Sooner or later, the people in this country are going to realize the government doesn’t give a fuck about them. The government doesn’t care about you, or your children, or your rights, or your welfare, or your safety. It simply doesn’t give a fuck about you. It’s only interested in its own power. That’s the only thing. Keeping it, and expanding it wherever possible.
Category: Politics
Friday Quote – Edward R. Murrow
When politicians complain that TV turns their proceedings into a circus, it should be made plain that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all of the performers are well trained.
I’m Disinclined to Acquiesce To You r Request
Since the riots started, I’ve been seeing articles asking where the gun owners are to defend the people against the police.
You want me to put my life, liberty, and family fortunes on the line for you? Hmm. Let’s see. How many times did you call for me to be disarmed when it suited your worldview. How many times did you wish death on me because I disagreed with you?
I’m sorry Scorpion, but I know your nature. I’m not going to carry you across the river for you to sting me in the back.
If you want guns to defend yourselves, go put down the money. Unless of course you can’t. You know, because of all those “common sense” gun control laws you demanded right before the cops came for you.
Friday Quote – Murray Rothbard
The only equality that can be achieved in the world, hence the only rational concept of equality, is equality in liberty.
Why Don’t You Trust the Experts?
With COVID roaring back, I’m hearing a lot of “why won’t you people listen to the experts?” Usually there are some expletives and/or pejoratives thrown in. I can think of two big reasons.
- You fucking lied to us to save your own skin on masks. Instead of telling us the truth that you knew masks helped, you lied. You lied because you didn’t trust us to refrain from purchasing masks or donating masks to help the frontline staff. You didn’t trust us.
- You lied again to save your own skin from the mob. When people were protesting against the lockdowns because they were losing their livelihoods, you told us how bad they were. You could do that because even when the protestors were armed, you knew deep down they weren’t going to really harm you. Then the mob came. The spark of Floyd ignited months of pent-up fury. You could have said the same things to these protesters. You could have said “we understand your anger, we sympathize, but this is a bad course of action.” Instead, you capitulated. Because the mob would hurt you. Not just physically, but in your precious professional careers.
It doesn’t help we have a president who’s more interested in self-aggrandizement than leading. It doesn’t help we have a media and media agitators who demand every choice we make be based on the political. It doesn’t help we have a mob ready to pull down any among the professional class that somehow draws their ire.
None of that helps. Neither does the cowardice of our experts.
Friday Quote – Thomas Sowell
What do automobiles, guns, and home-schooling all have in common that makes the liberals hate them? All these things reduce individual dependence on the government and the grandiose schemes for other people’s lives created by liberals and imposed by the government.
Friday Quote – Jeff Cooper
The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely on the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized.
Derek’s Mildly Useful Movie Reviews – Tread
The Wife and I decided on this film for our movie night viewing. I knew of the Killdozer story from the growing internet folktale of the event. I was curious to see how it was portrayed.
The documentary uses audio tapes made by Marv Heemeyer in the months leading up to the Killdozer event and interviews with his friends in the first act to bring Marv to life. The filmmakers use this time to help Marv build his case against the authorities in the town of Grady.
Then, the second act feeds in the counter narrative with interviews from members of the local government and parts of Marv’s tapes that were more, shall we say, ranting. By the end of the second act, I was a bit more ambivalent on whether Marv was fucked over by the town or Marv just had a persecution complex.
The third act was the Killdozer rampage. I learned a lot of details about how Marv built, armed, and drove the Killdozer. The last act is going to be shaded by how you come out of the previous two acts. Since I was feeling more ambivalent already, the rampaging done made me more ambivalent.
Summary – I thought this was a well-done documentary. I think anyone who champions the Killdozer as a myth of the common man against corrupt government should watch this. Then, after seeing this, do you think if the folktale holds, or should we discard this?
Defund the Statues!
I’ve seen the mobs tearing down statues with a weary resignation. After all, this is the violence of the mob, and the mob cannot be reasoned with. There’s only three things to do with the mob: let it run wild and hope that it spends its energy before lives are lost; contain it so that it’s destruction is contained to an area; or finally quash it with all available force. None of these come without cost in blood and property.
This post isn’t about what to do with mobs. This is about what to do with public statues. Statues are supposed to commemorate great events or persons, represent public values, beautify the community, and/or fund public funds to the artistic community. The problem in our current multi-faceted community is that we have statues that not only do not reflect some factions’ values, but represent horrific events/attitudes in their view. Why should they support those with their tax dollars?
My personal opinion is that all statues should be privately owned and funded. If some great event needs a statue or monument, then there shouldn’t be a problem for a non-profit to raise the funds. Plus, private funding of monuments prevents government from being petitioned to use public funds for largely unwanted projects. I’ve seen some of the statues Tampa has commissioned, and most of them seem like payoffs.
What to do with the current statues? I’m all for cities, states, and even the federal government selling or giving them to private entities. Right now, it would be in the best interest of many municipalities and states to sell as many of them as possible to make up for lost tax revenue. I also have no issue with the government saying that the new owners must relocate the statues.
Friday Quote – Ayn Rand
Fascism and communism are not two opposites, but two rival gangs fighting over the same territory – both are variants of statism, based on the collectivist principle that man is the rightless slave of the state.