Friday, September 4, 2009

Jane's Law wins again

One of my favorite libertarian writers is Megan McArdle, who coined Jane's Law in 2003:

"Jane's Law: The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane."

This came to mind for two recent reasons:

- This NYT article notes many of the serious conservative policy types whose objections to the Democrat congressional plans have been drowned out by the Beck/Palinites. Sigh.

- The recent GOP hubbub over Obama's speech to children is more than a little bit overheated. I imagine that by making their objections known now, they may have forced the President's speech to be even more carefully devoid of political content.

As a conservative, I am happily pessimistic about the chances of the Republican party in the near-future (next 7 years or so.) As Clemenza would have said, "These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood."

4 comments:

RET said...

"Great quote and great tomato sauce"


I think we have passed into a time when a child might say that she/he would like to be president some day, 25% of parents punish them.

Jim said...

I've never actually made the Clemenza sauce, although any sauce that has as many sausages and meatballs as I recall should be pretty good.

Assuming that Obama's speech will contain the advertised message (study hard, stay in school), I applaud it and hope that he continues to say so.

RET said...

It is my understanding that both Reagan and HWBush broadcast messages to schools during their terms. I would be surprised if any of the Tip O'Neill raised any concern. That is not meant to be partisan, I just think things have changed.

BTW: I am sure some late night comedians made some comments about Clinton visits to schools and I remember the visceral response of the left when Bush read that Capitalist Manifesto "My Pet Goat" to those impressionable school kids.

Jim said...

I remember being in an all-school assembly for the (1986?) anniversary of the US constitution. That had a good deal of dignitaries, but I don't remember if they had Reagan or not.