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I rarely talk about what I read over at the Daily Kos, mostly on account of how it seems to be a pretty even split between unobjectionable material (their coverage on Hyatt hotels and union protests, for instance) and stuff that's so crazed it doesn't need to be pointed out or mocked, just allowed to die in peace. Other times, though, the Kossacks have ideas of such surpassing stupidity they must be addressed.

The Kossacks are rallying around a way for the President to create jobs without needing Congressional approval or adding to the deficit: namely, requiring that all equipment used by the federal government be manufactured in the USA by union labor, and requiring that all overseas services on military installations be provided by US labor.

Hmm. Let me think about this one. The reason why the federal government is buying ball-point pens made in Taiwan or notebooks made in Canada isn't because they're out to screw over our people, but because they're cheaper. Really, guys, that's the honest reason. So if the President passes an executive order requiring US sourcing for all materials, the costs will rise and… wait, hey, there's that phrase, "costs will rise." Didn't they just promise it wouldn't add to the deficit?

Likewise with forbidding foreign citizens from working on overseas military installations. We'll either have to double or triple personnel budgets, or else make do with half or a third the people. Either way, this is a major problem.

I have a loose rule about these things: if you don't have a level of understanding of a subject comparable to an expert of the field circa the American Civil War, then I would much rather you shut up about it. Anyone who is ignorant of evolution shouldn't be listened to on matters of biology, anyone ignorant of Maxwell's Laws of Electromagnetism shouldn't be listened to on matters of physics, and anyone ignorant of David Ricardo's Theory of Competitive Advantage shouldn't be listened to on matters of economics.

A repost of an older essay of mine. Unlike so much of my previous writing, I can say there isn’t a word in here I’d change.

I have little to say other than that. Losers obsess over their past defeats: winners plan how to prevail in tomorrow’s fight. Militant Islam can’t lose sight of their past humiliations, and I think we should encourage that in order to make them easier to defeat. We must lose sight of 9/11, lest we continue to sacrifice our civil liberties on the altar of false safety and in the process lose the heart and soul of America.

For the sake of our future, we must forget the past — as difficult and as heartbreaking as this is.