Oh the Irony!!

Comedy Central’s Rally to Restore Sanity is prohibiting filming on Federal property. Read the email exchange in that article. It is instructive.

The question is why? I can think of a couple of reasons.

1) Comedy Central wants to tightly control media content for marketing reasons. If that’s the case do this on private property.

2) Comedy Central wants to control the messaging. With all the claims made by the left about Tea Party rallies they are probably terrified of independent video being shot. You get a crowd of progressives together and you will surely have a nice collection of crackpots and goofballs to video.

I wonder if they will leave things as clean as the Tea Party folks?

Somebody Hurt My Feelings

The NPR firing of Juan Williams and the ridiculous complaint against a Michigan resident seeking a Christian roommate are blatant examples of the extreme levels of foolishness that we have risen to in this country. We have truly lost our sense of national character (along with our minds).

We were a nation founded on the express rights of the individual that were combined with a sense of cultural responsibility. Now we are a nation pushing toward a collective mentality combined with a cultural selfishness. Saying we, I do actually mean they. They being the purveyors of the asinine liberal/progressive agenda.

One of the key beliefs of this movement is that nobody should ever be offended — with the possible exception of Christians and white males. Juan Williams told Bill O’Reilly, “Look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.” Now, I actually don’t share those feelings, but I wonder why someone would actually have those kind of feelings about Muslims?

Maybe this has something to do with it:

But that’s not really the point. The point is that we have been so indoctrinated to the concept of offense that we go to ridiculous means to keep from hurting someone’s feelings. The lady in Michigan wanted a Christian roommate and some knucklehead gets offended and reports her? Should a Jewish person have to rent to a card carrying member of the Aryan Brotherhood? How about an atheist and Christian? Would it be discrimination if a pretty young girl did not want to rent to some creepy, middle-aged guy? Maybe I shouldn’t have put pretty in there? That might hurt someone’s feelings. Juan Williams simply expressed his feelings and was canned. I thought we all loved “feelings.”

What get’s lost in all this is the chilling effect that all this has on free speech. CAIR has made a living running around looking for offense. We are already seeing the outcome of “hate speech” laws in Western Europe and Canada. We have become a bunch of wimps because we have let the wimps control the debate. Free speech means that people will say things that will annoy you or make you angry or (shudder) hurt your feelings.

Historically those who are most afraid of certain worldviews feel that way because that worldview is an actual threat. Christianity has been outlawed in Muslim and Communist countries for a reason. It is a threat to the status quo. Communists, Muslims and totalitarians of all stripes hold people in line through violence, threat and coercion. Christianity prospers in the realm of ideas. Maybe that’s why liberals and progressives do their best to make sure we keep our beliefs quiet. The founding principles of the United States are powerful, but they are contrary to the progressive’s idolatry of government.

We used to believe the mantra, “I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend your right to say it.” Unfortunately, the left (with some exceptions) does not prescribe to this belief anymore. A whole lot of conservatives have also been silenced due to this kind of attitude. You can’t have real dialogue unless you are willing to take a hard and fair look at all sides of the issues.

Someone Please Stop the Insanity

A 31 year old Michigan woman has been cited by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights because she posted a note on her church bulletin board that she was looking for a Christian roommate to share her home.

This is what we get when liberals/progressives run things — stupidity at epic levels.

Why the Hate?

This last week saw a whole new round of Tea Parties that remained as civil as ever. Civil, being a relative term to Prolibama (progressive, liberal, Obama types) supporters of course. While perusing message boards i see the hatred rages on. The rhetoric remains pretty much the same. The tea baggers are racist. The tea baggers are morons. The tea baggers are violent. The movement is not really grass roots but the product of an efficient right-wing propaganda machine. Blah, blah, blah. Bill Clinton is warning about the dangers of inflammatory speech. Obama is trying the “pretend they don’t matter” approach. Some left wingers are trying to infiltrate the movement with fake signs to make them look bad.

And yet, the Tea Party movement soldiers on. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to question the anger at the Tea Parties from the left. The Tea Parties are primarily about fiscal responsibility and constitutionally limited government. I know much of the vitriol from the left is a knee-jerk support for Obama and a response to the challenge the Tea Parties raise to his foolishness. But you have to question what the Prolibama movement is all about.

The opposite of fiscal responsibility is fiscal irresponsibility. In Congress we have a bunch of elected representatives who seem to be hell-bent on spending us into the ground. The fiction that recent health care legislation is going to save us money ranks right up there with such classics as “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” Just because someone wrote it or said it doesn’t make it the truth. The GOP was bad enough when they were in power but the democrats spend like Paris Hilton on steroids. The question is why? The fundamental answer lies in their view of government. The progressive view is that government does have the answers and is a force for good. The problem is that there is little historical evidence to back that up. Governments may do some good things but they always come with a lot of bad things attached.

Constitutionally limited government sounds like a good thing to me, but not to a progressive. Where I view the Constitution as protection against government grabs for power, (that invariably come at a cost of lessened personal liberty) progressives view the Constitution as a ball and chain around the old agenda. Their view seems to be use it when you can, change what it says when needed and ignore it when all else fails — amazing how the left can find magical protections in the Constitution when it suits them, but can’t make heads or tails out of that darned Second Amendment.

My fear is that, unfortunately, much of the Prolibama movement revolves around the ignorance of the people. Worse, possibly, is that the Prolibama movement appeals strictly to selfishness. Get me my check. Pay my way. Take care of me.
We seem to have whole collection of voters that vote, not for the good of the country, but strictly out of personal interest.

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

That quotes has been attributed to a variety of folks, including Ben Franklin. It doesn’t really matter who said it. It’s a pretty profound saying. sadly, we seem to be there now.