Archive for the 'Current Affairs' Category
I Just Think It Should Be Something Other Than A Spiritual Flu Shot
Allen January 26th, 2007
Again from Political Diary, we hear where Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra has made a documentary for HBO called A Friend of God.
Quoting from the article, we find out that the younger Pelosi thinks religion can be a positive influence in life:
A once-lapsed Catholic herself, Ms. Pelosi now wants her two-month-old son to get in the habit of going to church at a young age. “There’s a lot of secular television that provides bad role models. It is important to expose your kid to religion, any religion, otherwise they’ll become uncharged, and those are the ones who may later in life fall into more extreme religions,” she told ABC News.
I fully believe in the importance of religion as well…
Contract With America, 2008?
Allen December 1st, 2006
Sometimes Senator Coburn can be a bit awkward, but more often that not he hits it out of the ballpark. Case in point:
“This election was not a rejection of conservative principles per se, but a rejection of corrupt, complacent and incompetent government… It is also notable that the Democrats who won or who ran competitive races sounded more like Ronald Reagan than Lyndon Johnson. This election does not show that voters have abandoned their belief in limited government; it shows that the Republican Party has abandoned them. In fact, these results represent the total failure of big-government Republicanism. The Republican Party now has an opportunity to rediscover its identity as a party for limited government, free enterprise and individual responsibility. Most Americans still believe in these ideals, which reflect not merely the spirit of 1994 or the Reagan Revolution, but the vision of our founders.†—Sen. Tom Coburn
A Reference for All Okies
Allen November 19th, 2006
While researching the article on the State Question 725, I found the Oklahoma State Budgets webpage to be a very interesting read into how our money is being spent.
Retiring “My Quote”
Allen November 19th, 2006
Every now and then, I change the quotes on the left hand side of the page. This time the quote I’m changing is my own. I like to capture it here before I change it.
Communism is a better form of economic distribution for a better form
of man. When men are like angels, caring more for others than for
themselves, Communism will work. Until then we will have to muddle
along with Capitalism.
On another note, I have several posting is my Moleskine that I need to post here.
Oklahoma Rainy Day Fund and State Question 725
Allen October 13th, 2006
I will be out of town when 7 November rolls around, so I will be voting via absentee ballot this year. One of the state questions is the following:
STATE QUESTION NO. 725 LEGISLATIVE REFERENDUM NO. 340
This measure amends the State Constitution. It amends Section 23 of Article 10. The measure deals with the Constitutional Reserve Fund also known as the Rainy Day Fund. The measure allows money to be spent from the Rainy Day Fund. The purpose of the authorized spending is to retain employment for state residents by helping at-risk manufacturers. Payments from the Fund would be used to encourage such manufacturers to make investments in Oklahoma. All such payments from the Fund must be unanimously approved by three State officers. Those officers are the Governor and the head of the Senate and House of Representatives. Those officers could only approve payments recommended by an independent committee. Such spending is allowed in years when there is Eighty Million Dollars or more in the Fund and other conditions are met. Such spending is limited to Ten Million Dollars a year. The help given to a manufacturer is limited to ten percent of its in-State capital investments. The Legislature could make laws to carry out the amendment.
In my former life, I was a programmer for a large manufacturer who pulled out of Oklahoma. This rainy day fund probably would not have kept them in the state, but I can certainly understand the allure of this idea.
Yet I couldn’t help but think this is another attempt to pony up taxpayer’s money to some politico and his cronies.
Since I hate voting for or against an issue without reading up on it, I thought I would see what people had to say about this proposal. I didn’t any opinions in support of or against this new proposal.
I did find out, however, why the issue is coming up for a vote.
The rainy day fund is at its maximum capacity. In other words, the money is burning a hole in someone’s pockets. It looks like the only other option would be to return the money to the taxpayers. Heaven forbid this should happen.
So I’m voting no on this issue. While the idea of keeping manufacturing jobs in Oklahoma is attractive, I think we would have a sudden rush of manufacturers who are thinking of pulling out of Oklahoma unless the taxpayers shell out. Generally speaking, you get the behavior you reward. This is rewarding the wrong type of behavior.
The last time money was spent out of the Rainy Day Fund was 2003 (PDF). It’s amazing how much it rains when you have a rainy day fund.
The 1st Law of Greedy Bastards
Allen September 25th, 2006
Every study of science and nature have rules or laws. The 1st of Newton’s laws of motion is “Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.”
The 1st Law of Thermodynamics is “Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.”
The 1st Law of Greedy Bastards is “Greedy Bastards are Greedy Bastards.”
Now this sounds like a truism and not worthy of much thought, but that simple statement has far reaching implications.
Many leftists and progressives like to point out that capitalism is full of mean-spirited people who are out to make a quick buck. People who don’t care about other people. In other words, capitalism is full of greedy bastards.
Perhaps this is true. In fact, I’m quite sure there are a lot of greedy bastards filling the ranks of companies throughout the United States. People who wouldn’t hesitate to stab their best friend in the back in order to get ahead. People who are perfectly suited to make it in the dog-eat-dog world of multi-national capitalism. I’m sure there are some wonderful, caring people as well, but have no doubt there are a lot of greedy bastards.
So perhaps I should change my mind about capitalism and free-market economies. Perhaps we should move (more) to a command-and-control economy wherein a group of civic minded citizens would direct us on what to produce and to whom the products should be given. With fair-minded leaders at the helm, poverty and hunger would disappear. With vituous saints running the show and holding power, we would all truly live in a kinder, gentler society. It would be Utopia.
And then that 1st Law kicks in. You remember the one: Greedy Bastards are Greedy Bastards. Being greedy, they will gravitate to where the power is. They will be drawn, like patchouli stenched peaceniks to a Chomsky book signing, to the seats of power and position. And being bastards, they will start back-stabbing and finangling their way into those positions of power.
And then those greedy bastards will be running the whole show, not just their company.
Back when the greedy bastards were just running their company, you always had a choice as to where to take your business, by-and-large. If you felt Wal-Mart was the devil incarnate, you could always shop at Target. If Target was the target of your ire, you could always take your business to K-Mart. Thought all corporations were evil? Well, there is always the farmer’s market and the local thrift store.
But when the greedy bastards are running the whole show, you no longer have an alternative. You are stuck with the greedy bastards no matter what you do. And because they are greedy, they demand more and more from you. And because they are bastards, they will exact harsher and harsher penalties when you don’t comply.
There is a corollary to the 1st Law of Greedy Bastards: Useful Idiots are Useful Idiots.
Passing the Truman Test: Lieberman
Allen August 14th, 2006
Michael Barone has an excellent analysis of Lieberman’s defeat at the hands of the new transnational Democrats:
On a number of issues, Mr. Lieberman has been at odds with large constituencies in the Democratic Party.
As an observant Orthodox Jew, he has consistently portrayed himself as a man of religious faith, while one-quarter of John Kerry voters in 2004 described their religion as "other" or "none." He has been a critic of vulgarity and obscenity in television programs and movies, while the Democrats enjoy massive financial and psychic support from Hollywood. He has supported school-choice measures, while one of his party’s major organized constituencies is the teachers’ unions. And he has been an American exceptionalist–a believer in the idea that this is a special and specially good country–while his party’s base is increasingly made up of people with attitudes that are, in professor Samuel Huntington’s term, transnational. In their view, our country is no better than any other, and in many ways it’s a whole lot worse.
Through most of the 20th century, American exceptionalism has been the creed of both of our major parties. Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy, for all their sophisticated knowledge of foreign cultures, were exceptionalists just as much as Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Among voters, transnational attitudes were espoused by only a very few, in the odd corners of university faculty clubs, investment-banking firm dining rooms and the councils of shop floor socialist intellectuals.
Now it’s different. In 2004, pollster Scott Rasmussen asked two questions relating to American exceptionalism: Is this country generally fair and decent? Would the world be better off if more countries were more like America? About two-thirds of voters answered yes to both questions. About 80% of George W. Bush voters answered yes. John Kerry voters were split down the middle, with yeses outnumbering noes by small margins.
…
The Connecticut primary reveals that the center of gravity in the Democratic Party has moved, from the lunch-bucket working class that was the dominant constituency up through the 1960s to the secular transnational professional class that was the dominant constituency in the 2004 presidential cycle. You can see the results on the map. Joe Lieberman carried by and large the same cities and towns that John F. Kennedy carried in the 1960 presidential general election.
Ellipses mine and emphasis mine. As a note, Mr. Lieberman was more than happy to give up school choice in order to secure the vice-presidential nomination in 2000.
All that aside, this article illustrates one of my biggest gripes about the modernistic Democratic party. It is no longer the party of the "working man" but the party of the intellectual socialist and the transnational progressive. It doesn’t really have a driving theme other than "What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine."
And, perhaps most importantly, I think Truman and most "old-school" Democrats were American exceptionalists. And it seems every Democratic pronouncement of what is good about America is always suffixed with a ", but we must blah blah blah blah blah." I call them "Yeah, but" Americans.
Let us suppose the leaders of the Democratic party would become promoters of American exceptionalistm. I and others couldn’t help but wonder if this is the result of some sort of poll. That this change of attitude was driven less by a change in heart and more by a change in strategy.
Perhaps I’m romanticising the past of the Democratic party, but the defeat of Lieberman at the hands of the far-left wing of the Democratic party is just another spade of dirt on my yellow dog.
This Time For Sure!
Allen August 13th, 2006
Mike Wallace on tonight’s 60 minutes interviewed Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I had other commitments (one of which was maintaining my sanity) and was not able to watch the interview, but heard Mike talk on Sean Hannity’s radio show.
It amazes me that Mike is willing to take as living gospel the word of President Ahmadinejad. Yet if President Ahmadinejad were to be a Christian and have an (R) after his name, Mike would no doubt rip into him like some sort of journalistic mad dog.
Be that as it may, I guess I really should give Mike a break. Apparently Mike has conclusive proof that President Ahmadinejad really is peace loving and does not have nuclear weapons ambitions for Iran.
I submit below an image that Mike didn’t feel comfortable using on tonight’s show. No doubt he will probably use these documents at some later date. I have a friend that works at 60 minutes, so I am able to release the documents early.
Click on the image to get a full sized version of the picture.
