As IF Times

link Occupy Wall Street veteran gears up for Occupy Sacramento – KansasCity.com.

Nobody wants to miss out on a good street event.  At any given time, there is always some issue to protest somewhere in the world.  Sometimes it’s legitimate bread and butter issues, ie: they don’t have any, or it’s social issues such as gay or animal rights concerns.  In some parts of the world, it can even be about losing a hockey or soccer game.  Some are professional rioters who go from town to town looking to participate at the behest of organizers.  I’m sure there’s a Facebook page for protesters whereby participants can pick the ones that sound amusing.  Some just love a good riot and want to be part of the scene.  The clue is when some people bring their kids like it was the Macy’s parade.

The recent so called “Wall Street Occupation” is a prime example of a protest about nothing.  While ostensibly, it’s about lack of jobs and opportunity and the increasing gulf between regular people and the Wall Street fat cats, the actual message is lost on the majority of the participants.  They incoherently try to frame the issue as some kind of righteous entitlement protest, when in reality, they are a mob with nothing better to do.

When asked what they want, they essentially want those ‘fat cats’ at the top to share their wealth with them.  In other words, they want what someone else has.  How original.  Sometimes they claim that they want jobs.  That’s rather unlikely since if they needed jobs, they’d be out looking for them rather than standing around waving signs and causing public disruption.  Where are they staying?  How do they pay for lunch?  More importantly, where do they wash and pee?  There’s no denying that for years, “Wall Street” financial heads have reaped out-sized rewards for their dubious roles as captains of finance.  There’s no doubt that much of that stemmed from political influence bought and paid for, from both sides of the political fence.  Therefore the roots of the current malaise lie as much with politicians as with greedy bankers.

Unfortunately, the mob have no real endgame solutions other than just to cause disruption.  When you have an avowed communist like Van Jones exhorting the “people” to revolt and stand up for America, we know it’s a complete farce.  The kind of policies people like Jones are pushing are in fact blatantly anti-American.  They are completely at odds with the founding principles of the nation.  There is nothing in the founding tenets of the constitution that refer to any kind of statism, collectivism and certainly not socialism.  Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is clearly mentioned.  Nothing about being owed a job.  Or a minimum wage.  Or 4 paid weeks off every year.

In the old days, when people felt oppressed and deprived of opportunities, they left a country for greener pastures.  This factor is likely high on the list of reasons for why people emigrate.  How do you think America got started in the first place? Immigrants from all parts of the world converged on the U.S. precisely because its policies were diametrically opposite to the countries they were leaving.  From this immigrant pool was built indisputably, the greatest nation the world has ever seen.  Now, it seems, many don’t like the way things are.

If you go to a football game and you don’t like the product, is it logical to change the rules to more closely resemble those of soccer?  Why not just go to a soccer game?  This is the curious circumstance we see today.  “Thousands of protesters”, which actually means hundreds when you discount the media hyperbole, are protesting that the U.S. does not embrace policies that are essentially… socialist!  Breaking news, the U.S. is not a socialist nation, at least not by origin even though the neo socialists want to make it so.  There are plenty of high tax, socialist nations in existence today.   Think Sweden, or Denmark or Great Britain or France, although in France, the winds are a-changing.  These are nations that have embraced the socialist philosophy in their governing policies.  Why wouldn’t these nations be beacons of attraction for the oppressed masses here who are tired of that damn capitalism?

It’s one thing if the ‘mob’ were coherent about inequitable government policies; it’s another to say that the entire system of government sucks.  Strangely there aren’t long conga lines of people heading for Cuba or Venezuela.   These places have widely advertised their socialist/Marxist charms.  Plus, the weather is generally nicer than New York or Michigan.  Somebody should post that on Facebook.

link Denmark Introduces ‘Fat Tax’ on Foods High in Saturated Fat – ABC News.

The mind races at the likely repercussions from this new law.  Today it’s a tax on fat, but the zealots will want to push it more and really get to the root of the problem.  Cows.  There will soon be a tax on cows, or even a push to outlaw them.  Taxes will also spike for any who dare to operate in the dairy industry since they will be seen as enablers to cows.  That might actually not be much of a hardship anyway since the world is moving towards the farming of cannabis as a more healthy and benign farm crop.  In addition, it’s well known that cows give off gasses that contribute mightily to Global Warming, so banning cows can actually have a two ‘fer benefit.

Once this train of logic gets going however, it’s a sure thing that the next areas to be targeted are clothing manufacturers and those industries that make fabric.   There will be a tax on plus sized garments so that fat people won’t be able to afford to buy clothes.   Of course you can’t make fat garments illegal, that would be preposterous.  But you can make it difficult for fat people to be seen in public.  Not that this doesn’t have benefits.  We’d no longer have to look at Michael Moore on TV for example.

Immediately, we can think of new companies that spring up to capitalize on the anti fat people dictates, especially if there’s new financial incentive.  To help people eat less, companies will start to market two tined forks.  This will make eating of large volumes of food difficult and the added strokes required to eat the same volume of food will actually be an aerobic exercise as well.  Sheer genius.  By the same token, they will make smaller plates and smaller cups, since larger plates and cups would of course carry punishing taxes.  There will be pictures of grossly obese people printed on packages of ice cream and soda pop as public service warnings. 

The trend will be towards making food products that are less and less appealing to the palate, making eating less of an enjoyable pursuit.  As society progresses, the proliferation of food pellets will be the norm as people ingest the optimal amount of nutrients according to a national standard.  Rogue elements of society would still eat real food, but they will be pariahs as they huddle outside of office buildings eating sandwiches and enduring the condescending glares of law abiding citizens as they pass by.

Of course, the transition away from butter will not be complete without changes in popular phrases and idioms as well.  No longer will politicians use the phrase, “butter not guns” and in business, you’d have to “margarine somebody up”.  Now you can only say, “smooth as unsaturated vegetable product”. 

It’s only a matter of time before they get to cheese and Oreos.