Raising the Minimum Wage

Okay, if you own your own business and care about your low-level, low-skilled employees, that's great. If you want to advocate to me that similar employees working in similar businesses should be paid a higher wage, awesome.

If you, yourself, only pay your employees right at or about the legal minimum wage, you are a hypocrite.

Yee-Hah!

Posted with no further comment than Read.The.Whole.Thing:

And yet, so far no reporter has raised the possibility that Yee supported tighter restrictions on guns in order to keep gun prices high and his own services in demand. Economist Bruce Yandle popularized the idea of the “Bootleggers and Baptists” coalition. The apocryphal Baptists want to ban alcohol. Bootleggers don’t make much money when liquor can be bought legally at a grocery store or bar. So the bootleggers bankroll the Baptists’ effort to ban booze.

Now I sincerely doubt that Yee was that clever. The more likely explanation is that he believes in gun control and he’s a greedy hypocrite (and maybe not too bright either). The fact that gun-control policies are to his advantage is just a happy coincidence.

Stocks, Tar, and Feathers

Seriously.

Family of Justina Pelletier devastated after Mass. judge's ruling

The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families took emergency custody of Justina on Valentine’s Day 2013 after doctors at Tufts Medical Center, which had been treating her for a rare condition, and doctors as Boston Children’s Hospital, clashed over the cause of her medical problems, which included difficulty eating and walking.

 ...

Justina was taken by ambulance to Boston Children's Hospital because she was in a wheelchair at the time and a heavy snow storm was blanketing the region. Because she arrived by ambulance, she was taken directly into the hospital's emergency room, where a "resident refused to send her to Dr. Flores" and, "declared this was his case," according to Moran. He said the unnamed resident then called upon a psychologist who diagnosed Justina with somatoform disorder -- a mental condition in which a patient experiences symptoms that are real but have no physical or biological explanation. Justina was diagnosed with the disorder "within 25 minutes," Moran claims. 

‘Irresponsible’ and ‘Wrong’: Lawyer Hits Back at Judge’s Leaked Ruling That Includes Accusations Against Justina Pelletier’s Parents

There never seems to be any recourse with these bureaucrats in the legal system. They hide behind their walls of obfuscation and protectionism. Their agencies indemnify and fight their legal battles for them.

Perhaps, it's time that these people face their time in public humiliation at the hads of all those who've been wronged.

A Quote I Absolutely Believe In!

It comes to us courtesy of Michael Barone in his Washington Examiner piece, Concealed-weapons laws have changed America regardless of national debate on gun control:

One lesson, I think, is that responsible citizens tend to behave like responsible citizens, even if — or perhaps especially if — they’re armed. Another lesson is that the national political dialogue can be totally irrelevant to what really happens in American life.

Hat tips to the Instapundit and Ace.

Regulate Thee, Not Me

[Wow! I'm actually getting a chance to post again...:)]

I once had to interview someone who described at great length how people always want regulations—so long as they only apply to their neighbors. How true that is.

The same can be said for NIMBYism all around. A closer-to-home example of which deals with the island I live on. There are plenty of folks at the north end of the island that would like a second crossing so that they don't have to drive so far to cross the lone bridge and then drive an almost equal distance back the same way to get out to the major business areas of our community. Can't say I entirely blame them on that. It works out to be the equivalent of driving from Sandwich to Plymouth—twice—in order to get one set of errands done for these folks. Where the NIMBYism comes into play is when they realize the most feasible areas come a little too close to their neighborhoods and properties.

"Well," they say, "we need this second crossing; just not in my backyard."

Anyhow, I digress. Where I really wanted to go was to mention how Victor Davis Hanson really takes it to these folks that wish to regulate those outside their bubbles and/or make NIMBY apply in his Let's Save California Now! post over at PJ Media. As an example:

2. The Undocumented Immigrant Equity Act
The “I am Juan too Act” would assess all California communities by U.S. Census data to ascertain average per-household income levels as well as diversity percentages. Those counties assessed on average in the top 10% bracket of the state’s per-household income level, and which do not reflect the general ethnic make-up of the state, would be required to provide low-income housing for undocumented immigrants, who by 2020 would by law make up not less than 20% of such targeted communities’ general populations.

 I caution that you do go and read the whole thing. Just look away from your computer monitor while sipping your coffee, lest you spend more time wiping the screen than reading.

MLK Day 2014

So close and, yet, the race-baiters (of all stripes) among us keep us so far away from the days when we may "judge a man not by the color of his skin but the content of his character."

Those among us ensuring that race is a consideration dishonor the man, dishonor the movement, and dishonor the dream.

Error404.gov

I'm not sure which terrifies me more as Obamacare and the exchange website continue to crash: that our chief executive thinks he can get away with lying that he had no knowledge or concept of all these problems long before they were to be implemented, or that he's telling the truth?

Póg Mo Thóin! Kisser for the Week of: 11/29/2013

As if once wasn't enough, we had to go and let him have a second chance. As if that's not enough, this numbskull wants to let him go for it all a third time:

End Presidential Term Limits

Or consider the reaction to the Iran nuclear deal. Regardless of his political approval ratings, Obama could expect Republican senators such as Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and John McCain (Ariz.) to attack the agreement. But if Obama could run again, would he be facing such fervent objections from Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)?

Probably not. Democratic lawmakers would worry about provoking the wrath of a president who could be reelected. Thanks to term limits, though, they’ve got little to fear. 

And, there's good reason for leaving our legislature with nothing to fear from a lame-duck executive, my dear Professor Zimmerman. I personally do not care for bananas—especially, when they become the basis of our republic's governance.

Get Ready for Detroit to Win the Super Bowl

Because hell just froze over:

“This kind of behavior is deplorable and must be condemned by all us,” he said at his weekly National Action Network meeting in Harlem. “We would not be silent if it was the other way around. We cannot be silent or in any way reluctant to confront it when it is coming from our own community.”

Hat tip on Reverend Al to Instapundit.

Let's Make a Deal: Iran Version

So, our fearless leader's administration has brokered a deal with the mullahs of Iran. He couldn't stand with Iran's people over a fraudulent election.

I find it interesting that the president's most trusted adviser is Iranian-born.

Yet Another Year Commiserating on This Fateful Day in Dallas

Okay, something horrible happened on this day fifty years ago. Yes, I can remember exactly where I was the moment I found out JFK had been shot: it was around 1976 or 1977, at the dinner table, and my family was talking conspiracy theories.

Beyond the horror of a man being murdered in front of so many people—especially, his wife—it's time to let this one go.

All three of you who know me and/or have been following my inconsistent writings on this blog know that I'm rather fond of frequently putting the tinfoil hat on; however, I gotta say that the more I look things over, the more I think what's-his-face acted alone (can I remind everyone he was a communist and not a conservative?).  I'm more of a mind that it was a lone idiot and all of the investigative inconsistencies were more the result of incompetence and/or the pressure of publicity than any malfeasance. At this point*, the closest I will come to saying there was any sort of conspiracy is that maybe someone put Ruby up to shooting Oswald just to keep him from flapping communist propaganda during his trial and dangerously inflaming our tensions with the Soviet Union.

Like the Arthurian legends, Camelot's over** and it's time to focus on the here and now.

For all of you commiserating on this day, Anne Althouse offers 10 rules for writing about the 50th anniversary of the day John F. Kennedy was shot (hat tip to the Instapundit). 

*I have yet to read Ion Mihai Pacepa's post, The New Proof of the KGB's Hand in JFK's Assassination, over at PJ Media.

**And, I've just gotta reiterate that Reagan is definitely NOT going to resurrect and lead desperate conservatives out of the wilderness. So, pull your head out of that recto-cranial inversion and get to work!

Remembering the Spirit, Thought, and Body of the Words

Gettysburg, PA, November 19, 1863:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

'Nuff Said.

Storm the Barrycades

Chris Muir gets it over at Day By Day:

The New Political Civility

Okay, members of the Democratic Party, listen-up, This Teabagger says:

Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never harm me. So, neener-neener-neener!

OMG, The Government Shut Down!

And...

My day has been exactly the same as all the others so far. How about yours?

The New Anarchists (Maybe Aren't So Much)

Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem.
“I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.” As mentioned by Donlyn Turnbull.

Thanks, Lisa!

And, thanks to all the others who refused to standby and/or outright stabbed Cruz & Co. in the back.

This is why the Dems continually pull it off:

They. Stick.Together.

From over at Ace:

Here are the Republicans in the Bubble, who apparently do not talk to anyone except themselves and some ckufwitted "political consultants" who have done nothing but shit gold bars so far so of course you want to take their spreadsheets as the Word of God:

...

At some point, when they've been primaried out or simply lost their careers due to lack of voter interest, perhaps they'll realize, "Hey, maybe I should have once in a while listened to the people who vote me into office. Just heard them out. Rather than conceiving them as Imbecile Monstrous Children who Must Be Taught a Lesson so they know Who's In Charge."

I'm not convinced of the let the Dems have what they want and make them own it strategy. Things like this tend to stay around once we let them in.

Just think about this: all of us nonbelievers were convinced that Obama had so messed things up that He was a Carter repeat, at best, and there was no way in hell he was going to be reelected. So, we got hoodwinked into running more of the establishment.

Look how well that turned out.

Weekend Earworm: 09/22/2013

Continuing on from yesterday, all I can think is Jeux Sans Frontieres...

Andre has a red flag, Chiang Ching's is blue
They all have hills to fly them on except for Lin Tai Yu
Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games
Hiding out in tree-tops shouting out rude names
-Whistling tunes we hide in the dunes by the seaside
-Whistling tunes we piss on the goons in the jungle
It's a knockout

Weekend Earworm: 09/21/2013

I usually try to avoid being overly political in my choices of earworms, focusing mainly on those songs striking my fancy over the course of a week. Watching events unfold these past many weeks in D.C., though, has just left me shaking my head at our world leader pretend...

I sit at my table and wage war on myself
It seems like it's all, it's all for nothing
I know the barricades
And I know the mortar in the wall breaks
I recognise the weapons, I've used them well

This is my mistake
Let me make it good
I raised the wall
And I will be the one to knock it down

I've a rich understanding of my finest defences
I proclaim that claims are left unstated
I demand a rematch

I decree a stalemate
I divine my deeper motives
I recognise the weapons
I've practised them well
I fitted them myself

It's amazing what devices you can sympathize
Empathise
This is my mistake, let me make it good
I raised the wall
And I will be the one to knock it down

Reach out for me
Hold me tight
Hold that memory
Let my machine talk to me
Let my machine talk to me

This is my world,and I am the World Leader Pretend
This is my life, and this is my time
I have been given the freedom to do as I see fit
It's high time I razed the walls that I've constructed

It's amazing what devices you can sympathize
Empathise
This is my mistake, let me make it good
I raised the wall
And I will be the one to knock it down

You fill in the mortar
You fill in the harmony
You fill in the mortar
I raised the wall
And I'm the only one
I will be the one to knock it down

One of the Most Prescient Movies Ever?

I first saw this movie in middle school English class, back in the early 80s...

In October 2008 I was saying it to kith and kin alike how much then-Senator Obama reminded me of Chancey Gardiner, even to the point of going out and renting Being There and torturing the non-political Tulip with my analysis. If you haven't seen it for yourself, I strongly suggest that you do so now.

My views have not changed one bit since 2008. This past week has only strengthened them.

My god, what have we done?