Ruminations - 16oct2011 (updated)

George Rebane

New Scientist, always politically correct, has discovered the possibility that if Greece goes under and reduces its GDP by the predicted 50%, then it will not only leave the eurozone but also the EU.  The real Greek tragedy is that this could well start the dominoes falling, resulting in beggaring half the EU countries, and cause the whole system of European unity to come crashing down.  The upshot of the science journal’s concern is that Europe’s climate control measures will then go by the board since poor countries are never good stewards of the environment.

They note that “The climate always takes a back seat when economies turn sour, but the impact of a euro break-up would be profound. Any country leaving the euro would also breach the treaties of Maastricht, Lisbon and Rome, and therefore be forced to leave the EU. A euro break-up is likely to shatter the EU, and with it the hard won architecture of climate policy.”  (more here) Socialists are always belatedly surprised that a clean environment only comes arm-in-arm with a good dose of functional capitalism.

If you’re so rich, why aren’t you smart?  That’s a question no one would ever have thought to ask Mortimer Zuckerman, Democratic billionaire and social scene commentator extraordinaire.  We read Mortimer’s commentaries for years as the final word in the US News & World Report.  Their leftist tilt was always a bit jarring when considered in the context of the centrist editorial policy evident in the rest of the magazine.

Well, now we find out that Mortimer is disappointed in the man he voted for in 2008 (more here).  Doesn’t anyone pay attention to what the community organizer promised us?  Apparently Mortimer was a bit too busy making his billions to really discover what made it all possible.

And, of course, the question could also apply to that Wizard of Omaha who is now getting a new tax named after him.  The Buffett Tax on “millionaires and billionaires” is the new replacement for or addition to (depending on the intensity of your faith in government justice) the AMT.  Ol’ Warren is even using the sleazebag trick of arguing that his tax only applies to the hundreds, when America’s great minority (aka federal taxpayers) knows that in reality it will be applied to the millions.  His rationale seems to be that the country already has enough millionaires, and this is just the ticket to put a cork in it.  (more here)

Elizabeth Warren, Obama’s former consumer czar cum candidate for the Senate, has persuaded legions of leftists that the rich got that way by using taxpayer funded roads, taxpayer funded police for security, and other amenities of a publicly funded society.  Her argument then proceeds that the money they earned was not really earned by them alone, but earned by all the citizens.  Her leaps of economic logic finally conclude that these rich unfairly garnered what could have been more fairly earned by millions of others who apparently couldn’t figure out how to use the roads and the police and the tax code and the … .  Therefore social justice demands that such unfair advantages shosuld be leveled by making them pay an even more generous share of the federal take for eventual redistribution to those who have been cheated by the fickle goddess Fortuna.

All this goes to bolster the progressive view that wealth creation is a matter of fortune or luck – some have it, most don’t.  Therefore government’s proper role is to act as the Luck Leveler with a gun.  And how is the correct luck level determined?  Democratically, of course.

Professor Nouriel Roubini ('Dr No'), national pundit and premier economic prognosticator, has come to recognize that the systemic inequality of people's ability to create wealth in a globalized high-tech world can lead to social instability and blood in the streets.  He even recognizes the impact of the Great Doubling (search RR) on the American workforce.  He doesn't have a solution, but sees only a dark future if things continue as they are (more here).  Welcome aboard!

Finally, here is a talk by Tarek Fatah, a Pakistani-Canadian Muslim, on Islamism, its intentions for the west, its penetration into the highest government circles (including the White House), and the politically correct silence that we, the children of western civilization, shamefully practice toward enemies sworn to exterminate us.  H/T to RR reader.

[update] There's finally some good news from Washington.  Apparently the nation's fisc is nowhere near the disastrous state that some of us have reported.  A correspondent and RR reader informs me that the State Department is sending representatives from suitable NGOs on overseas junkets.  Even one of our local NGO executives will be spending some quality time in China and Mongolia on our nickel.  Things are looking up.

Comments

[Barry Pruett]

Question re Elizabeth Warren. "The rich got that way by using taxpayer funded roads, taxpayer funded police for security, and other amenities of a publicly funded society"

Didn't the wealth creators who pay more proportionately in income tax due to the progressive tax system actually pay for the roads and other amenities in the first place?

It always amazes me the small thinking of the common liberal...never thinking of the consequences of their ideas...or thoroughly vetting the ideas in general.

[George Rebane]

And then what do those fifty percent paying no federal income tax (and most getting benefits instead) owe to those who do for using the "amenities of a publicly funded society." So far, their usual response has been to demand MORE.

[bill tozer]

Concerning Greece, does anyone with 2 brain cells left actually believe that Greek mess will ever be solved, ever? Greek's problems are institutionalized.. Simply put, they have spent more than they take in decade after decade and live off borrowed money. Sure, keep dumping more money down the Greece rat hole so they can pay interest on their debt. Its a shell game...loan them 40 so they can pay back the twenty they owe ya, then loan them 60 so they can some of the forty, forever and ever amen. I say kick Greece to the curb, they are only 3% of the Eurozone economy. Cut Spain loose as well. Those southern old Europe countries will bleed the other countries dry and sink the whole ship. Same with Italy...Italy is too big to bail anyway. I think the good countries of Germany, France, and the little countries like Netherlands should form their own Northern Alliance. Sadden to hear Obama announced we are going to dump more money into the IMF and take a greater role...can anyone say Stimulus-Europe or Solydra? Opps, me bad. Nancy says don't utter the word Stimulus, has bad connotations. Maybe O will go over there and do the Recovery Tour that he keeps postponing here. Let Northern Europe prevail, and its time for the olive pickers of Southern Europe to leave the nest and spread their wings. SPLASH

[Brad Croul]

Re: the three Muslim Brotherhood moles in the White House

This guy does not sound so scary,

"(Rashad) Hussain received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Upon graduation, he served as a Law Clerk to Damon J. Keith on the U.S. Court of Appeals. Mr. Hussain also earned his Master’s degrees in Public Administration (Kennedy School of Government) and Arabic and Islamic Studies from Harvard University. He attended college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His academic writings have focused on national security, constitutional law, and civil liberties."

Dalia Mujahid also does not look too scary although Russ (is that a baby or a belly bomb) might recoil in terror,

"Thirteen thousand Muslims attended a convention held by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), on May 22 to 24, where Islamic thinkers gathered to deliberate the present and future challenges facing Muslim communities.
The honorary guest speaker, Ms. Dalia Mujahid, President Obama's advisor on inter-religious affairs, urged the Muslim community to reduce friction with other communities and called for a united struggle against terrorism."

But that's the thing with these sneaky jihadists, it is so hard to ferret them out.
Are these terrorists texting morse code instructions to Taliban HQ right now?

[George Rebane]

Tough call BradC, did Major Hassan?

[D. King]

"But that's the thing with these sneaky jihadists, it is so hard to ferret them out.
Are these terrorists texting morse code instructions to Taliban HQ right now?"

Major Hassan did not text morse code to Taliban HQ, he e-mailed Anwar al-Awlaki at al-Qaeda HQ in Yeman.

"There were 43 casualties in the shooting. Among the 13 killed were 12 soldiers (one of whom was pregnant) and one Army civilian employee."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting

"Additionally, investigations before and after the shooting discovered e-mail communications between Hasan and Yemen-based cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who quickly declared Hasan a hero,"

[Todd Juvinall]

You must review MikeT's anti-semite positions. He is obviously a Jew hater. So, anything stated against the Arabs or Muslims by any of the hundreds of readers and posters here is far worse in MikeT's view than his own racial and bigoted positions on the Jews.