Fraters Libertas

Beggin' Strips

I have a clear and distinguished public record of being anti-homeless. I've probably been ranting about the drunken sots for at minimum 15 years, including at least 15 minutes of which was actually broadcast on the debut of the NARN show.

The left loves the fact that some people chose to live on the streets because to them it is prima facie evidence of the evil of Capitalism. I mean, if a guy in Minnetonka can have a house BOAT why can't some soak on Cedar Avenue at least have an apartment?

Right.

Well, not so shockingly enough, a judge in Minneapolis has decided that these urine-soaked dregs have a RIGHT to beg like mangy animals for table scraps:

A homeless Minneapolis man has successfully challenged a Minneapolis ordinance that prohibits begging in public or private areas.
Hennepin County District Judge Beryl Nord ruled Tuesday that begging is free speech protected by the First Amendment and that the ordinance offers no alternatives for beggars to express themselves.

Nord wrote: "When a beggar takes up the cause of informing his fellow citizens in a traditional public forum of his plight by begging for assistance from them, it is difficult to see how it can be said with a straight face that this is somehow a fundamentally different message from that of a state registered charity worker who takes up a beggar's cause on his behalf," she wrote.

"While a beggar may or may not utter words to convey his message, his mere presence accompanied by an outstretched hand or donation cup communicates to his fellow citizens that he, for any number of social or political reasons, requests money to support himself."

God help us one and all. Were two more pretentious, high-falutin' and just downright ridiculous paragraphs of bs ever written? "Informing his fellow citizens" I love that phrase. Ahem, dear fellow citizens. I do not want to work a regular job--it is just not my nature. For you see I drink alcohol heavily and have found that it impairs my ability to keep gainful employ. Therefore, I beseech thee to dig into thy deep pockets of hard and honestly earned money and hand it to me for the purchase of said alcoholic beverages.

And "any number of social or political reasons". Political? Were they Dean fans? The loss in the primary was too much for them to bear and it drove them to drink? What about plain old-fashioned sin as an explanation? Living on the streets as a drunk probably violates MOST of the Seven Deadly Sins and probably a few more that we don't even know about.

I know you may be thinking I'm being a little hard on the homeless. But what am I going to do, take away their dignity? The inherent dignity in begging for beer that leftists like Judge Nord believe in?