More from Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis was the first American to receive a Nobel Prize for literature. He is little read today, largely because his writing is incomprehensible to those educated under the current American education system. That Lewis was a widely read popular author in the 1920s, tells us something about just how far the U.S. education system has fallen.

Awhile back (see post below), a Fox & Friends reporter put Ron Paul on the spot regarding Mike Huckabee's Christmas "cross" video. Paul, who is amazingly erudite, quoted Lewis on fascism and the cross, and left the reporter stammering. It was quite impressive.

Facism in America wasn't the only concern of Lewis' that is appropriate to the contemporary dialog.

From It Can't Happen Here, 1935:

I know the Press only too well. Almost all editors hide away in spider-dens, men without thought of Family or Public Interest or the humble delights of jaunts out-of-doors, plotting how they can put over their lies, and advance their own positions and fill their greedy pocketbooks by calumniating Statesmen who have given their all for the common good and who are vulnerable because they stand out in the fierce Light that beats around the Throne. -- Sinclair Lewis

It is as though Lewis were writing about the media's treatment of Ron Paul from a vantage point seven decades distant.

The war on Big

Disappointingly little has been written in follow-up to the Russert-Paul interview. Most of it hasn't even been interesting: whining about fairness from Paul's supporters and gnashing of teeth from mainstream media apologists for the status quo. Only one article has highlighted what was significant about the interview, that being Paul's declaration of war on the corporations. One might expect The Hill to be this astute, but it is rather sad that everyone else seems to have missed it.

Paul: Country is moving toward fascism
By Klaus Marre
December 23, 2007

White House hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Sunday that the U.S. is moving toward fascism, stating that corporations are increasingly “running the show” and citizens are being deprived of their liberties.

Paul clarified that he did not refer to the type of fascism that Adolf Hitler practiced in Germany. “We’re not moving toward Hitler-type fascism, but we’re moving toward a softer fascism,” Paul said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Loss of civil liberties, corporations running the show, big government in bed with big business.”

The lawmaker said the U.S. is moving toward “corporatism.”

Meet the Press

Tim Russert hosted Ron Paul on Meet the Press this morning. It was vintage Russert, hard hitting, relentless, not entirely fair. Paul held his own quite well though, better than might have been expected given the radical nature of Paul's positions within a corrupted culture. Paul made a master stroke at the end of the interview, by equating big corporate control of Washington politics with a "soft" form of fascism -- and thereby appealing to disaffected liberals who are disgusted with the Democrats for having climbed into bed with big business, big media, and big money. Unlike many libertarian apologists for big business, Paul sounds like he may actually understand that being pro capitalism and being pro corporation are not the same thing.

The Green Fairy's Return

After being outlawed for more then a century, the wormwood-based liquor absinthe is once again being legally manufactured and sold in America, sort of.

Recent studies have demonstrated that absinthe's reputed hallucinogenic effect, which had lead to its ban almost a century ago, are purely the psychosomatic effect of absinthe drinkers' expectations. As a result of the studies, absinthe bans in many countries have been overturned outright. (Switzerland even amended its constitution to legalize the stuff. A few of the more rational countries, including Great Britain, Australia, and, surprisingly, Spain, Portugal, never banned the stuff in the first place.)

Is outright legalization the case in the U.S.? Unfortunately not. (America isn't a country often willing to admit its mistakes.) For the time being, U.S. sales are limited to absinthe that can be shown to contain less than 10 parts per million of thujone -- which is the ingredient from wormwood that the studies have shown to be non-hallucinogenic.

For reference, nearly half the weight of sage oil, a dietary supplement commonly used to boost short-term memory, is thujone -- however sage oil is perfectly legal in the U.S. What is the effect of thujone that justifies the continued restriction on absinthe? Supposedly reduced attention span.

R.A.H.

...secrecy is the keystone of tyranny. Not force, but secrecy... censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything - you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. -- Robert Anson Heinlein (If This Goes On)

Reconstucting Huckabee

The mainstream media (MSM) has been hollering about Ron Paul having refused to return an isolated contribution from Don Black, a white supremacist with a website. Paul is clearly not a racist and has never had any association with Mr. Black.

The media gave quite a different treatment to Mike Huckabee following the discovery that he had at one time suggested that AIDS victims should be "isolated" (i.e., quarantined (e.g., interred in camps)). That news was treated as passé, even though Huckabee refused to recant the statement and it is not at all clear that Huckabee is not a homophobe. Quite to the contrary, he has been hanging out with homophobes as recently as this week.

On Tuesday, December 18, Huckabee flew to Houston to attend a fund raising event hosted by Steve Hotze, a leader in the Christian Reconstructionist movement. The Reconstructionist are decidedly scarier than any of Don Black's friends, largely because they have real organizations and real followings. (Many are probably white supremacists as well though, so perhaps they contributed money to Don Black -- who foolishly then sent it on to Ron Paul. That would be a great amusement to the rest of Paul's famously tolerant libertarian supporters.)

Who are the Reconstructionist? They are a movement founded by Rousas John Rushdoony (Gary North's father-in-law), with the aim to make America literally a Christian nation. How's that you ask? How is indeed the question. Of course they typically avoid discussion of methods, however their ends could only be accomplished by replacing the Constitution and establishing a police state to impose their version of "god's law" onto the rest of our pluralistic culture. They are, in short, a home-grown, Christian-variety of the Middle East's Islam-o-fascists. The Reconstructionist are all about implementing a society based on Biblical (Mosaic) law. For just a hint at what this would mean, imagine an America that allows for the keeping of slaves, beating of wives, stoning of homosexuals, and a lot of other scary things approved of by the god of the Old Testament.

What has been the reaction from the mainstream media in response to this revelation? So far, not much. Robert Novak wrote about it yesterday, and Brink Lindsey blogged about that on Cato@Liberty, but so far it hasn't made the front pages. By the standards of the mainstream media, a $500 check from a lone racist is news, but participatory fund raising efforts in cooperation with people intent on overthrowing the Constitution is barely worth a mention. And we foolishly think of the media as "liberal"!

There have been isolated rumors and reports that the Christian Reconstructionists already have their tentacles in Washington, perhaps even in the White House. What is interesting about this week's news is the open manner in which the Huckabee fund raiser took place, and that Huckabee himself felt that it politically safe to attend. Apparently the Reconstructionist are feeling secure enough to come out into the open. That may indeed be a safer place for us to have them, however it doesn't speak well of the current social climate in America.

The Reconstructions, no matter their beliefs, do have a right to participate in the political process. There is a big difference, however in a candidate's acceptance of donation and the candidate's active participation in a fund raiser. The latter clearly implies some degree of reverse endorsement. Imagine if Ron Paul had attended a neo-Nazi fund raiser to benefit his campaign, rather than merely cashing a single check from one individual? That news would rightly be plastered all over America's editorial pages. Instead, we have Mike Huckabee attending fund raisers hosted by the Christian Taliban.

Where is the ink?

The Editorial Between the News Lines

On December 19 the Associated Press put an article on the wire by Brian Skoloff regarding Ron Paul having refused to return a campaign donation from a contributor with white supremacists affiliations. The piece not so subtly implies that those with unpopular beliefs should not be allowed to participate in the political process. This is an idea that normally could be dismissed to the ranting of a fascist crank, if it had been presented in an opinion editorial. The Associated Press item was released as a news story however, and therefore its editorial subtext demands a bit more scrutiny.

The campaign contribution was made in late October. Ron Paul's position on the issue was made public and has been widely discussed since November. So here at the end of December, why does the Associated Press even consider the issue to still be news? Is the AP merely a month behind everyone else? Are they trying to influence the electoral process by repeatedly broadcasting old news? Or are they simply not paying attention to what is going out under their name?

It is annoying enough that journalist of the day don't seem to grasp the difference between reporting the news, creating the news, or waxing on about their own opinions. When their employers start letting them mix the three, we should start paying very close attention.

Unclear on the Concepts

During one of the Republican debates, Mike Huckabee both claimed to have theology degree and also refused to (or couldn't) provide an answer to the question of whether Jesus would support the death penalty. Now it turns out that Huckabee doesn't have a theology degree, but rather an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts in Religion (he majored in speech and communications). He apparently dropped out of seminary after only a year in order to go to work for a televangelist.

Since he is presuming to be the candidate of America's Christians, we should be asking ourselves: other than "thou shalt not kill" and "thou shalt not bear false witness," how many other of the Commandants is MIke Huckabee unclear on?

Talk about quick on the draw...

STEVE DOOCY: Mike Huckabee has started running an ad in Iowa, where you're at right now, also in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in the back, it's a windowpane but it also looks a lot like a cross. And, and, we had a guest a little while ago who said it was inappropriate to be using religion for political purposes. Congressman, I'm just curious what you think?

RON PAUL: Well, I haven't thought about it completely, but you know, it reminds me of what Sinclair Lewis once said, he said 'when Fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.' I don't know whether that's a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross like he is the only Christian, or implying that subtly. So, I don't think I would ever use anything like that.

Thank you Mr. Sullivan

Over at The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan has endorsed Ron Paul for the Republican presidential nomination. Sullivan's endorsement comes in the form of a thoughtful post explaining his conversion from a pro-war McCain supporter. It is inspiring to see a man put his reputation on the line for the good on the nation. It's equally depressing to notice that so few of our home-grown journalists are still willing to risk as much.

Insight from the Forums

The Authoritarians have Giuliani, the Capitalists have Romney, the Evangelicals have Huckabee, the Libertarians have Paul, the Zombie-Reaganites have Thompson, the Militarists have McCain. And they all hate each other. Is good, is good. -- Posted by MattF

Whose big government?

In response to Huckabee's growing poll numbers, the best thing that could happen for America would be for Huckabee's GOP competitors to paint him as a tax-and-send liberal. That might convince voters that if they are stuck with a choice between a tax-and-spend liberal Republican (in the Bush mold), or a tax-and-spend Democratic (in the Clinton mold), that they may as well vote for the Clinton. The economy was in a lot better shape under Clinton, and it was Clinton, after all, who declared the era of big government to be over. Bush has only done his best to undo that.

If This Goes On

Over sixty years ago, Robert Heinlein warned of the consequences of mixing politics and theology. There is no reason to think that Heinlein was less prescient about the dangers of putting a preacher in the White House than he was about the other things. Let's hope that before the election someone in Hollywood can produce a television or film version of If this Goes On. Are the Wachowski brothers available?

Not really a computer at all...

Over at Salon.com, on the Machinist blog, they are trying to figure out which political candidates are Macs and which are PCs. It is hard to justify equating any politician to something as useful as a computer. They simply don't provide the same utility. Perhaps a better analogy would be with a computer program?

• Given the recent news about Huckabee's desire to "isolate" AIDS victims, he is clearly an anti-virus program with a quarantine feature.
• Mitt Romney would definitely be a word processor. That's exactly the program you need if you need to keep editing your positions.
• Clinton would be one of those old programs that has been rebranded with a new interface --but which still does exactly the same thing.
• Giuliani would be a version of SimCity that has a really bad infinite loop bug.
• Obama might be one of those trendy productivity packages that sounds really great until you get it installed, after which you discover you can't figure out what it actually does.
• McCain would be a game of solitaire.
• It is not clear what Thompson would be. (He probably doesn't knows either.) Whatever it is, it would have shipped late. I'd suggest Vista, but Vista looks better than Thompson and runs faster too.
• And Ron Paul? He is a system integrity utility with a full "Constitutional" restore button. You know, one of those really great programs you never think to buy until after your system has already crashed.

Aping Mitt

Mitt Romney may assert for the fundamentalist crowd that he is now a born-again pro-lifer, but he is likely counting on more liberal Republicans to remain convinced that his change in position is merely political pandering. There could be more than one candidate who is hoping to convince voters that what he really believes is different than what he is publicly stating on the campaign trail.

To that end, the Huckabee campaign may have themselves strategically leaked the information about Huckabee's 1992 questionnaire answer suggesting internment for AIDS victims. Huckabee is safely in the future, where he can protest that society now knows it can afford to be compassionate, but he has still sent the message to the homophobic base of the fundamentalist movement that he is the kind of man who wouldn't hesitate to put fags in a pen. This would explain Huckabee's surging poll numbers in Iowa and the southern states.

A Huckabee nomination is likely to ensure that the Democrats take the White House, however, if it doesn't, gays better be ready to move to Canada.

What did Maher have to say?

Alan Takes a Shot

As Alan Reynolds observes in the Wall Street Journal, the markets sure seemed to think that Bush's plan was a bailout. Yet Reynolds' editorial doesn't clearly elucidate any obvious transfer. For everyday people to understand this "fix" to be just another corporate welfare bailout, and not an example of big government successfully working successfully, it has to be reduced to a simple black-and-white illustration of government stealing from Peter to pay Paul. Reynolds doesn't really accomplishes that. Of course, the everyday people weren't who Reynolds was writing for in the Wall Street Journal. Has anyone else successfully undertaken the task for a broader outreach? The Snarkmeister wants to know.

The Essence of Class

"The recent attacks and insinuations, both direct and subtle, that Gov. Romney may be less fit to serve as president of our United States because of his faith fly in the face of everything America stands for. Gov. Romney should be judged fairly, on his record and his character, not on the church he attends." --Ron Paul

IBG-YBG

Bush's Teaser-Freezer plan is more of what caused the problem in the first place: the "I'll be gone-You'll be gone" (IBG-YBG) approach that collects payments in the present and pushes costs into the future. The underlying weakness has not been addressed, it is merely being deferred through obfuscation and subsidy until the current generation of political and business leaders is able to retire without having to bear responsibility for a coming reevaluation that remains inevitable.

The Jena Millions

U.S. attorneys say there is little chance of proving a direct link between the nooses hung by white students outside a Louisiana government high school in Jena, Louisiana, and the alleged beating of a white student by black teens there. That is probably correct, especially given that the events occurred three months apart. It is unfortunate that the African-American students involved in the latter incident had been so poorly educated by the government high school in Jena that they were apparently unaware of the consequences of responding to race-baiting with violence. 

While a miscarriage of justice seems inevitable in application of the law,  the citizens of Jena could more successfully rally to address the root of the incident, which was a school administration that was unwilling to take strong measures against racist white students. The administrator who gave the white kids a pass with only three days of suspension is directly responsible for this mess. It was irrefutably that miscarriage of justice which lead to this chain of events. That grossly poor decision has placed a large and non-refundable cost on the beaten white boy, on the six black students, on the seven families, and on the taxpayers; indeed, on the entire nation. It is too bad such idiots can no longer be tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, but at least they can be be fired.