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Monday, October 13, 2008


Wretchard’s Warning

From the inestimable Richard Fernandez, of The Belmont Club, who offers both profound wisdom and an admirable flair for the language:

There was a time when people explicitly understood their ignorance. And they defended against uncertainty by relying on simpler, less interdependent systems for survival.  In case snow blocked the roads they had hams, canned goods, dried beans and sacks of flour in the storeroom. In the event 911 didn’t answer they had a shotgun in back.  Family was the insurance against unforeseen crisis. Nation was the refuge against enemies. Culture provided a standard operating procedure which everyone was expected to know.

We have abolished much of that because in our foolish pride, it became an article of faith that we no longer needed them.  Canned food is now shunned for the preservatives that it contains. Bacon is bad because it has salt. Allah forbid that there’s a gun in the house. And who could be less ‘with it’ than a woman with five children and a husband who drives a snowmobile. Sarah Palin is hated by sophisticates because she is almost a cliched example of this kind of simplicity. Ha ha ha. Today really cool people live in big cities, dependent on power grids, power circles and power lunches. They imagine there’s no heaven, no countries, nothing to kill or die for and no religion too. Today the truly cultured person is expected to know nothing of his own culture and a smattering of everyone else’s. Because they’re certain in their epistemological arrogance they’ll never need any of the things they’ve safely abandoned. Who needs a family when you’ve got a retirement fund?

Lenin once described Communism as “socialism plus electricity”. The modern version of Nirvana is “socialism plus Google”. When will we learn? Never, I fear, while pride and the desire for power rule the human breast.

These are the oblivious “progressives” who would lead the nation and the world?!  God forbid!

Does this tick you off? Click here to email your elected representatives right here on Say Anything, or comment below.

Comments

Give me the simple life.

epistemological arrogance

WOOF on October 13, 2008 at 09:13 pm

Indeed.


Out Here
Rodney G. Graves
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Ceterum censeo Parthia esse delendam
Latin: “Furthermore, Parthia (Persia aka modern day Iran) should be destroyed.”

Rodney Graves on October 13, 2008 at 09:14 pm

Clarification:

My “Indeed” was in reference to Bat One’s posting on Wretchard’s comments and in no way was an endorsement of anything emanating from the little dog.


Out Here
Rodney G. Graves
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Ceterum censeo Parthia esse delendam
Latin: “Furthermore, Parthia (Persia aka modern day Iran) should be destroyed.”

Rodney Graves on October 13, 2008 at 09:16 pm

Graves seeming agreement was straining
my epistemological arrogance .

WOOF on October 13, 2008 at 09:31 pm

the little dog has delusions of competence.


Out Here
Rodney G. Graves
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Ceterum censeo Parthia esse delendam
Latin: “Furthermore, Parthia (Persia aka modern day Iran) should be destroyed.”

Rodney Graves on October 13, 2008 at 09:47 pm
Avatar for UncleSA

“The modern version of Nirvana is ‘socialism plus Google’.”
Hey Bat! Thanks for my best laugh of the day!

“When will we learn? Never, I fear, while pride and the desire for power rule the human breast.” -Bat One

Wow! Both worthy of quoting; and thanks for reminding me:
===

Years ago, this story really opened my eyes to how much we have lost!
http://www.dickproenneke.com/DickProenneke.html
“The first summer he scouted for the best cabin site, and cut and peeled the logs he would need for his cabin. Dick Proenneke returned the next summer to finish the cabin where he lived for over 30 years.”

“With all the knowledge we are accumulating, isn’t amazing how much accumulated wisdom we are losing.” -UncleSA

UncleSA on October 13, 2008 at 10:43 pm

Graves has delusions of omnipotence.

WOOF on October 14, 2008 at 03:47 am
Avatar for tim buckdeux'

The Ant and the Grasshopper

  This one is a little different.. Two Different Versions!  Two Different Morals!

  OLD VERSION:
  The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

  The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

  The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

  MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

  —————————————————————-

  MODERN VERSION:

  The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

  The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

  Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

  CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

  How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

  Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’

  Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’ Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.

  Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share..

  Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

  The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

  Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

  The ant loses the case.

  The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.

  The ant has disappeared in the snow.
  The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

  MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2008

tim buckdeux' on October 14, 2008 at 05:42 am

UncleSA,

While I appreciate your appreciation, the quotes you’ve highlighted are not mine, but Richard Fernandez’ instead.  You will find, as I have for years, that reading his posts, and the commentary he attracts, is stimulating, thought-provoking, and rewarding.  His perspective is objective, abstract, and rarely partisan, and he is clearly a knowledgeable and gifted writer.


“Capitalism is optimism monetized.”

Bat One on October 14, 2008 at 06:27 am
Avatar for UncleSA

Whoops! Thanks for the correction!

At least one could say I recognize good writing, regardless of the author; even if it seems I can’t recognize quote tags.  What a noob!  I was perhaps distracted by finding such an intellectually mature forum.

PBS ran that Dick Proenneke video.  Anyone familiar with it?
Such an uplifting story; but so disheartening to think that those skills and wisdom may be lost.

...but thanks again; and for the Belmont link too.

UncleSA on October 14, 2008 at 06:56 am

One must wonder who is keeping the little dog safe on the porch, fed, watered, and well away from the big dogs.


Out Here
Rodney G. Graves
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Ceterum censeo Parthia esse delendam
Latin: “Furthermore, Parthia (Persia aka modern day Iran) should be destroyed.”

Rodney Graves on October 14, 2008 at 07:43 am
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