NORWAY AND THE UNHOLY AXIS OF ISLAMISTS AND THE LEFT
The predictable narrative has already begun to take hold, regarding the despicable, murderous attack by a madman in Norway last Friday (7/22) . The confessed perpetrator of a bombing of government offices in Oslo and a seek-and-destroy slaughter at a Labor Party youth camp on Utoya Island, Anders Behring Breivik, is depicted as a "Christian," "conservative" and "right-wing extremist." His attacks, we are told, were animated by a delusional ambition to save his country from an Islamic takeover. Much remains to be learned about this evident psychopath and his precise motivations for acting in such a deranged fashion. Still, an unholy axis of Moslem Brotherhood operatives and those on the Left - groups whose spokesmen, ironically, endlessly inveigh against precipitous judgments when jihadists are the perpetrators - have been quick to find in this attack proof of their favorite meme: That conservatives and Christians are as much a threat to domestic tranquility - if not more - than those seeking to impose the totalitarian Islamic politico-military-legal doctrine of Shariah. Somehow, the axis overlooks Mr. Breivik's admiration for the terrorists of Al Qaeda and Iran. In his 1,500 page "manifesto," Mr. Breivik states that he will: "consider working with the enemies of the EU/US hegemony such as Iran, al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab or the rest of the devout fractions of the Islamic Ummah with the intention for deployment of small nuclear, radiological, biological or chemical weapons in Western European capitals and other high priority locations."
THERE IS NO HONEST EXCUSE FOR DEFAULT
There has been much discussion about whether the Democrats or Republicans gain a political advantage from the debt-ceiling-increase mess. An equally interesting and, perhaps, more important question is who has a vested interest in this financial chaos. First, a few facts: *It is estimated that between Aug. 3 and 31, the U.S. government will receive revenues of approximately $172 billion and have expenses of $307 billion, leaving a deficit for those days of about $135 billion. The revenues will be sufficient to pay Social Security and interest on the debt, but not many of the other obligations. *The 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax paid by employers and employees goes to buy special-purpose government bonds that are held by the Social Security Trust Fund. The Trust Fund holds about $2.4 trillion in these bonds, so it would be many years before they are exhausted. The only way there would not be enough revenue to cover the Social Security checks is if President Obama decided to spend the money on something else. *Mercatus Institute research fellow Veronique de Rugy has identified an additional couple of trillion dollars of U.S. government physical and trust fund assets that could be legally sold to cover budget shortfalls. See the section on "Liquidating Existing Assets" in the link.
THE WET BLANKET PRESIDENCY
Cisco, Lockheed Martin and Borders announced a combined 23,000 in job cuts last week, prompting Yahoo Finance to declare "the mass layoff is making a comeback." Job losses since January, 2008 are now the greatest since the Great Depression, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Billionaire casino magnate Steve Wynn, a Democrat who's been a major financial supporter of Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, thinks he knows why. "This administration has been the greatest wet blanket to business, progress, and job creation in my lifetime," Mr. Wynn said in a conference call with investors. "The business community in this country is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the president of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs." Welcome to the Wet Blanket Presidency.
HALF-FULL REPORT 07/22/11
No doubt who's the HFR Hero of the Week this week, is there? Who else but Congressman Allen West (R-FL)? This guy is becoming the essence of pro-American cool. Pretty soon Allen West jokes will replace Chuck Norris jokes, like "Some people wear Superman pajamas - Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas," or "Chuck Norris will never have a heart attack - his heart isn't foolish enough to attack him." Insert Allen's name in these. On Tuesday (7/19) in response to an attack on him by hyper-lib, hyper-obnoxious Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL, whose district adjoins West's, and is also the current Chair of the Democrat National Committee) on the House floor, West wrote her a letter that has long been deserved. Here's the money quote: "Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up." Dem demands that West apologize are thunderous, to which West is responding with a shrug. At last we have a Republican with major stones, who understands the best defense is a go-for-the-jugular offense, that the way to win is to put your opponent on the defensive, and to stand your ground with no apology. GO ALLEN!
INTRANSIGENT SPENDAHOLICS
When Moody's, the bond rating agency, threatened to downgrade the credit worthiness of the U.S. government if the ceiling on the national debt isn't raised by Aug. 2, the threat was reported on the evening news on CBS and NBC, and on the front pages of many newspapers. But journalists paid little attention when Moody's and Standard & Poor's said they would downgrade U.S. bonds if federal spending isn't cut by $4 trillion over the next ten years. If our credit rating is downgraded, the Treasury department will have to pay a higher rate of interest to sell its bonds, ballooning the deficit. Americans will have to pay more for home and auto loans, since the interest rates on them is tied to what Treasury pays. Raising the debt ceiling would permit Treasury to borrow more money, thus avoiding default in the short term. But borrowing more makes the risk of default greater in the long run. And the long run isn't very far off. Actually, it's breathing down our necks.
PTOLEMAIC POLITICS
The level of snake-oil shell-game flim-flammery going on in the Washington Circus has now reached levels of Ptolemaic astronomy. Although certain ancient Greek astronomers had argued that the earth revolves around a "central fire" (along with the sun, like the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy: Philolaus, 480-385 BC) or the sun (Aristarchos of Samos, 310-230 BC), Christian theologians declared the geocentric astronomy of Ptolemaios (90-168 AD) as official dogma. Geocentrism argues that the earth does not move at the center of the universe, that the sun, planets, and stars revolve around it. Since the earth is the sinful dross of the universe while the heavens are perfect, the sun, stars, and planets revolve around it in perfect circles. The problem, among others, is that they do not have circular orbits in regular motion. Especially the planets, which is the Greek word for "wanderers." From the earth, they appear to stop, reverse, and switch direction at various times - whence, e.g., the expression "Mercury in retrograde." This is an illusion, caused by the earth's orbit around the sun being slower or faster than those of other planets (like cars going slower or faster than you on a race track). The only way for Ptolemaic geocentrists to explain planetary wandering was to invent "epicycles" (orbits within orbits) that spun around a make-believe point called an "equant" which was the center of a make-believe orbit called a "deferent." What they ended up with looks remarkably like the schemes Dems and Rinos are inventing to explain how to solve the debt ceiling problem, as convoluted as what the special-interest, crony-capitalist, constitution-trashing universe of the federal government has become. Call it Ptolemaic politics. It needs to be junked, like Ptolemaic astronomy was. There is a way to do this.
HAPPY IN MINNESOTA, DEPRESSED IN DC
Republicans in Minnesota mostly have won a budget showdown with Democrat Gov. Mark Dayton. Last Thursday (7/14), Gov. Dayton blinked. He'll accept essentially the budget the legislature passed in May, the governor said in a letter to GOP leaders. "Republicans have won a pitched battle with a Democrat governor on spending and taxes in a liberal state," said Minnesota blogger Scott Johnson (Power Line). "If Republicans can make it here, they can make it anywhere." Maybe not. President Barack Hussein Obama has gained the upper hand over Republicans in Congress in their showdown over raising the ceiling on the national debt. A conservative senator National Review Editor Rich Lowry talked to "believes time is on the president's side in this debate, and is very depressed," he wrote Saturday (7/16). Why are Republicans in Washington depressed and losing while Republicans in Minnesota are happy and winning?
AMERICANS ARE MORE COURAGEOUS THAN THEIR PRESIDENT
Amidst this debt ceiling debate, this president and his Democrat minions' arguments have descended from straw men to bogeymen in their attempts to scare Americans. Our seniors were told their hard-earned Social Security checks would be stopped. Our brave veterans were told the services our grateful nation provides them (never mind that there is much more we could do) could be stopped. Our entire citizenry was told America could face an economic Armageddon. But we Americans are more courageous than the president and Democrats credit us. Thus, we must tell President Obama and his minions to stop; join with Republicans to seize this moment to cut, cap and balance the federal budget; and start restructuring Washington Big Government into Main Street self-government.
UNLEASH OR OUTLAW THE FUTURE?
Have things stopped getting better? Americans had become used to ever-increasing living standards, but there is evidence that for many people, life is not improving. There is also a growing pessimism about the future with surveys showing that Americans do not think their children and grandchildren will be better off. Last week, there was a most interesting discussion between two of the world's leading tech gurus - George Gilder and Peter Thiel - at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Mr. Thiel argued that, in many areas, progress has stopped or almost stopped. Mr. Gilder was more optimistic. Yet both agreed on what the obstacle to progress is.
HALF-FULL REPORT 07/15/11
The current crisis du jour over the debt ceiling makes me think of Errol Flynn (1909-1959). Flynn's best friend was David Niven, with whom he starred in a number of movies. Flynn was the handsomest and most charming man in Hollywood. It was impossible not to like him - or as many a Hollywood actress attested, not to love him. Yet Flynn had a fatal character flaw - his unreliability. As Niven once commented: "You can depend on Errol to always let you down." Just like Republicans. We can hope against hope, but in the end, you know they're going to cave. Trump's assessment looks accurate: they are doing "another el foldo." Aside from begging LtCol Allen West to smack Boehner and Cantor upside their heads and ordering them to take the debt ceiling hill, what can we do?