A meandering post by Maynard

Did you hear this story out of England?

I assume the report is accurate. It certainly captures the spirit of an era.

Here’s what happened: A man found a trash bag in his yard. It had apparently been tossed over his fence from the public street. He opened the bag and found a firearm inside. He took it the police station. He was arrested and convicted for possessing a firearm; a crime which carries a 5-year minimum sentence.

The law is clear: A citizen cannot touch a gun. It’s a zero-tolerance law. There are no allowances for mitigating circumstances. If you see a gun, you call the authorities. If you touch it, you have no legal defense.

The mentality being inculcated in our new proto-fascist societies is that a citizen cannot think or act for himself. We need government oversight, government permission. When in doubt, ask. You see what happens to the man who takes action just because he thinks he’s acting reasonably. You wouldn’t want that to happen to you, would you?

How does a bureaucrat view the unwashed masses? Recently, speaking on the topic of environmental issues, Obama’s Energy Secretary Steven Chu put it this way: “The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act.”

They’re adults. We’re children. The natural order of things is adults make rules and children follow the rules or face punishment.

You know what? Speaking in the abstract, I actually agree with Chu. People are stupid. Yes, I’m stupid too. The problem is, I don’t think Chu is any better than the rest of us morons. I don’t accept the bureaucrats as the world’s adults. And I doubt the world is going to be saved by giving the Chus of the world control over us. Chu is an agent of, not our salvation, but our enslavement.

Okay, let’s get to the point. I’m sick of talking about health care. But it’s the monster that won’t go away.

The news says Harry Reid is going to follow up on Pelosi’s blitzkrieg and is planning to ram ObamaCare down America’s throat in another Saturday late-night rush-rush hush-hush session.

Is there anything to say that hasn’t been said? There’s the overwhelming cost — and of course the 10-year price tag of a mere trillion dollars is a lie in two big ways: First, the promised cost savings in Medicare are dubious at best (note that yesterday the House caved in to physician’s demands, eliminating “savings” of $210 billion). Second, the big costs have been artificially pushed beyond the 10-year window. The plan is a fiscal time bomb. The trillion dollar price tag is basically the 5-year cost (because expenditure start in 2014), not the 10-year cost the advocates are trumpeting. So the long-term costs are vastly greater than advertised.

The unaffordable cost is the practical argument; the argument that should sway practical legislators. However, I would argue the real problem is the fundamentally fascistic nature of the planned health care framework. If this goes through, the government owns your body. That’s the endgame.

When the government picks up the tab, you get what the government gives you. As a controlled resource, it will become harder and harder, and eventually impossible, to receive health care without government micromanagement.

Note, for example, the proposed special tax on cosmetic surgery. Making certain medical procedures less affordable and thus less available is just one more way the government controls access to health care. Step by step, you are pressured into the pathway that the government has decided is “reasonable”, and away from the pathway that the government has decided is unnecessary.

It should also be mentioned that the cosmetic surgery tax is overwhelmingly a tax on women, and largely a tax on people in the lower income brackets.

Personally I don’t care. I’m not planning on getting cosmetic surgery. I think a lot of cosmetic surgery is stupid. But I see the writing on the wall. This is not the government’s decision to make. And it’s not my place to make that decision for you. Dammit, if you want breasts the size of a cow’s, I’d be a meddling jerk to tell you you can’t. (But I’m perfectly happy to mock you, just as we all gasp at that crazy cat woman.)

Didn’t Obama say something about people who currently choose not to buy insurance are taking advantage of the system? And by that same logic, anyone that indulges in any vice that has potential adverse health impact is also taking advantage of the system. The war on smokers is a taste of what the nation is in store for. You’re using more than your fair share of health care if you eat too much. If you drink alcohol. Obviously if you take drugs.

Oh, yeah, what if you ski? Skiing is dangerous. Skiers use too much health care. A lot of sports are dangerous, now that I mention it.

By the way, certain sexual practices are also particularly prone to spread diseases. It’s only fair that those be controlled too.

You think I’m being absurd? What was that Obama said during the campaign? “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.” No, Obama isn’t speaking in the context of health care here. But you see the workings of a mindset that wants to invade your life and override your most intimate decisions.

A government that fixes your body is a government that must control your body. That’s an inevitable result of the allocation of health care resources. The war on smokers and trans-fats is just the beginning. Remember, there’s never enough to go around when a thing is “free” or subsidized. Every “free” goodie comes at the cost of ever-greater control.

When it gets right down to it, your body is the only earthly thing you have. And Obama and Pelosi and Reid are working to take it away from you. Working stealthily in the dead of night. Lying blatantly about the costs. This from the people that pledged to become the most transparent administration in history.

I don’t know where this will go or how it will turn out. I do know that the fact we’ve gotten to this point says very disturbing things about American culture. Our guardians of civil liberties have been asleep at the switch, and that’s a tragedy.

I’m troubled by current events, but isn’t that always the way of things? The world has always been swayed by the tempting siren song of fools and power-mad scoundrels. There is nothing new under the sun. Our task, as always, is to testify to the truth and act accordingly. Beyond that, we’re in the hands, not of Obama, but of God Himself.

A prayer wouldn’t hurt. Psalm 109:8 has been making the rounds lately.

P.S. I talked to a Nevada resident who told me Reid is toast in 2010. Oddly, the issue that outraged Nevada was Reid failed to use his position of influence to bring the 2008 Democrat convention to Las Vegas, which was and is suffering, and badly needed the revenue. Obama thought the imagery of a Denver convention was preferable to that of Sin City, and Reid backed Obama over his home state. Now he’ll pay for that. I’m not sure whether the foregoing is true; I’m just repeating what a Nevadan told me.

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7 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. franknitti says:

    The only problem with throwing Reid out is that the leading candidate to replace him is a guy named Danny Tarkanian. Anyone remember his father? If so, then hang on Nevadans. It could like choosing between the firing squad and the electric chair.

  2. CO2aintpoison says:

    Was awakend by a Sarah tweet on death care. Looks like it’s going to a vote tonight (again w/the weekend midnight madness with these freaks).

    The lion is at the gate and the fox is in the hen-house.

    When I wake up tomorrow morning to see this piece of crap passed I simply don’t know what to do. I know they are trying to wreck our spirit from fighting them but GD it already. Can’t we win ONE!? And these are just the pieces of crap that are out in the open and passing. What the hell is going on in the back rooms that are passing under the radar?

    I say impeach the sob. It’s not like there’s not any grounds for crying out loud.

  3. lord-ruler says:

    I have been listening to a book called ” The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers” by Mark Skousen. (from audible) The book talks about all the ideas of economists from Adam Smith to our present time. (Yes Maynard Fredrich Hayek is in there. ) In the book while talking about Frédéric Bastiat he quoted “The parable of the broken glass” written in 1850. It’s too bad our congress didn’t read it before they passed the cash for clunkers bill. Maybe someone will update it with something called “Parable of the trashed cars”. Here is what Basiat wrote.

    “Have you ever witnessed the anger of the good shopkeeper, James Goodfellow, when his careless son happened to break a pane of glass? If you have been present at such a scene, you will most assuredly bear witness to the fact, that every one of the spectators, were there even thirty of them, by common consent apparently, offered the unfortunate owner this invariable consolation—”It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Everybody must live, and what would become of the glaziers if panes of glass were never broken?”

    Now, this form of condolence contains an entire theory, which it will be well to show up in this simple case, seeing that it is precisely the same as that which, unhappily, regulates the greater part of our economical institutions.

    Suppose it cost six francs to repair the damage, and you say that the accident brings six francs to the glazier’s trade—that it encourages that trade to the amount of six francs—I grant it; I have not a word to say against it; you reason justly. The glazier comes, performs his task, receives his six francs, rubs his hands, and, in his heart, blesses the careless child. All this is that which is seen.

    But if, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion, as is too often the case, that it is a good thing to break windows, that it causes money to circulate, and that the encouragement of industry in general will be the result of it, you will oblige me to call out, “Stop there! Your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen.”

    It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.”

  4. thierry says:

    from the get go especially since i live in what amounts to berkley east, my primary objection to mandated health insurance-enacted first here by democratic legislative fiat with nary a peep from the media and public aka romneycare- was that it violated the core concepts of the bill of rights and the constitution. not passing it was not an assault on the ill and poor- it was not passing bad, unconstitutional legislation that would in no way improve or lessen the costs of health care or insurance. it sham ‘ expands coverage’ by forcing people into insurance products they cannot afford- putting care even farther out of reach of the working lower middle class in particular. if you have insurance that’s mandated you cannot get free care or medicare/ medicaid. it means you do not get any care. it is happening now in massachusetts under our ‘ prize’ deval patrick. mmm. mm .mmm.

    if government can force the citizens( but not illegal aliens- they’re exempt from the punishments for not ‘paying their share ‘ for ‘health care’ either through having no insurance or through abusing free care hospitals are legally forced to offer) to buy insurance- not even care- that covers what special interest groups say it must whether you want it or if it violates your religious beliefs they can force you to do anything and buy whatever under penalty of law and confiscation of wealth. it seemed obvious-obviously unconstitutional- so obvious enacting it seemed delusional. romneycare got around the religious objection- most people it appears are unaware that medical care and even certain forms of usury/insurance violate some people’s religious beliefs- by making it an exemption you can loose if you dare get medical care like some terrible thief in the night even if you pay for it yourself. the fact of the matter is that the constitution makes it illegal for the federal or state governments to enact laws that violate the constitution. you don’t need a religious objection to be justified in refusing deathcare-unconstitutional laws are nonbinding.

    and it’s been the law here unchallenged legally- save by one hospital that serves the poor- since 2006. it has been a disaster. it absurdly criminalizes not being able to afford health insurance- and many fall in the gap of making ‘ too much’ for public subsidy in the state that now has the highest health insurance premiums in the country and an extremely high cost of living. like obama/pelosi/reidcare the bill in MA was passed hastily as an ‘ emergency measure’ , was poorly cobbled together using false data with no voter input .( it was primarily created by the heritage foundation and various insurance companies, actually). but this is beside what really is the primary point-it’s unconstitutional no matter who it is suppose to help or save- and it does/will do nothing it’s creators claim it would/will do. i cannot to this day figure out why no one has challenged the MA laws’ constitutionality but it’s a state full of kennedy democrats whom that moron romney couldn’t even bring himself to veto- stupid and corrupt to the core on on its way to bankruptcy.

    all this dithering and screeching about public option( in MA the connector -a dismal failure that offers unaffordable insurance the co pays of which the poor cannot afford and with ever shrinking availability of care givers or places that will even accept it.) and abortion are distractions from the fact that our alleged representatives feel they can slam together any load of unconstitutional crap they’d like because obambi and his special interest pets want it. this needed to be the argument against any of these bills from the very beginning because everything that comes after the illegal mandate is rendered moot even if it is all falsified crap and buy offs. for all the grand standing by allegedly ‘moderate’ democrats, their ability to ignore the million ton constitutional elephant in the room- as they all have been content to pretend to be all lathered up over public options or abortions- casts doubt on their ability to follow their own oath of office- upholding the constitution of the united states which pelosi seems to think is some sort of stupid unimportant joke in her path to gifting the american people with indentured servitude.

    the road to serfdom is paved with little tyrannies poorly masked as good intentions. mm mmm mmm.

  5. c4400 says:

    I used to really want to go to the UK. Never been.

    NO LONGER. After all the fascist insanity I’ve seen out of them in the last several years.. no thanks!

    And their complicity in the release of the Lockerbie bomber really did it..

  6. RobbieK says:

    England is currently controlled by the new Democratic Socialist Party. In America, we have a fraud sitting in the White House who joined the New Socialist Party in the early 90’s, but ran as a Democrat for the Illinois State Senate because he knew he wouldn’t get elected otherwise. Can we really expect any more from England? Forget about that country and lets worry about ourselves. As Ann Coulter said: “when there is a Democrat in the White House, don’t travel overseas”.

  7. Young American says:

    Western Europe has gone to Hell.

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