The American Spectator

HILLYER STICKS TO HIS GUNS
Re: Quin Hillyer’s The Facts on Fascism:

Quin Hillyer’s column on the Obama administration’s moves toward fascism is right on the mark. The takeovers of GM and Chrysler, the refusal to allow banks to repay TARP money, the withdrawal of a formal government approval for the development of a coal-fired power plant on the Arizona-New Mexico border are all clearly moves toward an authoritarian federal government and away from a free market and freedom in general. Obama actually declared that he, personally, had removed the Chairman of the Board of General Motors. It’s breathtaking.   This is what most thinking people should expect from liberalism, which is just the retarded cousin of fascism. And yet there is not a word of caution or alarm from the left. Watch now as liberals in state and federal governments continue their push to simultaneously outlaw and tax to death cigarette smoking, while decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana use, and then ask yourself why one is better than the other.
— Jerry Hurtubise

If I owned a plane, I would purchase several mile-length banners with your article posted on it and fly it over everything in sight. As I do not have a plane at my disposal, I posted a link to your article on my blog. Well done, Mr. Hillyer.
— Justin Matthews

Mr. Hillyer’s article is an excellent piece that should make all Americans pause and consider what is happening. Many who voted for President Obama did so because they thought it the “fashionable” thing to do and that they were part of a historical movement. When the realization comes that he is lacking in experience and lacking in understanding of our history and our constitution, it will be too late to correct it unless the Republicans can regain control of one or both of the houses of Congress. It is becoming clear that President Obama is incompetent as an executive leader. It is not yet entirely clear whether his radical philosophy is deep seated and unalterable or just assumed for the sake of political expediency. I fear that too many in our country are enticed by bread and circuses as many of the Romans were before their fall — only we may soon run low on bread because of our environmental and economic policies and if the circuses haven’t all declared bankruptcy, they will be run by committees of union members and politicians (but should not want for an adequate supply of clowns).
— Randall Nunn
Mineral Wells, Texas

KEEP THE GUNS AND THE LAWS
Re: Rachel Alexander’s Where the Blogs Have No Names:

Rachel Alexander used the example of a violent criminal writing anonymously to urge abolition of gun laws. Rachel, look into the data. Fifteen years ago National Review published an article about polling conducted in United States prisons of violent criminals. One question was what was the criminals’ biggest fear in undertaking their crimes. Over three quarters of these convicted, violent criminals’ main fear was that their intended victims might actually be ARMED.

So, your example would more accurate if it were: a violent criminal writing anonymously to urge the abolition citizens’ rights to arm themselves, not gun laws. Miss Alexander, have you unconsciously accepted the opponents of citizens’ Second Amendment rights false assertion that restrictions on gun ownership impede criminals in their illegal acts? Legal restrictions on firearm ownership tilt the table in favor of the criminals, and decidedly against the unprotected citizenry.

Pay attention!
— Dan Hirsch
Paris, Wisconsin

SEED ON BARREN GROUND
Re: Joseph P. Duggan’s It’s Not a Place, It’s a Pathology:

It is indeed, and will continue to be, a place of great promise… There is simply too much poverty, ignorance, and political kleptomania to allow the seeds of freedom to grow. Argentina, and, more recently, Mexico approached the end game. Argentina inflicted the Perons on itself and has never recovered. The jury is out on Mexico, but one must put favorable odds on continued government overweening.

On the nit pick front: An acronym is a word formed by an aggregation of initials. Ergo, if the formation does not create a word, it cannot be an acronym.
— Bruce Karlson
Navarre, Florida

FINANCE-SPEAK
Re: John Berlau’s GM vs. GGP: Bankruptcy the Way It Ought to Be:

I enjoyed the article. Just one correction: The GGP swaps owned by Pershing Square are total return equity swaps that pay us the performance of the common stock. They are the economic equivalent of stock ownership without the right to vote. As such, they are not negative bets or hedges against the decline in GGP stock. Rather they are positive bets on the stock.
— Bill