CSotD: Points of Order*
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*Someone will observe that these are not points of order but points of personal privilege. However, (A) I’ve already used that gag, (B) everything I write is a point of personal privilege and (C) go tell yer mudder she wants you.
We’ll start with an easy one: Jeff Stahler (AMS) offers a comparison between today’s hostile, paranoid streets and the Wild West, but if you put Ned Buntline and the dime novels aside in favor of history, you’ll find that even towns like Tombstone and Abilene that had flare-ups of violence also tended to have laws against open carry, concealed carry and carry in general.
Even Elfego Baca — who made the Earp brothers look like a Brownie troop and was, in the euphemism of the Hollywood Argyles, “a mean motor-scooter and a bad go-getter,” — wound up as an attorney, served in some political positions and was, once things settled down a bit, a good citizen.
More to the point, when he walked around town armed, he was wearing a badge. Cowboys coming in off drives may have wanted to collect their pay and go on a drunk, but first they were required to check their hardware with the local authorities.
I reckon these here fellas would feel out of place because they were the only ones with a lick o’ sense and empty holsters.
Normally, I’d object to Ed Hall’s cartoon about the North Carolina legislature overriding a veto in order to pass a law against women’s right to choose, since it’s yet another variant on Ann Telnaes’s oft-copied 2017 cartoon.
Which it still is, but I’m giving him a pass because the shape of North Carolina on the map makes it irresistible and he did a nice job of mashing up the map and the elephant.
When I went to hunt up Telnaes’s original, I happened across a story about a woman in Texas who copied it for a yard sign in 2018, encouraging people to vote. A Republican politician reported her to the police who confiscated the sign.
In case you thought anti-First Amendment authoritarian crybaby stuff was new.
Speaking of Telnaes — the Elfego Baca of political cartoonists — she hasn’t mellowed out or given up, and here calls out the Republican bullies on their dishonest approach to repression.
Conservatives like to oppose every reform proposal by citing the danger of a “slippery slope,” but they sure did grease the slide on this one, and not only are they not ashamed of themselves, but they’re campaigning proudly about it. Which is, I think, the definition of “shameless.”
The whole world is indeed watching, by the way, and Pat Hudson chimes in from Australia, proving perhaps that sometimes people can clearly from a distance.
We’ll see how the war on women plays to the electorate, and I’m optimistic enough, and realistic enough, to object to Kal Kallaugher (Counterpoint)’s surrender to sagging poll numbers and the call he made in his Facebook comments for Biden to step aside.
I’ll grant you that a lot of people who like Biden only wanted him to serve one term, settle things down after the chaos of the Trump administration, and then step aside. I was one of them.
But the question is, step aside in favor of whom?
I’m not sure it matters, which is the optimistic part, because, assuming Trump is the GOP candidate, I expect Gen Z’s and women to vote against him, no matter who is on the Democratic ticket.
Which is also the realistic part: I don’t expect anyone to vote against Biden who wasn’t going to vote against him anyway.
As for the poll numbers, I’ve lost faith in polls, and not simply because I don’t know how many people — especially those under 40 — answer polls anymore.
I also think that, if the Republicans spend three years telling us how much we hate Biden and progressives keep bemoaning the “fact” that nobody likes him, it’s bound to have an effect when those who do answer polls are asked how they feel about the guy.
Which may be reflected at the polls in 2024, but, at this stage, it’s like wondering how well your parachute was packed after you’ve already stepped out of the plane.
Dick Wright suggests that Robert Kennedy Jr may steal the nomination from Biden. This is probably true somewhere, but I’m trying to focus on the presidential campaign on this planet, and, if you think Ron de Santis managed to tank his candidacy in a hurry, wait until Bobby opens his mouth in front of a national audience.
He’d have a better chance running for the GOP nomination. If nothing else, he’d get the votes of people who think his cousin John-John is hiding in the basement of that pizzeria.
I rarely disagree with David Rowe, and so I’m hoping he’s only commenting on Australian PM Anthony Albanese’s disappointment that Biden canceled his visit there to come home and deal with the pending credit default debacle, not on the decision itself. The priority in this case is unmistakable.
In fact, Australia would do well to hope we get things straightened out, since they would be doubly impacted by a collapse of our economy and the resulting boost to the yuan, China being a closer neighbor in geography but not in philosophy.
My sympathy, rather, is with New Guinea, also cut out of Biden’s itinerary. This was the closest they’d ever had to a presidential visit; even PT 109 was stationed in the Solomons, 1800 km away.
Albanese has had to cancel a dinner; Papua had to cancel a national holiday.
Meanwhile, back in the Mother Country, they’re discovering the value of immigrants, though I think Matt is being a bit harsh in referring to an aversion to back-breaking, exhausting work as “laziness.”
On the other hand, he’s closer to the mark than Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who is calling upon Britons to be trained to pick fruit, which is as much respect as she’s offered immigrants in a very long time.
How much classroom time do Brits need to master “Grasp fruit. Do not crush. Put fruit in basket”?
Not that Christian Adams gives his fellow countrymen a lot of credit for good judgement.
There are ways to get harvesting done. In Aroostook County, Maine, school is suspended and everyone goes out into the fields to dig potatoes, and have for years.
Perhaps Suella could offer immigrants a chance to harvest a few berries before she packs them off to Rwanda.
Sigh. I prefer my bad guys to be “bad” in the good sense.
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