It’s a beautiful, crisp Sunday morning in the Greater Pittsburgh area. I awake at 6:00 a.m., but today we fall back, so it’s actually 5:00 a.m.
Nice. I can spend a few more minutes than I normally would on a Sunday morning with my local paper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
I’m enjoying the peace. I’m the only one awake. Even the cats are still dopey.
The paper, as usual, is filled with interesting articles, and I’m perfectly content until…
I make the acquaintance of one Charles E. Moore.
You see, Mr. Moore apparently is one of those Mitt Romney acolytes who groups Americans into two categories: Vaunted producers and ghastly moochers. He, of course, is a business owner who is sick and tired of the rest of us getting fat off of his hard work.
Here’s a sample of Mr. Moore’s thinking:
You cannot eat your cake before you take the time to make it or earn the money to buy it. To eat your cake first, you must steal from the efforts of others. Society cannot prosper this way. Yet, I press on. I produce and I allow the looters to steal from me.
You see? That sweet 8-year-old down the street whose family is on food stamps? The one whose future, if not his very existence, will be imperiled by his household’s lack of food? To heck with him, right? And retirees on Social Security, who busted their asses for decades so that they could enjoy some well-earned relaxation? Looters!
Our social safety net, the thing that keeps the veneer of civility in place and that separates us from living in ye olden days of perpetual suck? It’s taking money out of Charles E. Moore’s pocket! And it makes him sad, to boot!
He continues:
American liberals for decades have acted as apologists for our success, never being proud but rather decayed by some disease that caused them to feel guilt. Still, the producers accepted the New Deal, we accepted welfare, we accepted environmental regulations, we accepted greater and more abusive taxes. Yet we pushed on.
In President Barack Obama's first term, new regulations dropped $70 billion in new costs on top of American businesses (according to a Heritage Foundation analysis). Business owners face challenges not thought of 100 years ago. Example: The Rough and Ready Sawmill, a 91-year-old timber business in Oregon, recently closed its doors forever largely due to the crippling effects of the Endangered Species Act.
Oh, Mr. Moore, how do you do it? How do you “push on,” knowing that someone somewhere might be getting deserved assistance from the government?
Oh, and Mr. Moore? It’s no surprise to anyone with half a brain that a known Marxist such as Obama would sign the Endangered Species Act into law.
Wait. I’m sorry. What’s that? Richard Nixon signed that act into law? And he did this in 1973? And, somehow, our nation is substantially more prosperous today than it was then, despite this onerous, business-defeating action?
Incredible!
Well, here’s a link to the entire op-ed piece, if you can stomach it:
Say hello to Charles E. Moore
I apologize for spoiling any of your Sunday mornings, but I felt it was my duty to share this.