An Hystoricle Day

Well, I crapped myself today. I was walking through the break room when I glanced at the TV and B.H.O. was giving his inaugural speech. Before I could even process what was happening, my body had what can only be described as a visceral reaction, and my bowels completely evacuated. I sure hope I don't have to go through this for the next 4 years. Maybe I will over time learn to control this, or maybe just wear an adult diaper.

You see, history seems to be repeating itself, and it is like watching a train wreck, knowing beforehand it was going to happen but unable to stop it. Hoover was a meddling Republican president who felt he "had to do something" to help the economy of 1929 and 30. He consulted key business leaders and came up with the brilliant ideas of keeping wages high at a time of declining prices and profits for companies, ensuring increased unemployment. He increased taxes (top rate went to 63 percent) increased government subsidies to industry and agriculture, and increased tariffs. He was quoted as saying "We might have done nothing. That would have been utter ruin. Instead we met the situation with proposals to private business and to Congress of the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of the Republic". (Not my kind of fiscally responsible conservative) That quote sounds awfully familiar... The came the great FDR (BHO)

FDR took the reigns and ran. The depression was largely an extent of the Hoover bungling combined with overreaching government entanglement by FDR. Not only did his NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act) establish standard minimum wages (unemployment guaranteed), it also established minimum prices (increased hardship on those who actually worked). He subsidised farmers to destroy crops and kill livestock to artificially inflate ag prices and to increased farm incomes. (sounds very 5 year plan soviet to me). But in retrospect these policies were responsible for the unemployment of 2 million people (James Boyle, Cornell Univ) and made it harder on farmers to buy goods whose prices were artificially inflated.

The anti-business attitude of the White House kept investors away, not knowing what type of meddling or regulation would come next. This decimated the amount of available capital available for businesses and new development. The Gov't made itself the de facto savior by handing out "jobs". But in reality there is no "stimulus" because all you are doing is taking away money from some people(the ones who pay taxes) and giving it to others. Public works projects and that time ( and even more so now) and inherently wasteful and are not subject to the checks and balance and profit loss statements of private businesses and entrepreneurs (like me). Not to mention the fact that many of these WPA workers were, shall I say "encouraged" to vote for FDR because their very jobs depended on it. Many were even forced to change party allegiance (Rep. to Dem) to get hired by the gov't.

And when the Supreme court declared his big brother meddling unconstitutional, he attempted to just add more justices until got enough to have a more "flexible" view of the constitution. Even his Dem. colleagues thought this a stupid idea. Eventually, however, enough justices died or retired for him to stack the deck. They decided they could even regulate what and how much of a crop a private farmer could grow for his own family, even if he wasn't going to sell it. (Wickard v. Filburn, 1942). That kind of intrusion sounds great to me.

Needless to say, if either of these two had been more like Coolidge (1920-21) and hands off, we wouldn't need textbooks describing the Great Depression. They might describe the Recession of 29-30, but thanks to these bonehead and the Cult of Personality FDR (BHO?) we ate dirt for 15 years and gave the old folks something to talk about. I just hope my kids aren't the ones 30-40 years from now saying "Gather 'round kids, let me tell you about the Great Depression of the 2010s. It could have been avoided had people been taught history in school, but we did learn about alternative lifestyles and look how fast I can put this condom on a cucumber. I digress. But we elected someone because he said "change" 4789 times during the primary and election cycle (I counted). And I believe we're stronger for making sacrifices we really didn't have to. Would you like another bowl of dirt?"

Received this in a recent email:

Who worries about "the cow" when it is all about the "Ice Cream?" The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade this year. The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote. To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have. We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot. The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia's mother. The day arrived when they were to make their speeches Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Everyone applauded. He sat down and Olivia came to the podium. Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream." She sat down. The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream." She surely could say more. She did not have to. A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure. Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it? She didn't know. The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream. Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide. Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and fifty-two percent of the people reacted like nine year olds. They want ice cream. The other forty-eight percent of us know we're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess.

And another thing. Stop all this "post-racial" election rhetoric. When 50% of blacks vote for a black Republican candidate, then come talk to me. But as long as 97% drink the liberal hand-out cool-aid and can't even describe his policies (see previous Howard Stern post) this isn't post racial, its all racial and he's half white for goodness sake. Nobody talks about the white mom who raised him while daddy flew the coop. I read The Audacity of Hope, and also The Audacity of Deceit. The later was a much better read.