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I say, “Remember when Obama said it would be good if the US was more like Europe?”

Was it this kind of thing, ya think?

Carbon footprints and all.

29 Replies to “I say, “Remember when Obama said it would be good if the US was more like Europe?””

sdferr says:

January 4, 2011 at 10:17 am

Reminds me of the scene in The Meaning of Life:

Yeah, I know what it is, but, I’m using it.
Bob Reed says:

January 4, 2011 at 10:24 am

I wonder if Monbiot’s recieved his rightful share of ass-whuppins this year? I’d be glad to help out; because of the fairness…
alppuccino says:

January 4, 2011 at 10:58 am

Thinking of building one staircase just for going up, and one just for going down.

Ah what the hell – and one leading nowhere just for show.
mojo says:

January 4, 2011 at 11:03 am

The origin of the term “moonbat” – what did you expect? That’s what you get for reading the Gruaniad.
Silver Whistle says:

January 4, 2011 at 11:24 am

While most houses are privately owned, the total housing stock is a common resource. Either we ensure that it is used wisely and fairly, or we allow its distribution to become the starkest expression of inequality.

Hmm, I’ve never noticed anyone else paying the mortgage, doing the hoovering or rodding the drains in this “common resource” I call home. Perhaps Moonbat would like to come round for tea and explain how he’s going to distribute my spare room wisely and fairly.
Ernst Schreiber says:

January 4, 2011 at 11:31 am

the total housing stock is a common resource

I’ve seen Dr. Zhivago, so I know how this ends.
Obstreperous Infidel says:

January 4, 2011 at 11:40 am

While most houses are privately owned, the total housing stock is a common resource. Either we ensure that it is used wisely and fairly, or we allow its distribution to become the starkest expression of inequality.

It looks like English, but we are speaking two entirely different languages. I see NO common ground here.
Jim in KC says:

January 4, 2011 at 11:46 am

In what way is the total housing stock a common resource? Does this mean random bums are somehow entitled to set up camp in one of my parlors in one of my houses? Is my basement the new commons?
Silver Whistle says:

January 4, 2011 at 11:58 am

In what way is the total housing stock a common resource?

I think the idea is along the lines of “all property is theft” and “to each according to their need”, Jim. You really need a spell in re-education camp.
George Orwell says:

January 4, 2011 at 12:07 pm

Comrade Monbiot has a bright future in the Democrat Party of the United States, should he find himself ever short of crises in Europe.
Squid says:

January 4, 2011 at 12:14 pm

Dude’s living in a four-bedroom house in Wales. I think Moonbat may be projecting again.
Jim in KC says:

January 4, 2011 at 12:49 pm

You really need a spell in re-education camp.

Just like Lindsay Lohan! I’ll sunbathe and guzzle mojitos while meditating on my surfeit of rooms.
Silver Whistle says:

January 4, 2011 at 1:34 pm

Just like Lindsay Lohan! I’ll sunbathe and guzzle mojitos while meditating on my surfeit of rooms.

After proper meditation with the mojito’s assistance, you will undoubtedly see the wisdom of George Monbiot’s suggestion. Why, if we dig around in our Marx, we have the answer to hand:

In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life’s prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly — only then then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!

George is just getting the co-operative wealth to flow more abundantly. So, make with the rooms, already.
Ernst Schreiber says:

January 4, 2011 at 2:10 pm

What is this “co-operative wealth” you speak of? It’s like a share in a joint-stock company right?
Silver Whistle says:

January 4, 2011 at 2:32 pm

Ernst, the co-operative wealth is the result of our collective labour. Of course, to achieve this co-operative state, private property must cease to exist as soon as the means of production are available for dispersal. It’s all there in the handbook you should have received.
sdferr says:

January 4, 2011 at 3:40 pm

OK. Where’s my loom?

Oh, room.

Sorry, got carried away with that cottage-industry or bust ethos.
cranky-d says:

January 4, 2011 at 4:14 pm

I guess the fact that the pilgrims tried the collective bit and almost starved to death their first year here, and only did well after privatizing the farming, has no bearing on the thinking of jackasses like Monbiot.
Darleen says:

January 4, 2011 at 6:18 pm

I’ve heard this argument before … 1970’s California when people were being taxed out of their homes

“Why should grandma be rambling around in a 4 bedroom house when a young family needs it? If she can’t afford the taxes, sell the place and move to a one-bedroom apartment in a senior area.”

Jerry Brown (first term) got Howard Jarvis and an unprecedented tax-revolt in return for that sentiment.

Today Jerry was making noises about Prop 13 yet again.

What.The.Fuck.
I Callahan says:

January 4, 2011 at 6:37 pm

Darleen,

It can’t possibly be worth it to stay there. Get out while you can.
SDN says:

January 4, 2011 at 7:01 pm

cranky, as I’ve posted before, the 12 Disciples backed up by God couldn’t make communist bs work.
BuddyPC says:

January 4, 2011 at 9:53 pm

Don’t worry. Nothing a few of those torches which’ll go with those pitchforks can’t handle.
Jim in KC says:

January 5, 2011 at 6:05 am

So, make with the rooms, already.

If we’re going to contemplate that bramble of Marxian foolishment, I’m going to have to skip the mojitos and open up the Laphroaig Quarter Cask.
Crawford says:

January 5, 2011 at 7:12 am

cranky, as I’ve posted before, the 12 Disciples backed up by God couldn’t make communist bs work.

Well, yeah, thanks to that fascist wrecker counter-revolutionary Judas.
Silver Whistle says:

January 5, 2011 at 7:18 am

Laphroaig Quarter Cask – yummy, one of my faves. Pour a dram and savour the principles from which Monbiot works:

(i) Limitation of private property through progressive taxation, heavy inheritance taxes, abolition of inheritance through collateral lines (brothers, nephews, etc.) forced loans, etc.

(ii) Gradual expropriation of landowners, industrialists, railroad magnates and shipowners, partly through competition by state industry, partly directly through compensation in the form of bonds.

(iii) Confiscation of the possessions of all emigrants and rebels against the majority of the people.

(iv) Organization of labor or employment of proletarians on publicly owned land, in factories and workshops, with competition among the workers being abolished and with the factory owners, in so far as they still exist, being obliged to pay the same high wages as those paid by the state.

(v) An equal obligation on all members of society to work until such time as private property has been completely abolished. Formation of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

(vi) Centralization of money and credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with state capital, and the suppression of all private banks and bankers.

(vii) Increase in the number of national factories, workshops, railroads, ships; bringing new lands into cultivation and improvement of land already under cultivation – all in proportion to the growth of the capital and labor force at the disposal of the nation.

(viii) Education of all children, from the moment they can leave their mother’s care, in national establishments at national cost. Education and production together.

(ix) Construction, on public lands, of great palaces as communal dwellings for associated groups of citizens engaged in both industry and agriculture and combining in their way of life the advantages of urban and rural conditions while avoiding the one-sidedness and drawbacks of each.

(x) Destruction of all unhealthy and jerry-built dwellings in urban districts.

(xi) Equal inheritance rights for children born in and out of wedlock.

(xii) Concentration of all means of transportation in the hands of the nation.

We can obviously discount a few of these aims of the revolution as being already in the bag; I daresay George is toiling manfully to achieve a good few of the others.
Jim in KC says:

January 5, 2011 at 10:12 am

(ix) Construction, on public lands, of great palaces as communal dwellings for associated groups of citizens engaged in both industry and agriculture and combining in their way of life the advantages of urban and rural conditions while avoiding the one-sidedness and drawbacks of each.

I can hardly wait. I’m hoping my palace has air conditioning.

Honestly, I’m not sure what to do with these idiots. Shoot them? I mean, I enlisted in the Marine Corps thinking I might get to shoot some Commies.
Silver Whistle says:

January 5, 2011 at 12:11 pm

I’m up to my oxters in the idiots over here, Jim. Seriously. People who are unashamed to label themselves Communists, Trotskyites, Socialists. Pointing and laughing just doesn’t do it, not even with utter public buffoons like Monbiot. It’s like a freakin’ Solanum zombie infection.
LBascom says:

January 5, 2011 at 1:02 pm

“cranky, as I’ve posted before, the 12 Disciples backed up by God couldn’t make communist bs work.”

Well, communism is Godless (which is probably why it’ll never work), but your point is a good one.

Individuals are unique and priceless, collectivism is soul crushing and necessarily tyrannical. God gave us self determination, even with regards to Him. With self determination, we live with the consequences of our will. That is the story of Eden, God didn’t fence off the tree of knowledge, Adam was free to make his choices.

It’s Man that tries to remove consequence from action, never acknowledging it can only be done at the price of individual liberty.
Jim in KC says:

January 5, 2011 at 1:20 pm

I feel for you, SW, I really do.

Thankfully, the species is limited mostly to newspaper editorialists in my part of the U.S, and, while bad enough, they’re not openly revolutionary in the Marxist sense of the word.

And at least I can own cool guns and have a concealed carry permit.
SDN says:

January 5, 2011 at 2:30 pm

Actually, Crawford, it’s the Book of Acts, after the Crucifixion.

We have at least one clear description of the failure of Communism under optimal conditions. I refer, of course, to the Book of Acts, 4:32 – 5:11, Ananias and Sephira. NewLiving translation.

1. There is no doubt that they are practicing the economic system of communism:”All the believers were of one heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own; they shared everything they had…There was no poverty among them, because people who owned land or houses sold them, and brought the money to the apostles to give to others in need.” From each according to his means, to each according to his need — Marx would have been proud to call them brother.

2. They had as close to an incorruptible body of rulers as possible, who were proving their uprightness with miracles every day.

3. And they had pretty close to the ultimate Auditor; when Ananais and Sephira try to cheat the system, Peter knows about it instantly, and the punishment is swift and sure: the cheaters are struck dead on the spot.

And yet there were still cheaters, the apostles couldn’t hold it together for very long, and none of the other churches outside Jerusalem seem to have even tried it. If the 12 Apostles backed up by God couldn’t make communism work, how in the h*ll would any lesser mortals have a shot??