Posted on 04/30/2014 8:13:54 AM PDT by Flame Retardant
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's 15 minutes of fame are up. He was a Fox News poster boy when he refused to pay fees for grazing his cows on federal land and greeted federal rangers with the threat of armed resistance. But when he voiced his views on the joys of slavery for "the Negro," his conservative champions fled from his side.
What is interesting about Bundy, however, is not his tired racism but rather his remarkable sense of entitlement. His cattle have fed off public lands for two decades while he refused to pay grazing fees that are much lower than those he would have to pay for private land (and lower even than the government's costs)....
As we've seen in recent years, this sense of entitlement pervades the privileged. Billionaire hedge fund operator Stephen Schwarzman feels so entitled to his obscene hedge fund tax dodge--the "carried interest" exemption--that he viewed Obama's call to close the loophole as "a war. It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939." Tom Perkins, co-founder of venture capital fund Kleiner,Perkins,Caufield&Byers, considers mere criticism of the wealthiest Americans akin to the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany.
When Republican Dave Camp, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, had the temerity to propose a surcharge on the biggest financial houses (those with $500?billion in assets or more), to correct for the subsidy and competitive advantage provided by being "too big to fail," Wall Street went ballistic....
No one exemplifies this sense of entitlement more than the billionaire Koch brothers, self-proclaimed libertarians who pour hundreds of millions of dollars into supporting think tanks, lobbies and candidates who will protect their right to pollute our air and water while leaving taxpayers to pay billions of dollars to repair damage done....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
There never were any “joys of slavery” for ANY person, in all the history of the world, placed in involuntary bondage. Slavery has ALWAYS meant punishment for the person subject to its imposition.
And not only punishment, but the total degradation of any trait that could be called “human”. The slave is a non-person, a thing, lacking entirely dignity or respect, and the object of scorn and brutality.
The former street beggars are now given a place to keep a roof over their and gather family together, which is a distinct improvement in terms of keeping them out of sight, but the burden upon the soul to be physically and psychologically dependent on the kindness of strangers has to be destructive to the spirit in every way. Still very nearly prisoners, as those called “slave”, and shunned by society at large, is their lot significantly better than that of the slave?
THAT was what Cliven Bundy was talking about - the poverty of spirit and of opportunity which is the lot of so many of our citizens who are descendants of slaves, and to whom no real boost out of their predicament has been offered. Instead, they are frozen in their present condition, as if they were flies caught in amber, forever fixed and with no life or hope ever to be in prospect.
These two conditions of humanity, slavery or total dependency, are NOT the only options that are or ought to be offered to ANY person. There is more, so much more, that should be available in a country that is nominally “free”. What Cliven Bundy was talking about is the diminution and in some instances, total obliteration of free will and opportunity.
Rights as citizens of the United States are not granted by government fiat. They are God-given right, and the purpose of government is to get out of the way of enjoyment of those rights.
they will never report accurately
The hypocrisy from the Left is staggering at this point. From the NBA’s selective disgust with an owner, to Dear Leader.... Mental contortionists on the verge of psychosis.
All of these lands were supposed to be relenquished over time, but instead the Feds are actively acquiring more and more. It’s nut cutting time IMHO.
George (or Georgie) Jessel is a name I haven’t heard in many years. Most people under 50 wouldn’t know him unless they are known to look at black and white silent slapstick movies. Harold Lloyd (Man hanging onto a giant clock) was another comedy action pioneer who did his own stunts.
No, Bundy never agreed to pay the Fedzilla. He never signed the agreement when BLM took over. They would have required reducing his herd to 150 and then he would have lost his water rights. In essence, he was asked to commit suicide.
Read carefully. He paid his fees to a STATE entity. He refused to pay the FEDERAL entity because they have no right to demand it.
The state wouldn’t take the money he offered. According to what I read.
yes I agree.
the gov owning this much land is socialism/communism imo
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