Posted on 09/12/2005 5:08:50 AM PDT by SeaLion
As for the article, it's rubbish from start to finish.
I have another theory: the war on poverty is a quagmire.
This statement tells you that you need read no further. The writer is a kook.
But where this jackass and most other Europeans miss the boat is us every day Americans will fix the damn problems while the cover-your-ass politicians of all persuasions primp for the cameras. We get our backs bowed up and resolve our problems . . . instead of talking them to death like the Euro-Weenies do.
THAT IS THE AMERICAN WAY.
On another thread there's discussion of The Today Shows contention that Bush is "throwing billions of dollars" at NO and questions about whether the money will be effectively spent.
Do you think the Today show is advocating social Darwinism or just bashing Bush with the other side of the bat now that they can't say he isn't reacting effectively to the crisis?
In 1932 Hoover lost both his reputation and the presidency in a landslide to his Democratic challenger Franklin Roosevelt. The New Deal FDR ushered in - signing 15 bills in his first 100 days - almost drove a stake through the heart of Social Darwinism. Never before had government so directly shored up the lives of individual Americans at every social level and class.
If one of the defining characteristics of the Great Depression had been a permanent underclass that engaged in a large-scale looting campaign and attacked government relief workers throughout the country, the New Deal would have been built around a massive domestic military effort that would have killed tens of thousands of people.
Living up here on the fringe of the Northwoods (where people are used to the foul balls tossed at us by Mother Nature), that a bad hurricane hit, tore up a bunch of stuff and flooded a city that was sitting below sea level.
Next.
I've lived through thirteen Presidents and I've not seen as compassionate a man in the Oval Office as George W. Bush. He hugs people (even his enemies!) and he prays with people.
If a man practices his faith, lives it and is attacked unreasonably from a hundred directions, he's probably a Christian. It's an old tradition in this world.
It's all Darwin's fault.
"Social Darwinism" is an absurd construct of Progressive leftists who seek to forestall rational debate by throwing around pejorative characterizations of opposing viewpoints.
Arguing policy with anyone who would use the phrase "Social Darwinism" is an exercise in unproductivity.
That said, even if one accepts the author's characterization for argument's sake, it is clear that the last 150 years of Western civilization have been not about "Social Darwinism," but about "Political Darwinism," which is the most socially destructive kind of "Darwinism" there is.
Just a little bit over the top. Let's see what things look like by Christmas. The seaport and airport are starting to function.
As to the underclass, regardless of color, the welfare system hurts as much as helps. We had 'welfare reform' in 1996 and since then the 'advocates' and bureaucrats have been chipping away at that and making it as ineffective as they can.
I wouldn't call Harold Evans a kook, but he may well be the stupidest man ever to edit the Times. He's using 'social Darwinism' to mean something else entirely - laissez faire economics, which long predated social Darwinism or even Darwin.
True. In all the rush to blame, people are forgetting that Mother Nature played a big role in this. You build your city on Mt. Ste. Helens, expect a volcano, build your city below the sea, expect a flood. Mans pitiful attept to hold back the sea is kind of ridiculous.
That's the first time I've ever seen the word "quagmire" used properly.
This article is garbage, but then, consider the source.
(snort) Long-distance wishful thinking from a self-congratulatory Eurobrit. Where's the notice of the outpouring of help from Texas, etc., hardly a socialist nirvana? Everything about Katrina says America Triumphant--even the howling liberal nitpicking...
Amen! The devil hates God and His children.
"So why then is Hoover almost a dirty word in the history books? It is because faced with a bigger challenge than the floods - the Great Depression with 13 million out of work - he refused to recognise the responsibility of government to relieve individual suffering.
Utter Bull-Shiite.
Hoover's mistake was listening to Congress. And what did Congress want you ask - HIGHER TAXES and TARIFFS.
That was the answer to the depression - which didn't start out as one. As tax revenues initially decreased, Congress clamored for HIGHER TAXES & TARIFFS to make up the difference. So taxes were raised and Hoover signed then into law, and naturally revenues decreased so CONGRESS and Hoover raised them AGAIN. Thereby and once again reducing revenue. SO kiddies, what did Congress do, RAISED THEM some more and wah-la, revenue decreased some more (get the picture here).
You'll note that the above scenario is the exact 'plan' the Democrats had to solve the CLINTON recession Dubya inherited in 2000 and is their answer to everything; if revenue decreases we'll raise taxes and if revenue still doesn't increases then we'll raise them some more as it's only logical (to moon bats) that we didn't raise them HIGH enough the first time.
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