A COUNTRY OF LAWS?

Yesterday's decision by Federal District Court Judge Susan Bolton one in the Arizona immigration law case, is a dangerous and horrendous one, and symptomatic of the escalating decline in respect for the law in our country. The decision is seemingly rooted in political ideology rather than judicial principle.

Judge Bolton forbids Arizona police from inquiring into an individual's legal status to be in this country, even when he is being interrogated in regard to, and suspected of committing, another crime. To protect its citizens from rampant crime, including human and drug trafficking and violence being committed by illegals, Arizona passed a law parallel to the federal law which Pres. Obama has steadfastly refused to enforce. Her rationale, allegedly, is that immigration questions are solely within the province of the federal authorities.

The Constitution grants Congress the power "to establish a uniform rule of naturalization". First, it is not been shown that all illegals seek to be naturalized. Second, if the entire immigration issue does fall within the authority of the federal government, there is nothing in the Constitution that prevents a state from seeking to fulfill its responsibility to protect its citizens by upholding federal laws. States do so all the time when they work closely with the feds in interstate crime cases, kidnappings, terrorist-related cases, etc. And no sensible reason for them not to do so in immigration matters. Under Arizona's law, those found to be in the country illegally are to be turned over to federal authorities.

Illegals are committing crimes in Arizona that certainly do fall within the province of Arizona authority. To restrain its police officers from fully questioning suspects, is to tie its hands to the endangerment of its citizens.

America is at war. The President refers to it as a "war of containment". Soldiers complain they are asked to risk their lives and to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. Sound familiar? The President's policy is to seek to contain our sworn enemy, the Taliban, to countries outside our own. How in heck does he propose to do so when he chooses to leave our borders wide open for terrorists to enter with impunity...and with increasingly dangerous weapons?

The liberals' rantings that the Bolton decision is correct because "we don't want to violate the Constitution, do we?" is hypercritically laughable. They avidly support the President's violation of the Constitution when he refuses to enforce federal immigration laws, as he is Constitutionally required to do, and when he fights a war that has not been declared a war by Congress, as it is Constitutionally required to be.

The President is succeeding in destroying the safety of America. That is the only way in which he is succeeding.

Wanna bet who the President's next nominee to the Supreme Court will be?

IT'S BEEN SAID

"And I say unto you, he that presumeth to tell another how to live his life has forfeited his own"

"You shall one day face Final Judgment for the way of your life, but your feelings punish or reward you today"

"It is not for you to know your future, the wise man remembers his past"

"If you think you have not enough, think again"

"Far greater are the riches of spirit and courage and hope than all the jewels of the sea"

"It is folly for man to think he should not think"

"Trust yourself first, and last"

"If you open your mind to the unknown today, you shall become wise tomorrow"

"Action without thought is like a fruit without seed"

"The true bonds between us are golden, beware of offerings falsely gilded"

"Life is like a symphony: the more you play it, the richer and more meaningful it becomes"

"What's true for you but not for me is not true for either one of us"

"Wishful thinking, isn't"

THE WIGTDWM FILE

From todauy's ;local news headlines, to be tossed into the What's It Got To Do With Me file, aka the Who Cares? file:

"Obama to appear on View"...can't wait for the incisive probing into the Obamas' sex life

"Inmates are sick of Lohan"...nahhh, you're kidding

"Jury finds she killed for love"...imagine that, first time, what are humans capable of?

No Clinton wedding for Obama"...too busy with the View, I guess

"Boy falls 16 stories, lives"...whew, finally, no need to worry about our kids bouncing around drugged on roof tops

"Humans now power Ask.com"...what next, for heaven's sake

"Marriage counseling saved my marriage"...first time, made my day

"Vagrant breaks into bar, sells drinks"...hooray, the American entrepeneurial spirit at work, made my day II

So the venerable accounting proverb GIGO has been recast as GIWO: "Garbage In, Wisdom Out"? Wishful thinking!

TRUTH BE DAMNED

I have written before about the "truth be damned" mentality in modern civilization. Three stories in the news this morning reveal that mentality is flourishing.

1. WikiLeaks released thousands of national documents which purport to show that our "ally" Pakistan has been cavorting with, aiding, the Taliban in Afghanistan: The response by National Security adviser General James Jones: "the release of the documents was irresponsible". But do the documents tell the truth? Truth be damned.

2. Howard Dean accused Fox News of being racist because one of its talk show hosts released a portion of a videotape in which Shirley Sherrod, a Dept. of Agriculture official appointed by Pres. Obama, made racial comments, without having first checked the full video for the context in which those remarks were made. The host has since apologized for his negligence.

Does that error make the host a racist, or is he a non-racist who made an error? If he is a racist, does that make the Fox News organization, presumably as reflected by its policy, a racist network, as Dean labelled them? Does Fox News have a policy with regard to racism? What is it? Truth be damned.

3. Lieutenant Dan Choi was discharged from the US Army for openly opposing its "don't ask, don't tell" policy. (Is there a more vivid example of truth be damned then that policy?) Lt. Choi fought for 2 years in Afghanistsn as a platoon leader...that is, risked his one life in defense of America. He is a graduate of West Point, fluent in Arabic. He was openly gay. Did his sexual orientation provoke military problems? Did it make him an inefficient soldier? Truth be damned.

Truth = reality, since reality is the only thing that can be true. To hell with reality. Let's survive, say the the truth avoiders, on the basis of unproven facts, feelings, biases, whims.

But we won't survive. Not that way. Reality cannot be avoided or denied. If we are to survive, reality, the IS, must first be obeyed.

"The truth will set you free" says the Bible. That does not refer to being politically free but to being psychologically free to enjoy the full glorious potential of being alive as a human being. Adherence to truth is a precondition of such enjoyment.

And that's the truth!

NUTSHELL

I had occasion the past few days to be out on the highway the past few mornings and witnessed a portrait of modern urban civilization: rush hour traffic. It poignantly exemplifies and captures the following:

OVERCROWDING

REPETITION

LOSS OF CONTROL

CONFORMITY

WASTEFULNESS

HERDING

NEGATIVITY

STRESS

FRUSTRATION

ANGER

LOSS OF GOODWILL

LACK OF SPONTANEITY

LOSS OF INDIVIDUALITY

UNFULFILLED DREAMS


Every human being on the planet could stand on the ground in the state of Texas and each would have over 1,000 square feet to themselves. Space enhances identity.

Why oh why were they all on the same highway this morning?

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Shirley Sherrod, coerced into resigning from her post in the Department of Agriculture because of statements she made at an NAACP meeting about racist attitudes she had had 15 years earlier, sought to explain them away by saying they taught her that her job was not about blacks or whites or Hispanics, but "it's really about those who have versus those who have not".

Sorry, Shirley, that doesn't pass muster. That is but another form of racism, of discrimination. As a government employee, implementing and enforcing the law, you must do so uniformly without regard to irrelevant groupings or classifications. Our government represents all the people all the time all the same.

* It is not about being rich or being poor, as federal and state governments believe when they tax higher income earners at higher rates;

* It is not about chronological age, as the Obama administration believes when it proposes to reduce health benefits to older people;

* It is not about sexual orientation, as the federal government and 45 states believe when it fails to recognize same sex marriages;

* It is not about religious beliefs as President Obama believes when he proposes to use NASA to help benefit Muslims;

* It is not about the nature of the organization as federal and state governments believe when they exempt religious and charitable organizations from paying for government services;

* It is not about the identity of your employer as the federal government believes when it provides immunity from criminal prosecution by foreign diplomats-.

What it is about, Shirley, is E-Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y. So, take out a clean piece of paper and write the following 100 times:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal"

Then, take out another piece of paper and write the following 100 times:

"Neither the Federal Government nor any State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws"

Then, take out another piece of paper and write the following 100 times:

"Equality, parity, identical, exactly alike, evenhandedly, impartially, same-O same-O, even stephen, justice"

Got it?

NO NEWS NOT GOOD NEWS

On his Fox News program yesterday, Bill O'Reilly argued forcefully that "mainstream" news stations, including ABC, CBS and CNN, do not cover news worthy stories that might put the present Administration in a bad light. And he is 100% right. He said something to the effect of "The news media is hurting and not doing its job".

True, but it's worse than that. There is no news media. It is dead, deceased, expired, kaput. ABC, CBS and CNN...and, yes, Fox News, too...are not news stations, they don't air news programs. They are opinion stations, predominantly one opinion stations, presenting a particular view, a biased nonobjective slant, of the Administratin in power and of events. O'Reilly's show itself is loaded with opinionators, like Alan Colmes and Monica Crowley and Dennis Miller and Laure Ingraham and John Stossel, etc. All of whom smilingly spew their predictable harangues absent convincing proof that their views are correct.

Typical support by opinionators for their positios sound like these:

* "Look at what the political party you support did years ago"...the two wrongs do make a right argument

* "Most people don't agree with you"...the old mob rule argument that supported slavery

* "It won't work your way"...the old undefined argument, leaving unanswered what standard is used to rank the betterness of different positions?..and why is that the right standard

* "Your position is not in the Judeo-ChristIAn tradition on which this country was founded"...the old can't you just feel it, baby, argument.

Why the demise of news--objective facts--and the rise of personality-driven subjective opinioN shows? In what conceivable way does it matter to me what Alan Colmes et al think about a particular matter? Do they represent some influential groups in our country? When Stossel says he is a libertarian, does he speak for all libertarians? Or Crowley speak for all conservatives? No, no, no.

News programs give you untainted, uncolored, facts. And now you, the viewer, the listener, must do something to make those cold facts meaningful, relevant, to your life. That doing is called "thinking"...and it is something many of us, unfortunately, are not willing to do, or capable of doing very well. Takes effort. Takes time. Takes knowing how to go about contemplating and evaluating those facts. Few of us are intellectual artists: few of us enjoy drawing our own conclusions.

Most like to be spoon fed ideas. Problem is, most only like to be fed that which they already believe. Though, in the last poll I took, 12 people in the country, more than I thought, had actually once changed their minds after listening to an opinionator.

I guess there is still hope.