Washington Rebel

Friday Freedom Reflections

Free to Choose: A Conversation with Milton Friedman at Hillsdale College

This presentation is all the sweeter with introducer Lozano Smith's humor.  Smart man!  "The people trying to save the country aren't that worried about the weather."

!!

He also says something dear to myself: "A great teacher can show you what's required to learn.  To become eduated."  The greatest virtue is learning, or education.  You can't get that from 99% of our schools today, and if the general public doesn't see that virtue as a virtue, we're in trouble.

Tony Blankley on Three Undemocratic Temptations:

Though the Democrats have a majority of 20 seats in the Senate and 79 seats in the House, now, just a week before Christmas, the speaker of the House, the Senate majority leader and the White House have failed — so far — to pass into law their desired legislation in the matters of 1) health care provision and financing, 2) public debt and deficit reduction, and 3) carbon regulation and taxation.

There are various anti-liberty forces at work today.  Take basic engineering.  If you attempted to build a water treatment system for Los Angeles County from scratch, it would require a Trillion-Something; it couldn't be done by manual labor; it couldn't be done (presumably) from a notepad.  It would require computers and major mobilization of capital, not a band of hungry Irish and Mexican laborers.  In such a world, individual genius can get buried.

But the most disturbing development for me as an American has been to witness the erosion of the human spirit.  The sort of rugged "show me" individualism of 1930s and 40s journalists; the vital independence of educators of generations past, when cabins in the far-flung reaches of Montana were filled with books, as opposed to compouter games; the will to educate oneself and challenge life -- all these attributes seem to be at their weakest at this moment in history.  Who are these people that drank Al Gore's Kool-Aid on global warming?  Why are they in charge of information and education?  Is this a conspiracy, or mass insanity?

Mass Insanity.

Deranged Ciceronian Newswhip!

The Shifting Balance of Power in 2008.  This remarkable and intelligent black man is the most exciting politician on the world stage!  Can I have an orgasm?!

An unbroken string of bumperstickerism, just for you.  You may need some privacy!

Valerie Jarrett addresses our ruling Elite at Davos.  She says you have to understand Chicago to undertand Obama.  Really?  Did I say I was paranoid?

Jonathan Chait asks, "Who You Calling Deranged?"

Democracy Corps has a very interesting survey about the worldview of conservative Republicans. The focus group interviews show that the Republican right, which consists of about a fifth of the electorate, is held together by a set of beliefs that goes well beyond small government and traditional values. "Our groups showed that they explicitly believe [Obama] is purposely and ruthlessly executing a hidden agenda to weaken and ultimately destroy the foundations of our country," reports the survey. Conservatives further believe that Obama’s policies are not merely misguided but "purposely designed to fail."

The most interesting conclusion from the Democracy Corps survey is the degree to which the GOP conservative worldview stands completely apart from the rest of America. Conservatives do not have a slightly more radical version of the same beliefs as other Americans. They have a completely sealed-off belief system. Even the most right-leaning independents find the right-wing worldview, with its conspiracies and persecution complex, unrecognizable.

Well, Jonathan, call us paranoid if you want.  Can you help explain the utterly destructive domestic and foreign policy decisions he has made?

Charting Obama's Course of Destruction

Throwing Poland and the Czech Republic Under the Bus

Conflict of Visions

Dr. Thomas Sowell, Uncommon Knowledge: Conflict of Visions

My politics generate intense consternation among those who love me and find me sexy -- there's a line, by the way.  "Why are you conservative?" occasionally comes out, for which reason I have thought about this at great length.  There are two reasons:

(1) Lifelong experience and a perceptive, ingenious personality teach me that once you have handed over power to some one, or to any thing, you can only get it back by force.  Nature provides one exception: parenting.  Parents start out with absolute authority and eventually surrender it.  We're talking about good parents, by the way, not enablers who keep their kids addicted to diversions in order to evade the actual responsibility of parenting.

There is a second exception provided for by society: what is called "the contract."  I can contract 8 hours a day of my life to you; the other 16 belong to whatever woman owns me.

There are two theories of governance: one, that human rights are by natural law, or principle; the other that government loans them to you.  Republicans believe the first; Democrats believe the latter.  My point is, every time you surrender authority to the State, you can only get it back by force.  If Barack Obama changes faith tomorrow and decides he likes capitalism, there will be a war to divide up government distributions.  Had politicians left these things alone, buyers and sellers would make those decisions in what is called a "market place."

The second reason I am conervative is that my world vision does not permit me to mess with other peoples' lives.  I am what is called a man.  My father taught me that I was responsible for the governance of my own life; messing with others is what poofter Democrats are all about.  Hence, there is a conflict of visions, as Dr. Sowell puts it.  I'm a Sowellian.

You?

A Blue Dog's Lament: Representative Allen Boyd of Florida discovers that "people are scared."  No shit, Congressman.  What was your first clue?

There can be grave practical consequences of a dogmatic insistence on external explanations that allow individuals to escape personal responsibility. Americans can end up ruining the best medical care in the world in the vain hope that a government takeover will give us better health.  The Great Escape, by Thomas Sowell.

Star Parker: Back on Uncle Sam's Plantation

Christopher Hitchens vs. the Rev. Al Sharpton

The World is Thinking: Christopher Hitchens vs. Al Sharpton

The Common Good

Michael Novak on the Ethics of Capitalism

Victor Davis Hanson: Suicide by Debt