by guest blogger Andrew Roman
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Here’s a fact: American corporations –whether run by people with left leaning views (Ben And Jerry’s) or right-leaning views (Home Depot) – cannot show up at your front door and take away your constitutional rights. They cannot crush your liberties, confiscate your property, incarcerate you, threaten you or make you do anything you don’t want to.
That’s what government is for.
Corporations cannot, for instance, intimidate private property owners by saying there will be hell to pay if those owners decide they might like to tidy up their own properties currently being occupied by whiny, spoiled-brat, soulless, narcissistic, bottom-feeder scumbag protesters in Che Guevara t-shirts and grey-haired pony-tail types in dull tie-dyes.
That’s what New York City elected officials are for.
Here’s another fact, as pointed out by Dennis Prager on his radio program yesterday: History has shown, unequivocally, that anti-rich movements – no matter where they may they have occurred in this world, say, over the past hundred years or so (and well beyond that) - have resulted in nothing positive for the poor. Absolutely nothing.
When, asks Prager, has blaming the rich ever helped the poor?
It should be noted that these “down with the rich” movements have resulted in multiple instances of dictatorship and genocide (see Communism).
If someone could please cite the instance (or instances) when a society has thrived after a capitalist system has been removed, I would be most appreciative.
Just asking.
We constantly hear from these protesters and their supporters how the country is being taken over by corporations, but are never told how exactly this is happening.
What does that mean exactly?
How is America being “taken over” by corporations?
In what way?
I'd love someone to explain it to me.
And isn’t it funny how for all their griping about corporate-this and greedy Capitalists-that, these aimless unwashed, selfish parasites always seem to gravitate toward these evil centers of capitalism – bright lights, high-energy, hustle-and-bustle – places that were built by free markets? New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles – these are not exactly granola-crunching back-to-basics communes.
These are supply-and-demand epicenters.
As Rush Limbaugh pointed out last week, there were more people waiting on line for the new iPhone in Manhattan than there were protesting the "corporate fat cats" poised to make profits off of them.
City after city across the country – with their coffee bars, music shops, universities, parks, hookah joints – are swarming with express-yourself-any-damn-way-you-want artistic-types. These people don't exactly live in tent villas in the outskirts of these cities roasting pine cones, bathing in the creeks. Musicians, poets, activists, actors, political morons, university-brainwashed drones - they continue to flock to these places that would not exist if not for capitalism.
It’s where the electricity and Mac Books are.
That the current financial woes were not – repeat not – set off by the all-encompassing, generic boogie-man “Wall Street,” but rather by an ever-growing, ever-intrusive, finger-in-the-pie federal government, seems to be irrelevant to the excrement living on the streets of New York (and elsewhere).
Where is the Occupy Rich Rap Stars movement?
Or the Occupy George Soros movement?
Or the Occupy the Union Fat Cats movement?
Or – dare I say it – the Occupy Oprah movement?
In reality, there is no real clear objective or purpose in these Occupy Everything movements. There is nothing unifying these protesters except hatred for this country and its institutions. These are intellectually illiterate radicals, acting purely on emotion. They are incoherent, disarranged misfits hell-bent on making others suffer with them. Whenever they are asked what their purpose is, they recycle vague bumper sticker twaddle, without a clue as to what they are saying or why they are saying it.
It just sounds good.
They are jealous, angry malcontents demanding things from everyone else, never considering what they might be able to give of themselves to improve whatever conditions they're protesting. The irony is that these squawking drones have been programmed to do exactly what they accuse “Wall Street” of doing – namely, get whatever they can get from everyone else at any cost. They are programmed to ask for - and expect - something for nothing. By virtue of their existences, they are entitled. They measure worth only in how things affect them personally.
Indeed, while they stand tall about taking from those who have (i.e., distributing other people’s wealth), they say they may have to get tough now that thieves are infiltrating their “camp” in lower Manhattan and stealing their stuff.
Sweet irony.
One gal complained that someone stole her expensive laptop.
From the New York Post:
“I had my Mac stolen -- that was like $5,500. Every night, something else is gone. Last night, our entire [kitchen] budget for the day was stolen, so the first thing I had to do was . . . get the message out to our supporters that we needed food!”
Crafty cat burglars sneaked into the makeshift kitchen at Zuccotti Park overnight and swiped as much as $2,500 in donated greenbacks from right under the noses of volunteers who’d fallen asleep after a long day whipping up meals for the hundreds of hungry protesters, the volunteers said.
“The worst thing is there’s people sleeping in the kitchen when they come, and they don’t even know about it! There are some really smart and sneaky thieves here,” Terrie said.
“I had umbrellas stolen, a fold-up bed I brought because my back is bad -- they took that, too!”
Security volunteer Harry Wyman, 22, of Brooklyn was furious about the thievery -- and vowed to get tough with the predatory perps.
“I’m not getting paid, but I’m not gonna stand for it. Why people got to come here and do stupid stuff? All it does is make people not wanna come here anymore,” Wyman fumed.
Getting tough? Not going to stand for it? Stupid stuff?
I'm trying not to laugh.
How in the world can anyone associated with these protesters be taken seriously when they complain about the lack of civility taking place down there? Are they serious? Is it any less civil than sleeping, defecating and urinating in a public setting? Is it any less civil than disrupting the lives of everyone else who live and work in the area? Is it any less civil than going into privately owned establishments and causing disruptions to the point where the police are needed to remove them? Is it any less civil than their selfish disregard for the ever-escalating costs to the taxpayers? Is it any less civil than the profanities being lodged at people trying to go about their business, the anti Semetic signs been waved, and the public displays of sex?
Yes, irony, thy name is Occupy Wall Street.
Besides, why would anyone occupying Wall Street care if a laptop was stolen? Or money? Or anything?
Perhaps their call for the redistribution of wealth is selective.
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Well said, Andrew. And you're right. The irony is rich when someone who hold up signs that say, in essence, "Everything should be free", complains of something being stolen from them. Almost as if they suddenly believed in private property rights!
ReplyDeleteAnd why is it that the folks who paid $50,000 a year to go to some high falutin' university, find it immoral that the lender should expect to be paid back, but not immoral that they be charged $50,000 for what might be considered a second or third rate education?
And if they find it immoral to pay the lenders back (I speak in the backwards parlance of the demonstrators), why is it they never seem to make that distinction until after they have received their education? Isn't that a little like going to a restaurant and complaining about the prices after you've already eaten the meal?
Can we find so much as a single protestor who can stand up and say, I thought it was immoral to be charged that much for a college education, and have to pay it back, so I didn't borrow the money ?
Didn't think so.
“I had my Mac stolen -- that was like $5,500."
ReplyDeleteShe'd probably feel much worse if she had actually earned the money to buy the laptop that was stolen from her. Not a lot of street smarts going on down there, if I had a $5,500 Mac you can bet that it would be duct taped to my body. She's pretty good at inflating an insurance claim - gotta give her that.
"...if I had a $5,500 Mac you can bet that it would be duct taped to my body"
ReplyDeleteCan I be your tech support guy?
I'll bring the Nutella, you bring the duct tape!
ReplyDeleteI think duct tape is contributing to the unnatural (and ultimately devastating) change in climate that is wreaking havoc across the planet. Maybe you can use some kind of organic swamp paste as an adhesive to keep that five-grand computer attached to you.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, that must be SOME Mac to cost that much. I have two computers in my home studio, each with 16 GB of Ram and 10 total TB of storage and it didn't cost me nearly that much.
If only I were rich, I could get better equipment AND self-loathe.
You have a point about the duct tape. What was I thinking? I'm going with hemp.
ReplyDeleteA Macbook Pro with all the bells and whistles will run about $4400 and it's a sweet machine! If that baby were mine, I would wine and dine it, buy it flowers. I would NOT take it camping. Now I'm angry and I've decided that my Mac Mini is no longer up to snuff, so I'm going down to occupy the Apple store. Wanna come?
Careful, Andrew! Last time a woman tempted a man with an Apple, things turned out rather badly.
ReplyDeleteNot really, someone had to locate the remote, ask for directions, and remember which night to put the trash out on the curb.
ReplyDelete"ask for directions, and remember which night to put the trash out..."
ReplyDeleteThat's why we have GPS and Microsoft Outlook...
Can a GPS make you a sandwich?
ReplyDeleteSo, you're saying I can have my apple sliced, baked, buttered, sauced, betty'd, turned over or pie'd?
ReplyDeleteYou forgot peeled.....
ReplyDeleteI like to do the peeling myself!
ReplyDeleteApples, air conditioning, you're so hands-on!
ReplyDelete* swoons *
"Apples, air conditioning, you're so hands-on!"
ReplyDeleteJust let me show you what I can do with a couple of Pippins!
BTW, "hands on" is generally the best!