House of Eratosthenes

So she’s out. This must be an enormous relief for the “moderate” Republicans and others who insisted Obama would flatten and pummel her, more surely than any other challenger: They can go on believing that because this will never be tested now. And this can be a healthy thing. Palin supporters like me, instead of pushing a personality that a lot of people have made up their minds never to accept, can instead push the principles she would have represented.

Palin For our own benefit we’d better define what these are, since we need to select a new favorite. Start with the incumbent, and define the inadequacies with that offering, proceeding to the deficiencies of others. Why can’t we stick with Barack Obama? Is the problem really that He’s a black guy?

In my case, it’s easy to define exactly what I want but it’s hard to articulate it because there isn’t a word to describe it. White skin is not the issue. The phrase “common sense” comes closest. As I said many times before, if I were ever a supporter of Obama, that ship would’ve sailed after I drove through a few highway sections torn apart for months & years at a time by construction projects funded by the Reinvestment Act, which I have nicknamed “Obamastruction.” The stupidity of it is just dazzling. Obama fans, predictably, point out how stupid I am in observing the stupidity. I get back a bunch of snotty lectures about how roads need to be maintained, and what kind of world do I want to live in anyway…one where the roads have completely fallen apart and you can’t even drive a car down them without destroying it, et cetera…

Uh, no. If I wanted to live in a world like that I’d live in Detroit, or some other place democrats have been running for a long time.

Obamastruction fails the test of common sense in so many ways. Let’s dissect it a little. We have high unemployment and we need to get people working…so…we’ll tax and borrow and inject hundreds of billions of dollars which will wholly or partly fund all these construction projects, and when we do that the construction people will have to be hired and they’ll spend money which will lead to more activity…et al…

First problem we have is what Ludwig von Mises pointed out about it:

It is obviously futile to attempt to eliminate unemployment by embarking upon a program of public works that would otherwise not have been undertaken. The necessary resources for such projects must be withdrawn by taxes or loans from the application they would otherwise have found. Unemployment in one industry can, in this way, be mitigated only to the extent that it is increased in another.

Now Obamastruction does have a partial defense against this: In many cases the funds are used cleverly, toward the benefit of the goal as stated. Given President Obama’s track record, this might have been an oversight of some kind, but anyway. the Obamastruction that is the biggest thorn in my side, is a good example, some $1 or $2 million in Reinvestment Act funds to push it “over a hump” and reach a goal of $22 million so the shovel-readiness can be complete.

But there we run into another problem that I don’t see anyone discussing anywhere: The work begins. It begins on this road, and on that road, and that other road over there…throughout the continental United States we have all this Obamastruction going on. And pay attention here you snotty preening condescending Obama fans who want to educate me about how roads need to be maintained: This is all happening at the same time. Earlier, this summer, I drove up the east half of Oregon and Washington State by way of Highway 97. It wouldn’t have been such a dumb move, except for Obamastruction. I was stuck in construction, on and off, for the better half of an entire day. No biggie, right? I was just transporting myself. Well, there’s the rub: There are actually people who live in those places, who need to have supplies shipped to them, which means trucked. If it takes a wheeled vehicle 60% longer to cut through all that, and 60% longer to cut through the mess much closer to my doorstep, and 60% longer to cut through anything & everything in between those points, and all over the place elsewhere…ya know, it starts to not look a whole lot like a program for “economic recovery.”

I worry about the great minds who can’t see that one coming. Do they have drivers’ licenses? Anyone who’s driven for any length of time, knows the last step to dealing with construction is: Heave a sigh of relief, because when you see the “End Construction” sign, you know you’re probably done with it for a few miles. For the last two years or so, thanks to Obama’s brilliance, that has not applied. You drive any stretch of new road anywhere, you expect to see the damn orange cones. And the flagmen. And that silly sign telling you it’s your tax dollars at work. I’m not saying “long stretch,” I’m saying “any stretch.” That doesn’t help with an economic recovery.

Then there’s the matter of what a construction worker buys with the money he or she gets from being employed. Stuff that creates jobs? Really? Raise your hand if you got a job in a small business started by a construction worker who was temporarily employed due to a government program. And then we run into another problem because of that adverb: “temporarily.” At some point, the highway section to be widened, has been widened.

So with Palin out, what we need to be looking for is someone who wouldn’t propose a boondoggle like that.

We should take the emotionalism out of it with an analogy. Say the problem isn’t unemployment or dependence on foreign oil or terrorist buttholes or illegal immigration. Let’s say the problem is we have a golf course and a gopher is tearing it up. Is Obama, then, Bill Murray? No…Obama makes the dynamite look like a good idea. Obama is the guy who comes along and says “Step one, give Me and My friends all the money you can afford, Step three, gopher problem solved.” What’s step two? Dunno. So Obama is more like an underpants gnome sort of character. And this is why He has to become a one-termer. It isn’t that His solutions are overly expensive or that they don’t work…although they are, and they don’t. It’s that getting rid of the goddamn gopher never was the agenda in the first place.

No, Obama is there just to give speeches that make it seem like a swell idea to suck all the money and power away, to confuse lightweight thinkers into thinking this will somehow address whatever problem happens to be under discussion at the moment. But you’ll notice no matter what that problem is, the contorted jumbled-up mess of ObamaLogic keeps leading back to the common central point, of “put lots of money under control of Obama and His friends.”

Other successful politicians seem to approach every problem by defining certain favorite segments of the population as sympathetic, and others as not-sympathetic. So a good solution for the gopher problem would be: Tax the rich, put the money in a new program which will employ some minimal number of fill-in-the-blank…women, ethnic minorities, gay, handicapped…and at some point the gopher drops dead of old age or something.

Sarah Palin would have just shot the fucking gopher. And that would be the fallback plan, I think, after trying to poison it. Point is, the gopher would be dead, and the golf course would be fine.

That’s what we need, I think.

Just before she dropped out, I went on vacation, on bicycle, by myself, through the farmlands around Davis and Dixon, out to the ocean, up the Russian River, and then around & through the county roads around Winters. It took me six days during which I pedaled just shy of 300 miles. By far the deadliest thing I encountered was Obamastruction. But the most inspiring thing I saw? It was the farms. Not the crops, mind you; they make for great pictures, but no I’m talking about the dwelling places where people live and do their operations and planning. Some were prosperous, others not so much. But it made an impression on me that you could see the wisdom going into how a machine should be used, where it should be stored, when it was time to throw it away. How should the house be built. Where should the doors go. Everything was absolutely functional, and in that way, beautiful.

It is a whole different way of living, a whole different way of looking at the world. Anticipation of benefits and consequences. Beginning with the end in mind…if you have not planned for success, you are planning for failure. The whiteboard business-executives like to use phrases like that, but these people who grow our food actually live it. They know how to make it all work. Or else, they’re gone.

They say knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. This is the kind of wisdom of which I speak. Palin, supposedly this stuttering dolt who botched her interview with Katie Couric, was the one — can’t even call her a “candidate,” can I? — whatever-ya-call-it who was running her operations with some wisdom. We could define and detect this wisdom with a criteria of “good fortune that is not accidental.” The Palin haters cannot bring themselves to admit it, but she’s always had this going on; the other contenders, not quite so much. She’s no dummy — or, if she really is one, there must have been someone else calling the shots who knew what to do. It’s always easier to see who has wisdom than it is to figure out what the wisest answer is. It’s even easier to figure out who doesn’t have it, or at least, who’s failing to use it if they’ve got it.

Right now, I think we’re missing the wisdom. Obama’s cabinet is just chock full of knowledge; and His campaign had some wisdom going on. Now that He’s our President, the beneficiary of any wisdom would be the country, rather than the Obama campaign, so suddenly wisdom seems to have taken a holiday. Been on vacation for going on three years, now. (Wonder where in the heck wisdom is riding its bicycle? Is its ass getting as sore as mine was?) So now that I & some others need to go shopping for another candidate, that’s the principle requirement. Wisdom, and the commitment to use it for the benefit of the country. That’s what is missing, and we’ve suffered for it long enough.

Well… my condolences. Srsly.

I think Wisdom is riding her bike somewhere in Texas, btw. (NOT a Perry endorsement!)
- bpenni | 10/06/2011 @ 08:42
I knew that some people would be happy about Governor Palin’s decision and that some would be upset. I was somewat annoyed- but not surprised- to see Daphne’s dance of glee. My first opinion was to offer a rejoinder which, based on past experience, she wouldn’t bother to answer; Palin is a blind spot for Daphne. However, Jim’s comment pretty much covered what I had planned on saying.

I did agree with Boortz’ discussion of Palin this morning. Mostly. He said that he was liked Palin a fair amount, but that the damage inflicted on her, real or imagined, would have rendered her unelectable against Barry. Knowing what I know of people and the opinions that they’ve formed and set in concrete about Palin, my guess is that he’s possibly-maybe probably- right on the second point. I guess that we won’t know for a while, if ever. My personal opinion is that at some point she’ll set her sights on a Senate seat in Alaska or Arizon; McCain owes her.

Bill over at Daily Pundit makes a valid point in that Palin could hurt her brand by coming out in support of Romney, assuming that Mitt wins the nomination. Nobody really blamed her for supporting McCain because, really, loyalty is at least somewhat important. It would be different for Romney, as she has no such obligation. Throwing her support behind Mitt might get her some smiles from the establishment GOPers, but she’d lose a lot of the conservatives. Forever.
- Physics Geek | 10/06/2011 @ 12:18
Yeah, I agree with you PG. And with most of what Jim said; I do think if Daphne were subjected to the same abuse, she’d find a way to handle it. Although it would change her perspective, remarkably, probably for the better. As far as her dealing with it, she’d come through it…although Palin would look, by comparison, classier and more graceful. I really don’t understand where the enmity comes from. Daphne & some other folks are fighting some kind of fight I don’t really understand. Doesn’t seem to have much to do with fixing America’s problems. Frankly it looks like something out of middle school or high school. The sad part is, all these ankle-biters have carried themselves, back to Day One, like I’m supposed to learn something from them and I’ve never gotten that impression from them…nothing close to it…not even once.

As far as what’s good for Palin? She made a smart move here.
- mkfreeberg | 10/06/2011 @ 12:30
(Just a note to the Editor: Can you imagine why it took me five minutes to read the last paragraph?)

Is it too early to send Herman Cain a check?
.
- TMI | 10/06/2011 @ 12:31
I like Cain for the same reasons I like Palin. He’s not primarily a politician, and I frankly think what we don’t need is another person in there because he/she “knows how to play the game”. I don’t want them to “play the game”. I want them to govern with integrity and attention to original intent. I want them to look corruption in the eye and say “no, we’re not doin’ it that way while I’m here.”

I can’t say I’m particularly excited about any of them, I suppose right now Cain most closely represents what I’m looking for. Romney is right out, but I’m afraid the reality is he’ll be right in. Bachmann is more of a politician — and of the politicians I like her positions the best. I do fear that a politician, though, will slip too easily into the comfort of “playing the game”.

The truth of the matter is, and of course this isn’t good but it’s the truth, I’ll vote for Romney if he wins the nomination. I’d vote for any of them. Even Paul. Because while I may disagree with each of them on this or that, none of them are outright socialists, and that’s who (and I don’t just mean Obama) is in charge right now.
- philmon | 10/07/2011 @ 08:19
Atlas Shrugged spoiler: Dagny Taggart’s brother Jim is the leader of the “Looters” and in the book, when he’s by himself and Ayn Rand starts churning out copious paragraphs about his thoughts, there are repeated references made to a foggy alleyway that must never be looked down. Halfway through the book he sends his young wife across the room with a good clout to her face, when she utters the words “you are a destroyer.” At the end of the book he suffers what would probably be a stroke, if it was described in clinical rather than philosophical terms; he is forced to finally come to grips with what he is, and his brain can’t handle it, it melts down and destroys itself.

That is the OWS crowd, along with the moderates who get suckered in and think about supporting them. The movement is made appealing through its recalcitrant refusal to acknowledge, even to itself, what it really is. It has become an OWS tactic to proliferate this falsehood that OWS and Tea Party are functionally synonymous; big compliment to TP there, since I don’t see any TP supporters engaging in that observation. The OWS is engaging in this James Taggart self-preservation-through-self-deception ritual, playing rhetorical word games to refuse to confess to their destructive nature.
- mkfreeberg | 10/07/2011 @ 09:04
I’m ambivalent about Sarah Palin’s announcement. I think she is one of America’s political treasures and the country could certainly use her just about now. But I think she came to the conclusion that she remains too damaged politically at this time to make a successful run. And that shows a tremendous amount of wisdom and self-control. There are few people in public life who have that combination. Her decision actually makes me admire her more.

For people looking at a Palin substitute, there’s Herman Cain. He’s not just the flavor of the week. Here’s something I wrote recently.

The National Federation of Republican women held a straw poll at their 36th Biennial Convention in Kansas City on Saturday, 10/1/2011. Herman Cain won overwhelmingly with 48.9%.
Cain 48.9%
Perry 14.1%
Romney 13.3%
Gingrich 12.5%
Santorum 6.9%
Who is your second choice?

Cain 23.8%
Gingrich 20.8%
Perry 15.9%
Romney 12.9%
Which candidate is most likely to beat Obama?

Cain 31.3%
Romney 24.6%
Perry 19.4%
Santorum 2.0%

Supporters of other candidates are now beginning to disparage straw polls. That’s fair, but this straw poll was a little different. Just keep in mind that while straw polls are not elections, the emergence of Cain is unique. In order to vote in the Republican Women’s poll you had to be a delegate to their convention, unlike straw polls that can bus supporters in. Second, unlike Ron Paul, Cain does not represent a movement like the Libertarians who form voting blocs and can effectively overwhelm straw polls that make Paul look more popular than he is. Third, it takes more than a 75 cent taco to go to the Republican Women’s Convention is Kansas City (take it from me). Women have flown in from all parts of the country at significant expense to be there. Straw polls are not elections, but Cain gave an electrifying, persuasive speech to a cross section of active Republican women and got an overwhelming endorsement. And a final point, Republican women make up a lot of the worker bees during an election, passing out literature, going door to door, manning the polls. That’s why elected Republican officials pay them a lot of attention. Republican women did not to go to Kansas City to give Herman Cain a win in the straw poll. The fact that he won big was solely due to his ability to convince the delegates that he was the one they wanted for President. That’s big.
- Moneyrunner1 | 10/08/2011 @ 06:06

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Memo For File CXLVThursday, October 6th, 2011

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Thursday, October 6th, 2011