2/10/2010

Seen along the highway to Hell...

at 2/10/2010 Posted by Sunny Badger

4 comments:

Roadkill said...

Last year we exited from the highway to hell. It was an unusual interchange involving a left turn off ramp, but we negotiated the maneuver just fine, and to the satisfaction of some 54%of our passengers.

Now we are on a new route. This one has lots of billboards and signs: Hope, Change, Universal Health Care, Stimulus Bills, Larger Deficits, Union-protecting Tariffs, More Business Regulation, Card Check, Cap and Trade, and a robust multi-lateral-cultural-America sucks foreign policy. Also, some super-inspiring “Yes we Can" and "We are who we’ve been waiting for” signage.

Thankfully, this is not the highway to hell.

Unfortunately, its The Road to Surfdom.

Is that another exit coming up?

February 10, 2010
Sunny B. said...

RK:

I think you meant "Serdom," but I would envision the perfect welfare state to be one where the government paid us to surf, if we chose not to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps.

Of course, being in the Midwest surfing isn't an accessible activity...although they do surf on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. I've seen them surfing on the lake at Sheboygan. I also own a variety to a surfing videos and documentaries. So I'm all in favor of this "Surfdom" and hope to find the road to it. However, since I've reached the age where I can now actually get senior discounts, I may have to wait until my next life to take up surfing. I'm already planning on taking up snowboarding in the next life. But then again, Jesse Ventura has taken up surfing...so there's still Hope for me.

I must e-mail Obama again an tell him that he needs to tweak his slogan. My suggestion is "Change is good but folding cash is better!"

Speaking of change...I see the whole ontheborderline.net rat's nest is running for county board. I wish them luck. Anybody willing to participate in government deserves a solid pat on the back. I'm sure they would find that country government is not an overflowing pork barrell of uncontrolled, orgiastic government spending. Mayor Dean...another OTBL,net alumni can atest to that.

Could you leave a comment over there and ask them is they will let DRATSUM back on. I promise to continue being the voice of socialism and collectivist theft. It's pretty dull over there...you'll have to admit.

February 10, 2010
Roadkill said...

Sunny,

Damn if I didn't misspell Serfdom. I deserve your ribbing.
But I stand by my point, nonetheless. Serfdom is where we are headed unless we change course.

As you probably know, I'm not a favorite of the ontheborderline crowd, especially the more Rand-y, atheist ones. And I certainly agree that, for the most part, it's an echo chamber over there.

But why you or anyone would want to voice support for socialism and collectivism baffles me. Such systems have a 150 year track record of failure: political tyranny, economic disaster, and human misery. They have not worked anywhere, and have been responsible for untold suffering and death everywhere they have been imposed - from Russia, to Germany, to China, to Indochina and N. Korea. Social-Democratic Europe has intractable social and ecomomic problems, and its welfare states will soon be collapsing of their own weight. Over here in this hemisphere, Cuba is a basket case and Venezuela is headed that way. There are absolutely no success stories to point to.

But I like to talk with you, Sunny, because I think you are a smart guy who has - apologies to Marx here - a false consciousness regarding collectivism and capitalism. You are convinced, as a matter of faith-like conviction and against all empirical evidence, that free markets are malevolent and that collectivism will improve our lives. So I keep trying to help you out of your befuddlement, sensitive to the fact that its hard for good people of the left to accept the truth. It upsets a world view they have held since their college days, when sex, drugs, rock and roll, and left-wing politics were cool.

Well, there really was nothing cool about any of it then, and there certainly isn't now. Those things have led to ruined lives and despair in countless cases, and with left-wing politics, it has ruined nations. I don't want it to ruin ours, and I don't think you do either. And I want to believe that, sooner or later, you will come to that realization yourself.

February 10, 2010
Sunny B said...

RK:

I don't know if you were paying attention to ontheborderline a few years back when they expelled me 3 or 4 times, but they basically labeled anyone who dared disagree with them a socialist or communist. I was actually trying to understand their position and learn where they were coming from.

Once I realised they had nothing to discuss, because they had the whole truth and nothing but the truth, I started dropping in Marxist and socialist comments to get them going. Sort of poking a stick into their cage. Many of the things you have seen on this blog in the past were posted to tweak their self-righteous noses. Of course, some of those post and comments were also put up to get a response from you.

It's interesting to note that I agree with many things you discuss and I agree with many things the OTBLers pontificate about. I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I have spent significant time trying to understand the different sides and issues that erupt in our world.

I bet you that I have attended more Democratic, Republican, TEA Party, socialist, etc. political functions over the past 20 years that 99+ percent of the people you know. Likewise for attending local government meetings. It's a learning experience and it's interesting.

Since you've been part of the ride on this blog of a long time, you've notice changes in what gets posted. I'm not trying to change the world. I'm trying to gain an understanding of my fellow man and do my part to hopefully make tomorrow as good as or better than today.

I'll admit that I'm not good at seeing conspiracies around every corner. I don't bitch and complain about the taxes I pay...but I don't attend government meetings on a regular basis. I'm the middle kid of seven brothers and sisters and I grew being a part of the big kids and the little kids...and it's been a long time since I was a kid, but the lessons and experiences of younger life get formed into the way we see things today.

As far as collectivism goes, I don't believe in free lunches. I do believe in the need for a temporary helping hand. I also believe the world has changed and we can't go back home again when times get rough. It's not like in 1932 when my Gram ma could take her two kids back to the farm to survive the Depression...because there was no Depression on the farm. It was business as usual.

I've been repeating the fruits of capitalism all my life. However, I think there's a limit to how "free" the "free market" gets. Until we, as a country, are willing to let people starve to death in our streets, we are going to have some kind of welfare system. That my friend would be a requirement of any nation that bills itself as a "Christian nation."

The more diverse we get, in terms of cultures, nationality, income, etc., the greater the challenges we will face. We can't go back and the answer to our questions are only going to get more complicated. Maybe I'm missing the boat here and the answer are really simple and easy. If so, I'm not alone.

I think Sarah Palin is wrong to reduce President obama to "a charismatic guy with a telephompter." I think Obama's people are wrong to poke fun to someone who writes talking point notes on the palm of their hand. I don't know if we need bi-partisanship in this country. Maybe a stalemate is the answer to all our problems. Maybe we don't actually have that many problems.

What do you think?

February 12, 2010

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