Meanwhile, Chris Matthews is an idiot:If the trapped Chilean miners had subscribed to the tea party’s “every-man-for-himself” philosophy, “they would have been killing each other after about two days,” MSNBC host Chris Matthews said on his “Hardball” show Wednesday night....
"You know these people, if they were every man for himself down in that mine, they wouldn't have gotten out.... They would have been killing each other after about two days.”
What that shows is that Matthews — in stereotypical liberal fashion — has forgotten the way private individuals cooperate and help each other. The government and only the government must be the source of all beneficence. If you don't want the government to solve all your problems, you must think you and everyone else can be 100% self-reliant.
Ann, honey? Who do you think rescued those miners?
Finding the mine’s owners overwhelmed by Chile’s worst mining accident in decades, [Chilean president Sebastián Piñera] ordered his government to take charge and called in experts from Codelco, the big state-owned copper producer.
It was a risky move, but it paid off. Probes by Codelco’s engineers found the miners still alive 17 days after the rockfall. Codelco mobilised contractors and equipment from around the world to drill three separate rescue shafts. Some lay near at hand. The rig that drilled the successful shaft was supplied by a contractor at Collahuasi, a mine controlled by two multinationals, Anglo American and Xstrata.
The government also brought in Chile’s navy, whose submariners have experience working at great depths in confined spaces. The wire rescue capsules were made at the naval shipyard in Talcahuano, in southern Chile, and two navy paramedics were lowered to check the men’s health.
The government has not specified the cost of the rescue operation, though Codelco says its share has cost $15m (Collahuasi lent its equipment free of charge). Few Chileans will begrudge that. They appreciate Mr Piñera’s handling of the disaster.
The government rescued the miners, Ann. The government. Gooo-veeeern-meeeent.
Some people are conservative because they think it means dignity and responsibility. But some people are conservative because they're just stupid.
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Meanwhile, Ann, in stereotypical conservative fashion, makes sweeping generalizations about liberals expecting the government to fix 100% of the problems in the world. Do you think she noticed the contradiction?
Apparently when a group of people==specifically, say, the miners, get together and figure out how to co-operate peacefully to survive cramped, dangerous, quarters that's not forming any kind of union, that's just sturdy independence and autonomous individuals arriving individually at the decision to co-operate over and over and over again without any kind of co-ordination. That probably scales up pretty well from, say, 1 or 2 to 33 or even 300 million! Who needs government when you can have perfect agreement in all things without planning, forethought, or discussion!
aimai
The only appropriate response to Ann Althouse requires, not intellectual argument, but a diagnosis in terms of psychopathology. Aimai's union point is so true, and so readily available to someone writing and discussing in good faith, that you have to ask--humor me here--"Why write it?"
Assuming the writer possesses a basic level of education and intelligence, there are only three possible answers:
1. The writer is so mentally impaired (for whatever reason), she simply can't think clearly.
2. The writer is so eager to impress an audience she considers too stupid to notice, that she writes anything she thinks will please them. Then the question is, Why?
3. The writer is so eager to impress and curry favor with the powerful forces she flatters and defends, that she simply doesn't care if it makes her look either stupid and impaired, or desperate for the adoration of idiots. Why?
It's so hard to choose, isn't it? That's why I vote for all three.
Someone tell Professor Althouse that the box wine industry is dependent on government subsidies.
The resultant cognitive dissonance should be fun to watch.
Mr. Wonderful: don't forget the money motive. ArgleBargle & Husband make big bucks shilling for the Billionaire corporations.
Tho the corporate Greedheads may have considerably less money to spread around once their blatant criminality reaches the point where it simply CAN'T be ignored, nor the Perps bailed out again. This time, investors may be calling the tune rather than Teh Fed.
Re that story about the subscription-only Fire Dept in Georgia (where else but a Red State?), letting a guy's house burn to the ground because he forgot to pay his yearly fee: I'm sure Ms. Althouse would call that "A stirring example of the Free Market in action..."
I was watching CNN when the last rescue worker ascended, was greeted by the president, and when asked for his thoughts made a strong plea for more government regulation of mines to prevent any more incidents like this. I read today that the president is proceeding with just that in mind. Where's Pinochet when you need him, the Althouse brigades are no doubt thinking.
There's an update! (but I guess there usually is when Althouse says something stupid, which is most of the time):
The rescue took place the way it did because of the Center Rock drill bit — "a piece of tough technology developed by a small company in it for the money, for profit."
So there! If the government uses anything that was made by the private sector (i.e., didn't mine the raw materials, mill them, and manufacture the device from soup to nuts, as in a command economy), then the private sector wins! USA! USA!
hen the private sector wins! USA! USA!
From a joke to sad reality in no time at all: this made rounds in the blogs and the press in our little corner of Teh Socialist European Paradise. For those of you not willing to bother with the automated translation, here's a shorter: The Chilean miners were rescued by Americans, the American way. USA! USA!
Somebody shoot me.
What that shows is that Matthews — in stereotypical liberal fashion — has forgotten the way private individuals cooperate and help each other.
What that shows is that Althouse - in stereotypical stupid-person fashion - has forgotten the way Matthews said "Tea Party's every-man-for-himself philosophy" and not "private individuals".
Not to mention also that they almost instantly formed a sort of government. They voted on things and the majority ruled. They knew that an orderly government of rules and laws was crucial to their survival.
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