Nudge, nudge - the Sunstein doctrine

Peter Foster:

Cass Sunstein obviously takes pride in having been called “The most dangerous man in America”...

... Mr. Sunstein dangerous was that ...  he is the leading peddler of the “nudge” doctrine, which aims at bigger, smarter, more subtle government.

The Orwellian rationale for this Brave New Government ... Nudgery says that governments should use these foibles in a clever form of policy jujitsu, utilizing individuals’ own stupidity to guide them towards falling on the “right” choices.

... the complex of psychological quirks that determine their own immoveable, history-free, left-liberal interventionist mentality, not to mention the fact that politicians invariably use public ignorance not for the public good, but to gain power.

... The clear and present danger represented by Mr. Sunstein is on display in his new book, Simpler: The Future of Government, and in an article he penned for the Globe and Mail on Saturday, titled Green by default.

... According to Mr. Sunstein, the answer to using more green energy is to make it ... the default “choice.”

... Ontario’s experience ... shows that Mr. Sunstein’s suggestion that “green default” would “save money” is pure biomass.  

...

 There's lots of evidence of green nudgery being applied here in BC:

Our provincial carbon tax is being used to bribe BC cities, towns and municipalities to sign on to the BC Climate Action Charter. (All driven or guided by UN Agenda 21 and ICLEI)

Vancouver Mayor Gregor ("Moonbeam") Robertson's and other cities' "smart growth" schemes (thanks again to UN Agenda 21 and ICLEI) with everything from laneway housing (boosting population density) to dedicated bike lanes (discouraging automobiles).

My own city's planning documents are saturated with green "sustainability" bafflegab that drives everything from building construction to casino approvals to our brand new, expensive (and pain in the ass) waste collection and recycling system.

This is why the left are so dedicated to pushing the global warming theme.  It enables easier nudging of the sheep into their socialist pens.

Al Gore's values

Hypocrisy would have to be high up on the list, then his bank account. 
Rex Murphy:

... in the service of broadening his already impressive propaganda effort, [Al Gore] acquired — from CBC no less — a digital channel, renamed it Current TV, and hired as lead star the belligerent and bellowing Keith Olberman ...

Now comes the latest news that Al has sold Current, for the magnificent sum of $500-million, $100-million of which is his alone, ... to al Jazeera — which is to say, effectively to the ruler of Qatar ...  Qatar is about oil, oil and more oil. It is a global warmer’s hell.

In a related story, when Glenn Beck offered to buy the channel from Gore, he was rebuffed ("within 15 minutes") because:

"the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view,"  

..."[Gore] didn’t sell to the highest bidder. We were not allowed to the table. He didn’t sell to the highest bidder. He looked for, who do I ideologically align with," Beck said.

So, global warming alarmist Al Gore's values are aligned with those of Al-Jazeera and it's petro-state dictator.  As Ann Coulter never tires of pointing out "[liberals] are either traitors or idiots..." ["Treason" - p16].  Al is both.

Brian Lilley with Glenn Beck on Omar Khadr

[Via]

Tarek Fatah is "a breath of fresh air"

Tarek Fatah warns Glenn Beck about Islamists in the Obama administration





[Via Lilley's Pad]

Remember the Alamo!

The Mexicans are winning:

Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance....

Support Israel

From Glenn Beck's show last Friday:


Israel's former best ally has been looking pretty shaky since Obama came to office. In fact with all of Obama's Muslim outreach it looks more like the USA has gone to the other side. But, as Beck says in this video: "There are a lot of people working to change that. It'll take about two years."
 
Meanwhile, Israel deserves our support.

[Via]

Glenn Beck, a likeable Joe McCarthy

If you ask me, Senator Joe McCarthy gets a bad rap. In pursuing his anti-communist crusade he performed a valuable service.  While he may have been ham-handed, hyper-zealous and mean at times  he did achieve a certain degree of success.

Glenn Beck is doing a similar service in rooting out evil leftists who have an overtly anti-capitalist (anti-American) agenda. For instance, he got Van Jones fired from his White House 'Green Jobs Czar' appointment when he exposed him as a 9/11 Truther and an avowed communist.

Now Glenn has his sights set on Stephen Lerner for plotting to bring chaos to the US economic system.  Lerner is a high-roller with the SEIU (Obama's favorite union) and has White House access (at least 4 visits so far).  Beck has Lerner on tape at a recent meeting, plotting what can easily be characterized as sedition (Beck calls it "economic terrorism" and so does the DOJ in an arguably much more benign case).

See also, Rush Limbaugh, and a congressman's letter to AG Eric Holder.

If Bernard Von Nothaus' crime of minting Liberty Dollars is worth 15 years in the slammer, Stephen Lerner ought to get life.  Think that'll happen?

Glenn exhorts his audience to seek and find the bad guys in their unions and their governments and to "RAT 'EM OUT!"

Go, Glenn!

Glenn Beck demands apology from Forbes Magazine

Just watched Glenn's show today where he demanded an apology from Forbes for saying Glenn "falsely vilified George Soros".   Glenn was at his funny (but serious) best.

More from Glenn here and here.

Post readers defend Glenn Beck's take on Soros

Jonathan Kay, National Post editor and lame lib/left representative, recently attacked Glenn Beck for attacking George Soros.

And the reader response, predictably, hugely favoured Beck.  Well done, Post readers, Kay deserved the smack-down.

One Nation rally in DC a big flop

Glenn Beck's hugely successful 8/28 Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial in DC freaked out the left so badly they decided they needed to hold their own rally.  They called it One Nation and it was organized by unions and a variety of radical left organizations.  Unlike Glenn's strictly voluntary, on their own dime and time, rally unions ordered their members to attend One Nation. It was held on Saturday. 

Michael Graham provides a comparison of 8/28 and One Nation attendance:

"The most embarrassing part?  Not even buses, paid SEIU attendees and grade-seeking students could turn out a decent crowd."

For comic relief, One Nation featured aboriginal comedian Charlie Hill with songs and hilarious jokes like:

“This land is my land, this land ain’t your land, so get the hell off of my–”, and;

“immigration problems started at Plymouth Rock,“ and ”we’ve been fighting terrorism since 1492.”

And, unlike Beck's 8/28 rally, the One Nation crowd wasn't exactly tidy:

Nor was it as peaceful and law-abiding.

The company you keep

Tasha Kheiriddin's lame attack on Glenn Beck's 8/28 rally in today's Post begins with:

... the biggest tea party Washington, D.C., has ever seen. And what a wonderland it was, with the Mad Hatter -- conservative commentator Glenn Beck -- and the Queen of Hearts -- former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin -- exhorting the crowd to forget politics and focus on a higher power. ...

A nasty start that sounds more like the American far left's Howard Dean than a supposed conservative.  And the column didn't rise significantly in quality from there. It's doubtful that she follows Beck's program or understands what he actually stands for.

But a good indication of Beck's character and values can be found in the company he keeps.  A Wall Street Journal editorial "Glenn Beck's Happy Warriors" provides a description of the hundreds of thousands of people he attracted to the DC rally on Saturday:

Pundits will debate whether the crowd at Glenn Beck's Saturday rally in Washington was the largest in recent political history, but it was certainly among the most impressive. ...

...  if he's judged by the quality of people of all colors that he attracted to the Lincoln Memorial, his stock can't help but rise.

One would not be able to find a more polite crowd at a political convention, certainly not at a professional sporting event, probably not even at an opera. In fact, judging by the behavior of the attendees following the event, you'd have a tough time finding churches in which people display more patience as others make their way to the exits.

... Relaxed young parents felt comfortable enough to push toddlers in strollers through the crowded areas along the memorial's reflecting pool.

Not only was the rally akin to a "huge church picnic" (in one Journal reporter's description), but one had to wonder if the over-achievers in this crowd actually left the area in better shape than they found it.

Update. Here's another interesting take on the rally [via FiveFeetOfFury]:



And Tasha K might also be interested to know that The Smithsonian Institute wants to preserve artifacts from Glenn's historic rally.

Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally

Some stills:

And via five feet of fury the three hour video.

Just fabulous! Estimates of rally attendance put it in the hundreds of thousands.  CNN and other MSM outlets were saying "thousands".  Needless to say the left is derisive and/or dismissive (and, most likely, terrified).

Ann Coulter interview with Michael Coren + Beck's commentary

Here's Ann Coulter on the Michael Coren show

Also, here's a video with Glenn Beck's commentary on Coulter's reception at the University of Ottawa. [h/t]

Glenn Beck #2 after Oprah

According to a recent Harris Poll:












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Glenn Beck alone is worth my subscription to Fox News.

Naomi Klein at the Sundance Festival

Gaaackk! Naomi Klein’s "The Shock Doctrine" is now a film entered in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival (in the schlockumentary category):

... Not to be outdone by bona fide movie stars, Naomi Klein hits Park City later in the week for the film version of her book Shock Doctrine, directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat (sic) Whitcross. Klein will appear alongside the filmmakers for a somewhat original premiere that will lead to a discussion moderated by none other than festival founder Robert Redford.

That ought to be an interesting discussion. Klein’s book and film are so bad that even the Toronto Star is panning them. Movies columnist Peter Howell rightly criticizes Klein’s looniest notions, though he still falls for the usual leftist claptrap about Milton Friedman’s connections to various situations around the world.

For some really credible commentary on Klein, "The Shock Doctrine" and Milton Friedman read Peter Foster and Terence Corcoran.

Say, I’ve got an idea! I’ll bet a lot of the Sundance crowd will be wearing Ché teashirts. They might benefit from viewing Glenn Beck’s "The Revolutionary Holocaust - Live Free or Die". Beck should consider entering it in the festival.

Midler: Glenn Beck could cause genocide

Midler on Beck:


Wow! That's just completely nuts! Midler has to have an insanely dark view of her fellow Americans if she thinks that Glenn Beck, or anyone else, could provoke them into a Rawandan style genocidal rage.

American liberals, from Bill Clinton to wacko Hollywood, are going completely round the bend. Say, maybe that's what Midler means - it's liberals of her own nutty ilk who are on the verge of committing genocide. Watch out, Glenn!

Beck.

Lefties call Obama a "charming liar"

Glenn Beck notes that "progressives" at Air America radio are upset with Obama's lies about dealing with BigPharma:

Ezra Levant on the Glenn Beck Show

Here's the transcript (scroll down about 2/3).

Even better, thanks to Muslims Against Sharia in the comments, here's the video.

“An Inconvenient Book”

That’s the title of Glenn Beck’s forthcoming (Nov 20) new book. When trying to assess whether or not to buy the book one need only look at the comments listed under the Amazon "Reviews":

"Glenn Beck is CNN's chief corporate-fascism advocate."
-- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. [Trustfund-wealthy enviro-idiot]

"Finally! A guy who says what people who aren't thinking, are thinking."
-- Jon Stewart [Look who’s talking - the host of a fake news show.]

"Satan's mentally challenged younger brother."
-- Stephen King [Famously flaky author of supernatural tales.]

"There's something about him that suggests that, one night, he'll say something that will cost him his career...."
-- Keith Olbermann [Never heard of him.]

"Glenn Beck shouldn't be on [the air]."
-- Al Franken [Envious host of a liberal talk radio show with a double digit audience.]

Beck’s book ought to be a winner. My order is in.

Benjamin Netanyahu Interviewed by Glenn Beck

Iran's extremist agenda is a grave threat to the free world. Israel is the first target.

All this week Glenn Beck has been doing an outstanding expose on radical Islam. Last night he interviewed Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Israeli Likud party. Amazing interview. Very scary outlook!

Netanyahu's view in a nutshell:

• With Iran under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad we're seeing a situation closely paralleling the Nazi/Hitler threat of the 1930's.
• This time the threat combines the insane extremism of radical Islamic religious fervor with nuclear weapons.
• This threat is doubly dangerous because, unlike the Nazi and Soviet threats, Iran's regime is undeterrable. Ahmadinejad believes that a holocaust is a necessary prelude to world-wide Islamic dominance.
• It is absolutely essential that Iran be prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons. If the world community or the U.S. cannot guarantee this, then Israel will be forced to act - it will not stand by and be the victim of a second holocaust.

Batten down the hatches!