When “Private” Isn’t

Here’s an interesting story:

Jeremy Clarkson has been granted ‘urgent’ planning permission to build cattle shed – in time for his herd to calve in the New Year.

To any American farmer, this would cause a certain amount of head-scratching:  you need a new shed on your farm, you build it.

Not, of course, in Britishland, where ownership of property gives one no rights at all, except of course the obligation to pay taxes on it.

And if the “emergency” part hadn’t been granted, requiring an endless wait while the permission process wound its tortuous way around bureaucratic inertia, “public” input (objections from people who think farmers should be able to carry on with Saxon-era buildings) — resulting in Clarkson building an “un-licensed” shed to save his calves’ lives — why then, he’d be fined and forced to tear the thing down.

Government at its finest.

Gratitude

On behalf of Deplorables everywhere, I would like to thank the Left for giving us a family-friendly, safe-for-work expression that we can use to show our support for the current President:  (link in pic)

Mencken’s Promise

Over at Ace, there’s this little story:

Perhaps some of you more well-informed morons know about flying a black flag, but I had not. Fortunately, the stoopid article has an explainer:

According to the people on Tik Tok and the Sun (British tabloid), the black American flag originated in the civil war and was flown by the Confederates.
It means that they will not surrender, will not take prisoners, and are willing to die for their cause. It means they will execute their enemies.

Actually (says this well-informed moron), it originated during the 17th century.  Pirate vessels would fly a black flag to warn that they would take no prisoners, as a means to terrify the crew of the prey ship so they would surrender without a fight.

More recently, however, we have H.L. Mencken’s wonderful quote:

“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

Note the “normal man” qualifier, because it’s important.  What Mencken means is that at some point even ordinary men will be driven to drastic measures, when their situation becomes too dire or too much for their patience to endure.

I see it as a warning rather than a threat.  Call it “free market research”.  And they should be glad that it’s only flags, as opposed to the sequel.

Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to a fabric store.

Another Blood-Curdler

As Glenn Reynolds puts it so often, putting your kids into the public school system is tantamount to child abuse.  Read this horrorshow:

The cops had the apartment building manager knock on the family’s door. Jade answered and the cops told her she shouldn’t be home alone. Jade started crying and asked to call her dad, McMurry says. But the cops wouldn’t allow it. They did allow her to change into warmer clothes, since they were going to take her away for an interrogation.

When McMurry returned from Kuwait, she faced two felony charges of child abandonment. She turned herself in and spent 19 hours in jail before being released on bail.

Long story short, almost a year later—she was suspended without pay the entire time— McMurry’s case came to trial. Brunner claimed to be on a prearranged vacation. McMurry, eager to get the case heard, allowed the trial to proceed without him.

The trial took four days. The jury deliberated for five minutes and found McMurry not guilty.

Unlike many stories of this type, this one ends well:  the mother is suing the shit out of the Stasi cops, and a judge has denied them “qualified immunity” (whereby cops can do whatever the fuck they want without fear of penalty).

But read the whole thing, keeping all guns out of reach.

Grrrrrrr

If this bullshit doesn’t set your teeth on edge and make you reach for your 1911, I don’t want to talk to you no more:

As part of President Joe Biden’s massive resettlement operation out of Afghanistan, his administration plans to resettle at least 95,000 Afghans across 46 states. The only states or territories not taking Afghans are Hawaii, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Washington, DC.
Wyoming is the only state in the nation where the federal government does not annually resettle refugees. That is mostly because none of the nine taxpayer-funded refugee contractors have offices in the state.
In a piece titled “One state has never taken in refugees. Will it welcome Afghans?,” the Post explores a proposal by a local Episcopal church in Casper, Wyoming, to take in Afghans. The Post interviewed a series of individuals for the piece, including those who said Afghan resettlement in Wyoming could “help with diversification” and break from their “conservative beliefs.”

I think that this would be the perfect time for Wyoming to pass a law that bans all face coverings in public.  Yes, that would include Covid face condoms and… yes,  Muslim veils.  All for reasons of public safety, of course.

Read the story from one Afghan asshole who used to live in Wyoming… I’m off to the range.

“If You’ve Got Nothing To Hide…”

That was my reaction to this latest bit of Government bastardy:

The Biden administration has made clear its plan to beef up IRS auditing by expanding the agency’s funding and power. Biden’s latest proposal would require banks to turn over to the Internal Revenue Service bank account information for all accounts holding more than $600.

“There’s a 99 percent compliance rate on wages – because wage earners get their earnings reported to the IRS,” a fact sheet says that was handed out by the White House to lawmakers to sell them on the plan. “But the super wealthy who get their income from unreported sources are able to hide their income and avoid paying the tax they owe. In fact, each year the top 1 percent chooses not to pay more than $160 billion in taxes.”

Just out of curiosity:  if the “super wealthy” are not paying those taxes, how is the IRS able to put an actual number on that “uncollected” amount?  Or is it just an estimated, i.e. invented number?

I note that there’s been some pushback:

“While the stated goal of this vast data collection is to uncover tax dodging by the wealthy, this proposal is not remotely targeted to that purpose or that population,” the letter said. “In addition to the significant privacy concerns, it would create tremendous liability for all affected parties by requiring the collection of financial information for nearly every American without proper explanation of how the IRS will store, protect, and use this enormous trove of personal financial information. We believe that this program is costly for all parties, not fit for purpose, and loaded with potential for unintended and serious negative consequences.”

That’s telling them.  And it will be roundly ignored, as usual.

I don’t even want to talk about the intrusiveness of this motherfucking proposal because it just makes me want to sharpen my bayonet and oil the rope.  As it is, my bayonet is sharp enough and if I oil the rope any more, it’ll be too difficult to tie the knot.


(for information purposes only)

At what point do we say, “Enough is enough?”

Asking for a friend.  Read more