Majorityrights Central > Category: U.S. Politics

A little good news is needed now and then. The pioneer spirit is still alive. As a person somewhat responsible for the resurgence in technology prize awards, I have a few things to say about Burt Rutan’s capture of the Ansari X-Prize by being the first to fly a man to space in a reusable craft twice within a week. He follows the great technology pioneers Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, both of whom came to prominence during similar fair contests: The Guggenheim Trophy and Orteig Prize respectively. (From these exemplars some might now see a reason the powers that be shy away from fair contests—contests where they can’t really control who wins the prizes—and it was left to an Iranian family, the Ansaris, to fully fund the X-Prize.)

A speech by Burt Rutan before the National Space Society is worth a view (requires QuickTime ). He repeatedly and angrily declares his embarrassment at the risk averse culture that has strangled the pioneer spirit since the feats of the 1960s—nearly 40 years ago. I’ve got my issues with his speech but we clearly agree that something went horribly wrong with the pioneer spirit subsequent to the 1960s. The turning inward of the human potential has resulted in the halting of human progress upward and outward with aerospace technology being bureaucratically and monotonously scaled up for jumbo jet transportation. The result is the sort of danger warned of by Charles Lindbergh in his 1939 Reader’s Digest article “Aviation, Geography, and Race”: a sea of humanity threatening our race which is, after all, a global minority. Indeed the technological exemplar of this era has been driven by the rise of finance to preeminence—the inward-turning microelectronic revolution. The unintended side-effect of this revolution you see before you now as a website, but it is small consolation for the damage to our pioneer spirit.  As we were warned by Henry Ford the great struggle of the 20th century was creative industry vs global finance.  Global finance has dominated the past 30 years or more. Perhaps men like Burt Rutan can lead us out of our malaise and realize the human potential.  If so it may be due to prize awards like the Ansari X-Prize that give men even younger than Burt Rutan a chance to make a name for themselves purely via their own grit and gifts.

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The long-running saga of Kenniwick Man enters a new and potentially final stage when, perhaps as early as next week, the US Senate votes on S.536.  Section 108 of the bill has been amended unanimously and all but in the dead of night by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.  The import of this amendment is to replace one word “is” with two, “or was”.  If passed by the Senate the bill will bring old KW within the definition of “Native American”.  The tribes will take possession of him, and will have won a great victory for myth and anti-science.

An article explaining the full significance of the amendment can be read here.  Do you really think the Senate will turn its back on a sacred minority and vote for expanding the realm of human knowledge?

Thanks to Steve Risher for the link.

I am against interventions in other nation’s political affairs, just as I am against them meddling in ours.  I am opposed to exporting communitarian political systems, just as I am opposed to importing them into the U.S. If every political party supports rebuilding the world with communitarian wars and laws, and if every non-governmental organization supports it, and if the TV and papers tell us it’s all good (and no one else is complaining), then, what’s my problem?

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Most people have no idea what I’m talking about when I discuss communitarians. It would be such a relief to participate in a discussion or debate about the communitarian political agenda as if it is a legitimate topic. I don’t necessarily want to “teach” it. You should know I’m a nobody and my anti-thesis is still a “theory.” Regardless of who I am not, I’m sincerely hoping to reach a higher level of discourse about it here with the other thinkers at MajorityRights.com.

This first post is a basic overview of anti-communitarianism for readers unfamiliar with another view of this philosophy. My work isn’t meant to insult anyone’s education, intelligence, or personal beliefs. Maybe you already know all about it and none of this post is news to you. But if you do, you’re a rarity among men. In the U.S., the communitarian agenda is never advertised on public service announcements. It’s rarely covered by major news. It’s never discussed by U.S. candidates for public office. In Great Britain and several other countries, it’s known as PM Blair’s and Labour’s political ideology. I begin with an “introduction” because I’m aware of the global barriers to understanding the exact philosophy that contributed to my overall conclusion. I pose that communitarianism is the ultimate third way synthesis in the Hegelian dialectic.

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As chance would have it I stumbled across AMERICA’S SECRET WAR: INSIDE THE HIDDEN WORLDWIDE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND ITS ENEMIES by George Friedman today. Highly recommended.

The “Norman Goldman” review on the Amazon site provides an accurate summary of the book.

Friedman runs STRATFOR, billed as the largest private intelligence company, not surprisingly, Friedman analyses the war from the point of view of a hard headed strategist. At one point in his concluding chapter, he discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the arrayed Jihadist and American forces that may shock some readers in it’s candour.

He points out that American forces are well armed and equipped and capable of enduring hardship. He points to the long history of foreign powers underestimating the fighting prowess of American troops (Valley Forge, Corregidor, Khe Sanh..) and the war fighting ‘stomach’ of the American people.

“The weakness of the U.S. is not our soldiers, or their numbers, but the vast distance that separates American leaders from those who fight. From government officials to media moguls… few members of the leadership class have children who are at war. To them, the soldiers are alien, people they have never met and don’t understand… A ruling class that sends the children of others to fight, but not their own, cannot sustain it’s power for very long.”

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Steven LaTulippe accurately presents the intellectual content of the Presidential debates:

Moderator: What will you do about problem X?

Candidate: Problem X is one of the most important issues of our time. Since I’ve been in government, I’ve passed 693 bills concerning problem X. Over the past ten years, I’ve increased spending on problem X by 4.3 trillion dollars and have created 28 new government agencies to address the issue. My opponent, on the other hand, could care less about problem X. He’s been ignoring it for his entire career, and probably wants problem X to get worse, since his friends and cronies benefit from problem X. Vote for me, and problem X is as good as solved. I have a wonderful new plan to deal with it. Just go to my website and read all about it!

Pat Buchanan endorses Bush:

If Bush loses, his conversion to neoconservatism, the Arian heresy of the American Right, will have killed his presidency. Yet, in the contest between Bush and Kerry, I am compelled to endorse the president of the United States. Why? Because, while Bush and Kerry are both wrong on Iraq, Sharon, NAFTA, the WTO, open borders, affirmative action, amnesty, free trade, foreign aid, and Big Government, Bush is right on taxes, judges, sovereignty, and values. Kerry is right on nothing.