Original Post Removed.
My intention with posting my resignation letter was to be completely forthright and transparent, the kind of thing we demand from our Government. Given that this may appear otherwise, I’ve removed this, and I’m going to retire for a few days to be with family and friends. God bless.
…the biggest welfare recipients are using our own money to lobby us for more. According to the Associated Press, “The top 10 recipients of the government’s $700 billion financial bailout spent about $9.5 million on federal lobbying during the first three months of the year.” Lead among them is GM, which burned through $2.8 million in lobbying in the first quarter alone.
Are we really that surprised, honestly? How long have us free marketeers been saying, “If you reward something, you’ll get more of it.” GM and the others did their cost-benefit analysis, and they rationally figured that their most profitable venture was lobbying Congress. So they did more of it. And they’ll continue to do so.
So bend over, America.
And, I wondered, how could I have spent decades thinking that I thought everything was always wrong at the same time that I thought I thought that people were basically good at heart? Which was it? I began to question what I actually thought and found that I do not think that people are basically good at heart; indeed, that view of human nature has both prompted and informed my writing for the last 40 years. I think that people, in circumstances of stress, can behave like swine, and that this, indeed, is not only a fit subject, but the only subject, of drama.
I’d observed that lust, greed, envy, sloth, and their pals are giving the world a good run for its money, but that nonetheless, people in general seem to get from day to day; and that we in the United States get from day to day under rather wonderful and privileged circumstances—that we are not and never have been the villains that some of the world and some of our citizens make us out to be, but that we are a confection of normal (greedy, lustful, duplicitous, corrupt, inspired—in short, human) individuals living under a spectacularly effective compact called the Constitution, and lucky to get it.
Fantastic article on David Mamet’s conversion from accepting what’s been fed to him all the way to a thinking, informed conservative position. Amazing how that happens, isn’t it? (Notice how he’s speaking to the constrained view versus the unconstrained view.)
Dang it Janeane, you’re right. That whole thing last week was just about a bunch of white rednecks hatin’ on the coolest President ever just cuz he’s a black man:
It’s hard to believe the title the user NewsPoliticsNews gave to this video: CNN Reporter Harassed at Chicago “Tea-Party”
Really? Is that a CNN Reporter that was harassed? Or a lapdog correspondent that yelled White House talking points at the man she was interviewing before his first sentence was out, followed by an attempt to label the exasperation of the crowd, which was merely a reaction to her sudden burst of useful idiocy, like it was some kind of histeria to “prove” that these rallies were indeed filled with unhinged lunatics. (Ten points if you were able to read that sentence through in one pass.) Is this lady auditioning for the Huffington Post or something?
In other news, the Nashville Tea Party, one of the largest in the country at 10,000 folks, mirrored the hundreds of other protests across the country by leaving Legislative Plaza tidier than when the rally began, conducting themselves in a manner much appreciated by the Metro Police on duty, and sending subconscious hostility vibes solely to Tennessean liveblogger Colby Sledge.
Update: I should also note that I just realized her exact response to people have the right to liberty is “Sir, what does that have to do with taxes?”
It staggers the imagination. Honestly, if you’re that far down the river, no amount of paddling is going to bring you back to reality.
Quickly, here are two quick photos of the Nashville Tea Party. We’re estimating several, several thousand!
We’re live on the scene at the Tea Party Nation tent. Sign up and organize!
UPDATE: Based on police reports and several counts, we can confidently estimate 9,812 people at the rally! I know, sounds weird to have such an exact number, so let me share quickly how we arrived at the number. We know that there were an average of 7 or 8 people on each concrete square, which are all the same size across the plaza. Based on where the crowd tapered off, which according to the police was near the far end of the plaza, we arrive at 7,312. Add to it the estimated 2,500 folks on the street and across the street who weren’t on a concrete square, and we arrive at 9,812. (Some estimates are as low as 2,000, some more saying 5,000. No worries. Estimating by sight is extremely difficult. We’re trying to get our numbers using a more specific methodology.)
Yeah, yeah, some will disagree. That’s fine. That’s why we have pictures. They’ve got a pretty big impact, too. 
UPDATE II: Apparently Nashville made Yahoo!’s tea party gallery!
UPDATE III: Some great photos of the Nashville rally from Mark Currier.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
How’s that for a disproportional response, gentlemen!?
- Harry Browne