Tag Archives: Liberals

Tolerance For Me – Tyranny For You

classy-neighbor

I’m still #NeverTrump, but I have some neighbors that I like who are voting for The Donald.  They placed a Trump sign on community property; the corner of our two streets.

A neighbor down the way drove over the sign rendering it bent and mangled.  Now, while I’m not voting for Trump I found this behavior horrible.  So I stopped and tried to re-purpose the sign and put it back, but this time next to an electric facility box – to prevent driving over it again.

When I drove by the corner 25 minutes later the sign was pulled out and thrown into the grove.  My neighbor pulled it out and again placed it next to the facility box.

This morning the sign above was placed in front of the Trump sign.

Stay Classy San Diego.

Nothing more intolerant than a tolerant Leftist.

Upside Down: Wherein The Liberal Agrees With Pino

Upside Down

After all this time, The Atlantic agrees with Pino.

First, the backstory.

For the better part of a decade, and really longer because I’m only counting the time I have been engaged in a structured format, I’ve been frustrated by the debate when discussing events of the day with my more liberal friends.

“We need to raise the minimum wage!”

“I disagree, I would rather that wage remain lower.  After all, we want to empower more and more people to work for compensation they’re willing to work for.”

“You are greedy and hate poor people!”

I walk away frustrated.  Frustrated not because my ideas were shown to be incorrect or flawed, but rather that I lost the opportunity to debate those ideas.  I didn’t know how to interact.

I’ve seen my flaw.  Above, my friend isn’t working to change *my* mind, he’s working to change the minds of the people *listening* to us.  If he can make me greedy and hateful, he can associate that with my policies.   He’s deftly switching policy for intention and has ZERO interest in having an open and earnest discourse.

The trick, of course, is to make explicit as soon as possible that we both have the same intention, whatever that might be.  We just differ on the path.

How delicious then, to see that the inmates are running the asylum:

Hundreds of Yale students are attacking them, some with hateful insults, shouted epithets, and a campaign of public shaming. In doing so, they have shown an illiberal streak that flows from flaws in their well-intentioned ideology.

The only aspect in which I disagree with ‘The Atlantic’ is the manner in which they make this tactic appear like an ‘oops’.  It’s not.  It’s deliberate and it’s horrible.

The Liberal Version Of Tolerance

Confused

I’m in DC this week taking in the sights.

Got me to thinking about things like Liberty and Freedom.

Some time ago the left was aflutter over the bill passed in Arizona allowing businesses to deny service based on religious freedoms.

Ridiculous, of course.  Everyone who believes in people being free support people businesses denying service to anyone for any reason.

But not the left – THEY have cornered the market on tolerance.  See:

Silversun Pickups have demanded that the Romney campaign stop using the band’s song “Panic Switch” at political rallies. It is the latest pop group to object to the use of a song at Republican events.

The band sent a formal cease-and-desist letter to the campaign on Wednesday, saying the Republican presidential candidate never sought permission to play the song. “We don’t like people going behind our backs, using our music without asking, and we don’t like the Romney campaign,” the lead singer, Brian Aubert, said in a statement.

And going a little further back:

Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign also came under fire for using music from artists who did not support it.

In 2008, the band Heart asked the campaign to stop playing its song “Barracuda” in honor of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s nickname on her high school basketball team, “Sarah Barracuda.”

The band even went on national television to express its outrage.

“Sarah Palin’s views and values in no way represent us as American women,” Ann and Nancy Wilson told Entertainment Weekly. “We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image.”

McCain also settled out of court with Jackson Browne for using his 1977 hit “Running on Empty” in a campaign ad without the artist’s permission.

Foo Fighters, John Mellencamp and Boston asked McCain and other candidates to stop using their music.

And Tom Petty didn’t find Michele Bachmann his type of “American Girl.” The rocker’s manager asked the Bachmann campaign to stop using his 1977 hit “American Girl” after it was played during the kickoff event for the Minnesota representative’s presidential bid.

See, it’s okay to deny service as long as it’s properly liberal.

On Hate And War

HateHere in North Carolina the republican party has a super majority as well as the governor’s mansion.  In fact, even when the governor has felt that the party has gone too far, he’s vetoed a bill.  Or two.

And still the senate and house override the veto.

What we here from the left is the very predictable frustration of living under a super majority rule.  And, in only some cases, I can resonate with them.  After all, if it wasn’t for super majority, the Obamacare fiasco wouldn’t be taking place as we speak.

However, when it comes to policy differences, it really bothers me that people here in North Carolina, and across the country to be honest, take the position that just because I might disagree with specific legislation than “the democrat” that:

– I “hate” the poor.

– I am waging “war” on the poor.

And you can substitute any group or element of society and get the same message.  Think education, women, children, minorities, elderly or any other group that can tug on heart strings.

And now that I think of it, it doesn’t just bother me, it insults me.  I have a firm belief that each of us has amoral responsibility to care for our fellow man.  That society is strengthened on the idea that should one of us stumble, those of us capable will carry the burden.

However, the morality in that action comes from the voluntary aspect of it.  The very act of sacrificing for the common good is the notion that the sacrifice is free and voluntary.

So when I say that I support programs that reach out to the most vulnerable folks in society, I am NOT speaking of programs that force one person to contribute to what I feel is my version of the best good.

That is:

I find it noble and of morality to contribute to my neighbors relief.  I find no such nobility or morality in forcing you to do the same.

So enough of this “War on Puppies” or “Conservatives Hate Kittens”.  Air your concerns in the public square and take what comes.

 

The Liberal’s Head Will Explode

Blow Your Mind

How is a liberal to think?  On one hand you have technology improving the delivery of fresh produce to markets thereby reducing the need for processed goods.  On the other, you have technology reducing the need for labor:

SALINAS, Calif. –  On a windy morning in California’s Salinas Valley, a tractor pulled a wheeled, metal contraption over rows of budding iceberg lettuce plants. Engineers from Silicon Valley tinkered with the software on a laptop to ensure the machine was eliminating the right leafy buds.

The engineers were testing the Lettuce Bot, a machine that can “thin” a field of lettuce in the time it takes about 20 workers to do the job by hand.

The thinner is part of a new generation of machines that target the last frontier of agricultural mechanization — fruits and vegetables destined for the fresh market, not processing, which have thus far resisted mechanization because they’re sensitive to bruising.

Me?  We don’t have  workers willing to work at the price being offered.  Technology is a win-win.

The Calls For Prosecution

It’s telling of our current political stalemate that the Irish beat American liberals to the punch:

President Obama’s visit to the Group of Eight summit has created a political row in Ireland after an outspoken liberal lawmaker on Wednesday denounced the U.S. president as a “war criminal” for his drone use and his decision to arm the Syrian rebels.

If only the liberal left here in America would attack Obama in the same way they attacked Bush for the same crimes.

Pure Class – Liberal Leftist Democrat Fail

Without comment:

Okay, I lied.

Chris Matthews is a horrible example of a human being that is willing to throw the very people he claims to represent under the Obama bus so his team can win.

Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street

Ted Cruz

‘nough said.

Are You Smarter Than A Six Year Old?

This evening I was with my kid and we stopped at the bank.  I had a check to deposit and then I needed some cash.

As we drove away from the drive through ATM the young lad asked me, “Daddy, how much money did you get?”  I replied, “One hundred dollars.”

He scrunched his little face and asked if that was 2 bills?  When I told  him that it wasn’t, rather five bills; $20 bills each.

He then asked if he could have one.  When I answered that, indeed, he couldn’t, he grew a little frustrated.  “But daddy, I don’t have ANY money and you would STILL have 80 bucks!  You would STILL have more money than I would.”

It struck me how parallel his argument is with the liberals in government.

Life Views

I mostly try to boil problems down to their simplest form.  This may explain why so many people feel I’m so wrong so often.  However, in life I find that this way of looking at, and then handling, problems has been rather successful for me.

Over time it has become more of a lifestyle than a management technique.

  1. Identify we have a problem.  This is harder than it may seem.
  2. Be very clear what it is that is making people mad or upset.
  3. Quit doing that thing in #2 while still allowing forward positive movement.

My problem with the various groups of people who self identify as “liberal” is that they either stop at #1 or skip #2 altogether while failing to continue moving forward.

This sums up my feelings perfectly.