The Discerning Texan

I preface my link by saying that some things just strike an instant chord. My wife (not very political at all) and I heard this in the car Friday, broadcast live, on the way down to Austin for a football weekend. Later I played it for my mother and she could barely contain herself either. It has become difficult to stop thinking about it. Ever since I first heard it it has haunted me in multiple ways: for example every time I see Dodd or Schumer or Frank on television I feel the blood rising again. Every time I hear the word "bailout" or I see this week's TIME Magazine cover. It won't let go of me.

If I had had the opportunity I might have posted it earlier; I've been thinking of linking it since my wife and I just looked across the car at each other and just shook our heads. But now that I see that Ace and Allahpundit have beaten me to the punch, why try and reinvent the wheel here? Obviously I was not the only person zapped between the eyes by this broadcast.

If you have the patience and time to fully understand the truth, it can be found here. If you are ready to hear it. I find it to be a bit ironic that this broadcast has gotten so much attention on the Web since Friday. Ironic because I've been challenged at times as to what claim or right I had to dare to express my opinion as to what is true and what isn't on this and other topics. Obviously timing, setting, decorum and the known sensitivity of other parties to certain views ought to in polite company take some precedence over the need to make such pronouncements--especially among friends. Many of us can become outspoken at less than appropriate moments, and I am walking proof of this. But the other side of that coin is that we live in extraordinarily tense, uncertain and consequential times: emotions run high and patience is often on a hair trigger.. How do you balance these things? Precariously.

None of us knows everything there is to know about any topic, so to be challenged openly about an expressed opinion regarding any topic, no matter how strongly held, is not necessarily always related to some sort of viral moral relativism run amok.

Still, to be effortlessly and glibly dismissed when one knows another party you are talking to has not been exposed to the same information (nor would they be likely to bother to access it even if you made it available), can render their lectures on what is "true" or not into an ironic lighting. It is almost as if some people would rather not know certain facts, I think. Going against the flow of a pre-established pattern can cause an unpredictible "cognitive dissonance" that many people would just as soon not deal with. I don't always understand this, but it seems to be quite common.

Still there hopefully do exist people out there in the ether who do want to hear more than just the side of the news they are spoon fed by the cheerleading media hacks they are used to. Which leads me again to Allah's post about Levin's magnum opus. Personally I think it is the finest Mark Levin show ever aired, and if I could make it so, I would make it required listening before anyone could vote. Cue Allah's take:

Via Ace. It’s long, but we’ve had lots of requests for it and you’ve got time on a slow Sunday afternoon. What happens when a policy with good intentions is built on a foundation of bad financial sense? Ask the New York Times, which saw this coming almost 10 years ago. September 30, 1999:

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.

”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”

And now here we are. Click to listen.

For me, it was one of the most enlightening audio clips I have ever heard. Enjoy.