The Real Apocalypse

December 21st, 2012

I hope you’ve been enjoying your mythical Mayan Apocalypse.

But there’s a real, slow motion apocalypse that’s been going on all around you, and nobody is panicking about it, at least not in the open. I’m not talking specifically about the fiscal cliff, which is only a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself.

The real apocalypse is out-of-control federal spending, and the tsunami of debt it’s creating. And I don’t feel “apocalypse” is too strong a word. Excessive debt destroys economies. When the money printing presses run unchecked for years on end, hyperinflation is the inevitable result.

The only reason we’re not suffering from hyperinflation right now is that Europe is sucking worse than we are. The Spanish economy is failing. The Greek economy has already failed. Were it not for that, it’s likely our huge budget deficits and the Fed’s printing presses would have already caused the Euro to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. And, as Mark Steyn is fond of pointing out, Germany’s economy is big enough to bail out Greece and Spain. No one’s economy is big enough to bail us out.

Obama and the Democratic Party has wagered our future on the proposition that they can run trillion dollar deficits for years on end without destroying the value of the American dollar. If they’re right, they deserve to win, since everything we know about economics is wrong, and we can just print dollars until we’re all rich.

But the fundamental laws of economics haven’t been repealed. A reckoning is coming, and it’s going to destroy savings, economies and lives. And professional politicians, the Democratic Party, lobbyists and their mainstream media enablers would prefer to talk about anything else but the looming catastrophe. No wonder they want to talk about gun control and “the war on women.” Anything to keep the con game going until they’ve sucked the body politics dry. Just keep that deficit spending heroin coming.

The only question about that reckoning is exactly when it’s coming, and exactly how bad it will be. If we’re lucky, it will only be as bad as Argentina 2001. If we’re not, then we’re talking Weimer Germany 1921-23.

Get ready.

Suggestion: Offer Texas Enterprise Fund Money to Blue State Gun Manufacturers Who Relocate to Texas

December 20th, 2012

I’m not a fan of the Texas Enterprise Fund, because I don’t think government should be picking economic winners and losers; let them succeed or fail on their own merits rather than getting a boost from the Aristocracy of Pull. Some liberal critics have accused the Enterprise Fund of being Rick Perry’s slush fund for donors, but in truth all federal business subsidies are slush funds, and I think the Texas Enterprise Fund is markedly less corrupt than the Obama Administration’s green energy pork for contributors, or its $25 billion Government Motors bailout gift to the United Auto Workers.

Given that the Texas Enterprise Fund does exit, I can think of at least one good use for it: Helping gun manufacturers relocate from Blue States to Texas.

After all, it’s obvious that Blue State sentiment is running (at least right now) against legal gun ownership by law-abiding Americans, and that pressure (legal and otherwise) will be brought to bear on them to stop manufacturing certain types of perfectly legal weapons, or to cease business entirely.

So why not invite them to relocate to Texas? We have a skilled and highly educated non-union workforce, a broad and deep manufacturing base, a thriving economy, a culture that appreciates firearms ownership and their place in American history, stautory protection against frivolous lawsuits against firearms manufacturers, and no state income tax. While it’s a pain in the ass to move a manufacturing facility, doing so now could both increase a firearms manufacturer’s profit and prevent political pressure and legal harassment further down the line.

Companies that might be targeted include:

  • Colt Firearms of Connecticut
  • Kimber Manufacturing of New York
  • Smith & Wesson of Massachusetts
  • Springfield Armory in Illinois
  • Among many, many others.

    Texas could gain millions of dollars worth of economic boost at the expense of state that don’t appreciate firearms manufacturers anyway.

    Worth considering.

    Robert Bork, RIP

    December 19th, 2012

    Dead at 84.

    On the plus side of him not being on the Supreme Court, Obama doesn’t get to pick his replacement…

    Democrats Can’t Help Wanting to Ban Guns. It’s What They Do.

    December 18th, 2012

    Like a foolish dog returning to eat its own sick, liberals can’t stay away from expressing their long pent-up desire to disarm law-abiding Americans. Their central governing principle is to give more money and power to the federal government (or the UN, when they can get away with it), and independent gun owners stand in their way. The Sandy Hook shooting victims weren’t even in the ground before Democratic lawmakers were calling on Obama to “exploit” (their words) the tragedy to push for more gun control.

    Liberals seem to regard guns like Sauron’s One Ring: as an evil object of magical power that automatically warps and corrupts the user. Frequently, they also seem to see people disagreeing with them as a sign of mental illness. (Check Twitter for how many call 2nd Amendment activists “sick” or “insane.”) I suspect that makes it harder for them to recognize real mental illness. And when they say they want a “dialog” over guns, what they really mean is “Shut up and hand over your guns and I’ll temporarily stop calling you deranged, bloodthirsty killers.”

    When the plan to deter gun use by the criminal and insane starts out “Step 1: Disarm the Sane and Law-Abiding,” I think I see a flaw in their brilliant scheme. It’s as if there were a rash of food poisonings from unlicensed food carts, and the liberal solution was to ban an all food carts.

    Two years ago I said that when push comes to shove, there’s no such thing as a pro-gun Democrat, and this week West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is the prime example, “A” rating from the NRA notwithstanding. Expect any pro-gun Democrats to either undergo a mysterious conversion to the gun-grabbing cause, or get pushed out of the party, just like nominally “pro-life Democrats” either caved (Bart Stupak and his bloc) or were pushed out (pretty much every national election over the last 20 years).

    Other Sandy Hook shooting fallout:

  • David Kopel notes that “Today, Americans are safer from violent crime, including gun homicide, than they have been at any time since the mid-1960s.” (Kopel is author of The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy, which I recommend for anyone serious about looking at both sides of the debate over gun control.)
  • Remember that the problem of random mass murder is not a new one. “Mass murder was just as common during the 1920s and 30s as it has been since the mid-1960s.”
  • It’s hard to tell from the media reports, but the .223 Bushmaster reportedly used by shooter Adam Lanza does not appear to have any of the cosmetic features covered by the Clinton-era “assault weapons” ban (i.e., any two of a folding stock, pistol grip, bayonet mount, barrel shroud or flash suppressor). Therefore it’s not an “assault weapon.” (The liberal definition of an “assault weapon” is “any gun that looks scary.”)
  • And the result of the Clinton “assault weapon” ban? As per Clayton E. Cramer, “he policy has been tried and found wanting.”
  • Every single recent mass killing save one has taken place in a “gun free” zone.
  • John Lott, author of the essential More Guns, Less Crime, says that we should arm teachers and ban “gun free zones.”
  • Notice how the repeated failure of gun control is always used as the justification for more gun control? Which is pretty much liberal policy on every issue (welfare spending, regulation, etc.) in a nutshell.
  • The record of gun control in reducing crime in other countries is also generally one of failure as well.
  • Here in Austin, the owner of Thai Noodle House (probably the worst Thai restaurant in town) declared that “I don’t care if a bunch of white kids got killed.” Strangely enough this did not win him many friends, and the restaurant is currently closed.
  • For still another view of the problem, read “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother,” probably the most passed-around article in the blogsphere and Twitter this week.
  • Step 1: Stop the Hispanicing

    December 17th, 2012

    I’ve held off on offering up immediate judgment on the election because I’m incredibly lazy to get past the panic and knee-jerk reactions. The world hasn’t ended, Republicans are not doomed to permanent minority status, and the cause of smaller government is not lost forever. Go over that list of bright spots again. Republicans did not do as badly as they did in 1932, 1964, 2006 or 2008. And we survived those elections, just as the Democrats survived 1994, 2004, and 2010. We’ll survive this one.

    One persistent theme in a lot of recaps is how badly Republicans did among Hispanic voters, and that Republicans must immediately cave on the issue of illegal alien amnesty to have any chance of courting Hispanic votes. Though no one can dispute that Republicans need to do better among Hispanics, much of the panic over the 2012 Hispanic vote (and the resulting predictable knee-jerk push for amnesty among prominent RINOs) has been overblown, for a number of reasons:

  • First, we don’t actually know how well Republicans did among Hispanics because the AP and the networks decided not to do detailed exit polling in Texas and 18 other states, the vast majority of them red states. Thus we don’t know the true percentage of Hispanics who voted for Republicans, as states where Republicans would do better among Hispanics have been systematically excluded from the count.
  • The Hispanic vote did not cost Romney the election.
  • Romney did worse than Bush not only among Hispanics, but among several other demographic groups, most notably white voters.
  • There are several reasons to doubt liberals’ demographics are destiny theory.
  • Those who think that caving on illegal alien amnesty is the key to Republicans winning Hispanic votes are deluding themselves.
  • Indeed, it’s more likely to destroy Republican competitiveness for the foreseeable future.
  • So take a deep breath. Republicans are far better off trying to pitch the ideas of freedom and limited government to Hispanics, and running conservative Republican candidates who happen to be Hispanic like Ted Cruz, than transparent and incompetent pandering via illegal alien amnesty.

    Firearm Releated Homicides Have Declined for Five Straight Years

    December 15th, 2012

    So sayeth the FBI.

  • 2007: 10,129 Firearm Homicides
  • 2008: 9,528 Firearm Homicides
  • 2009: 9,199 Firearm Homicides
  • 2010: 8,874 Firearm Homicides
  • 2011: 8,583 Firearm Homicides
  • They may have declined for longer than that, but the table only goes back to 2007, and the 2012 data period obviously hasn’t ended yet.

    Between concealed carry laws and DC. vs. Heller, more law-abiding citizens are carrying guns than ever before, but gun violence isn’t up, it’s down.

    I guess John Lott was right.

    LinkSwarm for 12/14/12

    December 14th, 2012

    A quick LinkSwarm for a Friday night:

  • Ever notice how after every killing spree, liberals are quick to proclaim that no one needs an “assault rifle” for self defense? Well, this guy did, facing three armed assailants breaking in, and is still alive because of it.
  • There are a number of spree killers who have racked up high death tolls without using a gun. Or using a gun obtained illegally in a country where they’re banned.
  • Dear Senior Citizens: union jobs are more sacred than your very lives. Signed, a Democratic Judge.
  • I’m shocked, shocked to find out that the SEIU committed vote fraud during the Wisconsin recall election.
  • In Montreal, it’s not enough for you to be bilingual. Your dog has to be as well.
  • Rice Withdraws Secretary of State Nomination

    December 13th, 2012

    Susan Rice decides that she would rather not be Secretary of State than answer questions about Benghazi at a confirmation hearing.

    Maybe now Obama could chose someone, you know, competent to head the State Department. But I rather doubt it. We’ll probably get another Obama crony or Democratic retread as the nominee. And probably someone far away from the Benghazi scandal.

    Texas vs. California: 12/12/12 Edition

    December 13th, 2012

    This was supposed to go up last night, but there was a glitch. Ten hours late sounds about right for California…

  • California leads the nation in outrageous pay and benefits for unionized state employees. Including $822,302 a year for a single prison psychiatrist.
  • Calpers to taxpayers and bond-holders: DROP DEAD. We’re getting ours, jack.
  • Since California has hiked tax rates tax revenues have decline. Those unwilling to learn from the Laffer Curve are doomed to live through it.
  • Living in California means not being able to afford police.
  • The bankrupt California city of San Bernardino has had 45 murders this year.
  • Bankrupt Stockton has had 68.
  • And Los Angeles is shuttering courthouses because they can’t afford them.
  • The Blue State Suicide Pact.
  • Movie and TV production is leaving California.
  • “Why would you leave $25 million on the table?” Oh gee, I don’t know, but maybe because you have to pay back $34 million on your risky $2.5 million loan? Math, liberal! Do you speak it?
  • California Blue Shield wants to hikes rates as much as 20%. How’s that ObamaCare working out for you?
  • People are still leaving California…and Texas is the most popular destination.
  • Texas was once again the destination of choice for more people moving within the United States as a whole, with some 515,000 people moving here in 2012. (Hat tip: Push Junction.)
  • Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Mario Loyola talks about how unions become sanctioned government cartels.
  • Speaking of TPPF, they linked to this Dallas Fed report, which shows that the Texas economy continues to hum along. “Texas added 22,900 jobs in October, lowering its unemployment rate in October to 6.6 percent, down from 6.8 percent in September and 1.3 percent below the national average of 7.9 percent.”
  • Right-to-Work Signed Into Law in Michigan

    December 11th, 2012

    Despite union threats to throw twice as big a hissy fit as Wisconsin liberals, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed right-to-work legislation today, breaking the union stranglehold on jobs in the state. As in Wisconsin, expect union members to start keeping their own money in droves rather than give it to union bosses and the Democratic party.

    In related news, peaceful union protestors stood aghast as aggressive Steve Crowder repeatedly drove his menacing face into an innocent Michigan union member’s Fist of Happiness: