Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Peggy Noonan makes some sense, more than she’s made for quite awhile now:
President Obama carried Massachusetts by 26 points on Nov. 4, 2008. Fifteen months later, on Jan. 19, 2010, the eve of the first anniversary of his inauguration, his party’s candidate lost Massachusetts by five points. That’s a 31-point shift. Mr. Obama won Virginia by six points in 2008. A year later, on Nov. 2, 2009, his party’s candidate for governor lost by 18 points—a 25 point shift. Mr. Obama won New Jersey in 2008 by 16 points. In 2009 his party’s incumbent governor lost re-election by four points—a 20-point shift.
In each race, the president’s party lost independent voters, who in 2008 voted like Democrats and in 2010 voted like Republicans.
Is it a backlash? It seems cooler than that, a considered and considerable rejection that appears to be signaling a conservative resurgence based on issues and policies, most obviously opposition to increased government spending, fear of higher taxes, and rejection of the idea that expansion of government can or will solve our economic challenges.
Yes, The People are upset, The People are grumpy. Peggy reads a lot into emotion: “It seems cooler than that.” Perhaps it seems cooler than that because there’s no evidence of actual anger, at least no more than there always is. Certainly no more than there was two years ago. After emotions — or perhaps before — there is evidence. The evidence says, the people of Massachusetts were asked if the current policies were working, and it was like asking a competent eighth-grader if two and two add up to nine. In other words, it is what it is; getting mad at someone doesn’t have to enter into the process.
Harold Ford says moderation is the answer:
“The lesson from last night is to reset the priorities in Washington,” said Mr. Ford…”The next elections are in November, so the president and the Democrats have a few months to get this right. But we will forfeit our majorities in Congress in November if the American people don’t feel more economically secure six months from now than they do today. And Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts is just the latest indicator.”
:
To address the anxiety Americans are feeling, Mr. Ford thinks that the White House needs to focus squarely on the economy. “First we need to cut taxes for businesses in the country, small and large,” he says. “We ought to provide a six-month exemption from the payroll tax for all firms less than five years old. We ought to extend the current capital gains and dividend tax rates through 2012. We ought to make permanent all the research and development tax credits for businesses making those investments. And we ought to lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%.”
It all echoes a recurrent tone in the online-front-pages this weekend: Half a loaf is better than none, moderation this, moderation that, blah blah blah.
Prediction: That which the public most loathes — now that the public has been forced to pull its head out of its ass — will be the last to be pitched overboard. You know what I mean. The anti-American, anti-capitalist bullshit.
How did I describe it in my letter to my two oh-so-full-of-themselves wrinkled-up hippie liberal female senators? Ah, yes: “Our approach to any problem that comes up, is to make sure no one can make a profit from solving it.”
Sorry, Harold. The good ship Liberal doesn’t see that as ballast, it sees that as the hull of the boat. It won’t be pitched. It’ll go down, and the crew along with it, from Captain to deckhand’s-apprentice’s-apprentice.
Victor Davis Hanson says the bloodletting will continue, and I agree.
Says It All
1) A new poll revealing a vast majority of investors see Obama as anti-business.
2) Obama declaiming on what he has done and what he will do to create jobs.
3) After a year Obama still has not yet figured out that his promiscuous talk of higher income, payroll, health care, and inheritance taxes, serial demonization of finance and business, and all sorts of new regulations, create a psychological climate in which the employer pulls in his horns and decides to ride things out — and this individual reaction is being repeated millions of times over, energized by the pique at everything trivial from Van Jones to apologies abroad to “Bush did it.”
Harold Ford says take the corporate tax rate down from 35% to 25%. Won’t happen. It shows far too much promise of actually solving something.
The election slogan for the midterms is going to be “Well then, how would you like a teaspoon of the stuff you and we know damn well isn’t going to fix anything?” And the voters will say “but it doesn’t fix anything.” The democrats will say “but it’s a teaspoon.” The voters will say “we’ve tried it, it’s actually toxic.” The democrats will say “but it’s a teaspoon.” The voters will vote, and then the late night comedians and so-called “news” anchors will villify, denigrate, ridicule and excoriate the voters because, hey, that was only a teaspoon, what was the big deal? You must all be afraid of a black man. Guess racism is still with us after all.
What the country really needs is an honest, open debate about the petulant, festering, bubbling, anti-business bile. It will be a very long time before we debate that honestly. Those who embrace it and continue to vent it, will see to it the debate always shifts to something else, so that the bile can continue to bubble away without being discussed too much.
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