The Path To Socialism

So since the beginning of the year in my neighborhood, they have been building a bus lane and walking path. I think it was probably financed by stimulus money. The walking path has been open for about a month and I was just driving by on my way home from getting groceries, and it was packed with people. People on roller skates people on bicycles and people walking. And it was after sundown but the path is pretty well lit and with that kind of a crowd it was just about as safe as you could imagine. It was a little surreal, frankly, because this is the San Fernando Valley; we're famous for people not walking anywhere, under any circumstances.

It was, I think, sublime. All these people taking the opportunity to get a little exercise and get out of their apartments. Tomorrow perhaps they'll be a little thinner, a little less stressed, a little prouder of themselves.

This whole situation is, by a surprising number of American's definition, socialism. They paid their tax money so that OTHER PEOPLE could get exercise? Why don't they join a gym, and create some jobs? Why wasn't the land sold to an entrepreneur, so he could build a commercial walking path and charge people to walk on it? Maybe sell them ice cream sandwiches along the way?

No entrepreneur would take on that gig, of course, because it's far too expensive a proposition and there's probably no profit to be made from it. And you can ask yourself if the government should be spending tax money on something that it will never see a dime of direct profit from. Maybe if you're inventive, you can calculate the lower health care bills, the increased tax collections from people moving into the area because of the cool walking paths, and such but ultimately you'll never convince a skeptic with intangibles like that.

All I know is I'm happier living here now than I was last year at this time, because I have a safe route to bike to work on and I'm surrounded by people who are getting out once in a while. If tax dollars make my life easier and happier and healthier, I'm okay with paying them.

The Founding Fathers Hated Door-To-Door Salesment

"Stand your ground" strikes another blow for freedom!

On Wednesday, Kenneth Roop, 52, of Cape Coral, pointed a gun again, police say, and this time fired two shots, telling police he was "in fear." He is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Nick Rainey, 30, who wanted to sell him frozen steaks and lobster.
Rainey, an employee of Blue Ribbon Steak and Seafood, had just knocked on Roop's door at 1815 SW 30th Terrace and gotten no response when Roop pulled into the driveway, driving a pickup, according to an arrest report released Thursday.

Explaining his actions to police after the shooting, Roop said he became "more than a little nervous" as Rainey walked down the driveway toward his truck and appeared to have something in his hand. 

As Rainey drew within 4 feet, Roop grabbed his 9mm Glock from his pocket and fired once, striking Rainey in the shoulder, he told police. Rainey fell to the ground, screaming, 'You shot me,' in what Roop described as an "antagonistic" manner, according to the report.

If only Roop had managed to be a little more jocular toward his assailant, he might have avoided a final bullet to the back of his head. I think we can all agree that Rainey owes Roop an apology. But Rainey is too arrogant (and dead) to make one.

The quoted article above alludes to the other time Roop exercised his gun rights in a perfectly reasonable way, when he pulled a pistol on a METER READER (socialist home invader) 7 years ago. When will the madness stop? You guys, quit frightening Kenneth Roop!

Low Hanging Fruit

...It's often the sweetest!

An Extremely Clever Metaphor

This is a perfect explanation of how entrepreneurism works. This little girls didn't build their lemonade stand with the help of the government! Unless you count the fact that it's next to a public road, which is their only source of customers. And most likely they're using water from a public reservoir (maybe it was pumped from well water, probably not) and they're trading using currency instead of livestock. 

And the lemons and sugar also benefitted from the use of public roads.  Oh and ice... had to have electricity to make ice! Public utility again. You can generate your own (Ed Begly Jr. does it all the time!) but most people do not, especially conservatives.

Plus if the girls weren't home-schooled in math and English, there's a possible issue there too. So sure it's possible to to build this lemonade stand and sell lemonade using only private roads, self-generated electricity and water, private schools and so on.... but after you've paid for all that, try turning a profit on $.50 a glass. 

But otherwise, NoObama is completely wrong!

Quote Of The Day: There WAS One Edition

“Had someone been prepared and armed they could have stopped this ‘bad’ man from most of this tragedy...All that was needed is one Courages/Brave man prepared mentally or otherwise to stop this it could have been done.”

- Arizona state senator Russell Pearce on his Facebook page. He deleted it though.

Colorado Call And Response

Once in a while in society, someone will lose their mind and kill innocent people around them. It happens and while tragic, attempting to place the blame on some external societal trend is almost always mistaken. This morning a guy shot up a theatre in Colorado showing The Dark Knight Rises. ABC attempted to link the shooter to the Tea Party (they were mistaken); Breitbart.com made a similar attempt to link him to the Democrats (also mistaken) but the facts as they stand suggest only that the guy saw the other Batman movies, and he's not stable.

Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) ventured the opinion that lack of faith in God caused this.

"Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important," he said. "Whether it's John Adams saying our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people ... Ben Franklin, only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters ... We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country."

Ernest Istook, the host of the show and a former Oklahoma congressman, jumped in to clarify that nobody knows the motivation of the alleged Aurora gunman. Gohmert said that may be true, but suggested the shootings were still "a terrorist act" that could have been avoided if the country placed a higher value on God. 

"People say ... where was God in all of this?"

Well sir; I was taught that God is everywhere. Thus, God abetted the gunman. But since I'm an atheist now (not a violent one) I'm more inclined to think that it's bad brain chemistry, and preventing these kinds of tragedies is no more possible than preventing earthquake or meteor strike.

Headline of the Day

The Biggest Threat To the Right Is The Right

-Dana Loesch. I've been saying this for years.

Quote Of the Day: The Best Man Wins Edition

"Oh come on, because we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate."


- John McCain, explaining why he chose her over Mitt Romney as a running mate

A Backhanded Defense of Mitt Romney

Romney has gone out of his way to point out that he left Bain Capital in 1999, so the Obama campaign claim that he was running it when the company liquidated (and fired the staffs of) a bunch of companies. So when the Boston Globe dug a little and found that Romney is listed as "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president" of the company until 2002 according to documents filed with the SEC, the Obama campaign ran with that in a big way.

My gut feeling is this is a non issue - I don't read SEC filings but he could have stopped running the company while still maintaining the need to have SOMEONE in those slots on the forms. Probably the company was run by an autonomous subordinate, but in order to avoid contractual problems they couldn't "promote" him for a few years. Plausible.

Where I can fault the Romney campaign is that they don't offer any evidence one way or the other. You can't just say, "I'm a politician, trust me." That's crazy talk. You know what might help? If we had access to 12 years of tax returns.

WND Thinks Blacks Should Be More Like Jews

You might think my title is a little offensive! If it helps, try to imagine it without "WND Thinks."

World Net Daily is right though. Have the blacks ever gotten it together enough to control the Banks and the Media? I don't think so! Sure somehow we don't have a Jew president yet, but that's just because the liberals hate Jews. Just kidding, this is a Christian nation.

Adults In the Room?

Okay, time for serious.

Yesterday I took issue with a guy on Facebook who was posting unflattering charicatures of democratic figures. This is an example:

Unlike the other democrat animals, Nancy Pelosi never had a childhood. She was simply spawned as an adult female dog, or Bitch.

"Klassy!" I responded. He asked if I was offended, and I said no more than you would be by people referring to George W. Bush as "Chimpy." And it degenerated from there. I know, you think it can't get lower than this but it can. Oh, it can.

He cited the terrible things Democrats have done as motivations for his sides terrible things, and I cited earlier terrible things to excuse those. In this way we both blamed others for our own immaturity.

In fact, I'll cop to one of my transgressions now: earlier this year I made fun of Chris Christie's weight, right here, on this blog. Rather than double down now, I will admit I was wrong, apologize to Governor Christie and all his fans, and promise to not do it again. All this without anyone demanding an apology, because that means something.

Now look, the rest of you. If you say something as stupid as I just admitted to because the other guys did it first, or they made you do it, know that it's a zero sum game. What you're admitting is that what they did wasn't so bad, because you forgive yourself for it. So if you're saying you're offended by their behavior, you're lying. And we can all agree that there's too much lying in politics. Don't stir more in.

Mitt Romney Addressed The NAACP This Morning

It's amazing they were able to be so loud when they were booing the affordable care act!

Former Genius Now Poindexter 4-Eyes

Now I think this Krohn kid would be pleasant to hang around with. I especially like that he isn't calling himself liberal. He's sensibly deciding on individual issues.

Predictably, the demonizing has begun.

The Most Arrogant Man In The World!

What's worse, he always apologizes for America! And he fails to lead!

 

They probably meant "uppity."

A Waste of Gunpowder and Sky

(Title from Aimee Mann, Fourth of July)

Don't get me wrong, I love the 4th of July as much as the next guy. You don't believe me, have a look at these pictures I just took at a celebration at Warner Ranch Park. Or listen to my Dark Meat show this week, all about the best goddamned country in the world.

What I don't like is fireworks.

I'm not afraid of them, like most dogs and a handful of children. I don't object to them as a war metaphor, like the hippies of my youth. Both fireworks AND football are fine with me if you want to enjoy 'em. Knock yourself out. It's just that, well, fireworks are boring.

Probably the thing is I think of a fireworks show as a show, a thing with a narrative, with a beginning, middle and end. And some time just before I hit puberty, I realized that it's always the same story. A firework goes off, another one does, pause, then another, then one that's louder but less visual, then a couple, then one, then after about twenty minutes they all go off at once. Then you all spend the next hour and a half trying to get to your car, and trying to leave the parking lot.

So I'm blogging alone in my apartment right now, listening to fireworks going off outside and trading quips on Facebook. This, to me, is where the action is.

Unraveling the Mystery of Obamacare

This morning I have a question for you: why is requiring car insurance for drivers good, but requiring health insurance for people who have bodies bad? A few possible answers.

1. Not all states require auto insurance, just 47 of them. If you want to drive, you can always move to New Hampshire; also Wisconsin or California if you're willing to put up an enormous bond.

2. If you're poor, well, stop driving. Driving is for rich people! If you are rich and a poor person rams into your car (probably by accident but they're getting pretty irate lately) you can afford to fix it yourself. Or sue the poor person for his... uh... well, why give money to a trial lawyer anyway?

This second point is nicely illustrated by this clip from Fox News Sunday, in which Mitch McConnell points out that if you wanted medical care, you'd make more money.


After all, the last thing we need is for the death panels to say that we should approve treatments for your retired-without-a-pension parents. What kind of strong society will that serve?