Hat tip to Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

This comes from Claire Berlinski at the City Journal, on the government takeover of the auto industry.

The only truly relevant measure of productivity is consumer choice: if people don't want to buy a company's products at the company's price, it may have been busy, but it has not been productive. This point escaped all concerned.

She is talking about the heavy government subsidies and planning of British Leyland, that started in the 1970's. The best bureaucrats the British government had to offer failed to run the auto industry with anything approaching success. Since Americans are better than the British, expect the American government's takeover of the auto industry to be an even more spectacular failure.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Kari Jobe, who is apparently a famous and talented singer, was at our church this weekend. And the whole time, I couldn't help thinking, "Why is Kari Jobe wearing a lumpy gray pillowcase?"

I occasionally see cute or pretty or otherwise attractive women wearing these things. But it seems tailor made to be ugly. It is a shapeless bag of cloth that completely obscures a woman's figure. You can't tell if she is fat, skinny, or beautifully curved. Though you almost never see it on fat women.

What's the message here? That you're so hot you can dress ugly? Except that it looks like some expensive designer job. A designer potato sack is still a potato sack, though you could get more use out of an actual potato sack. Why this faux ugly is fashionable is beyond me. Maybe in all the vitriol this post will cause someone will let slip an actual answer.

As more news leaks out about the latest global warming climate change scandal, I wanted to post my own random ideas about it.

It will play out like most scandals that hit the left. It will be ignored until the media and politicians are forced to acknowledge it. Then the actual scientists who perpetrated the fraud will be sacrificed to appease the masses. This will satisfy most and allow the politicians who enabled politicized science in the first place to get off scott free.

Once public attention moves on, government efforts to 'fix' global warming will pick back up. When conservatives point out that liberals are trying solve a problem that was proved to be a conspiracy, two memes will be started by the left. The first will be that the bad behavior of some scientists doesn't mean that the science itself is bad. The second will be that the authorities have already taken care of the trouble makers and bad data, so your argument is moot.

In the mean time, temperatures will keep falling, and eventually someone will state that whatever cockamamie climate bill President Obama got passed is the cause.

Amongst normal people however, this will be the general reaction.

Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are terrorists.

Much has been said about the Fort Hood massacre last week. And I have just one question: why did no one in the army return fire? It’s a fucking Army base! Am I really supposed to believe that the only armed personnel on the whole base were Maj. Hasan and police Sgt. Munley? Do they not issue real guns to the guards? Did they even have guards? Or is there some bizarre standing order to not respond to armed assaults on US soil? The Army ought to be ashamed of itself for promoting a known terrorist sympathizer to major, and then letting a civilian police officer deal with the problem when he turned traitor.

---

After somewhat more sober reflection, it occurs to me that the last time I got this riled up over gross military stupidity was when the Navy was in a standoff against four pirates in a life boat. That situation was caused when President Obama modified the rules of engagement to prevent the Navy from engaging the pirates. While Obama didn't order the Army to allow Hasan to go about his business until he ran out of ammo, the same mindset of appeasement and surrender is prevalent in the politically correct bureaucracy that makes up the military, and every other government organization. No one will be able to give a good reason Hasan was still in the Army, but I would like to know the Army's operating procedure for someone shooting up one of their bases.

For now, though, my prayers go out to the dead, wounded, and their families.

I found a link to a clip on Big Hollywood today (which I can no longer find) that was from ABC's new series V. It was a segment from an interview with one of the aliens that was a heavy handed piece on selling journalistic integrity to gain access. Yeah, that's right, ABC sent a dangerous political message by making Morena Baccarin cut her hair.

One of the tragic features of modern life is the number of women who think it's acceptable to cur their hair short.

Women look better with long hair. This is a basic fact of feminine beauty. Here we get a direct comparison of the same woman with long hair and with short hair. Look at the two pictures. Baccarin can make short hair work, but she is far prettier with longer hair.

And here the difference is striking enough that I think I can see what is going on. She simply looks more boyish with short hair. Her femininity is diminished by her hair style. We men are attracted to women, not 12 year old boys in drag. Ladies, dressing and styling yourself to hide your womanliness makes you less attractive.

Some of you are pretty enough to get away with it, as is Baccarin, but here we can clearly see that long hair is much better.

It's been a while since I wrote anything about the house. I haven't made any big purchases since I got the library. I have gotten some accent pieces. My grandmother sent me a couple of porcelain vases that I've set up on the foyer table. The foyer is done in an oriental style so the vases really match. She also had some vases and plates with American farmland scenery on it; Mom got those.


I've set up some lanterns on the little dividing wall that marks off the kitchen from the foyer. The little copper ones I got at a home decorating store that has since gone out of business. The wood and paper lantern I got while I was in Thailand last summer.


I finally framed my tiger lithograph. This one is hanging in the living room over the sofa. While I'm not doing the living room in an oriental style, I really liked the tiger and thought it would look good in the main room of the house.


The style I am going for in the living room is more of a medieval fantasy feel. Not in the geeky, fantasy art way, but more like Lord of the Rings. It's an old world style, with just enough exotic touches to give a sense of far off and magical lands. This lamp I found at World Market is a perfect example of what I mean.


And the latest addition to my collection is some actual armor. The leather breastplate is from a group called Pyramid Leather, that goes to the Renaissance Festivals. I got this from the fair in Tampa. The chain mail comes from A²Armory.


So it's a bit more direct in the medieval fantasy decor than I was originally going for. If everything is subtle people might miss the effect. And what man wouldn't want some actual steel and leather armor?

...I think I've actually been linked. Does this mean I'm a real blogger now?

This is the first time I've checked my Site Meter stats since I got linked, so a late thanks, Morgan, for sending a few readers my way.

From Kathy Shaidle of Five Feet of Fury (emphasis hers):

We need more people to start speaking out, writing whatever they want, and risk their jobs and "reputations" to do so.

You need to vocally violate all rules and regulations about "political correctness" at every opportunity.

This is part of a response to a petition going around Canada that asks that politicians stop violating free speech in the name of political correctness and other identity/victim politics. The point being that petitions (especially online ones) are a safe and thoroughly ineffectual method of engaging in politics.

Which is a very good point. Petitions don't get a politician to do what you want. Getting a bunch of people to politely ask the State to give them rights that the State itself took away is as naive as believing that if we ask nice Iran will stop build nukes. No, the will of the people only matters because of the threat of the mob.

So long as middle class conservatives allow these indignities and do no more than follow the official democratic process, they will see their rights and liberties disappear. Boycotts and strikes work because they hurt. Liberal protests matter, even with only a dozen (career) protesters, because they carry the threat of violence.

Political correctness will be the rule until conservatives stop appeasing liberals and avoiding trouble and actually risk something.

It's time to take a break from politics. So I'm posting a step-by-step tutorial on painting a Tau Fire Warrior in my Ice Planet theme. I prefer to paint the pieces first, then glue them together. This allows me to get into the little nooks and crannies that form when you assemble the Fire Warrior. The only pieces I've glued together are the torso to the legs, since that doesn't cover anything. Here's a Fire Warrior fresh off the sprue.


I start by base coating the model with black primer. I prefer black to white primer, since I layer and dry brush up from a dark base to create the shadows in the model. White works better if you start with a light base and then use inks or washes to create the shadows. Since the jumpsuit of the Fire Warrior is black, I do a light dry brushing of Codex Grey over cloth of the model. It's a very subtle highlighting of the pleats in the clothing. I use Citadel Paints, since that's what was at the store when I bought my models, and I've stuck with them to keep consistent colors.


The next step is to paint the gloves, boots, rifle barrel, grenades, antenna, and Tau symbol Regal Blue. This provides the foundation layer of all the blue in the model. Note that on the gun barrel, I've left the seems black.


Now I do a heavy dry brushing of Ultramarines Blue on the gloves and boots. This gives them a nice, icy blue color while leaving shadows in the recesses. Because the model is so small, it is necessary to paint the shadows into the recesses and folds in order for it to be noticeable when viewing at a distance. I layer the rest of the dark blue with Ultramarines Blue. Since the rest of the blue is over hard plates, I leave a sharp, defining edge, rather than blending into dark.


Now I paint the main armor and backpack Codex Grey. Again, since the armor is a hard material, I leave a sharp edge, rather than shading, which is best used on natural materials, like cloth, flesh, or fur.


Next I do a layer of Skull White over the Codex Grey. This should be a smooth, solid white. I paint it on pretty thick so that none of the grey shows through.


Most of the painting is complete. What's left are the glowy bits. These are done in neon orange, just like the Ice Planet LEGOS. Parts of the antenna, the photon grenades, and the lenses on the rifle and helmet are painted this way. The first part of this is to paint them Scab Red.


Next I layer them with Blazing Orange. The layering here is a bit more exaggerated than in the rest of the model. For the larger glowy surfaces, there should be a bit of Scab Red on the edges.


Add a third layer, this time of Fiery Orange. This should very obviously only cover part of the Blazing Orange. Follow the contour of the surface getting painted, shifted to one side as though light were reflecting off of it.


The last step in painting. On the largest glowy surfaces, the large lens in the helmet and the power globe on the rifle, put a tiny dot of Skull White. This is the specular reflection off the glassy surface, and makes it look brighter and more reflective. This dot should be on the Fiery Orange, off to one side, based on the contours of the surface. Think of how light reflects off a Christmas ornament. This is also the point where I paint the Tau sept markings onto the Fire Warrior. I use Brazen Brass, and put markings on the right side of the helmet and rifle barrel, as well as the bottom of the left shoulder plate. I give all the Fire Warriors in a single squad the same sept markings.


That's it. The model is fully painted. Now, it is time to assemble the Fire Warrior. Glue the body to base (I've prepared a base ahead of time) and glue the antenna to the helmet.


Next glue the backpack to the model. If you are using a standard white glue, you will have to wait for the glue to dry between these steps, to prevent knocking parts off while you try to add new parts.


Glue the arms and rifle to the body.


Lastly, glue the grenade pack and head to the body.


The Fire Warrior is finished, and ready to charge into the fight. For the Greater Good!

Stacy McCain touches upon an idea I had last night but hadn't really developed. He's talking about the Left's promise to fix everything (by placing it under state control):

The answer to this kind of Pixie Dust nonsense is not for Republicans to try to steal the Pixie Dust formula, offering their own magical policy panaceas. Rather, the GOP needs to speak the brutal truth: there are no pixies and no magic.

There are no panaceas. We can neither return to some mythical edenic Golden Age nor are we marching toward some future Utopia of perfection. Decades of trying to vote ourselves into Heaven-on-Earth have created the very problems -- e.g., the actuarial nightmares of Social Security and Medicare -- which today's promise-'em-anything Democrats claim they'll fix.

"Grow Up, America" would be an accurate slogan for what the nation really needs. It wouldn't be a popular message, but it would be a true assessment of what ails us: a childishness, a politics of wishing, of which the naivete of Peggy Jones was but an extreme example.

The problem with most Republicans is that they are trying to offer the same things as the Democrats, only slightly more restricted, responsible, and less overreaching. Republicans tend to run about a generation behind the Democrats on policy. Moldbug points this out nicely:

Consider the difference between the Procedure and the democratic strategy of conservatism. Conservatism seeks to either halt the decay of USG where it is, or return USG to some ideal state of the past - restoring, for instance, the Constitution of 1789. Or at least the Constitution of 1932. Or maybe just the Reagan Administration.
...
Ie: it may be obvious to anyone who takes a clear look at the matter that America was better governed in 1909 than 2009. But this study produces neither any consensus on what year is preferred, for what issue, or how to translate that year's form of government into 2009. There is no little blue manual for going back to governing America like it was really America. This would be your conservative Schelling point, if it existed, which it does not and never will.

The current strategy of 'vote conservatives into Washington' is doomed to failure. Elected and appointed officials make up only a small part of the USG power structure. You'd also have to replace the civil service with conservatives (or more likely throw most of the civil service out and not replace it at all), as well as replacing the academia which teaches people to be liberal.

As McCain says, people need to grow up and stop relying on mommy government to take care of them. Christians should be ideally suited to teaching people to grow up. We have Truth on our side. We know life is not and never will be fair. We know some people are evil and some people are good. The goal should not be to take back government, but to teach people Truth.

Several interesting questions come out of this. How do we teach people truth, especially given the opposition of our current education system? What would happen if Christians withdrew from politics, the let the liberals run the state unfettered? Would even be allowed to teach at that point? What would happen to people's faith in the state if liberals ran everything? What would it take, and how long would it take, for enough people to realize the true effects of liberalism?

I think these are important questions that need answers. America has been shifting leftward for generations. It is a decline that will eventually lead to collapse, and our current strategy is not working. It has only slowed it, not reversed, or even stopped it. But to find a solution, I'm going to have to go beyond sounding off in the empty little bubble that is my blog. I need some help.

Moldbug continues his long running, oft interrupted series on the actual power structure of the United States, and what might be done about. Or at least what might be a better alternative.

For those who do not want to read the whole thing, allow me to give a brief summary. Power in the US is wielded by a distributed, undirected movement (the Left) whose goal is to have as much power as possible, for as many people as possible. A bureaucracy is well suited for this, since it means more people are involved in any given task, and thus, more people wielding power. Actual productivity is not important, only how many decisions you can affect.

At the top of this mess is academia, who, under the cover of Science, develop public policy. And since it's from Science and not men, these professors are not responsible if things go awry. This public policy is then sold to the masses by the media. Public opinion has now been formed. Which is what various politicians and Supreme Court justices look to in making their decisions. Said decisions actually being implemented by the largest and most byzantine civil service every created by man. Populated to the man (and woman, they're all PC) by people who have been raised to believe that science and democratic consensus are the only ways to make a decision. Physics created the atom bomb, therefore Women's Studies can't be wrong.

OK, so that's a brief and incomplete description of the problem. But recently, Moldbug began looking at what to do about it. Some weeks ago he posted his first step in replacing the US government, where he includes anyone who tries to influence policy as a part of the government (such as Universities). Simply put, don't resist the government. Accept that the Left controls everything. They have all the power.

This is very difficult for most people to accept (and by most people I mean something closer to all of them). Moldbug's reasoning is that without an opposition, the movement will simply weaken, lose energy, grow apathetic. I see two basic problems with this. It doesn't strike me as too hard to simply create an opposition 1984 style. The Left does this some already, demonizing people (remember, there are 5 A's in raaaaacist) with little regard to actual truth. It's not much of a step to continue using the caricature without finding an actual person.

The second problem is with human nature. There will always be someone that will not submit, and that is enough to fuel the Left.

But there is a side to this that Moldbug has not considered. God has commanded us to submit to authority. In 1 Peter 2:13-15:

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among me: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to the governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

We are, by God's own command, to submit to earthly authorities, even ones that are unjust or cruel. Christ Himself submitted to Roman and Jewish authorities, even though that got Him executed on trumped up charges. But there are none who can claim that Christ didn't cause a ruckus in the establishment. There is quite a difference between submitting to authority, and admitting that the authority is correct.

As Christians, we should obey our leaders in Washington and all the laws that they pass. And we should do it cheerfully and courteously, though it erodes our freedom to nothing. There must be a marked and obvious difference between Christians and everybody else. Having a Christ-like attitude combined with a firm refusal to worship the State instead of God should be all the protest we need to make. Remember that the early church did not try to conquer Rome, but rather preached the gospel.