Hayek's 'The Road to Serfdom' in Five Minutes

Here is a conundrum for you. Various titles are available for this video clip. Which one do you choose?

1) Clinton's "Road to Serfdom" in Five Minutes
2) McCain's "Road to Serfdom" in Five Minutes
3) Obama's "Road to Serfdom" in Five Minutes

Here's the catch. Doesn't matter which one you choose. The result will be the same.

In South-Africa's case there is no conundrum. The only drum beating is:

1) Zuma's "Road to Serfdom" in Five Minutes




Road to Serfdom, The Description

This spell-binding book is a classic in the history of liberal ideas. It was singularly responsible for launching an important debate on the relationship between political and economic freedom. It made the author a world-famous intellectual. It set a new standard for what it means to be a dissident intellectual. It warned of a new form of despotism enacted in the name of liberation. And though it appeared in 1944, it continues to have a remarkable impact. No one can consider himself well-schooled in modern political ideas without having absorbed its lessons.

What F.A. Hayek saw, and what most all his contemporaries missed, was that every step away from the free market and toward government planning represented a compromise of human freedom generally and a step toward a form of dictatorship--and this is true in all times and places. He demonstrated this against every claim that government control was really only a means of increasing social well-being. Hayek said that government planning would make society less liveable, more brutal, more despotic. Socialism in all its forms is contrary to freedom.

Nazism, he wrote, is not different in kind from Communism. Further, he showed that the very forms of government that England and America were supposedly fighting abroad were being enacted at home, if under a different guise. Further steps down this road, he said, can only end in the abolition of effective liberty for everyone.

Capitalism, he wrote, is the only system of economics compatible with human dignity, prosperity, and liberty. To the extent we move away from that system, we empower the worst people in society to manage what they do not understand.

The beauty of this book is not only in its analytics but in its style, which is unrelenting and passionate. Even today, the book remains a source of controversy. Socialists who imagine themselves to be against dictatorship cannot abide his argument, and they never stop attempting to refute it.

Cool Tool: Election 2008 Political Dashboard

Here is a cool interactive tool if you want to follow the 2008 election results by state, party and candidate.

http://news.yahoo.com/election/2008/dashboard/?d=ST

Should Ron Paul Abandon His Bid for the Republican Nomination ?

McCAIN MADNESS

by Chuck Baldwin

A few weeks before Super Tuesday, my friend Howard Phillips asked me who I thought the Republican Presidential nominee would be. I predicted John McCain. With the results of Super Tuesday now history, most political pundits are also predicting that the Arizona senator will gain the Republican nomination for President. And with Mitt Romney now out of the race, McCain is all but assured the nomination. One did not need to be a seer to figure this one out.

For one thing, President George W. Bush all but destroyed whatever conservative influence was left in the GOP. Peggy Noonan is right about that.
(See http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120120952618514493.html )

Furthermore, the capitulation and compromise of principle by the Religious Right has also significantly sealed the death warrant of conservatism within the GOP. For the sake of not offending George Bush or losing whatever seat at the table the various leaders of the Religious Right felt they had, their spirit of resistance waned to the point that the very name "Christian Conservative" has lost all meaning, not to mention power.

As a result, Republicans have come to accept Big Government, runaway federal spending, the Welfare State, the Warfare State, the Nanny State, empire-building, gargantuan trade and budget deficits, warrantless eavesdropping, the loss of 4th Amendment rights, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

Therefore, how could anyone expect the vast majority of Republican voters to suddenly rediscover a huge commitment of conviction to conservative principles? Add to that question the fact that there is only one true conservative/constitutionalist who made it to the Republican primaries: Congressman Ron Paul. And virtually the entire media and political establishment pummeled Congressman Paul to the point that his limited success in the race can be categorized as nothing short of miraculous.

Read the rest

Romney suspends presidential campaign !!!

Whoooot!!!

(CNN) -- Mitt Romney suspended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, saying if he continued it would "forestall the launch of a national campaign and be making it easier for Sen. Clinton or Obama to win."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is suspending his campaign.

"In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror. This is not an easy decision. I hate to lose," the former Massachusetts governor said.

"If this were only about me, I'd go on. But it's never been only about me. I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, in this time of war I feel I have to now stand aside for our party and for our country."

Romney made the announcement Thursday afternoon at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Read the rest

The Newly Annointed Commander and Chief

This little poem sums up the results for Super Tuesday, of both the Democratic and Republican Party:


ANOINT, v.t.
To grease a king or other great functionary already sufficiently slippery.

As sovereigns are anointed by the priesthood,
So pigs to lead the populace are greased good.

Judibras

Ron Paul Beats McCain in Maine Caucus, Primed to Win Over 1/3 of State Delegates

From www.ronpaul2008.com

In the race for delegates, Ron Paul appears to closely trail Romney for first place

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2008

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – While most reports about this past weekend’s Maine Caucus focused on the purely symbolic presidential preference poll, in the meaningful race to secure delegates to the state convention Ron Paul is primed to finish second with likely 35 percent of the total delegates.

Delegates to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis are elected by the state delegates. Internal results from 10 of 16 counties, including the largest cities of Portland, South Portland, Lewiston, Auburn, Augusta, Waterville, Bangor, and Brewer, show Ron Paul picking up 215 of 608 State Convention delegates so far reported, or 35%.

“Ron Paul’s strong second place finish in Maine, in which he beat John McCain, is proof that this race is far from over,” said Ron Paul campaign manager Lew Moore. “We’ll continue to battle for every delegate in this wide-open race for the Republican nomination.”

In the presidential preference poll, with 70 percent reporting, Ron Paul is in third place just two percentage points behind John McCain. However, the Maine preference poll is purely a beauty contest, and in the actual election of state delegates the so-called “frontrunner” McCain is far behind Ron Paul.

Sci-Fi Toys for War-Mongering Boys

Today, Bush-Whacked amBushed the USA with his new $3.1 Trillion Gazzillion budget.

Included in this Magnus Opus of Keynesian-Tomorrow-is-Another-Day-Defecit-Spending Budget, is a proposed increase in Defense Spending of 7%, to $515 Billion (16.5% of the fricken budget!!!).

Now, to me, that sounds like preperation for a pre-meditated war against someone. (And the further devaluation of the Dollar and an increase in Gold/Oil prices)

And don't forget, that waiting in the wings are the two warmongers, Osama Obama and John McCainiac, who I'm sure are wringing their grubby little paws to fill the seat of the Master and Commander.

Part of their anticipation, I'm sure, is to gain control of the game console, War-Station 2, with the $515 Billion being spent to create Sci-Fi WMDs. For instance, the Navy is Testing an Incredible new Sci-Fi Weapon, using electromagnetic energy instead of explosive chemical propellants to fire a projectile farther and faster. (apparently electromagnetic energy will prevent "blowback")

The railgun, as it is called, will ultimately fire a projectile more than 230 miles (370 kilometers) with a muzzle velocity seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7) and a velocity of Mach 5 at impact. The railgun has been a featured weapon in many science fiction universes, such as the new "Battlestar Galactic" series.

The Navy's motivation? Simple destruction.

The railgun's high-velocity projectile will destroy targets with sheer kinetic energy rather than with conventional explosives.

I suggest they change the term of "railgun" to that of the "Psycho-Kinetic WMD"