I even agree that history repeats itself b/c I have a pulse. However, I wouldn’t give Hitler the credit of truly believing what he espoused. The belief that capitalism is a failed system and that national (total) socialism is the cure is a theory of sociologists not fascists, and there is a difference.

There are so many people, presidents, and governmental agencies (supposedly in charge of oversight) etc. ad nauseum. Obama got handed a pile of shit upon taking his oath of office and nothing he, nor ANY one person in the oval office, can do will remedy the recent results of years of amoral, immoral, and otherwise poor decisions. I hate knowing that the p.o.s.’s at the top are given a Get Out of Prison Free card and believe that a failed business model should not be salvaged by the state, the amount of Americans who would have been without work would have been a catastrophic blow, and it was better to keep these people employed and (idealistically) punish others later than to take a purely capitalist approach to the crisis.
The automobile crisis primarily occurred because of the banking/lending crisis and though I do not like such government involvement in once non-governmental corporations, it softens the blow. All of this is more weight on the “why I will not pay off my law school loans by becoming a corporate attorney”

To end on a lighter and more germane (less german) note, I do not believe that the American affinity with the automobile is lost nor significantly diluted permanently. I love the sound of a loud, gas-guzzling muscle car as much as a teenage girl as I do a decade later (though the man who owns it has a higher bar to pass). Public transportation is the way to go, but Americans will still own cars due to our indispensible desire for independence and exploration. AMTRAK will not take you to the wilderness, nor should it. Technology will find a way to make green cars sound loud and sexy, in due time. Afterall, they are already starting to look sexy. I am a staunch believer that driving is a privilege and NOT a right. But if you deserve that privilege, you should wake up the neighbors with your eco-friendly, loud, Shelby. <3

Be sure to listen to the audio commentary and not read the transcript.

I want to watch the submarine races. Is that an innuendo for something?

Since this book seems to span both eras I suggest those interested check out some of his older books. Two in particular I read and are really good: Modern Manners: An Etiquette Guide for Rude People and Republican Party Reptile, both from the mid 1980’s.

For examples of the new and extremely unfunny stuff, try making it to the end of any of his pedantic attempts at humor that are online at weeklystandard.com

American capitalism gone with a whimper

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/

We are now living “Atlas Shrugged”.

Ayn Rand got this exactly right.

Sure they do. They’re affirming (or masturbatory) reads, if you’re of a particular bent. Think “Chicken Soup for the Libertarian Soul.”

The difference is that O’Rourke is funny.

Actually, Rand might be funny, too, and perhaps her followers, like Marx’s, haven’t gotten the joke yet.

Atlas Shrugged and O’Rourke’s celebration of permanent adolescence have almost nothing in common.

Huh? I know it is late on a Sunday, but I pray this is meant ironically.

Thanks for that because I thought the book was a little different than that. Having been in the US Military a large part of my life, and dealing with many gov’t agencies, I can’t imagine anybody would think that they could cure the woes of the Free Market.

What version of “Atlas Shrugged” did you read?
No the government didn’t take over healthy companies in “Atlas Shrugged”, have you actually read the book?

Ayn Rand predicted this mess perfectly.

Anybody that thinks this economic meltdown is not the result of government fiddling in the markets either has blinders on or is ignorant of the facts.

Funny thing is in the ’30’s a little guy named Hitler came to power based on his belief that capitalism was a failure and National socialism the cure. How history repeats.

Woe to our country that a lightweight thinker and not very funny guy like Al Franken is going to be in the US Senate. Wouldn’t P.J. in the Senate be infinitely funnier?

BTW, O’Rourke is currently fighting what he described as “cancer of the ass”, a treatable form of the disease with a 95% survival rate.

Thank God the Government’s here to save the day! Between them and the UAW, GM should be a viable corporation soon and turning a handsome profit. Congress will be a big help too.

I always found P.J. to be kind at the core in his writings. Sure, he’ll crap all over the glaring flaws of the locals, but he really brings out the best qualities of the individuals. And he’s a great travel writer.

In one of his books, he compared my town to the country of Bangladesh (because they both shared the same population density). I can’t speak to the veracity of his description of Bangladesh, but he nailed the pleasant banality of Fremont.

His article of his experiences on The Nation cruise in the U.S.S.R. cracks me up still. The Parliament of Whores is P.J. at his best.

There are a lot of very, very low-brow demagogues on both sides of the spectrum. O’Rourke is a high-brow one, something we could use more of.

And this makes me long for the highway.
Its the only place I feel good.
I need to get away again.
Away from a catholic family experiment gone bad, Away from stale urban neighborhood associations.
Just to be sitting at those strange local eateries along the road with the smells they have all their own.
Just…just going somewhere.
And in a great big American Tank…my Lincoln.

There’s a huge difference between the situation described in Atlas Shrugged and the one with GM.

In Atlas Shrugged, the government takes over successful businesses and makes it impossible for talented businesspeople to do what they do best.

In today’s world, the government is taking over GM and getting heavily involved in the financial sector because “talented” businesspeople so thoroughly f***ed up that the viability of the entire economy was endangered.

Ayn Rand failed to realize Karl Marx’s key insight: pure capitalism inherently leads to severe economic crises and social instability.

And now back to PJ…

Good to hear he’s a talented as ever.

I had the opportunity to hang out with him for a couple of hours one night (just me and him, honest). Plenty of good memories. He spent a good part of the night trying to convince me to buy a suburban instead of a minivan. I was being mr. practical family man and he’s telling me about some racecar driver that dusted the jags and bmws with a Suburban on some car junket pj went on. He’s truly a car guy. I guess I’m part of the problem since I bought a minivan.

Most of his books are just his old columns strung together but I guess this one’s a one shot thing.