Leftist Pretzel Logic

By William L. Garvin

A good friend of mine is a Formula One racing fanatic. He laughingly characterizes NASCAR as nothing more than "left turn, left turn, left turn…." My stock car friends don't appreciate this evaluation but it certainly does describe what passes as progressive thought in this country. The round and round, over and under, in and out pretzel logic of leftist thought has produced a Gordian knot of gigantic and unintelligible proportions. This is mainly due to the lack of consistency in any of their positions or viewpoints.

A month ago, a local contributor charged me with being an anarchist; last week, an anonymous writer charged me with "advocating the wholesale destruction of civil liberties of American citizens…." I'd like to be accommodating but come on people! No one is flexible enough to manage both ends of that 180 degree left turn. Please make up your collective minds. (Yes, I chose "collective" for a purpose.)

Any careful reader of my commentaries would know that I am a Constitutional Conservative and abhor the destruction of civil liberties. Our Federal government is growing at a cancerous rate and is threatening civil liberty on an unprecedented scale. The feds have no right to decide that Lehman Brothers dies and Goldman Sachs lives. The feds have no right to take over automobile manufacturers and give unions precedence over secured bond holders. The feds have no right to nationalize my health records and give access to countless new bureaucratic entities. The feds have no right to access my bank records and seize those assets if I have not purchased their mandated health insurance…which they have no constitutional right to require in the first place. The feds have no right to unilaterally decide that a company is too big to fail, seize their operations, and sell off their components with no right to appeal. However, TARP, Stimulus, Obamacare, and Financial Reform do exactly that.

My unknown critic goes on to proclaim "American citizens should never have to repeatedly prove that they are citizens and have their everyday lives interrupted." Here's where pretzel logic begins. You are arguing against a position I do not hold. It's a straw man argument lacking in context or content. The Arizona law, as do all state laws, requires that someone detained for a violation of the law provide identification. If they can't provide ID and the officer has reasonable suspicion that they are here illegally, he/she can ask for proof of legal admission which federal law requires that they carry. I'm sorry if this inconveniences lawbreakers but…too bad.

The next straw man in pretzel logic: "They should also be able to ride BART and not be shot at." Well of course they should. However, I had nothing to say about Oscar Grant until now. For the record, Oscar Grant was not peacefully riding BART when the incident occurred. Nonetheless, it is tragic that he lost his life. Officer Mehserle was charged, tried, and convicted of involuntary manslaughter by a jury of his peers who heard all the evidence. Apparently, that's not enough for some people. There are those who prefer vigilante justice and there are others who would string him up from the nearest tree. These could be the same folks who carry around the "Free Mumia" signs and would grant immediate clemency for a convicted cop killer. For others, it was just an opportunity to get the latest cool Nike kicks.

As for "I think guys like him get all their news from FOX news and Rush Limbaugh…," you are obviously not a careful reader of my commentaries. If you were, you would know that I am a pretty good researcher and develop my material from a wide variety of sources. It's been said that "you are entitled to your own opinion but you are not entitled to your own facts." Go ahead and offer your opinion but don't put words in my mouth. I think I'm capable of speaking for myself. It's just more pretzel logic.

If you are really concerned about the "destruction of personal liberty," why don't you research this New York Times article: "The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki…'It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing,' officials said." No arrest, no Miranda, no defense, no trial, just summary execution. No worries about civil liberties there, eh mate?

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