As I enter the autumn of my years, I’m trying to shed some lingering bad habits — both to be rid of the habits themselves, and as an exercise in self-mastery. One of these is talking back to the radio. I suffered a breakdown of discipline on that one today, though, I will confess.
I was driving around Wellfleet doing errands, and tuned in to a panel discussion (a local public-radio station, I think it was) about Dzokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence. The panel was the usual gaggle of secularized Massachusetts Puritans — the same crowd that have, effectively, conquered most of Western civilization over the past 400 years — and they were lamenting the fact that a capital sentence had been pronounced in the case, despite the fact that Massachusetts is a state that does not allow the death penalty.
The problem was that Mr. Tsarnaev’s was a Federal prosecution, and so proceeded according to Federal rules. This bothered the panelists no end; although they grudgingly acknowledged that Federal law supersedes local custom in these circumstances, they seemed awfully put out about it — because, you see, it was at odds with their own sense of right and wrong, and with their wish to do things the way they like to on their own home turf. Because the action of the Federal juggernaut has, for all of our lifetimes, busied itself almost exclusively with imposing on recalcitrant States the very same liberal values they themselves espouse, I actually believe this was the first time in their lives it had ever occurred to these pious and self-righteous busybodies, these preening moral solipsists, that using the crushing power of the Federal leviathan to override local norms might have any down-side at all. That it was just a matter of the shoe, at long last, being on the other foot, and so might give them something to think about, seemed to occur to none of them, however; I heard nothing but grumbling.
Before I could catch myself, I had begun shouting at the radio. This being a family-friendly blog, however, I shall refrain from offering a transcript of my remarks.
12 Comments
Ha! Autumn you lament? Wait till the winter of your discontent … a whole nother ballgame, amigo.
As for “an exercise in self-mastery”, have you ever seen the Seinfeld episode, “The Contest“? :)
I hope before your tirade you took a good look around the near lanes ensuring there weren’t any cameras about, license plate readers and the like.
I used to talk back to the radio. That is where I learned my command of four letter words. They can be useful. Boston seems to be having a tough time understanding “why them”. They are oh so Blue Liberal and they are tolerant and they take care of the needy with public money. Even if the needy develops a contempt toward that same paternalism that the Bluest pride themselves in as a mark of their own goodness. They sound sort of, well, Swedish is their insulated mind sets and outlook. Swedes and Bostonians are just perplexed at evil in their midst. After all, these are tolerant people. Welcoming people.
They all react to the intrusion of the real world with horror and confusion. These bluest of blue liberals have to face the fact that evil exists. Prior to this, evil has only been the existence of Conservatives.
Don’t forget witches. And heretics.
JK asked me to post this pic:
Malcolm,
Is there some way you can enable a preview stage for comments here?
I do have a preview plugin running, though I don’t think it shows images.
To embed images I recommend you use the <img> HTML tag, as shown here.
“Don’t forget witches. And heretics”. Hillary Clinton has the former covered, and if the spit slinging lib sites are any indication, Kirsten Powers has the latter covered. There is also a dire shortage of cauldrons over there.
That’s what I tried before …
BTW, how does one activate the preview? All I can find is the [Post Comment] button.
The preview should appear automatically as you type, just below the comment-box.
Ah, yes. And, as you mentioned, it does not show images.
just testing
[img]http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/grandpa2-800×430.jpg[/img]
[img]http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/grandpa2-800×430.jpg[/img]