Medary.com

I understand there's a football game today. However . . .

SECTION ONE: The Word:
People think that the Tea Party coalesced out of the political ether when Rick Santilli gave that rant on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. They're wrong.

The Tea Party spirit--the spirit of self-government which has made the United States unique among all the nations of the world--didn't began to revive when Sarah Palin was convinced to run for Wasilla City Council. It did begin to go national when McCain named her as his Vice-Presidential candidate. What happened with Santilli in Chicago last February is that the traditional American value of self-government finally found its voice after decades of disuse, under the oppressive attack of the progressives, the leftists, the socialists. The Fair Deal. The New Deal. The Square Deal. The Great Society. Hope and Change.

Palin isn't the leader of the Tea Party so much as she is its most prominent current expression. I find it amusing (and a bit distressing) that so many seem concerned that Palin or anyone else is "hijacking" a movement which at its core is the simple re-assertion of the sovereignty of the individual over the state.

If there are few Democrats participating in Tea Parties--if the Tea Party movement does not represent the Democratic Party--it is because the Democratic Party has now utterly rejected the traditional American political philosophy of individual liberty and limited government, for the system of industrial socialism and unlimited government created by 19th Century German political philosophers. (And yes, many Republicans have also basically embraced German socialism, as well.)

So let me be blunt:

If you are for government-provided welfare, you are a socialist.

If you are for government-provided health care, you are a socialist.

If you are for government mandates to "fight global warming" you are a socialist.

If you oppose the Tea Party movement, you are either a socialist, or you simply haven't thought things through yet.

The lesson of history, over and over and over again, is that socialism does not work It does not produce the "greatest good for the greatest number." It does not help the "little people." It does not feed the hungry, it does not clothe the naked, it does not care for the sick. What socialism does do, better than almost any other political system invented by mankind, is corrode and corrupt the human spirit. It corrupts those who aspire to the power socialism gives over their fellow men, and it dispirits those who have no opportunity to exert power, even over their own lives. Socialism is the philosophy of the parasite.

Socialism kills the human spirit. It also, as we have seen around the word, by incompetence or malice, kills people in staggering numbers--by the millions in the 20th Century alone.

If you are a socialist, you have embraced evil, suffering, corruption, and death. You either seek virtue by sacrificing yourself for others, or you seek power by sacrificing others on the altar of your own misguided "wisdom." You must kill others, or kill yourself. That is what socialism is, at its ugly core.

If you are a socialist, you are a blithering idiot.

Fortunately, blithering idiocy is not forever--it is treatable, it is cureable. The first step towards the cure is to realize that you have a problem. That problem has a name. That name is socialism.
SECTION TWO: Things That Amuse Me:
Simians and other aminals*:
Colts, I guess. Saints aren't aminals.
*Yes, I know it's "animals," it's just that I always found the childhood mispronunciation really, really cute . . .

Travel:
Stayin' at home, makin' cheese dip for chips, gonna make chicken wings later . . .

Sports:
Jackrabbits pound UMKC, 76-47
No. 1 Kansas rallies to beat Nebraska 75-64
Super Bowl flu creates ill will
South Dakota State dumps UMKC 78-57
NCAA tourney changes can’t be fast-tracked
Kansas plays good enough to beat Nebraska
Clemente’s 30 points carry Kansas State past Iowa State
Jackrabbits roll the ‘Roos
Video review: UMKC doubleheader
SDSU women win
SDSU men rout UMKC

Science Fiction and Writing:
Neil Gaiman Confirms That He's Written An Upcoming Episode Of Doctor Who

Science, technology, and space:
Shuttle set for Sunday launch amid space plan shift
Gonna fly now

Miscellany (amusing things not fitting above, or below):
The Top Grossing Box-Office Films of All Time (Avatar is NOT #1)

SECTION THREE: Politics: The neverending battle against blithering idiocy:
People doing potentially good things (including sightings of politicians doing something less than totally idiotic):
The Story Behind the Hayek-Keynes Rap Video
One Year From Today, Sarah Palin Will Officially Declare Her Candidacy For President
Sarah Palin Tonight in Nashville
Was at a Tea Party When a Birther Rally Broke Out -- Birthers aren't blithering idiots, as the term is defined around here . . . they are, however, misguided, deluded poor souls who need to get their minds right and figure out what's really important right now . . .
The State of Sarah's Union
Can We Beat the Reagan Odds?
Sarah Palin was a blithering idiot until she became a devious genius
Breitbart, Farah argue Birtherism at Tea Party convention
Maybe the Gipper was the greatest president of the 20th century
Populist Constitutionalism and the Tea Party
Accusations of Coyness from Dan Riehl
Two Republicans
Sarah Palin is miles ahead of every other politician in America
Palin at the Tea Party
Palin's Nashville Speech Raises Questions
Sarah Palin has Tea Party, conservatives in palm of her hand

The cure for blithering idiocy: freedom and individual liberty (yeah, I know--ooh, ick, philosophy!):
voluntary socialism versus human nature
The Answer to Socialism
If only class war had remained a Marxist meme

The reality of President Obama as a blithering idiot (and he's the President, so he gets credit, if that's the word, for the entire Executive Branch):
How Much of the Deficit Did Obama Inherit?
Obama Can’t Resist – Will Appear on TV Super Bowl Sunday
Barack Obama: George Bush Is the “Real Outrage”
But Enough About Me. What Do You Think About Me?
Geithner says US credit rating safe despite debt
The Obama Record Is Clear Now…

The reality of Washington Democrats (and Independents, and Socialists) as blithering idiots:
Honey, They Shrunk the Private Sector
Landrieu's lament

The reality of Washington Republicans as blithering idiots:
See Palin, Sarah, Attack Upon

Other blithering idiots at large making life difficult for regular folks:
The Left’s Meltdown Continues

Opposition Research: because blithering idiocy can be dangerous, especially when organized into idiotic groups with idiotic ideologies:
Discussing Citizens United, Free Speech, Congressional Corruption, and More With Bill Moyers and Larry Lessig
“But that’s what the Left does: indecent, ugly rage” (& the Gipper rose above it)
First Demoralize
Troll Dissection 101: Hillary Clinton vs. Sarah Palin Edition
Fracking the Academic Left
Obama, Freud, and the American Progressives' Guilt Trip
Question: How do we eliminate the word “polarizing” as a weapon used against female candidates?
My Name Is Legion: The Secretary Of State Project(s)

The Keith Olbermann Memorial "Special Comment" on blithering idiots in the Media:
National Tea Party: Media Calls for a Protest Showdown But Only 4 People Show
Tea Party welcomes conservative darling Palin -- Negative opinion article masquerading as a news article . . .
AP Publishes AWFUL Hit Piece on Sarah Palin -- And another one . . .
House of Peers

SECTION FOUR: Case Studies in Blithering Idiocy
"Global warming" aka "Climate change" -- or should that be "Climate Reform?":
The Times: Top British scientist says IPCC is losing credibility
IPCC’s “Africagate” blunder as told by Dr. Richard North
The great global warming collapse
Even more problems found in IPCC report on AGW

Health care "reform" aka health insurance "reform" -- or should that be health care "change?" Perhaps "Global healthing?:
Liberty, Health Care, and WalMart -- Remember, if you're a collectivist, Up can in fact be Down, if you want it hard enough . . .

The Economy (Can the blithering idiots bring down the most productive economy the world has ever seen? Yes, They Can! Will they?):
Frustrated job seekers deciding to call it quits
And They Still Make Wagon Wheels -- But what about buggy whips?
Don't mess with Texas -- How to not be blithering idiots: study what Texas does--and doesn't do . . .

Foreign affairs and National Security (Will blithering idiots get us all killed, or make us all speak Spanish--or Chinese--or Arabic--or all three?):
“Radical Islam is a Way for the Superfluous Sons to Enter History”
Iran and Israel: Questions for Michael Oren
Is Greece Our Future?
Tiny bubbles
Lawfare
Zero rupee note that Indians can slip to corrupt officials who demand bribes


The Morning Whip is a (mostly) daily review of what's out there that caught my attention, sometimes but not always posted before 11 am Central time in the U. S. of A., unless I just don't feel like it that day, am out doing something more important or more fun, or I've been abducted, detained, arrested, or otherwise flummoxed by the agents of blithering idiotry.

I surf the Web, so you don't have to! (which would be a trademark, but come on, who am I kidding?)