Dissent is born from the simple reality that government must prove its case to us, NOT vice-versa.
--Dolly's current fave aphorism, stolen from Dante
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Somebody Recently Wondered...
ALOUD IN MY HEARING (always a bad thing, that -- it gives me ideas), where would the modern Thomas Paine come from?
The picture of Thomas Paine we have carried down the years -- like that of most of the founding fathers -- is somewhat sanitized. Paine was not a nice person. He was a pamphleteer and a rabble-rouser, with some sometimes disphoneous (sic) opinions.
Something like ... Andrew Breitbart? </churchlady>
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, February 19, 2010
Sometimes When Politicians...
SAY THEY'RE LAYING aside the burdens of office "to be with family," it's for real.
Baby Sister, the Senator, left a legislative session to rush home to the hospital bedside of our Aunt Chris -- our mother's older sister -- who apparently has had a stroke or a similar trauma. According to broadcast emails ("Sent from My Blackberry" ... how much bad news is being delivered this way these days?), it's not likely Aunt Chris will survive very long.
I know grief is for the living, but I can't help it. This world will be so much the poorer without Chris Story in it. As Sis put it, Aunt Chris was/is/has been a fiercely independent woman, ahead of her time. Back when Steinem and Friedan and the rest of the feminist icons were bitching about how bad their po' Ivy League asses had it, Aunt Chris was taking up a second (or third?) career as an architect and general contractor. This was before you ever saw the "first woman carpenter" or the "first female lineman" in news stories. She was bossing house-building crews and building some of the best homes in the county. Did it on sheer brass and competence. And she only had to ask a guy once to come on a second job with her.
It was her second husband -- Uncle Cliff -- to whom I have referred many times in these pixels. He was the underage kid who signed up for the Marines after Pearl Harbor and ended up landing with the First Marine Division at Guadalcanal. Who went to school on the GI Bill and wound up a boss engineer in the aerospace industry. Who has been an inspiration to me and who was closer than a surrogate father to Baby Sis. It says a lot about Chris that she could "catch" such a man.
We used to tease her about her foibles, now fondly remembered as gentle eccentricities that she joined in the teasing of herself on occasion. There's OCD and there's borderline, and there's over the border. Aunt Chris was over the border and over the top. But her house was always beautiful, immaculate, and comfortable. And, second hand from Mom, I learned a lot from her about how to keep house, even if you couldn't tell from looking at my current environs. Every tip I can remember was prefaced with "Chris says..." or "Chris has a trick with a hole in it."
She was thrifty before it was cool -- back in the go-go '60s. She would put out paper napkins at meals, and write people's names on them, to be reused from lunch to dinner and from one day to the next. We kids -- brats all -- learned early on to shred our napkins at a meal, so we could get a fresh one next time we sat down. I bet she figured it out. She was pretty canny that way, and had a way of cocking a knowing grin at you sideways when she caught you.
A lot of people in my life have died over the years. But few are as close to the core of who I am as Aunt Chris. For the next... however long ... I'll be mourning her and remembering that part of her life that touched mine.
A final story about her. Her real name wasn't Chris. Oh, I think she legally adopted it somewhen along the line. But her given name was Gertrude. Her brothers hung the name Chris on her, after Crisco, whose tag line in the '30s was apparently "Fat in the Can." And, rather than let it stand as an insult, letting them know their needling got to her, she proudly took on the name and made it hers, threw it back in their faces. There's a lesson in there for a lot of overly sensitive members in the congregation at Our Lady of the Perpetually Offended.
I'm sure she will shortly be casting a critical eye on the cleanliness of the Pearly Gates and taking St. Peter to task for the blots on his escutcheon.
Update: Chris passed at 9:30 local time on Thursday, at just about the time I posted this.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, February 18, 2010
Hey! Alger!...
YOU FORGOT MY birthday ... again.
Did I? Oh, right. It was Sunday. Sorry. Happy birthday, Dolly.
Thanks fer nuthin', asshole!
Gabrielle Francesca "Dolly" East
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
You Try and Try...
TO EXPLICATE a topic -- say, why claims of global warming/cooling/anything are risible, because the data they're based on... And you get bogged down in details.
Then somebody comes along and puts your best efforts to shame for clarity, brevity, concision, and accuracy. And good on 'em.
And you still don't know what it is. Do you, Professor Jones?
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, February 13, 2010
I know It’s a Pebble...
TO A LANDSLIDE for li'l ol' me to recommend a WSJ article by Insty, but there it is. An excellent summation of the Tea Party convention and of the movement's goals going forward. And a glimmer of hope in these dark times that we may indeed do as I have long urged and claw back power from Washington as a first step in restoring our beaux ideal -- liberty for all.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, February 13, 2010
Global Default...
OR THE BURSTING of a government bubble?
Eh? Did you say, "Government bubble?"
Sure. The growth, by various over-subscribed social initiatives, of the government "market" beyond all reason or rationale -- irrational exuberance, if you will -- now (or soon to be) subject to a sharp correction administered by natural market forces. A government bubble.
Oh... keh.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, February 13, 2010
Two Things...
TO SAY ABOUT the so-called Tragedy of the -- scorn quotes -- "Commons." Well, OK, since that was one, let's make it three. Our Curmudgeon's alter ego, that guy Fran, has two more which we'll count as one.
What no one can privatize, no one has a reason to conserve.
What no one can privatize, no one has a reason to protect.
Which I sum up as: What everyone owns, no one owns. (True for all values of own.)
Which leads me to conclude that the Federal Government (at least) should be enjoined from owning real property outside of the District of Columbia, that all needs for land be met with leases, with the owners to be made whole from pollution issues.
Can you tell I have problems with the doctrine of sovereign immunity?
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, February 12, 2010
I’ve Long Held...
THAT "NEED" IS A piss-poor determinant of deserts. I really don't care what you need. Come back and talk to me when you've figured out what you've earned.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, February 12, 2010
But You Know...
AS INSTY OBSERVES in alluding to the story of the heat wave in Rio (said allusion here), if only they could exchange BTUs with DC.
A heat wave in Brazil in Summer. Who'd ha' thunk it?
But ya know...
If the heat wave in Rio turns out to be a greater anomaly toward the warm end of the scale than the blizzard in DC is toward the cool end, the average will tend to "prove" global warming. If the opposite is true, it will tend to "prove" global warming.
Speaking of nonsense, Our Curmudgeon does a brilliant and high-level takedown of the bad "settled" science of global warming (that science being the nonsense alluded to above). Worth the read.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, February 11, 2010
Here’s One I Bet They...
DIDN'T CONSIDER... Do we really want Microsoft to be seen by the American people as being so unpatriotic as to be distancing itself from the U.S. Army?
Missed that one, did they?
Uhh... yup.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Talk to the Hand...
LEMME GET THIS STRAIGHT the Myrmidon Media (a.k.a., legacy partisan press) has its BVDs in a bunch because la Palin wrote notes on the palm of her hand?
Bitches, please!
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
He Says “Paralysis”...
LIKE IT WAS somehow less desirable than the alternative.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Status Quo: Not Acceptable...
NO SHIT, SHERLOCK! Mr. President. As Ronaldus Magnus famously said, status quo is Latin for "this mess we're in." And guess how we got here. Right: leftist nostrums such as the Democrat-controlled Congress is seeking to ram more of down the throats of the American people.
I'm told that people don't read the side matter in this blog, so I want to emphasize the masthead aphorism above:
Compromise, hell! That's what has happened to us all down the line - and that's the very cause of our woes. If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?
--Jesse Helms
There is no need for you to meet us halfway. On the contrary, you need to unconditionally surrender. No part of your party's program is constitutional. No part of your party's program is wanted by the American people. What the people want is for the nostrums that got us this mess we're in rolled back.
There's been a lot of talk about a certain "r" word that describes a great deal of your party's program as well as your extreme left-wing partisans. But here's another one:
REPEAL.
Learn it. Love it. Live it.
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Quote of the Day...
...[I]t became blindingly clear no reasonable person could believe gun control made society safer.
-- Joe Huffman
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, February 09, 2010
OK. If The Birther Thing...
IS SUCH A DISTRACTION why is Obama fighting it so hard? To sow dissention in the ranks on the Right?
Somehow, Alger, that doesn't follow. That Obama is fighting being forced to produce a real birth certificate, (and not that Sears learner's-permit POS they keep trying to say is the real thing) isn't the reason people say the issue distracts from other, more important issues.
So sayeth da Doll.
So sayeth da Doll.
You're just like all the ecumenists among so-called moderates (read: closet leftists) on the Right (but not in the Right, if you get the distinction). You're accepting the contention that peace is the absence of resistance to leftist jihad.
::wobbita wobbita wobbita wobbita::
And you're failing to learn from history.
OK, Alger! Enough with the non-sequiturs!
When do leftists fight the hardest to prevent the revelation of any bit of information?
Wull... when it's the truth!
Right in one. Do the math.
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Of Course, There’s...
ALWAYS THE Peace Corpse.
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Resolved...
UNIONS ARE coercive and fundamentally un-American. Most especially so are public sector (read: government) unions.
Don't agree? Try this thought experiment: remove the right to strike. Or, rather, remove the requirement that striking workers not lose their positions of employment with the enterprise being struck.
Change things?
This one feature makes union representation of workers extortionate, therefor coercive, therefor un-American. Yet, without it, a union is a paper tiger. Powerless. Severely straitened in its ability to influence negotiations.
Nor do I buy the argument that unions served a purpose in the early days, but went astray somewhere. That smacks to me of Marge Schott's blathering that Hitler was OK in the beginning. Unions were born in coercive violence, and violate the fundamental precepts of Americanism.
That's not to leave blameless the corporate employers whose actions are cited as casus belli for the formation of unions. Far from it. They, too, operated in coercive fashion and were no less un-American for all of that. But the corporations -- most of them -- have reformed, or lie in pieces on the great recycling heap of history.
Can the unions say the same?
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, February 06, 2010
Ur Doin It Wrong Indeed...
SOMETIMES IT JUST doesn't pay to engage in hyperbole, 'cause they only go and move the perihelion on you.
Like... You know government is so inept they could fuck up a wet dream? I give you Exhibit A.
What a waste of potential. With a little imagination and some initiative, those boys could do some serious damage.
Damn!
Just...
Damn!
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, February 05, 2010
The Longer O’Bambi Is...
IN OFFICE the stronger comes the memory of a little old lady in a black dress with a white lace collar, shouting myopically at a hamburger bun on a plate, "WHERE'S THE BEEF!?"
Where have you gone, Clara Peller?
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Bears Repeating...
I'VE SAID FOR YEARS that, if you want to get the money out of politics, take the power out of Washington. Yeah, there are issues with that, not least of which being: what do you do with the power? It still exists, it's just not being used by anybody. But, as we say in business, that would be a GOOD problem to have, as opposed to where we are.
Tip of the Spats topper: Warren Meyer.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
A Notion That Needs...
AND DESERVES TO BE spread far and wide. From Lyle @ UltiMAK, as seen on Joe Huffman's blog.
The very fact that there are anti gun rights weasels in Congress is in itself a crime. When will the time come that it isn't considered "balance" to include the bigoted comments of the anti gun rights activists in public discourse, and it is seen for what it is -- a lying, bigoted, anti American movement? The Enemy Within. Would we tolerate the KKK being invited to speak in public forums? Would we tolerate an anti women's suffrage coalition of Mayors?
One thing we should always keep in mind is what victory would look like. One feature of victory would be that any politician who, even under his breath, even caught in a private conversation, suggests an infringement on a constitutional right risks swift impeachment. What could be worse, after all, than someone charged with protecting our rights actually fighting against them? Would you tolerate your nanny abusing your kids? Would you tolerate your security guard stealing from you or attacking you? Would you tolerate your grounds-keeper tearing up your lawn and garden, demanding that you have no right to a nice lawn? Would you tolerate your accountant embezzling from you? Why in the hell should we as a society tolerate any politician who hates the very fact that we have rights? If the term, "enemy of the state" has or ever had any meaning, surely an anti-rights politician is a prime example.
"Swift impeachment." Such a pretty way to put it.
And he didn't even use the "T" word.
Noticed that, did you, Dolly?
Hey, da Doll didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday!
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
This Kind of Thing...
IS UNCALLED FOR. There's no need to engage in ad hominem attacks on Keith Olberman when his every blathering manifests his utter stupidity...
Um... Alger? Isn't that an ad hominem?
Oh, hell. You're probably right. It's just that the man is such a black hole of intelligence -- the threshold of wit is just too high for any of it to escape the singularity -- that there's no way you can argue any other way. The suck of the stupid just overcomes the smart so handily.
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, February 02, 2010
I Think the Real Reason...
THE WON'S numbers are tanking is that he's too busy lecturing the American people on how they're wrong about everything.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 29, 2010
People Appear Surprised...
THAT DEMOCRATS can be appallingly rude.
Really, people?
Mark Philip Alger
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Previously on BabyTrollBlog...
