quotable

"Once abolish God and the government becomes the God." -G.K. Chesterton

Saturday, July 21, 2012

What the Colorado Shooting Says About Us

Absolutely nothing. It says only that one individual living behind a mask, secretly in contempt of society, was sick and deranged enough to premeditate a mass murder of innocent children and adults. He deserves the death penalty.

Certainly, there will be handwringing and political discussions about what his means about American society, as if his lone act of craziness can be seen in some larger context. It can't.

There will be groups that will call for less violence in movies and video games, seeing how the mass murderer seemed to be emulating the Joker from the Batman movies. Yet in most cities, there is more violence on the nightly news. There will be calls for more money to address mental health issues, although the low-profile killer studying medicine would have never been eligible for it.

There will be groups calling for gun laws, more restrictions on gun ownership and purchasing ammunition. Keep in mind, though, that some of the cities with the strictest gun laws have the highest murder rates. See Chicago, for example, where the number wounded in a weekend can reach as high as the Aurora, Colorado theater count did early Friday morning.

The Unabomber never needed a gun. Nor did Timothy McVeigh to devastate that community. Sick individuals, isolated from their neighbors and peers, will always be a threat to society. There are no politics behind it. There is no reason behind it. There is no protection from it. There is just evil.

It would be nice for once if the media chose not to sensationalize this story and moved forward without another word of the shooter's "motivation" or "family life" until it's time to report on his trial. For now, there are only victims -lives cut tragically short - and that's where the focus should be.

I, for once, find myself agreeing with the president. Let's focus on the precious moments we all have together with our loved ones. I'm pretty sure it's the one thing the victims would tell us is most important after all.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Stupid Yahoo Headline of the Day

FREE VOTER ID STILL BURDENSOME FOR POOR PEOPLE

Don't get me wrong. I don't expect much from the barely employed yahoo headline writer, stuck between living at home and trying to find permanent work with a journalism degree in the Obama economy. But I do expect better arguments from so-called left-wing advocacy groups.

From the article:

Nearly 500,000 eligible voters in these 10 states do not have access to a vehicle and live over 10 miles from the closest office where they can obtain the type of identification required to vote in their state, according to the center's study, which came out this week.

Of course, signing up for free housing, free health care, free food stamps, free cell phones, and other assorted handouts doesn't seem to be too much of a burden. Meanwhile, under Obamacare every American is required to purchase health insurance or pay a tax, but you won't hear about that burden from left-wing groups - probably because it's mostly a burden faced by the self-employed middle class.


It's also worth mentioning that most states with voter ID laws allow seniors and the disabled to request mail-in ballots so they don't have to leave their homes. Does anyone else really have an excuse?

Just so we've got this straight now: Taxes on middle class families and small businesses = not a burden. Free IDs for the poor = huge burden. That's the nonsense the Left preaches today. And yet they seem surprised when they're ridiculed.


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

American Liberty on its Death Bed?

Welcome to Obamaland, where the rule of law is so upside-down that the lawless are increasingly protected (see illegal immigrants, fast and furious, black panther voter intimidation, etc.) while law-abiding citizens find Uncle Sam's jackboot on their neck, their lives regulated to death. The United States of America still exists by name, but Obama's capture of free enterprise means a whole differnet country than Americans have ever know.

Sure, the motto is still the same, still fifty stars on the flag, and people still act as if nothing's changed. But just as when your favorite microbrew or independent winery gets bought out and mass produced by a megabrand with cheaper ingredients, what you once revered in the first place is suddenly missing and it never quite goes down smooth again.

ObamaCare was a massive government overreach, still is, whether one Supreme Court justice found the mechanism to call it constitutional or not. Such a radical takeover of one-sixth of the economy should require more than a razor thin margin of one party rule pushing it through in the dead of night. If you can't win one single vote from the other party, that's not obstructionism. It's a complete rejection of your idea on its merits, and such skepticism by over half of the population should be treated with deep concern and caution, not political force and name-calling.

Ah, but when you want to ram government into every facet of the individual's life, what is each decision if not political? So that now your health care decisions are political, the car you drive is political, how much energy you use is political, owning a gun is political, what your kids are taught is political, diet is political, marriage is political, etc., etc., ad nausea until there's not a free space left to stand and make a decision on your own without being judged by some nanny-statist. Obama has managed to make even following the law political, abandoning that whole quaint John Adams "Nation of laws rather than men" theory on what constitutes a free republic.

Leftists like Obama can't help but make everything the government's business except how to actually run an efficient government (say by passing a budget). Which is none of your business so don't hold him accountable, or so he hopes you won't. Thus, 100 plus rounds of golf while he bans forks at fundraisers and expands the IRS exponentially to peer into your medicine cabinet. And now the Supreme Court has legitimized this the same way the Oscars once legitimized Cher's acting. It's really too horrible for words.

There's no getting around the awful SCOTUS decision on the constitutionality of ObamaCare, but perhaps even more damaging is what it means for personal property rights in this country. Guess what? Nothing is rightfully yours anymore, because this ruling gives the government the power to tell you exactly how to spend every dollar you earn. Not just the wages they tax, which they have always taken and spent as they desired (see Solyndra, Porkulus, National Endowment of the Arts). But thanks to Justice Roberts, two dyed-in-the-wool liberals (one who has admitted to not admiring the U.S. Constitution), and two Obama-appointed stooges, the government now has permission to reach their hand into your pocket or under your mattress and tell you exactly how to spend the money they didn't tax. Or face another tax. And you foolishly thought it was yours.

Our federal government can now lay claim to every dollar in your bank account. If you don't spend it in a way that they approve, well there's a tax for that. And if you can't choose to spend your hard-earned wages the way in which you desire, do you have economic freedom? Does anything really belong to you? Or does it belong to Obama's regime?

This is a crucial point and the defining reason every individual who cherishes their freedom should be outraged by the court's ruling. And further outraged that Democrats cheered and celebrated it. Our liberty was just stolen from us. No wonder progressives were tickled pink. The Supreme Court practically gave their stamp of approval to move towards Communism.

Down at the National Archives, they've replaced the helium in the hermetically-sealed case that protects our Constitution with laughing gas. Now we can finally move in the direction of Red China as Thomas Friedman always dreamed.

Mark June 28th on your calendar as the day of 'The Ruling', a day historians will look back to as the turning point from America as the land of opportunity to America as the land of tyranny. Before 'The Ruling' the individual was protected by a federal government of enumerated powers. After 'The Ruling' the state has been granted unlimited power. And the man who made the ultimate decision was appointed by a Republican president.

I have written about every wrong direction this administration has taken us for the past three years, but this is worse than even my worst-case scenarios. We can repeal ObamaCare. We can't repeal the Supreme Court's precedent. Unbelievable. What now?