Category Archives: Freedom

Interview with a Moderate

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I sometimes do a back-and-fourth with a self described centrist, or moderate (which is another name for a leftist in denial, something like a “moderate drinker” who can’t get through a day without alcohol) over at Say Uncle in the comments, but I thought it should be posted here too.  Today we’re talking about the proposed (yet another) GM “bailout”.  I explained how propping up failure is inviting more failure, while at the same time negatively influencing the way we make decisions, while at the same time freezing out some of the small, hungry, innovative businesses and potential businesses, to say nothing of unfairly punishing taxpayers for the bad decisions of others.  He offered some of the regular arguments against pure capitalism;



“…the party with leverage will take advantage of that leverage, often to the level of exploitation..”


To which I replied;



I know that is the age-old argument, but what you describe has a simpler name. It’s called crime [or corruption]. That’s what government is for– to protect basic rights by punishing (retaliating against) crime.


And the reason why centrism is the superior stance;



“…pure capitalism and pure socialism are both bad…”


How so? Do you have any proof of that? Any evidence? Have we ever seen pure capitalism? If so, I’d like to know. Give me an example. I’ll bet you a case of beer that any example you attempt to give will in fact be an example of what happens when government get its nose into the market, creating some form of monopoly [either that or government has simply failed to do its job as protector of basic rights].


I’ve been all through this many times before. Please read the book, Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal or I’ll be forced to re-write the whole damned thing right here. Trouble is; that would take months and I’d go broke wasting my time writing. As I said, you haven’t seen this stuff [these ideas] before, and so you’re falling into all the old traps. You need some genuine de-programming. I know that sounds really insulting and condescending, but the same is true anytime you try to tell an alcoholic he’s an alcoholic. This is damned tough stuff. I’m saying here that you’re addicted to a belief in government-sponsored coercion. You’re convinced that it has a proper place in a free society. I’m saying that that is a contradiction in terms.


The coercion pushers have gotten to you and got you hooked. You’ve grown up with pushers and you’ve known nothing else. The same happened to me and it was a tough, slow, painful withdrawal. Even still it’s one day at a time. I have to go to regular meetings with other people struggling with the destructive effects of believing in socialist theories. Oh sure, I thought a little bit here and a little bit there would be fine. A lot of people do it just to get along in social situations. Lots of people think like that, but a little bit is never enough, is it? You always end up needing another fix, and there’s always another pusher ready and willing to sell it to you…


“Hello. My name is Lyle and I’m a recovering socialist…”


You have to first admit you have a problem before you can take the steps to solve it. Your original post is a good start– you’re asking questions. That’s good, but you’re fighting the answers because they go against everything you’ve ever known. If you really want the answers, it’s going to take a lot of effort on your part. It will be time-consuming and it will be painful. Some of the people you thought were your friends are going to chastise you [even disown you]. Stay strong. Only you can help you, but we can help point you in the right direction. You will have friends.


What the centrist doesn’t realize is that, though some people are bad and as a result sometimes people will get burned, when government shifts away from being the protector of rights and becomes the main perpetrator of coercion, we’re all screwed.  This has been referred to as the equal distribution of misery.

Pleh-juh, Vuh-Lee-junss

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When I was five, my first-grade teacher taught us to repeat a random string of syllables she called “the Pleh-juh, Vuh-Lee-junss”.  We were to recite it every day at the beginning of class for the next several years, while holding our right hand to the left side of the chest (reportedly, this is where our hearts were to be found inside the chest cavity).



Getting ready for that first day of school (I never attended kindergarten) my mother told me, “Now, do what the teacher tells you”.  No “goodbye” no “be sure to learn something new and interesting so you can come back and tell me about it.”  Just “Do what you’re told.”  I was frightened.
And so we learned to repeat these random syllables, every day, for years.



It was only much later in life that I began to wonder whether these syllables could be broken out into actual words, and even later before I wondered what the actual words meant.  No one ever attempted to teach us.  I suppose the teachers were doing this exercise for the same reason we kids were doing it– because we were told to do it.  If you’d asked me, at age six, what language the Pleh-juh, Vuh-Lee-junss was in, I’d have been at a loss for an answer.  Surely it’s a trick question.  Are you trying to make fun of me?  I want my mother…



“Eye Pleh-juh Vuh-Lee-junss, tootheuh flag, of the united states uvuhmerika, and toothuhrepublik for whitchit stands…Won nation, induhvizuhble (invisible?) with libertee and just us four all.”  I knew there were actual words in there (I could recognize several) but it never occurred to me even to wonder about them.  All the other kids apparently did the same thing, for the same reason, and never spoke about it.  It was simply the thing to do because we were told, like so many of the other things we did in school for no readily apparent reasons and no explanation.  The school principal would occasionally step in, see that we were at attention, right hands on the left sides of our chest cavities, facing the flag and reciting all the correct syllables in the correct order, and it all appeared to be fine and dandy (the principal was vastly more powerful than God.  He could physically grab you by the arm, shake you, and demand; “Why were you doing that?  Huh?  Why? To which you invariably gave the standard reply; “I don’t know…”)  Wonderful how the kids are learning respect for the flag of their country, and the critically important principles it represents!  He left satisfied.  The God was satiated.  All was well.



But they never taught us a damned thing about it.  Nothing.  Ever.  Likewise, we were taught “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America” and we’d occasionally sing “Alaska & Hawaii” (this was in 1963 when those were brand new states. We knew nothing about such things, but dutifully repeated the syllables) and no one ever discussed the lyrics.  At all.  It wasn’t until I was out of high school that I began to actually learn some of this stuff, such as the difference between a republic and a straight democracy, or what a pledge is, or an allegiance.  That was after the effects of having my curiosity crushed to death in school had started to wear off.


 


Richard P. Feynman wrote about this in his autobiography.  As a professor of theoretical physics, he often visited other universities.  When on a visit to a South American university (in Brazil, IIRC) he was introduced to a class of very high-level students (which is to say they got extremely good grades).  It took him some time speaking with them to figure out that they knew next to nothing.  They could recite, practically word for word, from the text books but when it came to understanding and applying the concepts they were at a total loss.


 


This is the Soviet model, come here to roost in our public education system.  Hope you like crap.

Quote of the day–Dr. Lyle Rossiter

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The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind. When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious.


Dr. Lyle Rossiter
The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness. 2006
[H/T to Jeff.


While looking around for an Zune compatible format for my consumption I ran across this:



Rossiter’s dream is to construct a grand, idealized libertarian, nightmarish, dystopia that creates hardships and inflicts wounds. This is dangerous, tragic, and sick.


So both sides accuse the other of being mentally ill.


Interesting.


So one then has to ask, “Which world view has resulted in the worst outcome for the affected populations?” I would presume the United States has best approximated (and poorly at that) the Libertarian viewpoint. But I’m not sure which of the following best represents the centrally planning government of the Liberal viewpoint: Communist China, USSR, Nazi Germany, or the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. But then I decided that it really didn’t matter.–Joe]

“Intellectuals”

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Prolific writer, economist and historian, Thomas Sowell, gives us some frank talk about our self-appointed intellectuals.  I post it here for some who have felt it necessary to tell us that they are smart, or that those from whom they get their ideas are smart.  Seriously, if I haven’t noticed it already, your telling me won’t help either of us, one way or the other.  Here’s a small sample of Sowell’s piece on the subject;



What is more telling, form [rather than substance] was enough to impress the intellectuals, not only then but even now, years after the facts have been revealed…


That is one of many reasons why intellectuals are not taken as seriously by others as they take themselves.


How right you are, Mr. Sowell (I mean, yeee haaww, Baby!)  He continues;



The intellectual levels of politicians are just one of the many things that intellectuals have grossly misjudged for years on end.


During the 1930s, some of the leading intellectuals in America condemned our economic system and pointed to the centrally planned Soviet economy as a model— all this at a time when literally millions of people were starving to death in the Soviet Union, from a famine in a country with some of the richest farmland in Europe and historically a large exporter of food.


New York Times Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty won a Pulitzer Prize for telling the intelligentsia what they wanted to hear— that claims of starvation in the Ukraine were false.


Things never seem to change, do they?


As an aside, when I use the word “socialist” to describe people who express anti-capitalist ideas, I mean it.  I know what the word means and I know where the ideas came from even if socialists don’t.  I’ll use it when it fits, even if the socialists protest, scream, hold their breath, or try to brow-beat me into silence.  If you disagree, get a bloody dictionary, or better yet, a history book.  A very old one.  If you consider yourself a progressive intellectual, never mind.  It won’t help (see above quotes).


But that’s not the main subject of Sowell’s piece.  I’ll summarize it with a simple thought; logically, if you had some horrific defect in your ability to perceive reality, surely you’d be the last to know.  Wouldn’t you?  Keeping that in mind, go ahead and read the whole piece.  It won’t make you comfortable but it will certainly interest you, personally, one way or the other.

For This Veteran’s Day

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I have some quotes from a fellow, Joe Argenzio, interviewed by the History Channel.  He fought in Europe with the 1st Infantry Division (“The Big Red One”) 16th Infantry Regiment.  His unit was clearing socialists (SS in this case) out of the Falkenau death camp;



“I know some of them that I encountered committed suicide– they jumped in front of my M1.”


Suicide.  OK.  That’s what the man said.



“As far as I know we got ’em all.. and they deserved what they got.”


Over 21 thousand members of the U.S. First Infantry Division were killed or wounded fighting the socialists and the Imperial Japs in W.W. II.  Our only job is to remember them all.  We have it easy.  The socialists have it easy now too– all they have to do is stay out from in front of our M1s, so to speak.  Today, there thousands more American and coalition GIs in the middle east and elsewhere fighting the latest socialist/statist menace– the Jihaddists.  As in previous wars, their job is often thankless, but they know what they’re doing.  Thanks, people.

How Terrorist Groups End

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I haven’t finished it yet but I found this fascinating. It is a study on terrorist groups from 1968 until now. It gives data on how often terrorist groups were successfully (not very often) and why they were successful (goals were somewhat narrow). What brought about their downfall (police, and negoitations with the government) and what indicators there are for a groups longevity (religion is strongly associated with longevity) and chances of success (religion is negatively associated with success).


Al-Qaeda doesn’t have a good future if history is any indicator.

A job for the Queen of Snark

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Via Bruce Schneier:



New Contest: Can You Out-Lame the TSA?


Last week, in response to my article about the idiocy of airport security, the head of the Transportation Security Administration, Kip Hawley, essentially conceded the main argument of my article, which was that America’s aviation security system is not designed to catch smart terrorists, but stupid terrorists. Here’s what Hawley wrote last week:


“Clever terrorists can use innovative ways to exploit vulnerabilities. But don’t forget that most bombers are not, in fact, clever. Living bomb-makers are usually clever, but the person agreeing to carry it may not be super smart. Even if “all” we do is stop dumb terrorists, we are reducing risk.”

Not quite believable. And yet he really said it.

And so, a contest: How would the Hawley Principle of Federally-Endorsed Mediocrity apply to other government endeavors?


…


So, go to it. E-mail your entries to Goldberg.Atlantic@gmail.com.  The Goldblog reader who comes up with the funniest application of the Hawley Principle wins a subscription to the Atlantic.


Here are my entries. They are probably too close to the truth to be funny but still I figure it’s worthwhile to mock politicians in public anytime you get the chance:




  1. Gun “buy-backs”, restrictions on the type of guns, and carrying of guns don’t slow down a violent criminal any. But getting guns out of the hands of small stature women, the elderly, and the infirm will at least prevent those people from being able to go out and commit violent crimes.


  2. Hundreds of millions of meals are prepared each day in the U.S. by unlicensed food preparation people. These people prepare food for small children, the elderly, trusting family members, and unsuspecting friends. Food borne illness and accidental poisoning are exceedingly rare given the vast numbers of meals prepared without inspection by the health officials. Licensing and inspecting the professionals who prepare only a small portion of the total meals won’t stop anyone but a minority of incompetent capitalists but at least it raising the cost of doing business will encourage more people to obtain their meals from those who are unlicensed and less tainted by capitalistic inclinations.

If Tamara enters I will concede–sight unseen.

Quote of the day–Mike Baker

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This gun control effort is part of an overall government takeover by the radical left who now control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The next part of the Obama-ACORN plan is a new military force separate from the US Armed Forces.


Obama has called for a ‘civilian national security force’ (http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s) as powerful as the US military, comments that were ignored by the vast majority of the corporate media but compared by conservatives to the Nazi Hitler Youth.


Mike Baker
November 8, 2008
OBAMA AND ACORN OFFICIALS SET SIGHTS ON GUNOWNERS
[It’s interesting to me that the left compared Bush to Hitler so often when it seems to me that there are much closer ties to Hitler from several directions such as:



  • A philosophical basis (socialism)

  • Ignoring the constitution and human rights (hostility to private gun ownership)

  • Adoration of a charismatic leader

  • Organization of a “civilian” security force

  • Mandatory “volunteer” service to the state

We’ll just have to wait and see. It doesn’t appear that Bush is going to start loading people into the cattle cars anytime soon and Obama hasn’t announced plans for any “work camps” yet. So comparisons for either of them to Hitler seem to be a bit weak still.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Jim Purdy

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Why do we need so many dang guns? Wouldn’t the world be a better place with fewer weapons? I haven’t had a gun since the one I had in the U.S. Army in the 1960s.


Jim Purdy
Tulsa (11/9/2008 3:52:49 AM)
Comment to Obama win spurs gun purchases
[Try selling the idea that fewer guns would make the world a better place to these people:



Oh yeah. That’s right. You can’t convinced them of that because they are dead. They are dead because their own government murdered them. With only a few thousand thugs actually involved in the murdering of 10 million people the victims would only had needed a kill ratio of 1:100 to have completely stopped the butchery. But guess what–their government took their guns away from them with Regulations Against Jews’ Possession of Weapons. They had no effective weapons to defend themselves and you, Mr. Purdy and President-Elect Obama, want to recreate the same conditions here.


No thanks. Keep the change.–Joe]

What my neighbor said

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Laurel lives close by and recently had this to say about the Obama “transition plan” in regards to firearms:



Hey, at least you really can’t accuse me of unfoundedly predicting impending doom at this point, considering the arrogant bastard is openly flaunting his intention to wage war on my rights.


Fine. If Obama wants to see our rifles on a battlefield, we’ll give him a battlefield. Μολὼν λαβέ.


I’m done blogging for today. I have software for the battlefield to finish.

Quote of the day–Alan Gottlieb

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This is still the United States, not a socialist gulag. Public money should not be given to private organizations which then turn around and utilize that funding to usurp the electoral process and erode constitutionally-guaranteed civil rights.


Alan Gottlieb
October 28, 2008
‘ACORN USES PUBLIC FUNDS TO STEAL ELECTIONS, NOW YOUR GUN RIGHTS,’ SAYS SAF
[H/T to Jeff for putting me on the trail for this one.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Doc Russia

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In early November, we get to choose between four weeks of riots and four years of socialism.


Personally, I’m rooting for riots.


Doc Russia
October 26, 2008
…we won’t be fooled again
[Yeah, so was I. We don’t always get what we want though.–Joe]

Preparing to fight

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Jeff Knox tells us where he and Mike Vanderboegh agree on the idea of using arms against a repressive government.


That’s all for today. I have more software to write.

Quote of the day–Lyle @ UltiMAK

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Sure; the terrorists are just lonely, misunderstood, and a little insecure. They’ll probably settle down, get jobs and start raising families as soon as we start being nicer and more understanding (and quit being productive, ban alcohol, eliminate our credit banking system, pull all military forces from everywhere, keep our females out of school and force them to stay out of sight, adopt their form of Islam, ban all other religions, banish the Jews, allow them to wipe Israel off the map and finish Hitler’s Final Solution, execute all homosexuals, et al).

But if we get unicorns in the bargain, that should make up for it all. Flying unicorns, too, damn it. None of that Earthbound species. Then I won’t mind not having oil or electricity, ’cause I can get around on my flying unicorn, what feeds on grass (and so I won’t need gas for the lawnmower) left-over bean sprouts and old tofu. Make that four flying unicorns. I need four ’cause I have a family. Either that or the big sport utility flying unicorn (SUFU) that can haul as much as my gigantic, American, 4 x 4, eight-foot bed, super cab, air-conditioned pickup. At least a half-ton SUFU, with the towing package and a big antenna for my ham radio. Oh, and a gun rack. And it can’t mind having my 17 ft. Grumman canoe strapped on top either. It had better be one big damned unicorn or I’m going to be pissed.

Lyle @ UltiMAK
November 5, 2008
In the comments.
[In the same comments Tony says, “I want my unicorn to come with rainbows.” I’m not sure but I think I’m detecting an entire symphony of sarcasm here.–Joe]

We hear from our friend in Israel

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…almost daily;



Friends:
 
Obama may not get the 6 months Biden said the new president would have before he was “tested.”   President Bush may be the one.
 
While everyone was looking elsewhere, Syria has enveloped Lebanon and moved the Syrian 3rd Army to Israel’s border.  In the meantime the cease-fire farce with Hamas is a shooting war.  In the last 36 hours we had rockets fired into Israel.  Last evening we raided into the Strip, Hamas responded with 20 Mortar bombs. What followed this morning the Jerusalem Post calls “Massive” Kassam rocket fire into Israel.
 
This is all being fueled by the Israeli and American elections.
 
I mourn the Republic.
 
Howard


Surely this sort of thing will be nothing but an uncomfortable memory after the world is “united” by Obama.  The oceans will recede, the clouds of suspicion between cultures will part, earthquakes, storms, pain and hunger will be a thing of the past, the Angels of Peace, Love and Tranquility will sing forever more above all the skies of the world.  Yea, and there will be much rejoicing, amen.

Quote of the day–Tamara K.

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I’m actually starting to feel sorry for Barry (even more than I already felt sorry for whoever was going to wind up with a key to the Augean Stables and a garden trowel.) There is a large slice of his constituency that is going to feel betrayed if he doesn’t walk to the inauguration across the Reflecting Pool in the Mall.


Tamara K.
November 5, 2008
Even better than a President…
[There will be some disappointment alright. But will it be enough disappointment to keep the nation and world from disappearing into the abyss of socialism and tyranny forever?–Joe]

Game over man, game over

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Obama is our next president. The Federal courts have huge vacancy rates that will be filled by Obama and the Democrat dominated Senate.


Last month I made more posts, 127, than I ever have in a single month. The extra can be attributed to Obama.


At this point talking and writing isn’t going to have much effect on our fight for freedom. It’s game over man, game over. I’m going to be spending far less time reading blogs and posting. I have a bunch of software I want to write and I’m going to be concentrating on getting that out the door instead of spending so much time with the blogs.

Depression

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I’m very depressed today. I can’t even blame it on Internet sex (it should be safe for work). It’s the election. I voted yesterday and I think that started it.


Then at the cafeteria at work there is a woman that for some reason has been particularly friendly to me. She recognizes when I show up at a different time than usual and always wants to talk a bit (it’s time to introduce her to my wife…). Yesterday she asked if I was excited about “the big day tomorrow”. I told her I was rather depressed about it actually–it is the choice between the lesser of two evils. I then asked if she was excited about it. “I. Am. SO. Excited. About it.” she said. I wanted to tell her how many people were murdered last century by attempts to make socialism work. Was she excited to be a part of the next attempt? Was she looking forward to adding her body and the bodies of millions of others to the pile?


It’s the Second Coming or something. Once the Messiah is on his throne all will be forgiven, all will be peace and love.


I see ethics, rules, and the law do not matter to them. I see Brown Shirts.

Brown Shirts for Obama

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No, not Brown Coats. Brown Shirts. Phil has the story.


Update: Linoge has another example.

Quote of the day–Barack Obama

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So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.





Barack Obama
January 17, 2008
Audio: Obama Tells SF Chronicle He Will Bankrupt Coal Industry
[Deliberately bankrupting an industry that supplies 50% of the energy in this country?


Where is John Galt when we need him?–Joe]