Posse Incitatus

Bureaucratic Tentacles

It's been a long day, so I'm going to be brief.  A few months ago, I wrote about Obama's czar system and how unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats often possess great power to regulate people's lives.

Philip Klein of American Specator wrote eloquently on the topic in "All the President's Regulators."  He notes that the regulators enable statist Barack Obama to "realize the parts of his agenda that he is unable to enact through the legislative process."  They also make it easier for the administration to pay back cronies and supporters, such as labor unions.  It's a good read. Check it out.

PRIORITIES, PLEASE — The other day I saw a couple of black legislators testifying in the House — one was Eleanor Holmes Norton, the nonvoting District of Columbia congresswoman; the other person, a man, I didn't catch his name.  Both were grandstanding about the White House party crashing bozos, feigning great alarm and outrage about the danger these two posed to our first black president.

Any doofus knows visitors who get into the White House must pass through metal detectors, layers of Secret Service agents, and perhaps sniffing dogs.  The notion that the two party crashers could have done harm to the President is asinine. 

Then it dawned on me: The idiots in Washington are making a bigger deal out of this silly incident than they are about the Islamofascist soldier who opened fire at Ft. Hood and murdered 13 people in cold blood.  This is just another of those non-stop indicators of how the kooks in charge in D.C. have run us off the rails.

Pearl Harbor Day in the age of amnesia

Each volume of Winston Churchill's epic Second World War has its own theme.  The theme for the sixth and final volume, Triumph and Tragedy is:

How the Great Democracies Triumphed, and so Were able to Resume the Follies Which Had so Nearly Cost Them Their Life

And so they are again.  Iraq is becoming steadily more peaceful.  The daily catalog of violence is now more indicative of criminal syndicates than a government-threatening insurgency.

Afghanistan teeters on the brink, but thanks to improvements in the U.S. security posture and the achievements of American arms, it is taken for granted by the political establishment that major terror attacks simply aren't likely any more.  Indeed, Al Qaeda is so beaten down we are permitting ourselves the luxury of civilian-themed show trials for select captured unlawful enemy combatants.

Of course the analogies are never exact.  History repeats itself, but always adds a new twist.  For 60 years, we waited for waves of Soviet bombers to serve as the "next Pearl Harbor," but instead we got civilian airliners hijacked by Islamofascist terrorists.

So it will be with the next attack.  Already we are dulling our readiness, absorbing ourselves in internal debates and beginning to wonder how we can spend the money that should go to strengthening our military (health care?  More stimulus? Cap and tax?).

Santayana got it wrong: those who don't know history are never condemned to repeat it, because they don't know it in the first place.  Rather it is the fate of those who study the past to endure the same follies again and again.  A.A. Milne's phrase keeps coming to mind:

Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.

Copenhagen II

A little over two months ago, President Barack Obama haughtily and arrogantly journeyed to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago as the ideal site for the 2016 Summer Olympics.  Amid much fanfare, his wife Michelle and Oprah Winfrey accompanied him before the Olympic Congress.

The O-man had been flying high for months, ever since his impressive rise from an obscure senator to President of the United States following an epic showdown with Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.  He probably assumed he would glide to another victory — for Chicago.  That the International Olympic Committee would be obsequiously fawning over him as does the American news media, and as did his cult-like followers.

But a famous headline when the Committee chose Rio de Janeiro summed it up pretty well: "The Ego has Landed." Maybe, just maybe, this narcissistic liberal with a gargantuan ego had learned that he cannot always get his way, and not everyone is awe-inspired by his mere presence.

Still, Obama is heading back to the scene of his high-profile failure, this time to address a convention of climate change true believers. 

As someone who well recalls the hysterical headlines of the 1970s about how we were headed for another Ice Age, and a long-time skeptic of the whole notion of human-caused global warming,  I am delighted to see the Al Gore acolytes reeling.  The "Climategate" issue, i.e., the publicized e-mails about the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit trying to fudge data, have cast a pall over the Copenhagen Climate Conference.

It is my sincere hope — and something that would give me a great deal of satisfaction — that President Obama's speechifying will be for naught.  That his words will be just that: words, SANS inspiration, and his audience will be dispirited and in retreat like a rag-tag army that has been routed in battle.

More and more, heavy hitters in the fields of climatology and meteorology are asking tough questions about anthropological climate change; universities are investigating some of the e-mail conspirators; and even a few journalists are getting suspicious.

C'mon, Copenhagen: Don't let me down.

The Spartan Hoopsters

When it comes to basketball, North Carolina seems to bring out the worst in Michigan State.  In December 2008, the Tar Heels pummeled the Spartans, 98-63 at Ford Field in Detroit — almost a home game for MSU.  Then, four months later, these two squads met for the national championship game — ironically, also at Ford Field.  MSU played poorly from the start and was blown out, 89-72.

On Tuesday, Dec. 1, as part of the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge in which teams from the two conferences play each other, Michigan State again found itself matched up against the powder blue team from Chapel Hill.  Only this time, it was on NC's home court. 

The Spartans shot horrendously from behind the arc, hitting only 2 of 20 three-point attempts.  There were defensive breakdowns and some crucial turnovers by Michigan State that prevented the Spartans from taking control.  Also damaging to the Spartans' performance was the lackluster rebounding.  Normally MSU is one of the best rebounding teams in the country, but both teams finished with 39 rebounds in this game, and North Carolina's always seemed to come at the most opportune time for them (e.g., after missing a couple of free throws) and the most inopportune time for MSU. 

In the first half, Michigan State trailed by as much as 19 points.  I give the Spartans credit for clawing back to within 6 in the second half before losing by a respectable score of 89-82.  I'm not sure MSU has what it takes to win it all this season (they may be shy in the "big man" department, meaning their low post defense could be a weakness).  But I do know Delvon Roe and Draymond Green will be forces to be reckoned with before the season is over, and Michigan State traditionally plays much better in February and March than in November and December.

Don't be surprised if Tom Izzo's squad makes it to another Final Four.  But winning it all is going to be VERY tough, with the likes of Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, and North Carolina in the field.

FOOTBALL UPDATE — Spartans football coach Mark Dantonio has just announced the eight suspended players will not play in the team's bowl game.  This is good.  These young men need to know that even if they did not throw a punch or shove anyone, just accompanying their teammates on the dormitory intrusion/brawl showed miserably poor judgment and made them accomplices to a crime.  Here's a link to a story on Dantonio's Saturday presser. 

15 MINUTES OF FAME — Am I the only one who is sick to death of hearing/reading about the White House party crashers?  Doesn't it seem as if the vapid Tareq and Michaele Salahi are in love with their press clippings, utterly full of themselves, and craving all the media attention they can get? In that respect, they remind me of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, who appeared on the cover of the left-wing rag Vanity Fair. Ugh.  I just wish they'd go away.

EDUCATION FOLLIES — MIRS (Michigan Independent Research Service) is an online subscription newsletter that covers state politics and features a "Quote of the Day" in each issue.  The other day, MIRS ran this quote:

"I don't want my kids' future to be like this, living in a tent because they can't get a good education or get a good job."    - Dee LINDEMAN, a Centerline mother of four, who is camping out in front of the Capitol to protest K-12 education cuts.

Excuse me if this lady sounds like the K-12 version of Cindy Sheehan: Strident, in-your-face, sadly misguided, and probably not very bright.  K-12 public school students in Michigan are funded at about $8,000 to $10,000 apiece, and the education community is whining bitterly about cuts in the neighborhood of $200 per head.  Needless to say, many parochial schools do a far better job of educating, disciplining, and molding children into responsible young adults — at half the price.  The teachers' unions and education leeches will NEVER have enough money.  And it seems that accountability, or confronting them with the fact that higher spending doesn't bring better results, are concepts as foreign to them as an alien from another constellation.

Earth to Governor Tinkerbell: Your teachers' union buddies need to be reasonable and realistic, and make some concessions on their gold-plated health insurance coverage and pensions.  EVERYONE is suffering in this state.  Unemployment, reduced hours and wages, reduced or eliminated benefits, foreclosures, homelessness, hunger, domestic violence, depleted 401k's...

Teachers are not sacred cows.  They ought not be placed on a pedestal, and do not deserve to escape our present travails unscathed.  Listen, guv, quit using students and their parents as props and useful idiots. Hey, it's not as if you're running for re-election. You've got about another year in office, and could truly do some long-term good for Michigan's fiscal condition by being upfront with your union cronies.  Tell them this: Go ahead and get comfy rearranging your chairs and pillows on the deck of the Titanic.  But don't say I didn't warn you when you suddenly find yourself going down into icy water.

End the college victim zones

The gun rights front has been somewhat quiet in Michigan of late, which is both good and bad. On the plus side, the gun controllers are no longer making noises about repealing the shall-issue law.

On the downside, there are still several reforms that need to be implemented. One of the foremost would be scrapping the stupid and wasteful pistol registry.

Even more importantly, though, we need to get rid of Michigan’s Victim Zones. These are state-designated areas where concealed pistol licensees can’t carry. These are essentially game preserves for homicidal maniacs looking at creating a new body-count record.

The Fort Hood massacre should have made it clear to everyone that banning guns from specific areas doesn’t make them safer. If a sprawling military base packed with combat veterans and ringed with layers of security can’t stop a shooter, a putting a sign on a movie theater or college campus classroom won’t do it, either.

State Sen. Randy Richardville introduced a bill in August to end the campus prohibition. Good for him. But the bill needs to go farther. All of the exclusions should be removed.

If private property owners wish to establish their own Victim Zones, they have the right to do so, provided they post it. They should also bear liability costs for any loss or injury resulting therefrom. This would also allow the public the right to “vote with their feet” and go to other venues.

Michigan has had shall-issue for years and the random, crazy “wild-west” shootouts predicted by the gun control lobby simply haven’t happened. There is no reason to believe that they will if more of the state is opened up to trained, law-abiding citizens who wish only to defend themselves.

For those that are interested, the hearing on Senate Bill 0747 will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 1 p.m. in room 210 of the Farnum Building, which is the Senate office building across from Lansing’s tallest building (used to be call the Michigan National Tower, but the name has changed a couple of times since then). Anyhow, show up and voice your support and maybe we’ll make Michigan safer.

Spartan footballers rape Duke lacrosse team

Amidst the brouhaha about the Spartan Football Follies, it seems worthwhile to put things in perspective.

Already the Drew Sharps of the world are working themselves up into righteous indignation.  Before the executions begin, however, let us make sure we know what the crimes are.

I say this not as an apologist, but as a rationalist.  That is to say, I’m all for executions pour encourages les autres, but only if they are deserved.  These are my reasons for hesitation:

1.  We are only getting one side of the story.  As Sharp himself puts it:

The attorney representing one of the suspected victims said eyewitnesses told campus police that 15-20 men, most thought to be football players and a few wearing ski masks, crashed the affair and triggered violence.

MSU has said nothing.  The prosecutor has said nothing.  We effectively have no facts to go on, just the account of someone who has a clear interest in prepping the jury pool for a possible civil lawsuit.  This leads me to…

2.  Why does a victim even have an attorney?  If I get robbed, mugged, or otherwise assaulted, I don’t go and lawyer up, I go to the cops.  I know what many of you are thinking: what if I have to use force in self-defense?  Of course I would hire an attorney.  Which is exactly my point.  This person’s actions are indicative of someone who was not purely a bystander or victim.  Note the language of the attorney:  the players "crashed the affair and triggered violence."   Who threw the first punch?  We don't know.

3.  The press cannot be trusted.  We know this.  They always stick to the narrative, whether it is that gun control works, global warming is scientifically proven, racist hillbillies lynch census workers or that MSU football players like to start fights for random reasons.  This attorney has helped to shape the narrative, and the press is happy to play along because it is exactly what they want to report.

Let me give you three words to put this in perspective:  Duke Lacrosse Team.  Remember them?  The accusations were far worse, the furor far greater, and all of it – every detail – was wrong.  It was so wrong that the prosecutor was disbarred.  With that in mind, I’m not in any hurry to make my judgement.

Already, we are seeing cracks in the storyline that has been peddled. The Freep has started talking to parents, and while the squad doesn’t look good, it is a far cry from the “ski-mask-wearing-thugs-on-a-rampage” story we’ve been hearing.

Once all the facts emerge, we can then evaluate whether Dantonio has done the right thing, but not before.