Random thoughts on the passing scene:
http://townhall.com/Columnists/ThomasSowell/
I am so old that I can remember when music was musical.
Now that the federal government says that it will stand behind the
warranties on General Motors' automobiles, does that make you more
likely or less likely to buy a car from GM? If you were a rising young
executive with a promising future, would you be more likely or less
likely to go to work for a company where politicians can fire you?
We have become such suckers for words that politicians can spend our
tax money like a drunken sailor, provided they call it "investment."
At least the drunken sailor is spending his own money but people look
down on him because he doesn't call it "investment."
Barack Obama seems determined to repeat every disastrous mistake of
the 1930s, at home and abroad. He has already repeated Herbert
Hoover's policy of raising taxes on high income earners, FDR's policy
of trying to micro-manage the economy and Neville Chamberlain's policy
of seeking dialogues with hostile nations while downplaying the
dangers they represent.
We seem to be moving steadily in the direction of a society where no
one is responsible for what he himself did but we are all responsible
for what somebody else did, either in the present or in the past.
The famous editorial cartoonist Herblock could write as well as draw.
In one of his books, he said something like: "You too can have the
soothing feeling of nature's own baby-soft wool being pulled gently
over your resting eyes." I think of that every time I see Barack Obama
talking.
It has long been said that uncertainty is the hardest thing for a
market to adjust to. No one can generate uncertainty as much as the
government, which can change the rules in midstream or come out with
some new bright idea at any time, as the current administration has
already demonstrated.
We have now reached the truly dangerous point where we cannot even be
warned about the lethal, fanatical and suicidal hatred of our society
by Islamic extremists, because to do so would be politically incorrect
and, in some European countries, would be a violation of the law
against inciting hostility to groups.
Perhaps the scariest aspect of our times is how many people think in
talking points, rather than in terms of real world consequences.
Barack Obama's favorable reception during his tour in Europe may be
the most enthusiastic international acclaim for a democratic
government leader since Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich in
1938, proclaiming "peace in our time."
How a man who holds the entire population of a country as his
prisoners, and punishes the families of those who escape, can be
admired by people who call themselves liberals is one of the many
wonders of the human mind's ability to rationalize. Yet such is the
case with Fidel Castro.
What does "economic justice" mean, except that you want something that
someone else produced, without having to produce anything yourself in
return?
Perhaps the way President Obama will reduce the deficit is by making
more presidential appointments of people who will pay the back taxes
they owe, in order to get confirmed by the Senate.
Liberals seem to think that they are doing lagging groups a favor by
making excuses for counterproductive and self-destructive behavior.
The poor do not need press agents. They need the truth. No one ever
said, "Press agents will make you free."
If I were Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, I would not sign
any long-term lease on a home in Washington.
Socialists believe in government ownership of the means of production.
Fascists believed in government control of privately owned businesses,
which is much more the style of this government. That way, politicians
can intervene whenever they feel like it and then, when their
interventions turn out badly, summon executives from the private
sector before Congress and denounce them on nationwide television.
http://www.tsowell.com/
http://www.ideachannel.tv/
http://mises.org/etexts/Mises/anticap.asp
Liberal Fascism
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...Y4MWRhMTkxYjA=
“America's Fascist Moment”
http://www.nysun.com/article/68954
“Fascism's Legacy: Liberalism”
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/D...acy_liberalism
“Heil Woodrow!”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/bo...=1&oref=slogin
Their Friend, the State
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/...DQwMDQ2Wj.html
http://liberalfascism.nationalreview.com/