A Second Hand Conjecture

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had a crisis that has caused the need for a large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US.  If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Franklin Raines, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January.  You may know him as the Chief Economic Advisor for Senator Obama’s presidential campaign, and the former head of Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2006.

Let me assure you that this transaction is 100% safe.  Mr. Raines is completely trustworthy with your money.  His record speaks for itself.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of friend so the funds can be transferred.  Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to [email protected] so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully

Henry “Hank” Paulson

Minister of Treasury

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Outside the Beltway
“It’s quite possible, though, that we’ve simply created a culture that values sparing hurt feelings over individual freedom of expression.”

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Stop the ACLU
“but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self-interest.”

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Ross Douthat

Even among Christians, there were disparities. While 36% of those belonging to the United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama’s former denomination, expressed strong beliefs in the paranormal, only 14% of those belonging to the Assemblies of God, Sarah Palin’s former denomination, did. In fact, the more traditional and evangelical the respondent, the less likely he was to believe in, for instance, the possibility of communicating with people who are dead.

Isn’t it interesting that those who tend to believe in the paranormal are also those who tend to believe the big lie of the liberal left?

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Brutally Honest
The drumbeat – the phenomenon of the big lie. 

It’s the drumbeat of the left. It is political, philosophical, theological, and social. It pervades every activity. It is post-structural, post-modern, post-everything in the parlance of the day. It is tolerant, diverse, non-judgmental, non-discriminatory, egalitarian, politically correct, multicultural, globalist, and collectivist. It insists that there are no rights and wrongs, no moral absolutes. It turns everything upside down in its looking glass world. It denies the correctness of all that produced what our culture revered before the deconstruction of the world in accordance with the tenets of cultural Marxism.

I often wonder why, what I consider to be the rational and logical arguments of conservatism, don’t fare well against the drumbeat.  This author posits that man’s nature is selfish and arrogant.

The power-hungry arrogance of human beings seems to be the force that underlies the events carrying us forward to the final chapter.

Dennis Prager talks about man’s need for security.  I have heard him say that but I am unable to cite a reference.

If you believe the polls and most recent elections, we are split 50/50.  Half of us believe the big lie, half of us not.

Western culture, culminating in the great American experiment, has been perverted.

…

Generally, these perversions are manifested in bigger government, more laws, more bureaucracy, more regulations, more taxes, and government controlled redistribution of wealth, more collectivism, less individualism, and less freedom. We all hear it constantly from leftist politicians as they add their part to the drumbeat:  government must do more to ensure Americans avoid the consequences of their choices.  We all know the song, sung to the cheers of the unthinking throngs who would give up their very humanity for the promise of a free lunch. These are the joys of cultural Marxism.

Unthinking throngs – I love the word sheeple. 

How did this great experiment get to a 50/50 split?

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Washington Post
This is not good news for consumers.  Reminds me of Phil Gramm’s “whiners” comment.  “Wall Street has lived beyond its means, but so has Washington. Both did so, in part, because consumers and voters on Main Street wanted it that way. They craved cheap credit to spend on imported goods, and they resisted tough tax and spending decisions. That, too, must change, lest this generation’s costly excesses end up crushing opportunities for its children and grandchildren.”

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Instapundit
Bill Whittle talks about McCain and Palin and their stand against a Legion of Narcissists and a Confederacy of Despair – the Liberal Left.

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American Digest

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The Strata Sphere

When governments allow unreasonable panic to set in and the mob rule to take
over the rule of law – even in the slow motion case of a trial like this – they have lost control.

The rule of law is based on the fundamental premise of a jury of our peers and the theory of the rational man.  What happens when the propaganda of a big lie causes the rational man to become irrational?

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Impact Lab
“A new long-range energy transmission experiment opens the possibility of sending solar energy from space to earth.”

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Astute Bloggers
Who would have thought that Skype was a bad thing?  “Taliban fighters targeting British troops in Afghanistan are using the latest ‘internet phones’ to evade detection by MI6, security sources said last night.”

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Stop the ACLU
“Dontcha ya hate it when Old Media outlets beat up on other Old Media outlets?”

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Say Anything
“A pretty sad commentary if you ask me.”

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Commentary
“More complacency will only feed Russia’s ambitions.”

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Instapundit
“Senate Democrats promised more open government.  This is not it.”

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The Chronicles of the Conspiracy
“What does it say about our nation that it has become political suicide to state
the good news that our economy is not in recession?”

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IBD
Perhaps we are making progress.

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neatorama
“We live in a capitalist society,” she tells us. “Why shouldn’t I be
allowed to capitalize on my virginity?”  Is this a hoax or just free markets?

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Redstate
“And I will love her despite her flaws, instead of hating her despite her greatness. It is the very least I owe to those who perished to wake up a foolish, foolish young man.”

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Next Big Future
This looks pretty interesting.

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AmSpec News
The economy is not booming but it is sound and growing.  Emmet Tyrell says we are cowed by liberal rhetoric and can’t get this economic message out.

Did I say growing? Yes I did, but the Republicans cannot talk about the growing economy because if they did it would sound as though they had no compassion for those who are not doing particularly well in this economy. This is a rhetorical trick that the Democrats have imposed on the Republicans. So effective has it been in cowing the Republicans that quite possibly never again will a sitting president be able to boast of a record of economic achievement.

Is this another case of the “big lie” gaining traction? 

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Jason Linkins takes exception to my reading his Huffington Post editorial about the silly ‘lipstick’ controversy as a suicide fantasy. He protests in his defense that he didn’t want to shoot himself, he wanted to shoot other people. Wonderful. How about nobody gets shot and you lighten up Jason.

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Wolf Howling
“Does anyone detect a pattern here?”

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Westhawk
“Ukraine is the big prize and thus a dangerous flash point between Russia and the West. For the West, a firm alliance with Ukraine would anchor the containment of Russia. But for Russia, such an alliance would be a step too far. For Russia, winning Ukraine is vital. For the West, winning Ukraine would largely end its problems with Russia. It is for these reasons that the battle over Ukraine is both so tempting and so dangerous.”

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Redstate
A good description of what just happened to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and some reasons why. This made me laugh. “If we were in China, they’d probably have “committed suicide” with bullets inexplicably entering the backs of their heads. I’d certainly want to shoot them if I were a shareholder of either GSE. There are some things the Chinese do better than we do.”

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Caroline Glick via Ace of Spades
Caroline Glick is an astute observer of our political situation. She is based in Jerusalem.
“McCain’s strategic grasp of the requirements for a successful
presidential race provide an important lesson for policy-makers and
political leaders.”

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Jihad Watch

The point here is that for the first time that I know of, a university administrator has gone on record calling words of the prophet of Islam “despicable.” This is an astounding departure from the political correctness that shackles our universities today, and opens the door for more pressure to be placed on Muslim groups in the United States to renounce, in deed as well as in word, the doctrines of jihad violence and Islamic supremacism.

This is welcome news. The experience of Europe, England and Canada show us what we can expect if we allow political correctness to stop us from challenging these Muslim beliefs.

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Jihad Watch
I have seen a few articles that say something like – if the left dislikes McCan-Palin so much they must be doing something right. Here is a similar argument about views from the Muslim world. “whenever your taqiyya-practicing enemy tries to give you “advice” — such as who or who not to vote for — do
the opposite”.

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Patterico’s Pontifications
This didn’t seem possible just a few months ago.

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Instapundit
About the same number of gun deaths in Chicago, over the summer, as US deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wonder why the media focuses on US deaths abroad but ignores the violence to US citizens here at home.

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Counterterrorism Blog

For the first time in 25 years there are no clearly identifiable drug kingpins running the cocaine trade from Colombia. The FARC and AUC are both seriously degraded.

Yet, production has not diminished, and, according to Colombian and U.S. officials, the amount of cocaine moving out of the Andean region (Colombia, Peru and Bolivia) has showed almost no variation despite the tactical successes against the organizations.

We have spent billions but we are unable to reduce the flow with our current tactics. The nexus of terrorism and drug money continues to grow. This becomes more than a war on drugs when it is funding our adversaries. The drug war needs to be incorporated into the larger war against terrorist organizations. There is a similar argument for energy independence because we are funding our enemies to buy our energy. Degrading their funding is a significant part of winning this larger war.

Producing our own energy reduces the transfer of funds to the middle east. Legalizing drugs would drastically reduce the profits gained in the black market.

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Intellectual Conservative
“What they all seemed to have, however, was gobs and gobs of money from
leftist foundations and millionaires who wanted to change the world by
supporting one or more of the myriad issues they embrace as their
penance for being successful, thanks to capitalism.”

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Chronicle of the Conspiracy
This is a good thing. She fights waste wherever she finds it.

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The Weekly Standard
Newt Gingrich nails it.

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Redstate
Obviously not written by an Obama supporter but there is some truth in spite of a bit of snark.

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NRO
“Critics are already trying to damn Sarah Palin for her perceived lack of foreign-policy experience, but what they are not allowing for is something more important — that she has the right basic attitudes and sense of priorities. She understands that aggression has to be resisted and commitments have to be honored.”

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Chronicle of the Conspiracy
David Brooks skewers Obama a la Iowahawk.

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Hot Air – Ed Morrissey
“Would you rather have the man who set the trap dealing with our enemies abroad, or the man who fell into it?”

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Bill Whittle argues reasonably and persuasively, on a lefty blog, about the real reason for choosing Sarah Palin. I stumbled across this at Brutally Honest but follow the link to Whittle’s full comments. They are excellent.

I think, for me, it’s a sense that this is an honest person – not just another politician. A breath of fresh air in a honorable profession gone bad. She convinces you through the strength of her character and beliefs not through triangulation. She does not see gaining office as a quest for power but as a sacred duty in the service of others. Kinda like our forefathers when they pledged their sacred honor when signing the Declaration of Independence.

Perhaps my expectations are too high. I think not. I hope not.

I know some folks read and participate on lefty blogs in order to understand the opposite point of view and to argue the conservative point of view. Whittle has done this masterfully. I applaud those who can do this, I can’t. I have little patience for the left’s arguments.

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House of Eratosthenes
mkfreeburg discusses Comcast’s decision to manage bandwidth usage.

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George Reisman’s Blog
“The loot?and?plunder theory is the theory of Obama, of the Democratic Party, and of much of the Republican Party. It is time to supplant it with the sound economic theory developed by generations of intellectual giants ranging from Smith and Ricardo to Böhm-Bawerk and Mises.”

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Sometime the left uses litigation as a form of intimidation – as we see in recent events affecting freedom of speech.

Classical Values discusses the recent Obama campaign’s over the top response to Stanley Kurtz and information he reported about Obama’s connection to Bill Ayers and the Annenburg foundation. But, the straw that broke the camel’s back was Obama’s attempt to enlist the courts to throttle the free specch of the American Issues Project – A 501(C) organization that aired an ad about the relationship between Obama and Ayers:

Seeking a criminal investigation was enough for me. At this point, it almost doesn’t matter whether Ayers recruited Obama to be on the board, how closely they worked together, or for how long.

Calling for a criminal investigation of free speech crosses a line going beyond any association with Ayers.

Power Line discusses further and suggests concern about how Obama might act if elected:

Obama’s suggestion that it is illegal for a 501(c)(4) entity to fund issue ads that are negative toward him appears ludicrous. Here’s the real question, though: if Obama is elected President, will he appoint an Attorney General who will carry out politically-motivated prosecutions like the one he is now demanding? I suppose we can’t know for sure, but why wouldn’t he? If he demands criminal prosecution of free speech that opposes his political interests when he’s a candidate, why wouldn’t he order it as President?

It’s difficult to believe that Obama does not support the first amendment but his actions seems to indicate that. A person who believes this should not be President of the United States.

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Instapundit
“TO SOME PEOPLE, I think betraying one’s party is worse than betraying one’s
country”
Some of these folks on the left have lost touch with what is important.

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Chronicle of the Conspiracy
Follow the link

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Belmont Club
We could be forced to entirely revamp our strategy in Afghanistan if the situation in Pakistan continues to deteriorate and the Russians intend to be uncooperative.

There are in fact serious concerns that troops in Afghanistan can be cut off should a hostile regime emerge in Pakistan.

Historically, this area has been difficult to subdue and logistics has been a big part of the problem. Even with today’s technology, supporting a large force through hostile territory would be very difficult. An air bridge could be established but that would take considerable resources. Resources I’m not sure the AF has available. However, I am not an expert in this area.

The ripple effects of losing Musharraf and Russia’s muscle flexing could be severe.

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No Left Turns
“Then Cory Booker of Newark attacked teachers unions specifically–and there was
applause. In a room of 500 people at the Democratic convention! “The politics
are so vicious,” Booker complained, remembering how he’d been told his political
career would be over if he kept pushing school choice, how early on he’d gotten
help from Republicans rather than from Democrats. The party would “have to admit
as Democrats we have been wrong on education.” Loud applause!”

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Human Events
The unions and municipal workers groups don’t surprise me. What does surprise me is how the left dominates these large fund raising groups. What causes this? What is different about the left and the right? Some kind of association with centralized planning an government control extrapolated to large organizations? Some kind of herd mentality? Conservatives tend to be more independent? What is going on here? Any thoughts?

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Positive Liberty
DA Ridgely on staged events.

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Neatorama
I don’t know if the details will kill this thing but I certainly applaud the effort.

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Newmark’s Door
We can’t enact or enforce enough laws to manage ethical behavior.

“Goo-goos”–good government advocates–have been fighting corruption in government through endlessly tweaking campaign financing reform laws and ethics laws for at least 40 years.

Senator Stevens is the latest case and even though he may have been up to no good, Newmark thinks it will be difficult to convict him.

What I do assert is, that in the absence of a tape or a document in which Stevens admits knowing that he didn’t pay for the full value of the work, it should be real darn hard to convict him.

The only way to stop this is the classical libertarian approach of smaller government.

I’m not the first person to argue this: either restrict government power or live with a lot of corruption. The goo-goos are largely tilting at windmills.

There may be some related good news . Apparently Trent Lott has had an epiphany on the issues of pork and earmarks.

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