I miss Rush Limbaugh...

I miss Rush Limbaugh.  During the Biden years I couldn’t help imagining him up in Heaven begging God to put him back in the game. Today I imagine him sitting in a bar smoking a cigar with Ronald Reagan and buying a round for the house every time a new EO drops. When he was here however there were a few things that he used to say that I loved because of their clarity.  He always pointed out that illegal immigration was all about votes and that Democrats were hypocrites on the issue.  He’d suggest that if it was really compassion that drove the issue, the solution was simple: immediately legalize them with the caveat that they could never vote.  Democrats, of course, never went for it.

He also used to use reductio ad absurdum to demonstrate the absurdity of Democrat policies.  My favorite had to do with minimum wages. When Democrats were first calling for a minimum wage of $15, then $20, Limbaugh would argue “why stop there” and suggest $50 or $200 an hour.  He’d of course demonstrate how that lunacy would impact the rest of the economy and things would simply go awry. 

I don’t know if he ever used the reductio argument on illegal immigration per se, but if so it would make perfect sense. As we know Democrats feel like anyone who makes it across the American border should be supported and become citizens.  Imagine how that would work out if the 42 million people in Latin America who want to move to the US did, or the 162 million who want to do so worldwide. That would be an absolute disaster. We couldn’t afford the schooling, housing, healthcare or food necessary to support them.  America can absorb immigrants, but not unfettered millions of them, most of whom need to be supported by the government (AKA taxpayers) and have little interest in assimilating.  America spent a reported $150 billion supporting illegals in 2023 (likely much more) and as a result towns and cities across the country had to cut basic services for citizens in order to do so. Now double or triple that, with its attendant cuts in services for Americans and the reductio quickly becomes absurd indeed.

The notion that the United States should or could support millions of people who cross our border illegally is simply insane. Well, technically it’s not exactly insane in that the people proposing it see it as a rational way to increase and sustain their wealth and power.  Democrats need ever more people dependent on them to overcome the rationality of actual Americans who increasingly see them for the grifters they are. 

What’s worse than the millions of people streaming across our borders is the fact that it’s been facilitated by, indeed driven by American taxpayers, through USAID and other government programs. Americans are literally spending billions of dollars a year in order to facilitate the invasion of their country by millions of illegals who then need to be taken care of by those same taxpayers!

Gad Saad, the author of The Parasitic Mind is writing a book called Suicidal Empathy where he is expected to talk about the west committing cultural suicide by importing tens of millions of non-westerners then essentially abandoning the fundamental concepts that underly western civilization in order to show empathy and avoid being called racists.

In one of Saad’s retweets is a chart showing crime statistics in Denmark.  It showcases the fact that immigrants from third world countries in Asia and Africa are committing violent crimes at an exponentially higher rate than Danes or citizens from other western nations, yet Denmark continues to import these high crime immigrants by the tens of thousands. Of course this same outcome is replicated throughout the west.  In the US, we’re told that illegals commit fewer crimes than Americans, but the truth is – if you disregard the fact that 100% of illegals are in fact criminals by definition – the only group against whom that claim is actually true is black Americans, who commit crimes such as murder at literally 10 times the rate of the majority whites.    

But we’re told allowing this migration from their broken countries is the “compassionate” thing to do…

Except it’s not. If one were to apply reductio ad absurdum to this situation the west will simply collapse and Europe will end up part of the Caliphate and America will become just another Latin American banana republic. How will that work for prosperity?  For freedom? For continued advances of civilization?  From the looks of Iraq, Turkey, Mexico or Venezuela, not particularly well. 

The truth is, if liberals really were interested in helping the disadvantaged from 3^rd world countries, they’d force those fleeing to remain and clean up their own countries.  Allowing those with the motivation and intestinal fortitude to make the trip across the Mexican desert in order to swim across the Rio Grande saps the spirit of their home countries. If they were forced to stay they would likely be the ones pushing hardest for change and improving their countries.

But they are not, because of western liberals.

These western liberals see themselves as the helping hand of God, rescuing the downtrodden, when in reality they are Satan helping to destroy the nations from which said downtrodden emigrated (and simultaneously the ones they immigrate to). 

In her outstanding 2010 book, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, economist Dambisa Moyo argues that western aid (at least the little that actually makes it to its destination) undermines much of Africa because it kills domestic farming and industry, often leaving the nations dependent on further handouts. 

Just as parks post signs saying “Please don’t feed the wildlife” because they don’t want the bears to become dependent on food from humans, so too the west should get out of the aid business. 

If the goal was to actually help citizens of 3^rd world countries, these liberals would embark on the long term journey of teaching them the precepts that underly functioning and prosperous nations:  Rule of law, free markets and private property, combined with limited government – things which many western nations have forgotten. 

And it is possible to do.  The Jews built a breadbasket and then a nation out of what was largely a desolate desert in the late 19^th century.  Hong Kong was a small city 60 years ago but today it’s a bustling world class (albeit Communist) metropolis.  The same holds true for Dubai – only faster! And indeed, changes can happen on a national scale, sometimes quite quickly.  Look at what’s been done in El Salvador in five years and Argentina in one.  It’s amazing what a people can do if motivated to do so. 

But sadly, most of the motivated people in the 3^rd world aren’t using that spirit to build their nations; they’re abandoning their homes for Europe and America… only in most cases to try and replicate the dysfunctional society they escaped in cushier environs.  And as the rapidly unfolding USAID scandal showcases, much of the money for that invasion is being driven by leftists and paid for by American taxpayers. No doubt Rush is watching from above saying “See, I told you so…”

Oldies But Goodies...

I just stumbled across some pieces I'd written before I started my blog.  Have no idea where I posted them, but here they are:

The Greatest Generation - the Sequel:  September 20, 2001

The Role of Government:   March 5, 2003

Through the Clouds:  March 22, 2003

Treason:  March 27, 2003

Saudi Arabia:  The Nexus of Evil: April 16, 2003

Obama, Democrats & American Exceptionalism: November 8, 2008

Obama, Democrats & American Exceptionalism

 November 8, 2008

I am one of the 57 million Americans who voted for someone other than our President Elect.  While strongly disagreeing with John McCain on a wide variety of issues, I voted for him because I believe that the United States is beyond a doubt the greatest country that has ever existed.  American exceptionalism has resulted in the most advanced society humanity has ever produced... And it's not even close.  The unique combination of individual freedom, rule of law and Capitalism has resulted in more advances in a shorter period of time than has ever occurred.  From the Declaration of Independence to Manifest Destiny to the winning of two World Wars, the United States has always been something special.

 

Perhaps no better example can be found than Cyrus McCormick, the man who helped feed the world.  McCormick's 1931 invention of the mechanical reaper was the first major advance in farming in 5,000 years.  In the 1820s, using tools and techniques that had not significantly changed for five millennia a man could harvest approximately 2 acres per day.  Cyrus McCormick created the first effective mechanical reaper. Despite its great limitations, it more than doubled a man’s capacity to harvest grain and began a technological march that continues today.  To put McCormick's achievement in perspective, in 1831 ninety percent of the American population was somehow involved in farming to feed the country.  Today that number stands at less than 3%.  Not only does that 3% feed an America with a much larger population - 300 million vs. 15 million in McCormick's time, it feeds tens of millions of people around the world by exporting millions of tons of foodstuffs annually.  Although the impact on farming itself was substantial, the real impact of McCormick’s efforts was felt far beyond the fields. Millions of people across the country (and around the world) who had formerly been tied to the farm were now free to pursue their dreams elsewhere. From energy, medicine and manufacturing to retail, transportation and virtually every other area of our economy, the economic miracle that is the United States owes much to the man who freed the population to dream of the possibilities that lay beyond the amber fields. 

 

And McCormick is just one of many.  Think of flight.  In 1903 the Wright Brothers first lifted off the ground in Kitty Hawk, NC.  Sixty six years later their aerial progeny were able to not only fly a man to the moon, but more importantly, bring Mr. Armstrong and friends home safely.  Think of computers.  In 1946 Thomas Watson's IBM introduced ENIAC, the world's first electronic general computer.  ENIAC could do 5,000 transactions per second, cost $500,000 and weighed in a 30 tons.  Today you can spend under $500 and get a Dell PC that can do millions of transactions per second, weighs under 3 lbs and can connect to computers around the world via the Pentagon created Internet.  It's no coincidence that almost every advance along that path found its genesis in Silicon Valley.  Think of telephones.  Alexander Graham Bell was issued the first telephone patent in 1874.  Ninety nine years later Martin Cooper set us on a march that has almost obviated the need for a landline phone in a universe where almost everyone has a mobile phone.  Add to that something like Apple's iPhone and you have at your fingertips a camera, GPS tracker, Internet device and computer all wrapped into one. 

 

The list of those who embody American exceptionalism is almost endless:  George Eastman, Elisha Otis, Willis Carrier, Amadeo Giannini, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Henry Kaiser, George S. Patton, Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Ray Kroc, Malcom X, Sam Walton, Craig Venter, Oprah Winfry, Mark Andreessen, Shawn Fanning to name just a few.  (A brilliant book on the subject is Harold Evans' They Made America.)

 

It is not the DNA of Americans that makes us what we are.  Rather it is our culture, freedoms and belief that anyone who puts their mind to something can achieve success and prosper.  For the latter the election of Barack Obama as president should put the final stake in the coffin of the argument that any group of Americans needs a handout in order to succeed.  It is on those former measures however, where I feel we might be sitting in a spot not unlike Germany in 1933.  I'm not suggesting Mr. Obama and his party are Fascists in the Aryan sense.  Rather, with a small "f" in the sense of using the tools of government to quiet opposition and demand allegiance to the party line.  One needs look no further than the desire on the part of Democrats to revive "The Fairness Doctrine"  That is nothing more than a tool to silence the most effective conservative vehicle in the country, talk radio.  It would of course not apply to television and newspapers, obsequious bastions of liberal and progressive ideology.  Liberals cannot compete successfully in the free marketplace of ideas so they instead choose to use the power of government to quiet those who disagree with them.  On a much smaller scale, look what befell "Joe the Plumber" after having the audacity to question Mr. Obama's ideas...

 

Or it might be the shadows of Russia in 1917 that are being cast. Look at the Democrat's desire to use intimidation (Card Check) to unionize every workplace in the United States and in the long run destroy Capitalism. Why else would they want to remove an employee's ability to vote for or against unions in secret?  Add to that Mr. Obama's desire to "Spread the wealth around" and Jim Moran's disdain for "The simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it." and you quickly understand that the days of Capitalism and individual achievement are numbered under a Obama, Pelosi, Reid triumvirate. Talk about killing the goose that laid the golden eggs...

 

Finally, the Constitution as a shield for the protections of our rights and the limits on the power of government will be tatters after four years of an Obama presidency.  What else but chaos can we expect when the courts are filled with justices and judges who are specifically chosen based on this criteria:  We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom; the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges. (link)  I was under the obviously false impression that the role of the judiciary was to ensure that the laws written by the legislature were indeed based on powers granted by the people via the Constitution and to ensure that such laws were enforced by the executive branch without regard to a citizen's race, religion, gender or national origin.

 

So the Change We Need turns out to be silencing the opposition, putting the control of industry in the hands of the proletariat, appropriating the wealth of successful citizens and destroying the rule of law...  Essentially destroying the very things that are the foundation of American exceptionalism.  One wonders what that is prescription for... Oh, and we must remember the decimation of the military (or with Barney Frank's 25% reduction, it might be called quarteration if that were a word) and the building of "a civilian national security force"?  Hmmmm..... I'm not sure, but I get this strange feeling that all of this seems somehow vaguely familiar...

Saudi Arabia: The Nexus of Evil

April 16, 2003

With Bush administration admonitions to Syria, many are postulating that it will be the next target of American persuasion. That presumes that there is a next target, although the administration maintains there is not. That is unfortunate, because there should be. The target of such action should not however be Syria but Saudi Arabia. Although the Syrian government’s hands have been covered with terrorist blood for years, the truth is that with the new President Bashar Assad, success may be achieved by different means.

If Syria is part of the recently coined Junior Varsity of the Axis of Evil, Saudi Arabia should similarly be seen for precisely what it is, the Nexus of the Axis of Evil. Simply put, Saudi money or Wahhabi influence is directly or indirectly responsible for practically every incident of radical Islamic terrorism that has occurred over the last decade. Terrorist events do not occur in a vacuum. They must be nurtured and fed like a plant. From financial support to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers to building venomous madrasas around the world to being the home of fifteen of the nineteen September 11^th hijackers, Saudi protection and money has been the garden from which Islamic terror has blossomed. The Saudi regime has used its billions of petrodollars to export extremist Wahhabi Islam across the planet for decades.

Let us be clear, this is not a call to arms against Islam. On the contrary, it is a call to arms against Wahhabism, a fascist sect of Islam. Bernard Lewis, the respected Middle East scholar painted a perfect analogy of what the Saudis have wrought over the last thirty years: "Imagine if the Ku Klux Klan or Aryan Nation obtained total control of Texas and had at its disposal all of the oil revenues, and used this money to establish a network of well-endowed schools and colleges all over Christendom peddling their particular brand of Christianity. This was what the Saudis have done with Wahhabism. The oil money has enabled them to spread this fanatical, destructive form of Islam all over the Muslim world and among Muslims in the West. Without oil and the creation of the Saudi kingdom, Wahhabism would have remained a lunatic fringe."

A second comparison describes what is occurring today. Long before Auschwitz and Dachou became part of "The Final Solution," Adolph Hitler utilized "scientific" data to suggest that Jews were not "pure" humans and were a different "race" altogether. This reclassification and dehumanization gave the Germans (and collaborators throughout Europe) the moral justification to abuse, experiment on and eventually exterminate more than six million Jews. By referring to Jews, Christians and differently believing Muslims as kufar (infidels) or mushrikun (polytheists) the Wahhabi ulma (leaders) use formal and informal interpretation to remove the protection (tolerance) accorded these groups by the Koran. In removing that tolerance, Wahhabism gives its followers permission to kill innocents of all kinds in the name of Allah. Wahhabism has spread like a virus for decades, infecting millions of people from Cairo to Peshawar, from Hamburg to London and from Buffalo and Phoenix. For a fascinating (and well-documented) account of how the Saudi government and royal family has hoisted this terror upon the world, read Dore Gold’s "Hatred’s Kingdom; How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism." For a companion account of how that support has propagated hate throughout America, read Steve Emerson’s excellent "American Jihad; The Terrorists Living Amongst Us."

While much of the hate and terrorism that exists today is claimed to be grass roots opposition to Western "imperialism", in reality much of it is anything but home grown. From Chechnia and Kashmir to Bali and the West Bank, most of the terrorists whose viscous acts have made the civilized world recoil were educated in mosques or madrasas built by Saudi "charities" filled with Wahhabi hatred. Others were trained in terrorist camps funded by Saudi money directly.

The United States government should use its recent success and the threat of further deployment to effect a change in the Saudi government. One might be tempted to call that Imperialism, but it is not. The American Heritage dictionary defines imperialism as: The policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations. Much like Iraq, the goal of this action would not to create a 51^st state, to establish an American economic post or establish a puppet government. It is instead a defensive action intended to protect the lives of innocent Americans and the citizens of civilized countries across the globe. While the Saudi people are welcome to live under a fascist Wahhabi regime if they choose, they do not have the right to export that hate, which has resulted in two World Trade Center attacks, nightclub bombings in Bali and Israel and the theater takeover in Moscow. All of these events and many others can be connected to the Saudis. Now that we have won the war against Saddam, it is time to win the War on Terrorism and that road leads to Saudi Arabia. With the potential to combine indiscriminate terror with weapons such as Sarin, Anthrax, radioactive materials or even nuclear weapons, sufferance of these Wahhabi fascists can no longer be tolerated. Used in moderation, gunboat diplomacy can be a very effective form of negotiation.

As for what kind of government should replace the dictatorship that exists now in Saudi Arabia, Winston Churchill, the greatest and most prescient figure of the 20^th Century put it best "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried".

 

Treason

 March 27, 2003

Freedom of speech is alive and well in the United States. From the Dixie Chicks to anti-war protesters to simple anarchists, the Constitution of the United States has never been stronger. Even US Senator Tom Daschle feels sufficiently comforted by its protections to blame the current war on President Bush. It is indeed a wonderful and strong country that can stand at the brink of war and brook its citizens and government officials making uninformed, ill-timed and simply idiotic statements.

Freedom of speech however should not be confused with treason. Senator Daschle is certainly guilty of poor judgment, a lack of consistent principles and obviously a complete inability to recognize the obvious. He is not however, guilty of treason. The Dixie Chicks, Martin Sheen and Janeane Garofalo, while popular entertainers, should not be confused with a well informed, coherent representation of opposition to this Administration’s policy. While pathetically naive, they are not guilty of treason.

Just so there is no confusion, the definition of treason from the American Heritage dictionary is as follows: Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies. When one thinks of treason one thinks of Benedict Arnold, who was one of Washington’s generals until he decided to switch sides and join the Redcoats. When one thinks of treason one thinks of the Rosenbergs who gave the nuclear secrets to the Soviets. As bad as those traitors were, their treachery was rather straightforward in that they were directly, if not openly, aiding the enemy. The traitors that face us today are far more dangerous. Who are they? They are the collection of peace activists, anti-capitalists, anarchists who have vowed to block roads, streets, and other forms of transportation and business because the American people do not agree with their radical ideas.

In the first place, these people misunderstand the basic tenant of this war. They think the war is against Iraq. It is not. It is against Terrorism. Simply put, whatever face is above the fold on the morning paper, the fact of the matter is that America is at war with Terrorism. Osama Bin Laden is a terrorist. Saddam Hussein is a terrorist. Others abound whose names most of us have never heard and would likely not recognize if we did. September 11^th demonstrated exactly what terrorism means in clear unambiguous terms. As bad as it was, with biological or chemical weapons the toll might have been much worse. Saddam Hussein and his regime are simply another chapter title in that war on terrorism. While some were willing to wait for a smoking gun before disarming Saddam, President Bush recognized that a gun is only smoking once a bullet has been fired. He decided to disarm the gun before America or one of its allies was the victim of another terrorist shot.

This misunderstanding is critical to the charge of treason. Unlike both World Wars, or Korea or Vietnam or even the first Gulf War, the enemy is not only on a distant battlefield, but they are here as well. Not only are they here, they are being exhorted to commit terrorist acts across the country and bring America to its knees. In the face of this very realistic threat, these protesters are doing nothing short of committing treason.

On Tuesday New York Mayor Bloomberg suggested that it would cost his city at least $5 million a week to deal with the heightened terrorist threat. That money is going to pay the salaries of policemen, firefighters, doctors, nurses, EMTs and others who are at the front line of Homeland Defense. Their role in this war is to attempt to prevent terrorist threats before they occur or deal with them if they do occur. Their goal is to save lives. While 3,000 people died on September 11^th, how many Americans survived because of the swift response of those brave individuals? Now imagine that terrorists detonate a chemical, biological or even a small nuclear weapon in one of our cities. How many innocent civilians would perish in Washington as the city is choked by traffic because the main thoroughfares were blocked by bicycle wielding protesters? How many innocent children might suffocate in a school in Harlem because instead of being poised and ready to rescue them, police were busy arresting limp bodied protesters who decided Time’s Square was the appropriate place to cause chaos and suck the resources of the city.

This is not a diatribe against free speech or peaceful protest. Those are protections that are very much at the heart of the United States and our Constitution. It is however a censure of the abuse of those freedoms by individuals and groups who the country has chosen to disagree with. The Dixie Chicks and Senator Daschle or any person in the country who is ashamed of America or hates President Bush or is disagrees with the manner in which he chooses to wage this war on terrorism are welcome to voice those opinions as loudly as they would like. They can appear on TV, they can write to newspapers, they can call in radio programs, they can put signs in their front lawns, and they can put bumper stickers on their cars. They can send e-mail, they can send faxes, and they can send junk mail. They can call their senators, they can call their congressmen and they can speak up in church. They can even rally in protest with hundreds of thousands of their closest of friends, as we have seen many times over the last few months. They have the same Freedom of Speech and Assembly rights all Americans have. What they do not have however, is the right to aid the terrorists and endanger the lives of the rest of America by abusing legitimate rights in an attempt to bow opinion across the country. By actively disrupting the normal workings of our American cities, by willingly distracting the attention of those who are tasked with protecting America and her citizens from terror, these protesters are as guilty of treason as if they were sending food and weapons to Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden. They should therefore be treated as traitors, or at least subjected to the same laws that have been used to round up terror supporters in Lackawana, Tampa and cities across the country. In the event that a terrorist is able to carry out one of their despicable acts, I’m certain those protesters would rather be sitting in a prison cell somewhere rather than stranded in a subway car or elevator shaft waiting for help that can’t arrive because their friends in the Shirts Off Coalition had closed down Key Bridge.

Through the Clouds

 March 22, 2003

War is raging across our television screens with wall to wall embedded reporters. Unemployment is rising. Businesses aren’t spending. The NASDAQ, (in which many investors see the future of the American economy) is down 67% in the last three years.

Things do indeed look bleak. They will get better though.

It certainly will not happen tomorrow, and maybe not even this year, but soon enough things are going to begin to improve, and when they do, we will see growth to a degree few of us can imagine right now. Why? Three reasons: population, technology and the efficiency.

Population: Today there are approximately 285 million people in the United States. Compare that to 1950’s 151 million and 1900’s 76 million. If you assume that a constant percentage of the population, lets say 10%, (a random number picked for demonstration purposes) are inclined to be scientists or entrepreneurs or doctors, then 10% of 285 million people is 28 million vs. the 15 in 1950 or 7.6 million in 1900. There are simply more people to work in laboratories, study problems, create revolutionary products and think of new ideas.

Technology: Two years ago we celebrated the 20^th birthday of the PC. Computers have been around since the 1940s, but it was only with the introduction of the PC that their benefits were truly available to the masses. When IBM introduced its PC 5150 in 1981 it cost $3000 and included: the MS DOS 1.0 operating system; a 4.77 MHz chip; a monochrome monitor; 64K RAM and no writable hard disk. Today for $699 at Dell.com you get a Windows XP PC running at 2.53 GHz, with 256 MB of RAM with a 60 Gig hardrive and a 17" color monitor. The growth in computers has be nothing short of spectacular. In the supercomputer area, improvement has been even better. Today, ASCI White, an IBM supercomputer can do 12.3 trillion operations per second. Compare that to the 1946 ENIAC, which could do 5000. Fifty years after introducing their first computer, IBM’s fastest machine is almost 2.5 billion times faster than the original.

In their 1998 book, Bob Davis and David Wessel compared the impact of computers in the economy to that of electric motors a century before. "It took electricity thirty years to begin to transform the American workplace and home and another twenty years to complete the job. Computers are on a similar trajectory; they will start noticeably boosting productivity soon, and will lift economic growth over the next decade or two." Indeed they go on to show that productivity gains took off when small, electric motors were developed that empowered individual workers with individual tools like drill presses, lathes and sewing machines. The PC and the Internet are the spiritual descendants of those empowering small engines.

Efficiency: Because of advances in everything from economics to ergonomics to logistics and manufacturing, today’s economy is far more specialized and productive than ever. The result is that today it takes far fewer workers to accomplish the same work. Possibly the best example of this is in Farming. At the beginning of the 20^th century, 41% of American workers were involved in farming in the United States. By 1950 that number had dropped to 15% and today it stands at less than 2%. Not only does this 2% manage to feed an American population 4 times as large as a century before, but it also manages to export millions of tons food annually. This same dynamic has been replicated throughout our economy.

The Bottom Line

Two examples demonstrate how all of this ties together. The first is the human genome. When the government-backed Human Genome Project (HGP) started to sequence the Human Genome in 1990, they expected it would take 15 years to accomplish. Eight years later they had completed 3% of the total. In 1998 a privately funded company named Celera Genomics, and its CEO Craig Venter, brought a market focus and cutting edge technology to the project, and a race ensued. On June 26, 2000 President Clinton announced the completion of a "working draft" of the human genome. Imagine, alone HGP took eight years to decode 3% of the sequence but with Celera acting as a competitor, catalyst and partner, the two sequenced the final 97% in just 25 months!

The second revolves around Sean Fanning. You may not know Sean, but you certainly know his creation, Napster. Regardless of how the Napster story played out in court, the fact is that a 19-year-old college dropout created a computer program that shook the incestuous, siege-mentality driven world of music production and distribution to its knees in a matter of months. In one fell swoop a David not old enough to drink took on Goliaths like Time Warner, Viacom and Disney, who together employ a million people and spend billions of dollars trying to maintain the status quo, (remember the battles over VCRs and CDRs). In 18 months Napster went from conception to 60 million users. This is not a story about the Internet or piracy or technology, it is a story of a young man with an idea who had the foolhardiness to think that he could design a better music distribution mousetrap, and then proceeded to do so.

With 285 million people in America, the sheer numbers tell you that there are thousands of Sean Fannings and Craig Venters sitting behind their zippy new computers waiting for their chance to change the world. The road ahead is far brighter than the dark clouds might suggest. There is a shining light beckoning from beyond these dark and stormy clouds. That light is the vortex created by America’s unique combination of unabashed optimism, exuberant creativity and unrelenting spirit. Hold on, it promises to be a very exciting ride.

Role of Government

 March 5, 2003

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

The above is the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence. Tellingly, in the two segments where it suggests what the role of a government should be, the first responsibilities are Life and then Safety. That is no accident. On the most fundamental level, the single most important duty of any government is to ensure to the greatest degree possible the safety and security of its citizens. Here in the United States, with government involved in almost every aspect of our lives, we often lose sight of the fact that above all else, before anything and everything else, our government’s first responsibility is to protect its citizens.

Much of the debate that is going on both in America and around the world is filled with red herrings and non-sequiturs. "Win without War." "No Blood for Oil". "Stop American Imperialism" "Not without the UN" None of that which tries to pass as debate holds water. All of it misses the fact that regardless of what the French, Russians, the American Left or anyone else says, the United States government has the right and responsibility to both disarm Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power. The most common refrain of the Left is that by acting in a unilateral manner, President Bush will engender hate for America across the Muslim world and spur terrorism. Even a cursory look at the last decade will demonstrate that argument to be without merit. WTC I; Embassies in Africa; Army barracks in Saudi Arabia; the USS Cole; September 11; Daniel Pearl… These examples and many others demonstrate that the animosity already exists. The key however, is that as bad as those events were, even together they would pale in comparison to the damage wrought if a nuclear weapon were detonated on a boat on the Potomac or the Hudson Rivers or if a chemical agent were released in Chicago or LA.

The reality is that Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons and has tried to get his hands on nuclear weapons. The fundamental question is: Does it seem unreasonable that he would be willing to sell those weapons to Al Queda or some other group seeking to harm America or her friends. No. By his actions he has demonstrated he has no compunction about using WMD against military or civilian populations and he willingly supports terrorism. The latter is demonstrated by his $25,000 payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. The question now becomes do we sit back and wait for the UN to pass another 17 resolutions in the hope that Saddam will disarm before he sells his weapons or do we take action now to protect the United States. The answer can be divined from the words of an arrested Al Queda fighter: You can’t win. You have to be perfect every time in order to consider yourselves successful. For us, we have to be lucky just once. Given the monumental implications from that statement, it becomes crystal clear that the odds are stacked against us and that the only chance we have to avoid the ramifications of their being "lucky just once" is to remove the greatest potential source for weapons of mass destruction, Iraq. That does not suggest that the War on Terrorism is over or that other regimes will not have to be dealt with; it is not and they will be. But today, for a government whose primary responsibility is the safety and security of its citizens, the fate of Iraq, and by implication, the actions and security of the United States cannot be decided on the banks of the Seine, thwarted under the domes of the Kremlin or held hostage to the vagaries of an ineffectual United Nations.

When all is said and done, President Bush must do that which he has taken an oath to do and that which is stated in black and white in the first sentence of the Constitution. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." In a world beset by incoherent ramblings, wishful thinking and absurd exhortations, those words provide a touchstone of moral clarity. By upholding that pledge and dealing with Saddam Hussein, President Bush will lengthen the flame of American liberty that shines as a beacon of hope, freedom and greatness to billions of people around the world.

The Greatest Generation - The Sequel

Written September 20, 2001

Very soon after the realization that we were under attack, analysts, government officials and people on the street began comparing the events of September 11^th to Pearl Harbor. In most respects the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are not like Pearl Harbor at all. Hawaii was not a state at the time. The entire world was at war and most people felt it was just a matter of time before the United States would become engaged. Pearl Harbor was directed against military targets. The pilots who carried out the attack did not seek to die in the process, thereby guaranteeing their swift passage through the gates of heaven. Casualties were far fewer at Pearl Harbor than they were in the attacks on the 11^th of September. In most respects Pearl Harbor was nothing like the attack on New York and Washington.

In perhaps one respect however, we should all hope that this attack on America was exactly like Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor galvanized us. Admiral Yamamoto knew as much, saying "We have awakened a sleeping giant and have instilled in him a terrible resolve". After America entered the war, Winston Churchill, who had been valiantly trying to maintain the spirit of the British in the face of a tightening German stranglehold on Europe, told FDR "I have never felt so sure about final victory". With last week’s attack on the United States and the world, (possibly as many as 2000 of the people who perished were citizens of other countries) the doorway is open for a president and a generation to achieve greatness that might equal that of our fathers and grandfathers, the Greatest Generation.

Events do not make a man great. Instead, they give him the opportunity to achieve greatness. It is no coincidence that our three greatest Presidents were those who successfully brought us through the most difficult times in our history. George Washington won for us our freedom and presided over the Constitutional Convention that created the foundations upon which our nation is built. In a world where monarchy still reigned supreme and where armies usually decided who governed, he choose to retire from almost absolute power, not once, but twice. Abraham Lincoln saved us from ourselves. He took a country ripped apart by slavery and a growing economic chasm and made it whole. FDR saved the world. Taking office during the greatest economic crisis to ever face our country, he initiated a program to put America back to work and once we were in the war, he mobilized the country to beat back the incarnation of evil on three continents. Certainly our history would have been different given another man standing at the vanguard of our nation at any one of those times.

It is the situation that allows the man to live up to the greatness within and inspire us to do the same. The Greatest Generation is just that because they saved the world. In the face of two foes who had appeared almost invincible, they fought, they sacrificed and they triumphed. They fought to the death because there was no tomorrow and everyone knew it. When faced with evil incarnate, they summoned the courage to fight for freedom, to fight for America and to fight for good. No one can know what the world would be like had WWII not occurred, but it is possible that the honor, courage and extraordinary feats which characterize the Greatest Generation might never have shown themselves. While they may have spent the 1940s building better cars, more dams and growing greener crops, the awe in which we rightly hold them might not exist. World War II gave us the Greatest Generation because its members were just that, precisely when we needed them to be. Now it is our turn.

Given the amorphous enemy we face today, one who has no country, no borders, no capital and no honor, it will take a truly great president to lead us through to victory. Over the last thirty years our attention spans have shrunk tremendously when it comes to war. We want to win quickly, easily and bloodlessly. This war will be none of those things and it is up to George Bush to carry the torch that will help us find our way through. To a degree unlike any previous war, this one will be fought in the shadows of the intelligence world, in the arena of political diplomacy, in the world of instantaneous information exchange, and on battlefields far away and in our communities. George Bush’s challenge is to inspire in us the strength, courage and tenacity we will need to defeat this enemy. Our responsibility is to live up to that challenge while maintaining the values, spirit and ideals that define America. If he succeeds, he will no doubt go down as one of our greatest presidents. If we succeed, we may have earned the right to walk beside the heroes of the Greatest Generation.

When all is said and done, President Bush must do that which he has taken an oath to do and that which is stated in black and white in the first sentence of the Constitution. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." In a world beset by incoherent ramblings, wishful thinking and absurd exhortations, those words provide a touchstone of moral clarity. By upholding that pledge and dealing with Saddam Hussein, President Bush will lengthen the flame of American liberty that shines as a beacon of hope, freedom and greatness to billions of people around the world.

Can a Nation Built By Giants Survive the Disability Industrial Complex?

Vivek Ramaswamy got himself in some hot water a couple of weeks ago when he tweeted about American culture. He’s wrong on the big picture, but his comments about American workers hits a nerve… 

While the US Constitution and free market capitalism set the foundations for American prosperity, it took a rugged, passionate, free people to build it. From George Washington to George Washington Carver to millions of other Americans, the United States was carved out a continent of forests that seemed to go on forever, fertile plains, vast mountain ranges and scorching hot deserts.  Over time American frontiersmen, settlers and entrepreneurs forged a country that seemed to have all of God’s blessings in abundance.

Conditions were rarely easy for most Americans throughout most of our history. Coal miners spent 12 – 16 hour shifts in dangerous mines in which they sometimes couldn’t even stand up. Frontiersmen built a homestead and a farm out of a thick Appalachian forest while fighting brutal winters and a tenacious Indian population. Slaves toiled for years at backbreaking work during freezing winters and boiling summers. At the end of the 19th century over 50% of Americans still lived and worked as farmers, a far more dangerous job than most people understand. The industrial revolution brought sweatshops and drove a thirst for steel, trains and petroleum, industries that brought new dangers.

One sometimes has to marvel that the colonies survived long enough to coalesce and challenge the British for independence and then go on to grow and prosper (mostly) for over 200 years as it changed the world.

Were the Americans who carved a nation out of a continent somehow so different than Americans today? Were the Americans who crisscrossed a continent with railroads, telephone lines and highways so different than Americans today? Were the Americans who won two world wars and sent a man to the moon so different than Americans today? Were the Americans who invented the mechanical reaper, air conditioning, vulcanized rubber and the microchip so different than Americans today? Not based on DNA they weren’t. But that doesn’t mean they were the same. While the DNA of the American people today is no different than that of the people who invented the elevator or the light bulb, the American people writ large certainly appear to be.

Go back little more than one generation and it seems like Americans were something of another species. Compared to 2025, they appear to be relative supermen. In 1970 there were 79 million people working in the United States supporting 1.5 million workers on Disability Insurance (SSDI). That means that one person out of every 52 workers was on Disability… Fast forward 5 decades and it seems as if the country has turned on its side. By 2024 the number of Americans working had risen by 100% to 161 million people. During that same period however, workers receiving disability insurance skyrocketed up 380% to 7.2 million. Today, instead of one out of every 53 workers being on disability, it’s one in 22! That number is particularly interesting because the United States of 1970 was a far grittier place than the United States of 2025.

First off, the United States in 2025 is a much different workplace than the one that existed in 1970. In 1970 fully 25% of the American workforce worked in manufacturing while 50% worked in the service industry. Today, 8% of the American workforce works in manufacturing while over 70% of workers work in the service industry. Given that designing a website, taking an order at Chili’s or greeting a guest at Marriott is generally less dangerous than welding together various pieces of a Ford Ranger or operating a blast furnace at a US Steel plant, America should be a safer place to work. And indeed it is. The death rate for American workers in 1970 was 18 per every 100,000 workers. By 2023 that rate had dropped to 3.5, a decline of 80%.

But of course work is not the only place where one gets hurt. Today, virtually everywhere Americans go everything seems safer. Cars have seatbelts, antilock breaks and airbags. Houses have GFCI circuit breakers in bathrooms and kitchens and smoke detectors in almost every room. Lawn darts are but a distant memory and towns across the country require helmets for bicycle riding and virtually every appliance and medicine comes plastered with book length warning label. At the end of the day, America has become a far safer place to live and work than it has been at any time in its history.

But somehow in that much safer America, the total of people listed as disabled and receiving disability payments has skyrocketed:  The government spends more on disability than on food stamps and welfare combined.  American workers paid .5% of their paychecks for SSDI when it began 70 years ago, but in 2022 they paid 2%.  That means that $2 out of every $100 an American worker earns goes to support someone not working.

How is that even possible? Have Americans become weaklings, unable to stay healthy? Has some unknown affliction made us incapable of working? No. There is an affliction, but it’s not biological. It’s called the nanny state. From judges who rubberstamp virtually every claim they ever see to a quarter of applicants suffering from musculoskeletal injuries – which conveniently enough cannot be detected by doctors – to outright fraud (more)(more)(more) and states seeking to shift costs to the federal government, SSDI is a symbol of much of what is wrong in America today, where in 2022 fully 4.5% of working age Americans were on disability. The worst thing about this dysfunctional program is that the fraud keeps people who are in real need of help waiting in line, sometimes to die.

When government decides to play the role of caretaker and redistribute wealth from workers to everyone else, it should come as no surprise that many people will choose to jump from the working pool to the everyone else pool. For more proof just look at the food stamp program over the same 50 year period. While the population has increased by about 75% since 1970, workers by 100% and disability by 380%, food stamp recipients grew by over 1,000%!

The economics of the welfare state, including the “disability industrial complex” cannot be sustained. If the record of the last 50 years were to be repeated over the next 50, in 2075 the country would have 320 million workers supporting almost 30 million people on disability and 450 million people on food stamps. Those numbers are simply unsustainable, particularly if the goal is to Make America Great Again.

American workers and entrepreneurs have together created the greatest wealth and prosperity the world has ever seen, but eventually the numbers stop working.  The thing I think Ramaswamy misses is that it was inevitable that the spirit that helped forge a nation out of a continent and dot it with jewels like the Empire State Building, the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge would reemerge and shrug. That’s what happened in November. For it to make any difference however, the nanny state will have to be eviscerated, and not just the regulatory part of it. The redistribution apparatus will have to be dismantled too, and the disability industrial complex is a good place to start.