This isn't Soldier Wimple's company, but it sure looks like its doing the same thing. Godspeed, men.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Applauding Barak Obama:
Really. The President (whom the Wimple will refrain from calling "The Teleprompter" for this post) said today that absent dads make a hole in their children's lives that government can't fill. This being correct, the Wimple does regret that the President's politics are so far out of alignment with this sentiment.
Labels:
Lean Budgets,
Legal Liberty,
Obama,
Sound Families
Thursday, June 18, 2009
When the cat's away...
... or, in context, when the cowboy's out of the White House, North Korea stops cowering in its corner.
There's just no deterrence like giving the codes to the nuclear football to a real man.
Just daydreaming now: what would the best response to this kind of bombast be? Shooting down the missile with our newly-defunded missile defense? Laying waste to strategically important parts of Pongyang? Relocating the Gitmo lounge-club into the depths of North Korea?
There's just no deterrence like giving the codes to the nuclear football to a real man.
Just daydreaming now: what would the best response to this kind of bombast be? Shooting down the missile with our newly-defunded missile defense? Laying waste to strategically important parts of Pongyang? Relocating the Gitmo lounge-club into the depths of North Korea?
how about a little Hope and Change?
Mr. President:
If history's verdict comes to be that a little American support today would have provoked a democratic revolution in Iran, but that you withheld it, defying every word of your highflown rhetoric as a campaigner, then how truly pitiful will be your legacy. How truly pitiful will be your response to the thousands of oppressed Iranians who will ask you why your inflated sense of cosmic justice had no room for them, when push came to shove.
See them, Mr. President: see them marching for liberty, for self governance, for the inalienable rights of which you speak, but have not cajones for to fight.
Real Americans weep to see such gains in reach and unreached for.
Here's a case study on the proper response to a democratic surge behind an iron curtain: Reagan and Poland.
If history's verdict comes to be that a little American support today would have provoked a democratic revolution in Iran, but that you withheld it, defying every word of your highflown rhetoric as a campaigner, then how truly pitiful will be your legacy. How truly pitiful will be your response to the thousands of oppressed Iranians who will ask you why your inflated sense of cosmic justice had no room for them, when push came to shove.
See them, Mr. President: see them marching for liberty, for self governance, for the inalienable rights of which you speak, but have not cajones for to fight.
Real Americans weep to see such gains in reach and unreached for.
Here's a case study on the proper response to a democratic surge behind an iron curtain: Reagan and Poland.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
stimulus = ... jobs?
That was The Teleprompter told us back in January. But his prediction? Well, see for yourself:
Monday, June 08, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
a clear-eyed look in the mirror
While the Wimple highly recommends reading the whole thing, here are a few excerpts from an article up at The American, surveying the broad phases in American history, and the great hinge between our Third and Fourth Republics that we have presently entered.
James V. DeLong calls the antebellum period of American history its first republic, when states' sovereignty was superior to the federal government's. After the Civil War, that arrangement was reversed, making the Second Republic. The Great Depression midwifed the Third (and current) Republic, in which "the combination of plenary government power combined with the seizure of its levers by special interests. . . The appropriations committees and their pork barrels are the most obvious example of rule by special interest, but not always the most important. Whole departments are dedicated to special interests—Labor, Education, Energy. Money is important, but regulation is every bit as useful, especially because regulations can shift property rights from third parties without going through the budget process. For example, environmentalists successfully combined a vaguely worded Endangered Species Act with control of the Fish and Wildlife Service to shift the costs of their no-development ethic onto random land-owners, regardless of costs, benefits, or fairness."
However the Third Republic has so profoundly overreached that its legitimacy wanes. "In the United States, legitimacy is conferred by elections, but it is not total. Through the ages, the basic question mark about democracy as a form of government has been that 51 percent of the electorate can band together to oppress the minority—“the tyranny of the majority” is a valid concern. To address it, the United States has a formal written Constitution to guarantee basic rights, but it also has an unwritten constitution that sets limits on how far the winners can push their victories. Exceed the amorphous bounds, and not only does the minority no longer accept the legitimacy of the government, many members of the majority coalition will have a guilty conscience as well, knowing that their acquiescence to the demands of one of their allies was a bad deed. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.”
"Over the past few years, political winners have become increasingly aggressive, culminating in President Obama’s recent “We won” as an assertion of an unlimited mandate. Losers have become increasingly restive, ready to attack the legitimacy of the winners’ victory. Bush, in particular, was the target of an amazing and consistent campaign of de-legitimizing, and the opposition to Obama is on a hair trigger."
DeLong posits several specific reasons why the Third Republic cannot long last, and predicts the Fourth Republic will be ushered in sooner, if the present economic crisis doesn't mend, or later, if it does. His thoughts on the topic (only a few of them represented here) are profound.
James V. DeLong calls the antebellum period of American history its first republic, when states' sovereignty was superior to the federal government's. After the Civil War, that arrangement was reversed, making the Second Republic. The Great Depression midwifed the Third (and current) Republic, in which "the combination of plenary government power combined with the seizure of its levers by special interests. . . The appropriations committees and their pork barrels are the most obvious example of rule by special interest, but not always the most important. Whole departments are dedicated to special interests—Labor, Education, Energy. Money is important, but regulation is every bit as useful, especially because regulations can shift property rights from third parties without going through the budget process. For example, environmentalists successfully combined a vaguely worded Endangered Species Act with control of the Fish and Wildlife Service to shift the costs of their no-development ethic onto random land-owners, regardless of costs, benefits, or fairness."
However the Third Republic has so profoundly overreached that its legitimacy wanes. "In the United States, legitimacy is conferred by elections, but it is not total. Through the ages, the basic question mark about democracy as a form of government has been that 51 percent of the electorate can band together to oppress the minority—“the tyranny of the majority” is a valid concern. To address it, the United States has a formal written Constitution to guarantee basic rights, but it also has an unwritten constitution that sets limits on how far the winners can push their victories. Exceed the amorphous bounds, and not only does the minority no longer accept the legitimacy of the government, many members of the majority coalition will have a guilty conscience as well, knowing that their acquiescence to the demands of one of their allies was a bad deed. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.”
"Over the past few years, political winners have become increasingly aggressive, culminating in President Obama’s recent “We won” as an assertion of an unlimited mandate. Losers have become increasingly restive, ready to attack the legitimacy of the winners’ victory. Bush, in particular, was the target of an amazing and consistent campaign of de-legitimizing, and the opposition to Obama is on a hair trigger."
DeLong posits several specific reasons why the Third Republic cannot long last, and predicts the Fourth Republic will be ushered in sooner, if the present economic crisis doesn't mend, or later, if it does. His thoughts on the topic (only a few of them represented here) are profound.
Friday, May 08, 2009
to honor the Americans on Flight 93, Uncle Sam:
(a) will increase Americans' freedoms and liberties by repealing the income tax?
(b) will kick some serious terrorist @$%$% leading up to the 10th anniversary of the attack?
(c) make September 11th a national holiday?
(d) condemn some American citizens' land near Shanksville, PA, in order to take it without due process, for to build a big park and monument?
If you guessed (d), you're right. Thank you, Uncle Sam. You're doing what terrorists can't do: take away living Americans' liberty, land, and freedom.
(b) will kick some serious terrorist @$%$% leading up to the 10th anniversary of the attack?
(c) make September 11th a national holiday?
(d) condemn some American citizens' land near Shanksville, PA, in order to take it without due process, for to build a big park and monument?
If you guessed (d), you're right. Thank you, Uncle Sam. You're doing what terrorists can't do: take away living Americans' liberty, land, and freedom.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
