Narrative

Once upon a time, the Republican party was the party of Big Business and the Democrat party was the party of the little guy. FDR was able to milk this for eight years—and then was able to milk casting the Republicans as the party of isolationists and appeasers for five more.

Fast forward to today, when the Democrats are the party of crony capitalism while at the same time continuing to paint Republicans as in bed with Big Business.

Meanwhile, the Republican party is the one that can lay a credible claim to being for the smallest of minority groups—the individual.

“May you live in interesting times.”

From The Housing Boom and Bust, by Thomas Sowell, p. 71.

[T]he market learns—even if only the hard way—and adjusts with remarkable speed, when staring financial ruin in the face is the alternative. The question is whether politicians and government bureaucrats learn, especially when they pay no price for being wrong, and are able to deflect blame toward the market with denunciations of “greed,” “Wall Street” or whatever other convenient scapegoats are available.

Resignation Requested

Dear Mr. President,

I think you have made quite enough money, thank you, so please just resign.

Sincerely,
DavidD

Hyperbole

No, we can’t all just “agree that there’s nothing more Nazi than saying ‘Show me your papers[.]’ ”

“Show me your papers” was not the defining characteristic of the Nazis. Cremation ovens in concentration camps was the defining characteristic of the Nazis.

From The Forgotten Man, page 368

“In the decade beginning 1930 you have told us that our day is finished, that we can grow no more, and that the future cannot be equal to the past. But we, the people, do not believe this, and we say to you: give up this vested interest you have in a depression, open your eyes to the future and help us to build a New World.”

 Amen.

More “Ominous Parallels”?

Read The Forgotten Man, about the Great Depression—which lasted as long as it did because of the policies of FDR, whose progressivism and political tinkering are exceeded only by BHO.

Merry Winter Holiday

I saw an episode of “Sid the Science Kid” with my pre-schooler recently where Sid was going to go to Minnesota for the “winter holiday”.

Winter holiday. Bah. One mustn’t offend anyone who practices a different religion—or who practices no religion at all, n’est-ce pas? So why, then, did Sid pretend to be Santa Claus? What winter holiday, exactly, is it that is associated with Santa Claus? Oh, that’s right, Christmas. So if Sid could pretend to be Santa Claus, why couldn’t Sid be going to Minnesota for Christmas? Oh, wait, Sid was just pretending to be Santa Claus. I see now; that makes such a big difference.

Why can’t Sid be Christian without that offending anyone? And isn’t Santa Claus based on the historical figure of St. Nicholas? What religion is associated with St. Nicholas, anyway? Christianity again.

If you’re going to exclude Christmas, please just exclude Santa Claus too.

Oh, and by the way, if you’re looking for someone not to offend, try not to offend the largest segment of the population. Here’s a hint: I find the inclusion of Santa Claus juxtaposed with the exclusion of Christmas to be offensive.

Taxed Enough Already

I find it ironic that the Left will criticize the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party movement and yet, at the same time, will press for tax increases to fund pensions for themselves. This group’s demand to raise their taxes is more than a little disingenuous as they are really asking for taxes to be increased on everyone else since they would just use the power of their union to demand pay raises for themselves to offset any tax increases.

TEA Party Signs

I haven’t been able to get to another TEA Party since the little Tax Day TEA Party last year in my current hometown. I was armed then with a Thomas Jefferson quote and a deficit chart.

Here are my ideas for signs I may take to the next TEA Party I attend:

It’s the spending, stupid.

The Palestinians already have a State—it’s called Jordan.

WE ARE AMERICANS AND WE HAVE A RIGHT TO DEBATE AND DISAGREE WITH ANY ADMINISTRATION! – Hillary Clinton, 2003.

Drawing the Wrong Message from the Bible

I understand how some could claim that Christ was a socialist, given that the early Church was communal (Acts 4:32-35 RSV).

I know that Christ was not a socialist, though, because socialism in its fullest flower, i.e., National Socialism (Nazism) and Communism, is irreligious, even militantly anti-religious.

There was no religious freedom in Communist Russia; the Nazis persecuted Catholics—as did the French, by the way, after their own revolution. (It should go without saying that the Nazis also tried to completely eradicate the Jews.)

It’s the spending, stupid.

’Nuff said.

A Prediction

I’ve said before that, with Democrats in control, higher taxes are coming. The Democrats will never see the truth in the assertion that lowering taxes can increase revenues—they’ll just squeeze and squeeze until we’re all bled dry.

I predict that, if the Democrats retain control of Congress after the 2010 mid-term elections, we will see tax increases the likes of which have not been seen in this country since the early 1960s.

Why 9/11?

I recently finished reading Robert Spencer’s Stealth Jihad; I’ve also read Mark Steyn’s America Alone. In reading both of these books, I was struck by the omission of any explanation for the timing of the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

For that, you’d have to read Hillaire Belloc’s The Great Heresies, originally published in 1938, in which you would learn of the defeat of an Islamic army of conquest near Vienna on September 11, 1683.