Why I fight

"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question."

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1863)

I suspect that most Americans take for granted the freedoms and Constitutional protections a few of us are always on about. Perhaps that explains, at least in some people, why clanging alarms about an Administration positively run amok are met with yawns and blank stares.

But it is now much worse than that. I think a growing segment of our population has moved to a much more dangerous stage in the descent into totalitarianism. Rather than assuming that freedoms are safe, they have reached the stage at which the very value of those freedoms is no longer, to coin a phrase, self-evident.

Think it can't happen?

Think again.

Many Americans assume that China’s internet users are both aware of and unhappy about their government’s oversight and control of the internet. But in a new survey, most Chinese say they approve of internet control and management, especially when it comes from their government.

According to findings from the fourth and most recent of a series of surveys about internet use in China from 2000 to 2007, over 80% of respondents say they think the internet should be managed or controlled, and in 2007, almost 85% say they think the government should be responsible for doing it.

Ten years ago, I would have argued that a story like this was completely inapplicable to the American experiment -- that all men were Socrates, as it were. If you still believe that now, I have a used (though not recently) Constitution to sell you.

I have ranted before about the dangers that flow from what could be thought of as the "pig happy" industry. I see it all as part and parcel of our pursuit of the model now prevalent in China, in which ideas are pre-screened for our own protection.

By the time we get there, and it won't be long now, the pigs may well realize that their happiness is as passe' as Socrates but it will be too late to go back.

That's gonna leave a mark

It isn't so much what was said:

"When Bush tries to articulate a vision," ... "he will butcher the Gettysburg Address. Obama, he will make an A&P grocery list sing."

.. as it is who said it:

Tom Davis, who chaired the (National Republican Congressional Committee) for four years...

Ouch.

Finally, a scarcity of greater fools?

High fuel prices are causing the value of used SUVs to plummet, often below what's listed in the buying guides many shoppers use to negotiate with dealers.

As a result, some new-car buyers think they're getting cheated by dealers who are offering them little for their SUV trade-ins.

...

...(W)holesale prices on big SUVs such as Chevrolet Tahoes, Ford Expeditions and Toyota Sequoias are down 17% from a year ago. Full-size pickups have fallen as much as 15%...

The NOCHA hits just keep coming. I just don't feel sorry for the soccer moms and machismo dads dropping $120-plus to fill their Bulgemobiles, or the dealers who shelled out serious green to build Hummer dealerships, or the Detroit execs who happily supplied them with rolling three-ton barns wrapped in juvenile fantasy.

Am I smug? Sure. I put my money where my smugness is -- in the form of a deposit on one of these almost a year ago:

Name that year!

Gas prices have Americans stampeding to buy smaller vehicles.
...

"It’s easily the most dramatic segment shift I have witnessed in the market in my 31 years here," said George Pipas, chief sales analyst for the Ford Motor Company.

The trend toward smaller and lighter vehicles with better mileage is a blow to Detroit automakers, which offer fewer such models than Asian carmakers like Toyota and Honda.

Talking about the 1973 oil crisis?


Nah.

The 1979 crisis?


Nope.

This NOCHA moment was brought to you by the dumbest companies on planet Earth. And their enablers.

MA Day

President Bush did not say "Mission Accomplished" on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln off San Diego on 1 May five years ago. But the banner above him did.

And the picture of those two words said more than the 1,829 words of his speech.

And so it was.

America ...

...in two easy steps.

One:

As of the end of March, 2008, there were ...2.3M homes...homes that are empty and for sale. That adds up to a vacancy rate of 2.9 percent, which is the highest, reports Bloomberg, "since the bureau started keeping count in 1956." 2.2 million homes were vacant and for sale one year ago.

Two:

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Second Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, released in March 2008, "the total number of homeless persons reported on a single night in January 2006 was 759,101."

Assuming that number bears some reasonable relation to reality, that would mean there are 24 unoccupied homes for every homeless person in the United States.

If you have a more succinct summary, please share it with the class.

Update: As sharp-eyed reader Byronius correctly notes, Andrew Leonard's math (and thus in effect mine) is off by an order of magnitude or so -- the numbers show 2.3 homes per homeless person.

Feh.

Update #2: This doesn't quite top the homes/homeless thing as a totemic moment, but still speaks volumes:

The mortgage industry, facing the prospect of tougher regulations for its central role in the housing crisis, has begun an intensive campaign to fight back.

As the Federal Reserve completes work on rules to root out abuses by lenders, its plan has run into a buzz saw of criticism from bankers, mortgage brokers and other parts of the housing industry. One common industry criticism is that at a time of tight credit, tighter rules could make many mortgages more expensive by creating more paperwork and potentially exposing lenders to more lawsuits.

Hillary meets the Rapture

Watching Hillary's bizarre, opportunistic travels through places like Richard Mellon Scaife's offices, an analogy struck me.

Think about the bizarre alliance between millennialists like Rev. Hagee and the pro-Israel cabal. The folks who are just sure the Second Coming is both prophesied and imminent are Israel's bestest buddies -- not because they like the Chosen People (Jews, after all, reject their most basic beliefs, and are going to end up in Hell as a direct result), but because the Rapture monkeys are sure that war in the Holy Land will trigger Armageddon, and usher Jesus back to earth.

Why do the Joe Liebermans and AIPACs of the world allow themselves to be used for this obviously hostile purpose? Because of the benjamins, natch. The Reverend Hagees of the world get to help bring on the End of the World; The friends of Israel pocket some serious walking around money in the meantime. Everybody is happy -- well, other than the thousands or millions who would die if the Rapturers got their wish.

Now think of how all those same nutjobs are suddenly embracing Hillary Clinton. The dynamics are essentially the same. Scaife et al. are playing classic the-enemy-of-my-enemy tactics. They know that Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee, and that Hillary's delusions cannot change that fact. But they also know that feeding those delusions is a great way to accomplish their underlying goal -- rough up the inevitable nominee, sow havoc among Democrats, and thereby help John McCain.

In both cases, one party to the exchange is delusional, while the other coolly calculates the benefits that come from flattering the crazies. The objective absurdity of what Hillary and Hagee hope for is the very engine that makes both juggernauts go.

Lovely.