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Monday, February 18, 2008
McCain takes on farm subsidies
Anyone want to guess the last time a major party nominee said this?
“At a time when Americans must work four months a year just to pay their taxes, John McCain cannot support farm policies that are too costly for the taxpayer, particularly when they also play a negative role in encouraging farmers to rely on government subsidies,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said of the dairy subsidy." (Wisconsin State Journal via NRO - The Corner)
Try never. On this issue at least, McCain can break new ground for small-c conservatives.
Posted by D.J. McGuire on February 18, 2008 in International Politics | Permalink
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Comments
Not only am I glad to read those words, but a Jewish friend of mine sent these words from John McCain's brother Joe.
Senator John McCain's brother on The Jews & Israel.
There is a lot of worry popping up in the media just now -- 'Can Israel Survive?' Don't worry about it. It relates to something that Palestinians, the Arabs, and perhaps most Americans don't realize -- the Jews are never going quietly again. Never. And if the world doesn't come to understand that, then millions of Arabs are going to die. It's as simple as that.
Throughout the history of the world, the most abused, kicked-around race of people have been the Jews. Not just during the holocaust of World War II, but for thousands of years. They have truly been 'The Chosen People' in a terrible and tragic sense.
The Bible story of Egypt's enslavement of the Jews is not just a story, it is history, if festooned with theological legend and heroic epics. In 70 A.D. the Romans, which had for a long time tolerated the Jews -- even admired them as 'superior' to other vassals -- tired of their truculent demands for independence and decided on an early 'Solution' to the Jewish problem. Jerusalem was sacked and reduced to near rubble, Jewish resistance was pursued and crushed by the implacable Roman War Machine -- see 'Masada'. And thus began The Diaspora, the dispersal of Jews throughout the rest of the world.
Their homeland destroyed, their culture crushed, they looked desperately for the few niches in a hostile world where they could be safe. That safety was fragile, and often subject to the whims of moody hosts. The words 'pogrom', 'ghetto', and 'anti-Semitism' come from this treatment of the first mono-theistic people. Throughout Europe, changing times meant sometimes tolerance, sometimes even warmth for the Jews, but eventually it meant hostility, then malevolence. There is not a country in Europe or Western Asia that at one time or another has not decided to lash out against the children of Moses, sometimes by whim, sometimes by manipulation.
Winston Churchill calls Edward I one of England's very greatest kings. It was under his rule in the late 1200's that Wales and Cornwall were hammered into the British crown, and Scotland and Ireland were invaded and occupied. He was also the first European monarch to set up a really effective administrative bureaucracy, surveyed and censused his kingdom, established laws and political divisions. But he also embraced the Jews.
Actually Edward didn't embrace Jews so much as he embraced their money. For the English Jews had acquired wealth -- understandable, because this people that could not own land or office, could not join most of the trades and professions, soon found out that money was a very good thing to accumulate. Much harder to take away than land or a store, was a hidden sock of gold and silver coins. Ever resourceful, Edward found a way -- he borrowed money from the Jews to finance imperial ambitions in Europe, especially France. The loans were almost certainly not made gladly, but how do you refuse your King? Especially when he is 'Edward the Hammer'. Then, rather than pay back the debt, Edward simply expelled the Jews. Edward was especially inventive -- he did this twice. After a time, he invited the Jews back to their English homeland, borrowed more money, then expelled them again.
Most people do not know that Spain was one of the early entrants into The Renaissance. People from all over the world came to Spain in the late medieval period. All were welcome -- Arabs, Jews, other Europeans. The University of Salamanca was one of the great centers of learning in the world -- scholars of all nations, all fields came to Salamanca to share their knowledge and their ideas. But in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella, having driven the last of Moors from the Spanish Shield, were persuaded by the righteous fundamentalists of the time to announce 'The Act of Purification'. A series of steps were taken in which all Jews and Arabs and other non-Christians were expelled from the country, or would face the tools and the torches of The Inquisition. From this 'cleansing' come the Sephardic Jews -- as opposed to the Ashkenazis of Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe,
the sporadic violence and brutality against Jews are common knowledge. 'Fiddler' without the music and the folksy humor. At times of fury, no accommodation by the Jew was good enough, no profile low enough, no village poor enough or distant enough.
From these come the near-steady flow of Jews to the United States. And despite the disdain of the Jews by most 'American' Americans, they came to grab the American Dream with both hands, and contributed everything from new ideas of enterprise in retail and entertainment to becoming some of our finest physicians and lawyers. The modern United States, in spite of itself, IS The United States in part because of its Jewish blood.
Then the Nazi Holocaust -- the corralling, sorting, orderly eradication of millions of the people of Moses. Not something that other realms in other times didn't try to do, by the way, the Germans were just more organized and had better murder technology.
I stood in the center of Dachau for an entire day, about 15 years ago, trying to comprehend how this could have happened. I had gone there on a side trip from Munich, vaguely curious about this Dachau. I soon became engulfed in the enormity of what had occurred there nestled in this middle and working class neighborhood.
How could human beings do this to other human beings, hear their cries, their pleas, their terror, their pain, and continue without apparently even wincing? I no longer wonder. At some times, some places, ANY sect of the human race is capable of horrors against their fellow man, whether a member of the Waffen SS, a Serbian sniper, a Turkish policeman in 1920's Armenia, a Mississippi Klansman. Because even in the United States not all was a Rose Garden. For a long time Jews had quotas in our universities and graduate schools. Only so many Jews could be in a medical or law school at one time. Jews were disparaged widely. I remember as a kid Jewish jokes
told without a wince - 'Why do Jews have such big noses?'
Well, now the Jews have a homeland again. A place that is theirs. And that's the point. It doesn't matter how many times the United States and European powers try to rein in Israel, if it comes down to survival of its nation, its people, they will fight like no lioness has ever fought to save her cubs. They will fight with a ferocity, a determination, and a skill, that will astound us.
And many will die, mostly their attackers, I believe. If there were a
macabre historical betting parlor, my money would be on the Israelis to be standing at the end. As we killed the kamikazes and the Wehrmacht soldaten of World War II, so will the Israelis kill their suicidal attackers, until there are not enough to torment them.
The irony goes unnoticed -- while we are hammering away to punish those who brought the horrors of last September here, we restrain the Israelis from the same retaliation. Not the same thing, of course -- We are We, They are They. While we mourn and seethe at September 11th, we don't notice that Israel has a September 11th sometimes every day.
We may not notice, but it doesn't make any difference. And it doesn't make any difference whether you are pro-Israeli or you think Israel is the bully of the Middle East. If it comes to where a new holocaust looms -- with or without the concurrence of the United States and Europe -- Israel will lash out without pause or restraint at those who would try to annihilate their country.
The Jews will not go quietly again.
Joe McCain
Posted by: John West | 2008-02-18 3:24:05 PM
Uh, OK... I'm not really sure what agricultural subsidies have to do with the complete history of the Jewish face as a blog comment, but I'm glad John McCain is against them anyway. This is an idea that badly needs to get into the mainstream - these continued subsidies are, quite frankly, killing people, and the sooner they're all scrapped, the better.
Posted by: Janet | 2008-02-18 5:11:02 PM
Ha! That should be Jewish "faith" obviously.
Posted by: Janet | 2008-02-18 5:54:07 PM
Subsidies, quotas and licenses whether in farming or taxi cabs simply limit the market and choices. The thing of value then becomes the quota or license and impedes entry into the field of endeavour. It also raises the price of the product. It may appease those who already have the advantages but it diminishes everyone else. When the government of New Zealand did away with subsidies the farm economy improved.
Posted by: DML | 2008-02-18 9:03:54 PM
What a bunch of phonies. The biggest Conservative supporters are farmers. The biggest boosters for farm subsidies (apart from farmers themselves) are Conservatives. Scratch a Conservative, find a hypocrite.
Posted by: Kate | 2008-02-18 9:33:30 PM
Thanks DML and Kate,
People mock farm subsidies now that the price of grain has gone up. OK so NZ farm economy improved but did thew quality of rural life improve only for a FEW?
Europe - especially France has maintained subsidies primarily to maintin the rural way of life. Is it costly = YES but then tax free loans to the automakers are as well and for the same reason.
Having grown up way North of Kamsack/Sk in what once was a vibrant and triving area is now a virtual wasteland populated only by Farmers with huge equipment.
Services like hospitals, schools - even banks, elevators and so on are centralized forcing people into urban areas.
is that what we want?
Posted by: The LS from SK | 2008-02-19 6:33:34 AM
Great connecting piece John West (not) but you realize the USA subsidizes Isreal to the tune of about $8 Billion per year?
Mind you, the $US is not what it used to be :)
Posted by: The LS from SK | 2008-02-19 7:45:18 AM
The LS from SK:
Luckily, I also think that tax-free subsidies for automakers, or anyone, are wrong.
What I want is for people living in rural areas to be responsible for the fact that they chose to live in a rural area. It might not be the best place for businesses to locate, and you should have to live with that, not sap the rest of the country's productivity to try to alleviate the cost of your decision from yourself.
In general:
There is simply no reason, other than political opportunism and a lack of education of the economic consequences, to advocate continuing agricultural subsidies and quotas. They are a flat-out attack on the poorest in our country and our world, and if they do represent conservative values then conservative parties should be ashamed of that fact and cheering on anyone like McCain who is, in this instance, courageous enough to fight back against "conservative" policy because it is bad policy.
Posted by: Janet | 2008-02-19 12:37:46 PM
Ok - Janet...lets try one more time.
There are of course subsidies and then there are 'subsidies" be they direct or indirect.
The intent is to keep communities alive and we all pay one way or another for that and there is no reason to force small farmers into a urban environment especially if they are now elderly.
That is not free choice.
Lawyers fees/wages are artificial and what occurs abroad and the USA = "Contingency" is not permitted in Canada for fear of competititon? No free market in that sector?
Posted by: The LS from SK | 2008-02-20 7:20:18 AM
LS,
I predict you are wasting your breath with the likes of "Janet"
I find it amusing that every time there is a thread on agriculture the first thing you get are the experts like Janet popping out of the woodwork shrieking about farm subsidies.
Never a mention of the billions of tax payers dollars ( re: subsidies) that are paid every year to support her shining bastions of socialism, the cities, every year.
Elections have now become a contest to see which leader will give more money to the cities, you have Bronconnier in the south, and the fine mayor up north, and every other mayor of every city and municipality with their hand out.
I'm sure "Janet" was fully behind Bronconnier when he was stamping his foot and insisting on millions more for Calgary.
I'm sure "Janet" ignores these realities, while the small amount paid to farmer's to ensure her demand for cheap food is cause for distain.
Posted by: deepblue | 2008-02-20 8:49:37 AM
Thanks DeepBlue
Education is never an investment that is wasted.
But you are dead right as to the Billion$ spent on infrastructure for cities as smaller communities are allowed to die.
If we abandon our past,ignore our present - we lose our future as big cities become cultural wastelands as a community and a place for human beings.
Ah yes (ach Ja for those that can speak German)- (I post that as the Canada I remember is made up of so many interesting cultures) there is a Wal Mart, a K Mart, maybe even an IKEA (merde to McDonalds) and so on...but the focus is not on a social interaction...instead a economic one that turns us simple human beings into the urban giant lizards RW so hates.
Posted by: The LS from SK | 2008-02-20 10:44:46 AM
LS- It was not the few who benefited in NZ. Indeed, it became possible for younger folk to get into farming because the value of the land and of the farms, licenses and quotas dropped. I don't approve of subsidies for industry either. We learn to function properly or we die. No one has the "right" to "take" a living from another. If the family farm dies maybe it is because the land is marginal or the farmer is growing the wrong crop or because there is too much produce to maintain a high enough price to maintain the farm. One family farmer in Sask that I know went out of grains and into alternative crops that he could market through the internet and he is doing very well. Many of his neighbours have followed suit.
Posted by: DML | 2008-02-20 10:48:54 PM
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