All Utopians (and Democrats): stay out of my wallet

The world is not perfect, and never will be. 

Everyone with any common sense whatsoever knows this to be true.  Unfortunately, there are a whole crowd of people without common sense who believe that we can indeed make heaven on earth in our lifetimes.  They are called Utopians.  In the United States, they are also commonly referred to as Democrats as well, the terms are interchangeable. 

And to make things perfect here in the U.S., of course, we need every American to pitch in and do their part in eliminating every injustice, right every wrong and wipe every tear off of every face.  And again, in their efforts to achieve heaven on earth, these Utopians need resources.  And no, you foolish knaves, not THEIR OWN resources, perish the thought.  They need YOUR resources.  And the more of those resources that they can forcefully take from you through the coercive might of the government, the better, these Utopians (also called Democrats) figure.

And the Utopians (also known as Democrats) will sleep at night like babies in stealing your money: you see, it's for a good cause.  It will go to feed the hungry, quench the thirsty, house the homeless, clothe the naked, enlighten the ignorant, mobilize the immobile, shave the hairy, grow hair on the hairless, and on and on and on  and on and on and on and on and on and on  and on and on and on  and on and on and on  and on and on and on  and on and on and on  and on and on and on  and on and on and on  and on and on and on  and on and on and on  and on and on and on ...............

As the old saying goes, 'the perfect is the enemy of the good.'  Utopians of course want things to be perfect. And in the U.S. of A. as founded, things are not perfect, not by any stretch of the imagination.  There are poor people who don't live on oceanfront property, and who can't afford to sip Sauvignon Blanc and munch brie.  This is just not fair (according to Utopians, also known as Democrats).  It's a 'right' that everyone should enjoy the good life, and not just these stinkin' rich SOB's.

If we just tax these rich, oceanfront living, Sauvignon Blanc sipping, brie munching elites enough, and give the money forced from the greedy clutches of those rich bastards to those not so lucky in life, then we will have heaven on earth.  Things will be fair, life will be in balance.

And how did all of these Utopians get into positions of power such that they can mandate this wealth transfer?  They promised us all heaven on earth, and we believed them.  And we voted them into office. 

These Utopians have now been entrenched into various administrative parts of our government now since the Wilson administration, in addition to way too many of them holding elective office since good ol' Woodrow was calling the shots.  That's a long time, if you ask me.  And we STILL do not have heaven on earth, despite their best efforts.  Life is STILL not fair.  The world is STILL imperfect, despite the Utopians' (also known as Democrats) successful efforts of these last 90 years or so in transferring about 60 TRILLION DOLLARS from those who earned it to others who didn't.

Why do we keep voting these Utopians (also called Democrats) into office? 

Won't we ever learn?

Roman Catholics: 'when you lie down with dogs...."

The latest kerfuffle of the Obama administration: religious organizations must facilitate birth control and abortion access to all employees who request it, free of charge. 

Despite the fact that Roman Catholics are, on paper, opposed to birth control and abortion as a part of their faith.  But lately we are hearing Catholics cry bloody murder on this latest edict by Obama, wailing that in complying with the edict, they are doing so against the teachings of the church.

Right.  Let's get real, here.  The Catholic church has lost its moral authority long, long ago.  It has been nothing more than a business throughout most all of our lifetimes, and in reality the church cares not a whit about abortion or contraception.  All the Catholic executives (the Pope, College of Cardinals, and bishops throughout the world heading up diocesean territories) are truly interested in is the business aspects of the church: how is the Roman Catholic portfolio doing, how are the Roman Catholic collections coming, how are Roman Catholic monetary and real estate interests coming along.  Nothing more.

They have proven this over time by aligning themselves with every liberal position out there, including making their churches sanctuaries for illegal immigrants.  They truly need illegal immigrants to maintain their seats in the pews, and putting their pesos and dollars into the collection plate.  No other reason is apparent for this position that the church has taken against the laws of our land.

They have proven over time that they care more about money than weeding out the pedophiles running amok among their clergy.  They look the other way when these criminals indulge themselves in their sick and criminal behavior, because in taking action it will make the church look bad (and accordingly, some of the contributions to their collection plates will decline, and they can't have that).

Speaking of indulgences, recall that it was the principle of the church to allow sinners to pay an indulgence to the church (in monetary ways) to absolve the sinner and allow access to heaven.  What kind of institution could ever think of such chicanery?  The Catholic leaders have no shame, and never have.

They collaborated with Mussolini in Italy and with Adolph Hitler and the National Socialist Party in the 1930's and 1940's, looking the other way as the Third Reich and the Axis powers sacked and looted populations all around them.

It takes an enormous amount of gall to now cry foul, when the Roman Catholic church has been running afoul of the laws of every land that they have a presence in for as long as anyone can remember, shaking down the populations in exchange for entrance into heaven. But now that it's THEIR ox that is gored, Roman Catholics are suddenly indignant?


The Roman Catholic church has associated itself with bad actors throughout its existence.  As the old saying goes, when you lie down with dogs, you get fleas.  Or, to put it another way: when you mess with the bull, you get the horns.  Or perhaps: live by the sword, die by the sword.  Or best yet: 'as ye sow, so shall ye reap.'  Roman Catholic executives can probably understand that last one. 

Maybe.

Something rotten in Fishtown...

After the beating Charles Murray took by critics of his book 'The Bell Curve,' in which he cited racial differences in IQ, he took a different tack this time around in looking just at the culture differences in white America over the last 50 years.

Denounced as racists over the controversial findings in 'The Bell Curve,' Dr. Murray and his co-author the late Richard Herrnstein cited massive amounts of data that decidedly proved their thesis, to the outrage of the left.  In his new book 'Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010', Murray now points out the polarization of white classes over a 50 year span that is widening: the rich white folk living in 'Belmont' (Dr. Murray's rich enclave) have virtually nothing left in common with the poor folks living in Fishtown (Dr. Murray's ghetto for the white trash). He leaves out of the discussion any minority populations, and therefore avoids the cacophonous cries of 'racist' from the left this time around.

The disparate upper and lower class white cultures, Murray points out, have so drifted apart from their common roots in the Eisenhower era that the American way of life is coming apart as a result of this drift.  Before this happened, all whites valued marriage, religion and voter participation, and now only the rich white folks in Belmont still value this, but keep these values to themselves.

He points out that the Belmont folks get married just like everyone used to in polite society, but not so in Fishtown, where illegitimacy is rampant.  White folks in Belmont stay out of trouble, go to college and have jobs, while white Fishtowners end up in prison way too often, and subsist on food stamps and welfare.  The reason he cites is that the American industrial base has virtually collapsed, leaving Fishtown high and dry, while those in Belmont figured out a way to thrive despite all of our manufacturing jobs leaving the country.

The conclusion Murray draws is one of dire consequences, should this rift continue to widen, but his remedy is that the Belmont rich folk need to reach out to the Fishtown downtrodden and show them the way.

Huh?

My conclusion is somewhat different than Murrays, although the facts he presents are pretty solid: indeed Fishtown and Belmont don't see eye to eye these days.  However, nobody in Belmont is going to reach out and help anyone in Fishtown, lest they receive a beating or worse.  This reaching out recommended by Dr. Murray is ludicrous, and the only obvious way that the downtrodden white folk are ever going to get out of Fishtown is for the government to stop subsidizing their existence there. 

The folks in Belmont are living in Belmont for good reasons.  They are self motivated to do the right things, to get an education and to earn an honest living.  Many of them are prior Fishtown residents, but got some gumption to make things better for themselves.  And staying in Fishtown was not in the plans.  The government has thrown money at the Fishtowners to alleviate their existential problems, but has not required anything from them in return for public largess.  Accordingly, these down and out folks simply stay down and out.

Once the government turns off the public trough spigot, I think things will turn around in Fishtown, Dr. Murray.  A little tough love is in order, and not an outreach program from the producers in Belmont.

'Idiocracy' in the here and now

Many of the 14 people who actually watched the movie 'Idiocracy', the flop released in 2006, recall the plot: a dullard is given a top secret hibernation treatment, and things go awry and he wakes up 500 years into the future, where he is the smartest person on earth.  Seemingly, in those 500 years, people just got dumber and dumber, and in the fullness of time everybody on earth became idiots.

I find that plot entirely plausible in the here and now.  We just got Bureau of Labor Statistics figures putting the U.S. unemployment rate at 8.3% in January, 2012, down a fraction from December's reported 8.5% (also a dubious figure) despite the economy dropping around 2.5 million jobs from December to January.  The BLS cites 'seasonal adjustments' as the reason that this lower number makes any sense.

Sure, it makes sense to idiots.  No matter how you do the math, that kind of unemployment rate is simply nonsense.  But, fortunately for President Obama, the majority of voters in the U.S. seem satisfied with this number, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 150 points on this 'great' news.  I am surrounded by morons, cretins, neanderthals, idiots, simpletons and fools. 

I must be the smartest person in the U.S. right now.  I must be living a real live 'Idiocracy' in the here and now.

Just on its surface, that BLS figure of 8.3% is ludicrous.  Just look around you.  Step outside your own front door and take a look left, and then right: how many of your neighbors are unemployed?  How many 'For Sale' signs are there in the yards to the left and right of you?  A lot, I would wager.  And of those houses for sale in your neighborhood, how many of those are the result of foreclosures, owing to the previous owners' losing their jobs, and were subsequently no longer able to service their mortgages?  More than you might think, I would also wager.

Take a trip to your local mall.  Take a look around at how many vacancies there are in that mall.  A bunch, I would bet.  Does it feel like we are in a roaring recovery?  It sure doesn't to me.

But then again, since I am the smartest person in the U.S., I am out of touch with how things appear to the run of the mill idiot that believes the BLS figures, or anything President Obama says on anything.