Potemkin Parliament ... Mark Steyn

NRO ^ | 18 Oct 2013 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

Washington’s governing systems are in a bad way.

The least dispiriting moment of another grim week in Washington was the sight of ornery veterans tearing down the Barrycades around the war memorials on the National Mall, dragging them up the street, and dumping them outside the White House. This was, as Kevin Williamson wrote at National Review, “as excellent a gesture of the American spirit as our increasingly docile nation has seen in years.” Indeed. The wounded vet with two artificial legs balancing the Barrycade on his Segway was especially impressive. It would have been even better had these disgruntled citizens neatly lined up the Barrycades across the front of the White House and round the sides, symbolically Barrycading him in as punishment for Barrycading them out. But, in a town where an unarmed woman can be left a bullet-riddled corpse merely for driving too near His Benign Majesty’s palace and nobody seems to care, one appreciates a certain caution.

[Rummyfan]

Washington’s governing systems are in a bad way. Government by “continuing resolution,” a term foreign to most foreigners, ought to be embarrassing to any self-governing, not to say self-respecting, people. Instead, in the course of the “shutdown,” this repugnant phrase advanced to acronymic status — “CR,” as cable news had it, the pundit class lovingly caressing this latest insider jargon with their customary onanistic shiver. Presented as a resolution of the Obamacare/debt-ceiling standoff, the “CR” came, as the car dealers say, fully loaded — including a $174,000 payment to the widow of New Jersey’s multimillionaire senator Frank Lautenberg. Because, even when you’re saddling the next generation of Americans with another trillion bucks of debt, six-figure payouts to the relicts of the most exclusive rich man’s club in America is just the way it is.

[OldNavyVet]

The woman killed was descrbed in Washington area “news” as a mental illness case ... a typical description used in Communist Russia “news” sources.

[loveliberty2]

Steyn references a potential "teaching moment."

That "moment" might include a reminder to these feckless Congressmen, who claim "conservative" as their label, that they have an obligation of fidelity to the limitations of the Constitution by which they are privileged to serve "We, the People."

Another "moment" might include respect for, and adherence to, the Constitution's structuring, dividing, separating, checking and balancing of the powers it allows to them. The Constitution's structuring assumes they will have the courage to oppose actions which threaten the liberty of American citizens as individuals.

Further, as to the "progressive" elements in both Parties who have been part of this tyrannical government action:

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C. S. Lewis

[Artie]

“But, in a town where an unarmed woman can be left a bullet-riddled corpse merely for driving too near His Benign Majesty’s palace and nobody seems to care.”

Off topic I know, but it is noticeable for the lack of concern. Paging Ben Crump, a family needs a lawyer. What? no money to be had? No national press? Never mind.

[adgirl]

What is really unsettling are the comments to the article. Someone wrote that Oregon cut the number of medically uninsured population by 10% in two weeks with Obamacare. (of course they supplied the website that PROVES this—thank you moveon.org)
Now maybe I'm stupid, but doesn't Obamacare make it mandatory to HAVE insurance. So let's say we pass a law that makes owning a home and living in it mandatory. Don't you think THAT would reduce homelessness?;-)

[Noob1999]

bump for later

[littleharbour]

What Steyn says about Canada is true. Even our wide-eyed socialist NDP party dares not talk about running an annual deficit. They call for more spending and larger tax increases, but don’t dare speak in favour of a deficit. America will be beyond saving until there is a total economic meltdown. The Democrats want to destroy America’s economy and the Republican leadership is either complicit or paralyzed with fear. Ted Cruz and a few others are crying in the wilderness. Someday they’ll be able to say “i told you so” but not before America has had to experience a depression worse than the 1930s.