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A Monday morning ramble

Too much for just links, too little for one of my blogosauri. Randomish thoughts …

Government is … well, so very, very governmentlike, isn’t it? Here we have old friend Bovard talking about welcoming Cuba to the 21st century by taxing and regulating cigars more than they already do.

Best line is: “The FDA suggests that it might exempt from regulation “premium cigars” that cost at least $10 apiece. Does the FDA believe that only people with money to burn should have free choice?

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Oleg Volk is with us over at TZP. Here’s his first post, complete with Oleg’s famous graphics.

We’ve been anticipating Oleg’s arrival among us for a long time, so this is especially exciting.

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Ah, how times have changed! Anybody from the ancient days remember “Phoebe B. Beebe and her new canoe canal”? I can’t find it online, but in searching (yes, I have too much time on my hands today — or I’m avoiding work; take your pick), I ran across this meditation on womanhood by the same author.

Probably loaded with trigger warnings and passages to offend anyone who’s been to a liberal arts college in the last 10 years. Funny, though.

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Beer cans. This guy had a real problem. I used to have a neighbor like that, but at least he used to confine his beer cans to bags around the outside of his house.

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Do you remember the delightfully deadpan coffee-table book Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics and the equally artsy and bizarre Dancing with Cats?

I just ran across another one, courtesy of Snopes.com. It’s been around a while but I didn’t know of it. It’s Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics. We’ve all probably seen some of the photos, but I didn’t realize they were from one of those books.

These books are as gorgeous as they are hilarious. And the authors, Burton Silver and Heather Busch, never, ever crack a smile as they discourse about cats exploring spatial aesthetics or people paying $60,000 a year to paint their felines. What’s so funny is that every time these books come out, a certain number of people take them seriously. So says Snopes.com. With gorgeous illustrations of “painted” cats.

And hey, this stuff was mostly before cats took over the Internet.

paintcat03_small

paintcat05_small

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Now moving doggedly on to another topic (and no, this has nothing to do with dogs; I just felt we needed the d-word here as a counter to that overabundance of cats):

Our astoundingly plastic brains.

My brain feels plastic sometimes. As opposed to say, high carbon steel.

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Last but far from least: Kit Lange wraps up the action — or perhaps foresees the future consequences — of Saturday’s silent snub in Olympia, Washington.

I believe 100 percent that the stupid I-594 must (and will) be ignored and resisted. I believe it will be impossible to enforce. (There will be a few high profile cases in an attempt to scare the rubes, then not much. Once a year maybe.) I think its fair to give a warning rattle while bearing guns at rallies the Capitol grounds.

I think the people who turned up Saturday were incredibly dedicated and brave. I don’t think Saturday helped matters, but I also don’t feel mad about what they’re doing (as if they would care what I felt) because this is an issue of the state vs the people, not a private business (where I’ve objected to OC demonstrations before). But personally I wouldn’t have risked arrest over a fiat ban on carrying firearms into the Capitol galleries. This was not a battle I’d have picked.

But then, history many times turns on the battles most of us wouldn’t pick, doesn’t it? The Boston Massacre and Easter Uprising come immediately to mind.

I’m glad it didn’t come to people going to jail, though the predictable silent snub speaks a language of its own, and not one that bodes well for peace between people and politicians.

Good luck to us all.

10 Comments

  1. MamaLiberty
    MamaLiberty February 9, 2015 5:53 am

    Great article on the brain. We know so little yet…

  2. MamaLiberty
    MamaLiberty February 9, 2015 5:59 am

    Oh, and I was glad to learn that the beautiful painted cats were all photoshop creations. Couldn’t for the life of me figure out how anyone could get actual cats to stand still for being painted. Not to mention that they’d wear themselves out trying to wash it all off as fast as they could.

  3. Matt, another
    Matt, another February 9, 2015 6:57 am

    Painting a favorite outdoorts cat Camouflage might be a good idea, increase its survival probablility by a bit.

  4. LarryA
    LarryA February 9, 2015 9:24 am

    The two-story house we found for our battered woman’s shelter was like that, only with newspapers and magazines. The good news is that it was obviously structurally sound; paper is heavy.

    Wish I could see Oleg’s stuff. Somehow my computer won’t or can’t open anything from his site. Haven’t figured it out yet.

    Government is … well, so very, very governmentlike, isn’t it?

    Was blogging elsewhere about the looming Net Neutrality document coming from the FCC. Was assured that the very idea that it would regulate the internet is preposterous. I asked the guy just what he thought was in the 332 pages they won’t let us see yet.

  5. Fred
    Fred February 9, 2015 9:56 am

    Good on the protesters.Amazing to see the coward pols run and hide,and THAT is the message.

    They did good,the protesters.

  6. Fred
    Fred February 9, 2015 9:58 am

    Bundy Ranch turned the tide,but its going to take a LOT of ‘Bundys’ to win our rights back from the know it all pigs at the public trough.

    Those people are true heroes.

  7. david
    david February 9, 2015 10:03 am

    Out here in the eastern half, there is apparently nothing of note in the entire world other than our snowstorms. So I saw zip about the protest in Washington until just now.

    How interesting. Ver-r-r-r-y Inter-esting, if I may steal the phrase. No massive arrest force, no legislature in session, and no governor in the mansion (or was he really just in there hiding?). So, the commies who passed that intolerable caricature of a law, didn’t ‘cut and run’, they just ran to hide well in advance of the protestors. Afraid to even confront them in person, apparently.

    Cowards. They should at least have tried to have those armed citizens arrested, to prove they’re serious and in charge. But, then, what if the police said something like “you caused this, you go risk getting shot over it, and I’m going home”? How do you maintain any pretense of authority or legitimacy if your enforcers don’t even do your bidding?

    I suppose the ‘official version’ will be that none wanted to risk being shot by the armed wing-nuts. That will at least sell to their sycophants. But then, only a fool would want to risk being shot, so I hope the lesson was well learned – you don’t pick a fight with armed men when you don’t even control a person with a gun, let alone have one of your own. And especially not when the guys you pick the fight with know where you live.

  8. Laird
    Laird February 9, 2015 11:07 am

    “blogosauri”? Sounds like some kind of eastern European sausage.

    I didn’t see anything in my local news (SC) about the Washington protests. I guess it wasn’t considered newsworthy. Funny, that. Anyway, thanks for the update and I second what Fred said.

  9. Fred
    Fred February 9, 2015 11:14 am

    Kind of like the people in the Ukraine wanting nothing to do with fighting against their families for the elites.

    Not a word Ive seen in the MSM about their refusal to be cannon fodder.

    More heroes refusing to be dead for the monied interests,and standing tall,and showing the government is not them.Good on them!

    Nice to see people standing up to the sociopath liars and killers.

  10. Paul Bonneau
    Paul Bonneau February 11, 2015 9:27 am

    “Our differences didn’t matter. The Constitution united us.”

    Wow, what a non-sequitur.

    “That is where we were, after all—a building that was created to house the functions of an elected government, which only derives its power by consent of the governed.”

    It gets painful to read this stuff. I don’t mind if people have fairy tales in their heads, but the idea that everyone must be motivated the same way is presumptuous.

    I suppose I should just let it go, but that’s not me. Constitutionalists and anarchists will be allies in the near future, but after we win the Revolution there is going to be an adjustment, while Constitutionalists learn to make exceptions in their collectivist fantasies.

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