WallStreet Betting on Romney

CNBC.com

"With just 100 days left until the U.S. presidential election, investors are beginning to make bigger bets on which candidate will carry the day."

"The fact that the election is so close now speaks volumes about how much we are concerned about the current economic situation in the United States, the conventional wisdom indicates that Wall Street would rather see a fiscal conservative Republican win. That's sort of a free-market capitalist concept, except for the fact that history doesn't play that out. What's typically better for Wall Street is some sort of gridlock. "At the end of the day, we are not really worried that Europe is going to be 'solved' or that its economy will strongly grow. 

"With the polls showing a race still ripe for the taking, the economic picture of the last four years and the next four years likely will come down to 100 days' worth of news."

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Capitalism's Image Problem

 Mitt Romney’s résumé at Bain should be a slam dunk. He has been a successful capitalist, and capitalism is the best thing that has ever happened to the material condition of the human race. From the dawn of history until the 18th century, every society in the world was impoverished, with only the thinnest film of wealth on top.

Then came capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. Everywhere that capitalism subsequently took hold, national wealth began to increase and poverty began to fall. Everywhere that capitalism didn’t take hold, people remained impoverished. Everywhere that capitalism has been rejected since then, poverty has increased.

Capitalism has lifted the world out of poverty because it gives people a chance to get rich by creating value and reaping the rewards. Who better to be president of the greatest of all capitalist nations than a man who got rich by being a brilliant capitalist?

Yet it hasn’t worked out that way for Mr. Romney. “Capitalist” has become an accusation.

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A Good Monday Morning

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Defining Religious Liberty Down

Ross Douthat

The words “freedom of belief” do not appear in the First Amendment. Nor do the words “freedom of worship.” Instead, the Bill of Rights guarantees Americans something that its authors called “the free exercise” of religion.

It’s a significant choice of words, because it suggests a recognition that religious faith cannot be reduced to a purely private or individual affair. Most religious communities conceive of themselves as peoples or families, and the requirements of most faiths extend well beyond attendance at a sabbath service — encompassing charity and activism, education and missionary efforts, and other “exercises” that any guarantee of religious freedom must protect.

 Jesus didn’t limit his ministry to the four walls of the church and there seems to be a great deal of confusion about this point in the leadership today.

You can see this confusion at work in the Obama White House’s own Department of Health and Human Services, which created a religious exemption to its mandate requiring employers to pay for contraception, sterilization and the days-after pill that covers only churches, and treats religious hospitals, schools and charities as purely secular operations. The defenders of the H.H.S. mandate note that it protects freedom of worship, which indeed it does. But a genuine free exercise of religion, not so much.

Now we have the great Chick-fil-A imbroglio, in which mayors and an alderman in several American cities threatened to prevent the delicious chicken chain from opening new outlets because its Christian president told an interviewer that he supports “the biblical definition of the family unit.” Their conceit seemed to be that the religious liberties afforded to congregations  do not extend to religious businessmen. Or alternatively, it was that while a businessman may have the right to his private beliefs, the local zoning committee has veto power over how those beliefs are exercised and expressed.

Of course every freedom has its limits. We do not allow people to exercise beliefs that require, say, forced marriage or honor killing.  

It may seem strange that anyone could look around the pornography-saturated, fertility-challenged, family-breakdown-plagued West and see a society menaced by a repressive puritanism. But it’s clear that this perspective is widely and sincerely held.

It would be refreshing, though, if it were expressed honestly, without the “of course we respect religious freedom” facade.

If you want to fine Catholic hospitals for following Catholic teaching, or prevent Jewish parents from circumcising their sons, or ban Chick-fil-A in Boston, then don’t tell religious people that you respect our freedoms...... 

Say what you really think: that the exercise of our religion threatens all that’s good and decent, and that you’re going to use the levers of power to bend us to your will.

There, didn’t that feel better? 

Now we can get on with the fight.

  

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Some Thoughts on the Olympics…

Matthew N.

Matthew's Weekend Commentary

The Lunatic's Asylum

 I have a few things to say about the Olympics, particularly as they relate to the “modern” games. As for last night’s Opening Ceremonies, let’s just list the issues:

1. If the idea behind last night’s three-hour, tour-de-force of complete crap was to out-spectacle Beijing, then sorry, Britain, you’ve failed. The entire thing, which supposedly was all about the history of English Civilization, was short on history and chock-full of Stagecraft 101 chintz, to my mind. I mean, really? Fifteen minutes devoted to the nightmares of children in hospitals and Mary Poppins? The Industrial Revolution as an extended dance routine? Granted, it’s difficult to pick out individual highlights of the whole of English History to highlight, but the ones chosen left much to be desired, and were not, truth to tell, very inspiring.

The nation which gave the world Elizabeth Tudor, Victoria, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Shakespeare and Churchill (who both got but cursory nods), Magna Carta, the Empire which gave birth to some 50 democracies, the English voyages of Discovery of Darwin and Cook, the nation that stood stalwart in the defense of Freedom against Napoleon, the Hohenzollern's, the Nazis and Communism, was barely introduced to the world, but for a minutes' silence to honor the war dead of Flanders.

This is what happens when a Great Nation becomes infected by Political Correctness to such an extent that it feels as if it must pick-and-choose which aspects of it’s history to celebrate on the world stage; whichever milquetoast, untalented hack gets to make the choice, usually chooses the wrong crap for the wrong reasons. In this case, I would suspect that no one who had say in this debacle wanted to play up these English achievements for fear of “giving offense”.

2. Arctic Monkeys. Great cover of “Come Together”. I may have a new fave band.

3.. Paul McCartney looks about ready to have that fatal stroke. The voice is gone, and “Hey Jude” was hardly an appropriate selection for such a venue. Yes, we know you were Beatle, but you’d think that someone who is supposed to be one of the greatest songwriters/composers of the 20th Century, might have spent a little time arranging an original composition for the event. You know Elton John would have.

4. I must admit to having had no idea that there were 204 countries sending athletes to the Olympics, and had nary a clue that there were 204 countries on Planet Earth. However, it would seem that the majority of them consist of what I think Lawrence of Arabia once referred to as “Tribes With Flags” (don’t quote me on that), and that Parade of Nations just convinced me, more than ever, that the United Nations is a waste of time, effort and money. There is just no way in hell that anyone, or any deliberative body, could forge a consensus on anything from that stinking pile of humanity…excuse me…Mass of Diversity.

5. The only things missing from the initial pastoral stage were J.R.R. Tolkien's hobbits, because the “Forging of the Olympic Rings By the British Factory Proletariat” thing reminded me of the opening minutes of The Lord of the Rings.

6. Rowan Atkinson ceased being funny the second he stopped being “Blackadder”. What’s the matter? The Monty Python guys were too busy ripping themselves off with cheap stage reproductions of their masterworks to come to the ceremony?

 Now, onto the entire concept of the Olympics, themselves........

I have but one thing to say about this graphic

Diogenes

There are 73 business day between now and election day.

Every state and territory in the U.S. have drivers license bureaus that issue valid picture I.D. cards that are accepted for all forms of personal business. They cost little or nothing, and a couple of hours out of your life to be a responsible American. If you can get to polls, you can get to the  license bureau and get an I.D. to prove you are indeed who you are when you vote. I have heard all the excuses.

...of course, democrats may disagree.

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Obama Wants to Be in Your Holiday Photo

Political Clown Parade

It’s not enough that your wedding registry may be centered around Obama donations. Now, Obama wants to be featured in your Christmas holiday family photo.

Need to update your Facebook photo? Thinking about which family photo you’ll use in your next holiday card?

Have no fear. The errand boy sent by grocery clerks has a “once-in-a-lifetime” solution.

 Comb your hair, put on a clean I’m With Stupid T-shirt and start practicing your camera-ready smile. Whisk your way to the Big Apple in a few weeks when Teh One visits there and a photographer will be waiting to snap a pic. While everything else is free with this regime, the photos ain’t. You’ll need to chip in $25. 

 Hurry while this offer still lasts because this will be the last “holiday” in which you can get a tacky picture taken with the worst president evah and don’t forget to say “Cheese”.

politicalclownparade.blogspot.com

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