No croissants allowed, either!
Ain’t socialism just the bee’s knees? What a pity we don’t have more of it here! Serves us right for not electing Hillary.
The Western Hemisphere’s showcase of socialism, Venezuela, has arrested four bakers for “making illegal brownies and other pastries” (https://ca.news.yahoo.com/venezuela-arrests-brownie-croissant-bakers-bread-war-024355524.html ).
Illegal brownies? You bet! Venezuela’s “ruling Socialist Party”–they don’t much cotton to having other political parties there–has bollixed up the oil-rich country’s economy six ways from Sunday, and so, for the past three years, they’ve had a bread shortage. The Party recently send soldiers–yes, soldiers–into more than 700 bakeries to make sure nobody was trying to make and sell croissants.
Of course, none of this will persuade any of our own academics or Democrats that maybe having the central government in charge of every little thing isn’t such a hot idea after all. Socialism only sucks in Venezuela because of the inept clowns in charge of it down there. It’ll work like gang-busters when we impose it on our country, with American liberals to manage it.
Legend has it that Marie Antoinette, on the eve of the French Revolution, having been told that “the people have no bread,” infamously replied, “Then let them eat cake.” Well, there won’t be any cake, either, in Venezuela. Not if the socialist government can help it.
“Let them eat brownies!” NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! No brownies allowed! 🙂
What a bunch of morons these people are. Is this the reign of the AntiChrist? I’m serious, perhaps the AntiChrist isn’t a person or a particular government but instead, a spirit of domination.
I know people that are very cheesed regarding the fact the Bernie wasn’t elected to make America a socialist paradise. Of course the fact that there has never been an actual socialist paradise doesn’t seem to even enter into their thinking. I guess that they just didn’t believe hard enough, or maybe someone cheated and had their eyes open while they were wishing.
“Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life IF YOU WILL SACRIFICE EVERYTHING ELSE FOR IT”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
That’s the problem, there are a lot of people out there that actually believe that wishes come true. There are educated adults that believe their wishes will be fulfilled . . . “if only we wish hard enough”. There are elected officials that believe this to be true.
The fallen world is not always such a nice place. I wish it were better, as does anyone. But it won’t get better from wishful thinking or from ill-conceived schemes, such as socialism. God’s rule will fix things quickly.
Actually, Barrie wasn’t so far off the mark. Aristotle Onassis said almost anyone can become a millionaire, as long as he allows that goal to be literally the only thing in his life, and acts accordingly. And Plutarch tells us how Marius achieved his goal to be the first Roman elected consul three times–by sacrificing everything.
So, yeah, whatever it might be, you can probably get it. But the price is… everything you have.
And most people would rather not pay it.
Patty and I had to sacrifice a lot to get me established (insofar as that goes) as a writer. But we didn’t sacrifice everything.
That’s a great point. In my younger days, I wanted to be a professional guitarist, something between Chex Atkins and Wes Montgomery. I worked hard, studied with fine instructors and made my living playing and teaching music. But the cost was pretty much everything else in life.
I left music as a business, not because I couldn’t make it, but because making it in music narrowed my options to almost zero. Most professional musicians make serious sacrifices in the rest of their lives. IMHO, it isn’t worth it. I don’t make money from playing anymore and I have a much better life because of it. While I love music and love mentoring students, mostly my talented nephews, I tell every one of them to find another way to make their living.
I used to tell people, when I was struggling just to get a short story published now and then, “And to think–I coulda been George Foreman’s sparring partner!”
I know exactly what you mean.
What gets me is that people equate a talent and/or ability to instant wealth. I’ve seen excellent guitarists playing for tips. Even the guys that had lots of commercially distributed albums didn’t tend to make much money from them.
Just because you can do something well there is no guaranty that the world will beat a path to your door. That requires marketing, publicity, patience and even a bit of luck on top of being able to do a very good job of whatever it is you are marketing. Even if you have all of these there is still the matter of competition, with which to contend.
Easy money ain’t so easy, these days.
Just proves, once again, that the Scriptures have it right. “the love of money is the source of all kinds of evil.”
Especially the love of other people’s money.
Yup, it’s just one of the many reasons I didn’t vote for trump. Another is his love of a strong Feral government – sounds too much like Venezuela!
And yet, the Bread Guardians — or the school lunch monitors — or the flush toilet and light bulb controllers — conceive of themselves as the compassionate protectors of all the poor and foolish little people who don’t know what’s good for them.
After which they wring their hands over and pass laws against the evil Christians who want to control women’s right to choose to kill their children.
Ironically, our own bakery police raid bakeries — or sue bakers — for NOT baking cakes, if the cakes in question are for events that violate God’s laws.
The vehemence against Christians and against the very freedoms that made the US so successful is really a stance against God’s standards. There are people, apparently many people, that would rather live in a totalitarian society and retain their freedom of immorality and substance abuse than submit to God’s simple and beneficial standards.
When I was a child and fist encountered the bread guardians/school lunch monitors/toilet flush people/light bulb controllers, I was shocked and appalled. I’ve been fighting these attitudes since grade school.
The thing that I find interesting is how stark it has become. It’s just obvious at this point, almost from the moment you meet someone that everyone is governed by one of two possible entities. Is this the mark of the beast? I personally hold that the mark of the beast is symbolic and not a literal sign; the thoughts (forehead) and actions (hand) revealing whether a person is governed by God or by the beast which is given over to Satan.
Yes, laws used to be about what you can’t do. Now, as our society, under the hands of liberals, grows increasingly totalitarian, laws are more and more about what you *must* do.
False gods are a lot harder on us than the real God ever is.