Tuesday, December 15, 2009

They were wrong about Medicare, too | Cynthia Tucker

They were wrong about Medicare, too | Cynthia Tucker: "They were wrong about Medicare, too

12:15 pm November 19, 2009, by ctucker

Nicholas Kristof has a great column today on the critics of health care reform and how their criticisms about the dire consequences — socialism! government takeover! — are wrong. How does he know? It’s all been said before. Read his column or just go straight to an audio tape of Ronald Reagan blasting the proposed Medicare plan in 1961.



Reagan was wrong, too.

If you don’t (oppose it), this program I promise you, will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow and behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country until one day as Normal Thomas said we will wake to find that we have socialism, and if you don’t do this and I don’t do this, one of these days we are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.

Medicare is now so popular that no politician dares talk about trying to change it. That included Reagan, who, when he ran for president, wanted voters to forget his earlier opposition to Medicare."

Monday, August 31, 2009

American Torture

American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond, by Michael Otterman

Upcoming Senate Vote on Climate Change

Dear Senator Kerry,

I just read the article in today's Washington Post about the upcoming Senate vote on the climate change bill. Please, please, please vote no on this bill. Do not approve a cap and trade system. It is a bad idea, and bad for your constituents.

I admire the stand you took against the Vietnam war when it was not such a popular stand to take. I hope you'll show similar courage in the debate about the climate change bill.

Clean energy, such as wind power generated off the Cape, is a good idea. A cap and trade system is poor public policy from beginning to end. Please do whatever you can to prevent it.

Thank you,

Steven Greffenius

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Test Entry from Journler

You can blog right from your Journler! That's neat!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Some Thoughts on Your Next Book

The working title for your next essay is:

Why Global Warming is a Hoax

You want to do one book a year, so you have to work steadily!

John Rich Lyrics - Shuttin' Detroit Down

“I see all these big shots whining on my evening news,

About how they’re losing billions and it’s up to me and you

To come running to the rescue.”

Yes, but let’s not forget, the taxpayers offered big bailouts before any big shots requested them.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Limited Vision

That's enough for now, then,
Stop pushing your perennial pen.
Climb those blasted stairs, my friend,
Sleep’s the eternal cure for men.

Before you close your eyes for everlasting rest,
Ask your master for peace and freedom, lest
When he comes to take you home,
He finds you guilt-ridden, lying prone.

But what, I ask, what if I don’t finish
The work you want me to accomplish?
What’s the joy in that, to go up there
With so little to show, portfolio bare?

“Who are you to say, you haven’t done what I asked?
How can you know the full compass of your life’s meaning?
Do you insist that every accomplishment draw its own picture
In your mind? Do you discredit all the invisible deeds
That don’t feed your ego and lift your self-esteem?”

I won’t try to answer you, Mr. G.
Except to say that I agree.
Take me home, early or late.
By your grace, I’ll watch and wait.

Let me pray, though, one brief hope,
That you reveal, when you’re with me,
What my life meant, beyond its scope.
What did I accomplish, when I couldn’t see?

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The New Majority | Building a conservatism that can win again

The New Majority | Building a conservatism that can win again

Why Rush is Wrong | David Frum

Why Rush is Wrong | Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com:

"In the days since I stumbled into this controversy, I've received a great deal of e-mail. (Most of it on days when Levin or Hannity or Hugh Hewitt or Limbaugh himself has had something especially disobliging to say about me.) Most of these e-mails say some version of the same thing: if you don't agree with Rush, quit calling yourself a conservative and get out of the Republican Party. There's the perfect culmination of the outlook Rush Limbaugh has taught his fans and followers: we want to transform the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan into a party of unanimous dittoheads—and we don't care how much the party has to shrink to do it. That's not the language of politics. It's the language of a cult."

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Treasury's Efforts to Deal with the Financial Crisis

Treasury Begins to Release Details of Loan Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/business/economy/05loan.html

Note the second word of the headline, begins.

Here’s the difficulty. For months, Treasury has made plans secretly, without public debate. The reason: if we let details out in advance, it could roil the panicked markets even more than they already are. How do the markets, as they’re called, react? They say, we don’t trust what you’re doing back there, because you did it in secret. Moreover, we’re skeptical about supporting it, because we had no input.

If you don’t trust your would be rescuer, you’re not going to have much cooperation between the government and the banking system. What is the result? Treasury pumps hundreds of billions of dollars into the banking system to get loans flowing again, but the financial system remains shut down. Trust has disappeared, and Treasury is not setting a good example by making plans in secret. If the main problem in the financial system is lack of confidence or trust among its parts, you need an open rescue process to make it work again.

No one makes a loan without knowing the net worth of the borrower. Banks won’t lend each other money because they don’t know the value of each other’s assets. They do not trust that borrowers can pay back loans. That’s why the financial system shut down. Forcing banks to accept bailout money doesn’t solve the problem of valuing assets. Banks won’t loan money again until doubts about solvency are resolved. No one has yet figured out a way to value banks’ assets accurately, fairly, and in a way that won’t cause political trouble in the short term.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Massachusetts Liberty - January 2009

Click Massachusetts Liberty to open the January issue of LPMA's January newsletter.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Post-Election Humor

We have to count our blessings...


One sunny day in February, 2009. an old man approached the White House from Across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, "I would like to go in and meet with President Bush."

The Marine looked at the man and said, "Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer President, and no longer resides here."

The old man said, "Okay", and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, "I would like to go in and meet with President Bush."

The Marine again told the man, "Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer President, and no longer resides here."

The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U.S. Marine yet again, saying "I would like to go in and meet with President Bush."

The Marine, understandably curious at this point, looked at the man and said, "Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the President and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?"

The old man looked at the Marine and said, "Oh, I understand just fine. I just love hearing it!"

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "See you tomorrow, Sir."

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Obama's War - Fearing Another Quagmire in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com

Obama's War - Fearing Another Quagmire in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com:

'...during her confirmation hearing, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Afghanistan a “narco-state” with a government “plagued by limited capacity and widespread corruption.”'

Well we can't say that the IRS is skimming profits from drug smuggling, but the rest of Clinton's description sounds pretty accurate. The government in DC doesn't know what it's doing, and one reason it's so incompetent is that it's so corrupt. That was an accurate description until January 21, anyway. Let' hope and hope some more that corruption and incompetence ended that day.

Barack Obama's Inaugural Address

20090120_inauguration.mp4 (video/mp4 Object)

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Reagan wouldn't recognize this GOP - Los Angeles Times

Reagan wouldn't recognize this GOP - Mickey Edwards - Los Angeles Times

"In the present crisis," referring specifically to the high taxes and high levels of federal spending that had marked the Carter administration, "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." He then went on to say: "Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work." Government, he said, "must provide opportunity." He was not rejecting government, he was calling -- as Barack Obama did Tuesday -- for better management of government, for wiser decisions.