Democratic Dialog

The following poem was entered into the Congressional Record in 1949 by Representative Clarence J. Brown (R - Ohio). He described the author only as "a prominent Democrat of the State of Georgia"

Democratic Dialog

Father, must I got to work?
No, my lucky son.
We're living now on Easy Street
On dough from Washington

We've left it up to Uncle Sam
So don't get exercised
Nobody has to give a damn -
We've all been subsidized

But if Sam treats us all so well
and feeds us milk and honey,
Please, daddy, tell me what the hell
He's going to use for money.

Don't worry bub, there's not a hitch
In this here noble plan -
He simply soaks the filthy rich
And helps the common man.

But, father, won't there come a time
When they run out of cash
And we have left them not a dime
When things will go to smash?

My faith in you is shrinking, son,
You nosy little brat;
You do too much thinking, son,
To be a Democrat.

Colonel Jeff Cooper's Rules for Life

Understand the problem. Pull your weight.
Appreciate!
Be completely honest and trustworthy in all things.

Cracks in China's economy?

Saw this:

One of the world’s few remaining real estate bubbles finally seems to be losing air. Real estate transactions have slowed so quickly that in the last two weeks, brokerages across China have laid off thousands of brokers and closed hundreds of offices.

So Europe is basically broke and fighting over who will pay for what. America is broke, with the Fed having to buy up treasury bonds because nobody else will. China is an export-based economy selling basically to America and Europe, but has also been artificially tinkering with their monetary value. I think China has a lot of room to grow, but that their command economy has let them to seriously misallocate resources. Is the faltering of their real estate market the first sign of worse to come?

VDH does it again

Victor David Hanson is becoming my go-to guy for coherent historical perspective on things. Here he discusses the various "Occupy" protests, and ropes in the Tea Party for good measure:

For the last six decades, constant technological breakthroughs and growing government subsidies have given a billion and a half Westerners lifestyles undreamed of over the last 2,500 years.

{snip}

None of these protesters discuss the effects of 2 billion Chinese, Indian, Korean, and Japanese workers’ entering and mastering the globalized capitalist system, and making things more cheaply and sometimes better than their Western counterparts.

{snip}

Since 1970 there has been a historic, multitrillion-dollar transfer of capital from the West to the Middle East, South America, Africa, and Russia through the importation of high-cost oil and gas.

None seem to grasp the significance of the fact that, meanwhile, hundreds of millions of Westerners were living longer and better, retiring earlier, and demanding ever more expensive government pensions and health care.

Something had to give.

And now it has. Federal and state budgets are near bankrupt. Countries like Greece and Italy face insolvency. The U.S. government resorts to printing money to service or expand entitlements. Near-zero interest rates, declining home prices, and huge losses in mutual funds and retirement accounts have crippled the middle classes.

Interesting times, folks, interesting times.

The natural condition

I heard Glenn Beck opine on the radio this morning that the natural condition of governments relative to their people is tyranny, and that we are living in an exception. I think he's right.

Mark Stein at National Review said:
"The Libyan War never caught the imagination of the American public, even though you’re paying for most of it. But in Tehran and Moscow and Beijing they’re following it. And they regard it as a useful preview of the post-American world. Absent American will, even a tinpot desert drag queen can stand up to the great powers and survive. The lesson of Obama’s half-hearted little war isn’t lost in the chancelleries of America’s enemies"

I think that the nations of the world have been in awe of the dominant military powers on the planet for the past 60 years, first the Soviet Union and the US, an later just the US, and basically not willing to make too much trouble lest one or the other of those powers take notice and crush them. Lets call it Pax Americana

This global "vacation from history" has, in my opinion, allowed us to develop worldwide food and trade networks, as well as a globe-spanning financial network the likes of which has never been seen before.

But I think that the world is now reverting to its more natural state, with regional powers duking it out and their populations bearing the brunt of the suffering. The global trade networks will no longer function as smoothly as they once did, nor will the worldwide financial networks. Populations that are used to being able to (and therefore dependent upon) getting food from multiple sources across the globe will be disappointed.

Great Line - good observation too

From The Daily Bayonet:

"Branson (owner of Virgin Enterprises, which includes Virgin Air, Virgin Records, etc) is just the latest rich activist to flee high taxes. Bono and U2 quit Ireland without a backward glance at the revenue hole the move left for their countrymen. It turns out that rich activists are rich first, activists second."

Wow, go figure. I suppose it supports the idea that even liberals share in human nature, focusing on themselves and their families first, others second. No comment on how that reality reflects on their professed value system.