You gotta believe . . .

The bottom-line, fundamental reason I endorse markets over government direction of the economy – the essential reason I support extensive and vigorous private property rights and the consequent decentralization of decision-making that this institution brings – is that I cannot tolerate the mysticism that motivates too much reliance on government.

. . . in something, so why not holy mother state (Dorothy Day’s words)?

It’s magic:

Too many people, including otherwise very smart people, believe in secular magic. They believe that words written on paper by people, each of whom receive a majority of votes on certain days of the year of adult citizens living in certain geographic areas, and who utter ritualistic pronouncements under marble domes in buildings conventionally called “capitols,” are somehow endowed with greater understanding of society’s complexities and with superhuman capacities to care about the welfare of strangers. . . . .

Etc., from Don Boudreaux a few years back.

He keeps his cards so close to his vest, you’d think they were painted on, but he has advice for the legislative branch:

President Obama called Saturday for Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work together to pass legislation reviving the faltering U.S. economy.

Good idea! Has he any suggestions that enough of them might agree on?

Some people not about to take shit from an a-hole, homeless or not.

Something wrong with our politics, says the nation’s highest elected official, if not its leader. Oh? says C. Krauthammer, and more than oh.

When men were men and bishops were bishops: the Irish hierarchy in 1873 dishes on Catholic education, drunkenness, and the bad treatment afforded Pope Pius IX.

Yes!

Democrats won two state Senate seats in Tuesday’s historic recall elections, but failed to capture a third seat that would have given them control of the chamber.

By keeping a majority in the Senate, Republicans retained their monopoly on state government because they also hold the Assembly and governor’s office. Tuesday’s elections narrowed their majority – at least for now – from 19-14 to a razor-thin 17-16.

Coming up, more:

Republicans may be able to gain back some of the losses next week, when two Democrats face recall elections.

It’s getting union monopolists’ feet off the Wisconsin neck, is what it is.

Lawrence Kudlow does not shrug off yesterday’s gains but sees Bernanke’s position as a quick fix with no good ending.

. . . if I had my druthers, I would promote growth through flat-tax reform, a regulatory rollback, lower spending, and a steady King Dollar linked to gold. In other words, more incentives for private-sector entrepreneurs and small businesses.

But like many I suspect the Fed would have no problem presiding over a cheaper dollar, which over time is an inflationist policy a tax hike on the economy.

Case of stopped clock being right twice a day, I guess.

In that vein, from the late Frank Chodorov:

“Private capitalism makes a steam engine;
State capitalism makes pyramids.”

A word to the wise is sufficient — but never cuts it with the stupid.

The question is, is he dumb as a rock?

How many times have we heard it said that Mr. Obama is the smartest president ever? Even when he’s criticized, his failures are usually chalked up to his supposed brilliance. Liberals say he’s too cerebral for the Beltway rough-and-tumble; conservatives often seem to think his blunders, foreign and domestic, are all part of a cunning scheme to turn the U.S. into a combination of Finland, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.

I don’t buy it. I just think the president isn’t very bright.

How dare he? He won the last election, didn’t he?  On the other hand,

He makes predictions that prove false. He makes promises he cannot honor. He raises expectations he cannot meet. He reneges on commitments made in private. He surrenders positions staked in public. He is absent from issues in which he has a duty to be involved. He is overbearing when he ought to be absent. At the height of the financial panic of 1907, Teddy Roosevelt, who had done much to bring the panic about by inveighing against big business, at least had the good sense to stick to his bear hunt and let J.P. Morgan sort things out. Not so this president, who puts a new twist on an old put-down: Every time he opens his mouth, he subtracts from the sum total of financial capital.

Lemme think about it, ok?

Mary Anastasia O’Grady aptly characterizes our maximum leader:

After last month’s debt-ceiling debacle, a critical mass of President Obama’s harshest critics have gone from calling him socialism’s evil genius to tagging him as merely a clueless community organizer who is in over his head.

Yet while the haggling over spending exposed many of the president’s weaknesses, it seems a mistake to underestimate his collectivist instincts. It may be true that if he cannot accomplish what he wants by decree, he loses interest fast. But it also remains evident that his worldview is largely aligned with the eternal struggle for an all-powerful state.

To recap:

. . . . clueless community organizer who is in over his head. . . . .  a mistake to underestimate his collectivist instincts. . . . . if he cannot accomplish what he wants by decree, he loses interest fast. . . . .  his worldview is largely aligned with the eternal struggle for an all-powerful state.

O’Grady is discussing how Obama has tapped gently on the wrist of Ecuador strong man Rafael Correa, having earlier slam-banged democratic Honduras.

I talked about Obama as the ’08 election day approached, in a Wed. Journal of Oak Park & River Forest column, calling him “the man of action” beloved of progressives, a.k.a. liberals.  Local libs got really mad about that.

Black culture spilleth over.

“It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people,” said Norb Roffers of Wind Lake in an interview with Newsradio 620 WTMJ. He left the State Fair Entrance near the corner of South 84th Street and West Schlinger Avenue in West Allis.

“They were attacking everybody for no reason whatsoever.”

“It was 100% racial,” claimed Eric, an Iraq war veteran from St. Francis who says young people beat on his car.

“I had a black couple on my right side, and these black kids were running in between all the cars, and they were pounding on my doors and trying to open up doors on my car, and they didn’t do one thing to this black couple that was in this car next to us. They just kept walking right past their car. They were looking in everybody’s windshield as they were running by, seeing who was white and who was black. Guarantee it.”

Eric, a war veteran, said that the scene he saw Thursday outside State Fair compares to what he saw in combat.

Etc.

This sort of thing presents a challenge to black-audience orators such as Fr. Pfleger of Chicago. But he would lose his audience, so he can’t do it. (Unless he’d get a different audience.)

Later:

Here’s a later story with arrests and injuries, including of hospitalized cops.

Because of the violence, Rick Frenette, CEO of the fair, announced that the fair would immediately implement a policy in which no youths under 18 years of age would be allowed onto the grounds after 5 p.m. without a parent or guardian at least 21 years old.

No youths.  Why not no black youths?