The Simulacrum of Self-Government

[4est_4est_Gump]

The Simulacrum of Self-Government
We might as well put the Constitution out of its misery.
Mark Steyn, NRO
JUNE 28, 2013

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 — just another day in a constitutional republic of limited government by citizen representatives:

First thing in the morning, Gregory Roseman, Deputy Director of Acquisitions (whatever that means), became the second IRS official to take the Fifth Amendment, after he was questioned about awarding the largest contract in IRS history, totaling some half a billion dollars, to his close friend Braulio Castillo, who qualified under a federal “set aside” program favoring disadvantaged groups — in this case, disabled veterans. For the purposes of federal contracting, Mr. Castillo is a “disabled veteran” because he twisted his ankle during a football game at the U.S. Military Academy prep school 27 years ago. How he overcame this crippling disability to win a half-billion-dollar IRS contract is the heartwarming stuff of an inspiring Lifetime TV movie.

Later in the day, Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota and alleged author of the Corker-Hoeven amendment to the immigration bill, went on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show and, in a remarkable interview, revealed to the world that he had absolutely no idea what was in the legislation he “wrote.” Rachel Jeantel, the endearingly disastrous star witness at the George Zimmerman trial, excused her inability to comprehend the letter she’d supposedly written to Trayvon Martin’s parents on the grounds that “I don’t read cursive.” Senator Hoeven doesn’t read legislative. For example, Section 5(b)(1):
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a strategy, to be known as the ‘Southern Border Fencing Strategy’ . . .

On the other hand, Section 5(b)(5):

Notwithstanding paragraph (1), nothing in this subsection shall require the Secretary to install fencing . . .

Asked to reconcile these two paragraphs, Senator Hoeven explained that, “when I read through that with my lawyer,” the guy said relax, don’t worry about it. (I paraphrase, but barely.) So Senator Hoeven and 67 other senators went ahead the following day and approved the usual bazillion-page we-have-to-pass-it-to-find-out-what’s-in-it omnibus bill, cooked up in the backrooms, released late on a Friday afternoon and passed in nothing flat after Harry Reid decreed there’s no need for further debate — not that anything recognizable to any genuine legislature as “debate” ever occurs in “the world’s greatest deliberative body.”

Say what you like about George III, but the Tea Act was about tea. The so-called comprehensive immigration reform is so comprehensive it includes special deals for Nevada casinos and the recategorization of the Alaskan fish-processing industry as a “cultural exchange” program, because the more leaping salmon we have the harder it is for Mexicans to get across the Bering Strait. While we’re bringing millions of Undocumented-Americans “out of the shadows,” why don’t we try bringing Washington’s decadent and diseased law-making out of the shadows?

Just when you thought the day couldn’t get any more momentous, the Supreme Court weighed in on same-sex marriage. When less advanced societies wish to introduce gay marriage, the people’s elected representatives assemble in parliament and pass a law. That’s how they did it in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, etc. But one shudders to contemplate what would result were the legislative class to attempt “comprehensive marriage reform,” complete with tax breaks for Maine lobstermen’s au pairs and the hiring of 20,000 new IRS agents to verify business expenses for page boys from disparate-impact groups. So instead it fell to five out of nine judges, which means it fell to Anthony Kennedy, because he’s the guy who swings both ways. Thus, Supreme Intergalactic Emperor Anthony gets to decide the issue for 300 million people.

As Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben so famously says in every remake, with great power comes great responsibility. Having assumed the power to redefine a societal institution that predates the United States by thousands of years, Emperor Tony the All-Wise had the responsibility at least to work up the semblance of a legal argument. Instead, he struck down the Defense of Marriage Act on the grounds that those responsible for it were motivated by an “improper animus” against a “politically unpopular group” they wished to “disparage,” “demean,” and “humiliate” as “unworthy.” What stump-toothed knuckle-dragging inbred swamp-dwellers from which hellish Bible Belt redoubt would do such a thing? Well, fortunately, we have their names on the record: The DOMA legislators who were driven by their need to “harm” gay people include notorious homophobe Democrats Chuck Schumer, Pat Leahy, Harry Reid, Joe Biden, and the virulent anti-gay hater who signed it into law, Bill Clinton.

...

As I say, just another day in the life of the republic: a corrupt bureaucracy dispensing federal gravy to favored clients; a pseudo-legislature passing bills unread by the people’s representatives and uncomprehended by the men who claim to have written them; and a co-regency of jurists torturing an 18th-century document in order to justify what other countries are at least honest enough to recognize as an unprecedented novelty. Whether or not, per Scalia, we should “condemn” the United States Constitution, it might be time to put the poor wee thing out of its misery.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Looks still like we can't trust the white man.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Looks still like we can't trust the white man.

The women are sneaking up on us too; boys seem to be giving up and going Galt...

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

In economics, a "perverse effect" means getting what you don't want. If McDonald's makes an executive decision to sell lousy burgers and ends up bankrupt, that is a perverse decision. Markets are tough on companies that act perversely, but the Amazonian jungle of government allows perverse incentives to flourish and spread. In our current state of national perversity we have massive voter ignorance and apathy (and therefore no punishment for misgovernment), a Senate that passes critical legislation without even bothering to read it, an income tax code written by special-interest lobbyists over decades, and an IRS that is so deeply politicized that voter outrage has no visible impact at all. Add a one-party media and government control over one seventh of the economy coming up, and you know we're not going to come out of this unscathed.

Chicago is basically a one-party regime. How can you tell if you're living under one-party rule? Your media aren't going to tell you. Your government isn't either. Your schools are part of the mob monopoly. But there are signs: the biggest one is that open scandals and crimes have no consequences. We all know Holder is a perverse attorney general, that the EPA is run by scientific know-nothings, that Wall Street has high-level lines running into this administration, that "green technology" contradicts the known facts of physics, and that "catastrophic climate change" is a self-serving farce.

This presidency is practically defined by its perversity. When this administration gets caught with its pants down, it just becomes even more grandiose.

All the scandals the media decided to expose after the election have not changed any behavior. All the costs of ObamaCare are scheduled to come due after the election, and there must be millions of Americans still deluded enough to believe they didn't buy a lemon again. Anybody with a computer can now read the weekly exposés of the much-admired British government's health system, with dirty, overcrowded hospital rooms; spreading antibiotic resistance; poor treatment for older people (who don't have enough QALYs left on their life tickets); and deliberately uncontrolled immigration to bring in cheap Labour voters. These are all in our future.

But Americans voted for Obama because he would relieve their white guilt forever. They chose not to know the consequences. When things fall apart, they will blame another scapegoat. Obama's perversity -- his endless big promises leading to terrible outcomes -- echoes the growing perversity of our culture. This is a very stubborn disease, and it may take decades to cure.

James Lewis, American Thinker

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Takin' up teepee livin' in the Gulch?


Man, I just got here, too.


I picked up some Money-grubbing Capitalist work this week, in spite of my Minority Status. I don't know what happened.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

All this overtime is making retirement more and more attractive an option...

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Your money is not welcome here, so show us the gold.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Paw, is that you, Paw??? I got the gold me an' Josey robbed from the bank, Paw . . . .

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Oh good gawd, that's funny.



I like to start the workday off with a laugh. Now I shall PISS OFF!

 

[Wat_Tyler]

I haven't decided my mood yet.


I'd kinda like to take out some injustice on the next Innocent Victim that wanders through.


Innocent . . . of what???

 

[RobDownSouth]

The Simulacrum of Self-Government
We might as well put the Constitution out of its misery.
Mark Steyn, NRO
JUNE 28, 2013

Rachel Jeantel, the endearingly disastrous star witness at the George Zimmerman trial, excused her inability to comprehend the letter she’d supposedly written to Trayvon Martin’s parents on the grounds that “I don’t read cursive.”

Hey Chief, since we're smugly discussing the failures of underage minority women, I have a question for you: Can your "daughter" read cursive?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I haven't decided my mood yet.


I'd kinda like to take out some injustice on the next Innocent Victim that wanders through.


Innocent . . . of what???

Who is truly innocent may absorb the first stone cast...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Hey Chief, since we're smugly discussing the failures of underage minority women, I have a question for you: Can your "daughter" read cursive?

I translate jive to English if you need help. I can also translate frowns and rolled eyes and grunts to English, too.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Throb, the Alec Baldwin of Lit...

 

[Wat_Tyler]

He won't be soundin' so smart when his donkey bites off and swallows his neighbor's rooster's feet.


That's right, there will be 2' of his neighbor's cock in his ass.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

*chuckle*

 

[RobDownSouth]

Throb, the Alec Baldwin of Lit...

<AJ Mode>
Me no like Rob
Me no like Alec Baldwin
So...
So.....
Rob be like Alec Baldwin!!
Haw Haw Haw I so funny
Hey Wat...watch the teeth down there. Lick! Don't Bite!
Soon Yi? "Daddy" is hongry. Bring me some lead paint chips, darlin'!
</AJ Mode>