Guns, Bailouts, Gitmo and Soap

Retreat was excellent, but I need to process it a little before I write about it.

Meanwhile, a quick look around tells me I didn’t miss much, newswise.

Guns: Instapundit links to two pieces on increased gun sales – or the perception of it. I don’t know if I buy the cause and effect. I’ve been contemplating buying a gun for at least two years, and it has nothing to do with politics or social issues, or the election. It’s because after reading female-authored articles on training with handguns and going to shooting ranges, I have simply become much more comfortable with the idea.

Bailout: I am not quite sure why the government is now in the bailout business. I do not understand why the press and the Democrats, who spent the last 7 years (with unemployment below 5%, and the economy growing by 2-3% each quarter) telling us we were living through the “worst economy since Hoover,” should be deemed credible on any economic matter.

Remember back when the frenzy was taking place, I expressed unease with how “overnight” this thing “needed to be done, immediately,” before anyone had a chance to share a thought? I totally distrusted it, but I got – from readers both left and right – serious emails full of “stop talking this down, this has to happen, this has to happen now or we’re facing a meltdown of unprecedented proportions.” I wondered why anyone would care about my little blog questioning it all but figured, “hey, I’m no economist.” I figured lot so of folks knew better than I did. But I never felt easy about it. I run by my gut, and my gut kept reading all of these dire pronouncements, and hearing all of these people predicting doom and I would think, “sleight of hand; look at all of this sound and fury and pay no attention to what we’re wriggling down our sleeves…”

It’s the master illusionist thing again:

…on the world stage there stride some masters of the sleight-of-hand and the misdirection – you can recognise them because they are all of a mind, and of a piece, and they are all working different parts of the same trick. But if you can recognise a trick for what it is, you can prevail against it.

So was an illusion played? It’s a good question. James Pethokoukis seems to still support the essentials of the bailout while making note of “11 Blunders”. He writes:

I think Paulson’s credibility with the financial markets has been exhausted. Now I am not sure what the magic solution was…But I will give this to Paulson: He does strike me as a guy who is working himself near death to deal with an amazingly tough problem.

I don’t quite know what the magic solution was, either, but it seems just plain common sense that you don’t throw money at a situation without accountability, and maybe that old chestnut that you don’t throw “good money after bad,” is worth remembering, too.

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin is saying roll back the bailouts. Sen. James Inhofe is saying it too, and he’s saying it in the Senate:

I know many of you have serious concerns about how Secretary Paulson has executed the financial rescue program and I share them with you. Congress abdicated its Constitutional responsibility by signing a truly blank check over to the Treasury Secretary. However, the lame duck session of Congress offers us a tremendous opportunity to change course. We should take it.

I know little about Inhofe, but he also says, this, and this – which I do understand:

“I have learned a long time ago. When they come up and say this has to be done and has to be done immediately, there is no other way of doing it, you have to sit back and take a deep breath and nine times out of 10 they are not telling the truth,” he said. “And this is one of those nine times.”

Frankly, when I saw Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Harry Reid and the rest laughing giddily at their “we did it, we have a bailout” press conference, my blood ran cold. And the fact that they “worked with” the president – whom they despise – “for the good of the country” just made me distrust it even more. I hadn’t seen them “work with” the president for the good of anything in all these years, after all.

The only bright spot seems to be that the global economic tumult that has resulted – and the collapse of oil prices – seems to have bankrupted Iran. But that might be a double-edged sword, too. We’ll have to wait and see.

I’m uncomfortable with a lot of this. I don’t understand why Nancy Pelosi is talking about a 25 Billion Dollar handout to an auto industry that has mismanaged itself; might it not be better to allow them to re-organize and unshackle themselves from the unions? What am I saying? Of course I understand Pelosi’s move – fealty to the unions! I don’t understand why taxpayers should do her bidding, though.

This all feels a little too much like, “do what you can to keep the good times rolling,” when perhaps a little belt-buckling, downsizing (in all of our lives, not just in business) and a little material sacrifice might teach all of us some sound financial principles that got lost in the heydey: Live within your means; pay your bills on time. Don’t give huge freaking bonuses out to the people who mismanaged your corporation; don’t give them bonuses with bailout money. Don’t give bonuses at all. Trim the severance packages and then unload the dead wood.

Yes, it’s harsh medicine. But sometimes medicine is harsh.

Gitmo: I rarely disagree with my blogfather Ed Morrissey, but I do take issue with him, here. He writes on what he perceives as Obama’s coming flip-flop on closing Gitmo:

A month ago, the NYT’s editorial board scoffed at the Bush administration’s efforts to keep Gitmo detainees from being released…Suddenly, the New York Times discovers that the American system does allow for indefinite detention to protect society from dangerous individuals without full-blown criminal trials — as with the criminally insane.

So what happens when the incoming Obama administration decides to continue indefinite detention and back away from Feinstein’s bill on interrogation techniques? Not only will the MoveOn/Code Pink crowd utterly revolt, but it will force a re-evaluation of the Bush administration’s efforts to keep this nation safe from attack — and the success he had in doing so.

I’m sorry, Ed, but sometimes cynicism is warranted. Move On and Code Pink will not revolt. They’ll fall in line and find ways to justify the flop by blaming Bush. They’ll “sympathize” that Obama will not be able to close Gitmo because of “Bush failures,” which have kept the world a “needlessly dangerous” place and they’ll insist that Obama “needs flexibility” in order to save every sector of the planet.

I’m betting there will be no re-evaluation, forced or otherwise, on Bush by this generation. Bush will be the handing scapegoat for every failing and every flip, for as long as they can get away with it. After all, it’s already okay for Obama to admit lobbyists into his circle. It’s just what Jim Geraghty would call expiration dates being met.

Soap: If you happened to include in your Online Christmas Shopping some orders for soap and lotion from the Dominican Nuns of Summit, NJ, note that they’re on retreat until Friday and write: “…there will be no shipping of orders from the online gift shop on [retreat] days although you still may place orders. We thank you for your understanding!”

While I was on retreat this weekend – more on that later – the sisters served up some homemade granola that had me thinking I’d died and gone to heaven! I’m going to try to get them to sell it in batches; if I convince them, you’ll love the stuff!

Speaking of Christmas: Thank you for ordering your Mystic Monk Coffee, your Nuddle Blankets and your Personalized Labels from this site. If you are going to be shopping via Amazon.com for toys, electronics, books and such, please consider entering Amazon through this site. I’m personally rather excited about the frustration-free packaging idea they’ve come up with, and the kickbacks generated help keep the site going and me writing!