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Everything You Know about the Great Depression…

when old coots should be in bed

In the tough economic times in which we live, let’s hope that the government doesn’t exacerbate the problem by meddling.

Oh, wait, too late for that…thanks, Mr. Prez and Congress (he said, dripping with sarcasm).

Two Positive Notes on a Night of Audacity

when old coots should be in bed

Prop 8, banning “gay marriage”, has passed in California.

The Senate will almost certainly not have 60 Democrats in it, giving Republicans filibuster power to stop the worst of the bad legislation that is likely to come at us like a flood. There are four Senate races undecided, according to RealClearPolitics, as I write this, but the Republicans lead in all four. In Georgia, the only question is whether Saxby Chambliss will get the 50% + 1 needed to forestall a runoff election. Yes, I did vote Libertarian there; if there’s a runoff, I’ll vote for Chambliss. In Minnesota, Norm Coleman leads that goofball Al Franken…”Senator Al Franken”, wow…words fail me…by a slim margin; a recount is likely, but Coleman appears to have survived. Gordon Smith is narrowly leading his opponent in Oregon, but that’s with only 75% of the votes counted, so that could go Dem. And that Republican clown Ted Stevens is somehow ahead in Alaska. Fine…let him win the seat, and then when he goes to jail, Sarah can appoint someone to fill his seat. Hmmm…Sarah herself? Hmmm…

“Spread the Wealth Around”: I Don’t THINK So…

when old coots should be in bed

I did my patriotic duty yesterday. It took me exactly three hours from the time I entered the Early Voting line until the time I emerged from the building, having held my nose and voted, not so much FOR John McCain as against the woefully inexperienced Barack Obama and the “spread the wealth around” economic ideas that could send America hurtling ever faster toward the moral chaos known as “socialism”. Not that I don’t think we won’t end up somewhere in that neighborhood anyway; this anti-capitalistic, anti-American bailout may just be the tip of the iceberg that’ll sink the Titanic of USAmerica.

But it’s particularly ironic that my reading material while in line was a classic work that I’m re-reading (something I, to my great discredit, almost never do: re-read a book for a second time). The book is entitled Idols for Destruction, by Herbert Schlossberg. Chances are you’ve never heard of it, which makes it one of the best books you’ve never read. Written in 1983, the weakness of having dated examples is more than made up for by the prescience of this man, writing a quarter-century ago, on the subject of “Christian Faith and its Confrontation with American Society”. The book is so titled because Schlossberg uses the biblical terminology of idolatry to describe what is taking place in our society, and it couldn’t be more apt. I felt, as I read today on the Idol of Mammon, as if he were writing in response to so many of today’s headlines including, but not limited to, Obamessiah’s above-mentioned comment, the bailout, inflation, you name it. Unfortunately, this book is out of print; you can get it on Amazon.com and probably pay a price that is a fraction of its value. I know I’m sometimes given to hyperbolic overstatement, but this book is clearly one of the ten best I’ve read in my life. I can’t imagine a Christian reading this book and then turning around and voting for Obama (then again, it’s tough enough to imagine a Christian reading this book and voting for McCain, but the choices this year aren’t exactly appealing, are they?).

At any rate, I began this post in order to quote a little from the book; I’m seriously considering scanning this book page by page and saving it as a PDF document, so as to be able to share it with friends (if it’s out of print, I’m not depriving the author of a sale, now am I?). Anyway, speaking of the Idol of Mammon, Schlossberg writes,

“As we see below the surface of the modern political-economic system, it becomes clear that to associate redistribution with the doing of justice is a sham. The principle that determines the actions of both those who seek money and favors from the state and those who distribute them is self-interest. Justice has little to do with the process, except to serve as a cover…in our society, people call the arrangement that meets their demands “just”. When Irving Kristol, editor of The Public Interest, asked a number of outspoken proponents of greater equalization of income to describe for publication an income-distribution curve that was just, he could find nobody who would accept the challenge. That is an impossible task, because redistribution is determined by the principle of interest, not that of justice. Some want resources to be taken from the prosperous and given to those who are not. Others want the welfare cheats off the rolls but are happy with federal schemes that confer privileges on themselves or that restrict their competition. Justice is a stranger to all of this.
“Since government produces no goods, it can distribute only what it takes from others. This process is indistinguishable from theft. When an election, or in some countries a coup, changes the identity of plunderers and plundered, yesterday’s injustice becomes today’s justice. In a redistributive society, the law is a thief.”

It Ain’t Free Speech, Preach…

when old coots should be in bed

Fuzzy thinking has once again invaded the pulpits of America, this time thanks to an initiative by the Alliance Defense Fund.

Pastors Defy the IRS

Wrongly, the Alliance Defense Fund claims to be “Reclaiming pastors’ constitutional right to speak Truth from the pulpit”. Sorry, guys, I have that freedom already, thank you very much. The main reason I don’t endorse a candidate from the pulpit of my church is that I understand what the pulpit is for, and it’s not engaging in partisan politics. When I step out of that pulpit, and have private conversations with my parishioners, and I’m asked for whom I’m voting, I have no problem answering the question (it’s already happened twice this election season, and I’ve answered straightforwardly and unapologetically). But the threat of losing a tax exemption has nothing to do with why I’m not telling people, from the pulpit, to vote for John McCain; it’s because I understand my calling to preach the Word of God from the pulpit, and not to allow politics to encroach upon that, that I refuse to endorse any candidate in that forum.

Though I’m no defender of the U.S. government typically, it’s only reasonable that if the government is going to exempt churches from paying taxes (as it should, I believe), then there are some very minimum standards to which churches ought to be held. This is an appropriate one. Pastors can say what they want–they have the freedom to say anything from the pulpit–but they should also understand that with freedom comes responsibility.

Root is Probably Right

when old coots should be in bed

Just Say “No!”

It’s really hard for the average taxpayer to know which side to come down on vis a vis this bailout, but it isn’t hard to see where the blame lies–it may not end with, but it certainly begins with, the government–and if that’s the case, then trusting the government to do the right/smart thing is a fool’s errand.

Will Keith Olbermann Keep Lying?

when old coots should be in bed

And the New York Times, and Margaret Carlson, and Linton Weeks, and Al Hunt, and ThinkProgress…now that the truth is out about Sarah Palin and her alleged “budget cuts” regarding Alaska Special Olympics.

Only in liberal La-La Land could a 10% increase in funding equal a “cut”.

And we wonder why we’re in the spending mess we’re in…

Thanks, regular commenter Warren, for finding time in your non-life to write this piece (here’s betting Kengor did all the work…).

Some Democrats in Full-Scale Dumb-a-Thon

when old coots should be in bed

As if some of Joe Biden’s recent comments weren’t buffoonish enough…

Did you catch what he said?

“Part of what a leader does is to instill confidence and to demonstrate what he or she knows what he’s talking about…”

Hey, that sounds great! So, do you know what you’re talking about, Joe? Why, he illustrated this statement by referring to what Franklin D. Roosevelt did when the stock market crashed!!! Sure! We all know what he did, Joe; as you said, he got on television and…wait…just a minute…Stock Market crash, October 1929, during the first year of Herbert Hoover’s presidency, some 3+ years before FDR became president. Oh, and the TV thing? Well, uh…according to Wikipedia, “There were only a few dozen stations operating at the end of the decade”. Oh, did I mention? “The decade” in question was the 1940s!!!

As I was saying, if Joe the Clown weren’t enough, we’re now treated to the musings of U.S. Representative Alcee Hastings.

Florida congressman points to Palin to rally Jews to Obama

What the…ummm…honorable…ummm…congressman said was,

“If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention. Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.”

Imagine a Republican race-baiting that shamelessly; he’d be crucified. Since Alcee Hastings has the right, “enlightened” politics, he’ll get a nice pass from the sycophant mainstream media, I’m willing to bet. Bigotry like this is fine if you’re liberal, apparently.