Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post–World War II era. We’re still weeks away from the end of ‘09, but it’s not too early to pass judgment. Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade. Call it whatever you want — just give thanks that it is nearly over.
Relatively soon, President Obama will pitch his plan for the war in Afghanistan. If you’ve been following the news, it’s no news to you that he’s been catching heat for delaying his decision. Could you blame him, though? The media seems to be in agreement that additional US forces will be deployed to the region. Obama had to give the American people a few weeks to forget about him winning a Nobel Peace Prize.
Support within the administration has grown for continuing a counterinsurgency strategy with a greater focus on protecting major Afghan population centers along with agricultural areas and transportation routes.
But how will this President sell an escalation of the war?
If President Obama chooses the path already cleared for him, he will surely give a good speech. We can expect fiery rhetoric and vague platitudes about keeping the world safe for democracy, stabilizing the region, with a tug on the old 9/11/01 heart-string. But while the American public is being prepped for the safe middle of the road sales pitch, I can’t help but ponder the possibility of a real change in foreign policy.
Today it seems as if half the nation is on one side or the other of this ideological divide. Currently, however, those pursuing rights devoid of their own exercise of responsibility are in charge of our government and their radical zeal threatens to profoundly transform our nation into one which will forever punish those who value rights borne of responsibility and reward those who would be responsible to no one or nothing while endlessly demanding benefits that they have neither earned nor deserve.
The program has succeeded in what its designers intended; home sales have perked up noticeably since the credit was enacted. But it remains to be seen whether the tax credit was enough to stop the downward spiral in the housing market. The ongoing rise in foreclosures doesn’t bode well.
There is also strong opposition to extending the credit from members of Congress who are worried about the cost. With the federal budget deficit exploding, these folks are rightly concerned about the impact of piling more borrowing on the national debt. Even if the program ends at the end of November, the cost could hit an estimated $15 billion, which is more than double what its supporters projected when it was passed in February as part of the economic stimulus package.
So it’s entirely possible we’ll see an extension, but no one knows. No one can know. One thing you can be sure of is that your pushy real estate agent is clearly much more interested in locking up a commission than in helping you make the decision that’s right for you.
Feeling lonely? Sick of dating socialist, war-mongering airheads? Do you ever wonder why its so hard to find a decent guy or girl who shares your passion for states rights? Did match.com connect you with, God forbid, an interventionist? If you’ve ever gotten a weird look when you called your date a “Federalist” or a “Keynesian,” if you’ve ever stormed out on one because they won’t watch Zeitgeist with you, well I’ve found the site for you. www.ronpaulsingles.com, at last a place to meet that special someone outside of the comments section at Mises.org!
Its off to a great start. Now if only members were audited to be sure they’re not agents of the federal reserve death squad..
North Korea’s government vowed to wage war against Japan if Japanese defense forces try to shoot down a missile that the communist nation says will carry a communications satellite.
“Should Japan dare recklessly to intercept the DPRK’s satellite, its army will consider this as the start of Japan’s war of reinvasion more than six decades after the Second World War,” the official Korean Central News Agency said today in an e-mailed statement. North Korea is also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada ordered his forces on March 27 to shoot down any North Korean object entering his country’s airspace and deployed guided-missile units around Tokyo. Japan, along with the U.S., China, South Korea and Russia want to forestall North Korea’s plans to launch what the government in Pyongyang calls a “peaceful” satellite, and refocus on joint efforts to end its nuclear program.
I forsee a couple of scenarios from this. Ordered from best-case to worse-case:
My co-blogger Eric has been blaming the media for a lot of things in the comments lately, and it got me thinking about power and information flows and how they end up with the formation of public opinion. Its kind of a chicken-or-the-egg question. Who’s opinion dominates, where does it start, who ends up submissive to the rest? Simplifying a lot, I can think of a few scenarios: Continue reading this post…
