Archive for the ‘Society’ Category
Un-Ed-ucated
MSNBC commentator Ed Schultz (whom I have never heard of previously) took to insulting Americans opposed to Obama’s socialist healthcare policy (video here).
ED SCHULTZ: Oh, there’s a lot going on. Tonight: it’s an uprising! Angry old white folks are storming into town halls all across the country spewing lies about health care reform. Let me set the record straight early on: these folks, I think, they’re dumber than Joe the Plumber.
. . .SCHULTZ: Mr. President, you have the people behind you. I’ve done enough of these [town halls] to know that there’s a fraction of Americans out there who are, you know, the old right wing, they’re playing on the old, angry white uneducated misinformed Americans to go out there and carry the torch in the Republican party right now. To shake it up to defeat. That’s why they use “failure.” This is how they’re trying to generate it!
We must be pretty effective if they are attacking us in this manner.
Can you imagine the fallout if Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck talked about liberal protesters (think ACORN) in this manner? Networks would be apologizing, pressure would be put on advertisers to pull from the shows (and a few always seem to), and in Rush’s case, Congress would get involved.
If a Fox News host said that “poor angry black folks with ACORN are once again using mob-style tactics and spewing their lies…” the program would end right there, and so would the career of the host. There might be race riots. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that it would be the end of Fox thanks to government action. But this Schultz clown gets away with insulting people who exercise their constitutional right to assemble peaceably?
Specifically what “lies” are we “old, angry white uneducated misinformed Americans” spewing, Schultz? Always attacking the messenger, but never the message.
In: Media, Society · Tagged with: media bias, MSNBC
Defending our principles in the 1920s
In a speech commemorating the 150th anniversary of our nation’s founding, president Calvin Coolidge defended our founding principles against progressives who challenged the wisdom of the founders:
“It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.”
In: Society · Tagged with: conservatism
Radio host Michael Savage banned from UK
Britain Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has attacked free speech again. This time, Smith banned U.S. talk show host Michael Savage and 15 others for “fomenting hatred”. Smith decided to release the list of people banned by the British government since October from entering the country.
In her defense, she has banned some notable bad guys, including Samir Kuntar – the now-released Hezbollah child murderer, also banned were a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, a neo-nazi, and a HAMAS MP. Madeleine Gruen has more on the banned at the Counterterrorism Blog.
But this comes from the same Home Secretary who banned Dutch PM Geert Wilders for releasing the film Fitna the same time as she allowed the editor of Hezbollah’s newspaper to conduct a national speaking tour. Not exactly what I would call consistent.
“I think it’s important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it’s a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won’t be welcome in this country,” Smith told GMTV in an interview.
Exactly what values and standards did Savage violate? Understandably the KKK and HAMAS have extreme views, but what are Savage’s? I listen to Savage from time to time, and trust me – if there was hatred fomented, I would not waste my time.
In: Politics, Religion, Society · Tagged with: free speech, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islam, Jacqui Smith, KKK, Michael Savage, UK
Latest CRC Open Sources Intel Brief
I am now contributing at Family Security Matters’ Counterterrorism Research Center. Here’s the latest entry:
GAZA: HAMAS terrorists got a nasty surprise when they attempted to shoot down an Israeli helicopter during their war with Israel in January.
According to The World Tribune: HAMAS smuggled four American-made Stinger portable anti-aircraft missile systems through Egypt last year. Then – during the January 2009 war – when an American-made Israeli Apache attack helicopter came under fire by HAMAS, the Raytheon friend/foe identification system on the Stinger would not allow the gunner to target (what the system read as) a friendly target. When the missile was launched, instead of acquiring the helicopter, it picked up the heat signature of a HAMAS machine-gun position.
“The Stinger was drawn by the heat of our guns rather than the engines of the Israeli helicopters,” The Tribune’s source said. “At that point, we stopped using this weapon.”
The source said HAMAS is now purchasing Russian-made SA-16s.
In: National Security, Society · Tagged with: Hamas
We are all Geert Wilders now
This is a transcript of the Unto the Breach program. Click here for the audio.
In 2008, Geert Wilders – the Dutch politician and the leader of the Freedom Party – made the controversial film Fitna. His film features verses from the Qur’an that inspire hatred and violence, along with media clips and newspaper clippings showing acts of violence and hatred by Muslims. After Wilders simply exposed what Muslims themselves say, al Qaeda issued a fatwa calling for his murder (Wilders has been living under 24-hour police protection since 2004).
The film is about 17 minutes, and you have to see for yourself what all of the commotion is about.
In: Society · Tagged with: free speech, Geert Wilders
Inaugura-Palooza
The media had their eyes peeled for government excess regarding the price tag of the inauguration: (Salon.com)
In Sunday’s New York Times, John Tierney examined the delicate balancing act administrations face when throwing a lavish inauguration celebration against the backdrop of unsettling world events. Tierney wrote that inaugurations “become even trickier during times of war, particularly when television images of dancers in black tie can be instantly juxtaposed with soldiers in body armor.”
ABC’s Terry Moran asked, “In a time of war and national disaster, is it time for a lavish celebration?” And AP reporter Will Lester asked, “Do we need to spend this money on what seems so extravagant?”
Surprise! That’s what they said about Bush’s 2005 inauguration. We were at war, but the economy, relatively speaking, was in good shape. Contrast that with their coverage of Barack Obama’s inaugura-palooza: While the media harped on about Bush’s “unprecedented $50 million” price tag, there is no complaint about Obama nearly quadrupling Bush’s previous record.
At least the Soviet state-run Pravda and Izvestia papers tried to appear objective. Is there any doubt whose side our nation’s media is on?
In: Media, Politics, Society · Tagged with: Barack Obama, media bias
Race: a characteristic, not an excuse
A really interesting point from Walter E. Williams:
If one totaled black earnings, and consider blacks a separate nation, he would have found that in 2005 black Americans earned $644 billion, making them the world’s 16th richest nation. That’s just behind Australia but ahead of Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Black Americans have been chief executives of some of the world’s largest and richest cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Gen. Colin Powell . . . headed the world’s mightiest military and later became U.S. Secretary of State, and was succeeded by Condoleezza Rice, another black. . . These gains, over many difficult hurdles, speak well not only of the intestinal fortitude of a people but of a nation in which these gains were possible. They could not have been achieved anywhere else.
It took a long time, but we got on board with the Declaration of Independence. America figured out that all men really are created equal. Now skin color means no more than eye color – it is only a characteristic… not an excuse.
An Apology for the Democratic Party’s 150-year History of Racism
The National Black Republican Association crushes the Democratic party with the truth in this proclamation. An interview with the Chairman of the NBRA, Frances Rice can be heard here on Unto the Breach.
We, black American citizens of the United States and the National Black Republican Association, declare and assert:
WHEREAS, the healing of wounds begins with an apology, and the Democratic Party has never apologized for their horrific atrocities and racist practices against black Americans during the past 150 years, nor held accountable for the residual impact that those atrocities and practices are having on us today,
In: Society · Tagged with: Barack Obama, Democrats, racism
What is Unto the Breach?
The government has manifested itself into a ruling class. Instead of representatives who uphold the Constitution, we now have rulers that view the Constitution as an obstacle. Sounds quite similar to 1775. Our government has marginalized the Constitution, and is marginalizing the American people as well.
Our electorate is misinformed thanks to our news media and has an inadequate education courtesy of our abysmal education system. Now the government can do what they want and say what they want, which is gaining control over our lives. The Constitution was meant to protect us from the government, but democracy cannot survive an uninformed electorate.
Think of government as a submarine and ‘we the people’ are the ocean. The ocean is much more powerful than the submarine, but the submarine has a thick hull protecting them from us. I saw something happen when Congress tried to pass amnesty for illegal immigrants this summer. They tried to sneak it through under cover of darkness, but the word got out. Soon, politicians’ offices were flooded with letters and phone calls protesting the bill.
British Government Advisor: Dementia Patients have a “Duty to Die”
Here’s a big sign that socialized healthcare is a bad, bad thing: a British government adviser is advocating suicide for dementia patients, which would lessen the burden on the healthcare system. Now a free person in America might look at this and say, which is more important: the patient, or the program?
Baroness Warnock says that these patients are “wasting people’s lives” (and she is called Britain’s leading moral philosoper). Where are the socialist medicine advocates on this issue? They would entrust government, who is the best in the business at ‘wasting people’s money,’ with the decision of who lives and who dies? I am not hearing any calls of lives being wasted here in the U.S.
If doctors have their Hippocratic oath of “First, do no harm,” the British healthcare system should adopt an oath for their patients: “First, don’t become a burden.”
Telegraph Article: Dementia sufferers have a “duty to die”
In: Society · Tagged with: socialized healthcare
