Preparing for another cold day at the pool Open Thread

By the time I returned from the pool yesterday, I was too tired and cold even to turn on my computer, let alone write anything.  I’m leaving in a couple of minutes for another cold day — although, having learned my lesson, I’ve doubled my supplies.  I should be more comfortable today, even though it’s due to be colder (and wetter).  This time, as part of my Open Thread, I’ve got a perfect Mark Steyn paragraph, one that explains that the way in which various cities (and corporations) have fallen in line with the Occupy movement isn’t just because they’re craven, but because, at bottom, they have the same goals as those street protesters:

I don’t “stand with the 99%,” and certainly not downwind of them. But I’m all for their “occupation” continuing on its merry way. It usefully clarifies the stakes. At first glance, an alliance of anarchists and government might appear to be somewhat paradoxical. But the formal convergence in Oakland makes explicit the movement’s aims: They’re anarchists for statism, wild free-spirited youth demanding more and more total government control of every aspect of life — just so long as it respects the fundamental human right to sloth. What’s happening in Oakland is a logical exercise in class solidarity: The government class enthusiastically backing the breakdown of civil order is making common cause with the leisured varsity class, the thuggish union class, and the criminal class in order to stick it to what’s left of the beleaguered productive class. It’s a grand alliance of all those societal interests that wish to enjoy in perpetuity a lifestyle they are not willing to earn. Only the criminal class is reasonably upfront about this. The rest — the lifetime legislators, the unions defending lavish and unsustainable benefits, the “scholars” whiling away a somnolent half decade at Complacency U — are obliged to dress it up a little with some hooey about “social justice” and whatnot.

Yeah, what he said!

More later, assuming my fingers aren’t too frozen to type.