The Father of Neo-Conservativism Dies

Had I known Irving Kristol was alive I probably would have attempted to email him to let him know that I thought he would go down in history books as the philosopher who doomed civilization as we know it.

Irving Kristol is the original and self-labeled “neo-conservative” and father to William Kristol, one of the most influential men in Republican politics despite having an impressive record at being wrong on every prediction and judgment that’s been offered up for public consumption. Irving Kristol started off as a Trotskyist but rejected that in the 30s for Liberalism, only to reject that in the 60s following the rise of the New Left. Yet his book “Neo-Conservatism” shows that the old man never left behind that Leninist love of controlling the minds of the masses. In it, he praises Machiavelli was the first great “post-Christian” philosopher. He laments the “tragedy of ‘Multiculturalism'” and pines for the America of the 30s, which he saw as “stronger” and “healthier” than the America of the 60s. You know, before blacks were allowed to go to white schools. His interest in banning pornography is not from a sense of religious zealotry but from the belief that strong nations are built on strong families, which is why he identifies with Orthodoxy (be it Jewish or Christian) over that of Gnosticism. It’s kind of scary reading someone who divides the world the same way you do only takes the opposite side.

Knowing this, it’s all the more revolting seeing how the Kristols so easily manipulated people whose beliefs are so different than their own. They’re former Marxists who tricked their sheep into accusing the center-left of “socialism,” Jews defining through Hannity and O’Reilly what it means to be a modern Christian, segregationists trying to claim that they are the party of Martin Luther King Jr. But it’s their own failed attempt at creating a “bedrock of bourgeois capitalism” (Irving’s words) that has brought about this economic crisis, their own self-delusion of Communist-style “liberation” propaganda that has trapped us in two decade-spanning wars, and their own “left-wing” ideology of cultural relativity that has allowed them to question global warming, arguing that it’s a “religion” even as they lead a resurgence of Creationism. When New York is flooded by the oceans in 2040, I’ll blame Irving Kristol, and probably curse William Kristol’s own lying brat, not realizing that the bastard who brought about so much misery in my own generation is still alive and culpable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8264260.stm

More “We’re All Going to Die” Links

For most people, the Scopes Monkey trial is a symbol of rigid Fundamentalism trying to take science out of the education process, but not to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They are actually calling for the EPA to hold a “Scopes”-like hearing on the evidence climate change is manmade:

http://climateprogress.org/2009/08/25/memo-to-alcoa-kodak-ibm-nike-pepsi-toyota-luddite-chamber-of-commerce-seeks-the-scopes-monkey-trial-global-warming/

It’s funny that the same side that argues Global Warming is like a religion use their own highly-questionable interpretations of the Bible to make their points:

http://climateprogress.org/2009/07/31/lobbyist-dick-armey-gospel-of-pollution-global-warming/

Here’s an article about how three benchmark glaciers used by geological surveys shows that a major meltdown is imminent:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/07/global.warming/index.html

Here’s some declassified spy satellites hidden by the Bush Administration showing retreating polar icecaps:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/26/climate-change-obama-administration

Here’s the latest in a series of studies that found glaciers melting faster than anyone predicted:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/07/global.warming/index.html

Here’s an article about how water melting from Antarctica could flood Washington D.C.:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16545-antarctic-bulge-could-flood-washington-dc.html

Here’s an article about how hot climates can create sluggish economies:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106697286

“Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response.”

Here’s the Top Ten Bogus Statements (BS) in the Climate Change Debate:

http://climateprogress.org/author/bill-becker/

Here’s a funny Daily Show clip about the birthers:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-july-22-2009/the-born-identity

Here’s an article about how Bush believed the Iraq War had been foretold in Revelation as the prophecy of ‘Gog and Magog’:

http://sedulia.blogs.com/sedulias_translations/2009/05/bush-chirac-gog-and-magog.html

Andrew Sullivan on the Bailouts:

“It’s despotism when we lose, freedom when we win. We should have more confidence in the people and the country than this. We should also have more charity to our political opponents – who after all are contending with hideous problems bequeathed to them by … by … well suddenly we Republicans cannot seem to remember who preceded Barack Obama in office. To listen to us, you’d think that the bailouts and takeovers started on January 20, 2009, not the previous March. You’d never know that TARP was supported by almost every Republican commentator, including the editors of National Review. Or that Vice President Cheney argued urgently in favor of the rescue of the Detroit automakers. Or that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enjoyed the backing of Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers.

One bad election converts us from ardent admirers of the American people to glum declinists who can see only a miserable moldering of a once great nation. I should have thought that conservative patriotism was made of stronger stuff.”

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/07/who-was-president-before-obama.html

How Dumb Can Man Be?

Before this crap started, generally everyone agreed health care had to be reformed. Even a lot of conservatives were congratulating Michael Moore on his movie ‘Sicko’ two years ago to my utter shock. Now it’s riot city. It’s not that I’m disappointed the crazies outnumber the reform protestors; it’s that they seem to even outnumber the war protests. The Baby Boom generation has failed us. It’s like for a brief glimpse in the 60s, the vast majority of the country’s youth understood that we needed to stop feeding the war machine and ferment better racial and gender equality throughout the nation, but now they’ve all retreated to their suburbs, cradling their guns in fear of the African Anti-Christ and his army of Socialist Gun-stealers.

I heard lately that although our material wealth has increased three times over since the 50s, we have steadily become less happy every decade, despite the explosion in mood-altering and sexual enhancement pharmaceuticals. Yet people were happier in the 60s with nothing but ragweed. A large part of it is because people know only half as many friends as they did back then, but I guess a lot of it can be attributed to the American need to outdo your neighbors and buy a bigger house.

I also read a Gallup Poll from 10 years ago that said one in five Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth. I’m having a hard time believing it. I keep thinking that most of them must have misread it or that it was phrased in a way that made them think the question was from their own perspective. Can people really be that stupid? It’s becoming a very transcendental question to me.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx

Why You Should Vote Republican

I got this email about “Why I am Voting Democrat.” The reasons were not very sound, so I replied with reasons why the author should instead be voting for the Republicans.

======================================

WHY I AM VOTING DEMOCRAT

>I’m voting Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.

Then you should vote Republican, because they’re the ones that doubled the $5,000,000,000,000 debt after Clinton balanced the budget.

>I’m voting Democrat because freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.

Then you should vote for Palin since she’s for trying to censor books at the library.

> I’m voting Democrat because when we pull out of Iraq I trust that the bad guys will stop what they’re doing because they now think we’re good people.

Then you should vote Republican since they’re the ones bitching about Obama going into Pakistan to get Bin Laden.

> I’m voting Democrat because I believe that people who can’t tell us if it will rain on Friday CAN tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don’t start driving a Prius.

Then you should vote Republican since they’re the ones who keep finding weather forecasters to talk about the completely unrelated topic of climate science instead of climate scientists.

>I’m voting Democrat because I’m not concerned about the slaughter of millions of babies so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.

Then you should vote Republican, because when the Health and Human Services redefines abortion to mean using any contraception, as they’ve proposed with the support of the religious right, the rate of real abortions is going to skyrocket.

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/07/15/hhs-moves-define-contraception-abortion

>I’m voting Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as THEY see fit.

Then you should vote Republican since it’s their deregulation and supply side policies that have ensured businesses will not be taking in much profit for the next few years.

> I’m voting Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would NEVER get their agendas past the voters.

Then you should vote Republican since they’re the ones who want to rewrite the Constitution in order to exchange the right to pursue happiness with a conservative definition of marriage.

>I’m voting Democrat because I believe that open borders and government giveaways to foreigners is a great way to grow a nation.

If you believe that, you must either be a Libertarian or a businessman who wants cheap labor, in which case you should vote Republican like they always do.

> I’m voting Democrat because I’m way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.

Seeing how Biden has already promised that no one’s taking his guns away, you should vote Republican since you seem to have a lot in common with Dick Cheney.

>I’m voting Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I’ve decided to marry my horse.

If you’re that interested in taboo sex and want to see more of it on t.v., you should vote for the Republicans since they not only have more sex scandals, but also pursued a $60 million investigation into Clinton’s sex scandal, or in the case of Newt Gingrich, both at the same time.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october172007/repub_scandals_10_17_07.php

>I’m voting Democrat because I believe oil companies’ profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn’t.

Then you probably would not have liked voting for Hillary if she had won, since she went along with McCain on the “gas tax holiday” that nearly every economist and even the Bush Administration said would only get pocketed by the oil companies. (Although one noted Libertarian economist, Bryan Caplan, said “we could do a lot worse”, adding that he agreed that it would not seriously reduce prices due to increased demand, but it would help distract the public with “a relatively cheap symbolic gesture that makes truly bad policies less likely”.)

>I’m voting Democrat because my head is so firmly planted up my butt it’s unlikely that I’ll ever have another point of view.

Actually, the science journal Nature Neuroscience published a study last year showing that liberal brains are wired to be more adept at processing new information and dealing with and resolving conflicts than conservative brains. One would think that would be self-evident given the very definition of their names, but chalk this one up to science proving something we already knew.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-politics10sep10,0,5982337.story

Neo-Neo Con

Chris Matthews calls Christopher Hitchens a “Neo-Neo-Conservative.” It makes sense. Neo-Conservatives are largely old school liberals who broke with the far left in the 60s. Hitchens was (and still is) a hardcore anti-Vietnam protester who has rebelled against the Left in their comparison of Vietnam with Iraq.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD8uHW0hbiA

This is a pretty interesting debate on God that Hitchens has with a rabbi.