The last time Republicans forced a shutdown of the government of the United States, life improved. Those who depend on entitlements for their existence tended to stay away, leaving society to those who are fully participating. Many of us have a simple rule: if I must go to work, and pay taxes, so must you….
Posts Tagged ‘government’
Bait and switch
In the beginning, communities recognize common interests and form small governments to accomplish shared needs more efficiently than each person individually performing them. Communities contribute resources to build a strong policing force, deterring bad behavior more effectively than ad hoc gatherings of friends and family to brutalize miscreants after unwelcome acts have left their mark….
Passing the Buck
Everyone recognizes the gross violation when a guy is driving a car that bellows smoke like a mobile chimney. His car isn’t maintained and he knows it, but does nothing about it. His life is likely the same mess of moving wreckage everywhere he goes. Politicians recognize the specific offense of pollution, as if it…
Working around the middle class
When you are entirely dependent on one entity, you have two choices: either you can work toward its ends and have it reward you, or work around it and find some way to protect yourself from its wrath. In democratic societies, the middle class becomes the entity on which society at large depends. From the…
Google begins government-style censorship of politically incorrect topics
Many of you may be familiar with White Girl Bleed A Lot, the book by journalist Colin Flaherty that details how some black people are forming racial retribution groups and staging race riots, but more importantly, how our media absolutely refuses to cover this fact out of fear of being “racist.” Flaherty, who is not…
Houston cuts the wrong programs to benefit the wrong people
When I was a very young child, I really disliked the idea of democracy. You can even see what happens back then: if you get up in front of the class and offer them a choice between a more interesting semester later, and free ice cream now, ice cream wins out. There’s an additional layer…
The creeping hand of power
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” they told me in high school, with stern expressions to let me know I had been exposed to profundity. I have a different supposition: Power is a virus. If not taken out of the hands of individuals and directed toward some abstract but realistic goal like the growth of a civilization,…
Overly Attached Government
The internet meme “Overly Attached Girlfriend” (OAG) ridicules one of the artifacts of modern dating, which is that it creates conditions so desperate that people become obsessive. We find it easy to write them off as crazy because it is easier than noticing the whole process is crazy and that, by extension, we’re most likely…
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