Abortion is the great evil of our age.

Never Silence Life

This article by Thomas Friedman was brought to my attention today.  In it, Friedman calls for a gas tax or a carbon emissions tax to force Americans to convert to more energy efficient ways.  This line of thinking is wrongheaded on several fronts.

First, increasing the gas tax (by several dollars, no less) hurts those of low to moderate income the most.  These people are the ones who have to drive to and from work, and cannot afford to get a new car just to be more energy efficient.  The cars on the road today are likely going to last for 15 years, if all the cars that were rolling off the assembly line today ran on hydrogen or solar power or some other “clean” fuel, then you still have to make sure that gasoline cars run for another 10 years - at a minimum.

Second, this relates more to the carbon tax, but our power grid runs on fossil fuels.  We overwhelmingly get our energy from Natural Gas and Coal.  The most promising technologies of the future that don’t run on gas run on electricity.  But the problem is that right now, we’re getting most of our electricity from burning carbon based fuel.  Unless this was coupled by a huge push in building Nuclear Power plants, there’s no way that it’s workable without leaving a lot of people literally in the dark (nevermind in the cold in the winter).  Alternative sources such as solar or wind power simply are not viable at this point in time.

Thirdly, if GM starts rolling Chevrolet Volts of the assembly line tomorrow, and the government gives a tax credit to any person who buys one, and coerces GM into selling it at cost as a term of the bailout, and everybody now has an electric car powered by a new bank of solar cells that were just developed, we still have a problem.  Our infrastructure and agricultural sectors are wholly dependent upon gasoline.  From the tractor that sows the ground, to the combine that harvests the food, to the refrigerated tractor trailer that takes the food to the processing facility, and then on to the supermarket, it all runs on gas.  And a high gas tax is either going to put the farmers, truckers, and railroads out of business, or hit the consumer hard in the wallet when he goes to buy food.

Fourthly, while it is an admirable goal to try to keep American dollars from going to two bit dictators and terrorists, decreasing consumption is not going to decrease their power.  The developing world will gladly buy up every drop of oil that the Saudis wish to pump.  The better solution is to drill in US territory to provide a supply of oil that OPEC doesn’t control and whose funds don’t go to terrorist states.  It even gives us significant leverage over these petrodictators.  “Vladimir, you’d better behave or we’ll flood the world oil markets and you won’t be able to give the stuff away”.  Right now, China is drilling for oil 60 miles off the coast of the United States under the auspices of the Cuban government.  It is far better for that oil to be drilled for by US companies under the auspices of US law who will be held accountable in our courts to our standards then to let the Chinese farm it out to the lowest bidder.

Fifthly, and finally, the United States of America is a free country, and we put our faith in the free market (at least we did until our politicians betrayed us).  Meddling in the market is never a good idea.  In the ’70’s, the meddling led to gas shortages that crippled the country.  In the ’90’s, the meddling led to what eventually became the “sub prime mortgage crisis”.  And this sort of meddling in the market will not turn out any better.  I am all for doing things in the most efficient way possible, and the most efficient way of finding the most efficient way is to use the free market to tell you.  Give people the freedom to innovate alternative fuels sources, and alternative forms of transportation, and then let the market decide.  If it really is the best way, I guarantee you that it will win out in the market.

(As seen at Tim’s place)

Remember what’s important… and that is that we are celebrating God coming to save us all.

Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.

Luke 2:1-20 NASB

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

In the same region there were {some} shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This {will be} a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds {began} saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”

So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.n

But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

Matthew 1:1-2:23

The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.” And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took {Mary} as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” When Herod the king heard {this,} he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet: ‘AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’ ” Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found {Him,} report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.” After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over {the place} where the Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned {by God} in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way. Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. {This was} to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.” Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN; AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE.” But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned {by God} in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. {This was} to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

When the Fed is giving money away like they are now with interest rates being effectively zero, you know the economy is toast.

Let it be known that the only thing that is going to save us is limited responsible government.  Well, we definitely won’t be getting that under an Obama-Pelosi-Reid regime.

Bend over, grab your ankles, and hang on tight.  People are about to get schooled in the unpleasantries of the iron law of supply and demand.  When the supply of dollars is insanely high, the value of the dollars drop to being less than toilet paper.

Obama’s plan for massive government stimulus is the absolutely wrong thing to do.  And will somebody please just admit that Paulson is clueless.

updated 12:34 p.m. ET, Mon., Dec. 1, 2008

CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama announced former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as his choice for secretary of state Monday and also said he would keep Robert Gates as defense minister as the incoming administration seeks to wind down the U.S. role in Iraq.

The United States does not have a “Defense Minister”  we have a Secretary of the Defense, and anybody reporting on the United States should know that.

NCSU whallops UNC 41-10.  I’m a happy camper.

Where the winds of Dixie softly blow o’er the
fields of Caroline,
There stands ever cherished, N.C. State, as thy
honored shrine
So lift your voices! Loudly sing from hill to
oceanside!
Our hearts ever hold you, N.C. State in the folds
of our love and pride.

Shout aloud to the men who will play the game to win
We’re behind you, keep fighting for State—
Hold that line, hold ‘em fast,
We’ll reach victory at last
We’re behind you, keep fighting for State—
Rise up to the fray and let your colors wave,
Shout out for dear old N.C. State;–GO STATE!
And where-e’er we go,
we’ll let the whole world know,
We’re behind you, keep fighting for State.

We’re the Red and White from State
And we know we are the best.
A hand behind our back,
We can take on all the rest.
Come over the hill, Caroline.
Devils and Deacs stand in line.
The Red and White from N.C. State.
— Go State!!

Pat Buchanan has put into words a great expanation of how the United States has killed the Auto Industry.

Japan, China and South Korea do not believe in free trade as we understand it. To us, they are our “trading partners.” To them, the relationship is not like that of Evans & Novak or Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It is not even like the Redskins and Cowboys. For the Cowboys only want to defeat the Redskins. They do not want to put their franchise out of business and end the competition — as the Japanese did to our TV industry by dumping Sonys here until they killed it.

While I am furious at the bank bailout, I am sympathetic to a bailout of the big 3 automakers.  Comparing the two are like comparing apples and oranges.  Whereas the banks made foolish decisions that doomed them and they should pay, the plight of our automakers are not solely of their own making.  They get a raw deal when it comes to our trade practices.   And the United States cannot afford to see those jobs dissappear, whereas we’d probably be better off with a few less overpaid bankers.

But, I think that any aid from the Federal Government should come with some strings attached.  In order for the taxpayers to bail out the Automakers, we are going to have to insist that the United Auto Workers meet us halfway.  The Auto Workers have some of the most extravagent benefits in America, and it’s not fair for them to keep those exhorbitant benefits at the expense of everybody.

Pat Buchanan makes some very good points on the matter, but I don’t agree with everything he says.  I think that restructuring of our trade practices is a good start, but the auto industry needs to react to the markets instead of the unions as far as their labor goes.

I agree with Bobby jindal’s comments here:

“As Republicans, we need to do three things to get back on track,” he said on CBS’ Face The Nation. “Number one, we have got to stop defending the kind of spending and out-of-control spending that we would never tolerate in the other side. You know, when voters tell us that they trust Democrats more to cut their taxes [and] control spending, that tells you something is wrong with the Republican Party. We’ve got to match our actions with our rhetoric.

“Number two, we’ve got to stop defending the kinds of corruption we would rightfully criticize in the other party. The week before the election, our most senior senator is convicted on federal charges - and that’s only the latest example.

“Number three, we have got to be the party that offers real solutions to the problems that American voters, American families are worried about. We don’t need to abandon our conservative principles; we can’t just be the ‘party of no.’ We need to offer real solutions on making health care more affordable, on the economic challenges facing families, on the international threats.”

He’s exactly right, the GOP has seriously dropped the ball in all three areas.  The people didn’t reject Conservative ideas, they reject Republican Hucksters who didn’t walk the walk, and in the end, didn’t even pretend to be conservatives.

I think that Jonah Goldberg nails it here…

Dissent from Bush was muted for years, in large part because of 9/11 and the Iraq war. Conservatives, right or wrong, rallied to support their president, particularly in the face of shrill partisan attacks from Democrats who seemed more interested in tearing down the commander in chief than winning a war. But the Bush chapter is closing, and the fight to write the next one has begun.

I think that it’s really ironic that the Democrats did more to solidify Republican support of George Bush with their constant harping on Bush than he ever could have gathered otherwise.  If the Democrats would have been gracious in defeat, and consistent in their support (or lack of support) for the conflicts we are engaged in, then I think that there’s a good chance he could have been a one term President.  Lets face it, the Prescription Drug entitlement that Bush was touting in 2004 made Republican eyes roll to say the least.

If congressional Democrats could have acted at all like they had any clue about what they wanted to do, they would have done much better in 2004.  The Democrats problem is summed up very nicely in the infamous John Kerry quote, “I voted for the 87 billion before I voted against it”.  And that’s still the Democrats problem.  They voted for the war, but now they’re against it.  They’re for the poor, but they won’t do anything to help with high gas prices that hurt the poor the most.

The Republican problem is that they have shown that they have abandoned all pretense of being the party of fiscal responsibility, which is something most people understand.  You can’t live on borrowed money forever.

I have read a lot over the past few days where the pundits think that the Republican party should move to the center to try to attract moderates.  That’s a bad idea, and I’ll tell you why.

1)  Fiscal responsibility should be a core value of the Republican Party.  Everybody can understand this, and most people will accept the fact that our resources are not infinite and thus we cannot throw money at every societal problem that there is.  And in fact, in many cases, government involvement makes the problem worse than it was before.

2)  The Republican Party should be Pro-Life.  It should be strongly pro-life.  Even most people who support legalized abortion will acknowledge that it’s an ugly business and that they would wish it would never happen in a perfect world.  While it may be difficult to outlaw abortion, we can certainly aggressively move to restrict it.  Our ultimate goal should remain the end of abortion in the United States, but it need not happen overnight.  Partial birth abortion is a crime against humanity.  Embryonic Stem Cell research has ethical strings attached to it with a dubious promise of return, whereas providing that money to adult stem cell research may produce far better treatments.  When you get down to it, while we may not be able to accomplish what we want in the short term, we can right the ship in favor of Life over Death.

3)  Abolish the income tax.  Liberals are always blathering on about how what goes on in the bedroom should stay in the bedroom.  But on April 15, Uncle Sam is entitled to know how much money you spent down at the dirty bookstore on the corner.  A tax structure that doesn’t make us all criminals by virtue  of a complete and total inability of anybody to understand the law is something this country desperately needs.  Abolishing the income tax would also have the net benefit of ending a lot of class warfare.  After all, if you fund the government with tariffs then Mr. Rich Fancypants is funding the government when he pays the tariff for his custom hand crafted German engineered Swiss Built grandfather clock that cost more than your house.  We slap some tariff’s on Chinese imports, and all of a sudden we might have some manufacturing jobs come back home.

I have been thinking, over the past several years, there has been a lot of talk about the “Will of the People”, but what exactly does that mean?  The popular vote?  We have Arnold Schwarzeneeger openly talking about how to undo California’s Proposition 8, which was passed by the popular vote.

The idea of the will of the people has become a joke and a farce.  Roe Vs. Wade bypassed the will of the people entirely.  Even today, such a widespread and open ended legalization of abortion would never pass if put to the popular vote.

Take, for example, the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution - the Bill of Rights had to pass the Congress and votes of the States. A Constitutional Amendment is the highest law of the land and the will of the people…

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The powers are reserved to the states or the people.  It’s not rocket science.  How many government programs run afoul of this law?  A part of our Bill of Rights?  Our highest laws?  It is routinely ignored.

If the 10th Amendment is not respected, why should the 1st?  Or the 2nd?  Or the 5th?  Do people realize that this principle is enshrined with the right to speak your mind without fear of repercussions from the government, the right to worship freely, the right to a trial by jury, the right to not implicate yourself, the right to confront your accuser, the right to be free of unreasonable search and siezure, and the right to not have excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishment imposed?

The Constitution of the United States is more than a piece of paper, and it isn’t a living document.  It’s an agreement by which the American People consented to be governed.  When the government fails to live up to its obligations under that agreement, it forfeits its legitimacy.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

Or, at least it feels like it.  Every time I get on the inernet, there’s some brainwashed Obamamaniac spouting off the hopechange mantra.  Has the world gone totally insane?  The man’s tax plan pretty much boils down to “Soak the Rich” - how is this good for anybody?

MR. GIBSON: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased. The government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

SENATOR OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.

If there were fairness in the tax structure, there would be a flat tax where everybody paid in proportional to their earnings.

And now, to mix my metaphors, the Obama Collective is upon us.  Resistance is not futile.

Assimilate this.

Just take a look back at Mitch McConnell’s so-called “leadership.”

McConnell supported amnesty in the Senate and even after it failed, he led the way in bringing it back. How many millions of dollars and votes did that finger in the eye of conservatives cost the Party in 2008?

The GOP’s support of the bailout bill cost them seats in 2008, likely cost John McCain the election, and in the end turned out to be a very bad, very socialistic idea that didn’t fix the problem. Of course, we can once again thank Mitch McConnell for helping to lead the Republican Party down that blind alley.

The Republican party has done an excellent job of screwing over their conservative base over the past few years.  It became clearly apparent after the 2004 election when the rampant spending sprees couldn’t hide behind 9/11 anymore - along with that horrible “Prescription Drug Benefit”, and that attempt to pander and buy votes cost them dearly in 2006.  They didn’t learn their lesson, they supported Amnesty and the Bailout Bill and that cost them even more votes in 2008.

It’s time for the party to put real conservatives back in leadership positions.  It’s really not that hard to figure out… Anybody that wanted to rubber stamp the policies of the Democratic Party VOTED FOR THE DEMOCRAT! NOT a moderate Republican.

When Republicans compromise the way that they have done over the past 6 years or so, their platform becomes totally and completely incoherant.  They’ve completely strayed from their principles, which isn’t compromise, it’s corruption.  It’s not moderation, it’s pandering.   And the electorate knows the difference.

So, Obama won the election.  It was no big surprise.  As I said in 2007, and it’s still true today, the Republican party has abandoned it’s principles and it’s no surprise that they took a shellacking.

I agree with John Hawkins when he said:

4) Moderates may not know a lot about politics, but they do at least know that they can’t trust the press. So, how do they decide whom to vote for? I would suggest to you that many of them largely base their decisions on anecdotal evidence.

What do I mean by that? Let’s take the current election. What did a moderate voter hear from his liberal friends about Obama? “He’s the greatest hope for America! He’s wonderful! He’ll solve all our problems!” Now, what did that same moderate hear from his conservative friends about McCain? “He’d probably be a lousy President, but he’d still be better than Obama.”

In other words, if conservatives aren’t enthusiastic about their nominee, moderates are going to take cues from that and cast their votes accordingly. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so counter-productive to antagonize conservatives in an effort to draw in moderates.

It’s past time for Conservatives to either retake the reigns of the Republican Party or move on.  We have until January 20 2009 to organize our opposition to the socialist policies of the next administration.  If the Obama Administration wishes to unite the country, then they’ll be open to working with an organized opposition and maybe we can prevent the socialists from running amock in Washington.  If not, we’ll have to resolve to fight to the darkest pits of hell.

When the Democrats were in the minority, they weren’t scared to filibuster, to obstruct, and to use every political weapon in their arsenal to fight, and we must not be scared to go to the mat with them now.

It is our Constitutional Right to speak out against policies that we disagree with.  The Democrats may control both houses of congress and the Presidency, but we can at least hold their feet to the fire.

The Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party has begun.

So, Congress passes an abominable bailout bill (I will not forget this Richard Burr when you are running for re-election).  And now, it comes out that part of the sinister master plan is to nationalize the banks.

Paulson has indicated the administration will use part of the recent $700 billion bailout Bush signed Oct. 3 to have the government take ownership stakes in banks. The plan has wide support on Capitol Hill, although Democrats pressed for quicker action in spelling out specifics.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sounded a cautionary note. “That has to be very, very carefully done,” he said. “We are a capitalistic system and we don’t want to move away with nationalizing the banking system. So that anything that’s done has to be done on a temporary basis.”

Yeah.  Sure.  It’ll be temporary.  And the moon is made of cheese.

There is no problem that the government cannot make worse, and the amount of control that the government is going to have over the economy after they get done with all these “bailouts” or “rescue” bills seems to be rolling out the red carpet for a future despot.

These people must be stopped.  We have an election in less than a month.  Vote for no Republican that supported this monstrosity (and I include John McCain on that list.)

And considering that all of a sudden the Democrats love George W. Bush and are on board with this insane scheme, I feel like I’m in an episode of the twilight zone.

Is it too late to take out a sub prime loan on a mountain complex where I can hide for the next few years?  I have it on good authority that John McCain will buy the loan and rewrite it so I can afford it…

In a vote that shook the government, Wall Street and markets around the world, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system, leaving both parties and the Bush administration struggling to pick up the pieces. The Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 800 points, the most ever for a single day.

I second Matt…

It’s not the government’s responsibility to bail out businesses that have horrible investing practices.

There is no excuse for the government to seize control of the economy.  And there is further no excuse for the government to bailout people WHO KNEW BETTER THAN TO GIVE MONEY TO PEOPLE THAT THEY KNEW COULD NOT PAY IT BACK.

Ronald Reagan once said, “The scariest words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help’”.

Reagan was right.

The prospect of the government assuming total power over a considerable segment of the US economy is frightening to say the least.  It cannot be emphasized enough - the Free Market did not create the current financial chaos.  It was government meddling in the market that did so.

This seems to me to be a pretty straightforward example of how government meddling - meddling that was meant for good - always backfires.

Not only should Wall Street not get bailed out, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be systematically dismembered and thus end this abhorrent experiment in government manipulation of the market.

It is a very sad truth that the American Taxpayer simply cannot afford to bail out these guys.  Nevermind the huge question of whether or not the average American has any responsibility to bail out a bunch of millionaires who should have known better in the first place. They tried to game the system figuring that the government would bail them out when it all came crashing down.  I say, don’t do it.

The ultimate responsibility of the government in this situation is the organized and fair liquidation of the assets of these bankrupt companies to their creditors.  Period.

If there’s anything that we should have learned from the Soviet Union, it’s that you can’t game the market forever.  And the longer you game it, the bigger the collapse in the end.  The Fed has been playing games with the money supply since the Clinton administration.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were unleashed with no oversight in that same time.  This is a bipartisan mess, though.  The Republicans had 6 years where they controlled both houses of congress and the executive branch that they could have stopped this.  Instead, they continued gaming the money supply to enable their disgusting deficit spending on bridges to nowhere.

It’s time to enforce the 9th and 10th amendments to the Constitution and shrink the government back down to a manageable size.

Over the past few days, I have been thinking.  I really like Sarah Palin.  She seems to be a real conservative.  On the other hand, John McCain did a very effective job of pointing out that he’s still the same John McCain that I didn’t want to put in the White House before he picked Sarah Palin for the VP slot.  And when you get down to it, the Vice President doesn’t make policy decisions, the VP doesn’t make appointements, and really, only has the power to settle tie votes in the Senate.

I’m really not seeing my incentive to vote for John McCain. I have a moral dilemma about voting for somebody with the expectation that he’s either going to die or be assassinated.

On the other hand, we have Barack Obama, who as near as I can tell, would be the worst President since Jimmy Carter.

It is a sad day today, as one of our greatest leaders of the 20th century has passed.  Jesse Helms died this morning, July 4 2008.

The United States would do better to have 100 Jesse Helmses in the Senate than the sad bunch that is up there now that is not worthy of sharing the title of Senator with him.

This is a bit of sad news that I came across today.  An 18 year old actor in Great Britain was stabbed to death.  And from reading the article, it seems that there is a rash of knife crime sweeping the United Kingdom.

And further from reading the article, it seems that there is also a ban in place on carrying knives.

The problem isn’t the inanimate objects.  The problem is the people.  Being armed is not a causal factor in violent crime - however, it is often a factor in a smaller weaker person being able to defend themselves against a larger stronger person.

There are many many women in the world who are very good at shooting.  And even more who are capable of defending themselves with a gun even if they’re not going to win many awards for their marksmanship.  That’s a level playing field.  A woman vs a Man with a Knife isn’t.  Or a woman vs a man with a bat. Or a man with a stick, or a man with a rock.  Or even just a vicious enough man.

All these bans have accomplished is to turn the smaller and weaker people of the world into victims.