I received a fine gift from the love in my life on Christmas day, a jet black pistol from Smith & Wesson, a 9 MM handful of fine protection. Death and liberty all wrapped into one carefully crafted piece of justice. I jested that he should have gifted me with a matched set of those dark twins and a pair of leather bandoliers so I could live out the pistolera fantasies stalking my fierce anarchist heart.
I do believe the remnant landscapes of true America, ones that still marginally graced my existence through a sixties childhood, are a thing of the past. The cant of thieves now dominates our times. Men and women have forgotten their faces, the history of our people has been reduced to nothing, there is no pride in our forefather’s wisdom, sacrifice or common sense. We live like animals, succored on airwaves and tweets, disposable goods and the graft of elected vultures that we’ve elevated to iconic status. Historical ignorance has become a point of pride in the man on the street.
Our lives skim the surface, searching for depth in the fleeting adulation of our collection of goods, wives and bank balances. God lies in a Mercedes-Benz, a velvet Ivy league degree or a great set of tanned, plastic tits. We’ve become what we own, a skin deep version of what humans are meant to be and do, we idolize cheap trinkets, easy pussy and skate free obligations, voicing a litany of sophistry to excuse the empty veneer of our nation’s intellect and heart. The American public has become a society of simple whores, banking on the empty promises of elected thieves to rectify their gross excesses, saving them from the most ruinous fates of their egregious choices. The verbal stretches manipulated by the intelligent, morally bankrupt ruling class doesn’t begin to cover the personal sins of my ignorant, truly stupid, fellow middle class citizens. These collective neighbors of mine expect me to clean their stalls, feed their gaping maws and pick up the tab for their bouts of selfish pigshittery.
Even worse, they expect me to carry their ignorant load into the voting booth while coddling their multitudes of neglected bastards and pasting gold stars on their profligate parental foreheads.
These ignorant people, who keep voting me into more subservience to an all-powerful state, expect my money to bail their willfully blind asses out of financial misery. My conservative brethren still cling to the GOP, scream Tea Party and call for Palin, insisting they have found the ultimate answer wrapped up in the same dank sewer they’re so busy repudiating. I think they’re kidding themselves, they haven’t left the party, they believe a true resurrection is in the offing under that old glorious tent of fat jowled thieves. The big men are laughing, playing this new brand of fervor to the old school advantage. Sarah Palin is sleeping in the same bed with the men they hate and making big hay with the emotions of middle America. It disturbs me to no end that my friends are bidding furiously for this illusory new pony. If the pied piper Palin repudiated the party and donned a Libertarian cap, would you still follow her out of Hamlin?
I am coming close to despising you Go Team conservative people, you Jacksonian idiots in love with simple democracy, you people who fail to see that historical America is coming to a harsh end and refusing to accept any frame of thought that doesn’t exist outside of your narrow, broken line of ill-kept, dogmatic political republican thought. You fail to see your complicity in this shameful debacle, the diminishing of this great land, with your carping insistence on a host of legislation that removes our rights in the name of high-minded social law and over reaching order. Do it for the children, you whine and pule. Keep us safe, you bellow from suburban canyons. Fuck your children and fuck your safety. You opened the door to this beast and you are still, my God, clamoring for more? Litmus tests my ass, run all of these ragged peddlers out at the end of burning torches and pitchforks raised high. I’d ask you to grab yourself a firm spine if you manage to head down the hard path of burning the GOP to it’s well deserved ground.
What? Did you just say your guys are better? Better by a mile or two? How can you tell? Is the corpse you’re riding less pungent, less maggot filled than your neighbor’s decrepit dead horse? The full stench hasn’t settled in your nostrils yet, take off those rose-colored glasses and give it a good eyeball, then look towards the bank at the men who are towing your rotting barge with ropes of steel. They’ve given you paddles, but they steer the ship, they’re just praying you stay on board and ignore the stench, distracted by the flies covering the other guy’s seeping carcass of a boat.
The democrats have finally abandoned their cover, cunny socialism is the broad order of day and they are riding that high rail under the stupid approbation of more than half of our ignorant populace. The educated sliver of money operatives and old Washington hands promoting this fat slick of goose shit have no doubt of the end results; I lose nearly everything, they win it all. It’s rigged that way, the democrat/socialists have no interest in equity, parity, social justice or any of that other happy horseshit they’re so furiously peddling to John Q. Public. Naked power appeals most to their nattily dressed, latte sipping, Harvard educated hearts. These privileged sons and daughters know best and they have no compunction about ramming it down your dumb throats. Their gold plated republican cohorts equal their disdain for your chattel status and have no trouble bending you splay legged over the barrel of their power either, they’re just a little slower to slip it all the way up your ass without a little war grease to ease the bloody fuckage.
The cant of thieves runs thick and swift through our times, a river of melody cajoling the fools and feckless into greater abandon of their father’s house. We have forgotten our faces, go and reacquaint yourselves with the men and women who forged this fine country, absorb their clear ideas of freedom and abandon every false thing you’ve been fed by the political parties that dominate our failing country and debased culture. If you are able to cast off the decades long chains of ingrained lies, you can still save the country. I believe that’s true.
If enough don’t follow and we sink under the reigning cant of thievery, you’re always welcome to join my anarchistic band of pistoleros. Bring your own guns. I’ll still be sipping bourbon in Texas, awaiting your arrival.
A ripping, cynical, get-it-off-your-chest rant is ever so good. But I will disagree with you for the most part, Darling Daphne. There are still great swaths of goodness abroad in the land, great numbers of people who haven’t given up the Good Fight, and great numbers of folks who DO have a finely-honed sense of history and who we are. Don’t despair. Rather, take comfort in your allies… those of like mind who still revel in our goodness and potential. There are ever so many of us, yanno?
All is NOT lost. Now.. back to my beer and cigar. (insert big-ass grin here)
Shoot Buck, I figure most of my readers will end up loading clips and knocking back beverages on my oak covered porch sometime in the next ten/twenty years. Sedition calls my name.
I know I’m preaching to the choir with my rants of fire in the Haven, but I will disagree that there are great swaths of men fighting the right fight. I see too many good people swallowing the bilge of idiocy that compromises our blunted level of political discourse.
They’re still swinging from that tree of Republicanism which left the land of the holy truth some long decades ago.
By the way, have you had a discussion on John Adams lately with anybody? Jefferson? How many people do you know that are able to postulate a comment on our debating founder’s thoughts and ideology?
The folks suggesting Jackson as a conservative icon usually have little knowledge of his life and works. Most would be appalled at his undermining, populist democratic nature, if they bothered to study.
I agree with ya on Jackson… and think that there are many Jeffersonians and Adams acolytes abroad in the land. YMMV, of course. ;-)
“Death and liberty all wrapped into one carefully crafted piece of justice”
Poetry. Sheer poetry.
Three words of advice, m’dear.
“+P jacketed hollowpoints”.
Assuming, of course, that the S&W is rated for +P rounds.
Oh, and wonderful scribeswomanship, BTW. Again.
WWWebb
Thank you for the offsides, Webb. Much appreciated.
I think you might like this video and essay Daphne.
http://docisinblog.com/index.php/2009/12/22/gnostic-masters/
Preaching to the choir is a lot more important than you think it is.
You make Garrett proud.
That we can convince our opponents with printed reasons, I have not believed since the year 1764. I take up my pen to encourage my friends, and annoy my enemies–
George Lichtenberg
It’s my pleasure to be at your service, ma’am.
WWWebb
I’m growing quite fond of these soft and tranquil reflections on the inner meaning of angels’ wings and babies bottoms.
Very soothing.
Yes…soothing.
THAT”S the word I was looking for.
I hope you’re as drunk as everyone else leaving words this evening, Gerard.
We are all stone cold shitfaced this fine Tuesday evening.
This very topic has been weighing on my mind quite a bit as of late, but, as usual, you beat me to the punch. I’m coming to grips with the realization that our civilization is on the decline, and that too many people are willing, if unwitting, participants. There has been a significant loss of principles, morality, and personal responsibility in this country for the past 40 some odd years. And until, and unless, a majority of the mouth breathers in society wake up to this fact, the decline will not be reversed.
You may be preaching to the choir, but it at least serves to remind us that we aren’t alone in our thoughts.
Congrats on the 9 mil.
Daphne -
Fine rant. I cannot disagree but must ask this. What do you put in place of the current system? Mmm?
Even the Founders knew they had to have the answer to that and were ready.
It is going to be:
Throw The Bastidges Out In 2010!
Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.
For a while, until we have more like Sarah rather than Joe.
I need to savor that bourbon drenched invective and just let it take complete hold of my brain. Better than drugs, dear, oh so much better, and I will be happy to memorize it and shove it up Rush’s wazoo when he harps about us ‘independents’ leaving the Mother party. Fuck zem. Fuck zem all.
Agreed Jackson is overrated. Ditto populism.
But – having told everyone to slag off, including the Tea party folks who represent the only genuine political opposition in this country – where do you expect to end up?
Where but the same place as everyone else who follows that path of “f**k everybody”?
That is – drunk, and alone.
“Lance!”
“Si, Senora de Batwings de Boyle.”
http://www.lasplash.com/uploads/2/Evil-Queen.jpg
“Are you TRYING to look like Willie Nelson in Barbarosa? Answer in words of one syllable or less.”
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SZATVM20L._SL500_AA240_.jpg
“You mean the long hair and beard, my Queen of the Fire Ants? And I believe I satisfied the one word/one syllable rule.”
“Of course I mean the long hair and beard. What happened to the sharp-dressed man I captur…I mean, married?”
“I was shooting for the Colonial Militiaman look. Sonofliberty.2, you might say—if you were going to say.
“And the guns?”
“Guns? What guns!? I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.”
“The Ruger .44 magnum that you carry. The 4 rifles. The 12 gauge. The closet full of ammo. The boxes of first aid supplies, including a 70-piece field surgery kit. The wheat and honey and powdered milk and tents and tarps and water purifier and solar radio and cash and clothing and G-d knows what else that you’ve got stashed under the stairs…”
“And your point would be…mmmm…..”
“WHAT are you preparing for? AND what do you think you are going to DO, Militiaman Willie?”
“Well, now THAT’s the question, isn’t it? And, like a shadow, it inserts itself right between the motion and the act, between the conception and the creation, between the emotion and the response, between the potency and the existence, between the…”
“I GET it already, T.S. Willie!”
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/tseliot/1076
“I don’t know, Lucretia de Toots de Boyle. We’re not going down with a whimper. I’ll do anything to protect you and the boy and our nation. But from what, and under what circs? When do I open fire? And on whom? Will anything less than such a spark start the revolution? Or do we just withdraw—like the Finzi-Contini or the revelers in the Masque of the Red Death? Head for the mountains? Or west Texas? YOU tell ME.”
“The problem, dear, is that you are a man. The women WILL say when it’s time.”
“You better you bet, Lucy.”
“EVERY few centuries a woman of poetic genius appears, who may be distinguished by three clear secondary signs: learning, beauty, and loneliness. Though the burden of poetry is difficult enough for a man to bear, he can always humble himself before an incarnate Muse and seek instruction from her.”
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sorjuana/Commentaries/Graves/Graves.html
Our system of government, modeled by the constutution, leads to a two-party system. That’s just the way it is; it doesn’t work like a parliamentary system which can function with coalitions.
However, there’s nothing that says the two parties have to be the modern Democrat and Republican parties.
People get complacent. People want to be complacent. They want to have nice lives, raise their kids, have a drink now and then and watch Seinfeld. This was true in 1775, as well. The American revolution was planned and fought by a tiny minority of the colonial population. It worked because the enemy was two months’ sail away, and they didn’t care enough to fight hard enough (spend enough money) to defeat it.
Want to lead another revolution? Get going. But there’s a lot of us out there who took an oath to defend the constitution. Along with that came a pledge to recognize the duly elected leadership, no matter how disgusted that leadership may leave us.
For those of us who took that oath, and meant it, that means we can work to overturn that leadership, but not the constitution itself. In other words, we can replace those leaders with ones we prefer. That’s a political process, not a revolutionary one.
And politics is messy, dirty and unromantic.
Right now we have two political parties. Can we start a new one, say, the Constitutional Party, and have it replace the Republican Party? Perhaps. I think it would have been easier back in 1854, when the Republican Party started to supplant the Whigs. But that’s the alternative; work within the party that exists, and try to recruit good candidates that agree with our ideas. We can swamp the conventions and caucuses, and get our people in positions of power inside the party.
Or, we can try building fresh, and accept that it will take at least a national election cycle before we can make anything happen. Accept four more years of the fascist progressives and their poison. We can hope that a figure with the stature and wisdom of Lincoln comes along to assume the leadership.
Or, revolution.
Thought of you in the last few days Daphne as we’ve been hunting in both France and then the UK. (Tried to arrange a Christmas to take our minds off the sadness to this year’s family reunion).
We would have had a blast together ;)
Well I got my wife something from Tiffany’s, decadence and bankruptcy all wrapped up in one carefully crafted piece of jewelry. But at least she can’t kill me with it when PMS strikes.
I’ve tried real hard to “get” jewelry but I just can’t seem to grasp it. Maybe “decadence and bankruptcy” sums it up.
[...] entertaining writing and reading than all reasoned moderation all the time. As an example, go read Cant of Thieves over at Jaded Haven and luxuriate in the wonderful, wonderful prose. While I don’t agree with her about [...]
Perhaps we look out from our own little worlds and see the same thing you see, Daphne… in my little world (right here in the heart of liberal country, the SF Bay Area) we’re buying bullets and beans, sharing McCullough’s book on Adams (and the great HBO series that followed), and hoping that the pendulum continues to swing back toward a pride in where we came from, with an understanding that America is a living history that each of us keeps alive. How about this: Christmas Day in San Francisco amongst 40 relatives, and the talk was about how fucked up obammy, pelosi, reid, boxer et al really are. How these fucking socialists are killing our country, how the chinese and russians are laughing about how quickly we’ve started down the marxists path…in the middle of San Francisco.
There are more of us out here than they think, it’s just that we aren’t the favored squeaky wheel of the msm, and by our nature, we tend(ed) to live and let live. Well fuck that, and I think the reckoning is a-coming.
Wow. I actually felt my hair blowing backward while I was reading that!
Maybe I should wait till you’ve unloaded your “jewelery”, but in all innocence and curiosity, could you tell me why you disdain Sarah so much, other than the obvious populist pap angle she uses?
I don’t disdain Mrs. Palin, in fact I like her personally and openly admired her governorship well before the rest of the country became aware of her existence.
I find it repulsive that Republicans are creating a mythical, iconic cult of personality around this woman of respectable, if extremely meager, credentials. It reeks of the left’s mindless adulation of Obama and strikes me as a blind, if not completely piss poor, way for conservatives to save their rotting hull of a party.
More substance, less drooling, please.
Thank you Daphne.
That jives with what I’ve been feeling as well. If she’s serious, she needs to get to the specifics of what she intends to do not only with the country, but with the Republican Party. While she took on some bad apples within the Alaskan GOP, she seems a bit gun-shy at pulling the trigger against the entrenched baffoons running things in DC. I’ve read her book, and she was WAAAY too nice to McCain&Co.
I hoist a brew to you ma’am, and pray 2010 is good to you and yours.
I find it repulsive that Republicans are creating a mythical, iconic cult of personality around this woman of respectable, if extremely meager, credentials. It reeks of the left’s mindless adulation of Obama and strikes me as a blind, if not completely piss poor, way for conservatives to save their rotting hull of a party.
Heh. Oh, Mooor-gan…. come out, come out, where ever you are! (insert big-ass grin here)
Happy New year, Daph. We shall raise a glass in your honor this evening.
I just arrived in Texas, for a permanent stay and as a permanent resident, earlier this month. For good reasons. Glad, so, so glad to be here. I’ve got the license and plates and everything to prove it! It’ll take a long while before I’m accepted as a Texan, of course, but I plan to live to be an old lady, so that’s alright. Don’t be at all surprised if socialism is extinguished, not with a bang, but with a whimper in your lifetime. And don’t ever vote for a Republican or a Democrat again.
Texas is a state of mind, Kerry. A warm welcome to God’s country.
Thank you, Daphne. Since it is a state of mind, I’ll be a true Texan in about 60 days. It takes a while to shake off the stress of living 42 years on NJ and working 16 of those in NYC. Nice places to visit, people I love are still there, but I’m glad that I got gone. Each day, I feel the unwinding, and it’s a good feeling.
Sounds like you’re more than halfway there already, Kerry.
Get yourself a pair of nice boots, a little bit of ballsy heads up attitude and a sweet tan and you’ll fit right in. Don’t worry about the accent, that’ll polish right off after a few years, not that we mind, but we’ll definitely give you some good hearted grief for sounding yankee foreign, just for shits and grins.
Where did you land in my country? Please don’t tell me Dallas.
I knew the question was coming!! Dallas it is!! Geez, I gotta wonder if the natives of Dallas have any idea how much the other citizens of TX dislike them? My job brought me here, and I’ve heard the warnings about Dallas not really being part of TX, from folks who live in other parts of the state. My preference would have been Houston, as far as big cities go, but for now I will take what I can get. In a few years I just might be able to pull off a move to Houston. Extended family is down around San Antonio, and I will be visiting them regularly. I’ve already taken that road trip, for Christmas, and I used route 281, cutting off of I35 just south of Waco. What a great drive! Anyway, it’s a big state (country!) and, like I said, I plan to be an old lady, so there’s plenty of time to move around. Unless something really unusual occurs in my life career-wise, I’ll be living the rest of my life here in TX.
Well, it’s only 0800, but… *digs out the rum* (Sorry, critical bourbon shortage here.) I’ll drink to that.
Kerry,
I’m so glad for you to come here to TX! We’ve been living here since ’98. Haven’t regretted it a minute! (Ten years in Corpus, currently in Houston.)
Texans like newcomers, of course. But there are three things everyone should remember before coming here: Conceal Carry, Castle Doctrine and Death Penalty. If you take a hold of number one, remember number two and avoid number three, you’ll do all right.
Of course, there’s the other factor to remember: poisonous snakes. Lots. Of. Them.
I just discovered this gem via Smallest Minority, who got it from elsewhere and so on.
Absolutely, positively the most phenomenally crafted rant concerning the decline and fall of the USA–ever!! You have a way with words that would leave the Bard himself in awe. And you’re not alone–there’s many of us who feel as you do, but I doubt any of us could have put it any better.
Well done.
To Hell with the decline of society. The greatest minds of the Roman Empire are still with us, in word if not in body. Keep screaming liberty and self-reliance, and package it slicker than soda, and you’ll sell it to the common masses faster than you can say “please pass the Leg of Socialist”.
I’ll not take the decline of a great nation lying down, but rather stand up and fight for a rebirth.
Since when were Romans ever truly self sufficient? They depended on their slaves and their plethora of gods and goddesses. They had grown fat and lazy with entertainment and debauchery. They were buried by their decadence under all their great societal innovations.
Keep screaming liberty and self-reliance, and package it slicker than soda, and you’ll sell it to the common masses faster than you can say “please pass the Leg of Socialist”.
I call “bullshit.” Liberty and self-reliance require work. We outsource that now. The “common masses” don’t know, and they don’t want to know.
Men and woman have forgotten their faces, the history of our people has been reduced to nothing, there is no pride in our forefather’s wisdom, sacrifice or common sense. We live like animals, succored on airwaves and tweets, disposable goods and the graft of elected vultures that we’ve elevated to iconic status. Historical ignorance has become a point of pride in the man on the street. – Indeed.
Nice rant, but like so many such, “That ain’t me.” I’ve pretty much done my own thing for 75 years and I never have really paid much attention to what other folks think, beyond basic courtesy and politeness.
Any place bigger than Odessa, I don’t want to go there. :-) After twenty countries and forty states, I’m happy in Smallville.
Snarky question: Is the use of “gift” and “gifted” as verb forms easier than having to remember the proper forms of “give”, “gave” and “given”?
Art
Nicely put, really nicely put.
Throw them out isn’t good enough. Not until they can be replaced with PUBLIC SERVANTS, people who are there with the solid knowledge that they serve us rather than the obverse. Ideally, public service would be something you’d shun, and only do it if you were forced to do.
I have ammo, will travel. And I cook a mean Bambi Wellington.
Nice take, Mose. For those who care, the Roman period of which you speak was quite analogous to our present, and lamented by Cicero–the loss of the Repulic through the demands of Empire.
‘Long before living memory our ancestral way of life produced outstanding men, and those excellent men preserved the old way of life and the institutions of their forefathers. Our generation, however, after inheriting our political organization like a magnificent picture now fading with age, not only neglected to restore its original colours but did not even bother to ensure that it retained its basic form and, as it were, its faintest outlines. What remains of those ancient customs on which he said the state of Rome stood firm? We see them so ruined by neglect that not only do they go unobserved, they are no longer known. And what shall I say of the men? It is the lack of such men that has led to the disappearance of those customs. Of this great tragedy we are not only bound to give a description; we must somehow defend ourselves as if we were arraigned on a capital charge. For it is not by accident–no, it is because of our moral failings–that we are left with the name of the Republic, having since lost it.’
Mr. Wilson, this is the second time today that I’ve been reminded of a conversation with my mother. Years back (during early Cliinton, IIRC), she was bemoaning the lack of statesemen, thinking of folks like ‘Mr. Sam” Rayburn. “Where are the statesmen? We used to have statesmen!”
My response was, “I’ve given up on statesmen. I’m just looking for a mature adult.”
Art
How surprising.
A anarchist libertarian who simply knows better than everybody else.
Especially the people who THINK they know, but don’t really know, you know?
I mean KNOW-KNOW in the deep, meaningful, insightful way that only an uber-free, libertarian anarchist can know.
The biggest problem in the “freedom community” is that everybody in it sees himself or herself as such a pure-minded, self-sufficient rugged individualist, and thinks that everybody else is just a deluded idiot.
That’s exactly why anarchist libertarians will never be more than internet gadflies at best.
They all know better. And everybody else is a sellout idiot who doesn’t really know. Especially those who think they know, but don’t really know.
It’s easy being a chest-beating purist, deriding the sheeple and thieves and writing internet snark.
But it’s really, really hard getting anything actually done about it, because getting stuff done means you can’t have it your way, all the time, every time.
I’ll drink on your porch anytime… and you just earned yourself a new reader.
Yes, hillbilly, you republicans and democrats have done a fine job of getting stuff done, please excuse me if I’ve had my fill of all your hard work.
Thank you, Patrick, settle on in.
To everyone visiting from The Smallest Minority, View From The Porch and Western Rifle Shooters thanks for visiting and commenting. Your company has been most welcome.
Hillbilly,
You need to do some research into the actual roots of the Internet. If you did that you’d find that Libertarianism is the primary fuel source of the Net and the Web and it will always return there for refueling.
You can find this out for yourself.
Dear Daphne:
I am impressed with the polemic, with which I concur.
My expectation is that the present system will continue, only more so, until the wheels completely fall off. At the point when television stops working or the manna machine we have built no longer delivers, then people will want to know why and how.
At that point, with the results of their intellectual bankruptcy no longer deniable, some people are likely to listen. Most will not, and are likely to indulge in adult temper tantrums. Much will depend on how this devolves, but in any case, the only viable ideas left will be Libertarian ones.
(And hillbilly- History is replete with memes that have become well established. From ideas come action. For further information on the concept of ‘meme’ see Dawkins.)
Libertarians probably cannot prevent the coming political debacle here in the USA, but Libertarian ideas and laissez faire capitalism will shape what comes out of that debacle. Our determination, preparation, and self reliance will in large measure determine WHO comes out.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Thomas Jefferson
Nothing silent about Daphne. Well said.
A pistol, by the way, is the means one may use to get to his long gun.
Nah hillbilly. Republicans *know the Democrats are crazy and the Democrats definitly *know the Republicans are crazy and both parties see libertarians and anorcho types the way you see us but we really just want to live our lives the way we see fit.
Freedom.
As for being severe individualists I would offer that many of us aknowledge that the best of our existence comes from mutual cooperation within the marketplace but without the coercive bullshit of the state.
Way to go Daphne!
Another new reader here Daphne. Well done. I’ll be back for more.
Wonderful write up, makes me proud to be an American- we can still talk, and shoot and think! Above all THINK!
Daphne,
Sorry I missed this last year. My only response is that many of us conservative/libertarian types have been giving the finger to the national GOP for a good while now. I was filleted over at Rachel Lucas’ blog when I stated that I wouldn’t vote for McCain. I offered plenty of good, logical reasons why voting for McCain would be a fool’s errand, but lots of people screamed that I was an idiot. And I’ve been pretty clear that if the GOP doesn’t pull their heads out of their collective asses, they can kiss my vote goodbye for the foreseeable future.
I own what I’ve done in the past. Too often I voted for the “Democrat, only slower and sneakier” because voting for the out and out socialist made my skin crawl. What I finally realized though is that I was enabling the GOP’s behavior. So I fully accept my culpability in giving us the GOP as it currently stands. But no more. If they (a) don’t close the primaries to allow actual Republicans to nominate the, uhh, Republican candidate and (b) nominate more people like McCain, the party will have become a political cul de sac, a political evolutionary dead end, resigned to the dustbin of failed parties. On the plus side, I guess the Whigs won’t feel so lonely anymore
[...] The Cant Of Thieves, Jaded Haven) Comments [...]
Just discovered you, Daphne.
Kudos, general agreements… and bookmarked accordingly.
I’ll be back!
I just discovered your site by way of Tam. Such prose!! Such alliteration!! Such an outstanding command of language!! I think I’m in lust!! I shall add you to my blogroll, with your permission of course !!
Thank you!!
YeOldFurt
I just dropped by from Tam’s Porch. Glad I did. Your essay is something wonderful.
Cave16
Christ Daphne – when did you become a full fat libertarian!?? Say it ain’t so. I don’t share HillBilly’s rather nasty snark or his possible republican leanings but I agree with his view. To my mind wholesale libertarianism is as bad as it’s liberal brother in law, liberalism, when drunk full fat. A little skimmed from each pot and in balance is the way to go (in my view).
Daphne,
I linked to your weblog from Smallest Minority, and had no idea what I was in for – namely, an excellent ‘kick in the concience’, so to speak.
The primary and overriding problem, as I see it, is that your people keep electing lawyers. You and the rest of the American people are (if I am not mistaken) supposed to elect LEADERS. Lawyers are almost exclusively concerned with one thing: defending the rights of criminals. Lawyers profit from this.
So naturally, their thinking evolves to the notion that if there are more crimes committed, they will surely pocket more money. Then, when foolish people elect lawyers, those lawyers proceed to pass legislation (whether at the municipal, state, or federal level; it makes little difference to them) that benefits criminals – at YOUR expense (or worse).
Need a solution? Here’s your starting point:
STOP ELECTING LAWYERS. REGARDLESS OF THE PARTY THAT THEY CLAIM TO REPRESENT.
There, I said it.
Yes, I tend to shock people. Yes, I horrify lawyers.
No, I refuse to repent my words or my point of view.
Because my experience has demonstrated that no lawyer is ever going to do as well, on your behalf, as a regular man or woman who is going to get smacked in the wallet if he or she screws up. When you elect kleptocrats, they have no problem smacking you in YOUR wallet, then shrieking about YOU violating THEIR rights.
(all right, enough ranting for now.)
By the way, Daphne, if anyone ever calls you a bitch for your opinions, just grin – and then let them know that the word, ‘bitch’ is an acronym. It means,
‘Boys, I’m Taking Charge Here.’
Keep blogging. Cheers!
P.S.
Just remembered some words of wisdom from my Great-Great Aunt Olga, whose experiences with the Canadian legal system started when she sought a divorce from a very loathsome and abusive husband….
She said something to the effect that, if lawyers didn’t have their occasional uses, there would be a bounty on most of them.
Got here from Atomic Nerds. Nice to meet you!
That’s a masterpiece. You definitely are going on my list of must-read blogs.
I wonder if letter-writing to Ms. Palin might urge her to be a bit more critical of the status quo. I’ve been returning letters from the GOP for years now with notes telling ‘em I will only consider donating once I see them expelling people like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins from their ranks – don’t forget John McCain, who has been on my “must go” list since McCain-Feingold.
I would love to see a Constitutional amendment mandating that “none of the above” be added as a candidate in all elections, local through national. If “he” wins, the post goes unfilled and another election is held. The amendment should allow for recall elections with 1% of the voters who actually voted being able to oust anyone from office.
I would also like to see voting limited to only those who neither work for a governmental agency in any way nor get any sort of governmental aid. If you work for them or get bennies from them, it’s a conflict of interest to be voting.
If we can’t get good people into the federal and state houses, and soon, I see a bloody war coming.
I agree for the most part. Palin, not so sure what she is up to. Hopefully some cunning plan to upend the fools running the GOP. I do worry she will just morph into one of them.
I think the only way to empower folks like us is to overrun local government with conservatives. Constitutional conservatives. From the school boards, to city councils, to mayor, to township trustees and county planners. Get returning young vets from Iraq and the Stan to run. Support them as if your life depended on it. It does.
Palin has made her plan pretty damn clear, she’s charging her fans a $100k a clip for Tea Party speaking fees. Going Rogue is pricey.
I agree with you, Checkers. Start with the ground up and change the dynamics at a local level, but good luck getting your socialistic republican neighbors to sign on to a limited government agenda.
That was one top of the line rant. I’ll leave you with but one barely visible ray of hope. The corrupt and villainous system of which you speak has a relentlessly approaching rendezvous with reality. When the system implodes on itself, our fellow gun wielding lovers of liberty will at last have their chance to reclaim the freedoms so unjustly wrenched from their hands. Alas, we won’t know just how strong the embers of liberty burn within the American subconscious until that time arrives. The socialist/fascist parasite we call the government will overcome its host, resulting in its own demise, just as a virus or tumor kills its host and then perishes. But our fellow friends of liberty have been quietly, and in many cases unknowingly, preparing themselves for that day of reckoning. Their stockpiles of goods, guns, and gold might just thrust them into an unexpected position of power. Let us hope!