Geography survives

A while back, I wrote this:

It's highly likely that there will be an island off the shore of France for a good long time to come, but it's looking less likely all the time that there will always be an England.

Today, Mark Steyn posts at The Corner:

In The Wall Street Journal, Michael Boskin writes:

Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents — from George Washington to George W. Bush — combined. It reduces defense spending to a level not sustained since the dangerous days before World War II, while increasing nondefense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And it would raise taxes to historically high levels (again, relative to GDP). And all of this before addressing the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs.

What emerges from such a blueprint will not be America. The United States will survive as a geographical designation, a collection of zip codes, but what goes on within them will be a Euro-Canadian form of societal arrangement (I write more on this in the new NR, out today, I do believe).

Go read the rest.

While I'm on this topic, blake at The Bit Maelstrom has put up a couple of beauties in the last week, "Everything You Need To Know About Socialism...and Communism" for one, "An Observation Regarding Free Markets And Socialism" for another. Much smarter and pleasanter reading than anything you'll find around here. Also, he uses complete sentences. Not these crappy little fragments. (But I got such a good deal on them!)

For something very smart indeed, but less pleasant, Charles Krauthammer: "The Great Non Sequitur: The Sleight of Hand Behind Obama's Agenda." Thanks to commenter rhhardin in today's hot Althouse thread, "Never waste a good crisis..."