Plus-good that they fixed this:

Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic by most any measure—T.S. Eliot called it a masterpiece, and Ernest Hemingway pronounced it the source of “all modern American literature.” Yet, for decades, it has been disappearing from grade school curricula across the country, relegated to optional reading lists, or banned outright, appearing again and again on lists of the nation’s most challenged books, and all for its repeated use of a single, singularly offensive word: “nigger.”

Twain himself defined a “classic” as “a book which people praise and don’t read.” Rather than see Twain’s most important work succumb to that fate, Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books plan to release a version of Huckleberry Finn, in a single volume with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, that does away with the “n” word (as well as the “in” word, “Injun”) by replacing it with the word “slave.”…

No, no, NO!!! 10,000 times no! Do not do this – do not mutilate our literature because insane liberals have decided that a word is too offensive to be used. The word is offensive – its the first time its ever appeared on Blogs for Victory, and then only because of the context of this article. But it is part of our past – it is how things were done and said; and to take it out because it offends some bed-wetting liberal or “civil rights” con artist is just absurd.

If there’s a book which should ever be burned it would be a book which destroys the work of a great author. Leave the book as it is; let the kids read it and see how things were – engage in lively discussion with them about why Twain used those words…but don’t eliminate them. Don’t substitute a lie for truth.

HAT TIP: The Volokh Conspiracy

From the NY Times:

President Obama’s legal advisers, confronting the prospect of new restrictions on the transfer of Guantánamo detainees, are debating whether to recommend that he issue a signing statement asserting that his executive powers would allow him to bypass the restrictions, according to several officials…

Candidate Obama was very loud in his opposition to President Bush’s signing statements – and our liberals were pretty sure that such statements were a precursor to a fascist dictatorship in the United States. But, now things are different – the difference being that a Democrat is in the White House and so we can see the objection wasn’t to the increase in Executive power, but in the increase of Executive power to a Republican.

Just all too typical of Obama and his Democrats – made issue after issue with President Bush’s handling of the War on Terror, but once in power they are simply duplicating his actions because, let’s face it, they worked. All that opposition to Bush war and security policy was just so much campaign rhetoric…

Its a great game people like to engage in – writing about how America’s fundamental flaws doom us to second-rate status in the face of a new challenger who has really, completely and absolutely figured it out and thus cannot be stopped in their surge to global dominance. It seems to me that our elites like these stories – fits in with their absurd world view that some how, some way, the United States is too flawed to deserve global supremacy. Obama is just the perfect expression of this attitude.

Over at Foreign Policy Gideon Rachman gives us the latest installment in this “America is doomed” meme. Its got all the usual nonsense about how our new challengers – the Chinese – are that clever and how our problems of maintaining our position are insurmountable. I do recommend reading it because it is good to know how these people think. But it is all utter nonsense.

Now, to be sure, we have made a hash out of our nation right now. We got off track and have bankrupted ourselves by a combination of government profligacy and extremely short-sighted economic thinking. But the genius of America is up to the challenge of this – we have, thanks to our Founders, a governing instrument which allows us to conduct a revolution with out all the killing and destruction usual to such events. We can, if we choose, simply change back in to the America which became globally dominant. And we can do it in a few years from “go”.

The reversal which would not restore but maintain American supremacy involves getting rid of those policies which have made it progressively harder to make, mine and grow things in the United States. We also need to adjust our welfare programs to make it certain that any job out there will pay more than any welfare program – except for those absolutely incapable of work, public support should be just enough to keep body and soul together. And, finally, we’ll need to rid ourselves of a political correctness which allows foreigners to remain foreign even after they are long resident in the United States.

These are not easy tasks, but they can be rather swiftly done – and once done the unlocking of American creativity would lead to such domestic growth as to stagger the world…and, as the merest by product of this, kill off not just any Chinese challenge, but any challenge from any where. You see, China hasn’t risen high because they’ve done things better than us, but because we’ve hobbled ourselves and essentially handed our wealth over to them. The race was between an Olympic gold medalist and a 90 year old man using a walker…but the gold medalists bound himself hand and foot. Take off the bindings and we can walk to the finish line miles ahead of our nearest competitor.

China is a sad joke of a nation – but the sadder joke is how people in the United States actually believe it when China announces 8 or 9% GDP growth. For goodness sake, China is ruled by a corrupt oligarchy which is determined to show that it is on top of things…you think that you’re going to get the truth out of such people? Even a little bit? No; they are going to put on a show and try to make you believe that the dazzle represents the reality.

People who fall for dazzle have done just that – fallen for the dazzle. No one has the foggiest notion of what China’s real GDP is; what China’s real inflation rate is; what is the state of China’s financial system…we can only gather hints and clues, and one big clue is the massively absurd prices people are paying for property in China’s biggest cities…prices like that are not the result of a rational economy thumping along in good standing…they are a sign of an economy over heating on fiat money and bad debt. We’ll see where it winds up.

But whether China crashes or keeps going along, the only way they can surpass us in power and wealth is if we let them. If, that is, we continue to hobble ourselves and refuse to get to work and do what we know we must do.

As for me, I have confidence in my fellow Americans – the TEA Party and the 2010 election results show that in spite of a Ruling Class willing to roll over and play dead, the people are still on fire to be Americans: hard working and dedicated to building a better life for all. While we have Obama in office we won’t be able to address the fundamental issues which bog us down…but with a GOP House we can at least make a start on it, and once we do get back in to the White House – provided we elect someone who understands both what ails us and what needs to be done – then we’ll take off an leave everyone in the dust.

And then we can wait for 2020 when we’ll be warned that we cannot stop the Indian juggernaut from burying us…

Alberto de la Cruz has a terrifying and depressing look at the state of affairs in Mexico these days. It is an article all should read.

The bottom line of the situation is that corruption has so pervaded Mexico’s government that no reliance can be placed upon the Mexican government’s ability to curtail the drug lords and secure peace and justice for the Mexican people. The risk to us is if Mexico completely falls apart in to drug gangs fighting for territory while no central authority is in command that we will take, first, an enormous hit to our economy (trade between the US and Mexico is massive) and then a flood of refuges fleeing the violence. Mexico’s problem is, ultimately, our problem, too.

But it is exceedingly complicated. Any attempt by the United States to project power beyond the border and assist the Mexican government in fighting the drug gangs will rub up against Mexico’s prickly national pride…they still haven’t forgotten that we took half of Mexico in 1848 and once flew our flag over Mexico City; nor have they forgotten the repeated interventions in Mexican affairs through the years. It is a point of honor, to Mexicans, to stand aloof from the United States.

And yet, we cannot allow such considerations to control our actions – we must do something positive to help the Mexican people. The first step must be to enforce our own laws – the reason the drug cartels are so powerful is that they make huge sums illegally transporting things across our border. Not just drugs, but all manner of items – and the people coming across are just another commodity in the drug lords’ operation…they loot the illegals mercilessly (and, often, rape and kill them, in to the bargain) and you can rely upon it that not a single person crosses our border without permission…they are just getting permission from the drug lords (and paying the price for that permission) rather than getting ours. Enforcing our laws so that not a single illegal person or thing can cross the border is the most important thing we can do…it will immediately cut in to drug cartel finances and thus limit their ability to buy weapons, goons and government officials.

Beyond that, we must offer whatever para-military help we can. Even if it means recruiting mercenary forces from ex-US service members of hispanic background. The main thing is to get powerful forces on the ground who will not be susceptible to either bribery or threats – and a battalion of US trained soldiers, even if not officially part of the US military, would be highly effective against the drug lord rabble. And the key to success would be to back these forces with US military assets on our side of the border – aerial support, supplies, safe havens, etc.

Whatever happens, we cannot just stand aside – the call of humanity and raw politics commands us to do something. Our friends in Mexico are suffering, and soon their suffering will come here, unless we help the Mexicans get control of the situation.

More of that good, old hope and change:

The U.S. Treasury website today reported that as of last Friday, the last day of 2010, the National Debt stood at $14,025,215,218,708.52.

It took just 7 months for the National Debt to increase from $13 trillion on June 1, 2010 to $14 trillion on Dec. 31. It also means the debt is fast approaching the statutory ceiling $14.294 trillion set by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last February…

A trillion dollars in new debt in 7 months! Just amazing. Suicidal, too.

We have to get a handle on this, good people. We either get firm control of this by 2015 – with real spending reductions – or we’re financial toast. Its a matter of balance the budget, or have complete economic and political collapse.

Lots of things, of course – but our current problems (higher food and energy prices, insolvent banks continuing to exist and drag down the whole financial system, etc) really go back to one thing. Nick Sorrentino gets it in just one sentence:

…because the Fed is seeking to force inflation into the system (by weakening the dollar deliberately) to save a tenuous economic system built to benefit those who have first access to the newly printed money (the large banks), life for most people is likely to get more difficult in the short term…

Why force inflation? Because Keynesian theory says that if you have inflation you’ll get economic growth – how anyone ever thought that taking money from one person (by devaluing his money) and giving it to another leads to net growth is beyond me. I can’t think like that – I’m either not that smart, or not that stupid. But it is what Bernanke is trying to do – and it is what the rest of the central banks around the world have tried to do (China managed to do it “successfully” in the sense that they got “growth” in 2010…but inflation is galloping ahead and China’s problem now is how to stop inflation from throwing them in to recession without the inflation cure crashing them in to recession; lotsa luck on that, China).

We’re in a bad way and we’re going to have to spend more and more of our already reduced incomes on the basics – food and energy. Meanwhile, our housing prices continue to drop and while our 401ks look better, it is all paper profits created by Fed-induced asset inflation…which can be wiped out in a week if people start to see a new recession coming in (and monetary outflows from equity markets in 2010 indicate that a lot of people see a new recession coming). I don’t see a way out of this – that is, I don’t see any way out which doesn’t involve words like “pain” and “sacrifice”.

Hopefully the new GOP Congress will be able to reign in Bernanke before he destroys everything. But the bad news is that reigning in Bernanke will also be painful because that will cause a resumption in the financial crash of 2008 – allowing it to complete itself, to be sure, and thus set us on a path to genuine recovery, but it means at least a year of really bad economics as things are sorted out. Trouble is that reigning in Bernanke will probably take cooperation from Obama, who seems perfectly ok with rising prices for energy and food because that makes Americans poorer, and thus more likely to “go green” and become more government dependent.

Just one heck of a lousy situation, set upon us by idiots. But there is good news – this, too, will pass. It’ll just suck a bit getting through it.

Nothing like laying down the marker:

The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Sunday that Republicans will bring up a healthcare repeal measure before President Obama even delivers his annual address to Congress this month.

“As part of our pledge, we said that we would bring up a vote to repeal healthcare early,” Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “That will happen before the president’s State of the Union address.”…

The repeal will pass the House and probably go nowhere in the Senate – though there is a chance that the Senate GOP can get enough “2012 Democrat” support to bring it to a vote there. But, even if it gets through the Senate, Obama will veto it. This is a symbolic act – until we get a Republican President, “repeal and replace” will be impossible…though much good work can still be done to get rid of the worst aspects of ObamaCare by refusing to fund it in the budget process.

But, still, symbolic: so, why do it? Because the people demand it. The law should never have been passed – and but for legislative tricks and bribery, it never would have been passed. It was unpopular as proposed, unpopular as debated, unpopular as enacted – and it, along with the border security issue, drove the GOP to victory in 2010. We must vote to repeal.

Also, we will see how many Democrats, desperately worried about 2012, will jump ship in the House and join in the repeal effort. We shall see how many Democrats understand how unpopular leftist policy is. And we’ll also see how many are determined to work against the people, no matter what.

So says Chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers:

Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, said if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, the “impact on the economy would be catastrophic.”

“I don’t see why anybody’s playing chicken with the debt ceiling,” Goolsbee said today on ABC’s “This Week” program. “If we get to the point where we damage the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.”…

Uh, Goolsbee, old buddy, the default has been caused by insanity – such as running $1 trillion+ deficits for two years. That is insane – that is what is causing us to risk default. The only thing more insane would be to allow the government to shove us even further in to debt.

It is time to call a halt to this. If we were just reduce spending to 2008 levels, we’d have a good handle on it…if we showed some real courage and reduced spending to 2004 levels, we could swiftly balance the budget. And its not like we weren’t over spending in 2004 – remember, Democrats, how you all were complaining about how profligate and wasteful we Republicans were being? Well, here’s your chance to live up to your words and show you have at least a shred of honor…go along with returning spending to just that profligate level and our fiscal crisis is solved.

But, we won’t get that, now will we? Because all the complaints about GOP spending were just campaign rhetoric. That’s ok. We’re used to that, from Democrats…we know the Democrat leadership is relentlessly dishonest and only concerned with power and wealth. But, remember, they were lying back then and they are just as certainly lying today…so, when they talk about “catastrophe”, what they mean is “catastrophe to us“; catastrophe to Democrats, and their waste, big government spending plans. They might not be able to steal taxpayer’s money and use it to buy votes – that is the catastrophe they’re worried about.

Shove them back – don’t raise the debt limit until we’ve got rock solid and certain spending cuts of a major nature. Then, and only then, start talking debt increase.

MSMer warns GOP not to repeal ObamaCare:

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/eyeblast.swf?v=hd6UkUqG2G

Krauthammer observes the meaning of returning a US ambassador to Damascus:

…what does the administration do? It sends an ambassador in return for absolutely nothing. Returning an ambassador after withdrawal is a sign of conciliation and, in this case, appeasement. There is nothing, there is no reason to do it. Obama had a dream that if he sweet-talked Assad he would get Syria to break its relations with Iran and Hezbollah and become an ally of the United States. It [the Obama administration] gave all kind of inducements. It was humiliated by Assad’s response. He expressed contempt for these inducements — [and] the United States offered it in return, the return of an ambassador! It’s appeasement of the first order.

One could call it cowardice, but it doesn’t rise to that honorable an action – this is just plain and simple stupid. This is the action of a President with a completely academic background – a man who does not understand how the world works. And its worse than that – given the way Obama’s actions have been going, we can only presume that what he got out of college, the world view he has, is a combination of John Lennon’s Imagine and warmed over Saul Alinsky. A “lets join hands and sing” mentality coupled with a rote hatred of all things American.

Syria is a minor power – something we could, if we wanted to, overthrow in a week or two. In the grand scheme of things the contemptible regime in Damascus is worth only secondary American attention. But here we are, treating Syria as if they should have any other attitude towards us other than supplicant – Syria should only be worried about one thing: that we’ll decide to destroy the regime tomorrow. But Obama treats Syria as if it is Great Power…and ties our policy to what Syria desires and that, in turn, means that Iran is calling the tune in that area of the world.

Great job, Barry – Bush had Iran boxed in and Syria on the ropes…you’ve now given them a new lease on life. This is the “smart diplomacy”, I guess…