Orlando and Coming to America

Mark Noonan25 Comments

I tried to write about it last night but just couldn’t. I’m guessing the disgust was just too much. Fortunately, Victor Davis Hanson had something worthwhile to say:

Still more monotonous themes: as in the case of Major Hasan (the Fort Hood jihadist), the Tsarnaev clan (Boston Marathon), and Syed Rizwan Farook (San Bernardino), there is something deeply wrong with American immigration policy and the attitude of us, the lax host, to newcomers. In too many deadly cases, a generation of Muslims goes to great lengths to reach the United States only to raise an American-born or naturalized ungracious and unappreciative generation that apparently grows to hate the bounty and freedom of America to such a degree as to blow up, shoot, and maim innocent Americans. Immigration to the U.S., and citizenship itself, should be seen, again, as a privilege, not a right—and assimilation and integration, not multicultural separatism and ethnic and religious chauvinism, should be the goal of the host. We need not single out Muslims in terms of restricting immigration, but we should take a six-month timeout on all would-be immigrants from countries in the Middle East deemed war zones—Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen—not only for our own immediate security but also to send a general message that entrance into the U.S. is a rare and prized opportunity, not simply a cheap and pro forma entitlement.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan27 Comments

Susan Collins (R-ME) can’t quite bring herself to back Trump – but also can’t quite bring herself to back Hillary. Normally this would be regular RINO stuff…but a lot of people are feeling that way, so we let it slide.

9th Circuit rules that carrying a concealed weapon is not covered by the 2nd Amendment. This actually strikes me as legitimate – I can’t see how a right to bear arms means a right to bear hidden arms. Of course, such a ruling brought to a new, Hillary-created 6-3 liberal majority Supreme Court is tailor made to allow said Justices to rule that the right to bear arms is collective rather than individual. So, stay tuned.

A study showing that Conservatives were bad and liberals were good turned out to be flat wrong. And by “flat wrong” I mean that the data in the study actually proved the opposite of what was initially asserted. Pro tip: there’s no such thing as “settled science”.

The absurd thing here is not merely that a school kid is being punished for insulting a vegetarian but that it had to go up to the State level for decision.

Curb Your Bias

Mark Noonan36 Comments

Last night on Twitter I posted the comment, “Once you realize the astonishing amount of bull**** which is believed by massive majorities, Clinton vs Trump makes sense” (though on Twitter, as it is a crude place, I didn’t use “****”) and it got a fairly high response for a Tweet by a guy with around 500 followers – 13 likes and 5 retweets. My follow-up Tweet, however, didn’t get any response, at all: “A lot of ‘likes’ for my Tweet about the amount of BS believed. Now, ask me what is BS so I can piss all you off, one by one”.

I can only assume I had no takers because people were a little wary of responding – which leads me to believe that what is BS is, for a lot of people, entirely subjective. People liked having it generally confirmed that everything is messed up because a lot of BS is believed, but weren’t quite ready to have their own beliefs examined under the BS-Detector.

Just how much of a BS detector I want to put out here is based upon just how mad I want to get every last person who reads this; because if I were to list all the BS, then it is bound to offend everyone at some point (and that is leaving aside The Issue Which Shall Not Be Named). But, for now, I immediately call to mind a time when I was effectively banned (actually, put on “audit” where my comments would be reviewed before being published) at a Catholic, Conservative website. Yep, Catholic, Conservative me so angered fellow Catholic Conservatives that I was banned. How? Well, in an historical discussion, I brought up the point that the French Revolution, at bottom, was set in motion because a collection of Bankers figured the only way they could collect on their government bonds (the royal government being de-facto bankrupt) was if the government would confiscate the wealth of the Church…which event would not happen as long as deeply Catholic Louis XVI was in charge.

This assertion just infuriated the guy running the blog – and I can only imagine it did so because he had a conviction that the fundamental reason for the French Revolution was a genuine aspiration on the part of the overwhelming mass of the French people for a Republic. I think the revolt in the Vendee kind of indicated otherwise – even without (I think it was Robespierre who said it) the understanding of the Revolutionary government that a free and fair vote of the people would amount to a recall of the Monarchy. At the end of the day, the Monarchy fell not because of a desire for a Republic, but because the Monarch ordered his troops to stand down when a howling mob of thugs assaulted his palace. A “whiff of the grape” at that time would have worked just as effectively as it did when Napoleon, commanded by the Revolutionary leaders allegedly in favor of liberty, equality and fraternity, blasted heck out a similar mob a few years later.

To me, it illustrated the habit people have of simply confirming their own biases. If there’s something a person disagrees with, they’ll look for reasons to support their disagreement even if it means ignoring evidence that it isn’t, perhaps, disagreeable. So, too, will people find reasons to support what they like, even if evidence exists that perhaps it isn’t so good. As for me, I can only figure that I’ve been lucky – over the past 10 to 15 years, I have come to appreciate that as everything is run by human beings who are Fallen from grace, even the best has some bad in it and even the worst can be explained. I’ve also come to understand that no person – or group of persons – is irredeemable. The worst rat you can think of can still be saved – but, also, the most angelic person can still err.

As it relates to right now, I think this is why I am just not all that upset about Trump – nor about the likely result of a Hillary Presidency that Trump represents. Not for me getting out there and being all fanatic #NeverTrump all day long. What is the point? Trump is a man who is doing things – as such, of course he’s doing some things wrong. It can’t be otherwise. Voting for Trump doesn’t make you either wicked or a fool, nor does voting against Trump garner you any virtue (and ditto with Hillary). Even if we had got our dream candidate, we’d still all be voting for a flawed human being who would make all sorts of mistakes. Naturally, I’d prefer if my choices in November were different from what they’re going to be, but these are the choices I’ll have and I’ll just have to make the best of it and pray that things come out as well as possible.

It is always good to keep in mind our own inability – no matter how smart or knowledgeable any of us are, there is still a vast amount we don’t know, and we’re not nearly as smart as we think we are. Herman Khan was a certified genius – yet the man routinely got lost going between his house and his office. The best course of action I can suggest is that when either pleased or angered by something, think it over a bit before you react. You’re first reaction is probably wrong – or, if not flat wrong, didn’t take into consideration all (or even most) of the factors involved. Curb your bias! Think a bit. Keep silent for a long while, if possible – the words you never write or say are words you never have to take back! Also, of course, if you write or say something you’re very likely to dig in and keep defending yourself, even when you’ve been proven a fool…better to not have to defend folly, you know?

Conservatives are Stupid: Here’s Why

Mark Noonan15 Comments

From Veronique de Rugy over at NRO:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is at it again. In the name of protecting consumers, it would like to ban or heavily restrict a tool that is very useful to them. This time the target is payday lending – high-interest, low-dollar “payday loans” – that the federal government wants to regulate out of existence. Yet, no matter how horrible the well-intentioned bureaucrats at the CFPB think it is, the $38.5 billion payday-lending market is used daily by many customers for whom it is the only source of credit available.

I almost can’t even talk about this – it is just so blind to reality.

The article goes on to make all sorts of arguments that the payday loans aren’t that bad and that poor people need them. At the end of it all, you have a strong and vigorous defense of an institution – and a practice – which Progressives can easily demonize and which they can use to garner support among poor people. That Progressives won’t ever do anything to get people to a point where they don’t feel a desire to use payday loans is neither here nor there – by attacking payday loans as a blood-sucking “soak the poor” scheme, Progressives will gain support. Meanwhile, we’ll be out there going, “come on, guys; it’s not so bad”. We deserve to lose, we’re so stupid.

The reality is that payday loans are a horribly anti-Conservative thing. Conservatives are supposed to be about making things so that people can live independently of the ministrations of Big Government. This means we have to convince people that working hard and saving money is the way to go…not working part-time and using payday loans to even out the cash flow for immediate consumption!

I know full well that payday loans are often the only form of credit a poor person can get – but it is far better that they get no credit, at all, then get vastly expensive credit which is used for immediate consumption rather than long-term investment. Having access to payday loans – like having access to welfare – encourages improvidence. Such things make people less conservative in thought and action. And the only purpose of sustaining such things is – aside from encouraging irresponsibility among the poor – is to make a few people rich by making the loans. They do nothing good in a Conservative sense.

But the real stupidity here is that Conservatives don’t think – we see a business and it’s profitable and legal and we instantly assume it is worthy of defense. It doesn’t work like that! What is legal is not necessarily what is right. A Conservative response to payday loans is to encourage savings – figuring out a way to make saved money so clearly a good thing that people will want to save (you know, so the poor person will have $300 in his account when money is short for food, and thus won’t have to take out a payday loan). A major step on this would be, of course, to make real money again – gold and silver backed money – but that isn’t happening any time soon. But we could take a baby step and say to the Banks, “as long as you’re borrowing money from the Federal Reserve for next-to-nothing, you’re going to pay 5% interest on savings accounts up to $100,000.00”. Allow people to write off their taxes 10% of the amount of cash they have saved up to $100,000.00. Give EITC to people who make 100% or less of the poverty rate but still manage to save 10% of their gross annual income. That sort of thing. But whatever we do, for goodness sake don’t defend people can justly be accused of charging 400% annual interest! If the Progs want to slap another tax or regulatory step on payday loans, let them! Defending such companies is not the hill Conservatism should die on.

We really got to start thinking, Conservatives. We can’t forever be stupid – because if we are, then we’ll be living in the United Socialist States of America by 2030.

So, How Was Your Weekend? Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

In case you missed it – NPR essentially was bribed to do positive cover of Obama’s Iran Deal. Point to really understand: the MSM is venal. And don’t be thinking that this is a new development – the press has always been bought by someone. It just used to be that all sides of the debate had purchased media outlets to get their story out. Round about 80 years ago, that ceased and the press generally remained bought by the liberal side. The people in the MSM are not Tribunes of the people, nor purveyors of truth…and it is worse these days because most of the people running the show are ignorant (and I mean that – as in they don’t have the foggiest notion of what they’re actually talking about) and merely regurgitate talking points provided to them by political operatives. There are a few shining exceptions but even in such cases, take what they say with a grain of salt because you never know how much the over-arching Narrative has penetrated their thinking and thus prevents them from looking at the facts from a different point of view.

Related: Katie Couric, caught red-handed lying in her “documentary” about firearms, semi-confesses to her lie.

Glenn Reynolds: Trump is the response to political correctness gone wild.

Related: Victor Davis Hanson –

So how did a blond comb-over real-estate dealer destroy an impressive and decent Republican field and find himself near dead even with Hillary Clinton — to the complete astonishment, and later fury, of the Washington establishment? Simply because lots of people have become exhausted by political and media elites who have thought very highly of themselves — but on what grounds it has become increasingly impossible to figure out.

And to complete a Trump trifecta for today – Yes, Trump Can win.

And if you really want to depress your Democrat friends, note that the back-up plan if Hillary flames out is Biden-Warren.

EU goes after “illegal, online hate speech”. You might think this means they’ll be going after neo-Nazis, racists and assorted hate-mongers…but my experience on Twitter, at least, tells me that such groups are allowed to spew all the hate they want. But, try to point out that, just perhaps, Progressive SJW’s are not 100% correct and you’ll get in trouble. There’s a reason for this – and I figured it out when the ACLU went to bat for the Nazis in Skokie but never seems to go to bat for the free exercise of Christians…Nazis pose no threat to the power of the left, Christians do.

Weekend Open Thread

Mark Noonan7 Comments

So, it turns out that Obamacare’s failure in Oregon wasn’t just incompetence, but also a bit of graft. Color me shocked…

Rubio, Rubio! Where for art thou, Rubio? Getting ready to endorse Trump, that’s where he is. And there was much wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth among Rubio supporters. Grab a clue, folks – Rubio is a politician. Sure, he’s miles better than Trump and I’d be enthusiastically backing him had he won the nomination…but he’s still a politician. Rubio is just looking over the lay of the land and realizing that if he wants to jump into the 2016 Senate contest (which I’ll bet money he does) and if he wants to have a good shot at the GOP nomination in 2020 (if Trump loses) or 2024 (if Trump wins), then he’ll need Trumpster support in both cases. Politics – it sucks; but it is always going to be like that. Remember, even Lincoln allowed backroom deals to get the nomination and played the full game of politics to garner and retain political support. It happens. Grow up.

Rio is home to both the 2016 Summer Olympics and the Zika virus. I’m no virologist and I do know that mosquito-borne illness work in weird ways (some types of diseases can only be transmitted at certain times by certain species of mosquito, for instance – and even then only if they bite someone in a certain phase of the disease)…but the thought of sending 500,000 people to Rio and then sending them swiftly back home doesn’t appear a wise move. Others also have some doubts about it.

Charles Murray says “Clinton is worse” doesn’t cut it. But, in the end, it very well might.

For those feeling remorse over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I’d like to enter into the record Nanking and Manila. A little less “Banzai” from 1937 to 1941 would have resulted in a lot less atomic bombing in 1945.

Not sure if this is really true, but if it is true, it illustrates just how stupid our society has become – a pair of glasses left on a gallery floor is mistaken for art.

Clueless Progressives

Mark Noonan11 Comments

An interesting article in the New York Times:

…From a militarist empire whose armies tore across Asia in the first half of the 20th century, Japan, seared by the most horrific consequence of war, embraced democracy and nonbelligerence seemingly overnight. It has not sent a soldier into combat since 1945, a record of pacifism that exceeds even that of its onetime ally Germany.

Yet as President Obama travels to Hiroshima on Friday, bringing renewed attention to the city and its legacy, many worry that the ideals Hiroshima has represented for so long are fading in Japan. The deep aversion to military entanglements is being challenged as never before by an ambitious conservative movement led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe…

The article is essentially a long lament over the end of pacifism in Japan. Of course, anyone who bothered to read Bergamini’s Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy knew this was coming, eventually – but it is coming sooner than I expected. What is missing from the article – and Progressive understanding – is that America’s withdrawal from world dominance is forcing Japan’s hand.

You can be pacifist – and devote only a tiny portion of your national wealth to defense matters – when you have an overwhelmingly powerful ally absolutely committed to your defense at the drop of a hat. If that is lacking, then your only recourse is that tired, worn-out (but absolutely true, nonetheless) maxim of “peace through strength”. If Japan wants to merely defend itself, it must build a military force powerful enough to give China and Russia (and North Korea) pause. This isn’t about Japan suddenly desiring to have a second go at creating the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, but just holding on to what Japan has…and that means, primarily, making sure the sea lanes by which Japan lives are kept open. Since 1945, it has been the US Navy which has guaranteed this – now, with the US Navy getting smaller and Obama showing the world that any attack will be met with a cowardly back down on the part of the United States, Japan has to look after it’s own interests.

And it isn’t just Japan building up. South Korea is also making a blue water Navy. Australia, Singapore, Philippines are all making significant investments in naval power – especially the power to move ground combat forces by sea (ie, fleets designed with thwarting Chinese aggression) and submarines which can vigorously attack a superior surface fleet. Japan has already built a semi-aircraft carrier – probably as a test-bed as they get ready to build fleet carriers in the future.

Outside of Western Europe, which is still sunk in apathy about national defense, the world is arming as it hasn’t since before World War Two. Everyone wants arguments ready to hand – and the reason everyone is doing this is because the United States has signaled an unwillingness to defend allies (and, indeed, at times has demonstrated what amounts to a desire that our allies be harmed). This is a formula for a World War – and not ages from now, but within the next ten years. Only a rapid reassertion of American power – coupled with a military buildup not seen since the start of the Reagan Administration – can we nip this in the bud. China won’t care about Japan’s build up…always viewing it as insufficient to meet China’s power (just as Russia doesn’t care about Poland’s build up…Poland, alone and no matter how well-armed, just can’t withstand Russia)

And our problem is our Clueless Progressives – who still think that peace can be brought about by incantation. By merely saying words. It doesn’t work like that because there are people in the world who want to fight – or, more accurately, want to grab what they can, convinced that there will be little or no fighting to get it. It is precisely this attitude which brought on both World Wars…not old rancor or irrational fears…people in charge of nations just wanted to steal things from other nations. China and Russia – and Iran – want to steal things which don’t belong to them. If they think they can do it with little or no loss, they’ll do it – only by convincing them that national suicide is the result of attacking will they be deterred. We’ll see what the next President does – build strength and prevent war, or keep on with Obama’s policies and make war certain.

Change the Primary System?

Mark Noonan3 Comments

Back in 2012, the GOP looked back and realized that it needed to compress the GOP primary schedule and have fewer debates to make sure no radical, insurgent candidate would knock off the Establishment choice. That worked out splendidly…so, now the GOP is floating a few new ideas:

…Party leaders are even going so far as to consider diluting the traditional status of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina as gatekeepers to the presidency. Under one proposal, those states would be paired with others that voted on the same day as a way to give more voters a meaningful role much sooner.

But in a move that would sharply limit who could participate in presidential primaries, many party activists are also pushing to close Republican contests to independent voters, arguing that open primaries in some states allowed Donald J. Trump, whose conservative convictions they deeply mistrust, to become the presumptive nominee…

I do actually like the idea of “pairing”, but I’d carry it a step further – have IA, NH, AL and ID be the first States, all on the same day. All of them are relatively small population States and they represent the Midwest, the Northeast, the South and the West. The second set would be, say, Minnesota, Maine, South Carolina and Nevada. Third set Wisconsin, Vermont, Kentucky and Arizona. Do this over a mere 3-4 week period. After that, take the remaining 38 States, divvy them up by rough thirds based on population and do a series of “Super Tuesday” primaries two weeks apart starting with the lowest population group going to the largest population group. And close the primaries – no one but voters registered as Republicans as of January 1st of the election year can participate.

My idea here is to have a set of low-population States go first because that is were an insurgent campaign can have a chance to gain traction. Having four States from around the country can also help sift out who has the best national appeal. It also forces the candidates to have a message which resonates across the nation rather than, as now, just trying to figure out what Iowa and New Hampshire are thinking. Having a series of low-population contests keeps it cheap enough to run until we’re down to two or three – who would then be able to gain the resources to keep fighting in the larger population areas until one person gets it all – or, it stays so closely divided that it goes to the Convention. And if one candidate does manage to sweep or near-sweep the first 12 contests then that would be a solid indication that the candidate is the party’s choice…meaning, someone who can do that well in that diverse an electorate is someone who has captured the GOP imagination and should be the GOP nominee. It is also, as you can see, about a 10 week process. Start it on January 15th, done no later than March 31st. Have the Convention on May 1st – this makes sure that the GOP Candidate never has a period of months – as Romney had in 2012 – where he is subjected to attack ad bombardment without being able to respond until a Convention held months later.

What do you think?

So, Another Brand, New Week Open Thread

Mark Noonan6 Comments

Virginia Governor – and Clinton toady – Terry McAuliffe is under FBI investigation for corruption. Appears to have at least some connection to the Clinton’s grifting con charity organization. If Hillary does manage to win, expect an endless series of corruption investigations…all to be spiked by whichever Clinton crony is installed as Attorney General.

Clinton has some policies to tackle the mythical “pay gap” – seems that implementation would likely make the problem worse (ie, create a problem where there wasn’t one before).

VA boss says we should think of VA wait times as we do waiting in line for a Disney ride. I don’t know of anyone who died waiting to get on Pirates of the Caribbean.

A Socialist apparatchik won election to the Presidency of Austria – 72% of working class voters went for the non-Socialist. Socialism was, is and always will be a mere conceit of upper class people who presume to speak for the poor and the workers when they know nothing of the lives of such people. The difference between now and 100 years ago is that working class people have caught on to the Socialist scam.

Shocking News! DOJ lawyers lied about Obama’s immigration policies. Actually shocking news! A judge called them out on it.

Charles C.W. Cooke asks our Progs: do you still like that old “pen and phone” thing now that there’s an outside chance The Donald will be the next President?

Upset with the Pope? Then here’s your tonic from Cardinal Robert Sarah:

Speaking in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Cardinal Robert Sarah enjoined Catholics to resist “ideological colonization” and the removal of God from society, in order to help the Church resist threats to the family and religious freedom around the world…

…Protecting the family is also linked to the preservation of religious freedom, Cardinal Sarah said as he urged the Americans to protect their history of religious freedom. While many Christians across the world are suffering from violence due to persecution from governments or groups like Islamic State, “ violence against Christians is not just physical, it is also political, ideological and cultural,” the cardinal said…

Of course, the good Cardinal was appointed to his post by Francis. Do keep in mind when you read stories about the Pope that he and pretty much everyone in charge of the Church these days was appointed by Pope St. John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.