Well, I’ve relapsed into some sort of chest cold that is causing me to cough up what looks like parts of my spleen. On top of that, Satchel has picked up a stomach bug, despite our having gotten him his flu shot early. Our littlest one is coughing a bit and has a runny nose, but that’s not slowing him down. So all hell has broken loose around here, and wife / mother is acting as the nurturer and caregiver today, even as she continues to work. What a trooper. We truly are blessed as a family, which is one of the last things keeping me sane. Well, that, and knowing that I have caused presumably grown men on the left to stalk my every movement and parse my every utterance. Because I’m so inside their heads that I may as well be their optic nerve.
Of course, none of this means I can’t try to stimulate your minds or cause you to become angry — even at some ally or other — while I’m off recuperating.
In that spirit, today’s assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to parse Thomas Sowell’s NRO piece — which sadly hews to the GOP establishment line about the TEA Party’s successes and failures — and suss out, then discuss, what you believe to be the various errors / miscalculations upon which Dr Sowell’s argument relies. I was sent this link on Twitter this morning, and I commented the best I could in 140 characters. After that, I planned to make an extended argument here, countering Sowell’s reasoning.
Then I coughed up a testicle and decided I’d take some Delsym instead.
So I’m going to leave it to you all to dissect the piece, and to make a reasoned counter argument to Dr Sowell. In a cursory read I spotted at least 3 crucial errors in the argument’s premises that all but compel Dr Sowell to draw the conclusion he draws. So I don’t believe him to be some shill for the GOP establishment, and in fact, I’ve long been a huge fan (as we who follow the Milton Friedman / Austrian school of free market economics — eschewed, incidentally, by the “Libertarian” candidate in Virginia paid to draw votes away from Cuccinelli and leave Virginians with a sleazy scumsucking leftist yes man in the Governor’s mansion — all should be) of Dr Sowell’s.
Which doesn’t make him infallible, nor does it make him a perfect sage. And in this piece, he simply follows certain assertions to their logical conclusion, which is itself perfectly natural. If entirely incorrect.
So. Because the argument made by Sowell is crucial to what trajectory we take in the ongoing fight for protecting our liberty, I believe it is important that we understand it perfectly, are thoroughly and intimately familiar with its premises, and are able, effectively and with sober efficiency — and of course with the utmost respect and deference to such a brilliant scholar as Dr Sowell — to tear the living shit out of it, until it lies in a splatter pattern of fluid spray and quivering clumped pulp, then dies a miserable death, its life force dissipating as it oozes outward from the once pulsating core.
Without going much into it — because that would be cheating! — I hope that, even if you disagree with me that Sowell has made a number of errors, you will take time to consider what I’ve long spoken of here: how the role of language plays such a crucial part in leading to certain then ostensibly inevitable rhetorical conclusions.
And how a change in the way we think about what we are doing when we deal with communicative speech acts leads (unsurprisingly in my view) to an antidote to the poison of the post structuralists and the Gramsci clones and imitators.
Ready? Begin!
It sound like you have bronchitis, Jeff. Getcher ass to the doctor and gets some antibiotics before you give it to the kids and the missus. Is it a barking cough? With or without a fever? If fevered, it may be pneumonia and if you ignore it, you end up in the hospital getting breathing treatments.
Just FYI.
Re: Sowell. He’s getting old and the article is for NRO.
I suspect Joseph Heller got there decades before us. Not that this is an argument, so much as an ordinary bewilderment.
I ran into much the same deal on the question of impeaching TheClownDisaster. Can’t be done, say the sophisticates. Well sure, says I, if you act on your idiocy by not acting.
Levin pointed out last night that Sowell’s argument overlooks that General Washington’s chance of defeating the British was also pretty low, yet the effort wasn’t irrational. I would point out that grabbing the steering wheel or punching the maniac behind it who is headed at full speed toward the jersey barrier are also not likely to result in saving one’s skin. “Rational” does not entail “high likelihood of success.” It does entail “no clearly better alternative course of action under these dire circumstances.”
At least Sowell offers an alternative: get elected and then repeal it. But he offers no evidence that voters will punish GOP candidates in 2014 just because they tried to defund this stinker of a law in 2013. Perhaps they will reward them, instead. And he ignores the likelihood that repeal will become more difficult as the law continues to sink its teeth into the system.
I’m gonna sit next to the smart chicks and copying from them.
And he ignores the likelihood that repeal will become more difficult as the law continues to sink its teeth into the system.
Absolutely. The idea is to cut as many from the self-sufficient herd as possible to make repeal politically untenable. Repeal–not fixes or stop gaps– should be the rallying cry. Nothing less will save the country.
FWIW, even if the defund effort was doomed to failure in practice, it was a success in the sense that it allowed people like Cruz to list all the ways O-care was going to be a nightmare just a few short weeks before the nightmare became a reality. It focused attention on the problems and offered an albeit temporary solution. Given that the administration mislead America–including members of the presidents own party–with overly sanguine predictions about implementation, this nightmare is his and Democrats’ alone.
Now, if the conservative rank and file in places like SC can just get rid of the Lindsey Grahams of the world, we’ll be onto something.
Error #1: But their tactics can only be judged by the consequences.
It’s way too soon to say what the consequences really are, and the record is hardly as grim as Sowell would portray it. I mean, the 2010 landslide has to count for something, right? The retaking of a dozen state legislatures has some value, doesn’t it? So yeah — consequences so far are actually not too bad, and we’re still in the very short term.
Error #2: The only question then is: Was defunding Obamacare within their power?
That’s hardly the only question. Without the Tea Party, the only options were a party who embraced ObamaCare enthusiastically, versus another who embraced ObamaCare reservedly. That’s no choice at all. Meaningful battles are worth fighting even when the chances of an early victory are slim. The important thing is making a stand.
Error #3: With the chances of making a dent in Obamacare by trying to defund it being virtually zero, and the Republican party’s chances of gaining power in either the 2014 or 2016 elections being reduced by the public backlash against that futile attempt, there was virtually nothing to gain politically and much to lose.
Nonsense. The idea that “I fought hard to try to protect your family from the devastating consequences of ObamaCare” is a losing platform in 2014 and 2016 is just absurd. The idea that “I made a speech and then went along with things” is a political winner is equally absurd. To say there was “nothing to gain” is to see only the immediate struggle at hand (which seems to be the common failing in Mr. Sowell’s reasoning). There is everything to gain, if only by preparing the battleground for 2014, and for positioning our way as a real alternative to business as usual.
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!
Dr. Sowell is (IIRC) an economist, not a political strategist.
Then again, the political strategists aren’t any better at political strategy than an economist would be. At least Dr. Sowell is good in his particular field.
Sowell is the go-to guy for explanations of How Economics Works.
But he’s tackling politics, here, making him no smarter than the rest of us, so there’s really no reason for us to think that Sowell’s pronouncements on the issue carry the same weight as his pronouncements on taxation.
This commenter at Insty’s gives a good summation of What Cruz Actually Accomplished. I added, “People say ‘it didn’t have a chance of working,’ but that assumes that Cruz filibustered with the sole aim of defunding Obamacare (the part that was up for funding in the CR).”
As for Sowell’s actual arguments, I don’t have the heart to read the article. I can’t read Jonah’s criticism’s of Cruz for the same reason: their assumptions are SO far off the mark that it’s painful to read.
At least Sowell offers an alternative: get elected and then repeal it.
McCarthy already debunked that one in spades: http://nationalreview.com/article/361655/art-impossible-andrew-c-mccarthy
Obamacare is such an awful thing that nothing less than going after it with sledgehammers ALL DAY LONG is appropriate. ALL blows need to be landed. ALL shots taken. ALL the time.
To do less is to “accept the inevitable.” As Rush was saying today, the Establicans may not dig Obamacare, but they’re pretty cool with “Republicare.”
Steyn has been right all along: we’ve got two parties fighting for control of the Leviathan; neither party wants to chop off its head.
what difference a month makes
House Democrats to Obama: Fix the Cancelation Problem Or Face Full Scale Rebellion
Three things that I saw that were wrong or improper were:
Since the Tea Party sees itself as the conservative wing of the Republican party
Uhhh, no. If he had said “the fiscal conservative wing”, he would have been closer, but still not accurate.
But their tactics can only be judged by the consequences.
This is just another way of saying the ends justifies the means.
Fundamentally, “rational” means the ability to make a ratio
The word may have its roots in the old latin word ratio, but that is NOT what rational means.
With the chances of making a dent in Obamacare by trying to defund it being virtually zero, and the Republican party’s chances of gaining power in either the 2014 or 2016 elections being reduced by the public backlash against that futile attempt,
Alluding to facts not in evidence. As the disaster of Obumblecare rolls on, that “futile” attempt may be come to be seen as simply an opening salvo.
there was virtually nothing to gain politically and much to lose.
So he is saying that you never make a stand on principal alone – it is always a trade-off. I would disagree.
Alluding to facts not in evidence
It wasn’t all that bad. Wrong, but not mendacious.
Of course, none of the people who claim they just have a “different tactic” have ever actually bother to explain what the tactic is other than a fancy form of “more of the same nothing”.
It may be unfair to tar Dr. Sowell with the economist brush, at least to the extent that it can be an equally unfair thing to do to Adam Smith, whose concerns are much broader and deeper than mere economics — economics being only a subset of his concerns.
Calling him “only an economist” is no tarring.
It does, however, explain why he’s gone Full Establican on us. I wonder who his Beltway friends are?
The fact is, arguing political strategy is like arguing the best way to open clamshell plastic packaging.
Nominally, all sides agree that the purpose is to get the contents out of the package — but for some reason not everyone agrees on what condition the contents ought to be upon removal, and some think the most important thing is to preserve the integrity of the packaging itself.
Good analogy, McGehee.
They’ve got their priorities all messed up.
I wonder who his Beltway friends are?
I’m not sure what’s implied by that (possibly nothing!), but can name at least one of the type of thinker and arguer on that front, with whom Dr. Sowell has some contact at Hoover: Peter Robinson.
Were the men on Flight 93 acting irrationally?
McGehee, reminds me of the family Christmases after getting married where in one household presents were unwrapped violently and with glee and abandon, and the other household where presents were handled carefully and the tape gently removed so the paper could be reused next year.
i would still break Mr. Dr. Sowell off a piece of my KitKat bar but boyfriend needs to understand that the Ted Cruz people accomplished very important things number one they got everyone on the same page with the idea that Team R is very much against this Obamacare nonsense, a message which had gotten dangerously blurred when the momo Rs nominated that freaky out of the mainstream Romney person
secondly what else the Ted Cruz people accomplished was to
um
oh. Also what they accomplished was to draw out brainwashed fascist whores like Meghan’s coward piece of shit daddy and Princess Lindsey and Rick Perry and Lamar Alexander and the chinless kentuckyslut guy and Orrin Hatch and etc, and more people understand who these arrogant fuckholes really are now
so that was nice
What’s Robinson been saying about the Cruz filibuster? I haven’t kept up.
I’m not sure what’s implied by that (possibly nothing!)
We all go off the information we have; his contacts in DC would affect what information he has.
Calling him “only an economist” is no tarring.
Oh, I don’t know: tars tarred the rigging rope with tar in order to preserve it from rot so that it could remain as rigging. Think of it as of an insect preserved in amber.
is like arguing the best way to open clamshell plastic packaging.
Well, I know the answer to that one, having just learned it a few weeks ago: a can opener is the best way to open those tools of the devil.
the best way to open clamshell plastic packaging.
Acetone. Or a sledgehammer.
My Sig, Kimber, Bersa and Rock Island came in clamshell packaging. Those cases open easily and are quite reusable.
So, I’m not quite sure what the problem is………
Everybody agrees that clamshell packaging is horrible and awful and a creation of the Devil himself, but Heaven forfend that any of us should question why clamshell packaging is necessary in the first place. That’s just crazy extremist fringe talk!
My Bersa came in a dandy little hard plastic case with slots for her extra magazines. Kind of like a teeny suitcase. Maybe the gun dealer removed it from the packaging for me before I got to the shop.
The Whig Party still exists?
And the consequences were? Obamacare was brought front and center as an issue and now, with the across the board failures of Obamacare, along with blatant administration lies, the consequences for supporters of the law aren’t necessarily in the best interests of the TEA party?
Suckered into throwing the Democrats into yet another briar patch — the too clever by all GOP: *** But Republicans have pounced, and House GOP leaders have increased the pressure by scheduling a Friday vote on the Upton bill. ***
Imbeciles. What a grand ol’ party.
Neil Cavuto and David Paleologos (what a great name!) opine that the American Peoples have “trust issues” with the Wan.
C4, duh.
Consider it this way: The press has been Obama’s clamshell packaging.
C4, duh.
Overkill, man.
C3 then?
clowndisaster™ news
BREAKING: HHS Says 106,185 26,000 Enrolled for Obamacare in October (Updates and RNC Reaction)
Vodkapundit Explains All
Clamshell packaging discourages shoplifting and increases trips to the emergency room to sew up finger lacerations.
You decide which contingent encourages clamshells.
” 106,185 26,000 ”
I’m not sue what that is. Typo? Confusingly written headline with two different nmbers right next to each other?
leigh, sheesh, you have how many guys in your life?
No such thing as “c4 overkill.” If anything, it should be “c4 underkill.”
Only 26,000 paid for their policies.
No such thing as “c4 overkill.” If anything, it should be “c4 underkill.”
I stand corrected, Blake. And here I was musing about getting my mitts on some claymores the other day . . .
No, that’s “only 26,000 people who have selected a policy in their online shopping carts”, with no requirements that they have actually been accepted and paid for. (Jeff pointed that out in an earlier post.)
Yes. No one has paid for anything as of yet.
What in the hell are you talking about Willis?
or
Sister, please
take your pick
Feets, perhaps “coward piece of shit” is not the right term to apply to Senator McCain in view of his giving his commie captors the finger for over five years. I’d suggest “statist piece of shit” or “doucheois piece of shit.”
Sorry, should have used scare-quotes.
note to self: don’t rush your posts, idiot. There’s way too many smart people around here.
Well, of course we aren’t naming hellomynameishewhomustnotbenamed.
No one has paid for anything as of yet.
– One might almost get the feeling that the typical applicant had the idea he or she wasn’t going to have to pay for anything., although where they got that idea from “Lord” knows.
– I picture the Prog part timer, if they’re working at all, applying with the idea in mind, “Ok, I voted for your half black ass, now wheres my free shit?”, and being shocked its not laying there in a pile with their names on it.
bbh, oh, it’s laying there all right, in a big steaming pile of …..
BBH, I see a lot of them opening their mail and saying “The fuck is this?!” when presented with a bill.
The butcher’s bill is not always in currency…
Clamshell packaging solution-> buy a Bear Grylls(TM) survival knife* and use it to open the clamshell packages. ( Once you figure out how to get IT out of its clamshell package.)
http://www.airriflepump.com/acatalog/ultimate_knife.jpg
*comes in a clamhsell package
Also because it’s made by Gerber(TM) you know it’s (probably)safe for babies.
– Among the unanswered questions as we move toward the end of the term of America’s “first post racial” president, is “will the NYT still be clinging to Bumblefucks ankle as he heads out the door for his flight to Hawaii”. Sure looks that way.
– These people have to be some kind of fucked up true believers that would rival any starry eyed missionary that ever existed to be doing this crap at this stage in the game. I’ll bet they all think themselves atheists, proving willful ignorance is alive and well on the Left. If they’re too stupid and indoctrinated to feel shame I’m embarrassed for them.
And if you buy 34 of them by next March you can send in the proofs of purchase for a free parang or kukri style machete*.
You can’t get a prize deal like that by selling Grit or seeds these days!
* ( I may have almost certainly made all of this up)
palaeomerus, I’m waiting for the “but wait, there’s more!!”
You can filet a soup can thin enough to read newspaper through and watch how easy it is to julienne this old tanker boot to add to an old boot salad! Just top with hard boiled egg slices, lemon pepper, and WOW!
snips, among others
And Upton can save ClownDisasterCare from drowning!
Oh, and with this Upton pic should go a boob-alert!
upton has a nice set of edison bulbs
Love Thomas Sowell, and still want to move to the alternate timeline where he was the first black President of the United States, but he’s wrong on this.
“David Paleologos (what a great name!)”
Wasn’t that a dynasty in the Eastern Empire?
Paleologos = ancient words
Yep. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaiologos.
I’ve always used aviation shears on the clamshells.
For a long time as a metal lather I had a pair of aviators practically welded to my mitt, when, that is, a pair of bull-nosed nippers wasn’t there.
They are playing around in the wrong Uncle Remus tale. Obamacare is a tarbaby and anyone who touches it is doomed. The Dems want both sides to be stuck so the doom is evenly dispensed.
Could be my memory is failing, but I’d thought the two tales are connected, and that the briar patch was the ruse whereby the bunny got loosed from his tar-baby trap?
Your memory is correct. Brer Rabbit makes his escape after begging “Don’t throw me in that briar patch!”
“In one tale, Br’er Fox constructs a doll out of a lump of tar and dresses it with some clothes. When Br’er Rabbit comes along he addresses the tar “baby” amiably, but receives no response. Br’er Rabbit becomes offended by what he perceives as the Tar-Baby’s lack of manners, punches it, and in doing so becomes stuck. The more Br’er Rabbit punches and kicks the tar “baby” out of rage, the worse he gets stuck.
Now that Br’er Rabbit is stuck, Br’er Fox ponders how to dispose of him. The helpless but cunning Br’er Rabbit pleads, “but do please, Br’er Fox, don’t fling me in dat brier-patch,” prompting Fox to do exactly that. As rabbits are at home in thickets, the resourceful Br’er Rabbit escapes. Using the phrases “but do please, Br’er Fox, don’t fling me in dat brier-patch” and “tar baby” to refer to the idea of “a problem that gets worse the more one struggles against it” became part of the wider culture of the United States.
The story was originally published in Harper’s Weekly by Robert Roosevelt; years later Joel Chandler Harris wrote of the Tar-Baby in his Uncle Remus stories. A similar tale from African folklore in West Africa has the trickster Anansi the Spider in the role of Br’er Fox, but in a Jamaican variant, he takes the role of Br’er Rabbit.”
My kitchen shears work fine on clamshells. If I’m in a hurry, and in the car after shopping, I’ll carefully use a good sized lockback knife. One that would put me in prison in the UK.
orangeman likes those set of edison bulbs
Boehner: Upton Bill a Step On Path to Obamacare Repeal
Ms. Upton will be able to feed an orphanage when she has children.
I generally use the folding Buck knife my brother gave me for my birthday years ago, and which I am increasingly prone to carry at all times as an outwardly visible proclamation that I am a free man.
…which reduces my interaction with security checkpoint personnel — a mutually agreeable state of affairs I’m sure.
– I’m nothing if not a willing supporter of Ms Upton and orphans everywhere.
Lucky kiddos, uh?
ot but fun facts about edison bulbs
Edison vs. Westinghouse: A Shocking Rivalry
– Edison won the battle of the bulbs, but Westinghouse won the Electric wars.
Meanwhile Tesla’s idea of free energy drawn straight from the ground couldn’t find any financial backers…
“Wait, how do we charge for this energy?”
“You don’t.”
“Ah. Well, thanks for stopping in, and don’t let me keep you.”
>Edison won the battle of the bulbs<
upton has better bulbs
I’ve read something like that article about Westinghouse and Edison ages ago. It was fun to read about them again. I didn’t remember the bit about the electric chair.
Andy McCarthy put in an appearance on SurrenderNews’ Megy Kelly hour, making his case against the ClownDisaster’s fraud. Question is, is repeatedly asserting the impossibility (right now) of impeachment the way to go about building an effort to achieve impeachment?
For my part it seems better to encourage people to make their demand that ClownDisaster be impeached known to their Congressmen and Senators. It’s a political thing, is all. And we are the politics.
I was disappointed (but not surprised) that McCarthy brought up impeachment as the remedy to executive overreach and then immediately dropped it.
>an effort to achieve impeachment? <
a fools errand. better for orangeman to put repeal O!care bill then upton tits up bill. let them vote on it.
The electric chair is the original source of the word “electrocution.” I was surprised the first time I heard that.
“impeachment” be stupid peeps. keep rubbing their noses in their clowndisaster™
a fools errand.
Ah yes, many tens of millions or perhaps over a hundred million Americans making their demand that ClownDisaster be impeached is a business for fools. More fools they for thinking the government belongs to them.
Color me foolish, then. I want a bill of impeachment.
“impeachment” be stupid peeps.
Right, that’s exactly why the framers put the means in the Constitution! So it could be ignored, and that miscreant rulers would continue to wreck their depredations upon a subservient population, until reason and persuasion would no longer have effect! Then a shooting war can break out! And won’t that be a jolly time? Quite! No fools errand in killing.
yo peeps is “is” jizz . been there done dat. let the proggtards own it.
>So it could be ignored, and that miscreant rulers would continue to wreck their depredations upon a subservient population, until reason and persuasion would no longer have effect!<
wait for the employer mandate. there be brisk business in squid™ products;)
a fools errand.
Why wait when you can run the very idea into the ground with such nonsense now! It’s never too early to surrender!
yo peeps the baracky held back the ocean rise(employer mandate) til 9 or 10/2014. that be the tsunami
>It’s never too early to surrender!<
let the full force of O!care hit. the only measure originating from the house is: repeal.
>Ah yes, many tens of millions or perhaps over a hundred million Americans making their demand that ClownDisaster be impeached is a business for fools.<
good luck with that in dingy harry's senate
good luck with that in dingy harry’s senate
That’s the spirit! As the rulers would insist: we must have no will of our own: we must be happy to cede all political determination to Harry Reid!
The latest Facebook post from the White House tries to spin this as a wonderful success. Yeah, ~400,000 more on welfare and less than 1.5% of the number of actual Obamacare enrollees that their own estimates say they need to make it fiscally viable (and that’s if you accept their absurd claim that adding a plan to the cart is the same as actually buying it). Meanwhile, 3.5-5 million are losing their coverage come January 1.
>we must be happy to cede all political determination to Harry Reid!<
yep the baracky owns the senate my friend. not the states of the united states of america.
Meanwhile, 3.5-5 million are losing their coverage come January 1.
And these 3.5 to 5 million, not to mention any of their relatives, friends and acquaintances cannot, as per our friend newrouter, have any knowledge of wrong or grievance against our Enlightened ruler Pambasileias ClownDisaster fit to demand his impeachment — hardly! These must wait patiently until many millions more of their fellow Americans are defrauded by this greatest of all civil boons in the history of world political events! And even then, if they know how to bow down like good little serfs, they will keep a silent tongue in their mouths, making not a peep about any political remedy and punishment against their tormentors.
> making not a peep about any political remedy and punishment against their tormentors.<
that be the lay of the land til 2014
Silence all! newrouter shows the way!
mr. orangeman is sizing it up too: Boehner: No Conference on Senate Immigration Bill
I would love to see Reid spinning another Democrat impeachment away as “just politics” when he has his fellow Democrats using the phrase “guilty, but not guilty enough”, and the votes go along party lines.
Political, indeed.
>Silence all! <
speaks all you will. there ain't be no impeachment of the black/kenyan/muslim proggtard. not prudent.
When my big brother used to sit on me, I always just laid there until he got up, because no matter what I did he was bigger than me and there was no way I’d ever get him off me.
Not.
Surely it’s too expensive for Americans to make their demand that Pambasileias ClownDisaster be impeached for his fraud upon their polity. It’s simply unpossible.
There’s no way million upon million of Americans can telephone the offices of their Congressmen and Senators, or write by snail-mail, or write by e-mail, or send telegrams or passenger pigeons to see to it that their simple message — Impeach him! — gets through. Can’t be done. Just like it couldn’t be done when they refused a comprehensive immigration reform during the Bush administration; just like it couldn’t be done when they laid the predicate for their hatred of ClownDisasterCare in the first instance; just like it couldn’t be done when the Americans rose in disgust at the thought of going to war in Syria. No. Can’t be done.
>Impeach him!<
harry reid says your line is on hold
>Impeach him! <
O!care has been repealed 39 times in orangeman land. for the symbolism.
And I say your line is spineless.
– At this point impeachment, even were it viable, and Clinton proved for all time that even multiple counts of adultery, and an unsolved murder, added to bald face lying directly to the people on national TV as not enough to really “impeach” impeach, theres not a lot to be gained if ObummerCare remains on the books any longer than absolutely neccessary.
we impeach this motherfucker our reward is one joe fucking biden
that is not america
plus if that happens his niece is gonna start cutting herself
god knows nobody want that on their conscience
That’s not the sum total of a reward for doing the right thing. Among other things, the very act would be a demonstration of the seriousness of the people of the nation, should their demands hold sway, not to mention a return in fact and action to the order the Constitution puts before us. Who would think that merely equivalent to the person of a moron like Joe Biden, or that even a moron such as he wouldn’t be informed by the fate of his predecessor?
– In the best case scenario you’d just end up with hair plugs telling the lies on TV and OCare working its magic with each passing day.
The only reason this number is this “small” is all the exemptions and delays that “TheClownDisaster” has put into effect unilaterally. Those will expire and, as Rush talked of today, when that happens, next year, there will not be 5 million with cancelled policies but 10s, 100s of millions of cancellations.
Just adjusting all policies to cover pre-existing conditions is enough to change them so they fail the grandfathered exclusion and all policies will have to cover that and more. The more part can change daily as the “Secretary Shall Determine.”
>And I say your line is spineless<
it is what it is. that 17th amendment is kinda important at this point no? proggtard to the "future" comrades!
I’m sold
chop chop boehnerfag we got some impeachings to do
tits on a nun is how useless that man is
>should their demands hold sway, <
dingy harry farts in your general direction
Kill the chicken, let the monkey watch.
dingy harry farts in your general direction
I piss on your pretended sophistication.
– When the employer groups start feeling the dropped policies you’re going to see the shit hit the fan like never before. Throw in both the public and private sector unions and ypou’re going to see an unprecidented shit-storm.
– Bumblefuck will be effectively impeached, if not in fact, defacto by the time this is over.
>I piss on your pretended sophistication.<
i don't "lead" the senate. how do you deal with dingy harry sir?
me no health insurance since 2004. fun train wreck to watch.
– Remember, if you’re old enough, Nixon sat in that chair for over a year with zero power.
Why deal with Harry Reid? Inundate the House and Senate with high tens of millions or over a hundred million demands and let his “colleagues” deal with him. They’ll either knife him to death or remove him from his office (in which he serves at their pleasure) or trample him to death in an effort to save their own skins. Don’t you know how this politics shit works?
how do you deal with dingy harry sir?
You make him explain how he could vote against conviction, over and over again.
Sowell cites Burke right off to establish his point and to develop it by way of analogy but we went there to read Sowell as authority, not to read Sowell appeal to Burke as appeal to authority, and Burke is one man with limited resources so must expend them judiciously and pick his fights carefully, and a Party is different from an individual in that its resources an its energy are not so finite as that.
Both Sowell and Burke speak as old men. Tired old men with limited energy, playihg their three-tier chess, minding their pieces, and pondering their limited range of tactics. They speak of tactics while their Party’s opposition knows no such limitations, they employ multiple tactics at once, they don’t have to make sense, they need be only emotional, they attack and antagonize at every opportunity and create opportunities where they fail to eventuate on their own, and that is what needs to b e countered. To disrupt and attack on all fronts and open new fronts and new ambushes and new positions for attack at every turn. And do that continuously. Never stop.
Don’t you know how this politics shit works?
– Once upon a time when the world inside the beltway gave a flying fuck what the people wanted you would have a point. The way things stand you’d have to either evacuate DC or nue it to achieve what you want. There is no third option.
>You make him explain how he could vote against conviction, over and over again.<
really on what msm outlets. i mean nyt is still saying the baracky "misspoke" on "you can keep.."
nue = nuck
– nuck = nuke (hang in there, I’ll get it)
peeps you ain’t getting a fair shake from the msm. let them own it.
DC hasn’t changed in respect of the fear of the populace which can be generated at that populace’s choosing. There is insufficient fear there now (this is not to say none). I intend that we make them fear us, and that this cannot be accomplished by telling ourselves that there is no point in making our demands because the idiots in Washington are incapable of fearing us. Nonsense. We can see already how fearful they are. Look at the incumbent Democrat Senators scrambling around looking for a way out of the box they’ve put themselves into. Ratchet the pressure up ten or a hundredf0ld, and presto, they’ll screw ClownDisaster into the ground if they think it a means to escape their fate.
– In the end the only way to recover is to call on the insurers to try to put things back as close as possible to what they were. Evem if thats possible, there will be a charge of course.
the funny part is that the baracky is going into the “downtime” of the holiday season with this
cluster f**k. what interesting talks at the table. let the clusterf**k begin.
>. Look at the incumbent Democrat Senators scrambling around looking for a way out of the box they’ve put themselves into.<
jan. 2014 good time to start. let it fester.
– From my standpoint the clusterfuck began the day Bumblefuck was introduced.
let it fester
I’ll be damned if I do. I’m starting now. Or rather, yesterday.
– The clusterfuck is now evolving into a Congressional circular firing squad.
Pink Floyd – Welcome to the Machine
> I’m starting now. Or rather, yesterday.<
good luck, me batten down the hatches
Generation Opportunity Throws Anti-Obamacare Tailgate Party
Students at The University of Miami celebrated opting out of Obamacare with beer pong, pizza, and partying with Creepy Uncle Sam.
Pink Floyd – Shine On You Crazy Diamond
If there are tens of millions to over a hundred million pissed off voters, we don’t need to impeach him. We need to elect enough small government constitutionalists and classical liberal tea-party types to make make the Democrats and the Republican establishment irrelevant.
That’s assuming, of course, that all that anger doesn’t end up misdirected.
If you wamt to impeach his ass, don’t impeach him over Obamacare, use it to discredit him and his whole administration in order to get at the real high crimes and misdemeanors, i.e. Fast & Furious and Benghazi.
> that all that anger doesn’t end up misdirected.<
toss orangeman and mcconnell
Hmmm. Let me conjure some crap like you guys would say…
The Tea Party planned to lose the fight against Obamacare and make most of America hate them in the process, thereby taking the option of winning a majority of seats in congress, and winning the white house, off the table – leaving the only option to be armed revolution. Which is precisely why they’re so against any gun restriction – and they infiltrated DHS.
There, that’s right up there with “The plan all along was for Obamacare to fail.”
Off-Topic question:
Can the X-box 360 play DVDs?
I need to know.
For a friend.
>There, that’s right up there with “The plan all along was for Obamacare to fail.”<
@ 3000 pages and "the Secretary shall.." primed for win @sshole
There, that’s right up there with “The plan all along was for Obamacare to fail.”
– That comment, and all ancillary remarks concerning Bumblefuck/ObamaCare are so one month ago dude. You need to read the memo or something.
It’s a good thing for you that Obamacare requires that preexisting conditions be covered.
Otherwise, there’d be no hope at all that you’d ever get your head out of your ass.
Fucker.
All the political crimes. No one says otherwise, since in point of fact the lesson needing taught is precisely to cite chapter and verse of all the political crimes. To say there is no need to impeach the foremost wrongdoing political official in the history of the nation is for all intents and purposes to say that the nation’s political history as a republic is over and done.
– And say, why aren’t you over at HuffNPoop Stevedolt, helping them deal with their political nervous breakdown as they watch their god decend into oblivion. They really really need yah Steve-vo.
We haven’t been a republic other than notionally for quite some time, sdferr. Didn’t you get the memo?
Lying to get a piece of legislation passed is also known as “today.” Sad, but true. Lying to save your ass in an election year is also expected, although the fact that there’s a body count attached to the lies ought to discomfit the complacent.
Lying about dead foreign nationals that you set up to be killed so as to have the bloody shirt necessary to advance a piece of domestic policy? That, even by our present decadent standards is impeachable in my book.
No, I didn’t get the memo. Fuck that. But good people! Whatever you do, don’t write your Congressmen and Senators to demand they impeach our great leader, TheClownDisaster. It just wouldn’t be kosher. And besides, newrouter says the Borman Six Girl has got to have soul!
>newrouter says the Borman Six Girl has got to have soul!<
nah i say: " dismantle DC "
Serious question for our very unserious troll:
If Obamacare wasn’t designed to fail, what does that tell you about the wisdom of relying upon the expertise of the Bullwinkles managing the regulatory state?
Lay down! Give up! The sophisticated cynics have won the day, without even having to fight once, so strong is their odor.
I’m all in favor of any kind of popular pressure on Congresscritters of both parties.
Support impeachment, Oppose Boehner’s (McConnell’s) reelection to the leadership, Support repeal of O’care, demand further investigations into F&F and Benghazi. I’m in favor of all of it.
As long as the advocates understand that the demands are the end, rather than the means to an end.
Or maybe, rather that the end isn’t impeachment, repeal, a frog marched att’y gen’l, etc., but a vital opposition Party ready to return the country to its small government roots.
Regardless of how loudly the pigs in both parties squeal.
More perspective for helloI’dbettergetthehelloutofherebeforetheycatchon:
“Putting things in perspective: March 21st 2010 to October 1 2013 is 3 years, 6 months, 10 days. December 7, 1941 to May 8, 1945 is 3 years, 5 months, 1 day. What this means is that in the time we were attacked at Pearl Harbor to the day Germany surrendered is not enough time for this progressive federal government to build a working webpage. Mobilization of millions, building tens of thousands of tanks, planes, jeeps, subs, cruisers, destroyers, torpedoes, millions upon millions of guns, bombs, ammo, etc. Turning the tide in North Africa, Invading Italy, D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Race to Berlin – all while we were also fighting the Japanese in the Pacific!! And in that amount of time – this administration can’t build a working webpage.”
If 404Care is so great, why has Congress exempted itself, and why has Obama illegally given the unions waivers? Shouldn’t they all be scrambling to sign up? Has Obama signed up for it? If not, why not?
One proper end is recovery of the rule of law. Beginning by following the law is a means to that end.
> so strong is their odor.<
dude irish spring or
"A dilemma facing the bureaucracy' e ontradiction between its
attempt to preserve the status q 0 an therefore to survive as a
bureaucracy, and the need for hanges, particularly in the
fields of culture and economics. e institutions of bureaucratic
centralism are unreformable, . or improvements within the
framework of the system are importan: because they encourage the
development of a critical spi . • a mood of opposition, and
embryonic structures independen 0 e state. Reforms in themselves
have limitations that are rell- 0 ey always stop – or
are repressed by terror – when ey ou b 0 fundamental solutions
to social contradictions. In this sense every attempt at reform has a
revolutionary aspect to it, for it eals the illusory nature of reform
and strengthens the growth of a r 01 tionary consciousness.
At a certain stage of developmen • societies of eastern Europe
are going to have to face up 0 necessity of eliminating the
bureaucratic dictatorship. This hange e en were it to disrupt
bureaucratic power over a peri 0 several months, will radically
affect all the present institutions 0 po er disrupt the relationships
between them and, ultimately, oy em. Therefore it is correct
to term this overthrowing of urea: ic power a revolutionary
process"
>Beginning by following the law is a means to that end<
the gang in chitown says heil
Completely agree about the rule of law and the importance of the recovery of rule of law sdferr.
So the way you would defeat lawlessness is to become even more lawless newrouter?
the gang in chitown says heil
Without apology to Sandburg:
Another serious, or maybe E(a)rnest question
Is Utility the logical outcome of the Enlightenment’s enthronement of Reason?
I doubt there’s that much linear determinism involved.
I thought the Enlightenment enthroned materialism. It’s all matter in motion.
>So the way you would defeat lawlessness is to become even more lawless newrouter?<
did i say that?
>Without apology to Sandburg:…
seeking out a sucker.<
valgal and axeldude say hey
Then isn’t Utility the philosophy for sophisticated (or at least intellectual) materialists?
Honestly? I don’t know. What I suspect is that if the modernists are going to answer the post-modern challenge, they’re going to have to fall back on Thone and Alter types.
Otherwise the future belongs to the supermen or to the Last Men, stultified by their own nausea.
“make most of America hate them in the process”
You’re not “most of America”, Slaphead.
Sorry.
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=1975
Did you ever explain why those 200 alleged starvees in NYC during the depression were such a big deal, while the hundred million or so victims of leftist governments don’t count?
“It’s all matter in motion.”
Newton would say so, but Leibniz had different ideas (which I’m not sure I fully understand — still working on that).
honestly newrouter, I don’t know what you’re trying to say because it seems to me that you’re too busy trying to strike poses to have time to say anything.
You know, there’s nothing wrong with asking someone to explain something that you don’t quite understand.
Sometimes it’s a positive advantage, because if the person you’re asking can’t explain it, then he’s revealed as phony.
Maybe poseur is the better word. Cynicism is a pose.
Kind of like Existentialism, but that’s besides the point.
> I don’t know what you’re trying to say because it seems to me that you’re too busy trying to strike poses to have time to say anything.<
what is it you want to know?
What does “the gang in chitown says heil” mean in the context of sdferr’s point about following he law?
>What does “the gang in chitown says heil” mean<
the one party state of "chitown" aka chicago say hi from its new commie masters: rahm, val, and black boy toy
I’ve no idea what the future will belong to. Seems to me that the symbolic mathematization of natural science isn’t going to be compatible with political life though.
Whether related or not, lately I’ve been repeatedly struck by the hollowness the abstractions our politico-scientifically sophisticated political leadership makes of life (which they don’t seem to understand in the least), running themselves (and us, with them) into one absurdity after another. Their dependence on abstractions has become a kind of debility.
Back to the “eide“, says I, and with them, people as natural beings. They’re better grounded guides (the eide) for us groundlings. Un-denature denatured nature. Relearn what nature meant — way back when it meant something distinct — in order to put politics back on its feet.
“Too late” says Nietzsche.
That’s my admittedly Parthian shot. I have to call it a day now.
> in order to put politics back on its feet.<
the let burn lobby?
>the let it burn lobby?<
Heh, in order to “form” the judgment “too late”, wouldn’t ol’ brother Fred have to already know what the eide are? What hap, if perchance he was mistaken?
Philosophers suck at predicting shit and often aren’t even much good at explaining or categorizing shit. They ask the important questions and answer them according to their fears or wishes. And it pays the bills I guess.
– Being a philospher means never having to apologize for being vague.
– As far as the science thing, there are charletons among science just as in any walk of life, then there are those who do it because they don’t believe dumb neofyte politicians will make any difference anyway, no matter what they falsely follow, so they’re willing to fib.
– A lot of scientists are anti-growth, so many things flow from that, as well as many justifications for the fibs.
– Here yah go sdferr….Whadoyou call an Attny Gen. at the bottom of the Potomac?
…… a good start!
Ernest – and I say this in all earnestness – the Enlightenment kind of enthroned sentiment, too. Hume said reason was its servant. We live as we like, and reason shows us how to do it. We like utility a lot but we like other things, too, so we don’t like utilitarianism.
*snipped after the first lie*
Make sure she knows that. Every.day.
You do something to me that I can’t explain
Hold me closer and I feel no pain
Every beat of my heart
We got somethin’ goin’ on
Tender love is blind
It requires a dedication
All this love we feel
Needs no conversation
We ride it together, ah-ah
Makin’ love with each other, ah-ah
Islands in the stream
That is what we are
No one in-between
How can we be wrong
Sail away with me to another world
And we rely on each other, ah-ah
From one lover to another, ah-ah
*
Unfortunately, the middle school history curriculum doesn’t cover that.
There are several sections on “ethnic voices”, but I don’t see Ukrainians listed.
Haven’t looked, but I’ll bet Scots/Gaels/Picts/Celts aren’t deemed ethnic
enough for inclusion.Jonah is gleeful this morning. Obamacare Schadenfreudarama
Geraghty is right behind him. Democrats Can Save Their Policy, or Save Their Party. But Not Both.
Democrats Can Save Their Policy [and wreck the country], or Save Their Party [and wreck the country], But Not Both.
it was just a couple weeks ago – during and after that mild government shutdown thing – the propaganda sluts at filthy obamawhore Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo Finance were beat beat beating the drum about how harmful “uncertainty” was for the economy, especially with the all-important holiday shopping season around the corner
I’m sick too, but I was the last one to get it. So instead of lying in bed and gleefully gloating over my “free” “healthcare”, I get to go to work… And do all of the work that the “sick” “people” pawned off on me as well as my own.
It’s like I’m twins.
Hey, everyone.
I’ve been lurking for more than a year, but since I believe it was my tweet that prompted this post, I might as well join the conversation and add my two cents.
Sowell’s actually written two recent articles on the subject. As he sometimes does, he’s written self-contained essays that link together, forming a larger argument.
In Tuesday’s article, Sowell began by writing that the Tea Party must not break from the GOP since third parties “have had an unbroken record of failure in American presidential politics.”
http://nationalreview.com/article/363672/tea-party-crossroads-thomas-sowell
On Wednesday, Sowell conceded that there are certainly Republicans who deserve to be criticized, but he wrote, “neither fervor nor ego can justify wholesale challenges to Republican incumbents in next year’s primary elections.”
http://nationalreview.com/article/363689/tea-party-must-learn-mistakes-thomas-sowell
(Note that these articles were NOT written specifically for National Review: they’re syndicated columns, and The American Spectator’s website has the same two articles, with different titles.)
Between the two, there are a wide array of factual errors.
1) It’s simply not true that third parties “have had an unbroken record of failure in American presidential politics.” The Republican Party itself arose while the Whigs were cratering, and they got a presidential candidate elected within its first decade as a party.
2) It’s also not true that the Tea Party was pushing defunding Obamacare throughout the shutdown. VERY early on, Cruz & Co. moved to the much more defensible position of requiring Obama to extend the exemption beyond Congress and his own cronies.
3) Nor can it be said that the Tea Party is contemplating “wholesale challenges to Republican incumbents in next year’s primary elections.” In addition to Cruz and Lee, both of Alabama’s senators (Shelby and Sessions) are reliable enough fiscal conservatives that it’s unlikely either would be targeted.
It’s hard to overstate the esteem I’ve had for Sowell, but he’s so wrong on this issue that it hardly make me feel better that I’m having to attribute it to bad assumptions rather than arguing in bad faith. If Sowell is arguing EVEN against primary challenges, on the assumption that the statists in power are literally the best we can do, then he’s expecting the constitutional conservatives to be the GOTV engine behind the Republican establishment — and, in reality, he’s telegraphing that we ought to go ahead and get used to Leviathan’s runaway growth and coming collapse.
Ugh.
…I would like to hear Jeff’s further thoughts on these Sowell articles, and I hope it gets better soon. It’s been going around; I caught a cold from my kids this week, too.
Hey Lawrence. Nice to have you aboard.
Lawrence, if we ask what was prompting Sowell to write these two articles (prior to his having written them, that is), what would we conclude? I heartily agree he’s off the mark in many ways, not least his diagnosis of the “cause” of the harm to the GOP — but why? What phenomenon has taken hold of him?
At a first go, I’d reckon he has been so disturbed by the mere fact of ClownDisaster’s election and reelection — at the active stupidity and self-deception of the electorate required to accomplish those deeds, that he cannot bring himself to imagine any near term recovery of sobriety in the electorate to warrant the supposition of a corrective effect on our politics by means of the simple hewing to a moral stance on the part of the Tea Party [i.e., only ridding ourselves of the disastrous ClownDisasterCare law is doing right, nothing less being adequate to the task — along the lines of “if you want to return to the rule of law, then begin by returning to the rule of law” or like John Robert’s formulation on racial discrimination: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”].
Sowell seems to be in the grip of an extreme pessimism regarding the degradation of the polity, from which degradation he can only imagine the polity emerging by baby steps, or possibly trickery, if at all, and in no way emerging on account of anything resembling a sudden truthful epiphany regarding itself and its limits. “How could a people so lost find anything of worth?”, he seems to say, and answers himself “It can’t.” This in turn may necessitate his view that only the retention of the current political actors is possible; that only by very gradually modifying their views, and with them, the views of the polity, will the nation slowly return to a sober self-possession.
But this is only a guess on my part.
Oh brother. The Wan is waxing on about “working hard for the American People”.
Stop. Just leave us alone.
The President will let you keep your cancelled plan for another year. I think that’s more than magnanimous of him, don’t you? He’s flexible and willing to help Americans who are having trouble complying with his law.
You do need to understand that you must comply after the year of his grace period is over. At that time you must purchase one of the insurance policies he has selected for you.
TheClownDisaster proposes, but TheClownDisaster disposes.
“The President will let you keep your cancelled plan for another year.”
Ted Cruz chuckles.
Any consideration of the possibility that Sowell just isn’t as sharp as he used to be?
I said as much in the first post to this thread, Pablo.
He has a suggestion of how to get the product out of the packaging, but he wants the packaging still usable in case we need to return the merchandise.
…whereas if I want to return the merchandise, I don’t want it repackaged and sold to the next poor schmuck. The store will accept the return of the product and my receipt, or endure a PR carpstorm.
The fix only applies to those who have lost their insurance coverage. Insurance companies may not offer such plans to other Americans because it would undermine the Affordable Care Act, the officials said
– …and we simply can’t have that said the little lord….
– The latest round of on the fly, knee-jerk, unlawful changes to the “As-long-as-I-say-its-ok-then-you-can-keep-your-health-plan-wait-a-few-days-if-you-don’t-like-it-because-it-will-change-sometimes-affordable-but-always-impossible-to-understand-or-buy-health-care-plan” plan.
– This crazy motherfucker really believes he can just legislate and make law any time he feels like it.
Really, all the caterwauling from the ingrates is ghastly. The President has gone through all the trouble to design better insurance plans for them and put a new law in place, and to hear all the howling from these people about how they don’t want to accept his better plans but want to keep what they had – it’s outrageous.
“Any consideration of the possibility that Sowell just isn’t as sharp as he used to be?”
Maybe, Pablo: WFB seemed to lose his fighting spirit toward the end — not that younger writers like Jonah Goldberg have any excuse for their going soft.
It’s just that Sowell has seemed to have a good grasp of how dire our situation is, I’m amazed that he looks at the perils of going Outlaw WITHOUT considering the horrible track record of the established leadership.
Steyn has long since warned about our becoming a two-party/one-party state, and McCarthy called out the establishment on their BS, saying they’re just arguing over tactics when they really don’t have an alternative beyond hoping for a majority in 4-6 years. It’s just a shame that they’re about the only two sane writers out there, that even the great Sowell seems to be missing the point.
—
sdferr, I’d hate to see a pessimistic essay about how the electorate’s too far gone for any meaningful correction in the near term, but it doesn’t seem that what’s Sowell’s saying. He’s not saying “abandon all hope,” which would be a downer but understandable; he’s saying that we should put our hope in the GOP establishment, which is obscene.
To the call of “Don’t go third party,” he’s adding “don’t even primary the current leadership,” not because we’re past the point of no return, but because he (apparently) thinks that doing so is our best and most rational move — as if Graham and McConnell really are the best we can do in red states like South Carolina or Kentucky.
The latest round of on the fly . . .
Um . . . I think it’s perhaps the other way round . . . again.
That “press conference” was an exercise in mental illness.
Are we the only ones paying attention?
– Its getting to the point where the moment to moment dali-esque manuevers coming out of this clown car administration, aided and abetted by the ankle-licking media cheer leading squad, and tweaked for even more bazarr stuck-on-stupid actions by the catatonic cabinet is so fucked up theres hardly any need to link accounts of the monstrosity. The more you dig the worse it gets.
The staffers who rule Obama’s West Wing often treat his Cabinet as a nuisance: At the top of the pecking order are the celebrity power players, like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to be warily managed; at the bottom, what they see as a bunch of well-intentioned political naifs only a lip-slip away from derailing the president’s agenda.
To the call of “Don’t go third party,” he’s adding “don’t even primary the current leadership,” not because we’re past the point of no return, but because he (apparently) thinks that doing so is our best and most rational move…
– Don’t think thats whats driving these borderline panicky pundits, rather its because an independent minded fresh new batch of small gov pols would be unmanageble, unpredictable, and probably unaccessible to the elitist governing class reportage gaggle.
– Thats what they all really fear.
Are we the only ones paying attention?
– Its a Hobsons choice Leigh. Do you just stay in your seat amd pretend with the rest of the passengers that everything is perfectly normal, laboring mightily along with everyone else not to bring attention to the beads of sweat on yor face and neck, or your unconscious need to wring your hands and squirm in your seat as you prey under your breath the maniac behind the wheel won’t really decide to kill himself and everyone else, or do you try to grab the wheel.
– No one wants to be the first to point out we’re being lead by a ego-maniac with emporor delusions.
– I view of all thats happened, and seems to be about to happen, I’m beginning to see Bumblefuck as the black Nixon.
The pioneers take the arrows, BBH.
Hadley Arkes: Religion in the Courts and the Trick-of-the-Eye
*** The truth that seems to be missed, then, in the run of our cases is that “strict scrutiny” reflects the standard that should be in place for any restrictions of freedom, not merely restrictions on the religious, for it reflects the classic understanding of the connection between the “logic of morals” and the “logic of law”: When we move to a moral judgment, we move away from statements of merely subjective taste or private belief. We begin to speak about the things that are right or wrong, just or unjust, for others as well as ourselves. In the same way, the law works to override the freedom to make personal choices; it displaces private preferences with a rule imposed uniformly on everyone. And that state of affairs is precisely what required the law to give a demanding “justification” for itself. ***