Perhaps the Apocalypse Is Imminent?

We have always pooh-poohed doomsayers. But then we saw this. Perhaps we should get our affairs in order.

More on The Gathering Storm.

In a sense, the health-care debate and the foreign-policy debacle are two sides of the same coin: For Britain and other great powers, the decision to build a hugely expensive welfare state at home entailed inevitably a long retreat from responsibilities abroad, with a thousand small betrayals of peripheral allies along the way. - Mark Steyn

Leftist Polemics 101.

Andrew Breitbart appeared on Bill Maher's "Real Time", along with (self-)celebrated social critic Michael Eric Dyson*. The results were as one would have expected.

It was an exercise of textbook leftist polemics. To win a debate, you must control the arguement. To control the arguement, you must control the language. As when Dyson defines what Breitbart says as racist code.

Two Russians are on a train, and one asks the other, "where are you going, comrade"? "Kiev", answers the other. "Liar!" shouts the inquisitor, "You say you are going to Kiev so that I will think you are going to Moscow when you in fact are going to Kiev! So why do you lie?"

*Dyson's new book he is now hawking is called "Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson".

Varsity, Down the Field...

The University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library has a wonderful collection of old Wolverine football game program cover art.

The Gathering Storm.

The President has declared that the "defining struggle" for America's youth is...health care reform. Not delusions such as defending freedom and supporting our friends in the world who cherish freedom as well.

The President has now reneged on missile defense agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic, embarrassing their pro-NATO governments, and making them second-class citizens of the Atlantic Alliance. It also raises the specter of a Russian "sphere of influence" reclaiming control over liberated Eastern Europe. This is done with the hope of pleasing the Russians so they may be more cooperative on stopping Iran's nuclearization. Fat chance for that.

David Frum summarizes the Pollyanna foreign policy of the Administration in The Week magazine, and it's quite discouraging.

Out of the Woods?

Kevin Depew of Minyanville presents a very sobering arguement that our financial system is still gravely wounded by debt.

Semper Liber.

September 11, 2001. We shall never forget.

The Road Divides.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has concluded its national assembly, and the church is forever changed. The passage of the social statement on human sexuality is likely to lead to the secession of many congregations from the national church, as well as a serious schism with Lutherans in other parts of the world.

We mourn the decision of the ELCA that we believe abandons the guidance and authority of Scripture. We also pray for God to light our way along our road to Him.

Edward M. Kennedy, 1932-2009.

The "Lion of the Senate" passes from the scene, and with his passing so closes a volume on one of the most significant political families in our country's history. A man fully invested with admirable qualities, and otherwise. The New York Times features a fine, unhagiographic obituary. R.I.P.

Elvis!

If you don't get up and jump around to this one, yer dead mate!

Ah, such a fabulous outfit...

Not Enough Lipstick...

A few facts that may go a long way to explain why Obamacare is foundering:

1. An overwhelming majority of Americans find their medical care and health plans to be satisfactory, yet they are asked to support a titanic kitchen-sink program that would produce dramatic changes in the health care system.
2. The plan of HR3200 appeared out of thin air, with no prior engagement nor participation of the citizenry, and nobody seems to have an understanding of all the provisions in the 1000+ page document.
3. In the not-so-distant past the President has been a vocal advocate for a "single-payer" health care system, and has gone as far as suggesting that such a system will be implemented in a series of (imperceptible?) steps. And most people are aware of this.

There is no amount of lipstick that can beautify this pig, and there is no number of town halls, websites, speeches, or "spontaneous" rallies of support that can dissuade most Americans of their suspicions as to what they are being asked to buy.

Nuclear Ready.

Duke Energy's CEO Jim Rogers writes in the WSJ that unlike other "green" energy industries, the strong suit in America's hand in clean electricity generation is nuclear technologies.

If We Can't Get the Post Office Right...

A report on how the USPS' flood of red ink will require more cuts in services and offices.

Is Our Government Breaking Down?



(Painting: Neptune Offers the Wealth of the Sea to Venice, by Giovan Battista Tiepolo)


In the last several months we have witnessed historic events: legislation has been introduced and passed (The Bailout Bill, The Stimulus Bill, The Carbon Cap and Trade Bill, and the House Health Care Reform Bill) that possess cosmological scales in size, scope, and cost. This government intervention is so reaching and complex that our legislators now concede that they are unable to analyze and deliberate on their provisions. Yet the Administration has aggressively pushed for a fast-track process for these acts through Congress. A torrential storm of unforseen consequences from this legislation hangs like ominous black laden clouds of an approaching squall.

The process and function of our government is seizing up because of the immensity of this legislation. There is a very real danger that we will destroy republican democracy by the powerful majorities continuing to ram these behemoth bills through Congress without some thought to what they will have wrought. We cannot continue to do the business of the people in this manner.

A thousand-page bill cannot be adequately considered in a fortnight. We are reaching a natural limit to the scale and scope of how the Federal Government can intervene in our lives. It is time to back off.

Beernost.

We do not all of the facts about the incident at Professor Gates' home, so we will not comment on it. We only hope that the President does not make Bud Lite a habit. Author William Least Heat Moon refer to such swill as "liquid air". Now Arbor Brewing's "Old Number 22" is a beer men can share and cure the world's ills.

How to Wreck Health Care Reform.

Peggy Noonan writes today in the WSJ on how the President's insistence on a thousand-page, kitchen-sink "comprehensive" approach to health care reform has likely doomed it. Why can't we simply address the most pressing problems in health care coverage, such as assisting the truly needy and providing for insurance portability, where agreement can be found and does not require radical changes?

The Fundamental Principles of "Health Care Reform".

FreeOurHealthCareNow has articulated the major elements that health care reform plans must include: (i) the right to choose care providers and plans, (ii) timely, unrestricted, patient-centered care, (iii) fairness between individual insurance programs and tax-subsidized employer programs, (iv) the focus of government assistance on the truly needy, (v) portable health plans, and (vi) maximum freedom for patient decisions on care.

TARP Tsunami.

The Inspector General overseeing the TARP program will report to Congers today that the total potential exposure (i.e., the amount for which we taxpayers could be on the hook) of federal programs and departments that are "supporting" U.S. financial institutions totals $23.7T. We'll pause to let this fact sink in...

We can only respond with: this insanity must stop. The people of the United States cannot have the futures of their families held hostage by cosigning to such an apocalyptic sum.

Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009.

We were more of an NBC than CBS man, but when it came to manned spaceflight coverage, Cronkite was our choice. R.I.P.

Aesthetic Living.

Remembering Joseph Eichler's simple, elegant, and beautiful home designs of the late '50s.