Found this at Woody’s Place but thought it needed a lil punching up, so… the original (punched up with color in The One’s logo) and an alternate text version:
While you’re at Woody’s Place, check out the Glenn Beck video in the post.
Playing Ostrich
I’ve been emulating the phony meme, “Ostrich Hiding Head in Sand,” this week, mostly avoiding news (it’s all bad) and just getting on with life. It occurred to me that one of the biggest problems in our society today is that we’ve placed far, far too much power in the hands of folks who are far, far removed from our lives, power to directly affect our lives that the “feddle gimmint” (“feddle” rhymes with “meddle” you notice) ought not have and was never meant–at least by the Founders–to have.
WE, the People, have ceded our rights to liberty–freedom from governmental meddling–to people who do not have our best interests at heart. Let me repeat that: anyone who says, “I’m from the government; I’m here to help,” is lying–to you at the very least, and, if they’re stupid enough to be sincere, to themselves as well. Our political masters do NOT sincerely want to solve the problems they’ve created (with our help–we elected these bastards, didn’t we?), because any problem genuinely solved equals less power for the politicians *spit* and bureaucraps *puke* to exercise over us.
So, I’ve been hiding out this week. But that hasn’t stopped the little wheels from turning (be they ever so slowly turning). What if… what if just 10% of taxpayers said, “Enough! No more!” and simply… opted out. What if… just 100 people in every major city banded together and (after first purchasing body armor *heh*) simply drove V E R Y S L O W L Y on their city’s major arteries during rush hour. Every day for as long as they still had a car, in protest against civil governments doing everything possible to screw us blue. (Yeh, pay the tickets, but keep up the Good Work.) What if… people of good conscience (and at least half a brain–100% more than the average Mass Media Podperson) simply banded together and said, “No!” loudly, consistently, without fail, every time politicians lied to us, stole from us, lined their own pockets at our expense?
What if?
I suspect it’d look something like this.
That Itch on the Back of Your Neck…
…is telling you that the political elite are about to screw up by the numbers. Again.
In my adult lifetime, the “feddle gummint” has made some sizeable screwups, and the Boys n Girls on the Hill seem about to do it again with the WallStreet Bailout. Just a few low points in “feddle gummint” meddlin’ should suffice to articulate a pattern of stupidity we can reasonably expect to apply to current events:
In the 60s, Johnson gave us the inception of the greatest expansion of the government “welfare” plantation with the Great Society programs. That’s worked out well, now hasn’t it? (You’ll excuse the sarcasm.)
Then, toward the end of the next decade, Dhimmi Kahtah gave us BOTH the “Department of Edumacationizing” which has accelerated the slide of public education in this nation into the toilet, AND the government interference in the housing market with low income housing “incentives” that have resulted in the collapse of mortgage banking and the current economic woes. Good going, Dhimmi!
Now, Congress is about to enact a $700billion “welfare for stupid, greedy bankers” bailout of their problems when Congress itself created the environment that led to the stupid, greedy bankers getting caught with their shorts around their ankles.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
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Distrust Authority
This is a re-run from “I don’t know when; I’m too lazy to search” *heh*
I believe people today are too “credentials crazy” and rely too heavily on someone’s C.V. to provide validation for their opinions, including blog postings. While I have gone the university/grad school route (in a couple of different fields), I try to avoid citing those degrees or even my experience in those fields, as much as possible, to stamp “authority” over an opinion. If a particular personal experience (or set of experiences) can serve as support for other material from other sources, then that seems valid, but just saying “I have a (or several) degree(s) in such-and-so and work in the field” as an argument in and of itself for or against a position is just so much bullshit.
OK, rabbit trail (although this does indeed go somewhere, and will be revelatory). Authority has several faces, and several sources. Some legitimate and others not so (or not at all).
Two classes make religious authoritarian statements (although one denies it): actual, well, “religious leaders” and soi disant “scientists” who make religious claims about “science” (yes, there’s a good reason for the scare quotes).
In the area of relatively above board religious statements, there’s divine authority and human opinion. Wanna argue with God? Be my guest. (Glutton for punishment.) Some religious leaders claim divine authority. Tricky question. If one accepts the Bible as divinely authoritative, then a religious leader within Christianity (or I’d suppose Judaism) could claim to speak with authority if what he’s saying is… scripture. Otherwise, it’s just his opinion, and that’s only as authoritative as it is subject to reason, morality and scripture itself (we are talking about a particular set of authority here, after all). Any religious leader who simply asserts his opinion as authoritative because of his position within some religious hierarchy is playing at being the devil.
And yeh, if you wanna make an issue of it, I’ll argue that assertion from scripture.
Scientists as religious dogmatists? Global warming. There. That should be enough to tell any reasonable person to check the data, examine the processes, testing instruments and underlying assumptions at the very least before accepting any likely lie beginning with “scientists believe” or “scholars are in agreement” or any such crypto-cultic balderdash.
Oh! Lambasting “authorities”! Kicking the Sacred Cow by James P. Hogan. Just buy it and read. I don’t claim Hogan’s an “authority” on any of the subjects he touches on (nor does he), but he does point out some serious holes in the (really) religious statements of faith in scientism. Anthropogenic Global Warmism? Neodarwinism? Heck, “Einsteinism”. *heh* All just sects of the religion of scientism. And none of them nearly so authoritative as scientism would have you believe.
But what of darned near all other authority?
First, I distrust ALL assertions of authority. Unless a person can prove by citation of verifiable fact and via sound reasoning that their assertions are valid, then I don’t consider their assertions to have any authority at all. Credentials don’t count with me.
That includes doctors.
Lawyers.
Preachers.
Teachers (of anything). Particularly, if a teacher cannot do–competently–what they are purporting to teach others, then I tend to write them off as blowhards.
I will always place more credence in a carpenter telling me “This is how it’s done” (cos the carpenter’s authority can be checked by looking at his work) than I would a politician telling me, well, anything (because a politician can be checked by looking at his work *heh*), but particularly, “This is just political reality.” “Political reality” is a self-referential construct, only as “real” as the power we give to (or is illegitimately seized by) the politician claiming it.
What of authority as exercised by various civil governments? More and more, if measured by the principles this nation was built on as articulated by the Founders’ generation particularly, civil government authority is illegitimate. Think Kelo or Martha Stewart or Ramos and Compean or Ruby Ridge or the TSA or… (yes, the list is long and growing)
In fact, the more powerful the government entity, the more abusive and illegitimate its authority seems to be. Which is why so many of the easy pickings in governmental/bureaucratic abuses are from federal exercises of authority.
In fact, if all I were to say about the illegitimate use of “feddle gummint” authority–indeed, abuse of citizens that is in exactly the same vein as those abuses the Founders decried in the Declaratiion of Independence–were “Lon Horiuchi” then that would be enough to demonstrate absolute proof of Samuel Francis’ “anarcho-tyranny” label of bureaucratic/governmental abuse of authority.
And oh, my! did the Department of “Justice” cover itself in shame in the Ruby Ridge/Lon Horiuchi coverup or not? Department of “Jam-up-citizens” would be a more accurate name…
Authority: distrust it. Make it prove itself worthy of respect. Martha Stewart is my hero(ine). If only because her case made manifest the depravity of abusive “feddle gummint” turf-building anarcho-tyrannists. She was punished under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 for “Lying to Government Agents”–according to testimony by the government agents in question AND a witness the “feddle gummint” persecutors later indicted for perjury for his testimony against Stewart. (Yeh, I don’t recall reading how that ended, but that they themselves indicted their own well-coached witness, the one who was THE critical nail in Martha’s coffin, says a lot, doesn’t it?)
At least some good, of a sort, has come out of the Martha Principle: “How to Avoid Going to Jail under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 for Lying to Government Agents.”
Read it. Somewhere, there’s a feddle prosecutor or bureaucrat who can nail you for breaking a law or regulatory rule you don’t know exists. All that’s needed is for a feddle gummint bureaucrat or prosecutor to set his/her sights on you and decide they want your hide. That’s an essential element of anarcho-tyranny: the ability to pick and choose among thousands of regulations and laws and selectively enforce them for personal gain–turf-building, career-enhancement or simply petty revenge.
That’s where abuse of Constitutional authority has led us.
ANY abuse of authority is just as evil. Yes, evil.
Distrust authority. Men lie, usually for short-term gain. Bureaucrats are more likely because they are petty, venal, corrupt and/or incompetent than not. Politicians are more likely to be all of those AND consumate liars than not.
And that brings me back to a revelation. Yeh, I have some academic creds. They are all crap. At best. From my earliest years, I learned to tune out the bullshit artists who claimed to be teachers (though I was fortunate to have some at all stages of my formal education path who were able doers in their field, as well). I consider myself semi-literate. Not a day goes by that I don’t make a new (to me) discovery, a “Hey! I didn’t know that!” kinda experience. Not all are as shocking as picking up an uncle’s “Bible”… to discover that it was in Greek (“But, but, I just heard him reading a passage aloud in English!”). Put me in a mind to get me one-a those thangs, too…
No, not all my “Aha!”s open up what seems to be a whole new world, as that experience did, but daily I learn new things that remind me–daily–how much there is to know that I do not.
And that also makes me a bit suspicious of folks who say with “authority” that things are such-and-so, when not only can I see exceptions to their model, but once firmly held their (false) view myself…
Question authority. Give persons “in authority” only the respect they are due… which means, only when they are right or at least honestly attempting to argue from reason and verifiable fact. When they are wrong, blow them a big, fat, juicy-wet raspberry. Ridicule is the highest, best response to false authority, the most generous response false authority deserves.
Want my C.V.? Go suck on a rock. My C.V. is irrelevant.
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What to do about the “War on drugs”?
Or, “If I Were Emperor” *heh*
“From the US we can see that strict laws on personal possession don’t work… “
Were I Emperor for a Week, among the silly (stupid and downright evil–in effect if not intent) things I’d repeal would be ALL laws regulating what adults could put into their bodies… along with implementing stringent punishments for harm done to others because stupid, irresponsible adults put things they ought not into their bodies and ended up doing harmful things as a result. Drunk drivers cause a wreck? Lose all their worldly goods–no dunning the insurance past a minimal amount–become the slaves of those they harmed until their monetary assessment’s paid off, then set free or executed–those who killed someone because of their drunkeness–by dropping their own wrecked car on them… until dead. (NOT “cruel and unusual”–see the numbers of people killed by drunk drivers per year by essentially “dropping” a car on ’em. Definitely “usual” and certainly not particularly “cruel” otherwise, why would so many drunks feel it’s perfectly fine to drive a couple of tons of metal into another human at 65mph?) In public. With pre-emptive natiowide broadcasts of the executions on all available channels, including The Cartoon Network. (Never too young to learn that being drunk is stupid.)
No prison for possession or use of any drug. Only for doing things that harm others directly.
Oh, and what to do with all that $$ saved by ending the “War on drugs”? Provide all the lotus eaters all the drugs they want for free in hopes that Darwin will cleanse the gene pool. No other benefits (no food stamps, unemployment, health care), just all the drugs that druggies want, free. After all, the only cure for stupidity is reality.
Gee, as long as I were Emperor for a Week,
–chain gangs for career politicians, educrats, Mass Media Podpeople, Hollyweirdites, Academia Nut Fruitcakes and Prisons for Kids (AKA, “public schools”) administrators.
–abolish the IRS (and add its minions to the aforesaid chain gangs)
–set up a “Greenie Preserve” where Algore and his idiot followers can be one with nature. No electricity, no modern drugs or preserved foods, no modern sanitation, just greenies, nature and… all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth they want
Well, a guy can dream, can’t he?
Next? Well, with the stupid “War on drugs” out of the way, maybe the DEA can focus on something else, like, I dunno, persecuting, urm, prosecuting a “War on feddle gummint anarcho-tyranny” starting with the TSA, BATF and… Congress?
*heh*
Trackposted to Faultline USA, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, The Pink Flamingo, , Leaning Straight Up, Dumb Ox Daily News, Democrat=Socialist, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Tell the Saudis to Drink Their Oil
Found via Hotair (via Pursuing Holiness):
Go Here. Now.
While nuclear energy would make a good near-mid term addendum to our energy needs, we have enough oil in our own back yard to be able to stop paying the Saudi (and other Middle Eastern) thugs for our oil. All we lack is congresscritters who aren’t bought and paid for by those whose real desire is to “Sink America First!”
Also via Hotair:
Yep.
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DUI… sorta
Driving under the influence… of cough syrup and the Founders.
Made for an interesting mini-confrontation with a cop who had NO idea what the First Amendment guarantees. (Hint: criticizing government, government officials, petty bureaucrats, etc., is specifically the point of “Free Speech”.)
Apparently, when I went out for an errand last night, while my headlights and all other normal nighttime safety freatures were working, my tail lights were not.
Stopped. Fine. Appreciated the information (no tail lights at night can tempt some idiot driving beyond HIS headlights to run up my butt). Told ’em so, warmly.
Apparently, though, two heavily-armed LEOs felt “threatened” when I offered to check my tail lights to see if there were a loose primary and to check my fuse box (under the hood). Oooo! He wants to Get Out Of The Car!
For THEIR “safety” (remember: two armed officers, one Olde Pharte) I was “instructed” (with a grab and push on my door) to stay inside.
Told the one with his own ZIP code he was acting like a portion of his anatomy he beggared a third world country to cover and… he threatened to cite me for “interfering with a police officer in the course of his duty.”
“Why, officer?”
“Because you called me a _______.”
“Liar. I did no such thing and I’ll demonstrate it.” (Quoted back to him my exact words which did no such thing. Of course, I did specifically say he was acting that way.) He huffed off. Came back. Told me to go ahead and check my tail lights if I wanted to. I demurred with, “No thank you officer. I don’t want you to feel threatened.”
Partner came back and told me no ticket, just get ’em fixed. Offered to hold a light for me while I checked in back. Again, I demurred. Armed thugs (OK, maybe only one was) LEOs behind me in the dark. Right. I like that option.
I know there are police officers who aren’t full of themselves to the point that being criticized for acting like an ass doesn’t set them off, but frankly, I think the profession draws way, way too many petty tyrants who are too full of themselves for any good. Sure, maybe the cough syrup loosened my tongue a tad, but that makes not one single solitary difference: playing the petty tyrant card to attempt shutting me up when he didn’t like what I observed and opined about his behavior revealed that cop as an ass.
Not just acting like one.
Sam Adams woulda shoved him on his big fat Pillsbury Doughboy.
And Jefferson and the other guys woulda held Sam’s coat.
Me? I just refused to take his B.S.
mini-micro-update: was a bad tail light blowing a fuse. Not burned out tail light: base was loose causing increased impedence.
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