So I (Maynard) am sitting at my PC figuring out what I’ll do for backup after I let my Carbonite contract lapse. I had planned on renewing it, but now I won’t.

You know why. Carbonite weighed in against Rush, and they did it in a big way. The political alignment of the company is in-your-face and offensive. So now, dammit, I’m forced to do something. I’d really rather not.

I could launch into an anti-Carbonite tirade, but other people are already doing enough of that. Here, for example, is a post on Red State.

So I don’t want to talk about the fight, I want to talk about why we’re having this fight. How did we get here? Did we have a choice? Do we now have a choice?

I’m acting in reaction to Carbonite, which was acting in reaction to Rush, who was acting in reaction to that public slut liberated woman, who was acting in reaction to, oh, never mind, my head is spinning.

Does this stuff just happen, and happen, and happen? Are we nothing more than links in an endless chain of toppling dominoes?

No, dammit, the human adventure starts somewhere. At least for the purpose of my narration, it does.

Let’s think about this.

Tammy speaks much of distractions, of shiny things. She’s credited Santorum for triggering this particular diversion.

Tammy has been following these details much more closely than I have. So maybe I’m off base in what I’m about to say. But I’m grasping for the bigger picture.

Step back and consider this broad question: How can a diverse group of people coexist without beating the hell out of each other? Under what circumstances do we “tolerate” the other guy, versus the circumstances under which we put a stop to whatever he’s doing?

If we draw the lines in the right places, then we achieve e pluribus unum. Push too far in one direction and the human spirit gets crushed by the state. Push too far in the other direction and anarchy rules the day.

We got here because we, as a culture, as a society, trod upon that live wire known as “contraception”. That was the burning match that started the immediate conflagration.

The topic of contraception touches us in deeply personal ways. People feel very strongly about this stuff. And so they should.

My advocacy is one of respecting, as much as possible, the other guy’s turf. Sure, the other guy is a moron and a jerk. And he thinks the same about me. But maybe we can live together if we accept that we each have a little piece of the world that we can call our own. We’ll continue to struggle in the shared space, but we’ve each got someplace where the world is as it should be.

Obviously there are limits. I’m not going to respect your right to molest children in your home. But whenever I advocate that you be forced to take a particular action, I ask: Is there a compelling reason for your personal judgment to be overruled? Not a good reason, you understand, but a compelling reason. Unless it’s a matter of absolute necessity, we must convince rather than coerce.

I don’t want to get in a big fight with you over trivia. I don’t like to fight with people.

So my natural inclination is to tread softly if I come near your turf. Even if you’re a moron.

Then there’s Obama.

Okay, I’m stupid and unenlightened. Too stupid to make my own choices regarding contraception, light bulbs, medical care, toilet height, sodium intake, seat belts, smoking, whatever.

I’m also too stupid to follow wise advice. I’m too stupid to listen to my betters.

That’s why I need to be given orders.

It’s not like I’m a member of the Taliban, and Obama feels a need to win over my heart. No, I’m an American citizen of the lowest order (that would be a middle class white male, and not attached to any special interest group). So there’s no need for subtlety.

As the young man said, “You need someone older and wiser telling you what to do.” (By unfortunate coincidence, it turns out the gentleman that utters those lines is a Nazi. Although I suppose it’s not fair to let a single bad example invalidate the Führerprinzip.)

Enough bombast. You get the point.

Contraceptives are cheap. Contraceptives are widely available. Contraceptives are not an endangered species. Many Americans have strong opinions about privacy, about propriety, about intimacy, about contraceptives, abortifacients, etc, etc.

Why can’t we all just get along? I’ll tell you why. Because someone decided America needs a one-size-fits-all solution to a delicate issue. And the someone that decided this thing isn’t satisfied by merely telling us about his ideas and hoping we’ll embrace them because he’s so darned clever. This someone thinks he has the power and even the obligation to impose his new framework upon us. That’s the only way we can be “transformed”.

So what happens? We all know what happens. This happens:

And we all get so busy that we lose sight of what started the fracas or what its goal is.

Obama knows what he’s doing. You bet he does.

That’s why Obama needed to make the Pope buy condoms for the public slut liberated woman. But he has no reason to make Warren Buffett (or his overtaxed secretary) buy aspirin and Band-Aids and toilet paper for her (or for you).

If Obama didn’t want us beating the crap out of each other, if he were a uniter and a peacemaker and a peacekeeper, he’d give out the aspirin and Band-Aids and toilet paper. That stuff is a lot more medically necessary than condoms. Then we’d work it out somehow. Maybe the public slut liberated woman could go back to CVS and say, “Excuse me, I bought these aspirin and Band-Aids and toilet paper by mistake. I don’t have a headache or an ouchie or need a restroom break; I want sex. It’s a medical necessity. So please let me trade these aspirin and Band-Aids and toilet paper for condoms. Yes, the ribbed glow-in-the-dark licorice-flavored magnums. You’re welcome. Please order more, because I’ll be back tomorrow.” Then everybody could be happy. The public slut liberated woman could take her hour of recreation, and the Pope could pretend that he wasn’t paying people to fornicate. America could remain a united entity. Sure, we’d continue to squabble, but in a family sort of way.

(By the way, one reason (among many) that I don’t want Uncle Sugar or Warren Buffett to buy aspirin and Band-Aids and toilet paper for me is that those 99-cent aspirin and Band-Aids and toilet paper would then end up costing $50, by the time the government was done with the paperwork and inspections and certifications that the goods were produced by union members and transported by magnetic levitation using a carbon-neutral process in a peanut-free zone. Also, there is a loss of human dignity when we must beg for toilet paper. But I digress.)

Obama has turned brother against brother. We fight with each other because Obama wants us, and needs us, to fight. We look upon each other with disgust because Obama has, with malice and self-serving intent, transformed e pluribus unum to e pluribus rectum.

The nastier it gets, the more likely Obama’s reelection is. Because the bigger the brawl, the more we lose sight of what we’re brawling about.

That’s why I don’t want to dwell on Carbonite, or on Rush, or on that public slut liberated woman, or any of the other dupes and useful idiots and well-meaning fools and innocent bystanders. I mean, I can’t entirely ignore them. But let’s dump Carbonite and leave the public slut liberated woman to her carnal pleasures and keep our eye on the ball.

Our goals are simple: Live within our means, and respect the Constitution. If we achieve those goals, we can survive as a nation and as a people. Fail and we lose our heritage and our humanity and our future.

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28 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. jmm says:

    Maynard you are right on! and well written.

    DB knows exactly what he is doing and this distraction is part of the plan. Problem is, that we Tams are an enlightened group and understand the strategy. However, most of the voting population does not. Hopefully, Im wrong.

    Advertisers will get the message, if we do not invest in their products or services.

    Im with you, will not renew Carbonite and will not support the other advertisers that have dropped Rush.

    I want to tesify before Congress to ask for the government to pay for my post-menopausal meds ie: calcium supplements, HRT, annual mammograms and I almost forgot plastic surgery.

    I suspect Ms Fluke has has made enough money on the Liberal talk show circuit to pay for her own drugs. BTW Ms Fluke should be so lucky to find a partner to inuldge in carnal pleasures.

  2. Shifra says:

    Maynard, well said! *So* well said, that I thought maybe I should send you some flowers. So, I started to call ProFlowers…. but then… well, you know the rest…

  3. Chuck says:

    Bravo Maynard. You summarized my sentiments exactly. And, incidentally, I had never considered becoming a Rush 24/7 member (I don’t listen to him that often and I’m not much of a fan either), but after this fracas and faux outrage, I’m so disgusted that I will buy a yearly subscription just to show my support.

    And jmm, right on with your last sentence: I was thinking exactly the same thing. That woman is downright repulsive.

  4. Pat_S says:

    If only the Republicans kept the argument about the unlimited power presumed by the Secretary of HHS to issue edicts. Instead they fell into their memes about religion and values. The libs and the media saw an opening and went for the kill.

    Determining that contraception is an imperative medical need is preposterous. What about free insulin, free blood pressure medication, etc? What medication isn’t preventative in some sense?

    Frankly, it is no less disturbing to me that the conscience of an employer should determine whether or not legal medical options are available to an individual. Workers aren’t vassals. If we want a system where healthcare insurance is kept within the private sector, then it must be a matter of what is right and fair for individuals in society, not what is most affordable or acceptable to the employer. The employer can’t tell you how to spend your paycheck. Insurance is part of a compensation package, it isn’t a gift.

    I really can’t defend Rush. Personally I think he has a misogynist streak.

    The culture is in flux. The world is changing. There is a geopolitical remapping, economies are strained, populations are undergoing rapid ethnic integration, technology is challenging ethics. The polarization and head butting are symptoms of this cultural shift. We’re in for a rough ride.

    • Maynard says:

      It’s worth pausing to think about how health insurance got connected to the workplace in the first place. Why are any benefits attached to work? I mean, the concept of benefits sounds nice, but really it’s just another form of compensation, except that you lose an element of choice. That is, instead of being paid enough to buy health insurance or a pension or lunch or a bus ticket or whatever, you get a smaller salary and you get those things. Maybe you’d have done it differently if you’d had more choice.

      I’m not arguing that we’ve got to change an entrenched system; I’m just thinking outside the box for a moment.

      If memory serves, business started going down the benefit path when salaries started to push into the high tax regions. Somebody worked a deal such that compensation could be raised without paying more taxes if employees were given the “right” stuff. This began the emphasis on benefits that cause people to act in ways that the government thinks you should act.

      With respect to medical insurance, the next step will be to push for a single-payer system. That will “solve” the problem of the Pope being asked to pay for stuff that violates his conscience. The taxpayer doesn’t get a conscience clause.

      Pat, you raise fair questions, and I’m not saying I can address them by restructuring the nature of compensation, and I know that’s not going to happen in any case. This is just stuff to think about.

      • Alain41 says:

        My recollection is that company health insurance for blue collar workers started in WWII because companies were banned from raising salaries, but benefits were treated different. Workers liked the new benefit and so business and Unions kept it in place after the war was over. Then, the price of the health ins. went up, for multiple reasons; new treatments, living longer, Union negotiations. Then Medicare and Medicaid were passed and the financial shackles on increasing health care costs were greatly relaxed. Then people were guaranteed treatment at hospital emergency centers regardless of ability to pay; Medicaid would handle it. And kaboom! The big lie of; There is enough money for everyone to have affordable health care, there is just a lack of political will.; became the mantra of the left and the main stream media won’t let anyone take that on, regardless of UK and Canada national health care horror stories.

  5. Maynard says:

    By the way, Carbonite stock dropped 9% today. The company has lost half its value since August. But this isn’t because of politics. Off the top of my head, I’d say that the “cloud” is becoming a standard and ubiquitous thing, and so there will be more and more remote backup options. Thus Carbonite’s service becomes less and less unique. (I’m thinking that I’ll replace my Carbonite account with a free Microsoft “SkyDrive“.) In order to maintain a profitable business, Carbonite needs to keep its customers happy, so they’ll resist temptation to stray. The political shenanigans isn’t the cause of Carbonite’s downfall, but it’s the opposite of what a wise company would have done.

  6. jeaneeinabottle says:

    Thanks Maynard, couldn’t agree with you more. I hate fighting, I also hate being called names and told to shut up and sit down. This whole Rush thing is disgusting, why he had to bite the left’s hook I don’t know, he should know better. I think it’s weird that we’re defending him and the truth of the whole thing still doesn’t come out, it was a set up, it was a fake set up by Obama! No one mentions Planned Parenthood, the lefts pride and joy, the thing they fight for, you know, for free birth control and whatever else women might need that we already fund! But not a word from the left or the right? I agree with Tammy, why did Rush think it was ok to automatically go there, to call any woman a slut and want a sex tape, what? Joking or not, enough, it’s not funny and our kids think it’s ok to be a slut and video their sex life, well it’s not. You don’t have to be all holy roller to get it either, it’s destructive. Why did Rush bite their hook, he knew it was fake….

  7. LucyLadley says:

    Absolutely love your thoughts! I say, “Ditto” to your closing. “Live within our means, and respect the Constitution. If we achieve those goals, we can survive as a nation and as a people. Fail and we lose our heritage and our humanity and our future.” It can not be said any better than you said it. Many Thanks!!!!

  8. strider says:

    Rush could buy her a chevy volt with a trunk full of condoms then every one would be happy.

  9. strider says:

    Doesn’t the emerging cloud technology make Carbonite backups less important?

  10. bluegrassarizona3 says:

    I used Dropbox, service has been perfect with them for about a year now. It’s even free up to 2 gigs.

  11. bamconola says:

    My father taught at a Catholic school for a few years. He loved it but could not support his family with the pay he received. With much regret he taught at the public school system for 30+ years. If an employee of a religious institution or college wants the benefit of contraception or abortion go somewhere else. Don’t kill the 1st Amendment.

    Maynard: you are correct the DB has manipulated USA into fighting each other. We must defeat him in Nov.

  12. naga5 says:

    maynard,
    thank you for a very thoughtful post! when we ask ourselves, who benefits from the clusterfark of a distraction, the winner is tyranny. liberty loses when choice is taken away.
    rick

  13. Patricia says:

    Thanks for this wonderful, very thoughtful post Maynard.

  14. NancyB says:

    Sort of on the same subject(?):
    In what is being described as an incident of racism, a school district in Texas has filed a complaint after some rival high school students chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A!” to celebrate a basketball victory. And some of the students involved have now been punished and forced to apologize.

    Student supporters at Alamo Heights High School started the celebratory chant after their team clinched a regional championship against San Antonio Edison High School on Saturday, the San Antonio News-Express reported.

    Edison High School is predominantly Hispanic, and officials at the San Antonio Independent School District took the chant as a racial insult from supporters of the largely white Alamo Heights team.

    According to the News-Express, the chant lasted only about five seconds before Alamo Heights head coach Andrew Brewer quickly silenced the students. Nevertheless, SAISD athletic director Gil Garza on Tuesday filed a complaint with the University Interscholastic League, which oversees extracurricular activities in Texas public schools.

  15. Foreverautumn says:

    Hey, Maynard, you could do what I do for backups – do them MANUALLY.

    Just a thought.

  16. ReardenSteel says:

    Well done Maynard. Anyone who thinks that Obama and his Alinsky/Marxist followers do not want division to the point of civil unrest is either not paying attention, or they want it too. Because, historically, the only way tyranny can be imposed on a free people is when things get so bad, the people beg the State to make it all go away. Downside of that is, the State’s “solution” always comes at the barrel of a gun. The groundwork has already been laid for that to happen.

    • Maynard says:

      I’m thinking the event that will trigger actual martial law is a crash of the dollar. We can limp along in our current state as long as inflation is moderate or even high, but a global panic (“flash crash”) is possible, and the world would rush to dump dollars. Financial institutions would be overwhelmed. The government would react with heavy-handed measures to keep things moving; can’t have the cities starve just because the banks are crazy and nobody will take dollars. And beyond that…well, who knows?

      Have I moved into the realm of kookiness? Maybe. But even non-kooks should understand that our current path is absolutely unsustainable. And we seem unable or unwilling to stray from that path. The numbers are right there, staring us in the face. Where does it end?

      That’s a legitimate question that presidential candidates should clearly address. But they just lie to us. Remember Obama’s “pledge” to halve the deficit during his first term.

  17. […] Breitbart is dead, but his “FORCE” is guiding more and more activists to get engaged in one of the greatest challenges we face: Defeating Obama, who seems content to gin-up civil unrest for his own purposes. […]

  18. morecowbell says:

    The spooky thing about the entire contraceptive issue, was the fed’s position that providing contraception was a form of ‘preventative medicine’. It sounded like pregnancy was some sort of disease to prevent, like polio or tuberculosis.. it was very creepy. Then Obama made a mid-day speech about the exception for the institutions. How can a president come to the mic and change a law out of whole cloth… again a very creepy scenario… and to top it off… no one seemed to notice.

    Just saying…. This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang but a whimper.

  19. Ol' Bull says:

    Maynard, thanks for a wonderful and well reasoned posting — it’s a breath of fresh air in an increasingly contentious debate.
    As regards Rush, I like him and I realize that he uses bombast very effectively and is also generally politically incorrect, which I also appreciate. An individual of lose morals is what is generally known as a slut. So be it. If she doesn’t want to be known as such, get the silly asprin or “just say ‘no,'” it’s not that difficult. Actions have consequenses, much as the progressives/liberals — whatever, want to hide that fact.
    Thanks again for your thoughtful piece.
    Cheers, Bill.

  20. Pangborn says:

    Maynard,
    To my way of thinking this country has become nothing more than an archipelago of gated communities broken up into isolated islands of condescension and conformity with the two major parties comprising the largest of them. No longer are we a united nation of independent-minded citizens who, either through the active pursuit of tolerance or the inaction of indifference and apathy, choose to leave our neighbors the h-e-double hockey sticks alone so that they too can be the architects of their own destinies. Ordinances must be passed and mandates must be issued so that the neighborhood can maintain its rigid orthodoxy, otherwise some may feel threatened by the questioning of choices and the challenging of fragile world views. And of course monies must be pooled in order for the current community organizer-in-chief to fund the implementation of his “vision” of what is best and “fair” for all. It is this fractious fracturing of America into combative gated communities that has caused public discourse to devolve into condemnation, ridicule and name-calling. Therefore, in the end, these gated communities have ultimately NEGATED community along with any semblance of uniquely created and mutually respected individuals living peacefully amongst one another.

  21. ShArKy666 says:

    i’ve been saying for the past 3 years that this is exactly true..whoever the next president is, will have to be almost like lincoln to project the moral support to hold this country together

  22. dwbinder says:

    The left’s whole manifesto is based on lies, deception, and fear. They are in truth nothing but a destructive death cult of true believers. They are spiritually corrupt and want to take everyone down with them. They are desperate because they know their time is short. They will go down kicking and screaming.

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