Populism on the left requires demons more than either accuracy, facts or reality. Modern accusation of racism are a clear sign that reality and intelligence have become optional. HKO

The more that the consensus is intolerant of dissent, the more likely it is to be wrong. HKO

Clarity is an albatross around the neck of those who wish to avoid accountability. “The risk of offense is the price of clarity.”  HKO

Of all of the incompetence, arrogance, and wrongheaded policies of this administration (and the list is absolutely breathtaking) this pollution of the IRS has – in my opinion- the potential to wreak the greatest long term damage to our country. Regardless of our political affiliations and preferences we have always been able to trust the basic institutions such as the IRS to be above this fray. This administration has betrayed that trust more than any other president, including Nixon (the IRS refused to accommodate his intent). This is the outcome of thinking that ends justify means – and that is the fundamental rule that modern progressivism practices. A true liberal should be incredibly outraged. HKO

I cannot explain this dystopian paradox except by agreeing with my interlocutor that politics is indeed irrational; and that socialism is a wish that runs as deep as any religious faith. I do not know that the truth must necessarily remain in the shadows, as he writes. But I am persuaded that a lie grounded in human desire is too powerful for mere reason to kill.”  David Horowitz

When Piketty suggests that we tax the wealth of the richest, exactly what does he think will happen to it? The government will spend it – but on what? Does he think that some politically motivated bureaucrat will allocate that capital to a more socially useful purpose than Warren Buffett would? In which hands would that capital seek growth and job creation? In which hands will it most likely pay farmers not to grow, and workers not to work?
Our safety net succeeds in eliminating the crushing poverty known by the third world. Our challenge is to avoid replacement of the soul-deprivation of numbing poverty with the soul-deprivation of dependency. Our biggest problem with the health of the poor in America is not starvation, but obesity. As Paul Ryan framed it, we do not want to turn the safety net into a hammock.

Wealth more often dissipates in a few generations and moves to stronger hands. Dynasties are rare; most fortunes are lost in a few generations. We do not really need centrally planned redistribution; this problem generally takes care of itself when capital deployment is subject to competition and human frailties. Inequality is a natural outcome of the competitive allocation of capital, and we are all better-served when capital is in strong hands and deployed wisely. Rarely are those hands attached to the long arms of the government. – HKO in American Thinker, Everything that Counts

print