Author: xrugger

A Misanthrope’s Manifesto: The Right to Hate. The Duty to Love

By Tim “xrugger” Stebbins for The Burning Platform

Linus van Pelt, that well-known philosopher, and angst-ridden friend of Charlie Brown, once said, “I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand!” Cartoon characters rarely speak with such profundity. In eight words (ten if you count the contractions as two each) Linus perfectly encapsulates the extremist worldview. Whether of the left or right, fanatics of every stripe have an insatiable desire to perfect humanity at the expense of humans. At this late date, this should be well understood by anyone with a modicum of common sense. That, however, is far too weighty a subject for the rant I have in mind.

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What If…

By Tim “xrugger” Stebbins for The Burning Platform

Part I: The United States “are.”

 Most of the time what I read (including my own stuff) is long on descriptions and explanations of the problems besetting the nation, but woefully short on suggestions or thoughts on how to fix it. My views regarding the trajectory of the country have been clearly stated on this website and I stand by them. I do not think the country is salvageable in its present form and the odds of avoiding a national nervous breakdown are minimal at best. Having said that, mechanisms do exist for addressing the problems we face. What follows is a thought experiment in (Admin willing) several parts on what it would take to restore this nation without the massive destruction, bloodshed, and chaos which will inevitably engulf us if we continue our present course. I believe the chances of any of the needed reforms I hope to discuss actually coming to fruition are negligible. The alternative, however, is so horrific that we owe it to ourselves and to those we love to give voice to hope.

 The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.

Robert E. Lee

 The states are the key to any significant amelioration of the national dilemma. I am not talking about the states in terms of the people who live in them. I am talking about the states as sovereign entities separate from and opposed to the federal power. The distinction is crucial to what follows.

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Time to Stand-To…or Stand Down

By Tim “xrugger” Stebbins for The Burning Platform

The Problem

The substance of this particular rant finds its roots in three premises: First, that the depth and pervasiveness of federal corruption precludes any possibility of a peaceful reformation of the institutions of national government. Second, that a majority of the population of this nation have become so morally compromised, spiritually deadened, and economically dependent that they will be incapable of surviving any meaningful reform of our national institutions, peaceful or otherwise. Third, that excising the cancerous tumor, which sits astride the Potomac, will almost certainly lead to some level of societal breakdown and the ensuing chaos and violence will result in the destruction of a large part of the current population.

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Self-Governance in an Unreasonable Age

Part IV: A Conclave of Reptiles

Once again, the country descends into the fetid morass of double-talk, obfuscation, and contemptible cacophony known as election season. Right on cue, every slithering incumbent and mucilaginous political rookie is crisscrossing his/her/its respective area of operations in the hope of bamboozling the required number of dolts into scratching an “X” in their favor. It is a perfectly ridiculous exercise, founded in fanciful expectations, false hopes, and dreams of remembered greatness.

This biennial exercise in national self-delusion will take place across a vast, arid political landscape bereft of any cooling breeze of intelligent debate and denied even the barest sprinkling of intellectual honesty to settle the duplicitous dust of what passes for political discourse in this ghost of a country. Instead, the voting populace will get its usual entrée of verbal offal dressed up with the emotional condiments of their choice. Then, the farce will come to its emotional apogee on election day (oh, blessed day) when the electorate will once again squeeze out a collective turd that looks pretty much identical to the deuce they dropped two and four years earlier. The product of this national bowel movement will smell the same and you wouldn’t want to step in it, but at least it’s out of the system for a few months. At least until the sibilant whisperings of our reptilian ruling class begin to tickle our ears once again…, and again…, and again. Welcome to scatological Ground Hog Day on the Potomac.

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Self-Governance in an Unreasonable Age

Part III: The Hubris of the Ignorant

I have been struggling the past few days with what the primary subject should be for Part III of this series. Every time I settle on one basic idea, three or four others pop up, either as stand-alone pieces, or as corollaries to other ideas. The threats to self-governance in this decrepit age are so many and varied that it is nearly impossible to settle on just one.

Fortunately, I was rescued from my confusion by an essay over at The Federalist that presents an example of an over-arching principle that is so integral to self-governance that it demands further discussion. The author, Benjamin Dierker, was discussing (as so many are these past weeks) the Second Amendment. He very cogently writes,

 “In a properly functioning America like the Founders envisioned, a repeal of the Second Amendment would be virtually meaningless. The right existed already; the Constitution merely secures it. Unfortunately, our society has loosened its grasp on natural rights philosophy and devolved into dependency on government-sanctioned rules.”

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Self-Governance in an Unreasonable Age

Guest Post by Tim (xrugger) Stebbins

PART II: BUREAUCRATIC DOUCHEBAGGERY

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

So wrote Thomas Jefferson detailing “the long train of abuses” visited upon the American Colonies by King George III. If there is a finer description of bureaucracy’s deleterious effects on the self-governance of a free people, I have not come across it.

First a little disclaimer so as not to unduly piss off the many competent civil servants and government workers with whom I’ve dealt that do their jobs as well as they can within the confines and limitations of the inefficient environment in which they work. Their numbers are not insignificant, especially at the local level. I always make it a point to encourage and compliment those people when I interact with them in the course of my daily life. To all those raisins stuck in a pile of rabbit turds, I apologize in advance for the following screed. You know who you are.

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Self-Governance in an Unreasonable Age

It seems that a great deal (if not all) of the subject matter and commentary here at TBP can be distilled down to the following question: “What is the present state of self-governance in the United States and does the concept have a future in this country?” Let’s have a little chat about that.

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How Long is Long Enough?

Indigenous (Adjective) 1. Originating or occurring naturally in a particular place.

How long must one’s people live in any given geographical area before they can be considered “indigenous” to the land. My people have been in North America for nearly 400 years. My son is, if my research is correct, the 14th generation of my family to live on this continent.By that definition, the only ancestors of mine who came as foreigners to North America were the family of Rowland Stebbins who first set foot here in 1634. Everyone since then, down to the present day, “originated and occurred naturally” in this particular place. Clearly, I am an indigenous American.

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Mr. Pissed Goes to Washington

I’ve been thinking a great deal lately, about what I might say if I were given the opportunity to give the State of the Union address, not as President, but just as a citizen. Let’s give it a go.

My fellow Americans, as I look around this chamber, I see a few people that a thinking person might consider worthy of a modicum of respect and possibly even a few with some degree of integrity and honor remaining despite their years of service to this government. I say “to this government” deliberately and with the distinct intention to offend because I believe that this chamber, with very few exceptions, is indeed in service to this government, not in service to this nation. Essentially, what I’m saying is you are all douchebags to one degree or another.

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The Virtuous Poor in America

I’ve read a few things recently that might lead one to believe that the poor in America are held down solely by the machinations of the rich and connected. There seems to be a sentiment out there that the poor are simply not responsible for the state in which they find themselves and that one day they will rise up and throw off the shackles that bind them in poverty and want. Everything has been done to them; therefore, we are obligated to do everything for them. As will be obvious shortly, I disagree.

Do not put your hope for change in the poor and downtrodden of this country. Your faith in the supposed virtuous poor is badly misplaced. The majority of the American underclass are neither virtuous nor (by any rational standard of true poverty) are they poor. This is not a statement meant to absolve the wealthy and powerful of their sins in that they have done much to degrade and destroy the “disadvantaged” of this nation. They will have their own millstone to deal with. Having said that, let’s chat a little bit about the true state of the American underclass.

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Truth And Consequences

Every time I read a story about the financial travails of a state like Illinois, I am reminded how thoroughly corrupted and dishonest the various levels of government in this country have become. Additionally, the employees of said governments have reached a level of willful ignorance that is truly astounding.

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