Regression Theory

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Being a conservative blogger, a part time writer and a frequent “letter to the editor guy”, I get challenged about my beliefs all the time. Most of the time, the comments from so called “progressives” tend toward an approximation of “why are you a conservative – how can you possibly believe that way?”

Well, my answer is usually captured in something that I wrote a long time ago about the differences between conservatism and “progressivism”, that being:

Modern conservatism is about “freedom of“, as in freedom of opportunity, freedom of self-determination, freedom of liberty, freedom of religion. “Progressives” define it as “freedom from“, freedom from economic, political and social risk and freedom from religion. The conservative approach requires minimal regulation and control, the “progressive” requires maximum regulation and control.

This is a necessarily simplistic view but no less an accurate one.

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Senate Democrats block Obama’s “jobs” bill

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Because they had more pressing matters:

Senate Republicans tried to make Democrats hold a quick vote on President Obama’s jobs-stimulus bill Tuesday, but were blocked by Senate Majority Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is sponsoring Mr. Obama’s bill but who said other matters take priority.

Mr. Obama has traveled the country calling for Congress to pass his plan immediately — including most recently Tuesday afternoon in Texas — but the tax increases included in his bill are opposed by Republicans and even many Democrats.

With that in mind, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, tried to force a vote, which presumably would have resulted in a humiliating defeat for the White House.

“I’d like to give him that vote,” Mr. McConnell said.

The Senate is currently debating a bill that would push for compensatory tariffs on exports from countries that manipulate their currency — which is designed to punish China.

Mr. Reid said that bill has been waiting for years, and takes precedence over the president’s jobs-stimulus.

Why you should be a good person

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Because it’s good for you:

The biggest obstacle to people becoming better is that you have to really want to be a good person in order to be a better person, and most people would rather be other things. People devote far more effort to being happy (they do not know that goodness leads to increased happiness), successful, smart, attractive, and healthy, to cite the most prominent examples.

[...]

Goodness is about character — integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.

As psychologists increasingly research happiness, they’re finding that acts like forgiving someone, or expressing gratitude to someone, are most likely to produce happiness. These are the sorts of things that “good” people do.

Obama burns another $200 million of YOUR money on “green” “jobs”

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I’m sure there will be even more stories like this:

President Barack Obama’s “green jobs” initiatives suffered another major blow late Monday, as the nonprofit National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, announced a plan to lay off roughly 10 percent of its staff through a voluntary buy-out plan.

According to the Denver Post, the lab plans to eliminate between 100 and 150 of its 1,350 jobs. The Obama administration supported the NREL in 2009 with roughly $200 million in stimulus grants. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu visited Golden in May 2009 to promote the NREL as a beneficiary of those funds.

Obama’s grassroots challenge is an EPIC FAIL

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That hopey-changey stuff hasn’t been workin’ out so well for his supporters:

The Obama campaign, which has prided itself on robust engagement of its grassroots supporters, appears to have stumbled in an effort meant to enlist at least 20,000 small donors by the end of September.

A campaign website set up to track the grassroots fundraising competition reported just 11,518 donations through 12:47 p.m. on Sept. 30 — a surprising result given the intensive focus on the program by Obama’s campaign team.

The president himself had offered a phone call to the two individuals who gathered the most contributions as a top prize.

Another “green” energy company struggling

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This one is a mere $150 million:

The company is Nevada Geothermal Power, which like Solyndra, the now-famous California solar company, is struggling with debt after encountering problems at its only operating plant.

After a series of technical missteps that are draining Nevada Geothermal’s cash reserves, its own auditor concluded in a filing released last week that there was “significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

It is a description that echoes the warning issued in 2010 by auditors hired by Solyndra, which benefited from the same Energy Department loan guarantee before its collapse in August caused the Obama administration great embarrassment.

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The amount of money the federal government has at stake with Nevada Geothermal — a loan guarantee of $79 million plus at least $66 million in grants — is much smaller than the $528 million investment in Solyndra.

Denmark imposes a “fat tax”

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I just wrote about the reach of the welfare state in Denmark – in all it’s glory. When the government pays for all of your health care and takes care of our expenses, there is a price to be paid.

Denmark just started taxing foods that the government has determined aren’t conducive to their citizen’s health.

Via the Gulf News in the UAE:

Denmark on Saturday became the first country in the world to impose a fat tax after a week in which consumers hoarded butter, pizza, meat and milk to avoid the immediate effects.

“We have had to stock up with tonnes of butter and margarine in order to be able to supply outlets,” Soeren Joergensen of Arla Distribution said.

The new tax, designed by Denmark’s outgoing government as a health issue to limit the population’s intake of fatty foods, will add 16 crowns (Dh10.53) per kilogram of saturated fats in a product. This means an increase in the price of a pack of 250 grams of butter, for example, by 2.20 crowns to more than 18 crowns.

“It has been a chaotic week with a lot of empty shelves. People have been filling their freezers,” Christian Jensen of an independent local Copenhagen supermarket said.

“But actually I don’t think the tax will make that much difference. If people want to buy a cake, they will buy it. But right now they’re saving money,” he added.

The new tax will be levied on all products including saturated fats — from butter and milk to pizzas, oils, meats and pre-cooked foods — in a costing system that Denmark’s Confederation of Industries (DI) says is a bureaucratic nightmare.

Think Obamacare will be any different if it isn’t repealed?

Roseanne Barr wants to behead the rich…

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As if on cue, Roseanne validates the insanity and tilt to pure communism that the American Left has been undergoing…from RCP:

Actress, comedienne and now author Roseanne Barr shares her solution for dealing with the rich and how the banks could repay the money the U.S. government bailed them out with in 2008.

“Part of my platform is, of course, the guilty must be punished and that we no longer let our children see their guilty leaders getting away with murder. Because it teaches children, you know, that they don’t have to have any morals as long as they have guns and are bullies and I don’t think that’s a good message,” Barr told Russia Today (RT).

“I do say that I am in favor of the return of the guillotine and that is for the worst of the worst of the guilty.

“I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back anything over $100 million [of] personal wealth because I believe in a maximum wage of $100 million. And if they are unable to live on that amount of that amount then they should, you know, go to the reeducation camps and if that doesn’t help, then being beheaded,” Barr said with a straight face.

If you haven’t heard about them, I’ve written about Russia Today here…

Eat the Rich – Chapter 3,562

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In a Washington Post editorial titled, “Rich people are being ‘demonized’ for flaunting their wealth. Poor dears!”, Barbara Ehrenreich writes yet another screed about how the “rich” really are different – and apparently evil. She facetiously laments how they are demonized, the “poor dears”, while doing exactly that.

Her second paragraph tells you where all of this is going.

At a time when poverty is soaring, unemployment hovers grimly above 9 percent and growing numbers of Americans suffer from “food insecurity” — the official euphemism for hunger — this concern may seem a tad esoteric. At a time when executive compensation is reaching dizzying new levels and the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing as fast as the federal deficit, it may even seem a little perverse.

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