A sterling citizen for whom I have great affection opened his American Community Survey packet this morning. He demonstrated his sterlingness by actually reading questions and penciling in answers for two or three pages.
Then the sorry SOB looked into the mirror of his sterling soul and saw tarnish. File 13.
The Constitution grants Washington the power to enumerate him, so there he stands, hand dutifully up for easier counting, giving the federal snoopers a pass on the Article One specification that he is subject to forced enumeration only once per decade, not at any over-secretion of the enumerators' window-peeping glands.
He decided that the demanded details of his life -- personal, professional, social, and financial -- were (1) an identity thief's dream and (b) a facilitator for further nanny-state bungling and (3) a violation of Article 4 of the Bill of Rights.
He was unimpressed with: "TheCensus Bureau is required by U.S.law to keep your answers confidential." Perhaps that is because, on reading that, something reminded him of Lois Lerner who also pledged to obey the the law while in the employ of another federal tentacle required to observe strict standards of confidentiality.
Oct 17, 2016
Sep 26, 2016
The television set, a cheap 19-inch flat screen, lives in my closet. It was last mated with 110 volts and a coaxial cable in January when it seemed a good idea to watch the State of the Union address, just to fact-check my opinion that he is still in over his head; still nothing more than the almost accidental by-product of Chicago machine politics; still wedded to the narcissistic notion that the unicorns speak wisdom and speak only through himself? (Yes.)
And tonight the debate. Should a citizen drag out his electric teevee, plug it in, and blow the dust off in order to witness our latest shitstorm of demagogy as it happens?
In a way it seems a waste. The winners are predetermined. Trump for those citizens wedded to the Fox News school of journalism; Clinton for the special snowflakes suckled by MSNBC.
I believe nothing tonight will change the poll trends unless one of the stooges does an amazingly obvious pratfall. The she-thing, under pressure, might well slip into another foot-stomping door slam (what difference yada yada) The he (with a rolled up sock in his shorts?) is not beyond demanding an immediate declaration of war against China or South Ossetia or something because they're rapists.
N.B -- I think any disaster is more likely to happen to Trump. His mouth still seems free of any restraint. Hillary's tongue lately is tightly leashed to her handlers and their focus groups.
Right now, my propensity is to leave the teevee where it is. If I feel the need for a cleanout, I think there's a partial pack of Ex-Lax still in the medicine cabinet. But maybe not. We'll see.
And tonight the debate. Should a citizen drag out his electric teevee, plug it in, and blow the dust off in order to witness our latest shitstorm of demagogy as it happens?
In a way it seems a waste. The winners are predetermined. Trump for those citizens wedded to the Fox News school of journalism; Clinton for the special snowflakes suckled by MSNBC.
I believe nothing tonight will change the poll trends unless one of the stooges does an amazingly obvious pratfall. The she-thing, under pressure, might well slip into another foot-stomping door slam (what difference yada yada) The he (with a rolled up sock in his shorts?) is not beyond demanding an immediate declaration of war against China or South Ossetia or something because they're rapists.
N.B -- I think any disaster is more likely to happen to Trump. His mouth still seems free of any restraint. Hillary's tongue lately is tightly leashed to her handlers and their focus groups.
Right now, my propensity is to leave the teevee where it is. If I feel the need for a cleanout, I think there's a partial pack of Ex-Lax still in the medicine cabinet. But maybe not. We'll see.
Sep 15, 2016
Toy Guns
A 13-year-old kid with an airsoft gun takes a police bullet and your heart breaks. Then your head takes over and wonders what the Hell is up with the adults in this boy's life.
Is it all that hard to plant the simple message in a young skull that if you start waving a toy gun around, some people are quite reasonably going to think it's a real one. And get scared. And shoot you. Did anyone ever tell him so?
I put myself in the cop's place. While I like to think I'd have been been quicker to analyze and decide nothing lethal was needed, I am not all sure I could have.
It's getting getting dark. The dispatcher sent me to check out an armed robbery. The neighborhood isn't exactly a Norman Rockwell scene. My suspect ran into an alley and I saw his gun, a dead ringer for a Glock. And I wanted to go home under my own power at shift's end. Wife. Kids.
The finer points can and will be debated in and out of the media, the courts, the demonstrations to the tune of millions of words, and eventually we may have some vague idea of what actually happened.
Now, the first police reports suggest the lad and an older chum did use the fake pistol to rob somebody. Maybe he was on the fast track to violent adult thuggery. Maybe not. None of that is the point, which is, dammit, don't waggle guns at cops. Real ones. Fake ones. If you do, you're very likely to die.
Why don't you have a little talk with your kids tonight?
Is it all that hard to plant the simple message in a young skull that if you start waving a toy gun around, some people are quite reasonably going to think it's a real one. And get scared. And shoot you. Did anyone ever tell him so?
I put myself in the cop's place. While I like to think I'd have been been quicker to analyze and decide nothing lethal was needed, I am not all sure I could have.
It's getting getting dark. The dispatcher sent me to check out an armed robbery. The neighborhood isn't exactly a Norman Rockwell scene. My suspect ran into an alley and I saw his gun, a dead ringer for a Glock. And I wanted to go home under my own power at shift's end. Wife. Kids.
The finer points can and will be debated in and out of the media, the courts, the demonstrations to the tune of millions of words, and eventually we may have some vague idea of what actually happened.
Now, the first police reports suggest the lad and an older chum did use the fake pistol to rob somebody. Maybe he was on the fast track to violent adult thuggery. Maybe not. None of that is the point, which is, dammit, don't waggle guns at cops. Real ones. Fake ones. If you do, you're very likely to die.
Why don't you have a little talk with your kids tonight?
Sep 2, 2016
Hillary says she can't remember whether she might have lied, or, possibly, told the truth to federal cops about what she did or did or didnt do with classified material. She was suffering from this concussion, you see.
In other words, "Not tonight Dear. I have a headache."
In other words, "Not tonight Dear. I have a headache."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)