Welcome to the Fight, Sort Of
After years of apparently being OK with California's absurd restrictions on development and crazy environmental laws that tied most everything new up in the courts for years, Kevin Drum suddenly thinks they may be flawed now that they are slowing development he likes (wind, solar, high density housing around transit stations). Drum is a classic technocrat, who is OK with absolute state authority as long as the state is doing what he wants it to do. I am reminded of what I wrote technocrats 7(!) years ago:
Technocratic idealists ALWAYS lose control of the game. It may feel good at first when the trains start running on time, but the technocrats are soon swept away by the thugs, and the patina of idealism is swept away, and only fascism is left. Interestingly, the technocrats always cry “our only mistake was letting those other guys take control”. No, the mistake was accepting the right to use force on another man. Everything after that was inevitable.
I am reminded of all this because the technocrats that built our regulatory state are starting to see the danger of what they created. A public school system was great as long as it was teaching the right things and its indoctrinational excesses were in a leftish direction. Now, however, we can see the panic. The left is freaked that some red state school districts may start teaching creationism or intelligent design. And you can hear the lament – how did we let Bush and these conservative idiots take control of the beautiful machine we built? My answer is that you shouldn’t have built the machine in the first place – it always falls into the wrong hands. Maybe its time for me to again invite the left to reconsider school choice.
Today, via Instapundit, comes this story about the GAO audit of the decision by the FDA to not allow the plan B morning after pill to be sold over the counter. And, knock me over with a feather, it appears that the decision was political, based on a conservative administration’s opposition to abortion. And again the technocrats on the left are freaked. Well, what did you expect? You applauded the Clinton FDA’s politically motivated ban on breast implants as a sop to NOW and the trial lawyers. In establishing the FDA, it was you on the left that established the principal, contradictory to the left’s own stand on abortion, that the government does indeed trump the individual on decision making for their own body (other thoughts here). Again we hear the lament that the game was great until these conservative yahoos took over. No, it wasn’t. It was unjust to scheme to control other people’s lives, and just plain stupid to expect that the machinery of control you created would never fall into your political enemy’s hands.
Ted Rado:
Those who promote authoritarian government must accept thet one day the worm will tirn and a different set of authoritarian rulers will assume power. Presto! The crap being shoved down your throat is no longer stuff you want. Wouldn't it be better to leave out the authoritarian nonsense in the first place? I am a live and let live person. I have no interest in foisting my opinions off on others and wish that the favor was returned.
The Napoleon complex runs deep in the human mind. Everyone wants to be king of the hill. Remember: someone else will one day be the king.
June 20, 2012, 11:28 amHrafn:
"Teaching creationism or intelligent design" is teaching religion. Teaching religion (as opposed to teaching *about* religion) in a public school is establishment of religion (so says SCOTUS, whose job is the interpretation of such things). As such it is unconstitutional.
So how's this for a lament: WHY DO REPUBLICANS HATE THE CONSTITUTION SO MUCH?
Establishment clause? THEY HATE IT!
Free Exercise clause? THEY HATE IT! (See for example, the woefully misnamed & misrepresented 'Ground Zero Mosque.)
I've yet to see any evidence that Republicans whole-heartedly support any part of the Constitution except for the 2nd Amendment. So praise the Lord and pass the ammo -- and please don't remind us that Jesus taught pacifism & poverty. :/
June 20, 2012, 11:47 ammark2:
@Hrafn, I challenge you. Where did Jesus teach poverty?
Not sure he was a complete pacifict either, considering there are passeges in the Bible, where Jesus himself got violent.
June 20, 2012, 12:35 pmGoober:
This is a much more eloquent way to put this than i tend to phrase it when I'm discussing government run healthcare. I understand that to a leftist, GW Bush is the most evil man in history. So, I ask:
"Why do you want GW Bush to be in charge of your healthcare?"
Stunned for a second at how stupid this libertarian is, they reply, haughtily:
"GW Bush isn't President anymore, moron. It's Barack Obama now!"
I wait for a second, and then reply:
"So you are assuming that Barack Obama will be President for the remainder of your life?"
"No," they reply, "Of course not." Usually it is around this point that they realize the point I'm trying to make, and you can see it in their eyes.
"So what happens the next time a GW Bush clone gets elected? Or a republican house and senate gets control? What if Sarah Palin is elected President in 2016? At that point in time, you will have gladly ceded control of your healthcare to those people."
They usually spout some nonsense at this point because they know that I have them. it typically goes something like "the republicans are dead and will never come back" or something like that. I wonder now if recent developments would cause them to stop using that argument, or if they'd just double down on it... Hmmm. I'll have to try it again soon.
The worst part is that none of them seem to understand what I mean when I say that I don't want either party to be in charge of my healthcare. None of them seem to understand that there is a third choice - INDIVIDUALS can be in charge of their own damned healthcare decisions.
June 20, 2012, 3:24 pmIGotBupkis, Legally Defined Cyberbully in All 57 States:
>>> it always falls into the wrong hands.
The tools of fascism are ALWAYS in The Wrong Hands, by definition. They provide one individual with the power to force their viewpoint/wishes onto another using Government Force. That's wrong. Period. No matter who has it.
If those tools will be in someone's hands, then yes, I want them in my own hands and the hands of those who agree with me...
============================================================
...But I'd much rather they didn't exist at all.
============================================================
That makes for a much better world for everyone. Not "perfect" -- only one where everyone tends to be mutually dissatisfied. And that's probably the best that humans can attain.
June 20, 2012, 6:51 pmIGotBupkis, Legally Defined Cyberbully in All 57 States:
>>>> “Teaching creationism or intelligent design” is teaching religion. Teaching religion (as opposed to teaching *about* religion) in a public school is establishment of religion (so says SCOTUS, whose job is the interpretation of such things). As such it is unconstitutional.
... and most Republicans are against government-run schooling. Funding should be done on a voucher basis and private industries should run schools chosen for merit by the children's parents.
So your problem is...?
Ah, right, you Leftists lose the power to Indoctrinate Each Generation.....
You'd rather see the entire nation go down in flames from an ill-educated citizenry, poorly prepared to live in a technological 21st Century than lose that power.
..Because it's incredibly obvious that current schools aren't teaching jack or his smelly companion to kids that needs to be learned about science, politics, economics, or history.
No, they're teaching them how "to FEEL GOOD about themselves, regardless of failure", and how to be Good Little Sheep and obey their betters (which, you ignorantly presume, as a result of being "useful idiots", will be YOU and your kind. The end result will be you morons getting sent off to the eradication camps wailing, "What happened!?!? Who did this!?!?" -- Hint: It was YOU)
And frankly, yeah, ID is total bovine excreta. It's based on a LACK of Faith in God, not Faith in God, but you leftools are just too clueless-stupid to spot THAT problem, define it clearly, and point it out to the dismay of ID supporters, ad (their) nauseum.
>>>> So how’s this for a lament: WHY DO REPUBLICANS HATE THE CONSTITUTION SO MUCH?
Establishment clause? THEY HATE IT!
Not in the least. Certain extra-religious groups hate it. Most of us want government to stop doing a hell of a lot of things, because that's not the proper sphere of government in the first place. That's what lefties like you Just Don't Get. It's the endless expansion of federal power that lefties like you are so beholden to that even gives these religious groups any sway, both for and against. There's a vast array of things The Government has no business doing.
>>>> Free Exercise clause? THEY HATE IT! (See for example, the woefully misnamed & misrepresented ‘Ground Zero Mosque.)
That wasn't Republicans. That was anyone with a brain able to recognize it for the slap in the face that it was so clearly intended to be. I know an actual moderate Muslim (yes, they DO exist) who acks that it was a very rude place to put a mosque.
Funny how you can't offend women, Muslims, blacks, or gays, but hey, be as rude as you ephing want to a Christian, or anyone who self-defines as an "American"....
'Nuff said.
Hrafn, you appear to be a two-bit troll, so I doubt if I'll see anything useful as a response, just more ignorant anti-Right vitriol, based on the notion that anyone who disagrees with you as to the proper procedure or public policy on any issue must be not just ignorant, but stupid AND evil as well.
Anyone against you cannot possibly be seeing things MORE rationally, observing something you don't see -- they MUST be unable to count to 5 with mittens on.
Arrogant, much?
So, since you're a troll, I've spent enough time pointing out the stupidities and flaws in your claims.
Back to you.
===================
P.S. -- You'll note that my own arguments in response to your blatherings are much better formulated and directed against specific claims made by you, not mindlessly potshotting at various "other side" bullet points.
That's one of the chief benefits of not falling for the PS Indoctrination model. Your rhetorical skills are notably better.
June 20, 2012, 7:15 pmHrafn:
“I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:23-24
June 20, 2012, 10:59 pmperlhaqr:
Hrafn: Logic fail. I'm certainly no Christian, but "Not Rich" does not equal "poverty".
I'm not even on the same planet as Bill Gates in terms of wealth, but I'm certainly not scratching in the dirt either. For example, I have a computer and 24/7 internet access.
------
Warren, Ted: It's the same as all the people who lament how much power corporations have because they can buy politicians, but it's the politicians who have the power to sell. Take away the power from the politicians, and the corporations will ignore them, because they won't have anything they want.
June 21, 2012, 8:44 amQuincy:
Funny, it's these people who also love to talk about "root causes" and being "reality-based".
June 21, 2012, 5:50 pm