Tuesday! Thomas Sowell!

Can you bear another column on BarryOCare and the coming demise of private health insurance? Sure you can, because it's written by Thomas Sowell. The POINT of this column?

The only rational explanation for such haste to pass a bill that will be slow to go into effect is to prevent the public from knowing what is in this massive legislation that even members of Congress are unlikely to have read. That is also the only reason that makes sense for postponing the time when Obamacare goes into action after the next presidential election.

Excellent column, as usual.

Chilly here this morning - +37 and still dropping. Almost like...WINTER in NEFL! Have a wonderful day, thanks for stopping by.



PS - Please continue to read and support JewishWorldReview.com - Binyamin is improving, but he needs all the help he can get...and he's finally willing to accept.

Thomas Sowell - The "Science" Mantra

The batteries in my mouse are dying, so before I get in the shower and start the rest of my day, here's a link to Thomas Sowell's column at JewishWorldReview.com. Binyamin has been getting help with publishing and running the site from volunteers, and I am grateful to all of them.

Mr. Sowell has some great thoughts about the handling and mishandling of ClimateGate. I need no more proof that the arrogance and determination of such people is paving the way to totalitarian government, and an end to We The People...

As for politicians, Senator Barbara Boxer has urged prosecution of the hackers who uncovered and revealed the e-mails! People who have in the past applauded whistleblowers in business, in the military, or in Republican administrations, and who lionized the New York Times for publishing the classified Pentagon papers, are now shocked and outraged that someone dared to expose massive evidence of manipulations, concealment and destruction of data — and deliberate cover-ups of all this — in the global warming establishment.

Zey haf VAYS to make you obey!

It's not a "consensus" in any sense of the word...much less SCIENTIFIC consensus! (with update)

Thanks to SJDoc, one commenter at Townhall.com, for my headline. Jillian Bandes' column is another in a long line of reminders that Congressional majority Dems are as much obstacles as Congressional minority Dems. Obstruction is their best talent, it seems. Paying heed to the Constitution? Not so much.

Hosting a hearing on global warming with no dissenting opinions made Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the ranking Republican on the Committee, think the Democrats and the Obama administration were just as complicit in the global warming scandal sparked by Climategate as the Climategate scientists themselves.

“What the hearings showed is that the President’s science advisors are at the bottom of the whole climate change debate,” said Sensenbrenner.


Do you still believe that Your Elected Representatives and the Current Occupant really represent your interests and the interests of this Nation? Do you think BarryO the Ditherer and His Merry Band of CongressWeasels even remember the Oath they swore when they took office?

In case they need a reminder of what they said, here's the President's version:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

And here's the one Your Elected Representatives take:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Yeah. I didn't think so.

UPDATE! Sometimes I should read the things in my sidebar before I post. Via my friends and fellow grouches at GrouchyConservativePundits comes this - from the Washington Times.

The numbers matter. Under pressure in 2007, NASA recalculated its data and found that 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year in its records for the contiguous 48 states. NASA later changed its data again, and now 1998 and 2006 are tied for the hottest years, with 1934 listed as slightly cooler.

You knew this was coming, didn't you?

What, in the name of God, do you think the results will be of this "spectacle of deliberation?"

What, exactly, does that mean? Is it supposed to be impressive? Because to This Ordinary American it sounds like BLATHER. BarryO the Ditherer is a "spectacle of deliberation?" No, it's his pondering, his thinking, his deliberation! WHAT is taking him so damn long to make this damn decision? My guess, which is worth what you pay for it, of course, is as James Taranto mentions in Best of the Web Today - he doesn't want to DISPLEASE anyone? WHICH ANYONE?

I believe this smacks of an inability to make up his damn mind, possibly because he is overwhelmed at the scope of the Office he holds, and the decisions - which are HIS - he must make that put him in a bad light with the very people whose approval he craves most. Socialist/Communist leaders and organizers around the world will NOT approve of the very thing the Men in charge of the WAR have told their C-in-C they need.

BarryO is not a leader - not even with a small 'l.' He can tell the peons in Chicago where to line up for their handouts, he can supply them with the phone numbers to call their elected officials and spout the Party Line. But a leader is something he never was and never will be. He is, at most, a puppet, a figurehead. And in my online dictionary, one synonym for each of those terms is the other term. Other synonyms - nonentity, mouthpiece, dupe, pawn...nothing.

"It is about the accumulation of power by any means necessary."

I have been attacked by a cold, and I feel like last week's lunch. I made two big pots of turkey noodle soup over the weekend, though, and they were SO good. One is almost finished at this house, and the other is being lunch at work for Lovely Daughter. I have more carcass, think this one will probably make turkey rice soup...cuz I'm out of noodles.

I've read Arnold Ahlert's letters to the editor and comments at The American Spectator. JewishWorldReview.com picked him up as a new contributor a few months back and I am pleased as I can be.

Mr. Ahlert's most recent column is SO good, I wish I could reprint the whole thing. Some exerpts:

On the reaction of Old Media to word that the "scientists" involved in pushing the idea of 'global warming' might not be in consensus AND might fudge data?

The reaction to these revelations? Perhaps as revealing, if not more so, than the revelations themselves. Much like the ACORN scandal, the mainstream media—once again with the exception of Fox News—has either avoided the story completely, or sought to focus on the manner in which the emails were procured. This last bit is pivotal, because it is the basis by which the intrepid folks at the New York Times and other media sources have determined that they will withhold the damning evidence from the public: stolen material is unfit for print or broadcast.

Apparently this is a spanking new standard for the Times, whose appetite for disseminating purloined or secret stuff goes back at least as far as the top secret, "not intended for publication" Pentagon Papers in 1971, all the way through to revealing top-secret info about how the Bush administration conducted various aspects of the war on terror.

Mr. Ahlert points out that many Americans simply don't know what they don't know - and what they don't know is a n 800-pound gorilla:

Which brings us to the 800-pound gorilla: you can't learn what you haven't been taught. Or worse, you can't make informed decisions when those decisions have already be made for you by an educational establishment which has been in the liberal tank for decades. With respect to this particular subject, how many school age children have been forced to watch Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and given the impression that a blowhard politician with no scientific credentials whatsoever, a man whose own lifestyle contradicts everything he ostensibly believes in, is the last word on the subject? How many kids have been told global warming is "settled science" without offering them a scintilla of contrasting information? How many have been brainwashed into believing that "living green" is tantamount to the religious mandate to "go and sin no more?"

Every effort mankind has ever undertaken to obliterate individual freedom and increase the power of the state has always included the inculcation of children too young to think independently. This one is no different. If America is going to right itself, the war for our children's hearts and minds must be won.

But in order to win it, more people have to realize it exists. More importantly, they have to do something about it. This is a difficult undertaking for parents who are the front-liners in this fight. At the end of a busy day, very few people want to know—exactly—what their children are learning in school. Unfortunately, such apathy is the mother's milk of progressives for whom raising a generation of school children who disdain American exceptionalism is a prime directive. People with no particular pride in their country are a much more malleable bunch than those with a real understanding of self-reliance, Constitutionalism, and historical perspective.

A long, difficult, and often tedious journey has begun for us - I hope the old dogs are up to learning new tricks - so the next generations will be taught properly.

AGW - A Great Waste (of Taxpayer Money)

Yes, I've been following the kerfuffle about the lies, damn lies, and little white lies printed and spoken to "prove" something that facts, figures, and REAL science do not prove. SwampWoman at A1A South uses her talents to explain an opinion much better than I could. Swiped her title, too, because in this case, imitation is the best way to flatter and say thank you.

I'm also working my way through the analysis Boy On A Bike is doing Down Under. He's so good at keeping this simple enough for an uneducated ordinary ol broad like me to understand that I just cannot imagine how the wool has been pulled over the eyes of the world for so long...which tells me there's likely collusion. What's that old line - follow the Money. Cliches are often truth, aren't they?

Thomas Sowell on Tuesday!

From Thomas Sowell's column today:

No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems-- of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.

...

What is stupid is believing that politicians are trying to solve our problems, instead of theirs.

And from the comments, with MANY thanks to PB in WA:

Put a human in a situation where he votes for his own raises and can custom-design his medical, retirement & other perks, and on top of that gets to decide what everyone else is allowed under law, and you pretty much have a monster on your hands, one who will never relinquish what he has been handed.


House full of little ones again soon, y'all have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday = Thomas...Sowell, that is

So, after years of "delay," the Current Occupant and His Merry Band of Weasels are going to try the 9/11 killers as if they were American citizens who robbed a bank. Isn't that special.

Thomas Sowell's column - as usual - is an insightful and scathing opinion piece that mirrors my own thinking. Without the snark and cynicism I tend to exhibit.

This is not the rule of law but the application of laws to situations for which they were not designed.

Maybe the punishment will be 1000 lashes with a chalkboard eraser.

To the CongressWeasels, the Constitution isn't fluid or 'living' - it's chalkmarks they can rewrite or ignore at will!

Something puzzles me.

The Boston Tea Party was a protest in answer to crippling and unfair taxes by the Crown and Governors of the Crown who ran the Colonies. It was one in a long list of grievances against the Crown by the Colonists. (I know, that's a simplified description, but it's nearly bed time and I have a miserable headache). We fought a war - long, bloody, and eventually successful - to have the rights our Founding Fathers reminded us IN THE CONSTITUTION come only from the Creator. The 'rights' of Government are enumerated and limited by said Constitution because the Founders knew what a Government Right was like - oppressive and tyrannical. Deadly.

Now, the CongressWeasels we elected - only the most recent in a line of such weasels - have deemed it necessary to have all Americans covered by 'universal health care.' The bill currently before these tyrants has the only option as buying Government-approved health insurance...or facing fines and JAIL!?!?!?

This Current Occupant and His Weasels are going to FORCE Americans to BUY something or be put in JAIL!?!? Are they HIGH? Have they all gone off the sanity diving board like lemmings?

Oh, that insanity was the answer. These Servants to the Crown want Power - and more Power - and they will let nothing stop them from taking their Rightful Place at the feet of their Emperor. They know exactly what they're doing, and they're pretty sure there's nothing We The People can or will do to stop them.

We's in deep doo-doo if they succeed. Does YOUR Elected Representative still represent YOU? Mine doesn't. Unfortunately she's in a gerrymandered, bulletproof district. But they're not ALL bulletproof, are they.

Number Three

Bob Tyrell's column has something to say about BarryO and His Band of Weasels. BarryO has brought some real 'pieces of work' to his administration, and some of them have the job on a very temporary basis. Sometimes shills and sycophants who worked well at a campaign level really aren't good company at the National level. They say things or do things that cause pain and embarrassment to their Emperor - can't have THAT! I need a pick-me-up this morning, and Tyrell provides much in the way of snark. I love snark.


My guess is that Dunn's expressed admiration for Mao is the cause of her departure. For this revelation, I suppose we have to thank Fox's Glenn Beck. He aired a tape of Dunn notifying an audience of students at St. Andrew's Episcopal School near Washington that this cuddly little butterball of a tyrant — who oversaw the murders of some 70 million people — is one of her "favorite philosophers." The other one, she said, is Mother Teresa, who killed no one, as far as we know. Dunn adduced both as moral exemplars for the assembled youths. Her point was something about setting out to do things you really want to do regardless of criticism. If I followed her, she saw both Mao and Mother Teresa as variations on the old Sinatra standard "My Way." In moral and practical terms, Dunn's advice to the students was confused.


What is more, she stretched the truth when asked to defend her speech. On CNN, she attempted to explain that when she spoke of Mao as one of her "favorite political philosophers," she was speaking ironically. The phrase was, she claimed, "intended as irony, but clearly the effort fell flat — at least with a certain Fox commentator whose sense of irony may be missing." Ah, Dunn's war with Fox continues.

I don't know about you, but where I'm from "stretching the truth" is the same as lying. I don't believe for a minute that she intended irony.

Wonder who's next to open mouth and change feet. Stay tuned!

Hump Day is BUSY this week

My Pixie's cousins are spending the day here so their mama can work the lunch shift at Applebee's. The boys are 3 1/2 and 10 months and it is a LOT of work for me. Kind of embarrassing, really, that I wear out so easily, but there ya go. Coupled with the stupid time change, I'm just tired all week this week, I think! The WEATHER is GORGEOUS, thank heaven!

There have been some wonderful -dare I say hopeful? - things happen in the world of American politics this week, and even the 'unsuccessful' bids to take back the Nation are small successes, in my opinion. There are some terrific writers listed in my sidebar, plus some columns I'll list here. Have a GREAT day! Thanks for coming by!

A few to check into:

Stimulus Watch at Townhall.com (FIXED), Jonah Goldberg, John Stossel, Glenn Garvin, Liz Sidoti.

UPDATE: Almost forgot Michelle Malkin!

Panic in Perspective

From a link at Grandpa John's, I found a terrific post at American Thinker.

Remember - they're from the Government, and they're here to HELP:

Additionally, and even more disturbing, many cases are assumed to be H1N1 without testing. Yes, the CDC advised the states to stop testing for and tracking cases of H1N1. Their rationale? There is no need to waste resources when the government has already confirmed there is an epidemic. In other words, just trust us. The debate is over. I had no idea Al Gore and the IPCC were working for the CDC. As I originally contended, the number of cases of H1N1 has been overestimated, and even CBS News reported this.

I have had twenty-two patients call me or come in to the office claiming to have had contact with patients who were diagnosed with the "Swine Flu." In each and every case I took the time to investigate the contact case to determine whether the patient had actually been tested. In every case so far, the contact case either was not tested or tested negative but was given the diagnosis just the same.
...

Evidence is mounting that, as I opined previously, "Swine Flu" is less of a threat medically and epidemiologically than was feared, but is a great mechanism for the promotion of political pork. Our founding fathers taught that it is healthy to regard government intentions with skepticism. We have failed to heed their wise advice, and we are now learning that the military tactic of deception is alive and well in the Obama Administration. While we are being threatened by H1N1, they are using the distraction to infect us with a much more deadly disease that will affect not only us, but our children and grandchildren: the disease of subjugation.

It seems the H1N1 virus is epidemic and you MUST do something NOW...and you MUST give your Government saviors MORE so they can DO MORE TO SAVE MORE...but for the troops in Afghanistan there's no big hurry.

BarryO and His Weasels prove every day to be more...weaselly. *sigh*

BarryO Voting 'Present' on Illegal Immigration Shouldn't Surprise Anyone

Victor Davis Hanson's column points to something OTHER THAN BarryOCare. BarryO and His Band Of Merry CongressWeasels have more than one trick up their sleeves, and this is almost a breath of fresh air...or at least different-smelling air.

Apparently a hesitant Obama hopes that the crisis over illegal immigration will just go away on its own -- despite his now forgotten April vow to enact "comprehensive immigration reform."

The economic slowdown, together with beefed-up security and the border wall, have cut down the number of illegal entries to the lowest number in recent years. Privately, Obama must be happy that the pool of illegal aliens is shrinking, allowing the formable forces of American assimilation to work on smaller, more integrated populations, without politically charged talk about amnesty and deportation. Publicly, he can lament to his Hispanic base that Bush, not he, was responsible for the wall and increased security.

If you look up "political expediency" in the dictionary, do you see BarryO's picture?

“$250 here, $250 billion there -- eventually you destroy an already teetering entitlement system.”

Feeling a bit tapped out today, and part of it is worry I may have taken on too much, come tomorrow...but we'll see how that works out when the time comes. I'm REALLY looking forward to Saturday, because I need a few hours to just do the fiddling around that HAS to be done SOON. Nothing major, life-changing, or difficult - there are simply some things I want to do that are tedious and mind-consuming... that is, TIME consuming...that I seem to require alone-time for. I lose my place easily, and when working on the computer, that can be frustrating as all get out, so...well, enough. You get the idea, you're not idiots.

That being said, I read an article by Ed Feulner you might find interesting - A Tale of Two $250's. Great analysis and information!
Two exerpts:

The recession has driven prices down across the board, and the cost of living has actually declined by almost 5 percent. Because of that, and because Medicare premiums won’t increase next year, spending analyst Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute estimates that the average Social Security recipient will have about $725 more in purchasing power next year. So, reasonably, Social Security plans to skip the COLA.

But not if the Obama administration can help it.
...
More than a decade ago, lawmakers passed a law that was supposed to solve that problem by capping payments to doctors. According to the law, fees paid to doctors under Medicare will be slashed by 21.5 percent this year, and by 40 percent over the next five years. Of course, no lawmaker wants to be accused of cutting payments to doctors. So every year lawmakers in both parties vote overwhelmingly to override their own law.

Tricky bastards, our Elected CongressWeasels. It didn't start with this batch, but now that we KNOW, we really outta t'row da bums out.

Can you see the snake?

BarryO does not make his decisions about those who populate his administration from lack of knowledge about what they are and what they believe. He knows full well who they are and what they will do when given all the power of the federal government. I have thought this for a long time, and also thought that those who think he'll 'wake up' are the ones who are delusional. Much as I hate saying that about some people whose writing and opinions I usually admire, it's still my belief that they still don't see the snake.

Thomas Sowell sees the snake.


"Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?

Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers — that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?

Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?

Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a heart operation or a child with some dire medical condition, how free would you feel to speak out against an administration that has the power to make life and death decisions about your loved ones?

...

Barack Obama has not only said that he is out to "change the United States of America," the people he has been associated with for years have expressed in words and deeds their hostility to the values, the principles and the people of this country.
...

Among the people appointed as czars by President Obama have been people who have praised enemy dictators like Mao, who have seen the public schools as places to promote sexual practices contrary to the values of most Americans, to a captive audience of children.
...

Those who say that the Obama administration should have investigated those people more thoroughly before appointing them are missing the point completely. Why should we assume that Barack Obama didn't know what such people were like, when he has been associating with precisely these kinds of people for decades before he reached the White House?"

It's past time to think about how to stop BarryO and Bill Ayers and Friends from taking over the administration. NOW we have to work on keeping them from taking over the rest of America.

Do you know the snake for what it is, not for what it says?

Pompous Liars...at BEST, pompous liars.

If you haven't seen this already, it's going to make you cry, or maybe just make your heart hurt. From a post at Piece of Work in Progress, this excerpt from Powerline:

In short [. . .] the Obama administration falsely claimed that the Bush administration had done no planning or analysis regarding the worsening situation in Afghanistan, even though it (1) knew this was false, (2) had asked the Bush administration not to disclose its work, and (3) relied in part on the same work it claimed the Bush administration had not performed. Paul [Mirengoff] judged that what Cheney described went beyond lack of class to demonstrate bad character on the part of the Obama administration.

Now comes the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes to examine the issues of fact raised by Cheney’s account. In “Obama’s minions are ingrates,” Hayes documents the formal review conducted by the Bush administration that was turned over to the Obama team and inquires whether (as Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs has charged) the Bush team sat on a request for increased troops. Hayes confirms Cheney’s assertions as a matter of fact.

This bunch of crap comes from an administration so many Americans had so much 'hope' for. Transparency. Tolerance. Democracy. Efficiency. Fairness. Equality. Pride.

My shattered ass.

BarryO babbles that Communism, Socialism, Buddhism and Islam are blessings to the world, religions and political dogma to be imitated and implemented here, while doing his level best to leave Israel defenseless against those sworn to destroy her, and ensure that Christians and Jews worldwide are silenced as troublemakers.

George W and Cheney did their best to keep this country from being attacked AGAIN. BarryO has no such wish, in my opinion. He and his mentors and followers have the best of all possible worlds and will never experience the heartache and loss that Working America is going to see. He and his family will celebrate our hunger and poverty with kobe beef for supper. BarryO and his weasels lied before, and they will lie again. To get what they want, to accomplish their mission.

Quotable Democrats

Quotes from...well, you'll see...

Great Orators of the Democrat Party...

'One man with courage makes a majority.' - Andrew Jackson
'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' - Franklin D. Roosevelt
'The buck stops here.' - Harry S. Truman
'Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.' - John F. Kennedy

And from today's Democrats...

"It depends what your definition of 'is' is?" - Bill Clinton
"Those rumors are false .... I believe in the sanctity of marriage." - John Edwards
"I invented the Internet." - Al Gore
"The next Person that tells me I'm not religious, I'm going to shove my rosary beads up their ASS." - Joe Biden
"America is--is no longer, uh, what it--it, uh, could be, uh, what it was once was...uh, and I say to 'uh, I don't want that future, uh, uh for my children." - Barack Obama
"I have campaigned in all 57 states." - Barack Obama (Quoted 2008)
"You don't need God anymore, you have us Democrats." - Nancy Pelosi (Quoted 2006)
"Paying taxes is voluntary." - Sen. Harry Reid
"Bill is the greatest husband and father I know. No one is more faithful, true, and honest than he." - Hillary Clinton (Quoted 1998)

And here's one of my favorite quotes, though not a politician, just a Real Man.
"Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." -- John Wayne

(Thanks, Fred!)

UPDATE: I've been reminded that gaffs are not party-exclusive. ALL politicians have things come out of their mouths that are wrong, mistaken, lies, or examples of oral dyslexia - just like the rest of us. WE, however, don't spend a lot of time with cameras and tape recorders following us around to preserve our flubs for posterity...thank goodness! This particular little collection just happened to be all in one place all at one time, so here it is.

Toxic Hawaiian Volcano Poses Health Risks to Residents, Crops - FOXNews.com

Toxic Hawaiian Volcano Poses Health Risks to Residents, Crops - FOXNews.com

Legend has it that people were thrown into the volcano to appease the gods. How 'bout we try throwing Akaka and Inouye into the volcano...you know, just to see if it works.

We have here another case of not being able to control Mother Nature. Like the folks who build their home on a barrier island, then want a replacement of house and all contents when it's wiped out by a hurricane, these are obviously cases of ignoring Nature's past...and then expecting payment when Nature comes 'round again...as she does.

From the article:

Those affected note the trade winds are blowing the vog towards Oahu, where the state legislature presides. Their hope is that lawmakers will be able to see and smell the problem a little bit more clearly.

Oh, you can bet the 'lawmakers' will smell a problem - a problem "government money" can solve!

Residents remember that, afterall, there wouldn't be a Hawaiian Islands Chain without volcanic activity — it's what formed and shaped the tropical islands.

Kilauea does what Kilauea has always done. And politicians do what politicians have always done.

I'd put my money on the volcano in this one...if the government doesn't take it and redistribute it to someone else...

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Tuesday means Thomas Sowell

Mr. Sowell's column today has nothing at all to do with his opinion - or mine - of the Nobel committee. Aren't you thrilled about that? I DID find a column about that - by Rich Lowry - that you might want to take the time to read. Let's just say that it isn't complimentary to any of the participants.

Mr. Sowell speaks about economics in a way that even I understand, and he uses examples I can understand. Every politician who wears the label 'Elected Official' should be required take lessons from him...but of course, real Servants of the Republic would already know that, wouldn't they. The doublespeak and gobbledygook we get from them is DESIGNED to keep us ignorant of what they're really up to, because serving the cause of the People of the United States is not on their personal agenda. Making money and being reelected is their agenda. Sad, but so true. Some bits from the column that reminds us that THEY DON'T REPRESENT US:

Back in the days of the Soviet Union, two Russian economists who had never lived in a country with a free market economy understood something about market economies that many others who have lived in such economies all their lives have never understood. Nikolai Shmelev and Vladimir Popov said: "Everything is interconnected in the world of prices, so that the smallest change in one element is passed along the chain to millions of others."
...

While this may be easy enough to understand, its implications are completely lost on many people in politics and in the media. If everything is connected to everything else in a market economy, then it makes no sense to have laws and policies that declare some given goal to be a "good thing," without regard to the repercussions, which spread out in all directions, like waves that spread across a pond when you drop a rock in the water.
...

We are now living with those repercussions, which include the worst unemployment in decades. That is the price we are paying for increasing home ownership from 64 percent to 69 percent.
...

Mortgage lending standards were lowered, in order to raise the magic number of home ownership. But, with lower lending standards, there were — surprise! — more mortgage payment delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures.
...

The other big lie is that this was a failure of economists and others to foresee that the housing boom would turn to bust and set off financial repercussions across the economy.

In reality, everybody and his brother saw it coming and said so — including yours truly in the Wall Street Journal of May 26, 2005. As far away as London, The Economist magazine warned about the danger. So did many American publications and individuals. The problem was that politicians refused to listen.

UPDATE: If you can, please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors in post or headline. MOST times, I know how to write according to the way I was taught by mum, grandmother, and a few assorted teachers...but that doesn't mean that what my brain knows necessarily translates to my fingertips!

20 Questions - that's 20 MORE

John Hawkins at Townhall.com has a few more questions he'd like SOMEONE, ANYONE to ask BarryO, at the earliest opportunity. A small sample:

13) So far, you have signed a number of bills that no one in Congress has read before they were signed. Do you think a member of Congress is being irresponsible if he signs onto a bill without reading it or at minimum, having a member of his staff read it?

14) Would you be willing to publicly ask your supporters to stop accusing people who disagree with your policies of being racist?

Now remember, finding a 'reporter' in this world of Journalists For Barry Fan Club who would actually ASK the questions is gonna be difficult. Getting the Whiner-In-Chief (changed that - thanks to No Sheeples Here) to ANSWER such questions - given the staging and planting of Q&A sessions we've already seen - may be asking just a bit much of American Media.

One can only 'hope.'