Thursday, July 22, 2010

Free Travis Kevie!

Who is Travis Kevie, you ask? Only one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time, I answer:

A Placer County man has been arrested after he broke into a shuttered bar, reopened the business and started selling drinks to unwitting customers, according to the Placer County Sheriff's department.

The Placer County Sheriff's department arrested 29-year-old Travis Kevie of Newcastle after his 4-day stint as the barkeep of the historic Valencia Club in Penryn which had been shutdown for more than a year.

[…]

Deputies describe Kevie as a transient. They say he broke into the Valencia Club and put an open sign in the window on July 16th. Kevie kicked off his business with a six-pack of beer he bought and resold at the club. He used his profits to buy more alcohol keeping the club open throughout the weekend serving about 30 customers a day, deputies say.

This man is an example for us all. This hard-luck ‘transient’ used his only capital — a mere six-pack of beer! — to open up a small business that was apparently off to a successful start. This guy has vision, guts, initiative, and determination. He also has sound business sense. Unlike Wall Street banks, he was providing a service that people actually want and need. Sooner or later, he would have had to hire another employee or two — a virtuous act in this recession. Instead, this great spirit languishes in jail and the bar he sought to revive will remain a decayed, boarded-up eyesore on the town’s main drag. Only in Obama’s socialist America could such a travesty occur.

The other day, former Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein wrote that the majority of people who get laid off have “poor work habits and poor personalities.” He said that diligent and hard-working people seldom lose their jobs. Well, Travis Kevie was obviously diligent and hard-working. A genuine Horatio Alger story. Will Stein and all of his entrepreneur-worshipping brethren in the Republican party come to this man’s defense? I say it’s time for them to put their vast amounts of money where their vastly big mouths are.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agree 100%.

Rush Limbaugh put it well about an hour ago: small businesses do not look to the government for help, they look at the government as an obstacle and a threat. All the American people need is for the government to stop throwing barrels at them like Donkey Kong.

If there's an abandoned building sitting there attracting trash and broken windows and crime, losing value, driving down neighboring property values, and not bringing in any property tax, and if some enterprising young man comes along and wants to claim it and restore it to a functioning business, God bless him! The government should get the fuck out of the way!

Of course, to run a bar you need government permits and inspections, and the government will tell you what percentage of alcohol you can sell, and what hours, and to whom. And then, if this guy would have ended up hiring any employees, Obama Kong would have thrown a flaming barrel of health care mandates at him. And, some diversity czar would probably pay him a friendly visit to make sure his hiring practices did not have a disparate impact based on race, and if they did, he would face mandatory sensitivity training and fines. In the end, the government would end up shutting him down just like he actualy was shut down by the sherrif.

The idiot leftards say the right is in bed with big business. Nonsense. In a hostile business climate, only big businesses can afford and survive all the government meddling and shakedowns.

Good job, government. Now when all the taxpayer-funded police and prosecutors and judges finish with his case, he can spend some time in a taxpayer-funded jail for a while, then when he gets out he can be moved into a government run job training program, and finally when his spirit is good and crushed he can just go on welfare. That's much better than letting him operate a bar. Meanwhile, the tax coffers still will not be enriched by any productive use of this property, which will further deteriorate, causing loss of value to itself and the neighborhood.

Yes we can!

DPirate said...

Get a grip. He is jailed for breaking and entering and trespass. These are crimes against private property, not government.

Also, it is crazy to say that government ought to "get out of the way" when someone wants to "claim" a vacant building. Someone owns that building and you expect the first bypasser to just say "SHOTGUN" and he is the proud new owner? Please...

When you say "And, some diversity czar would probably pay him a friendly visit to make sure his hiring practices did not have a disparate impact based on race, and if they did, he would face mandatory sensitivity training and fines.", what planet are you talking about?