Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Shutdown Fascism Wins In The Smokies

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A first-hand report from Bob Zimmerman:

…we still plan to hike in Great Smoky National Park, but we have chosen a trail where we can park outside the park on private land and then hike into the park. We intend to defy any ranger we meet who tries to stop us, but by not putting a vehicle in a vulnerable position under their control, we give them less power over us in such circumstances.

Finally, I want to make one more point. This is the United States of America, supposedly “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Yet, in my essay above I describe how American citizens are either hiding from or protecting themselves from agents of our government, even though they have done nothing wrong. When I was growing up such behavior was unthinkable. Not only was no one afraid of the federal government, if a federal agent or federal elected official tried to impose such restrictions on Americans they knew they would be in big trouble, almost instantly. Thus, they were very careful to respect the rights of the citizens, and such oppressive behavior was rare.

Today, however, such behavior is becoming common. And it carries no bad consequences for the government and officials who do it. One would think this was the Soviet Union, not America.

People have to understand that they have elected people who don’t like America. They want to “fundamentally transform it.” And we’ve been letting them.

More at The American Thinker.

[Update a few minutes later]

Scott Walker is pushing back against this fascist idiocy.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Voting Against Veterans

94 Comments

Here’s a list of all the Democrats who did that yesterday. And then there’s the idiotic shutdown theater at the Veterans’ Memorial. What kind of moron would spend time and effort to barricade something that’s been open since it opened because the government was “shut down”? Stephen Fleming has been live tweeting it, as the vets take their memorial back. As Dan Collins tweets, apparently the Park Police are Obama’s Revolutionary Guard. If only they had tanks to mow down those recalcitrant geezers. Dana Loesch is calling them #BarryCades.

[Update a few minutes later]

Twitchy has a roundup, with a nice pics of the veterans’ trophy.

[Update a while later]

Here’s a story:

“It just goes to show you why we won World War II,” says Honor Flight of Northwest Ohio President Lee Armstrong.

Many elderly veterans, some in wheelchairs, broke through the barriers set up around the memorial, as police, park service employees, and tourists looked on. “The Germans and the Japanese couldn’t contain us. They weren’t going to let barriers contain them today. They wanted to see their memorial,” says Armstrong.

Appalling. And stupid.

[Update a while later]

Judicial Watch has filed a FOIA request to see who ordered this stupidity. I’d be unshocked if it came from the White House, but they’ll just hide the records.

And as I tweeted a few minutes ago:

[Update a couple minutes later]

Confirmed: it was the White House’s idea. But that lying cretin Harry Reid is blaming the Republicans.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Unbelievable. The government is actually spending money to rent #barrycades.

Business, Economics, Health, Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary

The Case Against Hope For ObamaCare

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I agree with James Taranto:

We resent being told how to feel, and we hope ObamaCare fails, spectacularly and quickly.

We hope it fails spectacularly because that would provide an emotionally satisfying dramatic conclusion. If Barack Obama is forced to spend, say, the last two years of his presidency contending with the undeniable failure of his signature initiative, that would be a fitting punishment for the hubris of his first two years, especially since the imposition of ObamaCare on an unwilling country was the main consequence of his hubris.

We hope it fails quickly for an additional reason: to minimize the damage. Imagine if the Post had written a similar editorial in 1917, after the Russian Revolution, titled “Everyone Should Hope Communism Works.” That would have seemed equally high-minded: If communism didn’t work, tens of millions of people would be made miserable.

Which, of course, is precisely what happened over the next 70-plus years. The Post might respond that that’s an argument against communism rather than an argument against hoping communism works. But when you put it that way, it’s not such a clear distinction, is it? The communist revolution would not have succeeded absent a critical mass of people hopeful communism would work. Nor would it have endured as long as it did if no one had an emotional interest in its perpetuation.

Unfortunately, many still have that emotional interest.

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