Among the issues most commonly discussed are individuality, the rights of the individual, the limits of legitimate government, morality, history, economics, government policy, science, business, education, health care, energy, and man-made global warming evaluations. My posts are aimed at intelligent and rational individuals, whose comments are very welcome.

"No matter how vast your knowledge or how modest, it is your own mind that has to acquire it." Ayn Rand

"Observe that the 'haves' are those who have freedom, and that it is freedom that the 'have-nots' have not." Ayn Rand

"The virtue involved in helping those one loves is not 'selflessness' or 'sacrifice', but integrity." Ayn Rand

For "a human being, the question 'to be or not to be,' is the question 'to think or not to think.'" Ayn Rand

19 November 2008

It Depends on What the Meaning of Change Is

Obama, or BO as Prof. David Mayer has dubbed him, is bringing promised change to Washington. It turns out that his idea of change is a return to the old discredited redistributionist socialism of the past, managed almost entirely by bureaucrats and politicians of the Clinton Administration.

The only real change is that it will be harder for Democrats to rally behind the charge that America is hopelessly racist. Given that so many people of European, Asian, and Hispanic descent voted for BO, we ought finally to be able to judge people only by their character, ability, and accomplishments at last. No longer should it be considered racist to do so. Finally, we may be able to enforce the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, particularly as regards equal protection of the laws. No longer should there be race-based college admissions quotas and hirings for jobs. No longer should conspiracy theories claiming that whitey is somehow responsible for the terrible public schools of Washington, D.C., and other cities such as Baltimore and Cleveland with similarly miserable schools, be given any credence.

So, we can expect as vigorous an effort against terrorists as we had during the Clinton Administration. We will return to the level of response seen for the first attack on the World Trade Center, the attacks on the two U.S. embassies in Eastern Africa, and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole. We will see BO's promised closing of Gitmo. Will the troops be trained to give Miranda Rights statements to the prisioners they take? Perhaps they will have to shoot all prisoners for fear they will simply be released later by the courts. These troops had better be good, because Barney Franks says the Defense budget will be 25% smaller. This is change we can believe in!

Among the domestic policy changes, the most prominent is a return to the higher tax rates to be levied upon the upper middle class and the rich which we used to have. These rates have been shown to be so high that they greatly change people's behavior to one of extreme tax avoidance. These higher rates are simply punitive and do not serve the purpose of increasing federal tax revenues. They will decrease federal tax revenues, while also forcing many of our hardest working and most creative and innovative people into modes of activity which are much less productive. This will lead to the levels of unemployment such redistributionist schemes have generally created in Europe. America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, is to follow the leadership of Socialist Europe. This is the change we can believe in!

We can also expect punitive carbon taxes on coal-fired electric plants, on coal mines, on steel plants, the railroads that haul coal and oil, on natural gas-fired electric plants, on oil refineries, and on trucking firms hauling coal, oil, or gasoline. These industries are to be kicked in the teeth. BO says he is going to put all of the coal-fired electric plants into bankruptcy! This in the name of global warming caused by man-made CO2 emissions as we slip into the next Little Ice Age. This is the change we can believe in!

Meanwhile, the United Auto Workers Union will be given a bailout. These semi-skilled workers will be among those who will receive the money stolen from many others of us, those with no pull in Washington. They and legions of people who will not pay their debts will leach a hefty portion of the blood from many of us. Not being able to pay your mortgage or your credit card debt will entitle you to be receiver of stolen goods provided by the kind-hearted BO. That he will threaten the use of brutal and overwhelming force to collect the goodies to be redistributed will be ignored. This is the change we can believe in!

Young workers, those not in the legions of low-paid government service corps modelled after Hitler Youth and the Brownshirts, will ultimately be groaning under the weight of higher taxes to support the retiring Baby Boomers on their cush retirements under Social Security. These Baby Boomers will do no work from age 67 to age 89, on average. Twenty-two years of leisure at the expense of the younger generations. This is the change we can believe in!

The United Nations will be given total control of the seas and will be acceded the right to tax all countries in the world. The United Nations will determine what rights the individual has and condemn any nation with a different concept of individual rights. The United Nations will designate nations with different concepts of rights to be, let me guess, fascist nations. The United Nations will require massive redistributions of income and wealth within all nations and between all nations. This is change we can believe in!

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