The Curmudgeon

It is with no small amount of sad amusement that the Curmudgeon notes that the SCOTUS decision concerning second amendment rights has the bloomers of left blogsylvania in a serious bunch. The biggest twist, around which the larger knot no doubt forms, is that in another topical issue- the fourth amendment- the wad spins the other way.

On the drool-and-crayon side of the spectrum, they're holding a goddamn parade about the former issue and eerily quiet on the latter.

One could probably expect as much, from both sides.

The Curmudgeon sees a larger, underlying question with these issues- namely, the extent to which the federal government may modify or limit our inherent rights as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights- and notices the inconsistent, and to some degree disingenuous, responses across the spectrum. A preliminary answer to that larger question would be to guarantee and rigorously defend those rights from the government.

That means that it should be damn difficult for the government to surveil, search, or seize individual citizens, and in any case, that process must be done in an open and fully accountable manner. None of this "but 9-11 changed everything" pissy pants, cowardly hand-wringing, none of the "but I ain't got shit to hide" bullshit: giving an institution even a small crack in power over the people on this front guarantees that power will be abused. The whole "security vs liberty" argument is a massive canard, and this Curmudgeon is not afraid to call it such. Sacrificing everyone's liberty for an illusory security is not some sort of grand compromise, it rather ensures a society in which there will be little liberty and the same old fear driving insecurity. You want security? Check yourself into a prison.

A rigorous defense of our inherent rights also means that the citizenry should be able to defend itself on a par with entities which would bear malice against it. That would include not only a foreign enemy, but also a government which has become tyrannous, as well as corporate, private mercenary groups.

In particular, the Curmudgeon draws attention to a particularly disingenuous line of bullshit trotted out by MNObserver at The Cucking Stool; namely, that the right to bear arms was limited by the founders to the sort of firearms available at the time of its framing. It is shameful rhetoric, just as disgusting as a parallel sort of argument ("Should the poor really have the right to vote? It's not like they own land...") from the fascist contingent.

The Curmudgeon would have MNObserver note that the time it was written, the second amendment put the citizenry on a roughly equal footing as an army would have. Over the decades, that equilibrium of power has become seriously, seriously imbalanced. Now, the government and its agents have a vast array of lethal and quasi-lethal weaponry at its disposal which are abjectly denied the people, and the people, well, the big argument here and now is about whether we as individual citizens are just too damn incompetent to be trusted with freaking handguns.

Here's the thing about rights: any one individual may prize one right more than another right, and that varies from individual to individual. One person may prize their right to be secure in their person and papers far more than the right to bear arms; that person is not under any compulsory obligation to bear arms. Another person may prize their firearms, and is less concerned about having their conversations with their doctor surveilled; that person is under no compulsory obligation to keep such things private.

At the end of the day, it is just as important to secure the rights for the one as for the other. And damn us all if it is not high time for both the left and the right to recognize that fact.

Damnit, what an absolutely sucktastic way to start a week. The news that George Carlin had died was the first bit of news the Curmudgeon got this morning.

A string of profanity followed.

Honestly, though, if one had seen any of his recent stuff, one could tell Carlin was not looking to be long for the world. The upside of that was that if anything, Carlin became more fearless with his material.

The downside, well, today is the downside.

In a matter which can only be described as synchronicity, Spotty today discussed a measure of a person:

Spot says that one good measure of a person is to watch whom they ridicule. If a person makes fun of the comfortable, the pompous, or the sanctimonious, chances are that he or she is a good egg, somebody you'd like to know.

On the other hand, if they ridicule the do gooders, the sick or dispossessed, or the poor, you've probably identified, well, an asshole.

It is a rule that is virtually foolproof.

While Spotty went on to discuss two particularly onerous examples of the latter (Katherine 'Turkey Flaps' Kersten and Jim 'WeenieBoy' Lileks), the Curmudgeon would not so humbly assert that Carlin- who afflicted the comfortable and comforted the afflicted with his comedy- was a gold standard of the former.

Yeah, the Curmudgeon knows it is summertime, and summertime is also known as "Slow News Time", which normally culminates in an August where a missing white chick can be a bigger item than the Macarena. The Curmudgeon also recognizes that this August won't be a slow month; it will be filled with China's propaganda parade masquerading as a Summer Olympiad, and endless gibbering bloviation about the party conventions, both Democratic and G.O.P..

HOWEVER, there are nonetheless some 'stories' out there in the news cycle which are more tired than the third-day reprise of a watery chicken noodle soup-de-yesterjour. It is time for these stinking corpses to be left in the boneyard.

- Timmeh Russert is dead. And buried. For the sake of all that does not suck, can the rusty trombone act please end now? I know Chris Matthews is a leather bottom Boo-Boo in search of Daddy Yogi, but for crying out loud, it is time to end this call for canonization of the Pumpkinhead. Tim Russert, Keeper of the Meme, was a swarthy man-whore upon whom this filthy criminal regime could always count for some positive press. That fact alone disqualifies Russert for consideration as a journalist, let alone a sainted one. He's dead, he's buried, let's move on.

-Al Franken was a piss-poor comedian. There no doubt exists vast volumes which document this fact. His stuff was at best 'so-so' the first time around, and this republican carousel of reliving it all again demonstrates only that it didn't age well. As far as the meme that Franken is some kind of Vulgarian- well, expect a Fat Man Ranting to really address that one.

-Bunnypants sucks. He has the anti-Midas touch: call him Shitfinger. And he really, really sucks when he attempts to attend to natural disasters. W is heading to Iowa today, a week late and several billion short, to pretend to be empathetic. He doesn't care, and this criminal indifference is only exacerbated with the pretense otherwise.
For whatever it is worth, the Curmudgeon is off the Impeachment bandwagon. Bunnypants and his cabal of cronies need to be standing in the docket in front of an international court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Curmudgeon sends his warmest regards to all those in California choosing to exercise their rights to get married- gay, straight, and otherwise- today. Marriage is a tougher road than one can possibly imagine, but the risk/reward ratio is nonetheless sufficient.

The 'reward' part of the equation entails a great number of privileges, benefits, and rights which have been denied to the Gay and Lesbian communities for no reason other than they are, well, gay and lesbian. Finally, as a culture, we are slowly awakening to the fact that the previous state of affairs is inherently unfair for no adequate reason.

And the infantile Drool-and-Crayon Crowd will no doubt be soiling themselves double-time over the change. Nevermind that this has next to nothing to do with them. Nevermind that in years past their progenitors decried the idea of miscegenation. This sort of change always riles them.

Really- progress IS inevitable. It can be unbearably slow, frustratingly incremental, but progress does happen. There will be those who can and will attempt to retard, repress, and otherwise avoid any progress- up to and including those who would attempt to regress, but in the end, these attempts result in failure, often giving way to waves of rapid, radical change.

I'd run an independent- a progressive independent- in the US Senate race. Hell, 7 million might get the job done. At the end of that day, the people of Minnesota may end up with a Senator who would advocate for their interests and would have been able to further send a loud message of rejection to the run-of-the-mill political stasis.

Take just a second to ponder that one. No more Norman the Windsock Coleman. No more Al "just jokin'" Franken. We wouldn't have to endure the Republicans' mud-slinging smears and otherwise duplicitous campaigns, no fanciful 'refocused' campaign retorts from the DFL-endorsed Franken.

The only thing that's a safe sure bet is that between November and now, we will be getting a steady stream of Bullshit Republican smear items about Franken, and Franken will be trying to use Coleman's own momentum against him. It will be loud, it'll be incessant, and it will be expensive.

And the results? Very Pyrrhic. Invariably so. Neither candidate will really be able to pass the smell test at the end of the day, but that won't stop 'em from trying.

That is precisely why an independent could enter the picture, and really without doing too much, walk away as an US Senator. With a bar set so low by a battle demonstrating the evil of two lessers, it becomes fairly easy to stand head and shoulders above that fray.