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."

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Boomer Lefties, Several Curlicues Short of a Plumbline.


This is too good to miss:
HAT TIP, Albob and Doug

September 06, 2008
The End of Boomer Weirdness?
By James Lewis American Thinker

At Wichita State recently, a college debate coach dropped his trousers after a foul-mouthed argument with the opposing coach in a debating tournament. YouTube shows it for the world to see.

Coach William Shanahan, who sports a caveman beard reaching below his belt, said later that, yes, his reasoning might seem "convoluted," but his trouser-dropping act was intended a sign of respect for the opposing coach.

""Obviously it got out of control, but to be honest I thought I was in a safe house," Shanahan said. "I thought I was part of a community that handled its problems internally and that recognized the dangers of exposing ourselves -- no pun intended -- to the rest of the country."

Suppose these fine teachers were working for Governor Sarah Palin. How long would they stay in their jobs?

Right.

Believe it or not, this used to be a normal country. Maybe John McCain and Sarah Palin are a sign of a return to normal -- assuming the voters elect them instead of the comedy team on the other side.

"Boomer Weirdness" is the great eruption of irrationality that seized the West three decades ago, when the Boomer Left rose to positions of power. I don't think the Boom Generation as a whole is any madder than other generations; but the Boomer Left --- ah, now we're talkin' several curlicues short of a plumbline.

When the Boomer Left "Marched Through the Institutions" (as they called it) in the 1970s and 80s, you could actually see a sudden wild swerve in our news media, our universities and politics. The Democratic Party was seized by the Far Left after the 1968 Chicago convention. The New York Times went PC in the 70s, and you could actually see the new, Far Left orthodoxy lock down in a matter of months. It hasn't recovered yet.



But it wasn't just the US. Today the old, high-brow Times of London reads like a tabloid, with girlie pics and all. Britain is now a shadow of its former self; nobody knows if it will ever recover. Europe has become a defense parasite on the United States, and we tolerate it. The Western world went from rational thinking to the Planet of the Weird. It's been slip-slidin' away ever since. Normal people watch it happening everywhere, and they feel utterly helpless to stem this epidemic weirdness, often rising to the level of criminality.

Our Leftist politicians are all kind of weird. From Howard Dean's Scream to Obama's uncontrollable God Complex, from Hillary Who Must be Queen to Bill's sly seductions, all the way to John Kerry's delusions of Swiftboat heroics, and Algore's weird idea that NASA should launch a hundred-million dollar satellite specifically to beam TV pictures of a rotating Planet Earth back to all of us -- these people are not planted on terra firma. They have little planetoids going around their heads.

Nancy Pelosi's bubblehead response to questions about oil drilling is "I'm trying to Save the Planet." Don't tell me that's normal. It's not even normal in the hare-brained precincts of San Francisco. This is the woman who took it upon herself to negotiate with Bashir Assad as soon as she was elected Speaker, while her sidekick Steney Hoyer went to the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, to the distress of the Egyptian government. Barack Obama even sent Zbig Brzezinski over to Damascus -- to do what? Negotiate with Bashir Assad? Tell him that help was on the way?

This is madness. But running a separate foreign policy has been a Democrat routine ever since Ted Kennedy tried to undermine Reagan and House Democrats tried to aid the burgeoning Communist Sandinistas. But Cold War liberals like Jack and Bobby Kennedy would have called it treason.



The Boomer Left even gave its weirdness a pretentious name: Post-Modernism. Old-fashioned Modernism, according to this tale, is the height of rationality. The ideal of Modernism is good sense, objectivity, reason, logic, and tolerance for competing ideas. Its symbol is the Empire State Building, square, tall, and built to minimize real estate costs on Manhattan.

The US Constitution was built as a bulwark against untrammeled lust for power. The Founders didn't know Nancy and Harry in person, but they were pretty sure that power-mad demagogues would show up some time. They had studied history and understood human nature. As we can plainly see, they were right.

Post-Modernism leaves all that rational thinking far behind, like Alice tumbling through the looking-glass. The weirdness of the Left is not an accident; our hebephrenic media folk were taught flashy Po-Mo nonsense in their Ivy League classrooms, and they were dumb enough to fall for it. That is why they deliberately abandoned all those old-fashioned newspaper ideals of truth, objectivity and fairness. (And that's why the Old Media are finally going bankrupt today. Hooray!)

Count Alfred Korzybski is not a household name, but he is relevant here. Korzybski was one of those eccentric Polish geniuses who come along every now and then. His useful contribution to this topic is one word: Unsanity. For Korzybski a society could be unsane without being insane. He wrote about that in his book Science and Sanity, which came out in 1933, just in time to watch the world go mad. His timing was impeccable.

We don't have to consult a psychiatrist to see that our culture today is at the very least unsane. Just one little example:

We have more college-educated adults today than ever before. But our college grads are so superstitiously afraid of the little word "nuclear" that we have surrendered part of the very oxygen of our national life -- our energy supplies -- to the likes of King Abdullah, Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez El Loco de Caracas, and Putin the Poisoner.

That is unsane.


That's only one little example. There are hundreds, constantly infecting our national discourse, to the point that we take it for granted. It's just the way it is. Our national conversation has become polluted, sabotaged by media weirdness.

This is where the McCain/Palin ticket may be of historic importance, because both the Senator and the Governor are quite sane folks. You can't survive five years in the Hanoi Hilton if you don't have a pretty firm handle on concrete reality. You don't grow up hunting moose in Alaska if you confuse polar bears with teddy bears, as our eco-freaks seem to. Alaska is the polar opposite (so to speak) of Marin County.

If McCain and Palin win this election, we may be able to push the culture back to a level of sanity we haven't seen for thirty years. Our colleges could start teaching reason and logic again. That would be wonderful.

That is not to say that John McCain doesn't have his faults; he does. We can all give a list of serious mistakes, like the campaign finance law, which has now whip-lashed McCain's own campaign. But McCain is solid on energy and national security, on the economy and taxation. He may turn out to be exceptionally good on fiscal responsibility. John McCain takes abortion seriously, unlike our Left, which has trivialized fetal extermination so completely that we aren't even allowed to talk about it any more

On the great issues of the day McCain and Palin just seem a lot more rational than the opposition. They can think straight. After almost two years of national exposure, Barack Obama is a bigger blank slate than ever; if anything he has deliberately confused Americans even more. Nobody knows what he would do if elected, and his potential appointees are freakier than Clinton's. As for Joe Biden, over 35 years in the US Senate he solidified his rep at the biggest loose cannon on that wildly careening deck. Between Robert Byrd and Joe Biden, the Senate has become as weird as the Oprah Show.

Our choice in the fall will come down to two pretty normal people who seem to think straight, versus two Lefty oddballs.

Weirdness has its entertainment value, of course, and public comedy may be the biggest contribution politics ever makes.

But when it comes to steering the ship of state, I'd rather go for steady character and strong values than for the wildly gyrating compass of Barack O'Biden.

They will call me weird, of course.


James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com


105 comments:

  1. Doug said...
    CFP Resume of a Terrorist Obama’s Buddy AyersOn Friday night, one of America’s top talk show hosts—who happens to be an attorney and worked in the Reagan Justice Department as chief of staff—recited a list of terrorist acts that would elicit envy from Osama bin Laden. Mark Levin had his listeners glued to their radios or PCs as he read the resume of a man who should be serving life in prison instead of enjoying a tenured professorship at a major university and entertaining a possible US President in his home.
    ---
    As I write this “resume of a terrorist,” I find it difficult to understand how a man who is running for president of the United States would even know someone as anti-American and destructive as William Ayers. Plus, Ayers, his wife and their comrades at the Weather Underground are cop-killers. And Obama doesn’t just know him personally—he’s a close friend with Ayers.Here is the “resume” of an American terrorist:
    ---
    His long list left out UCSB, so I got these links for Kevin James:Police To Resume Investigation of '69 Campus Bombing - Daily NexusPolice To Resume Investigation of '69 Campus BombingWednesday, April 11, 2007Before the riots, before the massive protests, before the burning of the Bank of America, an explosion rocked the campus community and took the life of one of its members.
    ucsb faculty club bombing
    Isla Vista Bank Burning
    UCSB Special Collections Research Isla Vista Resources Guide to KCSB Audiotape CollectionKCSB.2.27.70.1 - [description for Feb. 27 tape series} John Seely (SB Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions )on Chicago and the movement; Nancy Rubin; Kuntsler on Chicago movement; KCSB coverage of IV revolution; statement by Cheadle; National Guard in IV; Statement by commander; National Guard takes posts; IV League statement; minor arrests and friskings; Police sweep movements; bomb threat at Francisco Torres; (ucsb Dorm) Individual arrestsBurning Down the Isla Vista Bank of America -
    ---

    ReplyDelete
  2. (Roger Hedgecock's and my Alma Mater, as well as Joe Wilson and Barbara Bodine!)
    ---
    Founding SDS Member attacked in Chicago “There was a mood among the wider student body by 1970, and not only here, but around the country, that was really kind of a neat reaction to authority - both national and police authority, parental authority [and] university authority,” Flacks said. “All of these seemed … to a lot of young people at that point in time as backward, repressive, uncaring, unfeeling, sending us off to war, not understanding our values as young people.”---Shortly after learning of his 1960 appointment to a tenured teaching position at UCSB, sociology professor Richard Flacks made front-page news nationwide. An attacker, posing as a reporter, met him at his Chicago office for an interview and savagely beat him. The unidentified assailant left Flacks, a well-known founding member of Students for a Democratic Society, with a hole in his skull.

    Flacks, who would recover at a hospital and arrive at UCSB in July that year, said he has always assumed the attack was political. Students for a Democratic Society was a new-leftist student movement that primarily protested the war in Vietnam.“When my appointment [at UCSB] was announced, which was like June of ‘69 - that became a controversial issue,” Flacks said.
    “Governor Regan attacked the appointment. He said a wonderful statement of his. He said it’s like ‘hiring a pyromaniac to be a fuse-maker in a firecracker factory.’”

    Prior to the controversy over his hiring, which eventually subsided, and the student unrest that brought chaos to the UCSB campus, Flacks said he had expected Santa Barbara to be more relaxing than the politically tumultuous Windy City.“So the irony was that with starting in January of 1970, there comes this tremendous explosion of campus protest here, which had been preceded by a year or two of prior actions by black students, and by the student anti-war people, and so forth,” Flacks said. “But first the demonstrations in support of Bill Allen were dramatic, and then came this scene in Isla Vista, which led to the burning of the bank.”

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wifey took Anthro Classes from Bill Allen.A Jerk, Naturally.She'd tell me about him, I, just returning from Korea, told her to ask him why, if whatever Commie South American country he was touting was so great, did he ever come back to this hellhole?
    ---
    "Flacks said there were collective values that young people shared during the late 1960s and early ’70s. Doug Hewitt said those realities were always in the back of his mind, especially when he stepped out of line. He said he and his roommate tried to take a piece of the bank back to the dorms while protestors were looting the building.“There were a bunch of things around,” Hewitt said. “One of them was a chair. My roommate and I took this chair. It said ‘Property of Bank of America’ on it.
    We get this announcement saying ‘Anyone discovered with Bank of America property will be arrested on the spot.’ So we took the chair and put it in the lounge. (of their fraternity) Somebody [today] probably has it in their corporate board room.”"

    ...one campus custodian was killed in a bombing, and one student was shot dead at the bank burning.
    Sat Sep 06, 09:29:00 AM EDT---...but of course, that was not the Bill Ayers Obama knew....and he barely knew the respected "English Professor"...like Farmer al-Bob.
    ---

    >Doug you may want to repost a few of these gems to the next thread. Thanks.
    Deuce

    ReplyDelete
  4. If you skip all of the above, be sure to check out this LONG list of Domestic Terrorist Bombings.
    ...by Ayers (friends of Barry)
    friend of Obama.
    I was not aware of most of them.
    ---
    CFP Resume of a Terrorist Obama’s Buddy Ayers

    ReplyDelete
  5. al-Bomb,
    Are all English Majors obsessed with blowing things up?
    ...or just Swedish Farmers with access to unlimited quantities of ammonium nitrate?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I never checked back for any feedback on my comment that my female English Prof was Obsessed with Leda and the Swan.
    ...anybody see that?
    Anyone know any Damsels raped by a Goose?
    ...or Goosed by a Duck?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bhutan

    “The Bhutanese can get a Dzongkha font for their Microsoft Windows software, even though there are still no traffic lights in the country!”
    http://www.bhutanstudies.org.bt/

    Other Bhutan Links

    ReplyDelete
  8. Harvard OTR Fresno Resident Graduates From Harvard With a 4.0 GPA, Now Works at Blockbuster

    Last spring, Brittney Lane, 22, accomplished this daunting task by graduating from Harvard with a perfect 4.0 – a feat that has only been achieved six times since the Ivy League university computerized its records in 1982.

    Thanks to her four years of intensive studying, Brittney now holds a highly prestigious job at Blockbuster Video – until she gets into law school. The FresnoBee
    ---
    "Try having a Master's degree and not being able to get a job. At least this chick can strip if times get tough. I'm a dude, so I'm S.O.L."

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is a Muslim separatist rebel group located in Southern Philippines

    ReplyDelete
  10. In 2006, after receiving dozens of complaints, Spirit scrapped an online promotional game called "The Hunt for Hoffa" that offered low fares and poked fun at the FBI's hunt for Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, USA Today reported at the time.

    Spirit Airlines claims it did not know that their "MILF" promotion shared the spelling of an obscene...
    Spirit Airlines claims it did not know that their "MILF" promotion shared the spelling of an obscene acronym. The slang term may have been popularized in the raunchy 1999 feature film "American Pie," in which Jennifer Coolidge, inset in graphic, played the character "Stifler's Mom", an attractive, voluptuous mother who ultimately seduces a high school adversary of her son.
    (ABC News Photo Illustration)
    More PhotosThe promotion made a CNN list of dumbest business moments, but according to the company was the most successful in the airline's history.

    While Arbelaez acknowledged receiving e-mails from customers regarding the airline's MILF campaign, he said that most found the connection amusing rather than offensive and that customers are responding to the airfare deals.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 8. Can You Relate to Either Candidate?
    John McCain is old as dirt. Barack is from Hawaii and attended Harvard Law. Both have more money than you.

    7. Jury Duty Sucks
    By registering to vote you essentially register yourself for Jury Duty.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Doug: By registering to vote you essentially register yourself for Jury Duty.

    Jury duty is a vacation for us'uns government so-called workers. We get full pay, and I've already served three times.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The Good news is the race is tied. The bad news is there is no more "good" news.

    McCain gave away Iowa. And, he very much needed Iowa. It was a "self-inflicted" wound. It will be seen whether or not it was Mortal.

    It may not seem like much, but it means he has to be "perfect" in all the "tossups." It's Hard to be "perfect" in ALL the tossups.

    Lewis postulated that, maybe, some people like Mccain like to get in trouble, because it's so much fun "getting out" of trouble. He might be onto something.

    I do know this. Our health care system is possessive of some pretty mean cracks. The American people know this. He would do well to address this. He Can't be specific right now; but, he Could convince us that he's aware of the Problem.

    Then comes "Energy." He's bluffing this one through. It Might work. But, God help him if Obama comes out and gives a totally coherent speech on reserves, flow rates, exports, expanding worldwide demand, and declining production in major producers' fields.

    I hate to be the wet blanket, folks; but I think the field favors Obama. I think he has more options, more "running room." Can he/Will he take advantage of it? I don't know. Could I get him elected if I was running his campaign?

    Yeah, I think so.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sat Sep 06, 10:44:00 AM EDT

    Long as you vote "Guilty"

    It's A-OK w/me.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hey Ruf,
    Heads uP:
    You ain't runnin Shit!

    ReplyDelete
  16. The Good News is Palin.
    Long as she keep on Cummin.

    ReplyDelete
  17. ". Our health care system is possessive of some pretty mean cracks"
    ---
    We got some pretty mean cracks on this blog...
    So What?

    ReplyDelete
  18. I do know this. Our health care system is possessive of some pretty mean cracks. The American people know this.

    I don't know. Whit or 2164th referenced a poll some time back that put health care at the bottom of the list of concerns behind the economy, price of gas, and I think it was even below global warming. I was surprised at the result.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I wasn't.
    ...but then again, I missed the whole thing.
    (I'm learnin, Sladie!)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Not fast enough.

    And that's Ms Sladie to you.

    ReplyDelete
  21. If the Pelosi/Reid House is an example of the new kind of Smart Intelligence we can expect from a Democratic Washington, Hollywood will become insufferable.

    I think Obama's wiggle room is smaller than one might think. This radical civilian corps concept coupled with the litter of unsavory bodies in his background coupled with his socialist government policies coupled with his anti-missile defense position leaves this voter disinclined to look too deeply into any more of his policy positions. If Cramer is right that the two housing GSE's will be bailed out, this government is going to be dead broke busted. I am not sure but if I had to bet I would say that the average American voter does not believe in miracles. They will recognize the smoke and mirrors underneath the promise of government bailouts and new government programs during a recession and rising unemployment.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I was there for four years - or so.

    Discovered I was not Ivy.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I didn't see the poll; but let me posit this. It could be a situation where only x (a small percentage) are concerned about health care; but, that small percentage is Really Concerned about health care.

    There's, also, This: Health Care is one of those issues that's conceived as being "Solvable. No one thinks the President can "Solve" Islamic fundamentalism/terrorism; but, many think that the President, and congress, could "Fix" the Health Care System.

    Health Care might only be a 5% swing at the Polls; but, baby, 5%, today, is Huge.

    BTW, that system that Romney, and the Dems, put in place in Mass is working. You know how I know? You don't hear the Pubs knocking it any more.

    ReplyDelete
  24. JFSanders said,

    Can someone run the quote posted below through Lexis/Nexis. I have let my account lapse…:(
    I am looking for the original source.

    Obama said, quote: “We have got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded as the military.”

    Thanks

    Jim
    ----

    We have got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful,
    just as strong, just as well funded as the military - Google Search

    ReplyDelete
  25. Doug said,
    Google is Free!
    (until they control your life)

    ReplyDelete
  26. BTW, that system that Romney, and the Dems, put in place in Mass is working. You know how I know? You don't hear the Pubs knocking it any more.

    so the argument can be made that a Democratic Congress will implement a solution that works and McCain won't oppose it. So I would still vote for the candidate with the balls to stand firm on the world stage.


    As an aside the difference between (what I called) mechanical problems like health care and non-mechanical problems like modern terrorism is why I though Jindahl was way too little way too soon. Palin at least has experience with the "fight" and the "firm" in the face of opposition which is quite different from doing the plumbing.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Don't get me wrong, fellas. I said I was going to vote for the miserable son of a bitch; and I will. But, he is a Deeply Flawed Candidate. If Obama came out tomorrow, and said he was, absolutely, in favor of two more front-line Divisions, 1,200 F-35's, and "More" Missile defense Systems, I'd be with him before the commercial break.

    On the other hand, if McCain came out and said something sensible on Energy (where, exactly, we're going to get it,) and Health Care a twenty-mule team couldn't drag me away from the Pub team.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Rufus,
    Palin is a KILLER.
    Trust me.
    Romney Healthcare, no doubt you are Correct.
    Palin/Romney '12!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Doug, I have a sneaking suspicion Palin would make a Great President. I just love everything I see.

    Smart, Hard-Working, Commonsensical, Prioritizer. Intellectually Curious, AND a Detail Person.

    Pretty much the Opposite of McCain from what I can see, with the probable exception of "hard worker."

    ReplyDelete
  30. Prioritizer


    As I near the end of my working life, I wonder if the average person has any idea how rare that skill set is. I actually thought it had died out as a non-adaptive phenotype. I also blamed Bill Gates for introducing multi-tasking which seemed to make prioritizing a quaint figment of the past. Whatever. Not many people do it.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Seems to me that Shanahan is not altogether dissimilar from some of the regulars here at the bar.

    As we know from our little microcosm here at the EB, boorish behavior crosses all ideological lines.

    We're pretty free and easy here, but there is a line that can be crossed and if you "show your butt" you can expect to get it booted straight out the back door and into the alley.

    ReplyDelete
  32. whit: We're pretty free and easy here, but there is a line that can be crossed and if you "show your butt" you can expect to get it booted straight out the back door and into the alley.

    Okay Whit, but if you boot something like this out the back door I would call you a metrosexual.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Read the first two paragraphs at the top of the post and watch the video..

    ReplyDelete
  34. Rufus: On the other hand, if McCain came out and said something sensible on Energy (where, exactly, we're going to get it,) and Health Care a twenty-mule team couldn't drag me away from the Pub team.

    He doesn't need to say where we need to get energy, he just needs to get government out of the way and let the market find it. Same thing with health care. Anything else is socialist central planning, which not even the Russians and Chinese practice anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  35. ...I would call you a metrosexual.

    Well, yeah, and I would deserve it!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Geez, T, you're sounding so...likable...these days and funny.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Whit: Geez, T, you're sounding so...likable...these days and funny.

    It's the Palin nomination made me cowgirl up and shitcan my Code Pink paraphernalia.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Oh, yeah, I just skimmed over the article. I'd seen it before.

    ReplyDelete
  39. T, I'm a Strong proponent of "free markets;" but, I'm afraid this is a bit of a different situation. The Oil Companies just have too strong an Oligopoly in a Vital Resource.

    The problem, here, is Not that we're getting ready to drive off into a "plowed field." We're getting ready to Speed into a "Brick wall." And, it's to exxon's benefit to "Let" us.

    We've found that the best way to run a Country is Not with "Pure" unbridled, Laissez-Faire Capitalism, but, rather with free market Capitalism tempered with a little commonsensical, government regulation.

    Adam Smith was correct that Given Time the markets will, always, correct to the ultimate benefit of the consumer; But, the Key metric is "Time.

    In the case of Energy we could lose our Country, if not our Civilization before the necessary corrections take place.

    This is one of those situations that will Require some Guvmint help.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Maybe I'm naive, Ruf, but I think you're a little too cynical about Big Oil. I think they know that it's not in their best interest to let the US go down because of oil. I also think that Big Oil and coal are secure in their roles for the future. Despite the calls for a complete carbon cold-turkey within ten years, reasonable and knowledgeable people know that petroleum and coal figure into our economy for many years to come. Being a Milton Friedman acolyte, I also trust the market to bring forward the alternatives when the time is right.

    What scares me are the populist "Central Planning" advocates.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Rufus: We've found that the best way to run a Country is Not with "Pure" unbridled, Laissez-Faire Capitalism, but, rather with free market Capitalism tempered with a little commonsensical, government regulation.

    There's nothing commonsensical about a hard ban on drilling for oil on our own continental shelf or ANWR. There, the government (and even McCain, in the case of ANWR) stands in the way between us and energy independence. In the case of health care, lets take pharmaceuticals. The profits Big Pharma make are used to research more wonder drugs. Force them to sell them at 4 bucks a prescription for every drug and you kill the goose that lays the golden egg. The profit motive is very powerful, you see. Take it away and there will be no more advancement in life spans and quality of life, not just in the US, but around the world. Do you think something radical like the Lasik treatment (invented in the USA) would have emerged from socialist countries out of a desire to help their fellow man? Read Ayn Rand's AnthemThey would have been sent to a gulag for threatening the livelihood of the eyeglass makers.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Re: Time and Timing.

    When the Soviet Union fell, we thought there would be a "peace dividend" and as a people in an expanding global economic boom we wanted to spend it. We wanted those SUV's that Detroit gave us. We wanted a piece of the stock market action as more people than ever made money. Everything was cool until the tech bubble burst followed by the sucker punch of 9/11. Even then, we persisted in our denial until these latest gas shocks. Finally, the tide has shifted and the market is ready for some alternatives. Already, entrepreneurs are rushing in to fill a need. Whether it's a better mousetrap, widget, solar collectors, windmills or battery powered cars, the public will buy it when the price is right.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Whit, the oil companies Know that we're getting ready to run into a real mess; and, they're fighting against biofuels as hard as they can.

    T, I'm a little "agnostic" on drilling ANWAR, etc. We're, certainly, going to need everything we can get for awhile. On the other hand, it gives me an "uneasy" feeling to know that we're not leaving "Anything" in reserve for my Grand-kids.

    ReplyDelete
  44. "It's the Palin nomination made me cowgirl up and shitcan my Code Pink paraphernalia."
    ---
    It's al-Doug, who she finally was able to admit she has the hots for.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Lasik Surgery

    T, you might have reached into a huge bag, and pulled out a bad example. Russia, Colombia, Greece, and Germany: all, have pretty good claims on the Lasik Process it seems like.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Revelations to John:

    “And I looked, and behold a roaring snowmobile, and her name that sat on it was Palin, and Hell-to-Pay followed with her. And power was given unto her over the red states of the West and the South, and Ohio and Michigan, to injure the Messiah with irony, and with sarcasm, and with plain speaking like those of the red of neck who slay the beasts of the earth and mock the pharisees of Harvard and DC.”

    ReplyDelete
  47. Jeez, I don't know whether to laugh, or cry.

    I can't quit smiling. I guess I'll laugh. Just think; she has a "father," somewhere.

    You can bet, He's Crying.

    ReplyDelete
  48. "McCain’s speech was the first shot in the War On the Culture of the Victim.

    M. Simon,
    I’ll suggest his selection of Sarah Palin was that, for though she was “punished” with a Down Syndrome child (”functionally disabled,” “developmentally challenged” or whatever the postmodern equivalent would have it) she refuses to see herself or any of her family as victim.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Whit, if we don't get serious it Won't BE Available when the time is right.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Campaigns See a Wider Set of States in Play
    With just over eight weeks left until Election Day, the two sides are settling into an unusually broad set of state-by-state face-offs.

    McCain and Obama Plan Ground Zero Appearance

    The Early Word: Understanding Palin 10:10 AM ET

    ReplyDelete
  51. "Being a Milton Friedman acolyte..."

    That makes precisely two of us here.

    My initial attraction to the Republican Party was due to its Chicago/Austrian school advocacy of capitalism, for which a great many people did indipensible yoeman's work. This advocacy was never consistent, and at times the New Democrats were out in front instead. Especially when the demise of the Soviet Union removed one of history's starkest, most powerful, practical and psychological counterpoints for conservatives. But even knowing the fickleness of Republican support for capitalist systems, I continued to associate the Party with the Cato motto: Free Markets and Free people.

    I think that association, which always required strong intellectual leadership (and for awhile, the object lesson of an empire of human misery which also happened to be hostile and expansionist) is fading, and the Republican Party is entering a period of drift - not unlike that described by the French Foreign Minister in the interlude of two world wars: a dead dog floating downstream.

    Big government social conservatism doesn't appeal to me, but that's a trend I anticipate becoming the stronger.

    I shake my head now when I hear people complain about Washington as the source of all that ails us. In the short term many of the complaints are legitimate (though the more spectacular government growth has been occurring at the state and local levels) but in the longer term it's just sad that the howls come not mostly from classical liberals or libertarians, who are a small minority, but from the majority that always seeks more and greater (or better enforced) government solutions to every conceivable problem, real or imagined. With a crisis-driven media, this tendency is overwhelming.

    I'm gloomy. But not for the reason most are. I don't see the Republican Party hanging onto even its limited free markets, free people legacy - coming up hard against a populist backlish and weak political resistence. And I don't see the other party eager to adopt it anytime soon. Viable third parties have long been predicted, but never materialized. There's a reason Friedman chose to work within the Republican Party. National stature and infrastructure - as well as a political philosophy that, if badly confused, was infinitely more promising than that on the left.

    Well. It's a rare sunny Saturday here
    and I'm going to make myself a screwdriver, marinade some strip steaks, play some salsa, and forget all about it.

    Signed,

    Your Humble Government Servant

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  52. If you were a little kinky, and prone to fantasy, you too, alDoug, might become obsessed with that strong, sharp, tearing bill, that beaky breathe, and those strong pulsating, hovering wings, enveloping you!

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  53. Last spring, Brittney Lane, 22, accomplished this daunting task by graduating from Harvard with a perfect 4.0 – a feat that has only been achieved six times since the Ivy League university computerized its records in 1982.

    Thanks to her four years of intensive studying, Brittney now holds a highly prestigious job at Blockbuster Video.

    Just goes to show you what a degree from the U of Idaho is worth in comparison, as we see from Sarah Palin, and we're all like that out this way. Recall too, our rural Idaho astronauts.

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  54. Dang, I had a good 18 minute video of Palin and McSane on the road, but what did I do with it? Anyway, Palan was so-so, reading from notes, but McCain raised cain and gave a rip roaring speech ad lib, much better than at the convention, though some of the lines were the same, spoken as they should have been then.

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  55. Two people recently have disparaged the U of Idaho degree in comparison to a sheepskin from Harvard or Yale. Personally, I'm with Dennis Prager who bemoans the sad state of our universities and Malcolm Muggeridge who said that
    "We have educated ourselves into imbecility,"

    As far as I can tell, the character of the man or woman has more to do with success than where the degree was earned. Ronald Reagan for instance.

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  56. The degree don't make the man. All of 'em are over rated in my mind, after years of living.

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  57. Big government social conservatism doesn't appeal to me, but that's a trend I anticipate becoming the stronger.

    Ever since "compassionate conservatism" made the scene, we seem to be following the model of the European ruling elite:

    "If we give them everything we can, they won't say anything while we take everything we can."

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  58. Folks, the people that put THIS CHART, together will Not be found to be far wrong. They've been "calling it right" for years, now.

    Add to this the four, or five percent increased usage in the "Exporting" States, themselves, and it doesn't take long to understand that we have a world of hurt coming.

    Let's put this in perspective. We're talking about 5 to 8 Million Barrels/Day LESS oil available EVERY YEAR starting in 2010, or 2011.

    Anwar would add less than 1 million barrels/day. Offshore, maybe two. And, That's in five or six years.

    Are you starting to get the picture?

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  59. Obama has now been served with the lawsuit challenging his birth statue and requirement to be President. Has 60 days to respond, which is after the election is over, so the lawyer has asked for expidited discovery.

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  60. Are you starting to get the picture?

    Yes, that's why we're seeing the little bitty cars everywhere and that's why we're listening to T. Boone Pickens and open to nuclear and clean coal and ethanol.

    If nothing else, dumbass, redneck America knows when the electric bill and a tank of gas are going through the roof.

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  61. I've been meaning to ask. Am I stupid to think that Ford and GM stock are good buys these days?

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  62. Rufus, the American people may elect the guy that promises them everything, 'free' health care, $1,000 checks in the mail, no taxes unless you're 'rich', and the ability to talk the nation's way out of all foreign problems while gutting the military, solve the energy problem without having a program to do so, over the guy who might actually be able to do a little something about some of these problems.

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  63. I think they are good buys, but I never buy stocks.

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  64. Bobal: Obama has now been served with the lawsuit challenging his birth statue and requirement to be President. Has 60 days to respond, which is after the election is over, so the lawyer has asked for expidited discovery.

    Bobal, if Obama drags it out past the election, and it turns out he really was born in Kenya, we wouldn't have to muster up enough Dems to impeach, the SCOTUS would simply vacate the election.

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  65. CONVENTIONAL BEHAVIOR

    Dems trash U.S. flags at DNC convention

    McCain scoops up garbage to recycle Stars and Stripes

    By Drew Zahn

    Following their national convention in Denver last week, Democratic organizers heaped up thousands of unused U.S. flags and threw them away, but the McCain campaign has since salvaged the Star-Spangled Banners and intends to use them at a rally in Colorado Springs.

    A Denver Post blog reports that a worker at Denver's Invesco Field discovered the discarded flags following Barack Obama's nomination speech at the mile-high stadium last week.

    Now, according to Fox News, a group of Boy Scouts have brought 84 garbage bags full of the trashed flags to the site of a McCain rally in Colorado Springs, where the flags will be used as part of a warm-up ceremony before the Republican nominee takes the stage.


    The Post blog reports an estimated total of 12,000 small flags and one, full-size 3'x5' flag were discarded.

    According to Fox News, McCain is planning a scathing chastisement of the Democrats for defiling Old Glory and plans to have veterans distribute the flags in a symbolic, recyling gesture at the Colorado Springs rally.

    Patriotic symbolism has been a thorn in the side of the DNC and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama throughout the campaign. As WND reported earlier, credentials for the national convention drew attention for portraying the elements of the U.S. flag upside down.

    Earlier in the campaign, Sen. Obama was photographed with Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Ruth Harkin at a steak fry for Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin during the playing of the national anthem. Richardson, Clinton and Harkin placed their hands over their hearts, but Obama is standing casually with his fingers laced in front of him.

    He also previously said he doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin because it has become a substitute for "true patriotism."

    To an Iowa television station, the Illinois senator explained he stopped wearing a flag pin following the 9/11 attacks.

    "I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest," he told the station. "Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great."

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  66. Or make Biden President. I'm not sure what would happen. Obama would be out though.

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  67. Bobal: Rufus, the American people may elect the guy that promises them everything, 'free' health care, $1,000 checks in the mail, no taxes unless you're 'rich', and the ability to talk the nation's way out of all foreign problems while gutting the military, solve the energy problem without having a program to do so, over the guy who might actually be able to do a little something about some of these problems.

    What problems? That health care is currently not free is a problem? In that case I have another problem because my car insurance is not free. Getting a G note in the mail is a problem for our kids who have to pay it back, maybe we shouldn't borrow money from the unborn until they weigh in. Foreign problems? By definition they are not our problem. The energy problem is like the free health care problem, the market automatically prices energy based on its availability, so the only problem is the price. Gutting the military might cause problems, however.

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  68. statue = status

    not awake yet

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  69. Have you ever heard of Rapid Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing as a therapy for anxiety, PTSD, etc. Teresita?

    After the cherry juice cure, I think of you as the doc here.

    I'd put Teresita in charge of fixing the nation's health system.

    Fixed me up for free, while before it was $100 bucks each time.

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  70. Rufus, with OPEC dialing back production to prop up prices, we're pushing the date of peak oil out by a number of years. At least peak oil production based on what we can actually get out of the ground rather than peak oil production based on boardroom decisions.

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  71. I like GM, okay. They seem to have "some kind" of a plan.. ford? I don't know.

    I'd rather put my money in the stock I've been touting for 3 years, Monsanto (Mon.)

    The "Future" belongs to the Biologists.

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  72. I would not buy Ford. GM is awfully scary as well. Look at their balance sheets. The companies will survive, but the existing stockholders could get crushed. The only way they can move forward is to capitalize their debt. The government is not going to have much more money to throw around and will encourage someone to take them over at the expense of existing stockholders.

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  73. Bobal, it was the excellent thing to do. I had a twinge in my knee this week, got me two bottles of the good stuff. That's what you gotta do, knock it down before it flares up. Raw cherry juice is a little too heavy for my tastes, however, so I water it down with Sprite.

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  74. If you want to speculate on GM buy some slightly out of the money calls out as far as you can see. Be prepared to lose it all.

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  75. Bobal: Have you ever heard of Rapid Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing as a therapy for anxiety, PTSD, etc. Teresita?

    No, Bobal, but depending on what part of Idaho you live in, I think a better therapy for anxiety would be to go angling for steelhead on the Salmon River or Little Salmon River around Riggins on some sunny day.

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  76. Never listen to Bob about stocks. He don't know shit.

    Charlie Rangel Looks To Be Up Shit Crick Without A Paddle

    Good ol' Charlie, I may not know stocks, but always had him pegged dead to rights.

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  77. Jan 2010, $12.50 GM call sells for $3.75. For $3,750, you get the right to purchase a 1000 shares at that price at that time.

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  78. I'm trying to find an article I had about that Eye Movement stuff. Was really interesting. Sorta like hypnotism, but much deeper.

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  79. The thing is, T: Everyone can buy auto insurance. If you've had a lot of wrecks they'll put you in the "high risk" pool, and you'll have to pay more; but you Can Get It.

    If you're an entrepreneur, and 1. Develop a health condition, and 2. Lose your health insurance somewhere along the way, you are, essentially, One "SCREWED" American. Quite Possibly, for life.

    I know; My family has gone through it in the last couple of years to the tune of about a half a million. We were "fortunate." WE were able to get through it. Millions aren't so lucky. We got some work to do. Again, the Massachusetts plan looks, to me, like a pretty good starting place.

    As for OPEC dialing back production: Don't bet on it. The only country that "Might" not be producing at "Full" Capacity would be Saudi Arabia, and that would have to be "Very Little." A lot of smart people think they're producing flat-out.

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  80. Buy Iraqi dinars if McCain wins.

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  81. I made a mistake on Ford's working capital. If you believe their numbers. I don't, they had adequate resources to last another year or two, but they are geared up for big trucks and suv's. Who needs them? If you want a small car, you may as well buy a Honda.

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  82. Go to ebay and look at the number of bids they are getting for Lincoln Navigators and Ford F150's.

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  83. They certainly appear to me to just be going "through the motions," Deuce.

    sleepwalking to the gallows.

    GM, at least, has a "Hail Mary" up in the air in the form of the Volt.

    They are, also, the only car company that seems to understand that Ethanol will HAVE to be what gets us through the storm. They're, slowly (too slowly, but) but surely trying to move the ethanol infrastructure forward.

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  84. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  85. The legacy costs at both GM and Ford are killin' 'em.

    Until those are off the books, neither looks promising.
    GM tried to dump some with Delphi, that still is in the digestive track, I think.

    Without them they are still good manufacturers. If one likes to own manufacturers.

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  86. invest in Ford or GM

    I wouldn't invest in equities for another year. Everything I hear is that the market is still Desperately Seeking Stability. The other 'inconvenient truth' slowly starting to come out is that a stock portfolio has to be actively managed in this environment - no buy and hold - which is the antithesis of traditional investment advice.



    but from the majority that always seeks more and greater (or better enforced) government solutions to every conceivable problem, real or imagined. With a crisis-driven media, this tendency is overwhelming.

    One of the early reasons I leaned towards McCain was his market-driven health care plan as opposed to the Obama plan (that may or may not include however many illegals are in the country.) Markets are like nuclear reactors. They require containment structures (the analogy's been around awhile). Government should provide containment through regulation and strict enforcement. Everything else can be privatized.


    Robert Reisch calls his proposal for $50B as "seed money" to "jump start" the alternative energy industries. This is an iffy proposition to me

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  87. Markets are like nuclear reactors. They require containment structures (the analogy's been around awhile). Government should provide containment through regulation and strict enforcement. Everything else can be privatized.

    Good analogy, should appeal to me.
    ----------
    I can't get that experiment the Wall Street Journal did years ago, that showed, throwing darts at the stock page was every bit as good a way to pick stocks, as to have some fancy theory, or go with intuition.

    And also, you do just as well to put your money in some good interest bearing vehicle, that's absolutely safe, as to play around in markets.

    I do know, around here, over the years, if you buy some wheat contracts in August or September to sell at Portland in January or February, you generally come out a little ahead over the years.

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    ReplyDelete