gdp's Comments

Breitbart.tv : Santorum: High Gas Prices Caused '08 Recession

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:29:26 +0000

What...an...economic...moron.

Big Government : More Stimulus Money Blowing in the Wind

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:31:06 +0000

This may be quixotic on my part but I really want you to entertain the possibility that not all of your "progressive" plans can be put into place...scarcity is real and socialists must deal with that reality as much as capitalists. Now, what happens when your pet goals don't get implemented, despite your absolute certainty that they are reasonable? Even if I do get "left behind" (whatever that means), the disputes among progressives themselves over what social good is more deserving cannot be solved by "reason and the pen". It will be, as it always has been, resolved at the point of a gun. That's the sad mutation of civil society which progressivism imposes on the natural relationships among society's members: to the extent that the state must decide how resources will be used, social discourse transforms into political dispute, the war of all against all. I know that this kind of reasoning can't stand up to your impulse to equalize outcomes for all of society's members, but just keep in the back of your mind if you will that scarcity cannot be wished away. And the next time you hear about the problems a progressive or socialist program faces, ask yourself honestly if there isn't a bit of unreality that your egalitarian ideals impose on any means to implement them.

Big Government : More Stimulus Money Blowing in the Wind

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 03:59:46 +0000

Anti-progress? I'm in favor of progress that isn't define for me by other people, but is something that I can choose. What kind of progress is it that compels others to accept the goals and ends of one group of people over the incompatible goals of another? Your last sentence says it all...you effectively admit that you would compel others to conform to your view of the "good" or "just" society because they would not voluntarily agree to it. That, right there, is the statist mentality which, if it continues to prevail, will return us to the primitive past of our distant ancestors. I don't want your "progress" at the point of a gun.

Big Government : Uncommon Knowledge Special Edition: Newt Gingrich

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:49:11 +0000

Hah, will Uncommon Knowledge interview the other candidates still in the race? ALL the other candidates? I'm not holding my breath. The Hoover Inst. has its favs.

Big Government : Mitt Romney, Despite Oft Professed Love of American Cars in Michigan, Drives--and Loves--His BMW

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:46:59 +0000

A telling anecdote, but I'm not encouraged...for all of our technology and sophistication, the human race seems unable to absorb what reality teaches us, even when it does so with the severity of a Catholic nun. That people still cling to socialism and egalitarianism as workable social theories despite the logical and empirical arguments against them, strikes me as a sad condition to be laid a the foot of ignorance and wish-thinking.

Big Government : Mitt Romney, Despite Oft Professed Love of American Cars in Michigan, Drives--and Loves--His BMW

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:54:37 +0000

A collectivism that aims at preserving a particular industry such as the automobile industry, is no less socialist than on that aims to equalize wealth through tax redistribution. The difference is entirely one of WHO benefits. Those who love liberty will look at "Detroit" and say, if it goes bankrupt, so much the better for consumers, for if we are not better of in our position by virtue of what producers can provides (cheap, high-quality goods), what does the concept of "welfare" or "standard of living" mean?

Big Government : Algae-Based Biofuels: More of President Obama's Green Cronyism

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:44:40 +0000

I don't find algae-based fuels anymore laughable than I do wind energy, sawgrass or corn-based ethonol. Why? Because I don't know what these technologies can provide relative to consumer demand for energy. What I DO KNOW is that the market (the free market) can coordinate consumer demands for energy with the scarce means of generating energy through price signals. What CANNOT be done is to foist a technology on a society (an economy) and demand (coerce) its acceptance in any way that could benefit the society as a whole. That is a logical impossiblity, and the failure to understand that simple apodictic truth is the touchstone of our age.

Big Government : More Stimulus Money Blowing in the Wind

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 18:48:51 +0000

It very well may be that "green energy" is the future of energy production, but it is not today. And it is telling that some Americans believe that others should be forced to pay for their utopian dreams, even when their obvious failure is plain to see. Expect to see more than global warming in your neighborhood should we continue down this path of central planning.

Big Hollywood : 'Life's Too Short' Review: Gervais Comes Up Small in New Mockumentary

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:58:20 +0000

Haven't seen this new on, but I thought Extras was hilarious. Stephan Merchant as the incompetant agent was one of the best characters in comedic TV I've seen in a while. Of course, if you find Gervais' atheism a reason to hate his work, then I guess you wouldn't be satisfied with anything he did.

Big Government : 'Mob Museum' Opens, Taxpayers Robbed of $42 Million

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:17:30 +0000

Government made The Mob just like government is sustaining the sadistic anti-social drug cartels and gangs that infest our country. Just saw that ignoramus Bill O'Reilly fulminating against marijuana like it was sin itself. Until we rid ourselves of this desire to control every aspect of a person's life we will be beset by these social distortions. Individual liberty is the answer; private social institutions that have the ability to influence without resorting to force will better control our moral failures than the heavy hand of authoritarianism.

Big Government : A Post-Obama Vision in 100 Words

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:26:10 +0000

I absolutely HATE that phrase "invest in the future". Everyone does it at an individual level, but when you talk about it at the social or political level, it is ambigous. Just listen to Obama talk about Republican plans to cut the budget. How it risks all the investments we've made for the future. Investing isn't the problem, WHO INVESTS is the problem. Statists want to tell you what to do with your wealth. Lovers of individual liberty let people make those choices and more importantly, reap the rewards or failures from those choices without affecting those who were not a party to that choice.

Big Government : Time to Repeal the Patriot Act

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:17:51 +0000

You can blame politicians all you want...Americans, regular citizens, acquiesced under fear. I hear it regularly on this board...grandious, absurd exaggerations of what islamists are actually capable of. 9/11 was used effectively against us by our own politicians as much as by the fundamentalist S-bags that attacked us.

Big Government : Time to Repeal the Patriot Act

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:13:25 +0000

Yes, but how will be keep people from being immoral or influencing others to be immoral? How will we force others to be moral? Isn't this the problem that conservatives (as opposed to libertarians) face? If we don't grant one group of people (government) the right to force everyone else to be moral, won't we have...gulp...anarchy? /sarc

Big Government : Gingrich Eschews Rhetoric for Substance in CPAC Address

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:05:41 +0000

I'm pretty much a Newt-hater, but I have to agree with you, he would play with Obama like my cat does with baby rabbits. What worries me is that his obvious intellect is directed, like so many politicians', at finding ways to "run things". He and the rest of the field (Ron Paul excepted) have bought into the idea that society needs a captain at the helm or a CEO or somesuch rubbish. That's not Newt's fault though...a majority of Americans have come to accept a mechanistic, paternalistic view of government and so we shouldn't be surprised by who gets elected.

Big Government : Gingrich Eschews Rhetoric for Substance in CPAC Address

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:59:20 +0000

"Gingrich eschews rhetoric for substance..." And should he find his way into office, he will reverse that pattern, because he's a politician of the first order.

Big Government : CPAC: Romney Tries to Be Not-Romney

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:37:28 +0000

Read this article and ask yourself if you think Romney is the right person to turn things around: http://reason.com/archives/2012/02/08/consultant-... Our problem isn't that we don't have the right CEO for America, it's that we believe it takes a CEO to run America.

Big Government : CPAC: Romney Tries to Be Not-Romney

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:27:47 +0000

Best article on Romney I've read so far: http://reason.com/archives/2012/02/08/consultant-...

Big Government : Santorum Delivers but Non-Binding Results Offer Little

Wed, 8 Feb 2012 22:54:01 +0000

Santorum represents the conservative urge to control other people wrapped in moral righteousness. If he is nominated as the Republican candidate to run against Obama, it will not only result in Obama's second term, but the annihilation of the Republican party. The ABO crowd here is willing to trade one statist for another: I'm not. Bring on the end times with Obama. I can do the survivalist thing. But I won't deliver my children to an American political system hellbent on the destruction of individual liberty.

Big Government : Wednesday Open Thread: Not Mitt Edition

Wed, 8 Feb 2012 12:44:40 +0000

The Tea Party is dead, and the god-bothering Right killed it.

Big Government : Will 2012 Be About Social Conservatism After All?

Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:45:13 +0000

If it is, I'll know the Tea Party is dead.