January 1, 2013
The Fiscal Cliff Deal: A Bad Start for 2013
Well this is the wrong way to start off the new year; with a deal that is all taxes and no spending cuts. No thank you.
Via neo-neocon, here's from the Washington Post story on the deal that was passed 89 to 8 in the Senate last night:
The agreement primarily targets taxpayers who earn more than $450,000 per year, raising their rates for wages and investment profits. At the same time, the deal would protect more than 100 million households earning less than $250,000 a year from income tax increases scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. ...Republicans gave in on the spending cuts, known as sequestration, by agreeing to a two-month delay in budget reductions that would be paid for in part with new tax revenue, a condition they had resisted. And the White House made a major concession on the estate tax, agreeing to terms that would permit estates worth as much as $15 million to escape taxation by the end of the decade, Democrats said.
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December 28, 2012
A "National Conversation" on Guns my Foot
Once again the left wants a "national debate," or "conversation," this time on guns. We see these calls for a "national conversation" whenever they want to push an agenda item. The right is correctly worried about heading down this path because the left isn't interested in a conversation at all; they're interested in a particular outcome.
When they want racial quotas affirmative action "diversity" somewhere they call for a "national conversation on race." They're not interested in conversing about racial demagoguery, racial McCarthyism, or how it's ok for minorities to vote for a minority candidate because he or she is a minority, but not ok for white people to do likewise.
This time the only acceptable outcome to the "conversation" is more laws regulating the sale of guns, and perhaps outright confiscation. They're not interested in talking about violent video games or movies or TV. Hollywood wouldn't stand for that, and they'd cut back on campaign contributions. But gun owners mostly vote Republican, and gun control nuts mostly Democrat, so there's political benefits to be gained.
Besides, it's much easier to talk about guns. Mental health issues might come up too, but only in the context of more spending and as a justification for higher taxes (heaven forbid we get the money from cutting somewhere else, unless it's Defense).
All this despite the fact that gun homicides have been going nowhere but down these past several years. But to the left the Sandy Hook shooting simply presents too good an opportunity to pass up. Wesley Pruden calls it right:
Taking aim at the easy target -- guns
The Washington Times
Friday, December 28, 2012
By Wesley Pruden
"What we must have is a national debate about guns." So goes the media cliche of the moment. Everybody on the left is saying it, but nobody there means a word of it. All these wayward worthies really want is an opportunity to put piety on parade (and take your guns).
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December 27, 2012
General Norman Schwartzkopf, R.I.P
It has just been announced that General Norman Schwarzkopf, most famous for leading American and coalition forces during the Gulf War, has died.
A true American military hero has left us. He won a war that restored our honor and sense of can-do after the Vietnam debacle, and he did so in the face of great doubt that we could do it.
We owe him our honor and respect. Rest in Peace, General.
Posted by Tom at 8:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
The Coming Age of the Barbarian Nations
When the Roman Empire declined and fell in the 4th and 5th centuries, it wasn't replaced with peace, love, and understanding among nations, but by what in the bad old days was called the "Dark Ages." I can't find the quote, but I'm sure that Winston Churchill said that the people of England lived better during Roman times than at any point in their history up to the 19th or 20th centuries.
This isn't always the case, of course,with most empires, and it's debatable as to whether the United States even has one. But dwelling on that latter point also isn't useful. What is useful is to consider where the world is going now that in the Age of Obama we're "leading from behind." I'll give you a hint; it ain't pretty.
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
Belmont Club
Richard Fernandez
December 24th, 2012
The date on the calendar may almost be 2013, but on history's clock what time is it? Long ago and far away apparently. Robert Kaplan, writing in the Wall Street Journal says that the 'universal values' proclaimed by Western elites at the fall of the Berlin Wall are everywhere in retreat. Nationalist and ethnic rivalries are back.
In country after country, the Westerners identify like-minded, educated elites and mistake them for the population at large. They prefer not to see the regressive and exclusivist forces--such as nationalism and sectarianism--that are mightily reshaping the future.It is the Moustache Petes who are winning. The metropolitan, hip crowd are on the defensive anyplace one looks. Whether in Tahrir Square, the battered towns of Syria, the disputed seas of Northeast Asia or the sensitive borders of Indian subcontinent, sectarianism and nationalism are resurgent, which is another way of saying that the post-war bipolar and unipolar worlds have collapsed. Welcome to the way things used to be. The future as announced has been postponed.
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December 24, 2012
Merry Christmas!
If you have not read the story of Christ's birth, you really ought to do so. Take a few minutes and read about it in the Gospel of Matthew, and then in the Gospel of Luke. You might not find quite what you expect. This isn't about politics, folks, and I don't care where you stand on the issues.
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December 23, 2012
Gun Grabbers on the Warpath
No, not many posts from me here recently. Just don't feel like it now. Maybe I'll post more in the future, and maybe not. Blogging is a sort of addition; when you're into it you can't stop, but if you do manage to stop for awhile it's hard to get going again. It's kind of like physical exercise in that regard.
So a lot of things that Obama and his Democrats do is annoying and wrong, and harmful to our country, but for whatever reason I'm just not moved to write about all of it. Yes on November 6 the nation voted for dependency and decline. Yes no matter what happens in the "fiscal cliff" negotiations we're headed for bankruptcy. Yes the Muslim Brotherhood is on the ascendency in Egypt and no one in the administration seems to care. Yes the Obama Administration screwed up Bengazi and then lied about it. All terrible stuff and much ink could have been spilled on any of it.
But for today we'll concentrate on the desire to ban certain types of guns in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
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December 5, 2012
"The United States spends more on it's military than all other nations combined"
We've all heard it;
"The United States spends more on it's military than all other nations combined"
...it's probably true, and it's also irrelevant. Here's why:
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December 2, 2012
China Expands It's Influence in a Bold Move
Via the Belmont Club blog:
The Next Global Hotspot to Worry About
The Atlantic
James Fallows
Nov 29, 2012
If you're worn out worrying about Syria, Gaza, Iran, you name it, I give you: the announcement today by police on China's large southern island of Hainan that, starting on January 1, they will assert a right to stop and board any vessel they consider to have violated China's very expansive claim of territorial waters in the South China Sea.
Take a look at this rendering of the area over which China asserts territorial sovereignty. More details below, but the red line encloses what China considers its own sovereign area; the blue shows Vietnam's claims; the purple shows those of the Philippines; the yellow is Malaysia's; and the green is from Brunei.
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November 27, 2012
The Opposite of Victory is not Peace; it is Defeat
Another terribly depressing post by one of my favorite bloggers
To Win or Not to Win
Belmont Club
by Richard Fernandez
November 26, 2012
Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice writes in the Washington Post that "the civil war in Syria may well be the last act in the story of the disintegration of the Middle East as we know it. The opportunity to hold the region together and to rebuild it on a firmer foundation of tolerance, freedom and, eventually, democratic stability is slipping from our grasp." She warns that the victor of the Syrian civil war will be Iran -- even if Assad loses.
In recent days, France, Britain and Turkey have stepped into the diplomatic vacuum to recognize a newly formed opposition that is broadly representative of all Syrians. The United States should follow their lead and then vet and arm the unified group with defensive weapons on the condition that it pursues an inclusive post-Assad framework. The United States and its allies should also consider establishing a no-fly zone to protect the innocent. America's weight and influence are needed. Leaving this to regional powers, whose interests are not identical to ours, will only exacerbate the deepening sectarianism.
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November 25, 2012
From "leaving from behind" to "Obama being led by the nose"
Why is it that we cannot recognize evil when it is staring us in the face? We missed correctly identifying Hitler until he invaded Poland, and most people missed Stalin until decades after he had died. To this day you can see people with Che Guevara tee shirts. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.
This up until there are international ramifications and real lives are at stake. Wearing a Che tee shirt only makes you look like an idiot. Singing the praises of a Yassir Arafat or a Mohamed Morsi has consequences.
Republicans aren't immune to this syndrome, although it's mostly the left who fall into "useful idiot" syndrome. But since a Democrat is the president, he's the subject of the day.
Richard Fernandez of Belmont club has the sad story. First, from a post on Thursday:
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