Proposed government regulation of health care under the House Healthcare Reform Bill:

Any questions?

I’ll give the House version this much:  Theirs is much prettier and more colorful. 

I got this from CATO, by the way, who got it from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  If you’re heading to a tea party this weekend, please download the PDF here, print them off, and share them. 

So when I write posts like ‘Palin and the ‘Redneck Paradox’, I don’t expect  snooty, urban conservative/libertarian folks to understand where I’m coming from.

This article (written by David Warren) about Sarah Palin’s recent op-ed should explain what I was trying to convey, in a language that even the most high-falutin’ urban conservatives can understand.  Here’s an excerpt:

We have one group that lives under the highly artificial and intensely regulated conditions of post-modern urban life. (Even if they go to a cottage, it will be equipped with the electronic paraphernalia to create a bubble of urbanity.) And, we have another group who remain in contact with the eternal verities of life on this planet. (Who, for instance, associate electric power with doing work, as opposed to "making consumer choices.")

Perhaps better terms for the two sides, to replace left and right, might be "martians" and "earthlings."

It is to the earthlings in this scenario that Ms. Palin is speaking. And when she writes lines like this intentional jaw-dropper in the Washington Post — "We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil" — she is quite intentionally signalling that she is ready for war.

That only implies an immediate run for the presidency to people who cannot understand her. Instead, she intends to use her celebrity to champion the views of the many earth-based Americans who have been overlooked — and whom the Republican establishment will continue to patronize, and overlook, at the cost of their own annihilation.

Read the whole thing.

It makes me crazy when they do that.

Anyway, I thought I’d show you how the Hate Crimes legislation is even more ridiculous than it appears.  (Which is pretty flippin’ ridiculous.)

Every time I find myself in the city–which admittedly isn’t very often…on purpose–someone always asks me; “What are you?”

The first few times I was asked this, I didn’t think much of it.  After about the third or fourth time, it began to bother me.

“What do you mean, ‘what am I’?”

“I mean, what ethnicity or race are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m a mutt, if you must know.  Italian/Norwegian/Swedish/French Canadian and a touch of Irish.”

They always look stunned, for some reason.

When I went to Mexico, I was constantly approached by people speaking Spanish to me.  Not once but THREE TIMES hotel employees approached me and asked me if I was a guest.  When I first arrived in Milan, Italy, a little Italian lady came up to me in the airport and started speaking Italian.  When I worked as a turkey butcher in my younger days, the Mexicans with whom I worked called me “Little Mexicana”, because they didn’t believe me when I told them that I wasn’t Mexican.  Just over a month ago, my mother–who is also very dark-skinned–and I went to a Mexican restaurant, and the host immediately began speaking to us in Spanish.  “No habla espanol?  Really?”  Really.

So if I’m viewed as a minority because of my appearance, but am white, where does that leave me in the expanded ‘Hate Crimes’ legislation?  Am I protected under it, or not?  I would assume no, because I really am white, even though I don’t appear to be. 

But if someone comes up to me and starts pushing me around because they think I’m an illegal Mexican alien (that’s assumed, by the way), will I get to use the hate crimes argument in court against them?  Is my life suddenly worth more because I appear to be of minority status, but I’m really not? 

As usual, Congress fails to think things through.  They presume that everyone is identified simply by the color of their skin, their slight lisp, or their flannel shirt.  And then they presume the thoughts of their aggressors. 

That’s an awful lot of assumption, if you ask me. 

By the way, you should really watch Senator DeMint’s speech about hate crimes legislation.

The right-wing blogosphere is abuzz over the supposed smackdown between Sen. Barbara Boxer and Harry C. Alford, who portrays himself as an “African American and a veteran” who is insulted at Boxer’s alleged racism and calls her on it.

Well, as an African American I don’t know what the hell Alford was upset about — other than the fact that Alford was shown that his shilling for the right is not appreciated in much of the community he claims to represent.

There wasn’t anything about that “smackdown” that could be categorized as “supposed”.  It was a smackdown.  If it were to be re-created in claymation on Robot Chicken, there would have been body parts strewn about. 

But let’s not split hairs…

Poole says that Alford “portrays himself” as an African American and veteran.  I don’t think he was ‘portraying’ anything.  He is African American, and he is a veteran. 

And then, just when you think you might get a valid argument, you get the classic, “he’s shilling for the right’ rhetoric, followed by a ‘you’re not one of us’ statement, which is nothing short of what Boxer was trying to say–although she was just a touch more subtle about it. 

Then, the author attempts to show that simply because Alford doesn’t support Cap and Trade, because he’s a global warming denier (can you believe it?), and because he doesn’t support Card Check legislation because he believes that it will cripple economic opportunities for the black community, Boxer’s remarks shouldn’t have been taken as condescending. 

With all do respect, how does any of that prove that what Boxer was trying to accomplish in that hearing was not racially motivated?  Why did she bring up the NAACP and the other ‘black’ association?  If her intention wasn’t to prove exactly what the author of the above quoted article is trying to prove–that Alford doesn’t ‘fall in line’ and do as he’s told and therefore must be punished, humiliated and shunned–what in the world was she doing?

Until there’s a good explanation for that, I think that this is one of the most shining examples of how the left has been down-talking and underestimating minorities for years. 

Does anyone think it’s easy to be in Harry Alford’s shoes?  To constantly be told that you’re ‘not a representative of your race’, just because you don’t believe as the majority of your ‘race’ does, and because you don’t put up with an arrogant, powerful woman’s condescending reminders that you are where you are because of people like her?

Please. 

Harry Alford is a brave man, and I commend him for showing the rest of America what it means to be an individual in a world where it’s clearly unacceptable to be one.

Let’s hear it for Harry Alford!  Holy cats, he’s DEAD ON.  I found myself cheering for him while I watched this.

I knew what was happening after she read the NAACP release, but after the second ‘black group’  comment?  I couldn’t believe it.  I can’t believe she actually thought that it was a good idea to insult a man–a Veteran–that way.  I’m stunned.

I suppose I shouldn’t be.  Boxer and leftist down-talkers have been doing this to minorities forever…and to every American, for that matter.  It’s about time someone stand up to their condescending crap.

Although I did notice one improvement in Boxer.  When he called her “ma’am” she didn’t read him the riot act like she did that Brigadier General. 

I wonder why?  I thought she worked hard for the title of ‘Senator’? 

Lay off.  Happy places are different for everyone. 

He said there was a big display on the counter with lots of ‘em. 

I’m going to try paying for everything with it. 

Kudos to the convenience store, btw. 

What’s with all of the flabby, naked bellies in internet ads lately?  If I wanted to look at some person’s stretchmark-laden muffin-top peeking out from under a cropped shirt that they have no business wearing, I’d head on down to the county fair. 

Sorry.  Misery loves company…and I needed to funnel my foul mood into something non-political.  Although I’m certain I could make it political if I thought about it long enough.

Have a super Wednesday.