LOAVES AND FISHES

Richard Fernandez on Robert Reich’s “unsayable truths.”

In ostensibly addressing Reich’s “we’re going to let you die” speech at UC Berkeley in 2007, Fernandez got to the heart of the matter: choice. According to Reich,

Things come down to choices: lower costs versus death panels; torture versus intelligence; equity versus growth.

But there are deeper, more fundamental, choices to be made.

The missing pairs of choices in Reich’s list are these: creativity versus certainty, risk versus return, bureaucracy versus innovation. We can live only if we take the risk. That is the most unsayable truth of all.

Reich’s view is that the “loaves and fishes” must be supplied by a benevolent government to ensure equity. My view is that I’d rather bake my own bread and catch my own fish.

Or, as Fernandez eloquently put it, there’s no life without risk: “There’s no reason to believe in a valley over the next hill, or a new world across a sea of stars. But if [we] are going to ... die anyway, then what have we got to lose by trying to get there?”

THERE IS NO NEW FRONTIER

Peggy Noonan on recessions, bailouts, healthcare, etc.: “Now the national terrain is thick with federal programs, and with state, county, city and town entities and programs, from coast to coast. It's not virgin territory anymore, it's crowded. We are a nation fully settled by government. We are well into the age of the welfare state, the age of government. We know its weight, heft and demands, know its costs both in terms of money and autonomy ....”

Bottom line: government has grown too big, too invasive, too controlling.

OBAMA TO CONSERVATIVES

Grab a mop and help me clean up your mess.

Conservatives to Obama: We’d rather grab a broom to sweep you out.

THE WILL TO COWER

Charles Krauthammer on the new liberalism and the end of American ascendancy.

Facing the choice of whether to maintain our dominance or to gradually, deliberately, willingly, and indeed relievedly give it up, we are currently on a course towards the latter. The current liberal ascendancy in the United States--controlling the executive and both houses of Congress, dominating the media and elite culture--has set us on a course for decline. And this is true for both foreign and domestic policies. Indeed, they work synergistically to ensure that outcome.

There’s still time to vote “NO.”

Link via Powerline.

WHITHER COMMON SENSE?

“The upstate New York school superintendent who suspended an Eagle Scout for 20 days for keeping a 2-inch utility knife locked in his car is unwilling to speak to the teen's family or bend in his ruling.”

“The ruling from [Lansingburgh Central School District Superintendent George J.] Goodwin has outraged Whalen's family, which said if district officials are unable to use their own judgment, their roles aren't necessary. 'You could have a trained monkey ....' ”

I think the monkey was just insulted.

BARNEY FRANK, PREDATORY LENDER

This would be funny if it weren't true.

OBSESSED WITH FREEDOM

Unfortunately, this argument makes sense to altogether too many Americans.

ROBOT MOONWALKS ON MAGNETS

A unique robot design for monitoring bridge dynamics in real time.