Give a man a fish...

It happens sometimes, I suppose. After my commentary on the past-ludicrous "small government" theory behind Detroit's attempted bankruptcy-in-motion on last week's Probably Uncalled For, I found myself sitting down to work on this piece about the Detroit fiasco while watching the Dolphins and Cowboys play the NFL Hall of Fame game.

Before I got down to the task at hand, I saw a photo on Facebook I felt like sharing on my fan page. Nothing too controversial, just a picture of a fish, with the captioning: Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for life. Give him someone else's fish, and he'll vote for you. Pretty prescient statement, even if you are not a cynic.

So there was a remark, calling me out for being juvenile and short-sighted, as well as creating further division in our country with "posts like mine."

Okay, I cannot argue that I can be juvenile on occasions, perhaps short-sighted here and there if the wind's blowing properly, but all I am accomplishing is further division in our country? I hope for at least as much.

This was not your standard internet free for all. I replied reasonably and respectfully, the commenter agreed with my point of view, and the discussion was closed. While I am sure you wanted to be regaled with ten more minutes of flame war play-by-play, it's just not my style.

The long and short of my reply was that I was not slamming President Obama, I was actually drawing a comparison to Detroit's bankruptcy, and how situations like this come about. Nearly four dozen unions handling city employees, obviously outdated jobs kept staffed through cronyism, and one of those ruinous typical pension systems, and what was Detroit have to show for it? The fact they are so broke, if it cost a nickel to shit, they'd have to throw up. Oh yeah, and the Howdy Doody puppet. They got that going for them also.

Half the city's abandoned, and looks worse than even Robocop made it out to be in the future. Hell, the police basically threw a party themed "Stay the Fuck out of Detroit if You Know What's Good for You."

In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 51% of Democrats support a bailout for the city, with only 28% of independents and 18% of Republicans willing to back that idea. No wonder the right seems like it going off in a dozen different directions, with 18% thinking parking a couple pallets of cash at the steps of City Hall.

Interesting to me that a solid majority of African-Americans (57%) and Hispanics (48%) are in favor of a bailout as well. Not that this speaks to any thing racially specific, nor would I stoop to that level to try and make a point, I think this speaks to the long-term efforts by the left to secure the minority voting blocks at almost any cost.

Coming back around to the picture that started it all. Detroit has been run by the Democrats for over forty years. You know why Detroit has been run by the Democrats for over forty years? Because they gave out fish. They gave out fish for forty years, and now they are looking stupid because all they are left with is a shitty looking lake that isn't feeding anyone. And now they want somebody to drop some more fish off.

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