The Inquisition, What a Show!

Not to make light of the situation with the infamous "Inquisition" song and dance from Mel Brook's "History of the World : Part 1", but Iran is set to execute a Christian pastor for the crime of apostasy, i.e., preaching. He has refused to convert to Islam already three times, and hundreds of people have been arrested in just the last two years for their religious beliefs.

It isn't religion that results in the persecution of people with different beliefs, it is people in governments. This was true when the Catholic church did it, and remains true today when people use religion to persecute others through the hand of the Iranian state.

I Love Free Speech

One of the people in my neighborhood has seen fit to put up a series of signs criticizing President Obama. New Orleans is not known for its conservative bent with the city being largely made up of blacks who vote strongly Democrat and white students and artists, who vote Communist with Brad Pitt. If you read the story closely, you'll note that no one seemed bothered by these until a local radio station had a show on it, and then the "offended" people had to actively seek out the signs to be offended by them. Then, all of a sudden it was such an offense (despite apparently having been up for many months previously)that protesters showed up, that former Mayor Ray Nagin (and here I thought he had taken his "chocolate city" campaign to Dallas, hell, he didn't even come down for Katrina) and Councilwoman Susan Guidry (a former community activist) had to show up to talk to the homeowner. Notice how she basically says she's going to look for any excuse to find them illegal and then weakly modifies it with "of course we have to balance that with First Amendment rights." Clearly, Mrs. Guidry feels that city zoning ordinances trump free speech concerns. Yet these vital ordinances didn't seem to be a problem until a radio show Wednesday morning.

What you see is the essence of modern liberalism: political correctness over individual freedom. Group rights over individual rights. Silencing the dissent. President Obama has done it from day one, starting with his 2008 campaign's "Fight the Smears" to the "flag" e-mail site to the new "Attack Watch" web campaigns.

The Only Law That Matters in Washington, D.C.

There is only one law that is consistently both obeyed and uniformly applied in Washington, D.C., that is that law of unintended consequences. The Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill, which was supposedly designed to prevent banks from doing something or other and protect consumers from overcharges has resulted in what every sane person knew it would result in, consumers having to pay more for banking. Bank of America is the latest bank to roll out a debit card fee, charging customers $5.00 per month because, under Dodd-Frank, they can no longer charge the fees they usually put on the merchants.

I'll be sending my bill to Congressman Barney Frank (D. Mass.).

My Man Crush on Herman Cain is Being Validated

It appears I am not the only one with an affinity for Herman Cain anymore. After a huge suprise win in the Florida straw poll, Mr. Cain has surged into the top three of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. I'm not 100% that he will be the candidate, but my bet right now is that neither Mitt Romney nor Rick Perry will take it.

As is Often the Case

After a relatively busy July of bitching, I mean blogging, August and September have been moments of repose for me (the same thing happened last year if you look at the number of posts per month). But, after recovering from my period of slumber, it is time to regroup, and push onward and upward (I have no idea what that means) and get back to doing what I do best, spending tons of time on something I don't get paid for. Up next, the Republican debates of Thursday night.

Attack Watch Attacked by People Watching Presidency

AttackWatch.com is the great new website where, if you hear your neighbor say mean things about our Lord and Savior Barack Obama, you can go to the website and report their horrific sin against him.

I'm not sure who signed off on this idea during a reelection campaign. Somewhere sitting around a table, some guy must have been coming down from a crack high and when asked "what's our target audience" responded, we need to reach people who vote for juvenile high schoolers with a vindictive streak. The site particularly names Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Glenn Beck as the attackers. Seriously, they are targeting a radio personality with an internet TV channel. People ridiculed President Nixon and his "enemies list". President Obama is advertising his list.

The laughable idiots who put the site together cites Media Matters and thinkprogress.org, both George Soros far left organizations, to support its contentions of untruthful attacks (I rarely see truth on mediamatters.com). It then moves on to attack Rick Perry's assertion that no jobs were created by the stimulus program (which is admittedly not true on its face, the question is about the efficiency of such jobs) citing Politifact for the proposition that the $800 billion stimulus bill "created or saved" 1.3 to 3.6 million jobs (not sure how to measure a saved job). Even taking the generous 3.6 million figure, at $800 billion that's $222,222.22 per job created (which is incidentally above that magical "you're too rich to keep your deductions and we need to tax you at a higher rate" Obama wealth line. Well played, sir.

In the spirit of cooperation, I have turned myself in to the AttackWatch site. I sent them a link to this blog and put my name as the sole contributor. I'm not alone in this, as it seems that more conservatives than not have posted to the site and its associated Twitter feed.

It's About Time Someone Took a Stand Against Charity

As part of President Obama's laughable "Jobs Plan" (pass it now! don't read it! don't debate in it! don't engage in democracy!) that is really just Son of Stimulus he has proposed eliminating some tax breaks, including those for charitable donations for people making more than $200,000.00 per year. Because charities get the bulk of their money from the homeless and welfare recipients (they sure don't seem to get it from Democrats), this should have no effect at all on charitable giving. Keep in mind, this isn't the first time President Obama targeted tax deductions for charitable donations. He's been beating that drum since the Health Care bill.

Modern statists (I'm really trying to get away from calling them liberals, because it is so far away from what they truly are) don't believe that individuals can give appropriately to charity. They believe the state is the modern church, with police power to enforce a tithe of their choosing, and is the best, and indeed only, way to get the unenlightened masses to send their money to others in society and the world.