Grand Rants

Sometimes a Poptart Is Just a Poptart

Stoutcat — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:36:56 +0000

Or, One-Size-Fits-All Rules Really Don’t

In the past week we’ve had some stellar (and dreadful) examples of “one size fits all” rules being broken, and the sheer idiocy and loss of life that can result.

Case in point #1: A small boy nibbles a Pop-Tart, trying to make it look like a mountain. Being a 2nd-grader, it ends up looking not so much like a mountain, but rather somewhat like a gun (photo here, you decide; it looks rather like Idaho to me). Teacher promptly suspends child for two days, because, according to Fox News:

“[A] student used food to make an inappropriate gesture.”

I’ve got yer inappropriate gesture right here, folks.

Case in point #2: A teen who should be hailed as a hero is, of course, suspended from school. The boy and two classmates tackled another student who was pointing a loaded gun at yet another student.

“I think he was really going to shoot him right then and there,” said the suspended student, not identified by WFTX because of safety concerns. “Not taking no pity.”

The student said the suspect, a football player, threatened to shoot a teammate because he had been arguing with his friend…

That’s when, the teen told the station, he and two others tackled the suspect and wrestled the gun away. The next day, all three were suspended.

Case in point #3: In this one, strict adherence to the rules led to the death of an 87-year-old woman. In Bakersfield, CA, an elderly woman collapsed at her retirement home. A staff nurse called 9-1-1 for assistance, and the dispatcher determined that the woman wasn’t breathing and required immediate CPR in order to survive until the ambulance arrives.

[The dispatcher] pleads for the nurse to perform CPR, and after several refusals she starts pleading for her to find a resident, or a gardener, or anyone not employed by the home to get on the phone, take her instructions and help the woman.

“Can we flag someone down in the street and get them to help this lady?” Halvorson says on the call. “Can we flag a stranger down? I bet a stranger would help her.”

Not only did the nurse refuse to give CPR, she also refused to ask anyone else, even outside the home, to assist. As a result, the elderly woman died.

Folks, I just don’t know where to begin here. We as a culture are rapidly losing the ability to think for ourselves, to make the tough choices, to stand up for what is right — see Case in Point#2 for what happens when you actually do the right thing.

Common sense and the ability to do the right thing are being educated out of our children, regulationed out of our professionals, and bred out of our natures.

Society now has so many guidelines and regulations now that inhibit independent thinking, that stifle creativity, that punish good deed doers. That these rules are applied across the board, without thinking, and apparently without either common sense or compassion bodes ill for the future of society.

The present isn’t looking all that hot right now, either.

Stoutcat

Remembering Our Happy Warriors

Stoutcat — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:10:12 +0000

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Andrew Breitbart, the quintessential happy warrior of the contemporary Conservative blogosphere. Others who knew him will do a better job of memorializing him. Although I never met Mr. Breitbart, I greatly admired him for his intelligence, his humor, his moxie, and his staunch defense of Conservative prinicples. I think one of the purest example of of his combination of humor, cojones, and all-out brains came when he wandered into a press converence meant for Anthony Weiner, former Congressman from NY (and currently best know for Tweeting inappropriate photos to the world at large) and basically took over and defended himself against allegations then-Rep. Weiner had made against him. It is pure 24-carat gold however you look at it. This is our happy warrior at his very best and brightest.

Mr. Breitbart is not our only lost warrior, however. As I reflect on the loss of his Conservative voice, I can’t help but remember a few other clarion voices gone far too soon.

Cathy Seipp was probably the best writer you’ve never heard of. A first-class writer and blogger from California, Ms. Seipp passed away in 2007 from lung cancer, which, as she was a non-smoker was both tragic and ironic. As she wrote during a period of remission, “I just want to let everyone know having cancer hasn’t made me a better person.” Andrew Breitbart was one of many friends, and he remembered her as a “package of joyful contradiction.” What a fantastic description! Charlotte Hays mentioned her as “ lovely in person and wicked in print.” For me, Ms. Seipp never expressed herself better (or more entertainingly) than when she went head-to-head against uber-liberal Lawrence O’Donnell. I wish the video were available, but you can read about it here and here (scroll down to the “neck-vein popping moment”).

Dean Barnett‘s was one of the first blogs I ever read regularly, and I think it was there that I made my very first blog comment as Stoutcat. I followed his Soxblog from its early days, up until the time he passed away in 2008, finally succumbing to cystic fibrosis. In his blogging career, he wrote very frankly about his illness, but he never let it stop him from climbing up the ladder from small-fry local Sox-fan-blogger to big-time writer for National Review Online, the Weekly Standard, Townhall, and finally as a regular guest host for the mighty Hugh Hewett, whose fans affectionately referred to Dean as “Chowda” for his unmistakable Boston accent. Dean was intensely loyal, strongly conservative, and funny as heck.

He was also a very early, extremely staunch Romney supporter back in 2007. I can’t help thinking that if Dean had still been around in November of last year, we’d be talking about President Romney right now.

We lost our very own Gerry Ashley in January of this year, due to complications from heart surgery and a very aggressive brain tumor. I still can’t say much about him, as my heart is still too sore over his loss. Fortunately, as with the souls mentioned above, the essential Gerry is still available to anyone who cares to hear his voice via his prolific and entertaining writing.

But right now, we’re still trying to deal with the Gerry-shaped hole in our lives where the man himself used to be.

Remember them all with a smile of gratitude, and gear up. We definitely need more happy warriors to rise up to take their places!

Stoutcat

Whoopi Goldberg Would Be Pleased

Stoutcat — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:44:12 +0000

[Content warning: somewhat graphic description in the article quoted below]

After all, it’s not rape rape…

As reported by GlobalPost:

A Swedish court on Thursday overturned a rape conviction for a man who performed a forced “infidelity check” on his girlfriend, prompting calls for rape laws to be changed.

Rachid Zoghlami was convicted of rape and sentenced to two years and eight months in jail in December, after he penetrated his girlfriend with his fingers to determine whether she had been unfaithful.

But a court of appeal in Stockholm ruled that the 28-year-old’s actions were to be viewed as coercion rather than rape since they weren’t driven by “sexual intent”, then reduced his sentence to 18 months behind bars.

Exit question: If I presume that Mr. Zoghlami is a Muslim, am I a) racist b) an Islamaphobe c) Christianist or d) all of the above?

Stoutcat

Riposte

Stoutcat — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:35:35 +0000

SooperMexican does a great job of updating the “So God Made a Farmer” clip by Paul Harvey, most recently seen as a truck commercial in last week’s barnburner of a Super Bowl (even though the Pats didn’t play, it was quite a game).

The genius of SooperMexican brings us, “So God Made a Liberal”.

Enjoy. Share. And follow SuperMexican on Twitter: @SooperMexican

Stoutcat

Saying Goodbye to A Dear Friend

Stoutcat — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 21:01:13 +0000

It is with heartfelt sadness that we report the passing of our friend and co-blogger, Gerry Ashley.

Gerry lost his battle with a brain tumor earlier today after a months-long fight against the growth and emerging lesions on his brain.

We will write more later but right now we are dealing with the grief of losing our dear friend.

May flights of angels (including Carl and Dennis Wilson) sing thee to thy rest, Gerry.

Stoutcat

The Road to Rosario

Stoutcat — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:51:21 +0000

Historian Arthur Herman has a very interesting article at the Fox News website, which discusses the fiscal cliff, sequestration, and recent events in the city of Rosario, Argentina, where the good people have been rioting recently.

While unrest in Argentina is nothing new, Mr. Herman draws a very uncomfortable parallel between the events in Rosario and what is currently happening in this country, and calls out the real culprit, those actual takers: the unstoppably growing public sector economy.

Since 1970, America’s public sector has exploded as a percentage of GDP, rising to almost 25% last year. While the national unemployment rate hovers at the 8% mark, government worker unemployment rate is a cozy 3.8%. Sixteen percent of America’s workforce now work for government. By the time the Obama administration ends, we won’t be that far away from Argentina’s 21 percent.

Yet as an economic and social enterprise, government creates nothing. [emphasis mine]

Far from adding to people’s standard of living, government is the number one cause of poverty in this country. It forces those who depend on its largesse to live hand to mouth, with no time or money to plan for the future. They become unable to fend for themselves—and increasingly resentful of those who can…

Obama and the Democrats are relative newcomers to the game. But Argentina reveals who really suffers when those who create a nation’s wealth get mugged by those who spend it–as just happened this week in Washington.

It’s the poor and the middle class, the very ones big government says it’s trying to protect.

At this point, I diverge with the author, as I have seen no evidence that the Obama administration is actually trying to protect members of the poor and middle classes. The only thing being protected here is the reliably Democrat voting bloc. And that’s happening in the usual way, with ~~bread~~ foodstamps and ~~circuses~~ Obamaphones.

Say what you will about Argentina, especially since the Peron era, the Obamas are no pikers. By the time Obama leaves office, there may not be much in the way of economic difference between America and Argentina.

And then the Obamas will waft away to gracious exile in Hawai’i, leaving the rest of the nation to topple, crash, and burn due in large part to the huge debt and even huger government that they deliberately created.

Rosario may look pretty good in comparison, by then.

Stoutcat

The Wrong Analogy

Stoutcat — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:05:50 +0000

In the months and weeks leading up to the election, I had been thinking about the situation this country is in by likening it to being on a crashing plane. On the one hand, we had the current pilot who wasn’t able to control the plane, and the fact that it was crashing was due in large part to his piloting incompetence. On the other hand, we had a passenger who had a great deal of piloting experience, who was volunteering to take the controls. In his previous piloting experience, this volunteer had saved another plane from crashing. If we could get him in the pilot seat, well, we may have still crashed–the situation was definitely dire–but there was at least a possibility that we’d end up relatively okay… alive and standing on the wings of the downed plane in the Hudson River, a la Chessley Sullenberger, if you will.

I really thought that our fellow passengers would come to realize our plight, and vote to put an experienced pilot at the controls. But I was wrong. Far far too many of us either don’t see how dire are the straits we are in, or have convinced themselves, despite overwhelming proof to the contrary, that more of the same policies will keep us aloft.

So I have had to re-think my analogy. Now, the plane we are flying in is headed straight toward the Statue of Liberty. It is being piloted by a man who wants to radically transform this country. He knows exactly what he is doing. The cockpit door is locked, and this pilot has Czars and Cabinet Secretaries with boxcutters standing guard. Many of us realize that this is a one-way trip, and that we won’t get out of it without a huge crash and terrible things happening. But once you realize you’re definitely going to crash, the way you crash, well, it matters a great deal.

So here we are, just over half a nation of free-stuff moochers; just under half a nation of Todd Beamers. I’m hoping that all of us Todd Beamers will have the courage to do whatever it takes to avoid having our plane crash into and demolish the most potent symbol of freedom in the world.

And perhaps in the smoking wreckage of some Shanksville, a few people will emerge from the smoldering ruins and begin the arduous task of re-building our nation.

Let’s roll, people.

Stoutcat

At Least There Will Be No Rioting

Stoutcat — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:21:42 +0000

Well, we all saw what just happened.

What’s next? Well, Conservatives and Republicans will prove once again that they are as gracious in defeat as they are in victory. Small comfort, maybe, but it does mean something. And so I congratulate President Obama on his victory, and wish him the very best in guiding our nation for the next four years. I will be praying for him and the country.

So now, it’s time to re-group. Maybe now the press will finally start to cover the stories they should have been covering all along: things like Fast & Furious, and more recently, the debacle in Benghazi, and more widely, the President’s disastrously weak foreign policy. Okay, well that gave me a little chuckle anyway.

But it is clear to me that the very notion of America has changed dramatically. We are no longer a center-right nation, and the people have figured out that they can vote themselves bread and circuses.

So be it. It has happened before in world history, and I have no doubt it will happen again. Problem is, this time, it’s happening to us. I don’t want to end up like Greece, with rioting in the streets. I’m not afraid, but I don’t want it to happen here.

What I am afraid for is our Constitution. Four more years of President Obama means at least two more Supreme Court justices that he gets to choose. Just think about that for a moment.

Honestly, dear readers, I don’t know what we will be facing over the next four years. But if we can weather them, I can only pray that we will come through them stronger as a nation than before.

Right now, that’s what I’m praying for. Because that’s all I’ve got.

Stoutcat

Vote

Stoutcat — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:38:32 +0000

Vote as if your nation depended on it.

It does.

Stoutcat

In the Voting Booth, Nobody Know’s You’re a Democrat

Stoutcat — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:11:12 +0000

If you’re planning on voting for Mitt Romney, this post is not written for you. It’s written for every would-be Obama voter.

There’s a great article in the Jewish Journal by David Mamet, entitled, “A Note to a Stiff-Necked People“. In it, Mamet asks a series of questions that liberal Jewish parents should be prepared to answer for their children’s sake as they vote for Obama tomorrow. It applies just as well to liberal non-Jewish parents, as well as to any thoughtful voter who is considering casting a ballot for Obama tomorrow. I strongly recomment that you read the entire article, but his closing point is this perfect gem:

“Please remember that we have the secret ballot and, should you, on reflection, vote in secret for a candidate you would not endorse in public, you will not be alone.”

If you’re planning on voting for Obama because you voted for him in 2008, even if you’re not thrilled with his performance, but think maybe another four years will help (it won’t); if you’re voting for him simply because you always vote for the Democrat on the ticket; if you’re voting for him because all your friends are; please stop and think. If you have any hesitation, any doubts at all, you have the opportunity to cast your vote for the man who advocates voting for love of country rather than voting for revenge. And if anybody asks who you voted for, it’s nobody’s business but yours.

You will not be alone, I guarantee it.

Stoutcat