Hah hah hah hah hah...

Low-Down & Dirty

A hilarious take on "capitalism".

We should really circulate this among the Flea-Baggers. They don't seem to be the sharpest knives in the drawer...I suspect they'd think it true and go on delicious rants about it.

Wouldn't that be great?

The Gunslinger

Not BDSM*

It's always annoying when the blatant double standard of the Left is flagrantly exposed. Especially when they don't acknowledge it or their cohorts in the media and elsewhere whistle while looking everywhere but at it, doing their best to pretend it doesn't exist.

But it's really absurd when they do EXACTLY what they celebrate themselves and their virtue for stopping in others. It becomes "Through the Looking-Glass" crazy, and maybe even self-destructive...if we can figure out how to use it against them.

Christopher Chantrill has a great piece in American Thinker that discusses this very thing. It's all about preventing domination of human beings by powerful and corrupt forces that treat human beings like chattle...and instruments to be used to implement the will of the powerful.

Chantrill makes the case that that was the Lord of Capitalism in the early 20th Century, and that it was good that their limitless power was ended. He goes on to make the case that it is the Lords of Government that are the threat today...the very same haters of capitalism who are so proud of bring down the exploitive class...have become what they abhor...with a lot of excuses about how somehow it different when it's them, because they're so evolved, smart, enlightened...etc.

Yeah. Okay.

As the man says: "Domination is domination".

And unless we're talking about kinky sex, it's always bad.

The Gunslinger

*Bondage/Discipline; Domination/Submission; Sadism/Masochism

What if...

If the monstrosity that is ØbamaCare, the power grabbing, prosperity destroying, privacy ending, individual independence crushing, nation "transforming" psuedo  "healthcare" bill passes....

....what if every employer instantly fired all their employees, and then hired them back as "independent contractors"?

They could pay those former employees all the money the companies currently spend on "benefits"...and the independent contractors could buy their own health care policies, and invest for their own retirement.

Since companies will be punished and fined and taxed for any number is issues regarding health insurance for "employees", what if they had no employees?

I have no idea what the law is, or what the rules are...but I think if I was an employer, and this shit-storm was coming my way, I'd divest myself of "employees" as fast as I could.

(Given how the gummint works, and how good this would be for business, I suppose any such arrangement would somehow be illegal.)


The Gunslinger EOTIS
Para Bellum

Gangster Government

I love this woman. I LOVE this woman! Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota

She reminds me of Sarah Palin. Almost everything she says is filled with Common Sense. Two politicians I can respect. Holy Crap! I didn't think it was possible.

Here's her Website, in case you want to tell her how great she is...or send cash.

The Gunslinger

Suicide and Abuse

I suppose this was to be expected. Paul Starobin in his Divided We Stand essay did suggest that smallness in business as well as in nations is desirable for both freedom and profit.

But it is galling for any of us who have defended the free market...and business.

Of course, this is the very definition of fascism. Big business in bed with big government.

It seems we have two choices for any hope of a continuation of the life we have come to expect as Americans:

1) An underground, black/free market economy

2) Secession, which will automatically draw the entrepreneurs, the motivated, the risk-takers, the innovators, the inventors, and all "big business's" competition...the true capitalists, to the New American Republic—oh...and anybody who uses energy...and the best doctors.

The (OUSA) Old United States of America will be begging to borrow billions from us within 5 years. And we'll answer, "I don't think so, your credit sucks."

Just sayin'..

The Gunslinger

Hopey Changey the Little Green Car

Clarifying the Argument

Again with one of those weird "apropos of nothing" brain flashes:

Whenever we talk to Liberals about why free market capitalism is better than socialism, the first objection they raise is that under capitalism some people get rich and some people stay poor.

And we find ourselves facing the ugliness of that truth. Because, it is true.

And we also find ourselves too often, trying to come up with a way to diminish the charge, or explain it away, or blame the poor. And that does not serve us or our argument well.

What we too often fail to notice is that the socialist has just compared free market capitalism to perfection...not to socialism.

It's true, of course, that in a free market capitalist society some people will remain poor. What we fail to make clear is that under socialism, the great majority are poor.

While we are distracted by our struggle to defend free market capitalism against perfection, the socialist deflects examination of the gross failures of socialism.

Don't let them get away with it.

The argument is simple, really.

1) Free market capitalism is not perfect—and we don't claim that it is. No system devised by man will ever be perfect.

2) Free market capitalism brings prosperity to a greater number of people than any form of Socialism/Communism/Fascism.

3) You may not compare free market capitalism to perfection, only to other real-world economic systems. The facts speak for themselves...the "poor" are less poor under free market capitalism than any other system. And opportunity to rise from poverty is greater than in any other system.

4) Free Market Capitalism is necessary for individual and political liberty. Unless the means of production are privately owned and privately controlled, the government will have power over every citizen's life and livelihood, which is the definition of a totalitarian state.

The Gunslinger

Even Just Three States

The other day on television, Glenn Beck jokingly talked about splitting the country in two...giving 25 states to the Leftists, and 25 to the Conservatives—creating two separate countries.

When I brought that same idea up the first time, a couple of months ago, I was flummoxed about how you'd do the split, because the Liberals are pretty much concentrated on the coasts, and in the big (broken down, bankrupt, failing) cities, and you'd end up with pretty weird configurations of "countries"....even non-contiguous areas belonging to each.

But Glenn made a great point: It doesn't matter how we divide it up. In fact, he said, just let the Leftists choose the 25 states they want. And we'll take the rest.

In two years, we will have a thriving economy and the Leftists will have a failing state.

This is not just idle speculation. It's already been done. It's exactly what happened in Germany when it was separated into East & West after WWII.

East Germany, remember, was the Socialist model of prosperity, equality and social justice. And it's just what Obama is burning down our Republic to recreate.

How about we let the Leftists and Obamatons have their wish? And leave them to their fate, while we turn the desert into a garden, and turn Detroit into a thriving metropolis.

In truth, even if we ended up with only 10 states or five, or even three...we'd thrive and prosper while they looked on from their profitless, energy starved, lightless, hungry, cold perch of inflated self-righteousness.

(That's such a diverting and pleasant mental image, I admit.)

Of course, our country wouldn't remain the size of three states for long. The clamor for annexation by the populations of contiguous areas would be deafening.

And our biggest problem would probably be "illegal immigration"...of former citizens of the United States of America sneaking into our little corner of the world from the Leftist "paradise".

If things keep going the way they're going, and Obama and his crew keeps doing what they're doing, I'm not sure I see any other "peaceful" solution.

This is way radical, almost insane solution. Unthinkable. Absurd. Ridiculous.. But what choice do we have, who refuse to live under the tyranny that is being ruthelessly constructed as I type this?

The Gunslinger

Common Sense

I Could Be Wrong...

Logistics Monster and Arctic Wolf had similar objections to my "Amicable Divorce" idea. You can read the original post and their comments here. I started a comment in response, but as always, it ended up a 30-page dissertation, so I figured it would be best as a post of its own.

(I know, I know, the poor guys make, like, one or two sentence comments, and I write an encyclopedia in response—but, if I didn't always have way too much to say, I wouldn't be writing this blog in the first place...)

In a nutshell, both my friends think there's no hope for a peaceful secession/separation. Both, being smart, recognize that BlueLand could not survive—at least not in the style to which they've become accustomed— without RedLand, and sensibly conclude that the Blue would not allow a peaceful withdrawal of the Red.

They may, of course, be entirely correct.

I hope not, because I'd quite prefer a peaceful settlement of our polarized conundrum to another bloody Civil War—or worse, the condemnation of freedom loving, (Red) Sovereign Citizens to a life of serfdom and bondage to the (Blue) STATE.

Arctic Wolf looks at the well-known "Red and Blue" map of America, and recognizes that in almost all States, and even in most counties, there are enough people of both sides that conflict seems inevitable, that we'd continue skirmishing endlessly for dominance in our hometowns, and states. He points to Northern Ireland as the sad historical model.

But, there is another, more recent model: Quebec. I know the situation is not exactly analogous, but it does show that a modern, civilized, and socialist, state...can divide itself peacefully if there is sufficient demand...and enough room!

Some of the differences between Northern Ireland and America include: age, culture, landmass, history, and a culture of mobility. Being an "immigration nation" has its benefits. Everyone here came from somewhere else. The idea of "seeking a better life" by pulling up stakes and moving to the "Land of the Free" is literally, in our DNA.

We are the children of insanely courageous people who traveled half-way around the world, with a couple of suitcases, very little money, no guarantees, to a strange culture with a foreign language—for the sake of freedom.

Surely we can move a couple of states over, with all our possessions, our bank accounts, our 401k's, our parents, kids, pets...at our leisure, in our own air-conditioned/heated vehicle....to a place where people are more like us than they are where we come from, with whom we share a culture, ideals, a glorious history, and a language—for the sake of freedom!

Inconvenient, disruptive? Sure. But if it's not worth a little temporary inconvenience and disruption to live free, we belong in the socialist hive, anyway.

Unlike Northern Ireland, we've got way more land than people, a wandering spirit, a history that doesn't include centuries of animosity, conquest, oppression and strife, and we don't identify ourselves by our religion.

Having separated ourselves successfully from England over 230 years ago, and remained friends and allies with them ever since, you might even say we're the Anti-Northern Ireland.

Even our terrible and costly Civil War resulted in a peaceful unity, without decades—let alone centuries—of ongoing bloody skirmishes, terrorism and hatred, to the extent that the biggest defenders of the flag they fought against, the most proudly and publicly patriotic, are our Southern brothers.

We are Americans. Not crazy Irishmen! (Full disclosure, I am part Irish. County Cork, home of the invading, then assimilating Vikings. Which, when I found out, and shared with my friends, they, to a man, nodded, saying things like, "Well, that explains it.")

Returning to the suggestion that the Blue know they cannot survive without the Red, I'm not actually sure they do know it. Consider the current situation. The way the politicians—and even many economists—are dealing with our financial mess, they clearly and demonstrably do not understand how the engine of prosperity works.

And if you don't understand how it works, you don't know which parts are necessary for function, and which parts are decorative. You don't understand that the valves are critical but the chrome valve cover is not.

Indeed, in a world of image, posing, pretension, ignorance, and "bling", the pretty, twinkling valve cover will probably be coveted more than the dull, dirty, mostly hidden valves.

And if we offer to take those dirty, boring valves, and leave them their shiny object, I have a feeling they'll greedily agree, thinking we're stupid (as always), and laugh at our backs as we leave.

In the same way, perhaps they won't complain if all the fat-cat, greedy capitalists leave. As long as they leave the windmills. They'll feel the same about gun owners, factory farmers, arms manufacturers, chemical companies, oil companies, truck makers, truck drivers, smokers, white construction workers, the military, mining, rodeo cowboys, country music...all dirty, boring, annoying, ugly parts they don't understand or care about...

The Left want a peaceful, green world of solar power, secularism, and organic farming. They insist on "natural" products, and "pure" ingredients, fair trade coffee and chocolate. They want acupuncture and homeopathy included in their "free" medical coverage. They want to open their arms, hug the earth, and buy the world a Coke.

But they don't want us sooty, dirty, noisy, smoky, grinding, cacophonous parts...

And until they are stuffing newspaper in their shoes, and eating tree bark, it will not occur to them that they might have made a mistake.

Oh...some know. And they will understand the implications. When they say "paradise", they mean "tyranny run by themselves". They know they need the factories running, and the farms growing and the banks lending. But even they, as demonstrated by the current idiocy in Washington, believe the engine of commerce can be run by force and regulation, by government decree and central planning. Even they, devious in their ambitious reach for total power, don't understand that they are designing their own ruin.

But these quasi-delusionals of the Left are far outnumbered by the totally delusional Left.

An example:

Minnesota has a problem. It has mandated the use of bio-fuel in school buses. To "save the earth", "for the children".

Bio-fuel turns to gel in cold weather.

Minnesota. Winter.

Recently, some of "the children" in Minnesota had to be hospitalized for hypothermia caused by waiting at bus-stops for buses that never came, because the energy-saving, earth-saving, child-saving bio-fuel, in the cold winter of Minnesota turns into gel and the buses won't run.

Their solution is to keep the buses running all night long so the fuel won't gel.

Burning fuel. All night long.

To save energy, and the earth, and "the children" by using bio-fuel.

These are not fringe kooks blogging from their mommy's basement, these are government officials. Totally delusional. And they're everywhere.

Who among us thinks they can make rational assessments of the requirements for prosperity—or anything else—and arrive at the correct answer?

These are not difficult minds to influence. Surely a decent PR campaign could convince them that they could achieve Utopia, if only all those nasty Redland people would get out of the way...there'd be no more aggravating "tough fights" in the legislature to get their earth-saving bio-fuel program up and running!

Not only wouldn't they stop us, they'd give us an escort to the on-ramp.

"Brer Bear, please don't throw me into that briar patch!"

Of course, I could be wrong.

The Gunslinger

Are The Republicans Just As Bad?

Elsie left a comment on the previous post, The American IDEA, reminding me that it is not only Democrats who are miscreants, but that both parties are guilty. She said:

"Bravo! I would, however, include both political parties. Both play mind games in their own way, twisting facts and manipulating principles. It's time to put political ideologies in their place, and understand that if the spirit of America is not honored and if we do not unite in spirit, then we will forsake our spirit."

I was going to answer her in a followup comment, but as I was writing it, I realized the subject was worthy of a post of it's own.

Now, in the interests of full disclosure, I am a registered Republican. But I'm not a Party Girl. I'm a Republican by default, because they come closer to my Conservative principles than the ironically named "Democratic" Party.

And, no, I don't exonerate Republicans from wrongdoing. But they're guilty of normal greed, normal corruption, normal crime.

Like all weak, selfish, lazy, criminals, they want more than they deserve—or have honestly earned— of the fruits of the American IDEA.

They're thieves and charlatans...con men and hustlers, cheats and liars. They are corrupt and untrustworthy.

But they all, almost to a man, believe in the IDEA that is America; they are not in the business of destroying the American Soul, the American IDEA, the American Dream.

They might steal you blind, cheat on their taxes, pad their expenses, illegally profit from their elected offices, refuse to recycle, but they don't publish secret troop movements. They don't tell their kids that America sucks. They don't disrespect The Founders. They don't promote or embrace Communism. They don't think the pretentious clown Fidel Castro or the savage murderer Che Guevara are bigger heroes than Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. They don't think Europe is cooler than America. They don't think Karl Marx is smarter than Ben Franklin.

They know the Free Market is the greatest engine of progress and prosperity in the history of the world, and they know that Americans are really, really good at it.

But. They are so interested in feathering their own nests, so self-centered, and self-involved, they are insufficiently attentive to the danger posed by the Left and their constant undermining of America. They are failed sentinels, so drunk on the their own personal glory, power, status and fortune that they fail to notice that the enemy is putting bombs beneath the foundation stones.

And for that, I blame them bitterly. They are criminals and bad citizens. But they are not traitors. Their intention is not to ruin America, but to extravagantly profit from her greatness.

Let me use an example to illustrate:

Our economy is in shambles. Republicans—even stupid, greedy ones—propose that we cut income taxes, corporate taxes, capital gains taxes. The result will be more consumer spending, business confidence and growth, increased investment, and more tax money collected by the State. It's a win-win solution. The country will become more prosperous and rich. (which, incidentally, results in more money for Republican politicians to steal!) The free-market response will be a recovered economy.

This is not just a theory. It is a proven, verifiable, certifiable, historical fact. It happens every time taxes are cut. Indeed, it happens with monotonous regularity.

Why then, won't the Democrats do it? Why do they persistently insist, instead, on raising taxes...the very thing that will plunge the country into an even deeper economic crisis?

Answer: Because the primary goal of the Democrat Left is not to save the economy, encourage the free-market, or fill State coffers. Their primary mission is to precipitate a crisis so mortal that they can institute "emergency" policies that give the State unlimited power over the economy, which results in unlimited power over The People. A total inversion of the IDEA. The total evisceration of America as she was founded, as she was intended, as we love her, as she has been since the beginning, providing us with the best, freest, richest lives in the history of mankind.

And that isn't the standard, criminal, lawless lust for ill-gotten gain...that's treason.

And that is the difference between the Political Parties and their respective criminal hacks*.

*When speaking of the Democrat Party, I'm talking about its Masters, the Left-Socialist ideologues. When speaking of the Republican Party, I'm talking about its Masters, the wobbly "centrists" and "moderates" who cleave to no principles whatever. I am not talking about Conservatives, who are being systematically renounced (as always) by Republican Party hacks, who insist that we can only "win" if we abandon everything we believe in.

The Gunslinger

White Collar Crime - Dark, Heartless & Evil

For some reason, this makes me terribly sad.

"Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet’s sense of honor led the descendent of French army officers and an ennobled shipping family to commit suicide after he put his friends and family in a “catastrophic” financial situation by investing with Bernard Madoff..."

I call it murder. And Madoff should be in shackles in a dungeon, not lounging around his penthouse sipping cocktails and watching his plasma TV.

Admittedly, this story is about people with a great deal of money, who didn't need any more, and who invested to heavily with Madoff because of the good returns.

But it wasn't greed operating here. It was trust...in their friends, in other, well-known authorities in the investment field, in each other. It was an attempt to do the best they could in a difficult market. And all the references and referrals seemed beyond reproach.

But in the end, it cost at least one man his honor, which clearly meant more to him than his life.

His old-world response touches me on some level I can't explain. It makes me sad, yet sort of hopeful, to realize that somewhere in this world, there are people that still care about honor that much.

As for Madoff, I say go Medieval on the bastard. He does not deserve an honorable or private death. Pillory him in front of a New York investment bank for a month...then draw and quarter the prick in Times Square. With horses. Slowly.

Let his public punishment be a lesson for other malefactors.

The Gunslinger

Socialism Cast as Capitalism

I know. You're probably sick of this. But it may be the most important story of the Century. Well...that's only 8 years, but you know what I mean...

The Mises Institute (a good website to browse regularly) has another succinct refutation of the idea that the financial fix we're in is the result of a "crisis of capitalism".

That the Socialists who caused this problem with their Socialist interventions into financial institutions, (and their Socialist lies and cover-ups) insist that Capitalism is to blame, and that the only answer is Socialism, administered by the self same corrupt Socialists is enough to make your head explode. (Wrapping my head with duct-tape as we speak.)

"Lie" doesn't begin to describe it.

Worse, the ignoramuses of the Media broadcast these seeds of idiocy hither and yon, then prance off as the seedlings metastisize into dense, tangled forests of public ignorance. They are the Satanic Johnny Appleseeds of the Dark Side.

And thus, here we are: Led by evil nincompoops and lectured by arrogant imbeciles.

The Gunslinger

The Bowyer Bailout Alternative

Let's try fixing the Free Market by making it...uh, I don't know...free!

I know, it's a tough concept to intellectualize. Everyone knows that injecting more government intervention, controls, regulations, management, decision-making, price/salary caps, and taxes frees up the market much faster.

But just maybe, for once, we might want to consider an alternative.

"Abolish the Community Reinvestment Act. Forcing banks to make minority loans is the original sin out of which came the Subprime mortgage industry. Let banks decide where to loan; that's their job. Leave identity politics out of our credit system.

Do all of the above and I'm not at all sure that any bailout would still be needed. Before we subsidize these institutions, let's stop the things we are already doing to collapse them. Back to Hippocrates: First of all, do no harm."

The Gunslinger