Anti-Bullying Bill Could Jail People Who Criticize Politicians

Reason.com   "School’s out for summer and Nanny of the Month is taking the opportunity to salute the zealots within the otherwise laudable anti-bullying movement. They take a real problem--few things are more loathsome than picking on the vulnerable--and bungle the response, as has been done with most every “get tough!” effort from D.A.R.E., the failed anti-drug program, to all the idiotic iterations of the “zero tolerance” fad."



Hat tip to Thomas Anderson, formerly of the 82nd Airborne Division

"Not only did this month’s top nanny introduce a bill that would criminalize speech deemed to be bullying--up to a year in the clink!--she introduced a bill that, according to UCLA First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh, is not limited to speech about children (despite it being touted with the typical “for the children!” justifications). Volokh notes that the bill, if passed, could punish harsh speech directed at journalists, academics, celebrities, politicians, and the like, if the speech results in “substantial emotional distress.”

 

"Presenting the Nanny of the Month for June 2013: New Mexico State Rep. Mary Helen Garcia!"

 

The Slow Death of Free Speech

A small language advisory here.

Mark Steyn   "These days, pretty much every story is really the same story:

• In Galway, at the National University of Ireland, a speaker who attempts to argue against the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) programme against Israel is shouted down with cries of ‘Fucking Zionist, fucking pricks… Get the fuck off our campus.’
• In California, Mozilla’s chief executive is forced to resign because he once made a political donation in support of the pre-revisionist definition of marriage.
• At Westminster, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee declares that the BBC should seek ‘special clearance’ before it interviews climate sceptics, such as fringe wacko extremists like former Chancellor Nigel Lawson.
• In Massachusetts, Brandeis University withdraws its offer of an honorary degree to a black feminist atheist human rights campaigner from Somalia.
• In London, a multitude of liberal journalists and artists responsible for everything from Monty Python to Downton Abbey sign an open letter in favour of the first state restraints on the British press in three and a quarter centuries. 
• 

Universities are no longer institutions of inquiry but ‘safe spaces’ where delicate flowers of diversity of race, sex, orientation, ‘gender fluidity’ and everything else except diversity of thought have to be protected from exposure to any unsafe ideas.

"As it happens, the biggest ‘safe space’ on the planet is the Muslim world." ...

Megyn Kelly exposes Obama’s embarrassing hypocrisy on something he did today…

The Right Scoop
"Today Obama signed Ted Cruz’s bill that banned Iran’s terrorist UN Ambassador from coming into the United States, a bill that passed the Senate and the House without a single nay vote. But Obama apparently also issued a signing statement to the new law that said he would take the legislation as guidance, suggesting he may not enforce it.

"She talks to J. Christopher Adams about it and plays some footage of Obama that Adams called ‘embarrassingly hypocritical’."

Kelley then showed this video: Obama on Presidential Signing Statements

Sen. Ted Cruz: A bipartisan message to Iran 

...This bill is a first step toward making it equally clear to Iran’s leaders that if they wish to enter into better relations with us, they should at the very least stop doing things like nominating one of the 1979 hostage takers to be their representative at the U.N...

Good Friday and Easter: Walk Jesus's Steps Through Via Dolorosa From Your PC

Yahoo Business

 

"As Christians around the world prepare themselves for Easter, here's an opportunity for people to retrace the steps of Jesus as he walked through Via Dolorosa. It happens to be a street in the Old City of Jerusalem, through which Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion.

"The route from the Antonia Fortress west of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which happens to be a distance of about 600 metres, has been a famous and celebrated place of Christian pilgrimage for a long time now.

"How to Explore Via Dolorosa Via PC

"Thanks to Google's Street View technology, this most painful path, also called the 'Way of Sorrows' or 'Way of Suffering,' can be explored fully. Click here to explore the path from your PC.

"After you're done walking along the Via Dolorosa, Google's technology also allows you to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, visit the Western Wall and the Mount of Olives.

"Apart from all this, Google also says that users "can explore the narrow streets of Jerusalem's Old City and each of its four quarters, walk along the Via Dolorosa and see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, visit the Western Wall and the Mount of Olives. You can stop by the Biblical Zoo, then visit the Israel Museum and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum — and explore more with the Art Project and the Yad Vashem photo archive. Or you can stroll through Tel Aviv's bohemian Neve Tzedek neighbourhood and the ancient port of Jaffa, and take a virtual trip to some of Tel Aviv's scenic beaches or to Haifa's Baha'i Gardens."

This cartoonist thinks Putin doesn't look so bad by comparison

From NRO:The import of rancher Bundy vs. the Obama administration

The Problem with Cliven Bundy; "His plight is sympathetic; his actions are indefensible."

Could this not have been said about the original Tea Party as well? What of the lawlessness of the "Occupy" movement? Their actions were indefensible as well, were they not? Had the ranchers been Democrats opposing actions of a Republican administration, you can be sure that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would have rallied to their support. Can you convince us otherwise?  Anyway; here are excerpts from the article:

... "Forged in revolution, informed by soaring sentiment, and defined by acts of variously prudent dissidence, Americans of all sorts fancy themselves to be fighting the good fight. Judging by the rapturous reception that he has received from conservatives of late, Cliven Bundy is one of these sorts, and protests such as his, it seems, are how the West was won. After a longtime dispute with the federal government, the rebellious cattle rancher has forced the government to back down. Hooray?"
....
"These grievances serve as an indictment of the regulatory state, yes. But they do not serve as an executioner for our ailing rule of law. If Cliven Bundy’s behavior is legitimized by the gravity of his circumstances, how many others may follow suit, singing his name as they go?"...  By Charles C. W. Cooke at NRO

Bindy: He’s an unapologetic freeloader, but the BLM and the feds are appallingly bad landlords.    ..."Testing Bundy’s claim is simple. If he has a right to do what he is doing on public land to which he does not have title, then so should you and I. What would happen if a hundred other people each put a hundred head of cattle on the same property? The grass would run out; every animal would, eventually, starve.

"This “tragedy of the commons” — the depletion of resources that occurs when ranching, farming, timbering, or drilling happen on the same public land without a means to restrict and compensate for that access — is something that grazing rules on BLM property are meant to address. And it works pretty well. Most ranchers who lease BLM land pay a per-head fee (this year, $1.35 per animal unit month) and live a life with no armed standoffs."...

....  There is a "however" coming:
"Sadly, buried in the fine print of these bureaucratic tomes are real inhibitions to making productive use of the federal estate. Most recently, the BLM has put the brakes on oil-and-gas drilling in the energy-rich West due to the possibility that it might disturb the breeding habitat of the greater sage grouse, which is just the latest in a long list of species used as an excuse to stymie America’s nominal commitment to energy independence. Then there are bars on developing wind energy (also a bird thing) and solar energy (a tortoise thing); unrealistic mandates to put electric transmission lines underground; and the perennial threat that a bureaucrat in Washington will one day wake up and, in a sweeping vision, decree that cows are out and wild bison are in..."

 

Armed federal agents defend turtle habitat but fail to secure our national borders.     ... "Cliven Bundy’s cattle are treated as trespassers, and federal agents have been dispatched to rectify that trespass; at the same time, millions of illegal aliens present within our borders are treated as an inevitability that must be accommodated."

 

John Fund: The United States of SWAT?  "Military-style units from government agencies are wreaking havoc on non-violent citizens."
...

 

... "But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies — not to mention local police forces."...

 

Plus this one from earlier:
Alan Caruba: Declaring War on Americans  
One has to appreciate this well-balanced look at the incident that just transpired between the Nevada rancher and the forces of this government. TD
" 'If the U.S. didn’t own most of Nevada, Bundy would not need to pay grazing fees. Most certainly, his ancestors didn’t. The other excuse, that the government is trying to protect an endangered tortoise, is just part of the environmental movement’s efforts to keep energy sources from being available to all of us. Endangered species is pure fiction.' "

Progressive Insurance; The right ideological credentials mean never having to say you’re sorry

  Victor Davis Hanson 

 "How do you ensure that you won’t be ostracized, denounced, or fired if you are a media celebrity, captain of industry, or high public official?

"For some, sexist banter is certainly no problem. Stand-up comedian Bill Maher called Sarah Palin a c–t and a tw-t, but suffered no ill consequences. David Letterman joked on air that Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old daughter had had sex with Alex Rodriguez during a New York Yankees game. There was no downside to that either. President Obama tosses around “sweetie” as he wishes. No problem with that. No one believes Barack could be condescending to women.

"It is not just that sloppy speech can, with the right ideological insurance, become irrelevant. Inconvenient truths can be insured against too. Barack Obama’s female staffers make far less than do their male counterparts, at least by the quirky sort of standards that the president himself applies to others to win petty victories in his vaunted war against the war against women. Bill Clinton had sexual relations with a young staffer, in what feminists would call a classic exploitative situation of disparate power. Most such bosses would be fired for hitting on their young assistants. If Woody Allen were not insured as a left-wing filmmaker, he would have been ostracized out of Hollywood.
...
"Is being rich, then, a class liability? That too depends on whether you bought progressive insurance. If you are a Silicon Valley billionaire who is loudly cool, hip, and left-wing, then offshoring and outsourcing is OK. No one worries that George Soros is a European pariah speculator who was convicted of insider trading in France in 2005, or that the fully insured Steyer brothers seek to trump the Koch model of giving millions to pet political causes."

http://comicallyincorrect.com/2014/04/08/george-soros-democrat/

Krauthammer: The Zealots Win Again; When full disclosure becomes a cudgel, free expression is suppressed.

Charles Krauthammer

 

... "Open the floodgates, and let the monies, big and small, check and balance each other. And let transparency be the safeguard against corruption. As long as you know who is giving what to whom, you can look for, find, and, if necessary, prosecute corrupt connections between donor and receiver.

"This used to be my position. No longer. I had not foreseen how donor lists would be used not to ferret out corruption but to pursue and persecute citizens with contrary views. Which corrupts the very idea of full disclosure."
....
"Open the floodgates, and let the monies, big and small, check and balance each other. And let transparency be the safeguard against corruption. As long as you know who is giving what to whom, you can look for, find, and, if necessary, prosecute corrupt connections between donor and receiver.
This used to be my position. No longer. I had not foreseen how donor lists would be used not to ferret out corruption but to pursue and persecute citizens with contrary views. Which corrupts the very idea of full disclosure."

The End of the 'Wrong Side of History'

Middle East Forum  "President Barack Obama, in criticizing Russian leader Vladimir Putin's conquest of the Crimean Peninsula, described Putin as standing "on the wrong side of history." This curious and arresting phrase has become a frequent cliché among western liberals.
...
"The unspoken assumption behind all this, of course, is that being on the right side of history also means accepting the unmatched dominance of the U.S. in global affairs, and in turn the unchallengeable domination of the U.S. by people supporting the particular progressive world view of the president and his supporters.
"That is, Obama and his supporters use the word "history" to refer to themselves.
....
"The problem with all this is that in the last five years, many players on the world stage have learned that if "history" and "Obama" are synonyms, being on the wrong side of Obama is a not particularly uncomfortable or worrying place to be. So the threat of it has rather less impact than the president might hope or assume."
Emphasis mine, TD

Would Stephen Colbert Get CBS Late Night Gig If He Did This to Muslims?

Debbie Schlussel  "If Stephen Colbert attacked Muslims the way he’s mocked Jews and Christians, do you think he’d have gotten the CBS late night gig? Think again. He’s rarely mocked Muslims, if ever. But he regularly attacks Jews and Christians. And here’s just a sample of something he does that Muslims would never tolerate, nor would CBS if it were about Muslims:

 

"Every year, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert sets up a 1-888-OOPS-JEW hotline to give Jews an opportunity to apologize to him in the 10 days of repentance between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Mr. Colbert mispronounces the Jewish holy days, blows the “dead ram” Shofar and brings out his atonement phone. “Oh children of Israel, once again I look forward to your apologies to me. To quote your Jewish Pope Moses—’revenge is a dish best served kosher,’” he says."

....

"...  moderate ABC Family pilot about Muslims who kidnap their relative to Saudi Arabia was immediately canceled. But bigotry against Jews and Christians by Colbert is acceptable. And it will be acceptable at CBS. I won’t be watching."  Full article

WW II B17 Survival Story

Garfield's Last Stand   "B-17 in 1943 A mid-air collision on February 1, 1943, between a B-17 and a German fighter over the Tunis dock area, became the subject of one of the most famous photographs of World War II."
...

"An enemy fighter attacking a 97th Bomb Group formation went out of control, probably with a wounded pilot then continued its crashing descent into the rear of the fuselage of a Fortress named All American, piloted by Lt. Kendrick R. Bragg, of the 414th Bomb Squadron.

When it struck, the fighter broke apart, but left some pieces in the B-17." ... 

 

Full article and photos here.  Hat tip to Harley Standlee; Placerville, Ca

This was also posted at Democratic Underground, a site hostile to private enterprise, wealthy people and pretty much any entity that makes our economy prosperous. As you may find to no surprise, they introduced this article with this remark: 

I am pretty sure the govt built this plane and not rich dudes pursuing the latest deferrment scams for themselves and their children.

The history-challenged writer of the article seems not to be aware it was American industry that became the Arsenal of Democracy, supporting our allies against the Nazi war machine. When the government needs an impossible job done, they go to private enterprise.
This is NOT my father's Democrat Party.

Alan Caruba: Declaring War on Americans

One has to appreciate this well-balanced look at the incident that just transpired between the Nevada rancher and the forces of this government.

Warning Signs

 

 ... "Bundy should have paid his grazing rights fees. Other ranchers do. What he has done, however, is bring greater awareness the amount of land that the federal government owns in Nevada and elsewhere, particularly west of the Mississippi, and expose a regime that wants to intimidate Americans with force." ...
...
"If the U.S. didn’t own most of Nevada, Bundy would not need to pay grazing fees. Most certainly, his ancestors didn’t. The other excuse, that the government is trying to protect an endangered tortoise, is just part of the environmental movement’s efforts to keep energy sources from being available to all of us. Endangered species is pure fiction."