05.7.2008 | 7:00 pm | Political Correctness, Politics
Michael Bates writes:
I hope I’m not a misogynist, but I hate Hillary and I think I have good reasons. My number one reason is that if future generations look back at our society, a society in which supposedly everybody has the chance to be president, and they see a succession of presidents that goes like this: Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton, (Is Jeb Bush next and then will Chelsea be ready?) they will without a doubt conclude that democracy stopped functioning and that bothers me a lot.
The next thing that bothers me about Hillary is that she has been a power broker in Washington for thirty years and therefore must be owned by many special interests and I am tired of being governed by special interests. I could list a bunch of other reasons, but I recently got hammered for being a misogynist because of my views. Do my views really make me a misogynist?
Yes, Michael, of course you’re a misogynist. And a racist and probably a homophobe too. Because approximately 100% of the time you start wining an argument with a far left liberal they’re going to start name calling, and they don’t have enough imagination to come up with anything but those tired old standards.
The race card is their favorite, of course. Don’t like Islam? They’ll call you a racist. Point out that Islam isn’t a race, and they’ll insist that you must hate Arabs. Like all demagogues, they don’t respond to reason, logic or common sense. You have a better chance of success teaching the concept of square roots to an Irish Setter. (Gasp. Was that a slur on the Irish?)
I have a long list of reasons I despise Hillary, but to a true lefty, none of them matter. When shared my opinion with a far left friend of mine her reply was, “What’s the matter, don’t you like strong women?” Sheesh. If course I like strong women. That’s one of my reasons for hating Hillary - she isn’t one. A strong woman would never spend decades chained to a serial philanderer. She might forgive him for cheating on her the first time. Maybe she should have forgiven him the second time. But when he did it for the third time a strong woman would have told him the honeymoon was over, although in there case, they still had four days left.
But when a lefty calls you a racist, misogynist or homophobe, don’t despair. Instead, you should celebrate. It means they’re desperate because you’ve backed them into a corner and they have no rational response to you. They’ll never admit that, of course, because in their fantasy word they are always right, and therefore always win every debate. But you’ll know better.
Comments (13)
04.20.2008 | 10:24 pm | QH Podcasts, Politics
Once again the Palestinian people had an opportunely to vote, and once again they chose Hamas, who vows to destroy Israel, by a huge margin.
Jimmy Carter, the most incompetent president in my lifetime, was there to encourage the terrorists. He’s called for them to be recognized by other nations because maybe they might kinda sorta renounce violence sooner or later someday.
I lived through the Carter presidency. After the disaster that was Richard Nixon Americans voted in the mild mannered peanut farmer. His presidency was marked by exactly one accomplishment: he helped broker peace between Egypt and Israel. But everything else he did was a disaster.
Back then I was selling audio and video equipment at a store called Sounds Great. This was long before Best Buy and Circuit City. When you wanted a decent stereo you went to one of independent stores or small chains populated by salesmen who actually knew something about the equipment they were selling.
Under Carter inflation hit a whopping 18%. People were walking into the store carrying wads of cash, announcing they had just emptied their savings accounts and wanted to spend all their money while it was still worth something. This only lasted for a few months, but sales in the store rocketed to an all time high as people made a desperate attempt to spend all their money as fast as possible. But even that was minor compared to what was in store overseas.
America’s embarrassment started when fundamentalist Muslims in Iran toppled the Shah (who had been put there by Americans) and replaced him with the Ayatollah Khomeini. It came as a complete surprise. The ever clueless CIA was unaware of any trouble brewing until they read about it on the front page of the New York Times. Shortly after installing Khomeini Iranians attacked the American embassy and took more than sixty Americans hostage.
Carter’s response was to do nothing except talk, while asking Johnny Carson to avoid the subject in his nightly monologues. I still remember, a month later, watching Steve Martin break the ice with a Khomeini joke. Man, that felt great. Our silliest comic was the first person to stand up to the tyrant.
The days turned to weeks, the weeks turned into months, and still Carter took no action. Some hostages were released early because of health problems. Carter bravely promised he wouldn’t leave the White House until the rest of them were returned.
Americans were pissed and had been demanding action for months when Carter finally decided to do something. He sent a few helicopters on a rescue mission. The mission was a complete failure, with most of the helicopters never even making it to their destination. Khomeini’s popularity skyrocketed.
The hostages never were released under his presidency. They spent four hundred and forty four days being tortured and abused by Iranians. Their release wasn’t negotiated until Reagan won the election, and took place just a few minutes after he took the oath of office. Iran knew better than to keep up their nonsense with Reagan in charge of the military.
Imagine how different things would be now if, back then, Carter was in possession of testicles. He could have given Iran a very short time to release the hostages, perhaps the week or so that it would have taken to get our military in place. And if they still refused he could have gone in with the full might of the American military. They could have razed everything in their path on the way to the hostages.
Imagine the aftermath of that. Sure, there would be moaning and protests and hand wringing and vilifying of the US, but more importantly we would have sent a very important, unforgettable message to the world, especially the Muslim countries: Don’t fuck with us. The consequences are just too terrible.
Would 9/11 have happened? How about the reign of terror leading up to it? We’ll never know, because Gutless Jimmy blew his chance.
As Reagan began to win the cold war, Carter shuffled off and started Habitat for Humanity, a very cool charity that helped low income people become homeowners without giving them handouts. For a decade or so it looked like he might make up for being one our of our worst presidents by becoming one of our best ex-presidents.
But now he’s blown it again, hob-knobbing with terrorists. At a reception he literally hugged and kissed one of them. He’s even spewing their spew, referring to Israel as occupiers.
This, then, is Carter’s legacy. After kowtowing to terrorists while in office, he’s traveling the globe and kissing them. This makes him something far worse than a pathetically incompetent president. This makes him a despicable human being.
Cartoon Credit: Mike Lester, Cagle Cartoons
Comments (6)
04.8.2008 | 10:48 pm | Police State, Ridiculous, Big Brother, Politics
If you want to go fishing in any of the Great Lakes, be sure to have your passport. And to fax in all your ID info to customs an hour before you leave. And then visit customs afterward to have your photographs taken, along with a sliver of your dignity.
These are new rules to protect us from terrorists. Don’t you feel safer now? Of course you do, comrade.
Sheesh, could our government get any more stupid and incompetent? Probably. Stay tuned.
Comments (0)
04.4.2008 | 1:21 pm | Politics
New York State, faced with a five billon dollar deficit, are turning to their favorite whipping boy: Smokers. After making it illegal to have a smoke in a bar, driving people outside in the weather, and going so far as to make it illegal for business owners to provide any kind of shelter for smokers (even something as simple as an awning) they’re looking to screw smokers even more to finance their nanny state.
If enacted this would give NYS the highest cigarette taxes in the nation. According to this article about a third of NYS smokers take steps to avoid being screwed by buying under taxed cigarettes. This Cato study puts the number at 50%. Nicotine nannies scream that this “costs taxpayers X dollars,” which is complete bullshit. These people are merely keeping a bit more of their own money, money the state has no right to.
The idiots in the NYS legislature have no understanding of basic economics, which runs on incentives. When taxes are low, people have little incentive to evade them. Each time they go up another block of citizens decides to do something about it, personally. They should not be considered criminals. They should be considered patriots.
The Boston Tea party was held over a three percent tax. Three percent. Their act of vandalism is widely considered as patriotic. Today’s smokers are paying taxes of hundreds of percent, and it is truly taxation without representation. (When was the last time any legislator, at any level in the government, did something for smokers?) This article, which I wrote in 2000 about a previous tax hike, suggests we have another tea party – and toss our useless, self serving legislators into the Hudson River. It would, of course, increase the pollution, but it would be well worth it.
Barring that, buy illegally. It’s patriotic.
Comments (3)
03.21.2008 | 2:35 pm | Yeah - That'll Work, Politics
The Democrats solution to most problems, both real and imaginary, is usually a new tax. Rep . John Dingell, known to his friends as Barry, thinks the solution to skyrocketing gas prices is to add a tax of fifty cents a gallon. This, he thinks, will lower consumption. Seriously, that’s the way his mind works.
It will lower consumption, but not of gasoline. Very few of us drive more than we have to, and are unable to reduce our mileage without severe lifestyle changes. Gas is a necessity, and when necessities get more expensive we cut back on the luxuries. For instance, the last surge in gas prices seriously hurt mid and high end restaurants. Not because people didn’t want to drive to them, but because a huge increase in gas prices left them with less discretionary money. If you’re spending an extra fifty bucks a month to get back and forth to work, that’s fifty bucks you don’t have for something else.
Dingle Barry needs to read some Adam Smith, or if that’s too advanced for him, open a lemonade stand in front of his house. Anything that will give him a little taste of Economics 101. (He could also read this helpful article on a related subject: Economics for Democrats.)
Raising gas taxes and forking over more of our hard earned money to the government – yeah, that’ll work.
Comments (1)
03.13.2008 | 7:00 pm | Politics
If a man is not a liberal when he is twenty, he has no heart.
If he is still a liberal when he is 40, he has no brain.
- Variously Ascribed
All of us (at least all of us who read blogs like this one) continually seek to better our understanding of humanity. Anthropologists and psychologists and scientists and philosophers observe and write and test, then explain and interpret their findings. While they make valuable contributions to the field, the best place to really come to an understanding of human nature or humanity as a whole is the arts, especially the performing arts. The science has its place in providing important pieces of the puzzle, but they leave us with an incomplete picture. The true nature of what we are can best be experienced in great music, novels, movies and plays.
One of America’s best playwrights, David Mamet, as written a moving and thoughtful article about his move away from the left. I won’t quote from it here - you should just read the whole thing. Then browse through the comments for perfect examples of what he was talking about.
And when you’re finished, check out this article, originally printed in the San Francisco Chronicle, by a once lefty writer who had a similar epiphany.
Comments (0)
03.12.2008 | 10:44 pm | Politics
Media bias is seldom this obvious. Most of the mainstream media (MSM) doesn’t mention that Spitzer is a democrat. NBC, ABC and CBS ran headline stories without once mentioning his party affiliation. The New York Times originally mentioned it in the third paragraph of their article, but then quietly moved it to paragraph 15. USA Today never mentioned it at all. Neither did the Today show. The first BBC article on the subject mentioned it in the sixth paragraph of their first article, but then edited it out completely. Only Fox prominently displayed the fact that he was a democrat. (Big surprise there.)
Quick, what party does Larry Craig belong to? You know because the MSM made sure you knew. But you could spend the day watching and reading Spitzer stories on the MSM still not be sure of his political party.
This is the same media that almost universally praised his thuggery. This Wall Street Journal article discusses their complicity it in detail.
And just in case you doubt he’s a thug, check out this collection of articles.
Today it was leaked that he’s resigning Monday. He’ll be replaced by the state’s current Lieutenant Governor, someone no one has ever heard of. I hesitate to say the new guy couldn’t be any worse, because that prediction can backfire, but it’s a good bet he’s not as despicable a human being as Spitzer, simply because very few people are.
Comments (2)
03.11.2008 | 12:23 am | Politics
I’m am experiencing schadenfraude. Oh sure, we’ve all experienced it from time to time - when the bitchy runway model stumbles in front of an audience, when a moralistic preacher is caught having gay sex, when the smug neighbor totals his shiny new car - but this time it’s the deepest, most satisfying bout of it I’ve ever experienced.
As a native New Yorker I’ve been subjected to Eliot Spitzer’s self-aggrandizing career for the past decade. He made a name for himself as the NY Attorney General by blackmailing large companies over (often imagined) missteps. He’d march in, declare that he, the mighty AG, was going to charge them with various crimes and misdemeanors, claiming to be defending their customers who had been harmed by their actions. The companies would pay him off with a fine, he would get another headline, and all the money went into the maw of the state. To my knowledge no customer ever received a dime. It was a nice, safe protection racket.
He did, on occasion, go after criminals, and his career included busting up two prostitution rings.
Enough stupid New Yorkers were impressed with his”victories” to elect him governor.
His performance as governor has been abysmal, (one of his proposals was for drivers licenses for illegal aliens) but we shrugged it off. Pathetic governors are a hallmark of this state.
But now, now (ah it feels sooooo good) he’s toast. Burt toast. Dark burnt charcoal toast that’s so completely destroyed you can’t even feed it to the dog. It’s all over except for his resignation, which I expect will happen in the next day or three. Mr. Morals, Mr. Big Strong AG, Mr. Truth and Justice, has been caught paying for the services of a very high priced hooker. And what makes it even sweeter is he had her travel over state lines to meet him, which makes it a federal offense.
This is a man who had his eye on the White House. His entire career has been based not on doing a good job, but on getting grand headlines. And now he’s got the grandest headlines of them all:
Spitzer apologizes after report of link to prostitution ring
Spitzer Prostitution Scandal: NY Gov Admits Links To Sex Ring
Money Laundering, Cross-Border Prostitution at Heart of Spitzer Allegations
The Spitzer Scandal: Lust Plus Pride
Shock and Smirks on Wall Street as Longtime Foe Spitzer Squirms
Judgment (or Eliot Spitzer’s Lack Thereof)
Sweet: New York Gov. Spitzer snagged in hooker tryst probe. Should he resign? (At first I thought the headline writer was also reveling in schadenfraude, but it turns out the writers name is Lynn Sweet.)
Hypocrisy, thy name is Spitzer
HO NO! (Gotta love the New York Post)
Even though he violated the Mann Act, which makes it a felony to transport hookers across state lines, it’s unlikely he’ll receive any real legal punishment. The powerful always protect each other, and he can no doubt buy his freedom. And while that is slightly disappointing, it can’t diminish the sheer joy I’m reveling in watching his carefully calculated career crash and burn.
Like the rest of us, I’ve experienced my share of schadenfraude before, and I was usually a little embarrassed about it. But this time, ah, this time, it feels so good. It’s almost a physical sensation, a warm satisfaction that comes from seeing a weasel get what he deserves, and knowing this is just the start. If that makes me a bad person, then I’m really enjoying being a bad person.
Comments (2)
02.24.2008 | 11:56 pm | Politics
I have a very simple political campaign that can be used against Hillary by Obama. And, if the democrats are foolish enough to nominate her it can also be used by McCain with absolutely no changes.
When it’s time to elect a candidate (or a president), most Americans carefully consider the options, compare voting records, watch debates, compare policies, and then go to the booth and vote for the best looking candidate. (Here’s an article about that from the 2000 elections.)
With that in mind, I’d like to offer a simple slogan to anyone running against Hillary:
Don’t bother discussing health care, Iraq, taxes, fiscal policy, or anything else. It’s boring and most Americans don’t really understand any of it anyway. Just rely on those five words. Repeat them endlessly, and superimpose them over any of the hundreds of creepy Hillary photos that are readily available.
Who needs thirty second TV spots? Buy three ten second spots for the same price. Have someone with a deep voice (I’ll work cheap) repeat the slogan and show just one of these photos. Leave it on the screen for the entire ten seconds. That will creep out everyone. It will send chills of revulsion down our spines. It will make us turn away in horror.
If this strikes you as too mean, you could always take the LOL Cats approach:
Comments (2)
02.14.2008 | 11:45 pm | Big Brother, Politics
I’m on too many mailing lists and get too many newsletters. I just skim most of them. One of the few that I always read all the way through are the Downsize DC mailings. They’re always well written and informative, and often maddening because of the information they contain.
This one was so good I just had to share it with you in its entirety:
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Quote of the Day:
“…The Bill of Rights is a literal and absolute document. The First Amendment doesn’t say you have a right to speak out unless the government has a ‘compelling interest’ in censoring the Internet. The Second Amendment doesn’t say you have the right to keep and bear arms until some madman plants a bomb. The Fourth Amendment doesn’t say you have the right to be secure from search and seizure unless some FBI agent thinks you fit the profile of a terrorist. The government has no right to interfere with any of these freedoms under any circumstances.”
– Harry Browne (1933-2006) best-selling author, two-time presidential candidate, and co-founder of Downsize DC
Subject: 68 Senators violated their oaths of office yesterday
Do you know the date of the first law ever passed by the United States’ Senate? It was May 5, 1789.
Do you know the subject of that law? It was the “Oath Act.” It’s purpose was to provide specific wording for the oath the Constitution requires Senators to swear upon taking office.
Strangely, the Constitution actually provides the specific wording of the oath the President is supposed to take, but it does not do so for Congress. Instead, the Constitution simply stipulates the following in Article VI, clause 3:
“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
The lack of specific wording meant that Congress had to create the wording. The oath they created as their first order of business, was very simple . . .
“I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States.”
Of course, later politicians have been increasingly fond of complexity, causing the oath to mutate into this . . .
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.”
The result remains the same. And please notice that members of Congress do not swear an oath to support or defend the nation, the country, or the government. They swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution, specifically. This is very important . . .
The Founders viewed government as a servant of the people. They did not make the mistake that so many supposed “patriots” make, of thinking the government is the same thing as the nation, the country, or the people. Our country is made up of many institutions — families, churches, businesses, associations — of which the government is only one. All of these institutions taken together, and all the individuals within the country, independent of any institution, are what make up the country.
The government is meant to serve the nation, not BE the country.
In keeping with the ideas expressed in our Declaration of Independence, our government was instituted with highly limited powers. The instrument that imposed these limitations was the Constitution, and it is this document that members of Congress swear an oath to defend.
One of the consequences of Constitutional limits on government power is that bad people are often permitted to get away with doing bad things. The government is categorically denied many of the powers that might aid it in the apprehension of criminals. For example . . .
There are hundreds of murderers running lose in America, and thousands of murders committed each year, that the government might be able to stop. The Constitution specifically prohibits government from doing all that it could do to save lives by catching murderers.
Were the Founders crazy? Were they stupid? No, they were not. The Founders knew that any government that has all the power it might need to optimize its apprehension of murderers, would also have all the power it needed to become a mass murderer.
The Founders knew, even in their time, that governments were, historically, the greatest killers of all. The history of the last century has only added to the evidence. Tens of millions of people were murdered in the 20th Century by governments that had too much power. Our Constitution protects us from this; so far.
Think about that.
But now, because criminals murdered thousands of people on September 11, 2001, many are eager to abandon their Constitutional protections.
Have we become a nation of sniveling cowards? If not, please explain how it is that Congress has either bowed to or exploited this fear to become a gang of lawbreakers?
Yesterday, 68 Senators violated their oaths of office. They voted to pass S. 2248, a new law designed to replace the so-called “Protect America Act.” This bill violates the Bill of Rights . . .
* It permits the President to spy on Americans without a warrant.
* It grants retroactive immunity to tele-communications companies that collaborated with the Bush administration in previous warrantless spying, thereby creating an incentive for other companies to engage in similar crimes in the future (only Qwest Communications insisted on warrants).
Will this new, un-constitutional power, prevent future terrorist attacks? Of course not, nothing can do that, just as there is no law or power that could completely stop murders by domestic criminals.
Does this new law create a tyranny? That would be an exaggeration. But what will happen when the next terrorist attack comes?
The sniveling cowards among us, and the lawbreakers in Congress, will then seek still more powers.
At one point will our children call this tyranny? Will there be any turning back?
Yesterday, 19 Democrats, 48 Republicans, and 1 independent voted to violate the Constitution and their oaths of office. Only 28 Democrats, 1 independent, and ZERO Republicans remained true to their oaths. The Republicans were universally bad.
But please notice that the law could not have passed without the vote of the Democrats!
Let this be clear — neither political party is going to protect our Constitution, unless WE compel them to do it.
All hope is NOT lost. S. 2248 cannot become law unless the House agrees to its provisions. Fortunately, the House version of this bill, while not perfect, is signficantly better. Our best hope, and we must take it, is to tell the House to stick by their version of the bill.
A list of how the Senate voted is pasted below my signature.* Use the personal comments section of your message to Congress to thank your Senator if he or she voted against S. 2248, or to criticize your Senator if he or she voted for it. Ask your House member to reject the provisions of S. 2248.
You can send your message from the DownsizeDC.org website.
Also, please make a contribution to further our work. Your contribution is our budget. You can contribute here.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
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*I left the list out, but you can find whatever you need to know on the site. Stop by and vote, and sign up for their newsletter.
Update: Finally, the government does something good, if only through inaction. The House refused to renew this, so the sunset clause made it history last Friday.
How much influence did the 40k+ e-mails sent by members of Downsize DC have? We can’t know for sure, except to say it helped.
Comments (2)
02.13.2008 | 1:53 pm | Big Brother, Politics
The senate has just removed more rights from American citizens, and as an extra bonus have provided immunity to the telecoms who broke the law and violated our rights at the request of King George.From the NYT article:
Democratic opponents, led by Senators Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, argued that the plan effectively rewarded phone companies by providing them with legal insulation for actions that violated longstanding law and their own privacy obligations to their customers. But immunity supporters said the phone carriers acted out of patriotism after the Sept. 11 attacks in complying with what they believed in good faith was a legally binding order from the president.
“This, I believe, is the right way to go for the security of the nation,” said Senator John D. Rockefeller, the West Virginia Democrat who leads the intelligence committee. His support for the plan, after intense negotiations with the White House and his Republican colleagues, was considered critical to its passage but drew criticism from civil liberties groups because of $42,000 in contributions that Mr. Rockefeller received last year from AT&T and Verizon executives.
So if you’re ever caught up in a federal fishing expedition (and remember, what makes you an “enemy combatant” is some federal bureaucrat saying so; proof is not required) just say “I was doing it out of patriotism” and you’ll get immunity.
Oh, wait, you haven’t purchased a senator for $42K? Never mind.
Comments (0)
02.3.2008 | 5:05 pm | Nanny Nation, Politics
Here’s yet another example of how difficult it is to write satire or parody in today’s world. Back in 1999 I wrote an article that ended with fast food workers being forbidden to serve fat people. It was intended as a joke.
Now, from the brilliant brain trust that is Mississippi, comes proposed legislation to do just that. “Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health.”
Residents of Mississippi (State Motto: “Who Needs a Full Set Of Teeth?”) can only hope they have enough porky legislators to keep this from becoming law.
Comments (1)
01.20.2008 | 6:37 pm | Politics
Our hearts go out to the president who announced today that Barney, his beloved Scotty, was hit by a truck in front of the White House and had to be put to sleep. The secret service agent who was driving the Hummer (shown on the right), expressed deep regret, but said the dog ran right out in front of him and there was nothing he could do.
Cheney, smirking in the background, seems to be thinking “I never liked that dog. The next time we went hunting I was going to “accidentally” shoot him. In the face.”
(Reality check: This picture really came from the New York Times, America’s most respected tabloid. It accompanied a story about an the white house’s attempt to prop up the economy. Shouldn’t they be a little happier about their plan?)
Comments (0)
01.16.2008 | 2:05 pm | Yeah - That'll Work, Nanny Nation, Big Brother, Politics
Inspired, perhaps, by California counties that have made it illegal for people to smoke in their own homes, the government is eager to continue expanding their tentacles into once private residences.
The California Energy Commission wants to require all new homes, and remodeled homes, have special radio controlled thermostats which Big Brother could control. First they’ll set it to “suggested” temperatures. Customers would be allowed to override the “suggestions,” but Big Brother would have the ultimate control, and the final say.
Concerns that the signal could be hacked have been brushed aside. A spokesweasel for PG&E says that’s not possible, a statement guaranteed to inspire geeks to prove her wrong.
Comments (1)
01.10.2008 | 12:50 am | Big Brother, Politics
Thoughts on the New Hampshire Primary
That’s it. We’re fucked.
No one had more money than Ron. No one had more grass roots support. The day before the primary Jay Leno gave him a half hour on the countries most popular late night talk show. The primary was held in the Live Free Or Die state. The Free State Project state.
And he got 8%. Eight miserable fucking percent. A third less than some evangelical asshole who thinks the earth is 6,000 years old and wants to add not one, but two amendments to the constitution to make his superstitions the law of the land.
I figured America was over when the Supremes outlawed private property and ruled that the feds could use the interstate commerce clause to regulate everything, including things that didn’t involve commerce or anything interstate. But the Free State Project looked encouraging, and full of possibilities. Slim possibilities, but still, possibilities. And although I knew Ron was a long shot, the groundswell of support made me think there just might be hope for the country. We could get it back from the fascists and the socialists and start living like Americans again, instead of as slaves. I didn’t really expect him to win, but figured capturing a large portion of the vote would start pushing American politics in the right direction.
I’ve been interested in politics since the Nixon administration. I’ve never seen anything like the huge populist support Paul has had. I’ve never seen anything close to it. It filled me with hope and joy and a belief that there was still a chance there were enough Americans in this country to eventually defeat the United Statsits. And with all that enormous support, the fantastic publicity and with the incredible enthusiasm of millions of people, he gets 8%.
All that hope, all that enthusiasm, all for nothing. Now our only choice is being crushed under the thumb of socialism or the heal of fascism.
“But,” says the True Believer, “We’re getting our message out there! People are hearing the message of liberty and liking it!” Yes, what an impressive showing. Libertarians have been preaching the message for thirty years. And in the most popular, well known, liberty oriented candidate ever, in the most liberty oriented state of the union, you got 8% of the vote. Whoop De Fucking Doo. Maybe in another thirty years you can double that number. Won’t that be impressive.
The US is finished, my friends. It’s over. It’s done. The Ron Paul Campaign is finished. The Free State Project is a joke. We are a nation of cheerful retards lining up for Special Olympics. We say retarded things like “I have a right to health care” or “the rich don’t pay enough taxes” or “this is a Christian nation” or “we’ll stay in the Middle East for a hundred years if that’s what it takes to fight terrorism,” and the politicians pat us on the head and say “there there, you really are smart.” We race our spastic race while they clap and cheer us on. They’ll be at the finish line giving big hugs to everyone with no regard as to who actually won, because all that really matters is that you try. And while they’re passing out their hugs they’ll be winking at each other, amused at how well they’ve fooled us again and eager to get back to faithfully serving their corporate masters.
“Change!” they all shout. “We stand for Change. Real Change this time. Not like the last time and the time before and the time before that and the time before that when we lied to you and you believed us and we lied to you again and you believed us again and again and again. This time we really mean it!”
You want to feel change, my friends? Then put your hand in your pocket and finger your coins.
The war on Some Drugs will continue. Our standing as the country with the highest percentage of our population in prison will remain unchallenged. We’ll keep jailing people for non-violent victumless “crimes” and prisons will remain a growth industry. Our dollar will remain fiat currency and drop in value every time they print up more. The Patriot Act will remain in place. Habeas Corpus will not be returning. Nor will private property. We will all get our Real ID cards and, like good little Germans pre WWII, obediently present them to uniformed thugs every time they demand to see our papers. The pussification of the country will continue to accelerate. More and more personal decisions will be taken from us as the government continues to pass laws telling us how we must raise our children, what we can eat, where we can have a smoke (not in your homes, comrades!), what we can drive, what we can say and where we can say it. And 92% of the population will smile and say “It’s a free country!”
I’m done with political activism. It’s useless. It’s pointless. The game is so deeply and thoroughly rigged that there’s no possibility of real change for the better. Part of that rigging is a system that makes it impossible for anyone who isn’t one of the “two” parties to have even the slightest chance of winning. But most of the rigging is simply pandering to the gullibility and stupidity of the majority of “Americans.” Real Americans, those who truly understand liberty, who have studied the constitution and the writings of the founding fathers and really know what it is, are such a rare breed that we have absolutely no chance of overcoming the multitude of assholes who mouth the word with one sentence and cheer on the expansion of the government with the next.
Screw it. I’ll still bitch and moan, because it’s fun, but getting involved is for suckers, and I’m tired of being one. I’m getting too old to keep tilting and windmills, and it’s time to concentrate on having as much fun as I can for the rest of my years. It’s time to kick back with old friends and make a new ones and stop wasting time trying to change things. I haven’t played video games much, because I haven’t had the time. But maybe I’ll go get an Xbox and waste every evening in pointless battles against teenagers I don’t know or care about. Or put a bigger hard drive on the Tivo and renew my Netflix subscription. Or devote my time to perfecting some new vice or nasty habit. Because trying to improve this country is a pathetic waste of time and effort. The best we can hope for is to have a few laughs watching it circle the drain.
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01.7.2008 | 12:13 am | Politics
Some British deaf groups are demanding the “right” to create deaf embryos.
Ballard, …said: “Most parents would choose to have a hearing embryo, but for those few parents who do not, we think they should be allowed to exercise that choice and we would support them in that decision.
“There are a number of deaf forums where there are discussions about this. There are a small minority of activists who say that there is a cultural identity in being born deaf and that we should not destroy that cultural identity by preventing children from being born deaf.”
Words don’t fail me very often, but I’m finding it difficult to come up with a pithy comment on just how creepy and disgusting this is.
Comments (1)
12.29.2007 | 7:30 pm | Politics
The mass media has been ignoring Ron Paul until recently.
He set a record for raising the most money in one day - nearly five million dollars - in an internet campaign that wasn’t even officially connected to his political campaign. If any of the other candidates had done that, it would have been front page news. Some of the media reported on it, buried on the inside pages, but most ignored it completely.
Then he broke his own record - raising over six million dollars, again in one day, and again mostly from individuals making relatively small donations. Again, the story was mostly ignored by the media.
But they can’t keep ignoring him, so now they’re concentrating on smearing him. The lefty media (i.e. most media) hates him because views the government as the problem, while they think government is the solution, and because he believes in individual freedom and has the voting record to prove it. The right hates him because he hates corporate welfare, including government laws that give big business tremendous advantages over their competition, and also because he believes in individual freedom and has the voting record to prove it.
On a recent interview he was asked about the Civil War. He responded that killing 600,000 Americans wasn’t the best way to resolve the issue. One alternative, he suggested, would have been for the north to buy the slaves, then free them. A very popular lefty blog (which doesn’t deserve a link) said he suggested the north buy the slaves - and left off the rest of his statement. Why are they so desperately dishonest?
On the right, Fox has been smearing him at every opportunity. We reported how they “forgot” to include him on polls. Their news analysis programs go out of their way to paint him as a loony. And now they’re leaving him out of the upcoming Republican debate they’re concocting. He’s raised more money than any other candidate, proving his popularity, but they’re squeezing him out, making the debate a complete sham. Instead of Ron putting other candidates’ feet to the fire and making the debate a wild, interesting show, it will consist of six ho-hum candidates expressing minor disagreements. I would suggest a drinking game where everyone does a shot when Rudy mentions 9/11, but I’m afraid it would lead to severe alcohol poisoning.
If you’d like to try goading Fox into growing a pair, Downsize DC has made it easy.
Some of my fellow Ron Paul supporters are upset with this chicanery, cowardice, and out right lying, but not me. Ron still doesn’t have the visibility he needs/deserves, and these weasels are giving it to him as dishonestly as they can. Every time they do, it provides his supporters another chance to talk about who he really is and what he really stands for. And as the lies and smears pile up, it will become undeniably obvious that both the left and right are deeply afraid of this man. For any thinking person, that alone makes him worth serious consideration.
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11.15.2007 | 1:25 pm | Poker, Pop Culture, Nanny Nation, Politics
Yesterday, Annie Duke testified to the House Committee on the Judiciary about playing poker on line: Why it should be legal, why the whining nannies lament about compulsive gambling is ridiculous, why the “for the chillllllllllldreeeeen” bleat is sensless, how poker is a game of skill, not luck, and quite a few other related issues. Here are a few excerpts:
“Of course, opponents of gaming will cite the incidence of compulsive gambling and the possible exposure of minors as reasons to prohibit it. With respect to compulsive gambling, this committee has received expert testimony confirming what most academic studies on compulsive gambling have found: that the incidence of problem gambling in the population of adults who engage in gambling activity is less than 1%. From a similar study in the United Kingdom, we know that the availability of betting over the Internet does not increase it over time. Furthermore, even if one’s primary concern were the very small incidence of compulsive gambling, then licensing and regulation offer more effective and less intrusive means to combat it.”
“Of course, prohibitionists point to the possibility of children betting online as the other justification for prohibiting it. In fact, most people who seek to restrict individual freedom invoke protection of children as their motivation. I suspect they find that that argument has more resonance than what is often their real motivation — to treat adults like children, and manage their choices for them.”
“To reiterate: if your concern in this matter is about children, there are solutions available. If, instead your interest is in treating adults like children, then there are not.”
“The vast majority of Internet poker players are doing so for recreation and entertainment. On average, a person spends $10 a week playing online poker. 10 dollars! You can’t even get a movie ticket for that price where I live!”
“In the proposed rule issued by the Department of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the regulators come right out and say that they cannot and will not tell the regulated community what constitutes an unlawful Internet wager. Let me emphasize — the posture of the Federal government is, “We are going to create a new federal crime, but we will not tell you what it is.” In the proposed rule, the regulators explain their refusal to resolve this by saying that to do so would require them to examine the laws of the federal government and all 50 states with respect to every gaming modality, and that this would be unduly burdensome. Yet that is exactly what they are requiring the general counsel of every bank in the country to do.”
Read the entire transcript here.
Comments (2)
10.30.2007 | 12:57 pm | Politics
The Calafornia fires are being blamed, of course, on GW: Global Warming and the president, who, as we know, is to blame for all the global warming in the world. The underbrush is dry from GW, they say, so it burns hotter and makes it difficult to put out the fires.
But wait…why is the underbrush even there? Before man started managing forests, fires were nature’s way of cleaning out the underbrush. Slow burning fires would burn off small trees, shrubs, fallen branches, dead leaves and debris. Old hardy trees usually survived fires intact. It’s an important part of the natural cycle. Fire is so much a part of the natural process that some species of pines, such as the Monterey Pine and Pond Pine, produce tightly sealed cones that only release their seeds when there’s a fire.
But now, every time there’s any kind of a fire, we (i.e. the government) runs in to put it out, no doubt singing “Here I come To Save The Daaaaaaaaay” en route. The fire is quelled and everyone feels wonderful about themselves, but the brush never gets burned off. “Environmentalists” fight attempts to remove the brush, sometimes making it illegal for homeowners to even clear their own property. So the brush accumulates. And accumulates. And accumulates. When it finally does catch fire, there’s so much dry, easily burned fuel that it gets out of control very very fast. Old, magnificent trees that survive normal fires are destroyed by the intensity of the flames, all because of man’s “help.”
And then, of course, it’s blamed on Global Warming. Or the other GW. Or both.
Comments (1)
10.12.2007 | 9:05 pm | Junk Science, Politics
The Nobel Peace Prize lost all its value when it was given to Yasser Arafat for taking a brief break from murdering Jews. But just in anyone forgot how worthless it is, they’re reminding us by giving it to Al Gore and the IPCC.
I’ve already said most of what I have to say about Gore in this podcast and this article. But I’m making this blog entry to provide a place for you, the readers, to comment.
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