Published...

Hey friends,

I just published a piece in Perspectives. Thought it was time to change the subject since the last post was in August.

Hope everyone is well.

Liberals: Not Wasting Crises Since 1933

I posted this on my personal blog, here's hoping it sparks some discussion here.

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, let slip just after the election. "This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before," he continued. Obama has seized the opportunity, following the example of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took full advantage of the fear created by the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

Let's review: in October 1929, two months after the crash, unemployment peaked at 9% and then declined to 6.3% by June 1930. Congress and President Hoover then passed the Smoot-Hawley tariffs with the intention of reducing imports and protecting American jobs. By November unemployment was 11.6% and the Great Depression was beginning. FDR was elected in 1933, promising in his acceptance speech:

"Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth... I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people... This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms."

FDR believed that through greater central planning of the economy, more powerful unions and massive social programs he could improve the economy and dramatically shift the power balance towards statism and the Democratic party. He succeeded only in the latter. The first of FDR's New Deal interventions in the economy after taking office in 1933 was the National Industrial Recovery Act, which set prices and wages. Then came the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which allowed FDR to control prices and output of all the nation's farmers. These interventions and others, combined with anti-business rhetoric from the White House created much unpredictability in the marketplace and business investment fell off the cliff. For the first 21 months of FDR's presidency, unemployment was above 20%. In 1940, after 7 years of FDR's New Deal, unemployment was 14.3%. When WWII started, unemployment declined dramatically as millions of unemployed men went to war and FDR changed his focus from radically changing the free market to winning the war.

Not only did FDR's policies extend the Great Depression, causing much suffering, but he left us with a much, much, much larger and oppressive federal government that continues to rob us of our liberty and tax dollars to this day. He took full advantage of the crisis at hand to move the country a long way toward statism.

Obama is seeking to do the same, having learned from FDR's example. Massive deficit spending didn't help the economy when FDR tried it, but it did help the federal government usurp more power from the people, so Obama rolled out a $1 trillion "stimulus" bill. His health care "reform" is a thinly disguised attempt to force us all into socialized medicine.

Most of Obama's efforts to revive the economy focus on creating government jobs. Unfortunately, creating more government jobs does not mean more net jobs, since the money used to create them is taken out of the market, which would have been more efficient at creating jobs with that money. However, as Obama learned well while in Chicago, government jobs create a group of people that rely on the government for their paycheck and will tend to vote for people that favor their continued employment.

FDR used the Great Depression to move this country away from individual liberty and limited government and toward statism. Let's hope Obama is not as "successful."

Obama at Notre Dame

Any thoughts on President Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame? It brought back memories of President Bush's address at Calvin a few years back. Although this situation had the notable difference that Obama is an opponent of an official, important position of the Catholic church, while Bush's major problem was a war that the Democrats decided was no longer worthy of their support.

Where the Wild Things Are

I was largely unaware of this project until a couple months ago when I heard Dave Eggers (Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; What is the What) cowrote the screenplay with none other than Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and just about any sweet music video of the last 15 years [yep that one with Christopher Walken])

This trailer was just released today and I've watched it almost a dozen times already. I can't believe how freaking cool this movie looks and having the trailer set to the Arcade Fire music only ups the potential cool by a factor of 100.

But don't take my word for it...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/wherethewildthingsare/

Wozofoto

Sorry to use this blog for shameless self-promotion, but just in case your walls are looking a little bare, please check out my new website:

Wozofoto.com is a deal-a-day site, offering a new photo by a different photographer everyday. For $10 you can get a 5x7 or 8x10 that would cost you multiples more elsewhere. Larger sizes are also available for an additional fee. Photos are printed at professional photo labs with archival quality inks and paper. Your photos will be printed and shipped to you so fast they'll be on your wall in about a week.

What's the catch? The photo of the day is here today and gone tomorrow. One day, one photo. Thanks for checking it out the site - let me know what you think.

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Animal Collective

Am I the last one to discover the band Animal Collective? Hope not. If you don't know em, give their newest album Merriweather Post Pavilion a whirl. 

If Beta Band suddenly became DJs they might sound something like these guys. If you don't know Beta Band, then shame on you. Watch High Fidelity and then we can talk. 

Animal Collective is categorized, somehow, as "psych folk" or "noise rock", neither of which really describe what they do. They are melodic and electronic, crisp and eccentric, high energy and utterly irresistible. Honestly it took a couple listens before I got it, but now I cannot stop. Try "Brother Sport" or "My Girls" as introductions, but be sure to give the whole album a chance.

I have not gotten my hands on any of their older work, so if you perchance get lucky, maybe pass it along?

Liberal Fascism

Jonah Goldberg's booke Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning is one of the most interesting books I've read in a while. I thought I might stir the pot a little with some of Godberg's thoughts. 

Many on the left don't even know what the word "fascist" means, yet they will hurl the label at anyone with different political opinions (see Stuff White People Like: Comparing People to Hitler). Goldberg argues that American conservatism is incorrectly viewed by the left as somehow related or growing out of fascism. Instead, liberalism comes directly from an intellectual tradition that has much in common with fascism. He does not argue that liberals are Nazis or anything of the sort. Fascism is expressed differently in different cultures, Nazism was one expression, progressivism is another. Racism and violence are not essential components of fascism. Here is the author's definition of fascism:

Fascism is a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of the “problem” and therefore is defined as the enemy.

I always wondered why history books described Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy as "right-wing". The truth is that fascism is right-wing leftism. It was the international socialist movement that labeled fascism as right-wing, as national socialism was heresy to the internationalists (nationalism vs. class struggle). The internationalists saw fascism as the last gasp of capitalism - fascists would not completely take over the means of production but would instead regulate industry to the point where industry's goals were perfectly in line with "the People's" goals.

Conservatism as an intellectual tradition has nothing in common with fascism. It opposes all forms of political religion and instead views the state as a necessary evil intended to protect our God-given rights. Goldberg writes that "a conservative is one who protects and defends... private property, free markets, individual liberty, freedom of conscience, and the rights of communities to determine for themselves how they will live within these guidelines." However, conservatives are not immune from the temptation to engage in totalitarianism. They are sometimes tempted to fight fire with fire: e.g. opposing a multi-cultural/post-modern society by trying to impose a Christian/traditional values society instead of promoting a free, open society that allows the best ideas to win.

Liberalism, on the other hand, traces its roots to progressivism. Progressive views of the role of government are much closer to the fascists. They tend to believe that the government should do about anything, as long as it is "good" for people. It can't be tyranny, they are doing nice things for people. Goldberg documents how many American progressives openly admired Hitler and Mussolini and were in fact jealous of what they were accomplishing, until their militarism overshadowed their domestic agenda (which was not much different from what you hear from the left today). Goldberg argues that American liberalism "is a totalitarian political religion, but not necessarily an Orwellian one. It is nice, not brutal. Nannying, not bullying."

I'll close with a quote from Richard Weaver that Goldberg uses in the book to summarize why this subject is important.

The past shows unvaryingly that when a people’s freedom disappears, it goes not with a bang, but in silence amid the comfort of being cared for. That is the dire peril in the present trend toward statism. If freedom is not found accompanied by a willingness to resist, and to reject favors, rather than to give up what is intangible but precarious, it will not long be found at all.

I was on the news. Check it out.
http://www.kmov.com/video/lateststories-index.html?nvid=332751&shu=1

Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed

Sarah and I watched the Ben Stein documentary, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" last week. It was a really interesting look at intelligent design and those promoting it within the world of academia.

Stein chooses his fight carefully. Instead of taking on evolution directly, he points out that evolution does not explain how life began and argues that the idea of a designer is at least the equal of other theories on how life emerged from non-living things. No one knows how life came from non-life, but the scientific community has decreed that only non-intelligent design theories are worthy of discussion. Stein details the persecution of those in the scientific community that raise these points and argues that intelligent design deserves to be part of the debate.

The most fascinating part of the documentary is when Stein interviews Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist and author of The God Delusion. According to Dawkins, there is little to no chance of God or a creator, but he believes that a plausible explanation for the beginning of life on earth was a visit from aliens billions of years ago.

I believe the scientific community is trying to diminish the role of God in society so that He can be replaced by a new god - the state. 

Jaydiohead

My opinions of "mash-ups" have been nothing but bad since that horrible Elvis mash-up album came out years ago. Luckily the idea has been significantly redeemed when I started listening to Girl Talk and now Jaydiohead. I have been listening to this non-stop since someone told me about it and I downloaded it. Not only was I reintroduced to Jay-Z but the quality of Radiohead's music really gets highlighted in this format. Anyway, take a listen if you're curious. It's a free download here