Posts
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| Graham Ledger |
Monday, October 20, 2014
OANN: Good News
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The new, upstart One America News Network (OANN) is certainly worth a look -- in my view, an extended look. One could say, painting with a fine brush, that Fox News Network (FNN) owns the conservative message for TV viewers; it is to television what Rush Limbaugh is to radio. Fox has become enormously successful because it has enjoyed the distinction of being the only news and opinion TV outlet for conservative voices. Which is not to say that it is a good or intellectually consistent outlet. The Marxist ruling class (the Institutional Left) may rail against Fox as an instrument of right-wing extremists. And from their perspective it is. From my own it is nothing of the kind. A generation ago Fox would have been seen as politically centrist, and that's how I see it today. *
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Federal Government Lurches Toward End-State Dysfunction
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End-state bureaucracies eventually crumble when four conditions obtain: 1. confusion about or deliberate perversion of mission (purpose, policy); 2. alienation of markets or constituents; 3. ever-expanding maintenance costs; and 4. institutional arrogance that forecloses adaptive change from within.
But even in a clearly moribund and declining state, inertia of scale may prolong their existence for long periods. In these times they are deceptively fragile and unable to survive crises of their own making. That would seem to be the condition of several agencies of the federal government -- State, EPA, Justice, BATFE, Agriculture, Education, DHS and, most recently brought to public attention, CDC.
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| Bloat and Mission Creep |
End-state bureaucracies eventually crumble when four conditions obtain: 1. confusion about or deliberate perversion of mission (purpose, policy); 2. alienation of markets or constituents; 3. ever-expanding maintenance costs; and 4. institutional arrogance that forecloses adaptive change from within.
But even in a clearly moribund and declining state, inertia of scale may prolong their existence for long periods. In these times they are deceptively fragile and unable to survive crises of their own making. That would seem to be the condition of several agencies of the federal government -- State, EPA, Justice, BATFE, Agriculture, Education, DHS and, most recently brought to public attention, CDC.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Glocks
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The Left seems to have convinced themselves that firearms have somehow acquired their own agency. That they have the power to act independently of human beings. Or, as Bob Owens says, in his entertaining article they are believed to have cargo cult properties that -- via magic -- take possession of persons who touch guns and cause them to make murder and mayhem. But I find myself wondering if, instead, gun haters don't bring the "possession" to the gun and not the other way round. Breaking that down, what people often bring to the gun is a combination of fear, hostility and the illusion of superiority. I'll get to that later, but now I want to discuss the simple fear of guns.
The Left seems to have convinced themselves that firearms have somehow acquired their own agency. That they have the power to act independently of human beings. Or, as Bob Owens says, in his entertaining article they are believed to have cargo cult properties that -- via magic -- take possession of persons who touch guns and cause them to make murder and mayhem. But I find myself wondering if, instead, gun haters don't bring the "possession" to the gun and not the other way round. Breaking that down, what people often bring to the gun is a combination of fear, hostility and the illusion of superiority. I'll get to that later, but now I want to discuss the simple fear of guns.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Dealing With ISIS and Other Enemies in the Middle-East
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[Updated on 10/16]
Now, I think, is the time for America to "lead from behind", or follow from the front(?) or essentially continue to do almost nothing. We should arm the Kurds and support them (and only them) from the air with special forces ground support. Not more, beyond playing the role of dishonest broker among the major powers: the Arabs, the Turks and the Persians. About this, more later.
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| Kemal Atatürk |
[Updated on 10/16]
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| Erdoğan and Obama |
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| Keeping in Touch with his friend Rouhani |
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