tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post116683581868939967..comments2024-03-08T07:09:46.527-07:00Comments on Pro Libertate: Red-State Socialist Racketeering: A Case Study...William N. Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368220509514750246noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-1167079561445199012006-12-25T13:46:00.000-07:002006-12-25T13:46:00.000-07:00we don't need better governmentwe need better citi...we don't need better government<BR/><BR/>we need better citizensKoWThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04581024939585360121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-1166879768353091222006-12-23T06:16:00.000-07:002006-12-23T06:16:00.000-07:00Bro. D.D. -- As a lover of finely wrought sarcasm,...Bro. D.D. -- As a lover of finely wrought sarcasm, I express my gratitude and admiration! <BR/><BR/>Some day I'm going to have to do a piece examining the manifold ways in which puritans-for-profit like John Harmer mold their convictions to fit the contours of political expediency. <BR/><BR/>Here's one example: Harmer, the Utah-dwelling anti-porn crusader, has never -- to the best of my knowledge -- gone after the Mormon-owned Marriott Hotel Chain, which is one of the country's largest purveyors of in-room porn. All Marriott rooms feature both a nightstand copy of the Book of Mormon and in-room smut. <BR/><BR/>In fact, one reason Provo, Utah wasn't able to shut down porn was because a judge discovered that its own informal "community standards" were such -- owing, inter alia, to Marriott's influence -- that laws against obscenity were effectively moot. <BR/><BR/>This is simple hypocrisy, of course, but the larger point is that the "war" against some things is simply too useful and profitable to permit the struggle to come to a successful end. <BR/><BR/>A variation of this principle might be at work when we see the same State that abets a "war on tobacco" doling out subsidies to farmers who grow the demon weed, n'cest pas?<BR/><BR/>With respect to the trollop parade, are you familiar with the behavior of one of the Miss USA participants -- Miss Nevada, I believe -- who was captured on film at age 17 performing what were described as homosexual acts at a drunken party? <BR/><BR/>My reaction, as yours would be, no doubt, was to bellow, "Does that girl have a FATHER?" In our age that would either be regarded as a quaint rhetorical inquiry, or as a species of heteropatriarchal hate crime. <BR/><BR/>Her behavior, as that of the other concupiscient callats profiled by Miss Mercer, offered a museum-quality exhibit of what happens when parents permit their children to be raised by the State and its allied organs of cultural corruption. <BR/><BR/>That despairing note notwithstanding, thanks, D.D., for your Christmas wishes -- and may God bless and care for you and yours this season, and always!William N. Grigghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14368220509514750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-1166861342898339402006-12-23T01:09:00.000-07:002006-12-23T01:09:00.000-07:00He's smart enough to recognize that a federal “war...<I>He's smart enough to recognize that a federal “war on porn” would be as successful in dealing with that problem as the “war on drugs” has been at eliminating narcotics use – and he's probably cynical enough to recognize the profit potential in declaring “war” on another ineradicable vice.</I><BR/><BR/><quasi-sarcastic rant><BR/>Yep. In fact, why have a LAW opposing or mandating anything? Many vices are no longer even considered a vice within the post-modern commoner brain. Besides, as you said, they are ineradicable anyway! There should be no LAW against obscenity, streaking around naked (hey, all of these are not crimes of v-i-o-l-e-n-c-e, so shut the hell up, prude!), public drunkeness, ho'ing on the street, etc., etc.<BR/><BR/>BUT, outlaw them basta'd cigarettes! Or, at the very least, keep regulating them with a heavy hand to save our chillun (sic) from lung cancer and make them smoke-free! Yay!! Hoo-rah, rah, rah!! Meanwhile, the children are "smoke-free"...yay!... while their character overall slithers further down into the sewer of depravity...nay! At least their lungs are clean, even though their minds are becoming ever more fouled.<BR/><BR/>Hey, we're on a roll, Will. Let's keep the momentum up here. Let's see...them drug LAWS are a bane on us commoners, so let's slash those from the books, and then, why have zoning LAWS?? Heck, just burn all them dang books of LAW we're so encumbered with. We all harbor and exhibit sensible restraint and self-control, just like our forefathers, and we all possess the sharp and sound minds of the folk who lived in those early eras.<BR/><BR/>After all, Will, why should...for example say...your neighbor have to run the regulatory gauntlet and become an eventual SWAT-raid chum victim of the "war on drugs" if he happened to decide to merely convert his "humble abode" into a neighborhood meth lab, coke den, or crack house? Hey, it would be easy money....and I'm certain Will would no doubt exhibit no hesitation rolling out the w-e-l-c-o-m-e mat for the man, right?<BR/><BR/>Uh...yeah...right.<BR/><BR/>Oh, and let's wipe those pesky drunk-driving LAWS off the books as well.<BR/><BR/>But..but...once again, keep those tobacco LAWS on the books, ya hear??!! Heck, why haven't they outlawed those terrible "coffin nails" especially already, dang it!!<BR/><BR/>Oh wait, these behaviors are ineradicable, ain't they? [Bangin' head against wall..] Gee, my bad. I see, only <B>certain</B> behaviors are "ineradicable." Whatever Hollyweird, the state, and/or media claims, I, the morally rudderless soccer-mom and gutless and/or absentee dad both suck down as the gospel truth. Don't you get it? [Have now punched my fist through the wall!]<BR/><BR/>That's incredible, how in the world did I miss that impeccable logic of yours, Ms. Jones? You should be declared "soccer-momma of the year." Hoo-rah...rah...rah, kum...bah...yah.<BR/><BR/>...s-i-g-h....<BR/><BR/></quasi-sarcastic rant><BR/><BR/>Will, I agree that state interference is overall bad, but with the commoner brain racked by terminal cancer and an inability to discern left from right, up from down, right from wrong, how in the heck do you expect them to discern a government handout from a genuine paycheck? Money is money and they both are checks that can be bank-deposited (or both can be and are direct-deposited electronically). They both buy bread (or repairs for city streets), after all. The only difference is that one check requires no labor, while the other requires it.<BR/><BR/>In fact, some folk <I>really believe</I> the government oozes money from special trees somewhere on the Treasury lawn.<BR/><BR/>Llana Mercer is a fine woman in my opinion. Her columns, like yours, always make me sharpen my focus, when required, and get the critical wide-angle view and think in the abstract. And as always, like your every column, her <A HREF="http://www.ilanamercer.com/SlutsGalore.htm" REL="nofollow">Sluts Galore: Scenes From 2006</A> column doesn't ever disappoint.<BR/><BR/>Lastly, but certainly not leastly...have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Enjoy this time with your wife, children, and the rest of your family, ya hear? This pesky dog will probably be absent from your bloghouse from this point until next year, but I look forward to even more incisive commentary thenceforth.<BR/><BR/>May God's grace be upon you and yours, and all of us as well, as yet another year comes to a close.dixiedoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09845646940134894119noreply@blogger.com