It is said that when the foundation has been destroyed, it is truly the end.
Yesterday, around 1630 PST, the last of the concrete from the Midway Drive-In theater in Kent, Washington was processed into my company’s recycling facility.
Lights out happened years ago, but with the removal of the concrete it is truly the end.
So long, Midway.
The evolution of the concept of “government� has had a long, tortuous history. Some glimmer of the government’s proper function seems to have existed in every organized society, manifesting itself in such phenomena as the recognition of some implicit (if often non-existent) difference between a government and a robber gang – the aura of respect and of moral authority granted to the government as the guardian of ‘law and order’ – the fact that even the most evil types of government found it necessary to maintain some semblance of order and some pretense at justice, if only by routine and tradition, and to claim some sort of moral justification for their power, of a mystical or social nature.
Just as the absolute monarchs of France had to invoke “The Divine Right of Kings�, so the modern dictators of Soviet Russia have to spend fortunes on propaganda to justify their rule in the eyes of their enslaved subjects.
Ayn Rand: The Nature of Government – 1965
Well, I didn’t know this, but Rivrdog informs us all that today is the birthday of the Marine Corps. Happy Birthday, USMC!
Thanks to the magic of my DVR, I sat down today over lunch to watch Monday’s excellent NewsHour interview with Gen. Peter Pace, the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first Marine ever to be Joint Chiefs Chair. I came away with mixed feelings.
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I have been doing my best to not delve into the realm of schadefrunede on the topic of the Francallujian riots, but two weeks of holding back is about all I can handle. So here are a couple quick thoughts to get them out of my head.
We need to send Monsieur John Kerry over there as the US Special Envoy to help with the surrender negotiations.
Now that the world can finally see what racists bastards the French truly are, do the members of the American Left still think we need to be more like them?
Speaking of the American Left, I have noticed that they have said little to nothing about the riots themselves other than 1. To remind their own that the rioters are poor wittle victims who deserve to burn some shit or, 2. To heap derision onto the right for attempting to remind people which religion the majority of the rioters belong to.
When day 21 comes around I’ll probably have more to say on the subject, but until then, I’ll just sit back in the cut and hope that no more innocent bystanders get hurt in the violence.
Well, other than the magnum load of gloating and condescension from local Dems resulting from their wins at the polls on Tuesday, life is returning to its normal slog here in the Seattle/King County area.
Listen carefully and you can hear the sound of change whistling through Washington politics. The anti-government, anti-community principle that dominated our state since the passage of the car-tab initiative in 1999 is taking a notable break or becoming passé.
Passé would be good. We have much to do if we are to keep our state livable.
The effect of the initiative’s defeat, a measure that served as a ratings gimmick for two yappety talk-radio hosts, is obvious and novel all at once.
The failure of Initiative 912, which would have repealed a 9.5-cent gas-tax increase approved by the Legislature, means the angry, populist uprising dominant in recent years can be pushed back if surpassed by voters’ self-interest to accomplish something. The money is designed to pay for badly needed road and bridge projects throughout the state.
And now we’re back to the leftist lie from the beginning of the passage of the tax that said new gas tax is going to fix things. After all, the new tax was passed with the ‘Emergency Clause’, so it must be badly needed, right?
What this giddy biddy doesn’t realize is that she has been lied to.
Well, not actually lied to. It is hard to lie to someone so ignorant of the facts and hard up for a reason to hate those who feel they’re being taxed too much already and that said heavy taxes are being wasted by the state.
Maybe, just maybe, she should also read her own damn paper once in a while.
The defeat of Initiative 912 unlocks an $8.5 billion tax package and clears the way for hundreds of transportation projects around the state. But don’t expect work to start soon on the Alaskan Way Viaduct or other multibillion-dollar projects in the Seattle area.
The state and city are still arguing over whether to rebuild the viaduct or replace it with a tunnel. And even with the gas-tax increase, there’s not enough money to replace the Highway 520 floating bridge or fix all the congestion problems on Interstate 405. The central Puget Sound region will eventually have to come up with extra cash.
I guess that Ms. Balter likes to be ignorant of what is really happening. But then again, she’s one of those ‘progressives’ and we all know that they like to feel informed and intelligent, but are afraid of actually being informed and intelligent.
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Shocked I tell you, that Jerry the Geek was able to find such a blatant example of gay bashing on the campus of a Pacific Northwest University campus.
On Monday I made up for the fact that I missed posting tunage last week.
Freddyboomboom stopped on by and left a cool link in the comments to what I like to call “An Utter Freakout� that you should really watch
Notice: While the video linked above is safe, as per Freddy’s warning, not everything on that site is safe for work/kids, so be warned.
FYI: When I said that mindless pop will set you free, it is my opinion that the guy in the vid a little too free, if you know what I mean.
If you like the tune in the video, it will remain available on Monday’s post until midnight tonight.
As for new music today, I am putting that off until something I have planned for the day of remembrance and respect tomorrow.
In accordance with the choice of the majority of the citizenry of San Francisco to voluntarily disarm themselves in their own homes…..
Man’s rights can be violated only by the use of physical force. It is only by means of physical force that one man can deprive another of his life, or enslave him, or rob him, or prevent him from perusing his own goals, or compel him to act against his own rational judgment.
If some “pacifist� society renounced the retaliatory use of force, it would be left helplessly at the mercy of the first thug who decided to be immoral. Such a society would achieve the opposite of its intention: instead of abolishing evil, it would encourage and reward it.
Ayn Rand: The Nature of Government – 1963
Well, the voting’s done, so the silly season is now over. Time to get back to the serious stuff.
I’ve read AK’s By Ourselves, For Ourselves series with interest, as well as Rivrdog’s Paratus blog, and I’m wondering if either of these fine gentlemen (or perhaps one of RNS’s excellent readers) could answer the following question.
In William C. Heine’s 1970s novel Death Wind (also published as The Last Canadian and The Last American) about a killer virus that wipes out almost everyone in the Americas…
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To the newest member of the RNS crew, David.
He did such a damn fine job while I was away last week that I extended an offer of staying on here and he was kind enough to accept.
So make sure to keep your eyes peeled for his posts. I’m sure you’ll be impressed when he gets his groove on around here.
I’ll be getting a contact addy for him up on the side bar here in a few, until then, feel free to send you messages to the RNS Gmail addy and I’ll forward them on.
