Tuesday, May 18, 2004
SOME PEOPLE ARE NEVER HAPPY:
AWolf at alone says that he is made ill by the "wallowing in negativity" of the media, and points to some very good news about Iraq at the site of the USAID. Their long list of accomplishments includes many things you would expect liberals to be cheering on, such as "Vaccinated 3 million children through monthly national immunization days."
Strangely enough, the left isn't praising these foreign experiments in socialized medicine that they would love to see here at home. Why? Is it just because it's being done by a Republican President? If that were true, then they would not have condemned their own Democratic Lyndon Beagle-abuser Johnson. No, it's a typical leftist "cut off your nose to spite your face" attitude. To them it's not enough to just do the right thing. It has to be done in just the right way. The wimpy swords into plowshares crowd has a horror of any use of force, even to impose public programs they drool for. This fastidiousness defeats them again and again, as we've delighted to watch with candidates such as Michael "So what if my wife is raped" Dukakis. One of their own icons condemned this attitude way back before the first JFK was elected in The Best Man:
AWolf at alone says that he is made ill by the "wallowing in negativity" of the media, and points to some very good news about Iraq at the site of the USAID. Their long list of accomplishments includes many things you would expect liberals to be cheering on, such as "Vaccinated 3 million children through monthly national immunization days."
Strangely enough, the left isn't praising these foreign experiments in socialized medicine that they would love to see here at home. Why? Is it just because it's being done by a Republican President? If that were true, then they would not have condemned their own Democratic Lyndon Beagle-abuser Johnson. No, it's a typical leftist "cut off your nose to spite your face" attitude. To them it's not enough to just do the right thing. It has to be done in just the right way. The wimpy swords into plowshares crowd has a horror of any use of force, even to impose public programs they drool for. This fastidiousness defeats them again and again, as we've delighted to watch with candidates such as Michael "So what if my wife is raped" Dukakis. One of their own icons condemned this attitude way back before the first JFK was elected in The Best Man:
...power is not a toy we give to good children; it is a weapon and the strong man takes it and he uses it ... and if you don't go down there and beat Cantwell to the floor with this very dirty stick, then you got no business in this big league....The continuing decline in voter turnout should give them a clue. The general public prefers not to worry about politics, as long as the trains run on time. Liberals need to learn from another book, published the very same year their hypocritical hero Thomas "Of course I'll free you if you drop your panties" Jefferson penned that de facto anarchist Declaration of his. It remains the classic depiction of a contented society, happy to avoid electoral strife:
In the second century of the Christian Era, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government. During a happy period of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. ...
The obedient provinces of Trajan and the Antonines were united by laws, and adorned by arts. They might occasionally suffer from the partial abuse of delegated authority; but the general principle of government was wise, simple, and beneficent. ...
The people of Rome, viewing, with a secret pleasure, the humiliation of the aristocracy, demanded only bread and public shows; and were supplied with both by the liberal hand of Augustus. The rich and polite Italians, who had almost universally embraced the philosophy of Epicurus, enjoyed the present blessings of ease and tranquillity, and suffered not the pleasing dream to be interrupted by the memory of their old tumultuous freedom.
