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."

Sunday, July 06, 2014

Which is more vacuous “Have a nice Day” or “Thank you for your service”?


Reader View: For Velez family, two sons lost to war


Posted: Saturday, July 5, 2014 7:00 pm
By Larry Davis |

We are watching as a new group of radical Islamist insurgents, calling themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, among other names, races across northern Iraq, taking cities whose names we know only because not long ago, young Americans fought and died there to rid them of another group of insurgents. The Iraqi security forces, which were trained by Americans and outnumber the ISIS rebels perhaps 50 to 1, are dissolving in disarray or worse, joining the ISIS rebels.

After more than $2 trillion spent, almost 4,500 dead and 32,000 wounded Americans sacrificed for Iraq, we ask how can it be that all our efforts seem to have been for naught. And it is hard not to wonder if the U.S. experience in Iraq is the worst episode of squandered American valor in our nation’s history. Historians will have to decide that but, since I heard that Fallujah had fallen, I just keep thinking of a family in Lubbock, Texas, and how terrible it must be for them to watch the news from Iraq.

José “Freddy” Velez was a son, who like so many other young American sons, joined up to serve his country and protect it from enemies. It was in Fallujah, a city in northern Iraq, which saw the uncommon valor of Freddy Velez and tragically, where he fought his last fight. In one of the many battles for that city, Freddy’s platoon was ambushed and, in the ensuing deadly firefight, a soldier was hit and went down. As a couple of fellow soldiers exposed themselves to deadly fire to gather their wounded buddy and move him to safety, Freddy Velez did not hesitate to expose himself to provide covering fire for his friends. Just as they moved the wounded to safety, Freddy was hit in the throat by enemy fire. He died in the dirt there on a forgotten street in Fallujah.

Freddy’s younger brother was in Afghanistan that awful day, fighting his own battles for his country. The military allowed him leave so that he could accompany and escort Freddy’s body home to Lubbock for a funeral with full military honors. I remember the photos in the local newspaper, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, of Freddy’s mother and father, and of his young soldier brother. Such a handsome family and somehow so strong and brave as they dealt with a heartbreak too many American families have experienced when their sons and daughters have given, what President Abraham Lincoln called, “the last full measure of devotion.”

Tragically, it was not to be the last time the community would turn out for a Velez family funeral.

Freddy’s brother, Andrew, had signed up shortly after his big brother and just before he deployed to Afghanistan, he had married his high school sweetheart. The separation must have been tough for both of them, as it must be for all young married military couples. But it was to prove especially tough for this young couple. All too soon, Andrew had to return to his unit and his war in Afghanistan. Tragically, not long after arriving back with his unit, he hung up the phone and took his own life.

When I heard that Fallujah had fallen, I could not stop thinking about the Velez family of Lubbock. I wonder how a family deals with the terrible price they have paid for our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Velez family gave their two sons in the service of our nation, one to the wounds he suffered while saving his friends at Fallujah, and another in Afghanistan, suffering from the wounds of a broken heart.


Larry Davis is a former Texan who now lives in Santa Fe.

147 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. this thread aint about hamas or jews.

      Delete
    2. Fine. Next time you ask why I never post anything supporting Israel, you have supplied your own answer.

      Delete
    3. It is about vacuous people.
      A trait which the Jewish Arabs, the NASI, do demonstrate, as illustrated, above...

      Delete
  2. José “Freddy” Velez was an American hero. No words can sum up what we owe those who fought and died in honor and dignity for our nation.

    Freddy joins the ranks of the unnumbered Americans who perished in service and paid the price so we can live free. He joins my Uncles who also died in active combat.

    To them I salute with gratitude and respect.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So why did you call veterans assholes? That's a running joke here on the EB.

      Delete
    2. The only Good Veteran is a Dead Veteran.

      It's a common trait among assholes.

      Delete
  3. "We are watching as a new group of radical Islamist insurgents, calling themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, among other names"

    Islamic groups change "names" faster than the local quick stitch can make them.

    Don't be fooled, same folks as always...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those Semites, the names change but the behavior remains constant.
      Killing US citizens with impunity, whenever they decide it is in their "Best Interests" to do so.

      The US supports, trains and supplies them, then they turn on US.

      Delete
  4. .

    It's confusing. Just got my ISIS t-shirt off Facebook and now I find out they are simply called IS. It makes you wonder what the meaning of IS is.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They change monikers faster'n ACORN, or Desert Rat even.

      Delete
    2. Rat is a figment of your imaginationSun Jul 06, 10:19:00 AM EDT

      No faster than the US changed from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution.
      A Constitution never ratified by the People.

      Delete
  5. .

    Hillary Clinton was the leader of the three Valkyries in the Obama administration along with Rice and Powers. The three of them are the ones that pressured Obama to attack Libya. I have often said the three of them are as close to neocons as you could get.

    Now, with neocons like Robert Kagan, Max Boot, and Mark Salter apparently jumping on the Clinton band wagon, some are asking if a new batch of neocons are getting ready to jump to the Dems and support a new Clinton presidency.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/opinion/sunday/are-neocons-getting-ready-to-ally-with-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They're all "Dicks".

      Two sides of the same coin, without a nickels' worth of difference between 'em.

      Delete
    2. President Obama has quietly promised Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren complete support if she runs for president — a stinging rebuke to his nemesis Hillary Clinton, sources tell me.

      http://nypost.com/2014/07/06/this-means-warren-obama-backs-challenger-to-hillary/

      Trouble in Lib paradise.

      Delete
    3. The "Base" of the Democratic Party hates Hillary Clinton.

      Delete
  6. You can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally. Go figure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those that are caught without documentation, in the US, are often caught, documented, and then released.

      Just like hunting and fishing done by the agents of the Federal government in the Fish and Wildlife Service

      Delete
    2. Take our jobs, but leave our fishin', alone.

      (The worst day's fishin' is worth a thousand times the best day's work.)

      :)

      Delete
  7. Ukraine government forces recapture separatist stronghold

    Another success for US foreign policy. The Russian backed anti-Kiev forces of Eastern Ukraine are in full retreat.

    A Reuters reporter saw a convoy of about 20 military transport vehicles and buses filled with armed rebels driving out of Kramatorsk where they had gone after apparently fleeing Slaviansk 20 km (12 miles) to the north.

    ReplyDelete
  8. .

    The Nanny State

    The Scottish government for years has pursued what amounts to state-sponsored surveillance of families. By August 2016 — unless a court or public pressure can stop it — the country will appoint an official state guardian for every child in Scotland. The jobs will be filled by teachers, social workers, health care professionals and the like. The feel-good part of the plan makes every guardian a personal resource to families, available to answer questions. The sinister part of the plan gives those guardians access to a family’s records, and requires them to monitor and report every child’s development and welfare and recommend household changes. Thus, legislation to expand free school meals and subsidized child care becomes the means to create the Family Stasi.

    Does anyone belive the US isn't headed in the same direction?

    http://www.reviewjournal.com/columns-blogs/glenn-cook/all-your-children-belong-us

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With the passage of the 16th Amendment the people of the United States became slaves.
      The Federal government now being able to lay claim to their labor, their very lives.

      Why shouldn't the Government provide 'guardians' to its property?

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. Each step a legal progression from the last.

      What the Government did abroad yesterday, it will do at home today

      Delete
    4. Clinton did broads. Both of them did.

      Delete
    5. Israel prefers homosexual tourismSun Jul 06, 11:05:00 AM EDT

      "You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist." - Joe Biden

      Delete
    6. Porky 'n' Allen Show Logic:

      1. Preacher John Hagee is a Zionist.
      2. Teresita thinks John Hagee is a whack job.
      3. Teresita hates Jews.

      Delete
  9. SA data collection includes more non-targets than actual targets

    the WSJ said that the surveillance reports contained around 160,000 individual intercepts from 11,400 unique accounts.

    The report further says that out of the 11,400 accounts only 11 per cent were actual NSA targets whereas the rest of the 89 per cent were bystanders or non targets.

    Even though most of the data is described as useless by the analysts but it's nonetheless retained, and appears to have a startlingly intimate, even voyeuristic quality at times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted are catalogued and recorded nevertheless as incidentals.

      The NSA’s policy is to hold on to “incidentally” collected US content, even if it does not appear to contain foreign intelligence.

      Elaborating on how these bystanders got entangled in the NSA spy web the report says that if a target entered an online chat room, the NSA collected the words and identities of every person who posted there, regardless of subject, as well as every person who simply “lurked,” reading passively what other people wrote.

      “1 target, 38 others on there,” one analyst wrote. She collected data on them all.

      In other cases, the NSA designated as its target the Internet Protocol (IP) address of a computer server used by hundreds of people.

      In a June 26 “transparency report,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence disclosed that 89,138 people were targets of last year’s collection under FISA Section 702.

      At the ratio of incidental collection as observed by the WSJ in Snowden’s sample, the office’s figure would correspond to nearly 900,000 accounts, targeted or not, under surveillance.

      Delete
  10. .

    Why liberals are abandoning the Obamacare employer mandate

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/obamacare-employer-mandate-108578.html#ixzz36hSUaLxk


    This article from Politico is a must read for anyone interested in either side of the Obamacare debate. I would put up a few choice quotes from it but there is just too much there.

    A brief synopsis of the article is that high profile Dems are questioning the value of the employee mandate and whether or not it should be modified or dumped. For political reasons numerous waivers have been granted even to the largest of companies and the mandate itself has already been delayed twice. The consensus is that it does very little to expand insurance coverage but it does bring in a lot of money (up to $100 million over 10 years).

    While a number of prominent Dems are now talking about this, nothing is likely to happen before the election. Obama is against it and Reid is supporting him. What happens after the election especially if Reid is no longer runs the Senate, well...

    This movement confirms what I have said from the beginning, Obamacare was never and end in itself but merely an incremental step on the path to single payer, the Democratic dream.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. The Government has to take care of its property, Q.


      Delete
    2. The "Road to Serfdom" is long and winding, but it is the road we are traveling.
      One step at a time.

      With very few willing to turn around and head back the way we came.

      Delete
    3. Yeah, why would you want "single payer" when you could just have "Medicare for All?"

      :)

      Delete
    4. If you will think for a minute about "Serfdom," you will realize that "socialism" is its exact opposite.

      Delete
    5. Yeah, if you are going to accept that the "Fruits of Labor" belong to government, why not get the "Best" managed system of governance possible?

      Why be half-hearted in the embrace of your Nanny?

      Delete
    6. The Road to Serfdom is a book written by the Austrian-born economist and philosopher Friedrich von Hayek (1899–1992) between 1940–1943, in which he "warned of the danger of tyranny that inevitably results from government control of economic decision-making through central planning."

      He further argues that the abandonment of individualism and classical liberalism inevitably leads to a loss of freedom, the creation of an oppressive society, the tyranny of a dictator, and the serfdom of the individual.

      Significantly, Hayek challenged the general view among British academics that fascism was a capitalist reaction against socialism.

      He argued that fascism and socialism had common roots in central economic planning and empowering the state over the individual.

      Delete
    7. :)

      He was an ass. Ayn Rand with a degree.

      Both of them would take you directly to the 7th Century.

      Delete
    8. The US is not 'Socialist" in its nature.
      It is much more Fascist.

      Exemplified by "Crony Capitalism"

      “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
      ― Benito Mussolini

      Where socialism is illustrated by 'State' or 'Collective' management of the means of production ...

      “State ownership! It leads only to absurd and monstrous conclusions; state ownership means state monopoly, concentrated in the hands of one party and its adherents, and that state brings only ruin and bankruptcy to all.”
      ― Benito Mussolini

      There is some hypocrisy in Mussolini's remarks, but the essence of them is clear.
      In the US the governing elites were trying to balance the two, but the scales of economic justice have been tipped to the 'corporate' and away from the 'social'


      Delete
    9. I think our "right wing" has greatly expanded the definition of "socialism" well beyond the classical "state ownership of production."

      Today, you can't argue for fixing a bridge, or building a classroom without the right-wingers yelling, "SOSHULIZM!!!!"

      Delete
    10. Indeed.
      The "Right" would be much more inclined to the railroad model of the nineteenth century. Where a State and Corporate partnership developed the transportation model of State subsidies, but corporate responsibility for construction and maintenance.

      A system of privately funded "Toll Roads' and pipelines, built using the government's power of "Eminent Domain" to acquire the land, but using private rather than public debt to finance construction.

      Foreign-owned toll road in Texas downgraded to junk bond status

      Texas’ first foreign-owned toll road financed through a controversial public private partnership just got downgraded to junk bond status by Moody’s Investors Service. The Spain-based firm, Cintra (65% ownership), and San Antonio-based Zachry (35% ownership), known as SH 130 Concession Company opened the southern leg of State Highway 130 last November.

      Concerned citizens with Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) immediately launched a boycott of SH 130. Since then, the anemically low traffic levels signaled trouble from the beginning and Moody’s downgraded the concession company’s rating in April warning of the risk of default. The downgrade this week warns of default unless the company can restructure its debt or attract a substantial increase in traffic.

      Moody’s predicts Cintra will be unable to meet its June 2014 debt service payment: “Thus, absent a sponsor injection of equity, a debt restructuring, or some other method of generating significantly more revenues, there is a high likelihood of a payment default in June 2014.”

      The concessionaire has already dipped into its reserves to meet prior debt service payments and will need to tap its contingency funds to make its December payment, leaving inadequate funds to meet its June 2014 debt payment. If Cintra defaults on its debt, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) could execute a termination agreement and takeover the tollway, leaving lenders with limited ability to take possession of the facility as collateral.

      Delete
    11. ... the push to privatize Texas roadways and build the corridor piece-by-piece utilizing public private partnerships (known as P3s) with a smaller footprint still advances.
      NAFTA traffic isn’t going to abate anytime soon with the anticipated expansion of the Panama Canal expected to open next year. The Texas legislature approved a bill, SB 1730, earlier this year allowing 23 projects to be privatized using P3s -- a few part of the original Trans Texas Corridor plan.

      Delete
    12. Foreign Company Now Owns Six Major US Tolls Roads - Mar 8, 2013

      In a short-sighted attempt to fill holes in their budgets, some states have been selling the control over their toll roads to private foreign investors. The most famous case is the Indiana Toll road 75-year lease that started back in 2006. During the first five years of control, the company in charge more than doubled the toll for five-axel trucks from $14 to $32. That same company has been buying up control of U.S. toll roads since 1999 and now controls 6 major U.S. roadways.
      ...
      Cintra hopes to grow their total tally to seven toll roads in the near future. A new deal is being drawn up by Cintra’s parent company, Ferrovial, in hopes of building a new toll road parallel to U.S. 460 in Virginia’s port region.



      http://www.thetruckersreport.com/foreign-company-now-owns-six-major-us-tolls-roads/

      Delete
    13. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    14. .

      Let's see,

      Fred Hayek. Paul Krugman.

      Fred Hayek. Paul Krugman.

      Fred Hayek. Paul Krugman.

      Gee, that's a toughy.

      .

      Delete
    15. No. That's Easy.

      Really, really easy.

      One's theories work; one's theories are fiction.

      Delete
    16. .

      True, but at least Krugman offers us some laughs with his writing style.

      .

      Delete
    17. I read Krugman for Economics. For "commentary," I prefer Upton Sinclair.

      Delete
    18. Of course, "The Jungle" was, basically, a treatise on Friedrich Hayek's economics.

      Delete
    19. Krugman for Economics. That's like Ross Perot for Psychiatry.

      Delete
    20. Krugman is the primary "named" Economist that has gotten this severe recession, somewhat, partially right.

      He identified the "zero lower bound" almost immediately, and correctly predicted the results of the various responses.

      The "libertarians" weren't even close.

      Delete
    21. And, No, I don't agree with "everything" he writes, no more than I agree with "everything" Obama does.

      But, their policy responses (in Krugman's case, recommendations) have been closer than most.

      Delete
    22. Krugman in a nutshell: In case of recession, break glass, reach inside, use broom to sweep up glass.

      FDR tried it too, called it the New Deal. We didn't dig out until everyone went to work either fighting in the War or making stuff for them to fight with.

      Delete
    23. The Big question was "inflation." The Hayek crowd was running around, yelling about its eminent arrival, and Krugman was saying, "not a chance; not at the ZLB (zero lower bound.)"

      Krugman, of course, was right.

      (they will, however, stay too long at the party, as they always do, and be wrong "later.")

      Delete
    24. Not true about the New Deal. It was doing a lot of good. FDR just couldn't get enough funding out of Congress to do as much as was needed.

      (when those Republicans blow up an economy, they blow up an economy.)

      Delete
    25. The TVA wasn't just about breaking some glass, and "sweeping it up." Neither were all those levees, and dams. We're still benefiting from them to this day.

      Delete
  11. This is different than "Jessica's Law" which concerned a Florida case.

    I am pressuring my Representative Raul Labrador to introduce a bill I have written up, known as "Quirk's Law", a kind of three strikes and you're out law concerning various types of outrageous and slightly anti-social behavior. My boy Labrador tells me it has received nearly unanimous bipartisan support in the committees when the details of the law and the kind of behavior it wishes to deal with become well known. Even Nancy Pelosi, he tells me, is thinking hard about signing onto "Quirk's Law".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Quirk," "Hard", and "Nancy Pelosi" in the same sentence -

      you don't see that every day. :)

      Delete
    2. Nancy Pelosi and thinking. Ha.

      Delete
  12. Drafting legislation is difficult. Especially when one is trying to nail a single individual. Hence I am working to broaden it to trap another rat or two, not that Quirk is a rat.

    Really, I just want Maria for myself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happiness is a warm woman, a hot cycle, and a cold beer.

      Delete
  13. Excellent

    Israeli police have arrested six Jewish suspects in the abduction and murder of a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem last week.

    The prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, swiftly issued a statement denouncing Jewish extremism as "terrorism" after the arrests in the early hours.

    "We do not distinguish terror from terror," Netanyahu said. The suspects, who included some minors, are being held at a facility of the Shin Bet security agency, and are being represented by lawyers hired by a rightwing legal action group.

    The news of the arrests broke after Israeli media reported that police had made a breakthrough in the investigation and had concluded that the killing was "nationalist" in motivation rather than criminal.

    "Apparently the people arrested in relation to the case belong to an extremist Jewish group," an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What is "Occupation" Sun Jul 06, 09:29:00 AM EDT

      this thread aint about hamas or jews.

      Delete
    2. No mention of Semites, rejected

      Delete
  14. The previous post has been updated to reflect the arrests.

    ReplyDelete
  15. About that Obamacare "Employer Mandate:" A lot of Liberal thinkers, Ezra Klein being one of the most prominent, have been saying, from the outset, that it didn't make a lot of sense. Virtually, all of the Bigger Employers already offer health insurance, and, for the smaller ones, the combination of "Exchanges," and Tax Credits look to be sufficiently efficient.

    ReplyDelete
  16. The TVA wasn't just about breaking some glass, and "sweeping it up." Neither were all those levees, and dams. We're still benefiting from them to this day.

    So what are we benefiting today from out of the 2009 Porkulus package?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A couple of million auto industry jobs, and the fact that we're not in Great Depression II.

      Delete
    2. That we are not in Great Depression II is inherently unfalsifiable, hence unscientific. Presumably Ford, which never took Porkulus money, invested in automation while Government Motors was doubling up the manpower on the line and hiding fatal ignition problems.

      Delete
    3. .

      In fact, the auto bailout was not part of Obama's stimulus package. It, like TARP, was a product of the Bush/Paulson initiatives. However, the auto bailout wasn't completed under Bush but rather under Obama early in 2009.

      .

      Delete
    4. Stay the Course!

      The Obama mantra, at home and abroad.

      Delete
    5. .

      Tarp and FED intervention are what saved us from Great Depression II.

      .

      Delete
    6. The American Farmer saved us from Great Depression II.

      Which was originally touched off by Bwarney Frank and Company.

      Everyone knows this.

      My bill before Congress is designed to ensnare Quirk in a charge of "spreading false propaganda".

      If one has a Legislator in one's back pocket, as I do with Labrador, the least one can expect out of the deal is a Maria or two.

      My bill calls for Fifteen Years hard labor.

      I should be, hopefully, gone when Q finally gets out.

      Delete
    7. Quirk will have time to finish his book.

      He has only published one part of one chapter so far, here at the EB, of his 'work in progress'.

      Delete
    8. Teresita, you're just babbling. Ford didn't need the bailout because they were on tap to go tits up before the other two, and as a result, hocked every damned thing they had, the year before, and Borrowed $23 Billion.

      Delete
    9. .

      Good lord, what would you know about hard labor you old sod?

      :-)

      .

      Delete
    10. I admit, the supersalesmanship business is as rough a go as farming.

      And the risk or arrest and incarceration is a lot higher.

      Delete
  17. Michael Savage has been right all along -


    July 6, 2014
    It's happening: Border Patrol personnel infected by illegal immigrant flood
    By Thomas Lifson


    Along with piteous pictures of children flooding across our borders and being distributed across the country courtesy of US taxpayers come disease vectors. Maybe flying them around to various parts of the country isn’t the smartest idea. NBC News reports:

    A border patrol agent was diagnosed with scabies after processing undocumented immigrants in Otay Mesa, California, the agent's union representative said. Ronald Zermeno, health and safety director for the National Border Control Council union, said the agent told him that he observed several people with open sores while screening them in preparation to be released to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Scabies is caused by a mite that burrows into skin and lays eggs, causing an intense itching and rash, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention.

    In a letter to the chief patrol agent of San Diego's U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Zermeno said border patrol agents processing the undocumented immigrants were told that those arriving in California had been pre-screened for health conditions.

    This sounds to me as if these people crossed over in Texas and were flown or bussed to California. How else would they be pre-screened? Hmm, I wonder if the airplanes and busses have been decontaminated? If not, we are talking about spreading disease to everyone else who uses them.

    Agents in California, however, were not advised to decontaminate themselves or their uniforms, he added. "This demonstrates that we are not properly trained to identify infectious disease and to properly respond when we suspect a disease,"

    This is even more alarming. We have disease-ridden unfortunates flooding in, and our first responders are not trained to handle the disease vectors they bring.

    As Glen Reynolds of Instapundit always says, sarcastically, “The country is in the best of hands.”

    So let’s think this through.


    tens of thousands of people have already flooded in, and are being held in facilities where they can spread disease among themselves.
    Hundreds a day are being sent across the nation for distribution to relatives, mostly living in Hispanic communities.
    Isn’t the expected result a series of epidemics afflicting first the Huspanic communities receiving the “immigrants” and later the surrounding communities?

    How does this serve the national interests of the United States?

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/07/its_happening_border_patrol_personnel_infected_by_illegal_immigrant_flood.html



    CHEERS !!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Damn these motel computers.....'service unavailable' when it obviously was available.....

    out

    ReplyDelete
  19. .

    Of course, "The Jungle" was, basically, a treatise on Friedrich Hayek's economics.

    My mentioning of Hayek was not a comment on the totality of his views but rather in response to your comment that,

    If you will think for a minute about "Serfdom," you will realize that "socialism" is its exact opposite.

    I disagree and tend to agree with Hayek's views on the subject which I take to be (paraphrased),

    'Comprehensive central planning can only be carried out effectively when the government exercises unlimited power over individuals.'

    Now, in our society with its political checks this process can only proceed in fits and starts and may even suffer some setbacks; however, the long-term trend seems to be in one direction. Those who view socialism positively are satisfied with incrementalism. They accept there might be a few setbacks along the way but they keep their eye on the ultimate prize.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Okay, before you go any further, Define: Socialism.

      Is it, "Taxing the citizenry to fund Social Security?" "Schools?" "Medicare?"

      "Police and Fire Departments?" "Roads and Bridges?"

      "Sewer Systems?"

      Or, do you have to go so far as Government Ownership of, say, the banks, and auto companies? Utilities?

      We have to define the terms before we can discuss them, right?

      Delete
    2. Socialism is nationalizing the means of production (GM), not the commons.

      Delete
    3. Turn medicine into a utility and see what kind of doctors you end up with.

      Delete
    4. Are Doctors turned into a "Utility" under Obamacare, or does the ACA merely help poorer/sicker consumers afford the Doctors?

      Delete
    5. Was it "Socialism" when we gave the oil companies the right of eminent domain over all that land in Alaska, so they could build their pipeline?

      Is it Socialism that we only charge the coal companies $1.00/ton for all that coal that they take off of federal land at Powder River Basin in Wyo.?

      Delete
    6. So, since we sold all of our GM stock, does that mean that we're no longer a socialist country?

      Delete
    7. Mandating the purchase of private auto insurance is "Socialism"?

      Delete
    8. Is the FAA's air traffic control system "Socialism'?
      It seems to function quite well.

      Better than private hospitals, if we look at the rate of malpractice claims that are made, against doctors at private hospitals.

      Delete
    9. The ACA is a foot in the door toward single-payer. Utility.

      Delete
    10. Medicare is a utility?

      CHIP (children's health insurance program) is a utility?

      Delete
    11. Oh, and here I thought that State licensing of doctors and hospitals was the foot in the door to regulating the health care industry, not the mandating of private health insurance.

      Taking the market forces out of the health care system and placing the government in charge, that was the foot in the door.
      Making corporate paid health benefits tax exempt, that was the foot in the door.

      According to Forbes ...
      In 2009, federal, state, and local governments accounted for more than 60 percent of all healthcare spending.

      The Government was fully through the door before Obama became President.

      You are far behind the curve, Ms T, in allocating the cause of the effect.

      Delete
  20. Even as Israel arrested six people in the murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy, John McCain said today "this thing is in danger of spiraling out of control," and advocated that John Kerry be sent over for a little "shuttle diplomacy." "There’s a whole lot of reasons for it," McCain said, as per the Hill, "but right now this is a time when the United States could play a constructive role."

    ReplyDelete
  21. 2CELLOS - Thunderstruck [
    2CELLOS Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser playing their arrangement of Thunderstruck by AC/DC BaRock style!



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3SBzmDxGk

    ReplyDelete
  22. .

    We have to define the terms before we can discuss them, right?

    You are the one who suggested the reverse analogy. What are your definitions of serfdom, socialism, and the differences that make them exact opposites.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Okay, you wrote this:

      "'Comprehensive central planning can only be carried out effectively when the government exercises unlimited power over individuals.'

      which seemed to put you in the "government controlling the means of production" camp.

      On the other hand, when I say that I think the government should help the poor, and sick, obtain health insurance, I'm railed at by many on the right as one who is promoting "Socialism."

      The two situations seem very different, to me. I just want to define the terms.

      Delete
    2. In any case, Hayek's optimal system was one where the government had very, very little power In fact, the further you extend "libertarian" thought, the closer you come to the manor on the hill, which exerted virtually unlimited social, political, and economic power over the serfs working in the fields. Or, to call it by its given name, "Feudalism."

      Delete
    3. OR, its "not so politically correct name," Warlordism.

      Delete
  23. Rufus IISun Jul 06, 03:40:00 PM EDT
    Teresita, you're just babbling.


    Really? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Rufus IISun Jul 06, 05:58:00 PM EDT
    On the other hand, when I say that I think the government should help the poor, and sick, obtain health insurance, I'm railed at by many on the right as one who is promoting "Socialism."


    What you want is not the problem. How you want to get there is.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Well, a lot of the Democrats wanted "single payer," but Obama thought that the Republicans might be more receptive to their own plan.

    Maybe he was wrong.

    Is there a 3rd way?

    I haven't seen it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's why the Republicans can't come up with another plan:

      1) If you're going to cover the sick (those with pre-existing conditions,)

      2) you have to have mandates. Otherwise, adverse selection would either drive the cost to the moon, or sink the insurance companies.

      3) If you're to have Mandates, you have to have subsidies for those that can't afford what is being mandated.

      And, there you are, Romneycare . . . . . . . . um, Obamacare.

      Delete
    2. That's why the Heritage Foundation drew the plan up the way it did - back in the nineties.

      And, why Romney signed it into law in Massachusetts.

      Delete
  26. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Rufus IISun Jul 06, 06:03:00 PM EDT
    Or, to call it by its given name, "Feudalism."

    Rufus IISun Jul 06, 06:18:00 PM EDT
    OR, its "not so politically correct name," Warlordism.


    Are you making the point that Feudalism is Libertarianism? How do you have Feudalism without overwhelming centralized power at Feudalism's various levels of governance? It is true that Feudalism required monopolies of violence at its various levels of power centers, from the local lord to the sovereign.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The Obama administration's foreign policy has made a hash of things from the Baltic to the Persian Gulf. There is one island of normalcy in the entire vast region. Mr. Kerry would like to introduce American diplomacy there as well. He is running into resistance; may that continue to be the case. Of course, this exceptional case is embarrassing to the administration...too bad...

    One kid is murdered and the administration would like to make it appear the equivalent of 180,000 dead Syrians and 8,000,000 displaced Syrians…pathetic…Nonetheless, Intel is investing an additional $6 billion dollars in the black hole of the ME… 

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same Semites that killed 34 US sailors, killed over 1,500 Palestinian children since the turn of the century.

      It is not one Palestinian child, it is 1,524,
      The NASI cannot even count, but certainly attempts to dissemble and lie

      Delete
  29. During the Feudal period, the King was pretty weak. Kind of like a CEO of a mediocre to fair company. As a result, he didn't have much desire, or wherewithal, to meddle much in the affairs of the local Warlords. The serf was totally at the mercy of the local Godfather, as it were.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let's just put it Real Simple; Libertarianism is a return to the Jungle

      (with appropriate rules, and mores, applying.)

      Delete
    2. The jungle, eh? So it's pretty much what we got in 2008 and reaffirmed in 2012.

      Delete
    3. Cute. Did you know that Obama's mother's people, the Dunhams, had several ancestors killed in "The Revolutionary War?"

      Delete
  30. There's only so many doctors, so many MRI machines. Right now they are rationed using money, which makes sure that old white guys get access. Under single payer they will be rationed based on different criteria, and old white guys won't fare so well, but it's job security for the committees that get to decide.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, they done plumb forgot how to build MRI machines, and teach doctorin'.

      Delete
    2. The Doctor Guild control the supply of doctors in the market place.
      The US could easily import well qualified doctors.

      Delete
    3. The Doctor Guild control the supply of doctors in the market place.

      This is uninformed bullshit.

      Delete
  31. Jonathan Singletary Dunham (January 17, 1640 – September 6, 1724) was a prominent early American settler of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, who built the first gristmill in New Jersey.[1][2][3] He is U.S. President Barack Obama’s eighth great-grandfather and the first of Obama’s Dunham ancestors to be born in North America.[4][5]

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jonathan Singletary Dunham was born to Richard Singletary in Newbury, Massachusetts on January 17, 1639/40.[2][5] He married Mary Bloomfield (relative of later New Jersey Governor Joseph Bloomfield, for whom the township of Bloomfield, New Jersey is named).[6][7]

      Dunham and his wife migrated to Woodbridge Township, New Jersey (the first Township of New Jersey, which was chartered on June 1, 1669 by King Charles II of England),[8] where they were granted 213 acres (0.86 km2) of land by the newly appointed Governor of New Jersey.[3][9] Upon this land, Jonathan Dunham built the first grist mill in New Jersey. He later received a bonus of 203 acres (0.82 km2) and acquired many other tracts of land in New Jersey and Massachusetts.[6][7] After finding success with his mill operation, Dunham became a politician, serving as the Clerk of the Township Court, overseer of the highways, and was elected to the New Jersey Provincial Congress in 1673.[3][10][11][12]

      Delete
    2. Compromising with the socialist termite looter Democrats is like paying a cannibal to eat you last.

      Delete
  32. In any case, Hayek's optimal system was one where the government had very, very little power In fact, the further you extend "libertarian" thought, the closer you come to the manor on the hill, which exerted virtually unlimited social, political, and economic power over the serfs working in the fields. Or, to call it by its given name, "Feudalism."

    Labor is a commodity set by market prices. When government interferes, sets a bottom to labor prices, or sets rules for employers making it harder to terminate labor contracts, those prices are artificially raised, and pass on to the consumers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, that's they way David and Charles Koch see it.

      It probably sounds a lot better sitting at their dinner table, than it does starving in a company-owned shanty, praying for the coal mine to call you back to work - even if they are going to barely pay you enough to barely exist for the few short years leading up to your premature death.

      Delete
    2. I guess "labor was a commodity set at market prices" back in 1855, in those old Mississippi cotton fields. Them field hands must not have been very good at that labor commodity trading thing. They seem to have had a pretty bad "contract."

      Well, that's the "free market," for ya. Libertarianism is freedom, you know?

      Delete
    3. Or artificially lowered, Ms T.

      The examples of Corporate Cronies using government to bust Unions are legend.
      Even to the point of Mr Truman nationalizing the steel industry, in 1952, to bust the free association of workers and their ability to bargain with the employers. He threatened railway workers with the US military in 1946.

      President Harry Truman decided that the unions had gone too far, and after the railroad workers rejected a settlement, he seized control of the railroads. Despite the government takeover, the workers continued with their strike plans. As a result, on May 24, 1946, Truman issued an ultimatum declaring that the government would operate the railroads and use the army as strikebreakers. When the deadline passed, Truman went before Congress to seek the power to deny seniority rights to strikers and to draft strikers into the armed forces. Just as Truman reached the climax of his speech, he received a note saying that the strike was “settled on the terms proposed by the President.”
      http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/great-strike-wave-1946

      Delete
    4. The Republican Party immediately went after the base of the Democratic Party - labor unions. In 1947 they passed the Taft-Hartley Act. It prohibited jurisdictional strikes, secondary boycotts and "common situs" picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. Congress overrode Truman's veto on June 23. The law became known as the "slave-labor bill" in union circles.

      Delete
    5. I don't have a problem with unions per se, only when they get their cronies in the government to enforce card check. The secret ballot is sacred.

      Delete
  33. Government power is used by both sides of the economic divide, Ms T.
    Depending on which side has the greatest influence at any given point in time.

    Both sides use their "Cronies" to influence 'Capitalism'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hence my support for smaller government. For the record, I thought W was as bad as Obama, the way he spent money, and the last good President we had was Bubba.

      Delete
    2. Eisenhower, but you are too young to rremember.

      Delete
  34. The thing is, it You, a poor working stiff, think you'll be better off if the Kochs win the day . . . . . .

    Well, shit, that is so ludicrous on its face as to render it impossible to expound upon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm through; it's arguing "religion." Rationality means squat.

      Delete
    2. We got our Koch's you got your Soroses, it's all tribalism. Wake me up when we're discussing actual ideas.

      Delete
    3. Teresita, you have "Beliefs." And, it's senseless to try to argue against "beliefs."

      I'm through.

      Delete
    4. I don't believe in anything. I understand that central planning doesn't work, it can't account for every variable.

      Delete
  35. Chinese couple's in bed.

    Husband says, "I want a sixty-nine."

    His wife says, "You want beef and broccoli now?"

    ReplyDelete
  36. Allen: Are you making the point that Feudalism is Libertarianism? How do you have Feudalism without overwhelming centralized power at Feudalism's various levels of governance? It is true that Feudalism required monopolies of violence at its various levels of power centers, from the local lord to the sovereign.

    Rufus checked out, but I took that to mean he thinks the Feudalists are chomping at the bit to take over, and only big government is holding them back.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Rufus: I guess "labor was a commodity set at market prices" back in 1855, in those old Mississippi cotton fields. Them field hands must not have been very good at that labor commodity trading thing. They seem to have had a pretty bad "contract."

    From the point they were taken captive in Africa to the work in the fields under the lash, at no point was the labor free to negotiate prices.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why liberals appear bright until you hear them speak.

      Delete
  38. Remember, before Obama took office, while Bush was spending like a drunken sailor, the Tea Party was already brewing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Two more hopeless Obama years and American children will flood into Guatemala.

      Delete
  39. Breaking News: Argument leads to two Jordanian goat herders throwing shoes at each other. McCain requests five billion in military aid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GESTAPO: Government Entitlements Selling The Agenda of Presidemt Obama

      Delete
  40. Rufus IISun Jul 06, 09:05:00 PM EDT
    I'm through; it's arguing "religion." Rationality means squat.

    My Lord Rufus has actually hit on something I've been arguing for years, though he did it inadvertently.

    Rationality breaks down, I have been preaching.

    It is human experience that counts.

    Kant showed that through the use of rationality one could argue the existence of God, or the reverse, the existent of life after, or the reverse, the existence of spirit, or the reverse, that the universe had a beginning, or the reverse etc etc.

    As rat became a Hegelian Rufus has become a Kantian.

    What Kant was up to was making room for 'faith', which is still lame.

    It is human experience that counts.

    Human experience of the higher types.
    ....................

    Man, I tell you, I didn't realize until today how fierce is the ongoing battle between the eagles and the osprey.

    It's tough out there. The cruise was also a birding expedition, and the lady knew what she was talking about, that much is for certain.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Teresita RedingerSun Jul 06, 10:49:00 PM EDT
    Two more hopeless Obama years and American children will flood into Guatemala.


    Although I strongly doubt that Obama will have any such effect, the Third World south of US borders could become a paradise if put into the management of the right northern hands. Its resources have been ill used or little used since the earliest records of human habitation. Is hatcheries, for example, tied to the amazing water sport potential could transform both. Add to this the supporting ship building industry and things could be booming.

    Before what I envision could take hold, fundamental changes in law as those relate to ownership and tenure would be called for. Luxurious port cities, designed to meet the needs of the travel industry could be constructed on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, tied together by relatively short distance, highspeed rail carriers. Plantation systems could be replaced by reforestation of high-value lumber species (German model) so desireable to Asians. Indeed, factories would be soon follow to produce high value added goods for a worldwide market. All is possible if the current couupt, impoverishing politics

    ReplyDelete
  42. BobSun Jul 06, 11:20:00 PM EDT
    The Doctor Guild control the supply of doctors in the market place.

    This is uninformed bullshit.


    ...once more proving that what little knows, less knows more...80% of doctors do not belong to the AMA.

    If doctors decided to stop treating morons, the world would vastly improve within a fortnight. A typical doctor will spend about a million getting through the process to practice medicine. Why, that's more than the cost of a trailer and a truck.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Belief has exactly zero to do with "human observation."

    If it did, there would be no religion.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Ah, Christians. Come Christmas Eve they go to church, and sing sweetly of the "little lord, jesus," and how he "lay down his sweet head" in a manger, because "there was no room at the Inn."


    And then, today, they go out and yell, and scream at buses carrying little babies and their mothers - carrying signs, saying, "No Vacancy."

    ReplyDelete