Reflections From a Murky Pond

The bra dates back to 14th century BC during the Minoan civilization era, when and where it was worn by female athletes. During the intervening 35 centuries there have been many refinements to this piece of breast constraining and supporting lingerie but few true innovations.

That is until very recently…

Dr. Calvin Rickson, a scientist from Texas A&M University has invented a bra that keeps women’s breasts from jiggling, bouncing up and down, and prevents the nipples from pushing through the fabric when cold weather sets in.

At a news conference, after announcing the invention, a large group of men took Dr. Rickson outside and kicked the living shit out of him.

Since this monstrosity hasn’t hit the shelves, I’m assuming that Dr. Rickson learned the lesson that American men, especially Texans, don’t cotton much to the senseless intelligentsia trying to fix what ain’t broke. 😉

It’s, by and large, a grim world that we live in. There are, however, things of beauty in it though: cute animals, pretty girls, and some art. Why not combine them in the most pleasing fashion?

With thanks and credit to Megan over at theBerry for these delectable pics. They brightened my morning a bit and I hope they’ll do the same for others.

There’s always one question that preys upon the minds of Americans: why do some people vote for the Leftists’ political front-group, the Democrats?

Obviously, there has to a reason or reasons for this behavior pattern. An antisocial pathology doesn’t, in and of itself, explain their voting patterns. And so the question keeps niggling at our minds.

In an effort to put Americans’ minds to rest on this question I’ve compiled a list of 12 reasons why some residents within America’s borders keep voting for Democrats:

1. They voted Democrat because they believe oil companies’ profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn’t obscene.
2. They voted Democrat because they believe the government will do a better job of spending the money they earn than they would.
3. They voted Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.
4. They voted Democrat because they’re way too irresponsible to own a gun, and they know that the local police are all they need to protect them from murderers and thieves.
5. They voted Democrat because they believe that people who can’t tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if they don’t start driving a Prius.
6. They voted Democrat because they’re not concerned about millions of babies being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.
7. They voted Democrat because they think illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits.
8. They voted Democrat because they believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrats see fit.
9. They voted Democrat because they believe liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.
10. They voted Democrat because they think that it’s better to pay billions to people who hate us for their oil, than to drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle or gopher.
11. They voted Democrat because while we live in the greatest, most wonderful country in the world, they were promised “HOPE AND CHANGE”.
12. They voted Democrat because their minds are so firmly made up, it’s unlikely that they’ll ever have another point of view.
13. They voted Democrat because they’re jackasses and like calls to like.

Personally, I think Reason 13 is the primary causative factor, but I’m sure the other twelve play a major role as well. 😉

Of course these reasons only apply to non-union, White Liberals. The minorities have pragmatic reasons for voting Democrats: hand-outs and race-based lowering of expectations and requirements. For the unions it’s simply maintaining their power and seeking a return on their outsized fiduciary investment in Democrat politicians.

It’s a tired and overused metaphor but one that has become so utterly entrenched in America’s vocabulary that few of us ever even think about it – the wealth pie.

People “want a bigger piece of the pie” or they complain that, “No matter how you slice it, the rich get most of the pie.”

This is a horribly pernicious falsehood. The pie is a lie. It’s a false metaphor that has helped create much of America’s current social and economic woe.

Zero Truth In Zero Sum

The first great falsehood of the “money pie” is that it is predicated upon wealth being a zero-sum game; i.e., there is a finite and/or fixed amount of houses, cars, healthcare, etc. to divide amongst the population, and the more the 1% get the less is left for the rest of us. Once, that held some truth, but now that our personal and national economies are not agrarian-based this is no longer true. Wealth is no longer a constant; it grows, shrinks, and changes with ever increasing rapidity.

Now add to that the fact that no nation, especially not America, is economically isolated. Globalism has expanded the sources of wealth, labor, and materials across nations’ borders. This means that when looking at the distribution of wealth within any singular nation one has to ascertain how much of that wealth came from within its borders and how much of came from exogenous sources. In other words, wealth flows.

Not Even A Crumb

The second and far more destructive great falsehood of the “money pie” is it engenders the belief that wealth owned by society. That is patently false.  Society as a whole doesn’t own even a single crumb of this fictional “money pie.” Society is a process –  a woefully amorphous process at best – and, as such, neither creates nor owns wealth and has no authority to claim it or divide it in any manner whatsoever.

Wealth, that growing, shrinking, flowing, ever changing chimera,  is created by individuals – either singularly or in voluntary association with each other – and morally belongs to those individuals and solely to those individuals. It doesn’t belong to “society” or any other unrelated individuals or groups. To believe otherwise is one of the greatest of evils, that of slavery.

Yes, slavery. If an individual does not have the full right to product of his or her labor to do with and apportion as he or she wills, that individual is a slave and is merely chattel of those who have usurped the authority to dispose of that individual’s product.

The Lamestream MSM seems to be in a bit of a quandary as to what spin to put on the Occupy Wall St. “movement.” They’re spending near equal time trying to paint them as more acceptable than the TEA Party and trying to play up the similarities between the two groups.

To be fair, the is a slight basis for the comparison. Both groups identified that there was and is a problem with America’s economic systems and “took to the streets” in order to make their voices heard. That’s as far as the similarity goes though. Very quickly the intrinsic natures of the participants showed themselves and the two movements diverged into Americanism vs. Liberalism.

That’s the way of it. The only comparison between the patriots of the TEA Party and the slackers of the OWS mob is that both groups realize that the political-economic “system” in America is broken and needs repairs that nearly amount to a rebuild. They are, however, antithetical to each other when it comes to how the system is broken, why it’s broken, and what a fixed system even looks like.

~*~

NOTE: This only pertains to those OWS insurgents that have an economic agenda and doesn’t apply to- or necessarily include the plethora of other Leftists with unrelated manifestos that have gathered with them in a generalized “emo” tantrum.