Motus Mentis

24 Comments

1. TheBigHenry says

   I’ve been in love so many times

   Thought I knew the score

   But now he’s treated us so wrong

   Just like an unhinged Gore

   And it looks like

   I’m never gonna fall in love again

   …

   (with apologies to Tom Jones)

   Posted March 14, 2012 at 1:29 pm | Permalink
2. Foo Who says

   Bah, “the Iraq war will pay for itself”.

   Posted March 14, 2012 at 3:22 pm | Permalink
3. Malcolm says

   Yes, Foo, that one didn’t pan out so well either.

   It’s enough to make you start thinking you just can’t trust politicians!

   Hey, here’s an idea: maybe we should give them less control over our lives…

   Posted March 14, 2012 at 3:50 pm | Permalink
4. Foo Who says

   If that’s your goal, then voting Republican is not the way to achieve it.

   Posted March 14, 2012 at 4:19 pm | Permalink
5. Malcolm says

   Right, because the Democrats are the party of smaller government.

   Posted March 14, 2012 at 4:45 pm | Permalink
6. Foo Who says

   I’m neither a Democrat nor a Liberal.

   When I see partisans like you blindly criticizing one side w/o looking at the failings of their own party, it reminds me why we’re in the mess we are.

   Posted March 14, 2012 at 5:57 pm | Permalink
7. Malcolm says

   “Blindly”? Really?

   Believe me, I have no love of the Republicans. The lesser evil at best, and only by a little.

   But come November, somebody will win: either Mr. Obama, or whoever goes up against him, most likely Mitt Romney. So who are you going to vote for?

   Posted March 14, 2012 at 6:11 pm | Permalink
8. Foo Who says

   Whatever the difference in rhetoric about smaller government, there’s effectively none in practice.

   Posted March 14, 2012 at 6:17 pm | Permalink
9. Malcolm says

   Not as much as one might like, I’ll grant you, but not none. And there is more to this election than economics.

   Anyway, one must choose. If the only choice is between Bad and Worse, I’ll take Bad, and be glad to get it.

   Posted March 14, 2012 at 6:22 pm | Permalink
10. the one eyed man says

    Ambrose Bierce defines a vote as “the instrument and symbol of a free man’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.” This year’s election certainly gives you a chance to do both.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 6:40 pm | Permalink
11. Malcolm says

    A chance, yes – but I’ll pull the other lever.

    There’ll be wreckage either way, though, I’m afraid.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 6:46 pm | Permalink
12. TheBigHenry says

    “This year’s election certainly gives you a chance to do both.”

    Malcolm’s chance for doing both is non-zero, albeit vanishingly small. One-eyed’s “chance” is certain.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 7:05 pm | Permalink
13. Robert says

    Several thoughts:

    1) Trillion is the new billion. Our money is so debased that the government wasting a mere billion on something stupid will hardly move the outrage meter.
    2) For at least until TOMORROW, I’ll never fall in love again.
    3) The difference between Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama is not the difference between being shot or being hanged. It is the difference between a broken arm or being hanged.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 7:20 pm | Permalink
14. Malcolm says

    Robert,

    1) and 3): agreed.

    2) is up to you.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 7:34 pm | Permalink
15. TheBigHenry says

    3) … difference between being bored and being bungeholed.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 7:40 pm | Permalink
16. Malcolm says

    Beggared and buggered.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 7:41 pm | Permalink
17. Robert says

    Re: 2) (smile) I was just quoting the original lyrics of the Burt Bacharach song, which I heard many, many times on my parents record player. That song was quite remarkable; it also taught me that “pneumonia” rhymes with “phone ya,” and made my childhood poetry that much more creative.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 8:07 pm | Permalink
18. Malcolm says

    That Burt Bacharach is a genius.

    I have a rare item on my bookshelf at home: a collection of “how-to” tips written by his father, Bert (with an ‘e’).

    Found it at a flea market for a dollar.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 8:24 pm | Permalink
19. TheBigHenry says

    Played and flayed.

    Posted March 14, 2012 at 8:28 pm | Permalink
20. Dr. Strangelove says

    A small point: the real comparison is not how much this bill will cost but how much more (or less if that is possible) if the existing laws before Obama had stayed as they were.

    I know your strong dislike for Paul Krugman but his article a while back about Medicare makes the point more clearly than I could that the Qs should not be how much does X law cost society but how much it costs compared to our other options.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/opinion/13krugman.html?ref=paulkrugman

    Posted March 16, 2012 at 1:25 pm | Permalink
21. Malcolm says

    A fair point, and of course the total economic cost of the two approaches is important to know.

    However, to Krugman — the economist and left-wing central-planning enthusiast — economic cost is the only important consideration. But for conservatives, the costs in terms of liberty, expansion of government, state control of a sixth of the economy, and vastly increased powers granted to the Executive Branch (as we’ve just seen) are at least as worrisome as the dollar amounts, if not even more so.

    Posted March 16, 2012 at 3:03 pm | Permalink
22. TheBigHenry says

    “However, to Krugman – the economist and left-wing central-planning enthusiast – …”

    However, to Krugman – the ecommunist – …

    Posted March 16, 2012 at 3:19 pm | Permalink
23. Robert says

    Malcolm–Also, why should we believe FedGov cost estimates many years out? Basing our comparisons on these figures is like playing the lottery. Health care costs can have no practical limits as long as they are not based on rational decisions by the recipients. If so-called “insurance” pays for everything, after the deductible is met I rationally want all the medical care I can get. I want every expensive test for every ache and pain, I want all the best drugs regardless of costs. It’s my very existence at stake, after all. And “someone else” is paying for it. Since that model is obviously unsustainable, what we are going to get as Obamacare “evolves” is rationing and death panels. When “equality,” Krugman and Obama’s overweening, unanswerable value, plus unlimited wants, meets the real world of limited means, that is the ineluctable end. Rationing and death panels are already in operation in Europe, though under more palatable names.

    Oh, there will be a few exceptions for senior members of government and their families, and certain friends. Who believes that a man of Paul Krugman’s evident greatness and value to society will have wait a year for his hip replacement?

    Posted March 16, 2012 at 3:33 pm | Permalink
24. Malcolm says

    Right, Robert. The more the voting public gets to like the taste of these positive “rights”, the faster we approach that ineluctable end. It won’t be pretty.

    Posted March 16, 2012 at 5:08 pm | Permalink