I get almost all of my news via the internet these days, so I am not always completely aware of what is going on in my own back yard. I was stunned to hear from my wife, who is a news junkie, that there had been a crime committed last week on our own little slice of upper-middle-class London, Ontario; in fact right on the street where we live.
Some poor fellow, trying to eke out a living as a pizza delivery driver, was delivering a pizza on our street somewhere. A car pulled up beside him and a man jumped out, brandishing a gun. The thug forced the driver to surrender the pizza he had on board. I can't blame the pizza guy for valuing his life more than the price of the pizza he was delivering, however delicious it might have been, or how much of a tip might have been awarded had it been delivered successfully.
If the story is true as reported, I wouldn't have blamed the driver if he had simply pulled out a gun of his own, drilled the perpetrator on the spot, then called the police for clean-up. I am getting really fed up with this stuff. So are many others. I think it is time that everyone simply kept their hands off anything that doesn't belong to them, anything they didn't earn, anything they have no legitimate claim to. I don't care if they simply have marijuana munchies or are literally dying of hunger, they should leave others' pizza and everything else alone. If something doesn't belong to them, they should keep their mitts off it.
It is because this sort of thing is tolerated that we have the problems to begin with. It is because kids aren't taught, either by their parents or the school system, what is right and acceptable versus what is wrong and never acceptable, that we have these morons running around loose and creating mischief. And because the courts don't mete out meaningful deterrents, the problem gets worse and worse.
Anyone who has read my posts in this blog since its inception knows that I hold property rights as absolute. It doesn't matter who owns something, whether they are rich or poor, with or without influence, which race, colour, or gender they might be, which religion or political philosophy they follow: what is theirs is theirs, not yours or mine. It's that simple. Even a vote of the majority of any jurisdiction doesn't (or shouldn't) alter that fact.
Maybe petty criminals are allowed to get away with theft and violations of the individual because our political masters and the entire redistribution-of wealth-crowd recognize the hypocrisy of retaining the rights to rob and terrorize the populace to themselves. Perhaps they all see the buggering of productive individuals as an equal opportunity enterprise. After all, if they pretended to support property rights and the sanctity of the individual, they might see themselves tarred and feathered (or worse) whenever they violated the rest of us in direct contradiction of their stated principles. It is better, they must reason, not to lay claim to any principles in the first place.
I wonder. Could it be that simple: That the government and those who love the notion of the redistribution of wealth don't want to be seen to be restricting competition?
Hmmm. Maybe!
by george.. I think you've got it :D
ReplyDeleteThey have all forgotten the Golden Rule.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Passivity will get a person killed, these days, and we've allowed our society to devolve into that state. I agree, let the pizza driver blow the bastard away, and the next guy will be less likely to trifle with people as they go about their business. We need to make examples of some folk who are simply wasting oxygen anyhoo.
ReplyDeleteyep, from the petty thief, to the hustler (and the not so petty-thiefs like Conrad Blacks) life is pretty hazardous.
ReplyDeleteand what about the Snake Oil salesmen? -- check out my Post at Flamingo's Hideaway for more on this...and feel free to link my Post as i would like as many people i can get to read about something that i am very concerned about.
Thanks!
pj
You know, you've got the same common sense as our old buddy, Rick the Welder. I'd drop off a project and we would spend the next 3 hours just talking about common sense things in a nonsensical world. Thanks for filling in that big Rick void.
ReplyDeleteI got this off one our church youth blog. Kinda of shows what their mind set is. Now, I'm not saying they "all" think this way. But it makes one wonder, how we even got to this point.
ReplyDelete"If I like it, it's mine.
If I can take it away from you, it's mine.
If I had it a while ago, it's mine.
If I say it is mine, it's mine.
If I saw it first, it's mine.
If you're having fun with it, it's definitely mine.
If you lay it down, it’s mine.
If it is broken, it’s yours"
I talked to a neighbour yesterday. He is installing video cameras all around the exterior of his home. Pretty much every home in our area has a security system. What the hell is the world coming to? People are having to spend collectively billions of dollars to protect their lives and property while the situation gets worse every year.
ReplyDeleteDragonflyfilly: I read your post. I don't know anything about that particular organization but there are individuals, organizations, businesses everywhere that will take advantage of the naive and trusting. It helps to have a strong sense of suspicion about everything. That's sad too though, isn't it? One should be able to trust in the veracity of others' words and intent.
Lady~g: That snippet from your church youth blog says it perfectly. That is the way many of our youth grow up these days. Parents who should know better abdicate their responsibilities to teach values to their kids and we are living with the result.
What we have, is an established oligarchy that is interested in whatever lie will pacify the plebes and talk them out of another vote, or atleast compliance.
ReplyDeleteBottom line is, protection is still not only an individual's right, but their responsibility.
Government is usually too concerned about how it will look, or make the Criminals' Rights groups feel, to do what is right and punish the malefactors.