JBD

LINKS FOR YOUR EDIFICATION

1. This author has a "Only Obama Can" type article about the auto industry. His take is that only Obama could abolish CAFE standards (corporate average fuel economy) and by doing so free the auto companies to ... well, somehow make money again. I've read the article 3 times and I still don't follow how the author concludes that dumping CAFE and raising & spending tax money will somehow magically fix the union problem. Yeah, I see how it made things worse, but CAFE didn't stop Toyota, Honda, VW, etc. from making money and hosing unions. This is too little, too late. Chapter 11 is the only permanent solution.

2. Nonsense on stilts. Here's a big dose of "Why didn't you stop me from [enter here stupid activity that was entirely your fault]?!?" This surprises me, coming from the WSJ. Really, Tom? Mr. Chicago Machine Politician Obama is going to clean up the "mess" made by federal contractors? Beltway bandits and 10-percenters have been DC fixtures since at least the late 50's, when Ike warned of the problems of a  military-industrial complex. This author laughably tries to blame the excellent recommendations of Reagan's Grace Commission as the main causes of the (mostly imagined but some real) eeevil and wasteful spending by companies like Blackwater, Halliburton, and all those other "contractors" and their "lobbyists". 

Hey, dude, read the last line of the Wikipedia entry I link to above:

So how can he blame the commission if Congress didn't implement any of its recommendations? Just you never mind, Mr. Literal Interpretation of Words. OK, fine, I get it; this is just more of the usual liberal historical revisionism. So what's this guy's solution? More government employees, which will increase accountability. No, stop laughing now, he really means it.

3. Gag me with a twisty bulb. The minute you start reading this journalistic onanism you just know what the outcome is going to be. Way to go, self -made Disney hero! "Green" schmucks like these are going to look back 10 years from now and cringe at these articles in the same way I do when I see the style of clothes I was wearing in the mid-70's. In short, what in God's name was I thinking?

4. One key concept missing from this otherwise sappy paean to America - private property rights. All the wonderful things she describes that were done by Edison, Ford, and the fictional George Bailey, were done because they wanted to be rich. What sets traditional America above most every other country is that individual Americans get to keep (most) of what they earn To the extent that we continue to erode that concept through taxes, regulation, bigger government and stupid policies, we will gradually strangle or chase off all the current and future Fords,  Edisons and Baileys to countries where they can still find those opportunities. Problem is, there are damn few countries left. So let's fix this one, OK?

5. Here's one that's thinky and a little churchy but dead-on. In short, stop being spoiled brats. Don't look to government to solve your problems. Government will only make your problems permanent.

6. From the same website: this guy takes a long time and a lot of words to restate Prof. Sowell's simple maxim:
Also, the usual liberal response to "the government produces nothing" line is "Everything you have was delivered over government roads, and electricity is over a government grid, protected by government laws and enforced by government police. You'd have nothing without the government. So There!"

Sowell's Maxim answers that completely. This guy's "list" leaves him wide open for contradiction. Smarten up, chump.

Posted by: JBD at 10:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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