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| Home Front: Politix |
| Tattered Liberty |
| 2010-03-24 |
| For once Steyn is serious Sometimes you do live to see it. In my book America Alone, I point out that, to a five-year-old boy waving his flag as Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee procession marched down the Mall in 1897, it would have been inconceivable that by the time of his 80th birthday the greatest empire the world had ever known would have shriveled to an economically moribund strike-bound socialist slough of despond, one in which (stop me if this sounds familiar) the government ran the hospitals, the automobile industry, and much of the housing stock, and, partly as a consequence thereof, had permanent high unemployment and confiscatory tax rates that drove its best talents to seek refuge abroad. ...Permanence is an illusion — and you would be surprised at how fast mighty nations can be entirely transformed. But, more important, national decline is psychological — and therefore what matters is accepting the psychology of decline. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #4 Krauthammer is indeed a national treasure. Unfortunately I believe newc is correct. This train is about to come to an abrupt and rather ugly stop. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-03-24 13:37 |
| #3 Collapse is inevitable. No fan dance or fake address of the issue will work. Every empire dies and usually in similar fashion. It's a good time to read up, get in shape, and get mentally prepared for the mess ahead. |
| Posted by: newc 2010-03-24 12:51 |
| #2 And for those who missed his comments on the O'Reilly factor last night, Charles Krauthammer spelled out-- in the simplest and starkest terms I've heard yet-- the fallacy of accounting played on us by the 0bama administration as it relates to the HCR bill; which was disingenuous if not downright dishonest if we are to assume that 0bama is as intelligent as we've been lead to believe. (Yeah, I have my doubts, too.) I'd love to find a clip of that interview or at least the transcript. It ita must-see/read! |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2010-03-24 12:26 |
| #1 While I love Steyn when he's not so serious, I think I like him just as much when he is. This is a sobering analysis of the American situation right now and in the not-so-distant future. A reality check if there ever was one; the canary in the coal mine. In other words, a must read for anyone who has any interest in grasping the magnitude of implications before us in this time in history. Demographically speaking, the insolvency of current entitlements-- not to mention the expansion of entitlements and increased taxes looming in front of us-- is bearing down on us like a runaway freight train. What happens when the other shoe drops? It will not be pretty. Chronic 10%+ unemployment, higher interest rates, stagflation (or worse, deflation)... the United States of America as we know it (or knew it, rather) will cease to exist. So much for keeping all the unsurly state actors in check. The global order will revert to the natural order of things: i.e. nuclear proliferation, more armed conflict, more extremism, more poverty, more hunger, more inequality... in a word: chaos. Which as it happens is the TRUE natural order of things when no one or no thing exists to keep it it bay. Our politician's in power are either completely oblivious to this impending reality or knowingly complicit in making it a reality. All in the name of "equality", "social justice", and their cradle-to-grave welfare programs. The myopia and ideology on display is staggering in it's ignorance and incompetence. I can only surmise that our insistence on not learning from history is just another part of the human condition. In the words of Winston Churchill: "The vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." Here comes the misery... |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2010-03-24 12:20 |