Sunday, January 18, 2009

Couple of thoughts on burglary and other theft

In the comments to this post, Mauser Medic had this to say:
When someone steals from another, they are by my reasoning literally stealing the finite hours of the victims life spent in a labor to acquire what was stolen. Those hours spent can never be regained, any more than one can regain the days spent recovering in a hospital after being the subject of battery. For me, significant theft should involve a significant chance of injury to or the death of the thief. They have no regard for the cost to the finite hours to others, so I see no reason to concern myself with theirs, beyond the fact of what the illogically compassionate would do to me in the courts.
which reminded me of an incident a few years back. The bar/restaurant I used to hit most weeks for open-mike night had, as you might expect, a large artsy population; it's located in the Paseo District, which is the artsy neighborhood in town. One night ran into a lady I'd met before, and during conversation it came up that most people there that night wouldn't talk to her. Why? A former boyfriend- who also hung out in the place- had asked to borrow her guitar. She'd loaned it, and about two weeks later needed it back. After not-returned calls and finally getting hold of someone, it turned out he'd pawned it; he'd actually borrowed it with the intention of doing so. And, not having the money he'd gotten, couldn't get it back. She'd filed charges, and when word got around she became somewhat of a pariah: "How could you do that? He really needed the money, and that wasn't the best way to get it but it's not like it was a family heirloom or high-dollar instrument or something."

I was, I guess the right word is 'dumbfounded'. I said "Hell with what it's worth, it's your guitar." She looked up at me and said "Thank you! You're the first one who seems to understand that! Everyone else says I should just let it go."

Maybe that attitude is why so many liberal/artsy(usually combined) types have no problem with saying a burglar shouldn't get harsh punishment, or it's a good thing for the gummint to take what you earn and give it away: they don't think your work, your time, is actually of value. Unless someone stole your song idea or something, of course, that's just horrible, but otherwise your time? The things you worked for, the money you earned? Eh, no big deal. To them.

On the subject of the mess in (fG)Britain, he had this:
Secondly, I should not be surprised to see England become the first major western nation to eventually engage in a full-fledged ethnic war since the 1940s. At some point, the middle-eastern population will think itself undefeatable, and cease to worry about consequences. That will be an interesting time for the far left, as they'll be between immigrants who regard them as inferiors, and natives regarding them as traitors.
From what Thud and others have said, I don't think it'll take much at this point. The honest people have been ripped off for decades now by government, been infantilized and violated, and seen their freedoms eroded by a Parliament and PM that seem to think "Your rights are what we say they are." Now they're seeing a slow-motion takeover by islamists speeding up and the government unable/unwilling to do anything except threaten to arrest for 'hate crimes' anyone who speaks out on it. They're pissed, and probably ready. If the islamists do something particularly disgusting and the locals act, and the government tries to deal with it by stomping on the honest people for daring to act... 'profoundly messy and ugly' may be an understatement.

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