Author: Mark Noonan

Massacre, Redux

Mark Noonan151 Comments

A little later today the President of the United States will give a speech a little like this one or, perhaps, like that one.  The point is that the President will express his shock and grief over the shootings in Aurora, Colorado.

For the next few days we’ll have all sorts of reports about the massacre – we’ll learn about the shooter and about the least details of his sorry life.  We’ll learn if this was just some sort of crazed attack or (less likely) some sort of terrorist attack.  If it was a terrorist attack then it will be swiftly played down by government and MSM because confronting actual terrorism is forbidden right now (too busy with electoral matters – if it was some sort of terrorist attack, the reaction will be akin to the reaction to the Cole incident in 2000).  More than likely, though, this massacre is just another crazed attack in a long line of them – both in the United States and around the world.  Zero Hedge put together a handy list of the major mass shootings of the past 20 years.  Makes for depressing reading – but not so much because of the shootings, but because of our blindness on what it all means.

Even if the attack turns out to be terrorism, the list is still depressing and still so because of our unwillingness to confront reality.  Once upon a time, there weren’t mass shootings.  Not that there were fewer:  there were none.  Crazed lunatics with access to repeating rifles did not go on murderous rampages in the 1880’s.  Crazed lunatics with access to the Thompson sub-machine gun (a fully automatic weapon firing a murderous .45 ACP round at 600 rounds per minute…and anyone could buy it in the 20’s or 30’s…didn’t even need a permit) did not go on murderous rampages in the 1930’s.  Crazed lunatics who have to jump through government hoops to obtain semi-automatic weapons do go on murderous rampages, today.  What has changed?  I mean, other than the fact that it is harder to obtain less effective murder weapons than were available in the 1930’s?

Morality has changed.

Back in the past we didn’t have a society where the family was half collapsed.  We didn’t have a society where lies were officially designated as “politically correct” and thus not to be questioned.  Where the government nanny-State has replaced men in a quarter of all households.  Where violence is glorified in “cool” movies, television shows and video games.  Where obscene and/or anti-social behavior is not a matter for concern (until, that is, the obscene or anti-social person picks up a gun and starts shooting).   The problem we have – the reason people go on shooting rampages – is because we are an immoral society.  Until we become, once again, a moral society this will not change – all you’ll get is ever more shootings and, likely, ever worse shootings.

Until we brace ourselves to the task of rebuilding the family, denouncing the politically correct lies, dismantling the welfare State and start censoring what goes on in our popular culture, none of this will improve.  It will, indeed, only get worse.  Carp and complain about what I just wrote all you want – shriek to high heaven about how I just advocated censorship…but if you don’t agree with me, then you are part of the problem.  Your head is stuck firmly in the sand (though a much more vulgar suggestion of where it is would be more accurate).  You are ignoring reality in favor of one politically correct lie or another.   This is what it is – our collapse in morality leads to mass shootings.  Just as our collapse in morality has led to increased illegitimacy, divorce, cross-generational government dependence, rape, adultery/fornication, child abuse/neglect/abandonment, massively widespread sexually transmitted disease, increased child poverty, crime of all sorts, decayed cities…

Want to end all that?  Then start insisting upon the enforcement of morality.  If you don’t then nothing else you do will work and you’ll just see more and more of this…

UPDATE:  Roger L. Simon gets on the right track:

From Oliver Stone to Quentin Tarantino to Clint Eastwood, many of our best known filmmakers have trafficked in extreme, sometimes even gratuitous, violence. It has long been their contention, and those of others, that violence in film does not beget violence in life.

As the mass murder in Colorado has shown, they were wrong. Yes, normal people are able to separate illusion from reality, but for the criminally insane like James Holmes, it is quite clear that ultra-violent films can act as an inspiration for unspeakable acts.

Given the horrifying death toll, rare as the likes of Holmes may be, we have to account for the similarly deranged and aberrant. We owe that to the dead of Colorado and elsewhere. Moreover, we should not encourage these events, wittingly or unwittingly. And by we I mean the people who make films (which includes me)…

But he doesn’t go far enough – he eschews censorship.  But censorship of films, television, radio and video games (especially) is a necessary act in bringing to an end these horrendous massacres.  It is simple calculation:  what is more important, human lives of the ability of entertainment people to make an easy buck?  It is my view that because we have allowed popular culture to become a cesspit that it has not only become soaked in violence and sex but that it has also become lousy – actors are worse, direction is worse, writing is worse than it was in the glory days of Hollywood.  This is because acting in the manner of Spencer Tracy, directing in the manner of John Ford and writing with the style and grace of Charles Brackett (Ninotchka, Sunset Boulevard, The King and I, etc.) takes hard work as well as talent – much easier to just grind out movies with spectacular special effects, a few flashed boobs, some cuss words and a couple catch-phrases.

Do not, I pray you, try to sell me the utter garbage that censoring violence and sex out of popular culture attacks freedom.  Men and women did not fight and die for the “freedom” to put out disgusting filth and charge $8 to see it.  The heroes of America’s past fought and died so that we could worship God, speak our minds and live our lives without let or hindrance from others.  If the only way you can feel free is when your watching someone be disemboweled in an action flick, then you are a complete slave, so pound sand and get out of this debate and allow the adults to take over.

UPDATE II:  Naturally, the left is trying to blame the TEA Party and the larger conservative movement for this.  They’ll never take aim at the purveyors of popular filth.  Oh, no – that would mean a drying up of invites to the cool parties as well as a drop off in donations…

UPDATE III:  Its not just me thinking along these lines.

Another Obama Investment Goes Belly Up

Mark Noonan29 Comments

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

The Amonix solar manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas, heavily financed under an Obama administration energy initiative, has closed its 214,000-square-foot facility 14 months after it opened…

…A designer and manufacturer of concentrated photovoltaic solar power systems, Amonix received $6 million in federal tax credits and a $15.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to open the plant in North Las Vegas…

If it was a worthwhile investment then private investors would have ponied up the money for it – that it took a massive, federal grant to get it off the ground demonstrated that it was doomed to failure from the start.  But Obama backed it – just like he did Solyndra and other failed “green jobs”.  And if he’s re-elected he’ll just go right on funding them…because he’s an utter fool who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Be Cautious About Syrian Civil War Stories

Mark Noonan9 Comments

From the BBC:

…The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says it remains far from clear what took place at Tremseh.

The government says its armed forces mounted a special operation after tip-offs from local people about large numbers of armed rebels operating from hideouts there…

…Our correspondent says that, in contrast to the massacre at Houla two months ago, the opposition has not yet produced videos or a detailed lists of names of civilians killed.

He says that activist and human rights groups have named a handful of civilians they say died in the bombardment of the village, but the few video postings they have produced, showing the bodies of young men, are consistent with the government line that many rebel fighters were killed…

This, of course, doesn’t in any way, shape or form rehabilitate the Assad regime – we know that through the reigns of both father and son, that regime has been nothing but a load of corrupt, cruel, rat bastards.  But what we have learned of the rebels can give no one any thought that their replacing the Assad regime would bring in light and reason.  Here is what the Syrian rebels are like:

Shocking images have emerged which show the aftermath of Christian churches ransacked by NATO-backed Syrian rebels, illustrating once again how western powers are supporting Muslim extremists in their bid to achieve regime change in the middle east.

A photograph provided to us by a Christian woman in Homs, scene of some of the bloodiest clashes of the conflict, shows a member of the Free Syrian Army posing with a looted Catholic cross in one hand and a gun in the other while wearing a priest’s robe…

I’ve heard stories that whole villages of Christians were forced to flee from the rebels.  It must be kept in mind that the rebels are Islamist.  They will use women and children as shields.  They will deliberately set things up so that when regime forces attack, non-combatants will be killed.  They will, to put it bluntly, be cruel as well as cowardly and that the only thing thing whey want to change is who is in charge of looting while also adding a layer of sharia barbarism to the nation.

There is nothing we can do in Syria unless we wanted to invade and kill every single person in possession of a weapon.  Then you could be fairly certain you were killing all the people who are causing the trouble.  But as we are not prepared to do something like that, our course of action is to stay away – with perhaps providing some assistance to the Christians who are able and willing to flee.  Other than that, US policy should be directed towards taking advantage of the Assad regime’s difficulties and leveraging the Syrians out of Lebanon.  That would do more for US and Israeli security than pretending that the rebels are other than rats and helping them to replace the current rats in charge.

Rice for Vice President?

Mark Noonan135 Comments

From Drudge:

Late Thursday evening, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign launched a new fundraising drive, ‘Meet The VP’ — just as Romney himself has narrowed the field of candidates to a handful, sources reveal.

And a surprise name is now near the top of the list: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice!

The timing of the announcement is now set for ‘coming weeks’.

Plus:  Massive excitement in the GOP base.  Clearly the smartest person in the room (we’d have to force Rice to speak with rags stuffed in her mouth just so Biden wouldn’t sound like a complete idiot during the VP debate).  Not only cuts the rug under the racism lie from the liberals but as they are sure to try and call her a “Tom” it will actually hurt them massively.

Minus:  Bit of a reminder of Bush who still remains unpopular (though his popularity is greatly rebounding as people take the full measure of his successor).

What do you think?

Remember that “New Tone” BS?

Mark Noonan75 Comments

From Politico:

Politicians recognize they give up a degree of privacy when they run for office.

But Democrats are testing the outer limits of that understanding with a practice that raises questions about when campaign tracking becomes something more like stalking.

While most serious campaigns on both sides use campaign trackers — staffers whose job is to record on video every public appearance and statement by an opponent — House Democrats are taking it to another level. They’re now recording video of the homes of GOP congressmen and candidates and posting the raw footage on the Internet for all to see…
This is just plain and simple intimidation – an attempt to scare Republicans.  By videotaping the homes (and, it seems, posting addresses on the internet) Democrats are inviting lunatics to do bad things.  Democrats complained mightily in the wake of the Giffords shooting that the mere use of targets on a map put people at risk…but now Democrats are actually giving the address, and a helpful picture of the place, to anyone on the left who takes seriously the notion that Republicans are evil and must be stopped at all costs.
If this – and the rest of the Democrat hate-mongering – doesn’t stop, then someone is going to get killed.  Depend on it.  Is there anyone on the Democrat side who has a shred of honor left and will try to stop this?

Crony Capitalism, Explained

Mark Noonan44 Comments

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

A tiny amendment buried in the federal transportation bill to be signed today by President Barack Obama will put operators of roll-your-own cigarette operations in Las Vegas and nationwide out of business at midnight…

I had only heard of these types of operations about two months ago – a friend of mine pointed out that you can get a carton of cigarettes a lot cheaper at these places where you buy loose tobacco and cigarette papers and then “rent” the rolling machine to turn out the finished cigarettes.  As a smoker, I was thinking about trying it out.  Now I won’t be able to – something slipped in to a bill (and what does a highway bill have to do with tobacco) has killed it off.  Businesses will be shut down, people lose their jobs…why?  Well the linked article notes that Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) got the item inserted in to the bill and that Senator Baucus is a major recipient of tobacco-industry donations.

But don’t any of you out there get all “darn Democrats” about this – while Democrats do this sort of skullduggery more often than GOPers, Republicans do engage in it.  What Baucus did was a two-fold item in favor of both Big Government and Big Corporation.  Part of the reason for the cheaper price is that loose tobacco is taxed at a lower rate than tobacco in cigarettes.  The other part of the reason is that the major cigarette makers were starting to feel a pinch from the competition (and that, of course also jeopardizes the government revenues from the ill-famed tobacco lawsuit settlement).  Essentially, Big Government and Big Corporation go together and legislated out of existence the people and their small businesses because Big Government needs revenues and Big Corporation doesn’t like competition.

And this is what is wrong with America:  it is no longer governed in any way, shape or form in the interests of the people.  It is actions just like this which ensured that instead of having 50 different car makers, we only had three miserably incompetent car makers, two of which needed a taxpayer bailout.  It is actions like this which ensure that only a few behemoth banks run our financial system (and run it in to the ground, and then demand taxpayer bailouts).  It is actions like this which shut down things like the Keystone pipeline but shovel taxpayer money at Solyndra.  This is why our economy doesn’t grow; why our factories are in China, our mines are in Chile and our farms are in Mexico…because Big Government and Big Corporation like it that way; it works out best for them…they see it as maximizing government revenues and Big Corporation profits.

The reason our economy doesn’t work is because of nonsense like this – the people are hamstrung and essentially forbidden to do anything which might lessen government revenues or harm the profits of the corporations which currently rule the market (and donate to the office holders – Baucus has been in the Senate since 1978; and he’s just dancing to his master’s tune).  Do we want jobs in this country?  Do we want to restore the middle class?  Do we want an America which makes, mines and grows most of its own things?  Then we need an America where the government is prohibited from legislating out of existence legal businesses and where corporations can’t buy legislation to restrict competition.  An end to Crony Capitalism is necessary for the revival of America – and that means an end to Big Government, as well.

Four More Years of This Economy?

Mark Noonan107 Comments

So, what is in the news today?

The unemployment rate for white men and women was unchanged at 7.4 percent, while 184,000 more black American’s went without a job in June, for an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent.

Plunging new orders suggest global recession has arrived.

More workers joined the federal government’s disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation’s jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery.

Is this what you want?  Seriously?  Liberals, tell us:  will four more years of Obama make this all better?  How?  What will Obama start to do on January 20th, 2013 which will turn this all around?

Will he spend even more money?

Provide even more subsidies for favored “green” companies?

What will he do to make it all better?

If you haven’t got a rock-solid answer and a means of demonstrating how that rock-solid answer will turn this around, then a vote for Obama is a mere vote of hatred…a vote you will give him not because you really think him wise or strong but simply because you hate Republicans so much that you’d rather suffer Obama than have a Republican in office.

UPDATE:  On the other hand, every State which elected a Republican governor in 2010 has seen its unemployment rate drop.   So, California, New York and Illinois, are you regretting your choice?

In Congress, July 4 1776

Mark Noonan6 Comments

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…

…We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

Mark Noonan92 Comments

…This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

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The Conservative Revolutionary

Mark Noonan72 Comments

In his 1910 book What’s Wrong With the World?, G. K. Chesterton pointed out that the mob can never really rebel unless it is conservative – that unless the mob has conserved some vision of an ideal then it isn’t really rebelling but, at most, just going on a mindless riot.  The proof of this is the late “Occupy Wall Street” movement – supposedly a rebellion by the long oppressed mob, but all it really amounted to was a low-grade riot in favor of fastening even more chains upon the people.  The OWS people were seriously calling for even more government – government to save them from the effects of government.   They were fundamentally complaining that their chains weren’t heavy enough and if just one more link were added then they’d be free.

To be sure, the OWS people did attack a target worthy of mob violence – the bankers of Wall Street are, for the most part, a baleful influence on society.  Just not in the manner the OWS understood.  They think the bankers are bad because they are rich when the truth is the bankers are bad because they essentially follow in slavish devotion what the government demands of them.  A real banker is someone who wants to lend and invest as a means of increasing the overall wealth of the economy, thus allowing the banker to have a rake off on the now increased amount of wealth.  The government, though, is not terribly interested in that.  What the government wants is for bankers to buy government bonds so that government can keep growing larger.  And that is just what our bankers primarily do – buy bonds and then flip and twist money around from one account to another,  providing plenty of money for government to spend and plenty of profits for the bankers, but not much in the way of the increased wealth which ordinary people depend on to live their lives.  The difference is this – in the financial panic of 1907 the crash was touched off by a couple of bankers trying to corner copper; in other words they were trying to get hold of an industry which made something useful.  They got greedy and got burned and a massive financial panic ensued, but at least they were trying to control something of actual value.  The financial panic of 2008 was touched off by bankers artificially inflating financial instruments which related to no actually identifiable property…but the use of which greatly helped government to get larger.

We are faced here in 2012 with a crucial issue:  will we revive the American ideal of individual liberty which is based upon faith in God and strong families, or will we opt to turn America socialist with its ideal of personal servitude based upon faith in government and no family, at all?  Remember, we are no longer trying to preserve America we are trying to revive it.  We are, in short, trying to have a revolution which will overturn our current system and replace it with something else.  And because we are trying to revive an ideal we hold in our hearts and minds we must become revolutionaries to do it.  Conservative revolutionaries.

Do keep that in mind.  And remember that Romney is not a revolutionary.  He is a necessity because he is the only person who can eject Obama from office but he does not, at least from is public pronouncements, understand the depth and breadth of change necessary to revive America.  He might see it; the force of circumstances in 2013 will make him go a long way towards it because only a revival of America can prevent utter catastrophe for the United States and the world.  But he is not at this time a revolutionary – and we need a revolution.  Romney must win – but in installing Romney in the White House we must remember that we only took the tiniest of steps towards the necessary revolution.

A revolution in favor of a revived America means a complete ousting not just of Obama from the White House but of all those tens of thousands of un-American statists who inhabit our bloated bureaucracies.  It means curbing the power and influence the un-American statists who control those myriad, tax-free foundations and groups which lobby endlessly for more un-Americanism (think in terms of groups like Planned Parenthood and MoveOn).  It means reforming the judiciary root and branch – criminal and civil and, indeed, the way our federal courts operate on the appellate level (mad about the ObamaCare decision? Then lets have a revolution so that the Courts will do what we command via the Constitution, not what they make up as they go along).  It means calling to account those elements of the popular culture which pollute our society with every manner of egoism, greed, materialism and wickedness and piously claim that our sublime Constitution – that which belongs to us, not them, in our families, churches and local groups – allows them to do so.  A revolution means going after every last bit of the un-American system which has grown like a cancer in our society.

It is become revolutionaries – dedicated, single-minded patriots determined to conquer  – or give it all up.  We can’t compromise with things as they are.  Lies and truth cannot coexist – allow the smallest of the un-American lies to continue and the whole thing is ruined.   Our America lies chained and blinded – leeches are draining her life’s blood and are determined to finish her off for good.  She can still be saved, there is still time – but she can only be saved by entirely getting rid of the things which are killing her.

As an aside, I highly recommend that book by Chesterton.  You can find it here for free.  Though published 102 years ago, all of it is entirely relevant today.  You see, the lies which are killing our America were first floated back then (and were being used – ultimately successfully – to kill England).  Chesterton saw them for what they were and warned precisely where it was heading – and called for a revolution to stop it.