Mission Accomplished, Ahmed...

In December, 2002, just 15 months after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the New York and New Jersey Metropolitan Transit Authority adopted the slogan developed more than a year before by an advertising agency, "If You See Something, Say Something".

It's been the mantra preached to us by Left and Right alike for more than a decade.  Vigilance!  Watchfulness!  We're all in this fight together!

And then something really weird happened.  Ahmed Mohamed, a young student in Irving, Texas, brought a device to school.  He started showing it to teachers.  One teacher who saw it told him not to show it around because it looked a lot like a bomb.  Another teacher he showed his 'homemade clock' to decided to say something.

The long story made short is that the teacher and everyone who took what on its face looked like a threat seriously were pilloried.  The President of the United States came out on Twitter and said, "Cool clock, Ahmed!"  At the same time he implied that anyone who couldn't see that this was a simple clock was an idiot.  And anyone who 'said something' about a Muslim and an explosive device in the same sentence was a bigoted fear-mongering racist.  The lesson Americans were intended to learn - and indeed many did - was that if you see something involving a Muslim, you'd better just keep it to yourself.

Some of you may recall that I posted something to this effect on Facebook as the Clock Kid debacle unfolded.  Ahmed Mohamed was a pioneer in changing the way Americans are allowed to speak and even think about terror and Islam.

And now, San Bernardino.  Sayed Farooq fights with coworkers about politics and religion.  He tells a Jewish coworker that he will never live to see Jerusalem.  Farooq goes so far as to threaten to kill the Jew.  And nothing is said.  Nothing is done.  Because we can't push the alarm button when a Muslim is involved anymore.  Remember, the President taught us that with the Clock Kid.

And now, San Bernardino.  A neighbor and others working in Sayed Farooq's neighborhood notice suspicious activity at Farooq's house.  Large numbers of Middle Eastern men coming and going at all hours of the day and night.  In the old days we would have thought Farooq was running a drug house, called the cops, and they would have surveilled it until they were able to determine what was going on.  But today nothing is said.  Nothing is done.  Because we can't push the alarm button when a Muslim is involved anymore.  Who wants to be pilloried as a racist and an islamophobe?  Remember, the President taught us that with the Clock Kid.

And so, Sayed Frooq and his wife Tashfeen Malik interrupt Sayed's company Christmas party with two AR-15s and hundreds of bullets.  They leave a sack full of explosive devices in hopes of killing even more as first responders come to retrieve the 14 dead and other wounded.  And they go out in a 'blaze of glory' as police catch up with them and load their SUV with more than 350 rounds of all types of ammunition.

In the meantime, the press and the Obama administration are tripping over themselves for days trying to make sense of the senseless when it is they who are insensible.  Call it what you will, but do NOT call it terrorism.  And NEVER call it Islamic terrorism.  It was a fight at the party that escalated to this.  It was 3 white men (wearing masks).  It was white supremacists.  It was a quiet religious man who snapped.  It was a gun.  It was a legally purchased gun.  It was fear of Muslims.  It was the NRA.  But, please, please, please, don't call this Islamic terrorism on American soil.

And to think that all this could have been prevented.  If someone who had seen something had said something.

Will I Continue To Support the BSA...?

At least once a day I get an email from some organization or another.  About once a month I get a letter from the Republican National Committee.  Every few months I get a letter from the American Red Cross.  Twice a year the ACLU pings me with a 'survey'.  And once a year I am approached by the Boy Scouts of America.

All these groups represent themselves as having urgent needs for funding so that they can either combat some great evil or accomplish some great good.  And all these groups presume to know me.

Their communications seek to pull on some heart string or another, seek to play on some fear or anxiety, seek to exploit some prejudice or preference.  And the goal of that pull or play or exploitation is to persuade me to send them money.  Money that they need to help the world look more like they think I think it should.  Money that they need to help defeat monsters that they think I think should be defeated.  Money that they need to be able to promote causes that they think I think they should.

I delete the daily emails.

I toss out the Red Cross appeals.

I take time to complete a note to the RNC and ACLU.

And in the past I've cracked my wallet to give $50 or so to the BSA.

I'm not cold hearted, and I'm not stingy.  I want to support causes I agree with and organizations that support my set of values.

The daily emails?  I don't know who those people are, and I don't want to invest the time to find out.

The Red Cross?  Their cynical response to Mitt Romney's appeal for donated items in the wake of Hurricane Sandy turned me off.  It showed me who the leadership of the organization are - self important progressives.  I'm not interested in that.

The RNC?  They've never stood for my values.  They fought Ronald Reagan in every campaign he ran.  They continue to stand up despicable human beings like Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and others in Congress and across the country.  Nope.  My routine note to them tells them that I will not support them until they show me that they support my values, and step one in that process is getting rid of the scumbags they support in government.

The ACLU?  I could actually get behind these guys if it weren't for their all-in support of the leftist agenda and their inability to send an honestly objective opinion survey to my house.

And the BSA...  'On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.'  That's about 120 years old.  And I feel like the BSA, as an organization, has left that ideal in the proverbial dust as they've raced to keep up with the almighty dollar and the ever-moving target of popular opinion.  For years their executives have been paid too much to promote the values of the Scout Law too little.

And now, their caving to political pressure brought by progressive thinkers who falsely use the name of 1.8% of the American population has pushed beyond the pale of my tolerance.

So, no, I will not support the BSA anymore.  I will send them a note explaining why I am withholding funds, and instead I will donate everything I would have given to the BSA to my local Boy Scout troop in the form of equipment or assistance for boys without means to attend camp and other activities.

And I would encourage everyone to follow the dictates of their own conscience.

Haters Gonna Hate...

This is the kind of hateful and fearmongering thing that is not productive.  In fact, it's evil.



And it really is scary how many people are standing and clapping and shouting in agreement with this lunatic.

Hopefully they're like so many of us who 'get the Spirit' at church and then go home and forget to do anything about it.

Islamist Terrorist (noun, singular) Attacks TWO Military Installations (noun, plural)...

You might as well post a sign that reads, "TARGET RICH ENVIRONMENT."

Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a 24-year old Kuwaiti native, killed 4 US Marines before being "enthusiastically engaged" by police in Tennessee.

The 'engagement' resulted in Mr. Abdulazeez's nearly instantaneous death.

Before you jump to conclusions, Ed Reinhold, the FBI's agent in charge of the investigation wants you to know, via CNN, that his team has "not determined whether it was an act of terrorism or wheter it was a criminal act."  Indeed, they are "looking at every possible avenue, whether it was terrorism - whether it was domestic, international - or whether it was a simple criminal act."

Hmmm...

Here are some background facts you should know:
1. Virtually all federal installations, including all military bases and offices, are 'gun-free zones.'
2. The two installations attacked by the same man, Mr. Abdulazeez, today were 7 miles apart and in two different states.
3. The first attack included Mr. Abdulazeez sitting in his car outside a recruiting station and firing some 50-70 shots at the building.  He injured no one.
4. All 7 of Mr. Abdulazeez's victims - 4 were killed and 3 were injured - were working at the second site he attacked.
5. This is not the first Islamist attack on military recruiting offices or recruiting staff.
6. This is not the first Islamist attack on American soil since 11 September 2001.

Big Marathon Bomber

Marine Shooter

Ft. Hood Shooter

Little Marathon Bomber

 

Underwear Bomber

Avenger

Shoe Bomber

Head Chopper

Next Up: Nuclear Iran...

When USA Today, the fluffy progressive rag, comes out with a piece of analysis that really isn't opinion, but leans toward the facts, it's worth noting.

USA Today Article

And when USA Today's story actually tells us something that President Obama insists is not, it's worth reading.

The "deal" with Iran on nuclear programs that the "West" appears to have just made is a bad one.  Bad to the core.  Not only is in unenforceable, but even were the terms to be kept, it gives all up-side and no down-side to the Iranian regime.  We will see an Islamist state in control of a nuclear weapon in short order.

Given that we know Iran's history of supporting terror and aggression around the world, we should not be surprised to see that weapon used - either as leverage to force others into compliance, or as a bomb to disrupt the world.

The only question to be answered is, when that bomb is used, will the then-president have the courage and the resources to respond appropriately?

We will see.

Progressives v. Family...

My gay friends have consistently, stridently and repeatedly argued that their push for what they call 'marriage equality' is not an attack on the traditional family.

This article exposes the lie that they've either been ignorant or party to.

Not An Assault On The Family...?!

How can any sentient being have been, or allow themselves to be deceived by this notion?  All one must do is find the origins of the 'gay marriage' movement.  They don't trace back to homosexuals.  Indeed, in the 1980s around San Francisco, where I grew up the message was loud and clear:  We choose the gay lifestyle because it's the anti-family.  We have no responsibilities, no children, no strings and no rules.

But then something changed in America.  We tilted to the left and became a much more government-focused people.  And then something changed in the 'gay agenda.'  The 'gay agenda' was co-opted by the 'progressive agenda.'  Just like the 'civil rights' movement has been hijacked by progressives, so has the gay movement.

Marx, in his Communist Manifesto cheerfully cries for "abolition of the family!"  His argument goes something  like this:  Since only the bourgeois (middle class) have intact families, and the proletariat (worker) is reduced to seeking fulfillment in broken families and prostitutes, the natural solution is to destroy the bourgeois family.  (Don't speak of building up the family as an institution among workers!)

Now, we have arguably the most Marxist president and administration arguing before the arguably most Progressive Supreme Court that children do not have a natural or fundamental human right to have a mother.  Just as Marx, they posit that, because some children do not have mothers living with them at home, no children should.

(Why not speak the truth:  Having a father and a mother in every home is the ideal.  The simple and sad fact that it is not so for all children does not make the ideal void.)

More In Common Than Not...

MTV asks in its probing new documentary, 'what does it mean to be white in America?'

I reject the 'white privilege' assertion that is so popular among wealthy, young, guilty white American women today, and that is so aggressively crammed into their mush-filled skulls by elementary, high school and college teachers and popular icons who view themselves either as aggrieved victims of rampant hate, or elite and enlightened paragons of righteousness, or some bizarre combination of the two.

(I cannot be alone in seeing the irony of Michelle Obama claiming to be a victim of institutional racism, or Michael Moore railing against capitalism.)

What can be the intent of the questioner?  Only to highlight differences which, truthfully, seem to be a fetish for progressives.

By dividing and subdividing Americans into endlessly small special groups and classes, the progressive statist then gains the maximum effect of the old martial axiom 'divide and conquer.'  When we view ourselves as members of one impossibly outnumbered group or the other, then we naturally look for protection from someone else.

The larger question; the more productive, less divisive, and frankly more honest question, is 'what does it mean to be an American?'

To be an American is to own the traditions and heritage of truth and justice.  To be an American is to honor the liberties that come with personal responsibility.  To be an American is to respect the rights of all people to live as they wish, and to respect and uphold the laws that make civil society possible.  To be an American is to reject hate.  To be an American is to protect the weak.

Why not produce a documentary that illustrates the similarities Americans share regardless of race?  Why not highlight that young Americans are concerned with getting through school, finding and keeping a good job, love and marriage, raising a family, understanding themselves in a theological context, turmoil in the world, economic uncertainty and opportunity, and things like that?  Why not showcase the fact that young Americans value independent thought, freedom of choice, peaceful neighborhoods and good friends?  And why not demonstrate that things like these cross all races, all sexes, all classes, all preferences and orientations?

To be an American is to stand as the last best hope for mankind; between man's enlightened liberty and his benighted oppression at the hand of evil.

Jack Ma, Alibaba CEO: Write Your Own Caption...

But remember, you'll probably be working for him one day...

Self-Inflicted Totalitarianism...

Here is some of what I've been trying to say about leftists and statism in America.

The New Totalitarians Are Here...

Far from being 'liberal', the statist elites and their lapdog press are moving us toward a totalitarian state (of behavior and being) that forbids free thought and expression, that encourages and perpetuates hatred and fear, and one in which you and I antagonize and terrorize each other.

The government won't have to change its laws.  Jack-booted government agents won't have to drag us to reeducation camps.  Because we, goaded on by the press and other self-proclaimed leaders who crowd and shout like 7th Graders, "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" will self-police each other.

Even now, we find ourselves without thought adding, "not that there's anything wrong with that," to any statement that might be misunderstood to be a values statement or to be judgmental.  We walk into a gun shop with the same apprehension with which we might have walked into a porn shop 20 years ago.  We conspicuously avoid posting things that might be offensive and instead choose images either deliberately neutral or that might be interpreted as supportive of the mainstream thought of the day.

Think about the environment.  Think about religion.  Think about history.  Think about race relations.  Think about sexual preference.  Think about education.  Think about national debt.  Think about welfare.  Think about national security.  Think about values.  Think about politics.  Think about personal responsibility.  Think about vaccinations.  Think about personal choice.

Think about just about anything that is NOT portrayed in a reality TV series, and you'll find something that has two and only two diametrically opposed sides.

On the one side, we must embrace the enlightened and liberating catechism of leftist tolerance; or we find ourselves on the other side - at once intolerant and intolerable, full of hate that is fueled by fear and ignorance.  We do not love.  We do not care.  We do not understand, as long as we do not accept, embrace, agree....

Gay Marriage: What's Next...?

Whatever it takes to make you happy, you know...

But as the famous saying goes, your right to swing your fist ends at my nose.

This is a swing that I think is bound to conflict with and ultimately violate my right of conscience and the oft-flouted and more frequently misunderstood principle of the separation of church and state in America.

Justice Kennedy's comment after this decision belies his naivete or his willful misrepresentation of the facts.  He tells how he has heard stories from gay people wanting to get married and that they 'reveal that they seek not to denigrate marriage but rather to live their lives, or honor their spouses' memory, joined by its bond...'

But here's how it goes.  We already know that speaking in favor of a heterosexual definition of marriage is hateful.  We already know that hate (as long as it not the acceptable and expected type of hate du jour) is intolerable.  We already know that companies and individuals accused of hate can lose and have lost their livelihoods, including government contracts and tax favored status.

So, what happens to me?  I'm not a hater.  I couldn't care less with whom or what you do this or that.  I just don't want to hear about it.  Straight or queer, keep it to yourself, puh-lease!

But what happens to me?

I attend one of the many churches that adamantly supported California Proposition 8, some years ago.  That was the popular ballot initiative that passed with more than 52% of Californians voting to define and preserve traditional marriage.  While the will of the people in California was overturned by one judge after another, what will happen if my church doesn't change its stance on gay marriage?

I was assured by a gay friend of mine that this initiative in no way was aimed at impacting my right of conscience or other rights protected by the First Amendment, but I'm not so sure.

Migrant LOVE.

See, this is the thing most xenophobes and haters don't understand.  These people cross our borders illegally for LOVE.

Migrant LOVE...

The issue being not that American citizens aren't guilty of heinous crimes, but rather that this one crime could have been prevented by responsible enforcement of existing border and immigration laws.

UPDATE 8 JUL 2015:  The shooter claims to have found the gun on the pier and to have 'accidentally' shot Kathryn Steinle to death.  This still does not change the fact that, had this man been properly deported and prevented from returning to our country, he could not have possibly killed Ms. Steinle...

Stars And Bars; A Relic Of An Unsavory Past...

I've never appreciated the Confederate Battle Flag, the Stars and Bars.  Those who fly it have always seemed to me to be self-identifying with the losing side of a moral war.  Is it the most pressing concern of our time?  Not by a long shot.  But I'll mention it briefly.

I suppose that there are some families - maybe even many - who fought valiantly on the side of the South in the Civil War, and who didn't entirely buy into the foundational racism on which the Confederate States of America was built.  Just as I am sure there are German families who weren't completely bought into the ideals of Nazism, Hutus who didn't support the Rwandan genocide of Tutsis.

And I suppose that there are some individuals - maybe even many - who fly the Stars and Bars in memory of a bygone time when life was sweet, simple and slow.  Perhaps they fly it in defiance of an ever encroaching federal power.  Perhaps they fly it as an affirmation of their value of individual and states' rights.  But the fact remains that it is also, and primarily, a symbol of man's inhumanity to man; of his willingness to enslave his brother and to torment his sister.

It can be argued that, although perhaps not as close to the roots of some, there are other symbols of defiance that lack the racist and oppressive overtones of the Stars and Bars.  There is the Navy Jack, the Gadsden Flag, the Liberty Bell, the Texas state flag, the Texas Independence Flag, the eagle, the lion, the star, or the anarchist's "A".

As such, I don't much care if someone flies the Confederate Battle Flag, wears it, or makes art of it.  And I don't have a problem with Governor Haley taking it off the South Carolina capitol grounds.

If one is going to keep or display it, he just needs to be sure of the context in which he presents it, and the feelings it may evoke in others.

That's not censorship.  That's just being neighborly.  

The Leftist's Ego-Centered Universe...

While professing concern and solidarity with the 'common man,' leftists really see the world only in terms of self.  How must the world see me?  What do I think about this or that?  What do I see when I look at the world?

Mrs. Obama recently visited a school in Great Britain.  In the course of her remarks she told the girls she was addressing that when she looked at them she saw herself....  Similarly, when President Obama spoke of Trayvon Martin he did not identify him as someone else's loved one.  Instead he asserted that Mr. Martin could have been his own son.  A part of himself.

What does that mean?  When I look at you, I don't see you as an individual worthy of respect by virtue of your being.  When I look at you, I don't see independent wills and minds.  When I look at you, I don't see sovereign souls.  Rather, when I look at you, I see creatures in my own image.  When I look at you, I see what I imagine I am.  Indeed, I am your creator and you exist because I will it.  

Look at the leftist social engineers who believe that people will behave because they are told to behave.  Farmers will farm because they are told to farm.  Steel workers will make steel because they are told to make steel.  Soldiers will fight because they are told to fight.  And all will care for all because they are told to care.  Like cattle, like productive assets, like automatons people are expected to obey the social engineers; their masters.  And the hubris does not stop there.

Central planners in the old Soviet Union dictated when to plant and when to harvest independent of the weather, believing that commanding it would make it so.  They dictated how much coal to mine and how much steel to produce independent of the capacity of men or machines, believing that commanding it would make it so.  The result was famine and industrial disaster.  And the social engineers never took responsibility, never acknowledged the flaws in their reasoning.  Rather, they blamed 'wreckers' and 'spies' for problems.  

Today, President Obama believes that because he wishes Iran not to have a nuclear weapon they will not have one; because he wishes government assistance to lead to prosperity poor people will become wealthy by using food stamps; because he wishes illegal immigrants to be productive members of society they will be.  His belief denies the free will of mankind and the laws of nature.  Further, it ignores millenia of historical documentation of human nature.

Further, President Obama speaks in the first person and is so completely self-referential in his rhetoric that it becomes difficult to imagine that he did not cast the winning vote for the Affordable Care Act, did not help every illegal immigrant graduate from college, and did not physically pull the trigger killing Osama Bin Laden.  

Because the leftist is without God, he must self-identify as the supreme being in the universe.  While physiologically similar to other hominids scraping and groveling in the common biosphere, the leftist is, by some accident of evolution, intellectually superior and has a duty - it is unclear from whence this duty devolves, as morality and moral imperative are murky concepts - to coordinate and manage the affairs, the relationships, the existence of all lower life forms, all the while he must ensure that his own comfort is not compromised, but rather enhanced.

Because the leftist is the center of his own universe.