cheerleader Rep David Drieher says the farm bill was full of shit, and that the US and Europe account for 2/3 of all the tariffs in the World, locking turd world countries out of admission into any kind of ag enterprise.

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  12. That lovely "Communitarian" system at Jamestown got them all "Dead;" whereas that evil Reaganesque Capitalist system at Plymouth bore the United States of America.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Maybe Trish's outburst was caused by this site and Wretch entertaining "Kim Lokken" aka Teresita, aka Catholic Woman, aka Lucky Pierre, aka aka aka akaargh.

    ReplyDelete
  14. "We didn't pay Russia all that money for Alaska just for the caribou, just to turn it into Seward's Folly. D-Day is right, at some point we will drill Anwar, and shoot the caribou too, for food, when the tummy rumbles."
    ---
    The friggin Ruskies will drain the Earth north of the artic circle before we get to Anwar.
    Payback for Seward's folley.
    ---
    Are Artic Circle Burgers still king in the Northwest, al-Bob?

    ReplyDelete
  15. What I would give for a drive through and In and Out affair w/a SoCal Surfer Gal again.

    In and out weiner,
    how sweet it was.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We had the Beef, baby.
    Now, a cow is just a fart.
    A threat to Civilization.

    ReplyDelete
  17. (Nutritional Info (coming soon) )

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  18. "Superior over-the-rim shakes"
    ---
    Dennis Miller prefers the waitress bringing the extra in the mixer cup, even if they have to short you on the over the rim shot.

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  19. A lesser light wrote, "The commie-green movement will triumph until 30% of Congress is sent home by a pissed off electorate that want ANWR's oil."

    Whoop-de-doo! The Golden Age of ANWR drilling would supply US needs for a grand total of between 7 months to 2 years and 2.3 months.

    http://en.wikipedia.org
    /wiki/Arctic_Refuge_drilling_
    controversy#Estimates_of_oil_
    reserves


    We can do even better by selling only hybrids in this country, by statute.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Trish's outburst? I'm guessing it has to do with lack of intellectual humility, the hubris, of those who got it so wrong before. Who specifically she was referring to I have no idea, but that is my guess.

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  21. "Let your children explore their imaginations at a local Arctic Circle PlayZone. Slides, climbers, spring-toys, crawl tubes and more are just a short drive away."
    ---
    I remember talking to an Oregon contractor in a playzone back in the lighter Dark Ages.
    He was complaining about the influx of refugees from CA.
    ...now Oregon is the most liberal state in the nation.
    (and CA has become Mexico Norte thanks to THOSE refugees)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Ash immitates his hero Barry in specificity.

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  23. I'm for change,
    because the past is history,
    (this country sucks)
    and change is the future.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hybrids by statute,
    Outlaw (more efficient)
    Diesels due to Global Climate Change.

    ReplyDelete
  25. My latest post at BC:
    ""Kim Lokken"
    = Teresita = Catholic Woman =
    Lucky Pierre, ad nauseum.
    "

    ReplyDelete
  26. "...and the pubs going down in flames after eight years of compassionate "conservative" leadership followed by liberal Cane.
    Figures the party will have to nearly die so that conservatives can take it back.
    "
    ---
    Problem being, country as we know it, will not exist.
    I'll be dead, but our kids will have to deal w/the result.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Rush has a new tape of OBAMA hisself making an anti-missile anti-American BS speech.
    ...and national health insurance within 199 days of election.

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  28. I'll be back when membership fees are in force and are enforced.

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  29. Liberal progressives are not comfortable with who they are, so they hope for change and change for hope....

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  30. Of course it is about control, energy is just the current lever.

    All-in-all ...

    A bunch of retards, bet she was speakin' to someone else.

    Or we could ask her son, like she said. But I do not think he has been a scribe, here, before.

    What should we call him?

    As for mat, seems he wants to pay for a few rounds, volunteering to pay user fees.

    Cerveza para total el mundo!

    On mat!

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  31. Keep up the good work whit.

    I flew into a near hurricane and had an aborted landing and diverted to DR's old haunt in Panama. I picked up some 18 year Flor de Caña Rum from Nicaragua. I paid $35 for a fifth. You drink this from a snifter glass and if it were from France, it would be over $100. I should have gone on to Bogota and visited Trish and get her approval on the rum.

    Speaking of Nicaragua, our old friend President Daniel Ortega Saavedra,is up to his old tricks. A large Spanish company bought some beach front lots for $3,000,000 when the Nicas were trying to prove things are different. ( I heard that they paid a lot less) They built some Hotels on them. Now the new Ortega is saying they did not pay enough and wants some more:

    The International Herald Tribune reports this:

    Spanish Hotel Firm Calls Nicaraguan Government's Lien on Hotel Unfair

    May 29, 2008


    "MANAGUA, Nicaragua: Spain's Barcelo hotel chain said Wednesday the government of Nicaragua has placed an unfair lien on a hotel site it bought in 1993 to demand the company pay a higher price for the property.

    The company's lawyer said the government of leftist President Daniel Ortega slapped the lien on the Pacific coast hotel earlier this month, arguing that Barcelo Hotels and Resorts paid too little for the property when it bought it from a previous administration.

    The government is demanding the firm pay about $1.4 million, on top of the original $3 million purchase price. But officials did not immediately explain why they were acting 15 years after the purchase.

    Attorney General Hernan Estrada has called the original purchase price "ridiculous." The beach-front property was once part of a sugar mill owned by deposed dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle.

    Barcelo legal representative Tomas Delaney said the company bought the property when few people were willing to invest in Nicaragua, and paid a fair price at the time.

    "Barcelo does not owe the government anything," Delaney said.

    Ortega, who took power in a 1979 revolution and remained in power until 1989, returned to the presidency in 2007 pledging to maintain a more friendly relationship with foreign companies and landowners than during his previous administration, which was marked by expropriations.

    However, his administration has become in embroiled in disputes with a subsidiary of the Exxon Mobil Corp. and Spanish electricity provider Union Fenosa SA over tax and investment issues."

    Sounds like Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

    Anyway, I will be in Central America for a few more days.

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  32. A lack of intellectual humility...

    On my part.





    My son says that engaging in online debate is like participating in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded. (Apologies to the legitimately disabled.)

    No. He's never been a scribe here. But his thoughts certainly have appeared here. Waaaay smarter than I am in many things, I hit him up occasionally for responses to serious questions.

    (Is that cheating?)

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  33. 2164th,

    I'm a big fan of Cognac. I'm also pissed at its price especially the variations in price that don't coincide with taste differences - i.e. not much (any) difference in taste between a cheap Remy Martin and their expensive versions - side by side near impossible to tell the difference. There are some Cognac that are very good, and very expensive. Anyway, I started drinking Rum and water these past years instead of beer - love the beer but not the gut. Anyway I've taken to pouring some rums into a snifter and drinking like a brandy. Mucho good actually and much cheaper. I've read your Rum suggestions with some interest but haven't had the pleasure of actually seeing those brands for sale. I've become quite partial to a cheap Bermudan black rum - Gosling's Black Rum.

    ReplyDelete
  34. As for Teresita(s): She's a genuine advocate for same sex marriages. But that's her limit.

    She's not a genuine advocate of anything else.

    In the end, this just renders her one giant bore.

    Or a small one. Take your pick.

    (And in this respect, Ash has the moral edge on Teresita. He at least believes what he says.)

    ReplyDelete
  35. Cognac, international golf, sailboat racing....:)

    Doug, the best I can do for you is the "Kum and Go" quik stop gas station in Missoula,Montana.

    ReplyDelete
  36. ...and you Bobal; owner of much land, lord over many a tenant...

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  37. This is where I got a quik job--

    3325 Brooks St, Missoula, MT‎ - (406) 542-7741
    Voted the top convenience store for customer service, Kum & Go has 450 stores in 13 states. A pioneer in alternative fuels, we offer more biofuel than any other gas retailer. Come see us today!

    ReplyDelete
  38. Bob, There was a Kim Williams NPR commenter from Missoula. Did you know her ?

    ReplyDelete
  39. I detect a more slavish apologetic stance towards islam in the dimmest bulb kim lokken than I do in Miss T., and the writing style in a smidgeon different, though they may be one and the same.

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  40. "Even if you win, you're still retarded."

    Hey...I resemble that remark. Though, I have never won any debate online or otherwise. I dont stop by the blogs to win anything. I have learned a few things though. Ive learned that folks dont generally like to stay on topic and that what is on to one is off to another....I wish that I could find some "Flower of the Cane" so a least I could be a happy rum drunk retard.
    Trish when you come back to VA will you bring me a bottle?

    ReplyDelete
  41. I don't know a living soul, or a dead one, in Missoula. It's a nice town though. Hemingway in "For Whom The Bell Tolls" had his hero Robert Jordan coming from Missoula, and talked about the tree lined streets around the University of Montana. It's true, beautiful tree lined streets there.
    Just a nice clean going little city. Nice airport. Clean air. Lots of little casinos where you can quickly lose your money. The Bitterroot River meets the Clark Fork there.

    NO SALES TAX

    Float The Bitterroot

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  42. Bob won't even comment about the Carpet Kitten, who is an Ideehoe.
    ...probly a wide stance guy like his the Senator from the same state.

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  43. Save The Rainforests--Save The Isolated Tribes

    'Old style' homonids spotted in Brazil. These folk truly are paleolithic. Probably know their poisons, too.

    I don't know what to think about this. In a way, leave 'em alone. The Church would say they must have a chance to come to Christ. The anthropologist would want to study them some more. The bulldozer sees them as an obstacle in the way. What do they really want, and do they have a capacity to make a meaningful choice. Shouldn't they have the opportunity to at least experience life in Vegas, to drink cognac, golf internationally, sailboat race...?


    What to do?

    ReplyDelete
  44. Bring us all a bottle or two, Trish. Please. If someone doesn't pay you back, you can charge it to the Elephant Bar, like the distributors do.

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  45. Bring a little ayahuasca too, for the adventurous among us.

    Ayahuasca and rum, ah....the 19th hole.

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  46. Unfortunately, joe, I will not be in VA on my little holiday.

    My wine (and spirits) shop proprietess did introduce me to some lovely 8 yr old rum yesterday.

    She likes my dog. I get a dog discount.

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  47. "sailboat race...?"

    pffffawwwhhh "Racing Yachts"!

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  48. Liberal progressives are not comfortable with who they are, so they hope for change and change for hope....

    ...and change their names frequently...but that may be to stay one step ahead of the law, or get out of paying traffic fines...Miss T is 'wanted' in Oregon or Idaho, as I recall.

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  49. jeez, I must apologize for the what is it called, fox paw, or whatever it's called, Ash:)

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  50. Guy in the middle lower right has got a nice bow, arrow probably tipped with poison.

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  51. If these environmentalists get a good grip on things, it won't be long till we're all living like that jungle tribe. But we'll have 'saved the earth'.

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  52. oh maaan if only it were true...

    ...then there'd be no boat, well, not if I fancied keeping my wife...

    ...maybe when my daughter gets a little older and brings here friends aboard but that'll be nothing but...

    I dunno, what's it like as you age that much more so's your kids friends are grown ups like that? Ever seen the film "American Beauty"?

    ReplyDelete
  53. As for me, I'd rather live with Ash on that boat, even as a lowly deck hand, than in that jungle compound. Even if I had to take orders from Ash.

    It occurs to me, I ought to put that jungle picture in my 'neighborhood meeting packet' which I am supposed to make for the folks that want to bitch. In fact, I think I will.

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  54. Ash, you might want to delete your comment, lest your wife see it:)

    ReplyDelete
  55. The Messiah--Annointing for Votes in Picture--Is Losing Support Among
    White Women


    "You can satisfy some of the women all of the time, all the women some of the time, but you can't satisfy all the women all the time."

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  56. How's the weather, dear host?






    Bet it's nice.





    I dream of nice weather. I used to know nice weather. Personally.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Sorry trish but Men (if you haven't noticed) tend to, ummmm, appreciate the visual in the fairer sex and the good visuals often correlate well with particular ages. As one grows older this doesn't change much yet ones kids and their friends do. The girls in that picture look cute but my kids are getting closer and closer to that age. The film American Beauty actually dealt with the issue, somewhat.

    Anyway, sorry if the moral conservatives are bothered, it is does creep toward the dangerously taboo. Back to our regularily scheduled discussions of War and such.

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  58. Thou shall not covet thy daughter's grown friends.


    Period.

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  59. ...and that's the only way girls like that will be my crew - if'n my kids bring 'em aboard.

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  60. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  61. Fasten Your Seatbelt Landing in Honduras. This looks like one of our crop duster landings around here.


    I've noticed the same phenomena as Ash. Which must be manfully fought, of course.

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  62. Ive learned that folks dont generally like to stay on topic

    - joe

    We all have ADD.

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  63. The view from the cockpit doing that Honduras landing

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAxAso8xSo0

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  64. By the way Ash, a good discussion was had the other day at B.C. with some Canadians contributing, concerning free speech in Canada. It seems it's(right of free speech) in the Canadian Constitution, or whatever it's called, but, the opinion seemed to be the Human Rights Commission is turning into a rogue government within a government, and the situation is more dire than is generally realized. One fear expressed was the writ of the HRC metastisizing into internet postings. Beware.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Ya, I popped over and scanned the comments when you mentioned it the other day. I read up on the Human Rights Commissions mandates and they without explaining slip "Hate Propaganda" into anotherwise reasonable mandate. The Mark Steyn hearings and the Levant hearings certainly seem to contradict the Charter of Rights and Freedoms statement of fundamental freedoms:

    "2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

    (a) freedom of conscience and religion;
    (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
    (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
    (d) freedom of association. "

    But they have the caveat at the beginning:

    "1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society."

    http://www.efc.ca/pages/law/charter/charter.text.html

    Which gives some wiggle room for all sorts. I'm hoping/trusting the courts will tie them up a bit. Slow process though.

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  66. At 11:01
    On the contrary, it is written (Acts 2:44-45) And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. In another place it is written, (Acts 4:34-35) Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

    I answer that the communitarian economic system practiced by the early Christian Church is clearly described as ideal, while the rugged individualism of Reaganomics is condemned by such language as "the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).


    My goodness, the first sentence says it all. "All that believed..." That's the church and is entirely different from Caeser or government.

    BTW - In those first church years, the policy was also that those who didn't work, didn't eat.

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  67. A humorous intemission--Geraldine Ferraro Rambling On Meaninglessly About 'Sexism' In Democratic Primaries

    That 57% to 61% female portion of the democratic primary vote just can't seem to wash 'sexism' out of their hair.

    Maybe most people just think Hillary is kind of a shit.

    ---
    BTW - In those first church years, the policy was also that those who didn't work, didn't eat.

    Right, and notice too, the policy was enforced through fear and coercion--
    Acts-- 5:1-11

    I know the argument that Ananias and Sapphira were done in by their own conscience--yet I don't think this holds much weight, as the accusation and implied coercion was there--"and great fear came upon the Church".

    Luther's opinion on these matters was giving everything you have to the poor creates a new group of poor, that is oneself and others like minded givers, and is impractical and self defeating, for what it is worth.

    Opportunity is better than alms. A safety net can certainly be justified. And unemployment insurance, and provision for the disabled, and many other programs.
    When everything is in common too, somebody or somebodies still got to decide what to do with it, how to run things, and again, disputes would inevitably arise. In a society as complex as ours is simplistic answers aren't going to make the trains run on time.

    gotta run

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  68. Pertaining to the Mexican Revolution

    It was not that long ago that the petrochemical pipeline infrastructure in Mexico was attacked, by Marxists, as I recall.

    Now the contrabandistas are killing any Federal police official that attempts to do a job.

    There are running gun battles in the streets of Tiajuana, a stones throw from San Diego.

    In Colombia the Marxists eventually became contrabandistas, and the FARC prospered, but it had become old, the Leader well into his 80s. His many years of experience did not suit the current situation, he could not adapt to change, he died.

    Pablo Escobar was never a revolutionary, though he was an insurgent and battled the civil government of Colombia. He never had a ideological infrastructure, just mercenary relationships.

    Combine the two, in a Mexican revolutionary, financed by the Cartels. Baby bar the door.

    The marriage of the drug business and revolution, could destabilize Mexico. It really could.

    We'd then be into Mexico a third time, but in the post-modern fashion.
    We won't leave.

    The Iraq adventure will seem to have been a picnic, by comparison.

    For Freedom & Liberty
    and more US usable oil than is in Iraq

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  69. Not tryin' to be mean.

    Just askin'.

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  70. Internet's simply a medium, what matters are the people.

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  71. There's only ONE solution. It works for everyone.

    There is absolutely no reason on God's Green Earth that Cocaine, or Marijuana should be illegal.

    It's Idiocy.

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  72. "John Stuart Mill, the father of modern libertarians"





    Ummmmmmmmmmno.

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  73. Well, let's see. The Air is getting cooler. The Troposphere is cooler. So, Where's the "Heat?"

    It must be in the Ocean, right?

    Well, um . . . . . . no

    The wheels are comin off that globaloney puppy real quick now.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Horseshit, Bob. Show me in the Constitution where the Guvmint has any right to tell me I can't drink a beer, or smoke a joint.

    You want to pass a law against "Driving under the influence?" Fine.

    You want to pass a law against "selling to minors?" I think you could get away with that.

    Tell a man/woman that he/she can't do a line of blow in his own home? Horseshit.

    It's more "religious" bullshit; and it has no place in law.

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  75. The "Drug" laws make sense for Lawyers. The Drug laws ONLY make sense for Lawyers.

    It's Horseshit.

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  76. I think a lot of people would agree with Rufus. Some being sympathetic to the libertarian arguments, many simply lacking spine.

    Rat pointed out that the drug cartels threaten to throw Mexico from dysfunctional into a failed state status. Not a good scenario for the long open border.

    If Obama is elected I expect to see a relaxed attitude toward drug enforcement. If he is reelected, look for sweeping decriminalization and some legalization. In other words, capitulation.

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  77. After all, nobody wants to hear the "religious bullshit" any more.

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  78. "Horseshit."

    My new favorite word.

    Has a nice, no-dickin'-around feel to it.

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  79. It's an "in-your-face" expression alright.

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  80. We've been discussing the solution for months, trish.

    Inclusion and regularization.
    The Union of American States

    Most, here, do not see it as a solution. But that view is not shared amongst the elites.

    Freedom and liberty for all Americans, wheather born in ex-Mexican States like California or Texas, or current Mexican States like Baja Sur or Yucatan.

    The American Revolution marches on
    Or the American Empire does.

    One, or the other, will

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  81. One way or another, this problem in Mexico is going to force our hand.

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  82. No, not capitulation, but regularization.

    Legalization takes out the contrabandistas, just as it hurt the Capone era gangsters.

    Sure, some survive and prosper, later sending a favorite son after the White House, but the "gangsta" image is broken.

    The cartels are empowered by the prohibition, not the use of the prohibited product.

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  83. Whit, I have the utmost respect for religious feeling.

    When it's inclined my way. Even when it's not, I try.

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  84. You said there were no reasons, Ruf, I showed you some. You don't think they are sufficient reasons.

    Show me in the Constitution where the gov'mint has any business passing driving laws, or outlawing murder.

    Well, it's right there where the Legislatures are set up. Otherwise we'd have no laws at all, as the anarchists wish. Which has never obtained anywhere, for long.

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  85. I like 'horsepucky', at least when kids are listening.

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  86. Colombia had a problem much worse than Mexico's. Remember when their Supreme Court building was bombed? So, you either stand by principals or you capitulate.

    My money's on the latter.

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  87. The word here was "horse hockey."

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  88. The War on Drugs is a disaster. Writ large.

    Opposing viewpoints welcome.





    Well, not REALLY welcome. But you know what I mean.

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  89. That was Pablo, challenging the Colombian State. But Pablo was funded by the prohibition, not a free market or even a regulated one.

    There was no ideological or religious storyline in Pablo's coup attempt, he did not want to run Colombia, just wanted to be free to run his business, his way.

    But his business was created by US law, both of supply and demand and legislative prohibition.

    He is gone, but the coke continues to flow.

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  90. Rufus, even you sound a little hesitant to use the word heroin.

    Doesn't have anything at all to do with religion. It has to do with addictive poisons. And the cost to society in crime, treatment, etc.
    And the legitimate function of the state to promote a healthy environment. The state has a right to do that, in my way of looking at it. Building codes, for instance, at least in public places. Outlawing the dumping or arsenic in the water supply. Outlawing the firing of guns in cities, except in defense. On and on.

    Horse hockey, yeah that was it.

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  91. You play horse hockey with a horse pucky, of course.

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  92. The Chief of Mexico's national police had the great good sense to say as much at the end of a WSJ interview some time ago.

    Sheepish, but he said it.

    And it's true.

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  93. I don't even know if that guy's still alive.

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  94. From what some would consider the enemy--DEA

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  95. The UK has decriminalised its drug laws. Their crime rate is steadily going up and guess what? Now, they're finding that alcoholism is going through the roof.

    I think that even if we were to legalise all drugs, many scumbags would look for the easy money path. They will move on to the next hustle.

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  96. The UK has decriminalised its drug laws

    - whit

    Wow. Who knew.

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  97. Now, Trish. No need to get snarky with the lowly barkeep.

    I'll just shut up and go back to hand-washing some glasses.

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  98. Or....

    You could simply post a reference to the UK's decriminalization.

    That'd do.

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  99. An authoritative reference, whit.

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  100. Well, I must admit I can't find the decriminilization reference but according to the UK Home Office, the Drug Strategy definitely focusses on treatment which effectiely softens the penalties:

    This is rich! Here's the Diversity Strategy.

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  101. So the government de-criminalizes or legalizes drugs, provides the drugs, makes sure no one is 'stigmatized' by use(other than by the needle tracks of course), picks up the dead bodies, provides intervention services for the domestic violence situations, and provides drug treatment centers for the surviving addicts. Good allround plan.

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  102. legalize it and I will advertise it!
    crys meth and oxy cot have messed some folks up for good in my neck of the woods. Some people are just too damn dumb to know when to say when. I guess the heavy users and feel good all the time liberals would die off soon enough. Rufus, you may want to lay off of the stimulants a bit and try to mellow down easy for a while.

    Whit, you are correct.
    There is a huge difference between giving directly to those in need and giving to the govt. so that they can distribute to those that they deem needy. That point is lost on the greater lesser light...

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  103. I really like "horseshit."

    I think it may be irreplaceable.

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  104. It's a conspiracy to keep all power in the dynastry--

    SAMUEL HINCKLEY AND SARAH SOOLE
    So far, no sign he's related to Hillary

    BY SCOTT FORNEK Political Editor
    It sure would be an awkward family reunion. But, believe it or not, Barack Obama is related to both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

    OK, distantly related: Obama and Bush are 11th cousins.

    That's because they share the same great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents -- Samuel Hinckley and Sarah Soole Hinckley of 17th century Massachusetts.


    That means Obama and former President George Herbert Walker Bush are 10th cousins once removed.
    Obama is related to Cheney through Mareen Duvall, a 17th century immigrant from France.

    Mareen and Susannah Duvall were Obama's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents and Cheney's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents.

    That makes Obama and Cheney ninth cousins once removed.

    Cheney and Bush are related to one another by a completely different common ancestor.

    We leave it to you to figure out their relationship.

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  105. Horse shit makes lousy fertilizer. Cow shit however is good.

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  106. USA!USA! WHAT A COUNTRY!


    Puerto Rico inmates cast early ballots for Dem. primary

    Puerto Rico (AP) — Arturo Vazquez is locked up for assault and robbery, but he and hundreds of other prisoners may have a say in choosing the next president of the United States, casting early ballots Friday in Puerto Rico's key Democratic primary.
    Along with only two U.S. states, this Spanish-speaking Caribbean territory lets imprisoned felons vote. And Sunday's primary is hugely important: It may clinch the nomination for Sen. Barack Obama or buoy his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

    Vazquez made no bones about his choice after he voted in one of several curtained cardboard booths erected in a lunchroom with steel tables.

    It wasn't Clinton.

    "No woman should ever be president of the United States. It ought to be a man," said the burly convict with dark, close-cropped hair and a gray prison jumpsuit. He told a reporter he marked an 'X' for Sen. Barack Obama on the ballot which he slipped into a cardboard box.

    A dozen inmates interviewed by The Associated Press at the compound of white buildings surrounded by barbed wire said they were grateful for the opportunity to help nominate a future American president.

    Elliot Dones, 32, serving a seven-year sentence for robbery, said he is excited that the United States is showing interest in what Puerto Ricans have to say.

    "I feel great. I feel mostly that we matter to the United States," said Dones, who voted for Clinton.

    Omar Gonzalez, counting down a prison sentence for attempted murder, hopes Puerto Rico's economy is strong enough to give him a job when he is released — and believes that will depend in part on policy decisions made in Washington and who wins the presidency.

    "Health plans, education, jobs — these are things I'm counting on when I get out," said the 29-year-old, who sports a cross tattoo on his right forearm, after voting for Obama. Gonzalez said television news reports on the Illinois senator influenced his vote. Other inmates said they followed the campaign in newspapers.

    Yesenia Lociel, a corrections department spokeswoman, said 130 of the 448 medium and maximum-security inmates at the prison asked to vote — a turnout percentage comparable to local primary elections. Inmates in other prisons across the island were also voting on Friday, two days before the general population votes.

    The first votes were cast on Thursday by dozens of blind Puerto Ricans. Students and military service members outside the island were also expected to vote Friday.

    There are 55 delegates at stake in the primary Sunday. Officials predict about 500,000 of the island's 2.3 million registered voters will turn out for its first presidential primary in nearly 30 years.

    Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, but they have no voting representation in Congress and cannot for president in the general election.

    Some inmates said they hope the island has a larger say over national affairs in the future.

    "We're American citizens. We should be allowed to vote for the presidency too," said Angel Andino Davila, a 42-year-old convicted rapist.

    Maine and Vermont are the only U.S. states that allow inmates to vote while incarcerated on felony offenses, according to Sentencing Project, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington.

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  107. The American Airline crew of the plane I was on, trying to land in the same storm (over Costa Rica) aborted the landing and got out of Dodge and went to Panama. They got big time applause on the safe landing.

    Plane Skids Off Runway in Honduras, 5 Dead

    Fri May 30, 2008 7:47pm EDT
    By Gustavo Palencia

    TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - A Salvadoran passenger plane skidded off a rain-soaked runway on landing at Tegucigalpa airport in Honduras on Friday, killing five people and injuring 38 as it veered onto a road and smashed into cars and a building.

    The TACA airlines Airbus A320, on a flight from San Salvador with 135 passengers and crew, lay broken in three parts and was spewing fuel after the accident, which happened in heavy rain and fog.

    Passengers, some with blood streaming from their faces, stumbled out of the plane over the broken wings as onlookers rushed to pull survivors from the smoking plane, Reuters television images showed.

    A paramedic tried to resuscitate one man in the wreckage, while injured passengers sat stunned on the side of the road. One woman with a head wound asked repeatedly, "Where am I?"

    Passersby struggled to pry open the cockpit to free the trapped pilots, one of whom died in a hospital.

    The plane circled the airport several times before attempting to land in heavy fog, survivor Mario Castillo told Honduran television.

    "Suddenly we felt a big noise and we were all trying desperately to get out," Castillo said. "The worst injured were the people in business class."

    The plane skidded off the runway, which was sodden with rain from Tropical Storm Alma, and crashed through a fence into a busy road, killing two people in their cars. Two passengers also died.

    Thirty-eight people were injured, local emergency services chief Carlos Cordero told Reuters.

    Authorities closed the airport and transferred commercial flights to a military airport.

    The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.

    TREACHEROUS AIRPORT

    Tegucigalpa is nestled in hills and has a reputation as one of the most treacherous airports in Latin America due to a difficult approach.

    But Boris Ferrera, an official with Honduras' civil aviation authority, said there was plenty of room for the plane to land.

    One of the dead was Harry Brautigam, a Nicaraguan who headed the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, TACA said. He died in a hospital after being dragged from the wreckage by rescue workers.

    "The plane landed on the runway and braked and braked but it seems that the rain and the wet made it slip off," said an airport security official who witnessed the accident.

    TACA said in a statement the plane was carrying 124 passengers and 11 crew. A local TACA manager said earlier there were 142 people on board.

    "I am thanking God I am alive -- there are other passengers who are in a very bad way," survivor Roberto Sosa told Honduran radio.

    The last time El Salvador's TACA was involved in an accident was in 1993 when a Boeing 767 airliner overran the runway as it was landing in Guatemala City and crashed into some houses. Nobody was killed.

    (Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Cyntia Barrera in Mexico City and Alberto Barrera in El Salvador; Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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  108. A lesser light said, "There is a huge difference between giving directly to those in need and giving to the govt. so that they can distribute to those that they deem needy."

    On the contrary, God knows that the hearts of men waxeth cold at times, so charitable giving must have the force of Law in the eyes of God. This is why he issued a Commandment in Deuteronomy 15:11: For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

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  109. Stick it where the sun don't shine, Joe.

    Bob, kids ain't got no place in a bar. If you want to bring kids in here I'll have to find another place to hang out.

    Building codes, arsenic in the water, etc. Those endanger the public. If I shoot shit in my arm I'm not endangering the public any more than if I drink too much expensive rum.

    I'll say it Again: The Government has NO BUSINESSS in my Bedroom, or my Den. If I want to drink 190 proof Evergreen, or shoot up Ajax it's none of the guvmint's damned business.

    People destroy themselves, daily with booze, food, and unprotected sex. It's not my business. It's not my TAX DOLLLARS' Business.

    The crime wave in the U.K. COINCIDES WITH THEIR BAN ON PERSONAL FIREARMS. PERIOD!

    You better be damned careful People. A government that's powerful enough to ban behavior you don't like is powerful enough to ban behavior YOU CHERISH!

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