My ISP was having some difficulties with packet loss and their problems were affecting my ability to get email and upload to the blog.
Paraphrasing Poltergeist
“I’mmmm BAAACCK!”
The question is what do I talk about first?
The Bundy Ranch v the BLM?
I hate to even think about what could have happened if someone had squeezed off a shot during that standoff. That’s how really bad things happen really damn fast. I personally don’t think Mr Bundy has a leg to stand on legally. OF more concern to me is that we had an armed standoff at all.
When you start looking at issues surrounding the Bundy standoff. You can’t help but stumble over reports of other events where one could say that the US Government is overstepping its authority and behaving very much like a totalitarian entity.
There are currently issues over land between Texas & Missouri due to the ever changing nature of a river that had traditionally marked the boundary line between the states and ranchers in the area. The BLM is taking an interest and stands to usurp something like 90,000 acres without compensating either the states or the landholders.
The EPA is attempting to assert control over many bodies of water, including watering ponds on farms and ranches. They are also making noises about assuming control of dry or seasonal creek and river beds.
Meanwhile The Border patrol has become a nuisance to Arizona ranchers whose property abuts the buffer zone between the US / Mexico boarder They’re doing things like cutting fences or leaving gates open without so much as a “by your leave.”
These supposed events are concerning because they’re in general, never picked up by the main stream media but are reported in local area papers. On an individual basis these seem like minor local issues but when you view them from the “orbit” of the internet it does start to look like a quiet conquest.
With government oversight, come government control. With government control, come fees, fines, and increased taxation (whether it’s called a tax or not.) This seems to be the source of the underlying embers that almost burst into flames at the Bundy ranch.
The FDA is being reported as sticking their noses into a long standing arrangement (100+ years) between Beer Brewers and farmers regarding grain. The Beer uses the grain to make beer, then the waste material is usually given to farmers / ranchers to mix with feed stock. This arrangement takes care of the waste without requiring anything other than a farmer / ranchers willingness to haul the used grain away.
Now, the FDA is wanting to regulate this equitable arrangement in the name of public health even though there has never been an instance where the public or the animals have been harmed. Some old traditions bacme old traditions due to the test of TIME. It’s not in the best interests of Farmers or Ranchers to engage in an activity that is detrimental to their livelyhoods. So does the FDA really need to be involved? Probably not, but you can expect for their fees and inspections and whatever the hell else they’ll do to drive up the cost of a beer, and possible the cost of food too.
The newest revelations about the IRS internal memos?
Just WHO is Lois Learner afraid of? She claims she’s in fear for her life and that’s why she doesn’t want to testify. REALLY? Can’t her employer The United States Government protect her & her family? Or is it the US Government that she’s afraid of?
The Ukraine?
Does anyone really believe that Vladimir Putin is concerned in the least about what President Stompy Foot thinks? Don’t get me wrong Putin is not a nice guy but he’s doing what he things is best for his country ( Or Himself) and he’s not in the habit of asking permission.
Potential for World War III?
There have been some writers comparing the flashpoint issues for WWI and WWII to what’s happening in the Ukraine.
I’m not sure that I completely agree with their assesment that WWIII could be in the offing but the correlations are interesting to read. I doubt Putin would move it to an all out war against NATO but hey no-one thought a strange little houspainter would end up Chancellor of Germany either.
President Obama’s trustworthy polls?
This one cracked me up. Approximately 60% of Americans believe that Obama is actively lying to them one way or another. Now that’s really gotta piss President Finger waver off.
The President was on TV again today defending Obamacare and as usual took the opportunity to reiterate that Republicans are BAD and that their continued desire to revisit Obamacare isn’t in the public interest. Whoo Hoo 8 million people signed up. Lets see, there are approximately 313.9 Million people in the US. Does that mean a whopping 3% of the population signed up. Whoooo impressive!
I’d have been more impressed if this 8 million had ALL been previously uninsured people instead of poor schmucks that lost their insurance and had to find something on the exchanges.
I’d have been more impressed if there wasn’t a recent editorial by a lady that had called something like 92 doctors in New Jersey only to find out that her shiny new obamacare card wasn’t being accepted because the doctors didn’t want to deal with the smaller payments obamacare would provide for their services, and the increased overhead and oversight from the government.
I’d be more impressed if, instead of Pres. Stompy shaking his finger at Republicans he’d actually listen to what the vast majority of Americans are bitching about regarding having their health insurance screwed with.
I’d really be impressed if ALL of Congress, including that idiot Harry Reid had to sign up with Obamacare through the exchanges. (Hey Harry, let see if you’re smart enough to use the damn internet shall we?)
I have no idea what the hell is going on anymore. I feel like I’ve walked through the looking glass into bizzaro world.
While I was waiting to see the dentist on Monday, I saw a venomous tweet directed at an acquaintance.
I thought “Wow, was it really necessary for that lady to call him a douchebag?”
I sent him a message that read “I see you’re making friends again.”
I figured he’d laugh, and he did.
What I wasn’t expecting was the venom from this lady who describes herself as a “balanced liberal” directed at me.
I suppose my levity wasn’t appreciated by her I ignored her.
My bud sent back greetings and said not to pay attention to her she did this kind of thing all the time.
I said OK.
Next thing I knew she was firing off all kinds of comments. Culminating in her, calling me an uneducated, hillbilly, redneck.
And threatening to report me to Twitter because my bud, said she was a bigot on par with the Aryan nation.
I said she was an insult to the Aryan nation. And she called me a racist, uneducated, hillbilly.
I responded that she’d misunderstood.
Since the Aryans dogma (albieit hateful) was at least consistent and her dogma was inconsistent she would therefore be a insult to them.
After all if you’re going to insult someone you should be clear about it.
Then she got really nasty!
I was laughing, she was entertaining while I waited to have my teeth drilled.
She threatened to report me again and my Bud did it for her. I told her that If I ended up in the twitter gulag I’d be joining a long line of good people who’d been sent to the corn field.
Then I came up with this,
I sent;
“I find your characterization of my hillbilly kin as somehow “Less Than” in comparison, tantamount to HATE SPEECH and that I’d happily go toe to toe with you with the Twitter judges.”
Suddenly she was gone!
I figured I could use her own rules couldn’t I?
As I understand Hate Speech, it’s speech that seeks to selectively call, imply or compare a group of people to something negative.
Usually the term hate speech is applied to negative comments about specific ethnicities. More often than not these groups are non European, but sexual preferences are also included in legal protections.
It occurred to me that so called “Hillbillies” might be considered a distinct ethnic group. As such they should be afforded protections against hate speech. One might also extend the definition to occupants of so called “Flyover States”.
Hey why not?
Thiz means that the negative attacks on Conservatives, Republicans, or people of Faith, so common on Twitter can, and should cause the Gulagging of the liberals who so quickly and easily fling epithets and hateful comments toward these groups.
After all what’s good for one group should be equally applied to other groups!
I’m totally egalitarian about it.
I’m thinking I’ll try to get the next Liberal that attacks me gulaged using this argument. It might be an interesting test of Twitters fairness policies.
Worst case scenario I’ll end up silenced and that will give me a reason to bail on Twitter altogether.
Yep, couldn’t help seeing Madeline Kahn as I thought about writing this.
I’m tired of many things. Politics, War, Afghanistan, President Obamas speachifying.
At the top of my list and also something I can control is the hate, vitriol, and drama that I let into my home.
I’ve been a Twitter user for a long while now. I’m beginning to thing that perhaps that is at an end.
Recently, there have been several particularly nasty incidents that I’ve decided I don’t have to put up with.
First let me say, I’m conservative. I’m not Limbaugh conservative, but I do have more conservative leaning views.
I don’t like big government, I don’t think the government owes me anything more than my due (Social Security) springs to mind, and I know damn well that I’ll be whistling for that.
That being said, I’m not automatically drinking the Republican, Democratic, Liberal, or Tea Party kool-aid.
Some of those people scare the hell out of me because they’re just as draconian in their beliefs as the Puritans. (They popped into my head because of Thanksgiving.)
I’m more of a libertarian, constitutionalist.
All I’ve ever wanted, is to be left the hell alone in my personal life and financial affairs.
For me personally the ACA is anathema to the way I’d prefer to live.
It’s representative of a government intrusion into my personal affairs that I’d prefer not to have.
I’ve begun over the past decade or so to believe that the government has become too large and unwieldy to provide the primary services it was designed to.
Our government on both a federal and state level has become so intrusive in our daily lives that I chafe because I fear the loss of freedom that comes with each new regulation, regardless of whether the regulation or rule actually makes sense.
I don’t believe you can regulate common sense any more than morality. From the beginning it was obvious, prohibition wasn’t ever going to work stopping folks from getting drunk. Or the drug war, or “Just say No.”
As an example of intrusiveness on the part of government run amok, it’s no longer permissible to smoke in your condo in a Northern California town.
Yes! this is a Condominium that you OWN, pay taxes on, and a homeowners association fee monthly.
It seems that smoking on your own property is now forbidden because some smoke may at some point waft through a wall (god I hope not) and potentially harm a neighbor.
Were I in that town, I’d lobby for a ban or curry foods, microwaving fish, and kimchi too.
I find all of these offensive. Am I not allowed to demand protection for my sinuses?
The question for me is; where reasonably do my rights begin and end?
When I see the government either federal, state, or local, feeling that they have the right to extend their power into my home I become very concerned.
To me, this represents a fundamental lost of my freedom as a human being. What happened to fundamental concepts like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
How about this? Schools fining parents because the lunch a parent sent to school for their child was’t “Nutritionally acceptable”. Then the child is given additional foodstuffs to make up the perceived lack of nutritional value.
Yes, this is happening now and I believe we’ve lost our damn minds!
Who at the school is to say that the food left out of a lunch wasn’t part of a medical issue? The school feeling that they have the right to fine a parent as punishment for not feeding their kid correctly is completely off the charts.
The other side of the coin is also happening. Parents are being punished, as are their children for having too much food. In our headlong charge to prevent childhood obesity, some schools have implemented rules about snacks.
What these rules overlook is sports.
I, as a teen couldn’t get enough food. I ran on the track team, and walked or rode a bike everywhere in the town of Lexington.
I walked in the snow, and rain or shine. I liked walking. I loved being on the track and cross country teams…
I was also always starving! Not because my parents weren’t feeding me, the food bill was astronomical.
I was hungry all the time because my body was growing, and at the same time I was burning a ton of calories each and every day.
The day I topped 120 pounds I was amazed, I was also a senior in High School.
It’s hard to be fat when your caloric burn rate is off the charts.
But if I were in some of the “calorie regulated” the schools of today, doing all that I was doing then, I’d be unhealthy. Thin, isn’t always a sign of health.
That unhealthiness would be a direct result of a school policy that sought to enforce a restriction on my nutritional intake.
As a kid, I’d not even have been able to recognize the danger until my body shut down in the middle of a meet. And what about the damage done by malnutrition as I trained to win?
What ever happened to teaching kids personal responsibility? Or, for that matter Phys Ed? All the so called affronts to our self esteem are in fact learning situations. Lots of those lessons are taught not in the classroom, but in the schoolyard.
You’re not always going to be the strongest, fastest, smartest, or the best.
That’s LIFE!
Knowing that simple truth provides a balance to me and my personal philosophies. This knowledge allows me to deal with most situations.
Mind you, I might not be happy about it, but I know how to deal.
Why do we insist on giving children completely unrealistic expectations? How about lessons on losing with grace and honor?
Liberty and Freedom aren’t just abstract concepts to me. I want nothing more than to live and breath those concepts.
So long as I’m not harming anyone, It is up to me to decide how best to live my life.
By extension, were I a parent, it would be MY call on what was best for MY child.
I deeply resent anyone who seeks to impose their will or belief structures on me. Note, I said belief structures…
You see, that leads to religion.
An Atheist, Dowist, Catholic, Satanist, Jew, or any other religious practitioner is granted the right to pursue their beliefs by the constitution.
At the same time, these folks are not permitted to force me to accept and practice their beliefs.
Yet, all around us we have people imposing their will on others not out of fact, but out of dogmatic belief.
What is the difference between the belief of a religion… and the dogmatic adherence to unproven philosophies that are ostensibly to protect us all?
I could make the argument my decision to convert all nonbelievers to Christ for the betterment of their eternal souls. You know, for their own good… Is not only right… but necessary because I know best what they need to be happy!
That would be wrong, and it’s already been done. A little tea party called the Inquisition, which may have led to a certain explorer finding the North American continent… again.
Back to the Twitter incidents.
Increasingly, discussions about current events are interrupted by people who, uninvited, start ramming their dogmatic beliefs down everyone else’s throats.
This happens on almost every subject and typically ends, only when the original topic of conversation is abandoned.
So called “Liberals” are to my mind, the worst offenders.
Whether it be in defense of the ACA while people are commiserating about the loss of their insurance and inability to access exchanges or obtain subsidies.
On the more vicious, hateful, strident calls, for more gun control interjected in a conversation about steel versus lead ammunition.
The result is always the same.
The original conversant says “Uh, please leave, we’re not talking about that here.”
The intruder replies “Fuck you, you stupid tea party moron.”
Original conversant “ Look, I didn’t swear at you or call you names, I’m trying to tell my friend how to adapt to steel ammunition in hunting ducks.”
Intruder “Fucking animal! you should shoot yourself instead of the ducks.”
Original conversant “Ok, hey @myfriend, I’ll talk to you later, DM your email address.”
Intruder “Yeah you run you fucking tea party gun nut, I hope your kid shoots your dick off!”
And then the thread dies.
It’s sad because I and I’m sure others, would have enjoyed gaining the perspective of someone who had made the transition for lead shot to steel shot.
Several weeks ago I muted someone in Twitter. I’d, up to that point, never muted anyone.
I can’t help but feel that everyone is entitled to the same freedom of expression I am. That being said, I rarely jump into a conversation unless I know one or more of the parties involved.
The guy I muted is someone that I’ve spoken with and whose comments I usually enjoy.
However, he went so far over several lines of politeness and decorum that I felt I had no choice but to silence him before he said something that I would really find offensive.
Incidents have been occurring with increasing frequency and outright hatred, over the past month or so.
In each one, even if I’m not speaking I’ve found myself offended and with no desire to read any further comments from any of the parties.
I can say the “evil bastard conservatives” typically don’t resort to obscenities during a heated discussion.
The Liberals on the other hand should have their mouths washed out with soap.
Last night for example, I was repeatedly called a moron, idiot, and tea party asshole.
This verbal abuse came from a woman who would never have taken that kind of verbal abuse from me. She inserted herself in the conversation calling me an idiot in her very first tweet.
All I said was “We lose our health insurance so that we may become dependent on the government.” To a friend of mine who’d just gotten his insurance cancellation notice.
He thought it was funny, gallows humor but funny nonetheless.
I meant it somewhat tongue in cheek but with a sting. If in fact you require a subsidy to pay for your health insurance you are by default dependent on the government.
Apparently, at least according to this “Lady” (Grand inquisitor more like) that made me an idiot.
She repeatedly told us all that the government didn’t pay for insurance.
Really? If you get a 100% subsidy the government is picking up the tab aren’t they?
I tried to get her to explain her position. Thats when she called me a moron, and we went down hill from there.
Somewhere in the middle of her hate ridden tirade against everyone who even questioned the policies of St Barak Obama I realized that by accessing Twitter, I’d willingly let this bitch into my home.
Before you ask, No, at no time did I call her any names… I thought it. I thought it a lot, but I didn’t call her anything that sprang to mind.
With that knowledge came this, I could in fact, throw her out just as easily.
I closed Twitter and took a deep breath.
My first inclination was to kill the Twitter account too.
I slept on it.
I’ve decided that I’ll keep the account, instead of killing the account, I am going on hiatus for a few weeks.
You see, on the one hand, I feel like I’m inviting all the hate, and vitriol the liberals, and any other nutjob can spew into my home.
On the other hand if I fold my tent and simply don’t participate, these spewing fountains of sewage will appear to represent the majority of America.
This is, I believe how the Republican party came to be regarded so poorly.
The moderates got tired of fighting the ultra right (or left) nutjobs, and they simply stopped engaging.
After all, as a responsible person I know I can turn off the TV, the computer, or anything else that bugs me and my day will progress quite nicely.
Most moderates understand this and exercise the option often.
However by doing that, we the moderates, abdicate our control to the sewage spewing nuts on either side of the political divide.
That, my brothers and sisters is why we the moderates must fight on.
We must not be silenced, we must not allow ourselves to be lumped into a group.
We must speak, politely, firmly, and honestly.
If we don’t, we’ll all end up ordering tofu tacos from an approved government vendor and only be allowed to have 90 calories per meal.
