My thesis, which I posted here in August, looks better every day. The argument is brief, though the entry is long because of the ever-expanding list of links to supporting material. The recent infighting between Comey and Brennan supports my view that Brennan was the ringleader and Comey was nothing more than what he has always been: an opportunistic suck-up. In any event, the bottom line — a deep-state conspiracy against Trump, before and after the election — looks more like the truth with every new revelation about the Obama administration’s shenanigans.
Author: Loquitur Veritatem
See https://politicsandprosperity.com/about/.
The Arrogance of Do-Gooders
They assume moral superiority.
They presume to impose their version of morality on others.
They care not that their actions are patently self-serving and destructive of the trust that binds people.
The Alabama Abortion Law
This newly enacted law is a likely vehicle by which to bring the issue of abortion back to the Supreme Court. If the issue does return to the Court, Roe v. Wade could be overturned if at least five justices follow the logic prescribed in a post that I wrote before Alabama acted.
I fear, however, that Roberts or Kavanaugh (or both) might try to assuage the left — which is a futile and therefore stupid thing to do. But it would be in the long and sad tradition of conservative cuckoldry to the left.
A Nation of Enemies
The title of this post is hyperbolic, but it is nearer today’s truth than was Lincoln’s assertion at the end of his first inaugural address:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
The United States of 1861 was genetically and culturally close-knit by comparison to the genetically and culturally fractured nation of today. It is impossible to turn the clock back. We must accept the United States for what it is — a fractured nation dominated by a powerful, intrusive central government.
That government’s vast power, by the way, stems largely from Lincoln’s prosecution of the Civil War. The North’s victory in that war paved the way for the demise of the constitutional order — a strictly limited central government responsible to States that still possessed most governmental power. Decentralization made it easier for citizens to control the degree to which governments could prey on them. And it made voting with one’s feet a real option, even in that age when inter-State mobility was an arduous and risky proposition.
End of a Generation
The so-called greatest generation has died out in my family, as it soon will die out across the land. The recent death of my mother-in-law at age 98 removed from the scene the last of my wife’s and my parents and their siblings: 26 of them in all.
Their birth years ranged from 1903 to 1922. There were, oddly, 18 males as against only 8 females, and the disparity held for all four sets of siblings:
7 to 3 for my mother’s set
2 to 1 for my father’s set
5 to 3 for my wife’s mother’s set
4 to 1 for my wife’s father’s set.
Only one of the 26 died before reaching adulthood (my father’s younger brother at 18 months). Two others (also males) died relatively young. One of my mother’s brothers died just a few weeks before his 40th birthday as a result of a jeep accident (he was on active duty in the Coast Guard). One of my wife’s mother’s brothers died at age 48 as a long delayed result of a blow to the head by a police truncheon.
The other 15 males lived to ages ranging from 65 to 96, with an average age at death of 77 years. The 8 females lived to ages ranging from 69 to 99, with an average age at death of 87 years. The longest-lived of the males was the only one to pass the 90 mark. Four of the females lived into their 90s, dying at ages 91, 96, 98, and 99.
All of the 25 who reached adulthood also married. Only two of them had a marriage end in divorce. All of them were raised in near-poverty or in somewhat comfortable circumstances that vanished with the onset of the Great Depression. All of them worked hard, whether in the home or outside of it; none of them went on welfare; most of the men and two of the women served in uniform during World War II.
Thus passeth a generation sui generis.
Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley,
The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?
All, all, are sleeping on the hill….Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith,
The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?
All, all, are sleeping on the hill.Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology (“The Hill“)
Angry Females, White and Other
Angry white males are meek and mild by comparison. Need I add that the angry females are leftists?
The Price of a Low Unemployment Rate …
… is worse service. It figures, doesn’t it? One of the things that firms must do to boost output is to hire people with lower qualifications than previous hires. That’s good for dumber and less-educated workers. But it’s frustrating for consumers who encounter them in stores and over the phone. The solution, from my perspective as a consumer, is to shop where automation reigns. My Amazon membership of 21 years becomes daily more valuable to me.
“Liberalism”: Trying to Have It Both Ways
“Liberals” are loath to face realities like these:
Handouts to the homeless encourage homelessness.
Disability benefits yield more “disabled” persons.
Softer punishments mean more crime.
Higher tax rates stunt economic growth …. the list is almost endless.
The “liberal” program is the triumph of hope over common sense. It is and always has been a recipe for social and economic disaster.
“Science Is Real”
Yes, it is. But the real part of science is the never-ending search for truth about the “natural” world. Scientific “knowledge” is always provisional.
The flower children — young and old — who display “science is real” posters have it exactly backwards. They believe that science consists of provisional knowledge, and when that “knowledge” matches their prejudices the search for truth is at an end.
Provisional knowledge is valuable in some instances — building bridges and airplanes, for example. But bridges and airplanes are (or should be) built by allowing for error, and a lot of it.
Peak Civilization
The fate of most human endeavors is that they reach a peak of attainment, which is then followed by a decline due to excess on the one hand and neglect on the other hand. “Classical” music is a favorite example of mine. The form peaked around the turn of the 20th century, then went over the top into — variously — cacophony, atonality, and arrythmic confusion. The best of contemporary “classical” music is merely derivative of the form as it was at its peak.
So it is with myriad endeavors, the most important of which is the endeavor of rational inquiry. In the West, rational inquiry seems to have peaked in the early 1960s. I needn’t remind you of the subsequent descent: mobs, riots, the din of “entertainment”, quasi-religious movements from hippiedom to “climate change”, and on and on into the night.
It all makes me glad that I came of age in the 1950s, when civilized discourse was still possible and scientists were dedicated to the pursuit of truth, not the projection of their hopes, fears, and feelings.
Liar’s Row
Alger Hiss
The Rosenbergs
Anita Hill
Tawana Brawley
Christine Blasey Ford
Jussie Smollett
And many more … all leftists or tools of the left.
Sexism
Nothing tops strident, anti-male rhetoric for sheer sexism. A woman who believes that men are unnecessary is the intellectual equivalent of the arch-environmentalist who would eradicate mankind (himself excluded no doubt) to “save” the planet. Get a real job.
Libertarianism’s Fundamental Flaw
It seeks to “liberate” mankind by obliterating the very rules of behavior than enable mutually beneficial coexistence based on trust, respect, and forbearance.
Libertarianism is therefore akin to leftism, but naively so. Leftists stand ready to pick up the pieces after they have destroyed the social and economic fabric of civilization. Libertarians will simply wander around in a daze, wondering what happened to the bulwarks of their comfortable existence — until they are liquidated by leftists.
The Pretense of Knowledge
Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of science and disciplines that pretend to be scientific (e.g., economics) will appreciate the shallowness and inaccuracy of humans’ “knowledge” of nature and human nature — from the farthest galaxies to our own psyches. Anyone, that is, but a pretentious “scientist” or an over-educated ignoramus.
Unfair Play
When your opponent aims to win, at all costs (especially yours), the rules go by the boards. If you obey them, he will not. And if he wins, you can be sure that he will discard them (in your case, at least). The only way to preserve the rules of fair play (constitutionalism, due process, etc.) is to win. And then, by all means, enforce the rules, especially those that punish treachery.
“Greed”
The envious whiner, know-nothing academic, mindless mediacrat, and pandering politician mistake ambition, accomplishment, and reward for “greed”. Unless, of course, it’s the ambition, accomplishment, and reward of the envious whiner, know-nothing academic, mindless mediacrat, and pandering politician.
Consistency
Informed consistency is the angel of productive minds.
“Democratic Socialism” and “Social Justice”
“Democratic socialism” means rule by the mob (demos) for the purpose of expropriating the wealth and earnings of others. “Social justice” — the excuse for “democratic socialism” — is a slippery slogan that appeals to the envious and ignorant. It enables the power-mad to do great harm to the social and economic fabric of the nation.
The harm to the social fabric has been done, and probably can’t be undone. The economic fabric has suffered great but not irreversible harm, which can still be undone — but not if the central government succumbs to the siren call of “social justice” and the superficial appeal of “democratic socialism”.
Rules
There are three types of rule:
1. Social norms that arise from and serve voluntary, beneficial social and economic intercourse. (The Golden Rule is a general statement of such a norm.)
2. State-enforced rules that apply social norms (e.g., the prohibition of murder, theft, battery, etc.)
3. State-enforced rules that are contrived to serve particular interests, including but far from limited to the power-lust of state actors. Such rules go far beyond the scope of social norms, and often contravene and subvert them. (These rules are contrived in accordance with meta-rules that govern the operations of the state.)
What’s Wrong With Baseball?
A short list:
Long commercial breaks.
Too many players on a team, especially pitchers.
Too many pitching changes.
Small playing fields.
Butterfly-net gloves.
Loud music (sic) and exploding scoreboards.
Too many young kids in the stands.
Roaming concessionaires clogging aisles and blocking views.
Hairy players.
Interviews with players (especially hairy ones).
Interviews with managers and coaches.
More than one announcer in the booth.
Night games.
Small strike zones.
Politics and Prosperity 