We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Outside Plato's fantasies, the Philosopher Kings always turn out to be power-mad psychotics divorced from reality and morality. Governance by your moral and intellectual superiors, that is, by the genius experts: The Fourth Circle of Statist Hell
I did not think that was their job, but times have changed. Now the MSM is an unashamed mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and the only MSM that offers balanced views of things is the dreaded FOX.
FOX is no Republican megaphone. Just ask Mrs. BD, who almost threw a string bean at the TV last night.
Andy, you and your NR pals need to get over it. You do not own the Party. Times have changed. Primary voters nominated somebody they felt could be a winner. Simple as that. They might be right, after listening to Trump's speech. Nobody else could beat Hillary and her money + press machine.
Haunting this year’s presidential contest is the sense that the U.S. government no longer belongs to the people and no longer represents them. And this uneasy feeling is not misplaced. It reflects the real state of affairs...
It was my nightmare scenario come to life. Hard-working, industrious doctors, who spent years in training, often taking on debt to complete their education, having their careers and lives upended by highly educated, highly credentialed, and galactically inexperienced policy “wonks” who had little to no real idea of how their reforms would work in the real world. Obamacare essentially was a case of inexperienced legislative and executive branch staffers, lobbyists, and academics, all of whom had fancy degrees from fancy schools but little to no understanding of the health care industry they were reshaping, going ahead and reshaping it anyway.
All the Kennedy School degrees in the world provide no understanding of what it is like to practice medicine but nevertheless give elites license to tinker, reform, and experiment with the American health care system. They are experts who know nothing. Obamacare was clear evidence that the governing class treats Americans as playthings, as guinea pigs for their social engineering experiments on how to order Americans’ lives.
Donald Trump knows at least two things: how to build buildings and how not to double down when something doesn't work.
What Americans want is government to get out of their way. I might be wrong, but "making America great" still depends on what it used to, which is a culture of self-reliance without government micro-managing, over-taxing, and over-regulating their lives.
Perhaps this is yet another negative legacy of Woodrow Wilson and his "Making the world safe for democracy" meme. We talk all the time about allying with and siding with and protecting democracies, but all "democracy" really means in practice (at least today) is that the country has some sort of nominal election process. Elections are fine, they are less bad than most other ways of selecting government officials, but what we really should care about is that a country protects individuals rights, has free markets, and a rule of law. If a county has those things, I am not sure I care particularly if they vote or pick leaders by randomly selecting folks from the phone book.
So certain that their god wants them to do this. Maybe that is what their god wants. Gods do not tend to be like kindergarten teachers. Neither is mine, but mine demands "Do unto others..." which is an extremely challenging and unnatural demand.
Grow up, Republicans. Your Party nominated Donald Trump and there must have been a reason for it.
The Dems did not do very well either, if you feel Trump is a loser. The Dems had only two plausible candidates, both elderly, and they are going with Bill's wife because she has a vagina - a compulsive liar and possibly the greediest and nastiest woman in America. In contrast, the Repubs selected the only one from their supposed-star roster who could have played Russell Crowe's role in Master and Commander.
The household Repub names who are sitting this one out are looking foolish and petulant to me. If they are mad at Trump they have to be mad at their own party too. Trump did nothing wrong, just offered himself as an option to the voters.
The size of his personality and his fearlessness made the other options appear overly-cautious, depressive, and small by comparison. Thus a candidate (like Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan) who gets the disapproval of the elites. I thought the Bushies were bigger than that but low-energy Jeb was the heir-apparent. Rejection hurts, but come on! Get over it.
There are many dysfunctional and criminal subcultures in America, as there are everywhere. In the US, these are overwhelmingly white of course, and, it seems, disproportionately low among American Asians and Muslims (except for the Somalis in Minneapolis). They need to up their stats to keep up.
American blacks, however, have a lock on violent crime, with Hispanic immigrants (mostly gang-related) coming in as a distant second. Why this has evolved this way I do not know. History tells us it was not this way in 1960.
I do business with plenty of black and hispanic Americans, and they are fine, hard-working and pleasant people. There is almost no racism in America as far as I can tell. None. There is far more bigotry against white tattooed meth heads, white beggars, and whites with nose rings.
In the USA, there is a social contract. Obey laws, aspire to independence and integrity, and be a good contributing citizen. That is all that is required. Otherwise, expect to be poorly-regarded.
A powerful heart-felt comment from police officer Jay Stalien:
I have come to realize something that is still hard for me to understand to this day. The following may be a shock to some coming from an African American, but the mere fact that it may be shocking to some is prima facie evidence of the sad state of affairs that we are in as Humans.
I used to be so torn inside growing up. Here I am, a young African-American born and raised in Brooklyn, NY wanting to be a cop. I watched and lived through the crime that took place in the hood. My own black people killing others over nothing. Crack heads and heroin addicts lined the lobby of my building as I shuffled around them to make my way to our 1 bedroom apartment with 6 of us living inside. I used to be woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of gun fire, only to look outside and see that it was 2 African Americans shooting at each other.
It never sat right with me. I wanted to help my community and stop watching the blood of African Americans spilled on the street at the hands of a fellow black man. I became a cop because black lives in my community, along with ALL lives, mattered to me, and wanted to help stop the bloodshed.
As time went by in my law enforcement career, I quickly began to realize something. I remember the countless times I stood 2 inches from a young black man, around my age, laying on his back, gasping for air as blood filled his lungs. I remember them bleeding profusely with the unforgettable smell of deoxygenated dark red blood in the air, as it leaked from the bullet holes in his body on to the hot sidewalk on a summer day. I remember the countless family members who attacked me, spit on me, cursed me out, as I put up crime scene tape to cordon off the crime scene, yelling and screaming out of pain and anger at the sight of their loved ones taking their last breath. I never took it personally, I knew they were hurting. I remember the countless times I had to order new uniforms, because the ones I had on, were bloody from the blood of another black victim…of black on black crime. I remember the countless times I got back in my patrol car, distraught after having watched another black male die in front me, having to start my preliminary report something like this...
The elites do not know any people like me, young not-millionaire entrepreneurs who like to go fishing and water-skiing, and drink beer, on weekends. People for whom the feds (can substitute EU) are more of an annoyance and obstacle than a benefit. The elites do not know any normal people.
We posted Paul Simon this weekend. He lives in New Canaan, CT which is a slightly-distant NYC suburb. Who else lives there? Keith Richards! Of all people.
Those two, plus many other celebs, can be seen pushing their carts through the market in the village with no special attention paid. Connecticut is not Hollywood. Some rich celebs do not care about taxes, and just want a quiet, homey place to live where they can take a town car to the city whenever they want some fun.
Media Blames Truck, Not Terrorists or Islam, For Nice Attack