Archive for August, 2009
Podcast: Chuck DeVore On Environmentalism Gone Wild [Hello Cap-n-Trade], I.O.U.’s, Prison Release & Other California Craziness–Like Barbara Boxer
Thursday, August 20th, 2009Don’t look now, but while the citizenry wrestles over the notion of Health Care legislation and what that all means, a big (literally bigger) pile of odious legislation sits in committee waiting to enslave Americans with taxes and limited lifestyle: Cap-n-Trade. To understand just how awful Cap-n-Trade is, one only has to look at California to catch a clue.
And how IS California these days? Well, the air is cleaner, which is nice, but unemployment is approaching 15-20% generally and nearly 40% in the agricultural industry. In addition, taxes are going up, prison populations are being released, I.O.U.s are being given, and the state has a prohibitive cost of living associated with less jobs.
Can you say misery?
And yet, the very elements that made this mess, sit in the Cap-n-Trade bill. That bill, by the writers admission, will cause unemployment to increase. There is a provision for more welfare to be paid for those who would be put out of work. It’s a mess of a bill, that would make failed California the model for the nation.
Chuck DeVore talks about all of these problems and the solutions. One solution is to start voting conservatives into office. Barbara Boxer wants to visit upon the nation the Great Depression circumstances now in California. She needs to go.
Chuck DeVore will be challenged in the primary by Carly Fiorina. Voters need to look closely at this woman. Fired from HP, fired from the McCain campaign, not interested enough (or too worried about the political implications) to make a stand and vote, Ms. Fiorina has a couple things the Republican leadership love: money and name recognition. Since America is not yet a Fiefdom, it would seem that ideals and character should matter too. I hope California voters pay attention to this race.
Listen to it all on the podcast. It’s informative.
Melissa’s show can also be found on RFC Radio every Monday and Wednesday night at 10:00 pm Eastern.
To subscribe on iTunes, just click here!
When Melissa isn’t on the radio, you can find her at melissaclouthier.com and on Twitter. Her username is MelissaTweets.
– Also, don’t forget to check out our other shows on Take That! –
*** click here to grab the latest Steve Schippert Show ***
*** click here to grab the latest Brass Balls Radio Episode ***
*** click here to grab the latest Raisin’ Hale show ***
AIP Column: Americans Hold Their Breath
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009In my latest AIP column, I imagine the American public watching a disaster movie and being helpless to stop the disaster:
It’s not being said out loud much, but many think it: It was a big mistake to give the government into the hands of Democrats in the House, the Senate and the Executive Branch. After their years of bitching, and crying out about government waste, irresponsibility, wars, etc., the American people gave the Democrats a chance to govern. President Obama promised to cut waste. He promised to a new era of responsibility. He promised transparency. President Obama promised change. Well, the change that is here is not exactly change for the better. The change seems to be more of the past, but much worse. The government is spending more, has less to show for it, is as opaque as ever, has taken over major businesses, banks are still failing, the unemployment rate is scarily high, wars still rage, realities like Gitmo still exist, state governments are issuing IOUs, and now, the government that has messed up the housing, banking and other industries now wants to control health care and energy. The public wants none of this.
Please go read the whole thing. I don’t think any Obama voter imagined his governance would be this way. And I think most McCain voters knew that the tax and spend ways under the guise of doing what’s good for you is exactly how it would be. Now, all are helpless to stop it.
Axelrod: Latest In Obama’s Culture of Corruption
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009Have you read Michelle Malkin’s book yet? If not, you should. And, in case you missed it, listen to my podcast interview with Michelle about her #1 New York Times best-selling book.
David Axelrod has long history, intertwined with Michelle Obama, of corrupt dealings through his consulting. Now, he’s handling those dirty dealings from the White House. Michelle says:
Hey, Bobby Gibbs: Tell us again. Who’s funded by the evil health care industry? And who’s motives should you be questioning now? According to Bloomberg, AKPD continues to work with Axelrod “on ’strategy and research’ for the Democratic National Committee.” Why no full disclosure until now? Why didn’t Axelrod recuse himself from his Obamcare lobbying TV appearances given the strong, interest-conflicted odor emanating from 1600 Pennsylvania?
There will be more of this and the press will continue to demonstrate a breath-taking lack of curiosity. Curiosity and questioning motives only works on Republicans, it seems.
Killing Real Estate & Driving Down The Market: The Law Of Unintended Consequences
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Where I live, there has been no real estate bubble. Nothing has burst. Still, a new law was put into place that forces banks to draw a name randomly to appraise homes. So, newbie appraisers are coming into neighborhoods where they have no knowledge and giving very under-valued appraisals.
The result? Deals have been scuttled, home prices are being forced to drop and home owners are losing equity.
And this problem was all a result of unintended consequences: The government inserted themselves into a situation trying to “help” and ended up harming the very ones they were trying to protect.
Health Care Summary
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009While politicians and policy wonks get lost in minutiae, it’s important to remember the essential truths about the health care debate:
1. The Democrats control the House, the Senate & the Executive Branch. They can do whatever they want. Republicans are window dressing designed to give political cover for bad policy.
2. America cannot afford a new entitlement program and that’s what any Democratic plan will be.
3. To pay for this new program, taxes will rise.
4. To cut costs, rationing will be the solution.
5. The fight is between Progressives who want Government Run Health Care and Moderate Democrats who know they will never be re-elected if they vote for this mess. Thus the talk of “intraparty reconciliation“.
6. This is a Democrat problem. The Republicans should not give wrong-headed Democrats political cover by coming up with some half-assed, moronic legislation that solves nothing.
I am sick of the health care debate. I wonder if under Obama’s plan, there will be a drug that helps people deal with stupid politicians. I bet they give out free Xanax.
Why Liberals Don’t Support A Burqa Ban
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009It would make sense that Feminists would oppose burqas because they are a tool of oppression for women: that is, burqas are specifically made to make a woman persona non grata. A burqa’s very purpose is to hide the woman and make her invisible as an individual. She is just not there.
But feminists, and liberals in general support the burqa. The woman has a “right to choose”. Just as liberals support abortion even though it’s used as a tool for gender genocide (gendercide?) against women in places like India and China where boys are valued over girls.
In both cases, gender suppression is valued over a misguided notion of “choice”. The baby obviously doesn’t have a choice. And the women in the Islamist cultures have little choice. People who know the religion know this:
“We don’t want to see burqas in Denmark. We simply can’t accept that some of our citizens walk around with their faces covered,” Naser Khader, a Danish member of parliament of Syrian-Palestinian extraction who was recently appointed spokesman for integration issues for the Conservative Party, told the newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
In comments published on Sunday, Khader said the burqa is un-Danish and oppressive towards women and should be completely banned. He and his party say that what people do in their own homes is their business, but as soon as they walk into the public domain, one should be able to see their faces.
And interestingly, supposedly chauvinistic right leaning politicians see the problem with burqas:
Denmark is not the only European country where politicians have proposed a ban on burqas. French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently said that the burqa was “not welcome” in France, while France’s urban regeneration minister, Fadela Amara, told the Saturday edition of the Financial Times that she was in favor of the burqa “not existing in my country.” The Netherlands has also considered a ban on burqas.
The logic that liberals employ to support abortion and burqas actually encourages oppression of the weak and helpless. And the weak and helpless are often women and children.
So, the “right” to abort, the right to wear whatever one wants, obliterates the rights of the unborn child and the Muslim woman. A non-existent right becomes a way to oppress the very ones liberals wish to liberate. Isn’t it always “for the children” and “women are 2nd class citizens”? With liberals, children are expendable and women against oppressive burqas should just shut up.
Twitter, Blog Commenting & Doc Weasel: Thy Name Is Parody
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009I got this comment from my post on Twitter from famed blogger Doc Weasel [language and link warning: he likes using bad words and images might not be safe for work]:
ugh. twitter is for twits, but only because of the fortuitous syllable synchronicity. In reality, it’s for self-absorbed douchebags. There have always been people who think they need to say every stupid thing that comes into their heads: now we have a means to broadcast it immediately to a group of other smug douchebags.
No one is that witty. No one has that many intelligent, important things to say. And I refuse to believe anyone is bettered by reading any of this useless tripe.
Thankfully, it’s a trope so stupid and useless it’s become risible and passe even as it’s booming. I give it another half a year before the sheer idiocy of “tweeting” your own deep thoughts incessantly is reduced to that circle of people who are oblivious to their own pathetic boobery and the well-deserved ridicule of the rest of us.
Blogging and commenting (not excluding this one) brought writing to it’s least well-thought out, unimportant and retarded level. Well, tweeting has managed to reduce writing to the cyber-equivalent of instantaneously disseminating your brain farts far and wee.
Anyone who sends out twitters is a pathetic douche. Anyone who willingly subjects themselves to twitters is a f*cking idiot.
Who is the bigger douche? The writer of the “retarded” post or the douche who comments on the douche-baggy post? One would think a non-douche bag would have more valuable time than to waste it on an unimportant and retarded blog post.
As to the substance, I recommend watching this video:
Like it or not, blogs and social media are here to stay–well, as long as there is electricity, anyway. And last I checked, there are douche bags in real life too, spewing all sorts of nonsense. They’re called co-workers, guys at the bar, and family members. At least on social media, you can filter and block them.
Elites, Pseudo-Intellectualism, & Language
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009Wow, Washington, D.C. is filled with preening, sanctimonious a-holes. Drunk on their own intellectualism and stunned into self-reflective absorption, the only thing that matters to this collective Narcissus is vainglory. This assessment includes conservatives and Republicans, by the way.
I read Andy McCarthy’s dissent from the National Review Online editorial about Sarah Palin and “death panels” and thought: they still don’t get it. “They” being the Conservative Intelligentsia which includes Think Tank leaders, Congressmen and Senators, etc. First, here’s what Andy concluded:
I think Palin was right to argue her point aggressively. Largely because she did, a horrible provision is now out of this still horrible Obamacare proposal. To the contrary, if the argument had been made the way the editors counsel this morning, “end-of-life counseling” would still be in the bill. We might have impressed the Beltway with the high tone of our discourse and the suppleness of our reasoning, but we’d have lost the public. I respectfully dissent.
Well, Andy is being far more respectful than I feel at this point.
You know, you can be intelligent, possess intellectual subtlety and a Webster-esque vocabulary, and still be ignorant and unwise. Conversely, just because a person speaks plainly and uses common language does not mean the person is stupid.
The smartest guy I have ever met attended Chiropractic college with me. He was a genius. He has a photographic and audio memory, but more than that, he can integrate the information in a meaningful way. And most impressive, he could teach what he knew simply without ever making the student feel stupid. He was my peer and a friend and he’d tutor a group of us (he was a semester ahead) from time to time. He was patient, never condescending and spoke plainly.
Who likes being treated like an idiot? No one. And yet, the Left and Liberals in general, speak to the American people like they’re morons. The absolute worst is Al Gore. The most insulting thing is the guy ain’t that smart and he comes across as a doltish buffoon and still has the nerve to lecture stupid Americans. It’s annoying.
And so, rather than engage Sarah Palin on the merits, even the editors at the National Review get lost in what they consider hyperbole. Elites hate hyperbole (except when they’re employing it to chastise the masses into using fluorescent lighting). The form-police ignore the substance because the messenger doesn’t have an air of hauteur and the Ivy league parchment required to engage in the “conversation”.
Oh blech.
Intellectualism is not on trial here. Pseudo-intellectuals who discredit valid opinions because they find the form bothersome is on trial. Also, the inability to write or talk plainly is on trial here.
Chief Justice John Roberts possesses a few admirable traits: He has a towering intellect. He has humility. He has grace. His opinions are straight-forward and written plainly. He makes his opinions understandable. This all demonstrates his intelligence rather than diminishing it. It also demonstrates empathy. He could, easily, write using complex language and arcane vocabulary, but that would serve only to aggrandize himself at the expense of the understanding of those with whom he communicates.
Too many in Washington, D.C. desire to sound smart over being smart. So laws and bills are convoluted, pages long, and complex. Editorials are snark-filled, eviscerating vanity [hello Maureen Dowd].
And through this wordy haze, the substance is lost.
The American people are not stupid rubes who need to be guided to enlightenment by their betters. The American people do recognize that there are experts in diverse fields in the government and media. They want those experts to speak plainly and argue the substance understandably. This is not too much to ask.
I hear D.C. insiders sniff about populist impulses. Their fears are laughable. These very same insiders condescend to those whom they ostensibly serve, treating them like no more than dull-witted peasants. This is a Republic not a constitutional monarchy. The representatives actually are supposed to represent people not command them. If there are populist embers burning, the insiders should spend some more time doing what they love: looking in the mirror. Any populist impulses are a reaction to obnoxious elites, not the other way around.
So, Congressmen and the press react in horror at American outrage. Why is everyone so angry? Well, this question just demonstrates dull-wittedness. How long would you, Mr. Smartypants Inside-the-Beltway person like someone to call you stupid overtly or imply it through your arts (Hollywood’s dystopian representation of American culture), your opinions and your laws? Yeah, you’d be pissed off, too, to use the common vernacular.
Enough, already. Americans deserve better than this from their leaders. By being too smart by half, the insiders end up sounding all stupid. Perhaps a return to more straight-forward actions, simpler language and respect for the voter will mend the relationship that is broken. It’s going to take a while, though. And it’s probably going to take new leaders who aren’t so far removed from those whom they serve.
Twitter: Do It
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009Many of you still don’t see the point of Twitter. This is why I Twitter: Imagine you could gather 200 of the smartest people in a room and they had access to areas of expertise you had no time or hope of gathering. Those people would sift through information and bring up the best stuff for you to know so you don’t have to do the grunt work. You don’t even have to use Google.
Twitter is like a human search engine. It’s opt in, which means you’re only hassled as much as you want to be and by whom you want to be hassled. Instead of computer metrics, you choose the brains who sift the information. And even more than that, you can become friends with the people sharing that information. It’s not just an information exchange, though it can be just that, it’s a social exchange of people pre-selected for interests that sync with yours.
Twitter: It’s time to do it. Here’s how:
Twitter (Released July 2009):
http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/
Mashable (Released Aug 2009):
http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
DAG (Released Sept 2008, Revised + Expanded June 2009):
http://twitter101guide.com
Start with DAG, first. That’s David All and he’s a conservative consultant in D.C.
Podcast: Right Online Wrap Up With John Hawkins, Michael Vick, & My Experience With Subsidized Housing
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009More networking and more fun at the Right Online conference sponsored by Americans For Prosperity. John Hawkins and I also talk about scary hotels–hello Newark, N.J.–and my first apartment where I had to be the only unsubsidized renter in a subsidized housing complex. We also discuss dog fighting and Michael Vick. And much more!
Bloggers mentioned include Michelle Malkin, Ed Morrissey, Skye from Midnight Blue, and much more!
Melissa’s show can also be found on RFC Radio every Monday and Wednesday night at 10:00 pm Eastern.
To subscribe on iTunes, just click here!
When Melissa isn’t on the radio, you can find her at melissaclouthier.com and on Twitter. Her username is MelissaTweets.
– Also, don’t forget to check out our other shows on Take That! –
*** click here to grab the latest Steve Schippert Show ***
*** click here to grab the latest Brass Balls Radio Episode ***
*** click here to grab the latest Raisin’ Hale show ***
