Some not-so-random thoughts on something we did not write

Instapundit aka Glenn Reynolds (or is it the other way around? Man, all these interwebs/social media protocols have us wrapped around the axle) penned an excellent piece a couple of days ago in USA Today regarding the breakdown in trust in our nation's institutions and which has been exacerbated of late by the spate of scandals that has hit Washington D.C. and which all point to the integrity of our elected officials and the people those folks appoint to operate our governing infrastructure.


We're not here to argue the legitimacy of what should be more properly termed crisis... we have made our case(s) on an individual basis in other posts. Perception is reality, gang, and, of late, you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to conclude that perhaps the NSA has reached beyond their original charter and scope with their domestic data gathering operation, to trot out just one example.



We forgot where we saw or read this but we felt the following was profound:

People will stop participating in society when they feel that society has nothing to offer them.

If you are regular reader of this blog then you are savvy enough to realize what is being offered is nothing monetary nor societal-provided benefits in the way of, say, a government safety net.


This is about a social contract that says not only will being a law-abiding and productive person be its own reward, it will be rewarded in turn by a law-abiding and productive society in which that person lives. Our betters in government are not holding up their end of this contract, however, and things are breaking down. A government that lacks transparency and integrity will soon lose the trust and confidence of the citizenry and that is precisely what we are seeing now.


A cynical and increasing disengaged citizenry only invites more bad acting by its government and you wind up in a constitutional republic death spiral.


We have always believed that a going-in assumption that your governing authorities are incompetent and/or over-reaching in their authority is not an unhealthy one.


This is not borne of paranoia or any extremist "rugged individualism" rather the inevitability of the frailty and fallibility of mankind. Perhaps to say it another way: You cannot forever bury your head in the sports section because someone, somewhere is going to screw up and/or screw you over and it will have negative consequences so you need to pay attention. This is an unavoidable fact.


We have stated several times in the past and as the Figurehead would suggest, we had fully intended to make Beers with Demo primarily a sports blog but the campaign for President in 2008 changed that forever. This coincided with our cracking open the front page and local section of the fish wrap before we got to the sports section, a sequence never before exercised.


There just seemed to be too much at stake and that is something that should never ever be said with respect to politics/governance. We shouldn't have to care so much. We should not have to pay this amount of attention. This only speaks, then, to the amount of authority we have granted to those aforementioned flawed human beings.


Do we wish we could revert BwD to a sports blog? You better believe it. And though ignorance may be bliss, if we are indeed being led to slaughter, we'd prefer it done eyes wide open so we can get a few wacks in on the way down.


Again, do yourself a favor and check out Reynolds' article at the link.



Update #1: Thanks for the Instalanche, Glenn. #Grateful #humbled. If you like, I can be followed on Twitter @deanriehm.


Also, for opinion and views from a libertarian/conservative perspective, check out the SLOBs (San Diego Local Order of Bloggers). Really nice people with excellent insights.



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Quickies: the scandals edition

A round-up of news items, articles, columns and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.



Gun Runner/Fast and Furious, Solyndra and now did a four star Air Force General get pressure from the White House to change his testimony regarding the owner of a defense contracting firm and Democratic party donor?


It would appear Team O is having to deal with more than unemployment and the economy in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.

Oh, and how about that AttackWatch website where you get to turn in people who you think may be spreading false information about Team O? Above and beyond anything else... petty. So, so petty.

Sir Charles of DooDoo Economics thinks he may have uncovered a stunt by Twitter to cover up opposition to Obama in "Trending Reports".

But what is the cause for all this?

Is it sinister, stupid or just naive?


Where B-Daddy sees a darker side to many of the President's actions, KT counters with more of a simpler perspective on the matter:

Here's my take on what happened. The Obama Administration is filled with True Believers in two propositions:

•Government investments can lead to wondrous growth in certain industries.

•Global Warming / Climate Change is an existential threat to our way of life.

Solyndra bundled these two things together in a beautiful way. How could it lose?

So, sinister, stupid or just incredibly naive? Possibly a combination of all the above especially if an amalgam of those causes is in any way synonymous with "power-craving, micro-managing statist who thinks the normal constitutionally-recognized rules of governing a republic just don't apply to him.



Terrific.

The U.S. is coming to Europe's financial rescue.

So far, America's role is fairly limited. But if the crisis continues to grow and the U.S. takes on a wider role, U.S. consumers and taxpayers could feel a bigger impact. The biggest exposure could come from America's status as the single largest source of money for the International Monetary Fund.

The latest round of American financial assistance came Thursday with a promise by the Federal Reserve to swap as many dollars for euros as European bankers need. In the short run, those transactions won't have much impact because the central banks are simply swapping currencies of equal value. If the move helps avert a wider crisis, it could help spare the global economy from another recession.

But over the long term, consumers could feel the impact of central bankers flooding the financial system with cash, according to John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics.

Hey, who's up for some more class warfare?

President Barack Obama, in a populist step designed to appeal to voters, will propose a "Buffett Tax" on people making more than $1 million a year as part of his deficit recommendations to Congress on Monday.

Such a proposal, among suggestions to a congressional supercommittee expected to seek up to $3 trillion in deficit savings over 10 years, would appeal to his Democratic base ahead of the 2012 election but likely not raise much in revenues.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a tweet on Saturday the tax would act as "a kind of AMT" (Alternative Minimum Tax) aimed at ensuring millionaires pay at least as much tax as middle-class families.

(italics, ours)
Don't we already have an AMT? And what was that about putting country above party... or in this case, re-election?




Did we mention we were big fans of this guy? Here's Mark Steyn on the (P)resident's "jobs" plan:

This $447 billion does not exist, and even foreigners don't want to lend it to us. A majority of it will be "electronically created" by the Federal Reserve buying U.S. Treasury debt. Don't worry, it's not like "printing money": we leave that to primitive basket-cases like Zimbabwe. This is more like one of those Nigerian email schemes, in which a prominent public official promises you a large sum of money in return for your bank account details. In the case of Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner, one prominent public official is promising to wire a large sum of money into the account of another prominent public official, which is a wrinkle even the Nigerians might have difficulty selling.

Happy Constitution Day, everyone!

One of the greatest successes of the tea party movement has been to restore a discussion of constitutionality to our national political discourse. The constitution is both a conservative and a libertarian document. It is conservative in that it preserves our political structure through separation of powers and a difficult amendment process. It is libertarian in that it constrains the power and authority of the federal government, guarantees individual rights and in turn constrains the states as well. A political alliance of conservatives and libertarians, fighting socialism and progressives would of course turn to the plain meaning of such a document as the first line of defense against the forced march down the "road to serfdom" that the statists desire for our citizens. (I don't mean to impugn all liberals here; but those that are true believers in leftism have shown their colors over the years.)

That's probably it for today, gang. We'll be back tomorrow.

The 2009-2010 great scandal-off

Tiger Woods alleged mistresses vs. faith-based global-warming community scandals.

Who ya got?



Currently, Tiger has jumped out to a pretty impressive lead. As of this posting, his alleged mistresses count is at 7 while the current scandal count for the faith-based global-warming community is at 4 .

We’re counting (1) the East Anglia (motley)CRU data manipulation, (2) the East Anglia (motley)CRU data destruction, (3) NASA’s refusal to disclose data of their own and (4) the CARB’s lead scientist resume’ lying.

What about the fact that the CRU dudes were threatening and intimidating scientists who weren’t playing along with the rest of the faith-based AGW crowd? Look, we were told that all those nasty emails just proved that scientists are human afterall. So, if character assassination is just part of the scientific method, then no scandal points.



(Phil Jones, HMFIC of the East Anglia CRU, who has temporarilty stepped down from that position.)



Though, we fully expect a few more ladies to crawl out of the woodwork, one has to wonder just how it was that Tiger was able to squeeze in any actual golf play. Kind of explains Tiger’s strategy the last few years of hitting the Majors and then just a handful of selected “other” tournaments.

The scandals for the faith-based global-warming community will start rolling in here in the by and by. Any religion that has been predicated upon manipulated science and academic thuggery and which is backed by the full faith and credit of your tax dollars should be a bonanza of latent scandalous behavior that like Tiger’s ladies, is just waiting for its fifteen minutes.

An apology is in order

With respect to Campaign Finance Reform and other such well-intended but Constitutionally-suspect, not too mention counter-productive efforts to “get money out of politics”, we have lived by the refrain:

“You will never lessen the amount of money in politics until you lessen the amount of power in politics by a corresponding degree”.

If you’ve been paying attention to politics for any amount of time whatsoever, you realize that outside of our idyllic image of the citizenry going to the polls, pulling the lever and proudly displaying a small red, white and blue “I voted” sticker, “democracy” quickly devolves into a cold, callous yet entirely pragmatic series of quid pro quo arrangements.

And nowhere is this more apparent than in Washington D.C., currently, that is awash in “pay to play” scandals and where a young and woefully inexperienced President-elect is forced to select retreads from previous Administrations as he has not yet had time to cultivate a trusted circle of advisors and develop a national rolodex network that would produce a field of competent, scandal-free cabinet post candidates from which to choose.

B-Daddy has an excellent post, here, on cabinet selections, the bailouts and how they relate to “pay to play” and which serves as a reminder to us that our favored tag, Parliament of Whores, is an affront to that far more noble and honorable profession that dates to antiquity. Our apologies, ladies.