Assorted

     Welcome to June, the traditional month for weddings – the heterosexual kind – and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It’s also a fine month for having the roof ripped off one’s house and replaced by…well, by something I’ve been assured will make a much better roof. And of course, every month is a good month to remind my Gentle Readers that politics is not the answer.

     L. Neil Smith, noted science fiction writer, once exhorted his audience to ask any politician they might corner in public, “How do you stand on Bill of Rights enforcement?” I have no idea how well that worked out. For my part, I avoid politicians; their disease may be contagious. But the notion of concentrating freedom lovers’ forces on a single line of attack is a good one. Ask Anheuser-Busch and Target.

     Yesterday, it was reported that a small group of Republican legislators had publicly opposed the “compromise” debt ceiling / appropriations bill:

     Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL, Miami-Dade), Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY), Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY), Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), Rep. Mike Lawler (R-(NY), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL), Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are just some of the Republican congressmen who have been outspoken in their support of the deal.

     My reaction to learning this was “Oh, so they got permission, did they?”

     The indispensable Sundance comments dourly, but with dead-center-bull’s-eye accuracy:

     If you peel the core of any issue involving conflict with the Republican Party, you will find money at the center of it. Current Democrat politicians focus on advancing an ideological agenda; they swing for the fences in an effort to maximize control and power. Current Republican politicians are focused, to the detriment of all other facets, on their personal wealth.

     When you introduce a newly elected ‘conservative‘ to the DC world of republicanism, it is like sending a new guy/gal into the room to talk policy, only to be met with every face around the table staring back quizzically and dismissively while replying, “We don’t do that here – we are talking about money.”

     Once you reset the Schoolhouse Rocks mindset and accept this is the truth of the thing, then everything else that puzzled you about Republican politics reconciles.

     Ballot harvesting doesn’t generate money, so why do it? We can make just as much money in the minority railing against ‘them’, so why be focused on a majority? Donald Trump is threatening the financial position of our benefactors, so we hate him. These are the simple truths of modern Republicans.

     I could not have put it better. Once a particular course of action has been blessed by the GOP’s Inner Party, that course becomes inexorable. To preserve the fiction that “We’re the party that fights for your rights,” token opposition will be permitted…as long as it doesn’t endanger the flow of dollars into the party’s coffers. Don’t expect anything more.

     A fellow whose name I’ve managed to lose once commented that when criminals are permitted to use violence freely while law-abiding citizens are penalized for defending themselves and their property, the criminals have become an arm of the State. This is the case today. Owing to the jury system, there are occasional exceptions, such as George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse. But never fear: your rulers are working to remove that obstacle to their plans as we speak.

     In any event, stories such as this one are commonplace today:

     BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Two pro-life supporters were attacked outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Baltimore on Friday morning, police said.

The attack happened just before 10:30 a.m. at the clinic along North Howard Street, according to police. The two victims are both men, 73 and 80 years old.

     When police arrived, several witnesses told officers that two people had been assaulted, and the more severely injured man was inside a local business….

     Police said they were able to see security camera video of the attack. The video shows the suspect charging Crosby and knocking him into a flower pot, according to police. The second victim rushed in to help Crosby, but was shoved to the ground.

     Officers said the suspect then continued to punch and kick Crosby.

     This has become commonplace. Legal action against the assailants in such cases seldom comes to anything. Interpret according to your preferences.

     Public outrage over the increasingly aggressive tactics of the Perverts Unanimous community has found some new voices – a pair of professional baseball players:

     MLB pitcher Trevor Williams, a devout Catholic, called for a boycott of the Los Angeles Dodgers Tuesday after the organization decided to re-invite a blasphemous group of “drag queens” to its Pride Night event this June.

     “To invite and honor a group that makes a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion, and the religion of over 4 million people in LA county alone, undermines the values of respect and inclusivity that should be upheld by any organization,” said Williams, a starting pitcher for the Washington Nationals, in a statement posted on social media Tuesday.

     Williams argued that Major League Baseball games are a “place where people from all walks of life should feel welcomed” and urged the Dodgers to “reconsider” their association with the anti-Catholic group….

     The Dodgers’ star pitcher Clayton Kershaw has also expressed disappointment in his team’s decision to honor the group of anti-Catholic cross-dressers.

     Williams and Kershaw have exhibited unusual courage in standing forth this way. A Toronto Blue Jays pitcher, Anthony Bass, has been disciplined by his team and forced to apologize publicly for opposing the obscene and blasphemous “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” and the Dodgers’ inclusion of them in their “Pride Night” celebration.

     Time was, sports offered a refuge from the madness rampant in the larger world. No longer.

     Here’s something to scare you right out of your socks: a federal proposal to address loneliness:

     U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently released an advisory titled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.” It warns that social isolation is a major public health problem. The 81-page document presents six government-directed “pillars” of action to address the health hazards of social isolation.

     On the surface, these six directives may look innocuous, but they present a clear and present danger to the autonomy of our private lives and relationships. The project is potentially so massive in scope that it’s not an overstatement to say it threatens to regulate our freedom of association in ways we never could have imagined.

     Please read it all.

     Government-engineered social inclusion! Gee, how well did that work out for the Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge? What about the Tanzanians under Julius Nyerere?

     TANU believes that everybody who loves his nation has a duty to serve it by co-operating with his fellows in building the country for the benefit of all the people of Tanzania. In order to maintain our independence and our people’s freedom we ought to be self-reliant in every possible way and avoid depending upon other countries for assistance. If every individual is self-reliant ten-house cell will be self-reliant; if all the cells are self-reliant the whole ward will be self-reliant; and if the wards are self-reliant the District will be self-reliant. If the Districts arc self-reliant, then the Region is self-reliant, and if the Regions are self-reliant, then the whole nation is self-reliant and this is our aim.

     TANU recognizes the urgency and importance of good leadership. But we have not yet produced systematic training for our leaders; it is necessary that TANU Headquarters should now prepare a programme of training for all leaders – from the national level to the ten-house cell level – so that every one of them understands our political and economic policies. Leaders must set a good example to the rest of the people in their lives and in all their activities. [source]

     The “ten-house cell” was a mechanism for enforcing absolute compliance in word and deed on all Tanzanians. To do that, you had to bring them together regularly. Anyone found to have deviated from the TANU line was shouted into submission by the rest of the gathering. No excuses for absence were accepted.

     But of course it would be different here, wouldn’t it, Citizen Bacillus? The federal government really cares about us. After all, the proposal is coming from the Surgeon-General, so it must be about our health. Something to do with it, anyway.

     Anyone who can swallow that after the COVID-19 atrocity is beyond my power to help.

     That’s all for the morning, Gentle Reader. Shortly there will be workmen buzzing about this place like a swarm of angry hornets, though I’m not sure hornets would do as much damage. Anyway, have a good First of June – to anyone getting married today, congratulations! – and perhaps you can stand one more reminder: