Some interesting Joe Biden quotes about race

These quotations show Joe Biden saying some very awkward things about race. You might respond that none of them are bad enough to convict Joe Biden of racism. With that, I would actually agree. However, in my opinion, they are much worse than any of the purportedly “racist” comments made by Donald Trump. Yet Trump is always portrayed as a “racist,” while Biden is not.

Again, I don't think there's enough here to convict anybody of racism. My point is not that Joe Biden is a “racist.” My point is that he is judged by very different standards than those that are applied to Trump.

A review of PBS’s “George W. Bush” (American Experience)

“A year ago, my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my vice president had shot someone … Those were the good old days.”

– George W. Bush, in a series of jokes at a White House dinner (28 March 2007)

To begin with, this documentary is a hatchet job …

I normally love documentaries, and have watched more than a hundred of them. This included many about American presidents, and I wanted to add this one to the list. Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a hatchet job, with extreme left-wing bias. It is so biased, in fact, as to be factually inaccurate, in ways that I shall describe below.

George W. Bush

In defense of Ronald Reagan: Helping the mujahideen in the Soviet-Afghan War

During the Reagan administration, we were allied with both Iraq and Afghanistan …

In the Ronald Reagan era, America had two allies that seem somewhat ironic today: Iraq and Afghanistan. In the twenty-first century, America would later go to war with both of these countries. Thus, some have perceived a contradiction between the earlier alliance and the later hostilities. But to me, it would seem that there is a common theme running through both of these policies, which is American national interest. I will attempt to explain this interest in this post, and show why Reagan's support for the mujahideen was both justified and worthwhile.

Three “mujahideen”  in Asmar – Afghanistan, 1985

Cold War crises: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 and “Able Archer 83”

“Is this a game, or is it real?”

– Quote from “WarGames” (1983), a fictional movie about a close call with nuclear war, which came out a few months before the first of these real-life crises

The Soviet Union shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 …

In 1983, a Boeing 747 aircraft took off from JFK International Airport in New York City on the 30th of August. Its planned destination was Seoul in South Korea, but it was scheduled to make a stop in Anchorage, Alaska, and routinely did so on the following day (the 31st of August). But the aircraft actually never made it to its planned destination, because it was shot down the next day on the 1st of September. It was flying over prohibited Soviet airspace. The Soviets thus mistook it for an American spy plane, and sent up a Sukhoi SU-15 interceptor aircraft to shoot it down. The interceptor did the job with air-to-air missiles, and the aircraft quickly crashed into the Sea of Japan, near Moneron Island west of Sakhalin. All 269 passengers and crew were killed, including a United States Congressman from Georgia named Larry McDonald. Two weeks later, on the 15th of September, the Soviets actually found the wreckage under the sea; and in October, they even found the flight recorders. But they kept all of this secret for the next ten years, not releasing any of this until 1993. (I borrow some of the wording for this blog post from various parts of Wikipedia, which I must acknowledge here as a source.)

HL7442, the same plane that was shot down as “Korean Air Lines Flight 007”

Nixon's visit to China: Driving a wedge between China and the Soviet Union

This might seem a strange way to begin a blog post about American diplomacy in the Nixon era, but the year 1949 was significant for both the Russians and the Chinese. For the Soviets, it was the year that they became the second nation (after the United States) to get the atomic bomb. For the communist Chinese, it was the year that they proclaimed the "People's Republic of China" in the mainland, which is the communist government that still rules China today. Both of these were massive events that were of the utmost importance for this story, but it was the second event that has the most explanatory power for what went on there. Thus, it is the second of these two events that I will be focusing on here at the beginning of this post, as a way of setting up my discussion of the other things later.

Mao Zedong, dictator who proclaimed the "People's Republic of China"

Reagan and “Star Wars”: Bringing the fall of the Wall and the end of the Cold War

"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate ... Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

- President Ronald Reagan, standing at the Brandenburg Gate on 12 June 1987

Two rival superpowers with nuclear weapons

People in my generation may not always be aware of it today, but the world was afraid of a nuclear war for over forty years of the last century. It was called the "Cold War," for those who don't know, and the scariest thing about it was that this nuclear holocaust could actually happen. Two superpowers had nuclear weapons - which were, of course, the United States and the Soviet Union - and these two superpowers disliked and distrusted each other greatly.

Berlin Wall, 1986

An eerie description of the Cold War from a previous century

The words of a philosopher from 300 years ago could be seen as an accurate description of this twentieth-century conflict, and an eerie one at that. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote that "persons of sovereign authority [or in this case, nations] ... [are] in the state and posture of gladiators; having their weapons pointing, and their eyes fixed on one another; that is, their forts, garrisons, and guns upon the frontiers of their [nations]; and continual spies on their neighbors; which is a posture of war." (Source: "Leviathan" [published 1651], Chapter XIII, the subsection entitled "The incommodities of such a war") Thus, in many important ways, Thomas Hobbes' timeless quotation is an apt description of the Cold War.

Blockade (or "quarantine") of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

Why Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan didn't go communist (like mainland China did)

One of the basic facts about China today is that most of it is communist - the part that most of us hear about. Thus, it surprises some people to know that some parts of it are not communist at all; but have free-market capitalist systems like those found in the West. Why is this, you might ask? Why did these parts not go communist, when the rest of China did?

Flag of the People's Republic of China

China has two "Special Administrative Regions," which are Hong Kong and Macau

To answer that, you have to examine a little of the history; which explains why the country has two "Special Administrative Regions" (which are Hong Kong and Macau), and lays claim over still another region which is not communist, which is Taiwan. Why is this, you might ask? Why were these particular regions spared the cataclysmic forces that engulfed the rest of the Chinese-speaking world?

Map of the People's Republic of China

A review of PBS's "Jimmy Carter" movie

"For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the last five years."

- Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech, 15 July 1979 (after he'd been president for two and a half years)

PBS made a three-hour documentary about the life of Jimmy Carter. The documentary was a lot like Carter himself: frequently boring (particularly in the first part).

A review of PBS's “Bill Clinton” movie

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

- Bill Clinton, in a statement for the press (26 January 1998)

PBS made a four-hour documentary about the life of Bill Clinton. It has the liberal bias that you'd expect from PBS, but with the exception of their coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, it was a fascinating film. I don't think Bill Clinton was a good president, or even a particularly good man; but he was certainly an interesting man, with intelligence, great speaking ability, and a gift for politics to rival that of Reagan, Kennedy, or FDR.

Bill Clinton shakes hands with then-president John F. Kennedy

A review of PBS's movie "George H. W. Bush"

"My opponent won't rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes and I'll say no. And they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll push again, and I'll say, to them, 'Read my lips: no new taxes.' "

- Presidential nominee George H. W. Bush, in a speech at the Republican National Convention on 18 August 1988

George H. W. Bush

Surprisingly sympathetic

PBS made a three-hour documentary about the life of the first Bush president, George H. W. Bush (not to be confused with his similarly-named former-president son). The film was surprisingly sympathetic to him, perhaps because his moderate economics were more agreeable to the liberal PBS filmmakers than the conservative economics of his predecessor Ronald Reagan, or his son George W. Bush.

US fighter wing during Desert Storm, 1991

A review of PBS's "Ronald Reagan" movie

"One of my favorite quotations about age comes from Thomas Jefferson. He said that we should never judge a president by his age, only by his work. And ever since he told me that, I've stopped worrying ...

Just to show you how youthful I am, I intend to campaign in all thirteen states."

- Ronald Reagan

Hatchet job

PBS made a four-hour documentary about the life of Ronald Reagan. The documentary could be described as something of a hatchet job. It does reluctantly admit that Reagan's defense buildup succeeded in its goal of hastening the fall of the Soviet Union, though it follows this admission with a left-wing talking head saying this enormous accomplishment was not worth its financial price, and then blaming the deficits of those years on Reagan, rather than on the spendthrift Democrat Congress of the time (where the blame really belongs). They also said that the most controversial speech of Reagan's presidency was the "Evil Empire" speech, implying that they disagree with this assessment of the Soviet Union. (How anyone, even an ardent communist, can deny that the Soviet Union was an Evil Empire is beyond me.)

The price of being dumb (and voting for Obama)

To every thinking person,
It must seem a little strange
That so many could be fooled
By words like "hope" and "change."

Debunking the myth of Obamacare making healthcare cheaper

Our healthcare is about to cost a lot more, thanks to the new taxes in Mr. Obama’s bill. (The bill was passed a while back, but it doesn’t take effect for some time.) You can see several new taxes, fees, and miscellaneous other “revenue provisions” in p. 10 of the bill’s 906-page text (in the 12-page table of contents), as reported on the Senate website at this link. Below is a summary:

• “Excise tax on high cost employer-sponsored health coverage” (Title of Section 9001). 
• “Excise tax on elective cosmetic medical procedures” (Title of Section 9017). 
• “Increase in additional tax on distributions from HSAs and Archer MSAs not used for qualified medical expenses” (Title of Section 9004). 
• “Limitation on health flexible spending arrangements under cafeteria plans” (Title of Section 9005). 
• “Elimination of deduction for expenses allocable to Medicare Part D subsidy” (Title of Section 9012). 
• “Additional hospital insurance tax on high-income taxpayers” (Title of Section 9015). 
• “Imposition of annual fee on branded prescription pharmaceutical manufacturers and importers” (Title of Section 9008). Taxing anyone who makes or imports pharmaceuticals is guaranteed to discourage making or importing them, thus reducing the supply of these needed pharmaceuticals. Some “cheaper” healthcare. 
• “Imposition of annual fee on medical device manufacturers and importers” (Title of Section 9009). Taxing anyone who makes or imports medical devices is guaranteed to discourage making or importing them, thus reducing the supply of these needed medical devices. “Cheaper” healthcare, indeed – if you can actually have access to the dwindling supply. 
• “Imposition of annual fee on health insurance providers” (Title of Section 9010). Taxing anyone who provides health insurance is guaranteed to discourage its being provided, thus reducing the supply of health insurance. “Cheaper” healthcare, my rear end. 

Obama signs "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," 2010

So these new taxes and fees translate to reduced supplies of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and health insurance, not to mention the costs of the other taxes. The last three mentioned taxes alone make healthcare more expensive, either by causing people to bid up the price of what supplies are left, or by having long lines for them at artificially low prices set by government. Thus, there’s either a money price from your wallet, or a time price in a long line – and needless to say, both hurt.

Barack Obama

So if you want healthcare to be more expensive – if you like higher prices, longer lines, and bigger taxes – vote Obama.

But if you want healthcare to be cheaper – really cheaper – vote for the free market by voting Republican, and get rid of this awful bill.

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The price of being dumb (and voting for Obama)