Visiting the Squire

Here in the middle of the Big Bend on the Brandywine River is the home of the squire
of said property who is known throughout the kingdom for his good works, many
talents and bonhomie.

Somewhere down at the end of this passageway is where the squire holds forth day after day,
night after night, with good victuals and raucous good times with many friends from all
over the realm.

The Squire expresses his good humor and bonhomie.

The squire, an expert driver, readies the Four-in-hand carriage for
a ride with visiting friends from a western realm.

The Squire transports his guests through Revolutionary War terrain where another
squire, George Washington, led freedom fighters to eventual victory.

The Squire as raconteur entertains his guests before the evening's banquet..

Oh, and by the way, the squire cuckolds with remorseless bonhomie..

The Squire as architect/designer of the family's chapel.

And designed and created this stained glass window for the chapel.

The  entrepreneurial squire conducts tours at his realm renown museum.

Oil Independence -- available now

Diana West, no friend of any Muslim state, weighs in here with a number of reasons why we are suffering an unnecessary oil supply crises.  It has to do with the EPA and the environmental lobbies who combined appear to be consciously trying to make it difficult for the US to wean itself away from Middle Eastern oil producers -- particularly Saudia Arabia.  Why?  West in this column doesn't offer a specific why,  but here's one:  recall Obama bowing to the Saudi King Faisal on his first visit to The Kingdom after his election?  Then recall the huge sums of money from foreign sources visited upon the Obama campaign during the last presidential campaign.  These fund were from foreign sources by credit cards and were unaccounted for by the Obama campaign as required by law and as accounted for by the McCain campaign. Some of the estimates had the amount flowing to the Obama campaign from this source to be in the hundreds of millions.  So why would the Saudi's and other gulf suppliers presumably massively support the Obama campaign unless they had received some assurance of continued support for the  efforts of the EPA and the environmental lobby to limit US (and Canadian access) drilling and production which could lead to energy independence?  This may fall into the category of a conspiracy theory however all that bowing to the Saudis and O's hard line against the Israelis is a bit over the top in the absence of some good reason.  West suggests the Chinese are now courting the Canadians and may just capture the 3 to 4 million barrels of oil per day available from Canada because the US is unwilling to approve a pipeline to deliver the stuff to our refineries.  Something is rotten in the State of Denmark!

The crises in unemployment -- in the view of Walter Mead Russel

When one thinks about the unemployment problem in the US today, the idea of returning to the manufacturing economy pre China, comes to mind.  Everything would be okay if only we could correct those problems in the economy that were causing all our old manufacturing jobs, big and small, to flee to China. Not.  According to Walter Read Russell, at least.  He argues here that the solution is to reform city governments to remove all the restrictions inhibiting small businesses from emerging and thriving, much like they do in China and other emerging third world countries.  In short he argues a return to basic free market entrepreneurialism by eliminating all the current restrictions involving permitting, safety, and the like.  In other words roll back the nanny state and all its job destroying bureaucracy.  The "comments" section of Mead's article is particularly interesting.  He usually attracts intelligent responses probably because for an intellectual, Mead is quite rooted in real world common sense.  Obama should have him on the payroll instead of all those whacky overpaid socialists.

The very similar isms: Communism and Islamism

It seems obvious that the liberals in the western world go out of their way to protect members of the Muslim faith from criticism and and are extremely conscious of ensuring that the "rights" of the Muslims are protected.  Witness the movement in GB to allow aspects of sharia law to apply to Muslim citizens of that country, and the great sensitivity to the feelings of Muslims in the US with regard to the terrorism issue.  Jonah Goldberg has written a book that discusses the natural affinity of liberals to authoritarianism, i.e., Communism and Islamism.  From this lengthy and fascinating article in Big Peace by Andrew Bostom one sees this affinity and connection in spades.  Bostom begins his narrative with the history of Wittakker Chambers and his conversion from communism in the 1930's, and the discussion of Islamism in Chambers's book, "Witness", in which he discusses authoritarian Islamism in the context of authoritarian Marxism, arguing that both of these "movements" represent the union of church and state that define stotalitarianism.  For those in the West who do not take the threat of the Muslim faith to our freedoms and way of life seriously, this piece should be a wake up call.  The Muslim faith is every bit the threat to the West that Communism did and still  poses.  Both isms are antithetical to the freedoms we have all taken for granted in the West for a long time.

The looming local budget crises

As bad as the federal budget crises is, local governments budget crises are shaping up to be worse.  The idea that it's always a good idea to get government services as close to the taxpayers as possible for better citizen control, is proving to be a sham.  Local governments across the land are now facing crises largely driven by the pension obligations accrued over the past couple of decades.  Since local budgets are typically tied to property, sales taxes, and fees, look for substantial increases in these sources of revenue in the coming years, otherwise a lot of municipalities will be defaulting.  Steve Malanga of City Magazine lays out the dilemma here.  At least the federal government can default on its obligations by inflating them away thorough the printing press.  No such luck on the local front where the only recourse is to raise taxes.  It's probably safe to say this particular financial crises has been brought about by neglect on the part of local citizens who often work outside of their local district and tend not to follow budgetary matters closely.  That will change in the new world.