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Posted on 07/07/2012 11:21:19 AM PDT by neverdem
This weekend, I am thousands of miles from home in a remote and isolated part of the world with erratic communications and lack of basic services. No, not Washington, D.C. Things aren’t that primitive, thank God. I’m in a rude Highland croft way up a far Scottish brae, enjoying the simple life by choice, rather than because the capital region of the global superpower is incapable of turning the lights back on within a week.
Which is by way of saying that news from the imperial metropolis has reached me in fits and starts. The other morning it was the intriguing tidbit that Chief Justice John Roberts had written both the majority opinion in the Obamacare decision and the dissent. He is literally his own worst enemy. He’s apparently the Mike Myers of the Supreme Court, able to play both Austin Powers and Dr. Evil, although it has to be said that he seems rather more at home as the bumbling swinger. If I understand correctly, the chief justice wrote the dissent back when it was the 5–4 majority opinion, and then, after switching sides, wrote the new majority opinion, and the four guys left holding the old majority opinion decided to leave it as is, presumably as a way of not so subtly underlining their total contempt for their squishy chief. Fascinating stuff, I’m sure...
--snip--
America is seizing up before our eyes, and the action necessary to reverse the sclerosis is stymied at every turn by rapacious unions, government micro-regulators, dependency-spreading social engineers, and crony capitalists who know how to weave their way through the bureaucracy...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Looks like a great place to deposite 30 pieces of lead.
Which enumerated power of Article 1 Section 8 gives FedGov the power to give GRANTS to individuals to buy something with tax money that they can’t aford to buy with their own income?
Do you consider yourself a Constitutional Conservative? Or are you part of the “living, breathing” side?
You mean that they should have thought of burying the power cables decades ago? Who would have taken the earnings hit required by that? Who would give up their bonus merely to ensure that millions of customers would be safe from a freak storm decades later?
Your-point-bears-repeating/Not-said-often-enough bump.
A typically brilliant illustration from Mark Steyn, as is this:
"A large Sweden is a contradiction in terms. It cannot be done, and the more determinedly you try to do it, the more you will preside over a ruined wasteland. The road to hell isn’t paved at all, and the street lamps went out long ago."
Viva Steyn!
The last major crash took well over 1000 years to rebuild from. In some places, it has NEVER recovered. The desire of “burn it all so we cal rebuild!” always misses that point. When the crash happens, it will take generations to rebuild.
The left must be razed and the ground salted. Or we shall all die.
You should post the article by Victor Davis Hansen as a thread of its own.
Yep. When you observe what the federal government (including the state-run media) does nowadays, you'll see that their prime directive is to prevent the perception of a "hard crash". If they can make it seem like a series of smaller crashes with no meaningful recovery after each one (sound familiar so far?), there's a chance that the people will never reach the insurrection flash point.
So far, their plan is working pretty well.
Is that home boy pic the local FOP?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8C7i9kdEf8&feature=channel&list=UL
The man can write: dependency-spreading social engineers... Is that great or what?
Hasn't been exercised since April 19th, 1775.
I’m looking at possible alternatives that would be supported politically. Do you honestly think that Americans will cut poor people off completely? Not ruddy likely, because most folks don’t think about the Constitution. Why not work with what we have? The set up with employers providing health insurance has been around for 70 years. Do you think that we’ll be able to change THAT within one presidency or a even a Senate term?
I get your point. Even our hopes and dreams are circumscribed by the horrible False American Republic that FDR created for us. It’s sad, pathetic really.
Mostly I don’t think we’ll be able to change anything, I think we’ll descend slowly, until we reach the level of Brazil, if we are lucky. South Africa if we are not.
I remember when that article was posted. Along with another where MArk Steyn commented on people driving onto his property to steal something made out of metal.
They act like they are looking for a job if confronted.
The worse part is the government is complicit in this mess. The more chaos and anarchy liberals can cause, the more rights they can strip away from a populous begging for it.
Supply is called forth by demand. Let's face it: there's a real and evergreen demand for pointing out (or claiming) that the current big-government system is rotten. There's not just one brand, but two. Those who believe that the system is rotten because the government hasn't clamped down hard enough can sign up with the viros and get their doomsaying through the global-warming claque. All of which sing their supper, as they've gotten mucho financing from the government as well as easy media placement and a prestige/influence that's a lot harder to earn without recourse to politics.
On our side, there's a huge demand for doom-and-gloom because it reinforces our hunches that big government entails misgovernment.
I don't know where all this is going to end up. Suffice it to say, widespread demand for doom-and-gloom does not say much that's good for the present order. The people whose fortunes and pride are tied in with the established order can keep muddling along by playing off one set of doomsayers against the other - you know, the old "two extremes" dodge - but the long-term consequence is a decline in confidence in the system as a whole. That doesn't bode well for the system, muddle along as it does.
When you're effectively cut off from power, you don't have the luxury of assuming that "liberty" equates to "having the muscle on my side" (as so many liberals do.) You have to think of ways of minimizing the effects of said muscle on your own life.
And that's quite a chore, given the pervasiveness of government. Needless to say, getting the government's muscle over to your side is not a feasible option, leaving aside the moral qualms that advantage would bring up. The present system's too rigged against that.
One way to cope is to bust your arse to get rich. This option only makes sense if you think that America is going to degenerate into a Latin-American-style republic, complete with a ruling class whose left wing is chock-full of guilt-ridden limousine liberals and whose "centre" is full of moneyed and well-connected people whose ambitions to remake society have outstripped their wallets. If this fate be America's, then poorer folks - including good Christian folks - will be little more than peons. "Democracy" will be little more than a chess game where the living chess pieces are flattered and bribed to not run over to the other player's side.
On the other hand, there's the option of the hardcore prepper. Given current Americanism, it's actually the harder road to take. The prepper route consists of to minimizing dependence on a rotten big-government-ridden economy, which entails living a poor and somewhat isolated life. Wealth should be pursued carefully, so as to minimize dependence upon a rotten system. The benefits of specialization are abjured for resourcefulness.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.This approach is hazardous if America's going to turn into Latin America. Preppers will become mere peons, and will be looked down on as such.
-Robert A. Heinlen, through his character Lazarus Long.
On the other hand: prepping is the way to go if the big-government system turns dysfuctional, if it falls apart. Should this happen, the preppers will have the needed skills to not only survive but also to rebuild society on a stronger basis.
Thirdly, there's the option of bailing out and becoming what Doug Casey calls a "permanent tourist." It resolves the dilemma personally, if you can afford or risk it, but it's not an option for the civic-minded. Nor is it for anyone who sees it as turning tail and running.
Of course, there's also the option of keeping up with the doomsaying and trying to find happiness in other areas of life. Confining the prepping to paying off the debts and keeping a store of food and cash in case of an emergency; grit the teeth at tax time, put up with regulators and revenue-seeking cops, draw strength through prayer, keep politicking in the hopes of winning, and otherwise make the best of a bad situation. This option actually plays in to the rulers' hands: they're already well-primed to see everything you guys point out as merely disguised complaints that can be bought off. The advantage with this approach comes with democracy: although the game is rigged as of now, that tilt will change should you win enough political battles.
The point I'm making is: eventually, the demand for doomsaying will turn into making life plans to cope with the expected fallout. We can't live on a steady diet of bitters.
The idea of burying the lines has been in the news. It was said (don’t know from where the info came), that burying the lines would add over $100 a month to the bills. What I am wondering is whether they could just be buried in the areas that have the huge old trees that seem to have caused the most problems. Don’t know what the percentage of the total unburied area is in big trees. I know that in downtown DC most lines ARE buried. There they have other problems, water and salt in the ground in winter, transformers burning out in the hot summer, etc.
He's like the guy in a tuxedo, with the glass of champagne, making witty fatalist observations from the deck of the sinking ocean liner.
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