Special Report
Put Men Back to Work
A campaign theme for the coming Republican revival.
Why am I feeling so good these days? Somehow it doesn’t bother me that the Democrats are inching toward passing some kind of healthcare reform or that that global warmers are celebrating in Copenhagen.
Maybe it’s the reception Sarah Palin has been getting on her book tour. Maybe it’s the way the polls all show the Democrats headed straight down. But somehow it doesn’t seem as if it’s going to be long before the Republicans get the chance to govern again.
The clincher was the CNN poll showing only 19 percent of Americans think Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. The fog created by liberal adulation is beginning to lift. The President is being revealed for what he is — an academically trained intellectual with a lot of abstract ideas who doesn’t have much real feel for the country. Sarah Palin is the perfect foil for him — the earthy, commonsense straight talker who knows the things that are important are what happens away from Washington.
It’s not even too early to start speculating Obama may be a one-term President. We’ve seen this twice before with the elections of Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Mayor David Dinkins of New York in 1989. In both instances candidates to the far left came to office under unusual circumstances. Carter was healing the nation after Watergate, Dinkins was New York’s first African-American chief executive.
When the glow wore off and their politics became clear, however, the public soon became disenchanted. Carter couldn’t handle the energy crisis or the Iran hostages and made a mess of the economy. Dinkins raised taxes in the midst of a recession and let rioters in Crown Heights run wild. Each of them served one term.
What is more important, each paved the way for a Republican renaissance. The GOP used its time in the wilderness wisely. Ronald Reagan always knew he wanted to rebuild America’s military and the supply-side crowd at the Wall Street Journal had worked out the details for reviving the economy. Mayor Giuliani spent the few months before taking office attending a series of seminars arranged by the Manhattan Institute. There he learned first-hand the details of James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein’s “broken windows” hypothesis, which said that reducing crime meant establishing public order. The day he took office the squeegee men were gone, subway fare beaters were being arrested and New York was on the way to reducing annual murders from 2,200 to their present level of 600. Along with that he deregulated New York’s sclerotic economy. George Will called it the best effort at governance in recent America history. (For a full account, read Fred Siegel’s The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life.)
So what theme should the Republicans prepare for their coming revival? I have a few suggestions. I’ve actually tried to convey all this to Sarah Palin a couple of times but her website never answers emails and I figured standing in line all night at one of her book events wouldn’t do much good. So I’ll float this up here on The American Spectator in the hopes that the prevailing winds can carry it up to Alaska. I say this because I think Palin would be an excellent representative of the GOP to promote this issue right now. If it comes from any of the male faces of the party, it will sound too caustic and resentful.
The message is, “Put men back to work.” Seventy-five percent of employees thrown out of work in the current recession have been men. We’re about to pass the point where there are more women than men in the workforce. Obviously this idea is going to have a constituency. But it’s not just men who will respond. There are millions of women out there who would like to see their men back working again as well.
The reason men are out of work has nothing to do with feminism or “feminazis” or any of that stuff. The problem is we don’t build anything in this country anymore. The reason is the twin towers of bureaucracy and environmentalism. The main products of our economy are now lawsuits and environmental impact statements. This creates a lot of jobs, but they’re all for pencil-pushing bureaucrats — male or female — who sit around telling other people what they can’t do. Just the other day at a rally at a Democratic sponsored job rally in California, somebody got up and complained, “I wanted to put solar panels on my house and found the first thing I have to do is fill out 400 pages of government forms.” Solar energy isn’t even off the ground yet and already it’s mired in bureaucracy.
As David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy in Princeton, N.J., puts it, “We don’t make anything in this country anymore.” Crane should know. He’s been trying to get a license to build the first new nuclear reactor in this country in 30 years. Already he’s discovered that America’s nuclear industry — which led the world into this technology — has now vanished. Remember Westinghouse? It’s now a Japanese company. GE doesn’t do anything in nuclear anymore without partnering with Hitachi. Babcock & Wilcox, the third manufacturer, has given up building large reactors but does have a design for a “mini-reactor” that can work at the factory level. It’s two years away from applying for a license at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, however, and the NRC will take another five years to approve it. Meanwhile, the Russians are already marketing a similar mini-reactor to other countries.
There is no steel forge in this country that can cast the 500-ton ingots used in building today’s reactor vessels. For a while Japan Steel Works was the world’s only manufacturer, but China and Russia have now caught up and France and Britain have plans on the drawing board. Altogether, there are 54 reactors under construction in the world, none of them in the United States. Korea, which gets 45 percent of its electricity from nuclear (we’re at 19 percent), has developed its reactor (from an American design) and is starting to compete with France’s Areva and Japan’s Westinghouse on the world market. This month it stunned the two by emerging as a legitimate candidate for a $40 billion contract to build five new reactors in the United Arab Emirates.
China only started working on nuclear in 2006 and already has four Westinghouse AP1000s under construction. The first will open in 2012. It also reversed-engineered the model and has 132 projects of this design on the drawing boards. Meanwhile our Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not yet awarded design approval to the AP1000. It will be at least five years before shovels are in the ground and a decade before a new American reactor comes on line. By that time, the Chinese will probably be selling them in Wal-Mart.
I was reading Brooks Adams’ The Law of Civilization and Decay the other day and he mentioned something I’d never heard before. What gutted Rome during the declining years of the Empire, he wrote, was that the city didn’t manufacture anything anymore. Gentleman farming was considered the only noble occupation (the Roman version of environmentalism) and all the dirty work of manufacture was farmed out to the provinces of the Eastern Mediterranean. The provincials actually prospered during the era. Meanwhile, Rome tried to survive on conquest and taxation. Taxes were raised to brutal levels in the conquered provinces and all the money funneled back to Rome so that generals and government officials could live in luxury. Soon the Empire was over its head in debt, forced to devalue the currency, and things went downhill from there. It has a familiar ring, doesn’t it?
What I would suggest, then, is a Republican for 2010 and beyond built around the idea of putting men back to work in regenerating industrial America. Manufacture is the kind of heavy lifting men do best. Nuclear power is the place to start. It’s the energy technology of the 21st century and those who ignore it will be in the same position as countries like Spain and Portugal that missed the Industrial Revolution. Look at France today. The French are 78 percent nuclear and have weathered the current recession very nicely. They have the lowest electrical rates in Western Europe and electricity is their third largest export. The French certainly don’t work any harder than us and take longer vacations, but nuclear electricity is keeping the whole economy afloat.
Our failure to adopt nuclear has reverberated through the economy. Between 2000 and 2006 we lost 100,000 jobs in the chemical and fertilizer industries because natural gas prices quintupled and those industries use it as a feedstock. All of them moved abroad. The main reason natural gas supplies ran short is that we have appropriated it to generate 20 percent of our electricity. Environmentalists won’t let anybody build anything else. Now they are promoting an “Age of Renewable Energy” that will consist of hundreds of square miles of windmills and solar collectors backed up by natural gas plants ready to be fired instantly if the wind dies down or the sun goes behind a cloud. California, which leads the nation with 12 percent renewable energy, gets 40 percent of its electricity from natural gas, twice the national average. If we squander the recent discoveries of shale gas in the Midwest by using it to generate electricity, we’ll probably never manufacture anything in this country again.
So let’s get ready to reindustrialize America and save it from Obama’s bureaucrats and government employees whose only job is to make life difficult for everyone else. Putting men back to work is the place to start. Think of the tens of thousands of construction jobs that would come from building new reactors — and that would be only the beginning.
Sarah Palin may be the best flag-bearer for this issue right now. She can become America’s Joan of Arc, breathing courage back into a culture that has lost its nerve. But any Republican who can make the case for America’s industrial revival is soon going to have the whole country behind him. A la victoire!
Letter to the Editor View all comments (169) | Leave a comment
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Pingback| 12.16.09 @ 6:24AM
Put Men Back to Work - Spectator.org | Build Solar Power Systems Reviews links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Appleby| 12.16.09 @ 6:46AM
Oh right, Back To The Fifties! That will save the country!
I have a couple of alterations to suggest. First, let us get rid of the notion that the only kind of work fit for men to do is brute work. There will be millions of jobs coming up in the legal assistant field for which young men are totally suitable -- but they cannot get over the notion that Office Work is For Girls. It is possible to support a family on the salary; the benefits are good; and the work is technical, interesting, and necessary. Plus there is a very big plus in hiring men for these positions: they do not get pregnant and take a year off just as you get them trained.
Second, if you are determined to bring back brute work for men, you must decertify the unions. What killed off brute work in this country is the unconscionable cost and the turmoil created by incessant strikes. Countries that do not have organized brute squads are where the manufacturing is now done. If you bring back the Fifties along with the unions, you will fail.
Third, you must jail the environmentalists and depose them from all positions of authority. Nothing can be built, designed, or manufactured in a country where the kids in charge are harboring a Garden of Eden view of the 13th century as their ideal (and hey, they had Global Warming back then too!)
And finally, we must silence the marching mommies. Every time anything new is proposed, a chorus of voices shrieking BABIES WILL DIE! drowns it out. If I had my way, I would transport all marching mommies back to the 1930s when babies actually DID die without all the things these blithering idiots are trying to ban.
As long as the USA is whipsawed by unions, greenies and marching mommies, nothing will ever change.
And as long as people keep on whining that a return to the Fifties will save us, nobody will be listening.
ds80| 12.16.09 @ 10:08AM
"Oh right, Back To The Fifties! That will save the country!"
An uncalled-for swipe.
JoshInHB| 12.16.09 @ 10:24AM
Appleby-"There will be millions of jobs coming up in the legal assistant field for which young men are totally suitable"
Ah Yes the progs economy where everyone is a bureaucrat, teacher or lawyer.
Some how I don't thinkt it will work.
Linda F | 12.16.09 @ 10:33AM
I love that! Today, on the news, I heard of a massive recall of window blinds - because about 1 child a year gets tangled up in the cord, and chokes to death.
Mommies, don't be such a fool as to put the crib next to the window, with dangling cords a temptation. And, learn that anything a dumb kid can do, they will (ALL kids are dumb, at first). So, it's up to us to do the proper job of supervising the little monster.
Joan B| 12.16.09 @ 10:41AM
"Back to the fifties??!!!" Somehow I didn't catch that.
L. Ross| 12.16.09 @ 12:03PM
Appleby,
I don't know anything about you, your background, age, or gender. But you have rankled me with your comments about "brute work" and "office work".
I currently have an office job, and I find it very unsatisfying. I would much rather be splitting wood, hanging sheetrock, plumbing a sink, framing a door or a window, or wiring a three way switch than working in the office. I am wired that way, and most men that I know are wired that way. Men love to build things and work with their hands. It is incredibly satisfying. Putting men into office jobs en-masse has the affected the emasculation of our culture. Modern life has very little opportunity for men to be manly. Tiny yards, tiny garages, no space for a workshop. The classic refuge of suburban man was his garage/workshop. He could retreat there, make a glorious mess, rebuilding cars, making furniture, whatever. Even if he had an unsatisfying office job, he could be a man at home. With the 1/8th acre lots that have become the norm, the garage is to small to do anything with and there is no room for a workshop in the yard. The art of the Handyman has been lost. There was a time when almost every average man could install a bathroom in a house. Certainly anyone could hang a ceiling fan. Not so anymore. People hire that kind of work done. Work that was once done by homeowners is now done by illegal immigrants. Modern men in America have lost a precious birthright. The joy of creating something with the strenght of your back and the sweat of your brow. Appleby, you seem to be OK with that. I for one, am not.
Road Kill| 12.16.09 @ 12:54PM
L. Ross:
I have worked with my hands and back, and have worked in an office. Oddly, the office work is comfortable, but I still fondly recall the days (and nights) that worked with my hands. They gave me a great sense of accomplishment. Likewise, I still enjoy working with power tools out in the workshop, the chain saw, and ratchet wrenches. It's what a man does, best.
Ryan| 12.16.09 @ 1:07PM
Legal assistant jobs add no value to our economy, and actually take away from it. If you need a legal assistant, it means that you're diverting money away from your company's core competency.
Denise| 12.16.09 @ 2:45PM
I love how you start your comment off with the sarcastic snipe, "Oh right, Back To The Fifties! That will save the country!" and then proceed to spout attitudes straight out of the Fifties in your first paragraph.
By the way, do you really think that filling "millions" of legal assistant jobs (an idea predicated on the assumption that we need millions more lawyers in this country) is going to save this economy? And how exactly does one support an entire family on a single average salary of roughly $50,000 in, say, a major metropolitan area (bls.gov), where the low-end average price of a home is $400,000 and rents for two-bedroom apartments in decent neighborhoods are at least $1400- 2000 a month?
As for the work being technical and interesting, sometimes it is, but my cousin is an experienced corporate paralegal and spends more than a few days a week doing research and stamping documents.
What our detractors in Washington would have you believe is that the answer is more government jobs, created by expanding bureaucracy. Nevermind that these are financed not through the sale of an innovative and practical product, but through citizens' tax dollars. How very productive.
Alan Brooks| 12.16.09 @ 7:05PM
Obama is not comparable to Jimmuh the piece of shit from Plains. I wish Carter were dead instead of Ford.
Obama will trangulate in 2011, after the midterms-- and the midterms are less than 11 months from now.
Alan Brooks| 12.16.09 @ 7:15PM
One term? you chumps.
Why on earth are you underestimating Obama as you did Clinton? Underestimating people is the biggest mistake.
The GOP said all the stuff about the Clintstones murdering Vince Foster, and raping Juanita Broadderick. But he was re-elected, is popular today, his wife is Secstate.
Worst of all, the GOP ran the whited sepulchres Dole and McCain.
You have cried wolf too many times.
Marcell| 12.16.09 @ 8:44PM
The DC Dem's Smoke & Mirrors Skit is Dangerous
On December 16th, 2009 BLACK CELL said:
We need to turn this into a battle between the little guy versus the people who are supporting & creating a shield for the insurance industry & greedy bankers, who are both trying to rip us off, for a while.
This clip of Dylan Ratigan interviewing Rep. Ed Perlmutter, is what I call good media. Because, Ratigan seems to be looking out for the little guy by not just blindly supporting a Democrat on the issues surrounding the regulations towards out of controlelled bankers.
We as voters have no leverage becuase too many politicains have been paid off. It is sort of like they are cheering & fighting for the other team, not the U.S., & this is the world cup, all the chips are on the line.
We can't allow the Dems in Washington to demoralize us with their underhanded attempts to trick us into believing that they are really solving major issues when many of them are secretly cutting deals & creating loop wholes; thus undermining us to line their personal pockets; I can clearly see the scam.
This is the time for being fair & vigilant, regardless the party affiliation, or the unpopular Dems in the House & Senate will follow the same path as the Repugs under Bu$h, & destroy Obama's presidency.
------------
Big banks promise more lending, incite anger
Dec. 15: Moring Meeting's Dylan Ratigan and Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., discuss how Congress can fix the loopholes in financial reform legislation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32.....0#34430080
----------------
The most valuable commodity I know of is information, wouldn't you agree?
Michael Douglas
Pingback| 12.16.09 @ 6:53AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Put Men Back to Work [spectator.org] links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Mattled| 12.16.09 @ 7:15AM
Appleby,
I agree with you and Mr. Tucker. The Greenies are nothing but Communists and are nuts.
Nuclear and solar would not only employ brute force, but white collar as well. Can't run those things with welders and concrete pourers.
As we head into 2010, perhaps the Republicans should write up some bills and get them out into the net or some local TV stations. Ads in the newspapers? A website where we can find them?
Some of the ideas would be:
Limit powers of "czars".
Make EPA enforce existing laws (review some as well) and pass a bill that prevents them from legislating new "laws" (really Soviet style economics of command and control).
Open drilling in the West and chop off any environmental hacks from sticking their noses in American business.
Allow interstate health insurance access.
Allow individual states to put in place their own tort reforms.
Lay off Government workers thru an audit.
Cap pay raises. Are government workers really worth twice private workers. Who do you like better FedEx or the post office?
In other words, give people what they want, not what the whack job liberals want.
They should date these January 2011----when the Democrats lose power---get people fired up as to what they would do. Put it in writing.
Contract With Americans 2011.
Put ALL Americans back to work---not just Obama cronies.
L. Ross| 12.16.09 @ 11:46AM
In defense of our beleagured Post Office.
I suppose in answering the question "Who do I like best, the post office or FedEx", I ask "What For?"
For envelope size mail, very timely since this is the Christmas season and all, the Post Office is an incredible convenience and incredible bargain. They pick up mail from in front of my house, using little stamps that are easy to get. They deliver that mail anywhere in the U.S. for one low price, and they get it done for less than 50 cents. Contrast that with going to an office store like Staples, paying about $5 for delivery no faster than the post office, or $10 for overnight delivery. Yes, there is no line because it isn't cheap and it isn't convenient. I haven't noticed a lick of difference between FedEx, UPS, and USPS when it comes to delivery of packages. They all arrive at my door. However, the USPS is almost always the low cost bidder.
Mattled| 12.16.09 @ 12:11PM
Yes they're cheaper---at what cost.
USPS is in the RED to the tune of 50 billion?
If they went away---would I miss them? No. FedEx and UPS would take the business and create a business model to make it profitable. Of course the USPS workers would infiltrate the unionized UPS and turn it into---the present day POffice.
If you had enough money to buy either one, which would you buy?
A unionized lackadaisical inefficient company losing money every day?
Or a streamlined proven company making money?
Everything the government touches, where there is a private company as an alternative, it turns to manure.
Military excluded of course. But hell, those liberals do try (and have succeeded to a point) of turning the military into the post office.
L. Ross| 12.16.09 @ 1:11PM
Good point about the losses the Post Office posts.
Kelly Staples| 12.16.09 @ 7:17AM
Fine analysis Mr. Tucker. 'Cuda/Rudy 2012.
Steven| 12.17.09 @ 9:00PM
That's an interesting pair. One populist, the other tough on terror. Both budget hawks. Both unabashed in taking on liberals. Rudy can play the role Cheney. Can you imagine that RNC convention, based on what these two did the last time?
Pingback| 12.16.09 @ 7:21AM
Put Men Back to Work - Spectator.org | Build Solar Power Systems links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.16.09 @ 7:27AM
Appleby,
I got a good chuckle out of that. Thanks.
Mr. Tucker,
Thank you.
Back to you, Appleby...Our American oil industry manufacturing hands, (uh, non-union), are the most productive in the world.
Engineering/construction hands,(non union) are too.
Guy, if you want to see some fine tight-tolerance machinery being built, you ought to come to Houston.
...Or Indiana. Caterpillar is still the prmier in the world. It costs a little more, but the operating cost over a year brings the price under anything else built...due to quality and service/spare-parts back-up.
We need to be building the machines that build the machines that build the machines. That makes absolute accuracy and quality control crucial by three magnitudes of scale.
Nobody wants to go back to the fifties....except to get our own government and mommies off our backs.
JP| 12.16.09 @ 7:55AM
We do not have a short supply of skilled toolmakers, or construction workers, or people who are able to work in oil, or the public utilities.
The shortage that we do have currently is financial liquidity. Most of the laid-off tradesmen are suffering from the collapse of the both the real estate and financial markets. And many of the non-union manufacturing jobs have been going away in recent years due to automation. Why hire a highly skilled 60 year old die maker for $30/hour when his work can be done by a wire EDM or CNC grinder? However, if the diemaker became an expert in say, CAD/CAM, process control, SPC, or LEAN he would be making $40 an hour. That is, if the company he is employed at has enough cash flow and sales to support his employment.
The other factor determining his employment is the TCO his employer must assume. If his employer has to pay increased healthcare surcharges (levied by the Federal government), Green taxes, and increased unemployment compensation, his employer will not hire him no matter what skills he has. Just ask the unemployed German autoworker, or French steelworker.
Northern Rebel| 12.16.09 @ 8:16AM
As a 52 yr old highschool dropout unemployed toolmaker, (what a mouthful) I am particularly vulnerable, in Obama's economy. Especially in today's computer numerically controlled environment that manufacturing has evolved into, in front of my eyes.
He thinks he's got me where he wants me.
What he doesn't count on, is I'm willing to sacrifice my immediate existence, to save the country I love.
He has never met anyone like me, and doesn't even know I exist, and "misunderestimates" my power, and those like me.
"President" Anti-Christ is making a huge mistake.
There are more guys like me, along with my former military friends, than that communist scum can shake a stick at!
We will happily die to America, and my grandchildren's existence.
I am also a better basketball player than this left handed fraud! ( how ironic that he's left-handed.)
I would love to have the opportunity to humiliate him on the hardwood.
Northern Rebel| 12.16.09 @ 8:18AM
Die to "save" America.
(Damned dropouts!)
Sir| 12.16.09 @ 8:58AM
God, please continue to bless Mr. Northern Rebel, and please continue to bless our great country - the societal epitome of Yourself.
In Your Son's precious and perfect name I pray.
Amen
1FreeMan| 12.16.09 @ 9:50AM
Northern Rebel,
If it ever goes that way you will find me there too. Educated, military, hevily armed. He knows I exist, he just doesn't know the strength of my resolve.
There is a lot of good in our wonderful Nation that is worth fighting, possibly dying, to defend. Lady liberty will not die quietly.
Stuart Koehl| 12.16.09 @ 8:32AM
I haven't read Brooks Adams' book, but his statement about Rome, at least as Tucker summarized it, is totally wrong. Rome was, in fact, a major manufacturing center right down to the end of the fourth century. His jibe at "gentleman farmers" ignores Roman history: Senators were always prohibited from engaging in commerce, and, as Cato the Censor wrote in the third century BC, "the best employment is highly profitable cattle farming; the second best is moderately profitable cattle farming; the third best is unprofitable cattle farming".
Senators regularly circumvented prohibitions on trade through cutouts and shell companies, but many of the aristocracy simply eschewed a political career and made money hand over fist as members of the Ordo Equites (Equestrians).
Tucker also has to remember in antiquity approximately 90% of the population--even in the more highly urbanized East--lived on the land, and most economic effort was devoted to agriculture. The concept of manufacturing as we know it did not exist, so Tucker's analogy is seriously anachronistic.
Finally, we should note that Rome stayed on top of the pile for close to five hundred years, and its eventual decline had nothing at all to do with the symptoms ascribed to it by Adams (via Tucker). In fact, Rome did not really "fall" at all, as it gradually faded due to a combination of external and natural causes.
As for the Roman Empire itself, it did not fall at all, but simply continued with its new capital at Constantinople for another 1000 years.
In either case, whatever they were doing, it was very successful, as no other civilization has demonstrated such continuity or preeminence in all human history. Rather than holding them up as a warning, Tucker might just as well hold the Romans up as an exemplar.
All of which demonstrates the peril of simplistic historical analogies.
William Tucker | 12.16.09 @ 10:22AM
True. And American industrial civilization may not fall at all but simply continue with a new capital at Peking.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.16.09 @ 11:04AM
OUCH! Mr. Tucker, Touchet (heh)
Maybe we need a new sticker for american manufactured products:
...............{ MADE BY NON-UNION AMERICANS}
Heck, the unions have already eaten their own stomaches in the companies they inhabit. They are shrinking every day...hence cardcheck.
One HUGE advantage Texas enjoys: we are a "right to work" State.
Back when I was operating drilling rigs...the Unions just kept sending thugs down here to infect the drilling industry.
The non union hands showed them what a day's work was like, then sent them scurrying back to where ever they came from...some with good bruises, heh.
You know, Lee Iacoca and I never had a labor dispute that couldn't get solved, sittin' around a keg on Friday afternoons with our hands.
There are just a BUNCH of fine working-men in this country who truly get a kick out of a productive day, using their hands as well as their judgement and brains.
Most of us CEOs are smart enough these days to accord our hands dignity...and as good of wages as we can manage.
Highest regards
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.16.09 @ 11:05AM
OUCH! Mr. Tucker, Touchet (heh)
Maybe we need a new sticker for american manufactured products:
...............{ MADE BY NON-UNION AMERICANS}
Heck, the unions have already eaten their own stomaches in the companies they inhabit. They are shrinking every day...hence cardcheck.
One HUGE advantage Texas enjoys: we are a "right to work" State.
Back when I was operating drilling rigs...the Unions just kept sending thugs down here to infect the drilling industry.
The non union hands showed them what a day's work was like, then sent them scurrying back to where ever they came from...some with good bruises, heh.
You know, Lee Iacoca and I never had a labor dispute that couldn't get solved, sittin' around a keg on Friday afternoons with our hands.
There are just a BUNCH of fine working-men in this country who truly get a kick out of a productive day, using their hands as well as their judgement and brains.
Most of us CEOs are smart enough these days to accord our hands dignity...and as good of wages as we can manage.
Highest regards
Jeannine| 12.16.09 @ 11:26AM
Ken,
"...truly get a kick out of a productive day, using their hands as well as their judgement and brains...." You sound a little like a Benedictine!
Stuart Koehl| 12.16.09 @ 2:33PM
Well, I may be showing my age, but I heard all that back in the 1980s, when the Japanese were supposed to eat our lunch, what with the omipotent and omniscient MITI guiding their industrial policy. Whatever happened to Japan? Oh, yeah!
Now, the new Yellow Peril is China, but when you put forth simplistic arguments based on the current situation, you ignore long term trends at your own risk.
First, China may be on its way to having the third or even second largest economy in the world, but its per capita GDP is still on par with many parts of sub-saharan Africa. Beyond that, there are so many systemic imbalances and inconsistencies in the Chinese socio-economic system that it remains an even bet whether China will be able to last out the next decade without massive social upheavals caused by (a) grossly unequal distribution of newly generated wealth; (b) rising discontent with both one-party rule and its concomitant corruption; (c) rising expectations among the emerging middle class (which is going to bring calls for a better quality of life, which in turn will undermine the Chinese export-driven economy).
And that brings us to (d), the looming demographic implosion resulting from thirty years of draconian one child rules. Not only did this result in a generation of fat, spoiled and lazy "six pocket children" (sometimes called the Little Emperors), but also a rapidly aging population that is going to place great demands on the Chinese economy for social services. As the Chinese population shrinks from 1.3 billion to less than a billion over the next decade or two, just how does China propose to sustain its double-digit growth rate (assuming that we can even trust Chinese economic statistics, as the World Bank learned the hard way)? As Mark Steyn noted, "They will grow old before they grow rich".
The underlying strengths of the U.S. economy still dwarf those of any possible challengers, whether we are talking about Europe, or China, or India, or Brazil. Given a modest 2.5% growth rate for the U.S. over the next fifteen years (and we will probably do better), and assuming the Chinese can sustain 7% real growth over the same period (highly unlikely), then the U.S. economy will go from being three times the size of China's, to just twice the size of China's. And that is the worst case scenario.
So, nil desperandum, Bill. And when you look at a multidimensional situation, remember to avoid the temptation to look at just one variable at a time.
JoshInHB| 12.16.09 @ 10:31AM
A more apt analogy is the Spanish Empire.
It aquired huge wealth fro the new world and squandered it. Totally missed the industrial revolution. Faded from the most powererful empire on earth in the 1500s to failed state basketcase in the 1800s.
Stuart Koehl| 12.16.09 @ 2:37PM
The analogy is still flawed. The Spanish Empire was based on the "extractive sector" (to use a Putinesque term); i.e., the mineral wealth pulled out of the mines of Latin America. Unlike the British in North America, who built up self-sustaining colonies that contributed a wide range of value added products to the exchequer, the Spanish only imported more gold and silver. That, in turn, devalued gold and silver, leading to rampant inflation. Spain never made anything before or after winning its empire. In the long run, it simply allowed Spanish lethargy to run its course.
JoshInHB| 12.17.09 @ 12:30AM
It seems the US economy is increasing based on the financial sector. Our largest export has been paper dollars for 20+years. Every year the parasitic economy gets larger and stronger that the productive part of the economy. If even half of Obama's socialist agenda gets passed the US will wind up with the largest public sector since USSR.
Stuart Koehl| 12.17.09 @ 9:30AM
Finance is not parasitic; it creates wealth by directing capital into productive activities. It is a peculiar conservatism that equates finance with socialism. Disdain for trade quickly degenerates into a form of bastard mercantilism, making a fetish over a positive balance of trade. During most of the 19th century, the United States had a negative balance of trade and was largely financed by foreign investors. That worked out well for us.
Jeannine| 12.16.09 @ 10:36AM
Stuart,
I agree w/everything you said but I would like to add that the pagan Roman Empire was transformed into a Christian Roman Empire (think Constantine & after). It was the Christian Roman Empire (w/warts & all) that advanced civilization. I wonder if there is a lesson here to be learned!
jd| 12.16.09 @ 1:31PM
Jeannine,
Excellent point that is almost always overlooked. The Catholic Church was crucial to the advancement of western civilization...Whether it be the legal system that emphasized the rights and inherent value of the INDIVIDUAL, the advancements in sciences and medicine (formed first hospitals) or in the establishment of an early market economy (think the monasteries trading goods for profit) or keeping the fires of learning lit in the Dark Ages by monks in monasteries translating classic Greek and Latin works).... without Christianity the advancements of the western world would never have happened.
Stuart Koehl| 12.16.09 @ 2:48PM
You are correct insofar as the Christian Empire was the vehicle by which the classical inheritance was passed down to modern European civilization. There was, however, tremendous continuity between the classical Roman Empire and the Christian Empire (later the Byzantine Empire) of late antiquity and the early medieval period.
The Christian Roman Empire did indeed provide the medium by which moral values in Europe were transformed, and it also served as a bulwark against various barbarian, Persian and Muslim incursions for almost 1000 years, while Western European civilization emerged.
That it survived so long was not due to its inherent strength. Though the strongest state of its time, as compared to the Roman Empire of the Principate, its power was relatively limited. Surrounded by a multitude of potential adversaries, it survived by its wits, and was perfectly happy to buy off enemies, or subvert foreign rulers, or pay one bunch of barbarians to attack another, because all of those were both safer and cheaper than fighting a major war. Byzantium's enemies could lose many times, but Byzantium could not afford to lose at all. So it spent much of its treasure on building and maintaining the best army of its time, but they were remarkably reluctant to risk it in all-out battle if there was any other alternative.
I should also mention that the Byzantines were sustained by their strong cultural identity as (a) receivers and preservers of the true Orthodox faith; (b) inheritors of the Roman Empire (they always referred to themselves as Rhomaioi, rather than Hellenes); and (c) heirs to the classical tradition of Greek civilization. It created what I call a sense of "Byzantine exceptionalism", whose parallel with "American exceptionalism" is quite exact--save that we would base our identity on our constitution, our liberal political tradition (in the classical sense), and on free market economics.
A Byzantine Emperor who challenged the foundations of Byzantine exceptionalism would be lucky to find himself blinded and sent off to a monastery to ponder his errors. An American president who undermines the foundations of American exceptionalism will probably have many years on the rubber chicken circuit after his disastrous reelection bid in which to contemplate his mistakes.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.16.09 @ 8:59AM
Stuart, good points.
I just finished a novel, ( a future history), "The Last Centurion" by Ringo. I highly commend it to you for the holidays. A great adventure, and the foreword/introduction is as clean a slice of accurate Roman history as I have seen.
The story takes place about ten years from now, and it is so relevant, it gave me chills. (copyright 2009).
I would love to hear your review of the book.
Bydand76| 12.16.09 @ 12:52PM
Would that be John Ringo of the Posleen war series?
Awesome writer!
How are you doing mi amigo?
I have been away for awhile.
Mission first type stuff.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.16.09 @ 1:19PM
Bydand 76
Hey guy, welcome back! I have been in the midst of hugundous corporate acquisition negotiations for the last three weeks, but still drop in so people won't think I have been carried off to the gulag.
YES! John Ringo.
But this novel may be his absolute very best....at least so far. No Posleen in it though.
Yeah, with corporate governance, TEAM America, and droping in here......and climbing off thye chandelier with my red-headed wife...I stay pretty busy. heh. www.myteamusa.org
owyheewine| 12.16.09 @ 10:23AM
Well stated Mr Tucker.
The key statement in your piece, is the proliferation of environmental impact statements. Companies can't build anything these days without passing a minefield of government paperwork. States that have a shorter list of requirements are gaining on the ones with more massive lists.
There are lots of small businesses operating in this country that do make things, from advanced engineered devices to simple plastic castings. Large scale plants are becoming more scarce, these smaller facilities can be built if the government(s) get out of the way.
Smaller nuclear plants are a splendid idea, but face the same mindless opposition that large plants endure.
MikeBee| 12.16.09 @ 10:46AM
Without nuclear energy, the idea of electric automobiles doesn't work very well. The low MPG of electrics is touted, but no one is looking at the actual cost per mile to run one of these cars. Add up the gas you pay for, AND the extra electricity you pay for, now that you plug your car in every night, and what is the Cost per Mile (CPM) of running this car? Probably more than the Cost per Mile of running a car on gasoline only.
When you plug an appliance or car into the wall socket, what are you really consuming? In today's U.S., you are mostly consuming coal when you "plug in," or, as the far left would say (with derision), "dirty coal." While coal technology is very clean today, it makes no sense for far left liberals to support electric cars right now, as they do NOT support the burning of coal as an energy source. Electric cars will not make sense until the U.S. has converted most of its electric energy to nuclear-based sources. Yep, a typical "cart before the horse" situation. Build nuclear energy sources now, and build them all across America. THEN, make lots of electric cars for people to plug in.
Mattled| 12.16.09 @ 12:18PM
MikeBee,
Bingo! My uber-liberal father-in-law is salivating for an electric car.
I asked him whey he wants a car that runs on coal (his power comes from a nearby coal-fired plant).
The response was (in a semi-state of rage for bringing up that inconvenient little fact) was that "Both sides have to come together".
I said---Oh Really?
It's your side with the envirowackos blocking EVERY plant permit for 30 years. It's your side that just blocked another one by one---just one liberal judge ---(appointed by Carter no less) after years of going through the process involving millions of dollars and hundreds if not thousands of people trying to create clean energy.
Facts=Anathema for Liberals
SoCon| 12.17.09 @ 1:44AM
Mattled; my condolences to you regarding your father-in-law. The holidays must be a hoot for your family!!
Wee Willie| 12.16.09 @ 12:25PM
A recent Sunday story of Rumpke dump Cincinnati Household waste Site) stimulated me to do a bit of approximate arithmetic. Up to 10,000 tons of household trash a day is placed in Mount Rumpke. Assume on the conservative side that 60% of that trash is carbohydrate or carbohydrate equivalent which is 6,000 tons which is 12,000,000 pounds. A pint is pound so there is 12,000,000 pints of carbohydrate equivalent. At 8 pints to the gallon there is 1,500,000 gallons per day of carbohydrate equivalent At 42 gallons to the barrel there are 35,000 barrels per day X 365 days per year means 1.3 million gallons of fuel equivalent placed in the Rumpke dump per year. Note I am neglecting yards and tree waste , construction demolition waste, animal feed lots, and so forth.
This waste, which is collected anyway, should be transported to a nuclear plant. There using the waste heat that is now vented into the air to power the grinders, blowers, electromagnets and other equipment that is necessary to heat and process the waste into useful liquids such as methanol, ethanol and biodiesel. There are a number of pilot plants in the United States that are used to convert wood and other carbohydrate waste into biofuels. We need such pilot plants to be designed to be powered by waste heat from nuclear and coal plants.
Using waste that is now buried to produce fuel is carbon neutral and would significant lessen the amount of petroleum now used.
owyheewine| 12.16.09 @ 12:56PM
A small correction. Carbohydrates are already partially oxidized(burned) and contain probably a little less than 1/2 the energy content of a hydrocarbon. Burning garbage for electricity has been been done commercially since the '70s.
Using waste heat from reactors to provide energy for biofuels has been proposed for some of the nuclear reactors currently on the drawing board, but using garbage as a material source is probably an economic loser.
Ryan| 12.16.09 @ 1:05PM
I also voice my displeasure at the article, because it doesn't make the distinction that it needs to:
America does not need the old-style manufacturing of the 20th century. What American needs to excel at is INNOVATIVE manufacturing and conceptual products - where the real money is. Let the poorer countries make the old essentials - we'll focus on building new and better.
If the government would get out of the way...
William Tucker | 12.16.09 @ 3:27PM
Old manufacturing, new manufacturing, it's hard to produce much of anything without electricity. Also, you shouldn't be deluded into thinking that China and other countries in Asia are simply copying what we do. They're innovating as well. Best example - in ten years they'll be far ahead of us on nuclear reactors. China already produces far more engineers than we do. The only category we surpass them is lawyers.
Stuart Koehl| 12.17.09 @ 9:44AM
I looked at the Chinese Engineer canard some time back. In fact, the vast majority of so-called engineer degrees issued in China are not equivalent to a four year bachelors degree, but are closer to associate degrees or even just certificate programs. Most Chinese engineers are actually what we would call technicians.
If you do an actual apples-to-apples comparison, as Duke University School of Engineering did a couple of years ago, then you find a different story: the U.S. graduated about 138,000 engineers from 4-year programs, while China graduated 300,000. So, in raw numbers, and not taking quality into account, the differential is 2-to-1. But, when you look at the situation on a per capita basis, the United States produces one engineer per 1000 people, while China produces one engineer per while China produces just 0.24 engineers per 1000 people. If China graduates more engineers, it is because China has a larger pool of people.
Nicolas ZIENER/France| 9.20.10 @ 5:46PM
We have the same problem here in France, but well you can't build a working society on these assumptions; I mean, you can't say everybody must be an engineer or a surgeon or a top of the pops scientist to be able to survive.
In the past unskilled labour provided for the survival of many that can't find a way to survive today.
People who are not Einstein want to survive too; and if not allowed they will resort to violence .
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.16.09 @ 1:25PM
hey Ryan,
They count on us to round out their essays. You are precisely on point! But, Mr. Tucker provoked you and I to think more deeply.
See my comments above.
We got this sucker surrounded!
Mr. Tucker, again, thank you.
Muleskinner| 12.16.09 @ 1:35PM
Appleby's reference to manual labor as "brute work" is a misnomer. Look up brute in your Funk and Wagnall. Men who toil and sweat for a living are neither stupid beasts nor chained to their tasks. Performing the same repetitive tasks every day allows one time to think and create,as Eric Hoffer once said. Let us go back to the fifties mentality where no challenge was insurmountable and Americans worked with one another to build everything we needed. We were the innovators and imports were generally inferior to what we made here. Government was not interfering with businesses at every turn and stealth taxes on all goods and services were not tacked on . So yes,Appleby,maybe a return to 1950-60 work environment would do some good.
SoCon| 12.17.09 @ 2:23AM
I think some good, hard work would be good for all of us--men and women!! Too many big, fat and fatter Americans around. What has happened to us?
Maybe it's the farmer in my lineage; but I love to work hard in the garden. It's good for the soul.
PolishKnight| 12.16.09 @ 2:11PM
I love the expression "back to the 50's" because it's usually a leftist snipe implying a time of primitive thinking neanderthals who thought that two parent families were a great idea.
And indeed, whether Tucker and Palin want to admit it or not, it really is feminism's fault. Back in the evil 1950's, many people could support their families on one income, commutes were short with fewer cars on the road since one person stayed at home, and people cooked their own meals and looked after their own children rather than working long hours to pay for daycare.
Who ever would want that? Instead, being upside down in a mortgage and fighting with one's ex every weekend is so much more fun and productive!
And also, back in the 1950's, there were saying such as "better living through chemistry" (without sarcasm) and people looking forward to the future unlike today where unwashed hippies want everyone to live in huts and starve to death lest the sky fall down in 7 years. Ted Kaczinski is more rational than Al Gore and at least Ted's not a raving hypocrite.
This whole half apologetic stance of not wanting to offend feminists and even half buying into leftist ideals is what makes Palin suspicious to many conservatives. She chummed up a little too much to McCain and even supports Title IX. Hey, can't support men too much and let it get in the way of women having fun at work and viewing life as one big playtime. In the meantime, it's a 'man thing' to view work as simply paying the bills. It's no wonder that so many young men choose to be slackers rather than work hard to innovate and wind up being viewed as a villian even by Palin and company.
Feminism, including Palin's style of feminism, takes men working for granted. Look at what happened with her son-in-law. He was unable to get a job so she just threw him away. Real family values there. Once boys grow up, they become disposable even to progressive conservatives such as Palin. Thanks for the pro-life stance, Palin, but how about standing by your men?
SoCon| 12.17.09 @ 2:05AM
Polish, REAL MEN don't whine and they don't blame their personal failures on others. Man up and take responsibility for your life--you created it.
Regarding Palin; what in the heck are you talking about? Sarah does NOT have a son-in-law; that snot-nosed piglet, Levi, never married her daughter, Bristol; he just got her pregnant. Guess old Levi didn't stand by her, did he?
Palin does stand by her men-- her husband, her young son in the Army and her baby, Trig. She's also a darn fine daughter. Sarah doesn't run from her responsibilities--and she doesn't whine.
You sound bitter and I pity you, but lying about Sarah Palin makes you look even worse.
PolishKnight| 12.17.09 @ 2:17PM
SoCon, the "real man" shaming ploy only works with insecure men. I never didn't take responsibility for my life (sounds like you knee jerked and didn't read fully what I said.).
I notice how you left out Sarah leaving her son-in-law in the wind. Also, as the left has already had fun pointed out, her daughter had a sex before marriage and a child out of wedlock. So much for personal responsibility...
Finally, the bitter label is often used against conservatives and tea-partiers. "They're bitter and angry and against "hope and change." So you're setting the example by McCain and his daughter to jettison us to the side the moment it suits them to fit in with their liberal buddies. Thanks, but no thanks!
In closing, if Palin is a "feminist" then she should be prepared to "take it like a man" and "man up" herself.
SoCon| 12.17.09 @ 7:22PM
What son-in-law? Name him.
You must be a liberal, you lie.
I can see why you have so many personal problems; you don't listen to others and you feel sorry for yourself. It's not a winning combination and Professional help is advised; or better yet, take your bitterness to God.
Bet your ex-wife is thankful she got out when she could.
Blackwatch| 12.17.09 @ 8:24PM
Well said SoCon. "PK" appears to be another Libtard loser who can't stand a strong gorgeous woman.
Mr. Todd Palin is a fortunate man indeed. Smart beautiful wife and great kids.
And when is Bristol's older brother going to get leave from his unit so he can come home and beat the crap out of Levi Johnson? Let's put that on pay per view.
PolishKnight| 12.18.09 @ 12:26PM
On the contrary you two, I'm so conservative that I don't buy into settling for her, or McCain, as moderate leftists and feminists because they're the best we can get.
Calling ME a liberal. Hilarious. Anyone who knows my online reputation (going back since the web first existed) knows how rediculous that is!
SoCon| 12.18.09 @ 1:49PM
You're still a liar, though. Funny that you won't answer my 'son-in-law' question. At least you're not repeating your stupid FALSE allegation!
Shame on you.
PolishKnight| 12.18.09 @ 2:46PM
I meant to say brother-in-law. The one that she allegedly tried to misuse her power in a Clinton/Nixon style fashion to get fired.
SoCon, for someone who tells everyone else to quit whining, you could try following your own advice once in a while...
SoCon| 12.18.09 @ 4:26PM
Dang. Don't you know the difference between a son-in-law and a brother-in-law?
You must be getting your bogus information from HuffPo or DailyKos.
You mean the brother-in-law who threatened Sarah's father's life, tasered her 10 year old nephew, got drunk on duty and drove around in his patrol car and broke the law by shooting a moose out of season? Would you defend your brother-in-law if he behaved this way? I pity your poor sister.
You sure pick winners to defend; says a lot about YOUR character.
I'm not whining--I'm lecturing; whining is your department and you do it so well. Now, grow up!
Ken A| 12.16.09 @ 2:45PM
Anyone who would prefer doing office work behind a desk to manual labor with their hands is a fag. It's time for this country to return to a time when men did MANLY work and women took care of their sexual and domestic responsibilities. The above posters have it right - the 1950s was a much better, more Christian time than today.
Stuart Koehl| 12.16.09 @ 2:50PM
Only if you hold to Dwight David Eisenhower's understanding of Christianity as a "civil religion". Serious Christians would never make such a fundamental error.
Eschatology--the weird stuff at the end of the book. Look it up.
SoCon| 12.17.09 @ 2:35AM
Scary!! I hope you're just a creepy liberal troll trying to give Conservative men a bad name; I don't know any Conservative men who spew such knuckle-dragging nonsense as you. I bet you're Liberal Reader, you annoying fool.
If not, I work and I take care of my 'responsibilities', thank you very much--and I wouldn't take kindly to wearing a burka, moron.
PolishKnight| 12.17.09 @ 2:21PM
Ah yes, the "knuckle dragger" invictive! Sticks and stones...
Let's examine your paradigm: Men have to behave and avoid doing "baaaad" things otherwise they give all men a bad name. We're on probation you see. But when feminists demand special handouts to be "equal", bash men, and go on a goodie grab and gripe about how there aren't enough rich guys out there, well, nobody has the right to criticize them much less feminism in general.
Responsibility and "manning up" is something only men do. And I couldn't agree with you more.
SoCon| 12.17.09 @ 7:25PM
You do neither, Polish.
Unfortunately for you, you don't see yourself as you really are; no wonder you're unhappy. Try prayer; it helps with anger and rage.
Ken A| 12.17.09 @ 9:58PM
You're a self-righteous liberal pansy. We know where the real men stand in this thread.
SoCon| 12.17.09 @ 11:45PM
Real men? How would you know what a real man is? Whiny and weak, you're the furthest thing from a 'real man'. You amuse me.
I know you're a troll--only an Axelrod libtroll would make the incredibly idiotic, stereotypical comments you've made. Moron.
PolishKnight| 12.18.09 @ 12:31PM
KenA, you didn't get the memo apparently: "real men" are guys who lapdog for Sarah Palin just like they lapdogged for John McCain.
Thanks, but no thanks.
SoCon| 12.18.09 @ 1:53PM
If you can do better, Polish, get off your lazy butt and do it; otherwise, you're just another whining weenie who is afraid of capable women. You and Ken are sorry examples of American man-hood.
Unfortunately, your numbers are legion.
PolishKnight| 12.18.09 @ 2:45PM
Indeed! These same shaming ploys were used against those who expressed any misgivings about McCain. How did that work out?
SoCon| 12.18.09 @ 4:30PM
You are McCain! You're both weak and neither of you has Palin's grit. Palin's a fighter--that's why I like her.
PolishKnight| 12.16.09 @ 4:24PM
Boy, the way Glenn Miller played.
Songs that made the Hit Parade.
Guys like us, we had it made.
Those were the days!
Didn't need no welfare state.
Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.
Those were the days!
And you know who you were then!
Girls were girls and men were men!
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again!
People seemed to be content.
Fifty dollars paid the rent.
Freaks were in a circus tent.
Those
were
the
days!
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.16.09 @ 7:31PM
Great recital, Knight, but get off Sarah's butt!
She does stand by her men. I like her husband. I really like her sons. So does she. She is sorta' one of those "accidental politicians" this country needs so badly.
Who woulda' thunk it...the mayor of for God's sake Wasilla Alaska becoming the VP choice.
SoCon| 12.17.09 @ 2:17AM
Thanks, Old Tex: A truer gentleman can't be found. Merry Christmas, sweet sir.
PolishKnight| 12.17.09 @ 2:41PM
Ken, if she thinks someone like ME on her butt is a threat, how will be able to take on the media a second time?
And yes, I have a RIGHT to be on her butt. Men comprise a majority of Republican voters and pandering to the left and feminism is the same strategy that McCain used. That really worked well for him, didn't it?
Look at this article. Let's put the men back to work but for heavens sake, let's be careful about how we say it lest it get in the way of the feminist goodie grab festival.
SoCon| 12.17.09 @ 7:28PM
Only liberals think they have the right to lie about Sarah Palin.
PolishKnight| 12.18.09 @ 12:42PM
SoCon, you whine more than anyone here about "lying" and then turn around and knee jerk and accuse others of whining and telling them to man up.
It's these similar tactics that her running mate, John McCain employed during his run: Stabbing his friends in the back while cozing up to the enemy.
SoCon| 12.18.09 @ 1:56PM
Nice feint, liar. You probably don't have any friends left to lie about that's why you have to lie about Palin.
Didn't your mom teach you that lying is wrong? Guess you forgot that lesson.
PolishKnight| 12.18.09 @ 2:48PM
That brings me back, yo' momma taunts and telling someone they have no friends. Hey hey hey! It's faaaaat Albert!
SoCon| 12.18.09 @ 4:35PM
You're a fool, but I still wish you a Merry Christmas.
We have so few Republicans we can admire, it upsets me when we try to destroy them. They don't call us the stupid party for nothing.
Orthovector| 12.16.09 @ 4:27PM
Very nice article, Mr. Tucker. Very dumb comment, Mr/Ms Appleby. Just skimmed the remaining comments; some seemed to be on target, some as dumb as Mr/Ms Appleby. May have been mentioned, but how about releasing all the idiotic, anti-economic restrictions on drilling for oil and natural gas, too?
Pingback| 12.16.09 @ 5:34PM
The American Spectator : Put Men Back to Work video jockey VJ China links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Northern Rebel| 12.16.09 @ 7:46PM
sir, and 1freeman:
You make my heart burst with joy that you're out there, and I'm not alone.
God Bless you, and Merry Christmas to all of us!
Marcell| 12.16.09 @ 8:50PM
Here is a great example of why the media has value.
Ask yourself," What would a real patriot do, in the situation?"
Then ask, "what would a Repug do? "
I'd rather be an independent thinker; a leader, not a follower.
------------
Big banks promise more lending, incite anger
Dec. 15: Moring Meeting's Dylan Ratigan and Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., discuss how Congress can fix the loopholes in financial reform legislation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32.....0#34430080
----------------
The most valuable commodity I know of is information, wouldn't you agree?
Michael Douglas
Joanie| 12.17.09 @ 2:15AM
Of course the media are invaluable--the NEW MEDIA!! The Dinosaur media are dead!! The filthy, treasonous leftist liars at MSNBC and NYT deserve their fate for their treachery.
blackwatch| 12.17.09 @ 8:37PM
Correction--they will be dead as soon as the gloves come off. MSN CNN NYT et al are all easily targeted. The Press may find that their plastic ID badges and the letters TV scrawled on their helmets attrack more rounds than they deter.
We can't stop the cycle of lies, distortions, and villany in our society without making people pay for their misdeeds. Our form of government can not survive without the RESPONSIBILITY TO BE MORAL. Willful lying and intentional partian slanting of the "news" by the MSM will come to an end or we will become another broken failed democracy. The patriots will arise when the time comes.
Angel| 12.17.09 @ 11:35PM
From your lips to God's ears, Blackwatch! God bless you and Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Margie| 12.16.09 @ 8:56PM
My little ol' opinion of "Put Men Back to Work?" Sounds good to me. My Husband is out of work since April, this year. He's in manufacturing all his life. Since he's "older" and there are so many guys looking for work out there he's definately being passed over. What to do? Another career? How now? It's rough. I know where there's a will there's a way and He's (God) never failed us yet.
So I think it's a good idea. I could really see Sarah just about all by her little old self making it happen.. bringing manufacturing back. Look at what she did in Alaska with the pipeline, and other things she got done. Is it really possible? Who knows. But wouldn't it be great?
BTW~ manufacturing isn't just hands on, there is lots of paperwork to be done in inventory control & production management too.
(just my 2 cents). :^)
Northern Rebel| 12.16.09 @ 9:39PM
Margie:
I guess your husband and I have a lot in common, as my previous post exposed my nakedness to the world.
If I may be so bold to ask where you guys live,
( I'm on my way back to communist northern NY soon ), I believe If we put our capitalist heads together, even "President" Anti-Christ can't stop us.
If we gather our forces with Old Tex, and the other great patriots that post here, we cannot be stopped, and our nation can be saved, for our grandchildren.
We must not waste any time, because the forces of evil are monitering us, and will shut us down soon.
Ken ( old Texican ) seems to have the resources required to battle these bastards, and I am willing to throw my lot in with him, and sacrifice my life if nessesary, to save my country.
All I need is my marching orders, and my hope and prayers, that others will be behind me.
Wow, does it sound like I've got a tinfoil hat, or what? That's how scary it's getting!
blackwatch| 12.17.09 @ 8:45PM
You are right this site is monitored.
Who Cares?| 12.16.09 @ 9:56PM
Do banks have a hidden agenda?
Dec. 15: Morning Meeting's Dylan Ratigan explains why some big banks are scrambling to repay their TARP loans before the end of the year.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32.....4#34430524
Pingback| 12.16.09 @ 10:01PM
The American Spectator : Put Men Back to Work links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Marcell| 12.16.09 @ 10:05PM
I believe that millions of people like Margie will slowly change their perspectives as we, our side, slowly clean up the mess, in the right ways of course.
Joanie| 12.17.09 @ 2:10AM
Your side clean up the mess? That's a howler, liberal moron; your side MADE the mess. You are haters, all.
Marcell| 12.16.09 @ 10:10PM
It is more to life than sitting around spewing hate for the ...
& calling it patriotism.
..."Yeah, right."
-------
Fighting back against banks
Dec. 16: Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., joins Morning Meeting to discuss the bipartisan financial reform legislation she plans to introduce with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Wednesday morning.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32.....3#34446293
Critical Thinking is a Virtue | 12.16.09 @ 10:19PM
#1
" Where did all the money go, before the bankers got their hand outs from the government? "
We know that it did't line Margie's husbands pocket. So, choose a side.
#2
"Why are execs from failed once banks getting large bonuses?"
Critical Though.
"Maybe its their rewards for hustling the tax payer & their share holders."
Get Smart| 12.16.09 @ 10:25PM
Ken ( old Texican ) seems to have the resources required to battle these bastards, and I am willing to throw my lot in with him, and sacrifice my life if nessesary, to save my country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
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John II| 12.17.09 @ 12:44AM
Two idle th0ughts:
1. The 19 percent figure for those who believe Professor Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, if we exclude irony in the responses to the poll, is probably very close to the actual percentage of hardcore airhead Obamamaniacs in the general population. In other words, more than 80 percent of Americans are not predisposed to worship at the altar of the Anointed One. That's a lot of reliable support for a Reagan-like challenger in 2012. That's even a lot of potential support for a McCain-like challenger.
2. Given their extreme overabundance in America, how about using lawyers as an alternative fuel source?
Critical Thinking is a Virtue | 12.17.09 @ 12:48AM
I am amazed at how WE all got used.
We will now even be paying more for health care
-----------------
Senate bill a big win for insurance companies
Dec. 16: Wendell Potter, former CIGNA vice president, explains what insurance companies stand to gain from the health reform legislation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30.....7#34455097
Two idle th0ughts| 12.17.09 @ 12:52AM
I am amazed at how WE all got used.
"Not really."
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Stephen Brown| 12.17.09 @ 9:18AM
I will try and make this short...I have been involved in the manufacturing sector since 1980 and have witnessed the decline of manufacturing capability in this country first hand. The most obvious (to me anyway) reason for this decline is the attitude of the people who make the decision and create the justification for NOT INVESTING in plants and equipment here in this country. Change the mindset of the MBA grad and Universities and Professors who fill their minds with mush and we will experience a rebirth of true wealth building in this country.
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Blackwatch| 12.17.09 @ 8:57PM
Since the average sheep American voter can not be bothered to learn anything about this country or even pay attention to politics until about 10 seconds before they vote I suggest that the Republicans and the Conservatives run solely on the jobs, energy security, and manufacturing. Pick a round figure and flog it: "5 million new jobs by 2012" Let's build 30 new gasoline refineries. Drill 100,000 new gas and oil wells on and off our shores. Build 30 new nuke plants. Use them to desalinate water and or make hydrogen. Tie this all into the HOAX the liar Al Gore has sold this country on and make it a national security issue. 50% of Americans believe man caused global warming is a scam. Conservatives are the majority in this country--start acting like it damn it!
Energy Security = National Security = 5,000, 000 high paying jobs++++
Leo Livio| 12.18.09 @ 12:38PM
"The President is being revealed for what he is -- an academically trained intellectual with a lot of abstract ideas who doesn't have much real feel for the country."
That is a very debatable statement. Obama's intellectual credentials are questionable. He was a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago for many years. The man did not publish a single academic journal article. Not a single one! In most universities, failure to publish is grounds for termination. The mantra is "publish or perish!"
On another point, statistics show that the ratio of female to male students in American universities is about 60-40. In my department, it is 70-30! We need to send American men back to college!
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Tenn Slim| 12.20.09 @ 9:36AM
Opine
"So let's get ready to reindustrialize America and save it from Obama's bureaucrats and government employees whose only job is to make life difficult for everyone else.."
I agree wholeheartedly. Carter failed, OBNA is failing and the USA suffers. Nuc power, small nucs reactors, forge of steel, logistics efforts, Power distribution, all are USA capable, even if we have to re re engineer our products. FIRST we NEED to demasculate EPA. The Civil Servants who depend on paper, procrastination, etal will continue to be road blocks. A sweeping Conservative Legislature to de paperize the EPA folks will start the ball rolling.
bt
Semper Fi
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Loved the article and do agree with George's interpretation of it.
I come from a communist country so I guess my opinion is a bit blurred, but to be honest I believe that every social system has problems whereby the people suffer
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