Nov
9
2009

URLs du Jour

2009-11-09

  • Mark Steyn quotes himself on why the hurry for Obamacare:
    Obama believes in "the fierce urgency of now", and fierce it is. That's where all the poor befuddled sober centrists who can't understand why the Democrats keep passing incoherent 1,200-page bills every week are missing the point. If "health care" were about health care, the devil would be in the details. But it's not about health or costs or coverage; it's about getting over the river and burning the bridge. It doesn't matter what form of governmentalized health care gets passed as long as it passes. Once it's in place, it will be "reformed", endlessly, but it will never be undone.
    That deserves to be read and re-read. The point of the exercise is to get a larger fraction of the population dependent on the state. They'll say and do anything to get there.

    This (by the way) explains the vituperation aimed at Whole Foods CEO John Mackey for his August WSJ op-ed, which dared to discuss "trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction--toward less government control and more individual empowerment."

    That kind of talk is dangerous to statism; it's unfortunate that the GOP can't speak it well.

  • If you need to bring yourself up to date on the detailed dreadfulness of the current legislation, Amy Kane is your go-to. Amy's really developed a dislike for Speaker Pelosi.

  • Twenty years ago the world got a lot freer and less dangerous when the Berlin Wall came down. In the WSJ, Anthony R. Dolan recalls how President Reagan and his speechwriters prevailed against opposition from National Security Council staff and the State Department to get the famous powerful line into Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg Gate: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

  • Bald bears: they look even more creepy than you might guess.

  • To make up for the bald bears: here's a picture of Princess Leia and her stunt double sunbathing in their slave bikinis on the deck of Jabba's sail barge on Tatooine. Really. It is even more awesomely geeky than you might guess, and I bet a certain large fraction of my readers didn't get further than the word 'bikinis' before clicking over.