Interesting Items 11/24
Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -
In this issue:
1. Begich
2. Pirates
3. PIO
4. Fascist
5. Autos
6. Palin
7. Education
8. Obama Voters
1. Begich. Alaska sent democrat Mark Begich to the US Senate as he defeated incumbent Ted Stevens (R) by over 3,000 votes. Stevens was taken down by his convictions on federal charges and his refusal to go after Begich on any relevant issue. Here’s a thumbnail sketch on Senator-Elect Begich. He is a superb politician, having been in the political business for over 20 years. He is a big spender. He has never supported a tax cut. He is a strong union supporter. He has dabbled with gay rights and is pro-choice (as was Stevens). He is tied at the hip to environmentalists, opposes the mining industry here in Alaska, and has promised to get ANWR open for oil exploration and development. He is also a policy wonk, and loves to always be doing something – which means that he will be a strong proponent of the Nanny State. Whomever runs against Begich in 2014 should be able to beat him – and beat him badly – on issues such as growing the economy, cutting taxes, liberty, smaller government, and judges – all things that were available to the Stevens campaign and things that Stevens refused to mention.
2. Pirates. Muslim Somali pirates have started seizing shipping traffic off the Somali coast. They are using small boats; boarding and holding oil tankers and the crews for ransom. To date, the only response was by an Indian naval ship last week that engaged and sunk a pirate boat. The disgusting part of this entire episode is the lack of naval response by the western nations – at least what we have heard about so far. If we have an infestation of Muslim pirates off the coast of Somalia, they all need to be sent to Allah in the most direct manner possible; sooner rather than later.
3. PIO. PIO is an old aviation acronym that stands for Pilot Induced Oscillation. What happens is that an airframe makes an unexpected movement, the pilot corrects the movement, but the correction is mistimed so that it reinforces the unexpected movement rather than damps it out, quickly leading to loss of control of the airframe. Solution is normally to center the controls for a bit to allow things to settle down. Why do any of you care about PIOs? Given the interest of the new administration in correcting the effects of manmade global warming and the transfer of global warming responsibilities in the House to the pocket fascist Henry Waxman (D, CA), we may be on the verge of doing the same thing policy-wise on a national basis. Just at the point where global cooling is well underway and has been so for a couple years, the democrats and greens are now in charge in sufficient numbers to actually do something about manmade global warming, which by definition will only make things colder. Larry Niven wrote a book a couple decades ago entitled “Fallen Angels” which described the next ice age brought on by a government elected to halt the effects of manmade global warming. We may be on the verge of doing what they wrote about in 1991. As with aviation, the best solution in this regard is to center the controls and do nothing for a while.
4. Fascist. Fascism is described as an economic system that allows private ownership of property but does not allow the private use of that property, tying it up in all manner of rules, regulations and taxation. Given what we expect to see from both the Obama administration and the new democrat majority in congress, they are better described as fascist rather than socialist. Given the power of that term, Dr. Jack Wheeler has suggested that we on the right use it early and often to describe who they are, what they are doing, their serial destruction of property rights and liberty. The Clintons’ efforts to nationalize health care in 1994 was not socialization but a fascist move on the economy, not unlike what Mussolini did with the railroads in Italy in the 1930s or what the Perons did to vast swaths of the Argentinean economy in the 1940s and 1950s. If you no longer have the right to use your property the way you wish, you no longer own that property, and operate under a fascist economic regime. We are quickly hurtling down that track.
5. Autos. The gutless wonders running the Big Three US auto makers along with the head of the UAW went to congress last week begging for free money. Their Masters determined that they did not grovel sufficiently and sent them back home without any more money. The next installment of groveling happens next Wednesday. The UAW said that they would be making no more concessions; and the auto maker CEOs were told to lose the corporate jets. This episode was almost as disgusting as the failure to do something about the Somali pirates. What ought they to do? First would be to declare bankruptcy – Chapter 11 – and start going through the process solving their current economic problem. The second thing would be to quit begging, quit groveling, and stand up and start slinging garbage back at the pontificating bozos on Capitol Hill. Point out that the collapse of auto sales was related in no small part to congress’ inability to do anything about domestic oil and natural gas production. Blame the spike of oil last summer squarely on congress – which has implemented a 30-year long plan to strangle oil and gas production here in the US. Then blast away at the UAW for a while. Finally they need to take a few pot shots at congressional mandates for safety and fuel efficiency as needless and unhelpful interference in the free and open marketplace.
6. Palin. Governor Sarah Palin has been making the rounds of media giving a variety of post election interviews. Up until last week, most of them went reasonably well. Last week however, viewers were treated to yet another bit of Alaskan attitude when Palin went to a turkey farm in Wasilla to pardon a turkey – something she had never done before. She did her pardon thing in the foreground while an employee in the background slaughtered a turkey. All the usual suspects were usually offended and shocked, simply shocked at the casual brutality on display. The Governor is going to have a busy year as the crash in per barrel oil prices has put the Alaska state budget in a squeeze. It was passed with the expectation that oil prices would be at or above $82/bbl. It is now below $50/bbl. The budget will be most interesting this year, and she will have an opportunity to demonstrate both fiscal conservatism and the ability to grow an economy in times of economic uncertainty elsewhere. It will be a tremendous opportunity for her political future and the state’s economic future. We will hope all is up to the task at hand.
7. Economic Education. One of the great strengths of President Reagan was his ability to continually educate the citizens of America on the things that interested him – liberty, smaller government, and economics. One of the great weaknesses of both Presidents Bush was their singular inability to continue education of the electorate on things that interested them. We are at the point where Obama took the tax cut issue away from the Republicans. It is incumbent upon all of us to educate our neighbors on the values of economics, small government and liberty. This continuing education is a process that ought to start today and continue as long as any of us or our people holds office.
8. Obama Voters. Ed Morrssey in Hot Air Tuesday related a Zogby poll on Obama voters. I have taken the liberty of lifting the relevant part of the post below. Why is this important? It is important because it appears that Obama voters listened to the drive-by media for all their information on Obama. And when the drive-by media gets in bed with one political party at the expense of straight reporting, you set the stage for one party rule, rampant corruption, and economic disaster like Mexico had for 70 years under the PRI. Zogby took a lot of heat for doing the poll and refused to conduct a similar poll on self-professed McCain voters. Let’s start with Zogby’s numbers. The poll surveyed over 500 self-professed Obama voters and has an MOE of 4.4%, with 55% having a college degree and over 90% having a high-school diploma. It asked 12 multiple-choice questions; only 2.4% got at least 11 correct. Only .5% got all them correct.
• 57.4 could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)
• 81.8 could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)
• 82.6 could NOT correctly say that Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)
• 88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)
• 56.1 % could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).And yet…..
• Only 13.7% failed to identify Palin as the person their party spent $150,000 in clothes on
• Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter
• And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her “house,” even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!
More later — AG
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.
Note: Interesting Items can be found also at the following locations: MatSu Valley News and the home page. Rod Martin’s The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column. Alex Gimarc is a long-time member of the Town Hall Conservative group.
