Michelle's "Baby Bump"

JWF came across an article about Michelle Obama asking Barack to take it easy on what any father is prone to do: forcing sports on his kids.

More amusing than recognizing that The One's dictatorial nature goes home with him at night was the comment Michelle made about the fact that some had observed she seemed to be sporting a "baby bump."

"I was like, 'Baby bump?' As hard as I work on my abs?" The First Lady told Oprah in no uncertain terms there is no baby.

Now far be it from me to delve into crude college humor (yeah right), but as hard as the First Lady apparently works on her abs, she, like many women, is not immune to the plague that is the FUPA.

Dinosaurs Will Die

Dinosaurs will slowly die
And I do believe no one will cry
I'm just fucking glad I'm gonna be
There to watch the fall

Dinosaurs Will Die, NOFX

Those words above were written about what would be the eventual death of the music industry. But I find that there are no more poignant words to express the current situation with both the US auto industry, and the US Government.

As the government is taking the unprecedented step of directing not only the resignation of the CEO of a private corporation in the stepping-down of Rick Wagoner at GM, but also is forcing the merger of Chrysler to Fiat in order for them to be able to receive yet more federal aid to stay afloat just a little longer. Chrysler has 30 days to complete this merger and, likewise, GM has 60 days to retool their operations if they, too, want to receive any further federal aid.

Count me among those that aren't shedding any tears for a complete lack of competence at every level, from the executive level of the companies themselves, to the counterproductive stances the unions have taken to the associated negotiations on labor agreements. GM and Chrysler and the UAW have been dinosaurs for years, and it was only a matter of time before the climate got a bit too cold for them to continue to survive.

Count me among those, as well, that are watching this whole saga with glee right now, as the biggest dinosaur of all enters the fray. If anybody thinks the US Government is possibly going to help fix any of this, they are sorely mistaken. Government is the most inefficient organization known to man, and to imagine that inefficiency and counterproductivity can be supplemented by greater inefficiency and a more disgusting form of counterproductivity is the very definition of insanity.

It's fairly apparent, however, that actually fixing anything is not the point of the government's obscene power grab in this current situation. This government is concerned with nothing but its own growth, and the spreading of its own coercive power. This government could care less whether the US Auto Industry is successful and productive. This government wants only to show that Only Government can do what is necessary to ensure the economy works, despite the fact that all of human experiment with government attempting to be the producer has proven to be a failure.

General Motors and Chrysler grew too large and too cumbersome for their own good. In the free market, these entities would have been allowed to collapse under their own weight, and would have declared bankruptcy. New, more streamlined organizations would have grown in their places, and while production in the economy would have dropped markedly for a short time, it would soon have recovered, and bounced back in better shape. Instead, our government, intent on expanding itself seemingly exponentially at this point, has decided to swallow these organizations whole.

As our government continues to pack on the pounds, it can only be a matter of time until it must collapse under its own weight. Given the current state of affairs, I'm just fucking glad I'm gonna be there to watch the fall!

Peter Schiff at the Austrian Scholars Conference

The whole shebang. Just a fantastic talk. It's about 73 minutes total so make sure you've got the time. Enjoy!

Bush:Hoover as Obama:FDR

Peter Schiff is on point, as usual. Enjoy!



Hat Tip: Campaign for Liberty

Big Brother Fiddling While Rome Burns

Everybody knows the saying. The story goes that the Roman Emperor, Nero stood on his balcony playing an instrument and singing of the destruction of Troy as his city burned.

While this may or may not have actually happened, "fiddling while Rome burns" has become an apt phrase to turn about anyone who acts foolishly in times of stress or crisis.

That said, with our economy in shambles and the American people growing restless, I think it would be fairly easy to simply look at President Obama's week or so of actions and scheduled events that we're currently experiencing and come to a similar conclusion about him.

03-18-2009 - Obama makes highly televised NCAA tournament picks

03-19-2009 - Obama interviews on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno

03-22-2009 - Obama interviews on 60 Minutes

03-24-2009 - Obama schedules prime time press conference.

03-25-2009 - Obama scheduled to appear at the DNC fundraising event

The first event was fairly understandable and routine presidential camera muggery. Not much of a big deal about it other than the fact that our supposedly ballin' president didn't have a clue about any of his picks, as evidenced by the fact that he's even getting demolished by John McCain in that regard.

While that wasn't so bad, it was particularly irksome to know that the President of the United States, with the country in dire straits, would fly across the country to yuk it up on what used to be a comedy show. While I certainly understand that the president is probably fully equipped to work on the fly, anyone who does work on the go also understands that you are never so productive as when you are at your desk, focused singularly on the tasks at hand. There is no doubt in my mind that, while he may have been working during what had to be some eight to ten hours of flying back and forth across the country, our president was nevertheless distracted from his primary task of leading the United States.

This is similarly the case for his interview on 60 Minutes. There is no way that Barack Obama could have devoted the attention necessary to prepare for the questions asked of him and been focused on actually doing his job at the same time.

Tomorrow night we will be treated to yet another hour what I am sure will be another fake news conference, where Obama will only field questions from people that won't put him on the spot or throw him off his teleprompted answers.

The day after, the perpetual campaign continues, as he'll yet again shirk his presidential responsibilities to try to get people to give him more money for a presidential race that is still only a twinkle in the eye of the political spectrum.

Our president certainly seems much more concerned lately about being as visible as possible, about remaining in the limelight, than about actually being the president of this country. But perhaps that is the point, as he is becoming the physical manifestation of George Orwell's Big Brother right before our eyes.

In any event, be he Barack Obama, or be he Big Brother, Rome is burning, and I don't see anyone making an effort to take the fiddle from his hands.

Falling Behind

Hey everybody.

Just want to let you know I'm still alive and kickin. I've got a few different long posts I'm working on that I should have out this week.

That aside, I haven't written anything keeping in step with the news in a few days. We're bidding on what will probably end up being about a $20 million or so custom home right now, so I'm pulling 12 and 14 hour days to keep up with all the details.

So much for the recession. But then again, this is the time for the rich to get richer!

We Are Atlas

Going Galt. I've written about it, without actually calling it that. Michelle Malkin has written about it extensively and has been covering a largely growing movement that is rising among American Achievers that consider themselves to be doing just what the name of the movement implies: Going Galt.

In my post from March 3rd, I discussed the story, now well covered, reported on by ABC News of Dr. Sharon Poczatek, a dentist who is planning to scale back her Denver-based practice for the purpose of reducing her taxable income to come in under Barack Obama's fabled $250,000 mark. She is the prime example, offering the prime reasoning behind the phenomenon of Going Galt:

"The motivation for a lot of people like me – dentists, entrepreneurs, lawyers – is that the more you work the more money you make," said Poczatek. "But if I'm going to be working just to give it back to the government -- it's de-motivating and demoralizing."

After I wrote that post on March 3rd, I received two very interesting comments, one from someone calling themself inkdrinker, and the other from someone name Jesse. The first commenter, inkdrinker, was kind enough to point out that Dr. Poczatek, the ABC columnist, and myself were all too damn stupid to understand how tax brackets work. I responded by saying I understand the brackets perfectly well, and was well within my rights to oversimplify at times to make a point. Jesse responded by doing the math on Dr. Poczatek's tax figures, determining that she was only saving herself $2,100 in taxes.

Now, I would be hard pressed to believe that these two kindly and ever-so-cordial commenters were anything but leftists, since the entire point of the discussion flew by them like a beer can past Nick Oseransky, so I really feel like the idea of Going Galt needs to be explained, if only for their two sakes alone.

The initial fact of the matter is that those of us conisdered right-of-center, whether we be Conservatives or Libertarians or what have you, establish for ourselves a personal moral code of ethics by which we live our lives. Wherever we may disagree on social issues, we are 100% in lockstep on one very clean and simple idea: whosoever perfoms a task of value shall be compensated for it fairly for what the market will bear, and that compensation rightly belongs to him.

What these two poorly-if-at-all educated folks failed to recognize in my previous post, and am sure that they, like all leftists, continue to either misunderstand or flat out deny the truth of, is that those of us that are achievers could care less about the taxes themselves. This is not to say that we don't feel it in the pocketbook, we do. But the fact of the matter is that We the People Achievers are the ones providing the government with its real incoming revenue, as opposed to the fake stuff they're printing up or trying to borrow every day. We the Achievers are the only source of income the government has. And the simple truth is that We the Achievers would simply like to know that what we worked hard to earn, what the government took from us by force, is being used wisely.

We like to know that the government is using our money for police and fire departments and protecting the rule of law. We do not particularly like to know that the government is taking our money and using it to house people that choose not to work. And we absolutely loathe the idea of the government taking our money and giving it away, not only to people who chose not to work, but chose to risk money they never had to buy things they could never afford.

The bailouts are despicable. And they are funded not only by the tax dollars We the Achievers have had taken from us, but also must now be funded by our children, whom we will raise to be Achievers as well, and their children, who will also be Achievers. It is a dim future indeed for those of us who produce, to have the fruits of our labors taken from us, and given to those who do nothing, or worse, destroy.

So we come to the root of the matter. Just what is the point of all the work we're doing? We love it! Our work, our goals, our achievments are what we strive for and what brings us joy. The money we earn from doing so represents a moral exchange of gratitude from the people we achieve things for. For the government to step into the picture, render the barrel of a gun unto our temples, take what we have earned, and arbitrarily hand it out to those who are failures, is the epitome of immorality.

Do you see, inkdrinker?

Do you understand, Jesse?

It's never been about the money. It's always been about the principle.

We have achieved. We have succeeded. We have earned what is ours. And we refuse to allow the fruits of our labors to be stolen on someone else's behalf. So if the easiest way to make sure this filthy government cannot grow any further, cannot take any more, cannot continue to stab at the very heart pumping its own lifeblood, is to just stop, then we will. In the words of John Galt:

Do not attempt to find us. We do not choose to be found. Do not cry that it is our duty to serve you. We do not recognize such duty. Do not cry that you need us. We do not consider need a claim. Do not cry that you own us. You don't. Do not beg us to return. We are on strike, we, the men of the mind.

We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. We are on strike against the dogma that the pursuit of one's own happiness is evil. We are on strike against the doctrine that life is guilt.

There is a difference between our strike and all those you've practiced for centuries: our strike consists, not of making demands, but of granting them. We are evil, according to your morality. We have chosen not to harm you any longer. We are useless, according to your economics. We have chosn not to exploit you any longer. We are dangerous and to be shackled, according to your politics. We have chosen not to endanger you, nor to wear your shackles any longer. We are only an illusion, according to your philosophy. We have chosen not to blind you any longer and have left you free to face reality - the reality you wanted, the world as you see it now, a world without mind.

We have granted you everything you demanded of us, we who had always been the givers, but have only now understood it. We have no demands to present to you , no terms to bargain about, no compromise to reach. You have nothing to offer us. We do not need you.

We are Atlas, and we are shrugging.