Two distinct and unrelated events occurred this past weekend that gave me related epiphanies. One of those events was a beautiful fall drive across Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia area. The skies were that perfect shade of blue for most of the distance, the leaves are just starting to turn, flocks of birds are making their way South, the days are warm, the nights crisp, and once again, Autumn being my favorite season was reaffirmed. On the drive, the great State of Pennsylvania even helped me to enjoy the scenery for an extended period of time. They did this by marking huge swaths of their freeway system as work zones. Miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike were pocked with orange barrels, or other warning cones. Speed Limits were lowered, and several signs assured me of the stimulative effects of such construction projects, paid for in large part by the Federal Government. What was missing from the scenery however was any sign of work being performed. Before you cry about it being the weekend, let me clarify this last thought just a little.
There were no people, anywhere. There was no equipment, except for the requisite signs proclaiming that work was imminent. There was no physical evidence,outside of the barrels, that work was ongoing or even begun. There were no signs that anyone had the slightest inclination to begin work at any location, nor was there evidence, in most locations, that actual work was required or repairs necessary. To put the cherry on top of this epiphany sunday, I made the same trip in June, and the same exact stretches of Turnpike were cordoned off with the same exact orange barrels, and the same exact non evidence of work existed then, as now. So, my question for those friends in Philly was simple, “what in the heck is not going on?”
Where exactly is that Stimulus money being spent, because there is absolutely zero evidence of it in those vaunted infrastructure programs, at least not in Pennsylvania. Perhaps, as is so often the case when it comes to government largess, replete with its infamous lack of accountability, some of the funds have gone awry, and there were not sufficient funds left after the graft to actually tear up the roads, there by completing the inconvenience. The fact is that the entire stimulus package, as is always the case in such matters by the way, was nothing more than a political payoff for the union support of the Democrat Party. The bill for this payoff of course was presented to us as some sort of present, sort of like Tom Sawyer’s white picket fence. Except at the end, we didn’t get Aunt Polly’s beautifully cleaned pristine white fence. All we got was a really ugly pig with way too much lip stick on it’s snout, and a huge bill to pay for our trouble.
Elections have consequences, and when you cast your vote America based on soaring rhetoric and empty platitudes, you get exactly what you deserve. As H.L. Mencken put it so eloquently in 1920 while describing the election taking place between Warren G. Harding and James M. Cox,
As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
So, the next time you hear a liberal bitch about the cost of health care or the state of our current economic malaise, or the price that they’re paying at the pump, be certain to remind them that this is precisely what they voted to inflict upon the rest of us and that they should be happy with the misery they’ve wrought.
The second epiphany inducing event occurred with my drive back home on Monday. Not a single thing had changed with the government shutdown. Life in America has progressed normally, as it does each and every day. Sure, there are some who are adversely affected, but mostly those affectations are because our President and his political party have gone out of their way to inflict pain upon the American People in order to induce political pressure upon the opposition party. The entire strategy is based upon getting America to blame Republicans, so that they’ll a) scream bloody murder to have all of the spending restored regardless of how worthless most of it is. Angered by the fact that their own corner of government or singular useful program needs to be restored to its peak efficacy, they’ll demand that the whole thing be switched on in full, and b) they want the electoral backlash to remove as much of that opposition in the future as would be possible. Bear in mind that our government has shut itself down 17 times previously in our nation’s history, and strangely, we are still here.
Every time one of these battles over funding takes place, the evils of spending cuts are decried as an affront to providing disease fighting medications to children or to helping senior citizens fight off the perils of a freezing winter, while the more profligate programs in which Chinese prostitutes are taught the finer points of imbibing alcohol are never touched. (Currently the United State Government budgets $40 Million per year on a program that teaches Chinese Hookers how to drink responsibly. I’d be willing to bet heavily on the side that says Chinese Prostitutes are already adept at holding their liquor.)
If it were at all true that spending on implementation of Obamacare would not be affected by the current budget passed by the House and destroyed by the Senate, then I’d bet my bottom dollar that the Democrats would have wasted not one moment to pass a bill that gives them 100% of everything else contained on their wish list. Think about the absurdity of this for just one moment. If the House Bill had no effect, and they got what they demanded, why would they want to shut down the government in order to fight against it at all? The facts do not fit this narrative in the slightest.
Late last week, our President decided to enter into talks with one of our most fervent enemies, and this was heralded by the moronic appeasement means peace crowd as a step in the right direction. In the same press conference, the very same administration has said that they’ll never negotiate with the Republicans on any of the issues that has jammed the gears of our government, and likened them to the very same terrorists that they’ve now invited over for afternoon tea while they try to strike a compromise on how best we members of the, “Great Satan,” can be coerced into dhimmitude.
I do not feel sorry in the slightest for those living like royalty in the wealthiest American Counties located in Virginia and Maryland surrounding Washington, D.C. because they suddenly are out of a job. First of all, they didn’t feel sorry for those of us who’ve been systematically robbed for our entire life time in order to provide them with that life style. Secondly, they’ll all of them receive back pay for the time they didn’t work when all of this is sorted out. So, in effect, it’ll be just like nothing at all happened anyway. In the meantime, that construction on the Pennsylvania Turnpike has not slowed one bit. The complete lack of activity is moving every bit as fast now as it was before the shut down.
