The Deuce and Perfection

My mother was a perfectionist, my dad slightly less so. You'd think that being an only child I'd grow up to be a perfectionist too. Didn't happen. Maybe perfectionism skips generations, or maybe I consciencely rebelled against my parents perfectionism...or maybe I learned, as some wit once said, that 'perfection is rarely worth the effort.'

I'm a practical guy. For me, "good enough is good enough." If it works, if it accomplishes what I want, then it's all that is required and I'm free to move on to the next task, trading unreachable perfection for saving time, effort and resources. Certainly some things need to be closer to perfection than others. If I over cook my steak, it's still pretty tasty and 'perfectly edible.' If I undershoot my approach to the carrier while attempting to land my F-18 Hornet I'll be dead. Neither cooking my supper or landing my Hornet has to be perfect, but the approximation to perfection in the Hornet has to be much closer.

I am not arguing that improvement is undersirable or unobtainable. What I am arguing is that there comes a point in any endeavor when continuing to seek improvement becomes counter productive.

So what, you say?

Well, it turns out that seeking perfection as a society leads to some very destructive behavior.

      "Perfection spawns doctrines, dictators and totalitarian ideas."
                         Antonio Tabucchi

Understanding this, the authors of the U.S. constitution devised a system of government that was designed not to seek societal perfection (as one could argue the French revolution did), but instead to maximize individual liberty thereby enabling Americans to enjoy their liberty by pursuing happiness in their own ways through voluntary associations with each other and the peoples of other nations, whether by free trade or travel or the exchange of ideas.

Americans have embraced this view, to varying degrees, throughout most of our history as a nation. World history, life experience and common sense proved to most Americans that people will never be the same, or 'equal', and that attempts to force them to be are at best ridiculous and at worst destructive. Some people will be more successful at finding happiness than others. The best that can be expected is to make the laws of the land equally applicable to all, ensuring as best as is humanly possible that the opportunity to find happiness is open to all.

Communism, socialism and fascism are attempts to reach societal perfection by making everyone the same, or equal. If everyone is the same, the theories go, then there is no competition and hence no conflict.  If everyone is the same then there are no rich or poor, no oppressors or oppressed, no majorities or minorities. No religious differences, no competing economic plans, the same amount and quality of education, health care and housing. No one is better or worse than anyone else. Equality. Closer to perfection.

But not even Americans are free from the delusion that what is simply good can be made perfect. There have been several waves of 'progressivism' designed to bring America closer to societal perfection. FDR's New Deal was arguably the largest and most pervasive...until now.

The election of President Obama and the last four years of his administration are the latest, and I would argue the most damaging, of all attempts to make us all 'equal'. Not just equal with each other but also as a nation equal to all other nations. Wealth is redistributed, health care is socialized, the military is reduced, NASA is crippled, GM and Chrysler are nationalized to save the United Auto Workers union, international terrorists are appeased, foreign aid continues to flow despite what would be massive budget deficits if we had a national budget (the last federal budget having been passed in April, 2009), 49% of Americans don't pay any federal income tax, racial strife is increasing, government employees earn more than their private sector counterparts, more Americans are receiving food stamps than ever before and the unemployment rate has been over 8% for longer than at any other time in American history.

Not all of these ills can be laid at the feet of Obama, but many can be and those that can't have been made even worse by the President's disdain for free market capitalism, his seeming desire to see the U.S. 'humbled' in the international community and his delusional desire to 'perfect' America.

"Good enough is good enough" most often equates to "As good as it's gonna get."

Unlike my own parents, I  learned early on the difference between the obtainable good and the unobtainable perfection. Communists, socialist and facists need to learn the difference. A large number of Americans do too.  

  
   

The Deuce and the "Arab Spring"

The good and just Arab Spring, over flowing with democracy and diversity and religious tolerance (unless you're an infidel or a woman), yesterday produced it's first poisonous fruit when four U.S. diplomats at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were murdered either by a mob of Muslim tards or a coordinated attack by Al-Qaeda assassins, depending upon the media outlet reporting the news and the current state of intel America has been able to acquire regarding the killing.

As a relatively minor side-show Muslims in Cairo, Egypt, stormed the U.S. embassy compound, tore down the American flag and ripped it to pieces, and replaced it with a flag associated with Al-Qaeda while chanting, "Obama...we are all Osama!"

And to think president Obama supported the Arab Spring, and even went so far as to help the Libyan rebels by firing somewhere between 50 and 100 cruise missiles at Libyan government military installations during the revolt (against my advice I might add...see previous post The Deuce Effects U.S. Foreign Policy!).

According to Fox News, America has given away $150 billion dollars to middle eastern countries in the last 20 years, calling it "foreign aid". A great deal of that taxpayer money went to Libya and especially Egypt. As of now that foreign aid continues to grease the skids of democracy in the Muslim world and enable them to enjoy their free time by exercising their sharia right to kill infidels.

So far, the Obama administration's reaction to the murders in Benghazi is the predictable "Man, that really sucks" and "Rev. Wright says it's probably our fault" and "My administration will work with the Libyan government to make sure we bring these poor, misguided and under-appreciated future Democrats to justice just like we're doing with Army Major Hassan, the Ft. Hood traitor who murdered 13 fellow soldiers OVER TWO YEARS AGO and has still not been brought to trial 'cause he's got this beard see and the judge said he had to shave it for his court martial but Hassan doesn't want to and the appeals court hasn't ruled yet on whether or not Hassan can be forcibly shaved and there are just so many religious freedom issues and THIS IS ALL REALLY REALLY HARD!"

Who knew the Arab Spring wouldn't be full of butterflies and song-birds and cuddly little lambs prancing in the oasis?

Anybody with a brain.

Mr. Quarter is Thankful

This quote from Barry Obama during an interview this week with Time magazine:

"Where Republicans refuse to cooperate on things that I know are good for the American people, I will continue to look for ways to do it administratively and work around Congress."

Frankly, i am so thankful that Barry knows what is good for us and that he doesn't have to fuss with checking with us or our elected representatives before he imposes it upon us.  We have to defeat this man.
Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/08/30/what-he-knows-now-obama-on-popularity-partisanship-and-getting-things-done-in-washington/#ixzz253F5pETM

Joe Biden is Mr. Quarter's Hero

From today's Wall Street Journal: 

Joe Biden is going to the Republican National Convention to hold high the flag of his party. People make fun of his gaffes, of his embarrassing verbal forays, but he's no fool and he knows how to take it to the other guy. The speech he is working on, to be given in the heart of downtown, just across from the convention site, will be stirring and stentorian: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Tampa, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Tampon.'"

How true.

Mr. Quarter Holds Forth on Fairness and Inequality

For the life of me I cannot understand the political scene today and how the voters come to form opinions. The worst economy in my lifetime was in the period 1978-1980, the Carter years. The real cost of living was extraordinary, gas prices through the roof, interest rates and inflation in double digits. But it was over quickly too. Reagan hit the brakes, pushed us into recession and we were recovering in a matter of a year or so. But today’s dismal economic conditions just seem to keep going down and down with no real promise of an end in sight. This president doesn’t know how to fix it and, if he were candid with the electorate, doesn’t want to fix it because it provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to fundamentally transform America in his own vision.



If ever there was a clear signaling of someone’s ideology and intent, of their over-arching philosophy of the social construct, Barack Obama’s has certainly been writ large. He has explicitly proclaimed in unambiguous language that he thinks it is better to spread wealth around. His clear meaning was to take wealth from those that have it and re-distribute it to those that don’t have wealth. He has further signaled his intentions by attacking the very notion that you cannot be wealthy or successful in this country without blame or sin. Just yesterday he again posed (borrowing from Cherokee Elizabeth Warren) that no one that is wealthy or successful today got that way by their hard work and ingenuity. No, Obama claims that somewhere along the way someone had gave you a break, taught you something, or government paved the roads, laid the water pipes, or otherwise helped you. His intended implication was that as a result anyone that is wealthy or successful doesn’t actually deserve to keep that wealth and success to themselves and should therefore share it with those in the country that are not wealthy or successful.


What springs from this perverted view? Obamacare. The foundational notions that none can be turned away regardless of pre-existing conditions and mandatory coverage by all is now reduced by Supreme Court decision to insurance companies going bankrupt because they have to provide coverage without regard to risk, while no one has to buy unless they are actually sick. Penalty/tax? Pay it, it’s less than the premium until you need the insurance. Net effect, take from the insurance companies until they are bankrupt, take from the young and healthy until they are enslaved, and give to everyone else.


What springs from this perverted view? That you can have too much. Barack Obama and others sharing his views will decide how much you really need or are entitled to have. If you have a combined income of greater than $250,000 you are a millionaire in their eyes. You are not paying your fair share of taxes and should pay more. If you are paying taxes at a rate that was lowered like everyone else’s, you are not paying your fair share of taxes and should pay more. If you don’t pay any income tax at all? Well, you already pay your fair share because you also pay a wage tax.


I have read two articles in the last two days on fairness and equality that sicken me. The first expounded on the inequality of income between two “classes” of people. The first a single mother with children, the second a married mother with children. One income versus two combined incomes. The unfairness and injustice of this inequality was the focus. The take away was that we should make laws so that a single mother makes the same income as two people combined, or that we should take from the two people combined so that they made no more than the single mother. Sounds familiar – to each according to their needs? The second article concerned the unfairness of income inequality between a person who spends the time, money and effort to obtain a college degree and one who drops out of high school. Again, sounds familiar – from each according to their means. The thesis of each of these commentaries was essentially that as human beings, we are entitled by right to have parity with each other economically and that we have no right to excel and reap the rewards of higher levels of effort, higher levels of achievement, and higher levels of risk taking.


I feel helpless because so much of what ails this country and the solution is right in front of our faces. Straight forward commonsense, not liberal elite pedantries but old school and no nonsense. No one seems to have the fortitude to point it out. No one has the courage to step up and say that equality of outcome was never a part of the bargain. Fairness is subjective and exists only in the eye of the person being judged. If you have what you want it is fair but if you are still wanting then it is unfair. There is no objective standard of fairness that will satisfy all. Most importantly, this republic stands for the proposition that all have the same opportunity to succeed or to fail. It is up to each of us to step up and make what we can of that opportunity and stop claiming victimhood if we fail to reach the goal that we set for ourselves. The world is filled with losers and wannabees and is getting more crowded. So we are all individually responsible for our own path in life and we will all rise to the level that God intended for us to reach, and the sole reason any of us fail is lack of ambition, effort, or luck. It is not nor has it ever been for lack of opportunity.

Criminal?

Mr. Quarter notes that Obama campaign's attempt to paint Mr. Romney as a "felon" even though major newspapers and fact check organizations nationally decry the claim as bunk.  So, lets review.  Barack Obama has confessed to using and dealing in marijuana and cocaine in his "autobiography" books.  But he is not a felon?  Give me a f-ing break!

The Deuce and Making Shit Up

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) descended into a farcical hell last Thursday and dragged all of us with it when it ruled that The Affordable Health Care Act ( Obamacare ) was constitutional. For the first time in the history of the United States, citizens can now be taxed for simply being alive... and doing nothing but breathe.

Tax evasion is a crime; tax avoidance is as American as blood sports, muscle cars and moonshine. You can avoid any tax conceived by any government simply by not doing whatever is being taxed, or, if you're feeling froggy, you can devise shell corporations, off-shore numbered bank accounts and lie your ass off. However, if you don't have health insurance, for whatever reason, the only way to avoid the Obamacare individual mandate tax/penalty/assfuck is to renounce your U.S. citizenship and move to Ohshitistan...or croak. If you're drawing breath, you have to have insurance or shell out $800 to the I.R.S. Doesn't matter how rich you are (self insured), or how poor you are, it's pay the man, bitches! However, minorities, single moms, illegal aliens and members of the LGBT community can expect generous government subsidies to help pay for the insurance and avoid being unfairly taxed/penalized/associated with lesser, unprotected individuals, as if they were evil white men.

Adding insult to injury, the "logic" used by SCOTUS to find in favor of the government was so twisted, convoluted and tortured it would have made the most shameless pol who ever lived, Nancy Pelosi, proud to have thought of it. Though the law never calls the individual mandate requirement a tax in it's entire 2400 pages, and the government's Solicitor General argued on the first day of oral arguments that the mandate was not a tax, SCOTUS ultimately said, "Well, regardless of what the actual law says, what congressional leaders and President Obama say, we find it to be a tax, not a penalty, as every government agent has said it is, and therefore it is constitutional."

SCOTUS in fact didn't rule on the constitutionality of the law...it made up it's own law! The law SCOTUS ruled on doesn't exist...but the court wanted to find in favor of the law so it, well, it just made some shit up. Don't they know that making shit up is the job of the President and Congress and not the court? SCOTUS's entire reason for existing is to call "BULLSHIT" when it hears it, not to applaud the government's (or anyone else's) chutzpa for making up some seriously righteous B.S. and reward them for it by affirming the law?

Come on man! Justices are appointed for life. They can't be fired and are not subject to elections or recall. Their gig is for life...they're untouchable! That's the whole point. They get those perks so they can stand above and apart from partisan politics and hence are absolutely free to TELL IT LIKE IT IS without fear of any type of reprisal. In this case proponents of the law, backed by the MSM, deemed that to rule the law unconstitutional would mean "depriving 30 million Americans of health insurance". So, the Court decided that the facts of the case were so mean spirited and hard-hearted that the truth just wouldn't do, and so they just said, "Fuck it. We'll make some shit up and then everyone that matters will love us, we'll keep getting invited to all the cool kid's parties, and we'll go down in history as some righteous dudes."

The government had argued that the commerce clause of the constitution gave them the authority to enact the law; but the commerce clause says the government can REGULATE interstate commerce, not that it can DEMAND individuals participate in interstate commerce. Since the court couldn't find in the government's favor with a straight face using the commerce clause as the government had argued, it, well, made some shit up.


Prior to the court's decision being announced, most court watchers and commentators thought that at least the individual mandate would be voted down even if the rest of the law passed muster. The theory was that that the Court's four leftist commie bitches (Sotomayor, Kagan, Bader-Ginsburg and Bryer) would vote in favor of upholding the law, but would be overuled by the Court's four conservative champions of  truth, justice and the American Way (Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts) plus the pivotal swing vote of the fence-sitting pussy Kennedy.

But it was not to be. The God's of clusterfuck deemed that Chief Justice Roberts would cave to presidential, congressional and media pressure, and in order to 'save the reputation of the court' and his own legacy would vote with the Four Commies of the Courtpocalypse  and...wait for it...MAKE SOME SHIT UP!

The entire farce is worthy of Shakespeare.