Answers Too

Professor J,

You know how I love questions. I like this quote:


"I'm not an answering machine, I'm a questioning machine. If we have all the answers, how come we're in such a mess?" - Douglas Cardinal, architect.


Now that I'm more settled allow me to tie up some loose ends and put things a bit more in order. Especially as you've pointed out that "Beck is all over the place..." Hmm...something I have in common with him perhaps. :)

I'm glad you took the time to post so many quotes from these books. You are correct when you write that,
"While their actions are too often something else, their words are often wonderful."

"You will have to point out Obama’s 'defense of policies that have ravaged poor families over the last 50 years.”

I know I'm painting with that broad brush you are so fond of, there. ;) Perhaps I want something which is impossible.  It may  be too much to ask of him to raise the idea of dismantling the current system (over time) and replacing it with something better when the recipients are such a reliable voting bloc.

Wasn't the welfare reform he takes credit for in the book  federally mandated and going to happen anyway?
While the idea of welfare reform appeased the middle class somewhat with the idea that the recipients were being made to work, it hasn't proven to make the kind of difference needed for economic self sufficiency in the long run.

Unfortunately it goes in same file as the other government programs you listed, Soc. Security, etc. (You've hinted at what you see as part of the problem with Defense, can you expound?) which are programs with noble intentions that have morphed into bankrupting disasters over time due to greed, mismanagement, and corruption.  The welfare safety net now seems to have been thrown over entire communities and traps, rather than helps. 

He does the same thing with education (a subject where I'm sure we could camp for weeks). He says he favors charter schools, but stops short of being for real school choice (WHY should the education you receive be tied to the home you can afford?) thereby leaving those families living in poor neighborhoods stranded in inadequate and many times dangerous schools. Again the loyal union voters skulk in the margins.

He candidly tells us (p. 119) how much he owes them and that he doesn't consider it corrupting "in any way." The question isn't really whether he considers it corrupting, but whether or not it is. Politicians historically haven't been the best judges of this.

He does do a very good job pointing out the complexity of all these problems, compared to GB who over simplifies, and the others he addresses and certainly no one can say that he hasn't given careful thought and consideration to all the issues he speaks on.

I think that catches me up. :)