5 Comments

1. 

   Reactionary Richard on March 26, 2021 at 2:22 pm

   Convicted felons are reprobates. I received an email with this quote attributed to H.L. Mencken:

   “People do not expect to find chastity in a whorehouse. Why, then, do they expect to find honesty and humanity in government, a congeries of institutions whose modus operandi consists of lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist?”

   I hope scoffers could pause to review a history of governments around the world. For each evil behavior listed in the quote, I can cite examples from the United States Federal Government and more so the socialist governments of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Communist China. Those are recent; the distant past is also full of bloody tyranny.

   Government governs people; controls, dominates, regulates. Government has far more lethal force than any other institution. Such an enduring and powerful institution nurtures within its realm the means of its continuance and growth. The ends of power justify the means of “lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist.”

   Some of our anti-totalitarian allies reject the facts of biological evolution. Too bad, they need to understand that we are big-brained apes with all the behavioral baggage of social animals. Dominance hierarchy behaviors are hard-wired. Natural Selection is so powerful that it produced all the species and varieties and all behavioral traits including lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist. Evil is in our genes. Some express more than others. Turning the other cheek, while it has its time and place, is limited.

   Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, said that, “Republicans are stupid, Democrats are evil.” On October 30, 2008, Democrat Presidential candidate Obama said, “…we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” He and his party increased government’s share of social control at the expense of private, voluntary exchanges. The tools of government control include the list of evil above along with the bribery side of subsidies. Neo-marxist “Justice Democrat” policies are ascending in the Party while establishmentarian Republicans don’t seem to understand the movement.

   The late Walter E. Williams, economist and commentator, spoke of “the moral superiority of liberty,” where free markets and free minds create the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Try telling this to college students with foolish tuition debts, who are on the verge of having government forgive their debts, a government that will provide health coverage and a host of other subsidies while putting those exploitive corporations in their place, saving the planet, and ending systemic racism by means yet to be determined. They would rather be on the winning plundering team. Progressive power feels good.

   Those of us who prefer to stop the increases in taxation, dependencies and political controls have a head wind. Let’s not be stupid; beat windward with mindful determination.

   Reply
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     Win Lose or Draw on March 29, 2021 at 10:51 am

     Richard: There is much to unpack in your recent posting starting with your sentence 1. You said, “Convicted felons are reprobates.”
     WinLoseorDraw will stipulate to that statement; but for the sake of clarity, let’s discuss. Doing a search for the word “reprobate” we find: an unprincipled person (often used humorously or affectionately).
     Synonyms: rogue, rascal, scoundrel, good-for-nothing, villain, wretch, unprincipled person, rake, profligate, degenerate
     WinLoseorDraw would beg to know which synonym you meant to imply.
     A rogue, a rascal, or a scoundrel don’t sound too bad. Most, if not all, of us could be described thusly from time to time.
     WinLoseorDraw has no patience or tolerance for anyone you might describe as good-for-nothing. A good-for-nothing felon would be truly reprehensible, likewise a villain or unrepentantly bad person. WinLoseorDraw furthermore has no patience with the unprincipled and only marginal tolerance for those you might describe as profligate or as a rake. Worst of all in WinLoseorDraw’s mind would be a degenerate, which brings to mind the abhorrent cast of pedophiles who unfortunately dwell amongst us.
     On the other hand, a wretch sounds like an unfortunate and possibly redeemable individual.
     So, which is it? Also, did you mean to lump every felon into one, and only one, category, or is there some room for further discussion?
     Richard: WinLoseorDraw looks forward to a future discussion of the words of Mencken and your apparent disdain for government and politicians.

     Reply
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     Win Lose or Draw on March 29, 2021 at 4:43 pm

     Richard:
     WinLoseorDraw appreciates your inclusion of a quote of H. L. Mencken: “People do not expect to find chastity in a whorehouse. Why, then, do they expect to find honesty and humanity in government, a congeries of institutions whose modus operandi consists of lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist?”
     Here are two more with brief commentary:
     “The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.” Mencken points out that government is made up of people ‘exactly like you and me.’ I believe that fits in well with the gist of your comments.
     and
     “The main thing that every political campaign in the United States demonstrates is that the politicians of all parties, despite their superficial enmities, are really members of one great brotherhood. Their principal, and indeed their sole, object is to collar public office, with all the privileges and profits that go therewith. They achieve this collaring by buying votes with other people’s money.” WinLoseorDraw especially likes the part that goes ‘..the politicians of all parties, despite their superficial enmities, are really members of one great brotherhood.” WinLoseorDraw likes the fact that H. L. Mencken was totally unpartisan in his disdain.
     By the way, WinLoseorDraw googled your quote about “…chastity in a whorehouse,” and found that it was most recently requoted in a fairly partisan source.
     H.L. Mencken’s satiric wisdom comes from a less divisive and less divided time in America. WinLoseorDraw would hate to see his words used as evidence of the apparent righteousness of one political party at the expense of the other.

     Reply
2. 

   Reactionary Richard on January 24, 2021 at 1:52 pm

   Policies matter.

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     Win Lose or Draw on January 25, 2021 at 9:13 am

     Richard: Thank you for the comment “Policies matter.” WinLoseorDraw definately agrees. The only thing that matters more is that every American, excluding total reprobates, identifies themselves with the Grand movement towards Democracy. Note the capital D. We are not there yet, and we will never get there as long as half the country insists on demonizing the other half.

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