Bent Notes

To normal people this looks like abject failure; to FHers, it’s the totalitarian plan, unfolding right on cue

2010-03-16T18:13:48Z

Geithner, Romer and Orszag tell the House Apropriations Committee that unemployment most likely won’t go below the current 9.7 percent for the rest of the year.

A brief glossary of BN-isms

2010-03-16T16:36:31Z

As evidenced by some new participants in the comment threads, readership is up here at BN. Welcome, everybody.

To facilitate your orientation to the BN view, herewith are definitions for some terms we’ve coined over the years:

TCM – Barack Obama. The Chicago Marxist. Also sometimes known as The Aquarian Totalitarian, or The Most Equal Comrade.

FHers - Freedom-Haters. By far the largest faction within the Democratic party. Their natural inclination in considering any issue is to curtail individual liberty and expand the scope of the state.

Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome - the illusion suffered by way too many Republicans that beyond the differences in core philospophy, FHers are just nice, reasonable folks and that there are many areas in which one can work with them in a bipartisam fashion. John McCain is the ultimate Reasonable Gentleman, and that’s why he got his clock cleaned in 08.

TCM wants America to appear weak and unexceptional – today’s edition

2010-03-16T16:22:46Z

Were you aware the FHer regime has a policy of not flying the flag over our military’s humanitarian mission in Haiti?

Why the EPA should be dismantled . . . this afternoon

2010-03-16T16:16:59Z

. . . and why the New York Times editorial staff ought to be heavily sedated and ushered into padded cells.

Sip their tea and munch their cookies, but give ‘em both barrels

2010-03-16T15:21:20Z

Big-wig Constitution-hater Chris Van Hollen is distributing a memo to his colleagues telling them to make nicey-nice with the the liberty lovers descending on D.C. today.

It’s probably safe to eat their little niblets. They wouldn’t be so brazen as to off you in the foyer of the Cannon Building. But just remember what their endgame is. In the chilling words of San Fran Nan:

“Kick open that door, and there will be other legislation to follow,” she said. “We’ll take the country in a new direction.”

What started with the FHers’ attempt to make us think a few particular problems with the cost of health care necessitated a socialist transformation is now a Constitutional crisis

2010-03-16T13:50:21Z

If the Slaughter solution, which is unconstitutional, is the means used to pass FHer-care, it’s not really law and something we have to comply with, is it?

As Hayek said, the worst will wind up on top

2010-03-16T13:01:50Z

Ed Fuelner at Townhall says that the government’s zeal to respond with regulation to any financial crisis proves that Congress does two things well: 1.) nothing, and 2.) overreact. He points out that Sarbanes-Oxley, enacted in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom collapses, wound up costing, like all government programs (think Medicare and Social Security) vastly more than originally envisioned, and harmed smaller businesses’ access to credit. We’re about to do the same thing with Chris Dodd’s panel or council or whatever that will sit in judgement of investment banks that don’t meet government standards of performance. Just who is going to sit on these panels? The reason I ask is that the FHer record for choosing people to fill such seats of wisdom is not encouraging. Think Andy Stern and deficit reduction.

Paul Ryan hurls a thunderbolt

2010-03-15T23:15:54Z

Beyond fabulous. Is it too early to start a support group advocating him for the oval office?

So what do they reflect? The will of the pomegranates?

2010-03-15T22:39:38Z

TCM says never mind polls, do the will of the people.

Not wise to pile on after the apology

2010-03-15T19:23:20Z

John Podhoretz at Commentary has the best take I’ve seen on the current juncture in the Biden trip-settlement-building announcement-Biden-condemnation-Netanyahu apology for the timing-Hillary screaming into the phone unfolding of events.

The timing of this was badly handled by Israel’s coalition government. Surely the responsible party sees in hindsight that it makes going ahead with the construction – which will happen and is a good thing, since we’re talking about an area inside Jerusalem – all the more fraught with US FHer histrionics.

And Roger Simon at Pajamas Media weighs in with the full set of factors that could make American Jews rethink – in the near future and big-time – their decades-long fealty to the Democrat party.