“Turning and turning in the widening gyre”

The Second Coming

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity”
–”The Second Coming“, William Butler Yeats

“The missile tests popping up all over Asia should be seen in this light. Everyone’s arming up, starting with Russia. As we speak, Moscow is rearming missile units with Russia’s most advanced ICBM, the Yars missile, which was first tested in 2007. The Topol-M missile, tested in 2004, is already deployed.”
–”Missiles, missiles everywhere” December 4, 2012 by J.E. Dyer, HotAir.com

Mr. Dyer goes on to list missile developments in Asia, including the Nork’s upcoming missile test. Oh, and “Nork” is not racist, btw.

US Army Patriot missile units are in the middle east, defending our allies in the Arabian Gulf. Egypt’s “moderate” president flees the presidential palace because Egyptians don’t like a dictator. India and China are flexing their muscles.

The left, when not plugging their fingers in their ears (that “norks is racist comment is based on a tweet by a leftie with the IQ of a tree stump), they spit on our country:

But will a film like Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” about a specific, recent event — the killing of Osama bin Laden — resonate in the same way that her previous, fictional movie about the Iraq war, “The Hurt Locker,” did with its fearless main character channeling our deepest fears about the price of that misbegotten war?

Oddly, my deepest fears about the war were that (a) the rules of engagement prevented victory, and (b) any gains made would be lost to politics. Both of those fears have been realized.
–”Yet more fear and loathing of American culture (and history) at the LA Times“,by Joel Engel (giving a “reason you suck speech” to the LAT’s Reed Johnson)

The left wants to pretend that the world loves and shares their Marxist worldview. The world is have vs. have not’s and not the real world of hate and power hungry haters.

Either we recognize that there is a bear in the woods or we let the bear attack.

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

We’ll find out soon enough.

RESIGN HOLDER

Eric Holder’s bright idea bears fruit (via Instapundit):

“Washington D.C. – According to credible ATF sources, officials heavily involved in Operation Fast and Furious and named as partially responsible for the program’s failure by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and the House Oversight Committee have been stripped of their government security clearances while some have been fired, demoted, and transferred. Criminal charges are also reportedly pending.“
…
“former ATF Special Agent in Charge of Operations in the West Bill McMahon and former Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division George Gillett have been fired…McMahon and ATF came under heavy fire just a few months ago after it was revealed McMahon had been receiving ATF paid leave while pulling a six figure salary from J.P. Morgan, the same bank that owns the bureau’s credit cards“
–
“Report: Security Clearances Revoked, Criminal Charges Pending For ATF Fast and Furious Officials” Katie Pavlich, Townhall.com.

What the hell? Conflicts of intrest, dead federal agents, many, many dead Mexicans and a country on the brink. Has the media and the administration no shame?

RESIGN HOLDER

Fiscal Cliff

So zerohedge.com published this:

“We realize that this is a painful topic in a country in which the issue of welfare benefits, and cutting (or not) the spending side of the fiscal cliff, have become the two most sensitive social topics. Alas, none of that changes the matrix of incentives for most Americans who find themselves in a comparable situation: either being on the left side of minimum US wage, and relying on benefits, or move to the right side at far greater personal investment of work, and energy, and… have the same disposable income at the end of the day. “

Check out the whole article at the link.

Given that the US of A is broke, what’s going on in politics? Naked protesters want more gov’ment cheese, the Democrats want to play chess and the GOP wants to play dumb and the GOP still wants to give lots of sugar subsidies. The Democrats are not the progressive party they are the stompy hooves party.

We need a fiscal deal.

We as a country can’t afford a military presence in Europe, a tank/APC that’s 80 tons, a welfare state that pays people to sit there and buy Iphones and the farm subsides need to go.

The problem is as old as time: people want to eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner but whine when their waistline expands.

As Insty says, if something can’t go on forever, it won’t.

Either we fix the budget and drive away from the fiscal cliff, or the Democrats will have ruined the economy and the country. They will own it. Bush is not in office, the military is shrinking (so much for the “permanent war economy”). The huge recession, the jobless rate? THEIR. FAULT.

Like Europe, the Democrats promised free stuff and easy living. When it goes south, they will sling blame and attempt to “fix it” with taxes and b.s. economics. Some in the GOP will attempt to do the same. Porkbarrel politicians will still rob peter to pay paul, even in the face of doom.

If the GOP can’t stop them, we need a new GOP (or a new party entirely).

No, we are not Europe

“Sweden has the population of North Carolina, no real linguistic or religious diversity, no experience of chattel slavery or mass immigration (and the children of recent immigrants in Sweden, incidentally, tend to have much higher poverty rates than the native-born), and a culture of Lutheran thrift and prudence that endures even though Lutheranism itself is on life support. America is and always has been a country of much greater diversity and wider cultural extremes, “
–Can We Be Sweden?, Ross Douthat, New York Times.com. Via Insty

“Bush didn’t create the conditions that led to the crash; he inherited them from Bill Clinton, and a large cast of thousands all played their own parts. Republican policies had no role in the crash; and the Democrats’ policies would have had no role, either.”
– “Another place where Republicans keep failing”, Noemie Emery, Washingtonexaminer.com

Most of the US Federal Budget goes to that govm’ent cheese.

Even Sweden or Europe can’t afford to be the European Welfare state:

“But while austerity tears at the funeral industry — and some say the social fabric of the country — it has been a boon for science. Donating a body has become such a popular alternative to the cost of a funeral that some medical schools complain they do not have enough refrigerators to store all of them…”
–Economic Crisis Leaves Hard-Hit Spaniards Scrimping on Funerals, NYT.com

“According to Swedish Statistics, unemployment in May 2011 was 7.9% in the general population and 25.9% amongst 15-25 year olds.”–Wikipeida

U.S. unemployment is at 7.9 percent. What does it all mean?

It means that while some might blame the Cold War, Iraq War, the DoD, Regan, the Bush Presidents, it’s the quest for a socialist state and the welfare state that’s got this country in the shape it’s in. Both parties got Uncle Sam in the housing business. The result was good money was sent to bad loans. We knew this was coming: articles, teevee shows, talking heads talking about the end of cheap money.

We did nothing. George W. Bush tried, but the Congress stopped him.

It would be nice to give a house to everyone. It would be nice to have a guaranteed income. One of my college buddies liked to rant that “in Europe, you were guaranteed an income of $20K a year no matter what.” I wish I could see him now.

The US floated Europe during the Cold War. While American GI’s stood guard, Europeans partied, or in Sweden’s case, stayed neutral. Communism fell, pulling the rug out from under the socialist lie. We were promised a “peace dividend”, that went away with the conflict of the 90′s and 9/11.

But still the advocates of govm’ent cheeze pressed on. From LBJ and his War on Poverty to the Community Reinvestment Act of the Clinton-Era, politicians promised something for nothing. And in times of crisis the cry of “Free stuff!” gets louder. Our economic problems will only get worse as more people and special interests ask for more government money. With money comes power and with power comes attempts at control.

Sadly government control and government money distort the economy. High taxes drain the economy, backing loans mean more bad loans get made. Government steps in to “regulate” things and now we have the mess we are in. Government expanding to meet the needs of an expanding government.

Instapudit says that the answer is no, we can’t be Sweden. We can’t be France in the 70′s, Europe in the 90′s or Japan in the 80′s. No matter how much liberals try to turn the USA into Europe 2.0. All of those economies were founded on lies (and helped by American military and economic might). Some have recovered, others are spiraling downward.

We need to look to an American solution. If people want Sweden, they should move to Sweden.

“Son, all these bad things don’t happen to you because you have bad luck; they happen to you because you’re a dumbass. “

This pic got the dumbass fired

“”She’s devastated,” Stone’s father told the Boston Herald. And her future might be, too.”
– Gawker

” In case you somehow missed the story, Lindsey is the woman who managed to exercise her right to free speech in a manner so incredibly offensive that people across the nation took to social media demanding she be fired from her job. If your love of civil liberties has you feeling sorry for her, you might want to hold back on defending her here.”
– Hotair

This post’s title is a quote from Red Foreman of That 70′ show. He was supposed to be a straw man, the cold dad in contrast to “free spirit” kids of the show. However the Jerkass had a point.

This wasn’t a lapse, she was an adult. Arlington National Cemetery is a war grave. What liberal sites like Gawker forget is that her right to be a dumbass ends where the grave begins. Of course liberals believe that we have a right to act like children (see Fluke, Sandra). This woman is a child in an adult’s body. She worked for an assisted living facility that cares for veterans.

She would be in charge of medication, she was supposed to care for people who can’t care for themselves.

And yet she can’t keep her idiocy to herself, she had to share it with the world.

Dumbass.

Doubling down on stupid: the “cost” of defense part II

Oh Time magazine, you show how stuck in the 1960′s old media is:

The accumulating damage wrought by the permanent war economy started to accelerate in the 1970s, and by 1980, the cancer metastasized: militarization and managerialization began to openly thrive at the expense of the traditional high-wage manufacturing sector, in effect, siphoning off money flows via a combination of government handouts and favorable tax treatment that in effect rewarded both the looting of the tax base and the draining of competitiveness and ingenuity from the civilian manufacturing sector (via the increased defense subsidy, leveraged buyouts, offshoring of jobs, emphasizing short-term focus to pump stock prices, etc.)
…
If you want to learn more about the important but little examined subject of defense dependency, and by extension, learn more about why America is becoming a third world nation, the best introduction is Melman’s* elegantly argued 11-page prologue to Profits Without Production, aptly titled ”How the Yankees Lost Their Know-how.”

Chuck Spinney uses Time’s battleland blog to give cover for the failure of the Democrat’s current wet dream welfare state. The truth as provided by Robert J. Samuelson of the Washington Post (?):

The welfare state’s great contradiction — the reason its politics are so messy — is that what seems good for the individual is not, when multiplied by thousands or millions of cases, always good for society. Politicians appeal to individuals who vote, but in doing so may shortchange the nation. Most obviously: The welfare state’s costs may depress economic growth.

The need is not to dismantle the welfare state but to modernize it gradually, preserving its virtues, minimizing its vices and not doing it abruptly so as to derail the recovery. But first we need to admit it exists.

I take back some of my vitriol I had for WaPo.

It wasn’t the Regan buildup that somewho screwed the US economy. It was guys like Mike Milken, the short sighted labor unions and bad decisions by rock star CEO’s that put American industry on it’s rocky course. Between labor unions asking for the moon, a finance sector looking for a quick buck and CEO’s more concerned about their golden parachute it’s a wonder that Japan didn’t take over the world:

Actually, the Japanese hypergrowth of the ’80s was built on a system of buddy-buddy relationships between various corporations and the government. At the time, this system appeared to be a triumph of modern corporatism and state-directed capitalism, but nowadays, we just call it “crony capitalism”. Predictably, this created an unsustainable economy based on *ahem* loose credit, selling below profit, and toxic loans. At its peak, property values became massively overinflated, to the point where prime real-estate in Tokyo could sell for more than the entire GDP of smaller countries. Once the bubble popped, the economy stagnated, and Japan entered a “lost decade” (or two). Banks became zombie banks, the central bank got its hands stuck in a liquidity trap, and Japanese twenty-somethings faced a fate worse than death: while their fathers had enjoyed lifetime employment at one company, they moved from temp job to temp job, failing to build much in the way of careers. In short, they weren’t half as inhuman as the mythos.

Wow, TvTropes beats liberal bullshit again!

Here is the take away via John Nolte at Breitbart.com:

Naturally, this won’t end with Obama leaving office in 2016. For the media will then write the first draft of history with a flood of books proclaiming Obama’s greatness — regardless of the actual results. And if this first draft of history is based on what we’ve seen throughout his presidency, Obama will be graded on a curve so steep it will require a guard rail.

So, no, Libya will never be properly investigated. Furthermore, no matter how bad the economy gets, Obama will always be credited for saving us from “Bush’s Depression.”

Yeah so the DoD will be gutted, America won’t be able to save South Korea, Taiwan, Israel or the next country old media wants us to save (*cough like Bosnia cough*).

But people will be able to buy Iphones with their EBT. That’s…um…yeah…

The cost of Defense

I admit that I am a Cold War baby. I was born in the 70′s, my father worked as a defense contractor. He met my mother when he was in the Air Force.

But what has the military done for the rest of us?

• The very existence of this Wiki was made possible via the US Department of Defense wanting to create a way for people to gain access to powerful research computers they were geographically separated from—for both purely scientific/academic and military projects. Incidentally, it also protected the flow of information between military installations from attacks (up to and including nuclear weapons). This is what became the Internet. (The World Wide Web and the hypertext system, while still vital, was a civilian thing)
• Your sat-nav. NAVSTAR GPS, developed for the US military and made available for public use after the KAL 007 shoot-down.
• Supersonic flight—first done by the US Air Force.
• The Moon Landings—military-trained pilots. Of the 12 men to walk on the Moon, only one (Harrison Schmidt) had never been a member of the US Armed Forces. Of the remaining 11, only the first (Neil Armstrong) was directly employed by NASA: Armstrong was a retired Navy test pilot, while the remaining 10 were still active-duty Air Force and Navy pilots (4 Air Force, 6 Navy).
• US Space Exploration in general—the Titan space launchers were originally for Superior Firepower.
• Antibiotics. In order to keep troops healthy, the US Military developed a way to mass produce penicillin in World War II to ensure every soldier would have access to some.
• Nylon—originally created for parachutes. Or rather, originally created for women’s stockings, which used the silk needed for parachutes at the beginning of World War II; old stockings were turned into parachutes. And then they ran out of old silk stockings and started making the parachutes out of old nylon stockings and whatever other nylon they could get their hands on. Women held stocking drives to support the war effort.
• Duct tape—originally created as a waterproof packing tape for supply crates being carried ashore in amphibious landings. In the military duct tape is colored olive drab instead of silver, and nicknamed “mile a minute tape” or “ninety mile an hour tape.”
• In response to large natural disasters around the world, when the US sends aid, the first responders are usually the military, who have the logistical capacity to quickly move a lot of supplies and medical personnel, often to territory that doesn’t lend itself easily to conventional civilian transportation due to limitations of local infrastructure (pre-existing limitations or those caused by the disasters themselves). Entire naval battle groups have been rerouted to provide aid, occasionally even as the disaster is in progress.
  On the internet an anecdote exists of a supposed conference listing some of the capabilities of aircraft carriers in disaster situations, including on-board hospitals, cafeterias designed to feed thousands and the ability to both provide electricity to shore based facilities, and provide a landing point for rescue aircraft.

…

• One of the benefits of joining the US military since WWII is having your college paid for by the Montgomery GI bill. One can also get a scholarship by joining the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps, essentially a college level cadet program that leads into a military career as an officer). In addition, each service offers the ability to gain college credit, and in some cases having a degree is a requirement for promotion even for the enlisted. In America joining the military to get an education is a fairly common motivation, helping to make the military an institution of society in many parts of the US.

– TVTropes: “Yanks With Tanks”

“There is no National Defense Service Medal for veterans of the Cold War. What were America’s GIs up to? They went on alert when Egypt claimed the Suez Canal in 1956. They manned missile silos in North Dakota and piloted B-52s aimed at Soviet targets. They crewed nuclear-armed submarines and drove tanks in the Fulda Gap between West and East Germany. Some of what they did is still secret.”
–”A Cold Shoulder for Cold-War Vets“, By BARRY NEWMAN, WSJ.com (via XBradTC)

So out come these idiots from George Mason University:

In 2010, the United States government spent more on national defense ($738.8 billion) than it did
at the height of the Cold War spending in 1986 ($572 billion), when the U.S. was competing in
an arms race against the then superpower U.S.S.R.
…
Once the U.S. embarked upon the path of permanent war, starting with World War II, the result was a permanent war economy. The permanent war economy continuously draws resources into the military sector at the expense of the private economy, even in times of peace. We explore the overlooked costs of this process. The permanent war economy does not just transfer resources from the private economy, but also distorts and undermines the market process which is ultimately responsible for improvements in standards of living.

What? What technology has been suppressed? What has been held back?

Let’s look at the budget:

Yea, less than a quarter even if you add in the “generous” pensions vets get from the Dept. Of Veterans Affairs. Here, here, here and here I destroy the left’s favorite arguments about the military:

1. We don’t need a draft.
2. Pay is not generous.
3. The military is smaller today that it was during the cold war.
4. There is no need to “reform” pay.

What we have here is a failure to adjust for inflation. “1986 ($572 billion)” becomes 1,2 trillion in 2012. 2010′s $738.8 billion becomes $349.9 billion in 1986 dollars. The military is smaller and cheaper than during the cold war.

I suspect that the left hates the military and some want to side with our enemies. The only country that had a military-industrial complex that broke it was the former USSR. A command economy sucks because it has to choose guns over butter. Like North Korea:

North Korea fights global warming!

The “report” from Thomas K. Duncan and Christopher J. Coyne i long on sweeping lefty generalizations and short of specifics(And if TvTropes can call out their bullcrap…). The “military-industrial” complex was a term Eisenhower(R) used to refer to Kennedy(D) and his fear that Kennedy would spend more on defense. Then Vietnam happened under LBJ, man walked on the moon and the DoD had huge growth. I’m stationed on an air base expanded and built upon during the Kennedy era.

I sense bad things for those of us in the service, since this is catnip to the left.

The real war on science

“Remember: People still sell snake oil. They just put pictures of leaves on the bottle now.“
—Cracked, “8 Health Foods That Are Bad For Your Health”

The left loves to shout that it loves science. While it’s true that many college students are lefties, the progressive left HATES science. Starting in the 1960′s, opposition to the Vietnam war, the new Environmental movement and the subversive activities of the Marxist left converged into the “Progressive” movement we now know today.

• MMR vaccine controversy
• Homeopathy, quite popular with the left.
• watch this Star Trek: Deep Space Nine review or this review of the ninth Star Trek film.
• The Outer Limits (1995) and the X-files, both middle fingers to science.
• From TVtropes: All Natural Snake Oil, Science is bad and Science is Wrong
• The works of James Cameron.

The end results is a mistaken believe/worship of anything “natural” and seeing science, the military and “corporations” as the same thing. What does that get the rest of us? Reason.tv has the answer:

Bankrupt

First Detroit, then California, New York (almost) and now the party itself:

The official Federal Election Committee reports for September are out, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s DNC is a complete wreck. The Democrats ended September with cash on hand of $4.6 million, compared to the Republican National Committee’s $82.6 million.

That’s nearly an 18-to-1 cash advantage for Republicans.
– RNC Trounces DNC in Fundraising as Democrat Party Goes Bankrupt (theOtherMcCain.com)

It’s always someone else’s problem. New York was “ungovernable” in the 60′s, 70′s and the 80′s. Detroit lost the autoindustry etc. The common factor was liberals in charge.

Voters put them in office on a platform of “share the wealth” and “stick it to the rich/stand up for the little guy”. The truth is that liberals/Democrats don’t care about the little guy. Corporate cronyism (Like the Hollywood Tax Cuts and loans to failing “green” companies), bad regulations and high taxes drove many cities and now at least one state into a state of shock. It’s not surprising that the Democratic Party is in bad shape financially. You can’t party like a rock star and not pay for it.

If the left loses in November expect the usual suspects to get the blame. Oh the Tea Party and it’s billionaire friends (never mind that many billlionares sent money to the DNC). Foxnews manipulated the public (never mind that cable news and most traditional media’s veiewership is down). Somehow Bush will get some blame.

It’s telling that Newsweek magazine, who said “We’re all Socialists Now” will cease it’s print edition in the new year. The liberal mouthpiece is so unloved that it will share the internet with the very right wing blogs the MSM once derided.

In a perfect world the Democratic part would fade into history, replaced by some new party. They would join the Green Party, the American Communist Party and other groups on the fringe of American politics. That won’t happen for a long time, despite having the left wing lunatics running the asylum. But this should sober up many on the left. Their class warfare socialism message is for sale, but no one’s buying.

UPDATE: Thanks Mr. McCain!

Huh…

“But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed much. Each year, the overwhelming majority of new military recruits are young and male. In that sense, the American military of 2012 still looks a great deal like the American military of the 1970s, the 1940s, the 1860s, or the 1770s. For that matter, it still looks a lot like virtually every group of warriors in virtually every society during virtually every period of human history.

It’s time to question the near-universal assumption that the ideal military recruit is young and male. The nature of warfare has changed dramatically in the last century and the capabilities most needed by the military are less and less likely to be in the exclusive possession of young males. In fact, the opposite may be true: when it comes to certain key skills and qualities likely to be vital to the military in the coming decades, young males may be one of the least well-suited demographic groups.”
–
No Army for Young Men
Soldiers these days need less muscle and more maturity, so why do we still focus on recruiting 18-year-olds?
BY ROSA BROOKS

My least favorite blogger, Ms. Brooks actually hits one out of the park. I was mad at her epic fail as she questioned military pay and benefits. Hey, service members aren’t paid high enough lady!

But she hits the right notes with this piece. For some reason the left wants to screw over our allies. The New York Times wants us to leave Taiwan. War is Boring and the Atlantic want the US to leave Japan.

In the midst of teh peacenik crazies, it’s nice to see someone admit that soldiers are ADULTS.

The US military does not enlist, nor commission children. I’m gonna say that again, the US military does not enlist, nor commission children.

The reason the military recruits in high school is to get young people as they turn 18. Given the 20 year career path many take, that means a young man or woman could enlist at 17 (with their parent’s permission). Starting at E-1, they go up the ranks. The higher ranks are capped per federal regs and age limits, but promotion is based on merit. So a young man or woman can join at 17, get promoted and then retire at the age of 40 if they want. Or they can go to a service academy, ROTC or plain ole’ college then get a commission as an officer. Or they can do the “high school to flight school” and become a warrant officer and fly for the Army. There are officers, warrant officers and enlisted who have 25+ years of service, some with over 40. The point is that high school age Americans had a place in the military of the past.

Flash forward to the 21st century, those over 17, hell those up to 40 can join. Yes, a career in the military is hard on the body. That said, those fresh out of high school have a place. Instead of drinking and parting their way through teen years mark II, they could get a job defending their country. But being 20, 23, or 33 doesn’t make them unfit. If anything older service members bring skills and experience into the mix.

The myth that junior enlisted are “children” dates back to conflicts of old. Yes, even up to Vietnam, the military and civilian leaders kept tossing bodies at the problem. Now we live in the era that makes Vietnam’s tech level look like the Napoleonic Wars. More young soldiers have families, more junior enlisted are older than 20. The draft should go the way of segregation, “don’t ask, don’t tell” and vacuum tubes.

Her blog is the usual leftist screeching that war is too easy, somehow. I applaud her for saying that soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines ARE NOT children. It’s time everyone realizes that. All Americans over 17 should get calls from recruiters.