An apology
Sorry for the light posting lately, folks. It’s just that the news is been so bad, the world so crazy in my eyes, that I’ve just not felt like writing anything at all. It gets old just dinging on the president and that’s all I’ve been doing. So, a break!
I’m sure I’ll be back with my normal smart-assery soon.
Am I jazzed?
Why yes, yes I am. (Warning: takes approximately forever to load; be patient)
Props to Thomas Sowell
Who? Glad you asked. Merely on of todays great thinkers, and widely reviled because of it.
In an article at Townhall.com Mr. Sowell points out the great fallacy in the thinking of all the big government collectivists- they call themselves “progressives”, I call them “Stalinists”- that somehow governments can better figure out how we should run our lives than we can.
John Stuart Mill’s classic essay “On Liberty” gives reasons why some people should not be taking over other people’s decisions about their own lives. But Professor Cass Sunstein of Harvard has given reasons to the contrary. He cites research showing “that people make a lot of mistakes, and that those mistakes can prove extremely damaging.”
Professor Sunstein is undoubtedly correct that “people make a lot of mistakes.” Most of us can look back over our own lives and see many mistakes, including some that were very damaging. (Boy, can I! – ed.)
What Cass Sunstein does not tell us is what sort of creatures, other than people, are going to override our mistaken decisions for us. That is the key flaw in the theory and agenda of the left.
Implicit in the wide range of efforts on the left to get government to take over more of our decisions for us is the assumption that there is some superior class of people who are either wiser or nobler than the rest of us.
Yes, we all make mistakes. But do governments not make bigger and more catastrophic mistakes?
And that superior sort of folks will never, ever leave us be. See the Lewis quote at the top of the blog.
He then provides a list of great moments in government- World War One, the Holocaust, the Great Depression… I’m sure if you think a moment you can come up with numerous other examples, both micro and macro.
Too many among today’s intellectual elite see themselves as our shepherds and us as their sheep. Tragically, too many of us are apparently willing to be sheep, in exchange for being taken care of, being relieved of the burdens of adult responsibility and being supplied with “free” stuff paid for by others.
Problem is, the ‘others’ are getting restive and resentful. In response, our government has purchased billions of rounds of ammunition and 2700 MRAP’s for the DHS. Am I the only one who finds that a wee bit frightening? When the hammer comes down, I will not be on my knees. How many of you can honestly say the same?
How many of you are sheep?
Thanks to Samizdata for the pointer.
R.I.P. Andrew Breitbart
Iowahawk has a nice elegy:
With all the tributes and venom being churned out today it’s obvious he still looms large in the political conversation, and it’s hard to think of another figure in media or activism who would be a trending topic a year after their death. I think the reason why is that he represented a new kind of cultural/social conservative. Maybe not in the conventional sense (it’s still fun to freak my liberal friends by noting Andrew’s status as a pro-gay marriage, pro-pot decriminalization Jewish activist for women and minorities who loved of 80s New Wave), but on the value of honesty. I’ve heard him referred to as a “reactionary.” I suppose he as a reactionary – in the literal sense – against an increasingly contrived, vapid, narrative-driven news culture, one that attacks and marginalizes any non-conforming message. He studied the bullies’ playbook, called them out, and bloodied their noses. Hard as it may be for these bloody-nosed bullies to believe, it had nothing to do with their ‘liberal’ politics. If there was a parallel universe with a dominant right wing media culture as dishonest and conformist and thuggish as the left wing one here, Andrew would’ve been more than happy to rocket there and punch them in the mouth, too. If that’s what a reactionary is, then sign me up for the t-shirt.
Sleep well, happy warrior.
Drudgetaposition Part 6.we’re-screwed
ROFLMAO
Keep on telling us that, boss…
Our Preznit, nothin’ if not classy
How frelling juvenile. I can’t even imagine BillyBoy sinking this low. I guess I’m just old-fashioned, but I expect a modicum of dignity out of the guy who represents us to the whole world- not this childish frat-boy bullshit.
But I’m in the minority- the people have spoken- I just can’t seem to get with the program…
The mask slips
Just two guys, hangin’
Never truer than it is today
In re sequestration:
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
H. L. Mencken
For the car crazies among us
This guy is having ‘way too much fun driving this…
[jwplayer mediaid=”1692″]
Airline pilots as they should be
[jwplayer mediaid=”1688″]
via IMAO
We’re All Gonna Die!
Just when you thought you had enough to worry about…
Massive Sunspot Rapidly Forming
A giant sunspot that’s at least six times the diameter of Earth has formed on the sun in less than 48 hours, according to NASA.
—
According to a news release, scientists from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory watched the sunspot rapidly grow on February 19 and 20. The agency says it could even be larger than six times the diameter of Earth “since the spot lies on a sphere not a flat disk.”
Carrington Event, anyone?
Drudgetaposition part 123.96
I bet.
The landscape I look upon
…is downright disturbing. I’m just going to grab some headlines out there right now:
Unemployment Stories, Vol. 27: ‘We Eat a Lot of Soup and Crackers.’
Five Months After Benghazi Murders: Killers Frolic Untouched There.
The Devil Made Them Do It: Senate Democrats try to dodge responsibility for ObamaCare.
Ohio Officials: Poll Worker May Have Voted Six Times. It wasn’t for Romney.
PHOTOS: Four months after Hurricane Sandy, Jersey Shore still a wasteland…
‘Slap her! Punch her hard!’ 10-year-old girls forced to fight…
Al Nusrah Front detonates 50 IEDs in massive ambush
Colorado Dems vote to disarm women-tell the rapists you are menstruating
We’re coming apart as a functioning society. I blame Chimpy McBushitlerburton. After all, it would be unfair to blame the 52% of my fellow citizens who voted for this – and who will blame anyone but themselves for the spot we find ourselves in.
Look, a squirrel!
