THE POLITICS OF CHASING BOUNCING BALLS

by Thomas Sowell

If you are driving along and suddenly see a big red rubber ball come bouncing out into the street, you might want to put your foot on the brake pedal, because a small child may well come running out into the street after it.

We all understand that an inexperienced young child who has his mind fixed on one thing may ignore other things that are too dangerous to be ignored. Unfortunately, too much of what is said and done in politics is based on the same tunnel vision pursuit of some “good thing,” in utter disregard of the repercussions.

For years, homeownership was a big “good thing” among both liberal Democrats like Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Christopher Dodd, on the one hand, and moderate Republicans like President George W. Bush on the other.

Frank: Ignored all warnings on housing bubble.

Raising the rate of homeownership was the big red bouncing ball that they pursued out into the street, in utter disregard of the dangers.

A political myth has been created that no one warned of those dangers. But among the many who did warn were yours truly in 2005, Fortune and Barron’s magazines in 2004 and Britain’s The Economist magazine in 2003. Warnings specifically about the dangerous roles of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were made by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in 2005 and by Treasury Secretary John W. Snow in 2003.

Many, if not most, of the children who go running out into the street in pursuit of their bouncing ball may have been warned against this by their parents. But neither small children nor politicians always heed warnings.

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MY LAZY SHOTGUN

“Today I swung my front door wide open and placed my Remington 870, in a wheelchair, right in the doorway. I gave it 6 shells, I then left it alone and went about my business.

While I was gone, the mailman delivered my mail, the neighbor boy across the street mowed the yard, new neighbors moved in next door, a girl walked her dog down the street, and quite a few cars stopped at the stop sign right in front of our house.

After about five hours, I checked on the gun. It was still sitting there in the wheelchair, right where I had left it. It hadn’t rolled itself anywhere. It certainly hadn’t killed anyone, even with the numerous opportunities it had been presented to do so. In fact, it hadn’t even loaded itself.

Well you can imagine my surprise, with all the media hype about how dangerous guns are and how they kill people.

Either the media is wrong, and it’s the misuse of guns by PEOPLE that kills people, or I’m in possession of the laziest gun in the world.

Alright, well I’m off to check on my spoons. I hear they’re making people fat.”

– (S) Anonymous

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THE SIMPLE SOLUTION TO MASS SHOOTINGS

A MODEST PROPOSAL

The goal of reducing or preventing mass shootings will never be achieved through gun control measures, so let’s just take that idea off the table right now.

A veritable plethora of statistics exists which substantiate this fact and prove that the most rampant gun violence takes place in regions with the toughest gun laws, so I won’t waste time arguing this dead issue here.

Let’s step away from the subject of guns for a moment and take a closer look at the perpetrators, the trigger pullers who have carried out the most infamous mass shootings of late:

• Ft Hood Shooter: Registered Democrat, Muslim
• Columbine Shooters: Both families were registered Democrats and progressives/liberals
• Virginia Tech Shooter: Wrote hate mail to President Bush and staff, was a registered Democrat
• Colorado Theater Shooter: Registered Democrat, staff worker on Obama campaign, “occupy wall street” participant, progressive/liberal
• Connecticut School Shooter: Registered Democrat, hated Christians, mentally ill

Q: What seems to be the most common connection between these shooters?

A: They were all progressives, liberals, democrats, or some other variety of leftist.

Why is it that the group of perpetrators who stalk and kill movie-goers or who slaughter innocent children in their schools have never included a non-leftist or an NRA member? These same mentally challenged (read retarded and/or psychotic) leftists proffer banning guns for everyone, including the sane, non-leftists among us.

Allowing leftists (especially leftist politicians) to decide how to curb mass shootings is like having a child molester babysit your children.

Some conclude that because of these irrefutable statistics, we should ban all leftists from owning guns, or mandate that all leftists must join the NRA and own a gun. But we must remember, guns don’t kill people, people kill people… especially leftists.

So, these are ignorant, illogical ideas that have no possibility whatsoever of curbing mass shootings. And these shootings are not gun violence. They are violence carried out with guns.

If some crazed killer was bludgeoning people to death with a baseball bat, would we call it baseball bat violence? Of course not because inanimate objects cannot be violent.

The paramount solution is much simpler and strikes directly at the heart of the problem:

Make it illegal for anyone to be a progressive, a liberal, a Democrat or any other variety of leftist within our country’s borders. Label these elements as mentally ill—because they are—and remove them from society so they cannot steal or otherwise possess firearms with which to kill innocent people.

In short, take leftists out of the system and the mass shooting problem will be solved—tout suite!

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Read more great TMQ2 posts on Gun Control

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

Voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders!

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

here

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

 

Usurper Ubangi with his Scarecrow Squaw—the Worst Lady!

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

That ‘somebody’ is Ubangi, our worthless pussy potus!

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

Click on image to enlarge

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

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Flip Flop And Fry

The Democrats took showing their true colors to new depths this week.

After issuing a platform that was on the surface Mid-East neutral but decidedly anti-Israel between the lines, they couldn’t take the heat and couldn’t get out of their own way trying to leave the kitchen.

Realizing how out of touch it was with the electorate they re-instated some of the language the public wanted, at the behest of the Douche-Bag-in-Chief.

The voice vote took three rounds to differentiate the yays from the nays, before the motion to re-instate was carried.

If you heard the audio or saw the video it was clearly a no go, substantiated by the reaction of those present to the results.

It’s also being reported that the decision was made prior to the vote, as the announcement appeared on a teleprompter beforehand.

Not being able to pass muster as themselves, the Democrats needed to put wool on their wolf’s fur and pretend to be what they’re not.

I always thought of myself as an independent but, to paraphrase Scarlett O’Hara, “As God as my witness, I shall never vote for a Democrat again.”

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

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Today’s Toon: THE ILLOGIC OF DINGLE-BARRY

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Tunnels, Guns and Misplaced Liberal Hysteria‏

Tunnels and Terror

“Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is concerned about the national-security implications of tunnels found under our southern border (Rapid Fire, October). But that does nothing to address the root of the problem: the free availability of SHOVELS in the border states, and the unrestricted flow of those SHOVELS into Mexico. Why isn’t she calling for SHOVEL registration, and reporting of multiple SHOVEL purchases [and outlawing certain SHOVELS]? If we were talking about GUNS instead of SHOVELS, she certainly would.” –Joe Filice, Wauchula, FL (From American Legion Magazine, VET VOICE section, December 2011 issue).

Paranoid liberals gripped by their own hysteria are inconsistent with their own political methods, models, and agendas.

I wonder how long it will be before it’s against the law to dig a hole.

Liberals need to learn three things:

1. SHOVELS don’t dig tunnels, people do.
2. GUNS don’t kill people, people do.
3. CONSERVATIVES don’t cause liberal hysteria, liberals do.

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Ann Coulter: LET’S PLAY ‘SPOT THE DEMOCRAT’!

In the greatest party-affiliation cover-up since the media tried to portray Gary Condit as a Republican, the media are refusing to mention the party affiliation of the thieving government officials in Bell, Calif.

There have been hundreds of news stories about Bell city officials’ jaw-dropping salaries. In this poor city on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where the per capita annual income is $24,800 a year, the city manager, Robert Rizzo, had a salary of $787,637.

That’s about twice what the president of the United States makes. (To be fair, Rizzo was doing a better job.)

Rizzo was the highest-paid government employee in the entire country, not counting Maxine Waters’ husband — pending further revelations. With benefits, his total annual compensation, according to the Los Angeles Times, came to $1.5 million a year.

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Ann Coulter: I’LL PASS ON ‘OPTING OUT’

The Democrats’ all-new “opt out” idea for health care reform is the latest fig leaf for a total government takeover of the health care system.

Democrats tell us they’ve been trying to nationalize health care for 65 years, but the first anyone heard of the “opt out” provision was about a week ago. They keep changing the language so people can’t figure out what’s going on.

The most important fact about the “opt out” scheme allegedly allowing states to decline government health insurance is that a state can’t “opt out” of paying for it. All 50 states will pay for it. A state legislature can only opt out of allowing its own citizens to receive the benefits of a federal program they’re paying for.

It’s like a movie theater offering a “money back guarantee” and then explaining, you don’t get your money back, but you don’t have to stay and watch the movie if you don’t like it. That’s not what most people are thinking when they hear the words “opt out.” The term more likely to come to mind is “scam.”

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Ann Coulter: DEMS TO GOP NOMINEES: WILL THE DEFENDANT PLEASE RISE?

Every time a Democrat senator has talked during the Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor this week, I felt lousy about my country. Not for the usual reasons when a Democrat talks, but because Democrats revel in telling us what a racist country this is.

Interestingly, the Democrats’ examples of ethnic prejudice did not include Clarence Thomas, whose nomination hearings began with the Democrats saying, “You may now uncuff the defendant.”

Their examples did not include Miguel Estrada, the brilliant Harvard-educated lawyer who was blocked from an appellate court judgeship by Senate Democrats expressly on the grounds that he is a Hispanic — as stated in Democratic staff memos that became public.

No, they had to go back to Roger Taney — confirmed in 1836 — who was allegedly attacked for being a Catholic (and who authored the Dred Scott decision), and Louis Brandeis — confirmed in 1916 — allegedly a victim of anti-Semitism. 

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Norman Mattoon Thomas

Norman Thomas (1884-1968) was a leading American Socialist, pacifist and six time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.

As a presidential candidate in 1944, he said this in a speech,

“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of “liberalism”, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation without knowing how it happened.”

He later said,

“I no longer need to run as a presidential candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democrat Party has adopted our platform.”

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