Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Post #15: 3/06/18

CNN and MSNBC #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Any Paul Krugman op-ed piece. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Anything a celebrity has to say about politics. Including Trump. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Buying anything that's been on the bargain table for 2 years. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Any leftist rally. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Anything Trump likes. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Smelling whatever the Rock's been cooking. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Eating re-gifted fruitcake. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Shopping on Black Friday. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Shaking hands with a politician. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Anything Barry Obama says or does. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

Clapping at what I hope is the end of a Trump speech. It only encourages him to go on. #ThingsIAlwaysAvoid

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I'm pleased to see at least one worthy member of the Trump Administration, Gary Cohn, his chief economic adviser, is resigning over Trump's anti-consumer tariffs. His professional reputation would be impugned over Trump's economically illiterate protectionism.

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Who is this disingenuous idiot, Steve Doocy, on Fox and Friends? (No, I'm not a viewer. Let's just say I've got an obnoxious noisy neighbor.) Doocy's obsequious Trumpkin minion pandering for the Trump tariff is downright embarrassing and undermines whatever residual integrity FNC has left. It's bad enough that FNC openly cheerleads for Trump's faux-populism. Most of the time I'm listening to Trumpkin guests being spoon-fed predictable softball questions being responded to with trite political spin.

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 Some 20-year-old is unhappy some retailers, including a prominent sporting goods company and America's biggest discount retailer, are raising age minimums to purchase firearms. Now personally I think it's stupid for people to deprive late teens, who can legally join the military to bear government firearms and die for one's country, of the right to purchase drinks or acquire weapons for self-defense or hunting. Not all gun sellers, however, will leave money on the table to responsible young adults. From a liberty perspective, I subscribe to the principle of voluntary associations, transactions. I might not agree with restaurants who dictate no suit and tie, no service. But it's not I'll starve if the restaurant leaves my money on the table. I can go to almost any supermarket or casual diner and they'll gladly accept the same money. This is little more than the rights of photographers or bakers to decide whether to accept special event business for any or no reason. People do not have the right to compel others to do business with them; that's basically a form of economic slavery. Money is fungible; there are any number of people, including gay-owned businesses, who will eagerly accept their business.

A lot of singer/songwriters are furious with certain politicians (e.g., Trump) using their songs. Me, if I wrote a commercially successful song, I wouldn't care if a gay couple used it for their commitment ceremony or reception, so long as I got my royalty.

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Both major party nominees are Catholic. Conor Lamb is yet another "Catholic in Name Only" (like the Kennedies, the Bidens, the Cuomos, the Pelosis, and others) who insists they religiously believe in the right of the preborn to live but won't "impose" their beliefs on others. These hypocritical Statists, of course, have no such scruples over government threats. Saccone is spot-on in terms of Church history; the Didache spoke out against the Roman practice of abortion. It is not a matter of faith but morals, which span across creeds and ideologies. Lamb is sacrificing his personal integrity for political gain.