Insanity Day.

You know I like to keep an eye on special holidays and observances, the more insane the better. February 20th is here to oblige. 

According to the site Holidays Calendar, today is Hoodie Hoo Day. I suppose it's not on your Far Side Page-A-Day calendar, your iPhone calendar, the free wall calendar from the church (sponsored by the funeral home), or the Cute Kitties calendar your daughter put up. Here's the deets:

Hoodie Hoo Day is a day that is celebrated every year on February 20th. It is a day designed to help people overcome the winter-time blues and to prepare them for the coming of Spring. Although this holiday might seem like a joke holiday, it is an actual holiday that was created and copyrighted by Thomas Roy, a guy that has created over 80 different holidays, many of them quite unusual, such as Bathtub Party Day and Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day.

The main custom of this odd holiday is to go out on February 20th at noon, raise your hands over your head and yell, “Hoodie Hoo!!” for all the world to hear. Other ways that Thomas Roy suggests celebrating the holidays include wearing crazy or odd hats, ordering spring seeds for your garden and go out to a local flea market and buy a piece of used furniture.

So you have your instructions: Go outside, maybe with a weird hat, and yell "HOODIE HOO!" at the top of your lungs.

Of course, if you are reading this in the southern hemisphere, it is summertime and not appropriate behavior. You should wait until August 20th and do your own Down Under Hoodie Hoo. 

But this was not the insane holiday I wanted to post about. Today is also World Day of Social Justice: 

The United Nations' (UN) World Day of Social Justice is annually observed on February 20 to encourage people to look at how social justice affects poverty eradication. It also focuses on the goal of achieving full employment and support for social integration.

Uh-huh. And how do we observe this?

Many organizations, including the UN and the International Labour Office, make statements on the importance of social justice for people. Many organizations also present plans for greater social justice by tackling poverty, social and economic exclusion and unemployment. Trade unions and campaign groups are invited to call on their members and supporters to mark the day. The Russian General Confederation of Trade Unions declared that the common slogan would be "Social Justice and Decent Life for All!".

I wouldn't trust the Russian General Confederations of Trade Unions to give me correct change for a quarter. 

Schools, colleges and universities may prepare special activities for the day or plan a week of events around a theme related to poverty, social and economic exclusion or unemployment. Different media, including radio and television stations, newspapers and Internet sites, may give attention to the issues around the World Day of Social Justice.

So big statements will be made, bureaucrats will fly around acting Serious, and nothing will be done. Nothing can be done. And we know why, but no one wants to discuss it.

Social justice is a wicked term of art; "social" is about the most misused word in the world and "justice" always and invariably implies punishment. Basically it means punishing people with stuff and forcing them to give up stuff for those with no stuff. The rest is just enforced groupthink, where everyone has to smile on everyone else, unless they are national strongmen, terrorists, rich people, or crime bosses, in which case they are exempt. 

The thing is, we know what would really lead to an easing of poverty, which would ease so many other problems -- property rights, the rule of law, and removing fetters from capitalism. But the world is loaded with thug states, nepotism, corruption, tribalism, mob justice, and the rule of men rather than laws, and lately the United States looks like no great shining example of how to do things right. Getting something truly like "social justice" from this mess is like turning out a barrel of nails and expecting them to all land point-down. 

If the United Nations and the International Labour Office think they can straighten it out, they can be my guest -- but leave me and my money alone. 

So yeah, compared to the World Day of Social Justice, a silly holiday to lift one's winter blues seems like a model of sanity. Hoodie Hoo, y'all!