A fact based, reasoned argument presented to a contemporary faux liberal (progressive, leftist, etc.) is like attempting to teach a pig to sing. All it does is waste your time and annoy the pig.
Ditto with the porker.
“Compromise” *gag-spew*
Borrowing (OK, stealing) from Sluggy Freelance to translate King Putz the Petulant’s stance on compromise with any view not his own,
“Look, [if] you beat me fair and square, I’ll totally give you bragging rights. Now, just jump on my sword and see things from my perspective. It’s called ‘compromise’.”
Of course, the typical Repugnican’t manner of compromise with Dhimmicraps is to bend over and pitifully plead, “Please, may I have another?”
“Dream Team” for 2016 Dhimmicrap WH Ticket
Well, this would be MY choice for a 2016 Dhimmicrappic presidential “dream team”. . . and a guy can still dream, can’t he? *heh*
Did Edward Snowden Break the Law in Revealing the Depth and Breadth of the NSA’s Surveillance of Citizens?
For those excoriating Edward Snowden for “breaking the law” I’ll say this: I don’t know and I don’t care. I don’t know, because I haven’t–and probably won’t–research the relevant laws, because I do not care whether he broke any in revealing the NSA’s surveillance of ordinary citizens.
Here’s why that is: ANY time a citizen shed’s light on government mistreatment of its citizens’ rights it is a Good Thing, no matter what his motivation, no matter what laws he breaks to do so. Any laws that even ALLOW the government to cover abuses are anathema to me, and should be to every citizen who lives; they are nothing short of being bad faith with the social contract the Founders recognized which establishes that government exists to protect our rights, not abuse or deny to us the free exercise of them. ANY law or regulation that provides cover for government abuse of citizens’ rights is illegitimate and has no moral force whatsoever, no excuse for existence save for the vile, reprehensible, utterly abhorrent excuse of defending that abuse of power, and that’s a raison d’être that in itself gives adequate cause to sneer at and openly flout disobedience to any such law or regulation.
Apparatchiks in the same party that gave us the death toll of Fast and Furious and Benghazi, the trampling of the First and Fourth Amendments in the AP scandal and the blatant IRS abuses of power have talked with relative comfort about disappearing Snowden. Yeh, what’s a little banana republic terrorist tactic between friends, eh? In the toxic atmosphere of an overweening, anarcho-tyrannist “feddle gummint bureaucrappy” that views everything with an US (the “gummint”) vs Them (former citizens, now subjects) it becomes obvious to anyone who’s not dumber than a sack of Shiite that the “feddle gummint” is cast adrift from a constitutionally-informed social contract designed to protect the rights of citizens and not the turf of politicians *gag-spew* and “bureaucraps” *gagamaggot*.
In such an environment, as I said, ANYONE who for ANY REASON brings government abuses of power into the light of day has done right, no matter what their motivation, no matter what any CYA laws or regulations say.
Doing the right thing, even for wrong reasons, is doing the right thing, no matter what.
One last thing: Edward Snowden may be weird. He may be distasteful in his personal habits, lifestyle or morality. I don’t know and I don’t care. I have seen hints about such things written by people condemning him, though hints only, as I skip over and simply note another ad hominem attack designed to discredit him in the eyes of stupid people. I don’t know Edward Snowden, and I do not particularly care to; not only that, I do not have to know ANYTHING about him apart from the fact that the information he revealed has so far checked out and that it reveals massive abuse of power by the federal government. THAT is ALL that matters in this brouhaha. Period.
A politician’s or bureaucrap’s greatest fear?
A government employee who commits a public act of integrity.
Swamp Their Inboxes
Overwhelm your congresscritters’ and state reps’ inboxes with calls to completely shut down the IRS and salt the legislative and bureaucrappic ground it rests on.
When you’re finished with that, besiege their inboxes with calls for special prosecutors for Fast and Furious, Benghazi and the NSA. Add links wherever possible. Here’s one for NSA crimes against humanity (and make no mistake: NSA’s “Boundless Informant” is just that):
Focusing public attention on emerging privacy and civil liberties issues
Root and Branch: Extirpate the IRS
Conservative group’s lawsuit targets IRS employees personally
Look, folks, let’s just say it openly and without reservation: The IRS is simply evil. Period. I’ll accept no qualifications about “good people” working in the IRS. No, if they were truly good people, they’d find a job not working for an evil organization. Period. End of story. No excuses.
The fish rots from the head and from its inception, the IRS has rotted and is nothing but a poisonous evil whose sole function is to do evil and enable further evil to be done. Any lame justifications that it collects revenue for legitimate purposes fall, because most “feddle gummint” functions nowadays are constitutionally illegitimate (hence, based on lies, evil). Nope. The IRS has to go. Now, how to get there. . .
Pressure–and never, never, never stop pressuring–congresscritters to abolish the IRS and the oppressive, tyrannical, capricious income tax system it administers. Get involved in local politics in order to gain influence on political parties’ selection of candidates, at ever higher levels of government. Join with other “outsiders” to invade and take over the political apparatus of whatever party or parties you may have a chance to “subvert” to bring them back in line with constitutional principles.
And never, never, NEVER stop pushing back–twice as hard, and harder. If you are attacked, as the person and her organization in the linked article above have been, push back as that organization has. Make it as personal as the bureaucraps themselves make it. Hold them PERSONALLY responsible.
Keep it in bounds–not their bounds, the law’s bounds–but make sure they know it IS personal, because that’s the central meaning of The Founders’ Constitution”–personal, individual liberty and responsibility is THE central reason the Constitution was written to SET BOUNDARIES BEYOND WHICH GOVERNMENT MUST NOT GO!
The “feddle gummint” needs to be told to sit down, shut up and LISTEN to the PEOPLE. . . and then sit down and shut up–PERIOD!–wherever the Constitution says they have no business going.
Finally, Putin Approves of an Anti-Putin Protest
“As for the protest, I liked it.” Yes, we can see that.
(Although I blurred out the hint of what Putin was giving a thumbs up to, I understand the words written in Cyrillic on the woman’s back might be NSFW.)
I Blame the Hivemind
For at least a couple of decades now, anyone who has watched the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind so-called “news” shows has been programmed to eliminate the ability to discern clear distinctions as to many things, but the most egregious–and most consistent–destruction of reason has been the twisting of time. How many times have you heard *cough* “news” *cough* readers refer to events that occurred some time in the past as happening contemporaneously with the reader’s babbling?
Past tense for past events, idiots. But no, in *cough* “news” *cough* readerland present tense is fairly consistently used to refer to past events. And so an essential anchor of reason is eroded daily and common folk attempting to be writers begin to write such drivel as,
The sun rose rose over San Antonia [sic] de Bexar as a Blood [sic] red omen of what the day will [sic] bring to the men of the Alamo.
Good Sharkey, Colonel god! Past tense, properly used, mixed with future tense speaking of a (long) past event! Oh, why not. *sigh* If the past is present, then surely the past is future as well. Time means nothing.
OTOH, any literate person who’s not been lobotomized by watching *cough* “news” *cough* shows would have written,
“The sun rose rose over San Antonio de Bexar as a blood red omen of what the day would bring to the men of the Alamo.”
It’s still a bit overwrought for me, but at least the conditional is dealt with properly. It’s not just aspiring web “journalists” committing such gagamaggot faux pas with English, no. Such superbly dumbass writing abounds in traditionally published works, from newspapers to books from traditional publishing houses (which at one time employed literate proof readers and editors) and in the speech of *cough* “news” *cough* readers inhabiting the Hivemind, the political and entertainment classes and even Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries.
Is it any wonder these dumbasses who consider themselves an elite that’s fit to rule the hoi polloi are making a mess of everything they touch? They cannot consistently deal with speaking clearly and rationally on simple subjects.
And the sheeple eat it all up with a spork (because they cannot be trusted with a real fork).
More Typical Fedgov B.S.
So, since we–very uncharacteristically–have a refund due us from the fedgov this year (primarily due to some rebates on “energy efficient” home improvements and to lower income *sigh*), we filed as soon as all the correct forms were available.
Son&Heir filed a couple of weeks later.
Whose return was processed first? You got it.
Reason #1,386,237 why I hate the IRS.