Quick Roundup 407

Lightning Links

So I'm headed out of town again and fell asleep last night when I should have been packing.

"This'll have to be fast," I'm thinking.

"Might as well call 'em 'lightning links,' I reply to myself.

"Damn! I kinda like that! Why didn't I come up with that, oh, about 407 installments ago?"

Bushtalgia -- or Wamnesia?

I spotted a link to this post by the Anchoress, "Yep, I miss Bush," over at Instapundit the other day, but didn't get around to it until this morning.

I'm no fan of Obama, but I can't get enough past the cries of hypocrisy (regarding the leftists who are now admitting to being enamored of Bush's policies) -- or the dropping of the bar to the ground that is necessary to make Bush look good -- to read through all of it at once.

The fact that welfare statists want to continue Bush's policies is no admission on their part of Dubya's superior wisdom. To the contrary, it is usually a sign that what Bush did wasn't really so hot.

On top of that we are necessarily not privy to the alternative to Obama, namely John McCain enacting policies substantially the same as his.

For the conservative movement to become a true alternative to the left, the concern must be that whoever is in power be a champion of individual rights. Bush was not, and McCain wouldn't have been. I want better than to take false solace in the President being "our guy" (which, as a welfare statist, he can't be, anyway, at least for me).

Amit Ghate provides an executive summary at his blog of what the Republicans ought to consider.

Hsieh's on a Huge Roll

Wow! Another big op-ed and a couple of good LTEs by Paul Hsieh.

Here's one of the LTEs.

When the economy is bad, welfare statists say, "We must expand government programs because everyone is hurting." When the economy is good, they say, "We must expand them because we can finally afford it."

If I didn't know better, I'd think that they wanted to increase people's dependency on government programs regardless of the reason.

Quote of the day, there!

Objectivist Roundup

Heh! I finally remembered to submit something again. Yes. I'm stretched that thin.

All indications are that it will appear at Making Progress later today. I'll update with a permalink when I can, but that may be as late as tomorrow morning.

Fashion Predictions, circa 1930

Quoth Karl Martin Mertens, "Actually, pretty bang on."

More Podcasts!

Stephen Bourque lists the last four Leonard Peikoff podcasts with teasers. I like to listen to them in small bunches, and I see that I have a set of four new ones to enjoy.

-- CAV

Updates

2-26-09: Added direct link to Objectivist Roundup.