This entire rant by Nick Gillespie of Reason Hit & Run is a thing of beauty… but, alas, full of rough language. This paragraph is relatively repeatable in polite company (H/T Instapundit):
And now this morning, Obama was on the tube again, yapping about traffic jams. What the hell is going on here? The president of the freaking United States is talking about traffic jams? Then again, in grammar school we did all learn that part of George Washinton’s Farewell Address where he warned against entangling alliances and the dread menace of highway jughandles and traffic circles. That Obama’s big solution is, ta-da!, “high-speed rail” is simply one more sign that he is simply not serious about anything other than paying off 19th and 20th century legacy special interests. I look forward to tomorrow’s press conference, when Obama trains his laser-beam brain on the question of whether Razzles is a candy or a gum.
…although there’s certainly more in there*. Nick’s in full-fledged rant mode, and while he’s obviously primed mostly to go off on the President he’s not sparing of his libertarian colleagues, particularly the ones that decided that a Illinois Democrat was a compelling libertarian alternative to an Arizona Republican in this election. Which was, really, very silly. I’m sorry to say that, but it’s true. Putting Obama in the White House meant that this guy doesn’t have a veto pen looming over him. Putting Obama in the White House meant further empowering a political party that doesn’t care if your dishes are clean. Putting Obama in the White House means that we’re about to get the organic food industry gutted in the name of regulation. And putting Obama in the White House means this happened:
When it comes to fiscal responsibility, people will often say that the Republicans came late to that particular party, and maybe we were. So maybe you want to think of me as being just a little breathtakingly brazen for pointing out that, yes, things can always get worse. Fine. That’s unrelated to the more important question of whether I’m right or wrong. But that’s something that I’ll let the individual reader decide.
Because, you know, if you can’t trust people to figure this stuff out eventually then, really: what’s the point?
Moe Lane
*Including references to Johnny Rotten, Zardoz
Crossposted to Moe Lane.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
Great Friday morning rant
RJD (Diary) Friday, April 17th at 10:19AM EST (link)But, living in South Florida (Broward County) we have the great and useless Tri-Rail system. It’s not light-rail (though, there is a plan to build one parallel to I-595), but the cost-to-passenger ratio is abysmal.
That Gillespie rant is teh awesome
Dan McLaughlin (Diary) Friday, April 17th at 10:24AM EST (link)worth it for the opening, worth it as well just for this: “the one non-negotiable in a pet or a mistress for the Duke of Chappaquidick is swimmability”
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” – Winston Churchill
I'm sorry, but Gillespie is a tool
Jlerner Friday, April 17th at 11:57AM EST (link)who for the last eight years has done nothing but complain about everything under sun; he took Reason magazine, the leading libertarian publication in America, and turned it into Rolling Stone for free marketeers. No dice. I seem to remember Mr. Gillespie supporting in succession Gore, Kerry, and Obama, and is now upset that the side he voted for actually won? Maybe Gillespie will remember that. although conservatives and libertarians disagree on several issues, we never treated you guys like useful idiots like the libs have made it a practice of doing. I’m glad you’re upset, but why did you mock Gov. Palin like you did six months ago? If you knew Obama was this bad and still voted for him any way–because you dislike Palin, war, or old men–then that tells us everything we need to know about Nick Gillespie. You, sir, are a tool and a moron. With Obama, you’re reaping what you’ve sown.
I don't feel sorry for him either
itrytobenice (Diary) Friday, April 17th at 12:15PM EST (link)But it is a great rant.
And I found this in the comments:
I like to imagine Nick hunched over, typing this on an old mechanical typewriter, cigarette dangling from his lips, in an amphetamine-fueled mania.
A fine bit o’ writing, sir.
As to this:
Question to the folks, including some of the libertarian persuasion (you fools!), who were bullish on Obama back when the alternative was John McCain, the Terri Schiavo of presidential candidates: When are you going to admit that Barry O stinks on ice?
The shoe fits nicely. I am wearing it. And he does.
But I’ll be damned if I admit as much to any (OK, either) of my friends that voted for McCain.
I don’t know anyone who will admit to voting for BO, but if I did, I’d sure be provoking their rears right now.
Proper grammar saves lives.
Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.
Well, crap.
itrytobenice (Diary) Friday, April 17th at 12:18PM EST (link)I hate not having preview. This is what was supposed to be in block quotes.
I like to imagine Nick hunched over, typing this on an old mechanical typewriter, cigarette dangling from his lips, in an amphetamine-fueled mania.
A fine bit o’ writing, sir.
As to this:
Question to the folks, including some of the libertarian persuasion (you fools!), who were bullish on Obama back when the alternative was John McCain, the Terri Schiavo of presidential candidates: When are you going to admit that Barry O stinks on ice?
The shoe fits nicely. I am wearing it. And he does.
But I’ll be damned if I admit as much to any (OK, either) of my friends that voted for McCain.
Proper grammar saves lives.
Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.
Profound
mbauer (Diary) Friday, April 17th at 12:41PM EST (link)I wish I had data thief still installed on my computer. Those graphs seems to say Obama’s first year deficit will be on par with Bush’s 8 year total deficit. This should be repeated as often as possible:
“Obama, spending in one year what it took Bush 8 years to spend.”
Excellent points, Moe
fmaidment (Diary) Saturday, April 18th at 10:54AM EST (link)I’m part of the “libertarian wing.” I don’t accept a lot of the social conservatism (but have no respect for the liberal position, either). I can’t call myself a libertarian, either, since I believe in strong national defense and taking the fight beyond our borders.
That said, I could never see Obama as an alternative to the poor fiscal priorities of the Republicans after roughly 2003, and certainly after 2005. His stated policy goals were counter-productive at the least, and dangerously destructive at worst. I was constantly frustrated by my libertarian friends who would rather vote for Obama than McCain. I asked them to at least vote for Bob Barr, as the Republican Party would see this as a lost vote for them, rather than just another liberal vote.
Yes, Moe. It could be worse. Some of us saw that. It’s too bad more of us did not.
I’m betting a lot of those libertarians are feeling incredible buyer’s remorse…
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“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
– - Thomas Jefferson, to Archibald Stuart, 1791