Quick Roundup 457

Wider, Please!

With apologies to Michael Ledeen, I am happy, as a supporter of the Ayn Rand Institute, to see that one of its bloggers has earned an Instalanche (HT: Dismuke) -- something about "Government Motors" -- but at the same time, I am sad to see that its web server is being pitted rather than helping get the word out.

Clearly, ARI's amazing recent progress is coming at a price: the need for more bandwidth.

You can help with an email or a donation, or perhaps both, with the one directing the flow of the other. As if to underscore my point, I was hoping to link to the donations page of ARI, but find that I can't go there to get the URL at the moment.

I'll put that in here later, as soon as I can. And once I do, I suspect that the link to the article will be working again.

[Update: As of about 1:15 Eastern Time, the ARI/ARC website appears to be working.]

Heh!

I think I might know who this guy is!

The anecdote at the end reminds me of a fairly recent occurrence here, in which I posted the picture of someone I know from Houston, leading to him re-connecting with an old college friend.

We live in a world at once small and limitless!

Vote-Buying

A news story about a blatant vote purchase (HT: Billy Beck and Alan Sullivan) by the Obamessiah reminds me somewhat indirectly of Letters from the Earth.

(Obama was aided by "philanthropist" George Soros, whose inexcusable moral sanction was far more valuable to Obama than the chump change he gave.)

First, we have one of Obama's ne'er-do-wells reveling in the "free money" that came, mostly, out of your pocket:

"It's free money!" said Alecia Rumph, 26, who waited in a Morris Park, Bronx, line 300 people deep for the cash to buy uniforms and book bags for her two kids.

"Thank God for Obama. He's looking out for us." [links dropped]

Now, consider the above in light of the following passage of Mark Twain's.

Noah and his family were saved, yes, but they were not comfortable, for they were full of microbes. Full to the eyebrows; fat with them, obese with them; distended like balloons. It was a disagreeable condition, but it could not be helped, because enough microbes had to be saved to supply the future races of men with desolating diseases, and there were but eight persons on board to serve as hotels for them. The microbes were by far the most important part of the Ark's cargo, and the part the Creator was most anxious about and most infatuated with. . . . If [God] had had a motto, it would have read, "Let no innocent person escape."

To Obama's alleged "beneficiaries," I would ask, "Why did Obama leave you still so poor that a few hundred measly bucks is such a big deal? Why won't he do more? Is there a point at which you're 'rich enough' and is that point above or below the one at which Obama will decide to help himself to your money so he can buy votes from 'the poor' in the future?" Either Obama is all-powerful and wants you to remain miserable, or he isn't, and he ought to explain exactly where (i.e., from whom) he got that money.

And then, to all the outraged Republicans out there, I would ask, "Why didn't you object even more to the Bush stimulus checks?"

This is an object lesson on why one must consistently stand up for rational principles. Rather than properly note that Obama's payouts were made possible by larceny carried out on a stupendous scale, all GOP officials can now do is sputter about how the governor of New York, "should spend the money to reduce property taxes." This is because they failed to speak up when it was "our guy" buying votes with government checks.

Quoth another: "It is a plan that is ripe for fraud and abuse." Too effing late -- and wrong anyway, now that I think about it.

This plan is fraud and abuse, and the spineless GOP finds itself in a poor position to object to it.

This -- Obama's "opponents" having to let him get away with this -- is what I find appalling.

Whole Foods CEO vs. Obamacare

Although not exactly the call to repeal all government meddling in the insurance and medical sectors that we really need, I have to admire John Mackey's guts here (HT: Dismuke).

[T]he last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction--toward less government control and more individual empowerment.

This guy could lose lots of business for making this stand, considering the political leanings of the bulk of his clientele -- if, by "lean," you mean, "lie prostrate at the feet of Barack Obama," that is.

I could support some of Mackey's policy recommendations, but only as initial steps towards altogether disengaging the government from medical insurance.

Objectivist Roundup

Be there or be square.

-- CAV