hochmann-y goodness

You can see the full-size photo here.

[In 1996] Obama took a position on the progressive edge of the Democratic Party, and he did so with unmistakable clarity: "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."

Since then, as Obama traced his dazzling arc to the presidency, his stance on gay rights has become murkier, wordier, less courageous.

He has so far spent no political capital to turn [his] promises into reality... On June 12 his administration filed a brief defending the legality of DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act] by comparing same-sex marriage to incest and pedophilia.

Soon it'll be illegal to carry books on an airplane. "Why are you carrying those books, sir? Do you have a good reason to carry those books?" Because of course, there's always the danger you might exercise your brain and learn to think independently. Can't have that!

(emphasis mine)

This is why so many conservatives are so opposed to national healthcare like what Britain has, and what America will soon be getting thanks to Obama. Universal healthcare will not mean that uninsured, low-income people like you and I will suddenly have access to $50,000 cancer treatments and shiny new hospitals that richer people can easily afford. It just means that existing, crappy levels of healthcare will be foisted upon more people.

Delingpole points out over and over that the reason socialism and communism suck so bad is because they try to erase the differences between people, and usually the result is we all end up forced to settle for the lowest common denominator. He is (and I am) strongly in favor of equality of opportunity and equality before the law. But being "fair" by punishing people for being different, or for having more of something others do not have, is wrong-headed and stupid when taken to its extremes:

 

At the beginning of the book, I thought it was a bit outrageous that he compared left-wing politics to "seeing the world as we want it to be," and right-wing politics to being more realistic and seeing the world as it is. But when you see examples like these, you realize that he may be right. I'm a Buddhist, and Buddhism places heavy emphasis on seeing the world as it is, not as we want it to be.

The reality is, we are all different in various ways. I'm not particularly attractive, but would it be right for the government to force really handsome guys to ugly themselves up just to make me feel better? I'm much better with computers than most people, but would it be right for the feds to force me to type slower, call tech support for things I know how to fix, and print out needlessly crappier photos from Photoshop? My wife can speak three languages fluently while most Americans can barely speak their own native language; should the government force her to only speak one language? That would make things "equal" but not "fair" -- there's nothing fair about crippling people, and nothing fair about needlessly watering down talents or characteristics or bank accounts that they may possess.

I believe everybody should have equal opportunities, and the cream should be allowed to rise. But if you happen to be smart, or if you have money to afford great healthcare, or if you can do more things than other people, is it right for the State to hobble you just to smooth over the jealousy or sense of entitlement of others?

The Chinese government would've done better to outsource its censorship to Apple.

Apple has learned how to impose restrictions with impunity. Its iPhones sell well despite (or perhaps because of) the company's tightly controlled technical ecosystem. It maintains a mostly untarnished image in the press despite its disdain for the press. It ferrets out internal leaks using tactics that would be the envy of most authoritarian regimes. And it bans iPhone applications, like the porn app Hottest Girls, without alienating its fans.

There's something sad about the fact that China's view of acceptable content so closely resembles Apple's.

"Our health care freedoms are very much at risk by health care reforms proposed in Washington, D.C.," said Arizona state Rep. Nancy Barto, the Republican legislator who sponsored the measure. "We needed to act as a state to protect our citizens and ensure that they will always be able to buy their own health care and not be forced into a plan they don't want.

"Our state legislatures are looking at what's going on in Washington as trampling state's rights," [Christine] Herrera says.

Damn right it tramples states' rights. That's pretty much all the federal government does, especially these days.

WAKE UP PEOPLE. It's the Tenth Amendment of the freakin' U.S. Constitution: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

I just borrowed Welcome to Obamaland: I have seen your future and it doesn't work. It is simultaneously fun, hilarious, and depressing. Fun and hilarious because it's well-written; depressing because the author (James Delingpole) really has seen our future. He lived through Britain's own Obama: Tony Blair.

As he says in the introduction: "I am afraid I have a terrible message to impart. I have just seen the future. Your future. And I'm sorry to say it sucks." This book is basically a message from America's future, warning us of what the next (probably eight) years will be like.

Some choice quotes so far:

 

Oh, another reason I'm loving this book already: clearly, Delingpole is a Simpsons fan, because he makes a reference to "Obama-worshipping surrender monkeys." If you don't know what that's a reference to, then I'm sorry for your loss. But if you do get it, then you will appreciate why I am so rapidly coming to respect this book and its author.

U.S trade officials demanded that China rescind its mandate requiring that Web filtering software come pre-installed on all PCs sold there, maintaining that the directive could violate trade terms established by the World Trade Organization, Reuters reports.

Starting July 1, U.S. computer makers are expected to adhere to a deadline requiring Web filtering software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, come pre-installed on all computers sold in China.

I didn't realize at first that this requirement also applied to manufacturers outside China, but that makes sense. It is good to see somebody fighting this nonsense, but of course most manufacturers will cave and do whatever China wants -- gotta get that Chinese money while it's still hot.