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Courage and modesty are the two most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color.
--Goethe
An Open Letter to Sniveling Negroes
Once upon a time, the United States of America was full of Negroes. America had a problem. It was the Negro Problem. It was characterized by a relatively complete failure for the Negro to gain an appreciable foothold in any of the nation's mainstream institutions. He couldn't be educated, he co...
"I always ignore racial advice from Whites in our country..I never will give them any credibility on any discussion about Black people..Never" You are quite in agreement with your masters, and mine. No criticism from the broader culture is allowed, going on fifty years. And that is working out for you, how?
If blacks truly gave no credibility to the Cathedral they would not be so thoroughly penned in by it's limits. What Cobb said. The vast quantity of commentary which I read is without value, or of a negative value, but it is only in a sliver of thought and experience that we ever find truths. But you, you have just reduced the tiny margins from which learning is possible to the microscopic.
We shall not grow wise before we learn that much we have done was very foolish--von Hayek
The Intellectual One-Drop Rule
If there's a matter that haunts me regarding race in America, it is the sense many Americans have arrogated unto themselves to claim an implicit understanding of what is best for black Americans. The great irony of this matter is that it is genuinely considered sincere and well-meaning. What's i...
The Tenth Commandment sends a message–to everyone who believes wealth should be redistributed. And that message is clear and concise: go to Hell--
P J O'Rourke
The Bible on capitalism Tom Smith
Coveting is definitely a no no. Wives, asses, houses, BMWs, you name it.
The taxation rate for both Carnegie and his secretary in 1900 was zero. Of course, America at that time was a place without hope or the expectation of improvement.
Warren the cheap Tom Smith
Which would Warren Buffet's secretary prefer -- being made the national poster girl for tax victimhood or being paid more than a measley $60K a year for being personal assistant to one of the richest guys in the world? I guess the idea is she'll be happier if her boss pays more in taxes. If I ...
This is the act of a lunatic, supported by a warren of lunatics. I am amazed to see that in their confidence they have lost their cleverness, and any sense of fear.
"An act of national insanity" Tom Smith
A good piece by Robert Samuelson (he is usually quite good) on the Keystone pipeline fiasco. A lot could be said about Obama's decision on it, all of it dispiriting. No doubt some environmental true believers will take in kindly, as perhaps economically irrational, but treading on some imagina...
Chesterton would merely tell us that conservatives are playing their assigned role acquiescing in the liberal state by complaining about an appointment process which is unconstitutional, which strongly implies that the branch of government to which he is being appointed is legitimate.
Recess AppointmentsMike Rappaport
I have a post up on the recent recess appointments over at the Originalism Blog. Here is an excerpt: The recess appointments of Richard Cordray and a few others has taken this area of law one further step into the cesspool. Presidents of both parties have claimed the authority to make recess ...
That was not a brain freeze. The man is just witless.
All you people are going to feel really horrible when it turns out he has a brain tumor or something Tom Smith
Like you've never forgotten which agency of government it is you wanted to eliminate. Like you've never had a brain freeze. It happens. Yes, I have been unable to recall names of my children. That's where "you" and "buddy" come in. Colleagues, hell. That doesn't even count. It is not somet...
I suppose that means Fukuyama assumed that the very books which Hayek wrote for those subjects, Fatal Conceit, and Road, were created to be read by amateurs like Reagan and not for learned professionals. In fact, most professionals refused to read them. They were given to understand, correctly, that Hayek placed a low value on the ability of the brilliant individual to understand the invisible hand, which does not reserve an appropriate place of honor for them.
Fukuyama and HayekMike Rappaport
The other day I recommended Nicholas Wade's review of Francis Fukuyama's new book. The book seems quite interesting, and I think I might give it a try. But I am wary of reading Fukuyama. This review of Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty suggests that Fukuyama can't even understand Hayek, so w...
Clearly, Obama is too thin to be President.
Is Christie too fat to be President? Tom Smith
New Jersey governor Chris Christie is said to be seriously considering running for the GOP nomination for POTUS. He would be, as I heard Bill Kristol has said, a big man for a big job. But is he too big? Is he too fat to be President? This question could mean two things. Is he too fat to get...
Bertrand Russell admitted it. "Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power."
Worse than socialism Tom Smith
Jonah is right about this as well. I actually think American left-liberalism is even worse than (a probably semi-idealized form of) socialism. It's just rich progressives with the thinnest veneer of phony compassion for the poor, the unemployed etc. figuring ways to gather up more the in-kind ...
Hey, Kirby, I made my first visit to Griffith observatory this year--not being from California. Streams of white people, hoards of Asians, a few Hispanics, not a single black person. Not one. In LA no less. What a country.
Boo fucking hoo.
Strange mountains Tom Smith
This is sort of a family life update and the usual caution applies. A couple of months ago, the family unit and I vacationed in June Lake, a very pretty spot east of Yosemite National Park. It's a gorgeous lake tucked right at the base of some high mountains and is an easy drive to Mono Lake an...
So we should make allowances for the Jew who, finding the best ground staked out by anti-Semites, takes opposite ground because it is opposite. Without courage and the willingness to risk being isolated, intellect is worse than useless, it is damaging.
Jews and Communists Maimon Schwarzschild
Here is something unusually thoughtful about Jews, Judaism, and Communism; with special reference to Poland, but also to east-central Europe and Russia generally. If one can feel pride because of an accomplishment of a Jew, even of a non-Jewish Jew who did not act as a Jew, then by the same toke...
When the Jewish intellectual mind left the confines of the rabbinical world abruptly to occupy politics and philosophy two hundred year ago, it was a race to the left. The prescriptions for the Jewish village of Maimonides, applied to millions of strangers, came into the brutal grasp of the international rabbi Marx.
It is curious that the left, and the Jewish left especially, would have us examine every imagined flaw in the Western character, but never their own. That this is extremely counter-productive does not cross their minds. Good job, professor.
Jews and Communists Maimon Schwarzschild
Here is something unusually thoughtful about Jews, Judaism, and Communism; with special reference to Poland, but also to east-central Europe and Russia generally. If one can feel pride because of an accomplishment of a Jew, even of a non-Jewish Jew who did not act as a Jew, then by the same toke...
If I really wanted to choose who will live and who will die, I'd be a socialist and join a death panel.
Classic leftist misdirection.
Are you a mean Republican? Tom Smith
Suppose there was a sick, poor child with no medical insurance. Would you just let him die? Suppose there was a bank that had made bad loans. Would you just let it die? Suppose there was a teacher who couldn't teach. Would just let his (or her!) career die? Suppose there was a business that w...
A Ponzi scheme benefits those in on the ground floor. SS, even as it screws some more than others, benefits no one. Whether or not it was so designed, SS served as a giant piggy-bank for government "borrowing".
The Social Security ponzi scheme debate Tom Smith
This is actually rather fascinating. Take a look at this at Baseline Scenario, a blog I find quite irritating and read out of duty, to the effect that no, SS isn't really a Ponzi scheme. The argument is roughly that SS isn't really a Ponzi scheme because there's no misrepresentation -- everybo...
"Every religious person is weird." You know an incredible number of persons. I certainly do not know all atheist, but even so I can see they are not all sterile. The ones who are not, like Theodore Dalrymple, acknowledge that atheism cannot support itself without becoming its own horrid religion.
This blog has already linked to an excellent review of Perry's non-conservatism.
via www.tnr.com
He is a cagier Bush, and his public religiosity is hypocrisy. Now there's a surprise, a hypocritical career politician. And if Calvin Coolidge doesn't run, I'll vote Perry over Romney without a second thought.
Perry: Obama’s Worst Nightmare - Josh Kraushaar - NationalJournal.comTom Smith
Perry has proven throughout his long career that he’s a canny political observer, and he picked up on the anti-Washington mood enveloping the country long before the smart set in Washington did. On the campaign trail, he may be toning down the language from his book, but if anything, his broad t...
When we say that Jobs would not be a great President we are really only saying that it is a position that has evolved badly and cannot be performed well in that vein. A successful Presidency would mean a total downsizing and makeover of government. That is something which corporate takeover artist do fairly well.
We currently have zero politicians running on that platform, including the inimitable Mr. Paul. The tendency of democracy is to demand more, not less. But is could be done.
Dowd loses her faith Tom Smith
This is interesting but also sort of baffling and annoying. Anybody willing to indulge in the slightest bit of objectivity should have been able to tell that it was very unlikely that Obama had the chops to be an effective president. Forget about whether you like his political orientation, whi...
This is an important link. I hope it does not go unnoticed.
LA County's war on Antelope Valley residents
If the information is accurate, or fake but accurate, it would easily be explained by the presence of Hillary factions. Obama thought he could buy and bury her at State, but that is a miscalculation. The Clinton's detests Obama, as do a significant number of Democrat operatives. If Obama is Peter Sellers in Being There, he is too ripe a target to ignore. And we are missing all the fun.
The Ulsterman Conspiracy
I have just read one of the most mindblowing fictions I've ever seen. It rings perfectly true. If in fact it is true, it would blow the doors off of the Obama Administration. Even if it's not, it makes for extraordinary reading. As I think about it, it seems more unlikely that some guy with a we...
That is the first theory outside convention I've read that is not pathetic or nuts. Quite good, even.
Because He's Not Dead Yet
So imagine you get a chance to get Bin Laden. You know where he is. You've been scoping out his hideout for months. You've been eavesdropping on his conversation. Hell you even hacked his PS3 for fun and took out the whole network because you know he's been using it to communicate with Al Q...
Iran is the single middle-east state capable of improvement and self-rule, and that is the one we left to rot while we occupied ourselves with the charming people of Iraq. Even if an American government had better advice to offer Egypt than this present serving of embarrassing tripe, we just no longer have any standing to give it--which was an objective of Obama's foreign policy, but I don't think he is prepared to take credit for it happening so quickly.
Collapsing with the Swiftness
I watched Anderson Cooper stumble over his words last night because I wanted to see what CNN was saying about the collapse of Egypt. Fouad Adjami was the only literate person on the sceen. All of the journalists right about now sound like bad Oracle salesreps. They have some general idea what th...
It is understood that there is, somewhere, an Earth Store, and due to some accident of geography or circumstance, Americans got there first and broke the lock--consuming of it many times their proportion to the number of Earth Citizens. We bad.
Very curiously, the Earth Store has not run dry due to our avarice, it has, incredibly, increased its stock. This puzzling state of affairs cannot be explained, but it can be ignored.
Demand
It never ceases to amaze me how certain old hacked arguments serve as fundamental excuses to do or say more than the the consequence bears. To me in the end it all represents nothing much more than uneconomic thinking - a kind of rationality that appreciates reason, but cannot stand the fact tha...
When we buy happiness with money we are buying unobtainium, but this does not prevent us from spending and borrowing to reach for this state. Therefore those peculiar creatures that buy happiness by saving money are the ones selling unobtainium, and should be reviled and taxed accordingly. Obama's Law.
Unobtainium and Walras' Law
Suppose people want to spend 30% of their income on unobtainium. But the supply is zero, because unobtainium is unobtainable. So there's an excess demand for unobtanium equal to 30% of GDP. What does that imply, all you students of economics? By Walras Law, the sum of the values of all excess de...
What the professor means to convey is that equality can only be found in equality of outcome, and that black people cannot compete on equal terms with, say, Koreans. Ergo, we have race "normative" programs to produce equality in employment, income, and education certificates.
That he is removing the contest of liberty from the very people that would benefit most from it sails right over his head, but perhaps the idea that he would be without left relevance does not.
The Inevitable Racism of Liberty?
The substantive ideals of American conservatism—limited government, states’ rights, individualism, property rights, and the prioritizing of liberty over equality—when applied consistently inevitably result in racism...--Anon This is the most stunning and revealing argument I think I've ever hear...
It is true that states are sovereign, and what is sovereign cannot claim bankruptcy as a remedy. But as we see, the fact that an entity cannot seek bankruptcy does not mean it is not bankrupt.
If there is one thing government is practiced in, it is in doing something it is forbidden to do while calling it something else.
BTW, when we look at towns and cities just in California who have gone into receivership, the result is miraculous.
You're A Mean One, Mr. Gridlock
But I'm happy that you've come. You give me peace of mind. Now everyone should know that hope and change are dead. "Yes we can" is now all "I guess we sorta did", and that's all she wrote. Yay rain gods. Keep it somber, gloomy and morose. Send the kids to their rooms, and remind them that tomorr...
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