Topic: Interesting Change

[warpmine]

Beck has plenty of money now so nothing will affect him so basically no stake in what the rest of us poor saps will toil through. Beck gave us plenty of info but the beginning for me was Discover the Networks over at FPN, David Horowitz's group.

[Alphabet Soup]

I went searching for quotes from the Founding Fathers to bolster an argument I was making (at another site). I couldn't find much. But in the course of my search I found this:

"You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state." - Milton Friedman

Offered up on its own I saw it as thoughtful and timely. But I'm cautious and more than a little cynical. I poked around more and - wouldn't you know it - the isolated quote wasn't what Freidman had in mind, at all. He goes on:

"Immigration is a particularly difficult subject. There is no doubt that free and open immigration is the right policy in a libertarian state, but in a welfare state it is a different story: the supply of immigrants will become infinite." - Milton Freidman

What?! "free and open immigration is the right policy"?! Well, at least you got the supply part of the equation right. One begets the other Milt! I looked further until I found the quote(s) more in context. Don't worry - it gets worse.

"That’s an interesting paradox to think about. Make it legal and it’s no good. Why? Because as long as it’s illegal the people who come in do not qualify for welfare, they don’t qualify for social security, they don’t qualify for the other myriad of benefits that we pour out from our left pocket to our right pocket. So long as they don’t qualify they migrate to jobs. They take jobs that most residents of this country are unwilling to take. They provide employers with the kind of workers that they cannot get. They’re hard workers, they’re good workers, and they are clearly better off."

Got that? Illegal immigration is good. Good for the illegals, good for business, good for America. He's fooling himself and cheating us if he truly believed that there would be restrictions to illegals heartily availing themselves of our welfare system or find a government teat and clamp on tight. This is the same guy who got credit for the recycled: There's no such thing as free lunch" and "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand."

I don't have a perfect internal gyroscope but I will submit that it's pretty good. I know which way is up. But I find myself increasingly asking, "Is it me or has the whole world gone insane?"

Maybe I shouldn't be asking...

[Alphabet Soup]

As people realize that political solutions are no longer available, people are bound to react differently.

I think this is Beck just coming to grips with the reality that political solutions are no longer viable. His reaction is to "love one another as I have loved you," and let the chips fall where they may.

I can't say I'm far off from that, except that I've got too much ammo stored to let it all go to waste. I'm more in the watching and waiting for a sign camp.

He is actively undermining the stance of the right and aiding not the illegals but Øbozo and for that I can't (won't) forgive.

[Pandora]

I went searching for quotes from the Founding Fathers to bolster an argument I was making (at another site). I couldn't find much. But in the course of my search I found this:

"You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state." - Milton Friedman

Offered up on its own I saw it as thoughtful and timely. But I'm cautious and more than a little cynical. I poked around more and - wouldn't you know it - the isolated quote wasn't what Freidman had in mind, at all. He goes on:

"Immigration is a particularly difficult subject. There is no doubt that free and open immigration is the right policy in a libertarian state, but in a welfare state it is a different story: the supply of immigrants will become infinite." - Milton Freidman

What?! "free and open immigration is the right policy"?! Well, at least you got the supply part of the equation right. One begets the other Milt! I looked further until I found the quote(s) more in context. Don't worry - it gets worse.

"That’s an interesting paradox to think about. Make it legal and it’s no good. Why? Because as long as it’s illegal the people who come in do not qualify for welfare, they don’t qualify for social security, they don’t qualify for the other myriad of benefits that we pour out from our left pocket to our right pocket. So long as they don’t qualify they migrate to jobs. They take jobs that most residents of this country are unwilling to take. They provide employers with the kind of workers that they cannot get. They’re hard workers, they’re good workers, and they are clearly better off."

Got that? Illegal immigration is good. Good for the illegals, good for business, good for America. He's fooling himself and cheating us if he truly believed that there would be restrictions to illegals heartily availing themselves of our welfare system or find a government teat and clamp on tight. This is the same guy who got credit for the recycled: There's no such thing as free lunch" and "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand."

I don't have a perfect internal gyroscope but I will submit that it's pretty good. I know which way is up. But I find myself increasingly asking,   "Is it me or has the whole world gone insane?"

Maybe I shouldn't be asking...

Ask.  No, it's not you.  That leaves a good part of the country that has gone batsh*t fcking insane.  It happens.

Ole Miltie there probably never envisioned in his Utopia of illegal aliens that would do work Americans wouldn't do (and boy, am I sick of hearing that!) that the courts would be ruling in their favor -- "equality under the law".  This is how we ended up forced to "educate" them in our "schools" and treat them in our hospitals all for nothing from them.  Was the anchor baby situation in force when he was on this side of grass?  This is how they got their foots in the benefit/entitlements door.

[Glock32]

I grew weary of Beck's little Gandhi Complex before he left Fox, too.  I think the moment that made me give him the stink eye was the whole Shirley Sherrod episode where he basically chucked Andrew Breitbart under the bus and then went about his whole sermonizing "I'm above that sort of thing" schtick.

He thinks he's some sort of prophet and that seems to be more of what he's about than anything else. There's no peaceful resolution with the Left and anyone who counsels otherwise is doing net harm to the cause of liberty.

[Alphabet Soup]

He thinks he's some sort of prophet...

Network - Mad as Hell Scene

[Libertas]

AFAIAC Beck thinks he can successfully navigate the minefield of the middle, but the middle is no different than being a Ruling Class Pubbie, they live in the middle too, and he can share their fate and earn the scorn and ridicule we typically reserve for such ilk and if in the end he perishes from his own hubris then so sad too effing bad...

[trapeze]

Beck is quite the puzzle.

On the one hand he can be quite insightful and visionary. Or, at least, he used to have the capacity for such things.

But on the other hand he is incredibly susceptible to muddled thinking. In my opinion, speaking as a more or less fundamentalist Christian, nothing else explains his connection to the LDS religion. The LDS is, to me, nothing other than a heretical cult with its beliefs made up out of whole cloth by a polygamist con man. When a "thinker" (such as Beck claims to be) buys into the ridiculous (and easily disprovable) notions of the LDS religion* they are (again, for me) immediately open to skepticism regarding their ability to reason. So...I have never fully trusted him. Yes, he has done yeoman's work on exposing the progressive/utopian agenda. Good for him. Many years earlier he also did a very comprehensive expose on scientology. That was about when I started listening to him and I thought (at the time), "Wow, here is someone who gets it and isn't afraid to tell it like it is." And then I discovered that he was a mormon and just like that about 90% of his credibility was out the window with me. And it always has been.

Another thing that has periodically annoyed and disgusted me are his descents into abject emotionalism where he freaks out and/or begins sobbing over (fill in the blank because there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the topic selection that sets him off). He is somewhat neurotic in this respect. You never know which Beck you are going to be subjected to on any given day.

I listen to him sporadically, more or less, to keep myself abreast of things from a culturally conservative perspective, because he is (like it or not) part of the spectrum.

The problem with Beck is the same with any so-called "leader" and that is that they are human and vulnerable to human failings. And the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Beck has "grown" himself into a "leader" of gargantuan proportions and demonstrates for those willing to see that he is far from perfect. Follow anyone, invest yourself in anyone at your own risk because as surely as the sun rises in the east it is only a matter of time before you are let down.

*which I won't go into...you are free to look them up.

[Alphabet Soup]

Totally irrelevant aside but I found out about a year ago that my great-great grandfather was some sort of high mucky-muck church elder in the LDS church in Utah. I hope that doesn't spoil my own street cred ;')

[Pandora]

Totally irrelevant aside but I found out about a year ago that my great-great grandfather was some sort of high mucky-muck church elder in the LDS church in Utah. I hope that doesn't spoil my own street cred ;')

Nah.  Although the apple never falls far from the tree and/but though we are not cursed with the sins of our GGGs, it's our personal street cred that holds force.

[Weisshaupt]

The LDS is, to me, nothing other than a heretical cult with its beliefs made up out of whole cloth by a polygamist con man. When a "thinker" (such as Beck claims to be) buys into the ridiculous (and easily disprovable) notions of the LDS religion* they are (again, for me) immediately open to skepticism regarding their ability to reason. So...I have never fully trusted him.

Not that I disagree with your description, but discounting people because they belong is probably a bit unfair. Most of the Mormons I have met have been great, very friendly and very , very moral people. I don't know if they really believe all of that crap or not, but the LDS church has a created a strong culture in which its members have protected themselves and their children from the corrosive crap Reality TV Kardashian culture we are soaking in. The Church even preps as part of that culture  - the Sticky on Food Storage in the forum comes from the LDS church.  To obtain those benefits  it may be worth pretending to believe in a lot of crap. ( And I have been tempted to join this cult for that reason.. which is probably the wrong reason to join the cult.. so I haven't)

Gary's Vindication