LEE RODGERSASK
NOT FOR WHOM THE BELL
TOLLS …
PERSONAL DEBT. VS. GOV'T DEBT …
ISLAM'S SELF-HATRED
PERSONAL DEBT. VS. GOV'T DEBT …
ISLAM'S SELF-HATRED
Bottom-line reality: If a U.S. government can violate your rights under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by forcing you to give up your gun, there is nothing it cannot force you to do, constitutional protections or not. Even if you do not value Second Amendment rights, other constitutional rights that you do value would be even more easily trampled by a power-crazed executive branch.
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Think about it. Hysterical liberals are so wacky, they evidently believe that criminals pay the membership fee and actually join … the National Rifle Association!
See if you can conjure up a mental picture of street thugs of, say, the sort who murdered over 500 people in rigid gun-control Chicago last year attending a meeting of the NRA and discussing the principles implicit in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Now: Is that picture absurd, or what?
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Only reluctantly do I resort to one of the political left's favorite catch-phrases, but confronted by a Democrat administration with a clear proclivity for dictatorship and contempt for the constitution, I would suggest an attack on the Second Amendment must be defeated (here it comes) BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
By the way, this bogus, straw-man argument they advance that Second Amendment gun rights were intended only for hunting is absurd.
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
See anything there that refers to hunting? “Necessary to the security of a free state*” has been interpreted by the founders, their successors and the courts to include the right to defend against tyranny, both from without and within. It is the latter that scares hell out of would-be dictators contemplating an armed citizenry.
It is heartening that sheriffs and groups of sheriffs across the country have stated flat-out: “We will NOT enforce any laws that seek to undermine or evade the Second Amendment.”
*-”State” in this context does not mean, Iowa, Nevada, Florida, etc.; it refers to the nation as a whole. It is as the term generally is used around the world.
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Obama demands the authority to borrow unlimited amounts of money, much of it from foreign countries, starting with China, while Democrat hyenas howl their approval.
Here is a simile so obvious even the dumbest liberal should be able to follow it.
Our national debt is now greater than the total value of all products and services created each year in our economy – the Gross National Product.
What do you think would happen if you went to a bank – any bank – and said, “I owe more already than I make in an entire year, and I want to borrow some more money.” You know what the response would be.
“But,” you might add, “The money I owe is for car payments and the mortgage on my house.”
In short, secured loans. If you don't repay them, the bank takes the car or house.
However, a nation that doesn't repay its debts can hardly be repossessed, short of war. Which is why, at some point, lenders both foreign and domestic are going to be reluctant to loan money to a bad risk unless they receive an exorbitant interest rate – if even then. The next step is social chaos, complete with mobs rioting in the streets, looting, etc., etc. Look at Greece, the most vivid current example, with others close behind.
That is where the road we are following leads. Think it can't happen here? You haven't studied enough history.
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Michael Goodwin (New York Post) surveys the political rule-brook as it's been rewritten …
“She came, she cried, she conquered, proving it will take more than a lethal terror attack on her watch to sink the unsinkable Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Clinton sailed triumphantly through Congress last week on her way out the State Department door, shredding expectations she would face a tough grilling.
“No longer a test of performance and results, the political game now is about building a following based on race, gender and other identity markers that are immune to traditional standards of accountability.
“Barack Obama wins re-election with one of the more dismal Oval Office records in memory, and Clinton is hailed as a great secretary of state without actually having done anything great.
“Obama belongs on Mount Rushmore. If you don’t agree, you’re a racist.
“Clinton was a brilliant diplomat. If you don’t agree, you’re a sexist.”
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I'm not George Will's biggest fan, but give him credit for the best line of the new week. Discussing Obama's out-of-control spending on ABC's “This Week” yesterday: "A dollar spent on A cannot be spent on B...This is our future. We're going to be an assisted living home with an Army. That's going to be the American government."
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The erudite Victor Davis Hanson looks to root causes of the great plague of today's world ...
"Why exactly does radical Islam hate us? Mostly because of the age-old wages of insecurity, envy, and a sense of inferiority.
"In a globalized world, Muslims see daily that everyone from South Koreans to North Americans are better off. Why? In their view, not because of market economies, meritocracies, gender equality, religious pluralism, consensual government, and the Western menu of personal freedom. To draw that conclusion would mean to reject tribalism, gender apartheid, religious intolerance, anti-Semitism, statism, authoritarianism, and conspiracy theory — and to admit indigenous rather than foreign causation.
"Instead, it is far easier to blame “them” for turning the majestic Islamic empire of old into the chaos of modern Islam — as well as to fault Arab secularists whose lack of religious zealotry allowed the West to move ahead." -- (PJ Media)
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“The liberal media's handling of any conservative political organization is a four-phase process. It begins by ignoring them, and if you can make them go away that way, you're done. If that doesn't work, then you go to phase two, which is to ridicule them. And if that doesn't work, you go to phase three, which is try to destroy them. And if that doesn't work, then you're at phase four, where you have to accept the reality that they're there." – Brent Bozell, Media Research Center
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Burt Prelutsky targets enviro-nuts with this pithy observation ...
"Why do Obama and the flakier environmentalists oppose oil derricks, but promote windmills? Oil is not only a far better and more reliable source of energy than wind, but they don’t massacre birds by the thousands. When there’s an occasional oil spill and it gets goo on seagulls, these people become as crazed as the loons at PETA; but when windmills mutilate even protected classes of birds, such as eagles, you don’t hear a peep out of them."
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I was in Palm Springs, California, briefly in November. Even being aware of the distressed economy in the (former) “Golden State,” I was taken aback at the number of closed businesses – vacant shops and restaurants.
Northern California friends who vacation regularly in Palm Springs and visited there just before the holidays report business continues to worsen, with more stores closed, hotels with an abundance of empty rooms and dining establishments in dire straits. This in peak tourist season.
Another friend who's had a thriving business in Chicago for decades just sold it at a distressed price because with ever-increasing taxes and regulatory burdens – just like California – he could no longer operate it at a profit; just gave up and sold out.
Does anyone expect leftist loonies like Jerry Brown and (Chicago mayor) Rahm Emanuel to learn anything from this? Of course not.
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The NFL Pro Bowl is a farce. And no, I didn't watch it. It's such an embarrassment to the NFL, word is that last night's game may have been the last. A good wager is that most of the occupied seats – and there were acres of empty ones – were filled by low-level employees of big local companies that poured sponsor dollars into staging that glorified exercise in touch football … and gave away the tickets.
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One observation about all those items on the internet that begin with, "This says it all."
Some are amusing, some are perceptive, some are silly. None "says it all."
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Argus Hamilton with automotive news ...
" It'll kill the sale of Corvettes if penile enlargement surgery is made available to all licensed drivers."
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Okay, I admit it. We're long overdue for a blonde joke …
A woman phoned her blonde neighbor and said: "Close your curtains the next time you & your husband are having sex. The whole street was watching and laughing at you yesterday."
To which the blonde replied: "Well the joke's on all of you because I wasn't even at home yesterday!"
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."