Great Depression II ???

How many times have you heard that we've learned the lessons of the Great Depression and won't repeat the same mistakes?

<--- What stimulus looks like.

That statement is a bit of a false promise, since there was only one Great Depression, and many, many steps were taken and not taken, with no chance to rerun the experiment over and over to figure out what worked, or would have worked, and what didn't.

Letting hundreds of banks collapse, destroying savings and confidence, is one mistake we won't make again. But many want to insist, without evidence, that more government spending would have ended the depression. That's the direction the Obama administration is taking. Others say government did not do enough to restore business confidence, or did too much to damage it, piling on taxes, regulation and labor unions. This at least is firmer ground. Plenty of evidence from history shows that actions hostile to business tend to be related to an absence of prosperity.

But more important than these talisman like assurances about what we've learned from the Great Depression is the mistake in assuming that, even if we had a coherent view of what should be done, coherent polices would therefore be implemented.

This has little relation to how policy is made in a democracy.

(Thoughts from HotAir article)

Geneva Convention/Torture ... how do they relate?

Anyone who talks about the Geneva Conventions, as if there were some actual meaning in those goofy documents, ought to have his head examined. If we followed the Geneva Conventions, then we would have to get rid of our strategic nuclear arsenal, since it is specifically built to incinerate millions of men, women, children and pets - you know, civilians and everything else. But that’s war and that’s why war is something to avoid, if possible, and why weaker nations used to think twice before attacking nations that could crush them in a second. … Used to.

Of course, no one with a half a brain would get rid of our strategic nuclear arsenal, because they understand what the reality of the world is - unlike the Geneva Conventions, the 4th installment of which was written after the horribly draining emotional experiences of WWII, when we decided that nothing like that should ever happen again … kind of like when we called the First World War, “The War to End All Wars”, which it fell woefully short of being, to be overly generous.

Just as people wake up with huge hangovers and swear to never drink again, we always end wars by trying to tell ourselves that we will not be pushed to those same actions, brutal and ruthless as the actions of war must be, though it is never our choice. It takes two to tango, but only one to start a war. The Geneva Conventions are a utopian fantasy, just like the UN, and totally unworkable in the real world. We used to understand this, but since the fall of the USSR, Americans have gotten exponentially dumber about reality and what it requires. As things stand now, our enemies’ only defense is our own self-restraint. That’s really smart …

Anytime someone mentions the Geneva Conventions to me, I laugh in their face and ask them to tell me the last war that followed such rules. We all know the answer to that. Everybody does. One thing is for sure, any nation that would follow the Geneva Conventions is guaranteed to lose, or, at best, to have the war drag on for so long and be so costly as to leave itself with nothing but a pyrrhic victory, that will soon be eclipsed by the next leg of the same war … until we do finally lose. You know how Bernoulli trials go. And that’s just downright stupid and not the purpose of our government (or any government’s obligations to its own people).

Oil may slow the Progressive slide

Growth forecasts got cut in half from last month, and traders foresee a glut on the markets throughout 2009. A global recession will curtail need for expanded energy use, and speculators — remember them? — aren’t buying oil futures as a result. OPEC has twice warned that they would defend specific price levels, only to see the market ignore them completely. They’re in danger of becoming irrelevant.

This has ramifications far beyond the gas pumps, where prices have returned to 2006 levels. Domestically, the ambitious programs of the Democratic Party relied in part on the ludicrous “windfall profits” taxes that Barack Obama pledged to impose on the oil industry. Revenues and profits will tumble on these prices, removing that revenue source from the incoming administration. Either Obama will have to scale back his programs or massively increase tax revenues from other sources.

Internationally, though, the lower price will help kneecap Iran, Venezuela, and Russia. Venezuela’s crude is only desirable when other sources cost too much; otherwise, their sulfuric crude is a poor alternative to other oil, and the price will fall even farther for Hugo Chavez’ product. Iran and Russia built their economic and military strength on expensive oil. Now that the price of oil has collapsed, both countries will have enormous hardships in maintaining their militaries, their internal security, and their ruling regimes. Vladimir Putin in particular will now have to start making nice with the G-7, as Western financial assistance will almost certainly be required to keep Russia afloat.

Overall, though, the traders are betting on a long, hard recession throughout most of 2009. That prediction appears to have grown stronger since the election of Obama and his soon-to-be-adopted economic policies.

A thought.............

At first I thought you might have a good idea in pulling for an Obama victory. Another fake conservative like Bush or McCain would keep turning up the heat slowly and cooking us before we realized it, but a radical like Hillary or Obama would wake us up with their loony plans.

But the more I learn about Obama, I'm afraid he's going to govern from the center. His record as the editor of the Harvard Law Review shows he reached out to conservatives in the Federalist Society there, while pacifying more leftist elements. An Obama administration might just continue the Neocon agenda, increasing the power of the federal government, violating our rights, and expand foreign wars to justify even more powerful control over us.

Then we would be screwed.

http://www.dixienet.org/rebellion/2008/11/will-quickly-will-obama-boil-that-frog.html

Lock and load.

Americans have cut back on buying cars, furniture and clothes in a tough economy, but there's one consumer item that's still enjoying healthy sales: guns. Purchases of firearms and ammunition have risen 8 to 10 percent this year, according to state and federal data.

Several variables drive sales, but many dealers, buyers and experts attribute the increase in part to concerns about the economy and fears that if Senator Barack Obama of Illinois wins the presidency, he will join with fellow Democrats in Congress to enact new gun controls. Obama has said that he believes in an individual right to bear arms but that he also supports "common-sense safety measures."

Common sense is something dreadfully lacking in our gov these days. Make NO mistake, gun ownership and the freedoms we all hold dear will be under attack.

The Leviathan is hungry.

So, redistribution is OK now?

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/13/video-obamas-redistributionism/

Who would have thunk it?

Obama's Tax Plan Is Really a Welfare Plan


http://www.wsj.com/article/SB121910303529751345.html?mod=most_emailed_day

Free your mind and your ass will follow.