Moonbats!

Are prize pumpkins taking food out of the mouths of starving children?  Moonbats everywhere seem to think so!

What are moonbats and why do they give Liberals a bad name?

A recent article in Smithsonian explored the world of competitive pumpkin growing.   Folks spend a lot of time and effort to grow 1,000 lb plus pumpkins which they then enter into contests.

In the next issue of Smithsonian, in the letters section, a moonbat writes in with the predictable moonbat response.  "14% of all homes in America are facing food shortage issues!  Think of how many families the resources used to grow these pumpkins could have fed!"

Oh, the Humanity of it all!

This is a ridiculous proposition for a number of reasons:

1.  First of all, where does this 14% figure come from?  (Answer: thin air).   The number one health problem today among the nation's poor is not malnutrition but rather obesity.  In order to "go hungry" in the United States, you really have to work at it - by intentionally turning down food stamps, free school lunches, and the like.  Starving to death, in the USA, due to lack of available food is nearly impossible to do.  You have to work at it, or have someone actively deny you food.

2.  But all that aside, the principle moonbat idea here is that food - like all resources - is something that should be divvied up "fairly" among the masses.  And the time, efforts, labors, and fertilizers used to grow "great pumpkins" should be diverted to feeding the "needy" - regardless of the fact that, as I noted in #1 above, they are already largely overfed.

3.  And of course, the amount of resources spent on growing over-sized pumpkins is, compared to the rest of our agricultural system, a mere drop in the bucket.  If, somehow, you could force competitive pumpkin growers to grow foodstuffs "for the needy" (and we all want to live in a totalitarian state like that, right?) the amount of food produced would barely feed a household or two.  And as I noted in #1 above, these are households already bursting at the seams with cheap carb meals.  Compared to say, the use of corn to make ethanol, competitive pumpkin growing uses an infinitesimal amount of resources.

4.  If you take this argument to its logical conclusion, all hobbies should be outlawed, with the proceeds being given to the "needy".  People with hot rods and hobby cars are just wasting precious resources, when others in our society have to walk!  They should be forced to sell their cars to provide transportation to the poor!  And people with vacation homes - shame on them!  They should be forced to sell their homes and the money given to the "needy!"   Nevermind the fact that our nation is awash in a sea of surplus homes and more cars than we have citizens.

This sort of moonbat thinking gives Liberalism a bad name and also provides ammunition for the far right.  Being liberal, last time I checked, did not mean you favored a Stalinist dictatorship, where an all-powerful government entity tells everyone what to do, all so that the the "needy" will get a lot of free shit.

Sorry, but no sale.  First of all, our horribly inefficient Capitalist system has shown, over the last 200 years, that it is best equipped to feed, house, and clothe people, far better than any other type of system.  Under Communism, Russia actually imported wheat.  The idea that we can redistribute the wealth just doesn't work.  And if you try to do it, people lose all incentive to do anything at all - like grow crazy-sized pumpkins, for example.

And that is the danger of moonbatism.  Not that they will succeed in turning the US of A into a Socialist Paradise, but that it paints everyone on the Left as being some sort of whacked out nut-job.  It makes the job of Fox News all that much easier.  "Vote Republican!" they say, "or have a Moonbat take away your prized pumpkins!"

And that is why when some guy "Occupying" Wall Street, wearing a Mohawk haircut, body piercings and tattoos, going by the name of "Ketchup" argues for the overthrow of our society, it doesn't help things any.  It only makes a Gingrich Presidency that more likely.

But what am I saying, these "OWS" idiots are booing Obama - just as the NASCAR fans boo the first lady.

It seems that today, few people are in the middle-of-the-road, or at least the media doesn't cover them!