Follower blog post of the day

"I would be a loser because I know myself and I know that as a teenager, I would have done anything to get out of work, to take extra money, to get on the government dole".

That pretty much describes the typical teenager, now doesn't it? - but Shane of Shane Atwell's blog takes on a thorny issue with respect to the Americans with Disabilities Act here.


We swiped the Penn and Teller video from his post and embedded it below.






Highlights:

Government claims there are 50 million people in the U.S. with a disability (1 in 6.5?) which is "disingenuous to people with real disabilities".

Coersion: "There is no room for (true) compassion - it's all mandated."

Private property/property rights: making voluntary concessions for the handicapped such as handicap parking spots is just good for business. Why does it need to be accomplished via private concerns staring down the barrel of a regulatory gun?

Got crazy?: How about drive-up ATM instructions in braille?

The ADA is an actual impediment to hiring those with disabilities. After all, who wants to hire a "rolling lawsuit"?

"Coersion never produces compassion"

That last point is fascinating as we have always been intrigued by the disincentivizing effects on personal desire and motivation that government action(s) have whether via the welfare state, social services or, in the case of the ADA, the regulatory regime.

It just seems to us completely natural and in keeping with human nature that any tendency towards sacrifice, compassion and civic good works is blunted by government intervention into areas of society that had been the previous domain of the individual, the family and a voluntary social safety net of churches and charitable organizations.




How bass-ackwards is it these days? High schools are now making community work a condition for graduation. That's right: Mandatory volunteerism.

Over the past 2 or 3 years, we've gladly penned letters to high schools on behalf of soon-to-be graduating seniors who had actual after-school jobs, stating they had performed work for our community council that they had never done thus giving them cover and relieving them of this completely ridiculous requirement. We felt that this very act of community service was the least we could do.

Just a reminder...

....still time to vote on our poll in the right hand margin regarding the military draft and mandatory civilian service. Backround reading, here.

Whether you like it or not?

A few years back, Chuck Rangel was calling for a re-instatement of the draft. This was pre-surge Iraq where Rangel’s motives were appallingly transparent. Recall the meme at the time was that the because of the economy, the poor were “forced” to seek employment in the military and Rangel’s draft was his noble attempt to, you know, balance things out by having those rich kids serve alongside those poor minority kids. Of course, drafts don’t work that way and “rich white kids” will go to college and get deferrals leaving the very poor people Rangel claims to champion as his “human shields”.

We also saw through the long range motive of Rangel’s human shield program as a way to take all future U.S. military action off the table with the justification that “sending troops to “X” will be borne disproportionately on the backs of the poor and minorities because of the draft.”

We knew at the time that Rangel was grandstanding as he knew and we knew that a draft didn’t stand an ice cube’s chance in hell of becoming reality so there would be no actual political consequence to his hair-brained scheme. Well, that was then and this is now.

Check out some of the language of recently-introduced H.R. 1444

"Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds."

Think one big nationwide summer camp jamberoo for 19 yr. olds. And precisely what civic challenges are to be overcome? And given the context, we don’t have a clue as to what “strengthening the social fabric of the Nation” means. Will there be a quilting bee regiment?

We’re highly dubious and skeptical of either a draft or this hyper-inflated Americorps concept. We won’t get into all the reasons why because that would be an awfully long post and besides, we want to hear what you think in both the comments and in the poll on the right hand margin. Let’er rip!

P.S. We’ve quite a few friends, family and co-workers who’ve served in the military and we were surprised on numerous occasions by their response to this question, particularly by those that had served in Vietnam.

Dear President Obama, please protect us from your followers Pt. IV

Sllluuurrrrp.....



Suspicions.......... Confirmed.


Hey, Capitalist pigs that we are, we certainly don’t blame the marketing folks at Pepsi for wanting to hitch their wagon to the world’s biggest celebrity – that’s certainly their prerogative. And being the freedom and liberty-loving pigs we are, we’ll certainly make it a Coke and a smile from here on out.

And enjoy video below of a many well-paid retards promising to be better people which, of course, means pledging to be “a servant to our President”.

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge


Similar to Ariana Huffington’s well-intended admonition that we all sign up and do some volunteering at the outset of inauguration day, we’re asking, why now? What the hell does being a better person and bettering your community have to do with who’s in office?

If Bush was as bad as everyone says he was then we probably should’ve seen this video at least 4 years ago. Now, not only are Eva Longoria and Anthony Keidis guilty of making a juvenile (with apologies to 13 yr.-olds everywhere) pseudo-religious video but are extremely delinquent in doing so…. to think that if Courtney Cox were only smiling more and not flipping people the bird while driving, she could’ve prevented Katrina… but she didn’t.

Their's are the thoughts and words of children, of blunted intellect, non-critical thinking and arrested emotional resolve.

Oh, and our pledge? We pledge to welcome with open arms and with malice towards none these self-absorbed narcissistic fools to what we've been doing for years.

Can we get an Amen?

H/T: Hot Air

Is it too late to re-enlist, er..., re-enroll?

We suppose this is what Obama meant by that civilian defense corps or whatever the hell he was talking about. This from the change.gov website:

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

(emphasis ours)

Except that the Obama people must’ve got word there was a Constitutional amendment that prohibits the government this sort of behavior so they changed the language to “setting a goal” with a $4,000 college tuition rebate at the end of that rainbow.

Bad parent, KT, ponders what it is his children did to subject themselves to this mandatory volunteerism and also what sort of work, er, community service you’re getting from a 16 yr. old at $40/hour.

And we wonder what’s to keep colleges and unis from simply jacking up their tuitions the corresponding $4,000. Almost wish we were back in high school again to subvert all this non-sense.