Applied Indifference

Scott Adams (Dilbert author and self-described lousy politician) asks if a strong economy is not a sufficient deterrent against aggressive states.

As with many things he posts, it is impossible to tell if he’s merely playing Devil’s Advocate here or being serious.  But I took the time to say something about it:

I think we (The U.S. and China) have nukes pointed at each other simply to say “we’ve got nukes pointed at you, so don’t start anything funny”.  Other than that, there’s no conceivable situation that ends up with the US and China shooting each other.  Like Y2K, there’s too much money to lose if the worst case comes to pass.

As far as an ROI on Iraq, it’s a very long term play, which is something that Americans are not very good at conceptualizing.  Most Americans don’t plan past dinner tonight, so looking out 20, 50, 100 years is pretty much not a consideration.

In all seriousness, the ROI argument when applied to WWII doesn’t look good until 20-30 years after the war ended.  But I think you’ll agree that things are much better in Europe and Asia as a result of our investment of blood and money to take down two vicious empires.

The long-term goal of the Iraq war is a good one.  Whether it is attainable is something that only time will tell.  But to write it off as an impossibility is to write off the future of a third of humanity.  I’m not entirely sure that’s what we want to do.

Tags: Politics, Society by Brian Corbino
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Just heard on Rush that Newt is filming an Algore propaganda ad in which he will appear with Nancy Pelosi to warn all of us about the perils of Man Made Global Warming.

I had thought Newt went off the rails when he decided to work with Hillary! on reforming the “broken” health-care system in the United States.

But this just seals the deal.  Not only is he willing to entertain the idea that Government should be grown to provide medical care to all people, but he’s bought the hoax of anthropogenic global warming.

Tags: Politics by Brian Corbino
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George Bush uses evidence Iraqi WMD programs as justification for invasion.  No WMD found.  Therefore, George Bush Lied.

Hillary Clinton says she landed in Bosnia amid sniper fire.  No evidence of sniper fire found.  Hillary Clinton “mis-spoke”.

Nuance

Tags: News, Politics by Brian Corbino
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Looks like the Democrats are going to have to rethink their position on ’separation of church and state’.

First, we had the messianic treatment of Obama.  Now this:

“An act of betrayal,” said James Carville, an adviser to the Clintons.

“[Bill] Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Carville said.

Tags: Politics by Brian Corbino
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If I vote for Hillary, I’m a racist. If I vote for Obama, I’m a sexist.

or

I can vote for John McCain and be both.

If I vote for the Republican, I’m a bad Democrat. If I vote for the Democrat, I’m a bad Republican.

or

I can vote for John McCain and be both.

John McCain. Because you shouldn’t have to choose.

Tags: Politics, Society by Brian Corbino
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Apparently using a semi-black man’s middle name is racist if it is an Arab name.

Who knew?

Tags: Politics, Society by Brian Corbino
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Michelle Obama is our second contender for “Arrogant Cunt of the Year”.  In a public appearance this week, she took a thinly veiled swipe at Hillary! (whose daughter works in a hedge fund) while also railing against corporations.

To wit: She told the assembled masses that they ought not go into “corporate America” and instead work in the community.

There’s only two possible reasons I see for this.  One is the standard leftist anti-business cant.  Everyone ought to be simple serfs, happy to toil in the fields of others with no potential for self-reliance.  The other (and more likely) is “I’ve got mine, and I don’t wanna see your ugly face across the table from me”

Tags: Politics, Society by Brian Corbino
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The food police MUST BE STOPPED.  Arrogant cunt Meme Roth of Action Against Obesity (munge it all together and throw a .com on the end of it if you want to see their self-righteous web site) has declared a boycott against Girl Scout Cookies on the basis that the Girl Scouts, being a “civic organization” (whatever that is) ought not be selling Americans food that might potentially make them fat.

She keeps blathering about how some “we” has to get a handle on obesity and diabetes.  And so her response is to use the might of the government to dictate what we ought to eat.

She also uses her typical liberal lack of knowledge of economics to suggest that a  10-15% margin (the girls get somewhere between 40 and 60 cents for every $3.50 box of cookies) is somehow a bad thing.  And tries to use that as part of her argument against the cookies.

Oh, and it should go without saying that this arrogant cunt is so scrawny she’d probably snap in half if anyone ever tried to have sex with her.  So I guess  I won’t say “Fuck her”, because I wouldn’t want the poor dear to get hurt.

Tags: Politics, Society by Brian Corbino
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What else could one glean from this?

If he said this to Canada, but not Mexico, it can mean only one thing.  Obama to Mexico: Drop Dead.

Tags: Politics by Brian Corbino
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You might have heard about Obama’s $10 billion plan to bail out people with bad mortgages. I’m not even going to go into the details of it to explain why it’s a colossally bad idea.

Quite simply, it is a tax on those of us who were prudent and bought houses within our means.  I’ll grant that the present situation of multiple defaults is not good for banks and other prospective buyers.  The panic it has created has made it much more difficult for anyone to get a loan to buy a house.  It’s translated into a general pull-back in lending overall.

A lesson needs to be learned by a great many people.  And a government bailout is NOT going to teach that lesson.  It will instead reinforce the bad behavior, guaranteeing more of it in the future.

I maintain that this all started with government pressure to increase home ownership of certain politically-preferred identity groups, regardless of qualification.  The only proper way out of this situation is for people to lose their homes, banks to lose money to defaults, mortgage brokers to lose money to lawsuits from the banks to which they sold mortgages they knew were bad, and congresscritters to lose their seats when the depth of their perfidy is revealed.

I hold out no hope of any of this happening.  Instead, I will be told, at virtual gunpoint, that I am expected to pick up some part of the slack for some idiot that makes less money than I do to help him pay a mortgage on a house four times larger than the one I bought.

I am to be punished for daring to live within my means.

You figure out the lesson that teaches.

Tags: Politics, Society by Brian Corbino
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