Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Recently, I found this article on Taki’s Magazine, by Joe Bob Briggs, titled “Who Cut the Balls off of San Francisco?” For those of you who are unfamiliar with the work of Joe Bob Briggs, he is a columnist that is most known as “The Drive-In Critic.” He also played bit parts in various movies, but I personally remember him as the host of TNT’s Monstervision during the mid and late nineties. I used to love the way he would critique horror, sci-fi, exploitation and various B-Movies with his mixture of blunt humor that he took from his redneck alter-ego, along with an insight that was surprisingly witty and intelligent.

A few months ago, I discovered his column on Tiki’s Magazine, an online journal that features articles written by paleoconservatives and those who lean in the direction of libertarianism. His articles represent everything that I came to love about his commentary on Drive-In cinema, though I actually find his commentary on Tiki’s even wittier and more insightful. Though I have to admit that when I read his article “Who Cut the Balls of San Francisco?” I found myself asking “When was the last time it had any?” Okay, all joking aside, I thought Joe Bob for the most part was spot on when he wrote about how San Francisco, which was once the home to some of history’s greatest rebel rousers, but is now reduced to an authoritarian society that bans everything from fur coats to coke machines to e-cigarettes. While I certainly agree with Briggs’ analysis, I think he just barely scratched the surface when it comes to what is wrong with San Francisco and just about every major city in California

The local governments in both LA and San Francisco have experienced an increase in homeless people using their sidewalks as their campgrounds. This has led to an increase of sidewalks and streets being contaminated with human feces and used syringes. So, what is the solution offered by their noble leaders? To do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yet these same city leaders feel that they need to take it upon themselves to ban not only e-cigarettes, but plastic bags and straws. So, in a nutshell, e-cigarettes are bad, but defecating in the middle of the sidewalk is good. Plastic straws are abominable, but it is perfectly fine to shoot up in public and discard all used needles into the street. I find it downright hypocritical that the same Californians who have to take it upon themselves to ban plastic bags and plastic straws because they consider them the scourge of the environment, don’t seem all that concerned about their streets being paved with feces and syringes. Nor do they seem concerned about all the unfiltered human waste that goes straight through the storm drains and into their coastal waters, making their beaches increasingly unsafe to use. Also, typhoid and various other diseases that were no longer an issue for this century, could end up making a comeback if the situation with the homeless isn’t dealt with in a timely matter. How is that for being environmentally friendly?

Another city I thought about when I read the article, was New York. I remember when New Yorkers had two distinct images. One of them was the narcissistic shallowness that became the pun of many jokes on Seinfeld. The other was the image of the tough New Yorker that didn’t take crap from anybody and didn’t suffer fools very well. The latter image is the one that I actually admired, though I think that image has pretty much been soiled by the Bloomberg era. It’s amazing how the “I don’t take crap from nobody” city managed to elect a mayor who banned trans-fat, salt from restaurant tables and large sodas, twice. As for the part about them not suffering fools, I would say that image went out the window when they elected Bill De Blasio, a mayor that undid the efforts made by the Giuliani administration to clean up the city. Now, their subways look like landfills, while criminals are now emboldened with the elimination of the bail system for certain crimes which include Second Degree-Manslaughter. Basically, this allows criminals to be released on the streets with the hope that bribery with Mets tickets and gift cards will be enough to incentivize them to show up to their court hearings. Then there is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has to be New York’s biggest embarrassment. For a city that claims to have no patience for fools, they seem to have a problem with being represented by them.

Sadly, it’s not just New York and the cities of California that are plagued with the same problems. It seems to be the same with every major city run by a Democratic administration. Take a look at Chicago, Detroit, DC and Baltimore. So basically, they either turn it into an authoritarian hell hole that won’t allow you to blow your nose without permission or one that allows disorder and chaos, as if it is being run by a villain from one of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies. It amazes me that Democrats have a single ounce of credibility after the way they run their cities. It amazes me even more that there are people who believe we should allow these same fools to run the entire country.