UPDATED CIA says Hackers caused Power Outages (A Lesson in Comparative Values)

To say that this is disturbing is an understatement; it doesn't exactly lead to a high degree of confidence that America can protect its infrastructure from a coordinated attack; and don't think that the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, Syrians, Iranians are not cognizant of that fact.

I am with Purple Avenger on this one:

Anyone who allows any physical connection between critical grid controls and the internet is a moron. Let's just say that is beyond ordinary stupid and well into the realm of criminally negligent stupid.

People need to get over this idiotic notion of hooking the internet to every fucking thing on the planet. Not only is it unwise for critical infrastructure, anyone with the slightest bit of technical savvy knows it is unwise. The internet is about as trustworthy as a crackhead jonsing for a rock. Would you hand your car keys to a crackhead loitering outside a fancy restaurant and expect it to be there when you came back?

Protecting our infrastructure it is quite simply a Homeland Security "must-have"--if America cannot pony up the capital needed to protect its own ELECTRIC GRID from foreign interference, then it damn sure has no business whatsoever investing in a bottomless pit Government-run Socialized medicine boondoggle.

Yet here we are; a 50/50 nation--a house divided over the rational vs. the insane. And therein lies the enormously critical difference in values between the Left and Right. Socialists want more and more power over every aspect of your lives, and the only way for them to achieve this is to get more of your income and regulate more of your rights to do and say as you please. It touts what is good for the "collective" but that implies above all a "God complex" State empowered to make all decisions about right vs. wrong for you and yours.

The Left's single-minded purpose is and always has been to make every single human being in the US (legal or illegal) completely and utterly addicted and dependent on Government. Its method of doing this is to create "Entitlement" programs to serve humanity's every "need" (like the need to not have a moment of reflective silence in your schools... or the perceived need of some interest groups to not have their tender sensibilities and feelings hurt...)

Socialism will not only destroy America's economy, growth and jobs, it will leave so little money for doing what must be done to protect us and our aliies in today's hostile world, that we will be as defenseless as we were during the deepest "malaise" of the Carter years.

On the other hand are the Conservatives; "movement Conservatives" in fact are the closest thing remaining in the US to the "Classical Liberalism" of its founders. These are people who love this place, and who understand and believe in the vision of the brilliant Renaissance men who crafted the most revolutionary and enlightened document in the history of the world: the United States Constitution. This Constitution--this noble experiment by enlightened men-- changed the world, forever. Because of America the planet as a whole is more wealthy and prosperous that it has ever been.

Movement Conservatives understand and recognize the profound sacrifice that countless men and women have given for that grand vision. And they can't even begin to comprehend the mentality of those who want to do away with all that in the name of some false utopian notion of "equality of result".

When new soldiers are sworn in to our Armed Forces, they take virtually the same oath as the President: not to preserve, protect and defent the Government of the United States--but to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

And therein lies the difference between the two major forces competing for our votes today: the Left wants to chunk the Constitution in favor of Big Government, power over every aspect of your lives. The Left believes it has the "right" to as much of your income and your property as they want--and that non productive citizens in our society have the right to vote themselves more of your income.

The Left also believes in the right of unelected, unaccountable to anyone judges-for-life to decide on a "whim" that the Constitution does not really mean what is actually written down, but rather some derivation germane to the elites' mood of the moment, or whatever the Georgetown cocktail set thinks is "enlightened". This is not only not Constitutional, the Constitution was written in order to prevent this very thing. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to read The Federalist Papers. Hell, I think that book should be required reading for any graduate of our schools, and for citizenship for those not born here. Because that book not only explains what the Constitution contains, it explains why it is so important that it is written that way.

But the Socialists care not a whit about the vision of the founders nor the Constitution which is the social contract between our government and the governed. The elites (even Democrat friends of mine...) scoff at this document and comment on how the founders lived two hundred years ago--what do they know, etc... In this, they show their ignorance of all of the carnage and tyranny of all human history, and also of the very basic tenets underlying the reason the United States came into being in the first place.

And so these slaves to our sick popular culture would not lift a finger as our Constitution gradually becomes diminished, until it no longer is even worth the paper it is written on--all in the name of their God-given right for these "enlightened" fools to determine how the rest of us are supposed to live, what we are supposed to say and not say, and what we can and cannot listen to on the radio or television.

And in the process these Kool-Aid drinkers would ruin our economy, destroy the best medical care system on Earth, and sentence a great majority of our citizens to the mediocrity of the "lowest common denominator"--the bare necessities of life. They gladly will steal your money in the name of "equality" of result, never mind that some people are more talented and driven than others; they would steal your money in the name of "saving" a planet that is not dying; they would dilute American patriotism to the point that being an American citizen is no better or worse than being a Luddite anywhere else on Earth. That is, those citizens left who did not suffer the misfortune of being vaporized in an Islamic mushroom cloud, die of radiation poisoning or a bioweapon, or else were assimilated into the one misogynistic religion on Earth whose core philosophy (at least to the great majority of its fundamentalists) is: submit to Allah or die. Because these same Leftists are pretending that there is no Islamic threat out there, and their incredible denial of this truth is going to someday cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

Meanwhile the Marxism and Collectivism now en vogue with the leadership of the Democrat Party has never led to a thriving economy...anywhere. In attempting to impose upon free peoples a system that runs completely contrary to human nature, Marxists have murdered over 200 million people in less than 100 years. They have always used cheap emotion, envy, class warfare, identity politics, and tyranny to impose their will. And yet we see their candidates today, still using the same morally bankrupt tactics.

And on the other side of the divide is...well look around. The so-called "poor" in the US have it better than 9/10 of the undeveloped world. People literally risk their lives to get here--even illegally if necessary--because this is where the opportunity is. Why?? Contrast this with the Berlin Wall, which was built to keep the people of Eastern Europe IN. Why do you think that the Socialists felt compelled to build that wall? And why do we today have this enormous immigration problem (speaking strictly from a "desirability" angle)?

Is there any question?? The answer is: it is because of what the Constitution of the United States gave us: Freedom. Opportunity. The chance for anyone to make it big, and for most to make it better here than they could anywhere else. The chance to try something, fail, then try something else. And to say what we want without fear of arrest or censorship.

The reason for the incredible American success story is because its government was founded on the principles of leaving its people alone to pursue what they want to pursue and to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Its citizens were allowed to use its labor to purchase property which cannot be taken from them. That is what freedom is. And it is fundamentally incompatible with Socialism.

The United States of America is the greatest force for human good that has ever existed on this third rock from the Sun. This is a fact for one reason and one reason only: the document that was the culmination of some of the most brilliant thinkers who ever walked the Earth, the Constitution of the United States. That the Constitution has lasted this long is why we are so prosperous, so powerful, and so desirable to oppressed people everywhere.

We have seen the economics of an Islamic world that is still mired in 9th century fundamentalism. We have seen the results of economies where half of the workforce (women) are only utilized as veiled baby machines. Now religious zealots in that part of the world threaten us all, because they are working tirelessly to acquire weapons which could kill millions in one flash. They want the weapons because the zealots running the show in some of these places (Iran, Syria) believe that dying for Islam is the desired goal. That is what the Koran says! They not only desire to sacrifice themselves for Allah, but they also believe that the more "infidels" these zealots can take out with them, the greater their heavenly reward.

Right next door to these destitute economies, stands Israel, which has adopted the enlightened Western capitalist model. It is like the hope diamond sitting next to a cesspool (but for oil Saudi Arabia would be as destitute as Zimbabwe...). And Israel is the envy and bane of every anti-Semitic young man who is ready for that "ticket to heaven".

With all of these truths so clear to me, it is astounding that we live in virtually a 50/50 country, where we are so easily divided along the lines of emotion vs. rationality, "progressive" vs. actual Progress, race and gender-based special interest politics vs. a color/gender-blind society based on merit, creativity, and ambition. It is astounding that any educated person with a conscience, a sense of history, and an understanding of the most rudimentary elements of economics, could possibly vote for Democrats and Leftist candidates, who have been promising utopia for almost 100 years now, and who have yet to deliver on their false promises.

It was Republicans who provided the majorities needed to get Civil Rights legislation finally enacted here in the '60s. It was a Republican President who preserved the Constitution and freed the slaves. It was a Republican who stood up to the Socialists in the Soviet Union and freed all of Eastern Europe from tyranny.

Meanwhile it was a Democrat who imposed the ponzi scheme known as Social Security. It was Democrats who have bankrupted this country with Medicare and many ill-advised welfare programs that served only to give people an incentive to remain idle and lazy. It is Democrats who want to act like no one out there will bother us if we just "play nice", despite at least 10,000 years of bloody World history to the contrary.

This is how I see the great divide in this great country. It is getting worse, not better, and it will continue to deteriorate until we have a Reaganesque Conservative majority in this country which will fight to preserve the vision and promise which have made the United States so successful, so wealthy, so generous, and the envy of the rest of the planet.

We can preserve the vision of those brave men who stood up to England in the 1700's, but if we don't start now--if we squander this opportunity now--what once was the "Last Best Hope on Earth" will become a only a distant memory.

Are we going to allow this to happen?

Speaking only for myself: over my dead body.