Voting Rights Hysteria

The right to vote is something that Americans consider almost sacred. We are a representative democracy, or a representative republic. We elect representatives to form a government on our behalf and as the principals, we give those representatives agency (permission) to act on our behalf. I am not going to go into whether those agents really do act on our behalf, or how to ensure that they do. What I want to talk about is who gets to vote for those representatives and how do those elections happen.

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Friday Thoughts: Normal Life

We’ve been living in Texas for just over a month now. And, for just over a month now, we’ve been living a normal life. Normal as in, the masks are no longer sitting in pockets, bags, or counters ready to be grabbed when leaving the house. Nope. They’ve been thrown away (except for the Mike Rowe ones). We don’t need them. They are not required anywhere. Going to the store? Just walk in. Restaurant? Walk in. It’s soooo refreshing.

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Insurrection or Astroturf?

Tomorrow I expect to hear and see much wailing, gnashing of teeth, sackcloth, ashes being strewn about, moaning about the “state of democracy”, calls for stronger gun control, calls for bringing back the “sedition” part of the Aliens and Seditions Act. All of which is designed to get the average “I just want to live my life” American to wring their hands, bemoan those awful racist Republican Trumpists, and vote straight Democrat tickets next election.

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A-Fisking We Will Go!

Oh, look – it’s another stupid article purporting to be journalism. That means I’m gonna do another fisking (fisking is fun!) This time, we’re going to be looking at the significant difference between the terms anti-vax and anti-mandate. These are two (obviously) completely different terms, yet these propagandists masquerading as objective journalists would have us believe that they mean the same thing. This time the less-than-gifted “reporter” is Kelly Weill at the Daily Beast (yeah, yeah, I know, but let’s give it a go anyway).

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Striking Differences

We are settling in here in Texas and I am constantly struck by how different and yet similar our life here is, compared to our life in Philadelphia. The most obvious thing is the weather. I grew up in San Diego, so I’m familiar with warm winters. But it’s been twenty years since I lived in southern California. And, those twenty years have been filled with snow, freezing rain, sleet, ice storms, and just plain damn cold weather every winter.

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A Path Will Rise to Meet Us

The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating. – Mohandas K. Gandhi I once read an account of bullying in rural America in the early 20th century. The narrator said, “If a victim did not stand up to them, there was no limit to how far the bullies would go.” He described them tying another child to the train tracks as a train approached (on the parallel track). There was no appeasing the bullies. Each capitulation only whetted their appetite for new and crueler humiliations.

Source: A Path Will Rise to Meet Us

Read the whole thing. This is important. You cannot wait for others to resist the absolute power grab, you must stand and resist it.

Real Grassroots Action

The left really has no idea what exactly is meant by grassroots activism and action. I was reading an opinion piece this morning from the Boston Herald’s Joe Battenfield titled “Biden tormented by Republican guerilla action and ‘I did it’ stickers.” It’s a short piece, but it’s highly illustrative of the monstrously large blind spot the left has for anybody who opposes their policies, and the definition of grassroots action.

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Tolerance

What does it mean to tolerate something? What do we mean when we say that tolerance is something to strive for? People are fond of saying that they have no tolerance for intolerance. But according to the definition of the word, they therefore are intolerant, regardless of the targeted nature of their intolerance.

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They Think You’re Stupid

Those who style themselves leaders of the left have demonstrated that they believe their opponents are incredibly stupid. Like really, really, knuckle-dragging, rage-driven Jethro Clampett levels of stupid. One of the recent stunts meant to enrage left-leaning voters and humiliate and vilify right-leaning voters was the creation of “white supremacists” declaring their support for Glenn Youngkin, winner of Virginia’s governor election this week. In case you missed it, he ran against Clinton sycophant Terry McAuliffe. And McAuliffe has not yet met a level so low he won’t go down to check it out.

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