Eisenhower's Warnings

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html
extract from Eisenhowe's valedictory speech.
The whole speech is worth reading and pondering over
IV.
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present

• and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
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We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

crony capitalism to laissez-faire

Yes, I do have a better description of what is currently ruining free enterprise. It’s called crony capitalism.

There isn’t a scintilla of laissez-faire capitalism in Crony .Capitalism., which has the run of the place and will eventually lead to our ruin.

It would appear that your pov is drawn from the usual socialist squint on economic theory and no matter how often reality punctures that balloon, True Believers insist on attempting to make it fly whilst misnaming reality.

This is more accurate:

Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics

Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics

Or try this one, by Frederic Bastiat:

The Law (Illustrated)

The Law (Illustrated)

That one is a dollar on Amazon. The UK version is probably as cheap.

Bastiat travelled to England to understand how the Corn Laws had affected that country. He was anxious to avoid having that particular plague visit France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Laws

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Laws

Tariffs probably served as the catalyst for America’s entry into the first Great Depression. They are always bad economics but the fearful – those who operate out of a sense of scarcity, or the get-rich-quick fraudsters, perennially insist that they are “good for business”. Translated, that means “good for me”.

Our current situation is more internal at first glance, due to the legal fraud enacted by the banksters combined with the efforts of government & legislators to ensure their friends’ sale of a lot of real estate – often “bundling” those mortgages and selling over and over again… Now that the bubble has burst there is money to be made in, guess what?…destroying all those houses. Knocking them down and hauling off the remains.

None of that even slightly resembles laissez-faire capitalism. Time to put down your Marx & Co and start reading real economists, not that envious fellow who never held a job in his life and lived off the largesse of his capitalist friends and their families. Oh wait. I just described our current Marxist socialist – Obama.
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Here is “The Law” online:

http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G016

If you won’t read the economists, try the novelists: Nevil Shute’s comparisons between

 Australia post WWII and the grey poverty extant in socialist Britain after the war are telling.

A Town Like Alice (Vintage International)

The changes have lasted down the years and are obvious even now. Australia refused to listen 

to the siren-song of socialism, becoming prosperous and abundant.

Conservative.; 5 threats to democracy

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/conservative_revolution_at_the_bookshop/

Former High Court judge Dyson Heydon, chosen to head the Abbott Government’s royal commission into union corruption, introduces a new book by Professor James Allan in a way that sings to a rationalist and a conservative:

This book stands in the long Anglo-Saxon tradition of controversialist pamphleteering.  It is vigorous, energetic, independent-minded and full of boisterous good humour.  It has relentless drive.  It never loses sight of the main elements of the argument.  Those elements centre on the primary threats to majoritarian democracy in the United States and four other states which owe many of their political institutions primarily to the British Isles – the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The first threat, which applies to all five, comes from an over-mighty judiciary administering bills of rights, whether expressly created or implied into constitutions.  The second threat, for the United Kingdom, is the European Union.  The third threat, for all five, is the spreading influence of international law – both treaty law and customary law – and international institutions on domestic constitutions and statutes ¬– a point on which the book is particularly strong.  Then there are more darkly veiled threats, like the exploitation of mass immigration for political ends:  though electors may choose governments, governments can choose electors.

For those whose world view is shaped by academia, by the public service ethos, by the metropolitan press, and by a judicial-political consensus which does not tolerate dissenting opinions, the book will seem deeply shocking.  For anyone else it will be wonderfully refreshing and cleansing, like a sudden storm after a long succession of oppressively sultry days.

Allan’s book promises much:

Democracy in Decline charts how democracy is being diluted and restricted in five of the world’s oldest democracies – the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

James Allan targets four main, interconnected causes of decline – judicial activism, the transformation and growth of international law, the development of supranational organizations, and the presence of undemocratic elites… Allan looks ahead to further deterioration caused by attacks on free speech, intolerant worldviews, internationalization through treaties and conventions, and illegal immigration.

Mark Steyn, whose own free speech is again being attacked, writes:

The core Anglophone democracies – among the oldest, most stable, constitutionally-evolved societies on earth, and the indispensable members of that small group of western nations which resisted the totalitarian temptations of the 20th century – have been spending the first years of this new millennium in a remorseless retreat from liberty. In a commanding and trenchant analysis, James Allan examines this disturbing phenomenon… This is an important book that charts free nations’ beguiling seduction into soft tyranny. 

Order online here.

UPDATE

Remember how Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi’s new book, The Conservative Revolution, was vilified by the Left and even some Liberals? Remember how Leftists, egged on by Fairfax, bombarded Amazon with “reviews” damning it. I am delighted to report that the Amazon campaign actually backfired, causing sales via Amazon to soar. The book is already long in reprint and has reached best-seller status for a political tome.

Order your copy here.

Some history of Aussie temperatures

Sorry I do not how to do this total image, but the concept of high temperatures still shows through.

The Big Lie, Orwellianism, Emperor Obama, etc

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Baron Bodissey
http://gatesofvienna.net/2014/02/what-if-2/#more-32553
Our British correspondent JP has collected a number of quotations relating to various themes that are swirling around: The Big Lie, Orwellianism, Emperor Obama, etc. He includes this introductory note:

The process that is now underway in the West might be described as Gleichschaltung — a word that is well-known to students of the Third Reich, an umbrella term used to describe the stifling of dissent. Synonymous phrases in our context might be: to make sharia-compliant, render into dhimmitude, make the general population accepting of the Big Lie. If we can put words, even loan words, to processes such as these, we can chip away at the bewilderment so many people experience when faced with the apparent intransigence of politicians and others to recognise what is staring us in the face.

Perhaps Gleichscharisierung would be the right neologism, analogous with Islamisierung — the German word for “Islamization”.

The Wikipedia definition of Gleichschaltung does a good job of describing what I have been trying to get a fix on:

Bringing into line … Among the goals of this policy were to bring about adherence to a specific doctrine and way of thinking and to control as many aspects of life as possible.

Richard J Evans’ translation of the term: forcible coordination.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Sofia (685 comments) says: 
February 8th, 2014 at 5:48 pm

Narcissistic Personality Disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of grandiosity (either in fantasy or actual behavior), an overwhelming need for admiration, and usually a complete lack of empathy toward others. People with this disorder often believe they are of primary importance in everybody’s life or to anyone they meet.

People with narcissistic personality disorder often display snobbish, disdainful, or patronizing attitudes. For example, an individual with this disorder may complain about a clumsy waiter’s “rudeness” or “stupidity” or conclude a medical evaluation with a condescending evaluation of the physician.

In order for a person to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) they must meet five or more of the following symptoms:

•Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

• Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

• Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

• Requires excessive admiration

• Has a very strong sense of entitlement, e.g., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

• Is exploitative of others, e.g., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
Lacks empathy, e.g., is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others. But feigns empathy

• Regularly shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

• Accord themselves titles like Guardian or Watchdog

• Claim precarious exploits, like not paying rates, in support of some fantasy position.

http://psychcentral.com/disorders/narcissistic-personality-disorder-symptoms/