Of Dystopian Novels

I just finished reading That Hideous Strength written by C. S. Lewis. It is the third in what is commonly called The Space Trilogy, though any of the three books could be read on its own. The first two books, Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, are fine in their own right, but Strength outdoes them both, handily, in my view.

I noticed this time through That Hideous Strength themes that resonate with the debates we are having today about how much government we want, who do we trust for information, and so on. Lewis was spot on in framing, in particular, the tack that progressive types will take in advancing their cause.

But don't take my word for it, here's Powerline blog contributor Steven Hayward :

"Dare I incur the wrath of (Ayn Rand fans) everywhere if I suggest that Lewis' dystopian novel is the best of the entire genre of mid-20th century group that includes 1984 and Darkness at Noon. Which means it is also far superior to Atlas Shrugged, not only in style but in content as well. Whittaker Chambers had it right that Atlas Shrugged is a "strenuously sterile world" filled with "operatic caricatures." By contrast, Lewis' portrait of the academic bureaucrat Withers holds up along side Randall Jarrell's Pictures from an Institution. (It has some other relevant wit: the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments-or N.I.C.E.-is dead-on for the kind of authoritarian bodies and processes-sensitivity training anyone?-the therapeutic Left imposes on all of us today.)"

All of Hayward's post is here.

What Liberals Do

From the Powerline blog:

"As to white-collar crime, what about the one type of white-collar crime that goes entirely unpunished? For an accounting fraud of $567 million, Enron's executives went to jail, and its head guy died there. For an accounting fraud ten time that size, the two Democrat hacks who headed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick, walked away with a combined taxpayer-funded payout of $116 million."

Read the entire post.

The Economy Is Moving in the Wrong Direction

In an article by Lawrence Kudlow from Saturday Aug 7, he discusses the possibility that the Democrats controlling Congress will panic and may try to make something happen on the economic front before summer's end.

"Of course, Republicans will push harder to keep the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy - as they should. But Democrats are now trapped by Treasury man Tim Geithner's statements that extending low tax rates for successful earners, investors, and small businesses would actually imperil economic recovery. This is his war against investment and capital formation.

Maybe the Democratic revolt in favor of keeping all the Bush tax cuts will gather steam. But Democrats are more likely to push for greater spending than investment tax incentives. They'd rather take your money than let you keep it."

Remember this come November.

No more Democrats. Ever again. In my life.

Obama Seeking to Dodge Legalities

Fox News.com has reported that the Obama administration is looking at ways to grant legalization to illegal aliens in the U. S. without going through Congress. Republican congressmen are pressing the White House for an explanation for this action, but so far the White House is silent.

This should not surprise anyone who has been paying attention. Barak Obama and his progressive cronies are no more interested in obeying the law than the man in the moon. The sooner he is voted out of office the better. I, as I've said before, just hope we survive his administration without the Constitution in tatters.

Obama At Work, Plus Global Warming

Barack Obama, Sophomore. Paul Mirengoff of Powerline explains.

The dog ate all the global warming homework.

Cash for Clunkers, Tyrant Version.

Benjamin Netanyahu for President. Now, please.

What Liberals Do

"Now that George Bush is no longer President, opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has dropped to dead last on the priorities of American leftists, like those who gathered for "netroots nation" last week. It is telling that only a few cranks, like Cindy Sheehan, haven't gotten the message that, now that Barack Obama is President, war is OK. We can all ponder, I guess, what this tells us about the Left."

From Powerline.

Backdoor Nationalization

"The White House has suggested it would settle for health care cooperatives instead of the public option. Don't drink the Kool-Aid. This arrangement will be nothing more than the public option in disguise."

You can read the whole thing.

And, no, don't drink the Ko-Op Kool-Aid.

Clunker

Wait! You're telling me a government program is out of money?

Who's The Villain?

I heard today that Nancy Pelosi, technically still the Speaker of the House, said that insurance companies are "villains." This is her contribution to the national debate concerning health care.

Is she certain of this? Where did she get this information? A CIA briefing?

Insurance companies aren't villains. Pelosi is lying or misinformed (CIA?). They offer a service for a fee. Sometimes there's a lot of red tape and sometimes they don't pay as much as you'd like. But generally, most of us are glad about the insurance we have when we've got a bill to pay. And, right now, it's still my choice to get insurance or not. And which doctor I see is still up to me.

All that will change if Pelosi and Obama get their way on health care.

Here's the article about Pelosi. Her behavior is offensive.

Quiz Time

Who said the following?

"We may have to find some marvelous middle ground between capitalism and communism," (you know, like socialism, for example)

"the first priority of the new order must be a revision of the educational system to . . . guarantee that each of our citizens will have equal resources to share in the decisions of the democracy, and a fair share of the economic pie."

"we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government" and that "Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty."

So, who was it?

Was it our president, Mr. Obama?

Or his friend Bill Ayers?

Or Comrade Pelosi from the People's Republic of San Francisco?

Or how about McGovern or Humphrey or Kennedy or Clinton?

Nope. None of these.



It was your beloved Uncle Walter Cronkite.

Obama and Biden - Hype and Charade

The economy is still wretched after Dr. Obama's prescribed stimulus. Joe Biden, the effervescent Veep said today that the economy was worse than they thought. Maybe, when they described the economy during the election campaign as the worst since the Great Depression, they were just lying. Maybe.

From Investor's Business Daily: Of $157.8 billion "made available" under the stimulus, only $56.3 billion has been paid out — or 7% of the total $787 billion. And according to ex-Treasury Department economist Bruce Bartlett, "just 11% of the the discretionary spending on highways, mass transit, energy efficiency and other programs involving direct government purchases will have been spent by the end of this fiscal year."

Based on this, there are only two possible conclusions: One, the stimulus has been the most inept public waste of money in history. Or two, it was a cynical attempt by the Democrats to vastly expand the scope of government during a time of crisis. Or maybe it's both.

Probably both. Oh, and they want to do another stimulus, too. Brilliant!

Read it all, if you want.

Pray For The Hondurans

I have not followed the events in Honduras closely, but I have the gist of what's going on. The good people there threw out the thug who used to be the leader of the country after he defied their Congress and Supreme Court. In other words, the people wouldn't let a dictator rule them and instead, preferred democracy.

And for their freedom-affirming actions, the entire rest of the world opposes them. From Investor's Business Daily:

"Nations aren't usually put to the fearsome test to "live free or die." But Hondurans are accepting it as the world pressures them to reseat a potential dictator in office. They aren't bending."

The Obama Administration, echoing the socialist/communist dictators it admires, has called for the restoration of the former dictator. Socialism is as socialism does.

Fortunately, the people of Honduras are holding firm. From IBD again:

"Hondurans, some 80% of whom approve of the Court action. "Everyone here is celebrating," a business leader told Latin Finance."

It wasn't too long ago that America came to the aid of countries which fought for democracy against totalitarian rule.

We don't see that from Obama.

Pen the Tale

I will be the first to admit I do not know much about protocol for world leaders, but that's OK because I am still not a despotic ruler nor tin horn dictator. Yet.

However, the president of the United States should know protocol or have people around him who do. Unfortunately our current president is blissfully unaware of these things. Or he doesn't give a rip. Either way, it's an embarrassment.

Now the White House staff have decided to lie about Obama's latest snafu, the bowing before the Saudi king. Apparently, U.S. presidents are not to bow before other leaders and I think that's the right way to handle it. Obama handled it the wrong way - he bowed. Only the White House is saying he didn't bow, here. And here.

Alrighty, then. Let's go to the tape. Or a still from the tape. Here in the photo of the event we see the presidential backside. Obama is bent over at the waist, his face to the ground. He is in full grovel mode, I think.

What is happening here? Remember, Gibbs says Obama is not bowing. If it's not a bow, then what is it? THAT, Central Standard readers, is what you are assigned to tell us.

What is happening? You describe it in some creative way - a poem, a limerick, a script, or a song. Perhaps a joke - well, OK, that goes without saying, but you know what I mean. Use the 'Comment' section of this post and tell us what you think is going on.

Remember, he's not bowing.

Peas In A Pod

Imagine Iran with missiles that can reach, not only Jerusalem, but European capitals and possibly cities along the Eastern United States. Picture North Korean missiles that can hit targets in Alaska and possibly Hawaii. Now imagine that Iran and North Korea are working together.

Actually, they are working together, as this article makes clear.

"Iranian missile experts are helping North Korea with the imminent launch of an ICBM that can hit Alaska and Hawaii. Imagine a Taepodong-2 with a nuke. This is no time to gut missile defense."

No, this certainly is no time to be gutting defense. We had an administration like this before, remember? It was the economy, stupid? They gutted defense. That was right before 9-11. The succeeding administration had to clean up after those misplaced priorities.

Now again, we're focusing on the economy and gutting defense. This is all right before . . .

It Occurs to Mark Steyn

Here is a succinct, clever and accurate read on the last week in presidential politics from Mark Steyn -

In turbulent times, it's good to know some things never change. After a week in which President Obama thanked himself for inviting him to the White House, compared AIG executives to suicide bombers, and did the first Presidential retard joke on national TV, I was impressed to find that Slate is bravely keeping up its Bushism of The Day feature.

From NRO.