House of Eratosthenes

I’m reading the headlines and I’m watching the news on the teevee, and it’s looking more and more definite: Unless someone’s blowing smoke up my butt, it’s a done deal. The democrats are going to take their pig-in-a-poke of a European-style universal health care plan, toss around a few brainless bromides about the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, and try to put it over the top. They’re hoping X many members of Congress who are up for re-election in 2010, are going to look at their constituents and figure out they couldn’t afford to vote yes before Teddy Swimmer kicked it, and now that he has, maybe they can say “I voted yea to honor his memory” and get away with it. Tug at the heartstrings a little. Think of the children, think of the guy who needs Viagra and can’t afford it, think of Ted.

Dead Senator's Corpse Think of, think of, think of. Think of everything except whether the idea is a good ‘un or not. As I said this morning…and it is worth repeating…

Every left-wing politician’s argument, it seems, is a distraction away from the “If we do this, that thing will happen” that is central to all responsible planning. Their talking points seem to systematically address all concerns in the universe except that.

And now the nation is supposed to look back on this health care scheme it deplores, and smile upon it, to give a dead narcissist a cheery send-off.

Wonder what Mary Jo thinks of that.

You know why the nation is so unbelievably divided right now? It’s not because Republicans are smart and democrats are stupid. Here is some truth: Our division comes not from a divide over smarts, or even a divide in priorities or a divide in principles. It is, fundamentally, a disagreement in how quickly one should be distracted.

The typical democrat voter is plenty smart enough to understand conservative principles — at least the obvious ones. The ones, like: If you’re a proponent of womens’ rights across the world, you should have supported the invasion of Iraq. Or…if all the guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. Or…if you say yes to all the illegal aliens, you really don’t know what you’re saying yes to — because being illegal is all about nobody knowing who you really are, or what you’ve done. Or…if you’re really tired of seeing gas prices go up, fer Chrissakes, drill baby drill.

These are not esoteric belief systems. They’re fairly obvious. They’re like “two plus two equals four” — if you use the part of your brain that specializes in basic, concrete cognitive thought.

And that’s what the ideological split really is. Our liberals don’t disagree with us about what two plus two is. They disagree about “overriding” concerns. To the liberal mind, there is always something that changes that particular play, by slapping the ball out of bounds. There’s always some exception clause being invoked. Something that turns everything upside-down; something that makes wet into dry, North into South, red into cyan, makes the moral immoral and the immoral moral, makes children wise and the elders childlike, makes a school district struggling with seventy languages into an optimal model for efficient education, a plutocracy into an egalitarian society, yesterday’s no-account bum into today’s “working family,” global-warming into climate-change, Hillary Clinton into a smart attractive woman, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq into some earthly paradise, John McCain into a divider, Nancy Pelosi into a uniter. Everything is transmogrified into the opposite of what it really is. Because of some kind of right-brain-induced logical hiccup.

They don’t really believe the stuff they say they believe. If they did, they really would be stupid. But most of them aren’t stupid; they’re just distracted, and because they’re distracted they’re jealous of anyone who isn’t.

And now a Senator has dropped dead. It’s just another loophole. Another exception clause. In their world, there’s no way to really show proper respect to the dead, except by turning the rules of the universe upside down. In their world, if I really respect you, and you happen to kick the bucket on the day I’m asked what two plus two is, I have to say three. Or five. If I give the same answer to that basic question that I’d give on any other day, I’m not respecting you. And so when Senator Kennedy drops dead, we have to suddenly pretend a stupid idea is a great one.

But it isn’t. Two and two are still four. And the idea still sucks ass.

Every left-wing politician’s argument, it seems, is a distraction away from the “If we do this, that thing will happen” that is central to all responsible planning. Their talking points seem to systematically address all concerns in the universe except that.

In the much blathered about (by me) Sowell book, he presents a pretty unified theory of Left-Wing thought (to my mind, anyway.) Things I was previously scratching my head about fall into the pattern he lays out.

See, we Conservatives hold a “tragic” view of human nature… that there really aren’t “solutions” to problems that fix everything … that every action results in trade-offs. With that view, we look at the pros and cons and weigh them, keeping in mind that we are as responsible for the cons as we are for the pros.

They come up with plans and think only of the pros. Any action they come up with that they take is a positive step toward “solving” a problem. They think if we can just get the smartest experts to design society’s constraints, Utopia will result. Cons are either ignored or blamed on others, while presenting “new” problems for them to “solve”.

They, in short, want to re-design human nature (and their “thinkers” have said as much over the years.)

We, on the other hand, realize that we must work with it.
- philmon | 08/27/2009 @ 18:54
I take more of an Ayn Rand view. This stuff called “greed”…it is not a bad thing. It is, arguably, the heartbeat that provides the pressure behind every single idea that’s given us something good.

An Obama voter pointed out to me today that health care services, undeniably, are needlessly expensive, and I do agree this cannot be denied. His example was $400 plus something for a tetanus shot. He wanted to know what I would do about this, if it was up to me to make the decisions.

I said first of all, I would follow William Shakespeare’s idea from Henry VI, Part 2: “First, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Greed does not make things expensive. The pursuit of profit, even the lust for profit, doesn’t make things expensive. I had a pot of coffee brewed at my desk as he was engaging me; I pointed out that the guy who built the coffee pot wanted a profit, and the guy who ground the coffee also wanted a profit, as did the guy who manufactured the filters and the guy who purified the water. I found all of their products to be most affordable. What applies to the tetanus shot that did not apply to my pot of coffee? Our tort system. Get rid of the fucking ambulance chasers. Pound a wooden stake through their fucking hearts if you have to. What’s so hard about this?

Second thing I’d do, is a message to Congress. A simple one. My message is: You guys “reform” things just as much as your dark little hearts desire. But whatever new plan you produce, the first folks who live under it are YOU, Congress, followed by Barack, followed by Michelle and the two First Daughters. That one simple thing would restore the trust that is missing; and it would be perfectly compatible with what is supposed to be the American spirit, which is an eternal enmity toward royalty and aristocracy. We’re supposed to be good for that. Yet we’ve been tolerating this system in which Congress tells the rest of us how to live, and then creates a “special” system for itself. In August of 2009, we’re doing health care that way. Who, outside of Congress, thinks that’s a swell idea?
- mkfreeberg | 08/27/2009 @ 19:34
The Rand-ian view is quite compatible with Sowell’s view. I suspect Sowell is a Libertarian deep down.

I remember as a teenager seeing why capitalism works. It harnesses our most potentially destructive (to others) trait (which is greed) and lets us all decide where our trade-off points are, according to our own current situations.

Greed itself is very much related to self-preservation instincts, and a part of our design and the design of … I’d say any animal with a brain to speak of. It is a part of our nature, and it must be accounted for, worked with, and directed toward maximum good for everyone, including our self-interest. Without the self-interest part, the incentive to produce goes away without coersion, and we’ve seen this again and again each time the opposite approach has been tried. Loss of freedom, loss of choice, loss of innovation, loss of wealth, loss of meaning.

There are tradeoffs in our system as there is in any. Ours seems to maximize wealth and happiness in more people. Yes, people fall through the cracks. But fewer do, and there is less distance to fall in our cracks.

Plus, if you’re bad off and people like you, they help you. They have fund-raisers and collection cans. Which provides incentive toward positive social behavior.

Who will put money in YOUR can on the counter?

If you’re an ass… not many. If you’re a decent fellow, true human charity, one of our better traits — will surprise you.

As far as Congress and passing whatever they want as long as they have to live under it first, I say no. Do not pass whatever you want (but if you do, then you MUST live under it). Government has no business in the health care or health insurance market.

Strike down government bans on buying insurance across state lines. Try to nudge us away from employer insurance toward private insurance. Make customers see how much they’re paying for insurance and for procedures and medicine so that they make their own trade-off choices and OWN them. People will make better decisions (WITHOUT end-of-life counseling) and prices will go DOWN.

Make the markets free, and let the free market do its thing.

Read Bill Whittle’s “Freedom” essay (if you can find the whole thing. I have his book) … it talks about the tradeoff we make with the second amendment. It is powerful. And that tradeoff example can also be applied to removing market forces from health care.
- philmon | 08/27/2009 @ 20:53
Ok, that was ugly and needs the top half deleted where the post gets repeated due to a copy/paste
- philmon | 08/27/2009 @ 20:55
It Satisfies me to rename Obama care into Kennedy care so long as they both remain dead.
- Tom The Impaler | 08/27/2009 @ 23:43
Oooh. Zing!
- philmon | 08/28/2009 @ 05:52
[…] Ten Things to Throw in the Casket With Him Top Ten Pain in the Ass Taxes in History C and D The Senator’s Corpse Recession’s Over, Business is Booming, Bonuses Paid Thanks to the Guilty White Liberals […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 08/28/2009 @ 05:57

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

The Senator’s CorpseThursday, August 27th, 2009

The Senator’s Corpse
Thursday, August 27th, 2009