Rambles

The Tyranny of the Good Intentioned

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“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” ― C.S. Lewis

 

I could not say it any better myself.  Lord, deliver us from those that think they know better than we do.

Blitzkrieg and Other Funnies

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I saw these posters several years ago at a site I can no longer remember and saw them again today in my random pictures folder.  As graphic design college students know, sometimes the words that accompany images can make them more humorous. I think they are hilarious so I decided to share them.  They no doubt exist in many other places on the intertubes as well. If anyone knows where to attribute these please let me know in the comments, a sense of humor like this needs to be encouraged.

Happy Veterans Day

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Today is Veteran’s Day in the US and Armistice Day in Britain and France. It is a day to remember the end of the fighting in World War I on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. It is also the day set aside in the US to remember all veterans, not just those of World War I but also those that served in our nation’s other wars and those that served during peacetime. It takes something special to serve your country and a little bit more to do so voluntarily. There is always the possibility of going to war and giving your life … More after the Jump…

The Decline and Fall of the United States?

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There has been much talk and discussion both in editorials and on various internet forums about the pending decline of the supposed US “empire” or the USA itself. I was thinking about this on the way back from dropping my wife off at work this morning and the more I think about it, the more I think it could only possibly happen if America lets it happen. The USA is not comparable to the UK prior to their fall from Great Power status post WWII. The disparity between the size of the two nations both physical and in population is too great for their to really be a valid comparison. … More after the Jump…

Oompa Loompa in My Garden

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As my wife and I were harvesting the carrots from our garden yesterday we pulled up an Oompa Loompa. I am wondering if I should use this as my profile picture. The Oompa Loompa Song This is just a picture of my dog enjoying a beef rib bone

Rick Perry on Social Security

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Being a Texas resident I like Rick Perry so I will probably be posting a lot about him in the run up to next year’s election.   I predict that Perry will win the Republican nomination and trounce Obama.   The question is who will be his running mate?  I think and hope it will be Herman Cain. Here is the first link:  A commentary piece from Perry in USA Today

Spam Comments on my Blog

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I get about 15-20 spam comments on my blog every day.   Most are the “Thanks for that Awesome posting, it saved MUCH time” variety.   They usually have a link in them to anything from Viagra ads, penis enlargement, cheap homeloans, to how to get student aid.   I am currently doing an experiment to see many of the “thanks for that Awesome posting spam I get as a percentage of all the spam I get.   My gut tells me that the “awesome posting” spam is about 50% of all the spam I get.   I have recieved 31 spam comments in the past two days and 18 … More after the Jump…

The God Clause

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I ran across a piece in Bloomberg Businessweek that is very interesting. The God Clause and the Reinsurance Industry It is a fairly long story but the gist of it is that reinsurer’s, companies that essentially insure insurance companies, have some very sophisticated models for assessing risk but even they are not omniscient when it comes to natural events. The way these companies caegorize risk is interesting in the extreme. Lloyds of London has an entire section of their website devoted to analyzing risk and they annually put out a list of Realistic Disaster Scenarios.   What I found most interesting were the examples in the story of the way … More after the Jump…

China: A Potential or Current Threat?

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Jed Babbitt has an excellent piece on RCP today that talks about the potential threat China represents to the US and by implication, the rest of the Western world.China’s Economic Sword.   People have been pointing to the potential threat China poses for at least the past twenty+years and are almost invariably poo-pooed as being unrealistic and that China does not pose a threat to the US they just want to modernize and bring the fruits of that modernization to their own people.   I tend to think that China is indeed a threat and a threat we in the West ignore at our own peril. There are several developments … More after the Jump…

Schoolhouse Rock and Civic Knowledge

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Ace of Spades put up an excellent post a few weeks ago about the lack of Civics knowledge in this country.http://ace.mu.nu/archives/318322.php#318322 The best part of the post are the links to the old Schoolhouse Rock videos that just about everyone older than 30 should remember. I fondly remember them from Saturday morning’s when I was kid. Anyway, check out the post and watch the videos too. Here is a great site to go and test your civics knowledge: The BBHQ Great American Civics Quiz. There are 54 questions on the test. I got a 46, I guess I need to study some more.  🙁 Post your score in the comments.

A Balanced Budget Amendment

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Here is an excellent piece from the CATO Institute on why the US needs a Balanced Budget Amendment.   It includes this awesome graphic illustrating the way our national debt has grown over the last thirty-years.   After looking at that can anyone doubt that America as a nation needs to quit borrowing money and spending it like a drunk sailor on Liberty?  The issue with America, specifically our government, is that they have gotten addicted to spending money we don’t have.   I have said for years that if I ran my personal accounts like the government does theirs I would be in jail for fraud.   It is … More after the Jump…

A Great One from the WSJ

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The First Rule of Liberalism: Government failure always justifies more government. That is one of the best lines I have seen in a while. Thanks to the Best of the Web Team at the Wall Street Journal for coming up with it. It is just about as good as Reagan’s famous nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’

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