It’s funny how so many “bad guys” think they’re the “good guys.” Woman has neighbors’ home bulldozed because she doesn’t approve of them. National mortgage database: good for regulators, bad for the rest of us. Financial secrets of the Amish. (Never mind the wide-eyed yuppie tone; the info is good.) While I’m dubious about Bitcoin, the underlying problem is real. And speaking of people who helpfully fill in potholes, no good deed goes unpunished. (H/T MJR for 2) Why Christians may regret getting government endorsement for prayers at public meetings. Now there’s a question nobody should have to think about.…
Category: Government
Government evils — but I repeat myself
Prophesy is a dubious business. The best-regarded prophets keep things vague enough to mean anything some follower wants them to mean. When that won’t work, there’s also the “just move on” method for handling the aftermath of more specific prophesies (which Gary North found handy after Y2K). Another fave of failed prophets is the “it actually happened just as I predicted, but nobody noticed” method recently favored by Harold Camping. (These both have multitudes of amusing variations.) Creative editing centuries after the fact often helps to ensure the reputation of a less-than-accurate prophet. H.L. Mencken clearly needs none of those…
… you go to the hardware store looking for a tool to cut a stubborn piece of molding off a wall and the clerk offers to loan you his Sawzall. —– A motorist repeatedly flashed his headlights at me as I was on the highway about to hit the town limits this afternoon. Sure enough, there was a cop lurking next to the first business around the curve. I realized it’s been years since another driver gave me that signal. Has that particular little courtesy gone out of fashion? Or have people been scared away from it by hostile traffic…
Alas, one (normally) educated community didn’t get its Eastertime passion play this year. Because some gov-o-crat thought a passion play was a sex show. But keeping everything equal, religious folks apparently dished out some maltreatment of their own. Today’s good news. Cop tries to shoot harmless dog. Shoots self instead. (As you can imagine several people sent links to this.) Anybody seen a Leveraxe? Now, that looks like one cool tool, if it works as advertised. Funny how even a tool nearly as old as civilization can get a major makeover when the moment’s right. Unfortunately the Leveraxe isn’t on…
Carl-Bear has a graphical history of not-a-bomb scares in Boston. (Plus, of course, the real bombs The Authorities didn’t bother to get scared of.)
As you suffer through your taxes (or their aftermath), be of good cheer. You have much less chance of being audited than you’ve had in years. Church in a wealthy community installs a “homeless Jesus” sculpture. Woman reports the bum to cops. Notice to thieves: It’s not a good idea to burglarize the Pena household. In many places this would not be news. In darkest blue, gun-loathing New Jersey, it’s a bigger miracle than seeing Jesus’ face in a tortilla. (H/T jw) I think some school officials are going to be in trouble over this Sure hope so. (PT, who…
Doesn’t it just stand to reason — doesn’t it just? — that the Human Ken Doll has has nothing good to say about the Human Barbie Doll? Weird old world we live in, innit? I know there’s absolutely nothing funny about a fatal mudslide, as the people of Oso, Washington, are learning to their horror. But at least there’s a certain strangely poetic justice to this mudslide in China. Government priorities. I swear, anybody as witty as Tam ought to have a late-night show of her own and be getting fabulously rich and famous. The homeless guy and the ATM…
Laird Minor, a good guy and a member of the Living Freedom Commentariat, has just published a new book. It’s called Kairos: A Proposal to Restore Federalism to the United States. Okay, I hear the keyboards of the anarchists and cynics charging up now. I suspect I’m even hearing the sound of a few claws being sharpened out there. I suspect Laird’s expecting that. Nevertheless, some things to note: Kairos is free for the next several days; Laird is more interested in getting it read than getting it sold, so he’s also offering a free .pdf copy to those who…
Well, it appears that Albuquerque residents have seriously had it with their thrill-killer cops. Churches. Being converted into pubs. Did you know … that “dog whisperer” Cesar Millan came to the U.S. as an illegal immigrant? (Tip o’ hat to PT) Another reason for drug warriors to suspect and harass you: having a Colorado license plate. (Will having a Washington state license plate be the next sure sign that you’re a monster possessed by Reefer Madness?) This writer asks why “we” make children sit still in class. But she dodges the answer. That’s curious, because John Taylor Gatto and many…
The gunblogosphere has been all atwitter with the downfall of one of California’s chief anti-gun politicians. Leland Yee’s scandal is particularly marvelous because he’s not just accused of the usual misdeeds. He didn’t tweet a photo of his anatomy. He didn’t (that we know of) schtupp any interns. Insider trading? Junkets paid by lobbyists? Who knows? Maybe. But what Leland Yee has been accused of by the FBI is (among other crimes) gun running. Oh, man, that justice is truly poetic. Of course, we don’t yet know if Yee is guilty of that particular crime. And the FBI isn’t exactly…