BrianH's blog
Posted at 3:51pm on May 22, 2008 Fascism and Democratic Party policy
By BrianH
A few days ago Jeff asked a troll who was throwing Fascist bombs around if he actually knew what Fascism was. The troll's response was "The definition of Fascism is the merger of the corporation and the State. " which of course is what the left has been saying Fascism is since Mussolini broke with mainstream Socialism and starting attempting to find practical methods of making socialism work (some more successful than others).
Posted in Liberals — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:28am on Apr. 9, 2008 "If you don't die while you're on the waiting list."
By BrianH
I was recently in a class with a Canadian citizen and we started discussing various topics. Of course Canadian vs. US health care came up and lead to an interesting discussion. The man was an admittedly left of center person even for Canada, but a thoroughly likable guy.
He told me how much he really liked the Canadian system where he doesn't have to worry about paying for medical care. "Well we actually pay quite a LOT for it in taxes, but we don't have to worry about it." He explained how the Canadian care system never turns away anyone (I countered that the US system also doesn't turn people away, but that's an aside). He thought it was the absolutely BEST medical system in the world. Then ended with "If you don't die while you're on the waiting list."
Posted in Archived — Comments (74) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:03am on Mar. 5, 2008 How do you support a candidate who happens to be black without pushing a "Black Candidate"
By BrianH
A recent blog entry suggesting that JC Watts would be a good VP nominee triggered a debate about picking people because of their color.
The Republican party has long incorrectly had stereotype of being the "Old Rich White Man's Party". Much of this sterotype is because when don't believe in policies that promote one race over another (AKA Government based racism is just as bad a private sector racism if not worse). So when we support people who happen to be black, we're accused of putting on candidates in Black Face.
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Posted at 1:30pm on Nov. 8, 2007 Ron Paul is lecturing Ben Bernanke.
By BrianH
He's giving him lessons in economics. They must really have put a LOT of emphasis on economics at his medical school.
According to the good doctor:
We have artificially low interest rates.
We have mal-investments.
The Fed has been price fixing.
There isn't really any new capital, Bernanke has been making it up.
People are being robbed!
Bernanke very politely told him he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. He seemed to have a hard time not laughing out loud.
Posted in Archived — Comments (14) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:10pm on Nov. 6, 2007 More Free Trade Agreements
By BrianH
President Bush just finished a speech on Free Trade. He cautioned against the trend towards protectionism that we've seen lately and at the same time pushed for a basket of new trade agreements. He pushed many of the positive aspects of previous Free Trade Agreements (Caterpillar employees get bigger raises!) and suggested that these benefits would also come from the new agreements.
He mentioned one idea that I hope spreads. He said GE has been distributing flyers to it's workers explaining how the various free trade deals have increased overseas sales of the products those workers are making. I think it is a GREAT idea to show the people on the factory floor how free trade increases their job security instead of threatening it.
Posted in Foreign Affairs — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:45am on Nov. 4, 2007 Fascism: A child of the socialists.
By BrianH
This started as a reply in the topic on top 5 conservatives, but rather than continue a threadjack, I'm moving the topic here.
A common charge that the modern liberals make is that conservatives are just fascists in waiting. There is a common myth that the extremes of conservative and liberatarian thought evolve into fascism. The big hole in that myth is the lack of explanation for how you get from extreme libertarianism to statism. The logical progression from the very extreme form of libertarianism is the guy in a shack in the mountains with a rifle telling the revenuers to stay away. Can you honestly imagine that guy calling for total state control of society? But enough of that and back to the topic, the origins and philosophies of Fascism....
Posted in Archived — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:08am on Oct. 28, 2007 A serious (no really) discussion of Ron Paul and his issues.
By BrianH
RedState has been accused of banning all discussion of Ron Paul. That is a serious missreading of the policy and I intend to prove it by openning a discussion of his policies.*
To do that I decided not to rely on his supporter's postings (which are often difficult to follow) and went to the source to find out what he's saying, Ron's own web site at:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/
I'll list his issues in the same order he does.
Posted in 2008 — Comments (56) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:47am on Aug. 10, 2007 IL-18 Aaron Schock has declared for Ray LaHood's seat
By BrianH
Promoted from Diaries ... - Martin A Knight
Aaron Schock has declared his intention to run for Ray LaHood’s seat in the IL-18 district. * Given what I’ve seen of his performance on the local and state level, I think he’ll make a decent representative and I will be supporting him.
Our prior discussion ended with Erick’s comment:
“[UPDATE:] Question: Do we really want a 26 year old who's legislative claim to fame is a resolution demanding a uniform minimum wage across the nation?”
Read on . . .
Posted in 2008 — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:22am on Jul. 6, 2007 Minimum Wage Increase has its expected effects.
By BrianH
Illinois didn't wait for the federal minimum wage to increase. It's Democratic run legislature decided to raise minimum wages to $7.50/hour starting Jul 1.
This wage increase has had it's expected effect. Some people are getting higher paychecks, but it also is leading to higher prices and to job cuts.
For example: My local park district announced that it will be taking 2 actions to deal with its higher wage costs. This hits them becasuse park districts tend to hire lots of youngsters to work part time summer jobs which are typically paid at or slightly above minimum wage.
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Posted at 12:21pm on Jul. 4, 2007 Can our national anthem be sung at a public school?
By BrianH
This past Sunday, my church sang the "Star Spangled Banner" as one of our worship service songs. It got me to thinking about the song and how little most people know about it.
While all of us know the question asked in the first stanza ("Is our flag still there?"), there are far fewer who know the other stanzas of our nation's favorite song. The second and third verses provide the answer to the question ("Yes it's still there.") and give a hint what will happen to anyone else who tries to attack us (We'll hunt them down and kill them.) These middle verses were left out of the hymnal at my church for some reason.
Posted in Archived — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:52pm on May 11, 2007 It's time for conservatives to counter the lefty indoctrination of our children.
By BrianH
A week or so ago Rick Moran posted a story about Andrew Sullivan falling for a prank involving a children’s version of 24. The lefty reaction against brainwashing our children was swift and fierce.
But it got me thinking. The lefties have been brainwashing our children with the likes of Captain Planet for years, decades even, and I don't know of anything approaching conservative ideology to counter it.
Posted in Culture — Comments (30) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:59pm on Mar. 14, 2007 Global Warming is REAL! Buy my carbon credits!
By BrianH
Yep, I've decided to join the ranks of the lefties. AGW is real! We have to act NOW to save our planet.
Buy my carbon credits!
That's right I'll help you save the world. And you don't actually have to change anything in your lifestyle. I'll do it for you. Buy my carbon credits and I won't drive to work*. Buy more and I'll plant a tree*. I'll sell them too you CHEAP too (compared to the irreparable harm you'd be doing to the planet if you don't buy my credits that is).
Posted in Economy — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:04pm on Feb. 17, 2007 Where's all this "Global Warming" I've been hearing such nice things about....
By BrianH
With most of North America in a deep freeze, it would be nice to get a little of that warming around here.
Seriously, in December when temps were warmer than average, we had global warming stories about every evening. Towards the end of January and all of February we've heard nothing. We got plently of "record warm temps for December" stories linked to Al Gore's nutty ideas. But I haven't seen any "record cold spell" stories and very few "record snow fall in Feb" stories (though that town in New York got a few stories for 15 FEET of snow...).
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Posted at 10:20am on Dec. 30, 2006 Saddam's dead. So what happens now?
By BrianH
Beyond the fact that justice was administered to a monster who deserved his fate, Saddam's death will have other consequences. Just what do others think these consequences will be?
My hopes for consequences are:
1. People who wouldn't aid us because they feared retaliation when Saddam regained power will now feel safe to declare sides.
2. Groups who are Saddam supporters that are fighting us will give up the fight.
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Posted at 10:23am on Nov. 17, 2006 Small hotel chain is refusing to show CNN!
By BrianH
A small hotel chain (10 hotels) has dropped CNN from it's cable lineup. The owner saw the video of the terrorists assasinating a US soldier and was repulsed by them broadcasting propaganda. It's a small statement, but it's a start!
Now if we can get other business owners to follow suit, maybe the MSM will take notice.
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