Can we please...

...stop having kids to tell us how adults should do things!  Hell, most of the adults are childish enough as it is.

There are good reasons that we do not let children drive, why they are not old enough to drink, to consent to have sex, to consent to anything without a parent's permission.  I know, I know - in today's society where emotion reigns supreme and rationality and cognitive maturity escape the majority of the masses, having the little ones speak for us is so precious. 

Oh, yes, he's a cute little dude - he should be doing juice box or Oscar Mayer commercials.  But, please...I do not want your 12 year-old running my life and country, setting my standards and defining my values...oh, yes, it's so powerful - and pointless!

You know, I read this because I was curious, because it is both vocation and avocation to me to want to understand people, who they are and why they think, feel, and behave the way they do.

Sadly, in thinking back over it, it is clear why many people fear their government at this moment in time even if it is hard for those who do not share that worldview to understand; much of what MacDonald (a pseudonym) darkly fantasized in the Diaries seems to mirror current events - certainly the gun confiscations that set off his fictional revolution.  To some that is clearly disconcerting.

Not sure what to make of that - just worth observing.  Have to hope it was fantasy and not prophecy - and that those who can change the course will do so.  But it is hard to imagine they will, when terms like "patriot groups" are already being used as a pejorative.  Eerily familiar.

Hey...that's how I feel...

   

Just read a remarkable tirade by Michael Z. Williamson and knew at once I had to share it here and with all those who have questioned my current distaste for liberal causes and liberal bullshit.

I echo his sentiments - they reflect the source of my own anger.  For many years, although not a classic liberal (more a traditional conservative, somewhat libertarian), I felt RIGHTS were important; that women have a right to choose, gays have a right to choose, that recreational use of drugs be considered a matter of personal choice - and that RIGHTS - in all their glory - were paramount.  That is, if we believe in one, we believe in all of them.  None of these rights is without a downside, without risk, but they are RIGHTS.

Then those who have for so long trumpeted their right to their RIGHTS - a cause I have supported -  women, gays, minorities, and so on - decided that one of the rights that was important to me was wrong.  Mind you, of all those rights, this RIGHT is enshrined specifically among our Bill of RIGHTS (not inferred like all of their RIGHTS; there is no "Abortion is all right" right).  So, for all the years that I supported the RIGHTS of those whose goals, lifestyles, and behaviors I did not share - I have no desire to be female, gay, black, or use illicit drugs - but felt it was their RIGHT to choose, they now abandon me and my right.  Being a gun owner makes me somehow a second-class citizen in the eyes of those for whom I have advocated, those who have screamed for their rights - but clearly they meant ONLY their rights.

The weakness and selfishness of liberalism is now on display and the truth is - I cannot say it better than Williamson has:

"- First they came for the blacks, and I spoke up because it was wrong, even though I'm not black.
-  Then they came for the gays, and I spoke up, even though I'm not gay.
-  Then they came for the Muslims, and I spoke up, because it was wrong, even though I'm an atheist.
-  When they came for illegal aliens, I spoke up, even though I'm a legal immigrant.
-  Then they came for the pornographers, rebels and dissenters and their speech and flag burning, and I spoke up, because rights are not only for the establishment.
-  Then they came for the gun owners, and you liberal shitbags threw me under the bus, even though I'd done nothing wrong.  So when they come to put you on the train, you can fucking choke and die."

Thanks, Man - that needed to be said!  Folks - you're on your own.  Good luck defending yourselves.