Too perfect to require comment - but I will anyway

Three quotations to think about:

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
- George Orwell

Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy.
- John Derbyshire

One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.
- Thomas Friedman

Back in the 1920's liberals made excuses for "the excesses" of Benito Mussolini because he "made the trains run on time." In the 1930's liberals made excuses for "the excesses" of Adolph Hitler because he built superhighways and claimed he was building Volkswagens for the masses. In the 1940's liberals made excuses for "the excesses" of Joseph Stalin because he industrialized Russia. In the 1960's and to this very day, liberals make excuses for "the excesses" of Fidel Castro because he supposedly increased literacy in Cuba.

Here we are in 2009 and a liberal idiot is making excuses for "the excesses" of the jackbooted thugs who run China because those thugs are supposedly doing good things for the environment, which is untrue in any case. China's rulers are making polite noises to lefty environmentalist idiots like Thomas Friedman about developing alternative energy sources while they're building coal powered electricity generating plants and spewing out increasing amounts of pollution at a far greater rate than any other country in the world.

Does Thomas Freidman know this? Of course he knows it, every bit as much as his predecessor lefties knew that Uncle Joe Stalin was purposely starving millions of people in the Ukraine while the New York Times was writing about the Soviet economic miracle. For God's sake, the Chinese Communist government had to shut down the industries near Beijing in order to make the air quality decent enough to hold the Olympics. Does that sound like a country doing good things for the environment?

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Hat tip to http://lyflines.blogspot.com/2009/09/quote-chain.html and to Jonah Goldberg of National Review who steered me to this.

The most humble Presidential headstone

Mark Steyn pointed to his post of a while ago which detailed his trip to see the most humble Presidential headstone.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTkwYjE1YmMxMzVhNTM5NzAxYWMwYjNlYzBkNjEyZWM=

“We draw our presidents from the people,” said Coolidge. “I came from them. I wish to be one of them again.”

As an aside I should point out that John Derbyshire made excellent use of Silent Cal's ghost in his novel Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream, which may well be the most original usage of a presidential persona in a book. I have the book available to lend is anyone is interested.

And, if you were born in the last thirty years here's Kethryn Jean Lopez with a three minute youtube primer that will painlessly teach you more U.S. history than you learned in school. If you were born before 1979 it will make you laugh.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzI4Mjc5MjQ2NzEwZjIyZTA0OTdlMjVhYzQ0MWJmYTM=

The most important issue in this election

This news video spells out the most important issue facing us as we decide how to vote in November. It's worth watching two times, once for the audio and once to read the scroll at the bottom. Hat tip to John Derbyshire, the crankiest poster on The Corner, which is one of National Review Magazine's blogs. Mr. Derbyshire did the investigative journalism to uncover this important information.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/poll_bullshit_is_most_important

Update - just after I posted the link to the election video above I came upon a post by Jonah Goldberg at National Review that made me scratch my head until I realized how obviously true it is.

It seems that someone ran a poll that showed pet owners tend to prefer McCain while people who don't have pets tend to prefer Obama. It sounded unlikely at first but then I realized that my brother Sam, who has a stouthearted dog, prefers McCain, while my brother Jas, who doesn't have a pet, prefers Obama. I have a loyal frog, and guess what, I prefer McCain. My son Alex, who doesn't have a pet, prefers Obama.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDA2MDEyOTgwYzhjY2UwYjVjZDk4MTQyYTQyZTdkNjA=