Friday, December 17, 2004
CRC RADIO SHOW
Capital Research Center has its own internet radio program, Organization Watch, hosted by myself and my colleague Robert Bidinotto. To listen, go to this link at Rightalk Radio and scroll down to "Playing Now." Our show airs from 2-3pm EST today. Hope you give it a listen.
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THAT’S EMBARASSING
I’d stopped reading Andrew Sullivan a few weeks ago, yet I stumbled upon one of his new “awards” via the Spoons Experience. Dubbed the “Malkin Award,” after the sterling pundit Michelle Malkin. The qualifications for the award are:
Contestants can be nominated from either right or left; but the sentence must be entirely devised to insult; it should be completely devoid of originality; it must have at least two hoary, dead-as-a-Norwegian-parrot cliches; and it must assume that readers already agree with the writer.
So what did Malkin write that inspired this award? This just oh-so-outrageous sentence:
Perhaps too much drug-addled '60s nostalgia has burnt out the bleeding-hearts pacifists' brain cells.
That’s embarrassing.
For Sullivan.
And if you look at that whole page of his archive, you’ll notice that Sullivan went to town on this award—eleven nominees by my count.
That’s even more embarrassing.
So what’s going on here? Andrew Sullivan is probably now finds himself on the outs with the political right after his lame endorsement of John Kerry. Thus, he’s trying to find friends on the political left again. What easier way to do so than to go after someone who is gutsy enough to go after our disastrous immigration policy and thereby becomes a target of vitriol on the political left?
Pretty silly commentary, but a surefire way to get nice emails from the Nation-subscribing crowd.
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KINSLEY TRUTH SQUAD?
Don Luskin has an excellent takedown on Kinsley's less than persuasive case againt the presonalization of Social Security.
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LIBERAL MEDIA ACCLAIM ADDICTION
My latest at the Spectator.
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?
For an explanation of this picture, go here.
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004
ABOUT THAT TRUST FUND
I received this email about my Spectator piece today from a nice gent in South Carolina:
David, the opponents of reform are just making any excuse in order to preserve Social Security as an issue against republicans. Chile privatized in 1980 and it has been very successful.
One thing that bugs me however, is the "conventional wisdom" that there is no trust fund, because someone doesn't have the cash in a bank vault. The trust fund is a paper obligation, as is a Bank CD. The asset backing the CD is some sort of investment instrument, while the asset backing the Trust Fund is the taxing power of the government, who has borrowed the money without paying a fair return. That we will have to borrow is foregone, but the trust fund exists as a federal obligation and individual records are kept.
We should bite the bullet. Switch over to Private now, and then cope with the shortfall.
This is how I replied:
I think the notion that there is "no social security trust fund" is meant to convey the idea that it is not a traditional trust fund. That is, unlike most trust funds it doesn't have any real assets--it is just a bunch of notes that signify that the government "owes itself" a bunch of money.
Technically, you are right--the trust fund does exist on paper. I think conservatives often say there is no trust fund because (1) It is easier to do that (and for more likely to be understood by the public) than to explain what the trust fund actually is; (2) it does more to put liberals on the defensive; and (3) it is a defensible argument.
Thoughts?
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SAME OL’, SAME OL’
The same, tired anti-Social Security reform arguments debunked here.
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MY FAITH IN HUMANITY…
…is (temporarily) restored. The knuckledragger gets his just desserts.
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Monday, December 13, 2004
ADS YOU PROBABLY WON’T SEE OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY, PART II
This advertisement from delivery service DHL appeared on the Metro Subway trains:
WE DELIVER EVERYTHING EXEPT VOTES. (SORRY.) DHL
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VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM DON’T COUNT
Lee Edwards, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, runs the nonprofit Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. The Foundation aim to construct a statue in D.C. that honors those killed and/or imprisoned under communist territory. The proposed site is quarter-acre in Northeast Washington -- bounded by Maryland Avenue, Constitution Avenue and Third Street.
But, according to the Washington Post, not everyone approves.
"A number of people in my single district are opposed" to the memorial, said Karen Wirt, Advisory Neighborhood Commission representative for District 6C08, whose 2,000 constituents live near the park.
Rumor has it Wirt is a flaming liberal. You’re shocked, I’m sure.
The memorial "has nothing to do with our neighborhood," she said, noting that the foundation's advisory board "has people from Poland [and] Romania."
Nothing to do with her neighborhood? Were all of her constituents born post-1989? Assuming the answer is no, those constituents paid taxes to fight communism, presumably saw the Berlin Wall come down (I won’t speculate on whether or not they cheered) and saw the Tienamen Square massacre. Communism touched the life of every person in this nation, even if they were born after 1989.
I wonder if Ms. Wirt would express similar sentiments about a statue commemorating Jewish victims of the Holocaust? Somehow, I doubt it, if for no other reason she might be smart enough to know that everyone in D.C. would be calling for her head. Incidentally, what has been the response to her remarks? I don’t think there have been any; you’ll notice the article is eleven days old.
Also, what is this creepy garbage about Polish and Romanian members being on the Foundation’s board? Is there something inferior about those folks? I wonder if she would say the same thing about Jews being on a Foundation dealing with the Holocaust…okay, enough of that! Such speculation only fuels the anger.
Then there was this little gem:
Wirt said the neighbors are worried about losing two large, 50-year-old oak trees on the site; about traffic congestion if tourist buses regularly visit the memorial, and about the loss of green space to concrete.
Somehow I bet Ms. Wirt would be scurrying about looking for her chainsaw if it was a cause she supported.
Yep, just one more way the political left infects out culture. The Holocaust, which killed 10 million, gets its own museum here in D.C. (and deservedly so). Communism, which killed in the vicinity of 100 million (and still counting if you count North Korea and Cuba), well, you have to bend over backwards to get a mere statue.
And you can make derogatory ethnic remarks with barely a peep from the media.
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