Joe Scarborough is leading a not unintelligent discussion of raising the debt ceiling this morning. It covers some of the reasons why Washington's credit limit will be raised by at least enough to let your grandkids redeem those federal savings bonds you've been buying them all these years.
And of course to put gas in the cabinet officers' limos, support a million and more more otherwise unemployable androids in the bureaucracies, hire the curviest office drones for congressleches, and pay farmers to refrain from growing food.
The Obama Wing of economic stupidity is correct about one narrow point. Government must protect its FICA score by desperation measures. It must borrow more long-term money to head off immediate default which, aside from robbing your grandkids of their college nest egg, would piss off China to no end.
Scarborough got some general agreement that the debt-limit debate could generate that storied "adult" moment in congress. The critters might say, "Yep, if we keep trying to buy some peoples' votes with other peoples' money, we're shortly going to get our adult members caught in the wringer."
So let's watch the action on "reducing discretionary spending." Let's immediately and scornfully dismiss the political posturing for what it is.
The critter to praise will be the first one who votes against a new interstate highway spur in his home district.
Publish Post
Jan 3, 2011
Jan 2, 2011
You meet the nicest people around here.
A good Texas cop named Matt -- Better and Better -- is now on the TMR blog roll.
Death of a City
You know all you need to know about Texas -- that big braggart of a state where everyone goes around armed with a handgun, threatening peaceable citizens, and shooting up the town every boozy Saturday night.
And you know all about Mexico, that gentle southern neighbor where disarmed peasants go humbly around, doffing their sombreros to the damas, smiling "manana, senor," and donating their pitifully few small pieces of silver for a new bell for Santa Maria's Cathedral.
Ahem. It isn't the guns. It is the politicians.
Massacres, beheadings, YouTube videos featuring cartel torture sessions and even car bombs are becoming commonplace in Juarez, where more than 3,000 people were killed in 2010, according to the federal government, making it among the most dangerous places on earth.
El Paso, by contrast, has had three violent deaths — and one was a murder-suicide.
And you know all about Mexico, that gentle southern neighbor where disarmed peasants go humbly around, doffing their sombreros to the damas, smiling "manana, senor," and donating their pitifully few small pieces of silver for a new bell for Santa Maria's Cathedral.
Ahem. It isn't the guns. It is the politicians.
Massacres, beheadings, YouTube videos featuring cartel torture sessions and even car bombs are becoming commonplace in Juarez, where more than 3,000 people were killed in 2010, according to the federal government, making it among the most dangerous places on earth.
El Paso, by contrast, has had three violent deaths — and one was a murder-suicide.
---
The piece concentrates on citizens' flight from a city I once loved. It's the drug violence, of course, but the most frightening and revealing passage is about the federales' effort to figure out just how many Juarez people have fled.
The piece concentrates on citizens' flight from a city I once loved. It's the drug violence, of course, but the most frightening and revealing passage is about the federales' effort to figure out just how many Juarez people have fled.
Now, the Mexican army and federal authorities are going door-to-door, conducting an emergency census to determine just how many residents have fled.
Many people, however, refuse to answer their questions for fear authorities are simply collecting information about neighborhoods so they can begin extorting residents — just like the drug gangs.
---
Mexico is a failed country because it has been corruptly governed since September 16, 1810, and because its people have no tradition of standing tall and telling its dictators du jour to go the Hell. And because of the "war on drugs" -- lost the instant it was declared. When unworkable and unenforceable laws create a market so skewed that drugs easily command 100 times their pharmaceutical costs, the war lords are in control. No level of horribly expensive DEA macho can alter that.
RTWT, if you please.
---
EDIT: Link fixed -- to AOL reprint of disappearing AP original. Thank you, Billll
RTWT, if you please.
---
EDIT: Link fixed -- to AOL reprint of disappearing AP original. Thank you, Billll
Home to The Big Chill
The kids and their kids treated me to a fine Christmas celebration over on the river. The weather for the 340-mile drive home wasn't nearly so accommodating, but at least it was diverse, beginning with rain, then fog, then sleet, then snow. Sort of a mishmash including the worst of everything. (Think Obamacare, here.)
So the trip took a little longer than usual, but the real shocker came when I opened the living room door. It felt chilly. A thermometer check revealed 31 degrees. Some dumdum had set the thermostat on the new electric heater a little too low. The good news is that the water didn't freeze, and that's a big bullet dodged. An armload of dry oak soon produced a comfy 75.
A standout gift came from a lad named Ryan who wrapped a surplus ammo can for me. As one of the revelers said, "He knows his grandpa." I was touched and promised the boy I would use it only for .45ACP, never desecrating it with a less noble caliber.
-0-
Onward and upward tin 2011. May you thrive. May we all survive to heap another year of scorn on the statists of the right and the statists of the left.
So the trip took a little longer than usual, but the real shocker came when I opened the living room door. It felt chilly. A thermometer check revealed 31 degrees. Some dumdum had set the thermostat on the new electric heater a little too low. The good news is that the water didn't freeze, and that's a big bullet dodged. An armload of dry oak soon produced a comfy 75.
A standout gift came from a lad named Ryan who wrapped a surplus ammo can for me. As one of the revelers said, "He knows his grandpa." I was touched and promised the boy I would use it only for .45ACP, never desecrating it with a less noble caliber.
-0-
Onward and upward tin 2011. May you thrive. May we all survive to heap another year of scorn on the statists of the right and the statists of the left.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)