English police are now calling on citizens to report hate incidents. Reporting friends and neighbors to the police has terrible historical connotation, and for good reason. It is legitimate fascism. Timid citizenries are easy to control — fear that even a coworker could file a report to the police can keep people in check.
Thanks to Joe's Gulch for the heads-up and the link; he's a nice man, but he just doesn't HATE enough to give this report the attention it deserves.
The only way the world could possibly be negatively affected by this sort of societal incursions on the First Amendment is if the good folks at GOOGLE agreed with them!
The Australian government as part of trying to clamp down on the availability of…weapons offered a good price for buying hundreds of thousands of guns and basically clamped down going forward, in terms of having more of a background check approach–more of a permitting approach.
In the actual event, although the Australian government seemed to offer "a good price", there was nogood price; since the firearms (previously legal) were soon to be "no longer legal", the firearms were confiscated at a pennys-on-the-dollar price because ... they were arbitrarily "illegal", and nobody could legally buy them. There WAS no market.
So the expectation that they were bought "at a good price" was just a politically mandated confiscation.
Nothing more, nothing less. And this was what Hillary Rodham Clinton expected to impose on the (previously free and constitutionally protected against "confiscation without compensation" American Public.
During her 2015 campaign, "The Hillary Beast" made it a part of her political platform that firearms confiscation from legal gun owners seemed to be A Good Idea ... one which was legitimized by the Australian Confiscation.
Had hillary been elected, honest Americans who possessed firearms would have been treated like criminals. Their property would have been confiscated, they would have been held up to public ridicule by the Liberal Press when they protested, and America would have sunk deeper into the liberal abyss.
This was an unconstitutional action which has been espoused by liberal websites, including:
... and every other Liberal anti-gun website which believes that the4 Second Amendment is SOoooo 19th Century!
One wonders whether the same people would be so eager to undermine the FIRST amendment, which allows them to publish unpopular essays.
(This one is a good example)
x
z
\\PS: Yes, I'v aware that the timing of publication is inappropriate. Sometimes something gets stuck in your craw, and it takes a while to spit it out. That don't make it wrong.
x
What about a Second Amendment Reparations Tax, levied on all American households and corporations? If the Second Amendment is essential to American identity, and if additional firearm-related legislation is a long time coming (if ever), then why not create a communal fund to assist those families and institutions devastated by inevitable gun violence? Such a FEMA-administered reparations tax would commit all of us to the task of “binding up the wounds” created by firearm violence. If we can’t affect the laws, the least we can do is help pay for the funerals.
I was raised a Baptist; this kind of "Holier-Than-Thou" mindset is why I am no longer a Baptist.
Here's an alternative solution: What about a First Amendment Reparations Tax? How about we remove the tax exemption for churches whose ministers preach against Rights guaranteed by the same constitution that guarantees freedom of speech and religion? If you feel that strongly about “binding up the wounds”, pay for it out of your own pocket. Don't steal from mine.
And don't demonize Second Amendment supporters with one side of your face while you want to tax us with the other side. Your article bemoans the attack of innocents in a church, and rightly so; it was a heinous crime. If you want to be safe from this kind of attack, hold church in a National Guard Armory. That's where gun shows are held, and they're not being subjected to violence.
Because everybody has guns there, nobody uses them.
Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition. I bet you know that song. It's got a good beat, and you can dance to it. I give it an 85% rating.
The faux-left love to label the genuine left as ‘apologists for dictators’ ’Stalinists’ ‘or tyrannophiles’.
But when it comes to apologisingn (sic) for tyrants no one is more guilty than neocons and the faux-left.
I'm shaking my head.
Not because this is too Au Courant "Leftist" for me ... but because my friend actually looked it up .. and found the answer.
I had always thought better of him.
_____________________________________
The thought which frightens me is, that the machines all-too-often ARE smarter than me! On the other hand, the kids that were smarter than me in Junior high School usually got the crap beat out of the by the "dumb" kids who resented their "Holier Than Thou" attitudes. (There's an aphorism there, but the best thing I could come up with is "Smarmy Smart Kids Shouldn't Try To Lord It Over Tough Dumb Kids") Needs a little work, doesn't it?
Webster, NY –-(Ammoland.com)- Civil rights attorney Paloma A. Capanna today released the statistics on the NYS Mental Hygiene Law [section] 9.46 secret reporting from 2013-2016, showing more than 85,000 reports made from medical providers to the NYS Office of Mental Health and the NYS Department of Criminal Justice Services.
This is why you don't want to discuss firearms ownership with your doctor.
(For a while, it was against the law in some states for doctors to lecture you about The Evil Gun. New judicial finds have invalidated that law because your doctor's First Amendment Rights include his/her right to tell you how to live your life based on philosophical differences.)
Yeah, we're getting cranky about "Doctors and Lawyers" again. Can you believe we PAY them for their interference in our private lives?
Thank G*D for ObamaCare ... he'll look out for you!
In September ..., a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion to enjoin the State Department from censoring the American organization Defense Distributed. The Department back in 2013 threatened them with prosecution for hosting computer files that instruct 3D printers to make a plastic pistol, one the company calls "The Liberator." Defense Distributed have since then complied with the department's demand.
The issue has to do with distribution of data files which provide specifications to construct a firearm ... or more specifically, it's components.
To the best of my knowledge, 'data' is not a weapon. That the data might be plans to build a pistol is immaterial.
(Although I'm not a lawyer, that doesn't mean I don't understand that "Freedom of Speech" and "Freedom of the Press" extends to the distribution of technical data; patents notwithstanding. You can get specifications of any patented object via a request to the U.S. Patent office.)
One would think that the State Department conflates 3D printing with a manual on how to build an atomic bomb.
Okay, that sounds silly. But apparently that is the thinking over in the Swamps of D.C.
If you wish to construct an atom bomb, I can understand that Foggy Bottom would be interested. Probably even 'concerned'.
The teacher who desecrated the American flag inside a North Carolina classroom told me he has no regrets and wants the student who photographed him to be punished. Lee Francis, a first year history teacher at Massey Hill Classical High School in Fayetteville, has been placed on administrative leave while the school district investigates the incident.
I fought for this flag, and ....
Actually, I didn't fight for this flag.
I fought for " ...the Republic for which it stands ....” If some yahoo wants to burn the flag, and I'm there, I may choose to challenge it. But this yahoo is right. Living in a free country means that you are not obliged to respect it. And I think there's more to the story than meets the eye. I'm not sure if his students actually understood the lesson; I hope that he explained that he disrespected neither the flag or the country. I hope that this was not some demonstration of the BLM/Slavery outrage that's currently in vogue. I hope that he was illustrating the point that this IS a country where there are no laws constraining our freedom to protest. To assemble, to speak, to assert our rights even when the means of our expression are unpopular. But even if none of my hopes are realistic, he was very clear in his point that freedom means we can disrespect, and disagree, and protest. The Constitution is clear; that's why the First and Second Freedoms are so important, and why it's important that the next generation understand what 'freedom' really means. America isn't undermined because some first-year teacher tramples the flag. America is undermined when our young people grow up fearing our government. We don't have to respect (for example) the representatives which 'other people' have elected, contrary to our wishes. I know that I don't respect a lot of our Congress-critters. I didn't vote for them, but they were elected fairly; I'll protest THAT, and then I'll accept it. But I respect the system which gives us a choice, even if I have to hold my nose to vote for some of them. America is a country which gives us hope. Not a lot of countries can claim that. America is a country which accepts dissidents, and protest, and disrespect. That's what I fought for. That's what I came home to. It makes me proud to know that I live in a country where a teacher can defile the flag, and the worst consequence is that some people call him unkind names. I won't be one of those people; I think this teacher earned his pay by teaching a very difficult lesson.
Well, except that he spoiled it all by demanding that the student who took the photo be punished; perhaps this teacher wasn't quite as convinced that the rights to free speech extend to the students as well as to the teacher.
If the student doesn't get an "A" in the class, then I will have lost all of my respect for the teacher!
Well, the teacher is young; he'll learn as much from the experience as did his students, I expect.
Thanks to Oathkeepers for providing this stirring speech by a jurist and a patriot whose subject is: "The natural law as a restraint against Tyranny".
From back in November, 2014, the ... video reaches deeply into philosophical queries regarding the relationship between the individual and a government.
I won't embed the video here; credit to my source. Go there and be prepared to spend twenty-two minutes in spellbound awe.
"Unacceptable remarks made in private do not automatically become lawful just because they're made by a comedian in the public domain," wrote Judge Scott Hughes in his decision forcing Ward to pay Gabriel. "Plus, having a such a platform imposes certain responsibilities."
Ward's mistreatment is a reminder of the importance of the First Amendment—something that doesn't apply in Canada. But it's also reminiscent of the current state of free expression on American college campuses, where administrators often behave as if they are not obligated to obey the Constitution. A recent documentary, Can We Take a Joke?, explores the death of comedy and challenges to free speech rights at universities and elsewhere ...
Well ... this is Canada.
But I wonder if America (with it's vaunted First Amendment Freedoms) isn't as likely to be as critical of a Jokester with a vicious streak?
The author of this article at Reason was obviously critical of the Canadian judge who arbitrarily imposed a fine of $42,000 on the 'perpetrator' of the canard.
The joke concerned Jeremy Gabriel, a 19-year-old Canadian singer who suffers from Treacher Collins Syndrome, a debilitating disease. Ward's joke was that the constant media coverage of Gabriel overlooks the fact that "he was supposed to die… why isn't he dead yet?" Ward suggests that Gabriel "stole a wish" and is now, in fact, unkillable.
An unkind statement? Yes.
Cruel? Perhaps.
Actionable ... I don't know; you tell me.
FROM THIS POINT ON, this is talking about children, not about comedians:
Characteristics of Treacher Collins Syndrome include:
Down-slanting eyes
Notched lower eyelids
Underdevelopment or absence of cheekbones and the side wall and floor of the eye socket
Lower jaw is often small and slanting
Forward fair in the sideburn area
Underdeveloped, malformed and/or prominent ears
Most children with Treacher Collins have normal development and intelligence; however, it is important that there be early hearing tests. Most children with Treacher Collins Syndrome benefit from early intervention speech and language programs.
The unlettered explanation of the syndrome is that it affects very young people who look really ... odd. The appearance is permanent; they never outgrow the distortion of their face and head.
Sounds like those afflicted have a lifetime of being 'different' to bear, and anyone who has that kind of life to look forward need a lot of support, not casual jokes.
A year ago, Mike Strickland was beaten and ended in the hospital for several months. His cameras were stolen, then returned with the drives wiped clean. He has video of the attack, but the authorities refused to prosecute. Recently, Mike was threatened by a mob of anarchists and Black Lives Matter activists again. This time he protected himself. Victoria Taft has written a well researched article, with video, that shows Mike Strickland defending himself from the mob in Portland. The link has it all. From victoriataft.com: Mike Strickland was arrested and charged in Portland for pulling a gun at a Black Lives Matter/anarchist protest when a mob converged on him. But now he sits in jail. As one person put it, “[Mike Strickland] is now a political prisoner in Multnomah County.”
"... and there was nobody left to speak for me." California isn't satisfied with trashing the Second Amendment; now they're going after the First Amendment as well.
The US Department of Justice has been considering whether people should be prosecuted for the offense of climate change denial.
“This matter has been discussed. We have received information about it and have referred it to the FBI to consider whether or not it meets the criteria for which we could take action on,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch, responding to a question from green activist Sen Sheldon Whitehouse at a Senate Judiciary Hearing.
[emphasis added]
In George Orwell's tortured masterpiece "1984", citizens of Oceania could be prosecuted for thinking 'wrong thoughts'. T
Today, in the era and the country where the First Amendment is first among our most treasured freedoms,, our government has been considering whether there are certain opinions which cannot be expressed. It's not a matter of grammar; it's a matter of Thought Crime.
It appears that Orwell's premonition is now verified. It just took a little longer (32 years) for it to come about in America.
Let's call the crime "BadSpeak", and make it a law. Which will require a Constitutional Amendment .. eventually.
(But no hurry, as long as another Democrat is elected to hold the highest office in the land.)
Judging by the words and threats of the Attorney General of the United States of America ... we have finally caught up with George Orwell.
As any high-profile Twitter user with a Jewish-sounding last name can tell you, the surest way to see anti-Semitism flood your mentions column is to tweet something negative about Donald Trump. My anti-Trump tweets have been met with such terrifying and profound anti-Semitism that I bought a gun earlier this month. Over the coming weeks, I plan to learn how to shoot it better.
This is a new political phenomenon, and one which I'm not pleased to hear about.
I've mentioned before that I'm not totally pleased with the depiction of Donald Trump as a "Conservative" Republican candidate (it's difficult to envision a "Conservative" who is more conservative than I am), but now we're seeing some shrapnel from the bomb-burst which is the Trump campaign.
It seems that "The Donald" has attracted some followers who are ... very outspoken. I can accept that, but I don't accept the degree of speech religious intolerance which this blogger has reported.
Is it real, or is it memorex?
It's hard to know whether the people who are hateful are actual "Trump Supporters" or people who are deliberately posing as such, as a method of driving voters away from the Trump campaign.
I do not like anti-semitic speech, I've said before that "I may not agree with what you say, but I will support your right to say it".
But there's a limit to free speech, and that limit is reached when the First Amendment is used as an excuse to staunch the free expression of others.
(Yes, I'm aware that statement implies a limit to the Second Amendment as well. But that's a subject for another discussion.)
I don't think it's "A Bad Thing" that the originator of the article has decided to acquire a firearm for personal protection; as long as she seeks training about how to safely keep and bear arms, she will probably be safer with than without it.
(My assumption is that she is entirely without experience, and it's only reasonable that she finds at least as much instruction in bearing arms as she did when she took "Drivers' Education" in High School.)
Still, I'm appalled that she has been rendered so in fear for her personal security that she seeks to bear arms BECAUSE SOME ONLINE JERK CONFRONTED HER POLITICAL CHOICE!!
“This matter has been discussed. We have received information about it and have referred it to the FBI to consider whether or not it meets the criteria for which we could take action on,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch, responding to a question from green activist Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)at a Senate Judiciary Hearing.
(Did anyone notice that "D" after Whitehouse's name?)
She's going to involve the FBI here?
Why?
“Under President Clinton, the Department of Justice brought and won a civil RICO action against the tobacco industry for its fraud. Under President Obama, the Department of Justice has done nothing so far about the climate denial scheme,”
Scheme?
If you don't agree with the proposition of "climate change" being solely due to human activities (as opposed to the influence of solar flares), then you are involved in a "SCHEME"?
So, it's a RICO offense to not believe in the Party Line, now? I would suggest that this is reminiscent of Nazi philosophy, but I've been frightened away from that sort of extremism by the power of "Godwin's Law".
Here's the bottom line: The Obama administration MIGHT prosecute citizens who believe in the First Amendment, the right to speak your mind regardless of the official "Party Line".
When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
She took them at their word, assumed "Liberal" meant that the college was willing to accept "liberal" view points.
And now they threaten her with either revocation of her tenure, or with a coldly dismissive of removal from her academic position.
Why do I distrust Liberals? Because they lie.
A professor at a Chicago-area Christian college said Wednesday that administrators were wrong in taking steps to fire her after she asserted that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.
Larycia Hawkins told reporters she met with Wheaton College administrators several times and provided statements explaining her beliefs, which she believes are line up with the college's mission. She said she was initially told further discussion wasn't needed but college officials then changed requirements, saying her tenure would be revoked while she would have to participate in two years of conversations.
Why would this even be an issue at a "Liberal Arts" College?
Wheaton College - Google Search: Wheaton College Liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois Wheaton College is a private American four-year Evangelical Protestant Christian liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb 25 miles west of Chicago. The college was founded by abolitionists in 1860. Wikipedia
Oh. I see it now. "Evangelical Protestant Christian" and "Liberal Arts" are terms challenged by this situation, and the whole "LIBERAL" thing loses.
Big time.
Me? I'm a Conservative ... and judging by the implied definition of the word "LIBERAL", there's not a Liberal bone in my body. Still .....
If you haven't already seen it, it's worth reading
The issue that should be of interest to all readers here is that religious, speech and firearms freedoms are being blamed for the evil actions of a defective individual, one who appears incapable of living freely among his fellow human beings. And further restrictions on those who do not share those defects will solve nothing, except to make it harder for good people to defend themselves against bad ones.
According to reports put out by a pool of White House travel reporters, Obama's motorcade traveled from the local airport to Roseburg High School where he met with families of the deceased. The ride took about 10-15 minutes and he got to the school around 12:45 p.m. There were several hundred people clustered outside the gate to the airport and in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot. Many of the people were snapping photos with their phones. But others carried signs at this location similar to those lining the highway. About half of the people stationed at this location welcomed Obama to the town. "The other half were negative or seemed to be protesting his calls action to tighten the nation's gun laws," the pool report said. Some of the signs visible from the motorcade: "Please leave us in peace" "Welcome to Roseburg." "We support our Sheriff" "WELCOME" "Gun Free Zones are for sitting ducks" "Obama is wrong" "Nothing Trumps our Liberty" "UCC Strong" for Umqua Community College.
It took me almost three weeks to decide that I needed to reply to this "news article" / Opinion Piece.
I'm still not sure I can do it justice, nor that I can add anything new to the dialogue.
But I feel I ought to try.
Here's the crux of the story:
It took only seconds for Facebook and other social media sites to begin their talk about gun control and most of the consensus was that more people need to carry so that these senseless murders can stop. First, there is no way that any one of the three innocent victims would have had time to pull a weapon to prevent what happened. One second they were interviewing a woman and the next second there were shots and screams and two people were dead. The shooter even recorded the murders and posted them online before being identified and pursued until he shot himself. I will never understand these arguments about how carrying weapons can prevent these quick and senseless blasts at innocent victims. The shooters clearly have no respect for any human life, including their own. They rarely do.
Typical liberal bullshit.
You posit that "We need to do something about the NRA", but you not only do not define the 'problem', you fail to posit a solution. What a retard!
I don't care for spectator sports. If I can't play, I am not interested.
I do compete in IPSC/USPSA matches ... not well, but it has been my personal 'work-out' activity for over 30 years.
And I've been conducting Safety (and 'rules of competition') classes for the past years. One of the reasons I volunteer my time to present this class is because I want my Sport Of Choice to continue that promise ... that IPSC is, and shall continue to be, safer than High School football.
This headline might have been: Young Men Convinced Of The Righteousness Of Their Actions Blindside a Hated Enemy: HOW Are They Different From The 911 Attackers? Not in the Quality of their actions; only in Quantity and Degree of the effects of their actions.
I honestly don't believe that the young men who perpetrated this 'sneak attack' understand just how much they have betrayed the lessons which their elders have tried to teach them.
Football players are suppose to be aggressive .. which is one reason why it doesn't interest me.
But this ... THIS ... is quite beyond the pale (as our English friends would say it).
I'm not ready to blame the Coach, or the Referees, but I am prepared to blame the people who hit the ref. (Two hit him, but another was READY to hit, and arrived 'too late'. That may have saved his future, as he will perhaps not be tarred with this same brush..)
BADMOUTH THE PLAYERS?
The latest reports indicate that the football official may (or may not) have "... used a racial slur before (and) after the incident". [More VIDEO, and DISCUSSION] (Doubtful; such folks are not usually allowed to supervise school sports .. at least, not for long. But W don't know.)
Apparently, team members other than those who were directly involved in the attack were witness to those 'racial slurs'. Without further information, it's not only impossible but unfair to judge.
Except for this one thing: even if these allegations are true, then the "incident" has NOT acquired some kind of societal "justification"; it exacerbates the gravity of these young men.
1st Amendment: Is "Unpopular Speech" now justification for brutality? Is this a Constitutional Question?
These young menboys have therefore demonstrated that if someone says something to you that you don't like, it justifies a brutal response.
Is that what we're teaching our children in America today?
