Archive for the Government Category

Joe Wilson and Gresham’s Law of Manners

September 10, 2009 by fbk.

Gresham’s Law is usually stated as, “Bad money drives out good.”  Years ago the great author, H. Beam Piper, referred to Gresham’s Law of Manners, that bad manners drive out good manners.  I think Congressman Joe Wilson has illustrated this rather well.  The soi-disant Democrats or Progressives, who would more truthfully call themselves Socialists, Communists, and/or Fascists, have been using bad manners for years while the Republicans were supposed to hold themselves above that.  Barack Obama has been lying and calling others liars when they dare bring up the truth.  And after all of the lies and insults, I gather that Congressman Joe Wilson could no longer hold his tongue.  In an outburst during the President’s speech to a joint session of Congress, Congressman Wilson showed the bad manners to yell at the President of the United States of America.

Now, mind you, what Congressman Wilson said was entirely truthful.  Barack Obama was lying.  Or perhaps Barack Obama is trapped in a fantasy land spurred by some sort of psychosis?  I’m not sure that would be better for the country, but if it makes you feel better, have your own fantasy that a Democrat politician might be honestly hallucinating rather than lying.

For those of us who have been waiting for a little more tit-for-tat, a little dose of bad manners by a Republican to match the outrageous behavior of the Democrats, Joe Wilson’s honesty was refreshing.  Was it an appropriate act of taste and decorum?  Why should we care?  Democrats have been doing much worse for at least forty years.

Joe Wilson for President!

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Welcome to Venezuela

February 10, 2009 by fbk.

Welcome to Nueva Venezuela!

I continue to watch as President Obama and his followers turn the US into the next Banana Republic.  We have probably passed the point of no return.  The Constitution doesn’t matter.  The law doesn’t matter.  All that matters is, “What has the federal government given me lately?”  For those who watched it happen in Cuba, China, Venezuela, and other places, the pattern is very familiar.  Or should I compare it to Zimbabwe?  The current so-called “stimulus” actions are only going to promote runaway inflation.

 Cod help us!

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The Barbarians are Rising

February 4, 2009 by fbk.

“I’m sorry, Prince Edvard. You had a wonderful civilization here on Marduk. You could have made almost anything of it. But it’s too late now. You’ve torn down the gates; the barbarians are in.” – Lucas Trask, Space Viking, H. Beam Piper

***

“Don’t you? You were there; you saw what’s happening. The barbarians are rising; they have a leader, and they’re uniting. Every society rests on a barbarian base. The people who don’t understand civilization, and wouldn’t like it if they did. The hitchhikers. The people who create nothing, and who don’t appreciate what others have created for them, and who think civilization is something that just exists and that all they need to do is enjoy what they can understand of it–luxuries, a high living standard, and easy work for high pay. Responsibilities? Phooey! What do they have a government for?”

Trask nodded. “And now, the hitchhikers think they know more about the car than the people who designed it, so they’re going to grab the controls. Zaspar Makann says they can, and he’s the Leader.” He poured a drink from a decanter that had been looted on Pushan; there was a planet where a republic had been overthrown in favor of a dictatorship four centuries ago, and the planetary dictatorship had fissioned into a dozen regional dictatorships, and now they were down to the peasant-village and handcraft-industry level. “I don’t understand it, though. I was reading about Hitler, on the way home. I wouldn’t be surprised if Zaspar Makann had been reading about Hitler, too. He’s using all Hitler’s tricks. But Hitler came to power in a country which had been impoverished by a military defeat. Marduk hasn’t fought a war in almost two generations, and that one was a farce.”

“It wasn’t the war that put Hitler into power. It was the fact that the ruling class of his nation, the people who kept things running, were discredited. The masses, the homemade barbarians, didn’t have anybody to take their responsibilities for them. What they have on Marduk is a ruling class that has been discrediting itself. A ruling class that’s ashamed of its privileges and shirks its duties. A ruling class that has begun to believe that the masses are just as good as they are, which they manifestly are not. And a ruling class that won’t use force to maintain its position. And they have a democracy, and they are letting the enemies of democracy shelter themselves behind democratic safeguards.”

– Conversation between Otto Harkaman and Lucas Trask, Space Viking, H. Beam Piper

***

H. Beam Piper’s Space Viking is, unfortunately, the novel for our time.  “The barbarians are rising; they have a leader, and they’re uniting.”  We’ll soon reach over 50% of the people who pay no taxes, but instead, receive largesse from the public bourse.  We are in the position of Rome, though, not Marduk, as in this novel, or Germany in the 1940’s.  If we go fascist, there is no external power strong enough to pull our chestnuts from the fire.  Most of the other soi-disant “free” countries are already halfway to National Socialism themselves.  Rather than face down a United States that goes down this path, they will be more likely to join us in giving all power to the UN, just as most of the European states, although not the people, have ceded their authority to the European Union.

We had a wonderful civilization here in the West, especially the United States. We could have made almost anything of it, and did do much with it, raising living standards around the globe with our ingenuity and free trade. But it’s too late now. We’ve torn down the gates; the barbarians are in charge.  Beam Piper saw it coming more than forty-five years ago.  I suppose it isn’t hard to see for a student of history.  I’ve seen it coming, too.  But it’s different when it’s on your doorstep and knocking to come in rather than being held at bay in a kennel in the yard.  Can we hope for a Reagan to emerge?  Can we hope that there might only be need for a Reagan, as there was with the Carter years?  If not, we’re more likely to need a Washington, and they are even more scarce than Reagans in the history of this country.

Read the book.  You can buy it, or check Project Gutenberg:  http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20728

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“Be gone you rogues You have sat long enough”

June 20, 2008 by fbk.

Five members of the Supreme Court of the United States have made another power grab.  Perhaps it is time that Congress acts to impeach these rogues.  Better that than that the people rise.  Eventually, if Congress doesn’t do their job, the people will.

Posted in Government | Print | 2 Comments »

Shouldn’t the Democrats Get the Blame?

January 31, 2008 by fbk.

The Presidential primaries present an interesting conundrum this year.  The front runners of the moment are a 1940’s-style Democrat (Big Government CAN do it all, strong on defense) and a 1970’s-style Democrat, who looks and talks like Jimmy Carter, but actually votes to be strong on defense in the Senate.  Both have proven to find the truth a highly-elastic material.  The net difference between the Republican and Democratic frontrunners is that one of the two has real testicles.  Of course, they originally belonged to her husband.

Many might consider this to be an unfair characterization of Senator McCain.  He is a war hero, after all.  But, that war ended more than thirty years ago, and while he may have had a backbone against the North Vietnamese, he’s never shown one against the Democrats.  He’s thrown more punches, literal and figurative, at his Republican colleagues than at the Democrats.  He talks much more like Walter Mondale than Ronald Reagan, with references to “greedy people on Wall Street who need to be punished” and “for patriotism, not for profit.”  Anyone remember his comments from 2000 about the Christian right?  I could believe much of what he says coming from a John Kerry or Dennis Kucinich, but from the Republican frontrunner?

I cannot see myself voting for this man under any circumstances.  So, where does that leave me if he gets the nomination?  He can’t be trusted on Supreme Court nominations.  He has flip-flopped on what sort of Justice he would nominate.  Right now, he’s trying to claim to be conservative, but he’s had a reputation as a maverick for much longer.  There are also rumors that he has said he’ll only run for one term.  That means the day he takes office, he’s no longer beholden to the people who elected him.  He can follow his true inclination without worry about upsetting all of those wacko right-winger types, who just happen to be the bulk of his party.  I wouldn’t trust him on any issue.

On economic issues, issues of freedom, paying attention to the Constitution, and big government programs, he aligns pretty well with Senator Kennedy.  In fact, McCain is to the left of the former Senator Kennedy who became President.  John F. Kennedy at least understood the power of tax cuts to free the economy.  McCain would be likely to let the tax levels rise back to the former levels under Clinton, if not higher.  He certainly has no clue about regulation and its effect on the economy.  Comparing Senator McCain to the average Democrat would only yield a slight divergence on winning the war in Iraq.  But, despite many of the things she has said about the war, Hillary Clinton’s voting record isn’t that different from McCain’s.

If we’re going to get basically the same results either way, with one result being an economic disaster, wouldn’t it be better to let the Democrats have the White House for four years, and let them get the blame for the recession caused by economic ignorance?  If the candidates are so close on the issues and neither is a disciple of the truth, what’s the downside?  If McCain gets elected and does as expected, the Republicans get blamed.  I don’t consider myself so much a Republican as a conservative.  But, most of the other conservatives are in the Republican Party, and what hurts the party will hurt the conservative cause.  I’d much rather see the Democrats take it on the chin as they did in 1976-80.

I can’t quite bring myself to think that I’d vote for Hillary, but I’ve actually been considering it, which scares me.  How many other conservatives are thinking that Hillary might do less damage than McCain?  How many conservatives will just sit out the general election if McCain is the Republican nominee?  How many will seek a third party, such as the Libertarians?  How many will just hold their noses and vote for McCain?  I don’t have the answers to any of these questions.  But I have a feeling that if McCain gets the nomination, nothing good will come of it.

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