The oppressive paternalism that has become the hallmark of Washington
DC kicked into overdrive this past weak
when President Trump signed a military spending bill that also raised the
smoking and vaping age to 21 all across the United
States.
I am not a smoker. I
have not smoked a single cigarette, or anything else, so this article is not about
something I indulge in personally. I
strongly believe that government should not stop us from doing what we want to
do, even if it is bad for us. Allowing
the bad along with the good is an essential ingredient to maintain a free
society.
I am well aware of the very negative health consequences of
smoking. I believe that individuals
should make up their own minds whether they wish to smoke or not, not have
their behavior controlled by the government.
Eighteen has always been the age where we consider individuals to be adults, capable of making decisions on their own. That is the age anyone can enlist in the military so they can defend our country and die if necessary. There has been a steady drift in this thinking, which has increased in speed the past few years. This began with the drinking age, then spread to the age that some states allow the purchase of weapons, now it has spread to smoking and vaping. It does a tremendous disservice to 18 to 20 if we strip them of their adulthood and coddle them.
Banning something never solves a problem, and if you study the prohibition period, you’ll see banning things only causes more severe problems. Banning something from teenagers will only cause more demand. The banning of tobacco products will only make them more appealing because they are banned. This will result in a black market for tobacco products and a lot of 21 and over individuals becoming criminals after purchasing tobacco products for those under 21.
The US Constitution does not grant the federal government
the authority to ban anything. The
federal government twisted the original meaning
of the Commerce Clause to unconstitutionally grant itself that
authority. The Interstate Commerce
Clause only grants the federal government the authority to regulate the
large scale movement of goods and services between states by imposing
taxes.
President Trump not only signed the age increase, he celebrated it with this Tweet:
I will be signing our 738 Billion Dollar Defense Spending Bill today. It will include 12 weeks Paid Parental Leave, gives our troops a raise, importantly creates the SPACE FORCE, SOUTHERN BORDER WALL FUNDING, repeals “Cadillac Tax” on Health Plans, raises smoking age to 21! BIG!
This tweet really disappointed me. It proved once again that President Trump is a big government Republican type who believes in banning things rather than a truly conservative or libertarian president. He’s not perfect but he’s infinitely better than Hillary or any other progressive.
Posted: December 31, 2019 by datechguy in Uncategorized
I presume that the Biden campaign has done some polling and decided that declaring he would not comply with a potential Senate subpoena in an impeachment trial isn’t playing all that well, because he has quickly reversed or as he put it “clarified” his position concerning his response to one.
I guess “Democrat Privilege” doesn’t hold the weight it once it
It does however hold enough weight with the media to turn blackface or Klan robes into a non resign-able offence in under 10 months.
ht
Back when a racist photo first surfaced in his medical school yearbook, most Va lawmakers, our editorial page (and yours truly) said @GovernorVA should resign. We were wrong. https://t.co/bA25YpnWbk
I must say in once sense the religion of liberalism has it over practicing Catholics. We have to repeatedly confess our sins to a priest for absolution, while in the religion of liberalism all you need is the right positions, a “D” after your name and the fear of a GOP victory and any and all sins shall be forgiven.
Well almost all will be forgiven, some things are still apparently beyond the pale, like testifying for the wrong side on impeachment:
American journalist H.L. Mencken once observed, “Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.” Despite an unending respect for Mencken, this is an occasion in which I found him mistaken, after I violated the Eleventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not testify for Republicans.”
Worse yet, I am a recidivist sinner, after testifying as a constitutional expert in both the Clinton and Trump impeachment hearings. Like all mortal sins, the violation of the Eleventh Commandment comes with not just eternal but immediate damnation. What is most striking about this commandment is that it does not matter if your testimony is made in good faith. For example, under the Ninth Commandment, you are only guilty if you give false evidence against your neighbor. Under the Eleventh Commandment, it does not matter if your testimony is true or false. A law-fearing academic must not give any testimony for Republicans.
Apparently when it comes to conservatives the battle cry of the University is “Segregation yesterday, Segregation now, Segregation forever!”
Speaking of forgiveness, while California is big on enforcing it’s high tax burden on business which is causing business to flee, it’s decided to be particularly easy on those who prey on them:
“It’s a boldness like we’re seeing never before and just a disregard for fellow human beings,” said Lieutenant Mark Donaldson, Vacaville PD.
He explained these crimes have evolved into more than just shoplifting. It’s organized retail theft and he says it’s happening across the state. Cities like Vacaville, with outlets and shopping centers located near major freeways, tend to be a target for these organized retail crime rings.
According to police data obtained by CBS13, there have been 746 reported retail thefts in Vacaville alone over the past year. More than half of those suspects got away.
Police say these suspects often target stores with easy access to get-away cars and with easy access on and off major freeways because crooks know most department policies won’t risk the dangers of a high-speed chase over a misdemeanor citation.
“They know the law,” Donaldson said. “One of the first things they ask us [is] ‘Can’t I just get a ticket so I can be on my way?’”
He explained many suspects know theft under $950 is now a misdemeanor, meaning most get a written citation, a court date and are released.
Or in other words if you have a small business, you risk a grand per potential thief while the criminal risks…a ticket.
Well if they ever start passing and enforcing real laws against theft again I think these folks might still have a bright future in insurance, after all the entire industry is based on clear understanding of risk vs reward
I’ll say this for Kevin Williamson, While he is still able to see the left for what they are, neither persecution by Democrats nor rejection by conservatives is enough to push him off of a NeverTrump agenda:
A more intelligent approach for Democrats (and for us lonely few anti-Trump conservatives) would be to concede that the president’s positions on issues such as illegal immigration and trade speak to concerns that are genuine and legitimate while pointing out that his actions have been in the main ineffective or genuinely destructive. But the Democrats are so committed to their exotic fairy tale — Trump is a monster, Trump is a Nazi, Trump is a white nationalist, etc. — that they have forgotten how to run an ordinary campaign against an ordinary failure.
All I have to say is, if this is failure, more please!
SHREVEPORT – As this decade comes to a close, we are headed
to south Louisiana to spend the last week of the year on Bayou Teche, quietly
amongst our books and cats. I can’t think of a better way to bring in the new
year.
It’s been a pretty cool year for football fans around here: our
Number Nines (Brees and Burrow) have given us much to be excited about. This is
a topic of conversation almost everywhere you go. I know people who are really excited that LSU
will face Clemson in the championship game, but I’ve talked to others who
really wanted to face Ohio State. It’s going to be a great game on January 13!
Carnival season will be in full swing right about then and
as the game will be in New Orleans, we can expect a lot of revelry and excitement
around the event. Really, we don’t need much of a reason to have a bacchanalian
party around here, but this one will do just fine.
I’ll leave all of that to others; I’ll be watching from the comfort
of my couch.
Looking back at 2019, I guess I can say it’s been a really good year for me. I didn’t win the Lotto or anything, but I did get to travel all over the state to speaking events and book signings with Cane River Bohemia. That’s been a real kick! I’m really grateful for these experiences
I’m also really grateful that this blog, through the
patience and perseverance of Pete and you, our readers, is still here and has
recovered from the technical glitches that plagued us so through the year. Be
sure to hit the tip jar if you get a chance.
So this is just a short post to say thank you for being here, for reading, and I hope every single one of you has a safe and prosperous New Year!
Best economy ever, for villagers of all professions!
When I tell people that I play video games with my kids, I almost immediately get asked about what my Fortnite character looks like. If you watch TV at all, you’ve probably seen ads for Fortnight, Grand Theft Auto, and a variety of other video games. Almost all are first person shooters, featuring oversized weapons, gratuitous violence, and at least some partial nudity. Given the number of ads on TV, you might think these games are extremely popular.
I don’t play Fortnite, nor do I let my kids play it. While I like my violent video games (Skyrim belongs to the Nords!), my kids and I play Minecraft. You’ve probably seen it at some point. Blocky graphics. Diamond swords. Green and black monsters called creepers. You might think it looks dumb, but its the bestselling video game of all time. Plus, rather than teaching your kids to brainlessly slaughter other people, it provides a lot of lessons about the real world.
Prepare to become compost, ISIS wannabe!
A quick Minecraft primer, in case you haven’t played it. It’s a sandbox game, meaning there isn’t really a story or quest to complete. You get dropped into a generated world where you gather blocks (dirt, stone, iron, etc.) and build…whatever you want. There are all sorts of enemies called mobs that can attack you. You can plant farms, cage off and breed animals for food and supplies, and even find villages, where computer controlled villagers will trade with you, using emeralds as the form of currency. There is sort of an end game in that you can find a place called “The End” and fight the Enderdragon, but even after that, the game has no real ending.
Maybe later this iron golem will write a tell-all book about being in the Minecraft special forces
The first thing you learn is that the world is a pretty cruel place. Not unlike our actual world, there are monsters that are content to watch the world burn. Homeless zombies poison you and turn friendly villagers into more zombies. Creepers act like ISIS suicide bombers, sneaking up and exploding, both hurting you and destroying whatever you happened to work on. Endermen, giant black creatures that teleport, will suddenly flip out when you look at them scream and attack you like a triggered college student protester. Especially at night, it feels like you might be safer walking down the streets of San Francisco…wait, never mind, its not quite THAT bad, but its still unnerving.
Minecraft cows chanting “Build the Wall!”
To combat this, you have to care and build defenses. That means you build walls. And you make Minecraft pay for it! You also build a military by creating iron golems, who roam your village and kill attacking bad guys. If you don’t, for some misguided peace loving reason, your villagers will be massacred by either zombies or pillagers, roving bands of characters that destroy any villagers they find. Those walls need gates though, to let in legal immigrants and let you go about your business. Despite threats to the contrary, most of your villagers don’t actually move to Terraria or Canada after you build walls.
Apples and carrots, the backbone of any Minecraft economy
Once your village is protected, spurring the economy is key. Farmers are key villagers that get little respect. Not unlike real America, farmers don’t get a lot of love until there is a shortage. Your villagers can’t breed and create new villagers unless they have enough food and beds, and your farmers will constantly hand food to them at various intervals, without you doing anything. My kids caught this once and it started a conversation about how important farming is overall to our country. Not bad for a game with 8 bit graphics!
The best economy ever, all through trade schools. Why aren’t we funding those instead of “free” college again?
Now you can go and harvest and build everything yourself. You can mine down and find diamonds, which make the best armor and weapons in the game. But its really time consuming, and as my kids are discovering, its far easier to pay an armorer for a diamond chestplate. But that villager doesn’t just start selling diamond armor from the outset. You have to build that villager’s business, buying and selling with him until he is leveled up sufficiently. Once your villagers are leveled up, it becomes quicker to rebuild after a setback. The first time my character died, it took me an hour to build back all the stuff I had lost. Now, it takes a mere ten minutes of trading to be ready to take on the world again.
Even Minecraft has Bernie supporters :(
There is one final, sad character I’ve discovered in Minecraft: the Nitwit. He wears a green shirt and roams around your village like every other villager. The Nitwit wakes up later than other villagers and stays out at night later than others. Most importantly, he doesn’t do anything. He can’t trade with you. He doesn’t work a field like a farmer. He doesn’t sell leather, or buy paper, or make maps, or build swords. Nope, he literally walks around, breeds, and takes up a bed. If you go to kill him though, you’ll make the other villagers mad, and your iron golems might attack you.
So you tolerate the nitwit. You hope that maybe someday that person will grow up, attend trade school and be a functioning member of society. Sadly, this is where Minecraft departs reality, because while you can stop supporting Bernie Sanders in real life, Minecraft coding prevents nitwits from changing into something useful. They do provide a convenient moniker whenever your kid’s liberal teacher talks about the “greatness” of liberal ideals. Who knew that Minecraft, created in 2011, could be so predictive of America’s future.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, Mojang, Microsoft Corporation, the Enderdragon, or any other government agency.
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