Also on the cartoon riots, Tracy Twyman takes me to task for suspecting that the whole brouhaha was manufactured. I posted a comment there to clear up some misunderstandings. Justin Raimondo doesn't go as far as I do, but also has the feeling that "we are being played like so many violins."
I hope you all had a wonderful President's Day. In honor of it, I recommend Lew Rockwell's classic speech from ten years ago, Down With The Presidency:
The presidency – by which I mean the executive State – is the sum total of American tyranny. The other branches of government, including the presidentially appointed Supreme Court, are mere adjuncts. The presidency insists on complete devotion and humble submission to its dictates, even while it steals the products of our labor and drives us into economic ruin. It centralizes all power unto itself, and crowds out all competing centers of power in society, including the church, the family, business, charity, and the community. I’ll go further. The US presidency is the world’s leading evil. It is the chief mischief-maker in every part of the globe, the leading wrecker of nations, the usurer behind Third-World debt, the bailer-out of corrupt governments, the hand in many dictatorial gloves, the sponsor and sustainer of the New World Order, of wars, interstate and civil, of famine and disease. To see the evils caused by the presidency, look no further than Iraq or Serbia, where the lives of innocents were snuffed out in pointless wars, where bombing was designed to destroy civilian infrastructure and cause disease, and where women, children, and the aged have been denied essential food and medicine because of a cruel embargo. Look at the human toll taken by the presidency, from Dresden and Hiroshima to Waco and Ruby Ridge, and you see a prime practitioner of murder by government.
Speaking of the Presidency, if I ever took the office I'd hire Pat Buchanan as an advisor. He's right about two-thirds of the time. Today, he gives Newt Gingrich a hisotry lesson. Although I'm not so sure of Buchanan's history on one point: the bombing of Pan Am 103.
Yesterday I caught John Fogerty on Austin City Limits. Throughout my teens and into my twenties I listened to Creedence Clearwater Revival a lot. I then pretty much stopped, revisting the band just once or twice a year to sink in those songs again. Yesterday was one of those times. If we built a Mount Rushmore of American rock songwriters, I'd probably put Fogerty on it, along with Brian Wilson, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly.
The same television station is also treating us to weekly reruns of Jeeves and Wooster. L. Neil Smith points out that one stark difference between libertarians and conservatives lie in their views of Lincoln. Agreed. But to the conservatives' credit, they'd rather read P.G. Wodehouse than sci-fi.
Last week, I found out that Hugh Laurie (Wooster) and Stephen Fry (Jeeves) were actually a comedy team with their own series in Britain in the 1980's before doing Jeeves. Today, Laurie adopts an American accent playing tv's House. He also delivered the best line in American sitcom history, when he played the hapless English gentleman sitting next to Rachel on the plane in Friends: "And by the way, it seems to be perfectly clear that you were on a break."
Since about last October, I've been hearing of a movie called The Secret, which has perhaps the best teaser I've ever seen. Blair Warren provides a review with FAQ's. The "Secret" appears to relate to that current where self-help, persuasion, marketing, and the New Age become one integrated topic. Specifically, it looks like it has something to do with Charles Haanel's Master Key System.
Warren is also posting five excerpts of his Forbidden Keys to Persuasion. But they're not staying on his blog; an excerpt will be up for 2-3 days, then taken down and replaced by the next one. But the first excerpt is up now. Check it out ASAP, while you still have the chance.
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