So, you’ve stumbled onto my humble little blog. Perhaps you are a Millenial wondering why most of your friends aren’t fully employed. Or wondering why ObamaKare is being shoved down your throat. Or why your generation is on the hook for a national debt that stands at $17 $18 Trillion and counting. Maybe you are scratching your head wondering why your President thinks Global Warming the weather is more worrisome than Islamic Terror. And perhaps you’ve started to become aware there might be something the corrupt and biased lame stream media isn’t telling you. The answer, to these and other existential questions, is ... the Left - specifically, the modern American Progressive. Think of this site as a portal to a richer understanding of this answer, a portal purposely designed with a consciously cock-eyed bent to keep it entertaining. Because the First Amendment is forever and the Internet never forgets. (Plus you better figure out FICA isn't the name of a Swedish bikini model, before she eats your entire paycheck.)

How to use the portal? You could dive into my archive*. I was most active here 2010-2012, but that matters not. How many times do I need to demonstrate the central point? To wit, the political / ideological Left is a menace to the constitutional republic and must be resisted lest the American experiment in liberty devolve into socialist dystopia. If it's the more pointed hand-to-hand combat of the comment board that whets your appetite, click the 'My Disqus Comments' widget. I continue to visit that world from time to time as a light diversion. Or you could browse through my blog roll. It's a very representative collection of center-right blogs, though hardly exhaustive. I can't do the political / ideology thing 24x7, and you probably can't either. Leave that to the hysterical, talking point chanting, mob agitating, race baiting, election stealing, gaia worshiping, straw man torching, Islamic Terrorist appeasing, organized Left (aka OFA, MSNBC, UAW, SEIU, Think Progress, Media Matters, most of legacy media, the politically correct faculty lounge, anybody who belonged to Journolist, anybody connected to Occupy Wall Street, anything funded by George Soros or Tom Steyer, their paid Internet trolls, and the rest of the usual Team Leftie suspects).


*Re-posting encouraged. No need to ask for permission. Just follow the commonly accepted convention of acknowledging this site as original source with a link back. That way, you leave the asking for forgiveness to me.

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Friday, March 30, 2012

Demotivational Martin





Now, this is journalism.
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Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Lynching of George Zimmerman



Or 'framing' for the rhetorically squeamish.

==

Q: What happened to due process in this country?
A: It has been killed by left wing politics.

==

American left wing politics in 2012 is the politics of Saul Alinsky, author of Rules For Radicals: “Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It and Polarize It.”

The American political Left in 2012 is in full control of the Democrat party, writes and produces the journalistic malpractice given to you daily by the corrupt and biased mainstream media, is grossly statistically overrepresented inside the entertainment industry that feeds you your popular ‘culture,’ and wages politics as instructed by Saul Alinksy.  Ruthlessly.

The politics of the Left really only has one macro template.  Divide the mob into factions, stoke divisions amongst these factions, and capitalize on the anger and chaos to further the political agenda.  Occupy Wall Street was, is, and will be their application of this template to stoking resentments over economic class divisions (class warfare).  The Sandra Fluke ‘contraception activist’ comedy was a failed attempt to wage politics by gender warfare.  It probably worked out so poorly for them because it wasn’t carefully planned as a proactive chess move.  Rather it was a hastily thrown together counter-move to the blowback from their attempt to dictate religious conscience to the Catholic Church (war on Christianity).  They will surely come up with something else to cover both of these bases soon.  It’s an election year.

When the George Zimmerman / Trayvon Martin story first broke as a national story a couple of weeks ago, Team Leftie immediately jumped to the conclusion it had been presented with the holy grail for their politics of division: race warfare.

Initial reports contained but two notable facts: a black teenager had been shot.  Presumably by a white man, because that’s how George Zimmerman was uniformly described in account after account in the initial days.  Murder in cold blood?  Self-defense?   No one could possibly have an informed opinion except the police who responded and the grand jury that was already in the process of being convened.

But Team Leftie instantly knew what they had.  And they followed the Alinsky game plan with ruthless abandon.  No need to wait for the grand jury report.  This is a time to whip up the mob.  As Team Leftie All-Star Rahm Emanuel famously stated:  “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

The corrupt and biased liberal media distributed some photographs for us to puzzle over.  The photos they chose to highlight were tailor made to establish the desired bias.  The photo of Treyvon Martin was five years old, and depicted him at the age of 12, rather than the 17 years he had attained by the time of his demise.  The photo chosen to depict Zimmerman to the nation was even older – seven years old – and was literally a mug shot from a seven year old arrest.  

The Zimmerman mug shot did have one interesting effect on the national discourse.  He immediately went from ‘white’ to ‘white hispanic’ in news accounts.  Glad we could clear that up … it really helps us get to the bottom of what happened that night.  

We were also immediately treated to a factual falsehood, allowed to go uncorrected for days, that was off by a factor of ten.  We were told over and again Zimmerman had called police in his role as neighborhood watchman 46 times in a single year, so we would naturally reach the conclusion he was an overzealous vigilante.  It turned out the correct fact was 46 calls in ten years.  Do reporters check the facts they acquire from other reporters anymore?  You know the answer.

Day by day, new information has leaked out deflating Team Leftie’s preferred narrative.  As much as they want Treyvon to be the innocent martyr that sparks a race war, the more we learn the less there is to like about the young man.  We now know he was suspended from school three times, possibly a small time drug dealer, and just not very presentable or particularly polite on Facebook and Twitter.  We of course also know Zimmerman’s history is not as pure as the driven snow – arrests and anger management classes being a part of that history.  The point is not to have a contest over character – biased or otherwise – but rather to get to the bottom of what happened that night.

The information coming out in recent days on that score is not helpful to team Leftie’s narrative either.  Based on what has been coming out, it is likely this is what actually happened: Martin ‘jumped’ Zimmerman from behind after Zimmerman had stopped following him, Martin beat the crap out of Zimmerman with his fists, banged Zimmerman’s head against the pavement repeatedly, and made threats suggesting he would kill Zimmerman with Zimmerman’s weapon after Zimmerman was to be rendered unconscious.  In the struggle, Zimmerman’s weapon shot Martin dead.

Sounds like it could be self-defense under any reasonable standard to me.  Why not let the grand jury deliberate? 

Because deliberation and due process is not to be found  in Team Leftie DNA …

Deliberation – at least not when it comes to politically exploiting crises – is not in the DNA of the Community-Agitator-Chief himself, the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama.  BHO, failing to learn the lesson of the Beer Summit, disgracefully waded into another local matter knowing nothing of the facts – fanning the flames of racial division with the racialist code words ‘Trayvon looks like my son’ (paraphrasing).  Somebody insert this nitwit’s picture into the next edition of Webster’s next to ‘unpresidential.’

Deliberation in these matters is definitely not in the DNA of the Rev. Al Sharpton – who actually skipped his own mother’s funeral to dash to the scene of the crisis du jour.  Because exploiting racial tensions is what he does for a living – ever since participating in the fabrication of Tawana Brawley’s false charges, for which he has never been held to account.

Do you think deliberation in these matters is in the DNA of the New Black Panthers?  They have distributed ‘George Zimmerman Wanted Dead or Alive’ posters and have hired a vigilante army to ensure the reward is collected.

Apparently not noticing Zimmerman is obviously in hiding (you know, since the Panthers probably thought to look for him at home first), the dimwitted Spike Lee re-tweeted what he thought was Zimmerman’s home address.  It turned out to be the wrong address.  It was the address of an elderly couple who subsequently had to leave their home to hide out in a hotel due to the volume of ‘hate speech’ thus directed their way.  We can only hope they hire a good lawyer who will sue Lee for everything he owns.

==

You, dear reader, can browse the links in the footnote on your own, to fill out my case.  Do so deliberately, please.

This is the Left.  It is mob rule, plain and simple.  The Left is in firm control of your entire Executive branch and the Senate half of the Legislative branch.  If you do not correct this situation in the election of 2012, it is beyond my ability to articulate the pitch chaos you will be served by the Left in the subsequent four years.

Footnote

Related links …

New Black Panther vigilantism

Spike Lee, Notable Nitwit #1

Just the facts ma’am #1

Gangsta Trayvon #1

Spike Lee, Notable Nitwit #2

Just the facts ma’am #2

Gangsta Treyvon #2

Race War Satire (In case you need a laugh at this point)

Do We Need a Photo Summit?

Oh, That Post-Racial Barack

Mob Rule #1 – Walgreen’s Looting Edition

MSM bias #1 – Attack the Republican Black Guy

Congressional Black Caucus Madness #1

Congressional Black Caucus Madness #2

Congressional Black Caucus Madness #3

MSM Bias #2 – Cross Examine the Black Friend

Just the Facts Maa’am #3

Mob Rule #2 – Social Media Edition

Do We Need a Skittles Summit Now?

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Demotivational ObamaCare



Self-explanatory.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Demotivational Zimmerman



Created here.

Inspired by ...



Update 3/28/12

Commenter Matt, also a highly respected blogger at Conservative Hideout 2.0 points out the Sad Hill image of gangsta Trayvon has been labeled a fake. In my response, I explain how it is no matter to my thread. The corrupt and biased MSM frames Zimmerman by misreporting and omitting key facts, Sad Hill blog responds directly in the heat of the rhetorical fight, I see Sad Hill's work, and create my erudite version of the same. Just remember who started it. The always reliable Fox News has this article summarizing the sad state of 'journalism' in 2012 around the mere handling of photographs.
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Monday, March 26, 2012

Be There or Be Square




LAS is anticipating a fine afternoon of patriotric reverie tomorrow afternoon on Capitol Hill.  Americans For Prosperity is throwing a little shindig known as the Hands Off My Health Care Rally, to help the Supremes reach the correct judgment on the unconstitutionality of the ObamaCare individual mandate.  I'll be there passing out business cards. (*not as crooked in real life as facsimile would suggest.  iow - opposite the relative relation for the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama)





If you bump into this upstanding citizen tomorrow ...
... ask for one. Guaranteed to withstand judicial review at every level.

==

As a little warm up exercise, I went back and mined my blog archive from March 2010 and February 2010 for a review of what it was like when Barry and his corrupt gang of Progressives were shoving this monstrosity down the republic's collective throat, legislatively.

==

FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 2010

Your Agitator-In-Chief is also out fanning the flames. Barack Hussein Obama spent Thursday somewhere in Iowa, giving a stump speech to a crowd that was undoubtedly rounded up by SEIU Brown Shirts. The advice he gave to this gathering of Obama Zombies included “argue” and “get in your neighbors face.” To GOP plans to run in November on a ‘repeal and replace’ plank, he bellowed ‘Bring It on!’ Well, well - we’re way past even bothering to point out what it means to be ‘presidential.’ We should just follow the Agitator-In-Chief’s advice. I don’t think it will have the consequences he intends. This is the guy who badly lost his declared war on a broadcast network last year, and now he wants to declare war on every patriotic American. Bring it on.

TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 2010

It’s The Process, Stupid


On March 17, when his socialized medicine legislation was still in deep trouble on the Hill, Mr. Obama was desperate to reach the largest TV news audience in the country. The problem for him, of course, is he had previously unilaterally declared war on the network that possesses this audience – Fox. Under the circumstances, I think Brett Bair was remarkably restrained while he unsuccessfully attempted to get straight answers to simple questions from a filibustering Obama. The largest TV news audience in the country, already enraged by a legislative process that stinks to high heaven, was told by the Agitator-In-Chief they don’t really care about process after all. Hmmmm. They also witnessed Obama admit he had no idea what was or was not included in his #1 domestic legislative initiative. Hmmmmmm.  They also understand this legislation is a jobs killer in a down economy with high unemployment. Hmmmmm. Smooth politicking, Barry.

MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2010
…the Yeas are 219, the Nays are 212.

Or: Progressives, socialists, liberal Democrats, and allegedly pro-life folding lawn chairs takeover 1/6 of the American economy against popular and bi-partisan opposition.

So, what’s another trillion bucks down the social welfare state rat hole when the country’s broke?


The last count I recall is 38 state attorneys general ready to file lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate. A number of state legislatures (ten and growing, I think) have apparently exercised their tenth amendment rights and passed laws nullifying any individual mandate. I am proud that my home state of Virginia is moving aggressively on both of these fronts. 

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Health Care March Madness


In summary, The Most Transparent Administration in History has collaborated with The Most Ethical Congress in History - to throw the entire country into a state of chaos. The House vote presently at issue will have two possible outcomes for Barack Hussein Obama: 

(1) The inevitable Waterloo style defeat originally predicted by Senator Jim DeMint in July 2009, or 

(2) A pyrrhic victory merely deferring the final date for the inevitable Waterloo style defeat originally predicted by Senator Jim DeMint in July 2009.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2010

Liberty vs. Tyranny USA 2010: Pickett's Charge


The moment has arrived for the “Pickett’s Charge” of the American Progressive gang.


When I started this blog, I honestly thought the Progressive gang had so-called “Health Reform” in the bag, and their “Pickett’s Charge” legislative moment would come at a later time - over Cap and Tax, Immigration Amnesty, or any of a number of other Progressive outrages dancing in their little heads. But, along came Scott Brown to shake up their plans, and here we are. The moment has arrived to man the ramparts, take aim at the Progressive troops charging at us with the battle cry “Alinksyu Akbar,” clad in their Mao jackets festooned with hopey-changey campaign paraphernalia. Obama (Lee) has given the orders, Pelosi (Pickett) is leading the charge, and the elected donkey caucus is providing the troops.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2010

…we were treated to a strange morph of Stubborn Obama and Clueless Obama on the afternoon of March 3, 2010. Stubborn Obama had already decided to shove ObamaCare down the American people’s throats against their will. Clueless Obama trotted out a bunch of lab coats as props - after deriding the bill itself as a “prop” in last week’s phony Blair House Summit.  Tin political ear?  

After consulting with Clueless Obama on the so-called “optics,” Stubborn Obama made the speech – defiantly. Stubborn Obama just can’t accept that the American people do not want the government getting between them and their doctor. Stubborn Obama demonizes private insurance companies because this is the entity that currently sits in the daily triangle between patients and doctors (i.e. they are the ‘competition,’ or more accurately, the ‘enemy’ to his preferred third wheel – the government)

Stubborn Obama made a phony show of including Republican ideas in a so-called bi-partisan bill. I’m sorry, but mixing in a few M&Ms into a quarter-pounder crap sandwich doesn’t make the sandwich any more appealing.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Quickie Analysis: Phony Blair House Summit


Well, two out of three isn’t bad. Obama got what he wanted – a phony dog and pony show displaying fake bi-partisanship. The GOP got what they needed – air time to articulate their positions to the American people. Unfortunately, it did not quite degenerate into the full on food fight I was hoping for – slightly diminishing the entertainment value for me.


Legislatively - we now appear to be exactly where we were when I inaugurated this blog on December 30, 2009. The Democrats are pushing a completely partisan monstrosity the American people do not want. The Democrats seem willing to jam the monstrosity down the American peoples' throats. 

If Nanny Pelosi pulls a rabbit out of her hat and gets the monstrosity to the Senate, the Democrats will probably have the 51 votes they need to pass a fundamental change to 1/6 of our economy under the reconciliation procedure – which will be remembered as a monumental abuse of power. If it gets that far, Obama will undoubtedly sign it into law. Two things are then certain to occur. (1) The unconstitutional elements of the monstrosity, including the individual mandates, will be immediately challenged, tying the monstrosity up in court until November for sure. (2) The GOP is now an odds-on favorite to gain a majority in both the House and Senate in November – allowing them to withhold funding for the monstrosity until 2012.





d(^_^)b http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/ “Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”

Update

Meanwhile, in today's news, the Manchurian-Candidate-In-Chief is caught giving away the keys to the store to an old Cold War nemesis. (From Pundit and Pundette)

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player


Update 3/28/12



An excellent afternoon to be out on the Capitol Hill lawn - as documented by the pic taken by my neighbor with my blackberry, who was out on a workday stroll. For some reason, she would not tell me which bureaucracy she worked for. Really.

The Kagan snark got a lot of supportive comments from the crowd - mostly along the lines of "she deserves NO vote." The other side of the sign - What Gub'ment Can Giveth ... Gub'ment Can Taketh Away - didn't get nearly the reaction. But I noticed a lot of people puzzling over it. Too abstract?

I gave an interview to David Weigel of Journolist infamy. He seems a harmless and amicable dunce in person. He stipulated his surprise that so many people would assemble for a court case, as opposed to a legislative proposal. Huh? I also gave an interview to a polite Nordic gentleman who identified himself as a journalist for an unnamed European publication. The polite Nordic journalist conducted the interview in the manner of an advocate for socialized medicine - quoting the bogus 30 million uninsured number from the original debate as fact, and at one point actually prefacing a question with the arrogant words "you can't possibly understand how it is in Europe." I am hopeful my measured responses will help both Weigel and the Nordic gentleman come to better understand the American model of citizen sovereign. Hopeful ... not confident.

I found myself drawn into only two heated debates with Lefties - both in front of the Supreme Court building after the rally proper. One was with a possible "occupier" (judging by the bohemian attire) who attempted to draw a false equivalence between Kagan and Justice Thomas for recusal. As if what one's wife does for a living is equivalent to actually writing portions of the law over which one now sits in judgment. The other was with a frustrated looking pin stripe suit. Probably a gub'ment lawyer fresh from having his lunch eaten in oral arguments.

I did manage to hand out a few business cards. The rush of blog visitors has not arrived yet. Must be a bug in the traffic analysis utility. I think I'll look into that next.
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Friday, March 23, 2012

Jack Wiley Dithers Reporting From the 2012 Republican Convention

Posted by LibertyAtStake

I recently had a very interesting evening dialogue at the well-appointed home of the smartest man I know – Dr. Francis Charles Hamilton. The transcript, drawn from my own fuzzy memory, is as follows.

LAS: You’ve outdone yourself this evening, perfesser. Boiled shrimp. What, did it take five whole seconds to transfer from the freezer to the pot?


FCH: I see you came empty handed again. Will it be gin and tonic or sherry this time?


LAS: What do you recommend to complement to Costco cocktail sauce?


FCH: It’ll be gin and tonic to start and sherry to finish, then.


==

LAS: Why the summons, perfesser?


FCH: I wish to reveal something important, something powerful, to you, padawan. This knowledge must be handled with great care and very responsibly. I have decided you can put it to good use on that blog thing of yours.


LAS: You read my blog, perfesser?


FCH: Don’t be silly. This is charity. It’s too good to keep out of the public eye – but if I gave it to Dithers he would destroy the time space continuum within 30 seconds of receiving the knowledge.


Jack Wiley Dithers

LAS: Intriquing. Have you gotten into the sherry early today, perfesser?


FCH: Come with me padawan.


==

FCH: Feast your eyes on this magnificent machine, padawan.




LAS: Commodore? Amiga?


FCH: No … a time machine … passed down to the Hamilton / Dithers line by Rube Goldberg himself.


LAS: You can go back in time, perfesser! That explains a lot.


FCH: No, the machine only goes forward. But let me get to my point. Last night I rode the machine to the 2012 Republican convention. I helped Dithers write his bylines, here’s a sample.


==

GOP Convention Opens With No Candidate Owning Simple Delegate Majority

Ron Paul Throws Delegates to Romney – Half Walk Out and Join OWS Protestors Outside

4th Ballot: Romney / Paul Coalition Still Lacks Simple Majority

Gingrich Throws Delegates to Santorum – Hall Erupts Into Shocked ‘Why, Newt, Why?’ Chant

8th Ballot Shows Not Enough Newt Delegates Switch to Push Santorum Over the Top

Historic Acceptance Speeches Bring Party to Extended Standing Ovations

Palin / Rubio Ticket Hits Campaign Trail

==

LAS: Wow. That’s really something. What else were you able to find out?


FCH: That’s it. The machine has an average battery run time of 30 minutes and a battery recharge time of six months. It’s designed to run on algae, you see.


LAS: What does that red button do?


FCH: Don’t touch that! I'm already regretting this decision …


Footnote

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Left's War on Conservative Women, Hypocrisy, Talk Radio, Obama, and Alinsky



Radio man Chris Plante, executing his daily schtick format yesterday, put a question to his audience allegedly seeking an answer from the public (even though he already had his own answer in mind). This time the question was, paraphrasing, something like "what is the Obama White House telling us with this so-called 'war on women.'"

By now, we are all familiar with the phony and ongoing 'War on Women' narrative - which I began chronicling with my 3/6/12 post 'The Evolution of a Narrative': Team Leftie attempt to shove contraception down Catholic Church's collective throat, Team Leftie polling identifies principled backlash in the republic, Team Leftie devises change of subject to free contraception services for self-entitled scholarship law students who somehow can't afford $9/mo at the local pharmacy, Team Leftie trots out the mathematically challenged nymphomaniac for a political circus, Rush Limbaugh gives his usual satirical commentary on current events and utters a word not banned by the FCC and not on George Carlin's list of 7 deadly words, Team Leftie leader Barack Hussein Obama comforts the previously mentioned nymphomaniac, Team Leftie launches all out attack on Limbaugh in vain attempt to drive him off the air.

==

Plante’s question to his audience arose from an appearance on the David Letterman show by Michelle Obama. Plante astutely connected the dots between the inconsistencies in the White House’s recent rhetoric regarding ‘civil discourse’ in politics, and Letterman’s record of applying the word ‘slutty’ to Sarah Palin. (And also making crude jokes about her teenage daughter Willow).

Plante and his audience leaned hard into the obvious explanation – hypocrisy. The phony ‘War on Women’ recently invented by Team Leftie is actually a one sided ‘War on Conservative Women’ Team Leftie has been waging for years. Because Team Leftie expects all women to stay on their political reservation, and any woman straying from the reservation is fair game for a lynching.

That’s all true enough. But it omits one key insight about who these people in the White House are – Team Leftie All-Stars each and every one – which is touched on in this email I sent Mr. Plante contemporaneously.

The message of the WH on 'civil discourse' is they are dyed-in-wool *Alinsyites*. (sic)

*All that matters is the fight* *Hold your enemy to his rules*



I see now I misspelled Alinskyite – meaning dedicated followers of Saul Alinsky and his Rules for Radicals. This “bible” to which they bitterly cling instructs them to constantly stir the pot to foment divisions among the people, to exploit for their own ideological advantage. Winning the ideological fight is all that matters. Everything else is a distant second at best – including quaint old notions like intellectual consistency.

They have 12 rules in this “bible” of theirs. Rule 4 is very instructive right now …

RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules." If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity's very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)


Translation in this context: Exhort your enemy to stick to ‘civil discourse’ – that is, *sit down and shut up* - while you retain the ability to savage your enemy.

LAS’ advice to the conservatives: Refuse to *sit down and shut up* ... just don’t lose your ethical compass as you do so. Two things in particular will occur: (1) as the argument unfolds, Team Leftie hypocrisy will become increasingly apparent to the rest of the republic, (2) Rule 4 will be turned on Team Leftie – they all have glass chins.

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Sunday, March 18, 2012

On Hayek’s “Fatal Conceit” and BHO’s Energy Policy


Recent political events have brought to the forefront of LAS’ mind F.A. Hayek’s pithy concept of the ‘fatal conceit.’  Hayek, of course, is remembered as the founder of the Austrian school of free-market economic theory – later carried forward by the so-called Chicago school under Milton Friedman.

The basic idea of the ‘fatal conceit’ concept – specifically applied to economics - is this: no one is smart enough to direct the exchange of resources in any economy of any appreciable scale.  Not a single person ever born or who will ever be born is that smart.  The market must be allowed to freely produce profit and loss signals to producers and consumers for an economy to function and grow.   

When the market is replaced by the directives of a centralized command and control authority, both producers and consumers are reduced to beggars seeking favors from an omnipotent but hardly omniscient god-state run by fallible people.   This dysfunctional beggar citizenry is what we have come to mock with the label ‘crony.’  We have our crony capitalists (producers), such as Buffet and Immelt, seeking favorable advantage by short-cutting the market with favors dispensed by the dispensers of gub’ment favors.  But we also have crony consumers  throughout the republic  - such as anyone buying Obama’s latest line that the pathetic little payroll tax cut given to you out of his philanthropic instincts (a pander) is an offset to the rise in gas prices for which he has no responsibility (a lie).

Socialism in every one of its forms rejects market forces - and therefore inevitably degrades into a society broken down as 99% beggar citizenry seeking alms from 1% ruling elite.  The point is proven by a simple compare and contrast of conditions in East vs. West Europe, East vs. West Germany, and East vs. West Berlin immediately after we won the Cold War.  The Cold War (in Europe) was a giant social / economic experiment conducted on two groups of culturally and historically identical people living under two distinct systems.  The plainly observable economic conditions on each side, when the Berlin Wall finally came down, could not have been more black and white.

==

This book review of Hayek’s so-called “collected works” explains the concept of the fatal conceit as the false idea "man is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes."

As I recall many of my high school classmates exclaiming from time to time ... "yeah, right!"

(Note: Before you buy the book, the last of Hayek’s career, read this more in depth review including the history of the book’s creation. LAS does not want to be responsible for consumer disappointment.)

And via the magic of the Intertubes, I have come across this excellent definition of the fatal conceit concept, as it applies to socialism in particular.

Socialism fails, unavoidably, because it is based on the flawed concept, the “fatal conceit,” that one man or one group, one cabinet of commanding officials or one central committee, or one team of planners from Harvard and Yale, can gather and understand enough information in order to reshape the world around them according to their wishes, reshape human nature, and design an economic system that can outstrip the overall and long run performance of the decentralized and basically self-ordering and spontaneous processes of the marketplace.

==

Having now probably expended too many words on establishing a conceptual baseline for this humble post … for the modern blog reader, that is ... let us now return our attention to the original point of the post – recent news from the field on the topic of fatal conceit.

Let’s start with the energy policy coming from the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama, which can only be described as a product of Andrew Klavan’s “Imagination Land.”

In one breath, the Empty Suit tells us drilling for more oil on American land won’t lower gas prices at the pump, yet in the next he tells us convincing Saudi Arabia to drill for more oil will achieve the same end. Huh? Perhaps he’s actually a super patriot with a secret strategy to get them to exhaust their reserves before we exhaust ours!

On the one hand, he derides oil as the energy of the “past”, and on the other hand lauds windmills – which have been around for centuries – as an energy of the “future.” I like Rush Limbaugh’s rule … talk to me about the energy of the future when you have something other than oil that can lift a jet airplane off the ground and keep it there. Nuclear might fit the bill … but I’m afraid it would entail too large a regulatory bureaucracy. You know, for the crash investigations.

Nuclear is a very efficient generator of electricity when kept stationary, produces zero carbon emissions in the process … and so naturally the Empty Suit’s administration insists on closing more nuclear plants. His EPA is closing coal-fired plants, too – on the grounds they produce too many carbon emissions. The alternatives they push – wind, solar, and now algae – produce not a scintilla of a percentage of the existing demand. Yet they exhort us to increase demand for plant produced electricity by driving electric cars. WTF, Barry?

Simply the Energy Policy From Imagination Land. As it can only come from BHO and his corrupt gang of progressives, faculty lounge wankers each and every one, adding up to zero days real world private sector experience.

==

Meanwhile, the real world relentlessly moves forward governed by the immutable laws of supply and demand …

Gas Prices rise precipitously, naturally. But that’s actually what they want – just not until *after* the election. BHO’s Secretary of Energy – Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven F. Chu - said he didn’t want lower gas prices before saying he didn’t really mean it. Look it up yourself on the Google machine. What I said.

The Consumer Price Index increases, in large part due the increase on gas prices at the pump. Then … drum roll please … something happens to really catch the Empty Suit’s attention - his approval ratings tank. (They will go lower. Mark it.)

How can this be! They’ve already worked it out in the faculty lounges! They imagine it and it will be! What is wrong with you people! Then the fatal conceit taps them on the shoulder and informs them the only possible explanation is … you’re stupid.

That’s what explains how a card-carrying member of BHO’s Information Ministry – aka the corrupt and biased Leftist media – was able to go out and give this disgracefully unreflective performance. The inflection in the voice of this pinhead John Harris – whoever the hell he is – each and every time he spews the word ‘stupid’ - makes it perfectly clear what he thinks of you. (memo to the pinhead Harris: Regarding the Muslim thing, dopey Mr. Harris, BHO technically is Muslim, according to the Islamic rule that the paternal religion determines the religion of the offspring. And note BHO’s faux Christianity makes him an ‘infidel’ in the very same Islamic code of law. Better not drop that Secret Service protection when a private citizen, Barry.)



Of course BHO himself received a telegram from the fatal conceit messenger. It instructed him to go out to a local community college to give an embarrassingly slapstick (read ‘unpresidential’) speech serving red meat to his devoted followers … ably refuted by conservative yeoman Charles Krauthammer. (Have your people call my people, Charles.)



Here’s the bottom line, kiddies. Fatal conceit will be the character flaw primarily responsible for BHO’s defeat at the polls in November. Mark it.

==

Footnote



My dog dragged in an ancient outdoor chew toy today. I wonder if the accumulated algae could power the battery of the smart phone that snapped this photograph. For that matter … if the entire chew toy were magically converted to a giant lump of algae, and used as the power source for this laptop … how many of these words could have been produced? Not many, I’ll wager. Alright, time to remove the disgusting chew toy and see what the real world has in store next. Good night, dear reader.

Update 3/19/12

You people are sooooooooooooo stoooooooopid!

Click the pic for the full story behind the fatal conceit of Obama's signature legislation.

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For Ema

Couldn't resist ...


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Thursday, March 15, 2012

What's Wrong With This?



I will now explain, by repeating my comment to the source article, with a tiny little edit.

This "flag" is the perfect symbol for the modern Democrat / Progressive... because they seek to replace the original federalist balance between the states and national gub'ment with a centralized, nationalized, fascistic, god-state headed by an iconic cult of personality figurehead. It's just who they are.

d(^_^)b http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/ "Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive".


This is entirely symbolic of where America's Left is in the year 2012 ... hell bent on bringing the state into every corner of your life, however trivial, and increasingly becoming indistinguishable in form, content, and style from those other wildly successful [/snark] god-states run by those lovable [/snark] cults of personality such as Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao-Tse Tung, and Kim Il Jong.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Yes, I'm Obsessed By the Kinks

It's a character fault, I know.

And I just ran into this gem thanks to the magic of the Intertubes. The perfect intersection of Ray's songwriting, Dave's guitar playing, and the band's capacity to bring a crowd to ecstatic heights in live performance. I especially like the Beatles karaoke inserted as a bridge - very snarkiliciously Kinksesque as a stage device.

Enjoy.

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Only Rhetorically, Billy Boy, Not Literally - Like You

From Red State.

Bill Ayers is a despicable human being. So is is his wife Bernadine Dohrn. Born to privilege, radicalized by the 60's New Left, convicted domestic terrorists both. Hard core members of the Weather Underground, which literally sought the violent overthrow of the US Government in order to replace it with a form of Marxism, and acted upon this goal by literally blowing stuff up. Neither has ever expressed the slightest remorse for the mayhem they inflicted upon the civil society.  All of this, of course, made them darlings of the Left and set them up for life as tenured members of the Leftist academy. And, oh, did I mention Barack Hussein Obama launched his political career in the living room of these entitled felonious Marxists?

There is also a good bit of circumstantial evidence supporting the assertion Bill Ayers wrote BHO's first of two autobiographies.  The book Ayers undisputably wrote - Prairie Fire - is being used as one of two playbooks (Alinsky's Rule For Radicals being the other) directing the street mayhem and political food fights BHO and his corrupt gang of progressives are inflicting upon the civil society in the current election cycle.

Recently, Ayers attacked Breitbart with rhetoric proving once again Leftists possess no sense of irony.  Kind of like arguing for photo ID to purchase a six pack of Corona, or sign up for government assistance, but not to vote.

Look it all up, kiddies - you have the Google machine.

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Sunday, March 11, 2012

What’s In a Number, Anyway?

The latest job report is out and the official (U-3) unemployment figure – the one everybody pays attention to – holds steady at 8.3%. So, I guess that means 917 out of every 1000 people who would like a job have one. That doesn’t sound so bad, I guess – unless of course you are one of the unlucky 83 on the outside looking in.

 BHO and his corrupt gang of progressives, including their well-heeled information ministry (aka the corrupt and biased liberal media), because it is now an election year, will spin this as positive news – using weasel words like:

 “Let’s call it a recovery.” 
LAS: Well, OK, if you say so.

 “Unemployment Rate Holds Steady” 
LAS: Yeah, steady at SUCKS.

 “The economy added 227,000 jobs in February …”
 LAS: “…when you need a consistent rate of 400,000 or more for freakin’ ever to drive U-3 down to 4-5%”

 And on down the line of BHO’s Information Ministry, now accessible via exercising the 21st century verb ‘to Google’.

 ==

 8.3% isn’t the only number to consider, however. To come up with this number, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) utilizes some filters.

If you count “underemployed” (those who want a full time job but are stuck with a part time job), “marginally attached” (haven’t looked recently – probably because they’re not the kind to bang their head against a wall), and “discouraged” (have stopped looking altogether, because, 40 weeks of looking – the new normal – really sucks) … the “real underemployment” number is 16.9%.

So, now it boils down to 169 of every 1000 “workers” ain’t really “working” to full capacity. If you are one of the 831 lucky ones with a full-time job, I’ll bet you run into some of them daily. They probably don’t look real happy. 

==

 Then, there’s this term ... “seasonally adjusted.” I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with the people who pick our vegetables and fruits off the vine, and those who sell us our Christmas stocking stuffers.

The Gallup organization does not consider this factor, maybe because they can’t figure just how in the hell BLS determines this filter. Anyway, if you eliminate this filter, the numbers are 9.0% official unemployed and 19.0% “underemployed.” Rounding up for macroeconomic imprecision, that means 1 in 5 people you meet on the street are not earning what they are capable of earning. I'll bet they're not real happy.

 ==

 Then again, it also depends on which neighborhoods you habituate.

Going back to the U-3 baseline, Black male official unemployment “not seasonally adjusted” is 15.2%. God only knows what the “no-filter” rate is. I already know one thing … I don’t want to be caught walking aimlessly around a neighborhood full of those guys. I can easily imagine they are kind of pissed off.  Way too pissed off for me to bother with.

 For the love of God, I don’t know why you people keep voting for DemoHacks.



 LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ brought you nothing but misery. The Trillion Dollar Crap Sandwich (aka Stimulus) brings you nothing but misery. Until you stop banging your nappy heads against the political wall, I’m just avoiding your neighborhoods. Period. End of Sentence.
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Friday, March 9, 2012

Commentapalooza VI

If you don’t know the rules by now, you haven’t been paying attention. If you are Sandra Fluke, an occupier, or like-minded fellow traveler - you probably feel entitled to an explanation. None will be forthcoming. Use the Search Box, dummy! No more whining!

==

Inexplicably fuzzy screen snaps embiggen when clicked, headlines linkify when clicked.

==

A classic cartoon, the National Science Foundation, a grammatical error, and a prescient forecast of Team Leftie’s occupation mob … all in one single comment on gub’ment over-reach!


LAS pontificates on the stimulative effect of the arts.


Dang furriners!


I’m too sexy for my deodorant.


Rule 5 all about … ahem … the eyes.


LAS provides invaluable pro bono editorial advice to NewsBusted producers.


Las invokes 18th century slang for Heritage Foundation crowd.  Because they get that stuff.


Rule 5 is the best part of Barry’s ridiculous energy policy.






On what to do with wrong-headed precedent.


On the futility of comprehensively chronicling Team Leftie induced mayhem.


Captain Kirk – Libertarian Hero!


Update 03/13/12
The solution to my fuzzy screenshot problem going forward is switching from the free Wisdom-soft ScreenHunter utility to the free Gadwin PrintScreen utility. Very puzzling ... I've been using ScreenHunter literally since 2007, including more than 2 years on this very laptop. I could drill into the impossibly complex web of settings, configurations, and installations on this laptop to find the root cause ... or just switch to the next free utility in line. I've never been accused of stupidity.

Update 03/20/12
It is now becoming clear the issue is file type as opposed to screen snap utility - which, of course makes a hell of a lot more sense. *.gif - the ScreenHunter default - doesn't upload to blogger with clarity anymore. *.bmp - the Gadwin default does. *.png also does. Typical file size for matching images, in descending order, is *.bmp, *.png, *.gif - aligning with this observation.
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Thursday, March 8, 2012

War

Today I introduce a new widget at the top of this blog. It is a portal to what will be remembered as the most important web site launched in 2012 - www.breitbart.com.

This website was designed by an extraordinary staff of citizen journalists assembled by this patriot.




This patriotic effort begins the inexorable process of hammering the final nail in the coffin of the corrupt and biased Leftist mainstream media. God speed to each of Breitbat-Dot-Com's generals, lieutenants, and foot soldiers.
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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Keep Inevitable Mittens Running Hard

Here are yesterday's 'Super Tuesday' results, by voting percentage.
















These results apparently translate to a running delegate count as follows: Romney 415, Santorum 176, Gingrich 105, Paul 47. 

==

My immediate superficial conclusion is to accept the establishment's conventional wisdom that Mittens will inevitably collect the 1144 simple majority of delegates to clinch the nomination, entirely due to the establishment money and organization machine pushing his candidacy.

My advice to all the other candidates is to stay in the race to the bitter end.

As I've explained again and again - the one-on-one debates are the 'make or break' forum for the clueless independent voters who are barely paying attention, if paying attention at all, to these primaries. Mittens is not ready for the main event yet. Mittens needs to earn each and every one of those convention delegates, to prove he has been sufficiently toughened for the general election. And not by carpet bombing his opponents with negative advertising bought and paid for by his establishment pals. Now we need to see him articulate a bare-knuckle, anti-incumbent, pro-conservative values message, against friendly competition. He hasn't yet demonstrated this capacity, which makes him at this point nothing but a patsy set up for annihilation by Team Leftie's vicious campaign apparatus. RomneyCare is unilateral disarmament on the most important domestic issue of the day, and his background is the perfect straw man for Team Leftie to set on fire with their rotten class warfare message. I need to see Romney screw up the intellectual courage to talk about the 'Saul Alinsky radical in the White House.' Newt Gingrich needs to stay in Romney's face until he realizes this is necessary to win.

If Mittens is allowed to enter the general not realizing this, he will lose, and I will send him the memo.



Update

A report from Hot Air demonstrating Mittens has a long way to go before we can declare him to be in fighting trim.
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