Has something changed in the weather? Or has something changed in the way people perceive the weather?
OK, there is a big snowstorm on the East Coast. When I was a kid, there used to be occasional huge snowstorms that dropped large amounts of snow. People dealt with them as they have for centuries. But they didn’t give every snowstorm a NAME for God’s sake. This latest one is called “Nemo.” Why? I don’t mean to minimize the inconvenience (and snow really does suck), but it just seems to me that more and more, every big snowfall is being spun as a catastrophe.
It gave me the creeps to read that they have made travelling in the snow a crime. What a despicable, naked assertion of raw power. The idea of telling free people that they cannot travel if they want to take the risk sickens me.
I guess I just touched on the reason.
They don’t want us to be free.
Just why are the historically self sufficient American people putting up with this? I think Bill Quick may have touched on it earlier:
The “natural human reaction” seems to swing wildly between abject and mindless submission to authority, and wild demands that liberty be suppressed in order to create some spurious sort of security.
It may be that we are mostly dumb animals still, desirous of nothing more than a safe crib in which to chew our cuds. Liberty itself may be an artifact of a rare and temporary sort of mind, a flame that may blaze bright for a moment or two, but is forever doomed to gutter out as that moment passes and the fire sinks beneath the vast gray wave of fear and stupidity that motivates most men most of the time.
Disgustingly true.
And if you don’t want to live in such a society, where can you go?
* (An old rant.)
Comments
10 responses to ““Now youse can’t leave!””
I think it’s obviously true, if you are comfortable with facing our current reality with open eyes, that the “they” you refer to in “They don’t want us to be free.” are quite often (or even most often) our fellow citizens. They are not just putting up with the ever encroaching government, they demand it.
Think about, just for one example, Obama’s sales pitch when seeking re-election. It was all about taking from some to give to others. Taking always means force and everybody gets that I think, but they seem okay with it as long as it isn’t them on the receiving end. Of course, their blind spot is that this grant of power can also, and probably will be turned on them somewhere down the road. Maybe they are sheep as Mr. Quick infers.
I caught a short vid put together by Peter Schiff’s staff at the inauguration. Everybody interviewed was supportive of Obama’s plans to deal with climate change (to use just one example), but when asked about raising taxes on gas they have to purchase or the heating fuel they need every single one immediately started to back pedal. It was okay as long as someone else paid for it.
Back in the Blizzard of 78 the mayor of my small Vermont city went on-air on both of our AM radio stations and essentially ordered anyone within radio range having a 4WD vehicle to report to City Hall for further assignment, so off Dad & I went in the 1960 CJ-5.
Back in 1978 that was considered part of your civic duty. Dad drove the old CJ-5 and I was there to keep the window clean (old vacuum-powered wipers) and tilt the plow as ordered. Heat was something you got when you went indoors.
Was the call enforceable? Surely not. Back then it didn’t need to be. The mere request meant that dozens of old Jeeps/Blazers/Broncos suddenly appeared at City Hall ready to help.
Liberty and Libertarianism seem to be the precocious “lost boys” of infinite promise who occasionally fly in to visit from Never-Never Land.
[…] Classical Values » “Now youse can’t leave!” It gave me the creeps to read that they have made travelling in the snow a crime. What a despicable, naked assertion of raw power. The idea of telling free people that they cannot travel if they want to take the risk sickens me. […]
Traveling in the snow a crime? Now it’s against the law in California to bake cookies for a bake sale without taking a training class, having your home kitchen OKd by the county health inspector, register with the health department, and label the damn cookies.
The bill exempts cottage food operations from many provisions of state law, according to a staff report, instead requiring producers to complete a food-processor course, label their goods, register with the county Environmental Health Department and in some instances undergo inspections.
Supervisor Bob Williams said he’d gotten numerous calls from “folks who do bake sales . . . people who make pies and cookies,” and asked whether they were required to complete the training under the law.
“They have to provide evidence of a food-handler’s course,”
http://www.redding.com/news/2013/feb/07/home-cooking-rules-stir-lively-discussion-in/
Not to mention what the one party system has in store for gun owners in California. They intend to outdo New York and require background checks to purchase ammunition, and pay a fee. There are ten new laws waiting in the wings, including another to force any gun owner to carry liability insurance.
http://www.redding.com/news/2013/feb/08/california-lawmakers-seek-adopt-nations-toughest-g/
You want to create of nation of lawbreakers then go ahead and micromanage every aspect of peoples lives. What idiots.
Anyone got a good recipe for chocolate chip, Alice B. Toklas cookies? You might as well enjoy breaking the law.
After the blizzard of ’78 good old Mike Dukakis shut down the entire state for 2 weeks. Nothing moved, no food deliveries, nothing. But it never had a name beyond ‘blizzard of ’78”.
I just spilled water in my kitchen. I think I’ll call it “Hilda”.
Mike Dukakis always sounded like a disease to me –
Pneumococcus
Streptococcus
Mikedukakis
@ Man Mountain – I remember that. My parents were in Northern Mass. at the time.
Not that they WANTED to go anywhere. Or had anywhere to go. But I got shown pics. That was a really nasty storm. I’m not sure saying “sure, go run yourself into the nearest snowdrift” was any better an idea.
OMG, I think I’m defending someone I otherwise entirely despise. But still, I don’t think his reaction was wrong there. There really wasn’t anything openable.
“And if you don’t want to live in such a society, where can you go?”
To hell? Umm.. May I suggest Heinlein’s novel, “Job: A Comedy of Justice”
If you haven’t read it, you should. If you have doubts, ask Sarah. 😛
Thanks Kathy. Will ask Sarah. 🙂
Frank, what you are saying (which is in the news anyway) is not making me want to move back to California.
We live in truly depressing times.