Morality on the Cheap

Mark Noonan31 Comments

Ad Week has the details on MTV’s new campaign to get people to care:

Every day, our global community faces an endless list of serious issues, from famine to poverty to global warming. Now, evidently as part of an MTV campaign, Twilight star Nikki Reed is asking people everywhere to “give a ****”—both figuratively and, ahem, literally.

“I may be famous, but I actually give a ****,” the actress says in the sort-of-mock PSA below. The Give a ****movement, she says, is based on the Dalai Lama’s theory (heavily paraphrased) that “If enough people take the time to simply give a ****about the world’s problems, even if they don’t actually do anything but just give a ****about them, the world’s problems will cease to exist.”…

You know, it could be that merely saying we care is not as important as acting as if we care.  I know that being generous is difficult – it eats up time, money and resources which one can spend on the self.  I, myself, am not nearly as generous as I can be…C. S. Lewis put it best when he judged that if charity doesn’t pinch a bit, then it isn’t enough.  In other words, unless you are giving up something for yourself, then you’ve really given little (see Mark 12:41-44).  While it is at least somewhat of an advance to actually take thought for the sufferings of the world, if there is no follow-through to action, the thoughts tend to moral sterility.

My worry here is that we are falling ever further in to a morality on the cheap.  Sort of like the self-esteem nonsense in public schools where kids are taught to feel great about themselves even if they don’t accomplish anything.  The world is filled with suffering…and no amount of thinking about it and wishing others well will do the trick.  We actually have to get our hands dirty and help the less fortunate.  I am concerned with the lack of challenge here – the stroking of the modern ego where everyone wants to feel that they are swell, even though all of us are sinners – not one of us having the right to feel we’ve ever done enough, loved enough or helped enough.

A better program might have been to show someone getting off the couch, setting aside the video game and going out to find someone who needs help.  They are all around us…right now, probably not a thousand yards from where you sit reading this, there is someone who needs help.  But to ask you to do that requires more than just some sort of nebulous, half-morality…it requires an appeal to conscience; an appeal to the fact that we are all of us creatures; contingent beings who owe every last thing we have to Another, and thus have a moral obligation to do what is right, not just think about what is wrong and feel good about ourselves for so doing.

Santorum Claims Iowa Momentum

Mark Noonan8 Comments

From the Santorum Campaign:

Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) far exceeded expectations in Ames and finished 4th in the Ames Straw Poll.

Today’s results were simply vindication for Senator Santorum’s belief that a clear, consistent and proven conservative record resonates with Americans. Outspent in Iowa by more than six to one in comparison to his nearest competitors, Senator Santorum showed that leadership trumps showmanship and that the American people deserve more than just television commercials, news conferences and empty promises…

Santorum has a point – he certainly wasn’t expected to do well in Iowa…a northeastern politician who was little known in Iowa managed to come in fourth (he certainly did better than Romney…another northeasterner who was beaten by Perry, who only announced on Saturday).

We’ll see if Santorum can build on this – he’d probably have to come in third, at least, in the Iowa caucuses to be taken seriously…and then he’d have to come in second in New Hampshire.  That is a high bar – he’ll have to outdo Paul’s legion of dedicated supporters while taking voters away from Pawlenty.  In New Hampshire, Romney is almost certain to win (and if he doesn’t, then he’s done), so the contest is for second place…if Santorum can do that, then he’s off to the races.  Not the nominee, by a long shot, but it would vault him in to the top tier of candidates.

It is still anyone race to win – Romney, Perry and Bachmann are the heavyweights; Santorum is one of the second tier candidates, all of which have their chances to break in to the top.  We have a very strong field of candidates, only two of which give me grave concerns should they be the nominee – Huntsman (was Obama’s ambassador, after all) and Paul (love him on economics, consider him completely wrong on foreign and defense policy).  Any one of them will get my vote and enthusiastic support against Obama because the safety of the United States requires that Obama leave office on January 20th, 2013.

UPDATE:  MN GOP wants Pawlenty to run for Senate.  That is an exceptionally good idea.  Doesn’t guarantee us a Senate seat from Minnesota, but ensures that the Democrats will have to fight tooth and nail to keep Klobuchar’s seat…and, of course, Pawlenty has already shown he can win State-wide in Minnesota.

The Warm, Fuzzy Culture of Death

Mark Noonan2 Comments

Looks like the pro-abortion fanatics are worried that the truth is destroying them…so, rather than just admit to truth and stop being so bloodthirsty in pursuit of abortion, they are hoping to put a smiley face on mass murder – from Life News:

I read recently that a team of researchers was beginning a study that seeks to reduce the stigmatization of abortion in society. Not surprisingly, the research team is being represented by the Guttmacher Institute, the former research arm of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider (over 332,000 annually).

This upcoming study follows on the heels of a journal article published by a group of six academics which included an employee of the Guttmacher Institute. The article was titled “Abortion Stigma: A Reconceptualization of Constituents, Causes, and Consequences.”  The entire article is available on the Guttmacher Institute website.

The researchers noted five reasons abortion is stigmatized including the fact that scientific advances have “challenged previous constructions of boundaries between fetus and infant.” What most disturbs me about this “research” is that its aim is specifically to counter growing scientific evidence of the humanity of the unborn child…

There is just too much  money and power wrapped up in abortion advocacy and in abortions, themselves.  Some people have reaped vast fortunes and gained a great deal of power riding the “choice” label.  Now that label is being downgraded…the humanity of the unborn child is becoming ever more undeniable.  A desperate measure is to be made to counter this growing, common-sense view…a campaign of lies to convince people that, once again, it is just a “blob of tissue” which can be killed on a whim.

It is very sad to hear of this – that some people will so greedily cling to the passing, trivial rewards of this world.  Just to keep a bit of power and just to keep a bit of money, the Culture of Death will lie in defense of murder.  Imagine what this does to their souls, day by day.  It is bad enough for us just with the normal run of sin…I some times look in horror upon myself for my behavior.  Imagine what it would be like to be a normal, sinning human being and then tacking on advocacy of murder…and murder of the most innocent and helpless among us!  The darkness and pain these poor people feel in the dead of night, when the still, small voice of God tries to speak to them, must be terrible.

Keep up the fight – never forget the innocent lives which have been lost, and those which will be saved by the Pro-Life fight.  Work for that day when abortion is ended, and even its advocates recoil in shame over what they have done.

Italy Seeks a Bail Out

Mark Noonan27 Comments

From Market Watch:

Italy’s economy minister has said that a solution to the euro zone’s current debt crisis would be the creation of euro bonds, according to a report published Saturday.

Reuters reported that Giulio Tremonti said that such bonds would have prevented the continent from reaching the point it has, with Greece, Ireland and Italy among countries pushing through austerity measures in the hope of avoiding sovereign defaults.

Tremonti said joint-issued bonds would make nations’ debt a shared burden, and was quoted by Reuters as saying that they would be “master solution” to the crisis…

It is actually a way of making Germany a co-signer on Italy’s debt…and Spain’s and Portugal’s and Greece’s, etc, etc etc.  I’m not enough of a finance guy to figure out exactly how such a thing would play out, but I do know enough to understand that Germany cannot underwrite the bad debt of the Eurozone.  This may well plug the leak, but only for a few months…and you’d have to get German taxpayers to agree to put their stellar bond rating on the line for Italy and the rest of the PIIGS.  That is a dicey proposition, at best.

In the end, the fact remains that the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) owe far more than their economies can pay back .  There is no way to make up for this deficit between debt and wealth…either by printing money (and thus devaluing the currency) or by straight default, those who hold the bonds of the PIIGS will have to take a loss.  There may be a way to soften the blow, but the blow must fall…default (straight up or disguised) absolutely will happen.

 

 

Iowa Straw Poll

Mark Noonan72 Comments

With Rick Perry’s announcement the straw poll will be a bit of an anti-climax…whomever does well in Iowa today will not have been tested against Perry.  Still, it could winnow the herd a bit – anyone who competed heavily and does lousy will be greatly weakened.

Anyways, discuss the straw poll and all else relating to the 2012 election.

UPDATE:  Michelle Bachmann.  From NRO’s The Corner:

Michele Bachmann won the Ames Straw Poll today with 4,823 votes.

Ron Paul was about 150 votes behind (4,671). Tim Pawlenty was a distant third (2,293).

Among the rest of the field, Rick Perry had 1,718 write-in votes, Rick Santorum 1,657 votes, Herman Cain 1,465 votes, Mitt Romney 567 votes, Newt Gingrich 385 votes, Jon Huntsman 69 votes, and Thad McCotter 35 votes…

Bachmann did what she had to do, Paul’s fanatics put him up there in a perfectly meaningless way, Pawlenty fell far short…everyone else had no real reason to be there.

Dealing With China’s Aircraft Carrier

Mark Noonan47 Comments

How Obama is dealing with it:

As China’s first aircraft carrier takes to the open seas today for its inaugural sea trials, the U.S. government directed a pointed question at the Chinese military: Why would you need a warship like that?

“We would welcome any kind of explanation that China would like to give for needing this kind of equipment,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters today. “We have had concerns for some time and we’ve been quite open with them with regard to the lack of transparency from China regarding its power projection and its lack of access and denial of capabilities.”…

Why would they want a carrier?  Uh, here’s a clue, guys – to challenge us.  You know, the only nation with a genuine navy and a substantial carrier force.

Now, there are two actual ways we can deal with this – grimly announce that we will always maintain at least three aircraft carriers for each Chinese carrier, or we can “Copenhagen” it.

Asserting that we’ll always build sufficient to be overwhelmingly powerful is essentially what Britain did in the early 20th century when challenged in battleships by Imperial Germany – after a certain point, asserting to Germany that Britain would lay two keels to one in order to maintain an overwhelmingly superior force no matter what the Germans built.  This is a fine response, but it does tend to a long-term increasing of tensions…in other words, it is an arms race.

The other way – “Copenhagen” – involves sinking the Chinese carrier.  The reason for describing it as “Copenhagen” is because in 1801 the British attacked and destroyed the Danish fleet in Copenhagen because of a concern that it might cooperate with the French against Britain.  This does have its attendant risk of full scale war, but it also is a complete solution to the problem…even if there is a war, one side then lacks a fleet to prosecute the war, so the conflict becomes rather one-sided.

I’d prefer we just sent a submarine over to Chinese waters and sank the blasted Chinese carrier.  They have no business having such weapons – the seas belong to us, won at great cost in blood and treasure and as we keep them freely open for navigation, no one has any need to challenge the United States in this area.  Unless, of course, they are envisioning a life-and-death struggle with us.  China is either just idiotically flexing muscle, or is seeking to be an existential challenge to the United States.  In neither case is it worth our while to just sit tight and let China build up a fleet.

But, you say, wouldn’t China go to war with us if we did that?  I doubt it.  Remember, the rulers of China are corrupt despots sitting atop an increasingly restive Chinese population.  Their economy is teetering on the edge of disaster and only massive exports to the United States keeps them afloat.  They don’t, at this time, have the capability of projecting power against the United States, nor our main Pacific bases.  War with us at this juncture would be entirely too costly – and so they won’t do it.  They’d complain and threaten and bluster…but at the end of the day they’d just have to take it.  And learn a valuable lesson – don’t bother putting money in to a fleet because when you put it to sea, we’re just going to sink it.

At any event, we do need a President who won’t have his staff merely ask stupid questions – anything is better than idiocy in policy.

2012 Still Makes Me Feel Fine

Mark Noonan15 Comments

From Rasmussen:

…Overall, 43% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president’s performance. That’s the lowest total approval for the president in five months. Fifty-five percent (55%) at least somewhat disapprove…

Any incumbent below 50% approval in in trouble…incumbents below 45% are in lots of trouble.  Obama can still win – in fact, we still have to give him the advantage given the amount of money he’ll raise and the immense powers of the Presidency.  But he’s on thin ice…we can beat him; and beat him very badly.

11th Circuit: ObamaCare Unconstitutional

Mark Noonan8 Comments

From Fox News:

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled that the health care reform law’s requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance is unconstitutional, a striking blow to the legislation that increases the odds that the Supreme Court will have to review the law.

The suit was brought by 26 states — nearly all led by Republican governors and attorneys general. The Department of Justice is expected to appeal…

Ultimately, the Supreme Court will decide – and I just can’t see how the Court will find the government having the power to force us to engage in commerce.  No matter how you slice it, no one has the right to force me to buy health insurance if I don’t want it…and no argument that I might wind up a public charge changes that because you don’t know if I will.  The best someone can do is write a law which says that if I don’t buy health insurance I will not have any deficiency made up at taxpayer expense.

Real health reform will have to wait, at all events, until we get a Republican President.  ObamaCare was never designed for any other purpose than destroying health insurance and thus forcing everyone to become a serf of the federal government in health care issues.  We do need deep reforms to how health care is delivered to the American people – but to get to the proper mix of free market, private charity and government support is not possible while Democrats are around trying to make it a vehicle to increase their personal power and wealth.

Europe Re-Enters Recession…US to Follow

Mark Noonan5 Comments

Mish has several articles detailing an economy on the rocks in Europe – a bit of an eye-opener is the news from Germany, Europe’s economy best until now:

German industrial production dropped by 1.1% in June. Early expectations stood on a rise of 0.1%. The rise of 1.2% that was reported for May was revised to only 0.9%. Altogether, the locomotive of the euro-zone cannot drive the train in high speed anymore…

Stocks in the US rose on a combination of BS and wishful thinking, coupled with a slight rise in consumer spending which will probably be found to be explainable as a temporary bump upwards in an otherwise downward slurge (all indicators are that things are starting to contract in the US…so a rise in consumer spending is an outlier).    Essentially, governments of the world printed and borrowed their way in to “growth” starting in the second half of 2009 and this has now sputtered to a halt in the second half of 2011.  I didn’t think it’d get this far – but, then again, I never figured Bernanke would print up quite as much as he did.

Now we’re kinda stuck…we can print and borrow the same amount of money, but it’d probably only buy us 6 to 9 months of “growth” (like heroin, fake and borrowed money to get your economy “high” always takes a larger dose the longer you do it).  Mish figures that the official data will eventually show the United States entered recession in June or July – over at Zero Hedge I recall one prognosticator figuring it would be back-dated to April or May, once all the data is in.  The bottom line here is that we either are in a recession, or so close to one as makes no matter.  The Obama boom times are over – we got as much as we could out of them.

The bad news is that because we did the Obama boom times we’ll now have a worse time of it going forward.  We’re massively more in debt, our dollar has dropped a gigantic amount of value, large swaths of American wealth-building capacity have been dismantled and the rest of the world – including China – is heading in to recession with us…there will be fewer buyers for our bonds, fewer places to export our inflation to, less ability to sell our exports.  Had we just let everything fall apart in 2008 (and so, yes, President Bush bears part of the blame), it’d all be finished by now and we’d be on the road to genuine recovery…because we bought Keynsian cure, and then elected Obama to quadruple down on it, we’re heading back in to recession, and perhaps a worse one than previous.  And looming in the background is the debt crisis – the thing which will financially kill us by 2015 or so if we don’t get our act together.  And getting it together is vastly more difficult now, thanks to Obama’s debt.

So, just how is that hopey-changey thing working out for you?