An Alternative Civics Lesson

http://foseti.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/the-three-branches-of-usg/

In considering American government, realism and cynicism become twins.

Self-Propelled?

Two solar power plants are being built in Spain without any government subsidies:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-11/german-developers-plan-solar-parks-in-spain-without-subsidies.html

http://www.solariaenergia.com/EN-noticia-ampliada-95/solaria-develops-a-60-mw-plant-in-the-province-of-toledo-in-spain.html

A number of other locations are not far behind in achieving grid-parity: California, Italy, Japan. This means solar is transitioning from a politically-driven industry to an economically-driven industry, the latter being a much more reliable basis of growth. If N. Africa ever stabilizes they could export gigantic amounts of solar generated power to Europe in the near future, just as our southwest will be supplying the midwest and eastern states within 10-20 years.

The American Media: Running from Reality

A Censored Race War

The media is so in thrall to PC mandates that the black on white violence, which seems to be increasing in tempo and daylight boldness, simply disappears down the hole where our thought police keep all the thought crimes. Instead they circle endlessly back on the highly anomalous Trayvon story, as though it were representative and instructive instead of rare and misleading. This politicized exclusion of reality from American consciousness renders whites quite unnecessarily vulnerable to these attacks.

The Greek Circle

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/business/global/athens-no-longer-sees-most-of-its-bailout-aid.html?_r=1

The primary goal of this financial rigmarole is to blind the European taxpayers (ie the Germans) to the reality of their position. Imagine having a sordid, lying, cheating, stealing Section 8 tenant--then solving her insolvency by paying yourself the rent she owes you. Of course, this is only a temporary expedient until she reforms her ways!

Though most people cannot understand the procedural intricacies of the Eurocrats and their obliging Greek "friends", an editorialist can readily sum the figures for his readers. That sum, by the way, seems to be about $70 billion out the door and in the wind thus far, with real interest rates consuming about $5 billion a year so long as the Germans continue to service 75% of Greek debt. But, in addition to paying interest, they persist in sending more fresh capital into the black hole. Their total default exposure is around $170 billion just for Greece's public debt. Greek banks also owe debt to the Germans in the multibillion dollar range. If Greece leaves the EU, the nominal cost will probably be $300 billion or more. The real cost involved in radically upending business expectations and altering the terms of trade will be substantially higher. And the cost will fall upon the creditors primarily in either case. 

And then we have the Iberians.

Obama's Son

How could it be surprising that Obama would compare Trayvon Martin, a criminal in training wheels, to the son he might have had? That Obama would implicitly promote Trayvon as a typcial young black man? Black leaders have not promoted the interests of their people since at least 1965. They are in league with the socialist project to corrupt and debase their character. Socialists undermine blacks to prove that more government is necessary. The economic incentives created by the welfare state strongly promote family dissolution among the working and lower-middle classes of all races. It's too difficult for these people to cut against clear economic advantages in favor of the less tangible advantages (all but forgotten among multi-generational black single mothers) of family cohesiveness. Socialist policies create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And, actually, Trayvon is typical of half of black men--but, he ought not to be and the Obamas and Sharptons, the race-hustlers, ought not to encourage this as a black self-image. A third of black men are felons. What percent serve in the military or make significant contributions of any kind? How many even support their children?

A Sense of Those Who Matter

http://www.vdare.com/articles/graduate-school-admissions-race-and-the-white-status-game

This is particularly damning:
"Data gathered by Richard Sanders of the UCLA Law School shows that 53% of the black students who enter law school fail to qualify to become lawyers, versus 24% of white students. About 40 percent of black law school graduates (many of whom will have taken out crushing loans to pay three years of tuition) never pass the bar exam, compared to 15 percent of whites. Some will also waste additional years working dead-end day jobs while paying to take bar exam review courses at night, before finally giving up in despair."

Anywhere intellectual standards are imposed, major racial differences appear. Ideally, the analysis would also include Jews, who are not a comfortable fit within the white category. Their numbers are doubtless even better than those of the Asians. My first thought in seeing numbers like these is to wonder whether a sufficient number of men in the top IQ percentile are pursuing the ideal of progress, rather than just the idol of Mammon.

A Metaphysical Metamorphosis

The contemplation of God, and heaven, is a kind of burial, and sepulchre, and rest of the soul; and in this death of rapture, and ecstacy, in this death of the contemplation of my interest in my Saviour, I shall find myself, and all my sins interred, and entombed in his wounds, and like a lily in Paradise, out of red earth, I shall see my soul rise out of his blade, in a candour, and in an innocence, contracted there, acceptable in the sight of his Father.

John Donne

Riffing the 60s

This country began a process of self-destruction in the 60s, under pressure of the Cold War, from which we have not even begun to recover. Indeed, the vicious developments of that era have transformed into a vicious circle of perpetual decline and degradation. The Johnson-Nixon socialist axis, the interpretation of the war as a moral crime by the intelligentsia, the Johnson-Nixon civil rights laws which placed the federal government in the novel position of enforcing racist laws (previously racist laws had been state prerogatives), the Johnsonian decision to import Mexico, with its impervious traditions of corruption and ignorance--all of these shocks struck home in just a few years and all constituted overreactions to legitimate problems (except the immigration issue). And today, respectively, socialism grabs ever more of the economy and our liberty, political correctness has fully blossomed into entangling vines that encumber us all, government mandated racism (added to socialist paternalism) has further submerged the black race in sordid pathologies and has damaged the lower orders of all races, and one third of Mexico now resides in America, traditions largely intact, though increasingly succumbing to the lowest temptations offered by a government promoting socialism, racism, family dissolution, and, generally, the cause of the unproductive members of society against the productive. 

The Truth: A Firing Offense

http://takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire/print#axzz1rp99cmCG

 This respectable old journalist was fired from the National Review for this. Also, it seems to have set the hearts of the PC mob aflame with fury. But, it's merely a rather mild, even bland compendium of common sense in black dealings. It says that blacks, relative to whites, are stupid and violent: take corresponding precautions. Oh, and our blacks have a racist bent, driven by historical resentments and an inferiority complex.

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/12/save_date

Some important intangibles are left out:

Most are in our favor (we beat them at innovation, IP culture, lower corruption, better environment protection, political and economic and intellectual freedoms, lingering traditions of liberty and freedom and individualism)

Some are in their favor (we're hurt by political correctness and blacks and mexicans and government unions and a parasitic, morally corrupt lower class and a "financialized" upper class of similarly low character).

Also, it's not just us vs. them. China is encircled by a number of medium powers (Russia, Japan, S. Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia) and one medium power with potential to become a great power (India). The only one of those nations with a China infatuation is Russia--and Russia is still in rapid decline, with an economy entirely dependent on natural resource extraction (a dumb economy) that recently lost its position among the top ten world economies. Top 17 economies circa 2011(notice that Brazil is almost in the top 5):

			GDP
Nation	Rank	Population	Total
U.S.	1	313	14800
Japan	3	126.5	5500
China	2	1337	5880
Germany	4	81.5	3380
France	5	65.3	2600
U.K.	6	62.7	2250
Italy	8	61	2070
Russia	11	138.7	1500
Spain	12	46.7	1400
Brazil	7	203	2200
Canada	10	34	1600
India	9	1189	1650
Mexico	14	114	1080
Australia	13	21.8	1270
Netherlands	16	16.8	790
Korea, South	15	48.8	1050
Turkey	17	78.8	780

Three of these have been on a rapid growth trajectory, doubling in size every 7-10 years:

China for 30 years

India for 20 years

Brazil for 10 years