We Americans are largely, by choice, apolitical. Every four years we rouse ourselves to follow national politics, listen to the speeches, cram-study on candidates then cross our fingers and vote. Every two years the number of interested voters drops but the scenario runs the same. Historically, we followed this path because the national Government could be pretty much ignored on a day to day basis (allowing us to keep an eye on local shennigans).
Of course, that started changing with FDR, accelerated by LBJ and Obama is taking it to even greater lengths in his mad dash to create a centralized power usurping state and local governments and micromanaging the smallest of individual “choice.”
It is interesting to observe the Left that was positively apoplectic over the Patriot Act enabling the government to monitor overseas telephone calls of suspected terrorists, but now has no worries about the Feds having every medical decision between you and your doctor at its immediate fingertips. But I digress.
If most Americans are not political junkies about their own country, they are downright apathetic to European politics. However, a word to the wise is that we should pay particular attention because with a leftist Europhile in the White House, as goes Europe so goes America. Mark Steyn writes:
Why the fascists are winning in EuropeA Federation of Euro-harmony filled by ultra-nationalist xenophobes is almost too droll a jest. My favourite of these new national parties is Ataka, which is a Bulgarian word meaning—oh, go on, take a wild guess. That’s right: “Attack.†What a splendidly butch name. The Attack party was formed from last year’s merger of the Bulgarian National Patriotic Party, the Union of Patriotic Forces and the National Movement for the Salvation of the Fatherland, and in nothing flat managed to get 13 per cent of the vote. [...]
For 40 years, London’s Europhile politico-media elites have attempted to impose a “European identity†on the masses, condescendingly assuring the British people that they are, indeed, European, they’re just too parochial and ill-informed to realize it. Thus the paradox: in its rejection of Europe, the British electorate has never been more European. The Brits have finally got with the program: just like the Continentals, they’re voting for fascists. [...]
One can forgive Bulgaria its wackier demagogues: they are, after all, only two decades removed from one-party totalitarianism. But, in the western half of Continental Europe, politics evolved to the point where almost any issue worth talking about was ruled beyond the bounds of polite society. In good times, it doesn’t matter so much. But in bad times, if the political culture forbids respectable politicians from raising certain issues, then the electorate will turn to unrespectable ones. Europe has taken a worse hit than North America in the first crisis of economic globalization: unemployment in Spain, for example, is over 17 per cent. To the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, this “crisis of capitalism†is the biggest event since the fall of the Soviet Union. But, if it’s a “crisis of capitalism,†why did the mainstream Euro-left take the electoral hit rather than the mainstream Euro-right? Instead of turning to socialist parties promising more state booty, voters boosted the fortunes of the neo-nationalists. Many of these groups are economically protectionist (and in some cases more “left wing†than, say, the British Labour Party) but they’re also culturally protectionist in a way the polytechnic left most certainly isn’t.
On the day of the European elections, the Toronto Sun’s Lorrie Goldstein responded to my observations about his recent column accusing Tamilphobic Canadians of racism. “I wish,†sighed Mr. Goldstein, “Steyn would spend more time disagreeing with what racists say and less time defending their right to say it.†But that’s kind of a crowded market for a pundit to get a piece of the action in. I mean, Canada surely doesn’t need one more delicate flower shrieking “Racism!†at every affront to the multiculti pieties. That hypersensitivity is what’s helped deliver more and more of the European vote to “fringe†parties. You want to talk about immigration? Whoa, racist! Crime? Racist! Welfare? Racist! Islam? Racistracistdoubleracist!!! Nya-nya, can’t hear you with my two anti-racist thumbs in my ears!
This kind of marginalization of honest political and policy disagreement has ramped up to eleven in America over this past election and in the Never-ending Campaign run by the Obama administration and his apparatchiks on the Left and in the media. Don’t think same-sex marriage is good policy? HOMOPHOBE!!! Question late-term abortion? MISOGYNIST!!1! Dissent from government run medicine? Obama says you are a LIAR!!! Dissent from higher, confiscatory taxes? Biden says you are UNPATRIOTIC!!1! Point out that Obama’s policies are doomed to failure? You’re a TRAITOR!!
And some of the worst perpetuators of allowing the Left to control the narrative and frame the debate are non-leftists who admonish us to be Very Very Careful Not to Offend(tm) because, they too, have bought into the “offense is determined by the receiver of the message, not the author” paradigm.
Well, look at Europe. Is that what you want?
Comment by hatch on 6/21 @ 12:14 pm #
“Of course, that started changing with FDR, accelerated by LBJ and Obama is taking it to even greater lengths in his mad dash to create a centralized power usurping state and local governments and micromanaging the smallest of individual “choice.†”
I’d say it was a big change from ignoring the federal government on a day to day basis when it was in total war with treason in the 1860’s.
Comment by LTC John on 6/21 @ 1:09 pm #
“Well, look at Europe. Is that what you want?”
Nooo! My family left Europe to get away from that #$%&. I have fought against the more crude, Central and SW Asian versions of it too. No thanks.
Comment by Ric Locke on 6/21 @ 2:06 pm #
hatch — that statement is both true and myopic.
Exercise for you: Go down to the library or used book store and search out a copy of Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein. Don’t pay too much attention to the story, which is one of Heinlein’s weakest. See if you can find two successive sentences in the first half of the book that don’t describe things that would get the protagonists in deep kimchee with a licensing, regulatory, or legal Authority, or result in their being exposed by Teh Press as vile evile beings plotting destruction of Teh Community.
That book was written in 1947. The author clearly thought the setting was sufficiently credible to enable “willing suspension of disbelief” on the part of the reader. Furthermore, it posits a United Nations with real power to check the sovereignty of the United States — yet private individuals can build a moon-bound ship powered by a fission pile, without a Government inspector anywhere. What would the EPA say, nowadays, if you proposed to blast a couple hundred tons of highly-irradiated zinc into the atmosphere?
I was born about the time Rocket Ship Galileo was published. I’ve seen and felt the changes, and from time to time have been heard to fervently hope that the many-worlds interpretation of the quantum theory was true, and that some bright person might build a machine to take me home. This is not the time-line I was born on.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by hatch on 6/21 @ 2:08 pm #
“What would the EPA say, nowadays, if you proposed to blast a couple hundred tons of highly-irradiated zinc into the atmosphere?”
EPA? How about your neighbors?
Comment by Dash Rendar on 6/21 @ 2:18 pm #
Speaking of effed up timelines I think If I were a Soviet time traveller what wanted to mess up America’s natural course in my opinion, I would have gone back and assassinated MLK, seeing as if he were our first black president we wouldn’t have to deal with this pseudo-American neo-Marxist “historic” presidency.
Comment by Ric Locke on 6/21 @ 2:34 pm #
hatch, every single one of the laws and rules and regulations we live under exists for a very good reason. But the sum total of their proliferation is to put us in a straitjacket.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Darleen on 6/21 @ 2:39 pm #
some bright person might build a machine to take me home. This is not the time-line I was born on.
Uh, Ric? I’m going with you. In this timeline, Obama is Nehemiah Scudder with a twist.
Comment by dicentra on 6/21 @ 2:47 pm #
One thing the Euros don’t have that we do is talk radio and Fox News, etc.
Another thing the Euros don’t have that we do are Founding Concepts that act as a touchstone for our nation’s identity.
every single one of the laws and rules and regulations we live under exists for a very good reason.
Oh, I don’t know about that. Lots of them exist to block the progress of small companies as opposed to large ones. Some exist to favor some interest group who paid into lots of political campaigns. Others were made as a reaction to one crisis and could well be done with.
To wit: the prohibition of tiny sharp things in the cabin of an airplane. It’s wasn’t the box cutters that enabled the terrorists to overpower the pilots, it was the policy of compliance with hijackers. Nowadays, someone brandishes a knife or slices a flight attendant, the passengers will kick the SOB to death before he does it twice.
Comment by The Monster on 6/21 @ 2:48 pm #
Why can’t The Lizard King understand this? Call anyone who dares to defend Western Civilization a “racist”; and those people (having nothing to distinguish them from the actual Nazis) will join forces with actual racists.
Comment by SBP on 6/21 @ 2:51 pm #
Uh, Ric? I’m going with you.
Yeah, me too. Something that Ric didn’t mention is that this was all being done by a group of teenage boys (along with the nuclear physicist uncle of one of them. Even Heinlein didn’t imagine that the AEC would hand over enough fissile material to build a reactor to a group of high school kids, no questions asked :-))
hatch: IIRC (it’s been years since I read that one) the group had acquired some surplus government land in.. Nevada?… and their next-door neighbor was a nuclear bomb crater.
Comment by Silver Whistle on 6/21 @ 3:22 pm #
I think there is a danger in overemphasizing the results of the latest Euro elections. First off, not everyone who marked an X next to the name of the (insert name of nationalist/fascist party here) did so out of ideology. Plenty did so as a protest, which would nt necesarily be reflected in a national election.
Second, a lot of these Euro nationalist voters do identify themselves as being European - they just think that foreigners aren’t as good as they are.
Comment by adagioforstrings on 6/21 @ 3:27 pm #
Except when the receiver is Gov Palin….
Comment by BumperStickerist on 6/21 @ 3:34 pm #
as events ebb and flow I keep in mind two basic things. One is succinct, the other not. The first:
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius
and,
“I reveal myself in my true colors, as a stick-in-the-mud. I hold a number of beliefs that have been repudiated by the liveliest intellects of our time.
I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology.
I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men have not changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves. I also hold one or two beliefs that are more difficult to put shortly.
For example, I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people’s feelings by satisfying our own egos. I think we should remember that we are part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and sisters.
Above all, I believe in the God-given genius of certain individuals, and I value a society that makes their existence possible.”
- Kenneth Clark (”Civilization”)
I find it sad that “the liveliest intellects” in our time manage to be such crapweasels. But Sir Kenneth Clark’s point stands; one can only live through the times into which one is born.
I’m glad for Jeff and Co. and the effort they put forth. It makes me think that I’m not in the ranks of the insane.
Comment by Dash Rendar on 6/21 @ 3:41 pm #
I keep getting the recurring thought that the civilized world will off itself somehow in the mad rush to utopia with the 20th century a prologue to the 21st. The only remaining survivors in this fantasy world are the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea or some deep Amazonian tribe and they have legends about the lost civilizations.
Comment by Pellegri on 6/21 @ 4:12 pm #
What I find so strange about the comment in 13 is that it’s the Left who claims to repudiate violence and embrace all living things as our brother and sisters, but they’re the nastiest about fighting their opponents, whatever they may be.
Oh well.
Also, I’ll take a spot on this time machine.
Comment by Joe on 6/21 @ 4:18 pm #
Well, look at Europe. Is that what you want?
12 weeks of vacation? Where do I sign up? A/K/A: The Secret to Obama’s Success–Promise what you can’t give or afford. The only problem is it violates the Second Law of Political Dynamics: There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Comment by SBP on 6/21 @ 4:26 pm #
Lots of them exist to block the progress of small companies as opposed to large ones.
Yep. Sarbanes-Oxley is the most notorious recent example, but there are plenty of others.
Comment by dicentra on 6/21 @ 4:36 pm #
it’s the Left who claims to repudiate violence and embrace all living things as our brother and sisters, but they’re the nastiest about fighting their opponents, whatever they may be.
As leftists, they get a pass on nastiness because they mouth words here and there about repudiating violence.
That’s the first rule of Leftiness: never having to practice what you preach.
Comment by Danger on 6/21 @ 4:47 pm #
Bumperstickerist,
Thanks for sharing that it was very inspiring.
Regards
Comment by TmjUtah on 6/21 @ 4:56 pm #
“I keep getting the recurring thought that the civilized world will off itself somehow in the mad rush to utopia with the 20th century a prologue to the 21st.”
Dash, it’s not like it would be an unprecedented act.
Rome was a lot of things, most of them good for the greater population, but even the worst of the worst progs unconsciously describes the era between Rome and the Renaissance as the Dark Ages.
Flush toilets and paved streets aren’t accidents. They are indications of a conscious effort on the part of a human community to rise above itself. When people forget that civility is about as alien a quality to the unvarnished human animal, they begin to make assumptions and take actions that always end in ragged animals living in holes wondering what went wrong.
The higher we rise, the farther we will fall. It’s a people thing.
I’m split on where to stand concerning The Won. Despair at the coming trainwreck… or embarrassment that we made it so easy?
Comment by Pellegri on 6/21 @ 5:01 pm #
Oh yes, thor, one example totally erases the paradoxical/hypocritical behavior of Code Pink, et. al.
Tragic.
Comment by geoffb on 6/21 @ 5:16 pm #
This is also what is happening in Iran. Only certain choices are allowed politically. If you wish something not on the approved menu your only means is to oppose the choice of those who limit the your choices to begin with. The opposition is not as much pro-Mousavi as it is anti-regime. Opposition, like water, will find a way to flow around obstacles eventually.
Comment by geoffb on 6/21 @ 5:25 pm #
Should be, the/your.
Comment by Phil on 6/21 @ 6:31 pm #
This is arguably the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t decide if I’m more pissed at our President’s “leadership” or our wonderful press’s obsession with everything he does. Well worth your time:
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/06/20/contrast-iranian-protestors-shot-as-obama-goes-for-ice-cream/
Comment by -Ed. on 6/21 @ 7:43 pm #
Fine and yes. But first, let’s stop PJTV before we stop Europe again. Have you seen the latest from PJTV? Uff. Today, The Fedora issued “the last word on Letterman.” Baby steps to oblivion, people. Baby steps.
Comment by Bob Reed on 6/21 @ 8:26 pm #
In addition to the inability to avoid the PC speak environment that’s evolved over the last 50 or so years in Europe the rise of these ultra-nationalist political perties is driven by a few simple factors.
1) The cultural leveling taking place due to both the adoption of the Eurpoean Union as well as the information/communication revolution; but predominantly the former.
2) The loss of national/ethinic culture and values as a result of the mass immigration by groups that refuse to assimilate…
Far reom being a prejudicial or racist affectation, this factor is conservative in nature. These folks are worrying that due to the tyranny of Multiculturalism, PC speech prohibition, and moral relativism, their countries are becoming more a reflection of the cultures that the unassimilated immagrants fled in the first place; that these groups are using their own social and political ideologies, such as ideological tolerance and reduced birthrate population control, to gain the upper hand, and in doing so erase the “national identity” of the folks that have lived there for centuries…
It is a backlash to the loss of their national identities, to both immigration and the EU. And as far as the former goes, you have an appreciable percentage of the population wondering why the immigrants came in the first place, if they merely want to recreate the nation state the fled in the first place…
And for most of these immigrants, economic issues predicated their moves as opposed to socio-political or cultural factors. “They liked it in Turkey, they just couldn’t make a living…”
While it’s hard for us as Americans to understand the ethnic and national identification of the populations of the former sovereign nations that now make up the EU. We here have always been a part of the larger whole of America, “E Pluribus Unum” as it were. And, outside of jokes about hillbillies or valley girls there are no emnitites between citizens of different states; or not since Civil War…
But the problem of unassimilated immigrants is one that we should recognize as sharing with the Eurozone. And it’s one we need to come up with a uniquely American solution for soon, lest our great nation devolve into an extra-large banana republic; sped along that path by the disastrous economic policies of the new millenium…
If O! actually is foolish enough to push the immigration/amnesty agenda next week as purported, done in combination with the publics cooling attitude towards his collectivization, the Democrats may find that in the backlash they will help elect some fiercely nationalistsic politicians to our congress as well…
Best Wishes to all!
Comment by hf on 6/21 @ 9:38 pm #
What this means is maybe in certain circles you might could be forgiven for thinking that the Barack Obama thinger lends a certain respectability to what at one time was a prospective McCain presidency (Meghan’s Coward Daddy if you’re new to politics). But mostly I think the new concept is America Irrelevant. Yes. In your lifetime.
Comment by Bob Reed on 6/21 @ 9:41 pm #
“it’s the Left who claims to repudiate violence and embrace all living things as our brother and sisters, but they’re the nastiest about fighting their opponents, whatever they may be.
As leftists, they get a pass on nastiness because they mouth words here and there about repudiating violence.”
They get a pass because it is presominantly the left that manufactures outrage selectively to suit their purposes; the spittle soaking furor the exhibit is designed to convonce through appeal to emotion and demagoguery; not be thought or reason…
I mean, regardless fo the circumstance, you’re not going to see Al Sharapton denounce Jerimiah Wright as a racist nor Farrahkan as an anti-semite; that’s not how they roll!
That outrage is reserved to cudgel their political opponents; to gain support for their position through misplaced indignation…
Comment by cynn on 6/21 @ 9:49 pm #
The wild-eyed control freak wants to crush the fascists. Makes total sense.
Comment by J. "Trashman" Peden on 6/21 @ 10:56 pm #
Hey, give her a break: it took even Letterman some time to realize that the joke was actually on him - and his like-deminded flippants.
Comment by Molon Labe on 6/22 @ 4:03 am #
@BumperStickerist on 6/21 @ 3:34 pm
I’m more a vendetta man myself.
Comment by Molon Labe on 6/22 @ 4:05 am #
hf u r a lame imitation. Find your own voice.
Comment by LoafingOaf on 6/22 @ 5:11 am #
Yawn. I see PW is still largely a guest-blogger blog. It deserves to die. Blogger who turn over all the work to hack guest bloggers should’ve done the right thing and just retired their blogs.
Comment by Danger on 6/22 @ 5:36 am #
Happyfeet,
You just stay exactly like you are.
You were “borned here”
You will live here
and you will never die here if I have anything to say about it.
Comment by LTC John on 6/22 @ 6:12 am #
“I think we should remember that we are part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and sisters.”
First part - mebbe. Second - nah. I’d eliminate “my brothers and sisters” the mosquito in a heartbeat. Tse tse flies too.
Comment by mossberg500 on 6/22 @ 6:22 am #
36.Comment by LTC John on 6/22 @ 6:12 am #
“I think we should remember that we are part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and sisters.â€
First part - mebbe. Second - nah. I’d eliminate “my brothers and sisters†the mosquito in a heartbeat. Tse tse flies too.
Can you include LoafingOaf on you elimination list? Unoriginality must be the new “edgy.” Let’s stop it before it becomes a trend.
Comment by Molon Labe on 6/22 @ 6:25 am #
“Tse tse flies too”
No doubt. Don’t ppl realize that your momentary ability to store solar energy makes you a *target*.
Comment by mossberg500 on 6/22 @ 6:26 am #
you=your
Comment by Andrew the Noisy on 6/22 @ 6:33 am #
The wild-eyed control freak wants to crush the fascists. Makes total sense.
Awesome non-responsive rubber-glue routine. Concise, too.
Comment by Salt Lick on 6/22 @ 6:54 am #
I’m split on where to stand concerning The Won. Despair at the coming trainwreck…
I’m “split” too, TmjUtah, but it’s on whether the trainwreck will happen, or whether everything will work out in a few years, as it often has.
As much as we forecast The End of The World As We Know It, how many regulars on this blog have taken concrete steps to prepare for It? Because, to me, that’s the strongest, though not the only, measure of whether you’re just bloviating.
OK, me first — I’ve bought a generator; a Glock 19, plenty of ammo for that, my shotgun, and my SKS; stocked up 6 months of non-perishable food in my basement, planted an orchard; split my savings between bonds and stocks; spruced up a piece of rental property I own — among other things.
And I’m not so certain I won’t look like a total fool in four years. My wife certainly thinks I will. She’s usually right about these things.
Anyone else? hf? You read that ferfal article about the downward slide in Argentina.
Comment by SDN on 6/22 @ 7:32 am #
I bought a generator, water and gasoline storage, and my first guns in 1999, for Y2K. Didn’t need them then, but every one of my family members including in-laws has had to use that generator since I bought it when bad weather hit (I haven’t had to use it; but then again, one of my rules for house buying is to buy within 1 mile of a hospital; apart from anything else, the electrical grid around a hospital is higher priority for maintenance and fast repair).
I started buying extra ammo and guns in 2006, specifically because the Democrats took over Congress; I also bought US Army field manuals on caching supplies. Extra natural gas bottles for the grill; some food stocks (I need to do a little more here), extra supplies of prescriptions and first aid stuff, firearms training for my wife and myself….
Fortunately, my wife supports me in this stuff.
Comment by SDN on 6/22 @ 7:37 am #
cynn, read a LITTLE history. Even pre-Hitler, the National Socialists and the Bolsheviks in Germany fought each other all the time. Google Freikorps.
Control freaks always crush other groups of control freaks; there can only be one group of freaks in control, and it will be their group, dammit!
Comment by SDN on 6/22 @ 7:38 am #
LoafingOaf, set an example for pw by dying first. Thanks.
Comment by Danger on 6/22 @ 7:43 am #
(I haven’t had to use it; but then again, one of my rules for house buying is to buy within 1 mile of a hospital; apart from anything else, the electrical grid around a hospital is higher priority for maintenance and fast repair).
SDN,
I come here for the insightful comments and like the box of chocolates sometimes I am surprised at what I get.
Living in Florida, that would have been a great consideration to use in my home purchase.
Regards
Comment by SDN on 6/22 @ 7:44 am #
The problem, Bob, is that the manufacturing/urban vs agrarian/rural enmity that was a major factor in the Civil War is still a major factor to this day.
And yes, I know that most of the troops on both sides were from farm / rural populations. The reason for that is that urban populations are often too unhealthy for warfare in that timeframe; there’s a reason why the British government up until after WWI found a large percentage of the recruits from cities were too unhealthy to serve.
Comment by SDN on 6/22 @ 7:48 am #
Danger, I also like big cul-de-sac neighborhoods when I can get them; as a Deputy Sheriff friend of mine once put it, “They’re roach motels for crooks; one alarm or call to 911 and we put a squad car across the entrance. Crooks crawl in and don’t crawl out!” 8-)
Comment by Danger on 6/22 @ 7:58 am #
SDN,
Another good tip, perhaps you should write a book or maybe just an expanded post over at the Pub :)
Comment by happyfeet on 6/22 @ 8:01 am #
thank you Danger - I read your pub piece when we were in Santa Monica yesterday. Embrace the suck. I’m toying with this for my new mantra today. Especially cause after today I have to go to Chicago for the rest of the week. Sucks. Big hug for my Chicago trip. sorry Mr. Labe hf is for when I’m on my berry thinger and I hardly ever drink and this cab kicked my ass… I think my point was that McCain who was the alternative to our dipshit president is a lot the quintessential “respectable politician” and that isn’t a healthy thing for out little country
Comment by happyfeet on 6/22 @ 8:02 am #
*our* little country …
Comment by happyfeet on 6/22 @ 8:04 am #
oh - Salt -I don’t have my gun here from Texas yet but except for that I already planned for the worst. It’s unimaginable that California is not in for some very nasty reality up ahead.
Comment by Danger on 6/22 @ 8:11 am #
“Embrace the suck”
Happy Feet,
Works for me; tough times are a part of life and weather good or bad life is worth embracing.
I am sure the bible teaches something like that.
Comment by SDN on 6/22 @ 8:23 am #
Happyfeet, I work for a Fortune 100 company headquartered in CA. They’ve been moving infrastructure like data centers out of CA to places like TX and CO since 2002 and they couldn’t pay me enough to relocate to CA. I’d leave ASAP.
Comment by Danger on 6/22 @ 8:28 am #
Hey SDN,
You got any internet-fu you could lay on Eric over on the Happiness thread.
Or would you suggest we ignore him. His comments from yesterday but he is back with more of his “cheerful” sentiments
Comment by Danger on 6/22 @ 8:29 am #
oops I meant to say his comments from yesterday were deleted.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/22 @ 8:31 am #
Yes. But also I’m afraid SDN it’s not far off when we Californians are exporting far far more unemployment to other states cause we’ll run out of exportable jobs.
Comment by Salt Lick on 6/22 @ 8:35 am #
I bought a generator, water and gasoline storage, and my first guns in 1999, for Y2K.
See, SDN, I’ve been poo-pooing disaster predictions for years — Y2K, bird flu pandemic, SARS pandemic, Global Warming, a global “Arab Street” uprising, peak oil, etc, etc. But now that Obama is working his magic on the world, I’m starting to entertain disaster thoughts.
His cold response to the Iranian uprising puts a knot in my stomach — I mean crap, how can Mr. Eloquent Charisma Soft Hard Powerful Tan Face not manage to support change and freedom better than THAT? I thought he could multitask. Ya know, nuance. Mr. Hope and Change has just shown us that he’s sticking with the authoritarians throughout the Muslim World — THE VERY POLICY THAT STARTED THE WHOLE DAMN GWOT.
But apropos of Darleen’s post, I live in a rural area where I’m certain there are militias. If the Sh*t Hits The Fan (or SHTF as the survivalists say), belonging to a support group will become important. Us Outlaws don’t like hanging with the extremists on either side. But we may have to pick one.
Comment by B Moe on 6/22 @ 8:37 am #
The hits just keep on coming.
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/06/genius-democrats-call-on-fannie-to.html
Comment by Danger on 6/22 @ 8:41 am #
B Moe,
Can’t get the link. Can you give me the Cliff note version
Regards
Comment by B Moe on 6/22 @ 8:53 am #
…Democratic lawmakers are calling on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on new condominiums, saying they could threaten the viability of some developments and slow the housing-market recovery.
…In a letter to the chief executives of Fannie and Freddie, Reps. Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) warned that the 70% sales threshold “may be too onerous” and could lead condo buyers to shun new developments. The legislators asked the companies to “make appropriate adjustments” to their underwriting standards for condos.
Frankly, I am speechless.
Comment by Danger on 6/22 @ 8:57 am #
B Moe,
Shameless, is the word that comes to mind.
Comment by Bob Reed on 6/22 @ 9:02 am #
SDN,
Good point about the Urban-Rural tension in our society. It’s evidenced by the lefts derision of “flyover country” following the 2004 election as well as books written on the subject. Indeed, following the 2004 election a writer at the Seattle PI was so enraged as to qrite an entire screed piece that advocated an entire political re-alignment in the country, along the model of Greek city states; so that the cities could exist in their diverse, green, and enlightened way, and not have deal with any of the rube hick hillbilly clingers in flyover country. It was actually a hilarious screed, the writer triumphantly relishing the thought of country folks being forced to come to the city to do business, and that the concemtrated population centers would be healty wealthy and wise, in contrast to the rubes outside looking in; but he never gave an iota of consideration to where the food to feed the concetrated population would come from nor other logistical concerns…
No SDN, all I was getting at was that here in America, we don’t have the ancient emnity that say the Beligians have for the Germans, or the Romanians for the Turks. Our way of “forgiving and forgetting”, as well as the national unity we enjoyed-that is now under the divide and conquer assault of the identity politics crew, makes those kind of regional grudges hard for us to understand…
That’s all, and you’re point is valid and worth factoring into any assessment of what may come to pass here…
Comment by Eric Cartman on 6/22 @ 9:03 am #
Bwahahahahahahha, you’re a three-titted loony.
Comment by Bob Reed on 6/22 @ 9:13 am #
C’mon BMoe,
Bwawney Fwank is just twying to think pwoactivwey and cweate the next big mawket bubble…
And give Fannie/Fweddie anothew chance to get back into the game of wedistwibuting the coutwy’s wealth…
At weast he’s consistant in his malfeasance!, and his ass-hattery…
Comment by JD on 6/22 @ 9:14 am #
Happyfeet - I will be in Chicago for the first half of the week, til Thursday morning. Get in touch …
Comment by JD on 6/22 @ 9:18 am #
This Cartman thingie is quite eloquent.
Comment by Curmudgeon on 6/22 @ 9:20 am #
and that the concemtrated population centers would be healty wealthy and wise
With all the sodomy and drugs that they do, it’s amazing they can make these statements with a straight (no pun intended) face.
Comment by B Moe on 6/22 @ 9:21 am #
This Cartman thingie is quite eloquent.
Well its got an MFA, you know.
Comment by Eric Cartman on 6/22 @ 9:25 am #
I caught me a hick-rat.
Comment by Bob Reed on 6/22 @ 9:45 am #
Yeah, Catman is thor allright…
The hick reference ices the deal…
And the use of Cartman doesn’t surprise me since LTC John has refereed to seeing him at other forums under the guise “astrobeefcake”, which is a twist on another South Park reference…
Comment by JD on 6/22 @ 9:50 am #
How does thorita type while simultaneously cornholing Michael Vick?
Comment by geoffb on 6/22 @ 10:19 am #
A repeat as in “rinse, repeat. BOHICA
Comment by hatch on 6/22 @ 11:08 am #
“I bought a generator, water and gasoline storage, and my first guns in 1999, for Y2K. ”
Did you also get a copy of the turner diaries?
Comment by LTC John on 6/22 @ 11:17 am #
69 - actually, he used it as his own e-mail addy. Oy.
Comment by J. "Trashman" Peden on 6/22 @ 11:57 am #
Comment by LoafingOaf on 6/22 @ 5:11 am #
Yawn. I see PW is still largely a guest-blogger blog. It deserves to die. Blogger who turn over all the work to hack guest bloggers should’ve done the right thing and just retired their blogs.
Huh? You’d think a Loafing Oaf would be be proud of JG, loafing along as he allegedly is. Instead teh Oaf’s only threatened by PW, which makes Oaf a Loafing Leftoid “hack” Oaf, a true Progressive indeed.
Comment by Nine-of-Diamonds on 6/22 @ 11:57 am #
@72 - “WAAY-SIST!” “WAAY-SIST!” Good thing we’ve got us a nice “post-racialist” prez to straighten us out. Lemme guess - you’re one of the tools who thinks Affirmative Action messiah missed every sermon for 20 years - right? lol.
Comment by SDN on 6/22 @ 12:53 pm #
No Turner Diaries, alas; my bookseller said the last one was reserved by a nut hatch.
Comment by SDN on 6/22 @ 12:55 pm #
#69, “I recognized his unique stench when he came aboard.”
Comment by J. "Trashman" Peden on 6/22 @ 1:01 pm #
Salt Lick:
As much as we forecast The End of The World As We Know It, how many regulars on this blog have taken concrete steps to prepare for It? Because, to me, that’s the strongest, though not the only, measure of whether you’re just bloviating.
I have taken some such measures, and the resulting life-style has been up to my best expectations of it. I went rural 35 years ago, picked a best fit for me and the above “forecast” - which seems to have been occurring - and don’t regret a thing about it. Except for Global Cooling with ever longer Winters, I just might could be pretty well set.
The local community is a very important consideration, which I didn’t consider back then, but I got lucky. Or maybe it can come with the geography?
For city folk, I’d still stronly advocate doing what you can to take control - within reason. Common sense works vs fatalism, or Oafish denialism and the projected fear, hate, and RACISM!!!!! which progressively attends it.
Pingback by Be Very Very Careful Not to Offend(tm) on 6/22 @ 1:10 pm #
[...] Click at Protein Wisdom wrote a post, “The Lunatic Mainstream,” in which she says: It is interesting to observe the Left that was positively apoplectic over the [...]
Comment by SDN on 6/22 @ 1:40 pm #
Yeah, Bob, I saw a similar one in 2006? that suggested that the enlightened blue areas force those hicks flooded out by rising sea levels along the Gulf Coast from global warming to accept second class citizenship (no vote, no guns, etc.) as the price for refuge among their betters.
He didn’t take it well when I gently pointed out that Volkerwanderungs triggered by climate change generally behaved way more like the Mongols cutting out a niche by force than anything else, and that we’d rather use our guns on him than give them up.
Pingback by Steynian 366 « Free Canuckistan! on 6/22 @ 5:08 pm #
[...] FRESH PROTEIN WISDOM– The Lunatic Mainstream …. [...]
Comment by Joe on 6/22 @ 5:34 pm #
Having a generator, guns, ammo, some emergency food is just good common sense at any time.
Comment by Joe on 6/22 @ 5:38 pm #
Some events help restore your faith in humanity…
Comment by B Moe on 6/22 @ 5:44 pm #
Reckon Mario is wishing he had stayed an anonymous dick head on the internet instead of trying it in real life?
Comment by cynn on 6/22 @ 7:33 pm #
So, Danger, where are you actually stationed? I missed it.
Comment by Swen Swenson on 6/22 @ 9:28 pm #
I thought that was the First Law, the Second being ‘When your constituents start to figure out the First Law explain that you’re going to soak the rich to pay for their lunch. The rich inevitably being in the monority, this is bound to win you election.’
Comment by TmjUtah on 6/22 @ 9:56 pm #
I haven’t been around nearly as much as I used to be. I’m grateful for the job… and frankly, if I had more hours to pay attention, I’d be a wreck.
Where to start on being prepared?
Well, we moved to Utah from California in 1991. Not because we had dreamed of someday living in Utah, nor because we were LDS (we’re not). We had to get out of California. The birth of our first daughter forced us to do some serious thinking - what reasons did we have for staying? My recent experience with California public schools during my duty as a production recruiter compounded by the slim chance we had of qualifying for a home loan in any community we wanted to live in were major factors. Watching LA burn (my first - ever civilian construction project was that strip mall burning in the top left corner of the TV picture during Reginald Denny’s beat down) during the Rodney King riots factored high. I was laid off at the time my wife got an invite to interview for a Utah company, so we ran with it.
Now… now we keep several month’s food and medicine in the basement, and not MRE’s or Mountain House. Just canned and bagged staples that we have accumulated to the point where we don’t have to shop every week… or month… or three months… unless we choose to. It’s simply amazing what they’ve done with powdered milk over the last decade or so. It tastes like… milk.
My wife, myself, and my oldest daughter have chronic medical conditions that require one or more medicines on a daily basis. I always have three month’s supply on hand. Plus some broad-band anti- this and pro- that medicines that might be hard to come by if Walgreens was closed. Or burned down.
My daughters and I are Red Cross certified for CPR and something akin to First Responder; the term escapes me now. We do CERT - Community Emergency Response Team, a component of the DHS. Something useful they do.
Guns? Well… I’m pushing fifty and I’ve been shooting, training, instruction, buying and trading since I was sixteen. I don’t do wall hangers, and it’s no fun just cleaning them if you don’t shoot them. Up until last fall I could feed almost all my ‘combat’ calibers for peanuts via cheap military surplus suppliers… and you get the best deals when you buy in bulk. I enjoy reloading for several calibers of pistol and rifle. Most pistol reloading I do is purely for economic reasons - my carry loads are EXACTLY what our local LEO’s carry, and yours should be, too, always. About ten years ago, I set out to duplicate the performance of Winchester white box 180gr silvertip loads, and subsequently arrived at The Best Elk Load Ever (for the Remington 700 in .30′06). I also have a modest set of tools and references that allow me to conduct general minor repairs AND tuning on my collection.
No generator. Yet. That’s going to change this weekend. I have had my house service upgraded to accept a demand circuit and now just need to decide if the sucker will live in the basement or in the garage.
Shucks. Our cars are paid for. I have a dormant ‘87 Chevy Suburban parked next to the garage. It needs front end work, but the 350 EFI rebuild was getting sixteen mpg when I parked it. I start it monthly. I’m keeping my eye out for a Volkswagen diesel pickup, but so are about five hundred other people that I know. The motors are a snap to rebuild and run on diesel or biodiesel equally well.
There’s two hundred gallons of stored water in the garage. I have more in the basement. Two full propane tanks at all times, and I have a real camp stove and several different heaters. Twenty gallons of gas in the garage at all times. Enough oil and filters for two changes, each vehicle. This year I’ll buy two full cords of firewood. I should be okay for this coming winter with three cords total since I only burned part of one last year; this winter may be pretty brutal in light of the ongoing solar minimum. Al Gore might visit, and then I’ll be grateful for the four wheel drive, chains, and winch…
I didn’t run out and buy this stuff because of the coming End of Times. I believe we need to be able to take care of ourselves and be able to at least assist our neighbors should the need arise.
Finding yourself on the side of a road in a driving rain really, REALLY wishing you had a spare tire is nothing compared to the feeling you get when it becomes “Damn, really could use a basement full of Mosin Nagants and a bunch of bullets right NOW”….
… because when you figure out you really need a weapon, it’s generally too late to begin your waiting period.
As far as whether the collapse is upon us or not… well, Barney Frank is cementing his position as the craziest person in Washington. Calling for MORE subprime lending as a solution to low loan volume is, well, shit, insanity.
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That’s insanity. Watching our Washington Elite attempt to gloss over the collapse of our economy is like watching a bunch of alcoholics manage Jack Daniels.
And the Won isn’t here to fix crap. So, I guess I’ll just buy me a three pocket bra and some CLP and head downstairs.
Have a fine one.
Comment by SDN on 6/23 @ 3:50 am #
I’ll add one more comment on guns in the light of TmjUtah’s comment. I like to have a rifle and pistol shooting the same caliber ammo. So far I have three pairs (.22 LR, .38 Special, .30 carbine) of that nature and I’m adding a 4th as soon as I can afford the Taurus rifle in .45 automatic. I haven’t found a handgun that shoots 7.62×39 yet.
Comment by LTC John on 6/23 @ 6:19 am #
“I haven’t found a handgun that shoots 7.62×39 yet.”
And I shouldn’t think you would! If you ever find a couple of hundred thousand rounds of that caliber lying around, I know an Iraqi Army division that could use them…
Comment by SDN on 6/23 @ 7:24 am #
LTC John, I’d never heard of a handgun that shot .30 carbine, until I ran across a Ruger Super Blackhawk in that caliber. I’d also never heard of rifles that shot .38 Special / .357 mag or .45 auto until Kim Du Toit pointed me at Taurus. Sooner or later, someone will fill the 7.62 by 39 niche too. It won’t be cheap, mind, but having common calibers like that is too useful in a SHTF situation.
As for the ammo (looks around the arsenal), that’s one too many 0s for me to fill out of stock on hand…. 8-)
Comment by pdbuttons on 6/23 @ 6:32 pm #
hi tmj utah
my secret knock wil be “kumbi-aye-”
then i’ll duck…
then i’ll whisper” wabbitts.”
from a distance…
i am not mocking…
think like u…
but i’m counting on the kindness of strangers…!..
Comment by pdbuttons on 6/23 @ 6:34 pm #
i think like u…
except for the preparing…
and concern…
but…
knock/knock! {ha)
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