By Nathan Barton

Good morning. Fighting off flu-like symptoms, here is a short commentary to end the week. I start out with a real zinger today.  There are lies, and then there are LIES and then there are BIG WHOPPING LIES.  Think this fits into the third category: the Fuehrer baldly states that Americans are better off today than we were in January of 2009, more than five years ago.  He went on in a speech on Monday night to talk about the “Land of Lincoln” and how that proved… something.  Lincoln WAS a quasi-socialist, a tyrant, and an Illinois lawyer, so there is a lot to be proven.

Mama’s Note: Not even those receiving full blown welfare, free medical care and every other subsidy can honestly say they are better off than five years ago. And, unfortunately, there are probably very few of them who even being to understand that it is the theft, the redistribution of wealth and the nanny state that is responsible for that. They’d much rather blame the “rich.” Oh wait… that pretty much includes all of the politicians and a great many of the bureaucrats, in addition to those businesses which profit most from the regulations and theft. Hmmmm. But, of course, they’re not included in “the rich,” as identified by the mainstream media.

California Mayor Cameron Hamilton has some blunt advice for those who are being bullied: “Grow a pair.” “I’m against bullying, but I’m getting damn tired of it being used as a mantra for everything and the ills of the world, when most people have to just grow a pair and stick up for them damn selves,” the Porterville mayor said at a city council meeting last week.  Mama found this and says, ” Self defense instead of whining and blaming everyone else for problems? Imagine that…”  This is, of course, closely related to the epidemic of “offended people” that we have today, which has metastasized into massive claims of hoplophobia and sexism and classism and all the rest.  As I understand it, sometime in the last half century or so, a major genetic modification spread through the Euro-American part of the human race that causes a condition of “thin skin.”  I fear that they think it is a fatal condition: this mayor agrees with Mama Liberty and me.

Mama’s Note: Oh, I don’t think it is genetic, by any means. It is a distortion of the real nature of people. Just as with a pale, super tender skin, some gradual exposure to honest sunlight will develop both tolerance and a nice healthy tan. These thin skinned idiots just need some sunshine.

The Pit Authentic Barbeque restaurant in Durham, North Carolina, has a specialized “No Weapons/No Concealed Firearms” sign prominently displayed at its front entrance. The armed robbers who terrorized workers in the restaurant’s kitchen Sunday night didn’t seem to notice. Of course they didn’t: the robbers went in the back door.  It could have turned into a bloodbath, with both employees and staff, all unarmed, gunned down.  Ironically, this restaurant makes a big deal of its support for disarmament.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne told an audience at the Brookings Institution that he hopes people don’t buy electric models of the Fiat 500 because government mandates are killing the company’s bottom line.  You know things are getting bad on the “regulatory” and nanny state front when this happens.

It isn’t just Fiat Chrysler who is doing something unexpected. It says a lot when a bill’s co-sponsor ends up voting against his own legislation once it’s made its way through the committee carwash process and come out sterile on the other side. That’s what Congressman Justin Amash (R-Mi.) did today, casting a “no” vote against the USA Freedom Act he helped co-sponsor, even though the bill passed the House on a 303-121 vote.  The bill is supposed to cut down on the NSA’s lawlessness and constitutional violations, but the bill reported out of the committee has been gutted into meaningless platitudes.

In what should be a tale out of the Onion, a congressman has suggested that the USPS save money by a mandatory conversion from private mailboxes for all residences to “cluster mailboxes” with anywhere from 10 to 100 people being forced to go to a single location to get their mail: no more home or curb delivery.  The story claims that would make people walk up to a quarter of a mile to get their mail. Which of course means that they don’t really understand what is going on in the real world like the rural west, where we’d be DRIVING one, two, or five miles to the ten-box cluster.  Of course, the environists are all for this, as it would supposedly reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from the USPS vehicles. Never mind what fuel gets burned by the victims of this scheme.  Another congressman rightly claimed this was a Luddite idea.

Mama’s Note: Clearly one of those, “it doesn’t mean what they think it means” situations. The USPS is on the fast track to extinction already, and this would simply push it over the edge. I don’t get much besides junk in the “mailbox” now, and only go to the box when I’m passing on my way to somewhere else, usually about once a week.

I complained about the junk mail the last time I talked to the delivery person and she said she was sorry, but she couldn’t NOT put it in my box… by law. And then she smiled and reminded me that the junk mail actually subsidized all the rest of the mail.

Hmmm… the junk mail I don’t want is subsidizing the junk mail I don’t want and can’t avoid having thrust on me – especially if I want to get the occasional package. Even if you specify FedX or UPS, these companies often hand off the package to the USPS for actual delivery in rural areas. I’m actually looking forward to my first drone delivery from Amazon. 🙂

Will and Jada Smith (the actor) is being investigated by California’s Child Protective Services for having a picture of his daughter (fully clothed and not in contact with anyone) and a 20-year-old family friend without his shirt on.  This smells like someone is trying to get back at him for some of the conservative things he’s said here recently.

Mama’s Note: Yes, it could be that, but I do wonder why anyone would think showing a picture like this to millions of strangers would be a good idea to start with.

In Jacksonville, Florida, the mayor and chief of police announced the installation of surveillance cameras and knocking on 18,000 front doors (without warrants, natch) to collect guns and drugs.  It is to be paid for with money stolen from those arrested in the war on some drugs.  It seems that the “good citizens” of Jacksonville are much like the people of ancient Israel, willing to sell themselves into slavery, to be paid for by their own money.  But at least (for now, I guess) the cops won’t be knocking on the doors with battering rams while wearing masks and combat gear and weapons.

Mama’s Note: Those who are willing to trade their liberty and self respect for the nonexistent “security” offered by the nanny state… deserve neither liberty nor safety. But I wonder just how many of the citizens of Jacksonville have actually agreed to this?

The history of gun “buybacks” and even the creation of millions of instant “criminals” when new things are prohibited, have not accomplished a whole lot for the “rulers.” Take a guess at how many people actually surrendered their arms voluntarily most recently in Connecticut, or Australia, even rural UK over the last 20 years or so. Not many, and not even with the threat of SWAT teams and long prison sentences.