Call it the Blizzard of Oz. The Snowstorm of the Century" Monday was supposed to be historic.
All we got was histrionics.
It turned out that the real blustery wind was hot air and the worst accumulation was the knee-deep nanny-state politicians who think some snow warrants a travel ban.
In New York the little man behind the curtain was Governor Andrew Cuomo who as usual provided more bluster than any storm ever could.
I knew the blizzard would be a relative bust. How? Because they often are. Everything is over-hyped today from the weather to entertainment to sports to hopey-changey politicians.
And were getting change alright the kind effected by as C.S. Lewis put it omnipotent moral busybodies" who torment us for our own good and will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
As to this a statewide travel ban in Connecticut began at 9 p.m. (ET) Monday ordered by Governor Dannel Malloy. In my sorry state the Peoples Republic of Nueva York Il Duce II (hat tip: the late Bob Grant who famously christened Andrew Cuomos father Mario Il Duce) prohibited travel in a trove of counties including mine starting at 11 p.m. For snow? Really?
For the record the total snowfall in Central Park NYC was 5.5 inches.
And though it was heavier in some other areas lets get something straight: in a supposedly free country you dont tell people they cant travel because of some snow.
(Good test run for martial law though.)
Of course this position finds plenty of opposition nowadays conditioned as people are to be protected puppets of the state. But know that heavy snowfalls arent unusual. During my childhood in the early and mid-70s you know back when they warned us in elementary school of an impending ice age we had impressive blizzards.
No one thought of telling free people they couldnt drive around.
But that was at a time when we actually were something approximating a free" people.
Its not as if the commoners the folks" as BamaCare Barry likes to say cant have good reason to have to travel. There could be on-call obstetricians who have to rush to deliveries (I know doctors in this field) or it could be someone having to help an elderly parent. And there could be other reasons not to mention the tens of millions of dollars ill-conceived travel bans can cost the economy.
We have become a soft people. Kids once might walk great distances to school men marched a hundred miles to fight bloody battles and believe it or not for most of history no one had modern medical care. Now a winter storm means we hunker down as if a Viking raid is nigh.
An even larger issue here is the safety-freak mentality sweeping our secular society and dominating the craniums of callow neo-communists coast to coast. Its reflected in Michelle Obamas food-Nazi agenda the banning of trans-fats and big sodas child-seat and helmet laws and the new commandment Thou shalt ensconce thy progeny in bubble wrap."
And for sure every other nattering-nabob nanny-state notion today is for the children." People are especially incredulous when I dismiss as I did above child-seat and helmet laws. But spare me. Yeah a five-mph national speed limit would save lives too but the real limit we need is on government meddling. I experienced the childhood joys of riding in the back of a station wagon with a bunch of other kids and rode my bike helmet-free. I survived. I know I know better safe than sorry they say. What they" miss is that you can be safe and sorry.
Were also supposed to believe our omnipotent moral busybodies care about us deeply. But I could echo here Rodney Dangerfields reaction after a loud exchange with a mentally unhinged professor in the film Back to School. Yeah our leftist politicians really care.
About what I have no idea.
Cuomo and the rest of his ilk are so concerned about our well-being theyre going to save us from ourselves.
These are the same people who cant shriek loudly enough for the killing of intrauterine babies.
But dont dare increase your childs risk of death even one iota after hes born by failing to use a child seat or not providing a bicycle helmet. Thatll be a ticketing. For your own good were going to liberate some cash from your wallet.
That reminds me of what I now call police: revenuers. Yeah I know there are good cops." I hear about them all the time. Oh dont get me wrong Im fair; I defended in print Ferguson officer Darren Wilson and other impugned police as much as anyone. And I thoroughly admire Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Oath Keeper crew. But dont kid yourself: like most people the average cop is a low-info voter. Just like the Nassau County NY police who obediently did their masters bidding and stole $100000-worth of guns and ammo from a citizen just like the New Orleans jackboots who seized firearms from law-abiding residents just when they really needed them in Hurricane Katrinas wake most cops vill follow zee orders vhen zey are handed down. Remember too the Department of Injustice has warned that constitutionalists can be a terror threat. And this Spokane officer who explained why his department needed military equipment certainly got the memo.
I would be remiss if I didnt deepen my little rant by mentioning that all our problems stem from a loss of faith. Just consider our safety-freak mentality. Those who believe in an afterlife may certainly tend to the temple of the soul but they usually dont initiate themselves into the Cult of the Body. When people believe this world is all there is however they can become maniacally obsessed with staying in this world as long as possible. This phenomenons ultimate manifestation is transhumanism" the new movement and aspiration to use technology to transcend being human and extend life" virtually indefinitely. Why it has even been theorized that we may one day be able to upload our consciousness into a computer. (Of course this would imply theres something beyond the brain namely the mind which contradicts the dogma of atheistic psychologists who say there is no such thing. Yet if were not just the organic robots of secularist dreams a question presents itself: why not just wait for your consciousness to be uploaded into the hereafter hopefully Heaven? The worlds Andrew Cuomos might understandably want to delay that upload as long as possible. But now Im getting way too deep for a rant.)
So that explains the popularity of a Dr. Oz. It also explains why were living in Oz with the con man behind the curtain.
Or is our third-millennium location better described as Go Ask Alice in Wonderland when shes 10 feet tall?
Whatever the case Toto were not in Kansas anymore. And Middle America will continue shrinking until we as a people find a heart a brain and some courage.
Call it the Blizzard of Oz. The Snowstorm of the Century" Monday was supposed to be historic.
All we got was histrionics.
It turned out that the real blustery wind was hot air and the worst accumulation was the knee-deep nanny-state politicians who think some snow warrants a travel ban.
In New York the little man behind the curtain was Governor Andrew Cuomo who as usual provided more bluster than any storm ever could.
I knew the blizzard would be a relative bust. How? Because they often are. Everything is over-hyped today from the weather to entertainment to sports to hopey-changey politicians.
And were getting change alright the kind effected by as C.S. Lewis put it omnipotent moral busybodies" who torment us for our own good and will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
As to this a statewide travel ban in Connecticut began at 9 p.m. (ET) Monday ordered by Governor Dannel Malloy. In my sorry state the Peoples Republic of Nueva York Il Duce II (hat tip: the late Bob Grant who famously christened Andrew Cuomos father Mario Il Duce) prohibited travel in a trove of counties including mine starting at 11 p.m. For snow? Really?
For the record the total snowfall in Central Park NYC was 5.5 inches.
And though it was heavier in some other areas lets get something straight: in a supposedly free country you dont tell people they cant travel because of some snow.
(Good test run for martial law though.)
Of course this position finds plenty of opposition nowadays conditioned as people are to be protected puppets of the state. But know that heavy snowfalls arent unusual. During my childhood in the early and mid-70s you know back when they warned us in elementary school of an impending ice age we had impressive blizzards.
No one thought of telling free people they couldnt drive around.
But that was at a time when we actually were something approximating a free" people.
Its not as if the commoners the folks" as BamaCare Barry likes to say cant have good reason to have to travel. There could be on-call obstetricians who have to rush to deliveries (I know doctors in this field) or it could be someone having to help an elderly parent. And there could be other reasons not to mention the tens of millions of dollars ill-conceived travel bans can cost the economy.
We have become a soft people. Kids once might walk great distances to school men marched a hundred miles to fight bloody battles and believe it or not for most of history no one had modern medical care. Now a winter storm means we hunker down as if a Viking raid is nigh.
An even larger issue here is the safety-freak mentality sweeping our secular society and dominating the craniums of callow neo-communists coast to coast. Its reflected in Michelle Obamas food-Nazi agenda the banning of trans-fats and big sodas child-seat and helmet laws and the new commandment Thou shalt ensconce thy progeny in bubble wrap."
And for sure every other nattering-nabob nanny-state notion today is for the children." People are especially incredulous when I dismiss as I did above child-seat and helmet laws. But spare me. Yeah a five-mph national speed limit would save lives too but the real limit we need is on government meddling. I experienced the childhood joys of riding in the back of a station wagon with a bunch of other kids and rode my bike helmet-free. I survived. I know I know better safe than sorry they say. What they" miss is that you can be safe and sorry.
Were also supposed to believe our omnipotent moral busybodies care about us deeply. But I could echo here Rodney Dangerfields reaction after a loud exchange with a mentally unhinged professor in the film Back to School. Yeah our leftist politicians really care.
About what I have no idea.
Cuomo and the rest of his ilk are so concerned about our well-being theyre going to save us from ourselves.
These are the same people who cant shriek loudly enough for the killing of intrauterine babies.
But dont dare increase your childs risk of death even one iota after hes born by failing to use a child seat or not providing a bicycle helmet. Thatll be a ticketing. For your own good were going to liberate some cash from your wallet.
That reminds me of what I now call police: revenuers. Yeah I know there are good cops." I hear about them all the time. Oh dont get me wrong Im fair; I defended in print Ferguson officer Darren Wilson and other impugned police as much as anyone. And I thoroughly admire Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Oath Keeper crew. But dont kid yourself: like most people the average cop is a low-info voter. Just like the Nassau County NY police who obediently did their masters bidding and stole $100000-worth of guns and ammo from a citizen just like the New Orleans jackboots who seized firearms from law-abiding residents just when they really needed them in Hurricane Katrinas wake most cops vill follow zee orders vhen zey are handed down. Remember too the Department of Injustice has warned that constitutionalists can be a terror threat. And this Spokane officer who explained why his department needed military equipment certainly got the memo.
I would be remiss if I didnt deepen my little rant by mentioning that all our problems stem from a loss of faith. Just consider our safety-freak mentality. Those who believe in an afterlife may certainly tend to the temple of the soul but they usually dont initiate themselves into the Cult of the Body. When people believe this world is all there is however they can become maniacally obsessed with staying in this world as long as possible. This phenomenons ultimate manifestation is transhumanism" the new movement and aspiration to use technology to transcend being human and extend life" virtually indefinitely. Why it has even been theorized that we may one day be able to upload our consciousness into a computer. (Of course this would imply theres something beyond the brain namely the mind which contradicts the dogma of atheistic psychologists who say there is no such thing. Yet if were not just the organic robots of secularist dreams a question presents itself: why not just wait for your consciousness to be uploaded into the hereafter hopefully Heaven? The worlds Andrew Cuomos might understandably want to delay that upload as long as possible. But now Im getting way too deep for a rant.)
So that explains the popularity of a Dr. Oz. It also explains why were living in Oz with the con man behind the curtain.
Or is our third-millennium location better described as Go Ask Alice in Wonderland when shes 10 feet tall?
Whatever the case Toto were not in Kansas anymore. And Middle America will continue shrinking until we as a people find a heart a brain and some courage.