It's a Nanny State Knocking at the Back Door Thing

Dear America,

"Particularly on issues like smoking, drinking, guzzling sodas that are too big for them, you know, eating sixteen Big Macs a day, whatever it may be, the reality is we all need a bit of nannying about that that's why so many people are on diets. That's a form of nanny state."  Piers Morgan, speaking with Christine Quinn, President of New York City Council, as well as, fellow New York Liberal.

yeah, nothing wrong with steering people in the right direction, right?

Let's just ban cream cheese, too -- no perfectly good use for that, unless, of course, it's totally fat free...and why bother then, what's the point.  Whipped cream -- especially out of those canisters using a propellant like nitrous-oxide -- fugettaboutit.  Absolutely not.  All fluff and no substance.  Which kinda reminds me of a certain someone...perhaps we could just ban 'that guy' while we're at it.

Candy, should be gone.

Ice Cream, gone.

Real sugar -- gone (White House, the Capital kitchens, Governor's mansions, all exempt)  let's just force everyone else to use a fake substitute?  What's wrong with that?

And then, while we're confiscating the sweeter side of life just because a few bad apples spoil it for the whole bunch -- what's to stop us from the government going for our dough, like Cyprus?

Can you just imagine it?  If tomorrow morning when you wake up, ten percent of your savings in the bank was gone?  Gone, baby, gone.


Yes, indeed, "whatever it may be, the reality is we all need a bit of nannying about that that's why so many people are on diets. That's a form of nanny state,"  spoken like someone fit to be king.

We all need a bit of nannying -- for we, in the general context, have lost all self-control, according to Mr. Piers 'Hold Still, This Won't Hurt a Bit' Morgan.

The question, then -- and the one most of us considered answered, like over 200 years ago --  is where does this nanny state start and stop?

The slippery, syrup-y slope has begun people. 

• Perhaps the nanny state begins to re-distribute funds as they see fit, using the sequester cuts to make political gains, hurting the most people to affect change as quickly as possible?  
• Perhaps the nanny state eventually decides to ban fossil fuel family vehicles altogether, given the reality that most of us are simply not moving fast enough on our own?  
• Perhaps the nanny state forces private companies to provide free contraception to all employees? 
• Perhaps the nanny state begins to interfere with the element of personal accountability and self-reliance to know and weigh the risks involved with playing for the NFL? 
• Perhaps the nanny state begins to take personal property, without cause, and all the while causing so much financial strain to fight the case, the property owner simply walks away? 
• Perhaps the nanny state begins to distribute full college scholarships to illegals, non-citizens? 
• Perhaps the nanny state begins to mandate services to buy -- for our own good, you know, for our health and the welfare of the entire country? 
• Perhaps the nanny state begins to designate which days we can buy gasoline, and how much we can have?
• Perhaps the nanny state begins to trivialize life itself -- providing legalized abortions, even after 12 weeks - - while forcing citizens who do not believe in abortion at any time, to subsidize it, going against one's personal and religious beliefs?
• Perhaps the nanny state begins to tell us what kind of gun we can own, or how many, and more important, begins to control the availability of ammunition to use it?
• Perhaps the nanny state begins to dictate how much salt, sugar, soda pop, chocolate -- and whatever else causes all self-control to go right out the door-- we can enjoy?

Newsflash:   Immigrants have flocked to America's shores because we are NOT the nanny state.  [GOP TAKE NOTE]

Up until now, America has steadfastly stood for sweet liberty and fullness of life and happiness, come what may -- in good and bad, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.    In other words, the self-contained reward, living in America, came only following hard work, combined with self-reliance and individual aspirations and personal responsibility, to make something of ourselves, to provide for our family, and give back to our community from the goodness of our own heart.

But needless to say, we worked so hard for it --  the making of it's a wonderful life -- there was no time to get fat off of soda (which, by the way, used to be a treat, saved for special occasions, but I digress)... or donuts, or ice cream, or French fries, or potato chips, or "whatever it may be, the reality is we all need a bit of nannying about that that's why so many people are on diets..."  

The thing is, over time, Americans have grown lazy with the fundamentals, and have grown entitled in "whatever it may be, the reality is we all need a bit of nannying about that that's why so many people are ____________".   

Are we not entitled to eat what we want, drink what we want, smoke what we want, and all the while, exercise as little as we want?   Are we not entitled to get free birth control, free education, and a six digit salary fresh out of school...for who works up the ladder anymore, right?    Are we not entitled to dictate when religious liberty, and the free exercise thereof, is permitted and when and where it is not -- not to mention, when religion is simply offensive in and of itself?  Are we not entitled to usurp the principles that made America great, replacing independence with dependence, and collectively deteriorating the value of hard work by guaranteeing outcomes without equal effort and sacrifice?

Our reward, now limited.
Motivation for excellence, gone.
Great aspirations, gone.
Doing the right thing, even when no one is watching, gone.
Possibility for acquiring wealth and property, gone.
And America eventually withers away.

Perhaps a return to good old-fashioned anecdotes is in order?   A revival of things like, everything in moderation....having a modicum of self-control..... maybe living within our means and totally respective of our individual weaknesses and cravings and demons.... saving for a rainy day (under the mattress is looking better and better)...

In short -- in essence and in everyday life, we have grown more immorally entitled than morally responsible in every possible way; AND THAT goes for our government, too.  And I think we can all agree, it's beginning to show.


Naturally, the nanny state sees an opening to dictate every living detail of our life, down to our last Big Gulp and, coming to a nanny state near you, dime.



Make it a Good Day, G





 

It's Sometimes, Less Shelter is More Thing

Dear America,

so even though this week's entries have been a wee bit all over the place, as this girl tries to steady herself into the new year...yesterday highlighted a rather clear distinction on where the Left wants to go with this country.  And it's funny how it ties in with the idea of how parenthood, itself, has evolved in America.

Of course, when it comes to our children, we want to give them shelter.  We want to protect them, love them, support them, and honor their personhood as best we can.   The primary role of being a parent is all of these things, AND  preparing our babies for the real world all along the way.

As a parent, I realize I can't shelter my girl forever.  Eventually, she needs to grow up.

But the Left seems perfectly fine taking over in the "shelter" department; matter of fact, let's just go ahead and add indoctrinate, influence, control, mind meld, and otherwise, fully take over their lives -- because 'they' know better.  Heaven forbid we actually hold someone fully accountable for their actions, their education, their bodies, their pursuit of happiness in their own lives...

Gone is the beauty and independence of critical thinking on our very own -- and understanding why something is right and something is wrong.  Gone is the personal responsibility and connection back behind eating/drinking the right foods; gone is the personal responsibility and connection to showing up for class and doing our homework and raising the test scores in the U.S.  (ergo it isn't the fault of our teachers or enough money thrown into the system...the responsibility is up to the parent and child); gone is the personal responsibility and connection to treating people the way you want to be treated; gone is the personal responsibility and connection to understanding a gun, and treating it and the lives we are surrounded with total respect.

If you can't control what you eat (as one bad apple after another seems to spoil it for the whole bunch)  -- the Left will fix the problem by telling us what to eat.  No matter how many times a gun has saved lives, if someone abuses this American-made right,  the Left will fix the problem by simply taking this right away.

If the Left could have it's way, it would take personal responsibility and connection out of the equation altogether.  It's called the more we can do for you, the less you can do for yourselves; it's called creating a controllable body of dependent citizens...also known as sheep, with no more value than it's digit.

Which is weird.

There was a time, in America, when we all stood for the same, reasonable, productive, forward-thinking ideas all together, Left and Right.  America created a culture that spoke for all of us. This is what gets me these days... There was a time, in America, when we all stood for raising our children with self-reliance and independence -- not raising Cain and dependence.

But seems ever since the days of Woodstock (just for an easy frame of reference), there has been a prevailing, suffocating, yet highly satisfying and intoxicating cloud hanging over all of us.  Of course, the cloud really started to take formation years, if not decades, before.  Yet now, after the full scope and evolution has clearly settled into the halls of Washington -- granting bureaucracy greater power over us while commandeering the people's house and money -- self-reliance, the mainstay of freedom and liberty, has been all but snuffed right our of us.  

All in all, this brings us to today, finding ourselves subject to a re-awakening of our most finest attributes and convictions...that is, if it's not too late.

The thing is -- bearing in mind our first intentions and our mission on Earth,  (until now) America has never stood for government giving us everything we ever need, including food, phones, and shelter.  We all had to work for it.  And while some made more money than others, others made more jobs than others, and still others gave more back than others.  Sure, it's sounds complex, doesn't it.  But there was a time when all of us understood this dynamic and more than that, respected it.  Even thrived off of it.

The Left would like to have us all believe business -- especially big business -- is bad...vewy, vewy bad.   Which is hilarious, considering how many of us are intimately connected to the industry of big business.   Gone to market lately?  Get gas?   Buy a car?   Go to the mall?  Go to the bank?  Own a computer, use one, or depend upon one every single living breathing day?  

Think about how many jobs come out of HP, Apple, Walmart, Kmart, Target, Mobile, Chevron, Geico, Kaiser Permanente -- think about how many sales people, and entrepreneurs, and CEO's travel by United, Southwest, American Airlines, Jet Blue...everyday...and all the vendors associated with keeping all the balls in the air.   Personally,  almost everyone I know is someone directly employed by big business.

 Personally, I can't imagine an America without big business.  It's a life force and pathway to success, feeding the ambitions of everyday Americans everyday.

And even though big business is the bomb -- in the full context of America, small business is equally as wonderful; for the business of being industrious is not prejudice to either large or small, black or white or Hispanic or Asian, or even rich or poor.   It's probably one of the most non-discriminating things, offering the greatest potential for wealth,  America has to offer.

But I digress.

I think where we seem to go wrong is in the sheltering -- a noxious mix of either not doing enough to instill self-reliance, industry, and personal responsibility AND doing too much.

It's seems to be a fine line, too.  A tightrope.

But it would help if we all walked the same line, talked the same talk, that's all.

As I finished the day yesterday, I turned on the radio to catch a little bit of Rush.  And he was in the middle of making the greatest analogy --

The subject was the proposed Executive Order to put the fix on gun control ..offering up a 'what if' scenario.  And paraphrasing here, he went on to say something like, 'what if the Right approached the Pro Life argument applying an Executive Order ORDERING brand spanking new abortion regulations?'  And quickly added, 'we can't legislate by ideology, like a dictatorship...  Imagine the Left's response if we did that?'

And then he took a couple phone calls.

And then I learned something new -- something to pass on as food for thought leading us into the weekend.  A caller, going by "Mike from Fairfield" reminded Rush that the Revolutionary War actually started when the Brits started to confiscate guns.  Over a commercial break, sure enough, Rush took a minute to validate the claim online, using apparently the website, Old North Church.  So, of course, I had to look it up, too.  And sure enough, there it was...go here.

Flash forward back to today -- this administration may get there, too, by way of telling us it's for our own good.   But, if we apply some of the life skills we have discussed over the last couple of days, we realize that sometimes this does more harm than good.

And since it is the eve of another weekend, let me give you some more homework to look into.  It gets into some real numbers on guns, violence, crime rates and comes to us from the creative evolution of the Piers Morgan/Alex Jones beat down.  An honorable mention must also go to  one of my favorite websites in the world:  The Patriot Post.  The Post gives us a link to Fox 19, out of Kentucky.  Ben Swann treats us to a breakdown of gun violence around the world, schooling Piers just a wee bit...go here and click into the short video.

Don't you just love Alex Jones, there?  "You gonna ban your fist now?"

Just like banning alcohol to stop murder by DUI...

But that's not the thought I want us dwell...

How about Ben Swann at the very end, when he gives us something like this:

"[violence] not the result of the gun or tool...

Overall numbers show

it's the result

of what's in the heart of men and women."

indeed, Ben, indeed.

and we're back to the role of what we teach our children, starting at home, compounded in our schools and churches, and carried with them all the days of their lives.   The greatest security measure we could ever take is generated from the most humblest of beginnings -- and looks a whole lot like becoming more industrious in the production of better human beings in every way possible from the start. 

...And sometimes, it may just be that, less shelter is more.

Make it a Good Day, G