Little things can tell you a lot. For instance, the signs they used to hang by the entrance to hotel swimming pools and adjacent to the paths that led to public beaches that read:
Swim at Your Own Risk.
These signs were common before the 1990s – which is roughly the era when America began to transition into something fundamentally different, kind of like Bruce.
Whatever its faults, the America that existed before the ‘90s was a place that was still largely in favor of personal responsibility, which requires the exercise of the individual’s judgment, enlightened by the prospect of positive gain – but chastened by consequences for the exercise of poor judgment.
In the case of swimming pools, it was culturally and socially expected that you knew how to swim if you went for one and that if not, you didn’t – in the absence of a lifeguard. If you were dumb enough to go for a swim when you didn’t know how and ended up drowning, that was on you – not the hotel. Or the county where the beach happened to be.
Just as it was on you, if you happened to be a parent, to keep track of your kids. If you didn’t and one fell into an unattended pool, that was due to your irresponsible/negligent parenting – not because the hotel didn’t keep a lifeguard posted or keep the gate locked otherwise.
Other parents weren’t held responsible, either.
Well, what happened?
Probably someone who didn’t want to accept blame for their own poor judgment decided to hire a lawyer – so as to drape the blame around someone else; i.e., the hotel or whomever else could be conveniently made to pay for the “constructive hazard” they chose to avail themselves of – or allowed their children to avail themselves of, unsupervised.
The lawyers, of course, made money.
And so – for their own protection – the signs came down and the gates were closed. The pool was no longer open for swimming unless there was a lifeguard on duty. It didn’t matter that you could swim – and weren’t an idiot. You could no longer swim – unless there was a lifeguard on duty. And of course, the lifeguard was only sometimes on duty, as lifeguards cost money and most hotels cannot afford to have one on duty all the time.
Even when they could, everyone had to get out of the pool when it was time for the lifeguard to take a break – including those who could swim.
Thus were the freedoms of people who did nothing to warrant them being taken away – and their persons diminished, via the implicit assumption of their incompetence an irresponsibility; of their need to be watched-over and “kept safe,” for the sake of the irresponsible and those who bank on such irresponsibility.
It provided a way for lawyers to make money and for government bureaucrats to obtain and assert more authority. These bureaucrats put forth new regulations and sent hither and yon other bureaucrats, to make sure – via threats of fines and worse – that the new regulations were complied with.
It became illegal to allow “Swim at Your Own Risk.” You could be fined – arrested – for doing so.
In a kind of social-cultural expression of Gresham’s Law about bad money (e.g., fiat currency) driving out good money (e.g., gold and silver) the exercise of judgment by the individual – and the expectation that he alone would accept the consequences for the exercise of poor judgment – began to diminish in favor of the presumption of general poor judgment and the prior restraint of the competent, responsible individual.
If some idiot backs up over his kid, every car must be equipped with a back-up camera system.
If a negligent parent leaves a loaded gun out and their kid shoots himself with it, responsible people who had nothing to do with it are ordered to turn in their guns.
Private homeowners must now take elaborate measures to assure that someone else’s kid doesn’t wander into their yard and fall into their pool. If there’s no fence or similar obstruction, the irresponsible parents of the kid who fell into the neighbor’s pool can sue the neighbors – and will likely win. That they would even consider suing is a measure of the degree of their own degraded state. Once upon a time, most people would have been mortified by their own negligence and even more mortified by the suggestion that someone else was to blame for its consequences.
Passing zones began to be painted over. 
Drivers who handled their cars competently were forced to stop and prove they were not “drunk” – in the complete and utter absence of any reason to suspect they were. Children were required by law to be strapped into mini-restraint buckets. Drive-thru coffee became lukewarm and festooned with warning labels because someone else put a hot cup of it between her legs and it spilled on her vitals.
It got worse after that day in September, the 20th anniversary of which fast approaches, when a handful of people did an awful thing and after which all people were presumed to be up to awful things – and treated as such at every airport in America. Well, every commercial airport. At private airports, people were (and still are) treated as presumptive human beings rather than “terrorists” and not made to spread their legs and play the role of the just-convicted; but private airports are for the people who pass the laws that cause the rest of us to be so treated – and for those rich enough to avoid being so treated. This is a subject for another time. 
Now – today – the healthy are held responsible for the health of others and the unhealthy expect the healthy to submit to whatever measure they feel are necessary to . . . make them feel safe. The entire country is becoming a hospital ward in spite of the fact that 99.8 percent aren’t in need of a bed – or a syringe.
It was as inevitable as meat going bad when left out in the sun.
If the social-cultural attitude that prevailed when Swim at Your Own Risk signs were common still prevailed, responsible people would decide for themselves whether to enter a store with a “mask” on – and whether it made sense to accept the risk of rolling up their sleeves to be injected with a “vaccine,” based on their own judgment, rather than imposed by the judgment of others.
They’d accept the consequences – and be free to enjoy the rewards – of not being afraid. Others would be free to do the same. No one would be chained to the poor judgment or the fears of others – and those who judged poorly or wished to live in fear would be expected to bear the consequences of their poor judgment and their unwillingness to cope with their fears.
The pools would be open, all season – all hours. Nothing would have been “locked down.”
That was America, once. It’d be nice if it could be so, again.
. . .
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I could really use some expert shoe repair at the moment.
“of not being afraid.”
There’s a whole bunch of thoughts with that one bit right there.
I’ve run out of energy to even try & express some.
V for vendetta – Adam Sutler High Chancellor: “Why they need us!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2djw1EZ4cTs
My personal favorite sign to see while driving is:
Level B Access Road.
Enter at your own risk.
I have always loved those roads.
“Let’s remind them why they need US!” is what I hear behind the incessant media fear-badgering that has occurred over the past 18 months.
Another fine essay, Eric, but perhaps you are not going far enough. I consistently see and hear that you (I, we…) have no right to endanger others.
This claim is incandescently wrong, and given any credence results in the kind of insanity we are living through now.
We most certainly do have the right to endanger others, and should be held responsible (to some level) if we do harm.
This is where judgement comes in- if you shoot towards a crowd or an occupied structure, you are exercising poor judgement and probably endangering others unnecessarily. But if you are taking down a mass shooter you might be completely justified.
If I am sick, and know it, and persist in going in public and do actually spread it then I have done a wrong.
If I am seemingly healthy and manage to make someone ill, then there can be no liability.
Keep up the good work.
True in principle. However, even the idea of making someone ill is questionable. How to explain when not every family member gets sick? Or you personally don’t remember being around a sick person but are suddenly not feeling well?
Exactly Ernie, all the restrictions associated with the scamdemic hinge on the unchallenged assertion, “You don’t have the right to get me sick!” To my knowledge, there’s no civil or criminal statute that prohibits those with a cold or flu from going out in public and spreading it around (i.e. bringing it back to its point of origin). Moreover, the Constitution doesn’t guarantee us the right to not get sick. So in point of fact we DO have the right to get others sick. And spreading sickness around might well be regarded as a patriotic act of doing one’s part to hasten herd immunity by strengthening the public’s immune system.
Hi Jim,
Indeed. And this “You don’t have the right to get me sick!” business rests on an assumption – that I am, in fact, sick. But that is just an assumption, an assertion – and as such is not (morally) binding anymore than “you don’t have the right to punch me in the face” obliges me to wear handcuffs to ease your fear that I might punch you in the face.
These people are hysterics – Freaks, in need of containment and therapy.
Don’t worry Eric,
If you’re not sick they will just ramp up the cycles on a pcr test until they get the positve result they are looking for and then, presto, you’re sick.
O/T Eric,
But I had mentioned about a month earlier that my dad worked for an oncologist as a book keeper and the hospital was mandating the jab for all employees. He told the doc before he left for his trip to his condo in FL that they better start looking for a new book keeper because he wasn’t taking that poison.
Well he is back from Florida (to which he says everything you are hearing on the news about had bad it is there is a flat out lie) and the doctor asked when he intended to get his jab since they only have 10 days left to comply. He told the doc he was never getting it and in 10 days they will need a new book keeper like he told her back in july. The doc went nuts because they don’t want to lose him and they are now trying to get an exemption. People need to just say NO.
Good to hear it, Antilles. They want to play this way, we need to make it hurt!
Bingo, Antilles. If enough of us just channeled our inner Nancy Reagan and gave a firm NO, these corporations would shit themselves. Can you imagine any company having to deal with firing and replacing even 5-10% of its workforce? Would extend into the thousands for some companies. They can’t fill positions they have open, let alone creating thousands of vacancies. They know this, or haven’t thought it through, and maybe they are counting on granting X-number of exemptions. But this could bring the house down (maybe let’s hope?). Ive heard this story several times – a good employee tells them NO and they start to panic, scrambling desperately to find a path through. All of us like your dad must hold the line on this, and give not one inch. Call their bluff. Show them pictures of your kids and who they would be really hurting. They’ll fold like a cheap tent.
Antilles:
If more people and I mean 10-15% of the population understood how easy it was to literally “just say no” there would be no way of enforcing any of this stupidity. Especially when the likes of those resisting the B.S. are needed, and not part of some “make-work” Dept. We never diapered a single time for a single client this entire corona-chan psyop and it was my busiest year ever. Sure I lost a few contracts , but who wants to work for retarded slaves anyway? Your dad gets it!
Which is why i’m so disappointed in my b-i-l he folded like a cheap suit when his dealership told him to jab up. He is ther most senior tech and had he said no fire me they would have folded but, he talked a big game then crumpled like a.prius getting slammed head on by an F-150
What do you think about having to show a negative test as the exemption to not taking the jab?
That’s where I’m at. So far have gotten away with no mask, and no jab. Now it’s to the point of show negative test or out the door.
Topspin45:
The question would be how much do you like your job? What’s the ratio of you need them vs. they need you? Personally to me that’s like having to piss in a cup or take a breathalyzer every day to prove you’re not high/drunk. It seems overbearing and petty of any employer and I couldn’t imagine treating people who work for me like that.
Personally I’d be inclined to prepare with a backup plan for other employment and make them fire me then make it really expensive for them.
The thing about standing up to bullies is sometimes they actually do punch your face, usually not but, I’d be prepared anyway.
Having said all that. I don’t know your entire situation and this is just the internet.
Topspin,
Anything is better than the jab.
Everyone has different considerations and not all can resist to the same level.
I may be faced with this eventually and I will be looking for work with an employer that isn’t a branch covidian.
It may be a downgrade. I am considering entirely new lines of work.
Dan,
I’m polishing up the resume and looking into alternative occupations. I expect the jab decree to come soon and i will never take it.
“The masks being used and currently marketed contain graphene oxide. Not only the ones that were withdrawn at the time, as indicated by the media, the swabs used in both PCR and antigen tests also contain graphene oxide nanoparticles.”
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/07/gary-d-barnett/is-graphene-oxide-causing-what-is-falsely-being-referred-to-as-covid-19/
I, personally, would never ever drive down that road. Enter at your own risk, indeed.
Heads up.
There’s some evil M.F.er’s out to F-you up if you let ’em.
Hi Top,
If you accept having to prove you aren’t sick then you have all-but-accepted the Jab. Because you have accepted the legitimacy of the narrative. Do not give an inch – no “test,” no “mask” – and no “jab.”
If that’s what it comes down to, they can just fire me. It would be kinder for all concerned. I will never consent to any such test.
Top, ask your employer if he will require all employees to be vaccinated against the other communicable diseases like STDs, TB, smallpox, etc. And you want to see those records, along with his records of what he has been vaccinated against.
That is great the real point is that the vilification of Florida as “hot spot” is untrue, a lie, a falsehood delivered with intent by the bought media. I live in southeast Michigan, we have one the worst governors, Wretched Whichmoor, fortunately the legislature is Republicrat (lots of RINO’s) but some pushback to the Demonrat governor and her henchcritters. The point I wish to make is that very few are diapering now. In my profession I see a fair amount of all kinds of people. All are done with the bullshit. We just need to hold fast, principal is important. Do not diaper, do not do drugs. pray and be strong in your faith, whatever it is.
Hi Ugg,
It is hard to know, these days, the truth about anything given the barrage of lies and omissions. We are hectored about “cases” and hospitals being at or near “capacity.” Well, what is a “case,” precisely? Does it mean someone is actually sick – and seriously sick – or just a positive result on a notoriously inaccurate test? Is the hospital literally unable to provide beds and doctors – or merely under-staffed due to the hospital corporation’s decision to keep the bare minimum on hand?
We are now at the point that unless you can personally verify a thing, it should be regarded with great suspicion and regarded as probably untrue or greatly exaggerated.
Eric and Ugg,
From my own experience with my son back in late june i would guess most of the “cases” in the hospitals aren’t actually convid cases, but people who go in with unrelated illnesses. They are given the highly inaccurate pcr test with no telling how many cycles used, and then like magic you have a positive convid case hospitalized. It doesn’t matter that in my son’s case he was only there for appendicitis and was never once treated for anything even closely related to convid, he was an active hospitalized convid case. And in his case it was easy to get a positive test since he had convid back in February so i’m sure he and the rest of the family have some dead convid virus particles floating around in our systems that can be amplified to show a scary infection.
Most of those who refuse to submit are quite likely also those capable of creative thought, and with courage to put forth their conclusions. In other words, VALUABLE EMPLOYEES. They don’t care much if the one that can’t keep his paws off of his or her cellphone quits, but they likely DO care if the one focused on their work and producing useful results does.
“He told her” Typical. Hysterical women need not be in positions of authority.
Subjecting oneself to risk, making the assessment oneself, is part and parcel of becoming an adult. A thing in very short demand at this time.
There’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg built into to Eric’s formulation of the Safety Cult problem here.
In short, he blames it on those dastardly lawyers, who systematically transformed society by suing landlords and places of business for the consequences of what were really lapses in personal judgment by the injured parties. The lawyers’ motive, according to the article, was that “The lawyers, of course, made money.”
The “of course” is particularly interesting. The only reason these lawyers’ monetary gain would be a matter of course is that juries were already susceptible to this fault-shifting scheme. The Legal Industry has plenty of perverse incentive baked into it, but the bottom line is that lawyers never could have made money on matters of lap-coffee-spillers and can’t-swimmers if juries were not inclined to award verdicts to these dipshits. When a jury awards cash to a Boo-Boo sufferer, that is an expression of the jury’s sense that they put themselves in the shoes of the Boo-Booed and thought to themselves: “That could have been me!”
If juries had retained some sense of rugged personal responsibility, these types of lawsuits would have been a non-starter. The fact that lawyers started making money–not just “a living” but runaway windfalls–shows that the cultural rot predated the lawsuits. And I don’t think the origin of this cultural rot is a simple, single-variable matter. Verdict-Jackpot culture is an overdetermined manifestation of a longstanding process of urbanization, public-school indoctrination, entitlements, passive consumerism, and infantile civic misperceptions and distorted expectations about not only the proper role of courts in society…but the relationship of the individual human to the perilous material world.
Philip K. Dick criticized the very concept of Disneyland by observing (paraphrasing): false realities will create false identities, who will then go on to create new, even falser realities. I think humans’ longing for “Disneyland” points to the beginning of this cultural rot. People long ago began to see themselves as passive recipients of reality, rather then active participants in their own well-being. Once marveling at the ersatz wonders of Disneyland became the ideal pastime, all life was expected to become Disneyland. People see themselves as passive “riders” on reality’s “ride.” If something goes wrong, and they get hurt, on a deep level they believe something went wrong with the ride, and needs to be fixed! “Personal responsibility” never enters into your head when your getting whipsawed by Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
“public-school indoctrination, entitlements, passive consumerism, and infantile civic misperceptions and distorted expectations about not only the proper role of courts in society…but the relationship of the individual human to the perilous material world.”
I would suggest that public schools are the source of the rest. Children taught that the source of their failures are ALWAYS someone else’s fault. now to the point that “it’s not your fault you didn’t bother to learn basic math, so we won’t require you to know anything about it to “graduate”. Mandatory public education is the longest running and most successful psyop in recent history, right up there with institutional Christianity, and those who implemented it were quite clear in their ambition to turn the public’s brains to easily manipulated pudding.
Bold words re X-insanity, which Free_Phi won’t dispute.
The way I see it, the Torah is the script-and-playbook for the chosenites; the New Testament is the dumbed-down follow-along kids’ version for the sheeplike goyim. Now, you’ve got X-ians lining up to have alien technology injected into their bodies before they are permitted to buy and sell…but, It’s okay! Because it’s not a “666” tattooed on the forehead! We’re all clear! No Mark of the Beast to see here, folks!
Thanks for that, FP. I’m on the board of a small mutual property/casualty insurance company. It has always puzzled me that any time somebody gets hurt on private property – whether he had permission to be there or not – the property owner must pay. We’ve had everything from minor slip/fall episodes to fatal hunting accidents to veterinarians crushed by livestock, and there is never any serious debate; it’s just assumed that the property owner is on the hook for it. If his liability coverage is with us, 99 percent of the time we get out the checkbook pronto – no questions asked.
Is there a short explanation of how this came to be?
So how much of that is because it is cheaper to pay the bill than deny the claim and risk being sued? Because it sounds like the precedent of just paying it out is well established so to deny a claim there’d better be some extremely good reason, such as the trespasser was brutally raping the insured’s daughter or something.
Good question, RK. Looks to me like the precedent of “just pay it” rests on the increasing tendency of juries to stick it to the big bad insurance company no matter what the facts are.
Not too long ago our manager denied an injury liability claim, and the insured came back demanding $50k. Our genius lawyer told us not to pay it; that it was a slam dunk. No way they would win if they sued. Well they did sue, and the jury ruled against us to the tune of $1.5 million. This is a small company with reserves of only about $6 million, so it was a big deal. Fortunately we have insurance for that, but we had already paid a ton in legal fees over the course of several years for bad advice and inept defense.
Back in Reagan’s terms, he criticized a lawsuit that was launched against Briggs & Stratton because an old man had a fatal heart attack starting his mower. Back then mowers were hard to start. after the $3 million was awarded against B&S, mowers became much easier to start. Which would not have happened if there had been no successful lawsuit.
Hi to5,
Old men who aren’t physically up to starting (or pushing) mowers ought to pay someone who is to mow their lawns. I seethe with contempt for people like the old man you describe, who blame others for their incapacities and poor judgment. Herewith a personal story that bears on this:
When I was about 17 I was trying to adjust my rusty, first-car Camaro’s ignition timing. It had rained and the driveway was wet. I was leaning over the engine, wearing sneakers. I slipped and as I tried to catch myself, my right hand went into the running pulleys and my pinkie finger was caught by one of the fan belts and practically torn off. It was surgically re-attached but it is permanently bent because the middle joint was essentially destroyed. It is hard to notice if you meet me, unless you see me lay my hand flat on a table surface – but I am a nine-fingered dude, basically.
Should I have sued Chevrolet? For not warning me to be careful about timing the car when the pavement was wet, without wearing proper attire? Because there was no fan guard to prevent my hand from slipping into the pulleys?
No. It was my fault – and bad luck. I’d be ashamed – mortified – to demand a check from Chevrolet.
Freelance,
Interesting take from Mr. Dick. While humorous, I find it to also be quite accurate, in perhaps a number of ways. That some people even appear to be cartoon characters today might be telling. One view of the evening telly, and it is easy to run across people akin to those seen at The Capitol from the “Hunger Games” movies. That they feel they have been written into a story, and if something befalls them, it is the fault of the author, isn’t all that surprising.
‘If something goes wrong, and they get hurt, on a deep level they believe something went wrong with the ride.’ — Freelance_Philosopher
Case in point: the WaPo’s five-year retrospective article on Hillary’s notorious ‘basket of deplorables’ remark:
‘Linguist Ben Zimmer speculated that “basket of deplorables” was inspired by “parade of horribles” — a legal term that Clinton would be familiar with.
‘Republican strategist Frank Luntz tested “deplorable” in focus groups and found that “it hardened opposition to her instantly as someone who had no heart, who was too ideological and dismissive of people who disagreed with her.”‘
https://www.chron.com/lifestyle/article/Hillary-Clinton-s-deplorables-speech-shocked-16425102.php
But what does WaPo author Roxanne Roberts pronounce in the fourth paragraph, directly contradicting her own quotes farther down in the article:
‘This is not a cautionary tale: Clinton probably didn’t lose the White House because of a figure of speech.‘
Yeah, right! Obviously! And vaccines stop the spread, too. The Lügenpresse is still doing business at the same old stand, lecturing deplorables who don’t know what’s good for them, and need to be told what to do.
It’s only two weeks before rural deplorables potentially make another terrible error, ejecting the dashing Loathsome Newsom from California’s governor’s mansion. All the same, one prays that beautiful South Lake Tahoe is spared from destruction in the Caldor Fire.
Back in 2008 I read an article discussing Obama vs Clinton for the nomination. Apparently in most opinion polls Hillary was the most polarizing candidate on record. People either loved her or hated her, and everyone had a strong opinion either way. I’m sure that had a lot to do with the convention deal that led to Obama being anointed. I’m sure no one changed their opinion of her in 2016, and that comment along with the dizzy spells and Chairman Mao outfits just did more to increase the opposition to her than anything Trump did (aside from pointing it out at every opportunity).
I voted against Hillary literally every time she ran for anything except senator, and that was only because I didn’t live in New York.
You probably did vote for her in the NY senate race, you just didn’t know it.
Ha! But I’m not dead now, & wasn’t then either…
Back at the beginning of August I was selected to serve on a jury. It was a pedophile case, really abhorrent. The defendant was accused of grabbing little girls in the toy aisle at Target. Probably drunk but we’ll never know. We found him guilty on both charges and judging from the camera footage it was pretty likely he touched another girl that no one knows about because she didn’t tell anyone.
The thing is, when we started it wasn’t at all clear that we would have a verdict in the 4 hours or so of deliberation before we stared. Several of us were on the fence, myself included, because the cops seriously botched the case, the girl’s mother obviously coached them (and the DA put mom on the stand for showboating), and the defense lawyer was incompetent. There was no record such as security camera footage, because no one shoplifts girl’s toys at Target. As a juror we have to assume innocence and have our assumption changed by evidence and facts.
Now, who’s liable for that? There are 75 cameras in the Target. There are employees all through the store, including managers and security personnel. There was even an off-duty cop nearby. Yet no one saw this event take place. No camera captured it. These kids are in therapy (probably because their mother keeps traumatizing them, but that’s another issue), and probably going to be in that track for some time. Who’s going to pay for all that? Should the criminal? He’s in jail, and before that he worked at Qdoba. He ain’t paying for no therapy. The victims’ family? Well, that’s what will end up happening, but let’s say they weren’t Mr & Mrs Silver Spoon of Aspen. Then what? They should be able to turn to religion or their own health insurance, but what if their insurance isn’t very good, and they have no regular church, then what? I’m not saying it’s right but I’m sure someone in that situation might think to sue Target, just because they can find a lawyer willing to take on the case. And Target is extremely unlikely to take it to court, just because of the bad press. So Target settles, the family gets made reasonably whole and live goes on. Except, of course, that it doesn’t. And what about if we found him not guilty? Then is there a pedophile lurking around Target? Shouldn’t Target keep a better eye on the toy aisle, even if there’s no shoplifting? What’s a tarnished reputation worth to a huge corporation?
I’m playing devil’s advocate, but this stuff is not as clear cut as it might seem. And that’s just between two shoppers. Imagine how screwed up it gets with product liability and defects. Good luck trying to defend anything in those cases.
I’m probably more of a hard-liner than you, because I find your scenario rather clear-cut, as far as principles are concerned. It’s the parents’ fault for leaving the kids alone primarily, and then the groper’s secondarily. (Maybe vice-versa, but my default position is to blame breeders for their offsprings’ sorry lot in life, on a very deep level. The parents brought the kids into a world of Target-gropers in the first place, so it’s their responsibility, first and foremost.)
Holding Target liable is exactly the type of blame-diffusion that ushered in the totalitarian safety cult. (What if it had been an outdoor farmers’ market? Spread the blame among the four closest booths? There’s no end to this nonsense, when you start blaming third parties for intentional torts.)
If the groper is too insolvent to be assessed reasonable restitution as part of his criminal penalty, I have zero qualms about having the parents foot the rest of the “therapy” bill.
Agreed 100% with your root cause analysis. No way should a 9 YO girl be left with her 11 year old sister and friend in a department store. The store’s security manager testified at length, mostly about the store’s video surveillance system, but also his qualifications and training. He did state that he spent weeks in several Denver locations so he could get more exposure to criminal activity. In other words, there’s not much crime in our neck of the woods. I’m certain that lulls people into a false sense of security and so when something does happen it is catastrophic. Not because these things happen (it’s probably still much less likely to happen here then in a city), but because it shatters people’s illusion of safety.
Whoa, whoa, whoa….totally disagree.
Why can’t an 11 year and 9 year old not be left in Target while mom is shopping elsewhere in the store? Also, why are we blaming the parent first and not the scumbag feeling up little girls?
Many of us grew up in a simpler time where we had to be street smart, but our parents pretty much gave us free range. My sisters and I would ride our bikes a mile down the road and crossed a busy highway (SC 544) to run into the local Kroger’s to buy snacks while my grandparents (who watched us during the summer) were back at the house.
It would have been my grandmother’s fault if some pedo touched me while I was buying a pack of Debbie cakes?
We speak constantly on here how children have no independence and how parents hover over them making the child inept to function in the real world because they lack the common sense and toughness that we had/have.
Instead, it is mom’s fault….how dare she not be with her child every moment of the day! What happened if this occurred on a school bus or a classroom? Do these same rules still apply? I do not believe this situation is anyone’s fault except the sick fuck that is doing the molesting. Put the blame where it belongs….the one that perpetuated the act.
When discussing the jury duty with my mother, she told of her bulldog, was allowed into the movie theater, the corner store and pretty much anywhere but school and church, because the neighborhood she grew up in had some bad people who might try something with a little girl. My grandmother apparently told her that she could go anywhere but the dog had to be with her. DK how true that is, or was, or if grandma just wanted to get the dog and kid out of the house for a few hours, but knowing both of them as I do (and the neighborhood) I think there was some justification for caution.
“What happened if this occurred on a school bus or a classroom?”
Frankly, at this point, any parent who leaves a kid with the satanic school system at all is crazy, and culpable for whatever happens.
It’s like the old parable of the frog and the scorpion. If people don’t know that the schools are a scorpion, stinging wantonly, then they are criminally negligent. Again, in all frankness, a kid who gets groped is a lot better off than a kid who gets pumped full of bug-juice from a government syringe, which is actually more likely than not nowadays!
It’s the parents’ job to construct a reality around their kids. When that reality is filled with gropers, syringes, and god knows what else, it is first and foremost the parents’ fault.
I second that, FP –
I don’t have kids but if I did, they’d be free range and home schooled. At this point, I think that if I ever got into the parenting business it’d be on the down low. Home birth, no SS or vaccines. Raised on the Homestead. I’d owe the kid that.
With you 100 percent, RG!
Like you, I grew up free range – as almost all kids did before the ’90s. When I was seven, I was out on my own, riding my bike around the neighborhood, exploring the woods, headed over to see my friends – who all did the same. Sure, some creep might have tried to snatch me. But it never happened and if it did it would not have been the fault of my parents but the crime of the creep. To blame the kid or the parents for the actions of creeps is the apotheosis of gas-lighting and – worse – it is to assault the proper, natural right of kids to explore the world and not live in fear and learn to exercise judgment and identify and avoid risks.
There was a time when such a pervert would have probably long ago had an unfortunate “accident”. Not long ago, the State of Texas had a law on the books that provided for a justified murder defense because the victim “needed killing”. Several years ago in my home State of Missouri a bad actor was shot dead on the street, in the middle of the day, in a small town I forget the name of. Curiously enough, no witnesses could be found, even though there were lot’s of people on the street.
I miss vigilantism. There was a time when evil was handled accordingly. Unfortunately, today, we are so worried about the criminals rights that we completely disregard the victims.
Hi RK,
I’m going to disagree with you on this one. I was regularly left on my own at the same age (11) and even dropped off in downtown Washington, DC to spend a day exploring the museums on my own. Could I have been diddled by a child molester? Sure. It was possible. But it didn’t happen – in part because such things are uncommon and in part because I was smart enough and had been taught to look out for myself. As kids used to be so taught.
How are kids supposed to learn to be independent and free of dread if they are taught to be afraid of life – and never allowed to be independent?
The onus is on the criminal, not the parents – much less the kids.
Hi FP,
I don’t hold Target liable (morally) nor, I maintain, should it be held liable legally. It is not their job to look out for kids or to screen customers. But I disagree with you as regards the parents being liable. It is not reckless or even negligent, in my view, to allow an 11-year-old to wander around a store without being in direct line-of-sight and constant parental supervision. I’m not sure how old you are, but if you’re under 40 you probably don’t remember the world as it was when those of us over 40 were kids- when it was routine for kids that age to wander the store while their parents shopped, to be left alone in the car, to ride their bikes around the neighborhood for hours, without their parents knowing, other than vaguely, where they were – so long as they were home in time for supper.If you’ve ever watched the TV series, Stranger Things, that’s how it was, once.
This was normal – and wonderful. Kids had their own lives and learned how to become adults. Now they are chained to their parents and neither have normal lives. The kids are stunted and the parents, exhausted.
So what changed? Or did pedophiles grope little girls before, just that the girls never told anyone that it happened? I’m sure many of those girls learned their lesson and moved on, perhaps a little more aware of their surroundings. But the damage was done.
As for what I would have done in this situation, I believe a little frontier justice, in the form of a good talking-to from me and 10 of my associates at the creep’s workplace (he was in company uniform at the time, and the girls were able to identify the restaurant logo), would have been the proper response. Of course keeping the wife and kids out of it. But that probably isn’t an option when you are a manager with Aspen Ski Company and fine citizen of the “community.” Then you have to go through the police and the system, and I doubt the mom would have even considered such “brutality” a possible solution.
Girls learned their lesson?!?! Really? Maybe the pedo needed to learn a lesson. I doubt this was the creep’s first fondling of children. Maybe some parent should have shown up at his home and knocked out his knee caps. It is a little harder to hurt children when you can’t walk.
You ask what has changed. How about the joke of a court system that is thrust upon this country? Many in this country feel the need to make sure that criminals in this nation receive three gourmet meals a day and are tucked into bed each night with bamboo pillows and eiderdown quilts. Why don’t we treat scum like scum? Hard labor, bread and water, loss of a finger (or wee wee).
Maybe I grew up in a different time, but there were consequences for one’s actions. When someone harms another human being repercussions should follow. Putting these pedos in jail for a few years and then some liberal judge let’s them re enter society since they have been “cured of their affliction” and then are surprised when it happens again.
In the old days a father, brother, uncle would have beaten the shit out of this guy, instead we have become a society where the girls “hopefully learned a lesson” and the parents are the criminals. Sick.
Exactly, RG!
I would bet the creep in this case had been recycled through the system previously. And you’re right – severe consequences should follow when children are abused in this manner. If not by the courts, then by the father/brother or any proper male in the vicinity.
RG the lesson learned is that some men are awful people and not to be trusted. As distasteful as it is to admit, the #metoo movement did have plenty of evidence to back up some of the horrible ways a very few men treat women, from the random pedophile/pervert in a store to the Hollywood casting couch. The conclusions that the #metoo crowd came to are way off base though. All men are not sexual predators, restrained only by societal norms. If that were true then the “patriarchal” society would have a completely different set of norms.
Believe it or not, this is the second time I’ve sat on a jury, and the second time it was for pedophilia. I think the reason for this is because the defendant knows what happens to child molesters in prison and so is compelled to go to trial instead of taking a plea bargain that includes jail time.
Hi RK,
I don’t dispute there are horrible people out there, but the focus should be on them as the perpetuators, not the parents, the children, or Target.
As for the #MeToo movement….I have nothing nice to say about it so I won’t say anything. The #MeToo and little children being molested are too cases of apples vs oranges. Little children don’t have the power or understanding to fight back in such cases.
A woman invited to a man’s hotel room should realize she is not there to have some deep meaningful conversation about politics or climate change. As grown women we can easily say No, and walk away. It that doesn’t work the switchblade knife that one should always carry on them usually gets the point across.
Well, we did find him guilty on two counts. Should we all just randomly check people for pedophile? Perhaps monitor their communications to see what they’re viewing and who they interact with? So long as pre-cognition of crime isn’t possible we have to wait for a criminal to actually commit a criminal act. There are likely to be many people who have the same urges as this jerk but they don’t act on them. He acted, which unfortunately produced a victim. Now restitution is called for, but how does one get blood from a stone?
Hi RK,
There’s that saying about hard cases making bad laws. . .
My take: Any adult who sexually abuses a child forfeits his/her right to ever be free to abuse another child again. Life imprisonment, at the least. I do not oppose summary execution as these people are particularly dangerous and generally incorrigible. Having once committed such an act we know they cannot ever be trusted to not commit such an act again. That is not restitution, per se. But it is prevention – and that is arguably justice.
Hey Eric:
My childhood was much like yours: biking through dirt fields to the market by myself or with a friend to buy candy and Garbage Pail Kids; running around from friend’s friend’s house all afternoon without a thought.
But nonetheless, there are two reasons I answered Kilowatt the way I did, which I will try to put succinctly to avoid getting “too deep” into some obscure realms of my anti-natalist propensities: 1.) Kilowatt was primarily speaking in terms of “cost-shifting” and “making whole,” which are legal-economic concepts that address how monetary costs should be distributed in light of the (presumed) poverty of the groper in question. My point was very much that I don’t have any qualms about the parents “footing the bill” as opposed to Target. Moreover, I think that the parents should always bear presumptive liability, absent a strong demonstration of grounds to shift responsibility to someone else. (Intentional sexual battery is, of course, good grounds.)
2.) I think things really are different now than when you (and I) were kids. Perhaps I could be persuaded that I was being unfair to the parents in this particular case because there was no reasonable basis to be apprehensive that this particular Target might be hosting a “sexual predator.” However, again, my presumption nowadays is that it was indeed irresponsible to leave them alone in what sounds like a mall or other multi-business complex where creepy workers from restaurants are wandering through Target on their “grope-breaks.” I wouldn’t apply the same standard to this mother than I would have to your parents or mine, because society really has changed…massively and for the worse. (To the point where I think it is irresponsible and even cruel to have kids at all–but that’s a whole different can o’ worms!)
This stuff isn’t easy. That’s why it took a week to try and 4 hours to convict an event that spanned the course of about 20 minutes.
One continuous nag is the so-called asymptotic carrier. This modern Typhoid Mary is assumed to be the cause of all spread of this chest cold, since people with symptoms (sick people) are assumed to be avoiding public places just due to being sick. It is causing a rift amongst libertarian types (in as much as pretty much anyone can call themselves a libertarian), because of a misapplication of the non-aggression principle. The argument is that if your filthy diseased body is spewing out deadly virus near me, you are causing me harm. I’m not against that agreement per se, but then I’m also a victim of whomever infected me. It’s like that shampoo that Heather Locklear told two friends about… and so on… and so on… and so on. Yes, people are infecting each other, but are they aware they are doing it? Can they make the argument they didn’t know, assuming there’s a reliable test available? What if they don’t perform the test prior to entering the public place? The airlines and many countries are requiring proof of vaccination or negative test within 72 hours of travel, and my guess is the vaccination proof will probably disappear due to the ineffectiveness of them for preventing spread.
South Korea has cheap home test kits available. We’re told that most of the population now self-tests as a part of their daily routine. The US FDA hesitated in approving home tests for whatever reason, probably because they aren’t 100% accurate, especially if the sample isn’t handled properly. In other words, you rubes are just too stupid to know how to shove a Q-tip up your nose. Now that we pay people to do testing at “approved” testing facilities, home tests are off the table. Testing is a lucrative crony industry now. People have told me that getting tested before a flight becomes a game of timing, because you have to test within the 72 hour timeframe but might not get the results in time if you use one of the more economical testing centers, and of course there’s no “money back guarantee” if you miss your flight because the test wasn’t completed in time. But in a twisted example of market forces at work, there’s the immediate tests, which cost hundreds of dollars, available at the airport and results right away. A family of four might spend $1,000 on rapid tests only because the less expensive option didn’t get their results to them on time.
And back to the “neo-libertarian” argument. It goes something like this: because testing facilities are available, along with vaccination, if one chooses to live in ignorance they should be quarantined. Because we are able to know, therefore we must know. But this takes us right back to the start. If the test isn’t 100% perfect, if the test was performed just before antibodies started to be produced, or perhaps someone was away from a testing environment for an extended time but otherwise quarantined, that’s not good enough. Eventually because of all the variables, everyone will be outside of whatever protocol will be required to quarantine, but it doesn’t matter because whatever procedure is going to ultimately fall to compromises and exceptions. Liability all the way down. Add to this the extremely fearful who absolutely believe this is like a plot of a disaster movie, who fall into the traditional media sensationalist storyline, amplified by social media, a “customer is always right” attitude from business across the board, and we see society unravel. All over a stupid chest cold.
(Oh God, I think I’m becoming Tor Libertarian…)
‘South Korea has cheap home test kits available.’ — RK
So does Thailand. A colleague from Bangkok just sent a photo of his positive result — a couple of telltale spectrum lines in a small clear display on a pen-sized plastic device.
That’s way too high-tech for pokey ol’ Murica, where helpless, childlike adults can’t be trusted to interpret complicated medical things that only credentialed experts would understand. /sarc
Unfortunately for my colleague, Thailand destructively has clamped down on ivermectin, making it impossible to find. I suggested lysine as a possible alternative, based on a report from the Dominican Republic, though the evidence for lysine is quite scanty compared to ivermectin.
Jim,
I take lysine nearly daily to keep Mr. Epstein Barr at bay, and hopefully COVID as well. haven’t yet read specific research regarding SARS-CoV-2… I’m curious to see what, if any, exists.
It’s rotten that governments are preventing people’s use of ivermectin, but that’s what they do best: break your legs and make you thank them for giving you a wheelchair, payed for with your own money.
This is the article I sent to my friend in Bangkok:
https://tinyurl.com/e22ur9c
Evidence for lysine in treating covid is sketchy … and author Bill Sardi is lucid only half the time. Due caution, due diligence, etc
But if sick and deprived of ivermectin, I would certainly give lysine a whirl.
Thank, Jim!
I’ve filled by cupboards with an arsenal of nearly every antiviral and/or supportive supplement known to man. This includes, but is not limited to:
Lysine
Oil of Oregano
Licorice root (Thanks RG!)
Monolaurin
Lemon Balm
Quercetin
N-Acetyl Cysteine
Nicotinamide Mononucleotide
Resveratrol
Elderberry syrup
Green Tea (for catechins)
Vitamin-C, B-complex, D/K2
Zinc
All of these are backed by some, but sometimes quite limited, research, and I use them in alternating schedules for prophylaxis. Should I fall ill, I’ll be giving it the full Mechagodzilla treatment. 😉
Of course, I’d rather not get sick… Ever again. Life is, unfortunately, full of things we’d rather not do. 🙂
Hi BaDnOn,
Thanks for the shout out. I, the Chinese, and Turkmenistan are licorice roots biggest fans. 😁
I noticed you had Monolaurin on the list. Do you take this steadily? In my reading it looks like it is pretty good for cellular repair and fighting such diseases as Lyme and MRSA which can be resistant to antibiotics. It does seem to take about 6 to 8 weeks to notice a difference, but those that take it swear by it.
You may want to add potassium iodide pills….the way that Biden is pissing everybody off it may be needed. 😉
Hey Raider!
I do take it fairly steadily at 500 mg a day. Should I become infected, I will increase the dosage. Good to hear about those other applications. Lyme disease is a horrible illness, and doctors give it the shrug.
I first got lyme about 20 yrs ago and it pretty much laid me up for a week with severe pain all over. Docs didn’t know what it was, then finally found the now-large bullseye and ran to the docs. went on heavy antibiotics and it cleared up. I since have gotten it 5-7 more time, each time my symptoms get progressively better (less pain), to the point now I’m not sure if I’d even know if it was just a headache, muscle ache, or lyme. So the moral of the story is my body kept getting better and better at fighting it off.
Good, Chris, that you caught it early.
The true horrorshow comes if you don’t catch it, and the spirochete bacterium burrows itself into your body to possibly cause problems for years to come. It’s very hard to kill, then.
Just be careful with the licorice root. The glycyrrhizin can cause a rise in blood pressure. You can get de-glycyrrhizinated licorice, but it might be the glycyrrhizin that has the therapeutic effects, as well as the unwanted side effects.
Hey Myles,
It is, essentially, the glycyrrhizin and related compounds that are reportedly responsible for the antiviral effects, yes. Having done my research, I took licorice root (recommended dose) every day for a week and monitored my blood pressure, which stayed well within healthy levels. I’m reserving it for the event of actual infection.
Thanks for the heads-up, though!
I could be wrong, I was wrong once before, but I don’t think Oregano oil is an effective agent against viruses. I can personally testify to its effects against bacteria. It cured me of a pneumonia antibiotics had failed to, and I didn’t have to ingest it. Just put it on my skin in the area I felt the problem. Be very careful with it. It will blister and peal your skin in some parts of your body. Test with very tiny amounts and dilute as necessary with any harmless neutral oil, Olive oil, Coconut oil, etc. I was using a 50/50 mix. Took about a week for the infection to disappear, and I followed up with another week, just like antibiotics.
Hey John,
There is research to indicate that oregano oil is at least somewhat effective as an antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and antiprotozoal.
I have found it valuable for Epstein-Barr flare-ups, and while it DOES feel a bit harsh on your systems when you use it, I’ve experienced no significant side effects from years of occasional use.
You can, of course, do your own research, but here is a decent paper regarding its possible use and mechanisms against SARS-CoV-2:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7921315/
Also, there one Dr. Cass Ingram, who, although he might be regarded as a bit of a quack by some, swears with vigor that he’s successfully treated many COVID patients with oregano oil. Take that for what its worth. 😉
At one time, the commonly accepted term for an “asymptomatic” person was “healthy.”
Show me the man, and I’ll show you the disease…
RK,
I have been following the libertarian in fighting on this and to me it seems to come down to either
1) you are responsible for nature
or
2) nature is a force that can’t be controlled
I think it is irrational to believe a person should be held responsible for stopping nature or be held in contempt for violence. Taken to it’s logical conclusion, embers from a house fire setting a neighbor’s house alight are the responsibility of the fire victim not having a metal roof? Or not having a sprinkler system?
It’s too much.
RK,
Here’s my $0.02. If you set off a bioweapon, you are responsible for all of the resulting sickness and death. That is a deliberate act. If you sneeze, then you sneeze. There’s no helping it, really, although it would be polite to cover your mouth. That is just an inherent part of life, which necessarily involves a bit of risk.
I think a useful definition of narcissistic personality disorder is “what if I sneeze and kill everyone?”. Similarly, I think that a useful definition of an anxiety disorder is “what if I go outside, and someone sneezes, and I catch the ‘rona and die?”
Notably, I believe that both of the above are and have been operative society-wide. In my opinion, yes, society has absolutely gone crazy. The only thing to do, is to ride it out and wait for everyone to come to their senses. This will require a lot of patience.
Well here’s the thing: Is this a naturally occurring organism or a Frankenstein’s monster created in a lab? Assume it was a natural mutation from species to human which then mutated into human to human. It evolved. Or God allowed it to exist. End of story, stuff happens. That’s a very different scenario than one where it was engineered by humans.
I really try to avoid conspiracy theories, but from the start this thing smelled like the mother of all “cover your ass” situations. If it was engineered then someone (or organization) is responsible. If the lab was getting funding from the United Nations, the whole of world governments are responsible. Talk about your oh shit moments. I think that’s why every government on the planet is so cagy when it comes to investigating the origin. Especially when the various viruses that have come from Africa over the last few years have been actively investigated and reported on without all the hyperbole and misleading “statistics.” Because the legal departments, insurance companies and directors of corporations know that they’ll be made whole with hush money if they play along, who cares if some freedoms get trampled? Better that then the hoi-polloi see how stupid these people are. I’ll hold at intent though. I’m not The Shadow.
Hi RK,
It smells to me, too. That said, I just don’t grok the fear. It’s been almost two years now and I still haven’t gotten sick, despite never once wearing a “mask” or “practicing” any strange rituals. I know that if I do get sick, I stand a 99.8-something or better chance of not dying or even needing medical intervention. So why the Freak Out?
Next thing you know, Fauci will be demanding every 20-year-old male get a pre-emptive prostatectomy and 20-year-old women have hysterectomies… just to be safe.
The hysterectomy thing has already happened, back in the 70s. Not to 20 year olds so much, but there was a big scandal which included a whole lot of unnecessary hysterectomies performed for no purpose other than profit. I forget how many thousands. I was about 20, so such things were not front and center, unless there was a girl who thought they should be. My mother was one of the victims.
Again, look at the source. Evolution? That came out of nature. Lab grown? That was released into nature.
If it was released, someone is liable, just as much as Ford and Firestone were liable for rolling SUVs. A single death will get you on death row. A dozen puts you in the Bundy suite in Florence. Millions all over the world? That should earn a Nuremberg-style public hanging at the very least. If I were remotely complicit in that act (and a narcissistic psychopath) I would be willing to do anything to keep it quiet.
As for the hysterics, well, there’s a segment of the population that’s too busy worrying about death to ever live their lives. Not exactly hypochondria, but something like that. Like nervous fliers and risk-adverse investors, they are hypersensitive to anything that might reenforce their fears, while ignoring all the opportunity they’re missing sitting on the bench. Now that they have a voice on social media, they’ve found like minded compatriots to gang up on the rest of us. And because they actively seek out protection from the threats, government is only too happy to provide.
Hi Publius,
It’s the presumption of radiating deadly sickness that appalls me. People ought to be presumed healthy, not suppurating spreaders of contagion. Second, catching cold is part of life – or used to be. It is unreasonable – it is insane – to expect people to live in constant dread of catching a cold and to demand that everyone perform bizarre rituals and take pre-emptive palliatives (supposedly) to “stop the spread” of what most haven’t even got and so cannot transmit.
That it’s a monomaniacal focus on a single, discrete, respiratory illness with all the officially defined symptoms no different than the common cold or influenza just magnifies the insanity. So worried about the sniffles but Ebola or any other litany of infectious diseases, no worries at all. Brings to mind the saying that the purpose of the propaganda isn’t to inform or persuade but simply to humiliate.
Fear is natural, and useful. Living one’s life consumed by it isn’t.
Eric,
I’m not arguing for any presumption of health or sickness at all (or, I don’t think I am). My thought process is more like Can’t control it (at least not without resorting to extreme measures and even then it’s iffy)+ Not a major threat (at least to those who are not already frail) => it is neurotic to worry about it (with some possible exceptions that should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis).
‘The pools would be open, all season – all hours. Nothing would have been “locked down.”’ — EP
In the 19th century, water supply lakes in the northern and western NYC suburbs were fenced to keep cattle from fouling them.
Now the cattle are gone. But the fences remain, with signs warning to keep out. The towns which host these lakes assume that swimming and boating are impossible without life guards and patrol boats. For them, it would only be a revenue drain. So these recreational-jewel lakes stay off limits forever. It’s crazy-making.
South of the city, along the Jersey shore, nearly every town requires visitors to purchase ‘beach tags’ which pay for the lifeguards and raise general revenue. Just stopping on a whim and plunging into the sea — as we memorably did one midnight in Pensacola, watching phosphorescent plankton trails glow in the dark, is unthinkable in the ‘garden’ state. That ain’t s-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-f-e.
And so the East keeps losing population and congressional seats to the South and West (ex-California), because of a pathological control-freak mindset that can’t be fixed. I’ve never heard of anyone returning.
The difference between the northeast and deep south is mind blowing. It’s like escaping east germany before the checkpoints and concertina wire are in place.
Dave Cullen gets sarcastic. This is damned funny. Great example of how to mock and ridicule the morons in charge.
Don’t Make Dan Angry!
https://www.bitchute.com/video/qByyVJInKeQi/
Free_Phi is pretty good at accents and impressions, but the Australian accent has always eluded my abilities entirely. It’s just so arbitrary, and every vowel sound is stretched and twisted into a series of three to four vowel sounds. Sort of like those pesky irregular verbs in Spanish, if you don’t know how each word is uniquely treated by Aussies, you really can’t effectively mimic any kind of extended passage authentically.
Cullen’s Aussie accent in this clip makes Free_Phi very jealous. Not only is he nailing the accent…but he’s doing a bang-up impersonation of this Andrews creep in particular. Really a level-up comedic performance by Mr. Cullen.
Eric,
Remember back to the days you were in Scouts…and then go and take a look at the current Guide to Safe Scouting or as i like to call it, the book of NO. I guarantee you will be shocked by all the activities that in the 80’s were commonplace in scoutting that are now absolutely prohibited. The ambulance chasing lawyers have destroyed pretty much everything.
Hi Antilles,
I do!
My scoutmaster was my buddy’s dad; he was a no-bullshit Korean War vet who took us on 2-3 day backpacking trips that would – in today’s world – arouse wails of furious anger from the Safety Termagants. Thirteen-fourteen-year-old boys humping full packs for 12 miles on the AT. We made it because if the Old Bastard – as we called him – could do it, then damn it, so could we! That man helped us become men. I owe him a debt I can never repay.
You were probably one of the last, Eric, to derive benefit from the organization founded by Lord Baden-Powell. Yes, MEN…like your buddy’s father (being a Korean war vet, he likely had a few stories to tell).
If you think about it, the Appalachian Trail, in comparison to many other venues, is like a walk in the park. A “Tenderfoot” likely didn’t think so, and hence why it was an essential part of training a lad to become a MAN. Something that today’s pussified little shits, wasting their time away on the couch, playing video games, wouldn’t understand.
But that was before being a “man” was a sin. In the inevitable collapse of this unicorn butterfly lollipop fairy dust delusion we live in, MEN are going to become a very valuable commodity. And there will be few to fill the role, leaving the door open for sociopaths pretending to be. It will be the duty of men to dispose of such miscreants.
One of the reasons I liked Scouts as a kid was because I got to do stuff my mother would never have allowed me to do.
It’s not fun if it isn’t at least a little bit risky.
The saftey religion has cut down on many of the fun activities. I have one mom in my younger son’s cub den that can’t wrap her head around the fact that once he crosses over into BS this january she stops going camping with him and the boys go with 2 or 3 adult leaders.
Also, I’m actually in shock archery and firearms are still part of rhe program. I expect them to be eliminated soon because little Johnny or little suzie may grow up to become a mass killer because they shot .22’s in scouts.🙄 i’ve already told my boys the day the scouts kills their firearms program is the day we all walk away.
I’m still amused that the list of prohibited items for public school reads like a packing list for Scout camp. You must bring a knife, matches (or other means for starting a fire), etc. Although not part of a required packing list, Scouts are even allowed to bring certain types of firearms.
Related to this^, someone asked me about gift ideas for a middle school aged boy a while back. I said “just look at the list of prohibited items for the school, I’m sure he’d be happy to have any of that stuff.”
My oldest son and my nephew love to get new pocket knives once a year. They’ve gone from the small utility style as cubs to now both have 3 1/2 inch foldable blades they cary any time they are not at school or a sporting event. Both can split wood with a hatchet or an ax and both have becone adept little pyro’s.
Shooting sports have always been done in a range setting. But, no joke i had a mom come up to me and another instructor once and ask if her son could earn the shooting merit badge without touching a rifle. She didn’t like the not a chance answer my counterpart gave(retired cop) and took her son home. We both had a nice laugh about it but the worrisome thing is that mentality has been infesting the BSA for at least a decade now.
I remember being in a store with my appx 10 year old son. He was interested in buying a pocket knife, and the store clerk was very hesitant to let him handle it.
We both laughed as he told the guy that he had a large collection of knives at home already.
He now forges his own.
Hi Anon,
My friend the columnist Fred Reed tells of being a kid in Virginia in the ’50s and walking into hardware stores to buy .22 rounds for the rifle he used to plink at beer cans with. It wasn’t that long ago, but it’s very far away.
Before Babe Ruth, shooting sports WERE America’s favorite pastime.
I struggle to think of a free nation left on this blue rock. All I can come up with is Hungary. That’s primarily only because they have a leader with a backbone & balls to tell the EU to pound sand.
Hi Mike,
Denmark has, at least, rescinded all ‘Rona restrictions – but I take your point. We will not be free again until we wrest our freedoms back, by whatever means necessary.
Freedom is never “free”…just ask any man granted a divorce.
Is it worth it? ALWAYS.
Any of these can turn into what we despise in short order. 20 years ago, NZ was considered a libertarian Mecca. Look at it now. You can fight for liberty where you stand or dispose of the notion. “If you aren’t willing to die for it, remove the word freedom from your vocabulary” –Malcolm X.
John,
I remember that! I was told New Zealand was as close to anarchism in practice as existed. Quite the opposite now.
Along similar lines: school started this week, face diapers required for all teachers and students in CT; another brick in the wall. On my morning walk today, I noticed an SUV at then end of a cul-de-sac. When the school bus approached, an 8th Grade boy (we know him) emerged from the SUV (diapered) and then got on the bus. After the bus departed, the SUV turned around and drove back home. So we have parents driving 8th grade boys (13 y/o) to the bus stop. What better illustration of the absurdity of the safety cult taken to extremes and being passed on to the next generation.
In my day, this kid would have been stuffed in a locker or gotten the business at gym class. Today, it’s apparently acceptable to be a tool???
Amen, BAC –
I walked a quarter mile from my house, down the street to the common pick-up point for the neighborhood, where all the kids waited for the bus – without any parents waiting. It’s all very sad and very sick.
Hi Eric –
When was 10, my aunt was going to grad school in Boston and she had an apartment in the Back Bay.
One day, in late June after the school year had ended, I was at my grandmother’s house and my aunt was there. She was going back to Boston later that afternoon. So, I called my dad at work and asked him if I could go to Boston because I wanted to go to Fenway Park that night and see the Sox take on the Tigers.
My father, who was a lawyer, said yes.
That night, I walked, alone, from my aunt’s apartment, to and from Fenway Park. She lived about a mile from the ballpark. When I got to Fenway, I purchased a box seat ticket and proceeded to my seat behind home plate.
Can you imagine a parent allowing his 10 year old kid to do that today?
Good morning Mike,
Even if the parents approved, can you imagine a venue like Fenway Park allowing a 10 year old kid to do that today?
☮
Exactly.
I do not recall any busybody demanding to know the whereabouts of my parents that night, including the ushers and vendors at Fenway.
My uncle starting about that age, would travel from the suburbs (train and buses) in New Jersey to see the Yankees play on his own.
It sounds like your grandparents understood that the buses and trains weren’t full of child molesters.
And we older guys wonder why when these kids hit 25+ they go crazy, more now than ever. I think we know why now too.
Nevermind if you drive a two lane country road lined with houses; which are spaced at least 100 yards apart from each other…. The damn bus stops every 100 yards! Then the kid gets out from the car *at the end of the driveway*! The bus never pulls over to let the traffic pass! So infuriating trying to commute with this. If I am four cars back, with nothing coming the other way, I punch it as soon as the damn red lights go off. (Or punch it when the yellow lights come on!)
The every 100 yards thing is way over the top.
Then you hear complaints of these people as frustrated motorists get “reckless” (aka speeding!!!!) trying to get around these stupid buses. It never occurs to the school district (even though I have suggested it more than once) to pull around the corner from the main roads and pick up the kids ON THE SIDE STREETS……….. Which actually would be safer……..
In first through fifth grade I walked about a mile to school every day. You had to live two miles or farther, I think, in the unlikely event I recall 55 years ago correctly, before you would be ALLOWED to ride a school bus. This was in a very poor neighborhood, in which ruffians abounded. I learned how to deal with them. Oddly enough, I’m still alive. To my knowledge, the only one of my classmates suffering any injury, was one being hit and killed by a car as he carelessly crossed the street.
> So we have parents driving 8th grade boys (13 y/o) to the bus stop. What better illustration of the absurdity of the safety cult taken to extremes and being passed on to the next generation.
I walked to school, starting in kindergarten (which for me was the 1977-78 school year). Sun, rain, or even snow (kindergarten was in Bloomington, IL, so snow was definitely a possibility)…didn’t matter. The only thing that ever went wrong was on my very first day of school, I was somehow convinced to get on a bus. I only made that mistake once. 🙂
BAC,
I’ve seen the same thing. Entire caravans of SUVs and “crossovers” lining both sides of the street until the bus arrives. I always wonder why they didn’t just use the 15-20 minutes sitting there to just drive the damn kids to school. Perhaps they all could and Publik Edukashun would cost so much less.
♫ If you’re ugly and you know it wear a mask.
If you’re ugly and you know it wear a mask.
If you’re ugly and you know it then your face will surely show it.
If you’re ugly and you know it wear a mask. ♫
Sometimes I think this is what’s really going on.
I like this, Jim!
Yesterday, I stopped by Earth Fare to pick up some grass fed beef and such. Among the Diapered was what might otherwise have been a very attractive young blond woman, probably in her mid-20s. Great body – but that Diaper on her face spoiled it. Were I single, I’d not even consider asking such a Freak out.
I’ll volunteer to “take one for the team” and “gently persuade” this deceived young lass that she need not don the mask.
Indeed, a brief Socratic series of questions would likely lead her to the correct answers.
Actually, this little modification of the diddy came to mind when I saw the freak in my apartment complex walking her dog, still wearing the diaper after over a year to do so. The other day, I finally got close enough to get a better look while she was wearing a short-ish skirt. Hairy legs. I mean really hairy legs. It traumatizes me just thinking about it. Since I’ve never seen her face, I figured the song fits.
Like you, I’ve seen a number of hot-looking women in the stores, from behind. Then they turn around and show the diaper and it completely spoils it.
Ok, time for a second verse.
If you’re a sheep and you know it take the jab.
If you’re a sheep and you know it take the jab.
If you’re a sheep and you know it then your compliance will surely show it.
If you’re a sheep and you know it take the jab.