I wrote this:
[…] today’s liberal-Democrats are nothing but opportunistic and increasingly reprehensible tin-plated Macchiavellians; to many of these people, rhetoric trumps truth; spin is paramount, and power is all.
Never before in my lifetime did I find it even remotely possible that our country could fight another civil war. But I’m beginning to think that a (non-violent) civil war is coming—and that, frankly, it needs to happen. How it transpires, I have no idea—though I suspect migration patterns and a strong move to re-affirm federalist principles could provide the groundwork.
Philosophically, we have lost our way. And we’d better find our way back to our founding principles, or—as powerful as we are—we are doomed to slip into nannystate socialism, while a feckless foreign policy permits radical Islam to spread across the globe like the cancer it is.
The post — and its follow up — created a lot of discussion back when it first appeared. Sadly, these days outrage after the fact sells so much better than trying to find trends and hold honest strategic and tactical debates in advance of calamity.
So, you decide. Prescient? Or the kind of over-the-top rhetoric that might cause David Brooks to clutch his pearls, and “pragmatic” conservatives to ban me from polite company?
Discuss!
(thanks to vinny vidivici for the goading)
Paying attention and doing the math. Which is what Visigoths do.
Judge them not by what they do, but what they would do.
I’ve been saying it since the early 90s. I gave a deadline of 2025 back then, and I see nothing to discourage me from polishing my Order of Nostradamus with Cassandra cluster…
Liberals aren’t and Progressives don’t. Keep your powder dry and your whistle wet…
Jeff, if you recall, I was there possibly even before you were… and getting rebuked by about half even of your non moonbat commenters (like LTC John, forex) as being a crazy extremist. The crazy might be debated, but the extremist just came from the fact that I had a working knowledge of history and had never found an example of a tyranny that was rolled back (especially long term) without killing/exiling its’ supporters.
Oh, and anyone who wants to argue that Yeltsin was a counter-example: how does a kleptocracy differ from any other form of tyranny, and then there’s that whole long term thing….
The breaking point for me was “deemed passed”.
You know what, my dad is Prescient. My first experience with the political came in ’68, when my grade school had a presidential vote. I was in first grade, struggling not to pee my bed at night, so I voted for Nixon ‘cuz that’s who my dad said he was going to vote for. I wonder if they still do that? It would seem to be an honest poll.
Anyway for the next ten years I listened to my dad swear at the “liberal media”, offer his opinions on which judges should be shot, or which protests need a Huey gunship fly by, and declaring a revolution is coming and the sooner the better.
In short, I feel like I’m STILL spouting my dads politics, 35 years later and with the bed wetting thing firmly resolved.
Wish the old man wasn’t so Prescient.
Course, pop wasn’t right about everything. After the Berlin Wall was tore down, I got into a heated debate with him(not uncommon) over the fate of communism. With China incorporating more capitalism in their system, and the fall of the USSR, he thought it ceased to be a threat. I argued communism is greater than any one country, and it will forever be a threat.
We ended up leaving the debate a draw, and went for pie. But I was right…
The End of History turned out to be a rest stop.
Can I vote “All of the Above”?
I’ll see your “six years ago” and tell of my impression, upon returning to live in the U.S. after 5 years abroad, of the inauguration speech of one WJClinton in 1993. I was slack-jawed with alarm. “My God, this psychopath is going to be re-elected!” I said it out loud and was immediately scoffed at. But I knew it even then, on the cusp of his first term. I was laughed to derision by good people who believed the only reason WJC was elected was because of Perot, and it wouldn’t happen again, and people aren’t that stupid, etc.
Nothing like being away from home long enough to lend one a compressed perspective on the incremental changes that go unnoticed by those living within them.
I went to check how long ago Fukuyama published that (never read it but caught the gist by excerpt in a magazine) and it was ’92.
Yikes. Twenty years ago. I couldn’t drink legally.
…I was wrong. I remember thinking that there’d always be problems but collectivism had been discredited once and for all.
collectivism had been discredited once and for all.
that’s the usual mode of the world
I’ve been clutching my pearls since Jimmah Cartah was in the White House. That’s when I started scouting for the most remote, inaccessable place I could find where the local economy focused on producing food and energy and the locals were bitterly clinging to their guns and their god. Now I live there, and I’m frankly surprised that the country hasn’t gone completely to crap already.
The global economy is being held together with spit and glue, and our would-be ruling class seems concerned only with getting theirs before the whole frickin’ house of cards comes crashing down. Shouldn’t have long to wait now.
Interesting times we live in.
BTW, am I the only one starting to get a creepy vibe from the Olympics?
BTW, am I the only one starting to get a creepy vibe from the Olympics?
nah the nhs routine signaled that
i mean bow down to your health care overlords
Damned punk kids. Get off of my lawn!
i’m watching beck’s gig in dallas. he makes the proggtards look ridiculous.
I used to teach that, bh. 16 years back.
OT: Went to the range today and shot both the FNP-45 tac and the Taurus 24/7 OSS tac. Both shot beautifully. Had one cartridge not chamber properly in the Taurus, but a quick smack on the mag bottom fixed that. Ran some higher-end +p through the FNP; man, does that pistol feel sweet.
I was only shooting 7 yards, but I was putting multiple shots through a single hole in the target “brain” with the amber dot reflex site, both with one eye closed and then with both eyes open. Taurus started off a bit low using only iron sights, then adjusted for how the sight is oriented (6 o’clock), which is different than the FNP-45 (poa/poi). After that I just kept widening the hole at center mass.
Very happy with both.
Oh, and my wife, all 5′ 110 lbs of her, liked the 45 FNP very much, better than the 9mm she shot. She also liked both the Walther and a Bersa in 380.
“…I was wrong. I remember thinking that there’d always be problems but collectivism had been discredited once and for all.”
– Think of it as the ‘Statist Olympics’, with a slightly different cycle time.
any suggestions for a .22 pistol/rifle for target practice?
with a slightly different cycle time.
yea the totalitarian goons were a half phase out of sync. choom gang to the rescue
…a Bersa in 380.
That’s what I carry, Jeff and I’m only a little taller and heavier than your wife.
Serr8d can sneer all he likes. It’s a nice piece for a woman. It will jam sometimes, though. So practice, practice.
The Pretenders – Back On The Choom Gang HQ Music
Pretenders
I found a picture of you, oh oh oh oh
What hijacked my world that night
To a place in the past
We’ve been cast out of? oh oh oh oh
Now we’re back in the fight
We’re back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang
A circumstance beyond our control, oh oh oh oh
The phone, the tv and the news of the world
Got in the house like a pigeon from hell, oh oh oh oh
Threw sand in our eyes and descended like flies
Put us back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang
The powers that be
That force us to live like we do
Bring me to my knees
When I see what they’ve done to you
But I’ll die as I stand here today
Knowing that deep in my heart
They’ll fall to ruin one day
For making us part
back on the choom gang
And that boy can work a crowd, no? Great, great event. Memo to our betters: You see that crowd? You’d better see that crowd. You don’t want to mistake what’s going on here.
– The graet “Silent Majority Beast” awakens.
Beck’s Keynote.
Newrouter, I still like the Ruger 10/22 for a rifle, and when you can take 2 and turn them into an ATF-approved Gatling gun that fires ~100 rpm, that’s just a bonus.
For the pistol, I have a Ruger Mark III 22/45; it has the same basic grip arrangement as a .45 M1911. It is a hard pistol to disassemble completely for cleaning, but mine has fired well over 2000 rounds with just a pressurized solvent bath and bore patches.
Via Andy at Aces: Obama, Hindmost of the Betas
Antonin Scalia inna house on FNS.
Bob Schiefer teases his own show “Did Mitt Romney give Netanyahu the green light to bomb Iran?”. He neglected to mention “Brian Ross has really loosened things up at a whole new level for all of us”.
Bob can act shocked! when his disingenuous remarks show up in another campaign ad.
newrouter says July 28, 2012 at 10:00 pm
any suggestions for a .22 pistol/rifle for target practice?
I like old (1941-1961) Mossberg 22 bolt action rifles for 22 target. For pistol I have too many to choose from to make a realistic suggestion(none of them are cheap in today’s market).
Not sure if this is the Republican Establishment whipping out the big one or the Democrat Establishment sowing division.
I vote the latter, mv.
In the main, isn’t it simply Cheney speaking his mind by way of a harsh criticism of John McCain? Looks that way to me, anyhow. That is, it could be read (loosely, granted) as *John McCain is a dumbass, who doesn’t know how to keep his eye on the most salient issue before him, but can be expected to veer off in directions not in the nation’s interest, but in his view, of his own.*
Jeff,
An FYI: you are being exploited. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/pelosi-republican-jews-being-exploited_649077.html
No, if you look at the transcript it was a pretty explicit diss of Palin…. and since Cheney admits he’s been consulted on Mitt’s VP pick I guess Huntsman or Portman will be Veep.
You would almost think they want us to go third party….
any suggestions for a .22 pistol/rifle for target practice?
For bolt action, the CZ 455s are the nicest I’ve used, just like a baby Mauser. If you can find the previous incarnation (Brno Model 2) used, they can be a good deal.
Semi-auto, you can’t go wrong with the Ruger 10-22.
On a visit to folks recently, my mom mentioned that Texas was Republican now, though it used to be run by the Democrats. I told her that the people hadn’t changed, the parties did. And by that I mean, the Democrats changed. After their embarassing beatdown by Reagan in 1980, they became the party of desperation, throwing off any remnants of social conservatism (Ted Kennedy had been pro-life, at least when he was sober and not driving) in order to become a coalition of grievance groups. They’ll say absolutely anything necessary to cobble together enough votes to win an election, and when they do, they have become all too willing to indulge their Progressive vision: eugenics, euthanasia of the non-productive, controlling “the masses”, etc.
Motionview —
The GOP establishment hates conservatives. Simple as that.
If the American people were truly worried about who was “ready” for leadership, they wouldn’t have elected a guy with no history and very little experience and left an entrenched GOP establishment dinosaur with a history of “compromise” sitting on the sidelines.
Cheney has it wrong. But then, the two parties are different today only in terms of the rate of decline they’ll support.
+1 on the Ruger Mark III’s being sweet — AND for being hard to clean.
My cleaning kit includes a couple of dowels and a hammer, just because of the Mark III.
The Establicans are looking to rub our faces in it ——what are we going to do, vote for Obama?
As for the Palin pick being a mistake, I kind of imagine that Sarah Palin thinks accepting McCain’s offer was a mistake, so it’s probably unanimous that a mistake was made, as far as that goes.
Ron Radosh, reviewing Stanley Kurtz’s forthcoming book: