A Nation of Flukes

...Today's reading assignment from the great Mark Steyn, writing at National Review. A couple of excerpts:

According to Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, invited to address the Democratic convention and the nation, America faces a start choice this November. "During this campaign, we've heard about two profoundly different futures that could await women in this country--and how one of those futures looks like an offensive, obsolete relic of our past," she cautioned. "That future could become real."

[snip]

With respect to Sandra Fluke, I think there’s a third future looming. The paperback edition of my book comes out in a week or so, and you can pretty much get the gist of it from the title: After America. For me, the likely scenario isn’t that the Republicans will be terrorizing rape victims or that the Democrats will finally pass the necessary legislation to make contraception available for the contraceptively starved millions crying out for it, but that America will be sliding off the cliff — literally, as Joe Biden would literally say. And when America slides off the cliff it lands with a much bigger thud than Greece or Iceland. I’m not certain that the Republicans will be able to prevent that happening. But I know that the Democrats can’t. America owes more money than anybody has ever owed anyone in the history of the planet. But millions of Americans don’t see it, and millions of those who do see it don’t see it as a problem.

Sandra Fluke is one of them. She completed her education a few weeks ago — at the age of 31, or Grade 25. Before going to Georgetown, she warmed up with a little light B.S. in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Cornell. She then studied law at one of the most prestigious institutions in the nation, where tuition costs 50 grand a year. The average starting salary for a Georgetown Law graduate is $160,000 per annum — first job, first paycheck.

If you want another analogy, Sarah Palin summed it up nicely on Fox News last night. The choice for Americans, she said, is between "freedom and free stuff." Unfortunately, at least 100 million Americans have already decided on the latter, with no regard for the fiscal consequences. Sandra Fluke, that taxpayer-financed product of Cornell and Georgetown law, figures she can ride out the storm, as long as abortion remains legal and someone else pays for her contraception.

Sadly, she is not alone in her thinking. Will Rogers once observed, famously, that America would be the first nation to drive to the poor house in a "brand new car." On our current trajectory, with Barack Obama at the wheel--and 100 million along for the ride--we're rocketing past the poor house, and over the cliff.