Posted on 11/04/2013 4:19:26 AM PST by Louis Foxwell
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FReepmail or drop me a comment to get on or off the Sultan Knish ping list. I highly recommend an occasional look at the Sultan Knish blog. It is a rich source of materials, links and more from one of the preeminent writers of our age.
I generally like the Sultan, but this one is especially good.
The TP is grass roots social revolution by the middle class. It is not organized, except rudimentarily, dynamic, bottom up, and uncompromising. It will see a new political party based on Constitutionally limited government, the end of a welfare class and of crony capitalism and the eradication of socialism in America.
>> I generally like the Sultan, but this one is especially good.
+1
I’d compare his writing style and quality to Victor Davis Hanson. That’s a compliment. :-)
I agree.
I think Greenfield is a better writer than Hanson. He needs an editor to fix an occasional dangling modifier or homophone howler, but overall, he’s a fluent, readable, and occasionally beautiful stylist.
Hanson, on the other hand, like many academics, is a clunky writer.
I like reading VDH (his heart’s in the right place, and we don’t really have another classicist on the front lines), but I agree that he’s a poor writer.
“Good writer” is NOT a synonym for “I agree with him”.
Reporter Chris Papst worked with a single mom who had two children.
The mother turned down a raise because the extra money would decrease her government benefits.....she admits living a life off the government. “If you’re going to get something for free, are you going to work for it?” Cogan explained. “It kind of like sucks you in.”
Here are some of the horrific details For this story, CBS 21 researched government programs available to a single mother of two making $19,000 a year.
Incredibly, govt freebies available to her include:
<>>< $14,976 in free day care,
<><> another $13,400 for Head Start and Early Head Start,
<><> $7,148 in housing vouchers,
<><> $6,500 for weatherization projects,
<><> $400 to pay heating bills,
<><> $480 a year for a cell phone,
<><> an extra $230 for a land line,
<><> $182 in free legal advice.
The family would get:
<><> more than $6,028 in food assistance
<><> another $6,045 in medical assistance.
<><> The needy mother is eligible for $5,500 school Pell Grants,
<><> an additional $12,000 for Education Opportunity Grant; SMART Grant; and TEACH Grant.
<><> $6,800 in tax credits,
<><> $1,900 in withholding would be returned.
That adds up to $81,589 in free govt assistance....paid for by stuggling taxpayers.
He has nailed the problem and the ultimate outcome. Very good!
Freaking genius!
Steyn, Sultan, Sowell, VD Hansen, Rush.
I’m totally crazy about these guys.
Amazing insights in this one..!
A friend spent $50,000 installing solar panels on his house. The federal and state governments reimbursed $45,000. He’s bought two Volts and been reimbursed a total of $12,500; $5,000 from Government Motors and $7,500 from the Feds. This is the government influencing people to do things that by themselves they’d never do.
Not for me, either.
VDH is an outstanding researcher, and I really wanted to read "The Savior Generals." However, it was such slow going that I had to take it back to the library before I made it halfway through.
When you diagram some of his sentences, it's obvious why reading his prose is like hiking a mountain trail while pushing a baby in a stroller. The sentences are full of verbal obstacles and syntactical debris.
Great article. I was thinking about this when I read those figures, but I couldn’t express it.
> “Uncertainty and struggle are what we most often associate with poverty. Not knowing if you can still afford to pay next month’s bills and worrying over how much more you can cut back when you’re already barely getting by. This way of life has become more associated with the middle class than with those at the very bottom.”
Boy, you hit the nail right on the head right out of the starting gate. This is EXACTLY where I and so many of my personal middle class friends have found ourselves every single month during the past 2 or so years. I don’t care how “good” the MSM says the economy is or how low they say unemployment numbers are, they just don’t seem to reflect reality per my and my friends personal experiences. Before 0 took office I was making a very decent living, had quite a bit of savings put back, could afford to buy just about anything I wanted within reason, eat out pretty often, take vacations, etc...not anymore. Every single month is a struggle and worry session about whether I will be able to pay the bills or not and this is the same delimma just about all of my friends are going through while we continue to pay our taxes so the CIC can play golf daily on the finest courses and take as many mult-million dollar vacations a year as he wants. I cannot wait to see his own kick the crown off his head and remove him forcefully.
Great article
“He needs an editor to fix an occasional dangling modifier or homophone howler-——— “
—
That gave me a good laugh. I don’t know what it means but I’m sure I’ve been guilty of it.
That said,my mother was widowed in 1938 with 2 little ones.Shoes with cardboard inside to cover the holes was routine.Now that was poverty but she worked hard and we made it through.No whining or self pity——ever.
.
A “homophone howler” is something funny that results from confusing words that sound the same, such as “err,” “heir,” and “air.”
Theodore Dalrymple, a British writer, has written about the difference between “poverty” and “squalor.” Poverty is not having money or stuff. “Squalor” is the result of poor character and poor decisions, and people’s lives can be squalid even if they have plenty of food, clothing, and other basic comforts.
Living in the government cloud. A great analogy.
Just returned from the pharmacy. Drugs that cost 25 last year now cost 100. Why is this, do you suppose?
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