Abandonment of "nation-building" exercises. Abolition of the federal Department of Education. A 1924-style immigration freeze. Repeal of No Child Left Behind. End of all federal subsidies to "community groups". End of all federal subsidies to arts and culture. End of all foreign-aid programmes that are not plainly and obviously bribes for pro-American behaviour. Restart construction of neutron bombs. Full-bore federal-subsidised research on missile defense. Withdrawal from the UN, followed by razing of all UN structures on American soil and sowing the ground with salt. How many d'you want?An immigration freeze? Crazy wrong-headed. The more open borders are, the better.
I don't know of a compelling case for neutron bombs or any other new nuclear weapons. The fewer, the better--every one is a potential point of failure. I suspect the U.S. would be safest with on the order of 100 active nukes...perhaps a bit more counting sub-based nukes, which I'm more partial to. I don't see how missile defense is a worthwhile investment--the Star Wars days are over, and ballistic missiles have become an exotic threat, low on our list of things to worry about.
For all its faults, the UN is in the business of promoting peace, and I'm not sure how withdrawing would be a net plus. The US exercises its veto muscle quite often; if it were to withdraw, how would this improve international outcomes?
I'm certainly gung-ho about abolishing the federal Department of Education. To the extent that the state needs to subsidize education, do so with a universal voucher system.
Indeed I'm all for ending many areas of federal aid and subsidy--foreign aid and arts&culture among them, though the later is probably last on my list of things to worry about. Agricultural subsidies are among the nastiest, IMO, from both an economic and health standpoint. Damn Iowa and its early corn primaries.
Thank you for stopping by my blog earlier. I really do enjoy yours. In addition to your comments, I enjoy your "blogroll." I have discovered some excellent sites.
ReplyDeleteI still maintain that many of these "amateur" blogs are much better than the "professional" blogs. Is anyone reading Anderson Cooper's 360 any more? -- to cite one example.
This exercise (blogging) has given me a basket of blogsites for news much more comprehensive and wide-ranging, than the limited, biased, and often superficial news provided by the three networks that I grew up with.
Derb likes to be provocative. But I'm with him on nation-building, abolishing the Dept. of Ed, NCLB, subsidies & foreign aid, missile defense & nuclear weapons (not necessarily neutron, but new improved ones).
ReplyDeleteImmigration freeze is a bad idea, although tighter control over the borders is good. But we can have tighter border control yet expanded legal immigration. The UN is pretty worthless, but leaving it is a bad idea. We need to be in it in order to veto things.