It Takes All Kinds - Local Edition

The following actually was scheduled for 11/12/2011.  I have no idea why it was not published.  Blogger must have hiccuped.

It still applies.

...

I saw something last week that gave me a bit of pause.

Stationed in front of the local Post Office were a pair of young ladies with an obvious political message.  It was a pretty cold day for early November and you had to respect their passion even if you disagreed with their politics.

One of the young ladies was white; perhaps 'European' in today's vernacular.  The other was definitely of African extraction, although I have no doubt that she is every bit the American that I am.

The posters on display showed our President, Mr. Obama.  Bearing the 'toothbrush' style mustache once popularized by Charlie Chaplin.

And Adolph Hitler.

The accompanying text suggested that these young ladies support impeaching Mr. Obama for some reason.

I am pretty adamant about opposing that sort of hyperbolic imagery.  I thought it compromised civil debate when it was applied to Mr. Bush.  The same is true now that Mr. Obama is the subject of such criticism.  Neither one was/is even close to being in Adolph Hitler's league.  People with legitimate public policy disagreements should be able to agree on that much.

I suppose the other option was the young ladies were conducting a social science experiment to see how people would react.

I didn't stop to find out which was the case.

Both Ends Against The.....

....middle?

A little link love for Tom Briscoe.

I think he is on to something here.  Both the Tea Party and Occupy movements are frustrated with the government covering for corporations, "too big to fail", bailouts, etc.  Neither side is particularly enamored with the way corporations get the government to create near monopolies as well as shielding them from the liability of their mistakes.  I think there is some common ground here.

The primary difference seems to be that the Tea Party folks recognize that corporations have a legitimate function, but that they should rise and fall based on their own merits rather than be government fiat.  The Occupy folks regard corporations as being illegitimate.

Based on the tweets on Twitter and Facebook entries made via their cell phones.

The solution remains to have a smaller, more effective, and more transparent government. If only the Occupy folks could get on board with that idea.