I just watched a Nightline Face Off special tonight that presented to a panel the question, “Does Satan exist?” In one incredible encounter at the end, the irony of which Deepak seemed not to appreciate, an audience member recalled a statement the guru made earlier in the debate.
Audience member: “Did you say that belief is used to hide insecurities?”
Chopra: “Yes.”
Audience member: “Do you believe that?”
Chopra: “Yes.”
Audience member: “Thank you.”
Angie Harmon is taking flack for her non-appreciation of Obama, but most of Hollywood is still enthralled with the new leader.
Or ruler, as Debra Messing apparently sees him. In accomplishing what may seem like an impossible task, she explained her appreciation of Obama in a totally substance-free format:
“He is thoughtful and considerate and he gets all the information before he speaks which I think is a wonderful quality for the ruler of the free world to have.”
Ruler of the Free World? We normally say Leader of the Free World, but maybe you’ve never really paid much attention to that, Debra. After all, you apparently haven’t noticed the method he uses to get all the information before he speaks.
Many of my friends had major problems with W., and reasonably so. He may have claimed the label of Conservative, but he was certainly not a President with a respect for constitutional limits or free markets. But rather than a positive change, Obama is turning out to be more of the same. If Bush was driving blind, Obama is driving blind down a mountain pass with the clutch wide open screaming, “At least I’m doing something!”
Today we learned that Rick Wagoner is resigning as CEO from G.M. at the request of the Obama Administration. A new precedent of companies acting in response to Government desires rather the desire of the consumer has been set, and it is worrisome.
The auto industry is dying in the U.S. quite simply because the car buying market is not interested in buying enough cars at their current price-point to keep the big auto-makers afloat. So far, the “Big Three” have either been unwilling or unable to adapt. Apparently Obama thinks the problem is that the auto industry just isn’t churning out enough “green” cars. Either that, or he must think that he can both revive the auto industry and force a radical makeover of their product line at the same time, requiring them to flood the market with a product that only a niche market seems to desire. Obama apparently knows nothing of early adopters, those consumers willing to take a hit on price and reliability in exchange for being the first to try a new technology. But why would he know anything about that? He’s never run a successful business. (Or any business, for that matter.)
Require an industry to churn out something that neither the market demanded nor the resources supplied and watch the impending disaster. Government should be in the business of government, not in the business of business. Government cannot intelligently and consistently make the right market decisions. That whole ethanol thing seemed to work out real well for us, didn’t it? Just ask the a few of the 100 million people new to poverty thanks to rising food costs.
The very thing that is so impressive about market forces is that we do not need to have great amounts of Hope that one person or a few small groups of people take a risk and get it right. The market is a vast sea, full of business-owners, managers, and start-ups taking all sorts of risks. The best ideas are rewarded because a sufficient number of people desire the offering, and the worst ideas fail for the opposite reason. That’s the invisible hand Adam Smith wrote about. If it’s all up to the elite in Washington to make the right decisions, I’m worried for our future. I just can’t let them reserve the right to be the risk-taker in this economy. That really would be Too Big to Fail.
The auto industry is simply not in the business of applying the President’s wish-list to its assembly lines. Their compliance will bring us the long-awaited dissolution of those great giants, of course. They already fail to compete in the marketplace race. Now Obama’s broken their legs and wants them to run the race with these brand spankin’ new prosthetics. But it’s promising technology!
If only we’d ignored the politics of fear, they could’ve reached their demise sooner, cheaper, and, some might even argue, cleaner. Jeffrey A. Miron called for bankruptcy instead of bailout back in September (regarding the banks, but the principle applies), explaining:
Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company.
Bankruptcy does not mean the company disappears; it is just owned by someone new (as has occurred with several airlines). Bankruptcy punishes those who took excessive risks while preserving those aspects of a businesses that remain profitable.
Friends on the Left, why do you let the leader of your own party run unencumbered with a banner you never would have even let the opposition party’s leader carry? Trust? Do you trust one and not the other? Trust neither! It is our duty as citizens, not to demand the most from Government, but to ensure its constraint! Regardless of our ideological situation, we should all be students of history. And if history shows us a simply remarkable inefficiency in an institution, by a degree proportional to its size, should we not strive against its growth? And if that institution is named Government — an institution which, to be sure, always retains the ugly potential of tyranny and oppression — should the true patriot not then struggle against the very bloat that will lock his children in chains?
…because I really don’t care what she does. And neither should the media. I’m thoroughly impressed that none of the media outlets took Ashley’s friend up on her offer to provide video of the young Biden snorting coke (though I suspect that many outlets chose to ignore the story for political rather than principled reasons). Ashley Biden isn’t running for office. She’s not set to lead this county. She’s most certainly an adult.
Let’s put pressure on our political leaders in relevant ways, not through underhanded attempts to discredit them. The angry left’s feigned outrage over Bristol Palin’s un-planned teen pregnancy in an attempt to sully Sarah Palin was just plain dirty politics. During the entire campaign, I heard not a single substantive argument against Sarah Palin coming from the left and their MSM allies (and as much as I like her, even I could give you some). It was all foam-at-the-mouth and self-righteous indignation.
Let’s not do the same to the Biden family.
Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
- Henry David Thoreau
- Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Lomax, 1799. ME 10:123
Honestly, how SMALL does the room have to get for Obama to go without the TOTUS? From a speech today:
Notice two things-
1) The wide shot of the room is just barely enough to get three people on stage in frame, and
2) He can’t even pronounce Orion correctly?
(And let’s not forget this little gem: Obama has apparently never heard someone pronounce the state in which he attended law school.)
Once Obama made the ridiculous comment about bowling like a Special Olympiad, I decided I’d better start keeping track. In only 60 days, I was already starting to forget some of the better ones. My project? What If Bush Had Done That!?
But seriously, don’t get it into your head that this is some sort of “see, it makes everything Bush did okay!” love-fest. Not so. I’m a fiscal conservative, limited-government, free market kind of guy, and President Bush was one heck of a violator. I actually think it doesn’t MATTER when the President makes a fool of himself. (Most of the time, of course. Foreign policy matters excepted.) We should quit treating every president like some sort of lightworker, godsend, messiah in flesh. He’s not a King. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and their pals all were pretty dead-set against that.
How about we also require the news stations to interview all the losers of the Lotto whenever they interview the winners? The 9 and a half years it would take to get through interviewing the losers would certainly put a damper on all the misguided attempts to win the lottery.
Sheesh, how my state of Tennessee ever allowed a state sanctioned lottery under the pretense of “for the children” (notice a theme with government programs?) I’ll never know. It’s a poor tax to the highest degree.
(More on those odds in this video, about 7 minutes in.)
I’d just like to say, in response to President Obama’s comments on Leno, that I refuse to go head-to-head with my sister Rebekah, who has Down syndrome, since she has routinely shellacked me in the past. My presence in games of Scrabble where she is involved has taken a permanent hiatus as well. She’s a magician with those two letter words, you don’t even know.