PORKY PIGS

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." -- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

The spend-thrift agenda of the far left is about to get a big subsidy from the American people thanks to the trojan horse that is otherwise known as the "stimulus package." The parasites are invading and the host – the American taxpayer – is about to be sucked dry.

Thanks to three Senate Republicans, Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, the far left of the Democrat party has succeeded in putting together a $1 trillion trough full of political patronage. These collaborators put an end to any possibility of a debate on the egregiously pork-laden legislation. Without the ability to filibuster, Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats have no way to address the irresponsible excess that is supposed to save us from the past decade of . . . irresponsible excess.

Much has been said over the past couple weeks about the absurd entitlement programs that will do more to shackle people to the largesse of the state than create economic growth. There’s really nothing more I can add about spending $2 Billion on "neighborhood stabilization programs" like ACORN or $8 Billion to create a railroad between Los Angeles and Harry Reid’s stomping ground, Las Vegas. Need I mention the $30 Million for wetlands conservation in the San Francisco Bay Area, part of Nancy Pelosi's efforts to save the salt marsh harvest mouse?

I'm still looking for the part about stimulating the economy.

I didn't find it in the approximately 450 pages of this stinking piece of trichinosis that are dedicated to creating a Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. In other words, tax-cheat Tom Daschle’s dream of establishing a federal bureaucracy to dictate treatment options to doctors and their patients is about to become a reality.

Does that sound a bit too apocalyptic? Consider this: "The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept 'hopeless diagnoses' and ‘forego experimental treatments,’ and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health care system."

Daschle’s Malthusian vision is about to become law. "Stimulus" apparently does not mean re-energizing the economy as much as it means controlling costs by controlling the population.

I wonder if cancer-survivor Specter would have been willing to lower his expectations after his own hopeless diagnosis if it meant he could save the salt marsh harvest mouse.

DERAILED

BREAKING: Bureaucrats SHOCKED that irresponsible spending for completely unnecessary boondoggle turns into huge waste of money.

Dutch Treat

Dutch politican and filmmaker Geert Wilders might be something of a hypocrite when it comes to his interest in protecting civil liberties. However, the Netherlands' decision to prosecute Wilders for discrimination and inciting racial hatred for his criticism of Islam is an appalling blow to freedom of speech and of conscience. Wilders' short film, Fitna, shines a harsh but revealing light on radical Islam's not-so-secret agenda to destroy the freedoms of the west and establish a world wide Islamic caliphate. The three-judge panel from Amsterdam's appeals court, which gave the green light for Wilders' prosecution, doesn't accuse the film of being inaccurate (it consists mostly of news footage and quotes from the Koran) but of being insulting.

Apparently in Holland, a country frequently hailed for its "tolerance," hurting someone's feelings is taking traditional notions of free speech too far.

There's no word yet on whether any charges are pending against the guy in Wilders' film who incites an angry crowd to kill all the Jews, Christians and Hindus.

Slightly off topic, I highly recommend Infidel, a fascinating book by former Dutch Parliamentarian Ayan Hirsi Ali.

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL

The Washington Mall was transformed into the set of a Riefenstahlian propaganda vehicle today as the cult of personality hailed the coming of the Savior of Hope and the Wizard of Change. The media and the crowd joined together in praise of President Obama's vague yet grandiose promises to transform the economy, heal the sick and save our shores from the encroaching seas.

Meanwhile, the markets tanked, Hugo Chavez silenced some more dissidents and the Iranians burned Obama's picture in effigy.

Sometimes it seems that the more things Change, the more they stay the same.

In other news, the Pittsburgh Steelers have made a bold fashion statement by declaring that they will wear their white jerseys to the Superbowl.

AND SO IT BEGINS . . .

I've had my first blog entry planned in my head for a few days now. Today is January 19, 2009, Martin Luther King, Jr., day, and the day before the United States of America will inaugurate the first man of African descent as its President. I was going to take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to recognize the historic importance of the day and opine, in flowery and poetic language, on the wisdom of our forefathers, the greatness of representative government and the opportunities provided by the bounteous and fruited plain.

Once I sat down to write, however, I realized that it was all platitudinous drivel. Don’t get me wrong: I unapologetically love my country and I truly believe that I am the beneficiary of the greatest social and political legacy in the history of the world. The fact that a black man has been elected to the Presidency only half a century after the nation began to wake up to the injustices of Jim Crow is a testament to that great legacy. While I cannot celebrate the installation of Barack Obama as commander-in-chief, I am happy to celebrate the ideals that allowed him to take a seat in our highest office. In deference to the historic moment, I really don’t want to criticize Mr. Obama today. I wanted my first entry to be a celebration of the ideal that our individual merit and character means more than origins or social class.

Ironically, on the day that we’re supposed to remember the injustices of inequality, I read this article in the Los Angeles Times. Apparently now that Barack Obama will be President, we can abandon such classics of American literature as Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. Never mind that the “N word” is digitized on just about every ipod in America. According to one John Foley, pedagogue extraordinaire, literature that uses racist language must be scrubbed from the syllabus.

"The time has arrived to update the literature we use in high school classrooms," Foley wrote in a guest column this month for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Barack Obama is president-elect of the United States, and novels that use the 'N-word' repeatedly need to go."

Forget context. Mr. Foley gripes that it’s just too difficult to explain to high school students that Jim teaches Huck some valuable lessons about friendship and loyalty. So he concludes that we no longer need to study the artistic legacy of the times and attitudes that made Mr. Obama’s election so remarkable.


Our literature teaches us who we are and where we’ve been. Huck’s crude and colorful language makes a point about our common humanity that Mr. Foley’s pedantic political correctness could never convey. What greater illustration do we have of the perversion of justice than the trial of Tom Robinson and the futile but noble fight of Atticus Finch to do what is right? Sacrificing our literary heritage at the altar of political correctness in honor of Barack Obama would indeed be a blow to the ideals that we are supposedly celebrating.