American Exceptionalism

I have just finished watching a video on American Exceptionalism by Bill Whittle. Far too often I hear the Left make the argument that there is nothing special about the United States, that we are just one of what will soon be 196 nations. (Man, I remember thinking that 156 was a large number when I was doing M.U.N. in high school)

The Right knows that in fact the United States is exceptional, and has been for most of its history. Everything from the peaceful transfer of power from President Washington to President Adams, (and more importantly and more impressively from President Adams to President Jefferson) to the Berlin airlift to America's efforts to help Japan after the recent earthquake and tsunami. It is a simple, easily understood fact...we are exceptional. History will judge us so too, for many of the reasons that Whittle discusses in his video.

The Left cannot acknowledge that America is exceptional, because their whole ideology is based on fundamentally changing America, which would be idiotic if indeed America was exceptional. A few might attempt to argue that they are trying to make America more exceptional than it already is. My response is to ask them why they are trying to make the United States more like Europe? There are places in Europe that still don't have peaceful transfers of power, especially among political enemies. How many European planes flew into Berlin during that crisis? How many European aircraft carriers or helicopter carriers are off the coast of Japan providing relief?

The simple fact is, our goal should be to transform the rest of the world to more closely resemble the United States rather than transform the United States to look like the rest of the world.

And for those of you who lived in the United Kingdom with me back in the 80's...which UK would you rather live in? The one of the 1980's or the one that exists today?

HBO and Bill Maher

I just saw a commercial on HBO for Bill Maher's show, Real Time. One of the clips they used was of Paul Begala making a typical Lefty anti-Bush comment. But they cut the part where Dana Loesch immediately turned it back on Begala and Pres. Clinton. I wonder why?

T.D.A.T.M. - Mar 12, 2000

The number one movie on this date in 2000 was Mission To Mars. Another movie I never saw. I think I know why this time though. Although I love Gary Sinise as an actor, and think Tim Robbins is a fairly good actor, I can't stand to watch Tim Robbins because of his outspoken political views. It was the same deal with the band The Dixie Chicks. I really enjoyed their first two albums, but I can't listen to them since they attacked Pres. Bush while overseas. I know this is a weakness of mine, and I do try to overcome it from time to time.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 27

On this date in 1952, the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This Amendment became neccessary when President Franklin Roosevelt broke the unwritten rule that you only served two terms as president of the United States. George Washington began this tradition when he refused to run for a third term. Everyone else managed to respect this tradition until FDR. The 22nd Amendment mandates that you may only serve two four year terms of office as president. (or one four year term if you have previously served two or more years as president)

Political Gibberish

I was watching a documentary on President Reagan on HBO last night. At one point they were discussing Reagan's economic policies. One typical liberal elite was discussing the tax cuts, and how they represented a vast transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.

Did you get that? Letting someone keep the money he made, instead of taking it from him and giving it to someone else is somehow a transfer of wealth to the taxpayer! This "elite" was actually arguing that reducing the amount of wealth you transfer from the rich to the poor is actually a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. The poor are actually entitled to the money, it is their money. The worst part is that no one ever calls the left on this assumption.

A similar piece of deceptive political talk is to call reductions in the amount of a raise a cut. President Obama's budget for 2011 talks about cuts, but actually spends more money than his 2010 budget!

T.D.I.H. - Feb 17

On this date in history, the House of Representatives finally decided the outcome of the election of 1800. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied for the most number of votes, even though they both belonged to the Democratic-Republican Party. So the House was forced to break the tie, eventually giving Jefferson the presidency. Could you imagine the chaos if the 2000 election had gone to the House? It easily could have.

While reading up on this incident I was struck by something. Jefferson's cabinet consisted of five (and really four) Departments. There was a Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy. (these last two were later combined into the Secretary of Defense) The only other two were the President and Vice- President. The Obama administration has twenty cabinet officials besides the President and Vice-President! And I'm sure President Jefferson had no Czars...President Obama has thirty-seven.

For those wondering if a similar tie could happen again, the answer is no. The Twelfth Amendment was written to keep it from happening, and was ratified four years later in 1804.

Egypt and Wheat

There is an article today discussing the fact that one of the causes of the current unrest in Egypt is the scarcity and price of food in that country. As I once noted, at one point Egypt was a huge exporter of wheat, and now it is the world's largest importer of wheat. Egypt basically imports half the wheat it consumes. This is exasperated by the fact that Egypt has one of the world's highest levels of per capita wheat consumption. By all accounts, Egypt has boosted domestic production, tripling production in the 80's and 90's. However production can't keep up with the population increase. The population of Egypt was estimated at 3 million people at the beginning of the 19th century, and it was over 70 million at the beginning of the 21 century.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 1

On this date in 1968, General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan summarily executed a Viet Cong terrorist named Nguyễn Văn Lém during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. The general was filmed and photographed as he shot the prisoner with his personal weapon. This image was widely used by the Left and the anti-war forces to discredit our South Vietnamese allies . No one ever mentioned that the terrorist and his death squad had just murdered the entire families of several policemen. The terrorist was not in uniform, and did not fight according to the articles of war, so he was not a POW. The execution was both legal and justified.

A deeper question is the fact that the photo was printed at all in a time of war. Could you possible imagine a US newspaper in 1944 or 1918 printing a similar picture? Because there were plenty of summary executions by our allies in both of those wars.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 22

On this day in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the decision in Roe V Wade making abortion a "fundamental right". One day this decision will be viewed with even more disgust and disbelief than we now view the Dredd Scott case. In Roe, the Burger Court simply created an entirely new "fundamental right" by relying on the "emanations of a penumbra*". Even prominent Leftist Constitutional scholars will admit that Roe is bad law. I personally believe that abortion is murder, and I also believe that our descendants will see it that way also, and will view the last forty years as a holocaust.


* I was disappointed to see that Merriam-Webster actually lists: a body of rights held to be guaranteed by implication in a civil constitution as a definition of penumbra. Can anyone cite me any other example in the history of mankind in which this excuse was used besides the Burger Court?

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

Keith Olbermann has announced that tonight was his last appearance on MSNBC as the host of Countdown.

Finally, our long national nightmare is over.

Barak and the Left

Althouse wrote a post talking about the fact that the governnor of Hawaii has just announced that he can't find Pres. Obama's birth certificate, after he had promised to find it. In the comments section, at about 7:34, someone posted the following quote under the name Florida:

If you think about it, Barack Obama's been kind of a douchebag to the left. I mean, he's made them all look like a bunch of fucking chumps and dupes.

Not only did he not close Gitmo, he stopped in-progress trials and instead is torturing these people without giving them a fair trial - no wait ...without giving them any kind of a trial fair or not!

Not only did he not bring troops home from Iraq (we still have 50,000 there guarding our oil),he sent 30,000 more of them into Afghanistan with instructions to kill as many brown people as they can target with their flying robot drones.

Not only did Barack Obama not raise taxes on the rich ... he gave them a fucking 2-year tax break! Hahahaha ... you fucking suckers.

Now Obama is surreptitiously planning the destruction of the nation's public employee unions by allowing states to declare bankruptcy and poorhouse all those retirees who trusted them! I mean ... you gotta be fucking kidding me! Never trust a fucking Democrat. Jesus you people are fucking stupid.

An interesting perspective.....

Proving I'm A Grinch

There was a great story in the New York Post today about a mother and daughter being re-united after the daughter was abducted as a baby twenty-three years ago. Great story right?

Well, I actually read the story. I was struck by one thing however. (and this is where we get to the whole grinch thing) The mom in this story gave birth at age sixteen. So did the daughter sixteen years later. No one seems to care very much about that.

"But she didn't raise the daughter, so there is no connection to the fact that both gave birth at sixteen" you may argue. "Precisely,", I reply, "and that is the most troubling part of it to me."

How rare do you think this phenomena is? How many 32 year old grandmothers do you think there are?

Reynolds, You Magnificent Bastard, I Read Your Book!

HOUSE VOTES TO REPEAL OBAMACARE: “The House voted on Wednesday to repeal the sweeping healthcare law enacted last year, as Republicans made good on a central campaign pledge and laid down the first major policy marker of their new majority. The party-line vote was 245-189, as three Democrats joined all 242
Republicans in supporting repeal.” Party-line vote? I think you mean bipartisan vote.

Heh.

A Second Civil War?

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds is hosting a conversation that is discussing the similarities between Sarah Palin's recent facebook speech and one of President Lincoln's speeches. This led to speculation about whether some (Democratic) States would secede if Palin (Republican) was elected president as some (Democratic) States seceded when Lincoln (Republican) was elected president. One reader asked:

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Joe Pompeo writes: “Based upon the Lincoln quote it would appear that Sarah Palin, rather than acting ‘unpresidential’ in her response this week as her critics claim, was acting quite presidential after all. Even Lincoln-esque.” Does this mean that if we elect Sarah Palin President, New York, Massachusetts and California will secede?

My immediate response was to wonder: If New York, Massachusetts and California seceded - would the rest of the United States fight to get them back?

Real Time

Bill Maher Just spent four minutes attacking Palin. Bill is a real asshole these days. His biggest sin however...he's neither funny or hip...and he doesn't realize that. He also still insists that he is objective, which is a little pathetic.

Arizona Tragedy

I haven't written a post on the attack on Rep. Giffords in Arizona yesterday, primarily because I have been writing about it on other sites. But for the record:



1) All evidence points to a deranged gunman, one who had exhibited criminal and mentally unstable behavior for years, with no one getting him into treatment.



2) This attack had nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with insanity.



3) Those on the Left who immediately seized on this to attack Sarah Palin, the Tea Parties and the Right in general are contemptible cads. The gunman's fixtation with Rep. Giffords began at least as early as 2007, long before anyone had heard of Palin or the Tea Parties anyway.

China's Threat

The People's Republic of China has just revealed its fifth generation fighter, the Chengdu J-20. This fighter is designed to compete with our F-22, (now limited to a mere 18 planes) and will be markedly better than the F-35 that we will be deploying instead.

A logical examination of the present state and future plans for our Air Force would be dismaying.

1) Our refueling fleet is aging, and the attempt to replace it have so far resulted in only billions of dollars of waste and several lawsuits.

2) Our transport fleet is being quickly worn out by the demands placed on it. There are no plans to expand or replace it.

3) Not too long ago, our fighter forces were varied, specialized and very efficent at their tasks. The Air Force was flying the A-10, F-15, F-16, F-111, F-117 and even a few F-4s. The Navy was flying the A-6, F-14 and F-18. Now all of these planes are supposedly going to be replaced by the F-35 and less than a wing of F-22s. Didn't we learn our lesson from the F-4 and the F-111? Both of these planes suffered from the attempt to make them jacks of all trades.

4) Our bomber fleet is ridiculous. The last B-52 rolled off the assembly line in 1962 (that means the newest of them is almost 50 years old!), and yet we are still flying 68 of them. The Air Force intends to continue flying them until 2040!! The last B-1 was delivered in 1988, and the Air Force is still flying 68 of them. They were expected to remain in service until 2038, however talks have begun in the Pentagon that would see them retired now as a budget cut. The Air Force also has 20 operational B-2s. All of them have official, individual names. All but two of the names are US States, the exceptions being the Spirit of America and the Spirit of Kittyhawk. These are expected to be replaced by the F-35, and my bet would be on soon, given the difficulty and expense of maintaining them. All 20 of them have been assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command (which is basically a resurrected Strategic Air Command) and thus no longer have a conventional bombing role.

My only hope, and frankly expectation, is that we have deployed, or are close to deploying, an operational space plane. This plane would take off, (hopefully from a runway, but launched on rockets would work) enter near-Earth orbit, and effectively control the world's air space. This would even explain the lack of a real opposition to the START talks...who needs nuclear weapons when kinetic energy weapons work better and cleaner.

My last point is a reply to this comment at the end of the article:

“We used be No. 1 at having the leading technology. ... Now, we’re kind of in catch-up mode, where we’ve never really been before.”

This is simply ignorant of history. Actually, it almost always happens to us. (and in all areas of military technology, not just airplanes) In World War I our planes were no match for the German planes when we entered the war. In World War II our planes were no match for either the Germans or Japanese when we entered the war. In Korea, our planes were inferior to the Russian and Chinese MiGs at the start of the war. During times of war (including the Cold War) the US manages to use its economy and ingenuity to overcome the advantages of our enemies, but it is rather expensive in terms of loss of life until they swing into motion.

Update 1/8/10 2:52 PM: I have read articles that discuss the fact that the USAF has 168 F-22s since I wrote this post, which would greatly lessen the threat of the J-20.

Climate Change As A Security Threat

Jonathan Murray has written an article for Politico called Climate change: Next security threat. He spends most of the article attacking oil rather than discussing climate change. His main contention is:

In Washington, veterans have met with scores of senators to ask for support for a climate and energy policy that reduces dependence on oil.
This oil dependence is among the most dangerous threats to U.S. national security. For years, senior military and intelligence officials have warned that too much of U.S. oil payments eventually trickle down to terrorists, who use it to buy the weapons used against our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Which sounds good. However what he never mentions is an obvious alternate suggestion.....start producing oil in the United States again. Not only would it solve the national security issue, keep billions of dollars in the American economy, provide a huge stimulus to the economy, lower the price of gasoline for all Americans, and provide good paying jobs; it would also provide the life preserver the state of California so desperately needs. (There was an actual, serious attempt to legalize marijuana this year in California that relied solely on the opportunity to tax the new industry...that is how bad things are here) However drilling for oil in the US makes too much sense, so there is no way the Left will go along with it.

Bottom line, don't expect us to give any credence to an argument from the Left that oil is a national security threat.

Update 1/4/11 3:23 - Fox news just dedicated a segment tonight making the case for increased domestic production of oil. (and spelling mistakes)

School Reform

The subject of school reform has come up again. Pres. Obama's Education Secretary, Arne Duncan has written an article in the Washington Post calling for, and predicting bi-partisan reform of education. Surprise, surprise, it is the teacher's fault again. Here is a key quote:

Parents, teachers, and lawmakers want a system that measures not just an
arbitrary level of proficiency, but student growth and school progress in ways
that better reflect the impact of a school and its teachers on student learning.

Sounds great huh? But notice what is missing? There is no mention of the impact that parents have on student learning. There is no mention of the impact students have on student learning. The biggest problems facing education today are not teachers and schools (although there are bad teachers and bad schools), they are bad parents and bad students. Parents and students who don't give a damn about student learning. But teachers are an easy target, and teacher unions an easier one.

The quickest and easiest school reform that will have a real impact on student learning is to allow schools to start kicking out students who don't try and/or are discipline problems again.

Deep Hole Economics

Paul Krugman has written a column today called Deep Hole Economics. He begins by saying:

If there’s one piece of economic wisdom I hope people will grasp this
year, it’s this: Even though we may finally have stopped digging, we’re
still near the bottom of a very deep hole.

He then precedes to pre-emptively attack every Republican idea to begin filling in the hole. In fact his prescription seems to be to keep digging the hole deeper. His solution seems to be increased government spending:

A rational political system would long since have created a 21st-century version of the Works Progress Administration — we’d be putting the
unemployed to work doing what needs to be done, repairing and improving our
fraying infrastructure.

Krugman also wants the Federal Reserve to continue buying long term bonds which at best merely kicks the can down the road a bit.

All the experts continue to insist that Krugman really deserved his Nobel in economics. I guess it is just further confirmation that the academic "experts" aren't the best people to actually run things in the real world.