Rant: It's Called "Life, Liberty, and the PURSUIT of Happiness."

Happiness in life is not a guarantee, nor is it something that government should think is its job to guarantee. Besides, I don't want some meddling, do-gooder bureaucracy out there deciding what would make me happy or not. Step off and leave me the hell alone. (I do not wish to be nudged, encouraged, discouraged, incentivized, nagged, lectured, coddled, pushed, guilt-tripped, educated by you, improved, refined, reformed, or socially engineered. I am not a social project; I am a free woman! A citizen and an individual!) You want to guarantee something? Guarantee my freedoms and liberties, and leave the rest to me. The Founding Fathers knew that.

I love this comment on the topic over at Maggie's Farm: "I do not need any government Soma."

It is up to you to go out and pursue your own happiness with intestinal fortitude and hard work. You don't sit on your bum, whine about everything, and wait for some fairy godmother Government to come and give happiness to you like a soothing nanny giving a warm bottle to a pewling infant. Life is hard. You have to go out, punch it in the face, and do things for yourself. GROW UP, PEOPLE.

Don't you dare play the victim card with me. Don't you dare expect or demand that I play that card either -- or that I will demean myself and play that game at all. If I wanted to wail about victimhood, I could -- I'm an Asian woman, a double minority, so shouldn't I need some heroic social-justice-fixated leftist machine to save me, rescue me, and give me goodies? Shouldn't I moan operatically about white male privilege and what all else and lay blame on that stuff for my failures in life? NO! A thousand times NO!

Because I AM NOT A VICTIM. I busted my butt to get where I am, and you know what? Hard as it was, hard as it IS, it's deep down bloody well satisfying because I did it MYSELF. And, you know, I am happy. It's probably the worst nightmare of utopian social engineers with fantasies of enlightened despotism, the idea that anybody can achieve happiness without constant government help and intervention. In fact, all my friends and I did this. We busted our butts in school and work and got somewhere in life. We've achieved financial independence, and even if we're not rich, we're supporting ourselves, and what a glorious achievement that really is when you think about it. (And since we pay taxes, we're also supporting a whole rickety substructure of the welfare state ... Oops, did I say that out loud? Is that like paying for someone else's happiness too? Oops, did I say that out loud too?) Look, if my buddies and I worked and are working hard, I don't see why I can't expect everyone else to do it too, frankly.

Big government is the problem, not the answer. The Reagan on this point was so, so right.

Oh, and here's a thought. What is the number one thing making me unhappy these days? Take a wild guess. Why, yes! It's big dumb government! Big dumb spendthrift tone-deaf self-involved delusionally would-be messianic government with its ever-increasing follies in everything from fiscal policy to foreign affairs to domestic debacles!