To a big chunk of the left – and not a few on the far libertarian fringe – America is the worst thing ever.

I don’t bother prodding “progressives” too hard on the subject – why bother?

But with Wahhabi Libertarians, I’ve had a bit of sport asking “OK – if someone gave you an airplane ticket and told you to go somewhere with greater regard for personal liberty and freedom, all and all, where would you go?”

When I get an answer – and it’s a minority that actually tries – it’s usually someplace that’s made a big splash legalizing marijuana or raw milk or hemp jeans, or some other such vital freedom.   Almost inevitably, a quick examination shows the place they want to move crushes free speech, has a confiscatory tax structure, bans civilian gun ownership, has indulgent police powers, or some such.  The exception – the current Libertarian parlor subject, “Liberland“, a small “libertarian state” on the Danube between the Czech Republic and Croatia – would seem to be on the brink of being repoed by the Croatians.  And a liberty that can’t be defended is only a liberty until someone bigger and nastier takes it away (which is among the subjects of a certain book released last month and currently priced to move)

Anyway – the US takes its shots from the left, the right, and the none-of-the-above.  Including yours truly, at times.

And with all of that, it’s good, refreshing, and a useful perspective-check to remember the contortions some people go to to get here.

For nearly a year, the Eastern Front had been something of a murderous pendulum.  The armies of the Central Powers and Russia had traded monstrous blows, racking up casualty figures in the hundreds of thousands battle after battle.  And despite the Front’s lack of the same sort of trench warfare that would define the Great War in the West, the battle-lines rarely shifted…and when they did, they often quickly shifted back.

The other constant was Russian blood.  Whether in victory (such as in the Carpathians) or in defeat (the Masurian Lakes), Russian soldiers died in biblical proportions.  At least 2 million rifles short, starving for food and being fed anti-Tsarist/anti-war Bolshevik propaganda, Russian troops were deserting in greater and greater numbers.  As a Russian Army report in the summer of 1915 suggested, “super-human efforts were [being] required to keep the men in the trenches.”

The Central Powers’ offensive that began on July 13th, 1915 held goals far more modest than being the decisive blow against the Russian Army.  Too many other battle plans had rested on such a notion in the previous 11 months and come up wanting.  The hope had been mostly to press on the gains made by driving the Russians out of Austrian Galicia that spring.  Instead, the Russian Army collapsed.

Tsarist Russia had been on the breaking point – she now appeared to be broken.

—

German troops enter Warsaw.  It would not be the last major city in the Russian Empire to fall

By any metric, Russia was not prepared for a prolonged, industrialized war.   Read the rest of this entry »

…. that if we voted GOP, workers would get gouged and see their take-home pay drop while there plutocratic overlords enrich themselves with the fruits of their labor.

And they were right!

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

What President Obama and his “advisors” seem to have forgotten is that Iranians are not like other people living in the Middle East such as the Palestinians or the Libyans. They’re not a motley bunch of towel-headed A-rabs waving AK’s in the air.

They’re Persians.  They are the physical and intellectual descendants of the people who ruled the known Earth for centuries, under names like Darius, Xerxes and Alexander the Great.  They are the religious descendants of the Umayyad Caliphate that conquered Europe as far North as Tours, nearly to Paris.

Giving them nuclear capability is not a mistake.  It’s a blunder.

Joe Doakesd now mu

One of the reasons that other Arab countries – Syria, Egypt, Iraq and the like – have been such relative military pushovers against the likes of Israel and, in the case of Iraq, the US, is that none of them have a tradition of being anything but beaten senseless at war.  The Egyptians and Syrians are 1-4 since World War II (their only wins coming as they sided with the US against Hussein in 1991); the Iraqis were a Tampa Bay-like 0-7, and seem to be headed for 0-8.

The Iranians – and to a lesser extent, the Jordanians (who are 2-1-2 since 1948 notching a win against Syria and another against Iraq, and a loss and two draws against Israel; they were beaten, but alone among Israel’s Arab foes never humiliated) have no such history.  In addition to their storied history of dominance through history, Iran (fighting via proxies) fought Iraq to a draw in the Iran-Iraq war, and, fighting through proxies, have essentially conquered Yemen, Lebanon, Libya, and are in a good position to be the dominant power in Syria and Iraq today.

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air! I will be on from 1-3PM today!

Today on the show,

• I’ll be talking with Karl Eggers of Liberty Minnesota about their Liberty Scorecard.

Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1570, and Brad Carlson has “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 1-3PM.

So tune in the Northern Alliance! You have so many options:

• AM1280 in the Metro
• Streaming at AM1280’s Website
• Streaming on IHeartRadio
• On Twitter (the Volume 2 show will use hashtag #narn2)
• Via my UStream video and chat channel.
• Send us an SMS text message – 651-243-0390
• Good ol’ telephone – 651-289-4488
• Podcasts are now available; for my show and for Brad’s
• And make sure you fan us on our new Facebook page!

Join us!

2014:  “Marriage equality is all about loooooove!   How dare you suggest otherwise, you bigot?”

2015:  “OK, maybe it is just a little bit about completely redefining marriage as we have always known it…”

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

If a deacon were to announce a rally entitled “God Hates Fags” to begin on the church lawn and stroll the sidewalks to City Hall, but the local NAMBLA chapter obtained a court order restraining her from holding the rally or from making future comments unflattering to gays on the grounds that the Bible is hate speech, which side would the present Supreme Court favor: freedom of speech and religion? Or gay rights? 
Are you sure about that?
Illinois Nazis marching through Jewish neighborhoods was protected in 1977 and cross-burning was protected in 1992. But back in those ignorant, bigoted times, homosexuality was still a mental illness and gay sex was a criminal act. Today . . . ?
Joe Doakes

The definitions of criminality and insanity are both tools of the state.

With the announcement that Senator Branden Petersen is not going to seek re-election in SD35, a crowd of Republicans is jumping in line to run for the seat:

Those possible candidates include Republican party activists Andy Aplikowski and Don Huizenga, state Rep. Abigail Whelan and former state Rep. Kathy Tinglestad.

SD35 is a pretty reliably GOP district; pretty much any Republican up there can count on a three-digit margin of victory.  It’s sort of the anti-Saint Paul.

While I very rarely endorse anyone for office, I’ll note that Representative Whelan seems to be leaning against – which is, I think, a great plan (another term or two of incumbency can’t be a bad thing).

And I’m going to have to do my bit to put the kibosh on former Rep. Tinglestad; she was one of the “Override Six” who famously gut-shot Governor Pawlenty’s veto of a DFL spending orgy in 2008, joining with Ron “I’m Gonna Blow Your Head Off” Erhardt and making herself a darling of the DFLMedia.  I haven’t forgotten, and neither should SD35.

Andy Aplikowski would certainly be a great choice for the office.

It was 112 years ago this December that mankind conquered heavier than air flight.

Air transportation, as a viable industry, followed within about 30 years.

And today, just shy of the hundredth anniversary of commercial air transportation, we may be on the brink of making air travel extinct.

If this idea goes into effect, I mean.

It was sixty years ago today – when Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets officially reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.  This is generally regarded as the beginning of the “Rock and Roll Era”.

Mark Steyn wrote about the song – and its sixteen-month path from recording to the top of the charts, and music history – last year.

Read Steyn, of course; it’s worth it.

The parlor game for me, of course, is noting what parts of pop music history are before and after the half-way mark of Rock and Roll history.

Music that was released closer to Rock around the Clock than to the present day?

• All Rolling Stones albums up through Undercover.
• All of Prince’s albums before Sign O The Times
• Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms
• Tears for Fears Songs From The Big Chair
• Every Springsteen album up through Born in the USA  – and Live ’75-’85 is coming up pretty soon, here.
• Every Bob Dylan album you probably remember
• All Tom Petty albums up through Southern Accents 

And the 1/3 point?   July 9, 1975?  Anything before then is half as far from the beginning of the era as from today.

• Who’s Next
• The entire Beatles’ catalog
• Born to Run
• Pretty much the entire Stax/Volt catalog
• Every song Bachmann Turner Overdrive ever put on the Top 40
• The first three Rush albums
• The entire singer/songwriter fad

And the 1/4 point?  Music that is three times as far from today than from the beginning of the era, before July 9, 1970?

• Tommy
• Everything “Sixties”: Hendrix, the Doors, the entire hippie thing.

Anyway – read Steyn.

What happens when the consequences for criminal behavior drop away to nothing?

I suspect property owners in Minneapolis are about to find out.

Looking at the financial statements from major gun control organizations shows us a couple of things;  Michael Bloomberg owns the industry, and they sure raised a lot of money – some of it from people other than Bloomberg, sort of – after Sandy Hook.

The essential PAGunblog rounds up the usual suspects:

First, let’s look at the Brady Campaign. In 2012, the Brady Campaign made 4.91 million dollars in revenue, which was up from 2.93 million in 2011. We suspect most of that money poured in during the few weeks after Sandy Hook on December 15, 2012. It was the fight into early 2013 where it became apparent that Bloomberg and the White House were running the gun control agenda, and Brady started falling off everyone’s radar. So it is not surprising that in 2013, the Brady Campaign did not raise as much money as it did in 2012, most of which was probably raised in the first several weeks of that year.

For all their decades of blather, Brady is actually relatively moderate.  The “Coalition to Stop Gun Violence” is not…

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence had a similar story to the Bradys. They had raised 333 grand in 2011, and 492 grand in2012. But again, in 2013, they were down to 484 grand. EFSGV, their 501(c)(3) branch, also tracks the Brady Center. In 2011, 460 grand in revenue, then 638 grand in 2012. In 2013, EFSGV raised 950 grand, almost a million dollars. I guess maybe that foaming at the mouth stuff works! They outperformed the Brady Center in terms of revenue growth.

…and it seems a lot of extremist money came out of the woodwork in the fever swamp this last couple of years.

The “Violence Policy Center” – whom I’ve made my personal kick toy in this space for well over a decade now – is perhaps the ultimate gun control group; literally, as well as morally and financially, controlled by liberals with deep pockets:

VPC is largely supported by wealthy foundations, but their revenue was also up in 2013. They managed to boost their public support percentage to 21.50%, which is actually still pretty sad, but better than 2011 when it was 17.28% and2012, when it was 18.17%. I’m sure they are hoping since their public support is heading in the right direction, the IRS will stay off their backs.

That’s so cute – thinking Obama’s IRS is going to go after a gun control group.

And now, the big kahuna – Bloomberg:

It is without doubt Everytown is now king of the gun control movement, with 2103 revenues of 36 million. Their 2012 revenue was 4.86 when they were [Mayors Against Illegal Guns]. I’d note that Everytown spends previous little on fundraising, which means most of that money is likely coming from Bloomberg. We all pretty much knew as much.

If it weren’t for progressive plutocrats with deep pockets and deeper agendas, the gun control movement would have to hold a bake sale to raise money.

The long story short?  Part 1:  Michael Bloomberg has basically purchased the American gun control movement.

Part 2?  One liberal plutocrat can’t fight five million Real Americans (emphasis added by me):

I would not get despondent over their improved fortunes, however. Why?

Because in 2012, NRA’s revenues went from 219MM to 256MM, and in 2013 they went to $348MM. Get that? Between 2011 and 2013, NRA’s revenue increased by 129MM. That’s more than 3x the amount of every other gun control group’s revenue increase from 2011 to 2013 combined. And that’s just NRA proper.

And unlike the alphabet soup of gun-grabber front groups, the NRA is actual grassroots Real Americans.

Take heart.  Conservatism isn’t winning every issue – but the gun issues shows that it can win in today’s America.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Fannie Mae used to allow 97% loan-to-value meaning you only had to have 3% down to buy.  After the crash, they lowered that to 95% meaning borrowers needed to save up 5% to buy.  It turns out women and minorities are hardest hit by that change.  So Fannie Mae raised it again to 97%.

 

They point out that only 7% of all such 97% loans given between 1999 and 2012 went bad, about the same as all other loans.  What could go wrong?

Yes, and if you started with all loans since Moses, it’d be an even smaller percentage.  Look at the loans given in 2007, when prices were at the max and everyone knew the crash was coming but the feds were still signing up any warm body they could find.  28% of the low-money-down loans failed.  And by 2011, lending restrictions were so tight nobody could qualify for a house so none of those loans went bad, which makes the overall percentage look even better but means millions of people lost homes they should never been able to buy in the first place.

 

I can’t help but wonder if this is the start of another boom-bust cycle in housing.  Are we intentionally repeating the mistakes of the past because it would be politically incorrect not to?  Has fiscal sense gone completely out the window?

 

Joe Doakes

Or does crisis become the current regime?

What culture made a curse of the saying “May you live in interesting times?”  Hindi?  Confucianist?  Aztec?  Irish?  Yiddish?

Who knows?  It merely seems that that’s what we’re doing.

We live in a society that’s led by a political and media elite that seems no less dim and self-referential than Emperor Nero; a society where the schools and universities are working for the bad guys, where the President is outwardly more concerned about Tea Partiers than ISIS or an Iranian bomb, where five appointed Ivy Leaguers dictate to 535 elected representatives, where the rights of the law-abiding mainstream seem to be worth less than the wishes and desires and agendas of a motivated minority.

But to David French in the NRO, today is a great time to be alive and conservative.  Because there’s no shortage of purpose facing a good conservative today:

It’s common for our fellow citizens to sometimes feel aimless, to lack purpose for their lives. Yet no American patriot should lack purpose today. In an era when our kids are seen as the vanguard of the Left’s social revolution, it’s a patriotic act to raise children to understand and respect the Constitution, to comprehend the great truths of American history, and to acquire the psychological toughness that will help them endure the stigma and scorn of the Left.

In an era when the Left seeks to drive social conservatives not just from the campus and pop culture (where we cling by our fingernails) but also from the marketplace and — finally — from our own churches, the simple act of openly and fearlessly living out your faith and values is a patriotic act.

In an era when too many liberals seek to appropriate charity — care and concern for the “least of these” — for the state, it’s a patriotic and deeply loving act to reach out and lift up friends and neighbors in need. While there are well-meaning bureaucrats in the vast welfare-industrial complex, there is no substitute for the unique, individual impact of Americans in relationship with one another, mentoring and supporting those who need help the most. And it remains a deeply patriotic and meaningful act to enlist in the military, to train to defeat enemies abroad — even if this president is unwilling to effectively confront our foes. Reality has a way of ultimately dictating foreign policy, and we need men and women who are prepared for the days ahead. Even as we see the significance of patriotism in the way in which we live our everyday lives, we need to abandon the idea that there’s a cultural or political shortcut — that the right combination of events or the right politician will turn the tide. Cultures change as a result of the persistent effort of millions, not because of the glorious leadership of one individual — not even Barack Obama, The One.

The examples of what the Army of Davids can do are all around us, if you care to look.

…what kind of pollyanna-ish rock have the other 30% been hiding under for the past fifty years?

The “First Amendment Center” – a media puff center – survey shows 70+% of America believes the media is biased:

The 2015 State of the First Amendment Survey, conducted by the First Amendment Center and USA Today [shows] that only 24 percent of American adults agree with the statement that “overall, the news media tries to report the news without bias,” while 70 percent disagree.

When the question was asked last year, 41 percent agreed, a 17-point difference.

“These are discouraging results for those of us who have spent our careers in journalism,” Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center, wrote in an op-ed for USA Today on Thursday. “In 23 years in newsrooms, I saw consistent and concerted efforts to get stories right. Clearly, the public’s not convinced.”

Ken Paulson must think people are idiots.

One can get a story right, and still be intensely biased.

This blog gets the stories right (within the limits imposed by writing a blog that is not a full time job) – but there’s no mistaking my bias.  If you are a liberal reading this blog, you are confronted (if you’re not an idiot) by the fact that the facts have a conservative, free market, pro-liberty bias – and I’m going to make sure you read them.

Bias needn’t be a bad thing – when you read European newspapers, you know which side they’re on, and can judge them based on whether they get the facts straight.

American media are not only biased, but often get way too many facts wrong – or fail to present relevant facts – entirely on political grounds.

You can “get the facts straight”, and still only present the sliver of the story that makes sense for your agenda.  It’s basic rhetoric.

And CNN, CBS, the Strib and NPR all do it.

So what are that other 30% smoking?

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Mark Steyn has a column up concerning the loss of American spirit in the present generation.  He’s onto something.

Firecrackers and bottle rockets have been illegal in Minnesota since I was a kid so my Dad had to drive to Wisconsin or South Dakota to get them.  My mother was stern with my brother and me: I don’t care what the song says, you can NOT start shooting fireworks at the dawn’s early light, you must wait until 8:00 a.m. because the neighbors are sleeping.  The entire rest of the day was an agonizing exercise in rationing – can’t shoot them off all at once, got to make them last.  A boy who ran out of firecrackers or bottle rockets before dark might die of embarrassment.

This year, I was up at dawn enjoying coffee in the peaceful stillness of my back yard.  Hmmm, no firecrackers?  Weird.  My wife dragged me to a craft sale in Roseville, quiet as church.  Did the entire metro go to the lake?  Where are the fireworks?  I didn’t hear my first explosion until nearly noon.  Seriously, there’s more gunfire in Frogtown on any ordinary Saturday than fireworks I heard on the 4th of July.

This nation is going down the tubes.  When ordinary citizens can’t be bothered to flout petty regulations, we might just as well call England and say “You were right, we are too stupid to be independent, sign us up for colony status.”  If I must be a serf to a ruler by fiat served by uncaring bureaucrats in a far-off city, I’d rather it be London than Washington, D.C.

Joe Doakes

Well, there was plenty of rebellion in my corner of Saint Paul on Saturday evening…

Do guns in the hands of the law abiding citizen reduce crime?

They certainly reduced three crimes, this past Monday, In different locations, within a few hours of each other.

Don’t tell Representative Martens.

Better yet – tell her.

I understand the “Heritage” rationale for displaying the Confederate flag.  Southerners wish to commemorate the sacrifice if their fighting men, many of whom died fighting for what they believed was a just cause.

I understand that. I understand the First Amendment protects that view.  And I believe the move to suppress the Confederate flag over “racism” is yet another example of our society – or an intensely privileged, and overprivileged, part of it – seizing on trite, surface- y symbolism to “send a message” about a big, complicated issue.

“Messages” are easy; changing hearts and minds is hard, time-consuming, and usually fruitless in the short term.

So I get why people want to fly the Confederate flag.  And as far as it goes, I support them.

But I’m not going to fly it myself.

Still Smell The Gunpowder:  I’ve heard a few Minnesotans point out that they’d eschew the Confederate flag because of the many Minnesotans who died fighting against the Confederacy – most notably the First Minnesota at Gettysburg.  That’s fine – and not my reason; of my eight great-grandparents’ families, only two had arrived in the US before 1865, and they were from Ohio.  And the war is, in fact, over.

Squandered:  I choose to eschew the Confederate flag because they squandered a vital right and power in defending an evil institution.

The bloody war fought to defend slavery [1] served as the lead-in to the gutting of the 10th amendment, and trashing of one of the most important rights of a civil society – the right to free association. It led to the elevation of the idea that preserving the union was the single most supreme virtue.

Think about it; if the power and intrusiveness of the federal government were at one time  limited by the knowledge that states could pack up and go away, Do  you think the feds would be a lot more restrained than they are? Absolutely – and that would be A very good thing.

For staking these vital – and irreplaceable – liberties on the defense of slavery, alone, it’s time to junk the Confederate flag.

[1] Yes, it was all about slavery.  All the proximate causes of the war traced back to slavery.  The economic war was a war between industrialism and slavery.  The constitutional issue was over the treatment of…slavery.  Lincoln sought to preserve the union, which was splitting up over…causes that all traced back to slavery.  It’s really not even an argument.

Until Minnesota adopts a law like this, all talk of Minnesota being a “free” state is merely a cruel, mocking platitude.

I’m not sure that this is quite a Berg’s Seventh Law reference – but as a general rule, when the far left says the far right is getting more violent, they’re lying.  

Indeed, it’s almost becoming a corollary to Berg’s Seventh – all lefty claims of “right wing violence” should be presumed false until proven true beyond a reasonable doubt.

I happen to like this view of marriage – not just gay marriage – and the difference between moral between religious law, by Rabbi Schmuley Boteach:

And he’s right – straights have done plenty of destroying of marriage.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Supreme Court justices write lengthy opinions to explain and justify their decisions.  Must they?  Or is that simply cover to placate the mob?
Suppose when the next gun control case comes up, Justice Kennedy is joined by the Liberals to make a majority and writes an opinion that says: “From this moment on, the Second Amendment means that only government agents are allowed to possess firearms and ammunition.  Because we said so, that’s why.  So waddya gonna do about it?”
Seriously, what would we do about it?  There’s no higher court to appeal to.  Congress can’t pass a law that trumps the Constitution, changing it requires a Constitutional Amendment and in this political climate, is there any real chance we could get Congress to adopt a proposed amendment reversing the decision and then convince 38 states to ratify it?
And if they did ratify a Constitutional Amendment that says “Every competent law-abiding adult has the right to possess firearms and ammunition,” suppose the Supreme Court said “The new Constitutional Amendment is unconstitutional and shall be given no effect.  Because we said so.”  What then?  Ignore the court?  Can’t – Liberals like Obama would send troops to confiscate privately held firearms in a heartbeat, if they thought the Court would let them get away with it.  Get Congress to impeach the justices?  See above political climate problem.

Liberal Justices write legal-sounding opinions to give cover to their social engineering but they wouldn’t have to.  They could be as blatant as they wanted and there’s no real-world thing we could do about it.  They are unelected dictators for life, imposing their views to the acclaim of popular media, from whose decisions there is no appeal: philosopher-kings, just as Mitch called them earlier. Kim Jong-un in North Korea wishes he had it so good.

I blame Madison for making the big power grab in the Marbury case.  I have no solution short of Constitutional Convention or another revolution.

Joe Doakes

Let’s shoot for “convention”.  It’s a bit soon for another civil war.

It was 11:40pm on July 2nd, 1915 and the U.S. Senate chambers were practically empty.  The senators had left to return to their States (Congress was out of session), and most of the building’s staff had not only gone home for the night, but were likely going to stay home for the 4th of July holiday.

Security was light – true to form for the era – and few (if anyone) took note of the thin gentleman who entered the Capitol and the U.S. Senate chamber’s reception room.  Even fewer probably noticed the man hurriedly exit the building.

The explosion that followed rocked more than the U.S. Senate chambers.  Despite America’s official neutrality in the war that was consuming Europe, the nation had just experienced a terrorist attack in the heart of their seat of government.

It was an informal beginning to Germany’s undeclared war of sabotage against the United States.

—

The remains of the U.S. Senate chamber’s reception room.  The bomber had hoped to set off the device in the Senate itself, although he appeared to time the explosion to ensure no one was around

The smoke was still clearing from the U.S. Senate chambers on July 3rd when a thin man approached the door of famed banker J.P. Morgan Jr. in Long Island, New York.  Forcing his way into Morgan’s home, the stranger shot Morgan – twice – before being subdued by the banker’s butler, who bashed the would-be assailant on the head with a piece of coal.  Such a bizarre assault was found to be stranger still – the assailant was the same man who had planted the bomb in Washington. Read the rest of this entry »

While listening to the droning, self-important, sonorous, dolorous thrum of National Public Radio news the other day, a brief, almost strobe-light-like flash of levity, of playfulness, of fun leaked through, as refreshing as the first shoot of springtime flowers jutting out from beneath the thawing ground; one of NPR’s newscasters, one of their weekend female anchors, has apparently chosen the air name “Whizzer Johnston”.  Like some kind of starting pitcher for the Red Sox from the fifties.

I’m still smiling, thinking about it. What a wonderful choice!

The world is not such a bad place, after all.

UPDATE: I’m told her name is Windsor Johnston. Good Lord – we’ve gone from the best NPR name ever to the worst inside of two paragraphs.   Why not “Shoshonna Gaia-Cohen”, for crying out loud?

Oh, well. And so we trudge on.

If there’s one thing I cordially detest about social media today, it’s the photo-memeification of all political debate.  On Facebook and Twitter, thousands of people can pass along a graphic, often wrong, frequently giggly/snarky photo in lieu of understanding an issue or being able to state a coherent case.

But sometimes they’re right:

I’ve been harping on the workforce participation numbers since 2011 – and they’ve just gotten worse.

And the fact is, if we’re ever going to reduce that debt figure (which doesn’t, by the way, count all the other unfunded entitlements that are floating about in the ether in numbers that look like they should be expressing Zimbabwean currency), it’s going to take actual productivity – which you’re not going to get when a huge percentage of your most-nominally-productive population are sitting idle, having given up hope that the economy will find a place for them.

(“But Mitch”, someone will no doubt say, “the workforce number reflects the number of baby-boomers that are retiring!”.  Sure, some of it.  But the percentage of Americans over 65 who are at work has actually risen – alone among the age groups – since the recession started.  And people drop off the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ figures after 70, so any retiring boomers will be out of the statistical picture momentarily, here…).