House of Eratosthenes

Victor Davis Hansen has this covered (bold is mine):

Individual freedom in America manifests itself in ways most of the world can hardly fathom — whether our unique tradition of the right to gun ownership, the near impossibility of proving libel in US courts, or the singular custom of multimillion-dollar philanthropic institutions, foundations and private endowments. Herding, silencing or enfeebling Americans is almost impossible — and will remain so as long as well-protected citizens can say what they want and do as they please with their hard-earned money.
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This year, a minority of babies born here will resemble the look of the Founding Fathers. Yet America will continue as it was envisioned, as long as those of various races and colors are committed to the country’s original ideals.

The Founders’ notion of the rule of law, coupled with freedom of the individual, explains why America runs on merit, not tribal affinities or birth.

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While EJ Dionne just doesn’t get it.

Our nation confronts a challenge this Fourth of July that we face but rarely: We are at odds over the meaning of our history and why, to quote our Declaration of Independence, “governments are instituted.”

Only divisions this deep can explain why we are taking risks with our country’s future that we’re usually wise enough to avoid. Arguments over how much government should tax and spend are the very stuff of democracy’s give-and-take. Now, the debate is shadowed by worries that if a willful faction does not get what it wants, it might bring the nation to default.

This is, well, crazy. It makes sense only if politicians believe — or have convinced themselves — that they are fighting over matters of principle so profound that any means to defeat their opponents is defensible.

Then he goes on to explain how those damn tea partiers just don’t understand their own movement. If they did, then they would bend and we could all go forward.

What he doesn’t get is that government spending needs to be reduced BEFORE taxes go up.

If government spending continues to grow at the rate it has grown in the last few years we’re all going to fail. If the government can’t show that it is willing to give up some of it’s spending, and leave it like that for a little while, I bet we’d all be happy to pay a little more to get some of this freaking debt reduced. But NOT with a government that thinks our money is their money.

Dionne does not get it.

We are a free people because we insist upon it. Not because the federal government grants it. That IS a principle so profound that it’s worth standing your ground.

Robert at Small Dead Animals has a special treat for the readers there: The Fourth of July Declaration by Prager University.

We’re out here by the seashore for the long holiday, losing our “rented beach house” virginity. Got a Weber kettle, fire pit, and close proximity to the beach. Making good use of all three, declaring a little independence of our own.

Happy Fourth, everybody.

Happy Fourth, Morgan. Your hideaway looks wonderful.
- bpenni | 07/04/2011 @ 11:02
If the government can’t show that it is willing to give up some of it’s spending, and leave it like that for a little while, I bet we’d all be happy to pay a little more to get some of this freaking debt reduced.

Speak for yourself, comrade. I am not giving them another skinny dime more than I have to, spending cuts or no spending cuts. Congress (actually generations of Congresses) made the mess….they can clean it up, and without taking even more of my hard-earned cash to do so.

Besides, I thought we all agreed around here that tax increases actually worsen deficits (rather than solving them) because they tend to stifle or drive-off taxable economic activity – the very sort that’s so desperately needed in the places where local, state, and federal government are dealing with crippling shortfalls. I thought we agreed that it’s a tax *cut* which is in order – a reduction in the percentage of business and personal income seized by government – so as to enable the growth of the tax base, and therefore a real revenue increase which might enable some real progress on deficit reduction, and maybe even debt reduction.

Honestly, I don’t know how we’re going to do either one. Every time the GOP even floats the idea of injecting some fiscal sanity, the other side goes completely batshit and starts comparing us to Hitler or something. Reasoned debate with such people is impossible and I don’t see how we’re going to get there from here.
- cylarz | 07/05/2011 @ 00:44
Forty-nine or fewer in the Senate, 217 or fewer in the House. And keep it that way for eight to ten years.

And every single Republican who starts to go all RINO-ey and “I take global warming seriously” and “the science is settled” and “prime the pump” and “shot in the arm” and “reach across the aisle” — faces off against a Tea Party candidate the following primary season. A serious, scary one. Make it a rule.
- mkfreeberg | 07/05/2011 @ 07:08
[…] Me And My Osprey “Because Everyone Should Have Health Insurance, Or Else” Plot Device America’s 235th On the Strauss-Kahn Accuser World’s Shortest Health Care Debate Sippican Takes on the […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 07/06/2011 @ 17:04

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America’s 235thMonday, July 4th, 2011

America’s 235th
Monday, July 4th, 2011