1 At least the planes will be leaving the tarmac on time.

2 Heh. Va benito, LP.

3 Conversation with daughter in law tonight.  She is an immigrant and voted for Obama. No understanding of the American system, of Federalism or the meaning of a Republic.  Only thinks in terms of how nice Obama sounded, and is only concerned about her immediate life, and also America is so much better than where she came from why worry?  

Exactly the reason we are losing this country, the thinking is America is big, indestructible and will always go on as it has, always better than any other country.  It is magical thinking.  She commented she was too old to worry about all this anyway, I commented that our founders were much older than her when they established this nation, might as well have talked to a 8 year old as far as the comprehension. 

Liberalism has produced people that do not understand cause and effect, do not understand economics, and do not understand that America can, and is, being damaged, probably beyond repair.  We have maybe one more election cycle to maybe save this Republic, after that it would have to be revolution or submit to the end of the American experiment, where will people like my daughter in law find that utopia, that place that is better than anywhere else?

4

And if they are capable of rational thought, they need the drive to go and find the facts the MSM ignores.

 

5 Merry Christmas!

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6 Merry Christmas, everybody.

7 A Cargo Cult Christmas
LETS MAKE THIS THE BEST NON-DENOMINATIONAL DAY EVER!

8 A great post.  And at 02:44 in the morning!

9 At times like this I am reminded that in a democracy, the people get the government they DESERVE.

The leftist in Washington didn't just fall from the sky and land in office.  They were ELECTED.  People in their home states got up off the couch, drove to the polls, and stood in line to PUT THESE BASTARDS IN OFFICE. 

It is easy to blame the government, but in a democracy it is ultimately the people who are to blame.

It is also only we who can rectify this situation.

10 To paraphrase Norm McDonald;

Happy Birthday Jesus, hope you like crap!

11 It occurs to me that Obama is Old Man Potter.  Stupid Uncle Billy 52% voted him in, and then they're so stupid they misplace all their cash, and then Old Man Obama Potter finds the cash in the folded up newspaper, but instead of being honest and giving it back to stupid Uncle Billy 52%, Old Man Obama Potter keeps it and lets stupid Uncle Billy 52%'s stupidity affect Good Solid George Bailey 48% and now Good Solid George Bailey 48% is about to go under.   I'd say we're at the point where Good Solid George Bailey 48% is on the bridge looking down at the icy river. 

Not sure who's going to be Clarence.

12 I call this "government by magical thinking."
But I like the cargo cult idea, too.

13 3:30. That's when Duh Boy decided to get up, strangely unencumbered by the burdens of his five years..

How good am I?  I got him back to sleep after he'd seen the presents.
Merry Christmas miscreants and other undesirables!

14 cargo cult? Yep, you are right. this administration doesn't seem to understand how wealth is created. there is a complete disconnect between cause and effect. the thing is, it isn't just obama & co., there is a rather large portion of the US that believes that they are entitled to other people's money and don't understand how to survive in a capitalist society. they lack any understanding of the cause and effect of say, raising taxes (penalizing productivity) and low productivity. they think it's "fair" to tax a rich person at exorbitant rates, because "they can afford it." there is also this idea that if one person is wealthy then it must be because he "took it" from someone else. this is probably the biggest lie. people who believe this think that there is this finite amount of "pie" out there, and fail to realize that wealth is created. they fail to understand that new ideas, products, etc. lead to new markets, e.g., look as the cell phone. in 1972 there was no cell phone, now today everyone has a cell phone. someone created that product, people thought it was cool, and now there are many people employed in this industry. what people like michelle obama do not get is that wealth creatioin is not a zero-sum-game. The bottom line is this:

if you penalize production you get non-production
if you reward non-production you get non-production
if you penalize non-production you get production
and if you reward production you get production...

15 We're grateful for our good health and our love at home this Christmas. Warmest wishes for peace on earth and good will towards humanity.

Our Christmas gift to ourselves/each-other and New Year's Resolution is to BE free of Cargo Cult chains! Let Freedom Ring!

If not a Freudian admission of guilt, Harry Reid's original vote to screw his own legislation was Father Christmas voicing the Will of the People in the US Senate. Reid smothered the last chance Providence provided him, and chose his chains of hell.

Another Bad Omen. Sorry to hear that mad little red riding hood knocked over the Pope in the procession for Christmas Mass last night at the Vatican. Glad to note that he was uninjured and the mass went on for the people.

Violent cowards usher terrorism always against those seeking peace, the easiest pickings, with the unprecedented New Year of 2010.

16 Hmmmm.

The problem simply is that liberals believe that reality can be shaped by belief.

If you believe that the middle-aged welfare queen who has never worked a day in her life is going to spontaneously get off welfare and become successful ... well then it'll happen.  You just have to keep on supporting her financially until it happens.

*shrug* this is why liberals are always getting hit by the Law of Unintended Consequences.

17 You should also read Professor Richard Feynman's speech on "Cargo Cult Science" and see how accurately it nails down todays global warming "science"......

18 Newton and the creator of the Seventh Day Adventist cult (see, I tied it back to cults) could have saved some time and simply read Matthew 24:36, "Now concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son —except the Father only."

19

Merry Christmas all you morons!

I hope you're all having a good one. It was a very hectic holiday here. Still gotta cook, but the eats make it worth the effort. May you all receive many nice presents, consume plenty of liquor and enjoy a fine meal.

20 merry christmas, fellow morons.

21 Correct--libs do not get the whole cause and effect thing. That's perhaps the heart of the problem we face, exacerbated by a public that doesn't pay attention to what they are really voting for, and a smaller (I hope) number of people who actively hate America and want it knocked down a couple of notches.

I'm over on HuffPo this morning, and the lefties are outraged about an innocuous column by Mort Zuckerman (US News and World Report) that talks about Americans' spirit of giving. Many of the people who voted for Obama really cannot stand this place. You know what really pisses them off? The phrase "God bless America". I have a cute little God bless Texas sticker on my car. Without knowing it, I've probably been causing heads to explode driving around with that. That makes me happy on this beautiful Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas, morons.

22 Great post.  I had never heard of the term "cargo cult" before, but it is a beautiful description.

Nor did It it occur to me that Harry Reid's background was heavily influenced by the gambling/gaming industry; as in, subconsciously, or maybe even consciously, he believes that growing an economy is just like opening a casino.  Not just in terms of corruption, but just economics (or lack thereof).

No Harry, Vegas is (or at least was) successful in large part because gambling is, and even more so, was, previously illegal in most other places.

And in a casino, one person's loss is anothers (or the house's) gain.  That's not how prosperity works Harry, you depraved idiot!

Great, thought-provoking post.

23 I agree with #19, Feynman's cargo cult speech (delivered at Caltech '73 graduation) is applicable to everything from the global warmists to the gradeschool self-esteem fluffers.

24 Hiiiiiidey-hoooo, kids!!!

25 "*shrug* this is why liberals are always getting hit by the Law of Unintended Consequences."

The older I get, the more convinced I become that these consequences are entirely on purpose, at least for the leftists who shape and direct the deliberate obfuscation that is their core ideology.  The run of the mill useful idiot is blissfully unaware of the malign purpose behind the bandwagon they have jumped on to.

26 Free people engaged in productive work somehow create a prosperous situation? Go figure. I thought it was gnomes.

If you're looking to kill just a little time this morning and end up inspired, here's a nifty speech to listen to.
There's a little Christmas theme to the end of it.

Check out the linky to Dr. Helen's blog, too. I think she's on to something with the 'learned helplessness' thing.

27 "throw money all over the place (especially to our friends) and good things will happen."

Oprahism.

28 Merry Christmas, morons.
You didn't even mention the carbon cult, the biggest delusion of modern times.
As for the stimulus, cap and trade, obamacare - they are more about consolidation of power than trying to actually fix a problem.
Gotta run. have a good one.

29

... and Cause and Effect 101 was apparently a class that True-Believer "climatologists" missed in their freshman year. Never mind all the subsequent classes that should have earned them an authentic title of "scientist." In our education-challenged world, those who should have flunked out have been given doctorates with a solid B+. I predict Nobel Prizes in their futures. Algore will no doubt also honor them with his B+ poetry.

Speaking of the great/evil oracle Algore, my own slice of America in The Great Flyer-Over  is positively smothered in a white global-warming Christmas. I have not ever seen so much global-warming on Christmas day in my 40+ years of life.

If I were a religious person, I'd believe that the heavens have dumped an apt end to this shitty year. Nobody can make it to my house for Christmas. It's just me and the kiddo.

30

Hello, is this getting any attention? 

This is huge.

It looks like the CBO made a mistake and DOUBLE COUNTED the "savings" of the Reid bill. 

The massive accounting blunder that should sink health care reform....

http://tinyurl.com/yd32l5t

This looks pretty huge to me... if only it would get the proper publicity....

31

Merry Christmas from Kansas where we are snowed in, covered by 3 drifting feet of global warming.  This is totally unprecedented Well, except for 1954, 1958, 1981, years that I remember, and stories from my grandparents and parents telling about 1896, 1920, and several times in the 40's. Course there was that real global warming period in the 30's.

Hockey stick, hockey puck.

I am afraid for the polar ice caps, cause it is really warm there.  Oh, it's not? Hmmmmm.

Oh the wonderment of it all.

 

32

The other aspect of the Cargo Cult is the notion that the prosperity and material wealth some other group created for itself was actually intended by it's mythical magical creator for everyone and that other group has stolen everybody else's share for themselves. Followed by the sense that going through some ritual based on whatever they believe is effort of comparable worth entitles them to some fair share of the other group's work product.

IOW the postmodern left is a Cargo Cult.

33 kansas, hello neighbor!

34

With all the promise of Grace and redemption it brings, Merry Christmas to each of you.

And Orestes &  Steve Poling , this is exactly what I was thinking about vis-a-vis framing an explanation to several True Believers.  Heh. 

35 And here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yeq5umg
Merry Christmas once again.

36 Anyone notice that goolgle has once again refused to acknowledge Christmas? They celebrate Muslim holidays but refuse to recognize Christmas. I am not a christian but I recognize Christmas and do not fear to show respect for it. Google fears Christ and the US. They refuse to acknowledge any holiday celebrating our country or the faith that inspired our forefathers. Google hates the US. I use Bing, thank you. Fuck google

37 Moviegique! Excellent piece. What's say we ship this cargo cult out?

38

For unto you a child is born and his name shall be Wonderful, Counselor, Prince of Peace . . .

Everything else is destined to disappoint.  Christ is the gift of eternal life and freedom from sin.

Merry Christ-mas morons!

39 If you think about it, the concept of Santa Claus is a cargo cult, which is fine if you're a four year old.

40 Greetings Kansas morons, and thanks for taking this year's title of "Shittiest Weather" away from the reigning champion, Ohio.

Yeah, it's like Christmas and stuff.  Can we have a post about that?  Or even the politics of Christmas, instead of the politics of the mouth breathing drool monsters that currently inhabit the halls of power?

41 Oh, and Merry Christmas, all.

42 Isn't what skews the pooch, in a welfare state, is that, for a while, the cultists see it actually working?

43 If you think about it, the concept of Santa Claus is a cargo cult, which is fine if you're a four year old.

My eight and nine year olds know the gig.  They're awesome about joining the conspiracy when it applies to the five-year old.  The greatest conspiracy known in human history.  Well, except that tax increases create jobs.  That's a pretty good whopper, too.

44

It's truly a KansAss Christmas this year. Thanks, Algore, for making it a merry one with all your shitty global warming.

45 Let me see if I get this:

1. Buy girls drinks
2. Girls remove panties
3. SCORE!
4. Val-U-Rite cargo cult?

46 You are on to something here.  The cargo cult mentality may be more prevaltent than any of us realize.  Ask the average person where his Starbucks latte or the gasoline they put in the car comes from.  Most of us don't give a second thought to the numerous processes that have to happen to bring a gallon of gas to the cars we depend on.  If we are forced to take the time to think about it or are suddenly forced to live without it for awhile, yeah, we realize it's not a matter of just going down to the station and it will be there.  But, barring that, how many of us lapse into the cargo cult mentality as a matter of course?  And that sort of "magical thinking" can lead to us accepting or even rationizing silly ideas and policies.  Like voting for Obama.  Cargo Cult mentality: a body goes to "Harvaad" and comes out a genius. 

47 This cargo cult thing ties in well with Ralph Peters' article:  http://tinyurl.com/ycfnm2v

48

For example, the current administration has reduced Keynesian theory (which Keynes himself didn't fully accept) to "throw money all over the place (especially to our friends) and good things will happen."

Yeh, see, I'm suspicious that their thinking goes no further than "our friends now have more money and that's a good thing!"

In other words, I think they don't care if the economy improves or may even want it to stay bad so they can keep giving more money to their friends.

49

In 1981 V.S. Naipaul wrote a book about Islam called "Among the Believers". In it he noted the curious lack of understanding among Muslims (in India and Pakistan, at least) regarding the Western economic system and values that allowed planes, cars, electronics etc. to be invented, made and distributed.   In their eyes it was just some sort of magic.

Seems modern American leftists, after forty years of indoctrination by the Academy, have adopted that magical way of thinking. 

50 I would not mind being in Vanautu now (the New Heberdies) where the cargo cult WWII phenomenon started (or rather was first noticed for what it was).  Some diving, drinking beers under a coconut tree, with a big glass of kava in the evening.  Yum. 

51 Merry Christmas, Moviegique.

Now, who the hell are you?

52

Actually, I agree with a lot of this post.

There is in fact a lot of cargo-cultery in Washington politics. Miming the trimmings of the New Deal, hoping it will have a magic effect....or endlessly repeating "tax cuts" hoping that this will somehow, magically restore a balanced budget and prosperity, and cure baldness.

Conservatism used to mean caution, a desire for balance, and a pragmatic approach to making things work, regardless of what it took. For instance someone might say that a conservative would raise and lower taxes, raise and lower spending, according to what was a vital and pressing need, not simply adopt a "one size fits all" approach to governance.

"Tax cuts always produce prosperity" and "deficits don't matter" are not conservative positions- they are empty slogans that practically define cargo cult.

53 Iskandar, I'm actually a long-time poster/reader, but I'm very sporadic as far as commenting. I'm usually hours behind everyone else so the threads are dead. Mostly I comment on the movie posts. The response has been great, guys, and very interesting in its right. (I'm with you, Darcy.) Santa Claus is actually LESS of a cargo cult, I'd say, then most of what's going on, because while the child mis-understands the mechanism of gifts, the little rituals (writing to Santa or sitting on his lap or even behaving nicely) actually DO (or CAN) have an actual effect on the bringers of gifts.

54 Reason60, The reason "tax cuts" are often recommended is because they work, both in terms of revenue generation and in giving people more freedom to do what they need and want. By lowering taxes, we make it easier for people to invest, which creates real wealth. Tax too much and whatever short-term gain in revenue you might collect will be destroyed in the future as the economy slows down. Why this is so hard to for people to understand is beyond my comprehension. You're right though: they won't generate a balanced budget. it is up to the Congress to control its spending. So, guess what? Conservatives do argue for less spending. Why? Because less spending means less government meddling giving people more freedom, a core goal of conservatism. it means less need for massive amounts of revenue as well. As a general matter conservatives are open to options that work, but ultimately what we want to conserve are the values that made this country prosperous and safe: Individualism, self-reliance and responsibility. To the extent that increased government intervention in the form of higher taxation and spending results in policies and regulations that undermine those values, conservatives will oppose them. If supporting those values is a "one-size-fits-all" approach, something I reject, then so be it. It is a size that works and works wherever it is tried.

55 If this administration doesn't understand cause and effect, if the people who voted for this administration don't understand cause and effect, then why does this administration keep blaming President Bush for the state that exists, in effect saying that Bush is the cause?

56 I had never heard of the term "cargo cult" before, but it is a beautiful description.

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