Thursday, November 17, 2011

Now the Same as Ever

Back in early 2011 world famous writer David Mamet wrote a book titled “The Secret Knowledge”. Mr. Mamet is a Pulitzer Prize winner and up until the writing of a political play and then writing of Secret Knowledge to defend it, a darling of the Left.

I just today finished reading “the Road to Serfdom” by F.A. Hayek and picked the next book off the pile. It was “The Secret Knowledge”. Within the first 4 pages I realized the two books were not separated by philosophy but only time hence style. Hayek wrote during WWII nearly 75 years ago.

The styles of course vary widely as well. Hayek was an economist and Mamet is a playwright. Right off the bat Mamet claims he had a change of political heart after reading “The Road to Serfdom”. The book Secret Knowledge is about his transformation. By political I don’t mean party affiliation but which side of the age old divide between Left and Right he wanted to be on.

By page four I came across this great line.
“But the fiction of top-down Government Control, of a Command Economy, is, at essence, like a Reality Show, which is to say, a fraud. The Good Causes of the Left may generally be compared to NASCAR; they offer the diversion of watching things go excitingly around in a circle, getting nowhere.”

I’m tempted to add that ultimately, inevitably the race will end in a crash.
Kind of reminds me of the “Budget Battle”; the eventual wreck being the economy.

Mamet has come to terms with the reality of the world as being made up of cause and effect, and that there is a cost to everything and that cost is to be born with limited coinage. I’m reminded of the saying Anthony Hopkins made in the movie “Hearts in Atlantis” about reality and wishing otherwise. He said “and wishing cannot make it so.”

I remember too the anger and vitriol which characterized the attacks upon David Mamet.

The same anger the Left uses on any who disagree with them, the full weight of which is especially reserved for those the Left feels they are fighting for. Women and minorities (think Palin and Judge Thomas); also in that mix are those who they decide are traitors such a Mamet.

I’m continually amazed as I read about past conservatives at the similarities of the past with the future. Milton Friedman in his forward to Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom” reminds us that “Freedom has to be fought for over and over again”. These thoughts of Freedom and Capitalism vs Big Government have been with us since there was politics. Only the names of the jargon have changed. Milton Friedman wrote that 50 years ago.

He and Hayek are both now dead.

Ronald Reagan in more recent times reminded us that Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.

The battles continue to be fought only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. Now the Same as Ever.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Victory and Denile


Wow what a mess the Obama team is in now compared to where they were almost two years ago. Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal – Potomac Watch.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204358004577030481545613916.html
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Double Wow. Looks like Virginia in which Obama did so well two years ago has pulled a Michigan. By that I mean the Republicans increased their majority in the State House and took over the Senate. Similar to Mi. accept the House and Senate were vice versa.

It wasn’t for lack of money or effort by Obama and his Campaign either. A quote from the article.

“The Obama campaign has held some 1,600 events in the state in the last half-year alone. Only last month Mr. Obama hopped a three-day bus trip through Virginia and North Carolina. Obama officials keep flocking to the state, and Tuesday's election was to offer the first indication of how these efforts are succeeding.”

The quotes from the article are just too juicy to ignore. Try this one on about the Dems gerrymandering like crazy and still to no avail.

“…given that Virginia Democrats this spring crafted an aggressive redistricting plan that had only one aim: providing a firewall against a Republican takeover of that chamber. Even that extreme gerrymander didn't work.”

I apologize for quoting so much from the article but this is all good stuff. Remember last year in the off year upset elections of the Governorships of NJ (Christie) and Virginia (McDonnell)? Well it wasn’t a fluke, this time all the incumbent Republicans won in the House and Senate in Virginia. See quote from the article below.

“Every Republican incumbent—52 in the House, 15 in the Senate—won. The state GOP is looking at unified control over government for only the second time since the Civil War. This is after winning all three top statewide offices—including the election of Gov. Bob McDonnell—in 2009, and picking off three U.S. House Democrats in last year's midterms.”

It doesn’t take a fortune teller to know that heads on the Obama Campaign are going to roll. From the past we see how fond the President is of throwing people under the bus.

I wonder how they will spin this so it is really Bush’s fault.

Oh what a joke he is.

I Almost feel sorry for the guy. But then I remember the hundreds of millions his campaign has and the millions more of tax payer’s money funneled into ACORN like Acronyms plus all the Union boots on the ground and I start to lose my sense of pity especially in Union centric states like Mi. Where are the Republican counterweights to those union boots/thugs?

The Republicans need to take what Christie and Mc Donnell are giving them and follow it in spades.

Still I love to gloat. Can’t help myself.

Victory !!!!!

What a nice thing to see after the apparent softening in Ohio and the re-call of Paul Scott in Michigan’s state house.

So what does our President do??? How does he pick up the reins of government to show the American people his firm grasp on leadership and the economy.??? Well he leaves Dodge/Washington on a foreign tour. This article in Politico titled “Obama spurns Congress for overseas” by Carrie Budoff Brown says it all.
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68168.html
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I might ask, what do you do to combat a do nothing Congress ??? President Obama seems to think the answer is Nothing, or perhaps do nothing better. Boy now that is leadership. What was that about the cart before the horse?

Or What about that river in Egypt called Denial


Regards, Live Dangerously Be a Conservative