Monthly Archives: July 2011

How the “Soft Left” Encourages the “Hard Right”

July 29, 2011
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How the “Soft Left” Encourages the “Hard Right”

By Mike Gray Has the situation in Europe already reached a point of no return? In failing to meet the threat of cultural subversion, the European left has facilitated the emergence of the illiberal and xenophobic branch of the far right. For as violence begins to move in from the car-burning and no-go Muslim enclaves in the margins toward the city center, as Shariah courts begin to pepper the landscape, as in the U.K., as Muslim immigrants continue to swell the welfare rolls, as rape statistics skyrocket and honor killings multiply, and as the authorities prove themselves increasingly helpless and vacillating – or even worse, as colluding – the reactionary and militant right will earn more and more legitimacy among the masses. The anemic lack of both fortitude and foresight among the political classes can only energize the factions of militant, far-right extremism. But there is hope: . . . . there is only one way to defeat the extreme right as it rises to its own depraved version of the defense of the West, and that is to disarm the common enemy and, by so doing, deprive a nascent fascism of its populist fuel. Multiculturalism has not led to

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‘The Days of Laméch’ — A Preview

July 29, 2011
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‘The Days of Laméch’ — A Preview

For an idea of how extensive, comprehensive, and just plain fascinating Jon Saboe’s latest novel, The Days of Laméch, is, read the following chapter headnotes: Chapter 1: Abduction “The irony of what brought about the end of the Family Wars was the realization that the abhorrent dehumanization inherent in those wars would be replaced by a surreptitious scheme to redefine humanity itself.” Chapter 2: Discovery “The savaged, broken masses who survived the Family Wars welcomed the civilizing philosophies of the Semyaz as a drowning man welcomes air. It required subsequent generations who had never known the horrors of war to realize that the Semyaz were patiently engineering their own pervasive and furtive agenda.” Chapter 3: Curse “Until the advent of Aenoch’s city design, establishing settlements was always fraught with the difficulties of holding the ever-encroaching growth of the thick forests that blanketed the planet at bay. By laying a marble foundation that rested upon the invariably soft soils and erecting surrounding walls which separated societies from the elements, large cities and centers of commerce were finally able to flourish.” Chapter 4: Research “For centuries, the Librarian class provided the repository of all human knowledge and culture. However, as inscribing became

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A Tax Is a Tax Is a Tax Is …

July 28, 2011
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A Tax Is a Tax Is a Tax Is …

The awful truth is that this country has been grossly mismanaged for decades. The Great Recession has exposed the mismanagement, casting a cruel light upon our impending insolvency. One might have hoped that in this national emergency, the politicians we elected to serve us would shelve the posturing and insist on doing the right thing instead of the politically palatable thing. If we are to emerge intact from this crisis, we need two things: First, we need to cut spending, drastically, programmatically. I’m not talking about the basket of illusory cuts Congress has so far offered. I mean real cuts. The culture of entitlement must take a long vacation. Second, we need to stimulate economic growth. We do that not by destroying thousands of cars and bailing out two-thirds of the American auto industry (like many Americans, I have sworn never, ever to buy a car made by Chrysler or Government Motors); you don’t do it with fake stimulus programs in which the government spends money it doesn’t have to reward unions and other special interests which in turn contribute to the politicians who have generously taken money out of other peoples’ pockets and lavished it on them. What you

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Graphic Insults: How Regulation Is Strangling the Economy

July 28, 2011
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Graphic Insults: How Regulation Is Strangling the Economy

By Mike Gray — well, the insults to our intelligence from people who have vested political interests in hobbling America’s energy production — which these images confute. (Click on each one to enlarge.) “America needs foreign energy imports,” they claim: “We need a moratorium on offshore oil development to protect the environment,” they say: “The EPA must continue to enforce the Clean Air Act and other draconian measures to save us from choking on pollution,” they aver: “If we’re going to save the polar bears, we must forget about a Trans-Alaska pipeline system,” they cry: “The United States doesn’t have the oil reserves needed to sustain our profligate lifestyle,” they assert: With all of these conflicting interests, it’s no wonder the bottom line is:

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Supermind Hearts Socialism

July 28, 2011
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Supermind Hearts Socialism

Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is. Let us first consider the question from the point of view of scientific knowledge. It might appear that there are no essential methodological differences between astronomy and economics: scientists in both fields attempt to discover laws of general acceptability for a circumscribed group of phenomena in order to make the interconnection of these phenomena as clearly understandable as possible. But in reality such methodological differences do exist. The discovery of general laws in the field of economics is made difficult by the circumstance that observed economic phenomena are often affected by many factors which are very hard to evaluate separately. In addition, the experience which has accumulated since the beginning of the so-called civilized period of human history has—as is well known—been largely influenced and limited by causes which are by no means exclusively economic in nature. For example, most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest. The conquering peoples established themselves, legally and economically, as the privileged class of the conquered country.

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‘Necessary Roughness’ Is Another USA Network Success

July 27, 2011
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‘Necessary Roughness’ Is Another USA Network Success

By S. T. Karnick Although other program providers garner more awards, critical accolades, and media hype, the USA Network has most effectively mastered the art of providing entertaining programming that conveys positive values and ideas. From shows such as Monk to Burn Notice, the USA Network formula has been the same, and quite engaging: interesting, slightly quirky but likeable central characters, recognizable but appealing locations, a focus on interesting occupations, and a concern for helping those less fortunate than oneself or assisting people in crisis. The new series Necessary Roughness (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. EDT) fulfills all the requirements. The central character, Dr. Danielle (Dani) Santino (Callie Thorne, Homicide: Life on the Street, Rescue Me), is a Long Island-based psychologist engaged by a New York City professional football team to help wrangle some of its less-dependable players in line. Struggling to cope with a recent divorce while raising two smart and independent teenagers, Santino is thrust into a demanding new work routine as the players, coaches, and management of the organization continually treat her as being on call at all times. In addition, Santino’s success with the Hawks players causes other equally troubled and troublesome high-achievers to call upon her services,

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Elizabeth Daly: One of the Last, and Best, of Golden Age Mystery Writers

July 26, 2011
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Elizabeth Daly: One of the Last, and Best, of Golden Age Mystery Writers

Blessings be upon Felony and Mayhem Press (http://www.felonyandmayhem.com), which is currently engaged in reprinting all sixteen of the detective novels of Elizabeth Daly. (They are now up to seven.) Daly (1878-1967) ought to be even better known than she is. She came along at the tail-end of the so-called golden-age of detective fiction which emphasized puzzle plots and brilliant detectives, and she was one of the finest practitioners of that style. She was of a privileged background. Her father, Joseph, was a judge of the New York County Supreme Court, and her uncle, Augustin Daly, was a prominent theater owner and producer. She received a B.A. from Bryn Mawr and an M.A. from Columbia University. She was a reader in English at the former from 1904 to 1906. Although she did some other writing before embarking upon her career as a mystery writer, she reached her prime as an author when in her sixties and early seventies. Her seventeen novels (all save one a detective story) were published between 1940 and 1951. All of Daly’s detective novels feature Henry Gamadge, a wealthy expert in manuscripts and rare books who does detective work as a sideline. He is highly cultivated though

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Legal Challenge to New York’s Same-Sex Marriage Law

July 26, 2011
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Legal Challenge to New York’s Same-Sex Marriage Law

“Back room tactics were rampant in the passage of this law. New York law requires that the government be open and transparent to keep political officials responsible. When government operates in secret and freezes out the very people it is supposed to represent, the entire system fails. … The law should be set aside and the process should begin again to allow the people a voice in the process.” — Mathew Staver Despite its merits, the suit could get thrown out if, as in California, the judge happens to be “gay” and/or a member of the ACLU. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges the Act became law through: Meetings that violated the state’s open meeting laws, including a closed-door gathering reported by the New York Times in which billionaire and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg lobbied with Republicans to vote for the Act; The suspension of normal Senate voting procedures to prevent senators who opposed the bill from speaking; Failure to follow Senate procedures that require a bill must be sent to appropriate committees prior to being placed before the full Senate for a vote; Governor Cuomo’s violation of a constitutionally mandated three-day review period before the Legislature votes on a

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The Totemic President

July 26, 2011
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The Totemic President

Obama, you see, is our nemesis. He is a totem, the logical manifestation of a warped media, the reification of some crazy — and arrogant — ideas about redistributive politics, the statist economy, and cultural and social life that permeated American life the last forty years. He is the president with a 1,000 faces that we have all seen at work, on TV, throughout American life, and at some point the odds determined that we had to have a rendezvous with him — perhaps a catharsis to teach us the wages of Keynesian debt, of a social policy contrary to human nature with its equality of result doctrines, of an all-powerful, all-growing unaccountable government, of the now hip ambiguity about past American protocols and history. Obama is the exaggeration of all the dubious ideas that arose since the 1960s — brought to fruition on his watch, delivered by mellifluous cadences by an untouchable persona. — Victor Davis Hanson, “Our Ten-Trillion-Dollar Man”, Pajamas Media

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Here Comes the Night, Second Installment

July 26, 2011
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Cyrus wiped the back of his sleeve under his nose. He moistened his lips with his tongue and began to play. Beautiful draws of breath sucking the pain of the world and blowing it back out in bent and waffled bursts of sublime energy. The colors returned, bathing the tableau in darker shades of blue and mauve.

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“Altamont Augie:” Talkin’ About My Generation

July 26, 2011
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“Altamont Augie:” Talkin’ About My Generation

By Lars Walker Will this book have the same visceral effect on other readers as it does on me? Perhaps not to the same extent. Altamont Augie is, in the first place, a book about my own coming of age years—the late ʹ60s. The main characters are about four years older than me. On top of that, the bulk of the action takes place on my home turf—Minneapolis and its environs. Mostly the University of Minnesota, where I did not attend, but visited often. I could easily have bumped elbows with these people. The main female character comes from the suburb of Robbinsdale, my present home. The somewhat confusing title of the book is a double reference. “Altamont” means the Altamont Free Concert at Altamont Speedway in northern California in 1969, where four people died in the terminal delirium of the Woodstock Era. One of those dead remains unidentified to this day—a young man who climbed a fence and jumped into an aqueduct where he drowned. “Altamont Augie” is the speculative name hung on that unfortunate man by the novel’s fictional narrator, a young Californian named Caleb Levy. It’s a reference to Saul Bellow’s novel, The Adventures of Augie March.

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Attacks on Bachmann’s Husband Just Latest Example of the Double Standard of Contemporary Political Rhetoric

July 25, 2011
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Attacks on Bachmann’s Husband Just Latest Example of the Double Standard of Contemporary Political Rhetoric

Political rhetoric in the United States has always been feverish and low on scruples. That’s the nature of democracies. Yet there has arisen a new atmosphere in the past decade, and it is not a result of right-wing talk radio. It is instead a legacy of the 1960s New Left, which held that purity of purpose justifies any tactic short of murder.

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