A Different Perspective

For a while now, some conservative pundits and individuals have portrayed our current political predicament as being akin to the “zombie apocalypse”.  It is an easy comparison to make, and it isn’t even a new one, as demonstrated by our friend, Packy East, in this clip:

But ask I drove to work this morning, listing to a discussion about the ridiculous and costly nature of public sector unions, and how government, led by the EPA, was standing in the way of what should be a very simple infrastructure improvement that would allow American businesses to remain competitive moving forward into the 21st Century, and this story about the Bureau of Land Management harassing a rancher in southern Nevada, I realized that the zombie analogy wasn’t entirely accurate.

Don’t get me wrong.  I think the zombies are still out there, shuffling along, and multiplying quickly, but I realized this morning that there is a better analogy of the relationship between our government and its citizens:

I trust no further explanation is necessary.

Those who are paying attention will get it.

Those accustomed to stupid government tricks will get it.

The zombies will engage in ad hominems to prevent others from getting it.

The grievance pimps will take to their fainting couches with wicked, crippling cases of the vapors.

And it will still be true.

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Reefer Logic, Part Duh! (Or How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Buy Stock In Frito Lay)

No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get away from the legalized marijuana issues.

I was talking with an acquaintance this week about idiocy of Washington’s tax scheme for legalized marijuana.  He’s a numbers guy and is well-versed in tax bureaucracies, and their miraculously functional illogic.  We had started out by discussing how the measure was sold in this state, which focused almost exclusively on “new tax revenue” and “being able to focus law enforcement on other matters other than marijuana-related offenses”.  (I’ve lived in this state for 13 years, and I can say I was aware of any great law enforcement push to enforce the laws when it comes to marijuana.  But then, that may be influenced by the fact that police departments pass out munchies to those openly defying the law, so there’s that…)  It also flies in the face of data which is pretty clear that we don’t have an epidemic of incarceration solely because of marijuana possession and use.

The dual-mindedness of the people in this state on this issue simply boggles the mind.  The state has undergone a crusade against smoking in which some counties decided that bad second-hand smoke studies were a good basis for banning smoking in all public places, including bars and restaurants specifically set up to cater to smoking customers, and the state legislature followed shortly after with a ban on smoking in all public places, including within 25 feet of any doorway.  This was followed by local authorities moving to ban people from smoking in their own residences if they live in public housing.  The legislature, not to be out done, came back with a proposal to ban smoking in an automobile if there are children present.  And yet these very same tyrant wannabes needed a drool rag to wipe up after their tax lust.  I have yet to hear how all but banning the smoking of tobacco products can be an imperative for public health, and yet pot smoking doesn’t create some of the very same harms we’re preventing with the anti-smoking crusade.  The utter dishonesty of it sickens me.  Putting aside the addiction issue.  Putting aside the evidence (yes, I know that the studies are mixed) regarding how much longer marijuana impairs you than alcohol does, I defy anyone in the public health community to tell me that smoking tobacco is a public health threat that requires increasing restrictions on liberty, but that lighting up a joint is something that the government should be cool with.  But then, if there was any honesty, it would require an admission that the government is ok with harm to its citizens, as long as it is getting paid.

But then the police being able to concentrate on “other offenses” is really a poor argument too.  It isn’t an accident that as part of the move to legalize recreational marijuana use, the state legislature had to set limits for legal impairment for drivers with regard to their use of marijuana…meaning that they knew what everyone knew, and didn’t want to discuss.  That as with alcohol, there would be people who would not be able to stop themselves from using, and driving, and that like with alcohol, people would be harmed as a result.

And now, in the fashion we have come to expect in this country, it appears that even toking up isn’t immune to forces of entitlement and the playing of race cards, as this story in The Root demonstrates.

When I read this story earlier this week, I realized that if the Earth was going to have an extinction-level collision with an asteroid, I’d probably be up on the roof, writing “Hit Here First”.  Just the very idea that white people will get all the good weed is a fair condensed version of everything that is wrong with this country today.   I read the headline, and thought to myself that I would give my last dollar to be able to go back in time, and be right there to respond to Rodney King’s famous question with an emphatic “NO!”

We aren’t even fiddling while Rome burns any more.  We’re sitting in the ashes, and blaming each other because it is too hot.  With stratospheric “real” unemployment numbers, a government addicted to spending what it doesn’t have, and an educational system that would have made Ponzi blanch at its brazenness, people now want to worry that someone might get a better buzz than they did, simply because of their skin color.  And the people who are most worried don’t seem to care that each of those problems with society are magnified in “their communities”…a problem which the community organizer in chief is unable or unwilling to solve, opting instead to use race as a wedge, and pursue redistribution.  But then, smart people realize that the “If a man is hungry, take someone else’s fish at gunpoint and give it to him” is a plan that simply discourages fishing.

Then there is the “WHAT?” factor to the underlying logic.  I grew up next to a large urban center(and went to college in it) that was living under similar economic conditions before Obama and the Democrats took them nationwide.  It didn’t seem to affect the ability of persons of color to obtain Hennessy, Couvoisier, Tanqueray, etc.  In fact, I never once heard a concern uttered about the white people getting all the good booze.  The article suggests that we had to have Obama as President to get us to the point of seriously considering marijuana legalization.  It seems only fair that since he is intent on limiting the economy so that everything but the amounts we spend on his vacations and golf is a finite resource, that someone could now publish a piece about the fear of segregation of pot based on race and NOT do so as a work of satire.

Things like this almost make me want to root for the collapse of our civilization.  But instead, it may prove more profitable for those in power to simply let us fade away in a cloud of smoke and mellowness…as long as someone with a different skin color doesn’t get a better class of weed.  Maybe we could get Philip Morris to come up with a couple of premium blends.  Then we could solve the problem, AND make an evil corporation cool again.

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The World’s President Makes Me Ashamed of My Country

Much ado was made during the campaign by pundits, observers, and commentators, including myself, of Michelle Obama’s unfortunate remark that since her husband started running for President, for the first time she was proud of her country. This remark revealed her to be an ingrate, and yet another person suffering from that special brand of cognitive dissonance that requires the sufferer to feel ashamed of being a citizen of the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet. Now that her left-leaning husband with the concealed past occupies the big chair and is busy enslaving us all to generations of the debt he is using to feed and grow the entitlement culture that threatens to transform us into another European state, I understand what it means to be ashamed of my country. Especially when he goes abroad.

Don’t get me wrong. I have every confidence that this is a temporary malady, one that can be quickly reversed by replacing the the current occupant of the Oval Office with someone who understands the history and character of this country and her people, rather than someone who is so intent on preening for the world’s admiration and adulation that he cheerfully apologizes to other nations for our exceptionalism, which he glibly characterizes as arrogance, and submits to and or pals around with thugs and toughs of the world, who find the rights we believed in enough to enshrine in law to be silly and foolish notions fostered by a decadent and weak people who have spent too much time holding the tyranical regimes and leaders of the globe at bay, and not enough time under their boot heels.

It isn’t enough that Lord Zero has demonstrated an EPIC FAIL! understanding of this Country’s history and law. Hell, he did that prior to the campaign when interviews he gave showed him expressing a soul-crushingly wrong view of the Constitution (that it is a flawed document), or the opinion that we were going to have to stop living like Americans and start living like people in other nations (the cornerstone of his doctrine of the Politics of Lowered Expectations™). No, Lord Zero has to go abroad and spend his time seeking the approval of foreign leaders and their subjects, and little or no time looking our for American interests. His trip to the G20? Plenty of time with his face on camera, but he agreed to a framework that submits our financial system to foreign oversight. And then there was the bow.

Lord Zero could barely muster a nod for England’s Monarch, but bowed deeply and graciously for the Saudi King. This did not go unnoticed in the Saudi Press, and when enough hue and cry was raised here at home that the Administration could no longer remain silent on the subject, two equally ridiculous lies were offered up to an irritated American public in a half-hearted effort to tell us that we really didn’t see what we all saw. From there, Lord Zero ventured to Turkey, where he felt compelled to tell the Turks that we are not a Christian nation, a lie of the most vile type, because it contains a kernel of truth, around which the tapestry of falsehood is woven. We do not have a state-sponsored religion, but the foundations of this country, and the men who set the framework were undeniably Christian, as was the character of its civil institutions up until the Supreme Court decided to take a line from a letter to a church and give it the effect of law, in clear contravention of actual law in place at the time. Despite the unrelenting effort since then to drive religion from nearly all aspects of public life, the majority of people in the nation still identify themselves as Christian. No matter. The press, being the good little stooges they are, dutifully, and timely trotted out their splashy cover stories questioning the role of Christianity in our country today, and suggesting that we are no longer a Christian nation.  When Lord Zero utters such demonstrably false things in when visiting other countries, he does so with the authority established by all of his predecessors, and gives those regimes who vacillate between being jealous of us and outright hating us encouragement and succor, and dampens the hope of decent people in other nations who see our nation as an example, pushing back the gloom of socialism, and the creeping spectre of totalitarianism.

Now Lord Zero is making it a priority to open relations with Cuba, a country oppressive enough that people will risk traversing the shark infested waters between Cuba and Florida for a chance to live in a free country. The fact that we have made it a policy for decades to not engage in trade with this regime since its current thuggish cadre, lead by the Castro Brothers, installed themselves as more equal than all the others in the island worker’s paradise means nothing to Lord Zero. His is the agenda of CHANGE! And if he can earn the admiration of a Marxist dictator in the process, well even better! And then today, he met with Venezuelan president for life Hugo “What Free Speech?” Chavez. Again, by itself, no surprise, but it is very difficult not to be ashamed of your country when it elects a leader who can clearly become such fast friends with a petty tyrant like Chavez. Pictures really do speak a thousand words, and this one gives any freedom loving American reason to be ashamed. I am beginning to believe this man (lowercase) would swap spit with Uncle Joe Stalin if he could.

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Yet Another Government Employee Shows Contempt For We The People

There was a lot of discussion today in the blogosphere about the exceedingly biased and silly coverage of the April 15 Tea Parties around the nation.  Their cynicism was matched only by their contempt.  Its alright.  They will carry the water for the Left…all the way to bankruptcy, and that’s fine.  If the fact that they have completely discredited themselves doesn’t bother them, it doesn’t bother me.  In fact, I welcome the silence that will come when their soapboxes are taken from them and given to their creditors in the oblivion that they are racing towards.  No, what irritates me is when people in my own government forget their place and start casting aspersions toward the people they are supposed to serve.  Case in point?

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)

Congresswoman Schakowski opined that yesterday’s tea parties were “despicable” and “shameful.”

Consider that for a moment.  A member of Congress, an elected official stated that the peaceful assembly of MILLIONS of Americans across the country to protest an out-of-control government Hell-bent on enslaving us to debt that we will NEVER be able to pay off decided to show her level of comprehension and understanding by calling the gatherings “despicable” and shameful.”

Despicable Des”pi*ca*ble\, a. [L. despicabilis, fr. despicari to despise; akin to despicere. See Despise.] Fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless; as, a despicable man; despicable company; a despicable gift. Syn: Contemptible; mean; vile; worthless; pitiful; paltry; sordid; low; base. See Contemptible. Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

Shameful Shame”ful\, a. 1. Bringing shame or disgrace; injurious to reputation; disgraceful. His naval preparations were not more surprising than his quick and shameful retreat. –Arbuthnot. 2. Exciting the feeling of shame in others; indecent; as, a shameful picture; a shameful sight. –Spenser. Syn: Disgraceful; reproachful; indecent; unbecoming; degrading; scandalous; ignominious; infamous. — Shame”ful*ly, adv. — Shame”ful*ness, n. Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

Doesn’t really seem to fit, does it?  While I’m relieved that Mensa doesn’t have to worry about reviewing her application for admission, I am sad that her village is missing its idiot.  Every village needs its idiot to hold out as an example to its children of how not to be when they grow up.

Who is Congresswoman Schakowski?  She is a career politician.  She was elected to her sixth term in Congress last November, and before her first election to the United States House of Representatives, she served for eight years in the Illinois General Assembly.  Before that?  From her website:

For twenty years prior to her election to the State House, Schakowsky fought for the public interest and rights of Illinois citizens. As Program Director of Illinois Public Action (1976-1985), the state’s largest public interest organization, she fought for energy reform and stronger protection from toxic chemicals. As Director of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens from 1985-1990, she organized across the state for lower cost prescription drugs and tax relief for seniors, financial protection for the spouses of nursing home residents and other benefits for the elderly. She has been deeply involved in the fight to protect women’s reproductive freedom.

Think about what this doesn’t say.  It doesn’t say she has ever held a real job.  It doesn’t say she has ever taken the risk of being an entrepreneur.  It doesn’t say that she has ever had to make a payroll.  What it does say is that she has spent nearly twenty years in elected office, and more than a decade in Washington D.C., which is more than enough time to lose touch with the concerns of everyday Americans, assuming that she ever was in touch with them to begin with.

It also doesn’t tell you that her husband, Robert Creamer, pleaded gulity to tax violations and bank fraud for writing rubber checks and failing to collect withholding tax from an employee.  The Honorable Congresswoman’s response toher spouse’s guilty pleas:

“In my heart, I know that these mistakes do not define or diminish this good man, or the good work that he has done over the last 40 years or that he will do in the future,” Schakowsky, D-Ill., said after her husband’s court hearing.

I forgot.  Character doesn’t matter when you are a Democrat, or married to one.  But the money quote?

Schakowsky, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, said she doesn’t think her husband’s plea would prompt a primary challenge next year in her heavily Democratic district.

The sad thing is, she was correct.  Still, one wonders just how much training is required to denounce the people who are unhappy about paying the bill for your idiotic spending spree that will undeniably transform the nation and force government dependency on us all, and yet fail to recognize the application of your chosen charges against the American people to your own spouse, who violated the law and failed to pay taxes.  That is a special brand of hypocrisy.  Perhaps we should refer to it as the “Democratic Standard”…you know, the one that is different from the one applied to you and me.

Think she needs to hear about it?  Me too.  Drop her a line at:

Washington, D.C.
2367 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2111
Fax: (202) 226-6890

And maybe you can send her a dictionary while your at it. 

H/t to Folly and XBradTC

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