Author: Redactor

links

Townhall: The Scandal That Must Not Be Named

Post author By Redactor
Post date December 24, 2017
No Comments on Townhall: The Scandal That Must Not Be Named

We have the names of the bureaucrats responsible. But the scandal? Don’t call it that! (Says the insider press.) Click over to Townhall for the precise words to describe this sad recent history.

If you return here you can read more on the subject:

Washington Post: Fallout from allegations of tea party targeting hamper IRS oversight of nonprofits
NYT: Justice Department Settles With Tea Party Groups After I.R.S. Scrutiny
Cincinnati.com: New details emerge in tea party suit against IRS
DOJ Office of Legislative Affairs Letter
Politico: Audit indicates liberal nonprofits also got extra IRS scrutiny
NPR: As IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups, It Went After Progressives Too
WTOP: Tea party groups’ suit against IRS moves forward

Today

Silent Night

On December 24, 1818, the first performance of “Silent Night” took place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria. Father Joseph Mohr had written the lyrics some time earlier, commissioning nearby schoolteacher and organist, Franz Xavier Gruber, to compose a melody appropriate for guitar accompaniment. It is one of the world’s most recognizable songs, and a favorite Christmas carol.

Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley and author of satirical novels such as Thank You For Smoking and Supreme Courtship, was born on Christmas Eve, 1952

video

How Many ”Killy Things” Do We Need?

Post author By Redactor
Post date December 23, 2017
1 Comment on How Many ”Killy Things” Do We Need?

Defense spending is one of those “games” that it is not really possible to know what is the optimal level: spend to little, you are dead or enslaved or struggling within chaos; spend too much and you are broke or in hock above your eyebrows or … struggling within chaos. Finding the sweet spot in between these two unwanted extremes is subject to negotiation and speculation, but we do have some clues what “too much” War Dept. spending would look like. Pretty much what we have now:

Thought

William Leggett

Whenever a Government assumes the power of discriminating between the different classes of the community, it becomes, in effect, the arbiter of their prosperity, and exercises a power not contemplated by any intelligent people in delegating their sovereignty to their rulers. It then becomes the great regulator of the profits of every species of industry, and reduces men from a dependence on their own exertions, to a dependence on the caprices of their Government. Governments possess no delegated right to tamper with individual industry a single hair’s-breadth beyond what is essential to protect the rights of person and property.

Today

Washington Resigns

On December 23, 1783, George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.

Thought

John C. Calhoun

The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism.

Today

Dictator Overthrown

On December 22, 1989, Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife fled Bucharest with a helicopter as protesters erupted in cheers.

The couple was quickly caught and, on Christmas day, tried by a military tribunal and executed by firing squad.

Today

Rock and Rebellion

On December 21, 1620, William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declared their independence on December 21, 1826, starting the Fredonian Rebellion.

Avant-garde rock ’n’ roll guitarist, band leader, and composer Frank Zappa was born on this date in 1940. In 1985, Zappa testified before the United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music organization co-founded by Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore. Zappa was a passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship. Describing his political views, Frank Zappa categorized himself as a “practical conservative,” or “independent.” He died in 1993.

Thought

Mary Wollstonecraft

Society . . . as it becomes more enlightened, should be very careful not to establish bodies of men who must necessarily be made foolish or vicious by the very constitution of their profession.
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), chapter one.

Thought

Jack McDevitt

Most government and corporate leaders would have trouble getting people to follow them out of a burning building. One way you can tell the worst of them is that they talk about leadership a lot. I doubt Winston Churchill ever used the word. Or, for that matter, Attila the Hun.

Jack McDevitt, Odyssey (2006), Chapter 5.