America's Fading Exceptionalism (Supported the one)

A new generation is coming of age that looks over its shoulder and sees a government in disarray, unable to make the wise and tough decisions to get things done and instead passing them off to some other body or future generation. Too many of us see a political leadership that lacks the character or capacity to build a consensus for the kind of constructive bipartisan compromise we have known even in fractious political times. We look for someone who fits Harry Truman's definition of a leader: "a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do and like it."

The public knows that we must find a way to live within our means. Shuffle the numbers as you may, the level of debt we carry is unsustainable. It brings to mind the character in an Ernest Hemingway novel who was asked, "How did you go bankrupt?" "Two ways," he answered, "gradually and then suddenly." That is the course our country is on today. It is no use if our political leaders say they are doing their best. They have to do what is necessary. We understand that politicians and diapers have one thing in common—they should be changed regularly and for the same reason.

These are grave anxieties, and yet it would be un-American to lose hope entirely. Of all Alexis de Tocqueville's judgments, none was truer than this one: "The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults." To which I would add: Make haste with the repairs.

Zuckerman is another one in the line of folks who demonstrate that getting rich is a specific skill which may or may not be related to overall intelligence.

In 2008 he says “vote Obama.” Not intelligent.
In 2011, he is having second thoughts, but still wants a command and control economy and says we “spend too little on education.”
Huh?

He can make money. I don’t think he’s intelligent though.

Roughly one third of all doctoral students are foreigners, yet once they earn their advanced degrees in our top universities, we escort many of them to the border and wish them goodbye as they go on to join our biggest competitors.

Does Zuckerman ever consider the possibility that these foreign doctoral students were sent to the US for an education so they could return home and help their native land prosper? That was once the line we were given by our government, and how those students would return home and spread goodwill for the USA.

But now if we don't offer citizenship to every last one of them, we are horrible restrictionist and just plain dumb. Those PhDs from all these not so successful nations are going to save us from ourselves.

Maybe the problem is that our American universities are giving too many slots in doctoral and MD programs to foreigners that could go to US citizens.

We hear lots of blather on subjects such as this, but they never seem to fill in some of the critical details.

re: Mort cannot say OBAMA is at fault

In a purely objective sense Obama is not at fault. If he had been handed a nation that was running the way it should have been running he would have been powerless to do much of the damage he has done. In any event there would have been a pretty finite limit on what he could accomplish.

Every aspect of life in America is out of kilter at this point, some much worse than others, but no aspect is immune to the buildup of negative forces we've let accumulate over the last 50 years or so.

I can't think of a single problem we've experienced, identified, described, studied and solved in my adult lifetime. It's always the same, those charged with solving the problem first set about making sure they get what they need from the opportunity and then what's left over, if anything, is used to start work on the problem itself.

That's exactly what the trillion dollars of ‘stimulus’ has done. That money could have worked wonders to put America back on its feet, but to do so would have meant using it, not to feather the nests of the ruling class, but apply tried and proved policies.

Imagine if that trillion dollars would have been used to wipe all taxes and fees for a year or two. No payroll deductions, etc.

FUMZ

“Everything about socialism is sham and affectation.” - 23.11 Ch23; Evil; Economic Harmonies; Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850

Note what it(socialism) has done/is doing to us. Defund ALL socialist collectives. The U.S.A. becomes financially solvent and we become very low-taxed prosperous/productive citizens in a country which acts as a beacon for individual liberty.

More Bastiat...The Law...

Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter — by peaceful or revolutionary means — into the making of laws. According to their degree of enlightenment, these plundered classes may propose one of two entirely different purposes when they attempt to attain political power: Either they may wish to stop lawful plunder, or they may wish to share in it.

Woe to the nation when this latter purpose prevails among the mass victims of lawful plunder when they, in turn, seize the power to make laws! Until that happens, the few practice lawful plunder upon the many, a common practice where the right to participate in the making of law is limited to a few persons. But then, participation in the making of law becomes universal. And then, men seek to balance their conflicting interests by universal plunder. Instead of rooting out the injustices found in society, they make these injustices general. As soon as the plundered classes gain political power, they establish a system of reprisals against other classes. They do not abolish legal plunder. (This objective would demand more enlightenment than they possess.) Instead, they emulate their evil predecessors by participating in this legal plunder, even though it is against their own interests.

It is as if it were necessary, before a reign of justice appears, for everyone to suffer a cruel retribution — some for their evilness, and some for their lack of understanding.

It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

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