Reactions to story from Bookworm Room

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  …yet he will still be Nominated?

  http://oceanguy.com/?p=2243
  52 days ago in Ocean Guy · Authority: 29

  From a comment on this post at Talk Left: I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again: I did not have spiritual relations with that church, Trinity Church. Never. These allegations are false. The ‘great unifier’ once again shows his lack of loyalty to those who helped make him the politician he is, his utter lack of principle, his questionable choices of friends and associates, and his exceedingly poor judgement. The ‘great unifier’ continues to show that he is becoming the single most divisive person in American Politics. His Grandmother, Rev. Wright, Fr. Pfleger, and now Trinity United Church of Christ have all be tossed under the BHO Campaign bus. Who’s next? All Black Churches? The African American Community? Ayers? Rezko? Chicago? Michelle? … The Democratic base jumped on the bandwagon for the first candidate that made them feel good, Obama’s. With little vetting he was anointed as the savior of the party and the nation by activists, party loyalists and those looking for change and a fresh approach. Emotionally attached and emotionally invested in such a feel good personality, they are driving identity politics to a new high low. BHO’s candidacy and his campaign is seriously dividing the Democratic Party and has almost no chance of winning in November or of uniting the country. The question becomes, “How much damage is it doing to the party?” Assuming BHO is the nominee and loses in November, will the Democrats come out of this election stronger and with renewed vigor to challenge the extremeists now dominating the party, or will the moderates continue to be forced out… will there be more Liebermans leaving the party that no longer represents their values? Red States are still red… blue states are still blue, and ONCE AGAIN a general election is going to be decided by all of us voters in the middle. The winning candidate will be the one whose views, record, and history align most closely with all of us moderates in the middle of the spectrum. Its’ not even very complicated math to figure that out. BHO’s early supporters… those who FELT so good when hearing him speak the magic words of, Hope, change and unity… were either duped, or simply didn’t realize how far left his politics are. Unfortunately for them, in today’s world, the voters will not be so easily convinced that Obama shares their values. Time is proving that the more BHO talks, the more he shows us moderates that he does NOT share our values nor our sympathies. So that vast number of voters falling in the middle of the bell curve of the left/right; or statist/individualist spectrum will almost certainly elect McCain in November when they decide which candidate’s politics are closest to their own. To me, the real puzzle is why the Democrats are so insistent on nominating people on the far left side of the curve. Gore… Kerry… and now Obama? All three elections would have been won by centrist Democrats, yet in the interest of some nebulous “thought purity” of leftist politics, two of the elections were handed to Republicans and the third is about to be. The collection of victim groups that forms the activist base of the Democratic Party and plays the identity politics card so well, simply doesn’t work when trying to convince the majority of Americans… who are not part of the “victimized” classes… to elect them. Will they ever learn their formula doesn’t work? JFK’s Democratic Party, with the theme: “Ask not what your Country can do for you; Ask what you can do for your country!” has been relegated to the history books. The theme of victimhood central to today’s Democratic identity politics has reversed the theme and continually demands that the country do more and more for them. It’s not a winning strategy.
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  Slouching Towards Statism

  http://cheatseekingmissiles.blogspot.com/2008/05/slouching-t...
  53 days ago in Cheat Seeking Missiles · Authority: 71

  I've been thinking a lot lately about our globe's two basic forms of governance -- Statist nations that see the people as a means to government's ends and Individualist nations in which government represents and protects the will of the people. I can find no better illustration of the Statist form than this clip of a Chinese small truck undergoing a 40 mpg front-end crash test. It's just 33 seconds long, so do click it (and excuse the oddly constructed note at the end). This is undeniable evidence of what happens when production is put into the hands of a Statist government. China's government certainly had access to car safety technology -- it's stolen all sorts of other technology, after all -- but it willfully decided to keep the cost down in order to advance the state's goal of moving goods cheaply in order to expand the economy. (Notice how the goods being carried probably suffered little ill effect -- something that can't be said of the human occupants?) In America a few years ago, Ford Explorers began to roll over because Ford was recommending too low a tire pressure in order to offset the top-heavy nature of the Explorer's design. Compared to the Chinese truck, this was a less willful act -- executives didn't foresee deaths, but almost 300 died and 700 were injured. (That stat has to be compared to the 12,000 SUV rollover deaths and injuries in other SUVs before any blame can be ascribed specifically to Ford's Explorer team.) As a result of this, Ford was targeted for lawsuits and the Explorer fell from its perch as the #1 selling SUV to near oblivion. No stats are available for deaths in the Chinese truck, but obviously if it had been as popular in the US as the Explorer was, and was operated at US highway speeds, its death count would have been spectacularly morbid. But what choice do the citizens of Statist China have? The nation manufactures all their automotive options (and the others are just as bad; see clips here, here, here, here.) And Chinese citizens certainly can't sue their government. China's Statist mindset was also evident in the recent earthquake, where the collapse of schools and possible collapse of dams is more evidence that the state was more interested in taking care of its business than it was in taking care of its people. Contrast that to Individualist America. When earthquakes hit or tornadoes threaten, where are we told to evacuate to? Schools. To us, protecting the next generation is our tantamount goal. To China, it is merely to educate them. (We could use a bit more emphasis on education, however ...) Last week, we helped one of our water district clients win regulatory approval of a 266-million-gallon earth dam reservoir just up-valley from a high school. There wasn't a peep of protest, despite an extensive outreach campaign to inform the public. Why? Because people here have cause to trust our dam construction techniques and our government's watchful control. Why? Because they don't have any experience with dam collapses, since collapses are so rare. Do you think the Chinese government would have carried out an outreach campaign? Would they give the Chinese people a voice in the decision-making, or would they just slap a shoddy dam wherever they wanted? The weak, threatening dams throughout the earthquake zone give us our answer. One last example. When the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant failed, thanks to our Individualist state's reams of regulations designed to protect the public no matter the expense, no one was injured. Some radioactive gas was released; it dissipated; that was it. In Statist Russia, where nuclear power plant technology was developed to speed production of power to feed Soviet industry, not to protect the Soviet citizens, when a failure hit the Chernobyl plant, there weren't the same safeguards: All the Chernobyl reactors were of a design that the Russians call the RBMK--natural uranium-fueled, water-cooled, graphite-moderated--a design that American physicist and Nobel laureate Hans Bethe has called "fundamentally faulty, having a built-in instability." Because of the instability, an RBMK reactor that loses its coolant can under certain circumstances increase in reactivity and run progressively faster and hotter rather than shut itself down. Nor were the Chernobyl reactors protected by containment structures like those required for U.S. reactors, though they were shielded with heavy concrete covers. ... No commercial reactor in the United States is designed anything like the RBMK reactor. Cohen summarizes several of the differences: 1. A reactor which is unstable against a loss of water could not be licensed in the United States. 2. A reactor which is unstable against a temperature increase could not be licensed here. 3. A large power reactor without a containment [structure] could not be licensed here. (source)Such is the nature of radiation that we will never really know how many people were killed by the Soviet Statists. In 2006, the World Health Organization estimated up to 9,000 people died or will die of cancer because of the incident. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency governed by the WHO and 16 member nations, published an estimate of 6,700 to 38,000 in a peer-reviewed journal. Greenpeace came up with 93,000 to 200,000, an overestimation typical of environmental hysteria cultists. (source) But what of America's nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere over Nevada and Utah -- were we behaving as a Statist nation? There were obvious strains of Statism in the decision to test bombs there, driven by heightened Statism that occurs during times of external threats to the nation. But there were also two arguments countering Statism in the testing: First, the nation picked the most remote, unpopulated part of the nation for the test, which reflects concern for the individual, and second, we didn't really know what we were messing with -- unlike the Soviets who made a willful decision in the design of Chernobyl. I could go on: Katrina vs. Myanmar, hot weather deaths in Paris vs. St. Louis, or the poor Chinese school kids who died when the fireworks they were required by the state to manufacture during school exploded. But the case has been made. Putting the government first is bad for the health, welfare and happiness of the people. And yet, there are factions in the US -- let's call them Democrats -- who want to give more power to the state. They want the state in control of education, health care, what we eat (fat bans in Dem stronghold of NYC), what we hear (the renewed Fairness Doctrine debate), how marriage is to be defined. Despite myriad examples of what happens when power is taken away from the people, they press on towards greater and greater collectivism. And they're winning. The zenith of conservatism -- the Individualist state -- in the modern era was reached in either the 50s or the 80s depending on your perspective. Since then, America has been sliding over our protests towards collectivist Statism. There will be no improvement in the short term since all three remaining presidential candidates (Is Hillary still remaining? I haven't checked in the last hour.) are all more Statist than Individualist, and Congress should be firmly in the control of the Statists for at least one more election cycle. I'm a believer in pendulum swings, and I trust America will come up with another Reagan at some point ... but the question is, how much irreversible damage will be done before that occurs?
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  Council Winners

  http://vernondent.blogspot.com/2008/05/council-winners_23.ht...
  61 days ago in Done With Mirrors · Authority: 113

  Watchers Council winners have been posted for the week of May 23. First place in the council went to Republicans Ponder The Abyss at Wolf Howling. Republicans have two key national issues they can run on and win. The first, the pocket book issue, is the price at the pump. The second is national security. But they will only win on those issues if they accomplish two prerequisites. One, they need to embrace fiscal responsibility like it was just written on stone tablets by fingers of flame emanating out of a burning bush. Two, they need to adopt an effective communications strategy. He may be writing with great subtlety here and talking about a campaign strategy, rather than a governing policy. If so, the party would be harking back to Reagan, who raised plenty of taxes, spent plenty of money, and compromised on small things for the sake of shifting the government into different channels. But I still think he overlooks the role of the irrational in voting. I don't think it matters who Republicans run. I think the voters are simply worn out after two terms of Bush and friends, and consider the conservatives have had their chance, and it's time to let some fresh ideas in. And however ambivalent many of them are about Obama, McCain and his platform-mates is likely to say any number of intemperate things between now and November that will edge the voters -- emotionally -- closer to Obama. Let's see if I'm wrong. It's refreshing, at least, to see that the voters in the council, most of them I think conservative Republicans, didn't take offense at being cast as Macbeth. Now if a Democrat had done that .... Votes also went to George Bush Isolationist at Soccer Dad; Seattle Times Writer Defends Hitler's Aggression! at Rhymes With Right; Renaming the Paradigm at Bookworm Room; No One Will Solve Our Energy Problems For Us at Hillbilly White Trash; and Would You Buy An ObamaMobile From Tom Friedman? at Joshuapundit. Outside the council, the winner was Blog For Human Rights -- May 15th, 2008 at The Whited Sepulchre. This looks at the Four Freedoms, Roosevelt's bold proposal for a decent world, in light of some current events. It does so largely by putting up Norman Rockwell's moving illustrations of them against selected photos from current events. Votes also went to The William Ayers Plan To Turn America's Schoolchildren Into Maoists and How Barack Obama Helped Him at Pundita. Either writing about Obama is approaching Hofstadter's notion of the paranoid style, or there is a lethal Manchurian Candidate running for president. Other votes went to Dow Jones: Israel Means Business at The Elder of Ziyon, about 90 percent of which is quoted from two other sites, one a news story, the other a blog roundup. That can be a useful thing to do, but I tend not to vote for those. Votes also went to The Lord of Perpetual Victimhood at Pondering Penguin and Vanderboegh: Loophole at Western Rifle Shooters Association, which is a useful entre to a topic for those unfamiliar with the cutting edge of the Second Amendment debates.
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  Watcher's Council Results, 5/23/08

  http://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/2008/05/watchers-council-re...
  61 days ago in J O S H U A P U N D I T · Authority: 94

  The Council has spoken! A complete list of results can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels This week's winner was Republicans Ponder The Abyss by Wolf Howling, a fine post by GW that succinctly set out the challenges facing the GOP in the next election. In second place we had a tie between George Bush Isolationist by Soccer Dad, a highly interesting post that compared Bush's pre-election stance on international affairs with his post-election behavior, and Seattle Times Writer Defends Hitler's Aggression! at Rhymes With Right, Greg's supeerb roasting of an Obama-ite buffoon masquerading as a journalist who attempted to tell us that th eappeasement of Hitler was 'reasonable.' Also getting votes were Renaming the Paradigm *UPDATED* at Bookworm Room, No One Will Solve Our Energy Problems For Us at Hillbilly White Trash and Would You Buy An ObamaMobile From Tom Friedman? from right here. In the non-Council catagory, the winner was Blog For Human Rights -- May 15th, 2008 The Whited Sepulchre which used the themes of some classic Norman Rockwell paintings to illustrate the theme. Second place was a tie between The William Ayers Plan To Turn America's Schoolchildren Into Maoists and How Barack Obama Helped Him by Pundita, a piece which details that ex-Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayres is far from a simple professor of education and his relationship with Obama was by no means as casual as The Chosen One suggests and Dow Jones: Israel Means Business by our old friend The Elder of Ziyon. In it he looked at what those stiff-necked, troublesome Jews have accomplished economically in Israel with hardly any natural resources while hampered by having to care for thousands of mostly penniless immigrants, economic blockade and genocidal neighbors and compares that to what Iran has accomplished with its billions in oil and gas money and its other advantages. Hearty congratulations not only to the winners, but to all the entrants. ************************************** There's currently still an open seat on the Council. If you think you measure up blog-wise, please contact the Watcher here to apply.
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  Watcher's Council results

  http://colossus.mu.nu/archives/263262.php
  62 days ago in The Colossus of Rhodey · Authority: 105

  And now... the winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Republicans Ponder The Abyss by Wolf Howling, and Blog For Human Rights -- May 15th, 2008 by The Whited Sepulchre. Here are the full tallies of all votes cast: VotesCouncil link2Republicans Ponder The Abyss Wolf Howling1 2/3George Bush Isolationist Soccer Dad1 2/3Seattle Times Writer Defends Hitler's Aggression! Rhymes With Right1 1/3Renaming the Paradigm *UPDATED* Bookworm Room1 1/3No One Will Solve Our Energy Problems For Us Hillbilly White Trash1Would You Buy An ObamaMobile From Tom Friedman? Joshuapundit2/3Is Human Moral Progress Inevitable? The Colossus of Rhodey2/3Death Toll Continues to Mount The Glittering Eye1/3Time To Remember The "Global" In The War On Terror Cheat Seeking Missiles1/3Net Loss Done With Mirrors VotesNon-council link2Blog For Human Rights -- May 15th, 2008 The Whited Sepulchre1 1/3The William Ayers Plan To Turn America's Schoolchildren Into Maoists and How Barack Obama Helped Him Pundita1 1/3Dow Jones: Israel Means Business The Elder of Ziyon1The Lord of Perpetual Victimhood Pondering Penguin1Vanderboegh: Loophole Western Rifle Shooters Association2/3Turning Down the Volume? Classical Values2/3The Love That Dare Not Speak His Name Intellectual Conservative2/3Is Gasoline Really That Expensive? Lone Star Times2/3Judges Can't Judge Atlas Shrugs2/3More Whining From Obama Right Wing Nut House2/3Bush Begs Saudis (Again) Middle East Strategy at Harvard1/3Human Progress The Speculist
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  Eye on the Watcher’s Council

  http://theglitteringeye.com/?p=3709
  63 days ago in The Glittering Eye · Authority: 138

  As you may know the members of the Watcher’s Council each nominate one of his or her own posts and one non-Council post for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week’s Council nominations is here. The Colossus of Rhodey, “Is Human Moral Progress Inevitable?” In an interesting coincidence Hube’s post responds to the non-Council post I nominated this week. I think that Hube’s position rests on a fundamentally flawed notion of moral conduct but a complete response is worth a post. I’ll try to get to that later today. Done With Mirrors, “Net Loss” Callimachus takes note of two distressing stories on Internet use, the first the highly publicized story of a woman who drove a young woman to suicide by faking a friendly online relationship with her and the other one of tracking links for targeted advertising. Bookworm Room, “Renaming the Paradigm *UPDATED*” Bookworm relates a conversation with her mom about the differences between Left and Right in politics, noting, correctly, that the nomenclature is flawed. Considering that it relates to how the political factions in Les États-Généraux were seated in 1789 it’s not too surprising. Unfortunately, I think she’s mistaken. I see no evidence whatever that Republicans, generally, are less statist than Democrats, generally. They just want to use the power of the state for different purposes. I also wonder if she can find any Democratic officeholder to whom to attribute her quote, ”the state will take care of you”. Hillbilly White Trash, “No One Will Solve Our Energy Problems For Us” In his submitted post for this week Lemuel Calhoon comments on something I posted on myself, the Saudis’ demurral to pump more oil in response to the President’s request. I agree with LC that we should be exploiting domestic resources more than we are (although I wonder if he’s aware of the relative cost of development and how that affects price) but I also note that he doesn’t mention conservation and efficiency. When oil executives are talking about the role of conservation, efficiency, and renewable sources of energy in our energy future, I think it behooves the rest of us to take note. Soccer Dad, “George Bush Isolationist” Soccer Dad explores how George W. Bush came around to the Gore-Lieberman viewpoint on foreign policy. Cheat Seeking Missiles, “Time To Remember The “Global” In The War On Terror” Laer urges increased military activity against terrorists. We’re going to need a larger army. Rhymes With Right, “Seattle Times Writer Defends Hitler’s Aggression!” I confess to being an unreformed Westphalian (have I mentioned I lived in Westphalia for a while?). I think that nation states should will have enough utility for the foreseeable future that they should be strengthened and bolstered at the expense of international institutions if necessary. But when you’re living in the age of identity politics and a widespread belief that states are old-fashioned outmoded ideas the views of the Seattle Times writer that Greg takes to task in his post this week are perfectly understandable. Wolf Howling, “Republicans Ponder The Abyss” I hate to tell GW this but there are only two reasons to pursue political office: power and rent-seeking. If you eschew both, what’s the point? That’s the reason that Republicans in power look very much like Democrats in power. Will Republicans lose more power and influence in November? Probably. But they won’t get it back by pledging things that are beyond their power (reducing the price of oil) or things that are not in our national interest (invading Iran). The Glittering Eye, “Death Toll Continues to Mount” If it’s not clear from the post I submitted this week, I don’t believe the Chinese can continue their economic growth without cultivating a domestic market and I don’t believe they can cultivate a domestic market without democratization. They’ve been able to come this far without doing so only because the base from which they started was so terribly low. The Education Wonks, “Hillary’s Fuzzy Math” EdWonk suggests that Republicans should be thankful they aren’t likely to be running against Hillary Clinton in November and quotes at length an article by Adam Nagourney chronicling the reasons for her presumed failure to win her party’s nomination. I think the reason is simple. Lincoln said. You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Obviously, she couldn’t fool a majority of Democratic primary voters all of the time. Or even long enough to get the nomination. Joshuapundit, “Would You Buy An ObamaMobile From Tom Friedman?” Freedom Fighter fisks a column from Friedman. I have no idea whether Jews in the United States are as chary of the foreign policy approaches Sen. Obama is proposing and Tom Friedman is seconding as FF thinks they should be but I strongly suspect that it will make some differences at the margins and in an election decided at the margins that can make for some surprising results. Well, I’ve decided which posts I’ll vote for this week. Which posts would get your votes?

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