Damn, that’s pretty.
Quote of the Day – Politics Edition
This one’s from Alger:
The Slaughter Rule…
AND THE DISCUSSION of it at the Volokh Conspiracy persuade me ever more thoroughly of my hypothesis that the Dems do not intend to pass “Health Care,” but that they are convinced they must be seen to have tried. As the solutions to the deadlock and the statements made about it become ever more risible, one is forced to conclude that they don’t really want this one. They’re just faking it.
One more thing they can blame on the Republicans for not being “bipartisan” about come election time.
This is Not Science . . .
. . . this is the modern equivalent of divination by entrail-reading. Mark Alger links to a piece at American Thinker on just how “Global Temperature” records are made: The Granularity of Climate Models.
READ IT. And by all means, read the comments. Then consider that these “scientists” are insisting that their data is good enough to predict temperatures to the tenth of a degree into the future.
No wonder none of their models work. AGW is a religion, and their high priests are being defrocked in front of us.
Human Redemption Through Government
During the election campaign Michelle Obama said of her husband,
Barack Obama is the only person in this race who understands that. That before we can work on the problems we have, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.
I am here right now because I am married to the only person in this race who has a chance of healing this nation.
Just recently, as I noted, Al Gore said of the opponents of his AGW campaign that “From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption.”
It would appear that the New York Times is still enraptured by the idea of human redemption through government Obama:
This particular photo-chop was pointed out by Van Der Leun.
Remember how Jonah Goldberg defined the word “fascism”?
Fascism is a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of the “problem” and therefore is defined as the enemy.
Well?
UPDATE: THIS image, via Jeff at Alphecca is a fitting addition:
He may not be painting himself that way, but the media still is.
On a Lighter Note
From this AR15.com thread, “What your Darth Vader action figure does when you aren’t home:”
There are some seriously warped people with assault rifles patrol rifles over there . . .
Got Dust in My Eyes . . .
Via Daphne, please go read Honor Restored at The Warrior Class.
I love my people.
Government by Sedimentation
Like you need me telling you to go read Tam, but she’s outdone herself in the short-form category today. And this wins “best sentence I’ve read this month:”
This isn’t a pendulum, it’s a ratchet, and it’s going to continue getting tighter ’til something gives.
Quote of the Day – Déjà vu Edition
When I was young I was taught through soft, humorous suggestions — nobody really stating it word-for-word — that blathering away about the communists taking over, was a sign of dementia.
It must be true. The older I get, the more signs I see that they are, and have been for awhile.
— mkfreeberg, House of Eratosthenes, U.S. Mulls “Black Box”
I said pretty much exactly this on the latest edition of Vicious Circle.
Al Gore, Pied Piper of the Unconstrained Vision
I know I’m slow and behind on this, but – from Gore’s Feb. 27 New York Times op-ed We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change (h/t Borepatch):
From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption.
Human redemption. Through the instrument of rule of law.
Human redemption.
re·demp·tion – [ri-demp-shuhn] – noun
1. an act of redeeming or the state of being redeemed.
2. deliverance; rescue.
3. Theology. deliverance from sin; salvation.
4. atonement for guilt.
From Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions:
It is hardly surprising that the reasons why government exercises power in the economy also differ between the two visions. In the unconstrained vision, it is a matter of intentions while in the constrained vision it is a matter of incentives. The government’s intention to protect the public interest forces it to intervene in the economy to undo the harm done by private economic power, according to the unconstrained vision.
You will never see a clearer example of what Thomas Sowell was talking about in 1987 that Al Gore’s statement above. Al Gore sees the job of government – through the rule of law – to redeem humanity. His is the “unconstrained vision” at its purest.
And he is the kind of person that James Lileks is talking about when he said:
Personally, I’m interested in keeping other people from building Utopia, because the more you believe you can create heaven on earth the more likely you are to set up guillotines in the public square to hasten the process.
Al Gore would be today’s Robespierre.
I am also reminded of something Jonah Goldberg said in Liberal Fascism:
Progressivism, liberalism, or whatever you want to call it has become an ideology of power. So long as liberals hold it, principles don’t matter. It also highlights the real fascist legacy of World War I and the New Deal: the notion that government action in the name of “good things” under the direction of “our people” is always and everywhere justified. Dissent by the right people is the highest form of patriotism. Dissent by the wrong people is troubling evidence of incipient fascism. The anti-dogmatism that progressives and fascists alike inherited from Pragmatism made the motives of the activist the only criteria for judging the legitimacy of action.
He also said this:
All public policy issues ultimately boil down to one thing: Locke versus Rousseau. The individual comes first, the government is merely an association protecting your interests, and it’s transactional, versus the general will, the collective, the group is more important than the individual. Everything boils down to that eventually. And the problem with “compassionate conservatism” is the same problem with social gospelism, with Progressivism and all the rest: it works on the assumption that the government can love you. The government can’t love you. The government is not your mommy and it’s not your daddy, and any system that is based on those assumptions will eventually lead to folly.
And government is most certainly not our savior.
Well, CRAP
The “H” on my HVAC roof unit quit last night. Called out a service guy to see what the deal is. Here’s a picture:
If you look closely, you can see that the heat exchangers are cracked. This means that carbon monoxide poisoning would have happened had the safety system not shut off the burners.
This unit is ten years old, and it’s been pretty much a piece of crap since the day it went in. I’m replacing it with a Trane.
I guess the credit card’s going to carry a balance for a little while.
Dammit.