Liu Xia Taken

This goes to the point of just how much the Nobel Prize committee has been politicized. It has been seriously embarrassed recently, having awarded prizes to the likes of Barack Obama, Al Gore, Paul Krugman among others. The committee has been blatantly exploited as a political tool by the Left, and it has finally sunk in. This year they’ve tried to redeem themselves by awarding Mario Vargas Llosa and Liu Xiaobo. In doing so, at least in Xiaobo’s case, they’ve succeeded in making things much worse for him. The Nobel Prize committee has been playing in the deep, ideological end of the pool. They’ve done so without having first learned how to swim. It would be best for them to disband and start over.

The same can be said for the Republican Party. Their projected wins in November will thrust them into the spotlight. They will be held to an impossible standard. Any hint of flaw or wavering will be exposed, and magnified by the media’s version of Hubble. It would be best for both parties to disband and start over.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Think Again

If you’re looking to the future when all things will be possible, look again. At the moment, it appears we exist in daily peril. Nuclear war is still not entirely out of the question. Al Gore and his ilk pose quite a different argument. And then there are Iran’s mullahs whose theories extend well beyond temporal life itself. It all involves our stepping back from the brink of modernity; self-expression, exploration and innovation. The fabled “greater good” does not allow for thinking “outside the box” as Galileo found. Whichever faction triumphs, we can expect either a retreat to the dark ages in which “nose to the grindstone” defines the limit of human potential or the outright extinction of our race.

Such circumstance is clearly not conducive to technological advance. While we may wonder what lies beyond the stars, while we may continue to fantasize about space travel, our day-to-day survival in a virtual blizzard of threat and onerous regulation (liable to change at a moment’s notice) will be our first concern. It is the beauty of a meritocracy that produces flamboyant results like the Shuttle program or Hubble. It also can provide a space within which to simply sit back and marvel at the miracle of creation and our unique partnership with it.

Leftists hate this space in which freedom and liberty commonly take root. They are the Puritans re-born to squelch and condemn every human impulse that seeks to rise above the dead ash of enforced dogma. Why do the Islamists hate us so much? It is because, after a promising start, they have been left far behind. If hatred stems from fear, their fear is justified. Their superstitions stand no chance when pitted against modernity. Rather than change, they aim to drag us down to their level – or kill us.

Capitalism itself is a star under which a free and vital people advance and prosper. For it to succeed it must be given space to breathe. It is not a wildfire that threatens to consume us. It is self-regulating and offers us unlimited opportunities for redemption. No single person can be said to be responsible for the successes or failures of capitalism. It is a group effort. That is why the political class hates it. Capitalism fares best when politicians keep their grubby hands away from it.