Also found at Big Government:
“…ambition is more predictable than principle…”
That’s from “In Enemy Hands” by David Weber. And no, that’s not the novel I referred to in an earlier post this week. (What?!? There are folks who read fewer than 6-10 books/week? ;-))
Sad that the micro-excerpt quoted as this post’s title really is true. Sad because principle ought to be completely predictable but is not because so many people compromise what they falsely call their “principles”. So, what that really means is that when someone takes a “principled stand” there’s a very good chance (about 99% in politics, I’d say) that person is lying through their teeth about their “principles” and is merely acting as though some high ethic were driving his ambition.
One will not often go far wrong when estimating the venality of politicians as overriding any “principled” stand–unless one were to rightly divine a politician’s prime motivator, his principles, as being grounded in ONLY “What’s in it for me.”
“Information is the second most deadly weapon known to man”
And that is the reason so many in Congress want to keep the electorate fat, dumb and thus happy. Of course, as so many are being required to tighten their belts because, of the stupid, venal and corrupt practices of our beloved congresscritters *spit*, “fat” and “happy” don’t seem to be long for the world with a growing number of citizens. “Dumb” is another problem. *sigh* Have to really work on that one with one-on-one and in mass education efforts to combat the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind, the long-term results of “prisons for kids” (A.K.A. “public schools”), in the lies that “fat, dumb and happy” citizens wannabe self-enstupiated serfs have swallowed so eagerly for so long.
But congresscritters working like turks to erradicate “fat” and “happy” could very well–hopefully–lead to the Number One Deadly Weapon Known to Man being pulled on our beloved congresscritters: surprise. At the polls, of course. Let’s concentrate on keeping the nomenklatura in Congress “fat, dumb and happy”… until the hammer falls.
That doesn’t mean not raising a stink at their refusals to keep their oaths to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” and to ” …bear true faith and allegiance to the same”. No, but it’d be a Good Thing if organizing at the local level to get informed patriots (and efforts to fully inform folks about just how blatantly our congresscritters are, urm, “spitting” on the Constitution MUST be an integral part of organizing locally) to the polls next November caught them with their pants around their ankles, so they could get a return shafting (with a rusty hammer, as it were) for the shafting they’ve been given us as a nice lil surprise.
Surprise! Surprise!
On the ObUmascare Bill, Shakedowns and Deficits
While Jerry Pournelle eschews such loaded terms as “Obumascare” his observation in today’s Chaos Manor View certainly gives one pause:
If it cost $300 million to get Landrieu to vote to allow the bill to be debated, what in the world will it cost to get her to vote for the bill itself? And now that she has shown how effective shakedown tactics can be, what will others charge? We may not begin to have seen the deficit spending that the health care bill will cost.
Urm. Let’s see, $300 million here, $300 million there, and pretty soon we’d be talking about real money. Hey! Maybe I can sell my vote for enough to retire on… until Crap n Trade, Feddle Gummint-run healthscare and all the other “great ideas nobody has to pay for” eat up everything I have and I have to go on the dole with everyone else (except for political fat cats and their handlers).
Just shoot me, first.
The “Father of the Constitution” Answers Roland Burris
Roland Burris, the Dhimmicrappic Senator from Illinois who apparently got his ConLaw knowledge from the same poisoned Marxist faux Crackerjack box as The 0! said this about the ObUmascare push to nationalize health insurance,
(CNSNews.com) – When asked by CNSNews.com what specific part of the Constitution authorizes Congress to mandate that individuals must purchase health insurance, Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) pointed to the part of the Constitution that he says authorizes the federal government “to provide for the health, welfare and the defense of the country.” In fact, the word “health” appears nowhere in the Constitution.
Now, most congresscritters simply assert that the “general welfare” clause found in the preamble justifies any old thing congrescritters want to do, but of course the “Father of the Constitution” demurs:
“With respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” –James Madison
And so there you have it: almost all congresscritters have violated their oaths of office to,
” …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… “
And they excuse their treason with such asshattery as Roland Burris’ stupid, illiterate comment. *feh* The House should impeach both themselves and the Senate, and the Senate should vote to convict. Sure, maybe a honest congresscritter that has attempted to be true to his oath of office would be caught in the gears, but that’d be a small price to pay. Of course, I expect reports of sub-zero temps in the most innner circles of hell (reserved of course for oath-breakers like congresscritters) before I hear reports of any such honest, forthright and ethical behavior from Congress.
A Timely Reminder
The Armed Geek linked to this Whizbang! post, and it’s worth passing along and commenting on, I think:
“There’s a trend emerging in American politics. I don’t think it’s a new one, but it’s growth is disturbing to me. And it’s the amazing hostility to the common people.”
Go read it. Now. I’ll wait for you to come on back. Go.
While a reverence for the “wisdom” of the common man is silly, even more silly–and dangerous–is the self-reverence our political masters engage in and the complete disregard and disdain for the views of those they supposedly represent. It is “They” who are the real problem in these (dys)United States nowadays. And I’ll tell you who they are, plainly.
We all know who the “They” of the Whizbang post THINK they are–those who deem themselves our political masters, our social and intellectual betters. Instead, “They” are themselves the scum of the earth, little minds wearing other peoples’ shopworn and discredited ideas with pseudo-intellectual pride, the self-enstupiated, self-absorbed glitterati whose entire lives are all hat, no cattle; all sizzle, no steak. “They” are the Beltway elites deafened by their own echo chamber, the vacuum-headed Hollyweird script readers and the Mass MEdia Podpeople. “They” all fluff each other in a never-ending circle jerk of self-congratulatory rape of our liberties.1
There is no way to dehumanize this “They” that “They” have not already claimed as their very own by their empty, bobble-headed, vile, venal2 behaviors.
And now that I’ve listed their good qualities…
*heh*
But still, remember this:
“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time… the hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.”–Thomas Jefferson
Or, in Randall Thompson’s presentation of Jefferson’s thoughts on liberty, from “Testament of Freedom”:
[audio:http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/Media_Files/The-God-Who-Gave-Us-Life.mp3]Or, for those not using Flash,
The bastards may destroy our lives, but apart from taking our lives, “They” cannot take our liberty… without our cooperation.
Don’t let the bastards wear you down.
Lastly, despite the destruction wrought on our society by the appeal to the lowest common denominator (I typoed, “demoninator” there. Freudian slip?) by the “They” seeking (apparently) to enstupiate the common man with toxic cotton candy (the end result of The Revolt of the Masses *sigh*), this:
[audio:http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/Media_Files/fanfare-common-man-excerpt.mp3]And again, for non-Flash users,
Fanfare for the Common Man–excerpt
Despair is a deadly sin. Again: don’t let the bastards wear you down. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” as Dylan Thomas put it.
1BTW, the couple of vulgarities–verging on the obscene–I included in my indictment of “They” are just that: vulgarities. In the past, I’ve had some object to vulgarities such as that as “profanity” or some other subliterate appellation (“cursing”? *feh* Save me from burgeoning enstupiation and subliteracy!). I chose the specific vulgar comment consciously, because the very least, most inoffensive behavior of “They” is so far beyond the most offensive vulgarity I can imagine that it was just about the mildest way I had available to describe “They’s” obscene, evil, “…iniquitous, nefarious, sinful, vicious, wicked… ” etc. nature. Blame them, not me.
2“venal” is used here as shorthand for “mercenary; crooked, cutthroat, dishonest, unethical, unprincipled, unscrupulous; corrupt, debased, debauched, degenerate, degraded, demoralized, depraved, dissipated, dissolute, perverse, perverted, warped; bad, evil, immoral, iniquitous, nefarious, sinful, vicious, wicked, etc.”
What Ails US
“A nation of sheep will surely beget a government of wolves.” -Henry de Jouvenel
The ever increasingly lupine nature of our “feddle gummint” tells me that our political elite and “feddle gummint” bureaucraps definitely think we are a nation of sheep.
Is it so?
Even CBS–Home of “Fake But Accurate”–Doubts The 0!’s Jobs Claim
Knock me over with a feather. CBS “news” seems to be on a roll in a push to discover journalistic ethics.
CBS Says White House Is Fudging Stimulus Jobs Numbers
Apparently, The 0!’s jobs claims are too grossly inflated for even CBS “news” to buy.
Who’d-a thunk it?
Oh. Wow. Will the Idiocy Never Cease?
Anti-“blasphemy” regs trump the First Amendment. What part of “shall make no law” is unclear to The 0!? Just more “Sit down and shut up” from The 0!’s White House.
While attracting surprisingly little attention, the Obama administration supported the effort of largely Muslim nations in the U.N. Human Rights Council to recognize exceptions to free speech for any “negative racial and religious stereotyping.” The exception was made as part of a resolution supporting free speech that passed this month, but it is the exception, not the rule that worries civil libertarians. Though the resolution was passed unanimously, European and developing countries made it clear that they remain at odds on the issue of protecting religions from criticism. It is viewed as a transparent bid to appeal to the “Muslim street” and our Arab allies, with the administration seeking greater coexistence through the curtailment of objectionable speech. Though it has no direct enforcement (and is weaker than earlier versions), it is still viewed as a victory for those who sought to juxtapose and balance the rights of speech and religion.
Hmmm, if The 0! is serious about pushing this, expect an effective nullification coming here in the U.S. of
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Coming soon to a court room near you:
Differing Point of View
The Founders viewed government as a necessary evil that needed to be hedged and curbed with great barriers to restrain its encroachment into the liberties of the People. Our current “feddle gummint” views the liberties of the People as a great danger to be hedged and curbed with great barriers to restrain the People’s encroachment into its power.