SECTION ONE: The Word:
I don't hate Democrats, leftists, collectivists, progressives, totalitarians (OK, I might easily be persuaded to hate the last one). I just think they fundamentally misunderstand the universe--and human nature. Leftists believe that it is possible to competently "plan" anything as large as a national economy.

But the fact is that human assumptions are always faulty. Mine are. Yours are. Everybody's assumptions are flawed--incomplete, at best--to a greater or lesser extent. The difference is, There are among us those who possess the arrogance of thinking that their assumptions should guide anything bigger than their own lives. This invites failure--in fact, it guarantees it. Reality is always bigger, more complex, more diverse, more chaotic than any human intellectual structure can totally interpret and model. Error is part of the human condition.

Leftists generally consider this a bug in the universe, and design elaborate social and governmental structures to eliminate error. Those on the "right" considers it a feature, and design simple social and governmental structures to accommodate the inevitable errors that occur.

Complex governmental and social solutions fail. Sooner or later, they fail. Simple governmental and social solutions are resistant to failure. That's how the universe works--in spite of how earnestly well-meaning people want the universe to work differently. This is why socialism always--ALWAYS fails, sooner or later. But this is why socialism always comes back, with a different name (progressivism, communism, fascism, "liberalism," communitarianism, "compassionate conservatism," etc.), with a slightly changed argument, throughout human history. Socialism, total or partial, by whatever name, is a seductive, attractive, beguiling idea that is based on a flawed assumption. It just won't work, no matter how good, reasonable, and good the people are who try to implement it.

It just won't work.

SECTION ONE: The Word:
The next "national discussion" we need to have is how we have come to the national near-death experience we are now living through (at least, the hope is that we can keep it to just a near-death experience), how to step back from the cliff, and how to reinforce the guard rails so we never do anything like this again . . .

SECTION TWO: Things That Amuse Me: (see what I did there, tease-wise . . . now you have to click on "read more," don't you?)

SECTION ONE: The Word:
The Overreach Trap

The Democrats thought that with their victory in 2008, that they had a mandate to once and for all re-make the United States from a Constitutional republic to a European-style democratic socialist welfare state.

They were wrong.

According to this poll, three quarters of the American public is angry (either "very angry" or "somewhat angry") with the current policies of the Federal government. 45% of Americans are "Very Angry." Only 19% are either "not angry" or "not very angry."

The American public does not want European-style democratic socialism. What most Americans want is to be left alone to live their lives the best they can, with maybe a little bit of help at the margins--the "safety net" of basic services which any good and decent people will provide to the least fortunate among them.

The Democrats do not yet show any significant sign of understanding this basic truth of American political thinking. To the contrary, most of the Democratic leadership thinks that the problem is that they just have not explained themselves clearly enough to the American people. But what they do not understand is that they have explained themselves, their philosophies, their policies, and their attitudes quite well, and Americans overwhelmingly reject it all. For the Democrats' basic misunderstanding of the American political mood, and their subsequent arrogance and political tone-deafness, they will be punished severely in the next election, and possibly for as much as a generation to come. And they will have richly deserved their time wandering in the political wilderness. A few of them see the tsunami coming. But not enough of them.

(continued . . . )

SECTION ONE: The Word:
How 'bout them Super Bowl commercials, huh?

SECTION TWO: Things That Amuse Me:
Simians and other aminals*:
Animal advocates sue over USD monkey tests
*Yes, I know it's "animals," it's just that I always found the childhood mispronunciation really, really cute . . .

Travel:
Stay at home. Work. Consume. Big Brother is Your Friend. Palin is evil. Obama is good. Work. Consume.

Sports:
Weekend review

Science Fiction and Writing:
Zoomorphism in Science Fiction—In or Out?
Writing cultures: insider vs. outsider
Writers on Writing–Emotion
The Write Way and the Wrong Way
Ways to Trash Your Writing Career: Surrender, Dorothy!
Hey, remember when I used to post long, half-thought-out posts on big topics?
Least Favorite Authors of SF
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Science, technology, and space:
Nook Review
Looking At Light
Opinion: MacBook, or iMac + iPad?

Miscellany (amusing things not fitting above, or below):
NBC throws Conan down the memory hole, deletes his online content

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.

(It's morning somewhere . . . )

SECTION ONE: The Word:
I've gently re-formatted the Whip, the better to shine a light on the rampant epidemic of blithering idiotry amok upon the world. Yes, those of you who think you know everything are annoying those of us who do.

Other than the fact that I woke up at 11:30 this morning (yeah, sleep is good), I have no comment today.

SECTION ONE: The Word:
I've gently re-formatted the Whip, the better to shine a light on the rampant epidemic of blithering idiotry amok upon the world.
In case you're wondering, "blithering idiotry" has its foundation in 1) believing you know better than someone else how they should run their lives, and 2) acting on that belief, almost always to the ultimate detriment of that other person, not to mention the corruption of your own soul in the process. And it's everywhere, but nowhere more concentrated than in governments big and small, and those sad, sorry people making up those governments.
It is not a virtue to be generous with somebody else's money.

A (mostly) daily review of what's out there that caught my attention.

I surf the Web, so you don't have to!

Section One: The Word:
An occasional comment, rant, or snark, brought on by the flow of events:
Jonah Goldberg: Liberal Fascism "is simply useless against zombies, save in bulk. If you dropped a pallet of books on one, it would probably kill it, or at least delay its advance long enough for the double-tap. Obviously, this means people need to start buying it in bulk."

Who says conservatives don't have a sense of humor? And, perhaps THIS is why Sarah Palin was buying up all of those copies of her book. Don't believe that story about owing thousands of copies to donors of her PAC. That's obviously a smoke-screen. She knows something we don't. Maybe about sheep.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Watch out for sheep. Especially demon sheep. California demon sheep. I can't imagine those California dairy cows are very contented right now.

A (mostly) daily review of what's out there that caught my attention.

I surf the Web, so you don't have to!

Section One: The Word:
An occasional comment, rant, or snark, brought on by the flow of events:

From the Cato Institute

We are so screwed. And it's not defense spending that is screwing us. We're doing it to ourselves.

Section One: The Word:
An occasional comment, rant, or snark, brought on by the flow of events:
JUST SAY NO TO NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY.

OPPOSE THE OBAMA BUDGET WITH YOUR EVERY BREATH.

PUNISH ANY POLITICIAN WHO BACKS ANY PORTION OF IT.

CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND SENATOR AND TELL THEM: IF YOU SUPPORT THIS BUDGET, YOUR POLITICAL CAREER IS OVER.

WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH.

The Federal budget deficit, explained in video:


And now . . . A (mostly) daily review of what's out there that caught my attention.

I surf the Web, so you don't have to!