Some Good Reads...

...or, all-linky-no-thinky, as SayUncle would say...

First up, the man whose page is the first thing I see every time I crank up Firefox, the great Bill Whittle, slams another one out of the park:

Cheating in class (or getting a diploma without passing the required tests), cheating by crossing the border illegally, cheating by committing crimes and not paying for it, cheating by bribery and corruption, cheating in general rewards Screw the Other Guy as a social strategy and makes chumps of the people who need a level of societal trust – they need retaliation against Screw the Other Guy – in order to continue to cooperate. Society needs to retaliate against cheaters because not to do so flips the coin from cooperation to betrayal. And that’s the end of everything we have worked for and cherish.
And – and – you don’t need to be a master of game theory to know this in your bones. Because if you are offended by cheaters, it is because you are being betrayed into – you are in fact forced into – becoming a cheater and betrayer yourself. Aways-cooperating dies quickly: if you never betray and the other guy always does, he goes free and you get 20 years every time. (In other words, he’s out getting high while you work to support him.) Sooner or later, even the most dense moralist gets the message.When a tipping point is reached – when enough people are allowed to cheat – the system swings to a different stabiltiy mode (the default mode) and Screw the Other Guy becomes the only rational choice.

The rational choice. Think about that for a moment. Does that make you angry? It damn well better. And if it does then you are not alone.

*snip*

You are in a relationship. You are nice, forgiving and non-envious. You may think it is loving and kind not to retaliate when you are treated unfairly, but you’d be wrong. Anybody with any self esteem knows that if you are being wronged, you cannot just continue to take it. You must punish behavior that tries to take advantage of your good nature, in order to maintain the self-respect and reputation you need in order to be treated well. Failure to retaliate will lead to more and more abuse. Failure to retaliate makes Screw the other Guy the optimal position for the other person: they can behave as selfishly and recklessly as they like with no consequences – what’s not to love?

That, friends, is just a taste. You owe it to yourself to go and partake of the entire feast.

Next up, more goodness from Mike Vanderboegh at David's place...

Are you concerned about gun confiscation? Its a fact of life in Mexico. Big government intrusion on private free enterprise? Can you say PEMEX? Worried about campaign finance and political corruption? The Mexicans have a word for the endemic bribery that characterizes their government: "mordida"-- the bite, and they expect to be bitten by every official at every level. No matter what issue concerns you, the undeniable tidal wave of a deliberately imported third world culture is about to swamp it.

Let's face it, the only reason we've been electorally competitive this long is that the liberals have been murdering the children within their wombs for the past 35 years. Well, they're going to be importing those wombs now to finish the job.

These folks, God bless 'em, are used to nationalized industries, gun control, soldiers walking the streets dispensing their own rough "justice" with machineguns, identity-grievance politics and, above all, the undefeatable evil synergy of crooked politicians and drug lords controlling events. They are used to being ruled by a godless oligarchy of the privileged rich who know what's "best" for them. You know, they're Democrats.

You may ask anyone familiar with Mexican history since 1912 what the rule of law means south of the border. Or, for a modern example closer to home, take a look at some of the seamier La Raza-dominated suburbs of LA. These millions of newly minted citizens will toil upon the Democrat latifundistas' political plantations as indentured servants for the next fifty years and gradually, in the end, the American Republic will be as dead as its Greek and Roman predecessors. If, that is, it doesn't catastrophically collapse in the next decade or so in a welter of racial warfare and Balkan "ethnic cleansing" that will make the former Yugoslavia look like a kindergarten at play. The devil will walk abroad in the land and our children's children's children will curse our folly.

Once again, Read The Whole Thing. And via JR, comes a few signs that our country's no longer free...

You know your country is no longer free when the ATF goes to the homes of people who are trying to legally purchase firearms at a gun show and they ask whomever answers the door and the neighbors "Why would they want to buy a firearm?" as happened in Richmond VA.

Or when Class Valedictorians cannot say what they wish to say during "graduation".

Or when you need a passport to visit friends in Canada, but commercial traffic can go right through the border.

Or when you can no longer just use your middle initial on your drivers "license" full name only please..

When kmart asks for ID before you can buy a pocket knife

And that was just from the first page...finally, tonight, Rachel Lucas, the lady who got Bill Whittle into blogging spreading his pearls of wisdom far and wide, who I see is also from Texas. She's a firecracker indeed. I read her for a little bit before she gave up blogging...and if you're reading this, Rachel, good to have you back! I'll be registering at your site before too long...

more thinky from me soon, I promise...