Tag: linkery

Quote of the Day – Repeating History Division

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I am not a historian or a statistician. Nonetheless I had been skimming Climate Audit for a couple of years and knew enough to write, in January 2009, “Michael Mann should be in prison.” I continue to enthusiastically endorse this view. I also do know a bit about the past.

And the past has sent me its report on Climategate. It is a short message – quite pithy – full of punch. I transcribed it this week from my favorite Ouija board. At the planchette: me and my 2-year-old daughter, Sibyl.

After data corrections, the text reads:

Your entire system of government is incurably insane.

— Unqualified Reservations – Climategate: history’s message

I am reminded by this of The Geek with a .45‘s observation upon deciding to get the hell out of Dodge New Jersey,

“Entire Societies Can and Have Gone Stark Raving Batshit Fucking Insane.”

For some, it was brief and temporary, and for others, it was more or less a permanent state of affairs.

His quote was in the context of WWII, but he expanded it to the current government (and accepting populace) of New Jersey. And it’s gone beyond just New Jersey and California.

Mencius Moldbug’s post is unquestionably of Überpost status, but do give it a thorough read. (Edited to add: I think Climategate: history’s message is the best post I’ve read in years. It’s epic-length, but worth your time.) And re-peruse the Geek’s piece.

And think.

More FUD

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More FUD

That’s Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

Peruse the following:

“Consider whether it is in the best interests of America’s future to accept or reject the following transformations inherent in what Obama describes as “change we can believe in:”

-From a nation of investors to a nation of debtors.
-From a free market economy to a government-run economy.
-From a value system that prizes personal independence to a political system that fosters personal dependency.
-From a society where wealth accumulation, job creation and innovation are aspirations, to a society where wealth redistribution, high unemployment and stagnation are expectations.
-From a country confident that it is worthy of emulation to a country apologetic about its actions, beliefs and systems.
-From a military power that punches hard in the fight for freedom to a military that is sometimes commanded to pull its punches in the war against terrorism.
-From a quest to achieve the correct political course at the right cost to a quest to achieve the politically correct course at any cost.
-From a competitive environment where failure is part of a course correction to a government-controlled environment where the course of failure produces bailouts, handouts, payouts and layabouts
-From a public debate that is challenging because of strongly-held views to a public debate that is stifled because only one party’s views are challenged.
-From a country that celebrates strength and competes to a country that cultivates enervation and retreats.”

That’s from the post Basic Disbelief quoted by the hilariously named “FREUDIANSLIPNSLIDE” from a FOX News op-ed. I invite you to read his take on it.

Quote of the Day – “Oh HELL Yes!” Edition

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Quote of the Day – “Oh HELL Yes!” Edition

Via Vanderleun:

Now, I really don’t care if you overeat, smoke like a chimney, hump like a bunny or forget to lock the safety mechanism on your pistol as you jam it in your waistband. Fine by me. And as a laissez-faire social-libertarian live-and-let-live kind of person, I would never under normal circumstances condemn anyone for any of the behaviors listed above. That is: Until the bill for your stupidity shows up in my mailbox. Then suddenly, I’m forced to care about what you do, because I’m being forced to pay for the consequences.

—

Instituting a single-payer universal health-care system, or even a watered-down version as the government is now proposing, compels me to become a meddlesome busybody in your personal choices. And it will compel you to become a meddlesome busybody in everyone else’s personal choices. It forever douses the beautiful flame of individualism — freedom to act without interference, just so long as you are ready to accept the consequences, whatever they may be.

(Emphasis in original.)

That’s from Zomblog – Why America Hates Universal Health Care: The Real Reason. Read the whole thing. (Some accompanying photos are very NSFW.) Burn it into your frontal lobes with a soldering pencil – but don’t send me the resulting doctor bills.

Quote of the Day – California Edition

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Quote of the Day – California Edition

The State of California has been mismanaged literally for decades now. Governor Gray Davis was recalled because of it, and Arnold “The Governator” Schwarzenegger got himself elected – twice! – to the Captaincy of the Titanic on the promise that he could fix it.

He failed, because the electorate cannot figure out that you cannot spend money you don’t have – at least not for very long, and Ahnold refuses to unsheathe the Clue-Bat™ on them.

He wants to keep getting re-elected (to something, anyway.)

So when I ran across this while perusing the internet this afternoon, I knew it would make the perfect QotD:

Mark’s one sentence description of California:

California: where the Anarchists sound like Libertarians, the Libertarians sound like Republicans, the Republicans sound like Democrats and the Democrats sound like Leon Trotsky, and about the only saving grace is that they do not actually get all the government they pay for.

Can I get an “AMEN!”?

Quote of the Day

KevinLeave a comment

Two imperfect and wildly incompatible world views have been on collision course for decades, and it’s going to stay that way until we, as a society, remember why we intentionally made a government that is powerless in areas in which people will never agree, because at the heart of the matter is using the naked power of government to enforce ones preferences on the other.

Part of that process is realizing that you’re going to have to give up the club your own team would use to enforce its preferences. For the Left, the list of offenses against Liberty is endless. For the Right, amongst other things, that means getting over antipathy towards homosexuality, and it also means recognizing and accepting that the definition of abortion as murder hinges on the ensoulment of the fetus, because until that happens, there is no party whose life is deprived. Since this is a question that cannot be answered without appealing to the unprovable propositions of religion, it is therefore a private matter, and not fit for public policy.

The only other alternative is that those who insist on their right to decide on these things for others wipes out those who disagree, which is the precedent that the bulk of human history offers us.

— geekWithA.45

The Geek is at least a half-magnitude brighter than I am, and I am constantly humbled by his ability to say, and say more precisely, in ten words what it takes me 50 to attempt.

Blog more, Geek.