WISDOM FROM C.S. LEWIS

From Eastern Right (emphases mine) come these wise words from the past:

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals."

-- God in the Dock, 1948

Power grabbers, Nann who put themselves on the moral high road are always dangerous, insidiously so.

BHO AS CEO

Dick Morris opines that BHO's forcing out of GM's Rick Wagoner will backfire.

Excerpt from this column at The Hill:

...By replacing the head of the company and demanding a restructuring of its board in return for further TARP aid, Obama has taken upon himself the responsibility for the future of the company....

[...]

This move will backfire big time! The auto giant is very, very unlikely to be saved by this current TARP infusion. Doubtless it will need more in the near term. But the resentment now focused on the management of the company will then turn to Obama. Having demanded a replacement of the management, it is he who will be held responsible for the company’s future....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

ALREADY, THE U.S. TREASURY HAS OVERPAID ON THE BAILOUT BILL

Why isn't this on the front page of today's Washington Post?

The Bush administration received assets that were worth $78 billion less than the amount it invested as part of the massive infusion of capital into the country's banks, congressional investigators have found.

The investigators concluded that the Treasury under the federal bailout had invested $254 billion into companies but the preferred stock it got in return had a market value at the time of only $176 billion, or 69 percent of what the government paid, according to a congressional oversight panel report scheduled to be released today....

So much for the reassurances offered by our politicians when that first bailout was legislated!

Nevertheless, all that BHO and his Dem sheeple keep harping on is the passing of another bill several times the taxpayer funding of the first bill.

INAUGURATION MADNESS

Having lived here in the greater D.C. area all my life, I’ve seen twelve inaugurations come and go (1960 – 2004). Some local disruption is, of course, unavoidable for those of us living so close to the seat of federal power. But the upcoming inauguration of Barack Husssein Obama, “The One,” takes the prize for madness morphing into worship. Even the Big East basketball coaches are considering how much to accommodate Inauguration 2009:

..."Whenever you have a change of presidents, it's a special time," [Gerogetown Coach] Thompson said during a conference call with Big East coaches yesterday. "But this, as we start to welcome our 44th president, is a very special time here -- for me personally and for a lot of people."

And while Georgetown is the sole Big East school in the nation's capital, Thompson isn't the only coach who's weighing how to incorporate Tuesday's inauguration into the highly structured lives of his student-athletes....

Did Coach Thompson and his cohorts hold previous inaugurations in such high esteem? If so, I don't recall hearing so....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

WHILE THE WORLD IS AT WAR, THE SOCIALISTS BAN SMOKING IN CAFES

BBC: Paris and Berlin ban cafe smoking

German smoker Smoking has been banned in bars in the capitals of France and Germany but the laws will not be enforced immediately.

Eight German states, including Berlin, have ushered in 2008 declaring their pubs and restaurants smoke-free.

Almost a third of Germans smoke and the authorities in Berlin have decided not to enforce the restrictions actively for the first six months.

In France, a law forbidding smoking in public places has now been extended to bars, cafes and hotels.

... Restrictions on smoking also came into force in Portugal on Tuesday, but the rules were not as tight as in France or Germany.

Portuguese bars smaller than 100sq m (1,076sq ft) can still opt to allow smoking. Public buildings can still have smoking zones, provided they are clearly signposted and ventilated.

German restaurants and pubs have strongly resisted the bans, not only because of the potential loss of income but partly because of an earlier crackdown on smoking initiated by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

• NO COINCIDENCE THERE: HITLER WAS A SOCIALIST JUST LIKE THE MAYORS PUSHING THIS BAN IN PARIS AND BERLIN.

• IN BERLIN THE MAYOR, KLAUS WOWEREIT, IS GERMANY'S NUMBER ONE SOCIALIST. AND A HOMOSEXUAL.
• IN PARIS IT'S BERTRAND DELANOE - ANOTHER HOMOSEXUAL SOCIALIST, WHO ALSO BUILDS ARTIFICAL BEACHES ON THE SEINE DURING THE SUMMER. (WHILE THE MUSLIM YOUTHS OF PARIS START INTIFADAS!)
  

[ASIDE: TWO NANNYSTATE PINK PINKOS, WHODDTHUNKIT POSSIBLE! COINCIDENCE!?]

• THESE TWO SOCIALISTS - LIKE 90% OF THE LEFT - ARE IN DENIAL ABOUT WW4.

• AND, THEY ARE NANNYSTATERS WHO THINK THE GOVERNMENT HAS THE RIGHT TO TELL YOU HOW TO LIVE.

• IN AUSTRALIA, THE NEW PM - RUDD, A SOCIALIST - IS NOW PUTTING MANDATORY FILTERS ON THE INTERNET THERE - JUST LIKE IN CHINA AND IN SYRIA.

• ALL THESE INFRINGEMENTS ARE - ACCORDING TO THE SOCIALISTS, "FOR THE COMMON GOOD."
• HITLER SAID THIS TOO; HE SAID FOR DAS VOLK.

EVIDENTLY, THE LEFT CAN CHANGE THEIR PITCH, BUT THEY CAN'T CHANGE THEIR TUNE.

• AND MEANWHILE, BETWEEN CREEPING SHARIA IN EUROPE AND GLOBAL JIHAD, THE WEST IS UNDER THREAT.
  
• AND THE LEFT PASSES SMOKING BANS AND CALL FOR MULTICULTURALISM AND ACCOMMODATION.
• WHICH IS FANCY LEFTIST JARGON FOR DHIMMITUDE AND SURRENDER.
  

WHICH IS WHY I HAVE ALWAYS SAID, TO DEFEAT THE JIHADISTS WE MUST FIRST DEFEAT THE LEFTISTS.

The Nanny State (the Ninny State?)

Almost every week I see an article about a school being sued by stupid parents because a teacher or a coach has done something to upset a child’s self-esteem. Today in my local Florida newspaper is another story – this one about a volleyball coach who has been fired for “grabbing a student’s shirt”. In Rhode Island, where I live in the summer, there is an ongoing case about a parent suing (of course, with the help of the ACLU) the principal of a high school for his objecting to the female student wearing a tee shirt that contained an obscenity relating to the President. My goodness, who are these babies that need such protection from slights in life, and how are they going to handle some real problems they will face as adults?

Not only are these parents creating adults who will be perpetual children who fly into tantrums when everything doesn’t go just right (and we all suffer the consequences of these adult brats – especially road rage), but they are robbing their children as well. I had a high school track and football coach who threw a baton at me when he thought I was slacking in a race, and who picked me up and hurled me into my practice opponent to show me what the result of a proper block should be. When I got over it, I was proud to receive these harassments; most of my team members had similar experiences, and I was now one of them. Even now, more than 50 years later, my friends and I still remember these incidents involving me and them and that coach with great amusement and affection. (I’m sure that this causes feelings of horror among liberal do-gooders.)

In graduate school and in the Army, group solidarity was built by subjecting the group to some wearisome and, sometimes, humiliating experience. It worked, we became a team, and we got over it, but I shudder to think of what would happen to such a coach, a teacher or a platoon sergeant in today’s silly, liberal, mush environment.

There is an excellent book about this phenomenon and its consequences called “The Nanny State” by David Harsanyi , and many others have also noticed this state of affairs; here is an interesting article on the subject:

Targeting dodge ball and other inanities

April 2, 2002, DAVID LIMBAUGH - World Net Daily:

There was a time in this country when public school teachers could focus on teaching the basics. Today, unfortunately, they are all too often preoccupied with accommodating the silly concerns pervading our society. To what concerns do I refer? Oh, those such as banning the innocent children's games of dodge ball, cops and robbers, musical chairs, steal the bacon and tag. You heard me right – it's not just the allegedly sadistic and violent game of dodge ball that schools are trying to outlaw.

Excerpt: See Rest at From Sea to Shining Sea

EDWARDS TO CREATE POLICE-STATE/NANNYSTATE - FOR YOUR OWN GOOD AND THE COMMON GOOD, OF COURSE

MEMEORANDUM HAS THE COMPLETE ROUND UP:

Amy Lorentzen / Associated Press:

Edwards backs mandatory preventive care — TIPTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care. — "It requires that everybody be covered.

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EDWARDS BEING TRUTHFUL:

"It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

When politicians admit they will force you to see a doctor then they are admitting they are fascists.

When you allow the State to pay for your healthcare you open yourself up to this kind of invasive crap.

Ands it's potentially worse when you allow the State to pay your pension: then they have a financial interest in letting you die when you're old and sick: they save twice: they save the medical expense and the pension payout.

This is why we should PRIVATIZE pensions and healthcare. MSA's are the way to go. Not more nanny-statism.

MISSISSIPPI: THE FATTEST STATE AND THE POOREST

FACTS HERE (poor) AND HERE (fat).

I ... er .... um guess, Mr. Edwards, that poverty and starvation don't go hand in hand... ??? [MORE ON EDWARDS DEMAGOGUING POVERTY AND HUNGER HERE. (EXCERPT:

"According to Edwards, an amazing “one in eight” Americans lack “enough money for the food, shelter, and clothing they need,” caught in a daily “struggle with incredible poverty.”]

From the fat article:

Poverty and obesity often go hand in hand, doctors say, because poor families stretch their budgets by buying cheaper, processed foods that have higher fat content and lower nutritional value.

THIS WHOLE THING STRIKES ME AS BEING SIMILAR TO THE UNFALSIFIABLE CLIMATE CHANGE ARGUMENTS WE HEAR FROM THE CLIMATE DEMAGOGUES:

CO2 CAUSES WARMING AND COOLING,
DROUGHTS AND FLOODS, SALTIER OCEANS AND LESS SALTY OCEANS,
EARTHQUAKES, DESERTS, HURRICANES, TORNADOES,
BLIZZARDS, AND POLAR ICE CAP MELTS.

Demagogues - flim-flam fraudsters of fear - can always find some angle and something to scare you with.

I SAY: If people want to smoke, drink hooch and eat too much fatty food it's THEIR business, NOT THE STATE'S.

And the nanny-state demagogues should just STFU.