Ayn Clouter's Blog

A HARD-MONEY RAIN'S A-GONNA FALL:

Oh, the weather forecast is costly
But our souls will not be lost. The
Senator from Penn will pray
Let each and ev-ry dog keep away

It may usually begin with Adam Smith, but this is about a Higher Law. The Keystone Solon is celebrating the election of a new Pope by proposing his own free market version of the "Preferential Option For The Poor". He is trying to spare, if not all of us, then at least those who could no longer pay to hear it, from an Occasion Of Sin. This instance would be the evil thoughts that might occur in some minds when they hear the words "It's raining cats and dogs."

The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites. ...

Santorum ... said expanded federal services threaten the livelihoods of private weather companies. "It is not an easy prospect for a business to attract advertisers, subscribers or investors when the government is providing similar products and services for free," Santorum said.

"Yeah, grandchildren, that's what I got this Hero medal for. Back in the old days I spent years in the Free Weather Underground. We'd do drive-by door-hangings with forecasts in ghetto neighborhoods. We had vans with transmitters hidden inside to make quick low-power transmissions from our pirate weather radio station. A quick report, then we'd dash across town before the FCC snoopers could triangulate us. Those Homeland Security thugs were offering rewards, but we became counter-culture heroes and were protected by the people. Finally the oppressed masses began jury nullification, finding us not guilty because the first Amendment protected our telling them about looming blizzards. It was one of the first steps in the Great Revolution that brought us to the Worker's Paradise we have today."

Unter die Menschen kam ich zu der Zeit des Aufruhrs
Und ich empörte mich mit ihnen. ...

Mein Essen aß ich zwischen den Schlachten ...

Gingen wir doch, öfter als die Schuhe die Länder wechselnd
Durch die Kriege der Klassen, verzweifelt
Wenn da nur Unrecht war und keine Empörung.
--Brecht, An die Nachgeborenen