The key to being a good manager is
keeping the people who hate me away from
those who are still undecided.
Casey Stengel
Earlier One-Off Post: Could the Trump Candidacy Be Another Personal Watershed Moment?
Tweet of the Day
Christie admits "Because if [NSA doesnt't] have probable cause, [NSA] can’t get a search warrant." No general search! http://t.co/dnqHjBqG7n
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) August 16, 2015
Ann Coulter and ImmigrationI don't even recall the last time I referenced Ann Coulter in the blog (it may have been when there was a major kerfuffle in Canada over a planned appearance); I used to/may still have an email subscription to an article feed/stub, but to be honest, Coulter has a deliberately provocative/sarcastic style, and I haven't read one of her pieces in months. I realize that may be amusing since I have my own bombastic or blunt style, but usually I'm responding to a poorly toned comment. Coulter has a talent for writing as many insults one can in a single sentence.
So how did Coulter get into this post? I subscribe to FCN Red Eye's podcasts. Now Ann is a well-known anti-immigration polemicist, but there were a few profoundly and blatantly false ideas sprinkled throughout podcast. Just a few off the top of my head: (1) the number of unauthorized immigrants is vastly understated, and the US now holds a quarter of all Mexicans; (2) the 20th century low-immigration years were the highest growth period; (3) the "Irish need not apply" stipulations over US history are largely an urban myth.
Just a brief response: (1) on the Mexican population allegation, Coulter is engaging in apples and oranges--she is lumping Mexican immigrant descendants (i.e., Latino ethnic) as well as first-generation immigrants. In fact, as others have pointed out, there are far more Irish-Americans than Irish today. Almost everyone accepts 11M unauthorized aliens, about 60% of which are Mexican. Coulter's numbers are multiple times more than conventional estimates (see here for more discussion); (2) the allegations that low immigration correlates with economic growth is absurd--the economic literature concludes exactly the opposite; in fact, as Brookings Institute points out that immigrants tend to be more likely to form businesses, etc., vs. natives; (3) after 5 minutes on Google, I'm pretty sure I know what researcher Coulter is referring to on Irish immigration, but as a Franco-American, I can attest to how the KKK and others targeted predominantly Catholic French-Canadians; I've seen WASP commentaries about how the Canucks didn't know how to control their breeding, etc. Do any search on the Know-Nothings and Irish immigration.
Facebook Corner
(National Review). He’s no P. T. Barnum, he’s Neidermeyer from Animal House
Well, I disagree with Fund that Trump is "intelligent". Intelligent people don't go around trying to tell people how "smart" we are. We don't live in this black-and-white world where American this-and-that are "stupid" and the adversaries are "cunning" and "smart". You don't personally attack a debate moderator who asks a difficult question; what you want to do is to show grace under fire and an even temper under stress, that you don't sweat the small stuff, to show you are the "right stuff" President. The fact that Donald refuses to reading briefing books reminds me of Sarah Palin's problems in the 2008 campaign; the fact that he decided to wing it unprepared showed; the pettiness is astonishing; why his feud with Rosie O'Donnell was raised by him during a debate is pretty pathetic.
Of course, Trump is an unqualified candidate, a failed businessman (with 4 bankruptcies), an impulsive, ill-tempered right-fascist demagogue who doesn't play well with others, who would abuse the powers of the President (think Obama on steroids) and create enemies lists unlike anyone since Nixon. But the real problem is with his equally retarded gullible cultists.
More? Another article/hit piece? Do you understand how ridiculous this incessant ranting on Trump makes you look in the eyes of conservatives? Oh yeah that's right-you don't really care, do you?
No, I don't trust the corrupt crony capitalist thin-skinned right-fascist authoritarian-wannabe egomaniac Trump with control over nukes. It's not just than he's an unqualified candidate, with little knowledge of the limited powers of the Presidency, but he's a petty, potty-mouthed bastard who attracted similarly retarded gullible, minions with no political principles with absurd populist rhetoric, devoid of substance.
(Independent Institue)."Socialism is not in the least what it pretends to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and finer world, but the spoiler of what thousands of years of civilization have created. It does not build, it destroys. For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing, it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created." —Ludwig von Mises. http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=7429
Did any of you yanks ever work out that jesus was socialist in his approach to caring about his fellow man?
This attempt to make Jesus a "progressive" or a Statist is a knowing smear and blasphemy. FEE's Reed has written a detailed essay (and I have one in my own blog). I'm not going to write it all here, but a few points to educate the fascist trolls:
- Jesus's greatest commandment was to love God, not one's fellow man
- The "Render to Caesar" quote is an artful dodge of a trap Jesus' enemies made for Him; He did not want His ministry to be seen as an earthly concern. He never said that the Jews owed the Romans anything. What He's really asserting is the higher realm is heavenly. What the progressives fail to note is the story of the fish and the coins. The question is whether Jesus is subject to the temple tax. Jesus says (paraphrased), not really, but I don't want to fight over this, so go catch a fish and you'll find coins enough to pay for your and my temple tax.
- At least in one place in the Bible there is an explicit reference to the people wanting to make Him king, and He escaped.
- His teachings about the poor referred to personal action, i.e., charity, not Statist redistribution schemes
- When a man argued that the inheritance was not split evenly by his brother and pleaded with Jesus to intercede, Jesus rebuked him for coveting his brother's goods, a grave sin.
Jesus continually stresses the importance of free will; there's nothing voluntary about the State stealing your property at the point of a gun.
Guest Post Comment: Vox Populi: Hillary versus Generic Republican
Let me be clear: I will not cast a vote for the fascist Trump under any circumstances. His economic nationalism is dangerous, and the man is too unstable to be entrusted with nuclear weapons. I have been supporting Rand Paul, who is the only true pro-liberty candidate out there but at this point I would vote for a yellow dog if he was the biggest threat to the fascist. And, yes, as much as I despise Hillary Clinton, I could end up holding my nose and vote for her if it kept the other asshole out of the White House.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Chip Bok via Townhall |
Kenny Rogers (with Dolly Parton), "Once Upon a Christmas". No, I know we're still another 3 months away before the blog transitions into its annual holiday music retrospective. But there are two prominent Kenny Rogers holiday duets that I need to fit into my Rogers' retrospective.
