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Old November 8th, 2008, 01:08 PM
James Brody James Brody is offline
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Exclamation Steyn on National Cancers

I predicted - in Rebellion - the Obama win but not how quickly it would come. Thus, I recently scrambled for two weeks, dialing numbers of Republicans, hanging bags of flyers on mailboxes, and putting up signs for McCain/Palin...or more correctly, for Palin/McCain. I also predicted in this Forum the "inevitability of McCain" in a contest with Hillary. As it happened, a "more progressive" than McCain appeared, the economy crashed, and our invaders were fairly well behaved. Thus, 57 million of us moved into a swarm, a "behavioral sync," with a hypnotic scoundrel. Mark Steyn's observations describe the growth of emergent networks - "governments" - at the cost of other living forms. Whether a religion, a government, or a business, winner-take-all is a problems solved by collapse and recycling by invaders.

JimB

From National Review OnLine: Mark Steyn on "The Death of the American Idea"

"Unlike those excitable countries where the peasants overrun the presidential palace, settled democratic societies rarely vote to "go left." Yet oddly enough that's where they've all gone. In its assumptions about the size of the state and the role of government, almost every advanced nation is more left than it was, and getting lefter. Even in America, federal spending (in inflation-adjusted 2007 dollars) has gone from $600 billion in 1965 to $3 trillion today. The Heritage Foundation put it in a convenient graph: It's pretty much a straight line across four decades, up, up, up. Doesn't make any difference who controls Congress, who's in the White House. The government just grows and grows, remorselessly. Every two years, the voters walk out of their town halls and school gyms and tell the exit pollsters that three-quarters of them are "moderates" or "conservatives" (ie, the center and the right) and barely 20 per cent are "liberals." And then, regardless of how the vote went, big government just resumes its inexorable growth."

More at http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...c4Y2FjNzI4MjA=

References
Brody J (2006) Life's Organized in a Tinker Toy Way. Poster presentation at the XVIII Congress, International Society for Human Ethology, Detroit, MI, July 31-August 3. 32 pp, approx 60 refs.
Brody J (2008) Rebellion: Physics to Personal Will. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse. (Especially chapters 3 & 4.)
Brody J (2008) Individualism and How Things Grow in Physics. Presentation to SpringFord Rotary Club, Royersford, PA., May 14.
Csermely, Peter (2006) Weak Links: Stabilizers of Complex Systems from Proteins to Social Networks. NY: Springer. Esp. pp 75-76.
Steyn, Mark (2008) The Death of an Idea: Americans Living High Off the Entitlement Bag. National Review on Line, November 8. http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...c4Y2FjNzI4MjA=

Last edited by James Brody; November 11th, 2008 at 05:15 PM..
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Old November 9th, 2008, 05:27 PM
Fred H. Fred H. is offline
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Default Re: Steyn on National Cancers

As entropy inexorably increases, so too government. Hence our inevitable, inexorable slide towards more and more socialism. Seems that only divine intervention could reverse either of those inevitabilities.

Be that as it may, as best I can tell, Obama won primarily b/c so many among the most influential and wealthy and their media wanted Obama, and that influence convinced enough voters to vote Obama. As usual, follow the money.

Hollywood/Beverly Hills billionaire businessman David Geffen is something of an example----noting recently that he thought Obama was a” remarkable guy," he said regarding Obama’s speech at the 2004 DNC, "After I heard him give that speech, I called him up and said, ’You’re going to run for president and I’m going to support you.’"

Although Geffen was originally a big supporter of the Clintons (you remember the Clintons?), he, and apparently others, decided Hillary was not someone they wanted and/or that could win, saying publicly of Obama in 2007 that “Obama is inspirational, and he’s not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family." I’m sure there were many others of Geffen’s POV, influence, and wealth that saw things similarly.

And of course the record $650 million raised by the Obama campaign from God knows where, and his renege on his promise to use public financing didn’t hurt either. Not to mention the economy/subprime mess perpetrated (by my reckoning) mostly by the Dems and their politics, but that the Republicans managed to get mostly blamed for.

Although I thought McCain was clearly the better man with far more experience and far better judgment, since America’s most influential and wealthy seem to think otherwise and that Obama is a remarkable and inspirational guy, maybe he won’t be as big a disaster as I feared . . . at least that’s what I’m telling myself for now.
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Old November 11th, 2008, 05:15 PM
James Brody James Brody is offline
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Exclamation Re: Steyn on National Cancers

Fred,

Good thoughts.

A piece of data...70% of single women voted for Obama...abortion, protecting their right to kill their children, may have been one of two unrecognized players.

The second, of course, is the question of illegal immigration from two directions.

Given black complaints about being bumped from markets by Mexican labor, Obama's position - here as in other things - is uncertain.

Also given his consistent record for bending rules, breaking laws, and making alliances with thugs, the next four years may be both formative and irreversible.

Goetz Aly tells how Hitler was very popular for a long time because he redistributed income...


JimB
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