Suthenboy is not a credentialed philosopher. Consult a credentialed professional before deciding.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” -Declaration of Independence of the United States, 1776
The notion of natural rights, that a person’s rights are inseparable from that person under any circumstances, is a relatively new concept and one that is and has been from the outset of its declaration controversial. It’s detractors say that it is an abstract concept existing only in the minds of its proponents. They claim that there is no objective evidence that such a thing exists in nature and thus that morality and ethics are arbitrary. I disagree.
Whatever our founders believed the source of natural rights they made and appeal to the divine to justify belief in them. Perhaps it was a somewhat cynical, utilitarian approach to appeal to a nation that was strongly religious.
“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?” -Thomas Jefferson
Certainly the founders were not monolithic in their belief in the origin of rights, but they were in agreement that they existed. I propose that whether a gift from God or simply existing by virtue of our nature objective evidence can be found for their existence. It does not matter where they come from, their existence is evident.
Few rational people would argue that our world does not function on naturally existing laws. The sciences operate on this premise. Science is a method for discovering what those laws are and how they affect ourselves and the world around us. The veracity of scientific discoveries is measured by the ability of those discoveries to make accurate predictions about how we and the world around us will behave. By this measure science is a far superior system than, say, astrology. Simply put, superior systems yield superior results.
An engineer that can produce a functioning spacecraft certainly has a superior grasp of the laws of physics and chemistry than one whose most sophisticated accomplishment is a dugout canoe. The production of a computer requires a far greater depth of knowledge about nature’s law than the production of an abacus.
Geologists have a deeper understanding of the earth’s structure than the guy who believes in turtles all the way down and so can produce petroleum or predict earthquakes and volcanoes whereas the latter cannot. The success of this system of knowledge is evidence of its correlation with natural law.
Those disciplines are based on an understanding of the naturally existing laws of physics and chemistry. Systems of morality and ethics are the products of ideas. Their success depends on how closely those ideas conform to the natural laws of human nature and economics.
To whatever degree societies have allowed individual liberty – that is the belief in and respect for natural rights – success by any measure has been exponentially greater than those societies that have not. The United States is the premier example of such a society.
The US has produced more wealth than all other nations through the history of mankind combined. The US contributed to increased worldwide health, wealth and longevity more than any other nation. The US has more social mobility than any other nation. The US produced air conditioning, flight, electricity, refrigeration, hamburgers, hotdogs, telephones, mass produced automobiles, atomic energy, chocolate for the masses, heart surgery, vulcanized rubber, computers and the internet. The list is nearly endless. As the joke goes “There are two kinds of nations: nations that do X, and nations that have put men on the moon.” Nearly everything that makes the modern world what it is is a product of the United States.
This wild success is the product of a belief in and respect for natural rights. Innovative individuals have been free to innovate and profit from their efforts. Individuals have been able to think, speak and act as they willed more than in any other society. By respecting the concept of self-ownership – that every individual naturally owns their mind, body and conscience exclusively and thus the product of their intellectual and physical labor – a powerful incentive for those individuals to strive for success is created. As a result the United States has flourished more than any nation in history and contributed mightily to the welfare of all mankind.
Simply put, superior systems produce superior results because they adhere more closely to the existing laws of nature. A belief in and respect for natural rights has unquestionably produced superior results.
* Fun story: During World War II my grandfather owned a pulpwood business and had a contract with the federal government to use German POW labor. One of the jobs he secured was in south Louisiana. He transported the POWs to the job site on a route that went through Baton Rouge. The first time the POWs saw the Wilkinson bridge they were awestruck. If you have occasion to cross that bridge pay attention to it. Most people that cross the bridge take it for granted but if you really look at the scale of it it is awe inspiring. It is easy to see how the POWs were barely able to believe their own eyes. What they said to my grandfather about it really stuck with me. “If we had known what America is like we never would have gone to war against you. No one can defeat a country that can build something like this.”
The US has produced more wealth than all other nations through the history of mankind combined.
So not fair.
There are people who actually believe that
And they despise it for doing so and standing in the way of their socialist utopia (said utopia being a fantasy that will never fucking happen because of human nature)…
Interesting thoughts Suthen. Our bad luck is to be living in a time when your observations are forgotten or dismissed. I hope there are enough people who remember and know that individual liberty is key to both freedom and material well being. We have a sustained slog to tip the balance back towards freedom.
Those that believe top men should decide get want to make sure we don’t.
The pervasiveness of Marxists masquerading as Postmodernists in our universities has convinced me that we’re doomed unless we expunge them.
You cannot argue with someone who treats differing opinions as heresy born out of privilege and racism. The only solution is to take them out of their own privileged position and make them compete in the free market. Our universities, as currently structured and funded, are most certainly not free in the traditional, not fiscal sense.
End federally guaranteed loans and end federal subsidies to education. Let the institutions succeed or fail on their own and make all those who despise the successful, succeed or fail on their own merits.
Agreed. Frankly, the only thing keeping the higher education system from collapsing right now is the money that gets pumped into it by the FedGov. Of course, none of it will matter either way if/when people stop going. I have heard more people of all political stripes questioning the value and purpose of a college education than any other time in my life. You can load up a university with as many Commies as you can and prop it up with tax money, but they can’t brainwash students that aren’t there.
Great stuff, Suthen. I’ tired of arguing with people. Results speak for themselves.
Oh, and thanks for sending me down the 44 special rabbit hole. I’ve almost got myself talked into one.
A very effective and controllable round. The 44 mag is a bit much for quick follow up shots unless you load them down. If you dont reload then 44 spl is just right.
Great! Another gun to add to my list. lol.
The US produced air conditioning, flight, electricity, refrigeration, hamburgers, hotdogs, telephones, mass produced automobiles, atomic energy, chocolate for the masses, heart surgery, vulcanized rubber, computers and the internet.
Microchips, transistors, molecular genetics, modern agriculture, plastics, nearly all modern vaccines, and most importantly, pizza.
And the last is because of the US’s true uniqueness- an unparalleled ability to assimilate and appropriate.
All hail Al Gore, inventor of the internet
That was actually DARPA, which is also American.
Thanks for the article Suthen. I struggle with the utilitarian arguments for natural rights as I think it leaves the door open for the collectivists. It’s probably why I lean towards a Randian approach.
I was trying to show empirical evidence for the existence of natural rights, an argument that I haven’t seen before. The usual approach is ‘endowed by our creator’, an argument that doesnt hold much sway with the atheist crowd. I am an atheist so how do I justify my belief?
I have been struggling with this argument for quite some time. I am not sure I accomplished my task. OMWC is right. I left out pizza, surely a serious flaw in my argument.
Nice article Suthen’, yeah it’s somewhat of a pickle. If the proof is in the pudding (or I suppose, in this case, the pizza:)), then it seems that the success of the United States serves as that “Shining City upon the Hill” for all others to emulate. The “natural” part of the equation is a little trickier. If Liberty and the Golden Rule are the “natural” law of man, why do all of us have such a damn hard time convincing the rest of the world the freedom is better? Is it as simple as they’re all just stupid? My ethics are based on the Golden Rule because it logically makes sense to me (As long as you leave me be, I’ll extend you the same courtesy). I’m sure my upbringing influenced that. If I can convince enough people in the “truth” of that, then I win. If not, then what does it matter? It seems as though the power to persuade makes ‘right” (whatever that is). If the immense success of the US doesn’t persuade, not sure what will?
” why do all of us have such a damn hard time convincing the rest of the world the freedom is better?”
Because Freedom is Scary, it requires decisions, Failures and responsibility, all for the Chance to say,
FUCK OFF ,SLAVER!
“why do all of us have such a damn hard time convincing the rest of the world the freedom is better?”
Most people think of other people as the source of what they want and what they need. For them economics is a zero sum game. It is the rare individual that goes out and creates wealth. For the rest it is easier to beg, and that failing, to steal.
Modern industrial economics is fairly new. Before a couple of hundred years ago the only way to become wealthy was to steal or enslave. Perhaps our social evolution hasn’t caught up with mass production yet and their mindset reflects that.
I think one of the things that has done more for liberty than anything else is the development of mechanical power from engines.
Mechanical power really made human power economically obsolete. Why have a bunch of slaves you have to feed, house and worry about killing you in the night when you can have a John Deere tractor?
Before the industrial age, though, human power was pretty valuable. Valuable enough that a lot of people would delude themselves into thinking that it wasn’t evil.
It’s basically a consequentialist argument for natural rights. Which has a couple of flaws. Firstly, it depends on what outcomes considers good. And therefore could be used to justify valuing society as a whole over the individual (eg. pragmatic ethics, contractualism). Secondly, as an inductive argument it’s based on examples — of recognizing natural rights having good results. So not only is it subject to counter-example, as all inductive arguments. But it is also subject to analysis how truly exemplary the examples are. Using the United States, one could argue its prosperity benefited genocide and slavery. Which are the opposite of recognizing natural rights.
I’m also not fond of deontological arguments as they are generally either based on the supernatural (ie. the existence of the divine) or the notion of good will (where anything could be justified by its intentions).
If I had to make an argument, I would say that natural rights are based on human nature. We have the intellectual and moral capacity to conceptualize things such as free speech, private property, self-defense, etc. Whether this capacity is god-given, the result of evolution, or a software upgrade from space aliens is irrelevant. Since we can conceptualize these values as belonging to all humans, we can conclude their absence is a violation of any individual human. Therefore, individuals have natural rights.
“free speech, private property, self-defense, etc.”
Clearly 2 of these 3 are not universally seen as “rights” and there is certainly a question about whether number 3 is. So who decides what “rights” are “natural”.
Government of course!
/progtard marxist
My Dad was a kid during WWII. He lived in a heavily German and Swedish immigrant farming area. The German POWs from the nearby camp—predominantly kids and men from rural Germany–were sent to work on many farms in the area and there were many families who suddenly had their “refugee cousin Johann” come join the family, while the POW population coincidentally went down by those same numbers.
Most of those cousins settled there permanently and went on to become citizens.
Same stories from my neck of the woods (might be the same stories). After the war many of them went back to Germany only long enough to collect up the wife and kids and whatever family wealth there was left and moved right back to the Finger Lakes region.
I met my neighbor’s niece yesterday. Literally fresh off the boat from Laos (she is attending the U of M). Her name was unpronounceable, but she said to call her “Lucky”. Then she said “because I’m lucky to be in America!” It was charming and makes me detest the proggies and Eurotards even more.
Is she the one who stole Jimbo’s bicycle?
No, that was probably a Korean.
Likely not. A Korean would have stolen our dog. Weeks of good eatin’ there.
My wife meeting you and your dog.
In other news, I rode my new (to me) bike to brunch today.
I would laugh myself sick if I could prove it was an Asian who stole my bike. My wife has been fuming ever since last Friday because now I’m going to buy another bike. (Probably another $130 Walmart special).
Of course, if it was any Asian other than a Korean (and one who grew up less than 40 miles from her house) she would sniff and say something horrible racist about “those Asians”.
What kind of lock were you using?
Basic U-lock. It was one that keeps honest people honest. Any decent thief probably was able to pop it off somehow pretty quickly.
I just don’t get why he would want to steal that bike. Like I said it was $130 at Walmart this spring and I’ve beat on it all summer so it had scratches and scrapes on it. It also had a plastic crate I bolted on the back with my own brand of mechanical ineptitude.
I was looking at buying a fat tire bike anyhow so I could keep riding to work in the snow. This made the decision slightly easier to make. Still can’t believe the prices they want for those.
Speaking of that, any Glibs who ride bikes that are worth something have a good recommendation on a bike lock?
I have a pretty good, but not professional grade Italian road bike. I keep the bike inside at home and at work. If you can’t at work preferably keep it within sight of your work area.
I use two long thick cable locks with hardened case locks to spider web the bike to something if I have to leave it outside. I also have a motorcycle grade heavy chain which I rarely use.
My mountain bike is decent but I use a technique taught me by a national level racer in the early 1980’s. I keep the bike dented, scruffed up and have some light road grease etc on the chain and hubs. It keeps those looking for something for easy resale looking elsewhere. A thief with bike knowledge will see through the cammo so you are screwed then, but you keep the riff raff looking elsewhere.
That was what perplexed me about the theft Friday. My bike is obviously not worth shit. Why go to the trouble of stealing it?
Years ago, the startup I was working at was located in a sketchier part of Mpls. I had already lost on cheap ass bike to someone who clipped through the thick cable I was using.
As an experiment, I left out a bike I had bought on a whim at a police auction for $10. I over paid by about $9 for that. I thought I could fix it up, but at some point I realized that was too much work and decided to see how long it would take the thieves to steal it.
Both tires were flat and the chain would always fly off after about 4 cranks. So any thief who decided to steal it was going to have to push that POS back to their lair.
My buddy and I decided we’d go out every hour to see how it was doing. Didn’t even last an hour.
We have some very dumb thieves here.
Sounds like you’re the lucky one. lol
I’m trying to find pictures of the Wilkinson bridge but all I can find are ones of the ‘Horace Wilkinson bridge’ in Baton Rouge, but that was opened in 1968, was there another earlier bridge there and did it have a different name, I’d like to see what you’re talking about.
I think this is both of them side by side,
https://goo.gl/images/M8FZra
Ah, Perhaps Suthen meant the Huey P.Long Bridge. Thanks
I thought the one on the right was the old one right before they tore it down, still an impressive Bridge
I may have gotten that wrong. It might have been the Huey P. Long bridge. When he would tell us the story he just said ‘the bridge over the Mississippi’.
Great work Suthen I enjoyed it, It is odd that they put this up right after the Horoscope……
“The US has produced more wealth than all other nations through the history of mankind combined. ”
Only because it build all those advances on the backs of enslaved minorities and women. As a disgusting racist nation, the US must die.
/obvious sarc
They finally ripened so I picked all of my black muscadines this morning. I am off to make the last batch of wine for the year.
I will check back later for y’all’s sharp insights….and the links.
I appreciate any criticism.
Any criticism?
Good luck with the winemaking. May your must be sterile and your pitch good. Wishing you a calm fermentation. Cheers.
Tried winemaking for a couple years. The end result was more expensive, time consuming, and far less tasty, than buying a couple bottles of middle quality California or Tuscan wine. And couldn’t find Gina Lolabrigida to help stomp my grapes either.
Another thing of note that is especially important to (((me))). The US was essentially the only place in history that welcomed Jews with open arms to its shores. Which is why I absolutely can’t stand proggy Reform “Jews” trashing the US and espousing Marxism (an ideology which rejected their right to exist). You wanna bash the US and Israel? That’s your right, but you’re no Jew.
Do you mean to tell me that all of those Birthright protesters weren’t sincere?
Btw, happy new year, you pervert.
You too!
I’m celebrating by having Hebrew National hotdogs.
Hotdogs… plural?
2 or 3, depends on how the mood strikes.
Except for the 500+ on a ship that FDR refused entry and they had to return to Germany.
FDR sure did love to persecute himself some minorities.
The true superstar of the Democrats.
It’s amazing how far people will go to ignore the failings of their hero’s. Woodrow Wilson is considered one of the “top five” Presidents but no mention of segregating the military or the premier of “Birth of a Nation” at the White House. And I have no doubt that’s where FDR got the internment camps from, because Wilson did it first.
“The US contributed to increased worldwide health, wealth and longevity more than any other nation.”
I like to point this out to the “Medicaid for all” crowd. All of the medicines that are keeping people all alive all over the world? All developed right here, because there are incentives to do so. Not Canada. Not the Nordic countries. Not China. Not Cuba. The US capitalist system is keeping people alive all over the world.
Do you know the last important innovation to come out of the Canadian Healthcare system? Insulin. 1921. They haven’t done shit in almost a hundred years (you could argue that they developed vitamin supplements during the during the Great Depression, but my point still stands).
Socializing the US healthcare system is a crime against humanity.
Congratulations to the Browns on guaranteeing a less failed season than last year!
That was surprising. So was Cincinnati winning, essentially due to a fumble.
My Bills are taking up the slack.
I was trying to show empirical evidence for the existence of natural rights, an argument that I haven’t seen before. The usual approach is ‘endowed by our creator’, an argument that doesnt hold much sway with the atheist crowd. I am an atheist so how do I justify my belief?
We’re never going to convince the “might makes right” crowd. We just have to defend ourselves as best we can.
I’m in charge of Rosh Hashanah dinner tonight.
6lb boneless USDA prime rib roast. Coated in applewood smoked salt last night. Sous vide at 129F for 6 hours, painted with egg white, rubbed with minced rosemary, pepper, and garlic. Oven seared at 550F for 10 minutes.
Still working out the jus, and haven’t even given the side dishes a thought.
L’chaim !
With prime rib I like cheesy fries because they are great dipped in the jus but if you have to do a green vegetable and not single fat man food I would go with grill roasted veges. Cabbage, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and garlic roasted near crispy in the vege grill pan.
I just appropriated the carrots and onion to the jus stock. Hmmmm…
Broccoli is a strong maybe. It’ll be good dipped in the jus.
What is this? No Minor’s?
I’m out. New one doesn’t get here until the end of the week.
This one is going to have to be mostly from scratch. Beef juice purge from the sous vide bag, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, shallot, red wine, a splash of grape juice, and a whole lot of salt and MSG.
If I can find any marrow bones in the freezer, I’ll simmer those too.
I would have recommended caramelizing some onions on low heat and deglaze with sherry. Reduce the sous vide bag juice and combine with the onions and sherry.
At this point, it all depends on how much purge I get in the bag. I salted the roast yesterday, so it has already dropped some moisture.
The juice is delicious, but requires several rounds of straining. The protein-in-solution coagulates when you bring it to a simmer, and it looks like a bunch of tiny beef turds floating around.
We like to halve/quarter Brussels sprouts, throw into big zip-lock bag, shake with olive oil + bacon fat + an envelope of onion soup mix, and roast until crispy.
I made prime rib and Brussels sprouts on Thursday. The kids said no more sprouts, but yes to the beef.
I have a similar recipe, but I divide in half and put sriracha on the portion for my wife and I.
Mmmm… I love prime rib so much. I’m aching to try one in the sous vide but we get such great results from the rotisserie that wifey is reluctant to switch. Your method looks mighty yummy though.
In my mid ’20s, I cooked prime rib almost once a week, changing the recipe and technique a little bit each time. I love love love it.
Sous Vide has made it so much easier because it’s almost impossible to screw up. Never again will I have a repeat of Christmas 2007. (My mom changed the temp setting on the convection oven and ruined a 7 bone USDA prime roast).
If you’re worried about how it comes out, I’d try a thick ribeye first. If it’s not to your liking, it won’t be as tragic as losing a whole roast.
We enjoyed the ribeye but seem to have reached (for our tastes) perfection with the wee spinning oven. Damn thing is a Ronco. I was quite skeptical when wifey brought it home; it was sure to be gimcrackery. I confess I was wrong; it works a treat.
I have a Ronco. Still use it for chicken, although it’s failing. There’s some kind of stray current problem, so I can’t touch it while it’s on.
Chicken that good is worth the risk of electrocution.
Nice. Indeed it does make great chicken. I once worked in a kitchen where one of the line tables would give out a good shock when the floor was wet. The chef loved it because it mostly got the wait-staff.
“” working out the jus””
(narrows gaze)
haven’t even given the side dishes a thought.
Apple pie a la mode, with chocolate syrup.
You’re welcome.
Or beer.
My wife goes heavy on the wine for this holiday. I’m going to do whatever I can to facilitate it.
If I can find one off the shelf. I have no idea how to bake.
Hey Suthenboy, I just wrapped up a discussion with another young chap, in part of which I waxed on how the idea of The United States, if not in the practice of it’s elected ‘managers’, has produced so much good for the world, even in spite of itself, that it is just a great place to live.
I hate the welfare/warfare state, but man, I would not want to live anywhere in which the sovereignty of the individual, as bedrock foundational idea, was not the operating system of that place.
Also, I’m drunk, and have been absent for many weeks due to new fatherhood and may other commitments. Howdy y’all!
Heya Gordi !
Howdy yourself. I trust the new fatherhood is a blast. I am not near as drunk as I would like to be but I have to work with what I gots.
There is nowhere else to go, even if one were inclined to quit the US in despair. The US is still the last stop on the liberty track, and I vacillate between fearing it will soon be no better than Europe and having faith the inherent USian stubborn cussedness will keep us from sliding into the abyss.
Are you saying your new child is more important to you than us?
All of the medicines that are keeping people all alive all over the world? All developed right here, because there are incentives to do so.
———-
Socializing the US healthcare system is a crime against humanity.
I would say a good demonstration of the effect in reverse would be the breakup of ATT. Does anybody seriously think the iphone and its many competitors would exist if Ma Bell had never been broken up? Why innovate when you have a tightly regulated monopoly?
This (Seattle – Denver) is not a very well-played game. I’d even say sloppy.
I was going to dig out the antenna and see if I could watch but decided I didn’t care that much.
To whatever degree societies have allowed individual liberty – that is the belief in and respect for natural rights – success by any measure has been exponentially greater than those societies that have not. The United States is the premier example of such a society.
The key is the individual and there are forces trying to destroy that. Having worked in many places that do not emphasize the individual, but rather the collective, be it a clan, tribe, ethnic group, regional language etc..they miss the mark. The few individuals who succeed in those society’s have an inherent right to oppress those who did not succeed first and that is just the way it is. It’s fucked up but that has been history forever. That is human nature. Setting up a governmental system to limit the power of those who would oppress the populace was genius. I fear it is dead though. If not dead, it is at least in its last gasping breaths. The power now comes from being part of a collective “oppressed” group. The days of cultures melting together to come up with pizza or Cuban sandwiches is now appropriation and being American is a bad word that makes you a Nazi. Not to mention we have a vast near philosophically monolithic bureaucracy that knows best. Even to the point of clearing a criminal so she could win the Presidency. If people do not go to jail over that this country is on its last leg imho. The rights of the individual are dead and the collective of rulers has succeeded if that horse shit stands.
I’ll just leave this here, what with it Sunday and such.
Thank you.
Its self evident I am smoking a whole chicken tonight. Sick on that slavers!
Where do you get rolling papers that big?
/Sounds tasty
..tough to keep lit
Sup Tres!
I do have some Tall cans so, Light it up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxoD9zWY9Rg
Hey YUFUS!
24 oz Milwaukee’s (diet) Beast was 10/$10 at my Kroger this morning, and I do love me a bargain.
TALL CANS !
That’s Cobra! Good and Cheap! Good on Ya!
never heard it, good stuff!
I hope you are feeling better and that your wife has a speedy recovery and return. Your diorama is thrilling to watch and I’m hungry for more. Thanks for sharing it.
Again Thanks, I am humbled by all the nice words from You and everyone. I have Water! but there are 2 articles lined up in front of the water post, so, enjoy what’s coming up, good stuff I think!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ehvBvRr3siFoKLHA7
Your attention to detail is awesome. love how the water made out
i still need waves and the Surfline, It looks cool though,
On the local Rez…they have large papers for smoking all types of things.
Should be tasty. First real smoke after sealing up the beast. Cajon robbed chicken and smoked veggies for the OBE household tonight
I’m smoking tarantula and loving it.
Very nice! that’s new to me
They are muy tasty. Bud rolled in hemp paper dipped in hash oil and coated in keef. Honestly, as is, it burns too fast for me so I just cut cross-sections off and pack them into my water pipe (I prefer water and glass anyway).
Keef?
You must’ve meant Chief Keef
I was taking a phonetic guess; I’ve never seen the word in print. I’m refering to the powdery residue sifted from the grinding process. It’s full of trichome and resin goodness.
An engineer that can produce a functioning spacecraft certainly has a superior grasp of the laws of physics and chemistry than one whose most sophisticated accomplishment is a dugout canoe.
I see what you’re trying to say with that, but it’s not an airtight analogy. Presumably the spacecraft engineer has staff, infrastructure and a supply chain. The dugout engineer could be Buzz F*cking Aldrin stranded in deepest Amazonia with only a survival knife.
The point is not the engineer himself but the system of knowledge that is relied on for the production of the spacecraft. Which guy is using a system of knowledge that more closely describes natural law?
Suthen, this is a fantastic article that resonates with me as my atheism causes me to spurn any argument involving deities.
Thank you, but I can see the argument needs more refinement.
Sending a thousand reiki energy blasts to Yusef buddy, be well.
Why thank You! A Wonderful afternoon to all The Glibs BTW, it’s 100 again, with a fire somewhere close, The Wife is in good spirits, and I have some Tall cans lined up.
Trump, he crazy!
It would be foolish to rule out the possibility that the prospect of Republican losses in the midterm election will provoke Trump to take some kind of dramatic executive action during the next eight weeks. If he does, it could work for his party or it could just as easily backfire.
Dramatic action; like what, invading Poland?
Trump is definitely going to do terrible things by executive fiat like legalizing illegal immigrants, creating a “treaty” with Iran, writing a “dear colleague” letter removing due process from selected groups, and drastically expanding the scope of EPA regulations in a way that was never intended. He might even utilize the intelligence community as his own personal secret police to spy on political opponents.
Yeah, I’m sure those were the actions Michael Moore is fearing in his new “Trump is Hitler” movie.
Lawn edged and mowed, pizza dough rising, cocktail in hand. Much better than this morning.
Good article, Suthen. I like the direction you’re taking the argument.
I went for a 8 mile hike in the AM and then breakfast with my ex-BIL, got home and still felt wired, so I did another 8 mile hike in the PM. Just made some chicken cacciatore and killed the rest of the wine while eating it. Time for a nice bourbon finish while I watch the Skins win the first game of the for the first time in forever.
You still hang out with your ex brother in law?
Ex-BIL transitioned and is now his SIL. 😉
Well you should see those big perky fake tits on the ex-ex-BIL
Has anyone discussed Alex Jones almost instigating a sitting Senator into a fist fight?
You aren’g going to silence Alex Jones. You aren’t going to silence America.
I am fucking worried that they could do what they did to him. I think the guy is a fucking nutjob, but that they can just fuck him over like they did and then preen about it, just tells me that things have reached a point where there might be no return from violence to protect our freedoms and republic from these fucking marxists and their movement.
They’ve been trying to figure out how the use the Constitution against us since the beginning. Now that they dominate how we communicate with each other, they’ve figured it out.
On the plus side, the tighter you squeeze your fist, the more that seeps through your fingers.
By golly, that’s brilliant. “…the tighter you squeeze your fist, the more that seeps through your fingers.”
I’m totally stealing that.
I don’t think Rubio would be that hard to take. Then again, the dog pile and subsequent beating of Alex Jones at the hands of the Capitol Police would make for some fine entertainment in it’s own right.
This would have been the second greatest thing ever only behind the reaction to Trump’s election. I feel cheated.
Earlier this week, I read a story or two about Jones being banned from Twitter. It was supposedly a result of him heckling some CNN reporter or some such. That didn’t sound right. Then it came out that he ended up almost confronting Dorsey’s sorry ass, and it all clicked.
I’m a bad person.
I kept hearing Desi Arnaz.
You got some splainin’ to do.
He is a trial balloon. See how the public reacts to the most fringe parts of the internet being wiped out of this notion of hate speech.
They initially tossed out other names in the wake of his banning and pulled back when there was an uproar. Now we will see the quiet march to Internet dark ages.
For a rousing game of hypocrisy in action, let’s journey back through the mists of time to the administration of Bush the Lesser. A week or so before the executives of Clear Channel Communications were to begin Congressional testimony and while the FCC was under fire for Superbowl viewers being shown a peek at a nipple, they pulled Howard Stern from 600+ markets unless he agreed to sign a pledge of broadcast decency (this was ostensibly prompted by a caller to his show uttering the word nigger on the air). The speechifying and jingo-twanging from the Evil Party was deafening. Manboobs, Carlos Danger, Grandma Caligula, etc. all made impassioned floor speeches glorifying and defending freedom of speech and the 1st Amendment and accusing the Stupid Party of trying o silence Stern because he a was vocal critic of the administration and elections were right around the corner.
Latina palate cleanser .
Speaking of Natural Law and Rights, I was reading the 28 Principles of the Founding Fathers. It made me utterly ashamed that I was barely ever taught the concept, significance, or details behind natural rights in any of my American History/U.S. Government classes in school.
“That’s all well and good. I am sure everyone agrees with you having individual rights in principal. But you and those rights do not live in a vacuum. And it is just silly to see people in society as individuals. What about the rights of society and your duty to your fellow man? The world is complicated. Therefor you have to
be subjugatedcontribute to society and to systems that benefit us all.” => Actual ‘argument’ made to me recently. I could not get this person to understand the sheer immorality of collectivism and socialized systems.