Look for this guy to get shot

Whatever Happened....

John Loudon writes:

Recall the summer of 2009. Traditional values-loving Americans, all over the Country were so shocked by the bailouts, cap and trade and other big government expansion programs that they took to the streets in numbers never seen before. Liberals were shocked that the political right had figured out the playbook of the political left. As the Congressional Summer recess got underway, leftist politicians found their town hall meetings packed to the rafters with angry people asking tough questions. As the bloggers streamed the footage and America got a nearly daily dose of another Democrat politician getting hammered, it became clear that the left was unprepared.

Protesters were disparaged as “tea baggers” and Astroturf, but name-calling is not what they do in Chicago. It might be over the top to say the President; himself ordered the hit, but what about his people? What he said of the conservative protestors is “If they are going to hit us, we will hit them back twice as hard “. Within two days, a black man distributing patriotic flags and buttons, found himself struggling under a tremendous beating from as many as four separate assailants. The Service Employees International Union members got the President’s message. The SEIU members sporting their purple people beater shirts picked their first victim. Perhaps most disturbing, the attack began with a black union member coming unglued on a black man who did not share his leftist political beliefs all the while calling him a “nigger”. Is this a hate crime?

It has been three months now, so what happened to the thugs? Nothing. Local Prosecutors appear to have taken a pass.

The rest of the story here.

This is what I call Truth in Advertising

Reading The Tea Leaves

Daniel Henninger, of the Wall Street Journal writes:

Welcome to the permanent American tea party.

You will recall how when the tea-party movement erupted during the congressional recess in August, it was spun on the left that these events were the creation of conservative ideologues. At the start, yes. By the end, though, it was about anxieties deeper than that.

The GOP is now spinning the results in Virginia and New Jersey as proof that voters are fed up with the liberal ideologues in the White House and Congress. Yes, but it's deeper than that.

What was learned Tuesday is that the American voter is absolutely, totally, unremittingly disgusted with both political parties. More than anything, the American voter is desperate for political leadership.

That electorates in two politically significant states, led by the widening independent movement, could swing within one year from enthusiasm for electing Barack Obama to support for Virginia's OK Republican Bob McDonnell and New Jersey's lackluster Chris Christie is simply astonishing.

* * * * *

This is not normal. A new American presidency, especially this one, should not be in this much trouble 10 months into a four-year term. Nor would it be if not for the economic events that fell out of September 2008.

Absent the immediate need to steady the credit markets and deal with a deepening recession, the Obama White House would have introduced--and passed--its restructuring of the U.S. health-care system in early spring. Instead, voters watched Congress create and pass a nearly trillion-dollar "stimulus" bill, and then erect the world's tallest national budget--a towering $3.5 trillion. They watched the Obama Treasury, now hard-wired to the Federal Reserve, intervene massively in the structure of the private economy. There was an attempted federal climate-control bill, an attempted expansion of union organizing rights (card check) and second thoughts on free-trade agreements.

Only then, in June, was this hyperactive government able to introduce its health-care proposal--the public option, the remaking of the insurance industry, a 5.4% tax surcharge, the expansion of Medicaid.

After his election, Mr. Obama's strongest attribute was limitless self-confidence. He was a man aglow with knowledge, control and . . . leadership. Now, with the scale and cost of Mr. Obama's ambitions so clear, the question many voters are asking is whether the Obama government's reach exceeds its grasp or abilities--or any government's.

The most acute voters know these are not normal times. The Obama vision so far looks a lot like the social-market economic model of Europe, where leaders such as Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel give homilies about the "crisis" of capitalism. If American voters then look toward Asia, they see rising economies using capitalism to supplant Europe.

American voters know they've reached a long-term economic tipping point. Which way to go, old West or new East? They understand the challenges are growing while the politicians seem to be shrinking.

So the Republicans "won" Tuesday. Now what?

Just as the Democrats in 2008 ran mainly against "Bush," the Republican political model seems to be to let Democratic failure dump states like New Jersey and Virginia into their control. But I think most voters, no matter their party registration, know that in the past 12 months the stakes for them have suddenly become larger than political "control."

Unless leadership emerges equal to the new world voters see they have fallen into, volatility in America's election returns is going to be the norm for a long time.

Belmont Club

I frequently link to the Belmont Club, where Richard Fernandez writes on many subjects. I found two of his recent posts and comments especially interesting, and thought that readers here would appreciate them. Both of them touch upon the decline of Christianity in the West in competition with other world-views.

The Lighting of the Beacons

Alone

Clever

More at Zombie Time

Protecting Assets Against Hyper-Inflation

Glenn Reynolds share's some thoughts on protecting assets against hyper-inflation.

Click Here.

Real Estate and Natural Resources (Gold) rank high - but surprising to me - stocks. Perhaps related - the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed over 10,000 points yesterday? Is this in anticipation of a recovery or of inflation?

Register Non-Gun Owners

Vermont State Rep.. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as Vermont's own Constitution very carefully, and his interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs in New England and elsewhere.

Maslack recently proposed a bill to register non-gun-owners and require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would become the first state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun.

Maslack read the "militia" phrase of the Second Amendment as not only affirming the right of the individual citizen to bear arms, but as a clear mandate to do so. He believes that universal gun ownership was advocated by the Framers of the Constitution as an antidote to a "monopoly of force" by the government as well as criminals.

Vermont's constitution states explicitly that "the people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and the State" and those persons who "conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms" shall be required to "pay such equivalent." Clearly, says Maslack, Vermonters have a constitutional obligation to arm themselves so that they are capable of responding to "any situation that may arise".

Under the bill, adults who choose not to own a firearm would be required to register their name, address, Social Security Number, and driver's license number with the state. "There is a legitimate government interest in knowing who is prepared to defend the state should they be asked to do so," Maslack says.

Vermont already boasts a high rate of gun ownership along with the least restrictive laws of any state - it's currently the only state that allows a citizen to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. This combination of plenty of guns and few laws regulating them has resulted in a crime rate that is the third lowest in the nation.