Am I Supposed To Care?

Geez, the lead story on radio news---a basketball player is gay, and even said so!    Oh, and is anyone surprised that there are gay people in pro sports?  Well, I am not surprised, or much interested.

The curious thing to me i why "the White House" has to weigh in on it.   But then I couldn't believe it when Congress got all up in private business during the baseball strike, long ago, and several other serious national professional sports emergencies.

That's tax money.  Is it worth it to most people to spend money, paying Jay Carney to announce Obama's pronouncement about how we should feel because some guy says he's gay?   Certainly not worth paying Congress to wring their hands over who took perfamance enhancing substances.   Unbe-friggin-lievable.

But I figured it out.  People like myself simply abhor uninvited, unnecessary oversight of their lives and activities, whether we "have anything to hide", or not.   We tend to see that bending rules in the name of safety or the kids or the war on the wind always results in more power in the hands of those already wielding too much power.

Most of the time, if you mind your own business and walk the straight and narrow you can remain relatively unmolested by the voracious authorities.  Not always.

One thing I like about living where I do is that I can be pretty much out in the middle of nowhere in just minutes.  The troubling part is that if you are like me, you sometimes just go out there to be alone.  More alone.  And that must raise red flags.

We've given up the right to be left alone unless they have a good reason to bother you.  I've had sheriffs and highway patrol, and border patrol swagger up to me demanding I justify my existence many times. I'm on public property.  Places made for leaving your car and hiking, or just catching the view.

If I drive twenty miles east on I-8, then turn around I have to go through a check point.  Border patrol, 25 or 30 miles north of the border.  They have them on the back road too.  Sometimes they have a portable check point out here just a couple of miles from home on a road not that traveled.

If they have a reason to stop me, I've yet to be advised of it.  No, the idea is let's prove you no longer beat your wife/dog/husband/baby.  Wait, I never did!  Prove it.

So, what it comes down to is that most people don't view things as I do.  Those in power see the public in terms of "the masses", and the masses are mostly a big mindless herd, given to the behavior of herds. Those governing do not really see themselves on that level.  They are a little better.  If they didn't think so, they'd not make special exemptions for themselves when crafting various rules for the rest of us.

I've concluded that view people can visualize themselves as autonomous beings whose natural rights include a high degree of freedom and self supervision.   They see those who control them and their resource as better and holy.  They want kings and queens and dogmatic priests in various disguises to control them and protect them.  Mostly from themselves.

We won't snap out of this somnambulist march toward a society very much like that in the book 1984 because people refuse to see what's up, and they still sucker for straw causes set up so they can cheer or protest while they are being robbed, fooled, dumbed down, dehumanized.  I like people, but it seems that when it comes to some things, even smart people are really stupid.

If you've been bombarded with lies all your life, truth becomes a various suspicious and unwelcome intruder upon the psyche.  No one wants to wake up and realize that what they thought was true is false.

It cannot have been too hard to get the bandwagon in motion so that many who question or bemoan over regulation and a super powerful governing set up have mostly been classed as kooks, and even security threats.  That is a coup.  Those who believe in the least violence and coercion are labelled just the opposite.  And because no one wants to be thought a kook, people go along.

Never have I seen such blatant propaganda in use to increase power.   Many have been shameless in using Sandy Hook, Boston, and other events to grab a few minutes in the limelight.  Hijack the tragedy or crisis, then use it to further the power of government over people, and pretend it is out of compassion.  Not buying it.

We are the only species who will run people off of family farms and such if they are in the way--  Eminent domain---but we'll completely kill needed projects for humans if there is a hint of risk to the habitat of another species.  That sucks.  I'm not saying ignore everything, or that making a mess is OK. That is different.  Often the species in question is not a real issue.  I have seen perfect examples of it.

The problem is there is very little ground which is neither blunderingly abusive to people and other things nor ridiculously misanthropic nonsense.  All or nothing is how many people see it.  You're either for stripping the earth of all beauty and purity, or you think humans have no right here, unless maybe the bears say it is OK.  I hate that attitude of no third view.

Same goes if I say I think the democratic party is not the way.   Oh, so then you're a republican--and they'll throw some evil republican thing at me--so you think that is fine?  Geez.  Both parties have robbed people of their self respect, their money, even opportunity, and they never stop making big problems then rushing in to claim they "are fighting" to solve the problem.  What a deal.

If you grew up too late to taste a bit more freedom, and it may depend when and where your parents grew up as well, you are unlikely to react much as the long arm of the law squeezes a little tighter.

How could I expect people to have better sense?  We've been fighting wars since WWII, sixty years or so, with no real resolve, conflicting excuses for the wars, and little if anything positive to show for it.   Yet it seems that people have not been sure enough the wars were garbage or they'd have refused.  Of course, often times, these wars don't affect us personally, so big deal.

That may be why they quit the draft, at least for now.  That VietNam thing almost got out of hand.  They pushed use of the draft about as far as the could manage without a revolt.  Even then, people who hated hippies and flower power collectivists tended to embrace the draft and VN war out of rebellion against them, never fully probing the question of what was the point.

If it ain't defense, forget it.  W says the spread of democracy or freedom is the big deal.  The two are not actually the same.   W is wrong.  Strengthen at home.  Don't lay out a red carpet for non-productive types who jump the border for benefits.  That is just common sense.

They love using the phrase "common sense" when they talk about guns, borders and such but it is meaningless in the context generally used.  I like most foreigners, myself, but riffraff of any stripe is worth filtering out.  We have plenty of seriously undeveloped people running around like rabid dogs as it is.

And even though I like foreigners, I would not throw money in the kitty, and would certainly not force you to, in order to pay their education or other bills, including medical as a welcome for crossing the border.  In a freer economy, with a government that did what it should--protect against force and fraud--this would not be a big issue.

Most of the laws and bills passed are pretend efforts to fix problems created because they don't enforce what ought to be enforced.  They go all zealot when it come to enforcing things that aren't hurting others.  Sorry abortion fanatics, or anti-abortion fanatics, but I include that.  I see your point, but just let it go.  Fight it culturally.  And good luck, the culture is having many other issues as well.

I will compromise and change my previous stance on abortion:  I no longer think it should be permissible up to age 15 years.  I now believe you got to get it before it pops out or the game is off.  It comes out alive then you have no more shot at it.  Never should have been a public issue.  You cannot force your way on such things and promote a free country.

Odd that the biggest supporters of choice also tend to support a gazillion other rights and humanity and money robbing measures.  Makes me think they just do it so the Christians will get worked up and make opposition to their other totalitarian efforts look clownish.  It is working.  Sad to say.

So, it comes down to this.  Too many people are too stupid to want a free society or understand it.  The thugs and gangsters of history, under guise of priests, king and warlords knew this and have controlled the people and culture forever.   Whether a constructive paradigm shift is possible remain to be seen.

Give me a break.  Gay basketball player.   Maybe not an oxymoron, but I'll bet there are dozens in the NBA.  And NFL--except in the NFL they may not be basketball players.  Just ball player, I suppose.  If that i being used as news, it means some truly nefarious activity must be at play in the shadows.  Hey, look over there...

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