Good or Bad for the Jews

"Good or Bad for the Jews"

Many years ago, and for many years, I would travel to Morocco to visit uncles, cousins, and my paternal grandmother. Some lived in Tangiers;...

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The Next Four Years: Battle of the Two "F" Words

Well, it was on.

I refused to watch it.

Huh? What did I refuse to watch? You have to ask? The inauguration, of course.

There I was at the gym, minding my own business, listening to my Chuck Berry, Beach Boys, and Warren Zevon, and all the TV sets had that thing on. I refused to watch; refused to listen to the "soaring" rhetoric; refused to read the closed caption titles. I felt much like what many Japanese must have watching the Missouri pull into Tokyo bay. November 6 was bad enough. I don't need to watch the formal surrender ceremony in which the United States gives in to the Chicago occupation.

Prediction: The next four years will be a battle between two "F" words.

The first "F" word stands for all that is wrong with modern politics in the Western world: It serves as the rallying cry of the takers, the distributors, the believers in the state over the individual. It is, in short, the most obscene word in the English language, a word which must be stricken from the vocabulary of every child, and most certainly not enshrined as official policy. It is a word so obscene that I have difficulty writing it down. I will try to overcome my revulsion. Yes, of course, I speak of the hideous word "fair." No more vile one can exist.

"Fair" is the cry of the leftists who rule and ruin our country. That ugly word serves as the justification to raise taxes, increase spending, and, of course, expand the power of the state over the private sector and the individual. Fear, hate, and resist that word. Whenever a politician uses it, you know a tax increase is coming, some new programs are around the corner, and another piece of your freedom is forfeit. This horrid word often goes along with its faithful companion, the horrible "C" word, "change." For there to be a 'fair' society you must not oppose 'change'! Fairness and change are good!

All too often we conservatives get weak-kneed in the face of the word "fair," especially when its coupled with "change." To do so, of course, is to give up your values and freedoms. Who said life has to be fair? Which article or amendment in the Constitution tasks the government with making life fair? "Fair" is an excuse for "Change" which we are told is "good."

Change, of course, is neither good nor bad in and of itself: it is just change. When Carter gave way to Reagan, that change was good. When the Weimar Republic gave way to the Third Reich, well, that change was not good. Believe it or not, I had this argument at State some years ago, when those of us who resisted and questioned the Department's "Affirmative Action" programs--designed to ensure greater "fairness" in hiring--were accused of "fearing change." We were gathered in a meeting with the mighty ones of personnel and I remember the dopey Director General telling me that I feared change, and my replying, "You're damn right I fear change when it is to the bad." I then went on to give my Weimar to Third Reich analogy. One of her little minions came around to my office the next day telling me "to cool it." Needless to say, I did not get the assignment I wanted, and my career went increasingly into dangerous waters.

The call to make things "fair" is the single greatest threat we face, especially if we leave the elitist takers to define the word.

What hope do we have? I have picked another "F" word that encapsulates all that is remarkable and positive and fresh about the private sector, the market and its genius. That word is "fracking." The process of "fracking" and the amazing technologies that go with it have given new life to America's domestic energy industry. "Fracking" could within a very short time turn the US into the world's greatest producer of hydrocarbons. Canada and the US stand to become the new OPEC, or at least to smash the power of the old one. Freedom, ingenuity, and the private sector have produced this turn-around which promises to revolutionize the economy and the world's political outlook. The problem? The "fair" mongers are beginning to turn their efforts to undermine the "frackers." They can't stand the thought of energy companies providing the energy that Americans want and need. The government must determine what sort of energy we need and use. We must subsidize silly electric cars, solar panel manufacturers, and wind turbines, and try by all the means possible to demonize, restrict, tax, and regulate the "frackers." Is it "fair" to have so much wealth going to Texas, North Dakota, and Alberta?

Fair vs. Frack. That sums up the next four years. The winner will determine what kind of a country we become.

40 comments:

  1. I was thinking of another 4 letter "F" word myself. Lets hope Boehner has the backbone for the next few years to hold the tide back until the Conservatives can get their heads out.
    Campaign 2016 starts today.

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  2. I just wanted to say I make 8. Nothing's ever fair. If you saw what happened to my once luscious mane of blonde you'd know. Frack it. Even the language is off limits. But that's another F.

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  3. Not to quibble, but it's "Weimar", not "Wiemar".

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    1. Thanks. My bad. I was in a fowl er foul mood

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    2. In all fairness, you got it right the 2nd time.

      Oops, did I just type "fairness"?

      I feel so dirty...

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  4. "Fair" is nothing more than a smokescreen for the left to appropriate all the power and other goodies.

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  5. Just to make this misery we all share even deeper, did you know that we FSOs are no longer allowed to refer to ourselves as "Americans?" To quote a recent (unclassified) cable:

    "Please do not/not use the terms AmCit,
    American citizens, AMCons, American Consulate, AmEmb, or
    American Embassy. The use of the term America or
    American is sensitive in some regions as it is used to
    identify the continents of the Americas, not a single
    country."

    I have a third F word in mind here....

    ACCO

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    Replies
    1. What are you allowed to call yourself then?

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    2. U.S. citizens, U.S. Embassy/Consulate. Just not American anything. Offensive to somebody. Funny, I don't recall other countries asking me if I'm offended by anything in their names. Must have been out sick that day....

      ACCO

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    3. Yes, I read that cable, too, and have refused to use anything but American, Amcit, AmConGen, etc since. F'em.

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  6. I consider our oil resources as a trust fund, writ large. We purposefully put restrictions on trust funds to keep immature beneficiaries from squandering them. Just as well that the oil stays safely in the ground until we elect a more responsible group in Washington.

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  7. One thing I have striven mightily to teach my 8 year old, is that life is not fair. I suspect he isn't going to learn that in school.

    Once upon a time we were taught the expect equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. Dear Leader and his ilk will continue to do their utmost to completely destroy that concept.

    And stealing from Lincoln in his speech--there's no low to which he will not stoop, it seems.

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    1. King O also stole the words "peace in our time" from a rather infamous leader for his Second Inaugural speech.

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    2. Yeah...nothing this guy says surprises me anymore, and the abysmal ignorance of the public in general means (more often than not) he gets away with it.

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  8. DiploMad 2.0 is my new favorite blog.

    Great stuff.

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    1. Welcome to Mr. Mad's group of "6 or 8" other devoted readers!

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  9. Thank you for the term"fairmonger", I look forward to using it to deride leftists in the future.

    -Matt

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  10. Zevon! That Director General may have thought you were an excitable boy. Heh.

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  11. Oh my dear DiploMad, what were you thinking? Using logic in arguing against a bad idea. Perish the thought.

    Great post, I will be linking to you today, for sure.

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  12. Must say I enjoy your commentors Diplomad over (some of) the commentors on another blog I regularly visit. Far as "fair" goes, some seem oblivious to the words Pursuit of where the "happiness" is mentioned - preferring, apparently, to believe it's only fair happiness is to be spread over the land like a layer of honey.

    "Fracking" - I do wish every citizen would be required to do "a boot camp" in hydrocarbon production - preferably too in geophysics. Recently we here in Arkansas're being tormented by, snort, envionmentalist naysayers explaining our earthquakes are soley caused by the practice.

    These "helpful people" don't seem to understand the method has a History longer (and otherwise put into practice) than fluid injection.

    Nor that the very close proximity to the New Madrid Faultzone just might have something to do with why the ground occasionally shakes.

    Arkie

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  13. I entered the FS in 1968, when a single woman could be an FSO but if she married a non-FSO she was expected to resign her commission. And my wife's performance was still commented on in evaluation forms. I watched the women's movement come into our service and actually joined NOW for a year -- until I saw that what they wanted was not fairness but privilege. Why give up one privileged class in favor of another?

    Some of what we lived through in the next two decades was sensible and reflected well on the USA. Some did not. When the latter category exceeded the former I was gone -- and missing the FS I had originally joined.

    That transition illustrates in microcosm and well what is wrong with Obama's policies of envy and exclusion. The FS benefited from a wider representation of American culture in our ranks. We did not benefit from leapfrogging and excluding men who had built a career in the service and had the institutional memory that made it an effective institution. Nor will America as a nation benefit from excluding and penalizing productive citizens in favor of masses who live on the dole but reward their patron with votes. The Chicago way doesn't even work in Chicago -- what makes any rational observer think it might work in the nation as a whole?

    Our economy is large and rich enough that it can support a large population of non-productive people, and Obama can point to that see and say "see? my policies work!" Until they don't. A similar sand-in-the-bearings moment will come to the FS some day. Perhaps it already did when they eased you out, Dip. F

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    1. Our economy is large and rich enough that it can support a large population?

      Are you sure F?

      Is the economy large &Rich by printing 600 Billions money note which not cost more than 6 Cent?

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    2. Should have read ". . .a large +non-productive+ population." No, printing bills is the not the reason we are large and rich, our productivity is. Am I sure the economy can support non-productive people? Yes, to a point. We certainly have for a long time. But right now we are plumbing just where that point is. The fact that we are borrowing such a large part of our budget tells me we are getting very close to a point where we can no longer support so many non-productive people.

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    3. "The fact that we are borrowing such a large part of our budget tells me we are getting very close to a point where we can no longer support so many non-productive people."

      Friend of mine over in the UK linked to a chart that perhaps goes about the furthest neatly illustrating that fact F:

      http://duffandnonsense.typepad.com/duff_nonsense/2013/01/another-picture-worth-a-thousand-words.html

      Arkie

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    4. F. Could you please state to us who are those US support them “ non-productive people."?

      What about China economy and the amount of cash they had?

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  14. Over at the Nice Deb blog a former liberal said this about fairness as well.

    "To the Democrat, “fairness” is the most important litmus test of a society. It trumps liberty. It trumps private property rights. It trumps the rights of individuals. It trumps out Constitution and system of government. We must make all things “fair.”

    Good advice -- fight fair. Fight for Fracking.

    If fracking would produce fairness perhaps we would have a shot.

    Free is another F word (one of many)that seems to define this Administration.

    Thanks for all you do. This blog is a welcome "go to" for me.

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  15. The logic behind use of the "fair" word is frequently circular. Question their premises.

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  16. Quietly waiting for Mr. D's take on Mrs. Clinton's performance on the hill today...

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  17. I think it was Thomas Sowell who said that "fair" is a word that appears mainly in the vocabulary of Liberals and small children.

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    1. "Fair" isn't reserved as a monopoly for the Liberals.

      Why once a year down in "Hillbilly Arkansas" in our county, we set aside one week near the end of harvest-time to show off our pumpkins, tomaters, and provide opportunities for our non-farm small children to learn the difference between fresh air and air infused with (I'll be nice and use what - I think it might've been ETR described it) "bovine excrement."

      That way we figure it - when they get around people produced BS, they'll know They ain't in [Ar]Kansas no more.

      Arkie

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  18. Mr. D., thanks for your fully formed and fulminating fusillade against the fabricated fairness of the left's use of "fair". That being said, there is another famous four letter "F" word which I rather like and use whenever possible.

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  19. Your trip to the gym reminded me of why, after getting a guest pass at a local gym while visiting the in laws over Christmas, I built my own gym in an old chicken coop on my property. Can. Not. Take. MSM Surround Sound! LOL! I'd rather enjoy my latest workout music; Mike and the Mechanics.

    I saw an excellent video on Russia's push to develop its natural gas resources and distribute it to the European market. If we don't push fair aside, we will be sitting on the side of the road in our windmill driven tin cans, while Russia becomes the new world supplier of cheap compressed natural gas.

    sb

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  20. D---

    Fairness. I was waiting to see what Di Fi was going to do with her bill on "assault" weapons. We see today. Fair? These folks have come out swinging with clear determined motives. Now, will we buckle down for a fight?

    I do not know, as I am not clairvoyant. I am a ranch owner and lover of this country. I reckon, as we say in Texas, that at least we can see the enemy coming. Now, what will we do. HOw do you stand against Washington. I'd like to see Texas secede but doubt folks have the stomach to even start that discussion.

    The idea they started their conference on guns with a prayer is the most offensive to me, as a Chaplain. These same folks have thought nothing of killing over 55 million babies in the last 40 years so their mind and motives are suspect to God and to us. Who do they think they are fooling.....
    Between this abomination and HIllary lying indignantly over the deaths of brave men, we have had enough for this week.

    The East Texas Rancher

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    1. Nice commentary, on today's unfairness's, ETR. They are more common than usual, I suspect. Life is never fair, nor is death fair.

      Consider Newtown tragedy, versus this remark today in my email. "If abortions were performed with guns, would it then be illegal??" If the guns were sterilized, performed in a sterile manner, with intentional informed consent, still illegal?? Recent years, about 1.2 million fetus removals per year, in America.

      And viewed in a different context, in 2011, Deaths of living out of the womb people, were performed 323 times by assault weapons, 496 times by hammers, bats, and clubs, 650 by various penetrating means like knives, picks, etc, 12,000 killed by drunk/drugged drivers, 195,000 deaths by medical malpractice, and of course, 1.2 million fetuses/infants by the surgeon.

      And just to throw in the fairness concept again, the FBI states that in the last several years, men were the ones who did the evil killings as random active shooter incidents of by 96%, that means they made the decision to do the killing, so then, is that a fair comparison of deaths, considering who actually decided to make an abortion happen? I bet it was in the neighborhood of 96% women who decided that matter?

      Fair is a truly terrible term, as the the Dip points out. Fair belies tragedy and goodness, both immeasurable and nearly un-assignable.

      To couch the matter of a class of shooting incidents in a bit of perspective, check these FBI recent statistics quoted from a current (December) DHS-FBI report:

      "The bulletin provides brief advice on crisis response and long-term protective measures as well as statistics related to past active shooter incidents, which are defined as situations where one or more individuals participate in a “random or systematic killing spree demonstrating their intent to harm others with a firearm.” Active shooters are distinguished from other “traditional criminal acts, such as robbery or hostage-taking” by their intention to commit “mass murder”. The FBI analyzed 154 active shooter events in the United States between 2002 and 2012 that included three or more individuals being shot. This analysis found that:

      ■96% of the shooters were males
      ■51% of the shooters were deceased following the attack (43% committed suicide and 8% were shot and killed by responders)
      ■96% of the attacks involved shooters acting alone
      ■37% of the attacks occurred in workplaces and 17% occurred in an academic setting
      ■40% of the attacks were unable to be linked to a clear motivation
      ■21% of the attacks were motivated by workplace retaliation and 14% were motivated by domestic disputes
      ■Academic retaliation by a current or former student only accounted for 7% of the attacks
      The FBI’s analysis found that active shooters were often described as “social isolates” that “harbored feelings of hate and anger” and had some contact with mental health professionals. Though mental illness is a common factor among many active shooters, its functional role in causing the massacre is indeterminate according to FBI analysis. Very few of the shooters in cases analyzed by the FBI had previous arrests for violent crimes, though many had encountered a significant emotional hardship prior to the attack such as “loss of significant relationships, changes in financial status, loss of a job, changes in living arrangements, major adverse changes to life circumstances, and/or feelings of humiliation or rejection on the part of the shooter.”" Is it fair for Di Fi to try to remove all guns, more or less?

      Was Hillary's performance fair, with all the smoke pouring out of the hearing room? Considering Hillary's background, consider this take from a different corner of the sphere, a Ph.D. real Comanche enrolled Indian descendent, and conservative, no less:

      http://www.badeagle.com/2013/01/23/hillary-defiant-dishonest-and-disgraced/
      Jack

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  21. I too am another faithful follower, although I suspect there are more than a few of us, Dip. I SO enjoy your ruminations and dissertations. I learn something new each blog and am impressed with your depth of understanding of what we are up against these days.

    Take heart all, God IS in control! For the life of me, I'm not sure what He's up to, but I'm sure it's in our best interest in the long run.

    Got my RNA Pistol Practical Badge last weekend. Guess that makes me a "legal" shooter in the left's eyes, right? HAHAHAHHAHAH!

    Blessings

    Liberty Grace's Grandma

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    1. Liberty Grace's grandma,
      Our son, who serves named his first child, Liberty Noel. His comment to me was he knew he was in for a long war and that he needed to remember WHO and WHAT he was fighting for! I exempted him from 5 years of Mother's Day cards for his deep thinking. He has been over as a pilot more than 11 times.
      Now, we call our Liberty, "Libby".
      Blessings and may we hold liberty awhile longer. East Texas Rancher

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    2. Please forget the God stuff... The takers won the last election.
      This does not bode well for the productive class be they religious adherents or not.
      When will you stop splitting the hair? We are underwater and you want to pontificate about religion?
      Don't you understand that your freedom of religion is under attack if we don't stop this?

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  22. your blast at fairness is right on target, you take some well-aimed shots. no flash in the pan! there is a new short book out by Stephen Asma, Against Fairness. definitely worth a read!

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