"Human nature is predictable and thus tragic"

Porkulus for Two. It's what's for dinner, the newest entrée from our Cold Turkey Cookbook Experimental Kitchens. Check out the glorious pinkish ribbon of fat around the edge. President Obama, Senator Reid and Congresswoman Pelosi, eat your "earmark-free" hearts out. See below* for recipe.

"If not [the conservative], who will say that life is not fair, that human nature is predictable and thus tragic, that in our brief corporal lives we can guarantee an equality of rough opportunity but hardly mandate an equality of absolute result — since we are mere mortals, not gods?" asks Victor Davis Hanson rhetorically, explaining for those who do not study history why "the pillar of conservatism is fiscal responsibility":

Balancing budgets and saying no to always expanding government, first, is a moral issue. Just as the individual does not borrow from others to satisfy his own appetite, does not consume what he does not earn, so too government should not spend what the nation has not produced. The conservative, as the custodian of ancient morality, must remind the populace of the thriftiness of our ancestors that explains the bounty we inherited.

"It’s much bigger news when 200 people with jobs who’ve never protested turn out, than when 20,000 of the usual suspects organized by ACORN or ANSWER march with preprinted signs," writes Professor Reynolds of the growing Tea Party Movement. We love the infantile greed of Obamaniacs implied in "Gimme, Gimme" and "I need more toys NOW!" Rush Limbaugh made the same point in his "first televised address to the nation" at CPAC yesterday: "We gotta stop treating voters like children." (Darin Morley photo from St. Louis Arch "anti-Spendulus" Tea Party that drew 1,500 protesters Friday [via Gateway Pundit])

Enter stage right the burgeoning Tea Party Movement. "If social media is a good barometer, it looks like the spending bill is stimulating the citizenry already," quips LA Times technology blogger David Sarno:

Though even a year ago it would've been a slow and difficult process to chronicle a widely scattered protest such as this, the online community is now mastering the art of high-speed media sharing, a trend that can unite geographically disparate communities via the Web. Much of the sharing is now facilitated by the fast-growing messaging site Twitter, where today the keyword "teaparty" was one of the most frequently used terms. Users sent out a flurry of updates about attendance, links to photos on Flickr and Photobucket, and videos on YouTube and other sites.

"Rick Moran thinks the 'Tea Party' protests are amateurish and disorganized. At Playboy, on the other hand, they think they’re suspiciously well-coordinated. Both are right!" says the Professor:

Of course they’re amateurish. Most of these people have never organized a protest before (hence the tendency to do things like forget bullhorns). That’s what you get at the beginning of a movement … If this keeps up (and I think it just might) the amateurishness will fade away soon enough. Then Moran will probably complain about the loss of authenticity.

The Playboy folks, meanwhile, miss two things. One is that, as reader Miles Wilson noted, these protests predate Santelli. The other is that modern technology allows a bunch of people who don’t know each other to coordinate a nationwide campaign “suspiciously” well. Somebody should write a book on that subject some day.

Glenn Reynolds, as ever, is miles ahead of the curve. We ourselves were perhaps a bit ahead of the curve in December of 2004, commenting on the ominous exodus of the Dutch middle classes then in progress in the wake of — in Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's words — "clogged roads, street violence and loss of faith in Holland's once celebrated way of life." We stumbled onto that venerable post of ours yesterday while examining the entrails of our blog traffic in Site Meter stats and were horrified to hear a Dutch citizen back then "channeling" our own Rick Santelli of "Chicago Tea Party" fame:

"There's a feeling of injustice that if you do things right, if you work hard and pay your taxes, you're punished, and those who don't are rewarded. People can come and live here illegally and get payments [said Ellen, 43, a lawyer and banker who votes for the free-market Liberals]. How is that possible?"

"The Netherlands may be the canary in the mine," we noted at the time, not realizing that Obamogenic Eurostyle socialism was lumbering towards us just over the next hill in the land of the free and the home of the brave. As we wrote back then:

One would have thought that the fall of Communism had taught us once and for all — even those persons of the left still desperately clinging to their youthful embrace of Rousseau's pipe dream of the Noble Savage — that you can't fool Mother Nature. There are certain laws of human nature that will always out. Incentives are all. Reward anti-social behavior by telling the perpetrator he's a victim of society and it isn't his fault, and like any infant he'll keep on behaving badly.

As Larry Kudlow wrote the other day in "Obama Declares War on Investors, Entrepreneurs, Businesses":

Study after study over the past several decades has shown how countries that spend more produce less, while nations that tax less produce more. Obama is doing it wrong on both counts.

Let's hope the Tea Party conservatives, VDH's "custodians of ancient morality," will remind our fellow citizens in time of "the thriftiness of our ancestors that explain the bounty we inherited."

Update: Porkulus was "a little tough," says food critic Tuck. Was an hour too long? We've gotta do some more experimenting to get it right. Update II: We sliced it for sandwiches next morning, and it was fine. That tough spot was just a gristly piece of the chop that Tuck had the misfortune to bite into.

*How to make Porkulus for Two:

Cut a side pocket into a 2-inch-thick boneless pork chop as for Pork Suzette. Instead of Shake 'n Bake, top it with a quickie version of our Apple and Sausage Stuffing: Cook one sweet sausage till browned, breaking apart with spatula, add 5 cloves chopped roasted garlic, 1/2 cup Apple-Strawberry Mix (we used Cortlands for our latest batch), 1 1/2 cups prepared stuffing (we recommend Pepperidge Farm Cornbread) and c. 1 cup chicken broth. Cook over low heat until thoroughly moistened. Heap upon pork chop and bake about one hour at 350˚ till thermometer registers 155˚, anticipating a 5˚ increase to the recommended "safe minimum" of 160˚ after removing the chop from the oven. We covered 20 minutes into the baking to prevent over-browning. Let rest a few minutes, loosely covered with foil, before serving.

Comments

[goomp]

The internet is what has replaced what was once the free press. Let us hope the dictatorial liberals will not decide that they will control what is allowed on the internet.

[goomp]

Porkulus looks mighty delicious.

[Connecticut Yankee]

Tiny's pose and expression are suitably inscrutable-- did she have a taste of the porkulus and find it not to her liking?

[pam]

Love the Porkulus recipe; thanks! :-)

I thought of you today... ran across a book publishing site called 'Blurb' that allows you to upload your posts to create a book.

There are only a couple of blogs I think would make good books and yours is one of them!

[Sissy Willis]

Goomp: It IS delicious. Connecticut Yankee: She LIKED it! pam: Thanks for your kind comments — 'have added 'em to the "kudos" in right column — and the tip re "Blurb." I'll take a look. :-)

[jille]

A splendid post and recipe I must try

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