I’m slowly catching back up to blogworld after my return to the United States. The timing of the right-leaning set of Weblog Awards (there is a left-leaning set as well, but I’m not familiar with them) resulted in me being nominated while I was in the midst of the chaos associated with any move, much less a move from one continent to another.

The weblog award nomination has driven a series of comments about Random Fate that I find rather odd. According to more than one co-nominee for “Best of the Top 501 - 1000 Blogs” my site here at Random Fate is a conservative weblog. (Feel free to visit the link and vote for me, by the way…)

The amusement value in that is huge for those who have been reading for the past year or so, given how often I am called “liberal” or “left-wing” or given my self-description of left-leaning.

Now, I’m saying I am trying to expand the “rationality-based community” in a riff off of both the “reality-based community” and “faith-based community” slogans of the differing groups out there.

Of course, those who want to make the effort to be rational will always been completely outnumbered by those who want someone else to do the thinking for them.

On a slightly different note, upon my return to the US, I’m driving a rental car courtesy of my company until I can buy or lease a new car. The rental car company was out of mid-sized models, so I had the dubious pleasure of being “upgraded” to a Buick LeSabre. The last time I drove one of those models was around 24 years ago, and sadly, the current model compares very poorly.

In France, I had a VW Golf, far from a luxury sedan, more like a roller-skate that had a reasonable suspension and decent diesel engine. However, even that low-end vehicle had dual climate control, where all you have to do is set the temperature and it takes care of fan settings, which vents to use, and how to heat the air coming in, and sinceit was dual the passenger and the driver could have different temperature settings. The supposed “full-sized luxury car” I am currently driving that is a product of General Motors does NOT have this option, instead it has the same controls that the LeSabre I drove 23 years ago had, manual control of the incoming air mix, manual control of the fans, absolutely no automatic features whatsoever, nor independent settings for the driver and passenger.

Excuse me? A Volkswagon Golf has better features???

The GM car also has about the same level of connection to the road as I would expect in driving a hovercraft.

So much for the “driving experience” that I enjoyed with the BMW I gave up when I moved to France.

In other words, it is a complete POS vehicle when compared to current models, especially when it cannot even compare to the driving experience I had in the same model almost a quarter of a century ago.

No wonder the American car manufacturers are in such dire straights; they deserve to be with this kind of product.

Technorati Tags: general, weblogs, weblog awards

I posted below on a case of abuse of eminent domain in Florida, and I commented on how the governmental system in the United States is beginning to resemble that of China when it comes to property rights. From CNN.com, here is an illustration of the state of affairs in that country:

Government banners hung at the village entrance said, “Following the law is the responsibility and obligation of the people” and “Don’t listen to rumors, don’t let yourself be used.” Another tried to placate local anger, promising, “The people’s government will always support the people of Dongzhou.”

The police shootings Tuesday were the deadliest known clash yet amid growing anger in areas throughout China over government land seizures for construction of power plants, shopping malls and other projects.

Farmers often complain they are paid too little. Some accuse local authorities of stealing compensation money.

Note the middle paragraph, “government land seizures for construction of power plants, shopping malls, and other projects.”

Sound familiar?

Write your representatives, national, state, and local, and inform them that it is the role of government to protect property rights, not to seize property to gain profits for those already rich and powerful.

Technorati Tags: amber and cruelty, commentary, eminent domain

Via Boudicca’s Voice comes a reference to how the system of government in the United States is beginning to resemble that of China in terms of ignoring property rights in favor of what is “best for the community.” From Ogre’s Politics & Views:

What a damn nightmare. As many as 6,000 people may become homeless, directly because of direct government action. Why? So some politicians can line their pockets with cash — I kid you not.

The situation, if you’re not aware of it, is that the mayor and government of the “city” of Riviera Beach wants to use eminent domain to kick 6,000 people out of their homes (where most have been for OVER 40 years) so he can give the land to other private individuals — developers who will build an aquarium, condos, a mall, and a yacht club.

While watching, I took some notes. Hannity, when speaking to the mayor, said at least 10 times, “So, you’re going to kick people out of their homes to increase your tax base?” The mayor would not respond. The mayor FINALLY said, in response to that statement, “We will rescue them.” Why? “For the good of the community.”

Welcome to Amerika, 2005. People have no rights at all. If you do not have the right to own property, you simply cannot have any other rights. Free speech? Sorry, you can be arrested for standing in the wrong place, since you cannot own land, so that right is gone.

Freedom of religion? Sorry, if you are in a church the government doesn’t like, they can take it from you and demolish it, because you have no right to own property.

Right to bear arms? Nope. If you cannot own property, government can, quite literally, take anything away from you that you own.

How about the right to be secure in your own property and “their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures?” Nope. If you cannot own property, then this right simply does not apply. The government can just claim that your house is their house, and they can do whatever they like in their own house.

Boudicca’s view carries great weight because she is someone on the scene:

Now, as a person who lives 15 minutes from Riviera Beach… let me give you my 2 cents.

It is not a blighted community. There are parts that are. It is where our ghetto is located. Our crack houses and whores, drug dealers and general all around low life DO live in Riviera Beach. Parts of it.

BUT, there is much about Riviera Beach that is NOT all that. There are those old fashioned Florida concrete block homes, nestled close to the intercoastal. Nothing big and gaudy. Homes that are kept pristine with grown in landscaping.

And those homes… those homes my friends… are the ones the government in Riveira Beach REALLY wants. Forget the subsidized housing, the run down vacant rat shacks that harbor folks that are so strung out their worst fear is the DTs, not the rodents. Forget that.

Those are the EXCUSE. Those are the EXCUSE the government needs to get their hands on the Golden Chalice. Coastal Land that they can build upon… Claim other people’s land as their own, shuffle them off somewhere with a pat on the head saying, ‘See, we’ll look out for you’, moving them into some inner city apartment that has no family memories, no past Christmas dinners or children’s growth measurements on a door frame.

They use the ghetto as the excuse to develop land they have no right to develop.

This is exactly why I am suspicious of the promotion of business interests over the rights of the individual, which is what I perceive is the agenda of the non-religious component of the Republican Party. While I cannot truck with a lot of what the Democratic Party advocates, I find the wholesale invasion of privacy and undermining of fundamental rights undertaken by the Republican Party for reasons related to promoting business interests, along with imposing a morality through government combine to make a double-barreled threat that is far too often overlooked.

In other words, I am not pro-Democratic, I am anti-Republican, until they demonstrate they are NOT a threat to our liberties.

Technorati Tags: amber and cruelty, commentary, politics, eminent domain

What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?
   -Marilyn Pittman

Technorati Tags: quotes, humor