panic now if you have not yet

STATE OF CONSERVATISM

Oh no - the GOP has lost two in a row, time to re-write the Party platform, re-brand. Yes conservatism has died yet again (see also 1964, 1976, 1992 ) Now they need to moderate their message, open up the borders, bring the troops home and start spreading the wealth. America is in a state of decline - we only need to manage the downfall and welcome the East to the new throne. This is beginning to read like a script for groundhog day.

It is groundhog day. Life will always repeat until it is gotten right - right? Alot of op/eders need to sit back, relax, read up on history and take in reality for a change. Perception is what drives the masses, but reality provides feedback loops to them as well. If the Dems positions are correct (rather than just hype/hope) then it will be evidenced in real world experience. Why meet them halfway if they are whole heartily wrong? Why should the objective of the Party be to be in power? If "progress" is going to be made would it not be better to be the Party out of power when it happens? A virtuous principled opposition is more noble than a moderate me-too Party. Unreformed entitlements, government forced sub-prime lending are/were bipartisan ticking time bombs with universal health and carbon taxes to be added to the list. Why join in our Nation's destruction? When reality comes around it will collect the false prophets into the dust bin. There were these other years 1980 and 1994. Yes we can 2010!

forever 1929

PROGRESSIVE DOGMA

For the want-a-be muckrakers such as Thomas Frank it is always the year 1929. One pictures him playing dress up in turn-of-the-century garb or soup line attire, bringing back old period words, writing away on an old style typewriter. Yes for sure he writes on an iMac, but for sure he hates it. You know capitalism brought about the computer revolution. Perhaps he sees the internet and all the new media as a necessary interludor until he can sway back the Nation into more sustainable times.

"Whats wrong with Kansas?" he asks. Well mr Frank, nothing. Whats wrong with you? This is a nation of values not class. Hard working poor people don't resent rich people if they earned what they've got and have similar values of work ethic, country, and faith. Something in the ten commandments about coveting neighborly things, has got him all hysterical that people don't vote for their "economic self interest" in his words. Ok mr Frank, the voters who voted for Regan and not stagflation are proles in your book. What an abstract concept and quite counter-intuitive for the progressive mind to comprehend. Coveting is the vise of the lazy, anti-american, and faithless.

So now that reality has been suspended from the muckrakers mind, its not hard to see how he thinks the whole so-called "worst economic crises sense 1929", gets up and running. It was not government implied backing of Fannie/Freddie, it was deregulation. It's not congressional pressure to offer home loans to poor credit people, it was the people on John McCain's campaign bus. Its not that Capitalism's laws were not practiced correctly, its that it is intellectually bankrupt. Ok mr Frank, how did that new deal work out? Oh, It made it worse? You mean that government intervention caused a small rise and then a second more prolonged collapse? How can that be?

Back to the present. If congress passes the bail-out, no doubt all the Washington and New York insiders will be high fiving each other. I plan to stay 100 miles from any David Broder articles. But one can be sure that with every bail out, markets will be distorted and risks will be improperly assigned yet again. How about a true populist stance Mr Frank, NO-BAIL-OUT!! But then of course the commanding heights won't be transferred to Government... i mean government acting for the little guy right? Freedom a zero sum game?

sex ed for vise presidents

SCHOOL ISSUES

Well it appears that Sarah Palin did not fake her pregnancy to cover for her 17 year old daughter. Unless her daughter is pregnant again. I don't know how the math works out, but the last baby was in April and now she is supposedly five months pregnant..... You know how those small town families are - clingy.

In regards over Palin's support for abstinence sex education - the pundits are missing two points.

A: Much is made of Palin's stance on sex education in the schools but I have not heard if her daughter actually attended an abstinence only school. If the argument is made that kids need sex education in school to counter their wacky religious parents, then can't it be said that a program is needed for former vise presidential candidates too? John Edwards should look into that.

B: This is yet another issue that should be decided by the family unit, not government. Parents should get to choose which school they send their kids to, and schools should compete for students by offering diverse curriculums. Almost all school controversies will go away if this were the case.

In regards to Palin's perfectly beautiful baby son Trek, lets hope, as seems to be the case, that Palin uses the issue to promote acceptance and not "science" funding for the "cure". Also she should make it a campaign issue, that most doctors recommend abortion to parents of prenatally detected health issues. That would contrast with Obama's present vote on infanticide - neglecting babies born alive after a failed abortion on Illinois legislative committee (but that type of decision is above his pay grade.) Say what you want about Bush, but a promotion of a Culture of Life will stand on the correct side of history. Similar from the Palin family: "Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives.
We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed"

what is mine can be yours

TAXES

The personal income tax code is largely immoral. Properly put the IRS as an entity is not immoral itself, being inert, but rather the majority of congress that passed the laws and the president who signed the laws. It is immoral to take income and redistribute it to politically embraced majorities. That is what happens in this Nation. The middle class majority has instituted a progressive income tax that taxes the minority rich too much. These taxes are then spent on all kinds of benefits to the middle class and the poor. This is stealing and it is wrong. (For all the anti-war fanatics - think if the actual costs of war were passed to all equally not just the rich) If one held a gun to the head of a wealthy person, took their watch and gave it to some hobo under a bridge, that would also be wrong. The difference is that in the first instance it is the law and in the second it is against the law. Yes some populist / progressive "reformers" properly amended the constitution for the 16th time a ways back. That only permits the Federal government to collect income taxes - it does not force it to. Virtue is having the power to do wrong, even a popular defense for doing wrong, yet showing the fortitude to resist earthly temptation (aka being politicaly popular / PC). Mike Huckabee may be a smooth talking, Bible thumping, gadfly from Hope, but goddamnit - he is right about eliminating unequal tax on income and going to taxing consumption!

mccarthy cures autism

DISABILITY

Good news folks. Former playmate and MTV Singled Out host Jenny McCarthy has discovered the cure for Autism. All it takes is a detoxifying diet and some magic crystals and wammo: the magical cure. Of course the immunization/mercury link has long ben dispelled by serious researchers - but with autism rates multiplying ad infinitum the weekly newsines are getting restless. (My own hypothesis would be the silicon implants breast feeding angle - the silicon that is, being an indicator of a mother believing in whatever wiccan methodology is emanating from the popular occult of the era). Well the autism explosion has a lot to do with Rainman - no one wants an ordinary "retarded" child, when you can, with a little affluence and money, get a premium diagnosis as Autistic. Everyone assumes that means the savant variety - high math, memory and or music skills. Why is there a popular rejection of the continuum of human life? Some people are born with God given talents and others are lacking but that does not make anyone less human. Doctors often advise mothers of prenatal detected down syndrome that most mothers choose to abort - that to add comfort to a borderline defined genocidal action. The real traits that humans should judge others on are sincerity, integrity, and love, not physical nor cognitive disability. Rather than frantically searching for cures, it would be better to work on acceptance and reasonable accommodations.

aclu where are you

HYPOCRISY

Tapping on the floor a secret code is a crime in the Minneapolis Airport bathroom. In an unjust undercover operation an Evil Conservative is swept up - by expressing his constitutionally protected right to speech and sexual privacy. But don't worry, the ACLU will be filing a complaint soon and will be joined by Rossie O'Donnell, Jessie Jackson et al - in a massive march against the multiple recent outing of gay Republicans and Religious Conservatives by frothy mouthed media activists. (Unless the ACLU is a hypocritical organization that is...) 1973 Roe v. Wade is an explicit mandate for sexual/reproductive privacy written plain as day (Sandra Day? in Casey) into the U.S. Constitution - its a universal human right, right? (What, the Supremes making it up as they go along is a bad idea?) Well most people fall somewhere into the contradiction column sometimes but that does not negate truth. Someone advocating for monogamous marriage who has an affair - obviously a hypocrite - that act does not negate the belief that monogamy is better for society than promiscuity. Algore living in a big house with huge electric bills and John Edwards hedge fund advisory don't discount their commitments to global warming and poverty respectively. The difference between modern liberals and conservatives when it comes to hypocrisy is that conservatives bring ruin to their life when they don't practice what they preach. Modern liberals actually enrich their lives and make the world a better place when they deviate from their anti-consumerist / egalitarian Marxist dogmatism.

UPDATE: I heard the ACLU is taking up the case. Their take: Solicitation in public is OK as long as act takes place in private.

select news fit to print

NEWS MEDIA

The news is a report of what is new so they don't report much on what has remained the same. Advertising is their customer so they report mainly to get viewers/readers that advertisers want to reach. The fact that some things are getting better all the time is not news in the sense that no political action is needed. They only report the expose and love to report acute rather than diffuse effects. The 5th generation milk farmer going into default makes better news than the millions of consumers jipped 5cents a gallon because of farm subsidies. Journalists fancy themselves affecting change in a positive fashion rather than just reporting the facts and putting perspective on events. With almost every story, change is needed and implicitly government is the choice change agent (with fiat power). The stratification of America has never been more polarized - a drastic charge. But when one considers the changes since the '50's of a re-castization of America - along intellectual fault lines -it seems to make sense. People can be divided in roughly half - left and right brain people. You see journalists are (left brain - creative/expressive) writers of fiction - they use facts to adjust their template and tell the story along familiar plot lines. The rich get richer the poor get poorer. The latest outrage that needs immediate government action as though it where some unusual event unprecedented in history is what sells. They are sell-outs to truth and reason.

research mercantilism

STEM CELLS

How is the nation responsible for a new research discovery assigned? Much research is done and credited as being discovered in the US, but often by foreign born persons - some US citizens, some with student visas. Half of all grad students are from over seas - largess of the US taxpayer to the university system. The brain drain from the rest of the world seems to benefit us well but should not be an end-all be-all. High threats are made that if stem cells are not funded (as though there were a federal ban) that research will go to other countries. These research mercantilists ignore the fact that invitro fertilization was developed without federal funding and that many countries do not allow profits on medical breakthroughs. The US will still benefit from any discoveries in the globalised system. If South Korea wants to take the lead in experiments with human stem cells - let them. Would it not be better to fall behind in humankinds destruction?

western imposition

HISTORY OF VALUES

Ok, slavery has existed across all cultures and all times until the present. It is not a fundamental characteristic unique to the west. The same with colonialism and conquering so called native peoples and taking their land. In antiquity, when new successful civilizations expanded, they displaced or absorbed less successful ones. The original native Americans were displaced many times by new groups of asian/pacific peoples from the pacific islands or across the Bering strait long before Columbus showed up. And the borders among the various tribes of native Americans were always in flux, with the stronger conquering the weaker before the Spanish, British and French warred over the new world. Europeans gave the west "indians" small pox, they gave Europe tobacco (organic and not grown by multi-nationals though) and maybe syphilis. The only thing unique about western culture is that it ended slavery world-wide, even against the protestation of African tribal kings who greatly profited from capturing rival African tribes and selling them into slavery. The Barbary pirates may have enslaved more Europeans into Africa than the number of Africans taken to the new world, yet this was ended by western society (with their evil western tradition and moral vanity). It is also the present western culture that dominates the international system with rules regarding the static freezing of national borders. Colonialism brought many advances into the third world that would not have been achieved otherwise (including the excuse of colonialism to explain ones present backwardness). The concept of a nation state with fixed borders was more advanced than many primitive people had yet discovered and this is why most of the worlds national borders were drawn by the west. The concept of the individual with natural rights and equality under the rule of law are western in origin. These concepts have been forced on the benighted mostly against their will. This is not an argument that colonialism or slavery are justified by the results. But it reminds me of that scene in Life of Brian, where the Palestinians are making a decree against Roman tyranny but have to exempt all the good things the Romans brought such as: law and order, the aqueduct, roads ect., ect. We should pay reparations to the real victims here: Neanderthals.

being sorry for ones self

KARMA

What goes around comes around. The fates know this spinning the thread, tying the knots, and cutting it to length. Karma always catches up with you, its a kite tied to you - a shadow in your conscience. The bearer of bad karma should accept their actions and blame themselves, not others. Life is what happens to you and how you react to it. Except Bill Clinton who was attacked by a vast right wing conspiracy looking for a new enemy after the cold war had been won. But for the rest of society after a regretful event - what a disaster...

overpowering the weak

NIETZSCHE

The weak, seeking to define the powerful elites attributes that keep them in power as evil, is seen as a sort of common movement of ill will against elites. The powerful elites with their more muted moral judgment of ethics is envisioned by Nietzsche as a superior worldly outlook, and shared by progressives. In this view lack of action and acceptance of the human condition is cringed upon (elites have better characteristics that their subservients should aspire to). Well a more accurate depiction of good and evil would have to better account with the historical evolution of political ideology as a moral actuator. In natural law theory, there are truths out there to be discovered by human reason. These are absolute good and evil, not good and bad as Nietzsche's noble man would have it. People can discover this embedded wisdom handed down through societal customs and trial and error over human existence. All people have rights that are unalienable and governments are legitimate only if they are constituted to protect those rights. The noble man or today's modern progressive seeks to become the overlord in totalitarian fashion of the masses. All people weak or powerful have the same rights and should be treated equally under the law, but the progressives have removed themselves from the negative consequences of their over governing - making them above the law. A humble existence is virtue - live and let live.

american fusion project

GAY MARRIAGE

Well the judges got a little excited, putting their cart before the donkey - and it backfired - very predictably. Now a populist fervor has swept out of the heartland, just like the last turn of century, but not Fabian this time. At the state level, using the direct democracy ballot initiative favored by populist reformers of all stripes, the people sought to get ahead of the courts. The democrats (small d) baned same sex marriage, defeating the republicans (small r). These days a chant at the federal level can be felt marching toward article 5, before article 3 annexes more power from the constitution and its constituents. Now the progressives need to admit their past misdeeds and recant their manifesto, and discover states rights and deregulation, their former foes. Marriage should be deregulated at the federal level (historically always a states matter) through the legislative process in the tax code and other regulations. Also the right of contract should be enforced federally over the states, and the full faith and credit clause: And whala! A legitimate form of same sex union - not marriage. Then individuals can make their own choices under their own direction and free from government intervention. The fusion project can be reborn - extracting conservative results through libertarian means.

nature nuture soul

GENETICS AND FREE CHOICE

The progressive view regarding where human actions originate from is a non individual fault proposition. Biology is discounted by progressives (radicals not to long ago believed that even gender traits were learned) believing in a blank slate that is written on by environment - genome project be damned. These progressive environmentalists also discount the human soul sometimes even denying its existence. Common people do not make their own choices - that is the duty of elites. They believe if only humans were born and raised in a nurturing environment all would be well. Society at large is responsible for all evil - systemic triumphantalism. They wish to strictly control this developmental environment - and resort to their beloved scientific modeling and government coercion tactics (it takes a village i.e. the state). All is chance and random - there is no higher purpose in their vision - and they have received their superior vision for society not from their soul, or derived from reason, but through sheer emotional revelation. This religious wishful thinking dictates 'these people would not choose this for themselves, lets help them with what they really want.' Contrary to this vision are the soulful who believe humans are judged on their own self actualization and will to change the inherent path of fate that biology and environment try to dictate - a hierarchy of powers is prevalent. Biology is cruel - quite the opposite of egalitarian values - people are born with vastly different skills and flaws. These are very innate irregardless of environment - environment being mostly just the expression of ones biology. However, personal responsibility and accountability still exist as articulaters and arbiters of ones genetically encoded fate. At some point in ones life, while climbing maslow's pyramid, the soul has the potential to be expressed if the individual wants to modify, although not completely able to escape fate. This is everyones mission if they are willing to choose it, before they self destruct.

outcomes and good intentions

MODERN LIBERALS

Now if one has only pure innocent thoughts, if one's heart swells for all humanity, if the level of one's kind intentions exceeds all others, is one still bound with the blame if there are negative consequences? Or is one exempt on the account of ones superior wishful thinking? If one is drowning in ignorance what is one's moral obligation to self educate? A key in answering these questions would have to be an evaluation if ones ignorance was the result of cognitive limitations, a willful refusal of reality, or self psychopathical denial of truth. It also raises the question of a genetic link to political ideology.

There are a lot of whining little children out there. They're at the checkout counter and crying for some candy. Now the adult has to decide: passivate the child or practice tough love. For the adult with a rational brain its a no-brainer. But for the progressive brain the signal gets routed through the heart. Short term convenience at the expense of long term effects (trial and error never resulting in a learning curve with a positive slope). Endorphins swarming their brains after such good intended acts - holier than thou - the progressive mindset is dulled from sensing and observing the outcomes of their failed social policies.

soul asylum

FUSION PROJECT

Virtue does not count if it was not by choice. A good deed only counts as good if one had opportunity to do other vise. If government tries to enforce morality it does not make its subjects more virtuous, just more depraved of the very feedback loops that give humanity information to make their own decisions. Only government has fiat power to forcibly coerce the individual through taxes and regulations. The only legitimate use of this police power and tax power should be to protect the rights of the people and to provide a common defense against enemies. Somehow government has evolved into an evil nanny dictating social and economic behavior. Even if the net result in a few instances could be judged as good, it would not be virtue. When all self directed opportunity to strive toward virtue has been effectively removed by government, humans will have surrendered their souls.