Your Lying Eyes

Dedicated to uncovering the truth that stands naked before your lying eyes.

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26 April 2013

Hate/Fear/Xenophobia/Racism

The worst sin of our age - the display of Hate/Fear/Xenophobia/Racism - will be wiped from our souls with the enactment of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). Yes, that's right - eradicated, as it were. You see, right now, deporting illegal undocumented immigrants, denial of work permits to people unfortunate enough to happen to be living outside our borders, erecting border fences, and increasing border enforcement are all driven by Hate/Fear/Xenophobia/Racism. Which is why we need CIR, and to oppose CIR is to engage in H/F/X/R. But one key facet of CIR - the part that's supposed to make it all OK, is that it includes - nay, requires - strict enforcement of our immigration laws. That would include deporting illegal undocumented immigrants, denial of work permits to people unfortunate enough to happen to be living outside our borders, erecting border fences, and increasing border enforcement. But since those things require H/F/X/R, which CIR is supposed to eliminate. So clearly, then, Hate/Fear/Racism/Xenophobia will no longer be bad, at least when applied to enforcing our immigration laws.

19 April 2013

The Real Tragedy

As tragic as the killing of an eight year old boy, two young women in the prime of their lives, and the horrific maiming of dozens might be, it would be an even worse tragedy if this terrorist attack derailed Comprehensive Immigration Reform. - The Gang of Eight.

Are Putin's Wheels Spinning?

These Boston bomber knuckleheads could have been Vladinir's headache, but instead they're ours . He's got too be thinking maybe he could get rid of a lot me of them  and send them over here. Why the hell, Castro did it with the Mariel boatlift, the Saudi's have been sending their troublemakers abroad for years - so why not send America some of his tired, poor Chechens?

16 April 2013

The Chronically Unemployed

The plight of the chronically unemployed has been making the rounds these days, with all kinds of deep explanations. A recent study which sent out fake resumes shows that being out of work for 6 months or longer is worse than not having relevant industry experience as far as employers are concerned. When you're out of work, your skills erode, and you're no longer employable. So it's hopeless. Or so the narrative goes.

Of course that's silly. During recessions, it's just plain tough to get a job. Employers have their pick of the litter, and they're going to aggressively filter their piles of applicants. If you've been out of work for more than 6 months, that means others have already rejected you. That's an easy way to screen people out - you need to start somewhere.

When the economy recovers, that all changes. Interest in jobs suddenly wanes - no more piles of resumes, and the few who do apply aren't so qualified. Hmmm...this guy seems to have se experience - he's been out of work awhile...but times were tough, after all - let's give him a try!

Same thing happens with people who have criminal records. When times are tough, their applications are thrown right in the trash. But when the economy is booming...Hmmm, aggravated assault...ah, the bastard probably had it coming...let's give him a try!

And as far as skills eroding, that assumes that the average employ's abilities continuously improve. But that can't be the case, otherwise our productivity would be skyrocketing and average incomes would be rising much faster than inflation. Typically people rapidly reach their limitations on a given job.  Improvement, if noticeable, is very gradual. A few continue to develop, and are promoted or leave for greener pastures. "Skill erosion" is a handy excuse for the screening, but not an actual phenomenon.

The problem of the unemployed is cured by economic recovery. But of course that assumes that there is an actual recovery. What we have now is a continuation of a recession that happened to rebound from its lowest depths, not a real recovery. We are now in the fifth year of economic doldrums with little hope of sustaining winds to fill our sails. We can take steps to force the hiring of the chronically unemployed, but this will just displace those who would otherwise get those jobs.

As an aside, this fits the phenomenon of the rapidly shifting memes we find on the left. It reminds me of the performance gap, which is due to inequities in school funding...no wait, it's due to pre-school inequities...no wait, it's parents not talking to their kids before age 3...

With the chronically unemployed, it's lack of aggregate demand...no wait, it's lack of skills (let's provide retraining)...no wait, it's just the fact of not working that makes their skills erode...

15 April 2013

Bombing Prediction


UPDATE: I guess I was wrong about Part 1 - or at least this specific individual.

  • Part 1: This is the easy part - the Saudi national who is currently a person of interest will in fact be found to be the guilty party, with possibly other Saudi national co-conspirators.
  • Part 2: This part is even easier - the fact that the bomber(s) is/are Saudi nationals will have no impact on any proposed counter-measures, on the immigration debate, and will not in fact be deemed to be relevant in any discussions about the bombing whatsoever (except of course on disreputable and hateful blogs) - regardless of his/their immigration status. Bonus prediction: John McCain will be particularly solicitous of Saudi forgiveness for any slights any of his countrymen might be perceived to have meekly emitted.

09 April 2013

Maggie, RIP

Margaret Thatcher was the linchpin among a remarkable troika of leaders who led the West out of the wilderness of the 70's. With Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, she relentlessly rang the bell of freedom and stood firm against the Soviets and their agents in our midst to slay the beast once and for all. But Maggie had the tougher challenge. Her's was a nation that had embraced socialism after WWII. Its unions were led not by blue-collar traditionalists or mob-corrupted connivers like in the U.S. but by full-on apparatchiks - true believers. And England was economically a much worse than the U.S. - one of the poorest performing economies in western Europe.

And, unusual for a woman, she was a gifted leader - in Britain's rough-and-tumble parliamentary democracy, it's a pretty much required trait. Those who merely bubble-up through technocratic infighting - the Gordon Browns - are doomed to fail. In the U.S., perhaps only Sarah Palin has that quality - but her native talents are too meager to sustain her - but otherwise our female "leaders" are nepotistic pretenders (as are many of our male leaders, as well - a disturbing trend in the "land of opportunity." While Thatcher took the reins in 1979, her influence as opposition leader since the mid-70's was already laying the ground work for the Troika's triumph in the next decade. (See this amusing WFB column about Mrs. Thatcher from as early as 1975).

But still she lacked Reagan's charm and warmth. And few men have ever possessed the other-wordly magnetism and aura of JP2 - at least until that Soviet hitman's bullets ruptured it. That was only in his papacy's fourth year - but the damage was already done - the Kremlin's days were already numbered, so long as Margaret and Ron stayed the course, which of course they did. But to lead in Britain you need to be a top-notch debater, and no one was more relentless an advocate than Mrs. Thatcher. She simply overwhelmed her opposition with cold, implacable reality of the facts, reducing them to blubbering and unhinged invective. (As an example of the latter, there's the notorious Elvis Costello song, which is actually a pretty good number despite its hateful tone).

Their legacy has been tarnished of late, in a sense victims of their success. Both Thatcher and Reagan tirelessly promoted the free market against all manner of government interference as an antidote to socialist inroads. While they won that war, the triumphalism of the capitalists has left a bitter taste in the mouth. Worse, their disciples confused the misbehavior and bluster of assorted dictators for the same existential threat the Soviets presented and led us into one misadventure after another.

But we shouldn't let the excesses of her followers, or even the subsequent abuses of her free-market ideology, detract from her great achievement of reinvigorating a once-great nation that seemed to be slipping ineluctably into decrepitude and standing fast with Reagan and John-Paul against the encroachment of tyranny.