It’s Aardvark-Horsie Saturday; yay!!1! I believe that’s a Moptail in teh thread pic. (Nice find, Mac.)
I’m glad to see that some non-progressive blogs are starting to cover stories of Americans’ natural rights being egregiously violated during this “crisis”. I think this is an extremely serious issue which must be addressed sooner rather than later.
I’m just gonna stop right there, as I’m so angry about the public officials who have clearly shown their tyrannical tendencies and the huge number of my fellow citizens who have meekly acceded to several of their basic freedoms being eliminated…in less than a month.
I feel like these stay at home orders are basically “advisories,” at least on their legal footing.
HOWEVER: A local government can basically “do what it wants” with enforcement, although they may have to face some consequences later on with lawsuits and such.
An old friend of mine, a naturalized citizen, pointed out to me that there were lots of unconstitutional acts and laws in this country. Until they are tested or contested, they often remain in effect. It was actually part of his citizenship classes to understand this process.
He was a good American, a guy I knew well during the Reagan era, but he probably understood how stuff in this country works better than the average American did, because he had to do some work and study to achieve his citizenship.
Happy Awkward Horsey Caturday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa!
Fatwa -- I concur in re the loss of our basic rights and freedoms. Once things get back to “normal” I wonder how long it will be until another pandemic arises, forcing yet again, the loss of our freedoms?
These abrogations of basic rights -- and our collective caving-in -- sets what I think is a very dangerous precedent. (I have pondered how much of it might be a “test” of just how much statist goonery we’ll collective tolerate.)
Which is why I think there needs to be some swift and terrible retribution against a few of the worst of them. Something which will be remembered for at least a generation or two.
Far beyond merely voting them out of office.
Unfortunately, this is quite unlikely. As a result, I fear our country will be much worse off.
Good morning, Fatwa and Paddy. I agree. One of the worrisome parts of this for me is that it was not in response to a major loss of life, but their claim of the danger of major loss of life. I am afraid I do not trust the integrity or good intentions of the people in government to give them this power. We have already seen both parties use terms like war on drugs to claim powers normally associated with war time measures. Now they need only claim they want to head off some crisis they claim might come (like global warming?) and they can junk the Constitution, and will Roberts claim it’s OK because there is now precedent for it? I find I have little confidence after the Obamacare is or isn’t a tax as needed BS. The Democrat governors are drooling at the ability to impose clearly unconstitutional gun controls and ban religions they don’t approve of (have any of the ones banning Christian worship closed any mosques?)
I suspect this will be a legacy of the virus that will far outlast the virus itself.
A common IT refrain is how much easier an admin’s life would be if there weren’t any users. I think govt has learned how much easier it is not to have citizens, but instead just have people stuck in their homes. Hell, crime is down, the air is cleaner, no one is complaining about the state of the roads cuz no one is driving.
This has been a trial run and govt finds that it likes it.
…I do not trust the integrity or good intentions of the people in government to give them this power.
*DING*
The overwhelming majority of those folks possess neither quality.
And they’ve not had a single got-damned care about wrecking our economy, destroying people’s livelihoods and businesses, etc. In the name of “safety”. (Shit which they do constantly, but never in such a far-reaching manner over a matter of weeks.)
And we, the people will do nothing of real consequence about it; shame on us.
I truly believe that if even just five of the worst of them -- not even a statistical blip in a country of 330M people -- were publicly hung, it would send a message that even the dimmest among them would have a difficult time ignoring.
Quite serious about this.
When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
I think it’s pretty clear we’re down to the “fourth box of liberty”.
Good Afternoon Gerbils! Just popping in for a moment. But I’ll be back later.
I found out that Harper and I are both eligible for the “stimulus”/”relief” thing. I’m still not sure of the time frame, but I found the place for me to file, and also found out that Harper doesn’t need to do so on account of receiving social security.
I just did it. According to the site, Harper’s should be automatic because of her SSD status, but I have to file a special form, which I did.
I don’t know how long it will take, but I did, in fact receive a confirmation that my application was accepted. I’m assuming this is a one time payment.
I hope it doesn’t ruin the economy to do this crap. My libertarian-leaning instincts are chafing at this. Plus, I still have my job. It’s part time, but I didn’t get laid off, so in essence, we are getting money we would not have gotten if there was no pandemic, and we were affected only marginally by it. Well. I did bolster our supplies of food and other sundries in January, very early on, so that was a few hundred bucks right there.
Anyway, these government schemes make me nervous.
Remember when George W. Bush gave everyone a tax cut, but he wanted to make it retroactive to the last Clinton tax increase? So he cut everyone who paid taxes a check. It seemed like kind of a gimmick, like everyone would have been fine with a simple tax cut, but they got this extra refund.
I don’t recall how much it was. I was a full time student at the time, so I didn’t “benefit” from it.
Everyone was gonna get a big(ish) extra refund check. I even sorta remember advertisements from various business saying “Here’s what you can spend that extra refund money on.” Stereo shops, Best Buy, a few other commercials I can recall having heard.
I don’t remember that specifically, but it sounds right. I’m fairly mercenary in my approach anymore, especially when it comes to govt giving me back some of what they’ve already taken from me or that they expect me to pay back later. One of the things I kick around in my head is leaving California and going to some place like Marble Falls, Texasbygod, is that what do I have to offer Texas? California has already sucked my most productive years and they’ll be happy to see me go at my age as soon I’ll just start taking from the system instead of paying in. It makes me at times want to stay and sign up for every damn govt program CA has.
Well, of course, depending upon where you live, one can sell his overpriced CA home and buy a home somewhere in Texas for 1/5 the price, and invest the rest.
Considering where we live, we should probably do the same because we have a half-million dollar home that might cost 100k in a more random location, but at the moment, we’re staying put.
I don’t have the wherewithal to even conceive of a move right now.
A couple of months ago, we did. Yeah, not so much anymore. Have to wait and see how the rest of this year goes. And honestly, there’s lots worse places than Sedona.
I ordered something for Linux Rob, from https://crypto.fashion but it’s horribly affected by the quarantine. So… I don’t know how long it’s going to take for him to get it. I feel bad now, because I let him know a surprise was coming, but I had to tell him later that I didn’t know just how long it would be.
I don’t say this much, but I’m really thankful to be part of this community and I have to say I’ve learned something from all of you that are here now and those that have moved on.
Since church gatherings are outlawed now, I was watching Mass online (streaming on f*ckin’ facebook) from my church the other night. Just awful. I don’t really use FB much, but during the service I guess you can send up little floaty colorful emoticon types of things like “thumbs up” and “heart-love” and they floated in from the bottom of the screen and up and it was awful. Then there’s a chat window on the side where people made more or less inane comments.
Halfway through they ran into technical difficulties and lost the feed. When they got back on the admin commented with something like “sorry about that -- technical difficulties -- but we’re back!” and without even thinking I started to type “Don’t worry -- shit happens” before I remembered where I was and deleted it.
It’s Aardvark-Horsie Saturday; yay!!1! I believe that’s a Moptail in teh thread pic. (Nice find, Mac.)
I’m glad to see that some non-progressive blogs are starting to cover stories of Americans’ natural rights being egregiously violated during this “crisis”. I think this is an extremely serious issue which must be addressed sooner rather than later.
I’m just gonna stop right there, as I’m so angry about the public officials who have clearly shown their tyrannical tendencies and the huge number of my fellow citizens who have meekly acceded to several of their basic freedoms being eliminated…in less than a month.
Resser-fresser!
I feel like these stay at home orders are basically “advisories,” at least on their legal footing.
HOWEVER: A local government can basically “do what it wants” with enforcement, although they may have to face some consequences later on with lawsuits and such.
An old friend of mine, a naturalized citizen, pointed out to me that there were lots of unconstitutional acts and laws in this country. Until they are tested or contested, they often remain in effect. It was actually part of his citizenship classes to understand this process.
He was a good American, a guy I knew well during the Reagan era, but he probably understood how stuff in this country works better than the average American did, because he had to do some work and study to achieve his citizenship.
Happy Awkward Horsey Caturday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa!
Fatwa -- I concur in re the loss of our basic rights and freedoms. Once things get back to “normal” I wonder how long it will be until another pandemic arises, forcing yet again, the loss of our freedoms?
High Horsie “Hi!”, Paddy --
These abrogations of basic rights -- and our collective caving-in -- sets what I think is a very dangerous precedent. (I have pondered how much of it might be a “test” of just how much statist goonery we’ll collective tolerate.)
Which is why I think there needs to be some swift and terrible retribution against a few of the worst of them. Something which will be remembered for at least a generation or two.
Far beyond merely voting them out of office.
Unfortunately, this is quite unlikely. As a result, I fear our country will be much worse off.
Sadly, I have to agree.
Good morning, Fatwa and Paddy. I agree. One of the worrisome parts of this for me is that it was not in response to a major loss of life, but their claim of the danger of major loss of life. I am afraid I do not trust the integrity or good intentions of the people in government to give them this power. We have already seen both parties use terms like war on drugs to claim powers normally associated with war time measures. Now they need only claim they want to head off some crisis they claim might come (like global warming?) and they can junk the Constitution, and will Roberts claim it’s OK because there is now precedent for it? I find I have little confidence after the Obamacare is or isn’t a tax as needed BS. The Democrat governors are drooling at the ability to impose clearly unconstitutional gun controls and ban religions they don’t approve of (have any of the ones banning Christian worship closed any mosques?)
I suspect this will be a legacy of the virus that will far outlast the virus itself.
oh you gotta know no mosques will be closed.
A common IT refrain is how much easier an admin’s life would be if there weren’t any users. I think govt has learned how much easier it is not to have citizens, but instead just have people stuck in their homes. Hell, crime is down, the air is cleaner, no one is complaining about the state of the roads cuz no one is driving.
This has been a trial run and govt finds that it likes it.
Hi, Mac!
*DING*
The overwhelming majority of those folks possess neither quality.
And they’ve not had a single got-damned care about wrecking our economy, destroying people’s livelihoods and businesses, etc. In the name of “safety”. (Shit which they do constantly, but never in such a far-reaching manner over a matter of weeks.)
And we, the people will do nothing of real consequence about it; shame on us.
I truly believe that if even just five of the worst of them -- not even a statistical blip in a country of 330M people -- were publicly hung, it would send a message that even the dimmest among them would have a difficult time ignoring.
Quite serious about this.
I think it’s pretty clear we’re down to the “fourth box of liberty”.
Good Afternoon Gerbils! Just popping in for a moment. But I’ll be back later.
I found out that Harper and I are both eligible for the “stimulus”/”relief” thing. I’m still not sure of the time frame, but I found the place for me to file, and also found out that Harper doesn’t need to do so on account of receiving social security.
Hello everybody -- good comments/perspective. Must think on this. Stimulus-relief, eh Dv8? Take it.
I just did it. According to the site, Harper’s should be automatic because of her SSD status, but I have to file a special form, which I did.
I don’t know how long it will take, but I did, in fact receive a confirmation that my application was accepted. I’m assuming this is a one time payment.
I hope it doesn’t ruin the economy to do this crap. My libertarian-leaning instincts are chafing at this. Plus, I still have my job. It’s part time, but I didn’t get laid off, so in essence, we are getting money we would not have gotten if there was no pandemic, and we were affected only marginally by it. Well. I did bolster our supplies of food and other sundries in January, very early on, so that was a few hundred bucks right there.
Anyway, these government schemes make me nervous.
Remember when George W. Bush gave everyone a tax cut, but he wanted to make it retroactive to the last Clinton tax increase? So he cut everyone who paid taxes a check. It seemed like kind of a gimmick, like everyone would have been fine with a simple tax cut, but they got this extra refund.
I don’t recall how much it was. I was a full time student at the time, so I didn’t “benefit” from it.
Everyone was gonna get a big(ish) extra refund check. I even sorta remember advertisements from various business saying “Here’s what you can spend that extra refund money on.” Stereo shops, Best Buy, a few other commercials I can recall having heard.
Does anyone remember that?
I don’t remember that specifically, but it sounds right. I’m fairly mercenary in my approach anymore, especially when it comes to govt giving me back some of what they’ve already taken from me or that they expect me to pay back later. One of the things I kick around in my head is leaving California and going to some place like Marble Falls, Texasbygod, is that what do I have to offer Texas? California has already sucked my most productive years and they’ll be happy to see me go at my age as soon I’ll just start taking from the system instead of paying in. It makes me at times want to stay and sign up for every damn govt program CA has.
Well, of course, depending upon where you live, one can sell his overpriced CA home and buy a home somewhere in Texas for 1/5 the price, and invest the rest.
Considering where we live, we should probably do the same because we have a half-million dollar home that might cost 100k in a more random location, but at the moment, we’re staying put.
I don’t have the wherewithal to even conceive of a move right now.
A couple of months ago, we did. Yeah, not so much anymore. Have to wait and see how the rest of this year goes. And honestly, there’s lots worse places than Sedona.
Look at that: I’m suddenly very “talkative” after some caffeine. Funny that.
It’s amazing to me how therapeutic it is talking on the Wheel. I always feel better. Like I belong somewhere.
“Like I belong somewhere.”
You do, right here.
Thank you, Mac : )
I ordered something for Linux Rob, from https://crypto.fashion but it’s horribly affected by the quarantine. So… I don’t know how long it’s going to take for him to get it. I feel bad now, because I let him know a surprise was coming, but I had to tell him later that I didn’t know just how long it would be.
I don’t say this much, but I’m really thankful to be part of this community and I have to say I’ve learned something from all of you that are here now and those that have moved on.
So, thanks.
Since church gatherings are outlawed now, I was watching Mass online (streaming on f*ckin’ facebook) from my church the other night. Just awful. I don’t really use FB much, but during the service I guess you can send up little floaty colorful emoticon types of things like “thumbs up” and “heart-love” and they floated in from the bottom of the screen and up and it was awful. Then there’s a chat window on the side where people made more or less inane comments.
Halfway through they ran into technical difficulties and lost the feed. When they got back on the admin commented with something like “sorry about that -- technical difficulties -- but we’re back!” and without even thinking I started to type “Don’t worry -- shit happens” before I remembered where I was and deleted it.
Can’t wait for Easter service tomorrow.
That would have been the perfect rejoinder for a Good Friday service. Just sayin’.
Heh. In that vein I could posted “Hey I can see my house from here.”
LOL
Worth reading. https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/09/c-s-lewis-advice-to-students-during-a-pandemic-will-do-all-our-souls-good-right-now/
I saw that on AoS the other day. I agree, well worth the read.
We’d really be screwed if AoS ever goes down.
Hey I know Tex has her birthday this month and doesn’t Miss Brenda? Dates, please.
Miss Brenda’s birthday is today.
Time to cook dinner for me and Mrs Sven -- I hope she hasn’t gotten tired of chicken thighs yet. Poof.