The Times Gives Up

nysun.com

Now, in the face of this great swelling of faith in our fundamental national contract, the New York Times has offered a new strategy — abandoning the Constitution altogether. It runs the brainstorm out under the headline “Let’s Give Up on the Constitution.” The piece carries the byline of a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University, Louis Michael Seidman.

They don't want to give up on the Constitution.  They just want it enforced on others and not themselves.

They are the party of nothing for you, after all.

Theory of Republican Success: Squish-free zone

Let's make it short and sweet.  The theory is this:  firmness.  The Republicans have to stay firm and not make compromises.  If there are to be compromises, the compromises must be limited and get real benefits--- not just promises.

Remember George Bush as being stubborn?  He was a two-term president.  That's a success that Republicans should embrace, but they run from it.  Compare Bush with Romney.  Romney starts off on the right foot with the Benghazi thing, then he goes soft.  He should have stayed firm.   He lost.   Another example:  Arnold Swarzenegger.  He starts off like a lion and ends up as meek as a mouse hiding out in his little hidey hole.  The Governator wasn't a success in governance because he wasn't firm. He did get re-elected--- but for what?  Ronald Reagan was pretty firm.  He did make compromises, and some of them weren't good.  On the whole, though, he was firm.

There's a word for it: "squishes".  Too many squishes in the Republican party.  Got to firm up those squishes.

Salena Zito: Perhaps we're still in Oz

triblive.com

And it easy to see why “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” can be considered an allegory for today‘s dissatisfaction with politicians: Dorothy still would represent “The Everyman,” the Scarecrow would still represent voters who supported the Wizard (in our case, President Barack Obama) but who don‘t have enough brains to recognize their political interests; the heartless Tin Man could easily represent folks in post-industrial service-industry jobs; the Cowardly Lion could easily stand in for Joe Biden — all roar and no substance.

Hmm.  It doesn't quite jibe with the idea that it is the Federal Reserve, not politicians, that run the economy.  Nice try, though.

Americans never give up your guns - English pravda.ru

Americans never give up your guns - English pravda.ru

You learn something new every day if your eyes are open.   Get this:

Moscow fell, for example, not from a lack of weapons to defend it, but from the lieing guile of the Reds. Ten thousand Reds took Moscow and were opposed only by some few hundreds of officer cadets and their instructors. Even then the battle was fierce and losses high. However, in the city alone, at that time, lived over 30,000 military officers (both active and retired), all with their own issued weapons and ammunition, plus tens of thousands of other citizens who were armed. The Soviets promised to leave them all alone if they did not intervene. They did not and for that were asked afterwards to come register themselves and their weapons: where they were promptly shot.

If that doesn't tell you enough about these people, nothing can.  One thing you must never do--- and that is give up your guns.   In fact, any attempt to take them should be regarded with extreme suspicion.

Predictions for New Year

Ah, the end of the year is at hand.  What will the New Year bring?

Predictions are about as useful as New Year Resolutions.  But I suppose there's something about them that attracts people's interest.  We all want to know the future and we all want to do better.  But getting there is a problem.

This may be a bit of a different prognostication than what you may be accustomed to.  I won't predict things that are easily checked this time next year.  The big trends tend to move slowly and that is what I'm going to look at with this post.

In politics, I predicted Obama would lose.  So much for that.  However, on the longer term, we have to see what the two parties will do.  At the present, the Democrats are tacking left and the Republicans look like they will do the same.  The thing to look for is how far will it go.  If the Republicans think it is safe for them to do so, they will offer significant opposition to the Democrats.  This may be too charitable to the Republicans, though.  I don't think they really want to be an opposition party.  Let's just say this then--- this year, we will find out if the Republican Party will be an opposition party or a me-too party.  I think me too is more their style.

In economics, it largely depends upon the outcome of the political battles.  If the Republicans grow a spine and stop the Democrats' headlong rush into socialism, we may see a positive response from the economy.  If not, we'll just bump along the bottom as we've been doing.  Things will get "progressively" worse.  So, my prediction is no boom and no bust.  If the Republicans grow a spine, we may even see a boomlet of sorts.

In technology, a lot depends on Elon Musk.  Frankly, I'm getting a little worried about him.  He's taking on too many tasks at once and he has some ideas that may not pan out.  If the reusable rocket ideas he has doesn't pan out, we may have a problem achieving much of note in space.  This guy is the star and if he stumbles, we will stumble with him.  People may resent that assessment, but sorry.  He's the guy getting it done in space as of now.  Better hope that it continues.  I think it will, but I am not as confident as I was.

I don't keep up with consumer goods, so I have no opinion on that.

In energy, some folks have a high opinion on Thorium.  Well, there's good reason to.  But Thorium Energy may not be something we will enjoy here in the USA.  If the country doesn't get its head out of its butt with this enviro socialist nonsense, that technology will be taken over by the Chinese.  I think that this is the likely outcome. Most people don't consider this to be important, but it is.  Energy is the keystone of the economy.  If that keystone fails, then the whole structure is at risk.  An upgrade for the nuclear energy segment is what the doctor ordered, but it isn't clear that Western Civilization is up to the job.

At some point, the enviros will get their way, I'm predicting.  Fossil fuels will so heavily regulated that an abundance of them won't help us much.  It is the same story as with nuclear.  If nuclear can free itself of the enviro lunacy that is killing the West, fossil fuels may be able to continue to serve us.  In the meantime, fusion energy may be able to be perfected.  If not, Thorium can do the job for thousands of years, but we have to let it.  We will probably let it, but only after China leads the way.  We will have to follow or get left behind.

In any case, if socialists take over, all bets are off.  It appears that may be more true than not at this point.

Noon: The Greening of the Economy

Townhall

In Eastern Kentucky and other mining areas you see bumper stickers that say "if it can't be grown, it has to be mined," as testimony that everything comes from somewhere and something and ultimately, that something that is used to make everything is either a commodity from a mine or an agricultural product from a farm, and energy and labor is applied to that product and another product emerges and value is added. You see, wealth does not just appear, it is created, and, in the course of being created, it creates jobs, and families and communities, and states and nations....Unless the population wakes up to the inevitability of this, we are doomed. Unless we shake ourselves really hard from our green-induced stupor, we can expect to be standing on the side of the road with a sign, asking China to rescue us. And when they do, we can be sure, they will rape the redwoods, reopen the rails, and extract the elements that we have so painstakingly saved for them and, in so doing, they will enslave our people and enrich their people and their government. In another time we called it colonialism. What will we call it when it happens to us?

Comment:

What caused this to happen?

Why are so-called "green" policies favored, and traditional ones pushed over the side?

To boil it down to the most simple explanation, it has been the left that has done this.  If you are suffering financially, it is because of the left.  There can be no cure until they are removed from power.  It is as simple as that.  Things cannot get better until they are gone.

If only the Republicans would stop being the punching bag and punch back.  They have the better argument, but they won't make it.  Do they understand the issues at all?

JP Aerospace on NBC Nightly News

How 'bout that?

This reminded me of my post recently about combining a gas gun with a microwave beaming technology in order to send a small payload to orbit.   The idea is for a reusable launch system with fast turnaround.  This  would  make it affordable.  It was a speculative post, as I know of no project like this in the works at all.

Seems rather complex though.  The replacement company for SpaceX in the Stratolaunch project can get small payloads to orbit using the Pegasus rocket.  But it isn't reusable.  So far as I know, Orbital Sciences isn't planning to make their rockets reusable.

Maybe JP gets there eventually, but a few stepping stones wouldn't hurt.  Well, its a thought, anyway.