As IF Times

link Davos elites to seek reforms of outdated capitalism.

An interesting postulate, if only there were some evidence of it.  While it’s popular for the socialist crowd to bemoan the structural inequities of the capitalist system, in fact, there hasn’t truly been a capitalist system in place in any nation for many generations.  Certainly not in Europe, where in most countries, the predominant train of governing regimes moved from historically entrenched monarchies,  directly to socialism with only the  briefest whistle-stop at the capitalist station.  What they consider capitalism in Europe is akin to equating Dominos to Italian food.

It was historically natural for people to whine and complain that the King or the Queen (as the case may have been), weren’t treating the peasants well.  Under monarchies, upward social mobility was pretty limited.  You were either born royal, or married into it.  Even having money wasn’t a guarantee of social mobility.  Therefore, the majority of the population lived at the favour of the ruling class, receiving whatever crumbs the rulers deigned to confer.  This same mentality carries over to present day wherein people whine and complain about those in charge, demanding more of this or less of that.

The model for America was rather different, at least in the beginning.  People who were tired of others telling them what they could or couldn’t do decided to start their own country, a meritocracy based nation free of the constraints of entrenched and corrupt governance.  The problems arose many many years later when, along with great wealth creation, came the disease of entitlement.  Instead of a healthy focus on creating wealth and prosperity, the malaise of an entitlement to wealth and prosperity mentality began to spread.

Which brings us to today.  According to reports, fully 40% of Americans pay no federal income tax.  According to http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html , over 70% of federal income taxes are paid by only the top 10 percentile of taxpayers.  Even worse, apparently there are 70 federal welfare programs in place now to address “poverty” in the U.S., according to The Heritage Foundation.  Hardly a true capitalist system.

Meanwhile in Europe, the ability to fund months of holidays for workers, retirement benefits starting at 50, social welfare to accommodate everyone who asks, is coming up against the harsh wall of reality.  States such as Greece, Portugal, Italy and on and on are unable to fund these entitlements.  Somehow, the blame is laid at the doorstep of capitalism, when in fact socialism is the disease that afflicts all nations.  It’s brilliant sleight of hand that those who benefited the most from crony capitalism, which is in fact socialism, are crying crocodile tears about the failure of capitalism.  This is the same logic as decrying the existence of laws since the jails are so full of people.  It is the same as refuting the idea of universal education because some people are still illiterate.

We don’t  know who these so called ‘elites’ in the Cristal and caviar crowd are and how they came to be spokesmen for anyone, but it’s a good idea to be skeptical when the ones trying to sell you on the evils of wealth are the ones that have the most of it.  Next, Hugh Hefner complaining about promiscuity.

link Fox News Personality Slammed for Mocking Rick Santorums Crazy Behavior After Babys Death Video – Hollywood Reporter.

It’s a sober measure of how far awry mainstream society has veered when we look at the standards of what is considered sane and what is considered crazy.  Rick Santorum is the latest Republican contender for the GOP leadership fight to emerge as an alternative to Mitt Romney for that role.  As expected, the left dominated media are scurrying to frame every Santorum position as being extreme.

Up to now, the many and numerous candidates have been run through the media gauntlet as they are scrutinized for any possible attribute, real or imagined, that would disqualify them to run and eventually serve as President.  In the absence of any genuine flaw, the default knock is to label their views as crazy or extreme.  Such was the fate of Michele Bachmann who recently withdrew her candidacy.  Obviously, being a professional tax attorney, serving 3 terms as a congresswoman including sitting on the National defense committee, raising 5 children of her own as well as 23 foster children makes her a loon. 

Santorum is the newest candidate to be painted as some kind of conservative nut now that his campaign appears to be gaining some traction.   When asked by Bill O’Reilly how he was going to respond when people try to label his views on marriage as extreme,  Santorum responded with what I think is the line of the year,  “Well I don’t happen to think that marriage between a man and a woman is extreme.” Well that’s just crazy talk!  

Santorum is known as a consistent defender of traditional values and has never wavered on that in the pursuit of votes.  While that may be endearing to a conservative base, the unwillingness to accede to the erosion of social values embraced by most of society today makes him an easy target for those, especially in media, who frame his values as extreme.  Apparently boys marrying boys and girls marrying girls is not extreme. 

As a group, the GOP contenders often cite the U.S. constitution as their guide for enacting any legislation, a reference that the Democrats seldom, if ever make.   Conservatives lean towards self sufficiency and hard work to create wealth and prosperity.  Liberals are partial to collectivism, the enhanced role of government and entitlements to distribute wealth and cap prosperity.  As Al Sharpton might say, conservatives want to make, liberals prefer to take.   Apparently to take from the productive to give to the non productive is not extreme.

As a group, liberals love to sing the siren song of equality of all peoples in a society but then balkanize them in order to pit one group against the other.  Everyone is equal except Blacks, Jews, Muslims, Hispanics, Asians, the young, the old, the handicapped, union members, women, vegetarians, pot smokers, drug addicts, rap stars and environmentalists.  Apart from special treatment for this small group, everyone else is equal.   Apparently, this is not extreme.

Every single candidate running for the Republican nomination has had more experience in real life activities in business and administration than the current resident in the White House.  That resident came from an isolated academic background, had a closet full to bursting with friends and supporters who have been exposed as avowed radical socialists, or criminals or both.  This however is not extreme.  

It’s better to disregard most of what the media frames as extreme.  Unless any of the GOP candidates have frozen corpses hidden in their basement freezers, any of them are vastly more suitable to hold office than the nutters the other side has to offer.  The next time a mouthpiece from the left appears on TV, turn down the sound and just watch the delivery.  Unfailingly, they’ll all have the appearance of just having been let out by the guards for their daily walk.  For progressives to label others nutty, they should at least minimize the antics of Alec, “let me finish my video game” Baldwin, or Michael “we are the 99%” Moore, or Al “we’re all gonna die” Gore, or Nancy “middle class” Pelosi, or Joe “we are not at war with the Taliban” Biden.   Apparently, that’s not extreme.