op ed review 4/21
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
Jihad in Boston: Two young Chechen immigrants bombed the
Boston Marathon Monday. In the last several months, one of the men had posted
videos to YouTube indicating his interest in radical Muslim ideologies. It was
Chechen Islamists who stormed a school in Beslan,
Russia,
murdering more than 300 people, half of them children.
A leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that
jihadists in America
include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.
Earlier in the week: “Obama
Thinks Boston Bombings Could Be Related to 'Tax Day'”
Obama administration
has SLASHED budget for domestic bombing prevention by 45 per cent, says former
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary
The Boys Scouts of America is proposing to lift the
ban for youth members but continue the ban on gays as adult leaders. The Scouts
announced that the proposal would be submitted to the roughly 1,400 voting
members of its National Council at a meeting in Texas the week of May 20. The BSA, in making
its announcement, estimated that easing the ban on gay adults could cause
widespread defections that cost the organization 100,000 to 350,000 members.
The BSA described its survey as "the most comprehensive listening exercise
in its history." In a summary of the
findings, it said respondents supported the BSA's current policy of excluding
gays by a margin of 61 percent to 34 percent.
"Comprehensive immigration reform" is shaping up
to be the next Obamacare. By negotiating in secret, by drafting an enormously
complicated bill, and by rushing passage with almost no time for public debate,
the Senators who are pushing immigration reform are following the same path
that divided the nation in 2009-10 and led to one of the worst expansions of
federal regulation, spending and power in American history.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a leading member of the bipartisan
“Gang of Eight” pushing immigration reform, has taken to using the term
"undocumented" to describe illegal aliens.
The Senate bill offers $50 million in taxpayer-funded
assistance to help illegal immigrants file the paperwork for the multi-stage
amnesty. The money can be given to activist groups to support immigrants who
need help “completing applications and petitions..”
Nearly nine of 10 illegal immigrants
will seek U.S.
citizenship if the so-called "Gang of Eight's" comprehensive
immigration passes, according to a survey of undocumented immigrants.
Everyone has heard the phrase, “Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.” That’s precisely the predicament that Congress is
in today with the Senate’s immigration proposal. Though perhaps
well-intentioned, the Senate proposal repeats the mistakes of the past. The
Senate amnesty proposal is flawed for many reasons, but three in particular…..
Rep. Lamar Smith: Immigration Bill 'Worse Than We Thought,'
Legalizes Relatives and Previously Deported
The Senate delivered a devastating blow to President Obama’s
agenda to regulate guns Wednesday by defeating a bipartisan proposal to expand
background checks.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/294571-senate-rejects-tougher-background-checks-on-gun-purchases#ixzz2QlTLeUMq
Obama: "Unimaginable" That Congress Would "Defy"
Americans And NOT Pass Gun Control
Only 4 percent of Americans think guns and gun control are
an important problem facing the country, according to Gallup, and far more Americans are concerned
about the economy, unemployment and the federal debt.
House Speaker John Boehner is being pressed by the
conservative wing of the Republican Party not to allow a vote on major pieces
of legislation -- from gun control to immigration -- without majority
Republican support, after recent signals that he could be open to building a
coalition with Democrats.
More abortion doctor horror:
Gosnell Trial Witness: Baby Abortion Survivor Was 'Swimming' in Toilet
'Trying to Get Out'
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is emerging in some Republican
circles as the surprising favorite to win the GOP nomination for president in
2016.
Obama Snubs Margaret Thatcher funeral, opts for low-key
official representation.
IBD: “It’s a measure
of how little he values the special relationship — and a sign of his own
smallness.”
Regal Entertainment Group, the largest movie theatre chain
in the country, announced that thousands of employees will have their work
hours cut -- as a direct result of the added cost of the new ObamaCare mandates
that become effective later this year.
The Vatican
says Pope Francis supports the Holy See´s crackdown on the largest umbrella
group of U.S.
nuns, who were faulted for focusing too much on social justice instead of
issues such as abortion.
Great moments in socialized medicine: Hundreds of thousands more patients are being
forced to wait longer than four hours for emergency care as hospitals across
the UK
struggle due to closures and staff shortages.
Is this a bad joke? “Anthony
Weiner is on a roll. A week after floating his name as a possible NY mayoral
candidate, the disgraced former congressman finishes second in a poll of
Democrats.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Thomas Sowell
4/17
Most laws are meant to stop people from doing
something, and to penalize those who disregard those laws. More generally, laws
are meant to protect the society from the law breakers. But our immigration
laws are different. Here the whole focus is on the "plight" of those
who have broken the laws, and on what can be done to lift the stigma and ease
the pressures they feel, so that they can "come out of the shadows"
and "normalize" their lives.
Merely using the word "illegal" to describe
their breaking the law is considered to be a sign of mean-spiritedness, if not
racism. The Associated Press refuses to let their reporters refer to people who
sneaked across the border into this country, in violation of American
immigration laws, as "illegal immigrants." On the other hand, if an
ordinary American citizen breaks a law, no one cares if he has to live in fear
for years -- "in the shadows," as it were -- worrying that his
illegal act will be discovered and punished. No one bothers to come up with
euphemisms to keep from calling what he did illegal.
No cities announce that they will provide
"sanctuary," so that American shoplifters, or even jay-walkers, will
be protected from the law. But, in some places, illegal immigrants are treated
almost as if they were in a witness protection program. What is even more
remarkable about this special treatment is that you are not supposed to think
about it as special treatment. When a new immigration law is proposed that
simply overlooks violations of the old law, that is not supposed to be called
"amnesty" -- even though the word "amnesty" has the same
root as "amnesia." It is all about forgetting.
Why is it not supposed to be called
"amnesty"? Because illegal immigrants must "earn" their
citizenship. But if an ordinary American citizen gets a traffic ticket, the law
is not going to just forget about it, no matter what good deeds he does
afterwards.
People who come here perfectly legally have to earn
their citizenship. Why is earning citizenship some special reason for ignoring
the illegality of others? Impressive feats of sophistry have become the norm in
discussions of illegal immigration. For example, we are told that there is no
way that the government can find all the people who are in the country
illegally and deport them. Does anyone imagine that the government can find all
the embezzlers, drunk drivers or bank robbers in the country? And does anyone
think that this is a reason why the government should stop trying to enforce
laws against embezzlement, drunk driving or bank robbery? Or let embezzlers,
drunk drivers and bank robbers "come out of the shadows" and
"normalize" their lives?
Even if the government does not lift a finger to find
illegal immigrants, many will come to the attention of law enforcement
officials because of their violations of other laws. But, even then, there is
no assurance that they will be deported -- and certainly not in
"sanctuary" cities.
Why are there immigration laws in the first place?
For the benefit of the American people -- not for the benefit of people in
other countries who want to come here. But political and media elites treat the
American people as if they are the problem -- a problem to be circumvented with
sophistry and pious promises about border security that have not been kept in
all these years since the last amnesty, decades ago.
Making an irreversible decision to add millions of
people -- and their dissimilar cultures -- permanently to the American body
politic is something that should take months of careful examination and
discussion, both inside and outside of Congress. But it is likely to get less
time than you would take to decide whether to buy a house, or perhaps even a
car.
What should American immigration policy be? It
doesn't matter what any of us think that policy should be if the borders are
not secure, because whoever wants to come across that border will come across
anyway, in defiance of whatever the policy might be. If legal benefits are
conferred on illegal immigrants before the border is secured, we may as well
give up any pretense that we have an immigration policy, because benefits
conferred are never going to be taken back, no matter how porous the border
remains.
________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
“…..the vast ranks of newspaper publishers, TV executives,
editors, news producers, radio assignment editors, and reporters somehow
reached an instant, near universal consensus that a man who may well be
America’s all-time champion mass murderer isn’t a story at all, never mind one
to hold the front page for – because they didn’t see him as a murderer; they
saw him as a “choice-provider” who got a little out of hand. That’s a dark,
disturbing stain.”
-Mark Steyn
“Liberals are often revealed as vile, vulgar hatemongers–not
all of them, of course, but far too many–yet they never seem to pay a penalty
at the polls. Why is that? Margaret Thatcher’s death has been the latest
occasion for the Left to show its true stripes. All across the U.K.,
there have been demonstrations–vulgar at best, and violent at worst. In
Bristol, lefties celebrating a Thatcher “death street party” started fires,
destroyed property and battled police: This evening in Trafalgar Square,
liberals have turned out for a long-planned celebration of Thatcher’s
death…..Here in the U.S., the last similar display from the Left was the Occupy
Wall Street movement, but liberal violence and general hatefulness have a long
and consistent history.”
-John
Hinderaker
__________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
Salon is disappointed:
“Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American.”
An article published on CNN´s website made claim that
pressure cooker bombs like the ones used at the Boston Marathon terror attack
are a ´signature´ of ´right-wing extremists.
Guess they didn’t know this:
“Homemade bombs built from pressure cookers, a version of which was used
in the Boston Marathon bombings, have been a frequent weapon of militants in Afghanistan, India
and Pakistan.”
_______________________________________________________________________
ISLAM ON THE MARCH
New issue of magazine offers jihadists terror tips: An idea in the first edition,
"Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom," "The pressurized cooker should be placed
in crowded areas and left to blow up….”
Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan will get a $700,000 settlement
from McDonalds for serving them chicken sandwiches that weren’t prepared as HALAL:
the Muslim equivalent of Kosher.
___________________________________________________________________________
SECOND AMENDMENT
Survey of 15,000 Cops:
Virtually all respondents (95 percent) say that a federal ban on
manufacture and sale of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds would
not reduce violent crime…The majority of respondents — 71 percent — say a
federal ban on the manufacture and sale of some semi-automatics would have no
effect on reducing violent crime
“Californians Sign Petition to Ban and Confiscate Firearms”
Harry Reid on the Second Amendment: “….maintaining law and order and saving lives
is more important than preventing imagined tyranny."
____________________________________________________________________________
CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY
Hugh Hewitt: Down two
touchdowns after the first quarter, the House Republicans think they are
winning. That´s a big problem, and not only because they are losing the great
positioning battle in the run-up to President Obama´s last great campaign --
the 2014 congressional elections -- but also because the House GOP is
destroying what´s left of its already badly disfigured brand in the process. Obama
shellacked the Republicans on Nov. 6, then knocked them around for the two
months that followed and walked away with a huge tax hike and a badly bruised
Speaker John Boehner. Those are the two touchdowns…..
_________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
Rupert Murdoch: “Socialism is immoral.”
The status quo on immigration is “horrible for America,”
Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” On that much, all sides
of the debate are pretty much in agreement. The Florida Republican and the rest
of the Senate “Gang of Eight” will outline their legislative solution to this
enduring problem on Tuesday. With an estimated 11 million illegal aliens having
successfully sneaked over, under and through the border into the country, the
Gang’s proposal ought to be judged first and foremost on how comprehensively it
deals with border security. There’s plenty of reason for skepticism.
___________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY LINKS
Baroness Thatcher was today honoured with a sombre but
spectacular funeral ceremony that paid tribute to the ‘courage and
perseverance’ of Britain´s greatest peacetime prime minister. An estimated
250,000 mourners lined the streets to pay tribute to the UK´s one and only
female political leader, and broke into spontaneous applause, cheers and
whistles of support rang around the streets of London as the coffin passed them.
Margaret Thatcher funeral as it happened:
The hymn Lady Thatcher had asked to be played at her
service.
The 10 Absolute Worst Media Reactions To The Boston Marathon Bombings
The media behavior
regarding the trial of monster Kermit Gosnell is a turning point: with all of
conservative media’s complaints regarding the liberal bias of U.S. media, we
never imagined this could happen. We know there are
journalists out there infuriated by their employer’s current behavior: The
change must start with you. We are looking for whistleblowers: if you have any
information regarding why your employer is not covering the Gosnell trial, please submit it here. Your anonymity will be
protected.
__________________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE
Conan: Today, North
Koreans celebrated the 101st birthday of their country's founder. He famously
said, “Let's have a crappy version of South Korea. We can do that…..A new
study came out that shows that the germiest place in your kitchen is the
refrigerator's vegetable drawer. After hearing this, most Americans said, “We
have a vegetable drawer?.......A Fragrance company has come out with a cologne
that smells like whiskey. It's perfect for the guy who wants all of the stigma
of alcoholism but none of the fun.
______________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"I hope we have once again reminded people that man is
not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here
that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands,
liberty contracts."
-Ronald
Reagan
"The only
difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves
the skin."
-Mark Twain
"In general,
the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one
party of the citizens to give to the other."
-Voltaire
______________________________________________________________________
MARGARET THATCHER
"I am not a consensus politician. I am a conviction
politician. ... Consensus? Consensus is the negation of leadership!"
“No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had
good intentions; he had money as well."
"My policies are based not on some economics theory,
but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day's work
for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy
day; pay your bills on time..."
"Socialists cry 'Power to the people,' and raise the
clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean -- power over
people, power to the State."
posted by gary at
8:23 AM
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