Is "conservative" author and commentator, Christopher Buskirk, a moron? — an unfortunate blurb makes it appear so

© 2018 Peter Free

 

02 January 2018

 

 

Caveat — I start 2019 impolitely

 

In just as curmudgeonly a manner, as I left the old one.

 

 

Consider the following witlessness

 

From "conservative" author Christopher Buskirk:

 

 

The DC media complex is not happy with the partial shutdown of the federal government.

 

Yet for all of the breathless commentary from Beltway media, the reality is that the federal government can’t even shut itself down properly. Only about 25 percent of the federal government is affected.

 

The military is fully funded and on duty, as are Social Security and Medicare. The US Postal Services continues delivering unwanted flyers and coupons, the TSA is fully funded and patting people down, and the Veterans Administration is still providing substandard care to our veterans.

 

On a more personal level, I have noted with satisfaction that when I turn on the faucet, water still comes out. When I drive to the store, the street lights are still on. In fact, I passed a police officer on the way to get a coffee this morning, so our neighborhood remains safe. So what am I missing? Not much it turns out. And neither is almost anyone else.

 

Maybe what we learned from the shutdown is that for all of the talk, all of the money, all of the skyrocketing debt, the federal government is mostly non-essential.

 

© Christopher Buskirk, The shutdown proves how redundant a lot of the government is, Spectator (01 January 2019)

 

 

That's the entirety of Buskirk's evidence-lacking case

 

His opinion is the equivalent of a mountain gorilla's impression that a distant mountain — one that he's never visited, nor met anyone from — is noticeably better than where he now sits.

 

Buskirk deflates his argument by implicitly admitting that at least some of the supposedly 25 shutdown apparatus is still working.

 

If that's an accurate observation — and I don't see how any one person could fully know — we can reasonably suspect that he has no idea how just how of much government really is closed. If that supposition is correct, Buskirk (most probably) does not know which parts are working and which are not.

 

Taking this strand of logic a step further — Buskirk also cannot reasonably surmise that he is in a position to witness the provision of services or protections that are not directed at his "category" type.

 

 

In other words — is he a dope?

 

Buskirk fails to support his grand pronouncement about the gross disutility of national government.

 

Equally representative, he does not even bother to recognize that the Coast Guard is in danger of not being paid in January.

 

I mention this oversight because a classical "conservative" would have a difficult time demonstrating that the Coast Guard is a non-essential feature of government.

 

 

It's not that I disagree with Buskirk's implied principle — about the desirability of less federal government

 

I just object to the vacuous way in which he fails to support it.

 

Our planet is infested with enough imbecility, as it is.

 

 

The moral? — 2018's voluminous supply of aggressively ignorant idiots — will (predictably) infect 2019, as well

 

Whoopee. More hot air.

 

Perhaps we can boil ourselves to extinction.

 

Let Earth (and its mountain gorillas) hope.