Friday, May 24, 2013

MILTON WOLF: Americans must repudiate the political class.

"King George’s assault on the Americans’ natural freedoms was oppressive, intolerable and deserving of a revolution. The truth is, the intrusion, restriction and outright harassment that our government subjects us to today is far beyond what the colonists faced from their tyrannical king. If it was tyranny in 1776, then, by God, it is tyranny today.
JOBS JOBS JOBS: Avoiding an information-age welfare state.
This is Blade Runner softened by food stamps, but as in the public housing projects and other warehouses where we store “surplus” people today, the most acute form of poverty and deprivation will not be the lack of food, clothing or even shelter. It will be a lack of social connection, of independence founded on achievement, on the human dignity that comes from doing work. Bellies will be full, but lives will be empty, and with that emptiness will come ills of every kind: addiction, brutality, ugly, and stunted sexual and emotional lives for many, neglect of the young and the old.
Depressing. But this first part of Mead's post is, I would argue, the end result of our liberal political class's policies. Mead, in his second part, argues for a more optimistic future, but I still regard even the optimistic half as somewhat depressing.
MORE PLEASE: Benghazi ‘Scapegoat’ Speaks Out.
IS THIS why Gibson Guitar was raided?
ALL THE PRESIDENT'S WOMEN.
TRUE SCANDAL: A tea-party group ... gets attention from the IRS — and the FBI, OSHA, and the ATF. Catherine Engelbrecht was on Huckabee last Saturday. Her story is, unfortunately, all too believable.
A RANDOM THOUGHT on political correctness from the retirement lane: you know you're politically correct if you believe it is racist to believe that our first black president is incompetent.
'SKINNY' HEALTH PLANS: using limited low-benefit health plans to avoid the costs of ObamaCare.

I hope we hear much more of this in the news in the near future. On a somewhat optimistic note, I'm wondering if such low-benefit plans could lead to insurance companies re-offering -- on the individual market -- catastrophic medical insurance outside the grasp of ObamaCare.
THE SHADOW OF THE LEADER: Partisan Obama Culture Spawned a More Abusive IRS.



What is appalling is the sheer quantity of data gathered that can will be used to attack these organizations and their supporters.
MARK STEYN: a government of thugs.
RUMOR HAS IT that these people are supposedly educated.
WE HAVEN'T LOST AMERICA YET: five signs. But just because we haven't lost yet doesn't mean we can't lose.

[Also recommended: Bolyard's evolution on guns]
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: It Can Happen Is Happening Here.
BARACK OBAMA, the world’s greatest gun salesman: “Lead is the new gold.”
NO, YOU CAN'T make appointments without Congressional approval.
NEW YORK SHERIFFS voice opposition to strict gun law, seek to join lawsuit challenging it.

It's hard to believe, but even in New York state, there are still modest numbers of people with (un)common sense.
LOIS LERNER -- a history of harassment.

But it's not harassment if it's for a 'good cause'.
OBAMA: Trust me.
Liberalism’s agenda has been constant since long before liberals, having given their name a bad name, stopped calling themselves liberals and resumed calling themselves progressives, which they will call themselves until they finish giving that name a bad name. The agenda always is: Concentrate more power in Washington, more Washington power in the executive branch and more executive power in agencies run by experts. Then trust the experts to be disinterested and prudent with their myriad intrusions into, and minute regulations of, Americans’ lives. Obama’s presidency may yet be, on balance, a net plus for the public good if it shatters Americans’ trust in the regulatory state’s motives.
No.
"PLEASE DETAIL the content of the members of your organization’s prayers." Instapundit's response: "In the Obama era, the question isn’t whether you’re paranoid. It’s whether you’re paranoid enough."

My thought is more along the line of this comment: "If this is institutionalized thinking it's time to clear the place out with a flame thrower."

On reflection however, the best response is probably to revise the tax code to remove the tax-exempt status from all NGOs, including churches, and reducing tax rates for all.