September 2009 - Posts
It would be foolish to assume that just because a product or a need for a service exists, that any entity can do it well. For instance, you wouldn't get a company that specialized in demolition to build your house. Nor would you contract with an exterminator to have your yard landscaped. Likewise, if a concrete company offered to build you an airplane, it is my guess you'd politely decline and send your money elsewhere. And if they tried to convince you that they were the man for the job, you'd look at their past record and cite that as evidence for you to choose otherwise.
So why do elements of our government continue to insist that they can offer better healthcare, more affordably, than people who've been doing it for decades? Is healthcare even something that a government can be expected to do with any degree of efficiency? Let's look at their track record and see what it is they are good at:
The Postal Service was established in 1775. It has had 234 years to get it right but it is nearly broke. Meanwhile, relatively recent arrivals like UPS and FedEx provide much better service.
Social Security was established in 1935. The government has been managing that institution for 74 years and not even the democrats deny that it is broke - or soon will be.
Fannie Mae was founded in 1938. After 71 years, broke is a kind word to use for that failed government organization.
In 1964 Lyndon Johnson started "The War on Poverty," fully intending to defeat it. After 45 years and over a trillion dollars per year we still have poor a'plenty and the entire country is broke.
Medicare and Medicaid came on the scene in 1968. Like the others, but after only 41 years, they are both so broke the government is talking about scrapping them and... starting a new system?
Freddie Mac, birthday, 1971. It lived only 39 years before sliding into bankruptcy.
Trillions went into the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, commonly known as TARP. After pouring hundreds of millions into the pockets of failed executives it shows few signs of breathing any real life into our 'jobless' recovery. The US is now deeper in debt than ever before, our currency is devalued worldwide, and the Chinese are urging the world to leave the dollar standard - and I agree with them.
FDCI, the Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation, a government entity founded in 1933 to protect the bank assets of depositors announced yesterday that is, you guessed it, broke. (Added 9/30/09)
But there is a bright side. In 2001, months after the attack on the Twin Towers, the US Military invaded and subdued Afghanistan. Resistance remains, and always will, but they broke the Taliban.
In 2003 our military invaded Iraq and was in Baghdad in just a few weeks. And while pockets of resistance remained, they broke the back of the Iraqi Army and began construction of a new democracy in the Middle East.
Why do I lump these enormously successful invasions in with these titanic fiscal failures? To make one of the brilliant points for which I'm becomming widely known.
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the hero of Desert Storm, when asked what the function of the military is, replied, "To kill people and break things." Apparently, however, he was referring to the role of government in general. Looking back at the 20th Century, the major killer of humans was governments. From the Soviets, to the Nazis, to the Chicoms, to the Imperial Japanese, to just about every African regime on the continent, upwards of 200 million humans were exterminated by governments - often their own. This score FAR outpaces the old scourges of plague, pestilence, famine, and disaster and is only exceeded by old age. The true disaster in the modern world is government. (Which makes me wonder why we're so worried about H1N1...)
So, under government stewardship nearly every major social program in every major country is broke. Under government stewardship hundreds of millions have been murdered in the last 100 years. Looking at this track record what can it be inferred that government is best at? Why, killing people and breaking things, of course. And they want to run our healthcare system? Seriously?
Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming
I raised my children to be colorblind. I took no pride in doing so other than the pride I took in teaching them to walk and eat. In fact, you don't teach colorblindness. You teach racism.
At the appropriate age, I sent my children to school. There, they interacted with black and white on an equal level. They had good and bad teachers who were white, and good and bad teachers who were black. They had friends of every color and, I hate to say it, enemies, too. After all, you can't get along with everyone all the time.
This lasted up until about third grade, or about eight years old. Around this time, in January, they started bringing home handouts on Martin Luther King. Projects were assigned. This lasted most of the month. February rolled around and they began their black history studies. Neither of these things bothered me. What bothered me was the flavor and intensity of the material. Unlike the rather sparse learning they'd been exposed to in other areas of history, and to other people, the black history and MLK assignments had the flavor of propaganda. With George Washington my children learned that he was the first president, crossed the Delaware to do battle with the British (which were actually Hessians), and never told a lie. With Dr. King, they learned that through his bravery he prevailed against the tyrrany of the white man and ultimately led his people out of oppression to a promised land. It was personality cult stuff.
I didn't say anything. We did the assignments and turned them in. It continued year after year.
Now, kids are smart. They are people just like us and they know when someone is pulling their chain. It didn't take long for my children to grow weary of the propaganda and start asking questions. While what Dr. King did was important and noteworthy, it certainly doesn't eclipse what George Washington and the founding fathers accomplished. And while George Washington Carver was a brilliant scientist, what he did should not be exalted above the discoveries of Watson and Crick - a revolution that changed everything. By the time my kids got to Middle School, they despised both Martin Luther King and Black History Month. The public school system was turning my kids into racists.
We now have the same thing happening at a national level. Conservatives who are opposing Obama's healthcare overhaul are saying and doing the same thing they did to Clinton when he was trying to restructure health care into a government institution. In fact, there was a huge turnover in congress because of what Clinton did. And, unless my memory is completely faulty, Clinton was a white guy.
If there is anything people hate, it is being told that they are something they are not. And telling people they are racists because they oppose something they are opposed to, is going to turn them into racists as certainly as making someone sit in the back of the bus. The idiots making this charge are destroying years of progress. And they have not a single, credible example of what they are claiming. Indeed, to assume a person is a racist because of the color of their skin, is the height of being a racist yourself. Many whites once assumed that the black people they met were unintelligent, based solely on the color of their skin. How are today's accusations any different?
There is a ground swell of opposition to a government takeover of healthcare. The left knows this. They want to stop it. What has worked consistenty when whites are opposing blacks? The race card. Whites back down. The leadership of the left knows this, too. Maureen Dowd says she can almost hear Joe Wilson tack "boy" onto the end of "You Lie!" This isn't news but it's being repeated by multiple new outlets. This is propaganda. Maybe even libel. Josef Goebbles level subterfuge. It never happened. But I'll wager that in a year a lot of people are going to think that Joe Wilson said, "You lie, boy."
Now Jimmy Carter isn't so stupid as to really think this is racism. He has been places where there is real racism - North Korea, Darfur, Palestine - and this ain't it. But he is a good enough politician to get himself elected president. He is a consummate Washington insider and has a vested interest in the the success of his party. He knows how to herd lemmings, and that is what he is doing.
For someone who claims to be such an elder statesman, he is doing a pretty good job of inciting division, hatred, and yes, racism. But should we really be all that suprised, because he was a lousy President.
Futbol Guru
My wife is a school teacher. She teaches physics and chemisty to kids a lot bigger than she. The school she works in is a bit different than a normal school. It is called a "Technology High School" and is open to any student in the city - if they can get in. As you might expect, the demographic is very rich with over 50% of enrollment being minority status, which makes them the majority at the school, incidentally.
My wife is white and the most fair and even-handed person I've ever known. Kids who give other teachers a fit are never a problem for my 105 pound ball of spunk. Why? Because she treats everyone with respect. She treats everyone the same. I recall a few years ago when the valedictorian at her school, a wonderful, brilliant, young lady with lovely dark skin exalted my wife, in part, as a role model. She went on to state her qualities and thanked her for setting such an example and helping this young lady attain her dream. It brought my wife to tears.
My wife is no racist. But without fail, there will be those in her classes who accuse her of racism. And who are these? While my wife is no racist and treats all with respect, she retains control of her classes. You step out of line in her class and you are going down. White kids act up, hispanic kids act up, and black kids act up. Sometimes they argue with her as to their guilt and sometimes they hang their heads sheepishly and go to the office. But the black kids, and certainly not all of them, are the only ones who ever accuse her of being a racist. And they'll do it to her face. Even when they were obviously acting up, or get caught cheating, or are using their cell phones. All too often they will mutter, or exclaim, "It's just because I'm black!"
Why did Joe Wilson shout out, "You lie!" Well, maybe it was the same reason my wife sends kids to the office. Because they were talking in class! Because Obama was lying. And that he is lying is demonstrable. (See Ma Bell, Milk and the Medical Industry, and The Single-Payer / Public Option Lie.) I can't tell you how many times a kid caught cheating will deny it and then loudly cry racism. Now Mr. Obama hasn't said racism, but his attack-dogs have surely been yelling it at the top of their lungs. Maybe some of them even believe it. But do you want to know the real reason they are shouting racism? Because whitey trained them to do it. When they use the "R" word, whitey backs down. And why does whitey back down? Because the vast majority of whites are NOT racist, and the accusation stings them and impunes their honor. They don't want people thinking they are racists. And of course, they don't want to get sued either.
Picture this. You're a furry little creature, with hundreds of other little furry creatures going about your furry life, when all of a sudden you are snatched from your world and stuffed into a box. Sort of like the Nazi's did with Jews. Suddenly you're thrust into the sunlight in an unfamiliar place. To one side are big, creatures waving arms and shouting. You and your terrified compatriots turn only to run into more of the strange creatures. Every direction you turn, you meet with the terror. Except one. You run that direction with all your speed. You and your companions, furry little bodies surging forward, panting. An outlet! Then, all of a sudden, you're in free space, falling into the ocean. You never noticed the cameras rolling and certainly had no conception of the narrator calmly stating, "Why they do this is just one of life's mysteries..." (If you don't know what I'm talking about, please click --> here.)
Racism. Another lie. A word for people to get their way. A word to herd the lemmings. A word to eliminate the competition and sieze power. A word used to stay out of trouble. "You lie!" isn't racist any more than "Piss Christ" is free speech. Racism is Tutsi's murdering Hutu's. Racism is Darfur. Racism is Serbs, Croats, and mass graves. We don't have racism in this country any more, just a bunch of pussies, black and white. So don't buy it. Don't be a lemming. Or sooner or later you're going to find yourself falling through free space with the ocean rushing at you. And when it happens, just remember, someone off to the side is calmly saying, "Why they do this is just one of life's mysteries..." I hope you know how to swim.
Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming
Grassroots is a term that really needs no explanation. Let a blade of good old Bermuda grass get hold and it will spread across a lawn like an invading army. Grass starts at the gound and does its own thing. Which is why it is applied to viral political movements. Such movements get started at the local level by average citizens who are moved to get involved. That is what makes it special. There is no power structure whipping people into a frenzy with neural linguistic programming and other slick tricks, grassroots is people getting involved on their own initiative, finding each other, linking up, and spreading like wildfire. Or, Bermuda grass.
There've been a lot of claims that the conservative resistance to President Obama's health care plan, and more recently his speech to kids, are orchestrated events. That people are being given 'marching orders' and blindly following them. A number of public officials from Nancy Pelosi to Barney Frank and even the President himself (who should be above such things) have cried loudly that Republican leaders are out trying to scare people, sending them to disrupt townhall meetings, and generally organizing an illigitimate resistance. I have a few problems with these arguments.
First, there is no Republican leadership and the people who are trying to be the leaders are grossly incompetent. That is evidenced by that Party's nomination of John McCain for President last year. And for at least two years the Democrats have been reveling in, commenting on, and exploiting the lack of any effective Republican leadership. So what group are they talking about who has organized this fierce resistance and where are the converts who didn't show up for the election last fall?
So where has this strong opposition come from? This strong opposition is, well, me. And thousands, even millions, like me. I'm not a Republican though if they had any decent leaders and a plan and would accept poor people into their ranks, I might be. (Ronald Reagan, where are you?) But I'm sitting here writing this blog this morning when I should be trying to make some money so I can pay my taxes. And just to the left of this text you'll find a link to a website selling "Just Say NObama" paraphenelia. I made that stuff. I sat here on my computer and used Adobe Photoshop to put together pithy sayings then uploaded them to a website that turns them into bumperstickers. Nobody told me to do that. I just got sick of being lied to, and yes, I'm smart enough to tell when a politician is lying to me. You don't even have to be a rocket scientist to know that. Just watch their lips. If their lips are moving, they are lying. Why did I spend a weekend making PNG files and getting them formatted right, setting up a webstore, and generally agonizing over the direction of the country? Because a charalatan is trying to sell us a bill of goods and millions of people see the Emperor's New Clothes. Or rather, don't see them. If that isn't grassroots then the word has no meaning.
Third, who the hell are some democrat leaders to tell me that a movement is illegitimate? They are the kings of the special interest. Who the hell do these bastards think they are, telling me I can't go to a townhall meeting and scream my head off like they've been doing since the sixties? What a bunch of effite, pompous, commie snobs. It doesn't matter if the movement is organized, grassroots, or left field, this is a democracy and if somebody is protesting then they are as legitimate as some freak at a San Francisco convention to save the gay whales.
There is a truth of human nature at work here, and it is this: a thief trusts no one. Thieves, being dishonest, assume everyone around them is dishonest also and are constantly expecting to be stolen from. People in general think this way. And honest people, on the other hand, think others are honest. The democrats, because everything they do is orchestrated, can't even conceive of a grassroots movement getting started by itself because they are always out trying to start grassroots movements. And grassroots movements don't come from organization or they're not grassroots. So when they see a large groundswell of protest, they assume it must be orchestrated because their groundswells always are orchestrated. Like the fanatical protesters we see from communist countries - except the cameras don't show the machine guns just off stage. Now I'm not suggesting that democrats point machine guns at their supporters to get them in the mood, but they do bus them around, saturate them with propaganda, and generally organize opposition extremely well. Sort of like the way lemmings were used in the Disney Movie, White Wilderness.
And there's another truth of human nature at work here as well. The democrats know these tactics work and don't want us using their play book.
Grassroots? The opposition to ObamaCare is the definition of grassroots. Why? Because it is a bad idea written into an even worse bill. And yes, there are people out there who know good from bad, prefer good to bad, and will fight against turning good into bad. Who are these people? Well they're not lemmings, I'll tell you that. And they could use a leader. But where do you find great leaders in a land where there are so few humble beginnings?
Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming .
Fifty Cents Worth of Justice is better than millions of dollars spent by the California justice system.
Fifty cents is all it would have cost to have saved the life of a little girl. Fifty cents. And not fifty cents per day, like they tell you on those commercials for saving some little kid in Somalia. Fifty cents, one time, and a life is saved. And not just one life.
When Jaycee Duggard was kidnapped by that monster it shattered not just her life, but that of her parents, grandparents, and friends. And fifty cents could have kept it from happening.
Already convicted of a brutal kidnap-rape, that quasi-human creature, Phillip Garrido, was sentenced to fifty years in prison. He served eleven. Three years later he kidnapped Jaycee Duggard.
How much does a .357 magnum round cost? About fifty cents. Unfortunately, the bankrupt state of California will once again spend millions.
Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/bolgs/not-a-lemming