...Congratulations on graduating high school, and congratulations on your eighteenth birthday!
We have to talk.
Your father and I went into your bedroom yesterday. We had to get the cat out from under your bed. (She hides when it's time to give her the seizure medication.) We weren't prying, but we noticed a lot of Bernie Sanders campaign materials in your room, along with a pile of Xeroxed flyers for a protest at McDonald's. I guess you're going to march around with a bandanna on your face for a $15/hr minimum wage. Anyway, your father and I talked about it, and while we understand that you are growing and "finding yourself", we decided that we have too little money saved and invested to be able to risk supporting you any longer.
We are evicting you from our house.
We love you, and so we encourage you to find a job quickly. There are still some minimum wage jobs to be had now, but illegal aliens and robots will get most of them soon, and order-screens will replace the rest. Get some room-mates and find an apartment before the illegal immigrants who are taking the jobs get those too. If you are going to campaign and protest for crazy minimum wages and open borders, your father and I believe that you need to live with the consequences.
We are also taking you off of our insurance. Yes, we know we're allowed to have you on our plan until you're twenty-six, but that isn't a mandate. Yet. You're healthy; we've fed you well for eighteen years and made sure you got your vaccines. Several Thanksgivings ago, you lectured the family about why Obamacare was the greatest thing ever. You wouldn't entertain our concerns about rising premiums and socialized medicine, so we have decided that you should use the laptop we bought for you to sign up for that "free insurance". It's free, right? That's what you kept telling us over dessert. Keeping you on our plan costs money, so go get the free stuff.
It shouldn't surprise you to hear that we won't be paying for your college, either. We assume that a Sanders supporter is not well-acquainted with reality, and maybe some of that is our fault- we worked our fingers to the bone in this blue state to pay taxes, taxes, taxes, and we may not have paid enough attention to your economic education. But since you dream of being a marine biologist at the Seaquarium, we think that you need to pay for that on your own. This decision will ultimately give you a valuable education in supply and demand economics.
By the way, did you ever stop to consider that a lot of your new college friends might feel that the Seaquarium is a cruel oppressor of animals and should be shut down? They probably also feel that all of the dolphins should be able to sue you for damages. You should consider these things before talking about your career plans at parties.
We didn't share your jubilation when State University accepted you because we knew you were a mediocre student, at best. Most colleges will bend over backward to accept students despite average grades and no extracurricular activities. Honey, the truth is that you represent a source of money in the form of student loans. You are a customer. Tuition is high because student loans are easy to get, and administrator salaries are six-figure. You've been stumping for "free tuition"? There's no "free". Someone always pays. It'll be your dad and I, in the form of higher taxes, and ultimately it'll be you, in the form of worthless degrees that are not in demand by employers.You will have to pay off your loans, and that will be hard to do when you are working in a depressed economy.
Speaking of feelings, we also figured that the current climate on campus meant you'd be sucked into attending a lot of protests, and these will cut into your study time. You will be shown all kinds of things to complain about and be offended by, a whole world of umbrage you never suspected could exist! If you graduate from a "Marine Mammal Advocacy program" or whatever you're going to do, your father and I don't particularly want to be greeted at your college graduation with a lecture on our "white privilege" while your hand is out looking for new car money.
In short, if you are helping to bring about ruin to everything your father and I have built up over our lives so far, then we are going to be the "greedy rich people" and conserve what we can for our old age. We don't feel you will be selfless enough to care for us when that time comes, and there won't be any Social Security. We'll spend the next couple of weeks boxing your things; you can come pick them up and move them to wherever you're staying.
Sincerely,
Mom & Dad
P.S. When you come to Thanksgiving this year, your dad and I will ask you for reparations. Bring money.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
My F-bomb wing left at zero dark thirty
I'm out of sympathy.
And what bad timing! The holidays are coming up and a tidal wave of "bad luck" is bearing down on us. But so it is; I've had my heartstrings frayed from too much demand and now I'm just dispassionately watching like a sociopath as the horrorshow warms up.
I won't use a tricolor filter on my Facebook photo to show support for the French. In response, an imaginary Parisian spits on the ground at my feet and finishes it with a heavily-accented "Fuck you".
I shrug. Whatever. The last time something like this happened, I was pretty upset, but that was before the murdered cartoonists were blamed. What the fuck? James Taylor hadn't even soured his last note on "You've Got a Friend" before the argument stopped being about religious intolerance and began entertaining limitations on artistic expression instead.
The bodies of this latest massacre haven't been buried yet, but Secretary of State John Kerry made a nuanced argument for the murder of cartoonists while admitting a failure to understand the complexities behind a slaughter of concertgoers. Kerry may have stopped short of excusing the bloodbath as an Islamist's literal interpretation of "Eagles of Death Metal", but not before anyone noticed what a raging douchenozzle he could be. Fuck you, John Kerry.
I know the French have no big love for me, anyway. I'm an American, a barbaric and uncultured redneck who doesn't understand the world. My understanding right now is that the French aren't serious about kicking the shit out of terrorists, and that means more French will be murdered. I feel badly about this, but then again I don't, because the French don't really feel badly enough about that to do something truly constructive. Or, destructive, as the case more accurately should be.
We had a pretty horrific attack here on September 11, 2001. "Never Forget", say the T-shirts, bumper stickers and other memorabilia. Today, college campuses reject the placement of 9/11 memorial flags on their grounds, citing reasons that range from "they might damage the sprinkler systems" to "my ancestors are buried here" and "it might provoke racism". Better not to remember the sort of people who attacked us and what ideology led to the attacks, and how that might just maybe be connected to what's still happening. Fuck you, college campuses.
Speaking of college campuses...I'm out of sympathy for college students and their micro-problems. Their massive voluntarily-accepted student loans for worthless degrees, their hurt feelings caused by challenges to ideas in the rare instances where challenges happen, and their insistence that a consensual but regretted, casual affair with a co-ed must lead to reporting him as a rapist years after the fact, with no due process. I'm out of sympathy for their future un-employability. I have no sympathy for their coming dependence on therapy. I'm convinced that part of the impetus toward adulthood and independence is a desire to get out of diapers and get out from under smothering parents. But I've been wrong. Too many kids want to stay dependent and not wrestle with responsibility. What's bound to be around the corner is going to scar their delicate minds and fragile egos, and there is not enough diazepam covered under the Affordable Care Act to fix it. You're the "future leaders"? Great. Fuck you, fragile fascists on college campuses.
I don't have sympathy for most Syrian refugees. There, I said it. Most of them are ungrateful guests in their host countries, demanding free stuff and halal food, leaving behind garbage and raping local women. Sure there are some women and children among the masses, and I can't remove sympathy for them completely. They're victims of the Syrian men as much as local populations are. But it's the overwhelming presence of young "combat-age" men making up these migrants that causes issues. Many of them intend to bring family if they are settled somewhere. Within a few years, a country's population will go past the tipping point, become over 15% Muslim, and intolerance of other cultures and religions will become the norm. They don't want to assimilate. Worst guests ever. They hate Western culture, except for the pornography and the cars and the easy access to wi-fi. If they're going to be lousy guests, they're going to be even worse as citizens. Fuck you, ungrateful invasionary force of intolerant barbarians. Fuck you too, virtue-signaling leaders of countries who put the interests of "migrants" over the people who elected you. Do you get a weird vibe when you see a streetlamp? I hope so.
I don't have any sympathy for the shopping malls and the big-box stores that are probably going to be hit with protests on Black Friday. The "Black Lives Matter" movement has expressed major butt-hurtness over attention being diverted to Paris recently, and they want it back. Besides, "Black Friday" is a derogatory term, even if some people love the excuse to flee their relatives after Thanksgiving in order to take advantage of the deals on electronics. It's a micro-aggression. It will continue to be a micro-aggression and chafe at the sores of oppression until Best Buy agrees to give annual donations to the National Action Network and deep discounts on electronics to all black students with a valid student ID.
Y'all should've known this was coming, retailers. Are you contingency-planning right now? Are your lawyers in formation? 'Cause you won't get sympathy from me when the mobs rush in and start accosting your customers, shouting profanities in front of crying children and breaking your displays. "Tis the season to be jolly, fa fa-fa fa FA, fa-fa fuck yoooooo."
My anger is the outward manifestation of a really deep love that doesn't know how to express itself better. That's what a therapist would say if I was going to one. I sense horrible things coming and point them out, only to be called a racist, a xenophobe, an oppressor and a cis-gendered heteronormative apologist.
Wait- was that last one an insult? I didn't really understand what the hell I was accused of being. Fuck it, who cares?
Maybe the "spirit of Christmas" will descend amid a surprise snowfall and "touch (my) heart with the magic of Christmas" like I have heard on TV ads since the day after Halloween. Or, maybe like Christ Jesus VS Moneychangers, I have reached my limit and won't accept any more insults.
I believe Christianity is a force for good and is worth fighting for. I believe that free speech is vital to a democracy and offensive speech should be protected just like any other. I believe that when "tolerance" is merely a cover for cowardice in the face of oppression, it is no virtue but a vice. A lot of people have chosen to reject these ideas, and the consequences are going to hurt a lot more people than just the ones who caused them.
And what bad timing! The holidays are coming up and a tidal wave of "bad luck" is bearing down on us. But so it is; I've had my heartstrings frayed from too much demand and now I'm just dispassionately watching like a sociopath as the horrorshow warms up.
I won't use a tricolor filter on my Facebook photo to show support for the French. In response, an imaginary Parisian spits on the ground at my feet and finishes it with a heavily-accented "Fuck you".
I shrug. Whatever. The last time something like this happened, I was pretty upset, but that was before the murdered cartoonists were blamed. What the fuck? James Taylor hadn't even soured his last note on "You've Got a Friend" before the argument stopped being about religious intolerance and began entertaining limitations on artistic expression instead.
The bodies of this latest massacre haven't been buried yet, but Secretary of State John Kerry made a nuanced argument for the murder of cartoonists while admitting a failure to understand the complexities behind a slaughter of concertgoers. Kerry may have stopped short of excusing the bloodbath as an Islamist's literal interpretation of "Eagles of Death Metal", but not before anyone noticed what a raging douchenozzle he could be. Fuck you, John Kerry.
I know the French have no big love for me, anyway. I'm an American, a barbaric and uncultured redneck who doesn't understand the world. My understanding right now is that the French aren't serious about kicking the shit out of terrorists, and that means more French will be murdered. I feel badly about this, but then again I don't, because the French don't really feel badly enough about that to do something truly constructive. Or, destructive, as the case more accurately should be.
We had a pretty horrific attack here on September 11, 2001. "Never Forget", say the T-shirts, bumper stickers and other memorabilia. Today, college campuses reject the placement of 9/11 memorial flags on their grounds, citing reasons that range from "they might damage the sprinkler systems" to "my ancestors are buried here" and "it might provoke racism". Better not to remember the sort of people who attacked us and what ideology led to the attacks, and how that might just maybe be connected to what's still happening. Fuck you, college campuses.
Speaking of college campuses...I'm out of sympathy for college students and their micro-problems. Their massive voluntarily-accepted student loans for worthless degrees, their hurt feelings caused by challenges to ideas in the rare instances where challenges happen, and their insistence that a consensual but regretted, casual affair with a co-ed must lead to reporting him as a rapist years after the fact, with no due process. I'm out of sympathy for their future un-employability. I have no sympathy for their coming dependence on therapy. I'm convinced that part of the impetus toward adulthood and independence is a desire to get out of diapers and get out from under smothering parents. But I've been wrong. Too many kids want to stay dependent and not wrestle with responsibility. What's bound to be around the corner is going to scar their delicate minds and fragile egos, and there is not enough diazepam covered under the Affordable Care Act to fix it. You're the "future leaders"? Great. Fuck you, fragile fascists on college campuses.
I don't have sympathy for most Syrian refugees. There, I said it. Most of them are ungrateful guests in their host countries, demanding free stuff and halal food, leaving behind garbage and raping local women. Sure there are some women and children among the masses, and I can't remove sympathy for them completely. They're victims of the Syrian men as much as local populations are. But it's the overwhelming presence of young "combat-age" men making up these migrants that causes issues. Many of them intend to bring family if they are settled somewhere. Within a few years, a country's population will go past the tipping point, become over 15% Muslim, and intolerance of other cultures and religions will become the norm. They don't want to assimilate. Worst guests ever. They hate Western culture, except for the pornography and the cars and the easy access to wi-fi. If they're going to be lousy guests, they're going to be even worse as citizens. Fuck you, ungrateful invasionary force of intolerant barbarians. Fuck you too, virtue-signaling leaders of countries who put the interests of "migrants" over the people who elected you. Do you get a weird vibe when you see a streetlamp? I hope so.
I don't have any sympathy for the shopping malls and the big-box stores that are probably going to be hit with protests on Black Friday. The "Black Lives Matter" movement has expressed major butt-hurtness over attention being diverted to Paris recently, and they want it back. Besides, "Black Friday" is a derogatory term, even if some people love the excuse to flee their relatives after Thanksgiving in order to take advantage of the deals on electronics. It's a micro-aggression. It will continue to be a micro-aggression and chafe at the sores of oppression until Best Buy agrees to give annual donations to the National Action Network and deep discounts on electronics to all black students with a valid student ID.
Y'all should've known this was coming, retailers. Are you contingency-planning right now? Are your lawyers in formation? 'Cause you won't get sympathy from me when the mobs rush in and start accosting your customers, shouting profanities in front of crying children and breaking your displays. "Tis the season to be jolly, fa fa-fa fa FA, fa-fa fuck yoooooo."
My anger is the outward manifestation of a really deep love that doesn't know how to express itself better. That's what a therapist would say if I was going to one. I sense horrible things coming and point them out, only to be called a racist, a xenophobe, an oppressor and a cis-gendered heteronormative apologist.
Wait- was that last one an insult? I didn't really understand what the hell I was accused of being. Fuck it, who cares?
Maybe the "spirit of Christmas" will descend amid a surprise snowfall and "touch (my) heart with the magic of Christmas" like I have heard on TV ads since the day after Halloween. Or, maybe like Christ Jesus VS Moneychangers, I have reached my limit and won't accept any more insults.
I believe Christianity is a force for good and is worth fighting for. I believe that free speech is vital to a democracy and offensive speech should be protected just like any other. I believe that when "tolerance" is merely a cover for cowardice in the face of oppression, it is no virtue but a vice. A lot of people have chosen to reject these ideas, and the consequences are going to hurt a lot more people than just the ones who caused them.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Bullshit: Ezra Pound, "genius" and The Superman
Up in a bar above my Gmail this morning is the following quote that Google saw fit to share with me:
Quote of the Day - Ezra Pound - "A man of genius has a right to any mode of expression."
Well, no he doesn't.
This is more feel-good Leftist garbage that few people really stop to think about, and I call "bullshit" on it.
Maybe no one cares, but at least one person on the internet will have seen that quote and called it out for the utter crap it is.
Does "any mode of expression" include placing people into ghettos, or starving them, or confiscating the means of
wealth production, or controlling the distribution of goods? Apparently Pound thought Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini were
geniuses.
From Wikipedia:
Outraged by the carnage of World War I, Pound lost faith in England and blamed the war on usury and international capitalism. He moved to Italy in 1924, and throughout the 1930s and 1940s embraced Benito Mussolini's fascism, expressed support for Adolf Hitler and wrote for publications owned by the British fascist Oswald Mosley. During World War II he was paid by the Italian government to make hundreds of radio broadcasts criticizing the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Jews, as a result of which he was arrested by American forces in Italy in 1945 on charges of treason. He spent months in detention in a U.S. military camp in Pisa, including three weeks in a six-by-six-foot outdoor steel cage that he said triggered a mental breakdown, "when the raft broke and the waters went over me". Deemed unfit to stand trial, he was incarcerated in St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., for over 12 years.[2]
Hitler thought he was a genius and had the right to do monstrous things. Stalin and Mussolini thought that they knew better than everyone else and also had the right to dispose of people who got in the way of their grand schemes. Friedrich Neitzsche wrote about "The Superman", man so far above his fellows in intellectual abilities that he was no longer constrained by their morality and was instead compelled to act according to his own sense of right or wrong, which could differ wildly and nightmarishly from societal norms. Hitler was a big Nietzsche fan. Nietzsche apparently enabled Hitler and made Hitler feel justified in the horrors he was committing.
Today, we have a political class composed mainly of elitists who know little of the everyday struggles of average citizens, whom they hold in contempt. These professional politicians routinely lie to their "bosses" with utter impunity. They steal, cheat, and sometimes murder, but do not bear the same punishments as average citizens. Their job performance is often poor, when it is not negligent, and yet they are employed again and again. Maybe they are geniuses only because the electorate has become so dull, but this sad state still does not permit them "any mode of expression". It does not permit them free reign to incite class warfare and racial or gender-based animosity in order to keep their power.
The genius who thinks himself beyond consequence thinks himself a god, and the price for hubris is very high. This type of romanticism for hubris is not to be encouraged.
So "bullshit", Google, on your choice of crap to pollute my inbox with. No more Communist sympathizers, no more Nazi apologists, no more Totalitarian collusionists do I want to hear about or from. I sense you're wanting some of that unchecked power for yourselves. I don't think you're one of "the good guys".
Bullshit, Google.
Quote of the Day - Ezra Pound - "A man of genius has a right to any mode of expression."
Well, no he doesn't.
This is more feel-good Leftist garbage that few people really stop to think about, and I call "bullshit" on it.
Maybe no one cares, but at least one person on the internet will have seen that quote and called it out for the utter crap it is.
Does "any mode of expression" include placing people into ghettos, or starving them, or confiscating the means of
wealth production, or controlling the distribution of goods? Apparently Pound thought Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini were
geniuses.
From Wikipedia:
Outraged by the carnage of World War I, Pound lost faith in England and blamed the war on usury and international capitalism. He moved to Italy in 1924, and throughout the 1930s and 1940s embraced Benito Mussolini's fascism, expressed support for Adolf Hitler and wrote for publications owned by the British fascist Oswald Mosley. During World War II he was paid by the Italian government to make hundreds of radio broadcasts criticizing the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Jews, as a result of which he was arrested by American forces in Italy in 1945 on charges of treason. He spent months in detention in a U.S. military camp in Pisa, including three weeks in a six-by-six-foot outdoor steel cage that he said triggered a mental breakdown, "when the raft broke and the waters went over me". Deemed unfit to stand trial, he was incarcerated in St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., for over 12 years.[2]
Hitler thought he was a genius and had the right to do monstrous things. Stalin and Mussolini thought that they knew better than everyone else and also had the right to dispose of people who got in the way of their grand schemes. Friedrich Neitzsche wrote about "The Superman", man so far above his fellows in intellectual abilities that he was no longer constrained by their morality and was instead compelled to act according to his own sense of right or wrong, which could differ wildly and nightmarishly from societal norms. Hitler was a big Nietzsche fan. Nietzsche apparently enabled Hitler and made Hitler feel justified in the horrors he was committing.
Today, we have a political class composed mainly of elitists who know little of the everyday struggles of average citizens, whom they hold in contempt. These professional politicians routinely lie to their "bosses" with utter impunity. They steal, cheat, and sometimes murder, but do not bear the same punishments as average citizens. Their job performance is often poor, when it is not negligent, and yet they are employed again and again. Maybe they are geniuses only because the electorate has become so dull, but this sad state still does not permit them "any mode of expression". It does not permit them free reign to incite class warfare and racial or gender-based animosity in order to keep their power.
The genius who thinks himself beyond consequence thinks himself a god, and the price for hubris is very high. This type of romanticism for hubris is not to be encouraged.
So "bullshit", Google, on your choice of crap to pollute my inbox with. No more Communist sympathizers, no more Nazi apologists, no more Totalitarian collusionists do I want to hear about or from. I sense you're wanting some of that unchecked power for yourselves. I don't think you're one of "the good guys".
Bullshit, Google.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
The 11 Commandments of Senator Warren
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren got her base high on red meat Friday during a speech at the Netroots Nation, where she outlined what she believes are 11 tenets of progressivism.
Warren is not a young woman. She's 65 years old. She should know better than to peddle failing policies and ideas like these, but there's obviously a persistent market for them. I guess it's been irrefutably demonstrated how harmful crystal meth is, but after all the public service ads showing the damage it causes, people still continue to buy it.
Let's look at the stuff Senator Warren is hustling:
- "We believe that Wall Street needs stronger rules and tougher enforcement, and we're willing to fight for it." More regulation, written by politicians who themselves make money from legislation benefitting their portfolio positions will not help matters. Housing bubble, anyone? Dodd-Frank? That was legislation causing problems. No one was punished for the outcomes. This is envy talking. And Senator Warren owns plenty of stock herself. Anyone with an IRA or 401K does. But "Wall St." is somehow "the bad guy".
- "We believe in science, and that means that we have a responsibility to protect this Earth." Cripes. One thing does not follow from the other, but Senator Warren apparently doesn't appreciate logic. This is supposed to mean that anyone who doesn't toe the line on Big Green or the faith-based "anthropogenic global warming" is anti-science. Can't have dissenting opinion, can we? DDT killing birds was bad (but malaria killing people is OK), and "Big Oil" killing birds is pure evil, but wind turbines killing endangered birds is permitted for "the greater good". If anything, a "responsibility to protect Earth" comes from the Bible in Genesis, but saying so automatically makes me anti-science. Want to protect Earth? Advocate for nuclear power. Stop flying around in your private jet. What was Netroots' carbon footprint?
- "We believe that the Internet shouldn't be rigged to benefit big corporations, and that means real net neutrality." "Fairness" means whatever those in power decide it means. Senator Warren thinks more control is needed. The market can't be allowed to determine allocation. That wouldn't be "fair". If my ISP decides to charge more for Quora access, I choose another provider. Simple. Keep government and government corruption out of it, please.
- "We believe that no one should work full-time and still live in poverty, and that means raising the minimum wage." Senator Warren believes one should be able to hold a fast-food job for their entire life and not be "in poverty". Poverty is defined as earning below $12,119/yr. for a person under 65 and no kids. Your lack of ambition should not have any bearing on your earnings, according to Progressives, because that's not "fair". http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/threshld/index.html
- "We believe that fast-food workers deserve a livable wage, and that means that when they take to the picket line, we are proud to fight alongside them." What's a "livable wage"? That rate will vary from state to state. Blue states are much more expensive to live in thanks to Progressive lust for workers' tax money. Minimum livable wage in NY might be $15/hour. In NYC, it might be closer to $18 or $20. Imagine you're a burger joint manager with 25 employees earning $9/hr. Now you're mandated to pay them $15. How will you make up that overhead? How many employees will you decide you can do without? Will you quit altogether or just move your business elsewhere? I suggest picketers bring their own bag lunch to that picket line, definitely, unless they want to enjoy a $3 burger while it's still available.
- "We believe that students are entitled to get an education without being crushed by debt." Why is college so expensive, Senator Warren? Is it greedy university professors' tenure salaries? Is it administrative costs? No, it's supply and demand! Student loans are so easy to get, universities know they can demand higher tuition and students will not hesitate to take out loans to pay whatever's asked. Many students don't think about things like payoff. They just know they're "supposed to have" a degree. Every workplace demands a 4-year degree, regardless of whether it's really needed or not. How does a degree in Liberal Arts prepare you for QA work? It doesn't. You learn on-the-job. That degree in "Gender Studies" is not going to prepare you for an administrative job or get you the "living wage" you want. Even chemists' earnings are surprisingly weak with a 4- or 6-yr degree, (~$20/hr in NY and CT, which isn't much) unless you work for (gasp! ) "Big Pharma". The most effective solution to skyrocketing education costs is to dry up the loan trough and make ridiculous fluff degrees winnow away.
- "We believe that after a lifetime of work, people are entitled to retire with dignity, and that means protecting Social Security, Medicare, and pensions." Again "retire with dignity" will not happen by "protecting" these losing programs. The SS benefits consistently provide less than cost-of-living increases. Fewer doctors accept Medicare because it only reimburses them 60% of costs. It's a loser. Why would we want to protect that? Why wouldn't we want individual retirement accounts for people to have? Because Progressives think people are stupid and can't be trusted to manage their own money, that's why.
- "We believe—I can't believe I have to say this in 2014—we believe in equal pay for equal work." There might be "equal job descriptions" or "equal job titles", but there is rarely "equal work" done by two individuals at a workplace. People have different talents and abilities. managers want to negotiate low salaries while a worker negotiates for higher pay. The bargain they strike should be their business, but Senator Warren thinks that you and the slacker in your neighboring cubicle should get the same, because big business is unfair and management won't make "fair" decisions. To her, big business is always thinking about money, and that's evil.
- "We believe that equal means equal, and that's true in marriage, it's true in the workplace, it's true in all of America." If "equal is equal" was true in all of America, we would all have the same job in the same industry and live in the same planned-communities and have the same hobbies and we would hate it. Some of us have more ambition than others, some of us hone our talents more than others, and those who work harder should be compensated more highly than those who don't. Otherwise, everyone works only as hard as they need to in order to not get fired, and that is a killer for competitive business.
- "We believe that immigration has made this country strong and vibrant, and that means reform." Reform is necessary. It's also no accident that it's undefined here and probably means amnesty and drivers' licenses for whoever comes in without documentation. Besides, where are these immigrants going to work? At the burger joint for $15/hour? No, they're going to work under-the-table for $8/hr and that college student will have a hard time finding employment at his "living wage".
- "And we believe that corporations are not people, that women have a right to their bodies. We will overturn Hobby Lobby and we will fight for it. We will fight for it!" Unions are corporations, but Progressives tend to overlook this on purpose. Anyway, with rights come responsibilities, unless you're a woman, in which case everyone else is going to be forced to pay for your choices. Unless a workplace gets to decide who a woman sleeps with and when she does it, they shouldn't be asked to pay for her IUDs, especially if the owners' faith is against abortion. Does "my right to my body" mean that when I get hungry for a ham-and-bacon sandwich, I have the right to expect the guy at the Kosher Deli to serve me one? Why should his faith deny my right to assuage my hunger, my "food insecurity" with the meat of my choice? My body my choice! I can sue him for not catering to my demands, because Progressives are about control and absolute choice for some but lack of choice for others. The fact that this country was settled and established by people wanting religious freedom, and that the 1st Amendment guarantees free religious exercise, burns some of them to no end. Nothing must get in the way of unlimited abortion on demand. Not clinic inspections, not doctor qualifications, not viability of a child, nothing. We may as well subsidize back-alley abortion. I mean, it just makes abortion more accessible, doesn't it?
Actually, Senator, it's more like: "I earned mine. The rest of you can choose to do the same."
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-s-11-commandments-of-progressivism-20140718
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Blind people wouldn't notice, is why
You might've seen the new drug ads for Hetlioz, intended to treat a condition known as "non-24". Blind people experience issues with circadian rhythms and this drug is supposed to help with that.
My issue is with one of the television ads for the drug. We see a man walking through a transit station with a German Shepherd guide dog, and in another cut, there is a man standing near a carousel at a carnival. The guide dog is noticeably pulling the man towards his left. The actor has to exert a little force to keep from being pulled off-course. The man near the carousel is shown in a rotating shot. As the camera pans around, the actor's eyes can be seen behind his dark glasses. His eyes exhibit nystagmus as the carousel rotates and he continues to watch it.
In the first case, a blind person would not know how to walk directly ahead if his dog was pulling to the left. In the second, nystagmus would not happen in an unsighted person.
My question is, why couldn't casting just use blind people for the ad? There's certainly enough of them looking for acting jobs.
My issue is with one of the television ads for the drug. We see a man walking through a transit station with a German Shepherd guide dog, and in another cut, there is a man standing near a carousel at a carnival. The guide dog is noticeably pulling the man towards his left. The actor has to exert a little force to keep from being pulled off-course. The man near the carousel is shown in a rotating shot. As the camera pans around, the actor's eyes can be seen behind his dark glasses. His eyes exhibit nystagmus as the carousel rotates and he continues to watch it.
In the first case, a blind person would not know how to walk directly ahead if his dog was pulling to the left. In the second, nystagmus would not happen in an unsighted person.
My question is, why couldn't casting just use blind people for the ad? There's certainly enough of them looking for acting jobs.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Giddy Deathwatch for the GOP Still On
According to a series of polls done recently by College Republicans, the GOP is in a "dismal situation" because it is a party for old fuddy-duddies who are seen as "closed-minded, racist, rigid" and "old-fashioned,", and that's why they don't appeal to the college-age crowd. Ideas like low taxes, smaller government and traditional marriage are old-fashioned and boring. What the kids want now is marriage for anybody, higher taxes (especially on 'the rich'), and help getting wherever it is that they decide they want to be. Young Latino voters feel that the party doesn't value them or undestand the difference between legal and illegal immigrants.
Yes, it's splashed all over the pages of the usual Leftist websites: Salon, Huffington Post, CBS. "The GOP is on the way out!" Trending now on Twitter, hashtag #GoodbyeGOP. Everyday, there is a source somewhere telling any interested Americans that the GOP is breathing its last. And these predictions may finally be coming true.
The GOP has practically abandoned the ideas of limited government and individual liberty for a long time now. Republican legislators have been almost as eager to increase spending and grow government as their Democrat counterparts, and any Republican who bucks the trend to fight for less spending, less taxation and more freedom is shouted down as an "extremist" by both fellow Republicans and the liberal media complex. If ideas such as limited government and greater liberty are no longer valued by "the kids" anyway, who exactly are we fighting for? The old folks are going to be gone from Earth in another 40-something years. If the kids want high taxes and nanny-states everywhere, who's to say they shouldn't have them?
The only way the GOP can seem to make anybody except conservatives happy these days is to be more like Democrats. If they try to maintain their current identity, they're branded as "mean" and "out-of-touch". This sends Republicans running towards the Left like nothing else. The result is that, over time, the Democrats have become what the Communists were in the 50's, and the Republicans have become what the Democrats were in the 50's, and the whole country has shifted to the Left. Young people see this as "normal" because that's what they've grown up with. Further, since Republicans attempt to present an alternative to the Democratic party, the unintended result is that they present an alternative to what is perceived as "cool", i.e., they come off as rigid and backwards.
If the GOP keeps tacking Left, they will alienate the conservative base, who is irritated with them for not maintaining conservative principles, and they will still alienate younger voters, who will persist in seeing them as the party if rich old white guys, because that's how the Leftist media will continue to paint them. As far as Latino voters go, every single Latino republican who has or ever will run for public office is called vile names by the Left and by Latinos aligned with Democrats. So to Latino voters who say that "the GOP doesn't value them" I would say "well, you'll never value the GOP so long as its differentiated from the DNC."
If "the kids" value unlimited legal/illegal immigration (who cares which is which), higher taxes on "the rich", unlimited spending on any conceivable entitlements and unlimited growth of government programs to help them get whatever they want at any given moment, than this country truly is doomed. The GOP has certainly done a fair share of the damage either by taking part in it or by failing to effectively counter it. Too late, the next generations will suffer the ill effects of these failures, but there may not be a Republican party around to blame when they do.
Yes, it's splashed all over the pages of the usual Leftist websites: Salon, Huffington Post, CBS. "The GOP is on the way out!" Trending now on Twitter, hashtag #GoodbyeGOP. Everyday, there is a source somewhere telling any interested Americans that the GOP is breathing its last. And these predictions may finally be coming true.
The GOP has practically abandoned the ideas of limited government and individual liberty for a long time now. Republican legislators have been almost as eager to increase spending and grow government as their Democrat counterparts, and any Republican who bucks the trend to fight for less spending, less taxation and more freedom is shouted down as an "extremist" by both fellow Republicans and the liberal media complex. If ideas such as limited government and greater liberty are no longer valued by "the kids" anyway, who exactly are we fighting for? The old folks are going to be gone from Earth in another 40-something years. If the kids want high taxes and nanny-states everywhere, who's to say they shouldn't have them?
The only way the GOP can seem to make anybody except conservatives happy these days is to be more like Democrats. If they try to maintain their current identity, they're branded as "mean" and "out-of-touch". This sends Republicans running towards the Left like nothing else. The result is that, over time, the Democrats have become what the Communists were in the 50's, and the Republicans have become what the Democrats were in the 50's, and the whole country has shifted to the Left. Young people see this as "normal" because that's what they've grown up with. Further, since Republicans attempt to present an alternative to the Democratic party, the unintended result is that they present an alternative to what is perceived as "cool", i.e., they come off as rigid and backwards.
If the GOP keeps tacking Left, they will alienate the conservative base, who is irritated with them for not maintaining conservative principles, and they will still alienate younger voters, who will persist in seeing them as the party if rich old white guys, because that's how the Leftist media will continue to paint them. As far as Latino voters go, every single Latino republican who has or ever will run for public office is called vile names by the Left and by Latinos aligned with Democrats. So to Latino voters who say that "the GOP doesn't value them" I would say "well, you'll never value the GOP so long as its differentiated from the DNC."
If "the kids" value unlimited legal/illegal immigration (who cares which is which), higher taxes on "the rich", unlimited spending on any conceivable entitlements and unlimited growth of government programs to help them get whatever they want at any given moment, than this country truly is doomed. The GOP has certainly done a fair share of the damage either by taking part in it or by failing to effectively counter it. Too late, the next generations will suffer the ill effects of these failures, but there may not be a Republican party around to blame when they do.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Auntie Pincher talks to kids about bullies
Hi, kids. I hope you had a good school day. I know work was a real drag for me. There's chocolate-chip cookies on the table, so help yourself; I bet you're probably still hungry after your reduced-calorie vegetarian school lunch, especially when you threw it out and got by on black-market Fritos instead.
Today I want to talk to you about a very serious subject called "bullying". Now, don't groan like that. I know you're probably sick to death of being talked to about this by teachers, police, counselors, Muppets, MTV and the President. And that gay anti-bullying guy Dan Savage. Everyone wants to jump on the bully bandwagon to tell you its bad, but I'm here to take the wheels off of the wagon.
What you kids need to hear and know is that pretty much everyone who talks to you about how bad bullying is, is a bully. And so our Word-of-The-Day is hypocrisy. "Hypocrisy" is something a person can be accused of when they say publicly to others that something is wrong but persist in doing that thing themselves.
For example, your teachers will tell you that bullying the smaller and weaker kids is bad. Many of your teachers belong to teacher's unions, and if the regular people feel that the union's benefits are costing taxpayers too much, and they ask the lawmakers to get the union to pony up a little more and help pay their fair share (something the unions are always asking others to do), then the unions rally their entire membership to go take sick days and not report to work. They go out to protest instead, and if anyone says to them, "hey, we are just asking for some fairness here", they will bring out their biggest guys to intimidate and maybe even punch some guys who dare to be asking those questions. That's bullying.
Or, if your school passes a budget that the local homeowners feel is going to raise their property taxes too much, and it looks like the voters won't agree to the tax hike, the school comes out and says, "oh, we'll have to cancel after-school programs! We'll have to cut bus service! We'll have to have bigger classes. We can't have a music program anymore, because the voters are too greedy." They threaten to cut the meaningful and enriching things, rather than dump an administrator with a half-a-million-dollar annual salary. They threaten your parents by holding your school experience hostage, rather than thinking about consolidating some school districts, or ditching this "iPad" nonsense and going back to good old textbooks. We all know you guys are passing notes and doodling on the iPads during class, don't we? Yes we do.
Threatening to cut your music class because the taxes aren't raised again for the umpteenth time in a row is bullying. Your teachers and their various organizations engage in bullying.
How about the President? He's the President! He's supposed to be the best guy in America, more or less, right? He's got to set an example for the rest of us. We should be able to listen to him, right?
Nuh-uh.
The President is from Chicago, which is the number-one city of bullying. Chicago perfected the art of bullying, and made a unique form of government from it. When the President was just getting started in government, he won his Senatorship by unsealing private court records about his opponents, and leaking the information to the media. Well, maybe his friend David Axelrod did that, but the result was the same: Barry Obama's opponents were forced off the ballot, and with no one to really run against him, Obama became an Illinois Senator! Voters didn't really get a choice of candidate. That was bullying.
And when Barry Obama became President Obama after having his gang in the media attack his opponents while completely overlooking his own shortcomings, did he work with those who represented the other half of the country that did not vote for him? No! He said to them, "I won," which meant "Your ideas and concerns are not important to me, because if you did not vote for me, I don't like you." Having an enemies list and using the power of the government to harass those who disagree with you is bullying.
As far as that Dan Savage guy goes, he's the worst of them all. He's the worst because he should have some empathy for the picked-on and the minority, because he's gay. But does that matter? Heck no, kids! Dan Savage is a savage when it comes to Christians who have ideas and opinions different from Dan. Dan calls the Christian kids very bad, naughty names when they respectfully disagree with him. He wishes cancer on people. He's not a nice guy at all, and he gets a lot of money for telling kids "It gets better" when in reality, it doesn't get better.
In fact, it may get worse. It can get worse precisely because of those types of people I mentioned. Kid bullies are annoying and cause stress and injury to be sure. But when those kids get big, and get into positions of power, they cause widespread damage. Maybe now you can go and "tell the teacher", or tell an adult. Maybe something will be done about the bully, maybe not. But you've left the decision to act, the authority over your situation, with someone else. Maybe you have to. What's going to happen later, when you're twenty or forty years old?
The best thing you can do for yourself and everyone else in the world is to know who you are and what you stand for. This will take time and care, but it will give you confidence and self-worth, and these things will help keep you from becoming a bully. If your parents aren't screwed-up people, then ask questions and listen to what they tell you. They went through all this stuff already, why force yourself to re-learn it the hard way? Go have some adventures. Get into some minor trouble, and figure out a way to get things right again. Pick good friends, and be a good friend. And don't tolerate bullcrap. You all know what it is. Stop putting up with it. Learn to say to people who need it, "You're full of crap, and you're making the world worse. Go away." Say it until they actually go away. It may take awhile, and you may have to rest and come back, but keep trying.
The world has a lot of bullies in it, and many of them don't stop at name-calling. They depersonalize, they wound, they murder. You will have to face them one day. Start learning how to deal with them now, in ways that matter.
Today I want to talk to you about a very serious subject called "bullying". Now, don't groan like that. I know you're probably sick to death of being talked to about this by teachers, police, counselors, Muppets, MTV and the President. And that gay anti-bullying guy Dan Savage. Everyone wants to jump on the bully bandwagon to tell you its bad, but I'm here to take the wheels off of the wagon.
What you kids need to hear and know is that pretty much everyone who talks to you about how bad bullying is, is a bully. And so our Word-of-The-Day is hypocrisy. "Hypocrisy" is something a person can be accused of when they say publicly to others that something is wrong but persist in doing that thing themselves.
For example, your teachers will tell you that bullying the smaller and weaker kids is bad. Many of your teachers belong to teacher's unions, and if the regular people feel that the union's benefits are costing taxpayers too much, and they ask the lawmakers to get the union to pony up a little more and help pay their fair share (something the unions are always asking others to do), then the unions rally their entire membership to go take sick days and not report to work. They go out to protest instead, and if anyone says to them, "hey, we are just asking for some fairness here", they will bring out their biggest guys to intimidate and maybe even punch some guys who dare to be asking those questions. That's bullying.
Or, if your school passes a budget that the local homeowners feel is going to raise their property taxes too much, and it looks like the voters won't agree to the tax hike, the school comes out and says, "oh, we'll have to cancel after-school programs! We'll have to cut bus service! We'll have to have bigger classes. We can't have a music program anymore, because the voters are too greedy." They threaten to cut the meaningful and enriching things, rather than dump an administrator with a half-a-million-dollar annual salary. They threaten your parents by holding your school experience hostage, rather than thinking about consolidating some school districts, or ditching this "iPad" nonsense and going back to good old textbooks. We all know you guys are passing notes and doodling on the iPads during class, don't we? Yes we do.
Threatening to cut your music class because the taxes aren't raised again for the umpteenth time in a row is bullying. Your teachers and their various organizations engage in bullying.
How about the President? He's the President! He's supposed to be the best guy in America, more or less, right? He's got to set an example for the rest of us. We should be able to listen to him, right?
Nuh-uh.
The President is from Chicago, which is the number-one city of bullying. Chicago perfected the art of bullying, and made a unique form of government from it. When the President was just getting started in government, he won his Senatorship by unsealing private court records about his opponents, and leaking the information to the media. Well, maybe his friend David Axelrod did that, but the result was the same: Barry Obama's opponents were forced off the ballot, and with no one to really run against him, Obama became an Illinois Senator! Voters didn't really get a choice of candidate. That was bullying.
And when Barry Obama became President Obama after having his gang in the media attack his opponents while completely overlooking his own shortcomings, did he work with those who represented the other half of the country that did not vote for him? No! He said to them, "I won," which meant "Your ideas and concerns are not important to me, because if you did not vote for me, I don't like you." Having an enemies list and using the power of the government to harass those who disagree with you is bullying.
As far as that Dan Savage guy goes, he's the worst of them all. He's the worst because he should have some empathy for the picked-on and the minority, because he's gay. But does that matter? Heck no, kids! Dan Savage is a savage when it comes to Christians who have ideas and opinions different from Dan. Dan calls the Christian kids very bad, naughty names when they respectfully disagree with him. He wishes cancer on people. He's not a nice guy at all, and he gets a lot of money for telling kids "It gets better" when in reality, it doesn't get better.
In fact, it may get worse. It can get worse precisely because of those types of people I mentioned. Kid bullies are annoying and cause stress and injury to be sure. But when those kids get big, and get into positions of power, they cause widespread damage. Maybe now you can go and "tell the teacher", or tell an adult. Maybe something will be done about the bully, maybe not. But you've left the decision to act, the authority over your situation, with someone else. Maybe you have to. What's going to happen later, when you're twenty or forty years old?
The best thing you can do for yourself and everyone else in the world is to know who you are and what you stand for. This will take time and care, but it will give you confidence and self-worth, and these things will help keep you from becoming a bully. If your parents aren't screwed-up people, then ask questions and listen to what they tell you. They went through all this stuff already, why force yourself to re-learn it the hard way? Go have some adventures. Get into some minor trouble, and figure out a way to get things right again. Pick good friends, and be a good friend. And don't tolerate bullcrap. You all know what it is. Stop putting up with it. Learn to say to people who need it, "You're full of crap, and you're making the world worse. Go away." Say it until they actually go away. It may take awhile, and you may have to rest and come back, but keep trying.
The world has a lot of bullies in it, and many of them don't stop at name-calling. They depersonalize, they wound, they murder. You will have to face them one day. Start learning how to deal with them now, in ways that matter.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
An Open Letter to Clergy Regarding "Gun Control".
During the first several weeks
following the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, my Episcopal diocesan
leadership joined the hue and cry for gun control. At the same time, my State
government passed some truly bad legislation called "the SAFE Act". Very
few legislators actually read the bill which was overwhelmingly passed in a
great big hurry 147-61, days after the
start of a new legislative session.
I read statements from
Episcopal leaders regarding gun control and started to become irritated, and
then alarmed by the rhetoric. This letter was a response sent by me to my local
Bishop, and to The Very Reverend Gary Hall, Dean of Washington National
Cathedral. Since I have not been given the courtesy of a reply, I am now
publishing this as an open letter, with personal information redacted.
It is my hope that others who value
our 2nd Amendment rights will respectfully challenge their clergy as
warranted.
January 27, 2013
The Right Reverend Lawrence
Provenzano
Bishop of the Episcopal
Diocese of Long Island
36 Cathedral Avenue
Garden City, NY 11530-4435
Dear Father Provenzano,
After
prayerful consideration, I am writing to you on a matter that concerns me
deeply. I sincerely hope you will read and consider my meditations.
I am relatively new to
the Episcopal Church, but feel blessed to be part of it. I was confirmed in
October of 2007, a month before my wedding. That confirmation was a remarkable
joy to my parish as we had among ourselves many more confirmands and persons to
be received than in years past. I was delighted to be able to participate by
delivering the Old Testament reading, Isaiah 61, before the full Cathedral. Our
parish group was first to be received, and as the first of the first to
approach the Bishop, I was anointed with the Sanctum Chrisma. My fiancé was
present to lay his hand on me as I was joined to the church.
I took the special
blessing and my confirmation vows seriously and got right to work. I joined our
parish vestry, served on committees, worked for fundraisers, and taught Sunday
school. I recently began serving as a Lay Eucharistic Minister. I attend mass
regularly, and do my Christian duty to the best of my ability by serving
others, and by representing both Christians and Christ in a world which seems
increasingly to care less about both. Throughout my daily life and work I ask
myself what it is God’s will and for him to make it known to me if my works
find favor in His sight.
I try to be an informed
and active voter, and always seek Christ’s guidance on my decisions. I am a
shooting sports enthusiast, a law-abiding American citizen, and a member of the
National Rifle Association. As such, I cannot adequately describe how troubled
I am by the tone taken by some of the Church leadership recently concerning the
lawful exercise of my constitutional right to own a firearm.
There are Episcopalian
and Christian gun owners of all denominations, and I can say with certainty
that every single one of them is keenly interested in helping to eliminate
violence. I can also say with almost the same degree of confidence that given
some of the derogatory statements made about firearm ownership, each of these
gun owners feels that his voice is not only not
valued, but unwanted. For all the talk of dialogue, debate and deliberation,
too frequently all that occurs is demonization and demagoguery. The honest
search for solutions is being shoved aside in the pursuit of fulfilling a
narrow-minded agenda. Your statements contribute to this unfortunate state of
affairs.
In August of 2012 you
issued a statement about gun violence in our area of New York. You stated that
“No one has the right to carry a gun for the purpose of unleashing its power on
another human being,” not considering the point that it is primarily criminals
who use guns to settle disputes, steal property, and otherwise prey upon
others. I am not prepared to offer an apology here for self defense and there
are others who can do so with more information and eloquence than I have. I
will state, however, that I firmly believe that the sanctity of life requires
that it be defended when necessary. Thus, the law-abiding citizen, Christian or
otherwise, when able to navigate the necessary permit process will sometimes
carry a firearm in order to defend himself and others against criminals who
have no concern for the law or for human life.
Your statement
pronounces it “illegal, immoral and sinful” to carry a weapon. This statement
is troublesome for several reasons.
First, granted the necessary permit, it is within a person’s legal right
to possess or carry a weapon. One may argue that a legal action is immoral or
sinful, but certainly it is legal. Further, I cannot believe it is immoral or
sinful merely to possess a firearm. God created us as creatures of free will,
and almost any object can be used as a weapon. Is it reasonable to say that
certain inanimate objects are manifestly sinful or immoral? Or is morality more
a matter of how an object is used? I
also cannot believe that self defense, when necessary, is sinful. Christ gave himself over to violence and
death for our sins so that those who believe might have everlasting life. His
teachings, however, do not suggest that believers are somehow required to
surrender their own lives or the lives of others when confronted with violence.
I cannot accept that defense of innocent life is somehow sinful.
You also said that the
end to gun violence is to be brought about by an end to guns. Even if all guns
and the knowledge of their manufacture miraculously disappeared from the Earth,
people would go back to using swords and clubs if not sticks and stones. Gun
violence would certainly end in the absence of guns, but violence itself would
not end. Violence is a problem as old as Cain and Abel, and because the causes
are so complex and the will to dispense justice is so weak, the easy road of
demonizing the law-abiding gun owner is all too often taken. This is a most
deplorable mistake.
It has not escaped the
commentary of many people in the blogosphere and other online sources that the
Episcopal church has seen membership decline steeply over the last few decades
due to various policy stances, and this is regrettable given the number of
hands needed to do Christ’s work. There is a heated exchange going on currently
at the Episcopal News Exchange’s comment area and elsewhere. How many gun
owners are sitting in the pews, trying to justify their continued membership
and service in an organization that, based on statements such as yours,
apparently not only doesn’t want them, but also thinks they suffer from some
kind of psychological, moral, and mental defects? How are they supposed to
choose between supporting the Church and the abrogation of their rights? Is this the next in a series of schisms to
further chip away at the body? This vehemently anti-gun tone taken by the
Episcopal Church is divisive, wrong, and can only serve to alienate members and
others from the Church.
I recognize that I am
but one member of Christ’s community, and that not everyone will agree with my
opinions. Differences are natural and part of the process of discerning God’s
will. Inconsiderate criticism of whole segments of the Church and general
population, however, is unreasonable. I take offense at the implication that I
am somehow less of a Christian and perhaps a defective human being because I
enjoy shooting sports and take a stand for my right to defend myself. And I am
not the only one who feels this way.
I encourage you to
consider my perspective and rethink some of the divisive statements you have
made concerning firearms and firearm ownership. Addressing the issue of
violence is unquestionably part of the Church’s mission, but this cause is not
served by ill-conceived criticism of moral, law-abiding people who choose to
exercise their right to keep and bear firearms.
Respectfully,
TC
Thursday, May 2, 2013
@J_tsar: Islamist psychopath
On Monday, April 15, the Boston Marathon had been underway for several hours when two bombs went off within minutes of each other near the finish line. Crowds standing along the route waiting to cheer on their loved ones due to run past were torn by a deadly hail of shrapnel, including what would later be identified as nails and ball bearings that had been packed into home-made devices constructed of pressure cookers and batteries taken from toys. Three people were killed outright: a Boston University graduate student named Lingzi Lu, Krystle Cambell, 29, and 8-year-old Martin Richard. Martin's mother and sister were among at least 180 others present who were wounded. Dozens of spectators lost at least one limb, and the sidewalks underneath them were stained red with running blood.
A search for suspects began immediately, with appeals for video and stills from anyone who had been in the vicinity of the blasts. Mainstream media and writers in the Leftist blogosphere insinuated or explicitly placed blame on right-wing groups, citing April dates of infamy including Tax Day, Hitler's birthday, and the anniversaries of the Branch Davidian siege and the retributive Oklahoma City bombing. (For some reason, probably ignorance of American history, the obvious start of the Revolutionary War on April 19 was not included.) Security camera footage from nearby department stores and street corners was pored over, but it wasn't until he regained consciousness on the 17th that double-amputee Jeff Bauman identified the suspects from his hospital bed at Boston Medical. Eight words gave police the break they needed.
"Bag. Saw the guy, looked right at me."Bauman's clues led law enforcement to two men, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsaraev, brothers originally from Chechnya, Russia. Dzhokhar had been naturalized on September 11, 2012. The FBI had been asked by a "foreign government" (believed to be Russia) to investigate Tamerlan, who had gone to Chechnya for months during 2010, presumably to make contact with and receive training from terrorist groups. Despite the red flags associated with Tamerlan and his activities, the FBI and other Federal agencies permitted him to stay in the United States.
While on the run and still unknown by the public, Dzhokhar tweeted part of a Jay-Z song to his followers.
Ain't no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 16, 2013
At 11PM that same night, he had an odd exchange with user @MelloChamp:
@mellochamp and they what "god hates dead people?" Or victims of tragedies? Lol those people are cooked
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 16, 2013
April 16, as people affected by the bombs were waking up in hospitals or trying to cope with the deaths of loved ones, Dzhokhar twittered about illicit things.
@therealabdul_ #heavy I've been looking for those, there is a shortage on the black market if you wanna make a quick buck, nuff said..
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 16, 2013
A picture of a man cradling what appears to be a dead woman lying on a sidewalk is posted to Twitter by @ImRealTed.
@imrealted fake story
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 16, 2013
This Tweet was favorited by Dzhokhar, who would soon be known as "Suspect in the white ball-cap" or later, "Suspect number two" :
The sad part about the events in Boston today, is that some bs Hollywood director is gonna try n make a movie n profit from tragic evens smh
— 2Explicit (@ballholic34) April 16, 2013
In the early morning hours, the events of the past few days were not weighing heavily on this young psychopath.
I'm a stress free kind of guy
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 17, 2013
At about 10:30 PM on Thursday, local police are concerned that the trail is growing cold. Suddenly, shots are fired at MIT. The suspects have carjacked a Mercedes with a "Coexist" bumper sticker on it, later releasing the owner after taking her money. At 12:45AM there is a shootout and Tamerlan is incapacitated. While police are handcuffing Tamerlan as he lay on the ground, Dzhokhar gets behind the wheel of the getaway car to escape and barrels toward the police. They dive out of the way, and watch as Dzhokhar runs over his brother, killing him and dragging his body underneath the car for some distance.
Much later, after his apprehension and questioning (which yields no more information after he is suddenly Mirandized), it is learned that he texted friends to request that they help themselves to anything in his room, at which time the friends take a backpack and a laptop with the intent of protecting Dzhokhar. None of them report anything to the FBI or police. One of them, seeing Dzhokhar's image on the newscasts, texts to him "LOL".
There is a segment of the US population which is in this country without supervision and intends, at best, to do no good, and at worst, to do harm. They are young, they are radicalized, and they are sociopaths. There is absolutely ZERO chance that the local and national administrations in place have any interest in solving this problem, and even if they did, they have no idea whatsoever how to do it.
Today is May 2, the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Ladin. We are less, not more safe from acts of terror on US soil because our elected officials have the personal security THEY need for safety, and your safety is not as important to most of them as passing feel-good-do-nothing legislation. The hard questions are not asked, much less answered, and tough choices will never be made by those elected to lead. The issue is not the issue. The agenda must be advanced.
God help us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)