Archive for October, 2011
Thomas Sowell on Occupy Wall Street [video]
17
Oct
Thomas Sowell discusses the liberal-organized “Occupy Wall Street” protesters, responding to a quote from his book, “No society ever thrived because it had a large and growing class of parasites living off those who produce.”
“I can’t imagine when I was their age that I could have enough money to hang around in a park not doing any work, not bringing in any income… Whenever they are interviewed they are incoherent. They will toss out a few scraps of rhetoric and they feel that they’ve said something. They can’t tell you really what they want, they can’t tell you what they’re really complaining about, other than that the world is not built to their specifications.”
He also discusses and explains why Herman Cain would be a better president than Obama.
Herman Cain for the Win!
17
Oct
I’m a supporter of Herman Cain for president of the United States. In addition to his executive business experience, personal story, his conservative value and his personality, his movement up in the polls has been impressive to watch. He’s currently the only candidate that would beat Obama in the 2012 election.
Newt Gingrich is also steadily, though slowly, climbing in the polls. Perhaps we could actually see a Herman-Newt or Newt-Herman ticket for 2012!
Both Cain and Gingrich are criticized for holding conservative values. The thought is: If we picked the most liberal of the available Republican candidates, they’d be more likely to win. This is what the Republicans tried with John McCain. He lost, conceded early, and went to bed. We ought not have a repeat of that. Ronald Reagan won 49 states by expressing his conservative values, not by being mediocre and moderate. Conservative values are what wins elections. This is why even Obama campaigned on conservative values that he didn’t even believe in (see his video of saying national debt was bad before he set new records for increasing the debt).
Here’s the info about the poll from Rasmussen showing Cain alone would win over Obama.
At the moment, the Georgia businessman is the only Republican with a lead of any kind over Obama, although former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has held a similar advantage several times and is currently trailing the president by just two points.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows Cain attracting 43% support, while Obama earns 41%.
Given such a matchup, eight percent 8% prefer some other candidate, and another eight percent 8% are undecided…
Cain is tied with Romney for the lead in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Nobody else is even close at the moment.Last week, Cain trailed Obama by three. The week before, he was behind by five. “Cain now has the chance to make the case for why he should be the challenger to Mitt Romney,” says Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports.
via 2012 Presidential Matchups – Rasmussen Reports™.
Occupy Wall Street and The Modern Martyr by Gilbert K. Chesterton
14
Oct
I read this article by G. K. Chesterton some time before the small groups of hookie-playing students and others started living in public parks. Not getting enough attention for their bad behavior, they began seeking to trigger consequences by breaking the law for trespassing (in Boston), pooping on police cars (New York), pretending to be hurt by non-moving police vehicles and damaging police property (also New York), and breaking various other laws.
The goal is to present a false image of suffering hoping to gain sympathy for their cause (being lazy and entitled).
It reminded me of this section from the Chesterton article (entire text linked below) about those fighting for causes that unlike OWS were worthwhile, but were using similar methods to induce small punishment:
I should advise modern agitators, therefore, to give up this particular method: the method of making very big efforts to get a very small punishment. It does not really go down at all; the punishment is too small, and the efforts are too obvious. It has not any of the effectiveness of the old savage martyrdom, because it does not leave the victim absolutely alone with his cause, so that his cause alone can support him. At the same time it has about it that element of the pantomimic and the absurd, which was the cruellest part of the slaying and the mocking of the real prophets. St. Peter was crucified upside down as a huge inhuman joke; but his human seriousness survived the inhuman joke, because, in whatever posture, he had died for his faith. The modern martyr of the Pankhurst type courts the absurdity without making the suffering strong enough to eclipse the absurdity. She is like a St. Peter who should deliberately stand on his head for ten seconds and then expect to be canonised for it.
via All Things Considered : The Modern Martyr by Gilbert K. Chesterton @ Classic Reader.
[Quote] supremely capable of going quite wrong in all directions
03
Oct
If there is one class of men whom history has proved especially and supremely capable of going quite wrong in all directions, it is the class of highly intellectual men.
G.K. Chesterton, All Things Considered
