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From WattsUpWithThat, an essay, not the religion of “White Guilt” but of ”

There are at least two ecologies: one rational, the other nonsensical; one that broadens our outlook while the other narrows it; one democratic, the other totalitarian. The first wants to tell us about the damage done by industrial civilization; the second infers from this the human species’ guilt. For the latter, nature is only a stick to be used to beat human beings. Just as third-worldism was the shame of colonial history, and repentance was contrition with regard to the present, catastrophism constitutes the anticipated remorse of the future: The meaning of history having evaporated, every change is a potential collapse that augurs nothing good.

The whole essay here by Pascal Bruckner here.

Guilt to the extreme – and the only resolution of the environmental angst of guilt, the only penitence of the extreme environmentalists can accept, is that of the “live smaller and smaller” lifestyles by all.  Which demands complete dedication in homage to Gaia (Earth Mother).  Otherwise, there never can be a propitiation of their enviro-guilt and presumed sins individually until we either bow to them voluntarily or suffer the totalitarianism they demand.

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Update: Apologies to Leigh Webb for misspelling his name – posts are being corrected.

That post is here – totalitarianism of the environmental movement. Yeah, I’m still banned over at TreeHugger (you can tell by its name, yes?).  I guess that I keep sinning – Strict Environmentalism heterodoxy cannot allow for any straying from the permitted speech.  Sure, there is a “Conservative heterodoxy” here at the ‘Grok as well, but as long as you don’t run yourself against Rule #1, we tolerate most other views or outbursts the vast majority of the time.

But not at TreeHugger. This time, they are trying to cover for Nanny Bloomberg who cares not a whit for what people want for themselves but only for how he thinks they should behave.  This time, the headline is “Bloomberg plans to get New Yorkers composting”

Sidenote: just like NH State Representative Lee Leigh Webb who recently summed up his (and the Democratic and Progressive philosophy):

“The role of government is to legislate behavior“

Once again, in a single sentence, we see the underlying mantra of the totalitarianism that is the Progressive Democrat agenda: You WILL do what we tell you to do – and we are redefining “freedom” such that you still think you have some.

Back to the post – the problem with the headline should be obvious – yes, Nanny Bloomberg IS planning composting for NYC but the operative word failure is “get”.  However, that is the wrong word – the proper word, if you read the post, should have been “force“.  Once again, we see a Progressive that believes that what he knows to be best for all will force others to do it – voluntary participation will not be part of the final solution.

Yet again, I could not help myself – even having been banned (hey, hope springs eternal – or is it merely waving a red flag?):

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… and shows that you represent just another form of Tyranny.  From Jonah Goldberg of The Corner (emphasis mine):

It’s a little bizarre how the Left has always conflated statism with modernity and progress. The idea that rulers — be they chieftains, kings, priests, politburos, or wonkish bureaucrats — are enlightened or smart enough to tell others how to live is older than the written word. And the idea that someone stronger, with better weapons, has the right to take what is yours predates man’s discovery of fire by millennia. And yet, we’re always told that the latest rationalization for increased state power is the “wave of the future.”

That phrase, “the wave of the future,” became famous thanks to a 1940 essay by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. She argued that the time of liberal democratic capitalism was drawing to a close and the smart money was on statism of one flavor or another — fascism, Communism, socialism, etc. What was lost on her, and millions of others, was that this wasn’t progress toward the new, but regression to the past. These “waves of the future” were simply gussied-up tribalisms, anachronisms made gaudy with the trappings of modernity, like a gibbon in a spacesuit.

Statism – the idea that “The State” (e.g., the Government as opposed to Civil Society and individuals) should play more and more of a role in determining the choices that individuals can make.  Yes, Zandra, this is why you were sent to New Hampshire and why you are paid by out of state folks – your self-proclaimed mantra of “social justice” is just a phrase for the rubes to think they are getting from others for nothing (and feeling good about reclassifying “stealing” as “it’s owed me” via the point of a pen); you know full well that you are working towards the end point of the Progressive movement: the Administrative State – stocked with all those non-partisan experts who are only concerned in being our benevolent rulers.

Sorta like what we’ve seeing lately in the IRS – lots of those non-partisan types there, treating every one equally with regard sex, color, national origin, economic class, sexual orientation, religion, and political outlook.

Oh wait!

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Video posted by the Mass TEA Party:

Imagine that – Congress, those “public servants” who have exempted itself from many of the strictures it has put upon the Citizenry, is finding out the consequence of passing voluminous, complicated, and hastily done legislation can harm themselves.  No, I have no pity at all for these chuckleheads – they wanted evah so much to join with Obama in fundamentally transform our healthcare system, I hope and pray that every single staffer has to quit.  Why?

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Thoughts from Rush as to why the Establishment Republicans are running to pass Amnesty:

“The Republican Party is embarrassed by its own base,” Limbaugh said. “How many times have I sat here and reminded you of this?”

…“I assume that some Republicans think there is a new group of people that would become their base. If they just got rid of these pro-lifers, if they just got rid of this religious crowd, if they just got rid of the Christians, if they just got rid of these gun nuts.”

– Rush Limbaugh

Go read the article.  Then come back, and contemplate this:  If the Republicans who only believe in winning is the most important thing in Republican life is winning over the Hispanics illegal immigrants (that, in the main, believe in bigger activist Govt with a heavier thumb on the economy and a larger safety net) and:

• They kicked the pro-lifers out of the Republican Party
• and the Evangelicals
• and the Second Amendment folk
• and the Conservative Libertarians
• and the folks that actually believed in the Platform
• and the people that believed in the Constitution, well…

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“I only bring it up because it frames the context of the authors.  Are they delusional or deceptive?“

I’d go with “deliberately stupid” because like the Gang of Eight Republicans, they believe that simply having an “R” next to your nameplate while working in DC automatically makes you a member of the Smart People Club.  Problem is, they are being just as partisan for being a Repub as the Dems are as partisan on theirs.  The main problem is like many of the folks that are supposed to read the bill, they haven’t either.

“We know Americans want improved border security, and this bill includes that.”

But first a sidenote for Kelly Ayotte (as I have been rather cross since hearing that she was going to vote for cloture instead of killing this Democrat-Growing-Monster misnamed “a modern immigration bill” (as it is neither modern or about immigration – it is simply, as with each of the previous 50 years efforts, giving illegals, that don’t deserve it, legality to be here in the States):

Sidenote: “We spank’em when they do wrong and we thank’em when they do right.  Today, on the Grassley Amendment that simply stated that NO legalization of illegal aliens could proceed until the borders had been certified secured for six months, you voted to secure the borders.  First.  Before anything else.  Not just a “plan” that didn’t have to be followed or implemented that, you know, is actually in the bill – just a plan that had to be written simply to go collect dust.  Just like poll after poll after poll of Americans have tried to tell the ruling class of the Smart People Club, Americans want the border secured FIRST.

Thank you.  You voted what is most important to the American (and New Hampshirite) people when it comes to immigration. And actually, this was the whole purpose of this post.  Thank you.

Back to the spank’em,  The fact that the Gang of 8 Republicans (and the 5 Chairs that are enabling them) all joined with the Dems who also voted it down  that means that:

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The “drip, drip, drip” begins….

“Be Prepared” – Boy Scouts are known for that.  What’s a scenario that could happen and be ready if it shows up.  As I have written before (here, here, here, and here) with their half scrambled decision on letting gay scouts in and gay Scoutmasters out, they showed that even after giving themselves extra time to make that decision, they still “weren’t Prepared”.  As I pointed out, making a halfway decision satisfies no one – not the militant gays that will not stop until they have full acceptance AND affirmation and not the conservative churches that see homosexuality as a sin (not the orientation but the active practice – just like unmarried / adulterous sex between heterosexuals).

And of course, there are the “third way participants;, those are watching the politics of it all and making the decision based of having the least amount of mud on their faces at the end.  Here’s one:

Caterpillar spokeswoman Rachel Potts said Thursday that the Caterpillar Foundation has decided to withdraw its supports for Boy Scouts of America. Potts says the company believes the group’s policy barring homosexual adults from serving as scout leaders is discriminatory.

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Imagine what the Brits would have done with today’s NSA data mining / pattern seeking?  Well, just look to your left and you can see what an enterprising data miner did with some Boston based Revolutionary data – who is talking to who.  He had to put it together from a book:

I have been asked by my superiors to give a brief demonstration of the surprising effectiveness of even the simplest techniques of the new-fangled Social Networke Analysis in the pursuit of those who would seek to undermine the liberty enjoyed by His Majesty’s subjects. This is in connection with the discussion of the role of “metadata” in certain recent events and the assurances of various respectable parties that the government was merely “sifting through this so-called metadata” and that the “information acquired does not include the content of any communications”. I will show how we can use this “metadata” to find key persons involved in terrorist groups operating within the Colonies at the present time. I shall also endeavour to show how these methods work in what might be called a relational manner.

…However, our current Eighteenth Century beta of PRISM has been used to collect and analyze information on more than two hundred and sixty persons (of varying degrees of suspicion) belonging variously to seven different organizations in the Boston area.

…Surely this is but a small encroachment on the freedom of the Crown’s subjects.

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